The Value of Words Rise from the Character of the Speaker

Speaking only matters if a person of moral force, with religious conviction, and courage, challenges the meaninglessness of the chatter, that today, passes as speech in a culture of images and endless talk. Jesus was a master at speech, his words flowed from a consistency of being, of character, his soul a force that empowered his speech, speech to be lifted up as he was lifted up.

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
John 12:32

That Jesus is the word made flesh should give all of us a reverence for the power of speech. Yet, speech without thought, without insight, without the immediate, the moment, is unlike the word spoken by Jesus. The pursuit of word, of speech as Spirit, is to attain the power to change the world.

Words are a reflection of one’s soul, of one’s life; and so, Jesus says;

The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Luke 6:45

In a world without reverence for the word, without a sense of the sacred attached to speech, to thought, to the speaker and the listener, meaning is lost. We live in an era where speech as an attempt to communicate truth, to give guidance to the blind, is replaced with useless talk, cheap slogans, and ultimately turns toward hatred of the word that changes the world.

Freedom of speech is lost to the negation of speech in a world where thought is replaced by reaction, where emotional response rules over careful study and insight, where listening has no ears, no patience, no time for the word.

Those who cannot hear do not read.
Those who read, seek to understand, to think, all without following the ever-erring crowd.

Those who see do not hear;
for, they are overcome with images and endless chatter.
The wise close their eyes to listen for the word that changes the world.

Truth is a living word

— Phillip Michael Garner —