The Bible has much to say about words. This study is a relatively short
consideration of what it says about our speech.
It isn’t exhaustive, per se, but rather comprehensive.
For starters, we know from the Scriptures that God is a “speaking” God. He spoke and it was done. He spoke creation into existence. Gen. 1:3 “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” The foundation of Creation is God speaking. The foundation of every relationship begins with our speech as well. I do not believe in the false doctrine promoted by the Charismatics called “word-faith” teaching. I am not under the illusion that I can confess something and what I confess I will soon possess. This is a gross misunderstanding of passages such as Mk. 11:22-23. But when you see that everything in Creation began when God spoke it into existence, it isn’t difficult to see that the foundation of meaningful relationships must essentially start with words or speech. It is interesting that the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s eternally begotten Son, at the outset of Creation in John 1:1-3 is called the “Word.” Again, we can reiterate that words or speech is rudimentary to relationships.
Communication is
the Foundation for Relationships
First, I always look to God as the example of what our words
should be like, what our speech ought to be like. I think a theological understanding is
foundational. We know what godly speech
is when we know what God is like. And
so, I like to start with a look at God Himself.
For starters, we know from the Scriptures that God is a “speaking” God. He spoke and it was done. He spoke creation into existence. Gen. 1:3 “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” The foundation of Creation is God speaking. The foundation of every relationship begins with our speech as well. I do not believe in the false doctrine promoted by the Charismatics called “word-faith” teaching. I am not under the illusion that I can confess something and what I confess I will soon possess. This is a gross misunderstanding of passages such as Mk. 11:22-23. But when you see that everything in Creation began when God spoke it into existence, it isn’t difficult to see that the foundation of meaningful relationships must essentially start with words or speech. It is interesting that the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s eternally begotten Son, at the outset of Creation in John 1:1-3 is called the “Word.” Again, we can reiterate that words or speech is rudimentary to relationships.
Another observation about God is that He is a personal
God. He communicates with His
creation. He is a God of
relationships. He relates to us or He
desires to have fellowship with us. Some
think that many of the founders or forefathers of America were deists. That they held to a view of God that was
detached from His creation. It would
seem that God wound up the clock of existence at the start of creation, and
then steps aside to simply watch what would happen. God is totally detached from His
creation. But our many of our founders
reveal a better more Biblical sense of understanding of God by referring to Him
or His work as “Providence.” He is not a
god who is detached or disinterested in our lives, rather, He is a wise and
caring God who works in the background allowing for things to happen in order
to demonstrate a sovereign plan. How do
we know that God is a personal God? Take
for example the phrase “the word of the LORD came unto” – If you look this
phrase up in the Bible you would see that the word of the Lord came to
individuals like Abram, Nathan, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah and many
others. This demonstrates that God
desires a relationship with people, because He speaks to people. God doesn’t speak directly and in the same
manner to us in this particular dispensation, but we have a more sure word in
the Holy Bible. God’s perfectly
preserved book is His method of speaking to us today as Christians. God still desires a relationship with us and
in a more limited sense, He certainly speaks to us. In fact, if we are interested in a meaningful
relationship with God, we must earnestly take heed to His word!
Relationships are built on words or
speech. The surest way to ruin
relationships is by not speaking to someone, or ignoring them or speaking rude
or unkind words to them. But,
relationships are established by words, nonetheless.
God is our example. Categorically
speaking God’s characteristics (or attributes) can be divided into two major
sections. Primarily or essentially the
attributes that belong strictly to God is called incommunicable
attributes. They are characteristics
that are only true about God. No matter
how excellent our glorified bodies will be, we will never attain to the
standards of God’s incommunicable attributes.
He doesn’t share these with anybody.
Indeed, this is what makes Him God and God alone. This would be His eternality, transcendence,
immutability, omnipotence, omnipresence, immensity, and omniscience. No other creature could claim any of these
attributes.
But the secondary
characteristics interestingly enough are called “communicable” attributes. These are the qualities that are true about
God that we as His creation have to a smaller degree the capacity to learn and
possess by His grace. That would be
love, holiness, mercy, justice, truthfulness, long suffering, patience,
compassion, goodness, graciousness, and the list can go on and on. It is in this secondary division that we can
observe God as our example of what godly speech is like. We can say that godly words or speaking is
speaking words which are loving, holy, true, just, right, gracious and so on
and so forth. Knowing God well is reflected
in our speech. The lack of spiritual
knowledge of God can also be seen by what and how we say things. We are to emulate Him. Do you words reflect
the God of the Bible? When people hear
you speak, do they hear Christian speech or does your speech betray you? If you were judged by the words you use, can
the listener gather that you are a follower of Christ?
