Judged by Our Words

Sometimes we have to find the answer several verses away. If one is not careful, no connection is made. For example, again from this morning….

Alma 12:15 But this cannot be; we must come forth and stand before him in his glory, and in his power, and in his might, majesty, and dominion, and acknowledge to our everlasting shame that all his judgments are just; that he is just in all his works, and that he is merciful unto the children of men, and that he has all power to save every man that believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance.
So, I thought about "fruit meet for repentance". We see that God has all power to save those who produce the fruit of repentance. We may assume that the fruit of repentance is "good works". But I wondered.
If the fruit, however, empowers God to save use, prehaps by viewing what condemns us we can get a handle on the fruits that save us. So I looked above a bit to look for clues and found
12. ....being brought before the bar of God, to be judged according to our works.
Ah ha! works! but wait....
13. Then if our hearts have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word, insomuch that it has not been found in us, then will our state be awful, for then we shall be condemned.
14. For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence.
We see if we die in a hardened state, we will be condemned by our WORDS, WORKS and THOUGHTS!
And so, we see that fruit for repentance must be manifested not only in works but in our words and thoughts as well.
This seems pretty harsh at first. Will we really be condemned or saved by our words? We read:
Matthew 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
37. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
We find that words are not a mouth concern. It is, rather, a heart concern (you know. hardened heart in the verse):
Matthew 12:33. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
34. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
There is that "fruit" again! Amazing.
Paul quotes scripture in Romans 3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
That throat is an open sepulchre threw me for years. But I remembered
Matthew 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
So the throat is an open sepulchre in that it is the conduit down to corruption, filth, rot, stink and decay. The evil bring forth out of this sepulcre that filth and uncleanliness.
It is like a swamp. decay is found below the surface and is manifest occassionaly by the bubbles that rise to the surface. The unchanged heart cannot help but have its depravity "bubble up".
As Jesus says, it is not dirty fingers that defile.
Matthew 15:18. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
19. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20. These are the things which defile a man:
To conclude, we see how our words must be considered a part, an inportant fruit, of repentance.
There are what I call "spiritual thermometers". Regular thermometers help measure the health of the body. Spiritual thermometers measure the health of the spirit. Our language, our words, are an important spiritual thermometer.
I may skip an exploration on the fruit of repentance called thoughts. I just wanted to isllustrate how ideas are put forth in the Book of Mormon that may required looking far afield to understand. But you covered thoughts recently on your Come Follow Me, I think when you pondered
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.