The theme for us this morning is “Good words.” Or we might say “the goodness good words are.” You’ll notice our passage commends to us making an “apt answer” or “speaking a word in season.”
It is important to understand that an “apt answer” is not just an answer to a question. It isn’t talking about responding when someone inquiries about something or interrogates you on some issue. To make an apt answer is to address a problem in someone's life.
It is important to understand that an “apt answer” is not just an answer to a question. It isn’t talking about responding when someone inquiries about something or interrogates you on some issue. To make an apt answer is to address a problem in someone's life.
It is not that someone, in a fit of anger, poses a riddle to you that you have to answer. He’s addressing the problem of rage, and he, in his wisdom, is able to speak in such a way as to calm the fellow down and make the situation less hostile.
So you should think of the apt answer as a wise word for just the right moment. It may be some counsel you give. It may be a rebuke or correction (they may not ask you for it, but they need it). It may be your speaking with an unbeliever. The New Testament says that we need to be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. And that verse isn’t just about when an unbeliever asks us a question.
All in all, this proverb is about “Speaking the right words at the right time.” And really it is about how good it is t speak the right thing at the right time. The main emphasis is on the joy that it causes and the elation that it elicits. And that’s what we are going to focus on this morning.
But before I do that, there’s one thing that we should say by way of preface. And it doesn’t need to be something we dwell on at length because we all probably know it already, and it is that this is an exceedingly difficult thing to do.
I. It is personally advantageous
Look at the first part of our proverb. It says, “To make an apt answer is a joy to a man.”
This is saying that when we speak what is appropriate, the very first person to benefit by it is ourselves. It is to our advantage. What we say may be of good use to the other person. It might be just the thing they need to hear. They may be exceedingly grateful that you took the time to write them that note or pull them aside. But what is emphasized here is that you, the speaker—the adviser, the counselor, the friend, the guide, get a boost by it. It is something that gives you joy.
I’ve cited Kevin Swanson’s commentary a number of times lately and I find it useful here again. His illustration and applications are always so good. He points to fathers and how important it is for them to set a good example and be a real leader when it comes to one’s speech. And he gives the example of a groggy Monday morning. Monday morning everyone falls out of bed and everyone’s attitude is in the slums. Monday has rudely interrupted everyone’s weekend and the family’s emotional state is low. Here’s a good time when the father can take the lead and offer some good words. So he mutters, “This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” Initially the mind is not on board with it. What you want to say, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let’s chuck it.” But you stay true to the Scriptures. You recite the verse. And as you say them, your demeanor starts to change. Your ears hear you repeat them. Your heart starts to process the importance of what you are saying. And as it does so you find your attitude starting to change.
That’s is an apt answer to what Monday is to be. And what happens? You derive the pleasure from it. You are the first one in the house to reap the benefits of it.
That’s just one small example though, and it is symptomatic of the wider ramifications and applications of this proverb. A man who honors God with his lips is going to find that it is a good thing.
You know, I thought I was going to make some pretty slick exegetical points when I first started diving into this text. I said, “I’m going to do a word study on the words joy.” I knew there were a lot of different words for joy in the Hebrew language. One words means to squeal. I thought, I bet this word here means something like that. I bet it means that if we tell the truth and honor God with our lips we’ll have radical sensations of euphoric joy pulsing through our nervous system. And you know what I found? The word joy here, it just means joy. It is just a bland, generic word for joy. And I thought, “boy, that’s a real kill joy. What can you do with that in a sermon?”
But as I thought about it, I thought, “Isn’t that just the thing. It doesn’t have to be euphoric. Can’t just a contented spirit—or a clear conscience be just what you need?” And that’s part of the personal pleasure that I think this is really trying to convey. It is about having a conscience that isn’t riddled with guilt or shame.”
Think about what Paul said to the Ephesians. In the book of Acts we read how he was about to depart from Ephesus. He was standing on the shoreline, just about ready to get on the boat and he gave one final speech to them. And in that conversation he said, “You know how I lived among you. You know that I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable. I taught you from house to house. I testified to both Jews and Greeks.” He said, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” And he said, “I testify today that I am innocent of the blood of all.”
