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This is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology.
Where we are learning together how to live in the age of fulfillment

And I’m your host Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion..

Show 40A WORDS
Recorded Tuesday September 15, 2020
Aired Monday September 21st, 2020

The Power of Words

I’m gonna venture out on a limb which is a limb of supposition and conjecture as I am no psychologist and have nothing but scriptural insights into what I am about to say.

In the story of Samson and Delila, Samson was being pressured by her to reveal the secret of his power. He had mislead her a few times and that brought on her wrath and determination to know the secret and at one point we read:

Judges 16:16: And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God.;

Moving out to the New Testament, Jesus said to his apostles:

John 6:63: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

From these passages, the first sort of ambiguous, and the second direct and didactic, we might assume the notion that Words have the capacity to encourage or give life and words have the power and capacity to kill or bring death.

The Tongue's Influence

James chapter 3 is essential reading on the topic of our tongues or the words we speak, saying:

2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. 4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: 8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? 12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. 13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

From these passages and more we see that our mouths, and the words we speak and I would add, write, have the capacity to give life or bring death.

The Root of Hate

John the Beloved said in 1st John 3:15:

“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”

Isn’t it interesting that John associates “hate” for another with “being a murderer.” Of course, the laws of the land would never convict someone of murder for simply bearing feelings of hate for others so what John is saying is that to hate is a form of, or at the root of, murder.

Yeshua took the idea of anger to another level too and said in Matthew 5:22:

“That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.”

Hate and anger

The Power of Words and Their Impact

– feelings, right? – but Jesus and John associated them both – hate and anger – with murder and judgement.

Because most of us are not actual physical murderers, walking around physically putting an end to people who bother or trouble us, I suggest that we carry out our assassinations of others through words – what we speak and what we write.

To get to the heart of the matter, I think we need to both step waaaaay back while paradoxically looking closely at ourselves in the mirror, examining our hearts, and what I am about to share will enable us to do this more effectively – if you’re willing.

When we look at a piece of art, or a landscape in nature, the thing in itself has no power nor bears any intrinsic meaning. What does a grove of dark black tree branches say against a cloudy sky? Nothing. But we give the picture meaning – our brains and hearts and perspectives – the meaning does not come from the things in themselves. Same thing when we look at, are introduced to, or even when we become acquainted with other people. Usually, we are the ones imputing our personal assessments of their person into and onto them – and this is especially true with strangers.

Imputation of Personal Assessments

People, like art – especially strangers, actually possess little definition to us – and because nature abhors a vacuum we usually find ourselves assigning meaning as a means to define them and to help us navigate through a life of uncertainty. Psychologically, however, in and through our minds and hearts, people are defined. And once we have sufficiently defined them based on what we believe, we will speak words in reference to them. Because these words are usually lacking information and insight and are typically far from depicting the totality of our subjects, Yeshua intriguingly said:

“let your communications be yes yes or no, no because anything more than that is evil.”

It seems to me that when we perceive others, strangers, those we barely know, and even those we know fairly well, that we all choose to speak or write kind words to and about them or unkind words to and about them. I cannot speak to why we perceive people the way we do – some say that facial recognition patterns in our brains automatically play a part in whom we naturally gravitate toward and who we automatically reject. And of course there are also environmental and circumstantial factors that contribute to the way we receive, perceive and accept or reject people.

Reasons for Unkind Words

But in the face of all of these unknown factors (plus a lot more) I want to talk tonight about the Words We Choose to say and write toward others – beginning with mean or unkind words. From what I can determine, we say and write unkind things about people for one or more of several reasons – I can think of four specifically:

1. Revenge – we are getting them back for something that they have done to us.
2. Envy – of what they are relative to who we are and or never will be.
3. Fear – of what they represent relative to who we are, and/or
4. Out of Power – meaning we feel superior to them and with this mindset we want to own or control them.

Someone has hurt us so we say words to get them back. Someone has something we never will possess – and we are envious of them, so we malign them with unkind words. Someone scares us, and we don’t understand them or fear we will be like them or that they will harm us somehow, so we say or write unkind words about them, Or We view someone as so inferior to our skill-set and powers that we step in and, taking the place of God, condemn and criticize them unkindly.

REVENGE ENVY FEAR POWER

We notice that in every case we are personally involved in our response to the subject and in every case we are striving to do something to the subject with our words. What are we trying to do?

When we are unkind, we are trying to kill them. Murder them, quite frankly. See, most of us can’t (or won’t) outright murder someone so we do what we can to eliminate them and the most common way is with . . . words . . . mean and unkind words, because through this means we can help to remove the anger, the envy, the fear and or ultimately express what we see as our power.

