The following is a portion of a series of reflections on the book War of Words by Paul David Tripp. You may also want to read the second and third reflections in this series.

Just five pages into War of Words, Paul Tripp makes this astonishing claim: “God has a wonderful plan for our words” (5). Modern evangelicalism is quick to talk about God’s plan–and God’s plans–so this statement doesn’t sound overtly different, provocative, or perhaps even book-worthy. In fact, seminaries, churches, and parachurches have made so-called Christian counseling all the rage, so another book on godly communication should fit right into the local Christian bookstore.

However, it’s the following supplemental points that Tripp makes that stir a deeper thinking:

• Sin has radically altered our agenda for our words, resulting in much hurt, confusion, and chaos.
• In Christ Jesus we find the grace that provides all we need to speak as God intended us to speak.
• The Bible plainly and simply teaches us how to get from where we are to where God wants us to be.

This is an incredibly God-centric approach to communication. Nowhere in this list or the rest of the book is there a set of four, five, or six steps toward more effective communication, getting your point across, or active listening. Instead, Tripp argues that communication is broken because of sin. This is granted by most Christian counselors. However, Tripp’s argument continues: if the solution for sin is Jesus Christ and His reconciling death, then the solution for sinful communication must be a return to Jesus Christ, not a system or set of best practices.

Tripp lays this out early on: “I am convinced that we do not understand how radically the gospel can change the way we understand and solve our communication problems” (5). There are implications that run deep here, and bear meditation. Sin, the Bible would teach, affects the whole man. Further, as Jesus Himself says, what comes out of a man simply bears witness to what is inside that man.

“Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” –Matthew 15:17-20

Communication, then, reflects our sinful hearts. Consequently, an outward approach to improving communication–writing out your thoughts before voicing them, counting to ten internally, asking questions rather than making demands–is at best an attempt to restrain the effect of sin. But does this in fact deal with the actual sin producing the poor communication? Does this outward restraint do anything other than layer a sinful heart with external moralistic behavior? No.

A Biblical approach to dealing with words, then, looks past words. The Bible and Tripp’s book demand a return to the Gospel in all its power. Jesus, identified as the Word, is the ultimate solution for our words. A Christian who seeks to “improve” their communication is in fact denying a sin problem. Sin cannot be lessened in some continuous, long-term, quantifiable manner. It can be warred against, and repented of, and forgiven; in fact, this is the Christian gospel. Jesus died and rose so that we might make war against sin, repent of sin, and be forgiven of sin.