For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night...Therefore encourage one another and build up each other. 1 Thessalonians 5:2,11

Our words hold vast and immense power. When you use words, you may do so in a Godly or ungodly way, but you always will do so in a God-like way. Your words, because you’re made in the image of God, are powerful.

With the words that you speak, you can create hope and another person or destroy it. You can lift someone up, or you can erode their dignity. You can build faith and encouragement in another human life, or you can tear it to pieces.

You know this in your own story. You know what it’s like to have someone who’s a trusted colleague or a mentor look you in the eye and say, “I believe in you. You can do this.” You know what it’s like to have somebody you’ve offered your whole life to look you in the eye and say, “I don’t love you anymore. You’ve betrayed me.”

Words hold immense power.

It has been said that 125 people died for every word of Hitler’s Mein Kampf in WWII. It is a thick book of 720 pages. 

A suicide note left by a teenage girl simply read, “They said…,” and then she took her life.

Words can kill.

I remember what a coach said to me about my body when I was a boy that caused me to be insecure until this day. 

Words can leave scars.

The president can give a speech that causes the stock market to soar or tank. A dictator can boast of weapons of mass destruction and a war is the result. 

Words can influence.

I have a file with notes and cards that church members have sent me over the years. I get them out from time to time when I need to remind myself that I am not always a horrible person. I have a note from my father that he sent me when I was in college when I was questioning my call to the ministry. I’ve kept it for 45 years. I have a note that my oldest son sent me on pastor appreciation month about 12 years ago that I have taped to the inside of my Bible. They are words of affirmation and admiration.

Words are life-giving treasures.

And we’re invited to use our words to build faith, hope, and love, in the lives of people that God puts around us.

We live in a cultural moment in which it’s urgent that we learn how to do this.

“Two epidemic illnesses of our time…. are the disintegration of communities and the disintegration of persons. My impression is that we have seen, for perhaps a hundred and fifty years, a gradual increase in language that is either meaningless or destructive of meaning.” Wendell Berry, Standing by Words

Here’s the thing, Wendell Berry has never even been on Facebook or Twitter. Those words were written in 1979.

We live in a time where we have ever more efficient ways, on the one hand, to connect with each other, but on the other hand to lob insults at each other. We think that insult in political discourse is a normal thing.

But Paul says that in times of uncertainty, we need to be people committed to building up other people, seeking their good, and choosing to bless them. In a time when the world is frightened and therefore tearing each other apart, we need to be a community that is committed to building each other up. That would be a powerful picture of Christian hope.

I want to just invite you to consider who it is that you might offer gospel encouragement.

Who needs a phone call from you?

Who needs a handwritten letter from you?

Who needs a cup of coffee with you?

Who needs a meal with you?

Words can bring such life and hope to a sagging soul. This came home to me last winter when our friend and deacon at my church, Jerry Thornhill, was in his last months of life. I tried to visit him every day. One day I promised him that I would bring him a meal. So, I went home and made a pot of potato soup for him.

Lynette and I loaded up the soup in the car and drove into town to take it to our friend. As we were driving across the valley, I was looking at Mt. Yale and thinking of Jerry and how much he meant to me and our church—the warm and creamy smell of the potato soup filled my heart with love for Jerry. Lynette must have sensed that I was having a moment, because she squeezed my hand and said, “You are a good man, Joe.”

My eyes welled with tears, and I squeezed her hand in response.

Her words reminded me of the proverb that says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold, in settings of silver.  Proverbs 25:11

And so, friend, in a world of uncertainty with a cacophony of destructive voices all around, may we speak words of faith, hope, and love to a world that longs for the Gospel.

Dear Lord,

Help me to live with the constant awareness that my mouth is either an instrument of destruction or a source of encouragement. Your Word says that you have put eternity in the hearts of those who love You, would you put eternity in my mouth? Help me to hold my tongue when I am tempted to impress others with my words. But let it loose, Lord, when I see an opportunity to speak words of life and love.

Amen.