CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 12:23. Is not this the Son of David?—See “The Parallel New Testament” (1882). The “not” is omitted in both columns. It “was wisely omitted by King James’ translators. It is not found in the 1611 edition, the primary edition. Neither is it found in the four succeeding folio editions, those of the years 1613, 1617, 1634, 1640. But somehow or other it has got smuggled into our present copies” (Morison). The form of the question expresses bewilderment and hesitation; but hesitation, nevertheless, that inclined to a negative decision. The idea that the Wonder-worker was the Messiah, the Messianic son of David, was forced in upon their minds, but yet they could not entertain it (ibid.).
Matthew 12:24. Beelzebub.—See on Matthew 10:25. A like narrative has met us in Matthew 9:32, and it is probable enough that the charge was repeated as often as the occasion presented itself, and as often answered in identical or like words (Plumptre). The words appear to have been whispered by the Pharisees among the people. They were not addressed to Jesus (ibid.). Two things are here implied:
1. That the bitterest enemies of our Lord were unable to deny the reality of His miracles.
2. That they believed in an organised infernal kingdom of evil, under one chief. This belief would be of small consequence, had not our Lord set His seal to it; but this He immediately does (Matthew 12:25-26) (Brown).
Matthew 12:27. By whom do your children cast them out?—The “children” of the Pharisees are their disciples, and in this case, such as practised exorcism, like the sons of Sceva in Acts 19:13. The belief in demoniacal possession had as its natural accompaniment the claim, on the part of those who could control the disordered reason of the possessed person, of power to cast out the demon. We need not assume that such power was always a pretence, or rested on spells and incantations. Earnestness, prayer, fasting, faith—these are always mighty in intensifying the power of will, before which the frenzied soul bows in submission or yields in confidence, and these may well have been found among the better and truer Pharisees. Our Lord’s question, indeed, requires for its logical validity the admission that the “children” of the accusers did really cast out demons, and that not by Beelzebub (Plumptre).
Matthew 12:28. The kingdom of God.—The Destroyer of Satan is already in the midst of you, and that kingdom which is destined to supplant His, is already rising on its ruins (Brown). Come unto you.—Upon you (R.V.). Literally, surprised you by coming, came upon you unawares (Carr).
Matthew 12:31. Blasphemy.—In general, the idea of a malicious attack upon a person, whose fame is calumniously injured, attaches to the term “blasphemy.” Hence, defamation of what is good, noble, and holy, on its appearance in the world, with malicious (lying and murderous) intent (Lange).
Matthew 12:32. Neither in this world, etc.—Just an extended way of saying “never.” Cf. Mark 3:29 (Morison).
Matthew 12:33. Either make the tree good, etc.—The meaning and connection are: “Be honest for once; represent the tree as good, and its fruit as good, or the tree as evil, and its fruit as evil; either say that I am evil, and that my works are evil, or, if you admit that My works are good, admit that I am good also and not in league with Beelzebub” (Carr).
Matthew 12:34. O generation of vipers, etc.—Ye offspring of vipers (R.V.). Here the law which had been pressed in its logical bearing in the preceding verse, is brought in to explain the bitter and evil words of the Pharisees (Plumptre). Out of the abundance of the heart, etc.—What is in the well will be in the bucket (Trapp).
Matthew 12:37. By thy words.—Words exhibit the righteousness or unrighteousness which is in the heart (Bengel).
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
Matthew 12:31-32. The sin against the Holy Ghost.—In “Exegetical Studies,” by the Rev. P. J. Gloag, D.D. (T. and T. Clark), there is an able exposition of this subject, in which the various opinions that have been held are stated. Dr. Gloag’s view is similar to that of Dr. David Brown, as given in the outline on p. 309. He says, “The sin, then, against which our Lord cautioned the Pharisees, supposing, as we think most probable, His words to be a caution and not a sentence, was the continuance in their opposition to Him and to His doctrine after the Holy Ghost was given. These blasphemies against Him were pardonable; their malicious disposition had not, as yet, placed them outside the pale of Divine mercy; if, however, they persevered in their opposition after the Holy Ghost was given, they would never have forgiveness, but be guilty of eternal sin. And from this we infer that it is probable that the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is no particular act of sin, but a malicious disposition; a perseverance in opposition to Christ in spite of the Spirit’s influences to overcome that opposition; an incurable, and therefore, an unpardonable, evil disposition; and this disposition is here called blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, because it consists in a continued resistance to His influences.” An article on the subject in the Evangelical Magazine, from the pen of the Rev. G. S. Barrett, B.A., called forth some valuable discussions and notes in the Expository Times, November 1891 to March 1892.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 12:22-37
Encountering blasphemy.—The best way of dealing with some adversaries is to leave them alone. So, in our last, with those mentioned in Matthew 12:14. Here we read of some adopting a different line. An (apparently) most unusual case of demoniac dispossession had produced a corresponding effect on the people at large. “Is this,” they said—when the “blind and dumb” both “spake and saw”—is this indeed the Son of David? Stirred up by this question, the “Pharisees” fell back, as once before (Matthew 9:34), on counsels of despair. Having nothing better to say, they say as before: He casteth out devils “by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils” (Matthew 12:24). This time the Saviour, hearing their words, and “knowing their thoughts,” thinks it well to take up the accusation in question, and will be found, in doing so, to point out its extreme folly in the first place, and its extreme peril in the second. He also finally counsels men as to how best to avoid the extreme peril described.
