We want words that are “gracious, seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6) and “only such as is good for building up … that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29). Words of this caliber must be thought out.
To think before we speak … this is how we look like Jesus. When the Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery before Jesus and demanded He say something, (John 8:5) Jesus instead, “bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. “And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground” (John 8:6-8).
Jesus did not rush into words. In fact, Ray Ortlund points out in his commentary series, Preaching the Word: Proverbs that “Jesus was the only person in all of history who never spoke an unguarded, self-indulgent word. He never opened his lips in a wrong way, not once, ever. He never spoke when silence was better, and every word He did speak was perfect. Even his enemies said, ‘No one ever spoke like this man! ‘(John 7:46).”