MATTHEW 12:36 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. The accountability for careless words on the day of judgment escalates the stakes of the Pharisees' speech: the Beelzebul charge was not merely inaccurate but accountable before God. If careless words carry judgment, the deliberate attribution of the Spirit's work to Satan carries even greater accountability. The every careless word communicates the comprehensive scope of the judgment's examination.
Church Fathers on Matthew 12:36
The Lord follows up what He had said before by moving their fears, shewing that they that have thus sinned shall receive the most extreme punishment, 'I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment.'
And the meaning is; If every idle word which does not edify the hearers is not without danger to him that speaks it, and if each man shall render an account of his words in the day of judgment, how much more shall you, who have spoken falsely against the works of the Holy Spirit, saying that I cast out demons through Beelzebub, render an account of your false charge?
Or such as lacks either rightness in itself, or reasons of just necessity;
Read all 7 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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