Speak

Silver Tongued

There is something amazing in a great voice. This can be either a singing voice or a spoken voice. Those with incredible tone and pitch can mesmerize us with their powerful singing. Maybe this is even more shocking for those of us who do not possess these gifts, but God has given us as human beings these wonderful voices that we can use in different ways. We can use our voices to garner praise and applause for ourselves or we can use our voices for God’s glory and worship. 

We can also use our spoken voice to affect other people through the transfer of needed information or the conveying of a necessary message. However, most of us, the present author often included, are far too frivolous with our words. We should realize that God is going to judge even our idle words (Matt 12:35-37). We ought not read past this too quickly. The things that we say really do matter, not only now but into eternity. God cares about the way we use this wonderful gift of communication. This is one of the ways that He has made us to be like Him. We are beings that communicate on a deeper level than the instinctive growls and grunts of the animal kingdom. We communicate and can receive communication so that we can form the kinds of relational bonds and societal community necessary to glorify God in His creation.

Powerful Words

The messages that we convey really do have power to affect people positively or negatively. The Bible does say that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). This is an often misinterpreted and misapplied text, but it is in the Bible and we must understand the wisdom of these words.

The main way that this text is misused is to imply that we as image bearers of God have the same “creative” power as God has, to speak things into existence. People interpreting the verse this way would probably claim that for believers we are being conformed into the image of Christ and so we can exercise, through the Holy Spirit, this divine creative power. However, in the wisdom literature of the book of Proverbs this verse is not communicating some kind of divine law, but rather, a general principle. The power being spoken of in this verse is not “creative” like that which God used to create the heavens and earth, or that Jesus used to raise Lazarus from the dead. 

Instead, we ought to recognize that this is speaking of the “influential” power of our word. The point is that we can build people up with edifying and encouraging words or tear people down with spiteful and demeaning words. Our power is in our ability to influence how other people feel and even manipulate what other people do. Many of us have had the blessing of parents, mentors, counselors, or coaches who have used their words to breathe life into us through their encouragement and compassion. But many have also experienced the wickedness of bullies and abusers who used their words to belittle and destroy our hopes and dreams. Proverbs is not a book of mysticism but rather wisdom.


Because God has given us the ability to communicate, He also wants us to be listening as well as speaking. So we must be people who are ready to receive and believe the revelation that God has for us. But that is enough for a post of its own, so I will save that for next week. Just one hint though. The place where God had collected His revelation for mankind today is in the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments.

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