Death and life in the tongue
Wisdom on the power of words
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, the proverb declares, and those who love it will eat its fruit. It is a staggering claim about the weight of words. The tongue is no trivial instrument; it carries the power to give life or deal death — to build someone up or tear them down, to bless or to curse, to heal or to kill. And we will eat the fruit of whichever we sow.
For a leader, whose words carry extra weight, this is sobering. A careless sentence can crush a person who has been waiting all week to be noticed; a deliberate word of life can lift someone out of despair. Leaders hold disproportionate power to speak death or life into the people they lead, often without realizing how hard their offhand comments land. The question is not whether your words have power — they do — but which kind you are wielding. Day by day, are you speaking more death, or more life, into the people around you?
“By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
— Jesus, on the weight of words — Matthew 12:37 (WEB)
Words carry the power of death and life. A leader's speech disproportionately builds people up or tears them down, and people eat the fruit of whichever he sows.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.”
The proverb confronts a leader with the lethal and life-giving power of his tongue. A leader formed here takes his words seriously, knowing how hard they land. The inner work is wielding speech as a giver of life, not a dealer of death.
Speak life deliberately into the people you lead, and weigh the death a careless word can deal. Notice how hard your offhand comments land. Use the disproportionate power of your words to build, not to crush.
Leaders underestimate the weight of their words and crush people with comments they forget by lunch. The blind spot is not realizing how much death or life their casual speech carries.
Pick one person who needs life spoken into them. This week, deliberately give them a word of life, and guard against careless ones.
A careless sentence can crush someone who waited all week to be noticed; a deliberate word of life can lift someone out of despair. Your words carry death or life, and people eat the fruit.
Day by day, are you speaking more death or more life into the people around you?