What was he saying there? He’s saying, “My conscience is clear before God. I have the joy of knowing that I said all the right things.”
So we recognize that it may not bring us joy when we speak at certain times. It might not be a pleasant thing. It could be a rebuke. And in those cases, we might be disinclined to say it. But here’s the confirmation. Here’s the motivation that we have to speak even the hard things: In the long run, our soul won’t be weighed down with the grief of having not said anything.
But our passage not only says that it is personally advantageous to say the right thing, but it also says that it is divinely approved.
II. It is divinely approved
Look at the second half of the proverb. Notice how there is an exuberant declaration that says, “How good it is!” I do not want you to miss the fact that there is this enthusiastic affirmation of the good words that are spoken. We need to understand that the Holy Spirit has put His stamp of approval upon the good words that we speak.
It isn’t just that the words are going to be a blessing to our souls to make us filled with peace and joy, but God formally recognize them for the great things that they are. And he does so in a rather lively way.
There is something celebratory in the language here. There’s a sense in which the apt answer is being relished. It could have read, “a word spoken in season is good.” But by phrasing it like this, and saying, “How good it is”, you get the sense that there is a divine elation in and approval of what has been said.
God here gives his divine endorsement because he knows that sometimes the exhortations and instructions we give are not enthusiastically received.
So you as a parent you pull your child aside and you talk to them about their attitude. You asked them to go clean their room and they blew you off. So now, you come to them and you give them a little lecture on obedience and the need to keep their room tidy. You say that this is a way we honor God. When there are clothes all over the place and toys scattered here and there, it becomes a place that doesn’t glorify God or reflect his order. It’s a hazard because people can get tangled and trip. Toys can get smashed as people step on them. And you say, “We want to reflect the order of God and magnify the beauty of God even in our rooms.”
And you go through this great little explanation of how a clean room will demonstrate the very nature of God. But how is it received? Your kid says, “Oh, okay.” Or they roll their eyes. Or they comply with your wishes, but you know it’s not from the heart.
Parents, you need to know that what you said was good thing. Lecturing your children has a pretty bad rap in today’s world. And their reaction can make you feel a little unjoyful. But it’s a good thing. It’s a very good thing. God looks on that and says, “How good it is!”
There may be more to it than that. The expression, “How good it is” may be indicating that the thing you say causes good. The Holy Spirit may be trying to communicate that your words may do more good than you think they do.
Think about that child. They may walk away in a huff to clean their room, but you just instilled in them a life principle. They might not be privy to it right then and there, but what you said is going to sit with them. And maybe somewhere down the road it might come to fruition in their life, not just in the cleaning of their room, but in their job. Maybe they start work and they see how their diligence to keep things in order pays off. Literally, it pays off. They earn more money because their boss sees how the conduct themselves.
Let me tell you about Amanda Ringler. Amanda Ringler was a girl that graduated high school with me. We were in biology together my freshman year. I was a brand new Christian at the time. And here I was sitting in this class where I was being taught Darwinian evolution. And I was trying to reconcile the book of Genesis with what this guy was saying. And one day Amanda stood up and said, “I find all this talk about us coming from a bunch of monkeys is rather silly. The Bible says God created us.” And she sat down.
She didn’t give any long winded explanation about the inconsistencies within the evolutionary system. What she said didn’t even take 30 seconds. But her words had a huge impact on me. I didn’t have all the answers yet (it would be years until I heard about Answers in Genesis), but I knew God’s word was true and the silly notions that were being posed in class was folly.
How good it is! Her words were aptly spoken and they did more good than she probably expected. But she probably didn’t know a thing. She didn’t know how much of an impact that had on me.
And we can be like that. We may be completely ignorant of how much of an impact our counsel can have or how much good our admonitions can do. That’s why God says, “How good it is!”
Not just because to reassure us of how, not just enthusiastic
But there’s one more reason that I can think of that we have God’s stamp of approval on good words. It can be for our benefit (God is enthused with them, even when others are not). It could be because of how much good our words can do. But we have to remember that these words are good mainly because they are in keeping with God himself.
