GOOD WORDS are THOUGHTFUL WORDS
PROVERBS 12:25
It has been estimated that a talkative person may speak 30,000 words a day. Thus it would be wise to ask our self an important question, "How do our words, be they many or few, affect others?"
Words can be a powerful force to bring about evil or to bring about good. Words can hurt and injure, or words can soothe and heal. Words can mislead, or words can guide. Each of us is responsible for the words, the type of words, coming out of our mouth (CIM). May this study about good words cause us to be more conscious of them and how to use them for the blessing of men and the greater glory of God.
Let's look at a selection of verses that teach us about good words under the three headings that follow.
I. GOOD WORDS ENCOURAGE THE BURDENED
II. GOOD WORDS PROMOTE HEALING
III. GOOD WORDS SATISFY.
I. GOOD WORDS ENCOURAGE THE BURDENED
Proverb 12:25 teaches that good words uplifts a burden. "Anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad."
The British Navy has a regulation which reads "No officer shall speak discouragingly to another officer in the discharge of his duties." We need to practice that regulation in our homes and churches! Each of us needs to be a Barnabas, a "son of encouragement" (Acts 4:36-37). Jesus came to heal the broken hearted (Lk. 4:18) and we assist in His ministry through words of encouragement and hope.
Those who are excessively burdened due to personal troubles or social affliction need a good word from you. A good word can transform the situation or our perception of it. Good words must be true; true to reason, conscience, character and God. Good words must be kind words or words which originate in a loving heart from a loving spirit. Good words must be suitable words, suitable to the particular condition of the sufferer. They should be fitted to his or her condition.
SIR WALTER SCOTT, as a young boy, was dull and slow in his lessons and, consequently, discouraged. One day, or so Sir Walter Scott relates, he sat down by Scotland's sweetest singer, Bobby Burns, who read to him some of the lines of poetry he had written. Burns put his hand on the head of the boy and encouraged him. Sir Walter Scott said he went back home and wept for joy. There was a marvelous change in his life because of that good word of encouragement.
GYPSY SMITH described a most moving incident in his own young life. He had gone to hear Dwight L. Moody preach and Ira D. Sankey sing. After the service was over he went up to Ira Sankey, Moody's singer. Sankey, talking to the little orphaned gypsy boy, somehow by inspiration and a revelation from God, put his hand on the head of the castaway boy and said to him, "Some day God will make of you a great preacher." It was just a sentence. It was just the warmth of a hand. It was just a smile–kind, tender-hearted, sympathetic. But that kindness changed Gypsy Smith's life.
Proverb 15:23 reveals that divine discipline will enable us to have the right word at the time. "A man has joy in an apt answer, and how delightful is a timely word!"
Apt means appropriate or fitting, saying the right thing at the right time. This kind of useful answer gives joy and delight (s mah), not only the hearer but also the one who says them. Encouraging speech which enlightens, comforts, strengthens, and blesses people, gives the speaker a blessing also. Having spoken the apt word the conscience cheers its speaker. Sincere expressions of gratitude will do this. Try it and see!
Words should not be poured forth but measured and spoken at an appropriate or timely season. Not only the context but the timing of words is important. Timely words (whether of love, encouragement, rebuke, or peacemaking) are beneficial. A good prayer request is that you would have the right words at the right time. [Prov. 25:11-12 is a similar idea.]
Proverb 16:24 teaches us the healing power of good words. "Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."
Words are a source of refreshment to the soul and body. Sweet (i.e. attractive or helpful) words like sweet food is pleasant to the taste. So pleasant words are sweet as a honeycomb to the soul and a physical benefit to the body (honey contains minerals needed by the body). ["Bright eyes gladden the heart; Good news puts fat on the bones" Prov. 15:30.] Appropriately spoken words (Prov. 15:23) that encourage, soothe, or commend can be so pleasant and uplifting that they help a person feel better physically.
Before we move on let us define pleasant words. Proverb 15:26 states, "Evil plans are an abomination to the Lord, but pleasant words are pure." Pleasant words are pure meaning there is no deceit or deception in them, making them the opposite of evil plans. Words of grace and truth are those that bring "healing to the bones." Those under the tutelage of the Spirit become the pure in heart who speak gracious words of life (Prov. 22:1).
