Yes, they can be hurtful or healing. As far as no, if I can tell a little story... I want to a commencement exercise and a retired congressman gave the speech. According to him, "That's a good idea!" meant no. "Hey, I'll have to look into that." meant no. Could you contact my office later? Meant no. And on and on. We were brought up to be polite. Now we hang up on unsolicited callers. And we are stopping donating to charities, worrying about scams. We are getting fed up with causes. IMHO But it is a good discussion starter, thank you
Gotta agree with you Ed. As an example: One of the powerful statements in the Bible is found in John 1 and says: In the beginning was the WORD (Logos) The Word was with God, the Word was God, the same was with God in the beginning. Now, the OP says, “the Word has no power” so if it is indicative of the statement in John I, I would have to differ. If we did indeed know who said it and in what context and moreover, if there was more to it than that it would be a little more understandable.
Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality." - Edgar Allan Poe.
Not right now, thanks. I'm kinda tired. But seriously, permit me to reword: Then there would be no VERBAL threats (grunts and screams excluded.)
Or praises, I kinow over the years I'ce used words to really hurt people but I think it hurt me the most, not being able to completely forgive myself for long time. James chapter 3. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.
Of course words have power. I'm not much of a Biblical scholar but I don't see any indication in the OP that references a Bible verse. ("Word" is not capitalized, either... as in Word of God, which as I understand it is another name for the Bible.) Not sure I'm getting it.
Beth the word, word is used in all kinds of ways and although it didn't mention the Bible the ,it also didn't say not to. Iy also didn't mention Websters Dictionary and its meanings, so we used it in whatever ways we chose to, Your a little stickler, but I like you.