A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
A gentle, calm and loving reply turns fury and wrath aside and averts anger, while harsh and angry words spoken in the same spirit stir up anger and make it greater and worse. A soft answer is a tender, restrained and kind reply given even when provoked or spoken to unkindly, while grievous words are sharp, hasty, domineering and vindictive words spoken in a hard tone. Silence offered with patience and a forbearing spirit can itself be that soft answer, letting anger die away, while answering an angry person with many words usually stirs greater fury. Such gentle words have healing power to soothe troubled minds, restore relationships and bring peace, and they win and reform people more effectively than severity, faultfinding and censure, which harden hearts and put them beyond reach. Giving this reply calls for self-control, a bridled tongue and refusal to vent passion, yet it is not weakness, for it must be joined with heroic courage, firm principle and steadfast resistance to evil.
Meaning of Its Words
A soft answer is a gentle, calm, loving, controlled, tender, restrained, pleasant and kind reply, given even when provoked and irritated and when spoken to unkindly or untruly. Such gentleness turns fury and wrath aside and averts anger, and it carries healing power to restore relationships. Replying in the same angry spirit stirs up anger, provokes more anger, and makes it greater and worse. Patience under trial is shown by giving that gentle reply instead of harsh speech, staying calm and unexcited so that neither one's own soul nor associates are injured and respect is not lost.
Grievous words are harsh, angry, sharp, hasty, fretful, domineering, vindictive, dictatorial and discouraging words, spoken in a hard, rasping tone. Speaking sharply in that way stirs up strong passions, stirs up strife, creates conflict, and makes peace difficult to restore. Such speech can separate friends and contribute to the loss of souls.
The verse sets forth two opposite results from two opposite kinds of speech. A gentle reply turns anger away, while an angry or grievous reply provokes it and causes it to grow. Answering anger with anger makes matters worse, but calm words help prevent conflict.
Silence offered with tenderness, patience, restraint and a forbearing spirit can itself be the soft answer. Meeting anger without retaliation, sometimes by remaining silent, lets anger quickly die away and prevents further provocation. Answering an angry person with many words usually stirs greater fury and makes the anger greater. Bridling the tongue and refusing harsh, impatient replies is therefore how victory is gained in trials of patience.
How Gentleness Overcomes Anger
Gentle, loving words carry healing power to restore relationships, soothe troubled minds, bring peace to the heart, make the way smoother, relieve distress and hidden sorrow, and make way for love. Kindness and composure under provocation, answering calmly even when met with passionate or unfair words, with tact and courtesy, soothes troubled minds and benefits the sick. Answers should be tender and sympathetic because hidden sorrow may burden the questioner, and a few helpful words or a prayer can lift that burden, while abrupt or harsh speech only adds to pain. In charge of other workers, gentle words break down obstinacy and warm hearts in gratitude when mistakes are not met with stinging rebuke, binding hearts together in love and esteem and confidence, while severity, masterly dictation and wounding words create dislike, strengthen stubbornness and put hatred in place of love. Associates are to be treated as one wishes to be treated, with the same love that meets mistakes with love, for gentle speech makes way for love while harsh and dictatorial speech drives it away.
Mild measures, gentle answers and pleasant words are more effective in reforming, winning and saving people than severity, harshness, faultfinding and censure. A conciliatory spirit with pleasant words, forgiveness and sincere praise wins trust and establishes people in the right way, while unkindness can put people beyond reach. Continual censure darkens lives and may harden people against what is right. Truth spoken gently and in love wins people from error, trusting God to give it power and the Holy Spirit to apply it to the soul, while impatient, hasty or discourteous speech shuts hearts and prevents reform. A gentle, loving word calms anger and subdues a hasty temper and wilful disposition more effectively than faultfinding and censure.