Let’s face it. The instruction we give may amount to nothing. The whole world may oppose it and it might not affect anyone. But even if that is the case, the words are good because they are God’s words and an expression of His nature.
God is elated with good words because they are His words. We are speaking what God himself speaks. We are bringing the absolute standard for truth to bear on that person right at that moment. We become prophets as we speak the Word of God.
You may say, “How good is it?” And the answer is that it is of infinite goodness—because God is infinite in His goodness. When we lecture our children or refute the gainsayer, or put our arm around our friend in that heated moment and sooth things, then there is a sense in which eternity is brought to bear on that moment. The infinite wells of God’s goodness are cracked open and come rushing down upon you at that moment.
How good it is!
III. It is absolutely necessary
It is a sin to be silent and not give an answer. If you say the wrong thing, or say the right thing at the wrong time, that will not cut it.
The first commandment is have no other gods before me. It means that we must have God—we must take him as our God. And to have God as our God means openly acknowledging Him and standing for Him when the situation calls for it. If we become embarrassed and shy away, or if we play the sluggard and just let the moment pass, then we not only loose the joy, we have just failed to live up to the first commandment. And when that happens, we deserve to be stripped of all that has any joy attached to it.
That’s what Jesus basically said, isn’t it? He said, “He denies me before men, I will also deny before the angels in heaven.” When we fail to correct when we have opportunity to do so, we are denying Christ. We are living like an atheist. We are saying, “It’s okay for you go on living like this.”
Someday we will stand before God and he will say to us, “Why should I let you in? Why should you be allowed to come into everlasting joy?” The only answer we can give then is to say, “Only because your Son died for my sin and rose for my justification.” Remember this is why Jesus came. He came to be our answer to our greatest problem. He came that we may have joy and have our tongues loosed.
Jesus was the only one who ever spoke as he should. They would say of him, “Never has a man spoke thus.” He could speak to the Pharisee and shut their mouths. He could counsel the woman at the well because he was full of wisdom. He could give a fit word to the masses. And all of it was for our sakes. We now through Him can speak aright.
We sometimes sing the song “O for a Thousand Tongues to sing. One of the stanzas goes like this:
Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.
We think that is talking about people who can’t hear or can’t speak. And you are right, it is. But it is you. We are the deaf and dumb. This is talking about out tongues.
This is of course where we must remember the good news of the gospel. The gospel is the apt answer to our sin and lost condition. James is right, the tongue is a world of evil and no one on earth can tame it. That’s why Christ came. He is the redemption of our tongues.
So you should think of the apt answer as a wise word for just the right moment. It may be some counsel you give. It may be a rebuke or correction (they may not ask you for it, but they need it). It may be your speaking with an unbeliever. The New Testament says that we need to be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. And that verse isn’t just about when an unbeliever asks us a question.
All in all, this proverb is about “Speaking the right words at the right time.” And really it is about how good it is t speak the right thing at the right time. The main emphasis is on the joy that it causes and the elation that it elicits. And that’s what we are going to focus on this morning.
But before I do that, there’s one thing that we should say by way of preface. And it doesn’t need to be something we dwell on at length because we all probably know it already, and it is that this is an exceedingly difficult thing to do.
I. It is personally advantageous
Look at the first part of our proverb. It says, “To make an apt answer is a joy to a man.”
This is saying that when we speak what is appropriate, the very first person to benefit by it is ourselves. It is to our advantage. What we say may be of good use to the other person. It might be just the thing they need to hear. They may be exceedingly grateful that you took the time to write them that note or pull them aside. But what is emphasized here is that you, the speaker—the adviser, the counselor, the friend, the guide, get a boost by it. It is something that gives you joy.
I’ve cited Kevin Swanson’s commentary a number of times lately and I find it useful here again. His illustration and applications are always so good. He points to fathers and how important it is for them to set a good example and be a real leader when it comes to one’s speech. And he gives the example of a groggy Monday morning. Monday morning everyone falls out of bed and everyone’s attitude is in the slums. Monday has rudely interrupted everyone’s weekend and the family’s emotional state is low. Here’s a good time when the father can take the lead and offer some good words. So he mutters, “This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” Initially the mind is not on board with it. What you want to say, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let’s chuck it.” But you stay true to the Scriptures. You recite the verse. And as you say them, your demeanor starts to change. Your ears hear you repeat them. Your heart starts to process the importance of what you are saying. And as it does so you find your attitude starting to change.
