The Power of Words

The scriptures referred to are James 3:1-12.

Animals communicate in many ways. They do it visually, such as when a male peacock displays and shakes his tail in an elaborate mating ritual. They do it by touch, such as when monkeys groom each other to solidify their relationships. They do it chemically, such as when cats rub things to mark them with their scent. They do it vocally, by singing, howling, screaming, trumpeting, purring, barking, etc. But what they communicate is rather simple and straightforward. Bird song is primarily about proclaiming their territory and what a good mate they will be. Social animals warn each other about predators. They may growl or hiss to warn off a threat to them or their offspring. Animals even laugh. Really. It turns out you can tickle rats, dolphins, dogs, meerkats, owls and penguins and make them laugh.

So we are not the only species to communicate vocally. But differences in degree can be so great that they might as well be treated as differences in kind. The sheer number of things we humans can communicate verbally far outstrips what any other animal can do vocally. We can also change reality by what we say. For instance, if you didn't already know that penguins could laugh, that means I have just changed your brain. I have made a physical connection between 2 neurons that did not previously exist. I can say things that induce a positive emotional state in your consciousness, or a negative one. I can hurt your emotions. If I do it powerfully enough or often enough, I can damage you psychologically. Verbal abuse is really a form of physical abuse.

When we think of sins we tend to think of things like murder or certain sexual acts or theft. We don't usually think of what could be called sins of the tongue. Yet the Bible mentions the ways we can misuse the gift of speech more than 100 times. I've got to admit I didn't think seriously about some forms before researching this sermon.

Lying is the first thing that comes to mind. One of the Ten Commandments forbids giving false testimony against your neighbor. We naturally think of how bad it is to falsely accuse someone of a crime, but Proverbs 24:24 also condemns saying that a guilty party is innocent. Proverbs 12:22 says, “The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are truthful.” In Zechariah God tells his people what he expects from them: “'These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,' declares the Lord.” (Zechariah 8:16-17)

Recently I heard a discussion on NPR about the difference between lies and falsehoods. Lying is when you knowingly and intentionally say something that isn't true. A falsehood could be something you say without knowing that it is untrue. It could be the result of ignorance. But the Bible condemns that as well. Again Proverbs tells us, “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly....The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.” (Proverbs 15:2, 14) In other words, know your facts before you disseminate them. Nowadays that is a lot easier since you have access to virtually all the knowledge of the world through your phone.

But saying what is factually wrong is not the only way you can misuse speech. The Bible also has problems with flattery and boasting. Flattery is not merely complimenting another person; it is giving false compliments to manipulate the person. The root of the Hebrew word for “flatter” is “to be smooth.” You flatter a person usually to make things smooth between you. And it is good to compliment someone on their real strengths. But none of us is perfect. The problem is that overpraising a person makes it harder when you need to be honest with them about their flaws. It's not true and not helpful to tell anyone that they are the smartest or greatest person ever or that they never make a mistake. When they inevitably fail, it may be difficult for both of you to admit it and to fix the resulting problem. Would you rather have a doctor lie and say you are in astonishingly excellent health or level with you about your blood pressure or problems your EKG reveals about your heart or how you need to change your diet because of a family history of diabetes?

Boasting can be thought of as self-flattery. As it says in Psalm 36 about the arrogant person, “For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.” (Psalm 36:2) And the flipside of having an overinflated view of yourself is that you must denigrate others. If I am the greatest, anyone displaying similar greatness is a competitor and needs to be taken down a notch. As it says in Jude 16, “These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.” Again it is not boasting to report you won an award or to say that you are pleased with something you accomplished. As usual, the sin is a distorted or exaggerated version of a virtue. It is accurate to say that John Legend, having won an Emmy for producing the recent televised version of Jesus Christ Superstar is the second youngest person and first black man to be an EGOT, that is, someone who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. That's a big honor. There are only 16 such people. It would be wildly over the top, however, to say that he is the best actor to have become an EGOT, seeing as he did not win for playing Jesus and other actors to have achieved EGOT status include John Gielgud, Helen Hayes, Whoopi Goldberg, Rita Moreno and Audrey Hepburn. Nor, I hasten to add, did he ever say such a thing. In fact, he was reluctant to adopt Legend as a stage name and only did so at the suggestion of poet J. Ivy.

If overly hyping others or oneself are bad, so is putting people down. The Bible says, “Do not accuse a man for no reason—when he has done you no harm.” (Proverbs 3:30) Jesus, Paul and James are in agreement with the Old Testament in condemning slander. We are not to defame anyone, especially if the report is false. It can do great damage. Fatty Arbuckle was the number one comic actor in the era of silent films, bigger than Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, to whom he gave their starts. And then an actress who had gotten sick at a party he threw died of peritonitis several days later and a friend of hers alleged that the comedian had assaulted the actress and ruptured her bladder. The accuser's story was so obviously false that although an ambitious DA prosecuted Arbuckle, he never called the accuser to the stand to testify. Instead the woman did newspaper interviews and told her story on the vaudeville circuit, ruining the comedian's reputation. Arbuckle was not only acquitted but the jury actually read an apology to him. Yet the scandal killed his career. And people still remember him for the blatantly false charge of having raped a woman to death with a Coke or champagne bottle. When I was a kid, I remember hearing the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” That is definitely not true. Slander can harm a person.