A gentle reply turns away anger and prevents conflict, while harsh words provoke it, for anger answered with angry words grows. Patience and self-control in speech, a bridled tongue and well-regulated temper, influence others for good, restrain temper, speak rightly, bring peace and benefit those around. Gentle, restrained speech with a soft, persuasive tone and pleasant words preserves peace, prevents unhappiness, and wins confidence and affection, while harsh, dictatorial speech creates hurt feelings, stirs up anger and undermines respect. Harsh speech, an uncontrolled temper and words that create discord wound others, stir up strong passions and make peace difficult to restore, and guarding the tongue against them is required. Revenge and a revengeful, retaliatory reply do not conquer an enemy, heal, or bring true victory; forceful or exaggerated words provoke others, while pleasant, patient words reflect a right spirit. Speaking sharply in a hard tone, with sharp, dictatorial words in hard, rasping tones, can inflame the strongest passions, separate friends and contribute to the loss of souls.
Gideon illustrated this when he answered the angry Ephraimites with modest praise and self-forgetfulness rather than indignation, calming them and preventing division and violence. His example shows that meekness averts trouble when one is unjustly accused or censured, for a gentle, controlled reply turns away anger while harsh words provoke conflict. Giving the gentle reply that turns aside anger is a duty the Christian must always be ready to practice and can always be relied upon as God's word. In practice this requires each worker to help his brethren and each institution to help the others, carefully guarding against unnecessary losses and against temptation and trials coming to workers, avoiding friction, doing nothing to bring out new editions while others hold large stocks without consulting them, taking no course that brings loss, and dealing with equity and sanctified judgment. Gentleness, patience, meekness and kindliness in giving such a reply are essential passive virtues but not the whole of Christian life, and must be cultivated together with active virtues of force, energy, perseverance, firm principles, enduring charity and faith, so that with the courage of a hero to resist evil influence becomes a positive power for good and honorable work succeeds with courage and hope.
Courage Joined With Gentleness
A gentle reply that turns aside anger is a passive virtue, a grace and an essential Christian virtue, and a duty to be always ready to practice. Gentleness, patience, meekness and kindliness in such an answer are essential, yet they are not the whole of Christian life. They must be cultivated together with active virtues — force, energy, perseverance, firm principles, enduring charity and faith wrought into character — so that influence becomes a positive power for good and honorable work such as canvassing can succeed with courage and hope.
Gentleness does not mean weakness, lack of courage or firmness, or failure to resist evil. The one ready with the gentle reply must also have the courage of a hero, with courage and strength and firmness of character, to answer gently while bravely resisting evil. Giving the soft answer must therefore be joined with courage to resist evil rather than standing alone.
The gentle answer expresses meekness and patience formed as the soul is purified by God, showing Christ's gentleness and spirit in daily life and in daily family life. It calls for self-command and guarded speech, for forceful or exaggerated words provoke others, while pleasant, patient words reflect Christ's spirit and a revengeful reply does not heal or bring true victory. Gentle speech makes way for the love of Jesus, while harsh and dictatorial speech drives it away; in charge of other workers, gentle words break down obstinacy, warm hearts in gratitude when mistakes are not met with stinging rebuke, and bind hearts together in love and esteem and confidence, whereas severity, masterly dictation and wounding words create dislike, strengthen stubbornness and put hatred in place of love. Associates are therefore to be treated as one wishes to be treated, extending to them the same love Christ shows in meeting mistakes with love, and such conduct leaves children a clear example of Christian character.
Self-Control in Speech
The verse calls for self-control, self-command, a bridled tongue, and guarded and well-regulated speech. It requires refusing harsh, impatient, retaliatory and exaggerated words, especially when spoken to unkindly or untruly. Forceful words provoke others, while pleasant, patient, careful and kind words turn anger aside and reflect control when answering gently. Anger answered with angry or grievous words grows greater and stirs conflict and avoidable trouble, but a calm reply and even silence without retaliation lets it subside and prevents conflict. A revengeful reply does not conquer an enemy, heal, or bring true victory, and in writing and preaching the same control means speaking truth in love with care and kindness so as not to provoke prejudice and so hearts stay open.
