My dear readers,

Do Your Words Last Forever?

Proverbs 12:19: “The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”

If words were to last forever, the following must be true:

• The place where the words are found exists forever;
• The potency of the words is so great that time will not diminish it;
• The person will not die but live forever for his lips of truth to be established forever;
• The person who established it exists forever and is all-powerful to prevent the truth from being lost, stolen, or erased.

All the above conditions must be met for the lip of truth to be established forever. Are there any truths on earth (besides what God gave to man from heaven) that fulfil the above four conditions?

Everything that man writes, speaks and records in real and virtual worlds will be destroyed when this world is destroyed. God has said that this present world is reserved for destruction by fire on the last day (cf. 2 Pet 3:1-7). No matter how much man may want to preserve his writings and sayings for posterity, they will decay and be destroyed. The potency of man’s words is rooted on earth. As mentioned before, when this world ends, so will the powerful words of all men. All men will die. This is an undeniable truth, no man can deny it. There is no eternal life apart from Jesus Christ. No man is so powerful in life that the same power remains with him at death. When death comes, all the power he wields will cease instantaneously. In many cases, even before death comes, their power is overtaken by another who is more powerful.

Yet, Proverbs 12:19a says, “The lip of truth shall be established forever.” Is this a possibility or an impossibility? Can words of truth be found spoken in an earth doomed for destruction? What kind of truth can these lips utter that can be established forever? The only truth with such strength and lasting power is the perfect Word of God that came from heaven, and does not originate from this earthen temporal world. But the Word of God is in written form, preserved by God, and not from any lips of truth that is spoken, unless the lips of truth refer to God’s mouth! God alone and His holy and perfect Word can fully satisfy the above four criteria! God will never die or diminish. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. God’s eternal dwelling place is the New Heaven and New Earth (cf. Rev 21 and 22); a home that has never been tainted by sin or any sinner. It is eternal, and God and His truth will exist forever. All the words of God originate from the mouth of God Almighty. All His words are eternal and bear His attribute of omnipotence. Didn’t God create the heaven and the earth out of nothing by His almighty spoken word? Does Proverbs 12:19a refer to and apply to God alone?

Thankfully, it also applies and refers to all believers in Christ whose lips are washed by the blood of Christ. Blessed with the mind of Christ upon salvation to understand, and a heart to obey the Word of God, all believers possess the lips of truth since the words they speak are based on the Word of God. If the words spoken from the lips of believers are God’s Word, does it not imply that they have the same potency as if God Himself has spoken them? For example, when a believer shares the gospel (according to the Scriptures) with a sinner, Christ is the One who is offering salvation to the sinner since the gospel is Christ’s words. That is why Jesus said to Saul (Paul) upon his conversion (after he had been persecuting believers) that he was persecuting Him!

All believers who teach, preach, evangelise, counsel, encourage and share about Christ and God’s Word possess lips of truth. The words they speak will be established forever by God as they share God’s Word. The converted sinner becomes a saint and will dwell forever in God’s heavenly presence. Saints whose lives are encouraged, and whose faith is strengthened by fellow believers who speak God’s Word, are also in the presence of God as mature, faithful believers to God’s glory. These good works will follow them to heaven, founded on God’s Word.

This truth is contrasted with the lying tongue. The literal translation of Proverbs 12:19 is: “The lip of truth shall be established forever, but for a moment is a lying tongue.” The emphasis is the phrase “for a moment.” The brevity of everything a lying tongue utters is emphasised for all professing believers. That the lies of the people of the world will pass away is never in doubt. The lies taught in the education system, propagated by businessmen and women, and the propaganda of politicians, including many deceptions in their wheeling and dealing with fellowmen, will perish with the world.

However, the lying tongue in the Name of Christ that teaches and preaches in churches, Bible colleges, and seminaries does the most significant damage to the cause of Christ. These evil hypocrites and those who blindly follow them need to beware. Like their words, the speaker of lies and all who believe in them will soon pass away. Their lying tongue in the Name of Christ remains a lying tongue. All who believe in it do not believe in God, for the lying tongue does not speak God’s Word. For example, any sinner who believes in the health-and-wealth gospel will perish with the ones who proclaim it. Take heed of the warning and sure condemnation from God to the liars and their followers revealed in 2 Peter 2:1-3, 17-22:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not . . . 17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”

When believers speak God’s Word, their words will last forever. But the words of liars will end with them and their followers.

Will your words last forever?