The Spirit Filled Marriage 8: The Power of Words

Outline

• Words of Christ
• Words of the heart
• Words of power

Introduction

Words have power! With words Martin Luther King could persuade many to turn from racism. With words Winston Churchill gave courage to a nation being ravaged by war. With words a child’s self-image can be shaped for life. With words husbands and wives can build one another up. With words we can make people feel worthless and drive them towards suicide. With words we can undermine and trivialise a person’s life work. Words start wars, order executions, define perceptions, convey love, can be weapons of hate, and God uses them to save. Words have power. Being made in God’s image we cannot create nature but we can determine the course of certain created things by our words. As we move on in our look at marriage. In Ephesians 5:26 Paul is dealing with husbands loving their wives as Christ loves the church and he outlines how Christ saves us by His word, v25-27, ‘Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.’

God created the universe by His words. Jesus cast out demons, healed the sick, raised the dead and calmed storms with His words. We are born again when we hear and believe. We are sanctified by the word. The word of God is our sword in spiritual warfare. Words are situated and used by God to great effect. As we reflect on Christ’s serving His bride with the word I would like us to consider the power of words in general in marriage. We are going to follow Paul’s analogy between Christ and ourselves, looking first at His words and then ours.