Watch What Comes Out

Jesus says that what defiles a person is what comes out of them, and then gives a list. Several items on it are matters of the tongue: deceit, slander, and the arrogance that shows itself mostly in how we talk about other people. That gives us a practical lesson for the week, and it is about speech.

Most of us police our mouths at church and let them run everywhere else. The car, the group text, the break room, the dinner table after a hard day: these are where what is actually in the heart comes out. The complaint about the boss that becomes a character assassination. The story about a friend that is true but was not ours to tell. The small exaggeration that makes us look better. None of these require a ceremonial washing. All of them, Jesus says, come from inside and make us unclean.

Here is the lesson. Treat your ordinary speech as a diagnostic, not a performance. When you catch a sentence coming out that you would not want played back at church, do not just stop it. Ask what it revealed. Envy, usually. Or fear. Or a wound. Then take that to God, since the sentence was only the symptom.

Practically, pick one setting this week, the car or the group chat or the kitchen, and pay attention to what comes out of you there. Not to feel bad. To learn what is in the heart, so that you can bring the real problem to the one who can clean it.