My Lips Are Movin'

Take one minute and see if you can remember the words you spoke today. Even in just the past hour. Can you think of it? I know I cannot.

Speech has been something i've been thinking a lot about these past few weeks, as our main form of communication, we talk all the time, from the moment we wake to the moment we sleep, heck even when we're sleeping we may be talking. Words roll off the tip of your tongue and for people like me that talk a lot, it's almost like non-stop vomit that just comes out of your mouth.

This past week in Men's Cell, the men came together to study scripture, and while we waited for the stragglers to join us, I sang, just because I like to sing. I was singing "Stay With Me" by Sam Smith, and just as we were about to get started, the leader turned to me in front of everyone else and said "Jason, stop singing about one night stands!". My face dropped, I immediately shut up and I had no idea how to respond; talk about rebuke right?! It was convicting though, and looking back, even just this past school year, i've been called out on songs I had sung on several occasions. This thought on the songs I sing have been on the back burner for the past little while, but it wasn't until this week that it finally struck me. What was I singing, and is it right to be singing/listening to this? And of course it isn't limited to just singing, it's what we say too.

That night, we studied the third chapter of James and of course, half the chapter focused on taming the tongue, to be careful of what we say. Verse 6 reads, "the tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell." Our tongues are meant to praise the Lord, yet at the same time, cursing and evil can come from the same lips. James tells us to be pure in our speech, we cannot be one and another, just as how both freshwater and saltwater cannot flow from the same spring. Tame your tongue.

Flipping through the book of Leviticus in my devotions these past two weeks, the topic of speech has also been touched on, chapter 5 verse 4 talks about the sin of making rash oaths, both good and evil ones. Saying things you don't mean, and saying things you don't intend on keeping. From rashly saying "i'll kill you if you do this one more time" to "i'll pray for you" without actually praying for them, both these are considered sin, and both require repentance and atonement to be made.

Our topic for retreat this weekend was on holiness and how that impacts our relationship with God, others as well as how it impacts every single aspect of our lives. The speaker preached from Isaiah 6, and the first thing that stood out to me was that when the LORD revealed himself to Isaiah, scripture says that he cried "woe to me, I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty" (v.5). The first thing referenced was the sin in his speech.

It got me thinking, is my speech holy? It is a lifelong sanctification process, and prior to all this, I thought I was in the clear; I had disciplined myself to filter any curse words before speaking it (though I do still think them sometimes), that was good enough right? As I ponder on my speech, I question if my teasing and my jokes are honourable to the LORD, are the words that come out of my mouth in song glorifying the LORD, do I keep my promises and stay true to my word? And just as Isaiah cried, I too, am a man of unclean lips.

I definitely want to put a greater effort in thinking before I speak, thinking of the consequences before I spit out a joke, to understand the lyrics before I sing them. Holiness means being set apart, being distinct, being morally perfect and if I went around proclaiming with my mouth the things of the world, how am I any different from anyone else of this world?

At the same time, reflecting on all this, it leads me to a question. If we are called to holiness, in every single aspect, what does a man with holy lips and speech look like? Does that mean they are only listening to music that glorifies God, and any song that includes content that promotes sin of any sort is to be deleted and not listened to? Scripture does tell us to think about what is good, pure, excellent and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). With any sort of media, does consuming anything that is not pure, excellent, or worthy of praise count as sin? That we are instead filling our minds with garbage? With how society continues to rebel from the ways of the LORD, there's barely anything left that is righteous and upright. So does holiness mean completely abandonment of anything that may be even slightly tainted or stained of sin and things of the world?

At the end of the day, the LORD Almighty is the final judge. He is the one that we should be seeking the approval of, not the approval of man or society. I'll leave you with this verse; "I tell you, on the day of judgement people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." - Matthew 12:36