Pleasant Destinations

The following is an article I wrote for our church newsletter a few months ago. Thought I'd post it here for all to read.





Just a Word

I don’t know where the phrase ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’ came from, but it’s obviously not correct. To be sure, it’s a playground mantra used to squirm out of a bad situation by youngsters ever since playgrounds have been around. But what’s interesting about this phrase is that we want it to be true. We only wish words didn’t hurt.
How is it that such a thing as mere words, movements of vocal cords, can be so powerful? Treaties signed and broken, friendships started and ended, marriages happy and divorced, all by words. God used words to speak to Abraham and Moses, Pastors employ words to encourage and admonish congregants, we use words to speak to each other and we teach our children words as a primary means of communication. As a matter of fact, God spoke before he wrote.
As sure as water is wet, everyone has said words they wish to take back. Impossible. Never. Too late. Fools are quick to speak says Proverbs. What is there about speaking quickly that the Bible calls foolish? I believe there are two major areas where what we say gets us into trouble. First, we say things we shouldn’t, and second we don’t say what we should.
Do you know anybody who has an opinion on everything, and isn’t afraid to let you know it? The self-proclaimed expert is really everything but that. It is said that the Greek painter Apelles was one day painting a warrior but he was uncertain on how to render his sandals. He asked the advice of a cobbler, but after a time the cobbler started offering advice on other parts of the painting and was rebuked by Apelles with this phrase: Sutor, ne ultra crepidam "Cobbler, no further than (your competence on) the sandal". The simple question is, ‘why do we talk so much!’. Partly, it’s because we want to appear smarter than we really are. We want to impress people with our supposed intelligence and wisdom. Although the Bible says, ‘…he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.’.
We can also say things we don’t mean when we employ the age-old tactic of flattery. Flattery should be despised by Christians everywhere. This insincere praise to further one’s agenda was first used by the Devil in the Garden. ‘You shall be as gods’ he said while wringing his hands. Surely, he was more subtle than any creature. Those who flatter actually hate the recipient of such talk. (Pr 26:28) Flattery will get you nowhere pleasant.
However, saying what should be said is also wrong. Moses refused to say what God commanded based on an assessment of his own skills. We haughtily look at Moses’ disobedience and exclaim we would do whatever God equipped us for. Do we? Or do we stutter and stammer and make excuses for ourselves? Are we swift to spread the Gospel of peace to those who are dead in sins?
James says that mere words are so powerful they can be likened to the rudder on a large ship. Or a like a small bit in a horses mouth. It’s no coincidence that horses and ships are images of both conquest and peaceful commerce. In the same way, our tongue can be harmful or helpful. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.


A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Pr 25:11

Si decem habeas linguas, mutum esse addecet. -- "Even if you had ten tongues, you should hold them all."’


Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Jms 3:9