<p>12:37&nbsp;<em>For by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned-</em>&nbsp;In the context, the Lord is referring to how their words regarding Him being an agent of Satan would lead to their condemnation. Yet their words had all started from basic jealousy which ran on unbridled. From their own mouth and words men will be judged (Mt. 12:37; Lk. 19:22 cp. 2 Sam. 1:16). The reference may be to Eliphaz (Job 15:6): &ldquo;Your own mouth condemns you, and not I&rdquo;; or to Prov. 18:21: &ldquo;Death and life are in the power of the tongue&rdquo;. And yet perhaps even now, men are justified by their words before the court of Heaven- for 'justify' means to pronounce righteous, and this pronouncement / justification is therefore given even now. &quot;So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it&quot; (1 Kings 20:40). It could even be that the Lord cites the condemnatory words of the rejected uttered during their lifetimes and leaves these as their condemnation. Woe, therefore, to he or she who has said unrepentantly that they don't want to be in the Kingdom if brother x or sister y are going to be there. The specific words which some have spoken will be the reason for their condemnation. &quot;Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue&quot; (Hos. 7:16)- not so much for their idolatry, their worldliness&hellip; but for their uncontrolled and cruel words. By our words we will be acquitted [Gk.] and by our words we will be condemned (Mt. 12:37)- but it is God who acquits, and therefore nobody but He can condemn us (Rom. 8:33; Is. 50:8). Yet how does and how will He do this? Surely on the basis of our acquittal or condemnation of others. The connection in thought surely shows that through our words, we form our own judgment of ourselves, to acquittal or condemnation.</p>
<p>Our eternal destiny will be&nbsp;<em>ek</em>, from out of, our words. If the Lord had simply meant 'according to, on account of', another word or construction would've been used. The use of&nbsp;<em>ek</em>&nbsp;suggests that the decision on our eternity will not only be on account of our words, but&nbsp;<em>in</em>&nbsp;our own words- for it will be&nbsp;<em>out of</em>&nbsp;our own mouths. We think of David's response to Nathan's parable and how his own words were his appropriate judgment. Lk. 19:22 is clearest: &quot;Out of [<em>ek</em>] your own mouth will I judge you&quot;. The servants&nbsp;<em>thoughts</em>&nbsp;about his Lord are then cited back to him as if they were his spoken&nbsp;<em>words</em>, and he is judged according to those words. There could be no more powerful exhortation as to the significance of spoken words, but the appeal must not be to merely curb the tongue by brute psychological force, but rather to have the new mind and spirit of Christ which simply will not speak words leading to condemnation. The intensity and deeply personal force of the Lord's reasoning was such that that group of Pharisees went silent and brought in another group to raise yet more legalistic and theological issues with Him; but those things were and are to this day simply a way of trying to take the Lord's intense and practical&nbsp;<em>moral</em>&nbsp;pressure off us. It is a common theme that the wicked snare themselves, falling into their own pit, judged by their own words, rather than God specifically snaring them (e.g. Ps. 7:15; 9:15; 57:6; Prov. 26:27; 28:10; Ecc. 10:8).&nbsp; From their own mouth and words men will be judged (Mt. 12:37; Lk. 19:22 cp. 2 Sam. 1:16; 1 Kings 20:40). It could even be that the Lord cites the condemnatory words of the rejected uttered during their lifetimes and leaves these as their condemnation. Woe, therefore, to he or she who has said unrepentantly that they don&rsquo;t want to be in the Kingdom if brother x or sister y are going to be there. &ldquo;He that keeps his mouth keeps his life; but he that opens wide his lips [in this life] shall have destruction&rdquo; at judgment day (Prov. 13:3). The link between the final verdict and the words we use today is that clear. See on 21:43.</p>
<p>The words by which men shall be condemned are clear from the context- the words of blasphemy against Jesus, making Him the supreme agent of Satan rather than of God. But this is not to say that a general principle is not also being demonstrated. Words reflect the inner man, the Lord has taught- and so they are a fair index for judgment. This cuts right through the idea that we can harbour evil thoughts and yet cover them in nicespeak. The culture of nicespeak lays revealed for what it is- the Lord is saying that ultimately, our words&nbsp;<em>will</em>&nbsp;at some point reflect our thoughts. The whole section began with the explanation in :24,25 that the Jews &quot;said&quot; but Jesus &quot;knew their thoughts&quot;. I suggested in the commentary there that perhaps they never actually spoke those words out loud. It is these thoughts for which by which we shall be judged.</p>
<p>The idea of being &quot;justified&quot; by our words at first sight it could seem that this contradicts Paul's argument for justification by grace alone- and not by the steel willed control of our words. But Romans 1-8 is a unit, and the teaching about justification by grace is on the basis that those in Christ are in a status, &quot;in Christ&quot;, under grace- and in that status, the Spirit of God is at work in the human minds of all those who are in that status. And the Lord has made clear here that the words He will judge are those which are a direct reflection of the human heart or spirit.&nbsp;</p>