Proverbs says A soft word turns away wrath, but does that mean our words should always be soft?

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A Case For Hard Words

“Hard Words produce soft hearts and soft words produce hard hearts.”

Characteristics of Hard Words

1. Full of truth

2. Elevate God and His commands

3. Firm against evils

4. Direct 

5. Gracious as we all are sinners

The Goal of hard words:

1. the goal is for people to follow the Lord and not deceptive sin or lies Soft hearts lead to a love of God and His commands (not to be a “sin sniffer” or to be self-righteous)

2. Leads to work for the Lord – when our hearts are soft, we are ready to do the work of God and not busy ourselves with fruitless endeavors. 

3. To glorify God and build His church

This Desiring God article is called Polite Villains of the Universe and Greg Morse is addressing some villainy that we miss sometimes – Christian tone police who find themselves siding with the godless culture than with the Truth of the Word.

Mr. Morse says this: 

“This makes one of the common arbiters of truth today, even adopted by many within the church, such a perilous one: tone. Our flesh gravitates toward friendliness, inspiration, coddling, affirmation. Nice blasphemy, spoken between stories of one’s family, is more popular and better received by some professed Christians than plainly spoken Christian truth about sin and unbelief. Paint with rich blues and yellows, and it matters little what lies you tell; speak the truth, and you must keep your voice pleasant and unthreatening.”

Tone should not be an arbiter of Truth. Truth is truth. Can we say something with gentleness and respect? Yes. But Saying something true might not always come across, no matter how we say it, as gentle to a world that hates God and His commands. 

He Goes on to say:

“Those who make it their business to faint and complain at every verbal shot fired against error, why do you aid and abet the blasphemers? No sooner do the faithful speak than you come by to hush them. Should we whisper to a sleeping world? Should we pretend we do not believe what we say? Should we never speak to be heard or glow with anger at the wolves’ treatment of the sheep? While the sons of hell spew their heresies into the microphone without censure, must the sons of God be kept to inside voices? Can Christians never reprove, rebuke, or exhort? Is nothing at stake but impropriety?”

The world has a narrative that is opposed to God. The world is loud. The world is demanding. The world is unforgiving. So when we say things and the world gets upset, it doesn’t mean we are saying the wrong things or even say the right things in the wrong way. – https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/polite-villains-of-the-universe

Another podcast that addresses this: Plodcast 153: How Liberalism Grows