Eleven weeks behind us. We have looked at the Big Bang and Genesis 1:1, at QED and the omnipresence of God, at wave-particle duality and the unseen realities, at entanglement and the body of Christ, at the quantum eraser and divine omniscience, at vibrating strings and the spoken Word, at extra dimensions and the heavenly realms, at time and the eternal God, and at the four faithful readings of Genesis. Each week has been a different angle on the same central claim: God speaks; reality answers.
This last week is application. Physics is interesting, theology is essential, but information that does not change the way you walk into next Tuesday is information you have not really received. So we ask: If we live in a spoken world, what does it mean to live well in it? The biblical answer is simple and uncomfortable. We were made in the image of a speaking God. We are little speakers within the great speaking. Our words matter.
26καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν… 27καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, κατ' εἰκόνα Θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν, ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ἐποίησεν αὐτούς.26Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’ 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
θάνατος καὶ ζωὴ ἐν χειρὶ γλώσσης, οἱ δὲ κρατοῦντες αὐτῆς ἔδονται τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτῆς.Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
πᾶς λόγος σαπρὸς ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ὑμῶν μὴ ἐκπορευέσθω, ἀλλ' εἴ τις ἀγαθὸς πρὸς οἰκοδομὴν τῆς χρείας, ἵνα δῷ χάριν τοῖς ἀκούουσι.Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
5οὕτω καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα μικρὸν μέλος ἐστὶ καὶ μεγαλαυχεῖ. Ἰδοὺ ὀλίγον πῦρ ἡλίκην ὕλην ἀνάπτει… 9ἐν αὐτῇ εὐλογοῦμεν τὸν Θεὸν καὶ πατέρα, καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ καταρώμεθα τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τοὺς καθ' ὁμοίωσιν Θεοῦ γεγονότας· 10ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ στόματος ἐξέρχεται εὐλογία καὶ κατάρα. οὐ χρή, ἀδελφοί μου, ταῦτα οὕτω γίνεσθαι.5So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!… 9With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
καὶ αὐτός ἐστι πρὸ πάντων καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν.And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Image-Bearers of the Speaking God
Genesis 1:26 says God made humanity in his image. The image is many things, but one of them is unmistakable: God speaks, and we are the only creature on the planet that speaks back. Animals communicate; only humans linguistically symbolize. The image of God in us includes our tongue. If the universe is a sustained Word, then we are little speakers participating in that speaking. We do not create matter with our mouths, but we create realities with them — covenants, promises, blessings, curses, marriages, songs, prayers, stories, lies, truth.
Speak Life
Proverbs 18:21 is one of the most underestimated verses in scripture. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Not death and life are influenced by the tongue; they are in it. James 3 puts it even more starkly: with the same mouth we bless God and curse people made in his image, and this ought not to be so. After eleven weeks of appreciating that the world is sustained by the speech of God, the application to our own speech is not optional. We were made to bless. To use the tongue for anything else is to use it against the grain of creation.
Agree With What God Has Spoken
The deepest spiritual discipline of the Christian life is learning to agree with what God has spoken — about himself (he is good), about the world (it is fallen but redeemable), about other people (they bear his image), and about you (you are loved, you are called, you are being made new). Most Christian struggle is at root a refusal to agree with something God has said. Most Christian peace is found by quietly agreeing again. The Greek word translated confess (homologeô) literally means to say the same thing as. Confession is agreement. To live well in a spoken world is to spend your days saying back what God has already said.
And Now, the Sending
You are not noise. You are music in his singing. Your words have weight in a universe sustained by his Word. Walk into the next twelve weeks of your life remembering that the Logos who holds your atoms in place is also the Logos who has spoken his pleasure over you in Christ. Speak life. Bless your enemies. Tell the truth. Sing to the Lord with all your heart. And when you preach the gospel to any creature, remember: the same word that holds the brick wall together is the word that holds the universe together is the word that has come to save you. Speak that word.
Pleasant Springs Church — Discipleship School