That’s is an apt answer to what Monday is to be. And what happens? You derive the pleasure from it. You are the first one in the house to reap the benefits of it.
That’s just one small example though, and it is symptomatic of the wider ramifications and applications of this proverb. A man who honors God with his lips is going to find that it is a good thing.
You know, I thought I was going to make some pretty slick exegetical points when I first started diving into this text. I said, “I’m going to do a word study on the words joy.” I knew there were a lot of different words for joy in the Hebrew language. One words means to squeal. I thought, I bet this word here means something like that. I bet it means that if we tell the truth and honor God with our lips we’ll have radical sensations of euphoric joy pulsing through our nervous system. And you know what I found? The word joy here, it just means joy. It is just a bland, generic word for joy. And I thought, “boy, that’s a real kill joy. What can you do with that in a sermon?”
But as I thought about it, I thought, “Isn’t that just the thing. It doesn’t have to be euphoric. Can’t just a contented spirit—or a clear conscience be just what you need?” And that’s part of the personal pleasure that I think this is really trying to convey. It is about having a conscience that isn’t riddled with guilt or shame.”
Think about what Paul said to the Ephesians. In the book of Acts we read how he was about to depart from Ephesus. He was standing on the shoreline, just about ready to get on the boat and he gave one final speech to them. And in that conversation he said, “You know how I lived among you. You know that I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable. I taught you from house to house. I testified to both Jews and Greeks.” He said, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” And he said, “I testify today that I am innocent of the blood of all.”
What was he saying there? He’s saying, “My conscience is clear before God. I have the joy of knowing that I said all the right things.”
So we recognize that it may not bring us joy when we speak at certain times. It might not be a pleasant thing. It could be a rebuke. And in those cases, we might be disinclined to say it. But here’s the confirmation. Here’s the motivation that we have to speak even the hard things: In the long run, our soul won’t be weighed down with the grief of having not said anything.
But our passage not only says that it is personally advantageous to say the right thing, but it also says that it is divinely approved.
II. It is divinely approved
Look at the second half of the proverb. Notice how there is an exuberant declaration that says, “How good it is!” I do not want you to miss the fact that there is this enthusiastic affirmation of the good words that are spoken. We need to understand that the Holy Spirit has put His stamp of approval upon the good words that we speak.
It isn’t just that the words are going to be a blessing to our souls to make us filled with peace and joy, but God formally recognize them for the great things that they are. And he does so in a rather lively way.
There is something celebratory in the language here. There’s a sense in which the apt answer is being relished. It could have read, “a word spoken in season is good.” But by phrasing it like this, and saying, “How good it is”, you get the sense that there is a divine elation in and approval of what has been said.
God here gives his divine endorsement because he knows that sometimes the exhortations and instructions we give are not enthusiastically received.
So you as a parent you pull your child aside and you talk to them about their attitude. You asked them to go clean their room and they blew you off. So now, you come to them and you give them a little lecture on obedience and the need to keep their room tidy. You say that this is a way we honor God. When there are clothes all over the place and toys scattered here and there, it becomes a place that doesn’t glorify God or reflect his order. It’s a hazard because people can get tangled and trip. Toys can get smashed as people step on them. And you say, “We want to reflect the order of God and magnify the beauty of God even in our rooms.”
And you go through this great little explanation of how a clean room will demonstrate the very nature of God. But how is it received? Your kid says, “Oh, okay.” Or they roll their eyes. Or they comply with your wishes, but you know it’s not from the heart.
Parents, you need to know that what you said was good thing. Lecturing your children has a pretty bad rap in today’s world. And their reaction can make you feel a little unjoyful. But it’s a good thing. It’s a very good thing. God looks on that and says, “How good it is!”
There may be more to it than that. The expression, “How good it is” may be indicating that the thing you say causes good. The Holy Spirit may be trying to communicate that your words may do more good than you think they do.
