James 1:26 – Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.
Proverbs 11:13 – A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.
Psalm 101:5 – Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence.
Colossians 4:6 – Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
It is clear that as Christians we need to learn to control what we say, and learn to speak with care and skill.
When we first become Christians, we bring with us all those habits of speech we previously learned, both the good and the bad.
Bad habits of speech can be very destructive, by which we ruin and destroy every relationship we might otherwise have preserved and built up, whether in the home, at work or within our church fellowship.
But once we recognize that we have to learn to control and steer what we say, we find a wealth of advice in the Bible that shows us what good speech looks like, and we can learn from those whose speech we recognize fits the Biblical model.
When we speak well, as the Bible describes good speech, we build up every relationship we have, as far as it depends upon us, and so demonstrate that we are love, loyalty and righteousness.
Because Christ saved us in order that we might do be actively doing good, we need to work on our habits, practicing when to stop speaking out things that do not build up our hearers (generally because we are more interested in being thought well of ourselves) and learning to speak things that do help our hearers.
There are many blessings the Lord has for us as we learn to follow him, including how we use our speech. Amen.