I. The extreme folly involved.—The proposed solution was utterly foolish:—first, because it was not consistent with what was true about Satan. Had things been as they alleged, the “kingdom of Satan” would before now have come to its end (Mark 3:26). That is true of all kingdoms, and therefore of this. A king opposed is a king deposed—if opposed by himself. The very fact, therefore, that there still existed demoniacs to be healed, proved of itself that His way of healing them was not of this kind. The proffered solution, in the next place, was not consistent with what they believed of themselves. Besides the Saviour Himself there were those who were considered capable of effecting similar cures, and who, either because of their birth and extraction (as the Saviour’s own disciples, it may be), or else because of their extraction and faith (as some of their own disciples, it may possibly mean (Acts 19:13))—might be described as being their “children.” Anyway, whoever they were, it was to them He appealed. Let them deal with this charge (Matthew 12:27). Lastly, the explanation was foolish because it was not consistent with what was true about Christ. For, after all, in the instances before you, what is it you see? Do you not, in fact, see the “strong man” spoiled of his goods? And do you not, therefore, see that there is something present which is stronger than he? And what can that something be except that which we know of as the “kingdom of God’? Who, in a word, can cast out the spirit of evil except the “Spirit of God”? That is the solution—the only solution—of the miracles you behold (Matthew 12:28-29).
II. The extreme peril involved.—This the Saviour seems to point out by a succession of steps. To attribute works wrought in the way just described to the spirit of evil is fraught with danger of the extremest kind; first, because it is practically taking the wrong side on this question. If the “kingdom of God” has indeed “come” thus “upon you” (Matthew 12:28), you cannot safely, in this way, declare that it has not. If you are not “with Me” in acknowledging this, you are “against Me,” and, in fact, denying it (Matthew 12:30). And you are openly putting yourselves, therefore, in other words, against “the kingdom of God.” Also, next you are taking that side in a peculiarly deliberate way. For, to do as you are doing, is not only to sin against light, but against special light as it were. It is to do even worse. It is to turn that light, as it were, into darkness. It is to use the proofs of truth as supports of error. And so, not only to show contempt for the person of the Ambassador but for His very credentials as well. In other words, not only to sin against the “Son of man,” but against the “Spirit of God.” Lastly, you are on the way towards committing yourself to that wrong side in an irreversible manner. For there is a possibility in this direction of going so far as to make it impossible to come back. There is a blasphemy in this sort of blasphemy for which no remedy has been provided. Neither this world—nor yet the world to come—knows anything of the kind. This I say unto you because of that which ye have said now about Me (Mark 3:30).
III. The best way to escape.—It is like the Saviour to conclude this subject with a word on this point. It is like Him also to do so in the way that he does. Some would deliver us from the sin intended by attempting to define it. Of these we may say much as in Mark 14:59. The Master would deliver us from it by impressing on us not to go near. In two ways especially He here seems to impress this upon men. First of al He says to them, take care of thy heart. The sin in question, whatever its after developments, springs up in the heart. This is true of all sin, therefore most so of this. In no other case can a corrupt source produce a wholesome result (Matthew 12:33). Least of all, therefore, in the case of this sin of sins—the most “venomous” known (Matthew 12:34). Seek, therefore, if you would escape its outgrowth, to have none of its root in your heart. Rather seek to have there a perfect “treasure” of thoughts of the exactly opposite kind (Matthew 12:35). In the next place, take care of thy lips. Take care of thy lips lest they should unadvisedly utter any thoughts of this kind. Take care of thy lips because of the part which thy words are to play at the last. They are to provided much of the evidence by which is to be determined thy true state before God (Matthew 12:37). Even, therefore, the apparently “idlest” of them may have much weight in this way (Matthew 12:36). Also remember—so it seems to be meant—that of all evidence furnished in this way of the true state of the heart, none is more weighty than that furnished by suppression of speech. Evil expressed is evil approved of and brought to the birth (James 1:15). Evil suppressed is evil repented of before it is born. Let the evil within thee, therefore,—if there is to be any—be all of this sort. So shalt thou be safe from ever giving utterance to what is here meant! The only proper sequel to these solemn thoughts is in the language of prayer. “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips” (Psalms 141:3).
