idle words

The phrase “idle word” in Matthew 12:36 means “words that accomplish nothing.” If God is going to judge our “small talk,” how much more will He judge our deliberate words? It is by our conversation at unguarded moments that we reveal our true character.

Is there an “unpardonable sin” today? Yes, the final rejection of Jesus Christ. Jesus made it clear that all sins can be forgiven (Matt. 12:31). Adultery, murder, blasphemy, and other sins can all be forgiven; they are not unpardonable. But God cannot forgive the rejection of His Son. It is the Spirit who bears witness to Christ (John 15:26) and who convicts the lost sinner (John 16:7–11).¹

The tree is known by his fruit. The point of this verse seems to be that the good works done by Christ were evidence of His personal goodness and should have prevented any such blasphemous saying as that spoken by the Pharisees. However, this illustration is conversely applied to the Pharisees who are known by their wickedness as well. By thy words does not refer to justification or condemnation on the basis of what one says, but to the outward evidence of the inward attitude of the heart. While the Pharisees asked for evidence of Christ’s claim, they overlooked the clear evidence that was to be seen in His miracles.²

Jesus continued to hammer away at the truth that what is inside of a man determines what comes out of the man by saying, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (v. 35). Just as a good tree must produce good fruit, a good man, because he has good treasure in his heart, brings forth good things. Likewise, just as a bad tree must produce bad fruit, an evil man, having evil treasure in his heart, brings forth evil.

There is a very popular idea in the world today that man, even though he is capable of doing bad things, is basically good. This is a lie. We are not basically good. Instead, we are basically evil. In the same passage where Paul tells us that natural men have the poison of asps under their lips, he writes, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). This is why Jesus told the rich young ruler, “No one is good but One, that is, God” (Matt. 19:17b).

One of my seminary professors, Dr. John Gerstner, was invited to preach in a little country church one Sunday morning. When he got there, the elders welcomed him and then said that an infant was to be baptized that morning, so they asked him to perform the baptism, which he agreed to do. They then went on to explain that that particular church had a unique ritual—the presiding pastor would pin a white rose to the clothing of the baby before he or she was baptized. My professor asked the elders to explain the significance of the white rose, and the elders told him it was a symbol of the baby’s innocence. He then said: “I see. What, then, is the significance of the water?” That was the end of the white rose tradition in that church. The elders realized that it made no sense to symbolically declare a baby to be innocent just before he underwent a ritual that symbolized cleansing from sin.

In light of Scripture’s clear and abundant teaching on man’s fallenness and inherent evil, why did Jesus here talk about “good” people? No one is good in and of himself. But those who are born again of the Holy Spirit are born unto righteousness. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in the Christian’s life is goodness (Gal. 5:22). As the Holy Spirit works to bring us into conformity to the image of Christ, He changes our hearts so that we can bring forth good fruit.

Jesus spoke of “treasure” in the heart. A treasure is something on which we place great value, and we go to great lengths to protect it from robbers and from decay. But Jesus spoke of both good and evil treasure. We always see treasure as something good. How can treasure be evil? Turning to Romans once again, we see Paul giving unbelievers a fearful warning: “In accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (2:5). Those who are not trusting in Christ are building up a horde of sin, which makes them subject to a “mother lode” of wrath. If sin is what is concealed in your heart, nothing can come out of your heart except evil.

Basically, Jesus was saying that everyone has a treasure. So, we all need to stop and ask ourselves: “What is my treasure? What do I think about day after day? What are my desires? Do I treasure Christ and the righteousness His Spirit produces in me? Or do I treasure evil, in which case I am treasuring up wrath?” If you have trouble answering these questions, listen to the words that come forth from your mouth.

Idle or Empty Words

Jesus continued: “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment” (v. 36). This statement scares me to death for two reasons.

The first reason is Jesus’ use of the term idle word. He indicated here that every casual, thoughtless word that we speak is going to find its way into the last judgment. However, some commentators take issue with that rendition and say that Jesus was talking about not casual speech but empty speech, saying that every empty word will be brought into the judgment. What is an empty word? It is a promise that has no substance. It could include a very serious promise, such as a wedding vow. If you stand before God and a group of witnesses on your wedding day and promise to be faithful, but you do not do what you promise, the emptiness of that promise will be made clear on the day of judgment. But I think every promise will be so judged. There have been all kinds of times in my life when I have told people that I was going to do something on their behalf but did not do it. In those cases, my words were empty. These empty words will be brought before God in the day of judgment, and I will be asked to give an account.

The second reason this verse scares me is because Jesus spoke here about a day of judgment. As I said earlier, if there is anything we try to delete from the teaching of Jesus, it is His relentless warnings about the last judgment. However, it is an inescapable truth that at the end of our lives, each one of us will have to stand before an omniscient, holy God as He evaluates our lives. We do not like to think about that, so we act as if there will be no judgment. We blithely assume that everyone goes to heaven at death. Not so, according to the Scriptures. It greatly behooves us, while we still live, to prepare ourselves for that day.

When I was teaching at the college level, I had a brilliant student who went on to graduate school at Harvard. He was studying the physiology of the brain, which seems to be the last frontier of scientific inquiry. I saw him on one occasion while he was still in graduate school, and he said, “R. C., I think I know how the last judgment is going to work.” When I asked him to explain, he said: “The brain is an amazing thing. It’s like a gigantic computer that records every thought, every impression, every incident of your life, awake or asleep. It’s all there, indelibly etched on the brain. I read in Scripture that at the last judgment every tongue will be silenced and there will be no protests as the whole world is brought before God and shown to be guilty. I think God is going to take each person’s brain and push ‘play’ on the controls so that the brain will pour out all of its memories. We’ll stand there listening to ourselves condemn ourselves.”

Well, that was an interesting idea. I do not think God needs to tap our memories to know what we have done, said, and thought in our lifetimes. However, I do think my friend was close to the truth in saying that our own words will condemn us.

Justified or Condemned

Finally, Jesus said something very strange: “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (v. 37). I relentlessly teach and preach the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. That means no one is justified by anything he does or says. But here Jesus said we will be justified or condemned by our words. What did He mean?

Was He possibly speaking about our profession of faith in Him? Paul writes: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9–10). It is true that we must profess our faith, but no one is ever justified by a profession of faith. Anyone can say, “I believe in Jesus.” As we saw when we studied the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 7:21a). Jesus made it clear that it is possible to say the words without meaning them.

Jesus was not speaking here about the doctrine of justification. He was talking about manifesting what is in the heart. When we face God at the last judgment, He will rehearse the records of our own mouths. If that record contains a constant stream of empty words, those words will condemn us. On the other hand, if the words that came out of the treasure of our hearts reveal our affection for Christ and our love for the things of God, then God will bless us in that day.12:36–37 These verses are found only in Matthew. Jesus explained that words matter—each person will give an account on judgment day of every idle word he speaks. The word “idle” refers not to mindless small talk or carefree jokes, but to broken promises, unkept commitments, and unpaid vows. Such words are better indicators of a person’s true character than his or her carefully planned and prepared statements and speeches. No word is insignificant to God because every spoken word reveals what is in the heart. Words will be a basis for judgment: The words you say now reflect your fate then.³

1 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 43). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

2 Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M. (Eds.). (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (pp. 1914–1915). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

3 Barton, B., Comfort, P., Osborne, G., Taylor, L. K., & Veerman, D. (2001). Life Application New Testament Commentary (p. 59). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.