Gossip is another thing that can damage people's lives. A gossip may not have made up the stories he or she passes on but they make sure that everyone knows all the details. It is worse when the content was supposed to stay between two people. The book of Proverbs says, “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.” (Proverbs 11:13) Mind you, we are not talking about a whistleblower revealing hidden evil but a person who was told something with the understanding that it was not to be spread around. Let's say a friend confides in you that her or his marriage is going through a rough patch. That is nobody else's business and making it common knowledge might in fact harm efforts on the part of the couple to reconcile. Or let's say that delicate negotiations are going on. Letting everyone know the details being discussed could derail the negotiations. And gossips are not noted for their accuracy but for the juiciness of the details they pass on. If the real narrative is dull, the gossip will go for the more sexy, more scandalous version. It makes a better story.

Gossip can tear people apart. Again Proverbs says, “A contrary man spreads conflict and a gossip separates close friends.” (Proverbs 16:28) This naturally can lead to quarreling. One person confronts another over something they heard he or she had done or said. The other person denies it and gets defensive. Name calling commences and pretty soon the matter escalates. Others in the group or the families of the persons take sides and irreparable damage is done. As scripture says, “Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.” (Proverbs 26:20) When people stirred up things in the church at Corinth, Paul wrote, “For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.” (2 Corinthians 12:20) Paul knew that gossip can destroy lives as well as groups like churches.

Another cause of quarreling and dissension is needless argument over matters that are neither essential nor important. Paul warned his colleagues Timothy and Titus about the person who “has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions...” (1 Timothy 6:4) He writes, “Do not have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.” (2 Timothy 2:23). And again, “...avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.” (Titus 3:9)

Sadly, you find this a lot among certain people, folks who not only love to get deep into the weeds about a matter but who cannot see the forest for the trees. They get obsessed with small details and define words and concepts narrowly and use them in ways that run contrary to how the majority of people use them. They construct highly artificial scenarios ("But what if...") and refuse to see how their assertions fail to describe or adhere to reality. If they can't impose their interpretation upon others they can at least create chaos and feel important that way. And such people are not found exclusively in religious circles. They thrive in law and politics and in fandom, where I first encountered them and developed an immunity to much of this. These are the people who get so worked up about details the movie got wrong about the original book or the fictional character that it drives them into a rage. They lose sight of the main reason for the movie or the book, which is entertainment. In the same way politicians of this stripe forget that the main purpose of politics is to govern wisely and justly for the common good. Religious people who are like this forget that the purpose of their faith is to get closer to God.

Finally, out of the 33,000 verses in the Bible I only find 2 that condemn filthy language. (Colossians 3:8; Ephesians 5:4) You may think this is a lost cause these days. We all have slipped and said something we shouldn't. And if you think you haven't, try taking care of that living recording and playback machine called a toddler! But certainly we should try not to pepper our speech with random obscenities. We all know people who use the F-word the way other people use “um” or “uh.” It can be wearying. More importantly, it can diminish what you say in the eyes of others. It sounds like you have an impoverished vocabulary. Dennis Miller was a comedian who could use clean language brilliantly on Saturday Night Live. When I saw him on his comedy special I was surprised and eventually irritated by the fact that instead of his usually dazzling display of verbal humor, he was muddying up his speech with more unnecessary curse words than a drunken sailor who stubbed his toe. Albert Brooks said that during his stand up days he knew that if his material was not going well he could always get an easy laugh by throwing in some bad language. But he'd rather try to get the laughs by legitimately coming up with funnier material. Rather than curse people should use better descriptive language. As Christians we should avoid saying anything that will distract or detract from our message, the gospel.

Speech is powerful. It can do a lot of good as well as a lot of evil. It can be used to hurt and even harm people or it can be used to help and to heal, to divide or to unify, to spread falsehoods or to spread the truth. As followers of Jesus, we need to use the gift of speech wisely and for the good of all. Therefore we are told, “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” (1 Timothy 5:1) Towards enemies we are to “...bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:28) As for the vulnerable and powerless, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9) And in general, “Do not let any harmful talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up those in need, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Ephesians 4:29)

And of course we are to proclaim the gospel, literally the good news. Which means we have to understand it. We need to know what is truly essential about the gospel: who Jesus is, what he has done and is doing for us, and what our response should be. It means not letting ourselves get diverted into arguments that are ultimately useless. It means realizing we are not here to win debating points but to give life-changing and life-saving information to those who need it. Which means we need to be kind, gracious, wise and encouraging in all we say.

“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” (Proverbs 16:24) As I wrote this I realized that our speech should be like that of an ideal nurse: truthful but not harsh, realistic but encouraging, informative but not bringing up every detail, especially if irrelevant. And I can't say that I was ever that ideal nurse. But I use the word “nurse” because we are not the Great Physician. We carry out his orders and act as an intermediary between him and the person needing healing and as an advocate for that person. Everything we do is to make people better.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue,” we are told. (Proverbs 18:21) Or as James says, a tongue is like a fire. It can cause a lot of pain and destruction if misused but if used wisely it can give light and warmth to a dark and cold world.