How do you speak to your friends? to your neighbors? to your enemies? when you post? when you comment?
Eph 4:25 Therefore, putting away lying, ” Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. [Cross reference this with Luke 10:29 who is your neighbor?]
Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
Col 3:8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
Job, noted for fearing God and shunning evil (Job 1:1), refused to speak wickedness or deceit
Job 27:4 My lips will not speak wickedness,
Nor my tongue utter deceit.
David had the word of the Lord on his tongue.
2Sa 23:2 “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me,
And His word was on my tongue.
Jas 3:5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
Ecc 3:7 [there is…] A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
Pro 12:18 There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword,
But the tongue of the wise promotes health.
Pro 10:31 The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom,
But the perverse tongue will be cut out.
Pro 15:4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life,
But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
Jas 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
Jas 3:2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
Jas 3:3 Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.
Jas 3:4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
Jas 3:5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles! [tongue is a little member with great impact]
Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
Jas 3:7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
Jas 3:8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Jas 3:9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
Jas 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
Jas 3:11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
Jas 3:12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
Jas 3:14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
Deceiving people and saying it was a joke compared to being a madman throwing firebrands
Pro 26:18 Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death,
Pro 26:19 Is the man who deceives his neighbor,
And says, “I was only joking!”
Pro 21:28 A false witness shall perish,
But the man who hears him will speak endlessly.
Pro 23:9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
It is a fathers delight when his children speak “right things”
Pro 23:16 Yes, my inmost being will rejoice
When your lips speak right things.
Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day;
Pro 11:12 He who is devoid of wisdom despises his neighbor,
But a man of understanding holds his peace.
Pro 6:16-19 These six things the LORD hates,…A lying tongue, …And one who sows discord among brethren.
Psa 119:172 My tongue shall speak of Your word,
For all Your commandments are righteousness.
Psa 145:6 Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
Pro 12:19 The truthful lip shall be established forever,
But a lying tongue is but for a moment.
Pro 6:23-24 …Reproofs of instruction are the way of life, to keep you…from the flattering tongue of a seductress.
Pro 10:20 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver;
The heart of the wicked is worth little.
Pro 15:2 The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly,
But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.
Pro 17:4 An evildoer gives heed to false lips;
A liar listens eagerly to a spiteful tongue.
Pro 17:20 He who has a deceitful heart finds no good,
And he who has a perverse tongue falls into evil.
Pro 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Pro 21:23 Whoever guards his mouth and tongue
Keeps his soul from troubles.
Pro 26:28 A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it,
And a flattering mouth works ruin.
Speaking truth rather than what people want to hear
Pro 28:23 He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward
Than he who flatters with the tongue.
The virtuous woman
Pro 31:26 She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
Tongue one cause of stumbling and falling:
Isa 3:8 For Jerusalem stumbled,
And Judah is fallen,
Because their tongue and their doings
Are against the LORD,
To provoke the eyes of His glory.
Isa 50:4 ” The Lord GOD has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned.
Jer 9:8 Their tongue is an arrow shot out… [Cross Reference this with Eph 6:16, firey arrows/darts of the wicked one]
Pro 4:24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth,
And put perverse lips far from you.
Luk 6:45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.