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The Monastery of Silence was led by an ancient Abbott, who took the brothers’ vow of silence very seriously.
When Brother John entered the monastery and took his silence vow, the Abbot reminded him, “You are welcome here as long as you like, but you may not speak until I direct you to do so.”
Brother John lived in the monastery for a full year before the Abbot said to him, “Brother John, you have been here a year now, you may speak two words.”
Brother John said, “Hard bed.”
So the Abbot got him a better bed.
The next year, Brother John was called by the Abbott.
“You may say another two words, Brother John.”
“Cold food,” announced Brother John, so the Abbott promised the food would improve.
On his third anniversary at the monastery, the Abbott again called Brother John into his office.
“You may say two more words today.”
“I quit,” announced Brother John.
“It is probably for the best,” said the Abbott.
“All you have done since you got here is complain.”
I like that joke for this session because we are going to primarily talk about the words we speak and the importance they have in our daily living.
Proverbs talks a lot about the words that come from our mouth, but before we get into that I want to mention a couple thoughts from chapters 15-20.
Starting in chapter 10 we see many short, general expressions of commonsense wisdom.
These quick little sayings run all the way to chapter 22.
In chapter 15 Solomon encourages his readers to have self-control.
Especially when it comes to our words.
Chapter 16 reminds us that we make plans, but the Lord has the final word in our lives.
In the middle of this chapter he mentions our words again.
Chapter 17 deals with the virtues of family harmony and honestly.
He warns that people who plan evil with suffer consequences because God knows a persons heart.
Towards the end of this chapter we see again that Solomon mentions the words we speak and their importance in our lives.
Even the lack of words is important.
Chapter 18 is probably my favorite chapter of the reading this week and where we are going to focus our study for tonight.
Solomon again talks about the words we speak and the power they hold.
Chapter 19 has a wide range of thoughts about personal integrity and wealth.
My favorite nugget is in verse 1:
It's far better to be moral—and to have a reputation for honesty—than to have temporary wealth and be seen as a liar.
He reminds us at the end of this chapter that we would be wise to accept instruction because when we don’t we allow hardships into our life.
Chapter 20 continues these short little nuggets of wisdom for living.
He talks about getting drunk and how nothing good comes from over indulging.
He continues to talk about dishonest business practices, gossip, greed, and laziness and how they are condemned as immoral and dangerous.
Here’s a proverb you might want to consider if you struggle in any of these areas:
Here’s another translation that might say it better:
So, those are the chapters we read this week.
What stood out to you as you read through these chapters this week?
To me, there was a lot to digest.
Honestly, you could spend hours thinking and studying most individual verses.
It makes it difficult to pull out some thoughts for this session.
But as I read and take notes, there are a few things I want to point out to you concerning the power of our words.
The key verse I want to share with you is one that I just read and will read again:
I remember as a kid I came home and told my mom that some kids were making fun of me for one reason or another and she told me something that probably everyone in this room has heard before:
“Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
Is that true?
I believe words have power, and far more power to harm us than sticks or stones!
Words can hit us deep down in our heart.
They have the ability to build us up or break us down.
We can remember the good words spoken to us and we can maybe more often remember the bad words spoken to us.
I was reading a commentary about this verse and it brought up an interesting thought that I wanted to share.
But first I want to ask your opinion:
Why don’t animals have the ability to speak?
According to the commentary I was reading, the author said animals don’t speak because they weren’t created in the image of God.
We were, therefore we speak.
It’s a sign that God made us because God speaks - He speaks things to life.
All of creation has been spoken into existence by God.
Including you and I!
We had a husky dog one time who could mimic the words “I love you” but she wasn’t really speaking.
In contrast, as a child grows, they get to the point where you can’t shut them up!
Words mark us a human made in the image of God.
If we are made in the image of God and words prove this fact, do we have the ability to create things with our words?
We can’t speak worlds into existence or create miracles through our words, but I do believe we can create trust, form relationships, and build fellowships of like minded believers.
Unlike God we can also use our words to destroy trust, relationships, and fellowships of believers.
We can use our words to touch and heal a broken heart or we can use our words to break another persons heart.
The truth is that Solomon was right, our words matter!
How many problems could be avoided if we chose our words more carefully?
We underestimate the importance of the words we say.
In the church we might view the sin of adultery as a serious sin.
And it really is.
But rarely does the sin of adultery destroy and entire church.
Gossip, on the other hand, is sometimes viewed as a little insignificant sin.
But it has the power to destroy a church from the inside out!
In fact, we don’t view Gossip as sinful, we view it as something that needs to be done.
I’ve heard someone say: “I just need to get all this off my chest”.
Then they completely let loose on the juiciest bit of gossip you’ve ever heard!
Proverbs has much to say on this topic, but here’s one verse to tide you over.
We need to guard agains the lie that a little slip of the tongue won’t do much damage.
If we are wise we would take the words in Proverbs to heart and tame our words.
In fact, we should turn our words toward things that are worthy.
Like I said earlier, Proverbs 10- 31 jump from one topic to another.
But this topic of how we are to speak comes up so many times.
In fact, the book of Proverbs has more to say about our words than anything else!
There are over 90 proverbs about how we are to speak.
It’s an important topic in this book of the Bible.
What does it mean when the bible says “lips speaking knowledge are like a rare jewel”?
That “the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel” means that knowledgeable, informed, intelligent words are rare and valuable in God’s eyes.
We’ve all listened to a person who obviously does not know what they are talking about.
When they speak, their words aren’t like rare jewels…more like cow patties!
On the other hand, when a person knows their stuff, and they have something good to say, we can’t help but to listen and hang on every word.
It’s important not to speak just for the sake of speaking.
We would find wisdom in this truth and guard our mouths.
God values a person who speaks life because they speak truth these people are like rare jewels.
We shouldn’t waste our time listening to people who don’t know what they are talking about, we should give our ear to those who know the truth.
It’s important to put the truth in our brains.
In our world, everyone has a voice.
Everyone has a blog, youtube, instagram, or some other way to get their ideas out into the world.
We must be careful to listen to people who are speaking in alignment to God’s word or else we will be distract or pushed off track.
Here’s a warning from proverbs about what we listen too:
We need to understand that even just by listening to and tolerating evil actually makes us accomplices in the evil!
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