“Do not be rash with your mouth or hasty in your heart to bring up a matter before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth! Therefore, let your words be few.”
Ecclesiastes 5:2 (NET)
In a day where the expression of oneself is encouraged, isn’t it interesting how the Bible repeatedly warns us to choose our words carefully and to speak only what is fitting to build each other up? The Bible actually has a lot to say about our speech, but it is not my intention to go into all of it today (although I do think I will be writing about language and communication quite a bit this year, since it is one of my main focal points in 2021), I really am interested in the warning given by Solomon to people who come into God’s temple (the church) and speak hastily without much effort on listening! Let’s get into unpacking this thought a bit more today:
Being Rash with our Words
I have to admit that I did not really know what it meant to be “rash” with anything other than a breakout on my skin until I sat down and studied out this passage. So, if you are anything like me, you might be wondering the same thing, “What does it mean to be rash with our words?”.
To be rash with our words is to be hasty in expressing them, to not give much thought to what we say and how we say it, to be afraid and terrified or anxious as we express them is another element of its use too. Pretty much I take it as speaking and doing things without giving it much thought.
In Ecclesiastes 5, Solomon gives us a warning to not stand before God and promise this or that through a vow that we are not actually intending to pay, or keep. The people were just coming into the Temple with their agenda and speaking things that were not from the heart but more of a way for them to look the part of a pious person. In Ecclesiastes 5:7 he tells them to fear God by understanding that there is futility in speaking many words, and I really think that we would be wise to heed this warning ourselves!
Close with the Mouth, Far in the Heart
I am reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 15 when He says of the Pharisees and the experts of the law that they draw near and honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him (a quotation from Isaiah 29:13). This is something that has been convicting for me as I live out my faith too – what am I saying that I am not backing up with my life?. As the saying goes, “If you are going to talk the talk then you need to be willing to walk the walk.”
It is so important to understand this principle of duplicity and how detrimental it is to our spirituality. We cannot assume that our words are heard by God if our hearts are not surrendered to Him! Romans 12:1-2 tells us that our acceptable and pleasing act of worship is to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, and to do this by not conforming to the patterns of the world but by allowing God to transform our “hearts”!
God wants our hearts! God wants the seat of our passions. He wants our lives to display the transformational power of the Gospel as we live out our faith. He isn’t necessarily desiring our words, but He is definitely interested in our hearts! There is an old saying that says, “Go and preach the Gospel, and if necessary use your words.” Our lives are a representation of what we believe about God, although we may say certain things if our actions don’t align with our words then we are deceived!
Choose Your Words Carefully
Now I hope I haven’t scared you into a position of absolute silence, because that is also not what God has intended. God loves our praise and we should be lifting up our prayers and petitions before God on a regular basis, but we need to do so with consideration of Who it is that we are speaking to. Have you ever wondered why we encourage the bowing of the head and the closing of the eyes during prayer? I can’t speak for everyone on this point, but I encourage it because it allows me to picture the reality of God on the Throne in heaven and little ole’ me standing before His greatness. It gives me a wonderful perspective of God’s Almighty nature and my humanity. I really try to imagine the scene laid out in Isaiah 6:1-4 where Isaiah sees the Lord and the hem of His robe filling the whole temple of God, creatures flying around Him saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord..!” I assure you that if we were to stand or kneel before the Lord of Hosts, our words would be very few! Isn’t it interesting that in the same passage (Isaiah 6) Isaiah confesses that he is a man of unclean lips, and that he lives among a people of unclean lips? He references his speech as a reason for his unworthiness to be in the presence of God. Also, think of the contrast of Isaiah to the creatures as they are flying about singing the praises of God day and night!
Jesus also has a lot to say in this regard, like in Matthew 6 He tells his followers not to pray with many words to be seen by men, but to go into your prayer closet and lift up your requests to God with reverence understanding that He knows what you need before you even ask it! I love this and I believe that it is such a great point. Have you ever started telling someone a story and realized that they already know the ending because you already told it to them? It is awkward, and if you don’t immediately stop telling them the story you most likely condense the details significantly, right? Well, God knows the story so we can be to the point and reverent as we approach Him with our requests.