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 12:22. Blind and dumb.—
1. The fearful condition of men spiritually possessed by Satan may be seen in bodily possessions; and among the rest, in this man, on whom Satan shutteth all doors, that he can neither let in comfort, nor let forth the sense of his misery, for he maketh him blind and dumb, which dumbness is ordinarily accompanied with deafness also.
2. Such as Christ will deliver from Satan, albeit they cannot come of themselves to Him, yet He can furnish means to bring them to Him.
3. Christ is the powerful Physician of evils inflicted by the devil, as here He giveth evidence, in healing this man perfectly.—David Dickson.
Matthew 12:25-26. Sound reasoning.—
1. In pondering men’s sins the Lord looks much to the inward disposition, mind, and affection of sinners, whether they sin of infirmity or of presumption; of ignorance, or against their light. “Jesus knew their thoughts.”
2. The way to preserve all societies is union, and the way to ruin them is dissension.
3. Satan hath a kingdom among men, which by all means he goeth about to maintain, and will be loth, really and in effect, wholly to dispossess himself, both of the soul and body of any in whom he hath power and place.—Ibid.
Matthew 12:25. Thoughts.—
I. Thought, the seat of greatest sin.—Of sin that men dare not actually commit, or speak.
II. Thought, the seat of grandest wishes and holiest aspirations.—Biblical Museum.
Matthew 12:28. The true evidence of Christianity.—The world is growing singularly impatient of institutions which cannot justify themselves by some practical work, by the test of some good effect. The Founder of our religion based His appeal on results. The Apostles took up the same ground. Whenever men seriously attempt to apply to Christian history and Christian experience the processes of scientific investigation, weighing and counting over the effects which the gospel has produced, then the church may calmly and with confidence await the verdict, for then the world will be nearer than it has been to the truth that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of mankind. For one reason, however, the force of this argument is less felt than it deserves to be. We expect from the gospel what it never professes to do, and because we are disappointed, we fancy that it has failed. It is only fair that the gospel should be tried upon its own pretensions.
I. Did Jesus speak as though on the advent of the gospel sin was to be abolished from society?—Did He ever dream of founding a perfect society which should contain no black sheep? On the contrary, the gospel shows that His eyes gauged more accurately than those of His friends the future of the world. He expected, indeed, His religion to fill the land and overshadow the earth. But for all that, the vision before His eyes was of a little company of saints, persecuted and almost crushed by evil, etc. The Apostles predicted schisms and false Christs inplenty, but they never encouraged the hope of a whole world turning to God.
II. What, then, did our Lord and His Apostles profess the gospel should effect?—This, that it could create peace with God for every human being, no matter how degraded, who believed the gospel in its entirety, and should follow the doctrines laid down therein.
III. Has the gospel established its claim by irrefutable facts?—
1. Take all the most characteristic lives we know of such as have attained the character of Christians. These state that they have obtained, though with a struggle, peace of conscience and entered into happier relations with the Most High.
2. They all agree as to the value of Christianity in giving a fresh motive for virtue, more effectual than they possessed before.
3. They are equally at one in referring these happy changes to the power of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost; and while they constantly bemoan their failures, they as constantly blame for these failures only themselves.
4. This is the uniform testimony of Christians in every age.
5. And of every race. Thus,
(1) the gospel does accomplish what Christ promises;
(2) its proper work is limited only by a full and free out and out acceptance of it, and submission to its demands on the part of every human being.
IV. Practical inferences.—
1. How completely it rests upon us to demonstrate the value of Christ’s gospel by our own lives.
2. To inquirers and hesitators—Christianity is in practice and in power. It offers you deliverance from evil; it asks nothing but implicit trust and self-surrender. If you doubt it, then it refers you to its success in others.
