The power of a word

I tell my students all the time that one carelessly spoken word can do more damage and undo all the good that 100 kind words can achieve. Words are such powerful things! I have witnessed first hand the demoralization on the faces and the anguish in the hearts of people who have been wounded by words that were reckless and harsh.

James has a lot to say about the negative power of words, but words also serve as a conduit through which God chooses to draw us to salvation: There is no other name under heaven but the name of Jesus by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). It's no coincidence, then, that the written word of God maintains such authority in the life of the believer, for it is God's very word to us.

John 17 and 18 demonstrate a cool example of just how powerful words are, especially when they come from the mouth of the Lord. In John 17:17, Jesus prays for His disciples that God would "Sanctify them by the truth; (for) Your word is truth." It is by the very word of God that we are set apart and able to live the life of righteousness for which we have been called to. Then in John 18:1-6, as Jesus was being confronted by Judas Iscariot and a company of soldiers and temple police, He asks His accusers who they are seeking. When they respond that they are seeking Jesus the Nazarene, Jesus simply replies with the words, "I am He." At this "they stepped back and fell to the ground." At the very spoken word of God incarnate these men, trained in warfare and fierce in appearance, fell helplessly to the ground. Those are some strong words!

What all of this should reinforce for us is the critical importance of Scripture and our need to feast more on it. Christians can be too quick to pick and choose passages that will augment their position on a certain issue and, while there is nothing inherently wrong with that, we must not ignore the great benefit from reading through God's word so that we can ingest all of its goodness and truth. All of Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), not just the parts that make sense to us or benefit our position. Genesis 1:1 - Revelation 22:21 are some powerful words!