chapter iv

SAY WHAT?

Its Not What You Say That Shows You Are Alive

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to talk about Christ? We can go on about the weather, politics, sports, money, children, parents, school, work, even church things, but not Jesus. So when someone gets all verbal about Jesus we all sit up and take notice.

Some of us think that someone who can't stop talking about Christ and the good things of God must be trying to cover up something wrong in his or her life. We ask, "Is this for real?" Others of us marvel at someone doing something so strange as being bold about the Lord and figure that person must really be someone who is alive in Christ.

Both conclusions are wrong. They come from a kind of common wisdom, but not from the wisdom and council of God. There are all kinds of things listed in the Scripture that give us clues about how we can tell for sure we are God's children, but you will not find any mention of talk being one of them.

Luke 6:43-45:

"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

Psalm 1:1-3:

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord , and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."

1John 3:16-20:

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

Proverbs 25:14:

"Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of gifts he does not give."

Jude 4,12:

"For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. . . These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm--shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted--twice dead."

Words can be False or Words can be true. You can seldom know much about yourself or another merely by words. But here is something I can say with confidence; eventually our words will confirm our inner lives. A torrent of God-talk can not be sustained forever unless it genuinely comes from God. I have seen it happen, something gives. I have also seen lives changed from the inside-out. Sin-ravaged speech and habits ever-so-wondrously changed. Sometimes slow and imperceptibly, sometimes with a jarring quickness, but always genuinely touched by the cross. How about you, is there life within that is bringing fruit?