The Power and Consequences of Our Words

The intent of mean words to people who have hurt us is obvious – to hurt them back – to deliver to them a small dose of death, right. But God says, revenge is His, right? So as believers there is little justification for using hurtful words even toward those who have hurt us. But think about this act of murder relative to Envy, Fear and our Exercising Power over those we feel are inferior to us:

There is a handsome man or woman we feel threatened by due to envy – so we are mean to him or her through our words. Indirectly, that meanness, that unkindness, is an attempt to make him or her to feel badly about themselves, to feel pain and the ultimate end result is if carried out to its natural end, death – perhaps by cancer or suicide. We encounter someone who frightens us – they challenge our well-being and the established course of our lives through their presence. They are dirty, unattractive, or radicals – they challenge our lifestyle, our religious beliefs, our world-views. So, we speak or write words that are mean to or about them or we attack their beliefs online or them in person. It’s all a subtle but murderous way to eliminate them and the threat they represent to us.

Social and Cultural Manifestations

We do it individually. We do it politically. We do it religiously. We do it racially. We do it culturally. We do it when we feel threatened (when we fear) when we envy and/or when we feel superior. All to cause – pain, but all, and I am totally serious here, all to murder the recipient – to put an end to the thing that threatens or bothers us. To exact our sovereign will upon them. Simultaneously, in and through their deaths we feel justified and are able to even turn them into a morality tale to protect our person, our tribe, our way of life, as if to say to the world once they are gone:

“See, if you are like them, if you look or think or act like them, the result is death. Don’t be like them.”

This is especially true in religion and religious confrontation. The Mormons as a group are great at doing this. The overt warning is:

If you leave the Mormon church your life will fall apart.

Then a person leaves the Mormon church. And the members are unkind to them, mean, often with words spoken and online. But most often by acting like they don’t really exist. This treatment from people who were once calling you brother or sister serve as little doses of death to the individual and over time, if they are not strong or if lack a support system, they begin to sort of fall apart with a certain percentage becoming alcoholics and some even dying premature deaths. And these become a warning to the rest of the Mormon world – reaffirming the morality tale to never leave the church.

The whole thing is more than emphasized in their temple rites as Satan himself tells people that if they do not live up to everything they have agreed to in the temple that they would be in His power. Think about this! What more would an enemy want than to have the person they fear, envy, have been hurt by or feel superior to than to have them die? This is why the driving force behind mean words, unkind sentiments toward others is nothing more than a watered-down version of homicide. Murder. And the act of homicide comes straight from the heart. This is how John was able to say, “if you hate your brother you are a murderer.”

Personal Experiences

I speak against Calvinism, the Trinity, eternal punishment and futurismThe belief that end-times prophecies are still future—TGNN teaches they were fulfilled in 70 A.D. More. The Calvinists, and Trinitarians (one in the same often) and lovers of hell and futurism, deliver packets of words PERSONALIZED to me and my person. The hope? That he dies. Why? Because the threat to Calvinism, Trinitarianism, eternal punishment would be removed and the morality tales would be set and in place to regurgitate forever more. And so the response of mean, unkind words. Within the realm of Christianity, every unkindness, every mean word, every slander we make, consciously or subconsciously, is an attempt to get our supposed enemies to die. Because we are civilized and afraid of punishment from God (and Man), most of us won’t kill people outright but many people are more than willing to be mean, and unkind with words.

Words of Life and Death

We see what I am trying to say played out in the life of Jesus. His ministry was to the lowly – he was feared for this. It was initially filled with miracles and popularity, which was terrifying to the powers that be. His ministry was truth. He was hated for that. His ministry confronted the established order. They were angry with Him for that. And the initial reactions from those who had all of these resentments toward him were… words, mean words, unkind claims, gossip, all while they gathered together in a group against him (because we feel safe and more right in groups, don’t we?) and then ultimately we see what their Words led to – them actually killing him. Speaking the truth he hurt them – they wanted to hurt him back. He frightened them by challenging what they built their life upon. They envied him, and they felt that they were more powerful than the uneducated Galilean. And the words flew. Like our words fly. Like my words have flown.

The Power of Words

Conversely, we all have the choice, the daily minute to minute opportunity, to refuse our natural murderous natures, and to instead speak Words of Life. They are incomprehensibly powerful. We meet a man is drowing in the dark words of death leveled against him by others. You come along and with a word or two of hope and rebalance his life. A woman is losing faith, she feels outcast, unworthy, failing in the faith – you choose to give her life, words of life and living, filling her soul with Him. And she then goes on to do the same for others. Condemnations and harsh criticisms are death. But the Word of God are light, and truth and life from love.

The Choice We Make

We choose, every time we meet someone, every engagement we have with them, to receive them, encourage them, to fill them with life, or to contribute to their hopeful death. I for one am going to work harder on saying only words that lend to life. This does not mean we do not speak truth – but that we speak the truth with the intent to sustain and promote life – not death. I think this is a message where the import is not readily seen or known, but didn’t Yeshua even say:

36 That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

As sobering as this is, I think it’s a reality – just saying. (wink)

Comment below and tune in tomorrow night – had on heart of the Matter!