We’ve been talking about the power of words.

These days we tend to devalue them. When someone says “actions speak louder than words” they are commenting on this very trend. While our actions should certainly back up our words, words can still have incredible power on their own.

In Jesus’ day his words were thought to have such power in and of themselves that the Gospel writers sometimes preserved his original words in Aramaic. They translated them into Greek (and today we translate them into English), but the Gospel writers sometimes went out of their way to preserve his words in his native tongue so that future generations could know exactly what he said in certain moments.

One example is when he healed a man who was deaf and mute in Mark 7:34: “He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ (which means ‘Be opened!).” 

In the middle of the Gospel, Jesus asked his disciples about his identity. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah” (Mark 8:29). He finally got it right. 

But note the importance of saying it out loud. This story is sometimes called Peter’s “confession.” It means to “openly declare.” Fred Craddock once said that you don’t really know what you believe until you hear yourself say it.* I would agree. We ponder things in silence, but it’s often not until we speak our beliefs out loud that we truly take ownership of them.

Eugene Peterson recalls a man who stood there in silence on Sunday morning as the rest of the congregation said the Apostles’ Creed. Then one day he said the first line, “I believe,” but that was it. A few Sundays later he added the first line. As the weeks went on he added more and more lines. Eventually he confessed the whole thing, took ownership of his new faith, and was baptized.

Speak your faith in Jesus. Out loud. And let God use your own good confession to encourage others and advance his good purposes in the world.

Notes and extra content:

–“How can our spoken words beat back the powers of darkness?” Click here. Sermon. January 26, 2025.

–*Fred Craddock, Craddock Stories (St. Louis: Chalice, 2001), 113.

–**Eugene Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir (HarperOne, 2012), 256.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.