Proverbs offers profound insight into how words work. Words are powerful—they penetrate to the core of a person and serve as the building blocks of beliefs and convictions. Their influence permeates, seeping and saturating in ways that can be life-giving, like the fountain or tree of life. Yet for all their power, words have limits: they cannot replace deeds, alter facts, or compel action in others.
The Art of Using Words Well
Words at their best are honest, few, calm, and apt. When delivered calmly, they allow for a fair hearing, permit tempers to cool, and magnify their potency. To employ words well requires study, pondering how to use them best. It also demands a single, consistent character, since “what a man says wells up from what he is – it will be worth what he is worth” (Kidner, 45).
What a man says wells up from what he is – it will be worth what he is worth.
Derek Kidner
The stakes are high. Why? Because “beliefs and convictions are formed by words, and these either destroy a man or are the making of him” (Page 43). What matters most is not merely what is done to us, but what is done in us through words and their effects: “What is done to you is of little account beside what is done in you, and the latter may be for good or ill” (Kidner, 43).
Context Magnifies Impact
Words gain their greatest impact when they are contextual and specific. “A truth that makes no impression as a generalization may be indelibly fixed in the mind when it is matched to its occasion and shaped to its task” (Kidner, 45). This reminds us that the effectiveness of our words depends not only on their truthfulness but on their appropriateness to the moment and their careful crafting for the purpose at hand.
Disclaimer: Information in my “slip-box” doesn’t necessarily reflect my agreement with the source or all its content. Recording diverse perspectives helps strengthen one’s position beyond the echo chamber of like-minded thinkers. By documenting alternative viewpoints, we engage in the intellectual wrestling match that ultimately deepens our understanding.
I aspire to post one note from my “slip-box” every weekday. If you want to learn more about how to work with knowledge, click this link: What is knowledge management?
Pastor Dan Patrick, raised in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., holds both a Bible degree and a Master’s of Divinity. He has ministered across five states from coast to coast, serving in various capacities, including pastoral leadership. Dan’s primary mission is to help people love God’s Word and find their purpose in God’s work.
