We have all heard the phrase, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” The idea behind the playground saying is that communication is a trivial, ordinary, and harmless part of our lives. Sticks and stones may break our bones or bruise our bodies, but words can go in one ear and out the other. The things people say supposedly roll off us “like water off a duck's back” - to use another common saying. But who hasn’t been hurt by the words of another? Who hasn’t regretted something they’ve said? King Solomon in the book of Proverbs has a few pithy maxims of his own that run counter to the common clichés we often hear about words. King Solomon says, “rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing” (Proverbs 12.18), and “death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits” (Proverbs 18.21). The testimony of Scripture offers us better wisdom than what we learned on the playground. Words have incredible power to hurt or heal. Words matter.
One of the most important things we do every single day is talk. Wherever you live or whoever you are, there is one thing that you do almost all day - communicate. Our lives are filled with words. We spend a large and significant portion of our lives talking to friends, family members, neighbors, colleagues, and through social media. It’s what human beings do - often without a thought about how important it is. In fact, the average person utters between 10,000 and 20,000 words per day. We can view those 10-20 thousand words as an opportunity to use our words for good or bad, for sin or obedience, to build up or tear down.
Because communication is such a huge part of our lives and because it’s a struggle for everyone, this semester on Wednesday nights the Youth Group is going through a series called “Taming the Tongue.” We are examining what Scripture says about how important words are in our lives. My goal for this study is that the middle and high school students at CPC will come away with a better understanding of how the gospel transforms the way we speak to one another.
One of the most important things we’ve learned in our study is that honoring God in our communication is one of the highest and holiest callings of our lives. “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” Jesus says to the Pharisees (Matthew 12.34). According to Jesus, words are not trivial; they reveal what’s in our hearts. Our talk issues are really heart issues. When we sin with our words, that should indicate to us that there are things in our hearts that we need to work on. Bitter words arise from a bitter heart. Critical words arise from a critical heart. Loving words come from a loving heart. Encouraging words come from an encouraged heart. Our talk tells us what truly rules our hearts.
Until our hearts are changed by God's grace, our words won't change. That's why Jesus came to give us hope and the ability to conquer our sin. We can acknowledge that we need God’s help to change our hearts, and we can trust that God works in and through our weaknesses. He has forgiven our sin through Jesus, and through Him we can have victory over our sin.
My hope is that this series will help our middle and high school students think about how we can honor God with our words. My hope is also that this series will give the youth encouragement and will remind them that change is possible because of the person and work of Jesus. Jesus is the Word who is the only hope for our words. In Him alone will we find victory in our own struggles with communication.
