What Is the Relationship between Christianity and Words?

We think, hear, speak, sing, write, and read words all day, every day. Our lives are loaded with words.

So what do words have to do with Christianity?

Advertise on TGC

Almost everything.

At every stage in redemptive history—from the time before time, to God’s creation, to man’s fall, to Christ’s redemption, and to the coming consummation—“God is there and he is not silent” [Francis Schaeffer].

God’s words decisively create, confront, convict, correct, and comfort. By his words he both interprets and instructs.

If you wanted to construct a biblical theology of words, you could get pretty far in just the first few pages of your Bible.

God’s Original Words

The early chapters of Genesis are replete with God using words to create and order, name and interpret, bless and curse, instruct and warn.

God commands (“And God said, ‘Let there be . . . ‘”), and reality results (“and there was. . . .” “And it was so”).

God names (“God called . . . “), and things are publicly identified.

We learn later that it is “by the word of his power” that God’s Son, Jesus Christ, continually sustains and “upholds the universe” (Heb. 1:3).

Before God creates man, he first uses words to announce his intention (“Let us make . . . “). And once Adam and Eve are created, their first experience with God involves words, as he gives them the cultural mandate (Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion), explains their freedom (“You may . . . “), and warns them against disobeying his command (“You shall not . . . “).

Against God’s Words

When Satan slithers onto the scene as a crafty serpent, his first action is to speak, and his wicked words are designed to call into question the very words of God. The first step is to sow the seed of doubt (“Did God actually say . . . ?”). And the second step is the explicit accusation that the Creator was really a liar (“You will not surely die”).

When Adam and Eve rebel against the only restriction they were given, they express for the first time words that are so common for us today: fear (“I was afraid”), shame (“I hid myself”), and blame (that woman—whom you gave to be with me!).

God then interprets their new fallen world for them—and also gives the first words of the gospel, foretelling the time when he will send his Son to save his people and crush the head of his enemy. God uses words to tell of the coming Word made flesh (John 1).

The Words of the Word

When God’s Son eventually enters into human history as the God-man, he lives by God’s Word (Matt. 4:4), keeps God’s Word (John 8:55), and preaches God’s Word (Mark 2:2).

The Father gave Jesus words, Jesus gave them to his followers, and his followers received them (John 17:8).

Jesus’ words are inseparable from his person and thus can be identified as having divine attributes. [Jesus frequently refers to who he is and what he says as a package deal: “me and my words,” e.g., Mark 8:38; Luke 6:47; John 12:48; 14:24.] To be ashamed of Christ’s words is on the same level as being ashamed of Christ himself (Luke 9:26).

His words are eternal: unlike heaven and earth, Christ’s words will remain forever (Matt. 24:35).

They have power: Jesus could cast out spirits with “a word” (Matt. 8:16); he merely had to “say the word” and someone could be healed (Matt. 8:8).

Jesus’ words are “spirit and life,” “the words of eternal life” (John 6:63, 68).

Jesus’ words dwell or abide in those who are united to Christ and abiding in him (John 8:31; John 15:7;Col. 3:16).

Only those who hear and keep Jesus’ word receive blessing and eternal life (Luke 11:28; John 5:24; 8:47,52).

Those who heard him were “amazed at his words” (Mark 10:24), hanging on every word and marveling at his gracious speech (Luke 19:48; 4:22).

They recognized that his words possessed a unique authority (Luke 4:32).

Worldly Words

But Jesus critiqued those who used the words of their prayers to conceal the hypocrisy of their hearts, heaping up “empty phrases” and wanting to be “heard for their many words” (Matt. 6:7).

He accused them of using their traditions to make “void the word of God” (Matt. 15:6).

His own words found no place in their hearts—some couldn’t bear to hear his words, and some heard his words but refused to keep them (John 8:37, 43; 14:24). In response, Jesus’ enemies “plotted how to entangle him in his talk” (Matt. 22:15).

Jesus warned that how one hears and responds to Jesus’ words reveals the ultimate dividing line within salvation history: on the day of judgment we will each give an account “for every careless word,” being either justified or condemned by our words (Matt. 12:36-37), for “what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart” (Matt. 15:18).

If you hear and practice Christ’s words, you are like a wise man building a house on a rock-solid foundation that can remain standing even during a torrential storm. But hearing Christ’s words and failing to do them is like building a house on sand, which will crumble to the ground in the midst of the storm (Matt. 7:24-26).

The Word of the Gospel

In the book of Acts and in the Epistles, the gospel message—

the good and glorious news that

“another true and obedient human being has come on our behalf,

that he has lived for us the kind of life we should live but can’t,

that he has paid fully the penalty we deserve for the life we do live but shouldn’t” [Graeme Goldsworthy],

with all of the personal and kingdom implications that that entails

—is referred to as “the Word.”

As you read God’s Word and consider the deep implications of the gospel for your life, you’ll begin to discern a pattern [with thanks to Tim Keller for this way of framing the issue]:

1. God has holy standards for how we are to speak words and listen to words.
2. This side of heaven we will never fully measure up to God’s holy standard regarding the use of our tongue.
3. Jesus fulfilled what we (along with Adam, Israel, and every prophet, priest, and king) failed to do: his words were perfect words, without sin. By his punishment-bearing, substitutionary death, his words can become our words.
4. Our day-by-day failure to use our tongue as we ought—for God’s glory and for the good of his people—comes from a functional rejection of Christ the Word.
5. It is only as we look to Jesus, rejoicing in him and in his atoning provision, that we are freed to walk—and talk—in his way.

How Then Should We Speak?

If God is a God of words, and if Jesus and his gospel are inseparable, then how should we—those who seek to follow him—use our words?

The book of Proverbs is an excellent place to start, giving pithy statements about what godly and ungodly speech looks like. For a sampling, consider these contrasts [with thanks to Vern Poythress for the original chart]:

Some Pauline Questions to Ask

Here are some Pauline questions we can ask ourselves about the words we are using:

• Are these words gracious? (Col. 4:6)
• Are these words seasoned with salt? (Col. 4:6)
• Are these words corrupting? (Eph. 4:29)
• Are thee words building up the church for good? (Eph. 4:29)
• Are these words giving grace to those who hear them? (Eph. 4:29)
• Are these words fitting and appropriate? (Eph. 4:29)
• Are these words true? Are they spoken in love? (Eph. 4:15, 25)