Don’t say anything you don’t mean…You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, “I’ll pray for you,” and never doing it, or saying, “God be with you,” and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say “yes” and “no.” When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong (Matthew 5:33-37).
Impeccability. I love this word. I love this characteristic. Impeccability is what kept satan from having any power over Jesus (see John 14:30 NLT). Where sin leads to defeat and death, impeccability leads to victory and increasingly abundant life.
So how do we adopt this characteristic into our everyday lives? I think of John 1:47 where Jesus said of Nathanael,
“Here is an Israelite indeed…in whom there is no guile” (John 1:47 AMP). Or, as other translations say, “no deceit” (NKJV), “nothing false” (NCV), and “a man of complete integrity” (NLT). In other words, a man who is honest, transparent, has nothing to hide, who is living life inside out, a man who is living authentically, “free of error, mixed motives, or hidden agendas” (1 Thess. 2:3).
Authenticity has to do with honesty—do you always speak the truth? Do you say one thing when you mean another or misrepresent what you are truly feeling or thinking? The Bible speaks of one thing alone that makes a person perfect, and that is perfectly true words. James wrote, “If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man” (James 3:2 NKJV).
Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. —Miguel Angel Ruiz
ACTION STEPS
| Do you always speak the truth? Do you say one thing when you mean another or misrepresent what you are truly feeling or thinking? |
| How have you used words against yourself? |
| How “free of error, mixed motives, or hidden agendas” are you living? How transparent is your life and speech? |
| Would Jesus say of you, “Look, there goes a person in whom there is no guile”? |
If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you’ d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life (James 3:2 MSG).