A Word About Words

Job, I think, was expressing to both writer and speaker the power of words when he said, “How forcible are right words!” It could be, the thing making him aware of this was something he said later on, “Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!” Someone has said, “Of our unspoken words we are master; of our spoken words we are servant; of our written words we are slaves.”

As a writer, I claim C.S. Lewis as my main mentor more than any other person. Though posthumously, Lewis has taught me three great truths, each from his own life and writings, the first being his intellectual humility. Second, brevity is best, most of the time; and lastly, simplicity is life’s most becoming garb, as another has put it. Dr. Bob Jones Sr. told a great revival crowd in Chicago in the forties that he was going to bring a simple message that evening, because he felt the intellects among them needed a rest.

It must have been difficult for many of the great intellectuals of Jesus’ day to listen to the Sermon on the Mount. It was so very plain. Is it any wonder we’re told, “The common people heard Him gladly.” He didn’t try to impress by flexing His intellectual muscle. He knew in Himself He could, and that was enough. It was there, if and when He needed it. But He would not sacrifice the sheep for the giraffes; He put the feed on the bottom, where both could get it. The only way the higher- up couldn’t get it would be by refusing to bow his proud neck.

Paul, one of the world’s great thinkers and intellects, wrote, “I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that [by my voice] I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an [unknown] tongue.”  I doubt seriously the Apostle would have used uncommon words in speaking to common people, without first explaining their meaning. Polished words are like the curl on a pig’s tail, they’re pretty, but they don’t give you anymore pig!”