The book of Proverbs communicates that there is power in the tongue. As such, author Daniel Darling in his new book are coming to the mat to challenge the church to live up to the mantel that God has placed in us as Christ-followers.
As soon as Daniel said hello it became evident, he was a man who loved words.
“My parents had two newspapers delivered to our house daily, so I fell in love with reading newspapers,” Darling mused in an interview with Christian Headlines. His real love for writing and reading kicked into high gear when he had an English teacher tell him that he was a talented writer. This teacher believed that Darling had what it takes to succeed in the writing industry.
This encouragement may explain why Darling has tried to live up to the calling that God has placed in his life to deliver the truth to God’s people through the written word.
“We serve a God who speaks. The Bible has much to say about watching the words that we say,” Darling shared, expressing his concern about the way Christ-followers speak to one another and non-believers.
Now that the election season is winding down, he hopes that Christ-followers will adopt the teachings of Jesus and use their words to influence those around them. “It has never been easier to get our words out to people,” Darling states. He asserts that if we are going to use our influence, we need to be mindful of these five phrases:
1. Be slow to speak
“Often people think that because they’re on social media it doesn’t matter what they say,” Darling said, before noting that that could not be further from the truth. Darling believes that despite our location we need to be slow to speak and remember who we are as Christ-followers. For Darling, the verse that he tries to emulate is I Peter 3:15, which is a reminder that God has called us to be holy.
2. Know the details
In a fast-paced world, it is easy to get ahead of ourselves and disregard the details.
“Proverbs is a book of knowledge. It is important to know the details of what we’re speaking to others,” Darling told Christian Headlines. The writer also asserts that when it comes to news stories, we should read the article, not just the headline.
3. Be careful of confirmation bias
As a rule of thumb for avoiding confirmation bias, Darling says we should ask ourselves if we want the story to be true. If so, we should be skeptical.
“In the seven-days-a-week, twenty-fours-a-day news cycle that we live in, we must be on guard about who and how we receive our information to make sure that it does not fit our biases. As believers, we should be okay with reading from a variety of news outlets and not just one.”
4. Our words draw others to Christ
Darling believes that as Christ-followers we must remember that Christ is watching and holding us accountable for what we say and do. In avoiding internet rage, we must remember that we have been called to be slow to anger and rage with our words.
5. God loves our offline versions
“I love to engage online, however, it’s not real life.” Darling believes that far too many Christ-followers have put too much stock into their online presence. “Don’t be someone who lives online only,” he asserts.
Photo courtesy: Priscilla du Preez/Unsplash
