Choose Life

Ray Ortlund post:  Our words have direction:  life or death

“The book of Proverbs is, in ways, a treatise on talk.  I would summarize it this way: words give life; words bring death – you choose.  What does this mean?  It means you have never spoken a neutral word in your life.  Your words have direction to them.  If your words are moving in the life direction, they will be words of encouragement, hope, love, peace, unity, instruction, wisdom, and correction.  But if your words are moving in a death direction, they will be words of anger, malice, slander, jealousy, gossip, division, contempt, racism, violence, judgment, and condemnation.  Your words have direction to them.  When you hear the word talk you ought to hear something that is high and holy and significant and important.  May God help us never to look at talk as something that doesn’t matter.”

Paul David Tripp, in The Power of Words and the Wonder of God, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, 2009), page 24.  Italics original.

Let’s never tell ourselves, “But it’s okay.  It’s not as though I’m doing anything.  It’s only words.  They will go away.”