3. To those who pretend to be Christians, but do not in their lives show Christ’s work. The only test of being Christ’s is that His work upon us succeeds, and this work is to make us holy. The failure is in yourselves and not in the gospel.—New Outlines.
Matthew 12:30. The intolerance of the gospel.—Rejecting the idea that Satan was divided against himself, our Saviour added, that if Satan was not His accomplice, as the Pharisees supposed, it followed that he was His adversary. And why? Because with reference to Jesus Christ it is absolutely necessary to be one thing or another. Thus Jesus Christ took occasion from a particular fact, to proclaim a great truth. Who is the man that is against Jesus Christ? It must be sufficiently obvious to all, that, by this expression, our Saviour designs every man to whom the gospel is an object of aversion and hatred, whether he conceal his sentiments in his heart, or manifest them in his words and actions. Who, then, is the man that is not with or for Jesus Christ? The world is full of persons who are not for Him. We recognise them in all those members of the Christian church who belong to it only by birth, and by certain external usages, but whose whole life proves that the church inspires them with no interest. Religion is to them a matter of high propriety, an interesting fact, a social necessity, but nothing more. It is neither the rule of their life, nor one of their interests. We do not know a better way of establishing the truth of what the Saviour says in reference to such men than by showing the falseness of the contrary proposition, viz. “One may not be for Jesus, and yet not be against Him; he may be neither His friend nor His enemy; he may observe with respect to Him a species of neutrality.” Let us see if such neutrality is possible.
1. A real neutrality is one of the rarest things in the world.—Man is not made for indifference. Whatever affects him nearly, everything which exerts an influence upon his fortune, nay more, everything which he sees exciting general interest, becomes to him an object of some kind of sentiment.
2. This is specially so in the domain of religion.—If a religion is true, it follows that we ought to love it with all our heart, if false, to detest it with all our heart; for the question turns upon a matter of the highest excellence, or a criminal imposture; a work of God, or a work of the devil. Is neutrality, in such a case, possible?
3. If we had even remained indifferent, we would not the less have made, without willing it, a choice.—Because true religion, meriting nothing less than our whole love, not to devote ourselves to it is to be against it; and a false religion, not deserving anything but our deepest hatred, not to oppose it is to be for it.
4. To make this last truth more evident, suppose that God manifest in the flesh has descended to the earth, in the person of a being resembling you; that the character of that being is the ideal of perfection; His work, the salvation of the human race; His precepts, holiness itself; His feelings in reference to you, a boundless compassion. You acknowledge in Him all these attributes, and you say to Him, “Since Thou art the ideal of perfection, the rule of holiness, God Himself manifest in the flesh; since Thou hast shed Thy blood upon the cross for the salvation of my soul, I cannot be against Thee, but I will not be for Thee.” For whom then is that heart? The heart must attach itself to something.
5. The better to appreciate this neutrality, let us enter the heart of the indifferent, and give account of the feelings which reign there. He says he has no hatred. But are there in his heart love and obedience; love especially for Jesus Christ? Assuredly not, seeing he is not for Jesus Christ. Well, to refuse love to Jesus Christ, I affirm, is to do Him all the evil which an open enemy could, or at least, would do. He who loves not obeys not.
6. When circumstances will it, the indifferent becomes an enemy, positively, and in fact.—As long as it is not excited by circumstances, this enmity remains asleep; and, in some persons, it remains in this form, the most dangerous, perhaps, all their life long. But, in many others, unforeseen circumstances awaken it, and cause it to appear in its real character.
7. To hate Jesus Christ—such is the result in which neutrality and indifference eventually terminate.—A Vinet, D.D
Christian work.—We learn:—
I. That Christian work is constructive.—It is gathering together, collecting, saving, preserving. Worldly work is destructive, scattering, altering, tinkering.
II. That Christian work is collective.—It is in accordance with laws. It must follow the direction of Christ, the ways of Christ, the object of Christ, and it must promote the glory of Christ. Worldly work is undisciplined. Every man would be a master, and the scene would become a tower of Babel.—B. in “Homilist.”
