Speaking Life and Speaking Death

8 “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. 9 But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” 

Luke 12:8-10 (NIV)

Many Christians take the saying “speak life, not death” to mean that our words should not be malicious or vulgar or offensive to one another or to oneself (Proverbs 11:17). While the saying does encompass that type of speech, I argue that speaking life and death also connotes a meaning much more profound and with deeper consequences than someone’s self-esteem being adversely or positively affected.

God’s word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). It exists as an expression of Himself (Father, Son, and Spirit), not an essence like those of the Trinity. His word is active and achieves its purposes. As expression is understood and experienced, we see that behind it is a living and active being. The word of God is not a lifeless puppet with God’s strings willing it to move, rather it is an animate, created being in itself used by God to communicate Himself to us. 

In a similar fashion, Gaston Bachelard in “The Poetics of Space,” describes the poetic image (or written expression) as “a direct product of the heart, soul and being of man, apprehended in his actuality” (page 3). The written word, and even the spoken word, is an expression of the soul and essence of the communicator. It is alive and animate simply from being a product of the soul.

Who gives us our soul and after whose image is that soul crafted? The definition of life itself. And so does God also grant us the gift of words and language to express our souls to Him and to one another. 

Speaking, in its purest form, is a breath--an expression of life. So now consider the connotations of speaking life and speaking death. Being made in God’s image, our soul is alive and its expressions (our words) are active as well. I am not suggesting that we have the divine ability to speak things into existence or conjure anything to be, rather I am referring to what the scripture says about the power of our speech (Proverbs 20:15; Proverbs 18:20; Proverbs 16:24; Proverbs 15:1). God’s word says that our words are active in the sense that they relate to, inflict upon, and impress upon the soul, the spirit of others. A harsh word can stir up anger in someone. A wise word can bring someone from the pit. It is not necessarily our words that enforces these reactions upon others, otherwise there would be no such thing as rejection after a profession of love or mocking after an embarrassing statement. In our nature, we would rather the response to our words be exactly what we intend it to be. Fortunately, we are not God, whose word has that power to damn, to save, to destroy, to restore. His word can evoke the response He wants. We are made in His image, but we are not Him. We are but a reflection, a likeness in many ways. So our words have some reach in how it affects others, enough for God to warn us in scripture, but they don’t possess the divine power that God’s does.

Considering the life our words possess, and how it is active in the sense that we are a reflection of God’s character and essence, we can delve into the difference of speaking life and speaking death. In short, speaking life is communicating the core part of who we are in God. Speaking death, or not speaking at all, risks the massacre of the soul.

In Luke 12:8-10, Jesus warns us about the repercussions of denying (disowning) Him before others as well as blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. The consequence for possessing the determined mindset, as opposed to the notion of a singular act, embodying either the public denial of Jesus and His church and/or the purposeful attack on the work of the Holy Spirit, is an eternity apart from God--conscious eternal punishment in Hell. Considering how such determined mindsets manifest themselves in speech/lack of speech, we can see how they constitute speaking death. It can simply be stated then that denying Christ and actively dismantling the work of the Holy Spirit massacres the soul. I am not suggesting that we legalistically monitor singular acts of speaking death in this manner, but that we examine our hearts (souls) to exterminate this developing mindset. That we pray for God’s Spirit to intervene and mold our hearts to accept His word, which cultivates life.

On the contrary, speaking life constitutes the public acknowledgement of Christ and His church before others. There is power in the name of Jesus, enough to save. There is power in the Holy Spirit, enough to use life-giving words to shape people's hearts. And as it says in verse 10 of Luke 12, a word spoken against the Son of Man, can be forgiven. Think of Peter, who denied Jesus three times and was forgiven--rock of the church. Think of Paul, who blatantly targeted and killed believers and was forgiven--servant of Christ. Speaking life is the recognition and public promotion of Christ as well as is the confession of sin. 

So I encourage us to ponder the state of our own hearts. Do we acknowledge Christ publicly and all He has done? Are we broken by our sin? Do we recognize the Holy Spirit working to make us more like Christ? Or are we aloof, ignorant, and actively denying the one with the power to save? If it is the latter, let us pray that God builds our faith and sensitize our hearts to sin. Let us ask Him to reveal Himself in His word, His Spirit, and His people.