Gracious Speech

Word Study - Part 10

Monday morning, I chose a Proverb to try to implement in my life this week, and it kind of accidentally turned into another word study :)

"One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace will have the king for a friend." ~ Prov 22:11. Another translation of "speaks with grace" is simply, "gracious speech". But then I thought, oh that's all well and good, but what does gracious speech actually look like? So I did a search on Bible Gateway for the anything having to do with gracious speech, and this is the only other verse I found (in the NIV, that is):

"All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked." ~ Luke 4:22

Duh! Who better to look to as an example of gracious speech than Jesus?? And actually, we are commanded throughout Scripture to follow Christ's example: "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." (1 John 2:6) and "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps." (1 Peter 2:21)


So, the above verse in Luke 4 was after Jesus read from Isaiah in his home town of Nazareth, and then said "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Basically, the people liked what he said--he'll preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recover sight for the blind, release the oppressed, and proclaim the year of the Lord' favor. Yet they are surprised that this is just "Joseph's son." But after this, he doesn't steer clear from telling the truth, either, and deals 'em a walloper (see Luke 4:23-27), and the people try to throw him off the cliff. If I were Jesus, I'd be calling down lighting from heaven at just about that point, but he simply walks away.

What I observed from this passage and others is that speaking with grace involves speaking with truth, but not without love (Eph 4:15). For example, when Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman. "He told me everything I ever did," she says (John 4:39b). He did not shy away from the truth, but he also shows her the way to forgiveness--himself.

This morning, I spent time in Matthew 1-13 studying the red letters (Jesus' words), and came up with a list, by no means exhaustive, of how/what Jesus spoke:

• Submissive to Father (Mt. 3:15)
• Spoke the Word (Mt. 4:4, 7, 10) 
• Called to Repentance (Mt. 4:17)
• Called to Follow - sometimes with analogies (Mt. 4:19; Mt. 8:20,22; Mt. 9:9)
• sometimes these sound pretty harsh ("…let the dead bury their own dead.")
• Called to Prayer (Mt. 9:37)
• Called to Himself (Mt. 11:28)
• "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest…"
• Taught with Authority, Wisdom, and Obedience to the Father (Mt. 5, 6, 7; Mt. 10, 11, 12, 13)
•  after sermon on the mount - "When Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law." (a thought for another study: so how did teachers of the Law teach?)
• Taught about Himself (Mt. 11:25-27) 
• Gave commands with authority (Mt. 9:6b; Mt. 10:5-42)
• His merciful words resulted in action (Mt. 8:3,7,13)
• "Be clean" and "I will go and heal him."
• At some points, he did not want his deeds known (Mt. 8:4; 9:30)
• Spoke in parables (Mt. 9:12,15-17; Mt. 12:11-12; Mt. 13:3-9, 24-33, 44-50)
• At times explained his parables (Mt. 13:18- 23, 37-43) 
• Spoke with questions (Mt. 8:26; 9:4-6)
• sometimes to replace open rebukes - "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"
• Spoke in power over demons (Mt. 8:32)
• Spoke in judgement (Mt. 11:21-24)
• Forgave sins (Mt. 9:2)
• Healed (Mt. 9:23,24,29: Mt. 11:13)
• "Take heart, daughter…your faith has healed you"
• "Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep."
• Called us His Family (Mt. 12:49-50)

Obviously, we could spend a lot of time looking at each one of these, and how we are to implement them in our lives, but I'd just look at one for now. 

Jesus's merciful words resulted in action, making them not only gracious and loving, but truthful as well. These verses came to mind when I wrote down this point:

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." ~ James 2:14-17

In short, as Christians, our gracious speech must be conjoined with truth and love, which should result in actions done in faith. Otherwise, "Can such faith save them?" Hmmm...Master James, was that possibly a rhetorical question? ;) 

But if we're not consistently following our words with loving, faithful actions, we don't have to feel burdened as if we're on our own. We have the Spirit, and a God who is just waiting for us to call out to him and say, "Increase our faith!"

~~~

In Christ,

Ellie