Looking at a ‘Biblical View of Communication’ can be a broad spectrum, but as I’ve mentioned in past weeks, taking a scriptural approach to communication means that it should be “With Love” and “With Truth”, and this week I’d like to look at a third component to Biblical communication, which is “With Wisdom.”
The definition of wisdom is: the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action.” My simple definition would be: the balance of truth and love, with a little common sense.
Watching how people who claim to be ‘followers of Christ’ communicate with one another and to those outside of the family of God online, and sometimes even in person, can be incredibly troubling. There is at times a lack of truth, sometimes a lack of love, but most often a lack of common sense.
The above definition states that wisdom is geared toward “just judgment as to action”, which essentially means that wisdom isn’t wisdom unless action is involved. So as followers of Christ, what is the purpose of our communication? Or in other words, what is the goal of our actions? Our goal, according to Christ, is to “make disciples”, meaning to help people become the men and women they were created by God to be.
So communicating with wisdom is less about what we say (truth), or how we say it (love), but more to do with when we say it. Wisdom is recognizing the right moments to say the right things.
As followers of Christ, it’s not just saying things with the right tone, and the right amount of truth, but also at the right time. Isn’t this true for how God interacts with us? Romans 5:6 says that “…at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” God’s timing in your life has probably been just as perfect as it has been in my life. As followers of Christ, it’s important that we aren’t just truthful, that we don’t just speak with love, but also that we use wisdom as to when we speak, or don’t speak for that matter.
Here are a few questions that can help in fleshing out wisdom in your communication:
- Is now the best time to tell this person what I’m about to say?
- Is Facebook/email/a text message the best way to say this?
- If I say this now, will that help them become more like Christ, or turn them away from Christ?
Nick Poole 
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