As we have already seen in the Letter of James, our speech is an index of our heart’s condition. Our Lord taught us, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). Hateful speech betrays a hateful heart. Deceptive speech betrays a deceptive heart. Prideful speech betrays a prideful heart. James also identifies patterns of speech which betray an attitude of presumption wherein we do not take seriously our frailty. Connected to that we see a corresponding sort of speech that fails to honor the Lord by neglecting to honor his sovereign rule over every movement of our lives. Through James’ instruction we can see that there is a distinctively Christian way of speaking; a way of speaking which blesses our brothers and sisters, acknowledges our frailty, and honors the Lord. Excelling in Christian speech has a way of shaping our hearts even as our hearts help to shape our speech.