Appendix 7. Speak Wisely

Whoever you are speaking with, if you think only of the one person in front of you listening to your words, the conversation has failed. You are talking with the person before you, but the way of speaking that succeeds keeps in mind that the words leaving your mouth may be heard by ten people, or a hundred, and sees to it that none of them would stumble even if they did hear. In other words, a conversation that tries to win over one person alone, without looking wide or far ahead, ends up stirring discord. People make this mistake often these days. Whether we are talking with our children or with one another in the church, we must speak so wisely that no one would be hurt even if ten people were listening; only then will God lift such a speaker up.

The one who spoke in just this excellent way was Jesus. He cut off decisively whatever had no spiritual worth, and even when his hearers did not accept the word at once, it took up more and more room in their hearts as time went on, and so he made them yield to the word of truth. You can see this in how all people, two thousand years later, still find themselves agreeing with what Jesus said to those around him. Jesus did not speak his own mind so much as he delivered the will of God. That is the way to speak successfully.

When you, too, convey the Lord’s will instead of trying to persuade with your own thoughts and words, those who hear will repent of their own accord, because the word itself carries authority. Conversation is not about passing on my opinions; it is about building up the other person. If you have spoken with someone, your conversation has succeeded only when not just that one person but the hundred who heard it are built up.