Patience under difficulties, trials and annoyances means giving a gentle, calm reply that turns fury aside instead of harsh speech that stirs anger and provokes more. It requires moral grandeur, discipline and firmness of purpose not to vent passion and to keep every word that would dishonor Christian character from escaping the lips. The calm and unexcited person in trying positions injures neither his own soul nor his associates and does not lose respect for self or from brethren. This self-control is a valuable grace to be taught to children by precept and example, and it depends on temperate habits, since stimulating indulgences excite the nerves and lead to grievous evils of speech while healthful living leaves nerves calm and the mind able to bear reproach and provocation with uncomplaining dignity.
The verse means being determined not to become angry, self-sufficient, hasty and overbearing, and watching the spirit lest a hasty spirit conquer. It means guarding a weak point of temper as one would guard a broken limb, examining weak points of character and steadfastly refusing to yield to weakness. Evil grows into existence through repetition, and little unguarded words and actions repeated become habit and bind together like rods of steel. A gentle reply that drives anger away keeps a young man sane, while hasty, wicked indulgence of temper makes him a madman.
Obeying the verse requires seeking help, watching unto prayer, and bridling the tongue to gain victory in trials of patience. Self-control and silence when someone speaks passionately prevent the loss of blessings caused by angry, discouraging words. Answering an angry person with many words usually stirs greater fury and makes conflict worse, but a calm, restrained response quickly quiets anger and meeting it with silence allows it to die away. Soft, kind and gentle answers to a husband's provocations turn away further trouble and prove a great blessing to both husband and wife, while contention, retaliation and becoming provoked always make matters worse and bring a wrong influence into the home. Husbands and wives should therefore treat each other kindly in every circumstance, with patience, kindness, gentleness and a daily example of patience and love before the children that teaches forbearance.
Home and Family Life
In the home words and temper must be controlled, for impatient, fretful and scolding speech stirs anger and destroys peace and happiness, while restraining the temper and speaking rightly brings peace and benefits those around. Calm, pleasant words turn anger aside, but fretful or harsh words stir it up, and gentle, encouraging speech keeps anger and harshness from darkening family life. Parents must therefore guard their words and avoid scolding and fretful speech, cultivating soft tones, gentle words and expressions of approval.
Parents should especially guard speech when tired, nervous or impatient, because a single irritable word can distress the whole family. Children are especially sensitive to changing moods and need tender sympathy, kindness, forbearance and expressions of approval, and pleasant words with a cheerful home help them be happy and develop sweet dispositions, while patient speech soothes them and brings peace to the home. Gentle, restrained speech with a soft, persuasive tone and pleasant words turns away anger, prevents unhappiness, preserves peace, and wins the confidence and affection of family members. Harsh, dictatorial speech, by contrast, creates hurt feelings, stirs up anger and undermines respect.
In correcting children mothers should avoid a hasty spirit and develop the habit of speaking in gentle tones, and this brings great change within the family. Controlling speech is part of educating children to help in the household, to make the household happy and pleasant, and to prepare them for evangelistic work so that parents can present their children to God as an offering. Harsh or unkind words stir up the very worst feelings of the human heart and must never be spoken by lips God has given in the home. Answering gently when provoked is meekness and patience formed as the soul is purified, showing Christ's gentleness in daily family life, and this conduct leaves children a clear example of Christian character.
Soft, kind and gentle answers to a husband's provocations turn away further trouble and prove a great blessing to both husband and wife. Contention, retaliation and becoming provoked always make matters worse and bring a wrong influence into the home. Giving such soft answers requires watching unto prayer, seeking Jesus' help, avoiding passionate words, with patience, kindness, gentleness and a daily example of patience and love before the children, silence at times being the wisest response to unkind speech. Husbands and wives should treat each other kindly in every circumstance, teaching their children forbearance by example.