Matthew 12:32. Sin against the Son of man and against the Holy Ghost.—I. Observe, Christ speaks of Himself here as the Son of man, the Son of God in a disguise, as it were; God under the veil of human flesh. Can we wonder that He should look with a merciful and forgiving eye upon any of His brethren who, not suspecting His greatness, should rudely jostle against Him in the crowd? Suppose, for instance, a king were to assume for purposes of state the disguise of a subject, and to mingle with the simplest and rudest of his people, and suppose that while in such disguise he were to meet with an insult; would not a broad line of demarcation be drawn between an insult so offered and an act of avowed treason against the king upon his throne? A comparison of this kind will be of considerable help to us in understanding our subject. Even the murderers of Christ sinned against the Son of man, against Christ in His human nature; whereas, had they known who it was whom they crucified, many might possibly have been overwhelmed with shame, and have besought His forgiveness.
II. But in the case of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost no such plea can be set up.—Here we have a sin not against God in the guise of Jesus the Son of Joseph the carpenter, but against God in His essential Deity, God upon the throne of heaven, God who does good, and is the Author of all good both in heaven and earth. The sin of the Jews which our Lord rebuked partook of this character; for they had said that He was under the influence of, and in league with, an unclean spirit; to do good, to love mercy, and to perform acts which undeniably tended to overturn the kingdom of Satan and establish the kingdom of God—this, they said, was the work of the devil. Now unquestionably this was to put darkness for light and light for darkness, to confound all distinctions between good and evil, to confuse the works of Satan and those of the Most High God, as though they were not the exact opposites of each other. The person who does fully commit this sin places himself exactly in the position of the lost angels; the sin of Satan is that of deliberately worshipping evil and hating good, and on this account is unpardonable sin—unpardonable for this reason, if for no other, that it cannot be repented of.—Bishop Harvey Goodwin.
The sin against the Holy Ghost.—What, then, is this sin against the Holy Ghost, the unpardonable sin?
I. One thing is clear. Its unpardonableness cannot arise from anything in the nature of the sin itself; for that would be a naked contradiction to the emphatic declaration of Matthew 12:31, that all manner of sin is pardonable. And what is this, but the fundamental truth of the gospel?
II. Then, again, when it is said that to speak against or blaspheme the Son of man is pardonable, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not pardonable, it is not to be conceived that this arises from any greater sanctity in the one blessed Person than the other.—These remarks so narrow the question, that the true sense of our Lord’s words seems to disclose itself at once.
III. It is a contrast between slandering “the Son of man” in His veiled condition and unfinished work—which might be done “ignorantly, in unbelief” (1 Timothy 1:13), and slandering the same blessed Person after the blaze of glory which the Holy Ghost was soon to throw around His claims, and in the full knowledge of all that.—This would be to slander Him with eyes open, or to do it “presumptuously.” To blaspheme Christ in the former condition—when even the Apostles stumbled at many things—left them still open to conviction on fuller light; but to blaspheme Him in the latter condition would be to hate the light the clearer it became, and resolutely to shut it out; which, of course, precludes salvation. The Pharisees had not, as yet, done this; but they were bordering upon, and in spirit committing, the unpardonable sin.—D. Brown, D.D.
Matthew 12:36. The connection.—Our first rule in seeking to understand a passage of Scripture must always be to review it in connection with its context. The discourse, of which the words in question form a part, had its rise in the circumstance of the Pharisees attributing our Lord’s miracles (even those of them whose character presented most difficulty to such an explanation) to Satanic agency.… Now, at first sight, it is natural to suppose that by idle words are meant such as the Pharisees had just vented—words of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. And it is not difficult to perceive what kind of words those were. The Pharisees, like the multitude (Matthew 12:23), were internally convinced of the Messiahship of Jesus by the miracle which they had witnessed. But it would have been inconvenient to them to have acknowledged His claims. By doing so, they would have to retract their whole previous career—to place themselves after the fashion of Mary at His feet, as His disciples. This would have humbled the pride of those ecclesiastical rulers, and such a humiliation they could not brook. So, without honestly believing their own explanation, they attributed the cure of the blind and dumb man to the agency of Satan. It was a supernatural cure—that they admitted—but there are, said they, supernatural evil agencies, as well as supernatural good ones, and this particular miracle is due to the first of these causes. It might have occurred to them (probably it did occur to them in the deep of their hearts) that this was a flimsy and transparently false explanation—that, on no recognised principle of craft or policy, could the devil cast out his own agents. Yes, such an account would not serve the turn; it was a dishonest shuffle, and they knew it to be so, to avoid making a confession which was irresistibly forced upon their minds, but which would have involved them in consequences from which their pride and jealousy shrunk. And then came in the corrupt special pleading, so natural to the human mind under such circumstances: “After all, though I am giving an explanation which I do not believe—with which I am not satisfied myself—which finds no response whatever in my convictions—yet these are but words, the breath of the lips, lightly uttered and soon forgotten—my mind recognises the truth, though I cannot bring my tongue to confess it.” The eye of Him who knew what was in man detected this reasoning at the bottom of their hearts; and down came the lightning of His censure to crush and blast a fallacy so dangerous: “Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man” (without violating internal convictions, like Paul before his conversion, who spake many things against the Son of man, but spake them ignorantly in unbelief) “it shall be forgiven him—but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost” (violates those internal convictions of truth which are wrought in the mind by the Holy Spirit) “it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” As if the Lord had said: “Your language is not, as you vainly imagine, a separate and separable thing from your reason: it has a deep and living connection with your state of mind. Language and reason have their fibres twined up together—so that a corrupt language argues a corrupt reason. And then follows our passage, introduced by the formula, But I say unto you—“Every idle word,” etc.—E. M. Goulburn, D.D.
