Watching our Words - Midweek Message 21st April 2021

 

Dear Friends,

We are coming to the end of our look at the letter of James. One of the regular themes in the letter has been an encouragement and warning to watch what comes out of our mouths. Every chapter has contained something about the use or abuse of our tongues. James had obviously pondered the implications of the words of his half-brother, the Lord Jesus: “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks… But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.   For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."  (Matthew 12:34-37)   

In my reading for James, I came across this from Ben Okri on the power of our words for good or ill, which are also worth quoting and thinking about:

‘It sometimes seems to me that our days are poisoned with too many words. Words said and not meant. Words said and meant. Words divorced from feeling. Wounding words. Words that conceal. Words that reduce. Dead words.

‘If only words were a kind of fluid that collects in the ears, if only they turned into the visible chemical equivalent of their true value, an acid, or something curative - then we might be more careful. Words do collect in us anyway. They collect in the blood, in the soul, and either transform or poison people’s lives. Bitter or thoughtless words poured into the ears of the young have blighted many lives in advance. We all know people whose unhappy lives twist on a set of words uttered to them on a certain unforgotten day at school, in childhood, or at university.

‘We seem to think that words aren't things. A bump in the head may pass away but a cutting remark grows with the mind. But then it is possible that we know all too well the awesome power of words - which is why we use them with such deadly and accurate cruelty.

‘We're all wounded inside in some way or other. We all carry unhappiness within us for some reason or other. Which is why we need a little gentleness and healing from one another. Healing in words, and healing beyond word. Like gestures. Warm gestures. Like friendship, which will always be a mystery. Like a smile, which someone described as “the shortest distance between two people”’¹

Proverbs sums it up well: Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise beings healing (Proverbs 12.18)

 Yours in the One whose words bring healing,  

David

¹ Ben Okri Birds of Heaven London: Phoenix 1996 p3-5 as quoted in Derek Newton’s booklet Preaching James