Words wield much power. Your words and my words can strengthen those around us or weaken those around us. They can build up or tear down. Our words will either be sweet to those who hear them or bitter to their soul. Our words contain raw power. Since our words possess so much power, two questions beg to be answered. On this Sunday, what do your words do to others? What do your words do your yourself?
Pleasant Words Like a Honeycomb
Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,
Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.
Proverbs 16:24
This proverb stresses the power of a pleasant word. To understand its significance, one must recognize the place honeycomb occupied in Old Testament days. Today, we enjoy all kinds of sweets and sweeteners. If we want dessert, either we whip up some of our own or we run out to the local eatery to enjoy the sweet delights therein. We do not need to look further than our own freezers for some ice cream or possibly your favorite candy like chocolate in a near bowl.
In the Old Testament, the sweetest delight for them was the honeycomb. Whereas their diets were bland, honeycomb offered all the delights. To find honey meant they could feast on sweetness. Therefore, anytime you find the word honey or honeycomb in the Old Testament, you can image pure delight and sweetness in a world that was full of bland tastes and simple diets.
Now to this text… Pleasant words are like a honeycomb. A pleasant word provides sweetness to the ears of the one who receives it. The words delight the soul and build up the person. In a world full of pressures, suffering, and sin, pleasant words go deep into the soul to provide encouragement and strength.
Imagine if you lived in Old Testament days in the wilderness or dessert and you happened upon some honeycomb. In that instance, your day changes from at best normal and at best okay to pleasant, joyful, and positive. In a similar way, pleasant words affect the hearer too.
Death and Life are in the Tongue
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21
Words spoken contain either death or life. The NET Bible note relates the following regarding this verse:
What people say can lead to life or death. The Midrash on Psalms shows one way the tongue [what is said] can cause death: “The evil tongue slays three, the slanderer, the slandered, and the listener” (Midrash Tehillim 52:2).
Just as the tongue provides sweetness for the soul above, the tongue can also lead to death.
Raw power.
When someone talks, the individual person speaking and the ones hearing it eat the fruit of it.
What do your words do to others? What do your words do your yourself?
Who are the ones eating your words? Let me suggest two different recipients who either receive benefits from your tongue like honeycomb or are led toward destruction and death.
Others Who Hear You
The first recipient of your words are those around you. Think about how diverse that crowd actually is. In any moment of the day, many individuals inhabit that zone. A spouse. Family members. Friends. Church family. A neighbor. A coworker. A complete stranger.
Many, many people eat your words. Do those words build them up or tear them down? When people hear you, do your words provide a feast of pleasantness for their souls or do you leave them famished on the road to destruction and death? In a world full of pressures, do your words provide refreshment, comfort, and encouragement or do your words make burdens harder, heavier, and burdensome?
Yourself Who Hears You
The second and actually primary person who either benefits or suffers from your words is yourself. You listen to you more than anyone else. You get inside your own head and listen all day long to your musings, observations, and concerns. What do you hear? How do your words affect you?
In a similar way, your own voice provides you either strength and encouragement or tears you down. Your words in your heart and on your tongue produce a meal that either helps you or hurts you too. Your inner man thoughts, imaginations, and observations provide you nourishment or malnourishment.
What You Can Do…for Yourself first
Begin by paying careful attention to your thoughts, observations, ruminations, and opinions of your inner man. What does your inner voice say? As you go about your day, what is on your mind? About what are you thinking?
Let me share three powerful passages from the Bible that help you begin to see positive change:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things. (Phil 4:8)
May my words and my thoughts
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my sheltering rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)
As these texts explain, change begins here. Change begins with your inner man meditating on your God’s voice (the Bible) and then speaking those truths to your own ears rather than listening to your own heart and flesh. If you listen to your own heart, your lusts will drive you rather than God’s Word providing you the insight you need for life and godly living.
If you want to be encouraged, comforted, and your soul lifted with the sweetness of honeycomb, then you will need to focus your attention on the Scriptures, rehearse them to yourself, and speak truth so that your own soul hears it.
What You Can Do…for Others
Related to others, try to listen to yourself when you are around them as well. Ask yourself, “Would I be encouraged or discouraged, built up or torn down, nourished or malnourished, full or empty, more happy or sad if I were the recipient of my own words?”
Are you honeycomb to those who hear you? When someone happens upon your words, like the wayfarer in the Old Testament, do their souls rejoice or wish they would have never come upon your words? Are you helpful or hurtful? Do others leave strengthened or weakened?
Are your words to others like the honeycomb which are sweetness to the soul and health to the bones?
If not, would you go back to step one and start changing your inner voice? People need you to help not hinder. They need the nourishment of your soul to help nourish their own.
On this Sunday may that be the case for each of us.
Image Credit Mariana Ibanez
KevinCarson.com | Wisdom for Life in Christ Together