The idle word.—Now is the idle word to be explained simply and solely by the blasphemy preceding? If so, the warning—though still an awful one—will scarcely possess a general applicability; for the number of those is few, whose circumstances resemble the circumstances of the Pharisees. We think there are reasons for giving to these solemn words a far more extended applicability.
1. They are introduced by a formula, which will be found, I think, to indicate a transition from a more limited to a more extended application, the word translated “but” having the force of moreover, furthermore.
2. The same conclusion will follow from examining the word rendered “idle” (ἀργός). According to its derivation, this word means not working (ἀ-ἔργον). Now, the words of the Pharisees were not simply useless, unfruitful, unprofitable words; but far worse. They were false words; they counteracted conviction; their fault was not that of omission; they were positively bad, mischievous, and wicked words. They were a lie in the teeth of conviction, and they were calculated to do harm, to mislead the ignorant people who looked up to their authority. Hence we infer that when our Lord condemns idle words, He is going a step beyond that sin of blasphemy upon which His censure had, at the outset of the discourse, so heavily fallen; and that our text, rendered so as to exhibit the emphatic transition, would run thus: “Nay, I even say unto you, that every idle word” (not merely every false and blasphemous, but every idle word) that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” Nor is there anything which need surprise us, in this strictness of the Christian law on the subject of words. It is strictly in accordance with the general tenor of evangelical precept. We are often instructed that that precept cannot be satisfied by innocuousness—that we are required not merely to abstain from harm, but to do positive good. What the passage condemns is useless words, words conducive neither to instruction nor to innocent entertainment; words having no salt of wit or wisdom in them—flat, stale, dull, and unprofitable, thrown out to while away the time, to fill up a spare five minutes; words that are not consecrated by any seriousness of purpose whatever.—Ibid.
What are, and what are not, idle words.—Words are idle which do not fulfil the proper end of the existence of words. We may remark, in general, that what constitutes the excellence or virtue of anything, is that it should fulfil its proper end. What, then, is the proper function of words, the end for which they were given, by fulfilling which they become good, and escape the censure of being idle words?
1. The first, and perhaps (by comparison) the lowest end of words, is to carry on the business of life.
2. The second end which words should fulfil, and for which they were no doubt designed, is to refresh and entertain the mind.—Ibid.
Responsibility for idle words.—The Pharisees might have imagined that as they had but spoken, and had perpetrated no real act of enormity, no guilt was contracted. Christ disabuses them here of such an impression. “Every idle word.” There are three considerations which may serve to show us the responsibility that attaches to idle words.
I. Their reactive force.—“Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man.”
II. Their social influence.—Science affirms that every movement in the material creation propagates an influence to the remotest planet in the universe. Be this as it may, it seems morally certain that every word spoken on the ear will have influence lasting as eternity.
III. Their Divine recognition.—The great Judge knows every word we have spoken. “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee.”—Homilist.
Matthew 12:37. Condemning words.—Consider some of the ways by which words are used that minister to our condemnation.
I. At the head of this list we must put profane swearing.
II. Another way in which we expose ourselves to God’s displeasure is by what St. Paul calls “foolish talking.”
III. Another example of the improper use of the gift of speech is an indulgence in the petulant and complaining language which so often destroys the harmony of private life.
IV. A fourth illustration of our text is found in the case of misrepresentation and slander.
V. Angry words are another description of words by which we may endanger our everlasting salvation.—J. N. Norton.