Matthew Chapter 12 verse 37 Holy Bible
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
read chapter 12 in ASV
For by your words will your righteousness be seen, and by your words you will be judged.
read chapter 12 in BBE
for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
read chapter 12 in DARBY
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
read chapter 12 in KJV
read chapter 12 in WBT
For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
read chapter 12 in WEB
for from thy words thou shalt be declared righteous, and from thy words thou shalt be declared unrighteous.'
read chapter 12 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 37. - For by (ἐκ) - referring to, as it were, the source of the verdict - thy words (τῶν λόγοι σου); thy, individualizing. Ob-nerve the change from ῤῆμα (ver. 36), which might in itself refer to the utterance of a madman, or to a parrot-like quotation. But by here using λόγοι our Lord shows that he is thinking of utterances of the reason. sentences spoken with a knowledge of their meaning, and forming parts of what are virtually, though not literally, discourses. A ῤῆμα may be the merely mechanical utterance of the lips, λόγοι imply consciousness. The presence of λόγον in the preceding clause is probably entirely accidental. Thou shalt be justified (Matthew 11:19, note) - 'Quid enim aliud sermones sancti quam tides sonans" (Calovius, in Meyer) - and by thy words thou shalt be condemned (ver. 7, note).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(37) By thy words thou shalt be justified.--Stripped of the after-thoughts which have gathered round it in the later controversies of theologians, the word "justified" means, as its position here shows, the opposite of "condemned," the being "acquitted" either on a special charge or on a general trial of character. In this sense we are able to understand (without entering into the labyrinth of logomachies in which commentators on the Epistles have too often entangled themselves) how it is that men are said to be justified by faith (Romans 3:28 et al.), justified by works (James 2:24), justified--as here--by words. All three--faith, works, words--are alike elements of a man's character, making or showing what he is. Faith, implying trust and therefore love, justifies as the root element of character; "words," as its most spontaneous manifestation; works, as its more permanent results. Of the words and the works men can in some measure judge, and they are the tests by which a man should judge himself. The faith which lies deeper in the life is known only to God, and it is therefore by faith rather than by works that a man is justified before God, though the faith is no true faith unless it moulds the character and therefore enables the man to pass the other tests also.