Do Actions Really Speak Louder Than Words?

I don’t know about you but I’ve always been told that actions speak louder than words.  If you say, “I love you” while punching someone in the face what is going to be communicated to them?  Definitely not love.  In the Bible James asks us, “If a person is poorly clothed and hungry and you say to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled’ without giving them the things they need what good is that?...It is dead.”  Words don’t communicate love, action communicates love. 

This is what I believed for a long time.  In fact I believed it so strongly that I hardly spoke at all.  Why bother to talk if words are meaningless?  Most of my life-lessons taught me that words were vain and negative and led to disunity and pain anyway.  However, it is this last point that also eventually gave me a new perspective. 

Words can lead to pain.  James also says in the same letter that “the tongue is a small member yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.”  He likens it to a rudder on a ship or a bit in a horse’s mouth, as powerful as a deadly poison.  He says, “With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing.”  Our words are dangerous.  They have the power to bring death.  You see it as a student; kids keep telling someone they are stupid and after a while the kid believes it.  A parent tells their kid they will never amount to anything and they eventually lose hope of ever accomplishing anything.  An insult leads to a fistfight, a word of gossip leads to hurt feelings and insecurity. 

“Life and death are in the power of the tongue,” it says in Proverbs.  Most of my life I think I realized that the tongue holds the power of death, but what about life?  If words have the potential to kill shouldn’t they also have the power to resurrect?  Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead with a few words; God created the entire universe by speaking it into existence.  Every day I have the choice to use my words to bring life or to bring death.  I can build someone up, make them feel encouraged, and share God’s love and hope just by being intentional with what I say or I can tear them down and promote negativity.  

I guess the phrase “actions speak louder than words” isn’t wrong, but it does under-emphasize the power of words because words can produce actions.  Every word spoken is out there forever, creating death or creating life.  It sounds scary but it is actually good news, you don’t need to be rich to change the world or to impact someone’s life, you don’t need to be the CEO of an NGO to reverse oppression, just use your tongue.