Ministry and Daily Work
Those who care for the sick are to remain kind, composed and firm, answering calmly even when met with passionate, abusive, unfair or provoking words. They are to choose words suited to the moment and use tact, courtesy and kindness to soothe troubled minds, control distress and benefit the sick. Harsh or censuring speech offends patients and leaves them resentful, so they are not to contend with patients or use harsh words. Self-control under provocation is a great conquest. A gentle, respectful reply turns away anger, while harsh or irritating words provoke it.
In ministry self-control is needed because hasty, sharp words and sharp criticism stir up strife. Such criticism harms others and is unfit for ministers of righteousness. Gentle, loving words help win people from error, while impatient, hasty or discourteous speech shuts hearts and prevents reform. Truth is to be spoken gently and in love, trusting God to give it power and the Holy Spirit to apply it to the soul. In writing and preaching this means using care and kindness and avoiding provoking prejudice, so that people may be open to the truth.
Those in charge of other workers are to use gentle speech that makes way for love, while harsh and dictatorial speech drives it away. Gentle words break down obstinacy, warm hearts in gratitude when mistakes are not met with stinging rebuke, and bind hearts together in love and esteem and confidence. Severity, masterly dictation and wounding words create dislike, strengthen stubbornness and put hatred in place of love. Associates are to be treated as one wishes to be treated, with the same love that meets mistakes with love.
The same principle requires each worker to help his brethren and each institution to help the other institutions, carefully guarding against unnecessary losses and against temptation and trials coming to workers. Care is to be exercised to avoid friction when making decisions that affect others. In practice this means avoiding friction, doing nothing to bring out new editions from one office while others hold large stocks of old editions without consulting them, taking no course that brings loss upon institutions, and dealing in all things with equity and with sanctified judgment. A gentle response averts anger and can always be relied upon.
A gentle, calm and loving reply turns fury and wrath aside and averts anger, while harsh and angry words spoken in the same spirit stir up anger and make it greater and worse. A soft answer is a tender, restrained and kind reply given even when provoked or spoken to unkindly, while grievous words are sharp, hasty, domineering and vindictive words spoken in a hard tone. Silence offered with patience and a forbearing spirit can itself be that soft answer, letting anger die away, while answering an angry person with many words usually stirs greater fury. Such gentle words have healing power to soothe troubled minds, restore relationships and bring peace, and they win and reform people more effectively than severity, faultfinding and censure, which harden hearts and put them beyond reach. Giving this reply calls for self-control, a bridled tongue and refusal to vent passion, yet it is not weakness, for it must be joined with heroic courage, firm principle and steadfast resistance to evil.
Meaning of Its Words
A soft answer is a gentle, calm, loving, controlled, tender, restrained, pleasant and kind reply, given even when provoked and irritated and when spoken to unkindly or untruly. Such gentleness turns fury and wrath aside and averts anger, and it carries healing power to restore relationships. Replying in the same angry spirit stirs up anger, provokes more anger, and makes it greater and worse. Patience under trial is shown by giving that gentle reply instead of harsh speech, staying calm and unexcited so that neither one's own soul nor associates are injured and respect is not lost.
Grievous words are harsh, angry, sharp, hasty, fretful, domineering, vindictive, dictatorial and discouraging words, spoken in a hard, rasping tone. Speaking sharply in that way stirs up strong passions, stirs up strife, creates conflict, and makes peace difficult to restore. Such speech can separate friends and contribute to the loss of souls.
The verse sets forth two opposite results from two opposite kinds of speech. A gentle reply turns anger away, while an angry or grievous reply provokes it and causes it to grow. Answering anger with anger makes matters worse, but calm words help prevent conflict.
Silence offered with tenderness, patience, restraint and a forbearing spirit can itself be the soft answer. Meeting anger without retaliation, sometimes by remaining silent, lets anger quickly die away and prevents further provocation. Answering an angry person with many words usually stirs greater fury and makes the anger greater. Bridling the tongue and refusing harsh, impatient replies is therefore how victory is gained in trials of patience.
