You just looked at your phone and realized you had “butt
dialed” me 45 minutes ago and the line is still open. What thoughts run through
your head? Isn’t that an awful feeling? When the sudden realization that
someone was invited to eavesdrop on your conversation without you being aware
of it.
Why do we get nervous about that?
What if I told you that your phone has been recording your
conversations over the last month and at 3pm today it is going to release that
recording to the public? Would you be excited or terrified?
Did I slip? Did I say something bad about so and so? Did I
gossip? And the questions continue to run through your mind.
Better yet, what if all your texts, tweets, and Instagram
posts were going to be transcribed and sent to your parents? Wouldn’t that be
exciting?
Let me put your mind at ease, this is not going to happen.
BUT, I hope you get the point that all of us struggle with
our words. If you only spoke good stuff all the time, you would never worry
about whose listening. But James 3 tells us that it is almost impossible to
tame the tongue and nobody is perfect.
Divinity In Words
Did you know that the first words ever spoken were not
spoken by a human?
The Bible opens with the existence of God who spoke the
world into existence (Genesis 1). There was nothing in the material universe,
including the existence of the material universe, and God spoke and the universe
came into existence, the earth took on form, the light, stars, sun, trees,
plants, animals, etc. all came into existence through the power of words.
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his
mouth all their host” Psalm
33:6
Words have power. Ever since the first word was sounded, words
were given power to create and to bring life. This was the intended use for
words: life. All words belong to God, and in the beginning, God made man
stewards of His creation. Part of being created in God’s image is that we speak
and we are stewards of God’s creation, including our words.
But man fell, and sin entered the world. Sin tainted the
words we were given. What was intended to bring creativity and life, now could
bring death, destruction and deception. All of mankind was being distorted by
the words of the enemy.
God intervened in the plight of man, by gathering His people
at Mount Sinai, where His voice was heard once again. From Mount Sinai, God
spoke the Law. The Law was given to show man how to approach God and his
desperate need for a Savior.
God continued to speak to His people through the prophets,
but suddenly there came a silence. After Malachi, there was 400 years of
silence. Nothing.
Until that blessed day when the silence was broken through
the cries of a baby. The Creator God, who spoke the universe into existence and
breathed the breath into man, has now entered into His creation as a baby. He brought
His voice back to mankind, “and the Word became flesh.”
Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate, showed us the way
to use Words to point people to the Father. He was perfect and perfectly used
His Words to teach, to heal, to forgive and to build up. He was hated for it.
And He was crucified. From the Cross, God spoke Gospel. He spoke new life,
forgiveness, freedom and redemption.
Life and Death…You
Choose
“DEATH and LIFE are in
the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”
Proverbs 18:21
God brought life through words and intended words to be used
to cultivate life. We failed. So He sent the Word to bring life to a fallen
race. In Christ, we have the opportunity to be made new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
As new creations, we can allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to speak life and
truth.
In God’s Word, He gave us instructions, cautions and
commands to help us know Him and honor Him in our lives. Proverbs, the book of
wisdom, is super practical advice. Paul Trip summarizes them like this:
“The book of Proverbs is, in ways, a treatise on talk. I
would summarize it this way: words give life; words bring death — you
choose. What does this mean? It means you have never spoken a neutral
word in your life. Your words have direction to them…life…or death…May God help us never to look at talk as something
that doesn’t matter.”
Ok, I have to be transparent here. This is hard for me to
study, write, and teach because it is SO CONVICTING! I admit I fail at this. I
confess, I more often than not, do not consider the importance of the words I speak.
“We think that words are not that important because we think
of words as little utilitarian tools for making our life easier and more
efficient, when they are actually a powerful gift given by a communicating God
for his divine purpose” (Paul Tripp).
Yet when I stop to think about words in this way, it brings
so much sense to me and a desire to better craft my words to only bring life.
When the conviction of the Holy Spirit points out our inadequacy, our evil and
vile use of His gift of words, it’s an opportunity to be refined. It’s God
demonstrating His love in our day to day life. He loves us so much that He has
brought redemption to our world, to our life and to our words. “The gospel is
so robust we don’t need to be afraid of looking at the horror of the trouble of
our world of talk, because Jesus is — and because he’s our Savior”
(Paul Tripp).
Do your words bring life? Do they bring encouragement, hope,
love, peace, unity, instruction, wisdom, and correction.
Or do you use words that bring death? Words of anger,
malice, slander, jealousy, gossip, division, contempt, racism, violence,
judgment, and condemnation.
It’s A Heart Problem
Bad words are evidence of heart problem. Jeremiah tells us
that our hearts are deceitful and sick (17:9). And Jesus tells us that our
words are an overflow of what is in our heart (Luke 6:45). Our natural bent is
corrupt and therefore corrupt words flow from our mouth.
God tells us to guard our heart, because from our heart
flows the springs of life (Proverbs 4:23). You need to fill your heart and mind
with the Word of God so that He shapes the words that we speak.
Jesus has come to give us a new heart and a new mind
(Ezekiel 36:26). Only in submitting to the Gospel message will we find the
answer to our heart problem. When we choose to love Christ, He makes a new and
gives us power to use words of life.
Speak Words of Life:
Verbally and Digitally
The Bible has many things to say about how we are to use our
words for God’s glory. We’ve already looked at a few of them. But often we
relegate the commands of God to our verbally spoken words, but seem to forget
about God’s commands when we use texting or social media.
Words are words and they have power whether you hear them
with your ears or read them with your eyes. You can bring life or death whether
it’s with your mouth or with your fingers.
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths,
but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may
give grace to those who hear” Ephesians 4:29.
Let’s rephrase that for the digital age.
“Let no corrupt texts,
tweets, snaps or posts be found on your phone, Facebook, Intagram, or SnapChat,
but only text what is good for encouraging others, that brings grace to your
friends list.”
In the digital world, it is more than just the words, but
pictures and videos you might post or share. Inappropriate pictures or videos
portraying sex or using expletives are bringing death to your readers.
Ask yourself, why am I texting this? What am I hoping to
accomplish with this post? Is this for the good of those who are receiving
this? Is this self-serving? Prideful? Does it contain foul language, sexual
innuendos?
There is a temptation to be “braver” behind a keyboard or on
your phone that causes you to feel freer to say things digitally you would
never say face to face. Don’t send something you would not say to the person
face to face.
Remember words have power. Cyber bullying is a clear
evidence of that. Many teenagers have committed suicide as a result of being
bullied on social media. Quite literally, those words brought death.
May our words never bring death, but may they be filled with
life.
Your words matter and you will be held accountable for how
you steward the words God has given to us.
I will leave you with the words of Jesus found in Matthew
12:33-37:
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit
good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its
fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak
good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure
brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth
evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people
will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by
your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
No comments:
Post a Comment