From the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach is satisfied;
he is satisfied by the yield of his lips.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits. (Proverbs 18:20-21)
There is an incredible amount of consequence to what we say. Think of all the moments we come to when we are faced with the choice of silence or speech, the decision of one piece of information declared instead of another. The results can yield an unintentional damming up of a river we wished would have continued to flow or might serve as a snowball thrown at the weak point of a white mountain suddenly given to unstoppable avalanche. When the vocal chords vibrate, we are making some kind of an investment. The information heads on out and we wait for the return, a return which we hope will taste like sweet, rich strawberries instead of compost. But shouldn't we do more than just hope for such? Are our words simply something to be lobbed indiscriminately into the river or to the side of the mountain as little experiments. Few people want to be that reckless; few people want to be the type that everyone else wants to kick in the shins.
Notice what these verses begin and end with: fruit. Fruit given returns a satisfied stomach in verse 20, and fruit received satisfies the one who delivered good words in verse 21. The best way to insure a future production of something sweet is to plant the same. This doesn't mean of course that our every word needs to be all dripping and sappy to be good; that perfect peach comes from a necessary, nutrient-filled brown pit after all. But it's true just the same that fruit begets fruit.
Why did people hang on Jesus' words, and why did incredible results come from the message He brought? There are certainly many theological answers to this that need to be given at some juncture (the Holy Spirit was at work, the Father's will was being carried out, Jesus saw directly into people's souls, etc.), but at that practical, this-is-the-way-the-world-works level, Jesus presented true, beautiful fruitful words of investment during His earthly ministry. They were so good in fact that He told us just before He returned to heaven that we were to teach the same to the world as part of the disciple-making process. These are the verbal investments we're called to make.
he is satisfied by the yield of his lips.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits. (Proverbs 18:20-21)
There is an incredible amount of consequence to what we say. Think of all the moments we come to when we are faced with the choice of silence or speech, the decision of one piece of information declared instead of another. The results can yield an unintentional damming up of a river we wished would have continued to flow or might serve as a snowball thrown at the weak point of a white mountain suddenly given to unstoppable avalanche. When the vocal chords vibrate, we are making some kind of an investment. The information heads on out and we wait for the return, a return which we hope will taste like sweet, rich strawberries instead of compost. But shouldn't we do more than just hope for such? Are our words simply something to be lobbed indiscriminately into the river or to the side of the mountain as little experiments. Few people want to be that reckless; few people want to be the type that everyone else wants to kick in the shins.
Notice what these verses begin and end with: fruit. Fruit given returns a satisfied stomach in verse 20, and fruit received satisfies the one who delivered good words in verse 21. The best way to insure a future production of something sweet is to plant the same. This doesn't mean of course that our every word needs to be all dripping and sappy to be good; that perfect peach comes from a necessary, nutrient-filled brown pit after all. But it's true just the same that fruit begets fruit.
Why did people hang on Jesus' words, and why did incredible results come from the message He brought? There are certainly many theological answers to this that need to be given at some juncture (the Holy Spirit was at work, the Father's will was being carried out, Jesus saw directly into people's souls, etc.), but at that practical, this-is-the-way-the-world-works level, Jesus presented true, beautiful fruitful words of investment during His earthly ministry. They were so good in fact that He told us just before He returned to heaven that we were to teach the same to the world as part of the disciple-making process. These are the verbal investments we're called to make.
No comments:
Post a Comment