The power in our words

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

1 Corinthians 1:17

 

What would happen if every preacher took those words to heart before he delivered a sermon? What would he say if he truly understood what it was that rested within the pages of the Bible he held and he preached with the above verse in mind?

A while back ago I wrote a post titled Preaching to Christ. How much more would preachers take to heart the messages they give if they were not only to preach to Christ and only to Christ, knowing that it didn’t matter if they had an audience of one or one million because the only One that truly mattered, the only One they needed to please with their message was Christ, but what if they also knew that the gospel they were delivering was of so much importance that they could…with their very words…empty it of its power?

Do the men that deliver those messages week after week realize that with their words they either give power to the cross or they devalue it? If you are a true Christian, if you’re in Christ, if you’re truly born again, regenerate…what does it do to your heart to think that you could remove the power of Christ on the cross with nothing but the words you say?

How much power does that put into the right words? How much power does that put into the message you may be given…and you don’t have to be a preacher to have that power within what you’re saying. You never know when the words you share with another will be the seed that takes root and grows into the method the Lord will use to save that person…assuming you’re talking to one of the Lord’s people. What power is then placed in the words you use and message you deliver, whether it’s done in word or in deed?

And how terrifying is it to know that with the wrong words you can take all that power away?

About a year ago I sat in a ‘church’ building I had only been in once before. While sitting there I heard a message delivered by the preacher that when it was over I was left wondering what the purpose to the message was. Was there even a point? If there was I completely missed it and so did my husband. The preacher seemed to talk about one thing after another, none of which really connected to each other, without ever tying them to Scripture, only to rather abruptly end the message with no lines ever being drawn to make any sort of connection to whatever purpose there was to his message.

When I left there, and to this day, I wonder what those poor people sitting in the congregation ever manage to get out of the messages that preacher delivers. Oh the power that was within that man’s grasp that day. The message he could have delivered. Even if all he had done was read Scripture. But he bungled the job. He removed the power of the cross as he failed to teach on the Truth of Scripture in any way.

I don’t know where that preachers heart truly stands. I don’t know what his deep held beliefs are. But I know that he had within his ability that day to deliver a message that might have planted a seed in someone and he delivered an empty message instead.

But as I think of him and that message I can at least look back and say he failed to deliver any message. There just wasn’t one there. What of the preachers and teachers that so often deliver messages that twist the Truth into their version of it? How empty do their messages become? How much do they remove the power of Christ from the message that could have been delivered?

The often taught belief that ‘Jesus is love’ or ‘God just wants to love us’ comes to mind. The preachers and teachers that perpetuate this false truth, this heresy, this…lie…had within their means to teach the truth of Who Christ is and they dropped the ball, they bungled the job. It was right there within their grasp to tell the Truth and they didn’t do it.

It’s as if they took the lid off a bottle of Truth and poured it on the ground while watching it all disappear into the dirt. They could have delivered it but they didn’t.

How dangerous would it be if a doctor took lifesaving medicine and instead of giving it to his dying patient he poured it into the sink and watched it flow down the drain? What if that medicine was the only bottle of medicine in the world that could have saved that person’s life and that doctor deliberately poured it down the drain.

What if the message a preacher gives today is the only message of truth that could have been delivered to someone but the preacher poured false hope and lies into that person instead?

Now I know that the Lord has his elect, that His chosen people will be saved no matter what. I know, too, that He uses preachers that teach false beliefs for His purposes and that what is happening at any given moment is all in the Lords hands and its all part of His plan. I’m not for a moment discounting any of that. I’m not implying that those preachers that teach the wrong things aren’t being used for the Lord’s purposes. I know too that those preachers can’t deliver a Truth they can’t see. That they can’t deliver a message they don’t understand themselves. I’m simply saying what if.

What if the word’s we use are that important?

How important does it make Christ, the real Christ as Scripture teaches, when you think of the fact that what you say has the ability to give power to the gospel or to remove its power?

It hurts my heart to even consider the idea that I might, in some way, take anything away from my Lord by saying the wrong thing.

How much power do the words we say have?