I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. – Matthew 12:36

At our most recent men’s breakfast, we were looking at sins of the tongue. Not, it turns out, licking railings or pulling faces out of coach windows. More specifically, what we say. The bible has lots of say on this topics, but we landed on just two passages to consider: James 3 and Matthew 12.

We paused and thought particularly about the phrase I have quoted above from Jesus. Specifically, that accounting for ‘every careless word’. The word translated careless is sometimes translated empty, idle or worthless. The Greek ἀργός (argos) carries several meanings including being unemployed, idle or lazy as well as uselessness and injuriousness (cf. Mt. 20:3, 6; 1 Tim. 5:13; Tit. 1:12; 2 Pet. 1:8; Mt. 12:36; Jas. 2:20 for examples of all these). I think the translation careless is helpful inasmuch as it implies words said carelessly, that is without due thought, as well as words that exhibit a more pointed lack of care and concern for the person we are talking with, that is to say something closer to actively damaging words. I think these sense is words that do not show care for another.

It is perhaps helpful to think about what Jesus is NOT driving at here before we get onto what he is speaking about. It is often assumed that small talk and shooting the breeze are ‘idle talk’ or ‘careless words’. But I don’t think Jesus is saying such things are wrong. They clearly have their place in building rapport and putting people at their ease. Nor do I think joking and banter, of themselves, are really in view here either. Again, within limits that are usually culturally bound and understood, this is a way of building rapport and friendship. These are not the ‘careless words’ and ‘idle talk’ that Jesus seems concerned about. These are words that have a place and can convey, to those attuned to them, a role in our care and concern for other people. None of these things of themselves are in view.

The context helps us understand Jesus’ meaning here. Jesus is speaking to and about the Pharisees. He has insisted that good tree produce good fruit and bad tree produce bad fruit. A tree is known by the fruit it produces. He then goes on to denounce the Pharisees as evil because of the things they say, pointedly noting in v34: ‘For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.’ In other words, what we say speaks to what we are. For this reason, people will have to account for every careless word they speak on the day of Judgement. Our words speak to what we are so what we have said will form part of the judgement for or against our righteousness.

Whilst that is the immediate context of Jesus’ words, the wider context is even more telling. At the beginning of the chapter, the Pharisees take the Apostles to task for plucking ears of corn to eat on the Sabbath. Jesus is fine with it because he is concerned for the welfare of his people; the Pharisees are adamant the law trumps basic human needs. The point is made doubly strong by the immediately following healing of a man’s shrivelled hand on the Sabbath. Jesus, again, is concerned with people’s welfare whilst the Pharisees are angry at his breaking the law (as they perceive it) to the point that they are happy to break the law themselves and plot to kill Jesus for doing good on the Sabbath. Jesus then heals a demon-possessed man and we get another wrong response from the Pharisees, but this time their words condemn them in v24: ‘This man drives out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.’ They do not care that a man has been healed, they care only that the crowds are now recognising Jesus as the promised Son of David. Jesus follows up by asserting that he cannot drive out demons with Satanic powers, it makes no sense, and therefore he is who he has claimed to be all along. This leads him to make his comments about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit; specifically, it seems, directing them at the Pharisees who are by their lack of care for God’s people, and by the words they now speak, proving beyond any doubt they are not children of God but unrighteous, ungodly people.

That is the wider context for Jesus’ comments on careless words. Specifically, Jesus appears to be saying to the Pharisees in particular, their own words condemn them. Their claims that Jesus is acting on behalf of Satan do not stack up and it gives away that they clearly reject him and the works he does. Further, in rejecting his works, they affirm that they do not care about the good of the people Jesus saw need to heal. Rather, they care more about the letter of the law. Not only that, but they are hypocrites, concerned with the letter of the law whilst plotting to kill Jesus against the clear commands of the law. What might have been considered an throwaway comment about Jesus and the power by which he does these things gives the game away as to who the Pharisees really are. They will be judged and condemned by the very words they spoke, albeit words they did not necessarily think to be so significant as they said them.

This helps us understand Jesus’ wider point, which he does generalise, about careless words. The words we speak – even throwaway comments we think nothing of – say something about our hearts. What we really think, or more specifically what we really are, comes out in what we say, maybe especially in those moments when we just aren’t thinking a great deal about what we’re saying at all.

There is also a helpful double-meaning conveyed by the English word careless that I think is at play given the wider context. Not only does what we really are come out in the words we say when we are perhaps thinking the very least about them; our unrighteousness is seen most clearly when, not thinking about the words we say, we give away that we do not care very much about God’s people at all. Our words are both careless in the sense that we haven’t thought very deeply about what we’re saying and simultaneously in the sense that we convey a total lack of care towards others. These were very much the careless words of the Pharisees. Given Jesus’ view of God’s primary commands (love for God and love for others – the rest of the law and prophets hanging on these two), a lack of care towards others exhibited in the words we say, particularly when we aren’t really thinking much about what we’re saying at all, is evidence of a heart that does not really love God.

I think there are lots of ways this might play out in practice. But one of the most common ways I think this plays out in church life is when we would rather shoot the breeze or stay in small talk when we know there are bigger matters that we should address. That is not to say small talk – chatting about the weather, the football or whatever – is wrong or unhelpful in and of itself. These things, as I said above, are not wrong and have their place in the ordinary run of things. What is wrong is insisting on only talking about these things when there is a matter of church discipline we ought to be discussing with a person or there is a serious pastoral or practical need that we are actively avoiding.

To stay in the small talk in these situations is to actively exhibit careless talk. It is to both speak about things are ultimately worthless and empty for the particular purpose of avoiding actually caring for the person in front of us. We might do this because we feel awkward having those conversations, we fear what might be said or we know these things will come with a load of hassle and we just can’t be bothered to involve ourselves in what will be required of us if we bring it up. But all these things are selfish reasons that necessarily mean we will not care for people and their needs. We won’t address disciplinary issue – not because it is good for the person if we don’t – but because we feel it is better for us to avoid feeling awkward and having hard conversations. We don’t address practical, material or emotional needs – not because that is in the best interests of the person we’re talking with – but because we don’t want the hassle, the bother, the time that will be taken up with addressing these issues. And so we talk about the football or the weather or other generalities and nothing else so that we can avoid having to care meaningfully for the person in front of us.

But Jesus says, ‘the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. A good person produces good things from his storeroom of good, an evil person produces evil things his storeroom of evil… on the day of judgement, people will have to account for every careless word that they speak.

I wonder what much of our speech yesterday would say about the storeroom of our own hearts and whether we have spoken carelessly – that is, without care for what we say and without care for whom we say it to?