II. GOOD WORDS PROMOTE HEALING
Proverb 12:18 states the fact that our speech can injure or heal. "There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, But the tongue of the wise brings healing."
The words of a speaker who is thoughtless or reckless and rambles on are compared to sword thrusts or extremely wounding or hurtful, as they are often designed to be. In contrast the tongue of the wise brings peace, confidence and strengthening (4:22; 15:4). It fortifies the heart, body and mind.
Proverb 15:2 teaches that there is a right or good way to use knowledge as well as a wrong or bad way to use your knowledge. The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable, but the mouth of fools spouts (gushes) folly.
The word acceptable could also be translated good (literally, "does well with"). The wise not only possess knowledge but also their use of it makes it attractive and desirable. To use knowledge wrongly is folly (15:7,28; 12:23; 13:16). To use it correctly stimulates and encourages.
Proverb 15:4 teaches that words can encourage or depress an individual. "A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but perversion in it crushes the spirit."
A soothing tongue is literally "a healing tongue." Words that bring healing, that contribute to a person's emotional health, are like a tree of life (3:18; 11:30; 13:12), a source of strength and growth. The healing tongue can cleanse and bind the wounds of life, the insults, slanders, bereavements, disappointments, losses and moral failures. It produces life, not sapless platitudes but the flowing streams that repentance and encouragement brings. The deceitful tongue (selep, "subversive, duplicity" 11:3,) can crush the spirit (15:13; 17:22; 18:14), or depress one's morale [Walvoord, John & Zuck, Roy. The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983, p. 937].
Proverb 23:16 reveals that lips which speak wisely can bring joy to the inner most being. "And my inmost being will rejoice, when your lips speak what is right."
When the lips speak from a wise heart what is right, the teacher or father rejoices (v.15) because he knows life giving learning and inner cleansing has taken place. [See 2 Tim. 1:2-5.]
III. GOOD WORDS SATISFY.
Proverb 12:14 indicates that a person's good words satisfy and bring good results. "A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his words, and the deeds of a man's hands will return to him."
A man who speaks with wisdom will reap a satisfying harvest with his words just like a man enjoys the orchard he has planted. Words bear fruit just as deeds do.
Proverb 13:2 reveals that words are not sterile but initiate a process that brings back results. "From the fruit of a man's mouth he enjoys good, but the desire of the treacherous is violence."
One's words will bring a tangible return. By speaking positively and helping others with one's words (12:18b) we in turn are blessed. What we give we receive. The unfaithful ("treacherous") desire not to help others but to harm them. The treacherous thrive on violence and thus use their words [and deeds] to stir up angry emotions.
Proverb 18:20 teaches that one will be filled with the product of his mouth or lips. "With the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach will be satisfied; he will be satisfied with the product of his lips."
A person's words, figuratively called the fruit of his mouth and the harvest from his lips, can benefit himself when his words are positive and uplifting. However, a man's tongue can bring satisfaction, life or death. Good words bring satisfaction to our appetites. Fulfillment comes from fruitful words. We also are advised that those who are prone to use the tongue will receive the consequences of their words.
Proverb 18:21 also teaches that we are held accountable for the use of our tongue. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit."
Your tongue can either be an instrument of life—encouraging and blessing—or it can destroy and wound. So powerful is the tongue that it is one of only two instruments by which our eternal destiny is determined (Romans 10:9, 10; James 3:5). Those who love it (the tongue) refers to people who are talkative (10:19; 18:2; 20:19). They will suffer the consequences (eat the fruit; 18:20) of what they say.
Proverb 25:11 again teaches that an appropriate and properly timed word can be attractive and valuable. "Like apple of gold in setting of silver, is a word spoken in right circumstances."
Appropriate words spoken at the right time (15:23; 24:26) and in the right way bring beauty to the soul like a work of art. The combination of silver and gold indicates the value or worth they create for the soul.
CONCLUSION
Words are a gift of God to human beings. . But with such a great gift comes a great responsibility. [Their use is a true indicator of whether one is wise or foolish, evil or good.] For we choose our words and can ordered them to say almost anything we want them to say. What are your words saying?
Are your words encouraging, or discouraging? Are they healing, or wounding? Work at building people up, not tearing them down.
See Matthew 12:34-37.
