Words of Life and Light

This month we’ll look at the power and meaning of spoken words, including words we “speak” to ourselves. We will see that God’s words are words of life and light. Our words, similarly, bring forth life and light when they spring from a heart abiding in Christ. Our words can root us in truth and build up the Body of Christ.

Before we jump into an up-close look at our own words, though, let’s start from the very beginning.

In the Beginning…

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5)

There was darkness. And God spoke. And there was light.

I wonder what we would have heard, had we been there to witness creation.

I wonder what we would have seen.

I wonder…  God’s speech brought the heavens and the earth into being. His words were the act of creation, bringing shape to the formless. I wonder what is formed by my words.

And Another Beginning

About 1500 years after the Book of Genesis was written, John began his Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

Here we see that Christ, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (v. 9), was not only present from the time of creation but is the Word by which all was created.

The Greek John uses for “Word” in this passage is Logos. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Logos means “a word, yet not in the grammatical sense… a word which, uttered by the living voice, embodies a conception or idea.”

Creative Writing… and Speaking

In these two foundational passages, I see that words bring into being thoughts and ideas. The act of speaking is itself creative, adding form to that which was previously private and silent. What power.

Christ, Logos, the Word made flesh, is the embodiment of the Father’s light, life, and love. And He dwells within us!

As we begin this month, I pray that He “may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17b-19).

And may that love spill out in our words, forming our lives and shaping those around us.