Blake Long

“I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.” (John Calvin)

I used to cuss like a sailor before I came to Christ. Throughout my teenage years, four-letter words were a second language. It was nothing to me. It was simply how I, and most of my friends, spoke.

But when God saved me, He took my sin of cussing away. When God saves a person, there will be sins that won’t go away completely. You will struggle. We all do. However, there might be a sin that He removes from your life altogether. That sin, for me, was foul language.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not as if I’ve done perfectly with language since becoming a Christian. Have I uttered a cuss word since God saved me in 2013? Of course. But He, by and large, eradicated foul language from my vocabulary. It’s not something I struggle with in the slightest.

And yet, being “loose with words,” as Calvin says, doesn’t merely mean cussing. To be loose with words has broader implications of how we speak in general. It’s more akin to what James says about “taming the tongue” in James 3. And when we are loose with our words, in Calvin’s words, we are speaking the equivalent of the “looseness of bowels.” Yuck.

Calvin offers a sharp critique for this because it has always been a big issue within the church. As Christians, we must not let any crass, crude, or foul speech come out of our mouths. It’s simply unbecoming of a Christian. There’s no excuse for it. To be sure, there’s room—always room—for a struggle with language. Christ’s finished atonement covers the sin of coarse language and “loose words.” But we should still strive to tame our tongues.

So, the question then becomes, how do we ensure we don’t have “loose tongues”?

Pray

Do you struggle with language or the inability to not stop talking when you should remain quiet? Pray. Pray for God to remove this sin from your life like He did mine. And please understand, we’re not simply talking about four-letter words, but an overall aroma of division, of the perpetual temptation to always “speak your mind,” of the constant ability to talk down to others or have “word vomit” in the worst sense.

God has the power to remove sin from our lives, so you ought to pray, and pray, and pray. When we don’t pray for our sin’s removal, it reveals its not having a huge effect on our own hearts. The prayer for taming a fiery tongue is the prayer for sanctification, to be made more like Jesus.

We must not underestimate the power of prayer when it comes to sanctification, even with the “loosening of words.” Of course, the power of prayer is not in prayer itself, but the God behind it. When sin overtakes your speech, pray fervently for God to remove it.

Listen

“Know this, my beloved brothers,” James, the brother of Jesus, pens, “let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19 ESV). God’s answer for loose words is to be “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

It’s difficult to be loose with our tongue when we are focused on what the other person is saying. Our first inclination, our primary task, should be to not only hear what another person is saying, but listen all the more. Our first thought shouldn’t be, “I want to say what I want to say,” but rather, “I want to make sure I’m understanding.”

Instead of blabbering, just listen. Take heed these words in Ecclesiastes 5:2, “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few” (ESV). It is a serious thing to be “rash” with our mouths.

Held Accountable

We will be held accountable for every careless word, every thoughtless phrase, every unkind sentence. Jesus tells us this much in Matthew 12:36, which stays, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (‬ESV).

Fear—a healthy and biblical fear—is good reason to shut our mouths sometimes.

Jon Bloom wrote:

We ought to be characterized by two kinds of trembling when it comes to words: we should tremble at the words God speaks and we should tremble at the words we speak.

The command in Matthew 12:36 should make us tremble; it should cause us to be extremely slow to speak. If we desire to tame our tongues, we must remember that God make us give an account for every careless word.

Be Careful

Here’s the bottom line: the most careful, intentional, and slow-to-speak people in the world should be Christians. It doesn’t matter where the words come from—whether it’s our mouths, the letters we type, the words we pen—we should be intentional about what words we use to communicate.

Christians should be careful communicators. We shouldn’t be flippant or frivolous, careless or inconsiderate. The words we speak should be to edify and strengthen, not tear down and encourage. There is, of course, a time for harsh language—Jesus did that from time to time—but shouldn’t be using crass, foul, or vile language.

But if you’re in a spot where you are struggling with language, take courage: Jesus is your righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Yes, it’s important to mortify our sin, but don’t despair, because we are in union with Jesus Christ.