I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 36. That every idle word. [3] By idle words, S. Jerom, and so forth expound words that are neither profitable to the speaker nor the hearer: but Saint John Chrysostom says, false and abusive language. Witham.—If, of every idle word, how much more of blasphemy, as when you say in Beelzebub I cast out devils. Menochius.—This shews there must be a place of temporal punishment hereafter, where these slighter faults shall be punished. Challoner.—If of every idle word we must make account before God in judgment, and yet shall not for every such idle word be damned eternally, there must necessarily be some temporal punishment in the next life. B.