Have you spoken or typed words recently that you later regretted? I think we all have. I know I have, and the Lord has been working on me ever since. That silly phrase we were taught as kids is just an absolute lie: "sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me." I wish that were true, but often I have wished for a broken bone instead of a cutting word from someone else. To me, words can inflict the most pain. And there are too many times when my own words have brought hurt to someone else.
Our words have quite a lot of power behind them. With our words we are able to set our plans in motion, start a war or end one, divide people or unite them, multiply hate or extinguish it, tear others down or build them up. With our words we can rally people around us to good, or motivate them into evil. And these days it isn't just what comes from our mouths but the words we type which can have such a dramatic effect. Our words truly are powerful.
The Bible indicates that mankind is made in the "image of God." An image is a representation of the actual thing. An image of a mountain, for example, tells us what colors are on the mountain, perhaps what kind of rock it is made of, its general slope, its location relative to other mountains, and possibly a path to climb it. Yet the image of a mountain is not the mountain itself. Certain characteristics of the mountain are not translated to the image because ultimately the image is not the real thing. I can't, for example, tell how heavy the mountain is by seeing its image. I also can't tell what minerals it contains, or where the multiple pathways up the mountain are, how big it actually is, or its altitude. It is just an image.
We are made in the image of God. I believe that means that if we were to somehow see God we would think we were looking at a man. What we know from scripture is that God has hands and feet and a backside and a face (Exodus 33:19-23). He has the appearance of a man sitting on a throne (Isaiah 6), so much so that Isaiah spent more time talking about the weird creatures around the throne than he did describing God. It seems that God's appearance was somewhat a familiar form, so Isaiah instead talked about the creatures the like of which he had never seen. Jesus himself even appeared so ordinary that some in the crowd couldn't distinguish him from anyone else (Isaiah 53), and even the officials that came to arrest him had to have Judas hug and kiss him so they would know who he was. Additionally throughout scripture we see that God has a voice.
So while we may have some form that is similar to God, we can't do all the things he does. Sure, we can speak, but he can speak physical things into existence such as mountains, rivers, cattle, and people. We can't do that. Yet with our words we can speak with a lot of power, for both good or evil.
James 3 described our tongues as "a flame of fire" and "set on fire by the fires of hell" and "corrupting the entire body." Jesus commented that "we are defiled by the words that come out of our mouth," not the food we eat (Matthew 15:11). James later says of our mouths in chapter 3 that "sometimes it praises God the Father and other times it curses those who are made in his image." So it seems that mankind, made in the image of God, can use its mouth for great evil if he chooses to do so. We live in such times right now where many evil words are spoken, many of which by people who should know better.
How do your words over the last few days measure up? If you had to classify them as either praising the Lord or cursing others, where would the majority of them fall? Or if you REALLY want to be middle of the road here, look at it this way: how many words have you used this week that praise God, versus all of the other words you have spoken? Where do you fall now?
I think Christians live in times when we should speak less, and when we speak, speak only of things of eternal significance. Which do you care more about? Which political party is in office or whether your neighbor does not know God? Do the laws being passed right now matter more to you than the kid down the street who has never been told about Jesus? Does responding to the Facebook post that made you angry mean more to you than praying for that person and even asking God to bless them?
Over the last week or so I have found the words of Ephesians 4:29 to be a helpful filter for my own words, and maybe they will help my fellow Christians.
