How does every word we speak matter?

The power of our words can actually destroy another person, and stir up hatred and violence that we arent aware of. They can not only bring pain from wound others have, but inflict them directly. We have a unique and powerful gift from God, the ability to communicate through the spoken word. But how do we use it, is if for good and to uplift others, or do we allow it to be used for evil.

Our words have the power to destroy and the power to build up..

"6 The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them." Proverbs 12:6.

So are we using words to build up or destroy, are they filled with hate or love, bitterness or blessing, to lift other up or to send them spiraling into a self ruination .

Our words not only have the power to bring death or life on earth, but we will have to give an accounting of it as well. Jesus said, "36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Matthew 12:36-37.

You have to be aware that you will give an account of what you say when you stand before Christ.

While not being saved or lost by our words, yet our words reveal our character. A life centered in Christ will show in our words to help, heal, bless, and draw people to Christ, while a life centered on self will show in our words that hurt, scatter away from Christ, and demoralize those who hear them.

Our actions also reveal our character for our actions speak louder than our words.

Our words also develop character as they can either be exercises in a deeper caring or a deeper contempt. An example of this was the sad story of Pilate. Two things that can be said about him is that he loved the gods, but hated the Jews.

When he came to the land, he put up images all over the place. A group of Jews went to Caesarea Philippi to petition him to remove them. They found him watching chariot races. When they expressed their concern, Pilate told them that he would not do it, and that if they do not leave, he would have the race start and allow the horses to run over them. They said that if that was their choices, they went to the track and laid down. Pilate then backed down, but he hated the Jews ever since.

Had Pilate taken the time to want to find out why the Jews felt this way, he could have had a deeper understanding of the true God and would have prepared his heart for what was to happen. But instead he feed into this by allowing hatred grow. The profit from the temple money changers went directly to Pilate as a bribe to keep the house of Annis and their cohorts in power. The two worked together to prevent anyone from becoming too popular with the people. Now, the Sanhedrin was allowed to stone people to death for religious reasons, and the governor had other options for civil reasons. If someone was getting too popular with the people, Pilate's people and Annis' people would decide if they could do better with having the Sanhedrin stone them for religious reasons, or to allow the governor's office to kill them for civil reasons.

Now, two things we need to know that is often not noticed in the Bible: First, the Sanhedrin consisted of 70, both Pharisees and Sadducees. But the Pharisees often tried to have more or less a fair trial. The "Full Sanhedrin" could meet with a quorum of 23 plus the high priest. And thus the house of Annis would often meet with their quorum of 23 Sadducees and have a mockery of atrial. They would purposely have witnesses that contradicted each other. The Jews had a term "a sadduceen court" which meant the same thing as "a kangaroo court". Now while they would often take their victims out to stone them to death. But there was a misunderstanding of the words "Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree". In Jesus' day this was understood as that God would not allow any of his servants to hang on a tree. Thus if someone hanged on a tree they were clearly God's enemy. No one would want to deal with a former teacher who was hung on a tree. This would ruin a reputation just as if they were caught cheating on their spouse or squandering the church funds, or anything else that would ruin a preacher's reputation. So, even while the Sanhedrin could take them out and stone them, for very popular people they would turn them over to the governors office to have them hang and thus destroy both the teacher and the teaching. (I won't make the connection to Revelation 4 and 5, but the Greek word, Sanhedrin, in Hebrew and Aramaic was "Elder")

Pilate loved to toy with his Jewish prisoners, giving them hope that he might release them, or maybe not. But he did not pass up a chance to kill a Jew. He started out this same way with Jesus. But while he talked to Jesus Pilate came to the realization that Jesus was not merely another man, but that Jesus was God. From his pagan background Pilate realized that there was something out there that he was trying to reach through the pagan gods. Now he realized that what he was reaching out for was standing there before him. Pilate's deepest desire was standing before him. Pilate loved the gods and hated the Jews. Will he let his deep love take over his heart and submit to the one he had been searching so long for? Or will he reject his deepest desire and allow his pet sin, his hatred for Jews control his life.

Oh, that he took the time to find out why the Jews rejected the images. Had he wanted to just understand them better would have prepared his heart to yield to his deepest desire. But in allowing his words/thoughts and actions support his hatred for the Jews to grow over his time in the land, he horribly made the wrong choice. Even when he asked who he should release, the two names were very close, so he had decided who he was going to release before making the offer. And usually flogging was a punishment, and death was a punishment. Jesus was one of only two people who history shows as both flogged and crucified in the same sentence.

(Again, I won't go into detail here, but the word translated "Multitude" had two different spellings in the gospels. Sometimes they spelled the word correctly, other times they "mispelled" the word. But when translators discovered that Hebrew was a living language in Jesus' day, they saw that the "mispelling" of multitude was the correct spelling of a Hebrew word that means "Those at hand" or "Those who happened to be there." and looking at the two spellings in context, the correct spelling did indeed fit the context of a multitude, but the "incorrect" spelling fit the context of a much smaller group, those at hand, those who happened to be there. The "multitude" crying "Crucify Him" was the mispelling of the word. So who was crying "Crucify Him" was probably no more or not much more than the 24 Sadducee elders who brought Jesus to Pilate.