“The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil” (Proverbs 15:28).
To the omniscient God, the motives, manner, and message of your speech matters. Therefore, each must matter to you.
Impure motives will transform a statement of truth into gossip, slander, or other forms of evil speech. Harsh or unkind manner will be provocative and poison the message contained in the words (Prov. 15:1). An untrue message states a lie, and lying lips are an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 12:22).
Because of this, the righteous person will be slow to speak—considering carefully how to answer, desiring to speak fitly (Prov. 15:23; 25:11) with pure and pleasant words (Prov. 15:26). The New Testament’s exhortation is: “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (Col. 4:6).
A wicked person is unconcerned with the motives, manner, and message of his speech. He spews forth whatever he thinks, without any filters and with any regard for the simplest rule of human conduct—“Do unto others as you would have them to unto you” (Mat. 7:12).
Jehovah abominates the motives, manner, and message of a wicked mouth (Prov. 6:16-19). The wise, therefore, is slow to speak, studying how to answer.
