We've all heard the phrase "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." But let's be honest, all of us have experienced the painful effects of a word used against us, and it hurt longer and harder than any stone ever could.
For me it was fat. For others it's
dumb, slow, and worse. Some have been called curse words. Some have
been called racial slurs. Some have been told they'll never amount
to anything. Words. They have overwhelming power. Why?
In Genesis, we see a compelling scene.
God is in eternity and He speaks.
And when God speaks, things appear. He speaks,
and creation comes. He speaks,
and order is established in the universe. And yet, there's another
character that speaks just two short chapters later. A crafty
serpent speaks,
questioning God's words. Whether
we realize it or not, they were the most destructive words ever
spoken. Believing those deceitful words led Adam and Eve to disobey
God, and it fractured God's creation. Words were spoken once before
to give life, and now words were spoken to disrupt, to distract, and
to destroy. And the words that allowed for this were words that
questioned God's goodness, His holiness, and His god-ness.
And because of that we see
destruction.
Sin
fractured the world, fractured our hearts, and the words that once
gave us life became invisible weapons to which we could deeply harm
one another. And what was worse, is that these words could wound
without us feeling the guilt, because we rarely see the internal
bloodshed. People carry deep scars from the wounds they've heard,
which was evidenced by the many people who were at a retreat I just
attended.
James
3 has this to say about the tongue: “...the
tongue is a small member, yet
it boasts of great things. How
great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is
a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our
members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course
of life, and set on fire by hell... but no human being can tame the
tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we
bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made
in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and
cursing.” (vs. 5-6, 8-10a)
Did
you catch that? Nearly 2000 years ago, James, the half-brother of
Jesus, recognized the destructive force that resides in our mouths.
It's a fire, it can't be tamed, it's a restless evil, full of deadly
poison. He even goes after the most religious of people, saying that
even if they bless God, they still use their
tongues as a weapon of
destruction against other people. None
of us are safe from it. So it begs the question, what do we do?
As
Christians, we must first look to another Word. In John 1, Jesus is
called the “Word made flesh.” He is the living embodiment of
God's Word. And, as before, God's Word breathes life. He
transforms us so that we see the power of words, and thus use them
appropriately. His blood
assures us that God doesn't look at believers as orphans, but as His
beloved, adopted
children. And now his words of love compel us to share words of
love.
It
means we are driven to share this
good news with other people.
It
means we speak the truth, but we do it
in love and empathy, not out
of self-righteousness or fear.
It
means we walk among the hurting, even when it's hard. Even when we
disagree. Even when words are used against us.
We do
it because that's what Jesus did for us. He walked among those who
cursed him, who disobeyed him, who hated him, and strived to the
point of death so those who would come to believe in Him could be
transformed into His beloved.
And now the word love, God's perfect
love, is His
word spoken over us.
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