How Gentleness Overcomes Anger
Gentle, loving words carry healing power to restore relationships, soothe troubled minds, bring peace to the heart, make the way smoother, relieve distress and hidden sorrow, and make way for love. Kindness and composure under provocation, answering calmly even when met with passionate or unfair words, with tact and courtesy, soothes troubled minds and benefits the sick. Answers should be tender and sympathetic because hidden sorrow may burden the questioner, and a few helpful words or a prayer can lift that burden, while abrupt or harsh speech only adds to pain. In charge of other workers, gentle words break down obstinacy and warm hearts in gratitude when mistakes are not met with stinging rebuke, binding hearts together in love and esteem and confidence, while severity, masterly dictation and wounding words create dislike, strengthen stubbornness and put hatred in place of love. Associates are to be treated as one wishes to be treated, with the same love that meets mistakes with love, for gentle speech makes way for love while harsh and dictatorial speech drives it away.
Mild measures, gentle answers and pleasant words are more effective in reforming, winning and saving people than severity, harshness, faultfinding and censure. A conciliatory spirit with pleasant words, forgiveness and sincere praise wins trust and establishes people in the right way, while unkindness can put people beyond reach. Continual censure darkens lives and may harden people against what is right. Truth spoken gently and in love wins people from error, trusting God to give it power and the Holy Spirit to apply it to the soul, while impatient, hasty or discourteous speech shuts hearts and prevents reform. A gentle, loving word calms anger and subdues a hasty temper and wilful disposition more effectively than faultfinding and censure.
A gentle reply turns away anger and prevents conflict, while harsh words provoke it, for anger answered with angry words grows. Patience and self-control in speech, a bridled tongue and well-regulated temper, influence others for good, restrain temper, speak rightly, bring peace and benefit those around. Gentle, restrained speech with a soft, persuasive tone and pleasant words preserves peace, prevents unhappiness, and wins confidence and affection, while harsh, dictatorial speech creates hurt feelings, stirs up anger and undermines respect. Harsh speech, an uncontrolled temper and words that create discord wound others, stir up strong passions and make peace difficult to restore, and guarding the tongue against them is required. Revenge and a revengeful, retaliatory reply do not conquer an enemy, heal, or bring true victory; forceful or exaggerated words provoke others, while pleasant, patient words reflect a right spirit. Speaking sharply in a hard tone, with sharp, dictatorial words in hard, rasping tones, can inflame the strongest passions, separate friends and contribute to the loss of souls.
Gideon illustrated this when he answered the angry Ephraimites with modest praise and self-forgetfulness rather than indignation, calming them and preventing division and violence. His example shows that meekness averts trouble when one is unjustly accused or censured, for a gentle, controlled reply turns away anger while harsh words provoke conflict. Giving the gentle reply that turns aside anger is a duty the Christian must always be ready to practice and can always be relied upon as God's word. In practice this requires each worker to help his brethren and each institution to help the others, carefully guarding against unnecessary losses and against temptation and trials coming to workers, avoiding friction, doing nothing to bring out new editions while others hold large stocks without consulting them, taking no course that brings loss, and dealing with equity and sanctified judgment. Gentleness, patience, meekness and kindliness in giving such a reply are essential passive virtues but not the whole of Christian life, and must be cultivated together with active virtues of force, energy, perseverance, firm principles, enduring charity and faith, so that with the courage of a hero to resist evil influence becomes a positive power for good and honorable work succeeds with courage and hope.
Courage Joined With Gentleness
A gentle reply that turns aside anger is a passive virtue, a grace and an essential Christian virtue, and a duty to be always ready to practice. Gentleness, patience, meekness and kindliness in such an answer are essential, yet they are not the whole of Christian life. They must be cultivated together with active virtues — force, energy, perseverance, firm principles, enduring charity and faith wrought into character — so that influence becomes a positive power for good and honorable work such as canvassing can succeed with courage and hope.