Think about that child. They may walk away in a huff to clean their room, but you just instilled in them a life principle. They might not be privy to it right then and there, but what you said is going to sit with them. And maybe somewhere down the road it might come to fruition in their life, not just in the cleaning of their room, but in their job. Maybe they start work and they see how their diligence to keep things in order pays off. Literally, it pays off. They earn more money because their boss sees how the conduct themselves.
Let me tell you about Amanda Ringler. Amanda Ringler was a girl that graduated high school with me. We were in biology together my freshman year. I was a brand new Christian at the time. And here I was sitting in this class where I was being taught Darwinian evolution. And I was trying to reconcile the book of Genesis with what this guy was saying. And one day Amanda stood up and said, “I find all this talk about us coming from a bunch of monkeys is rather silly. The Bible says God created us.” And she sat down.
She didn’t give any long winded explanation about the inconsistencies within the evolutionary system. What she said didn’t even take 30 seconds. But her words had a huge impact on me. I didn’t have all the answers yet (it would be years until I heard about Answers in Genesis), but I knew God’s word was true and the silly notions that were being posed in class was folly.
How good it is! Her words were aptly spoken and they did more good than she probably expected. But she probably didn’t know a thing. She didn’t know how much of an impact that had on me.
And we can be like that. We may be completely ignorant of how much of an impact our counsel can have or how much good our admonitions can do. That’s why God says, “How good it is!”
Not just because to reassure us of how, not just enthusiastic
But there’s one more reason that I can think of that we have God’s stamp of approval on good words. It can be for our benefit (God is enthused with them, even when others are not). It could be because of how much good our words can do. But we have to remember that these words are good mainly because they are in keeping with God himself.
Let’s face it. The instruction we give may amount to nothing. The whole world may oppose it and it might not affect anyone. But even if that is the case, the words are good because they are God’s words and an expression of His nature.
God is elated with good words because they are His words. We are speaking what God himself speaks. We are bringing the absolute standard for truth to bear on that person right at that moment. We become prophets as we speak the Word of God.
You may say, “How good is it?” And the answer is that it is of infinite goodness—because God is infinite in His goodness. When we lecture our children or refute the gainsayer, or put our arm around our friend in that heated moment and sooth things, then there is a sense in which eternity is brought to bear on that moment. The infinite wells of God’s goodness are cracked open and come rushing down upon you at that moment.
How good it is!
III. It is absolutely necessary
It is a sin to be silent and not give an answer. If you say the wrong thing, or say the right thing at the wrong time, that will not cut it.
The first commandment is have no other gods before me. It means that we must have God—we must take him as our God. And to have God as our God means openly acknowledging Him and standing for Him when the situation calls for it. If we become embarrassed and shy away, or if we play the sluggard and just let the moment pass, then we not only loose the joy, we have just failed to live up to the first commandment. And when that happens, we deserve to be stripped of all that has any joy attached to it.
That’s what Jesus basically said, isn’t it? He said, “He denies me before men, I will also deny before the angels in heaven.” When we fail to correct when we have opportunity to do so, we are denying Christ. We are living like an atheist. We are saying, “It’s okay for you go on living like this.”
Someday we will stand before God and he will say to us, “Why should I let you in? Why should you be allowed to come into everlasting joy?” The only answer we can give then is to say, “Only because your Son died for my sin and rose for my justification.” Remember this is why Jesus came. He came to be our answer to our greatest problem. He came that we may have joy and have our tongues loosed.
Jesus was the only one who ever spoke as he should. They would say of him, “Never has a man spoke thus.” He could speak to the Pharisee and shut their mouths. He could counsel the woman at the well because he was full of wisdom. He could give a fit word to the masses. And all of it was for our sakes. We now through Him can speak aright.
We sometimes sing the song “O for a Thousand Tongues to sing. One of the stanzas goes like this:
Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.
We think that is talking about people who can’t hear or can’t speak. And you are right, it is. But it is you. We are the deaf and dumb. This is talking about out tongues.
This is of course where we must remember the good news of the gospel. The gospel is the apt answer to our sin and lost condition. James is right, the tongue is a world of evil and no one on earth can tame it. That’s why Christ came. He is the redemption of our tongues.