Too Much Talk
Ecclesiastes 5:3
"For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words."
One of the things I have noticed throughout my years of traveling in evangelism is that there are many people in churches who can talk a good talk, but they have no actions to back up what they say. All the talk in the world doesn't do anyone any good. You can be the best talker, but talk is cheap. Give me the person who is productive and rarely talks over the person who talks a lot but never produces.
In the verse above, God talks about the "multitude of business" and the "multitude of words." Good comes from one, but bad is produced by the other. One produces dreams, while the other produces sin. Three times in the Scriptures we find that God uses the phrase, "multitude of words."
Proverbs 10:19 says, "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise." You will notice that sin is present when a person talks too much. In other words, a person who talks too much will begin to gossip. Rarely do you find someone who likes to talk whose words don't lead to gossip. Christian, you must be careful about allowing yourself to be caught up in the world of gossip. When people talk too much, they tend to talk about people instead of ideas. Weak people will talk about people. Weak people love to tell others about the weaknesses of others. It is better to refrain yourself from talking than to get caught up in the world of gossip.
Ecclesiastes 5:3 says, "...a fool's voice is known by multitude of words." Years ago I was a youth pastor for a church out West. One of the things I noticed about young people is that there are many young people who feel like they must say something. Normally, when you get teenagers around each other, they will talk till they are blue in the face. One of the results of talking too much is their talk leads to foolishness. Let me make this plain, God is simply teaching that you don't always have to give your opinion. When you have to show your opinion about everything, you will find that your foolishness will begin to show. Sometimes, the best way to show you are wise is to simply keep your mouth shut. You don't always have to say something.
Ecclesiastes 5:7 says, "For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities:..." Vanity is the third result of talking too much. In other words, you will find that too much talk leads to someone becoming conceited. I have watched people who talk so much that they become legends in their own mind. They always have to talk about themselves. They always have to tell everybody what they have done. Christian, people are not as interested in you as you may think they are. I know this is blunt, but too many times we are so conceited that we think we need to tell everyone how great we are. They may be polite and let you talk, but you are hurting yourself by talking too much about yourself.
Too much talk will never lead to good. My parents used to tell me that God gave us two ears and one mouth because He wants us to listen twice as much as we talk. I don't know if that is true, but I do know there is wisdom in that statement. Instead of being someone who talks a lot, be a person who is busy about business. If you will be busy in the "multitude of business," then you will find that you won't have enough time to talk. The best way to keep from talking too much is to work. Working will keep you out of trouble and will help you to talk less. Determine to be a person who works more than they talk. You will find if you will be that type of person, then you will eventually be considered someone who is wise.