Church Directory

Those five letters. Do we give much thought about the gift of words that God entrusts to us; those letters that make up so much of our communication with one another and God?

James 3:2 (NIV) says, “We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.” That means that a whole lot is at stake in what comes out of our mouth.

We are bombarded all around us with the misuse of words and language. In Michael Medved’s ground breaking book, “Hollywood VS. America (Harper Collins, 1992, p. 176) he observes, “A well-publicized 1989 poll by Associated Press/Media General asked its respondents: ‘Overall, do most movies that come out nowadays have too much profanity in them, or not?’ An astonishing 80 percent cited ‘too much profanity;’ not one of the 1,084 survey participants endorsed the idea that movies today contained, ‘Not enough harsh language.’” Would you agree that it has only become worse in the last 36 years? We need to be so careful though to not succumb to being the old story of “the frog in the beaker” that doesn’t realize the changing water temperature from the burner underneath until it’s too late.

But it’s always easier to talk about someone else when it’s good for us to look in the mirror. What comes out of our mouths? In Matthew 12:34 Jesus reminds us that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Jesus goes on in verse 36 with these sobering words when He says, “But I tell you that everyone will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.”

The greatest picture of what “words” are about and where they ultimately need to come from is our reminder that Jesus is described as “The Word.” We know from John 1:14 that He is being described when we hear in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God and the Word was God.” It’s rather lofty to understand for me, but God is Father Son (Word) and Holy Spirit. God is in perfect, life-giving communication among Himself. When God calls us to care about how we use words, He is reflecting His own nature of communication. It’s good for us to then think about God before we say anything.

We close with these thoughts from an unknown source. “A careless word may kindle strife. A cruel word may wreck a life. A bitter word may hate instill. A brutal ward my smite and kill. A gracious word may smooth the way. A joyous word may light the day. A timely word may lessen stress. A loving word may heal and bless.”