It never ceases to amaze me as I have been a part of many prayer meetings throughout my life to hear how people pray. I am guilty of doing this too, but we get caught up in almost informing God and speaking things in our prayers that are really more directed towards the people in the prayer meeting than to the God we are petitioning for help. I’m not trying to be overly critical about this point, but I really get distracted by this – even when I am the one doing it! It’s like, “Lord, I was talking with so and so and I told them that they need to read the Bible more and that they are blah blah blah..”. I sit there and go, ok where is the request in that, where is the praise in that, where is the reverence? God already knew that conversation took place and hopefully whatever you were wanting to pray for these people has already been prayed by you the moment you left that conversation (or better yet, right there with them), so are you just praying this to inform the rest of the group of the conversation you had, and if you are than how is that reverent to God? (Does anyone else think of this stuff or is it just me who is being critical and declaring it right now for all to hear – haha?) It’s just that I don’t think if we were standing/kneeling in front of God like Isaiah was, that we would be trying to inform Him of a conversation that we had with someone, or using it as an opportunity to gossip about someone else. So why do we do it when we are in corporate prayer? (Sorry for the rant, I am finished now. Thank you!)
I will say that I am particularly convicted by this thought lately because I was approached by a young lady recently who said that she had to make amends with me for something. I listened to what she had to confess and offered up my forgiveness immediately, but I was so bothered by the fact that it was something that I said after church while we were getting ready to pray with one another that caused her to leave the church and to remain distant from God for months. What I thought was helpful ended up turning this young ladies heart from God and turned her off to the Church. I had no idea what I said caused this problem until she told me (now she did say that it wasn’t my fault and that it was her issue that caused her to be distant, but it is still a sobering reality of the power of our words). So, because of this situation I see more clearly the need to be careful with how I speak and to learn to listen more when someone else is speaking to me. I offered up information to this lady that was unnecessary and hurtful to her, when I could have just been quiet, listened to her, and prayed to the Father who knew exactly what she needed!
Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak
James 1:19 gives us a great directive in regard to rash speaking. Here is what it says,
“Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
I love being around someone who is patient and careful with their words! I usually will tend to listen more intently to what they have to say when they do speak because I know that they are choosing their words carefully. That is wisdom! To think through our responses, to listen to the other persons perspective, or the whole issue before offering up counsel, is so important and creates security for the other people involved.
The same is true when we go to Church to worship the Lord. In Ecclesiastes 5:1 Solomon tells us to be careful of what we do when we enter the temple to worship, he then says to “draw near to listen”. Then in verse 2 he says to “let your words be few”. Paul also tells the people of Corinth in 1 Cor 14:40 to have order in the service and to do everything in a decent and orderly manner, and this was in the context of people speaking at Church. This is a big deal to God and so it should be something that we consider as we enter into the Church we call our home every Sunday. We need to be careful how many “revelations” we have for people or how we are distracting from the work of God on a persons heart because we want to give them our “word from the Lord”. These things can be very detrimental, they can be very good too if the Spirit is leading, but I would venture to guess that there are much fewer “revelations” from God than are being uttered by us well-meaning Christians. (Man, I seem very critical today, sorry!)
Questions to consider
- Am I at Church to listen and offer up worship from my heart, or am I there to push my agenda and to fill the place with my thoughts and perspectives?
- Am I the one who is placed there by God to answer any and all questions before they are even asked?
- Does God need me to speak?
- Have I thought through what I am about to say, and will what I am about to say be for the edification of the listener or the body as a whole?
- Is my life confirming the message of my lips? In other words, are my words believable because my actions support them?
If you have read this post and your take away from it is that you need to stop talking in Church, you have missed the point! It says repeatedly in the Scriptures to offer up our praise to God, to come into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, so we need to be obedient to that directive. We need to be encouraging one another. This post is to remind us that as we do those things that we are doing them in view of the God of the universe who knows our every thought and who will not be mocked, so we need to reverent and careful as we choose what it is that we are going to say in His presence!
God bless you.