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Today's Devotional

Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment—Matthew 12:36.

We are not to understand by the word translated “idle” to mean “insignificant” or “trifling,” but every wicked, malicious, profane, injurious, slandering word. Our Savior’s phrase manifestly refers immediately to the malignant calumny of the Pharisees which had preceded; yet it certainly includes all false, slanderous, and vindictive accusations of our neighbor, all discourse injurious to God or man, contrary to truth, decency, and purity of heart.

About the author and the source

First Thoughts, whose author is identified only as J.P., provides a short Bible reading for each day of the year—usually three lines or less—and a short commentary that indicates the gist of the text. J. P. wrote that the book: “assumes that the true Christian desires… that his ‘first thoughts’ should be holy thoughts.”