Proverbs 12

Proverbs 12:18: "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."

How many of us know the truth of this proverb from experience? When I was a high school student, I was definitely one of "reckless words" and I trained myself to be able to return anyone's insult with a greater insult. It became my reputation. And I also gained the reputation of being willing to do anything for a cheap laugh. More than once, this landed me in hot water with teachers and peers. One day, though, I took it one step too far. I decided to get a cheap laugh at the expense of one of our high school teams (who did not have a very promising record), completely forgetting that the team captain was sitting just a couple rows behind me. Everyone laughed, and then realized what had just happened. Everyone (including me) turned back in horror to see the reaction of the team captain. He was clearly mad, but said nothing. After the class, I went and apologized, expecting to get hit. But he shrugged off the comment and kept walking. Later, I found out from a friend that he was fuming about the comment for hours afterwards, even leading up to the game that night. I learned the hard way that reckless words are like a sword.

As we go through Lent, we are going to be looking at a disciple with a reckless sword who hacks off a man's ear. And the words of Jesus to this disciples (Luke 22:51) ring true: "No more of this!" Violence, whether verbal or physical, is reckless and disregards the character of Christ and the image of God that we are assaulting. We live in a society of words which fill the air in headline news broadcasts and internet sites (like this one). And we gorge ourselves on words, many of which do violence to other people. Let us choose our words carefully, acknowledging that our words have the power to hurt and heal (see James 3 for a powerful passage on the power of words).

Which proverb jumped out to you this chapter?