Gentleness does not mean weakness, lack of courage or firmness, or failure to resist evil. The one ready with the gentle reply must also have the courage of a hero, with courage and strength and firmness of character, to answer gently while bravely resisting evil. Giving the soft answer must therefore be joined with courage to resist evil rather than standing alone.
The gentle answer expresses meekness and patience formed as the soul is purified by God, showing Christ's gentleness and spirit in daily life and in daily family life. It calls for self-command and guarded speech, for forceful or exaggerated words provoke others, while pleasant, patient words reflect Christ's spirit and a revengeful reply does not heal or bring true victory. Gentle speech makes way for the love of Jesus, while harsh and dictatorial speech drives it away; in charge of other workers, gentle words break down obstinacy, warm hearts in gratitude when mistakes are not met with stinging rebuke, and bind hearts together in love and esteem and confidence, whereas severity, masterly dictation and wounding words create dislike, strengthen stubbornness and put hatred in place of love. Associates are therefore to be treated as one wishes to be treated, extending to them the same love Christ shows in meeting mistakes with love, and such conduct leaves children a clear example of Christian character.
Self-Control in Speech
The verse calls for self-control, self-command, a bridled tongue, and guarded and well-regulated speech. It requires refusing harsh, impatient, retaliatory and exaggerated words, especially when spoken to unkindly or untruly. Forceful words provoke others, while pleasant, patient, careful and kind words turn anger aside and reflect control when answering gently. Anger answered with angry or grievous words grows greater and stirs conflict and avoidable trouble, but a calm reply and even silence without retaliation lets it subside and prevents conflict. A revengeful reply does not conquer an enemy, heal, or bring true victory, and in writing and preaching the same control means speaking truth in love with care and kindness so as not to provoke prejudice and so hearts stay open.
Patience under difficulties, trials and annoyances means giving a gentle, calm reply that turns fury aside instead of harsh speech that stirs anger and provokes more. It requires moral grandeur, discipline and firmness of purpose not to vent passion and to keep every word that would dishonor Christian character from escaping the lips. The calm and unexcited person in trying positions injures neither his own soul nor his associates and does not lose respect for self or from brethren. This self-control is a valuable grace to be taught to children by precept and example, and it depends on temperate habits, since stimulating indulgences excite the nerves and lead to grievous evils of speech while healthful living leaves nerves calm and the mind able to bear reproach and provocation with uncomplaining dignity.
The verse means being determined not to become angry, self-sufficient, hasty and overbearing, and watching the spirit lest a hasty spirit conquer. It means guarding a weak point of temper as one would guard a broken limb, examining weak points of character and steadfastly refusing to yield to weakness. Evil grows into existence through repetition, and little unguarded words and actions repeated become habit and bind together like rods of steel. A gentle reply that drives anger away keeps a young man sane, while hasty, wicked indulgence of temper makes him a madman.
Obeying the verse requires seeking help, watching unto prayer, and bridling the tongue to gain victory in trials of patience. Self-control and silence when someone speaks passionately prevent the loss of blessings caused by angry, discouraging words. Answering an angry person with many words usually stirs greater fury and makes conflict worse, but a calm, restrained response quickly quiets anger and meeting it with silence allows it to die away. Soft, kind and gentle answers to a husband's provocations turn away further trouble and prove a great blessing to both husband and wife, while contention, retaliation and becoming provoked always make matters worse and bring a wrong influence into the home. Husbands and wives should therefore treat each other kindly in every circumstance, with patience, kindness, gentleness and a daily example of patience and love before the children that teaches forbearance.
Home and Family Life
In the home words and temper must be controlled, for impatient, fretful and scolding speech stirs anger and destroys peace and happiness, while restraining the temper and speaking rightly brings peace and benefits those around. Calm, pleasant words turn anger aside, but fretful or harsh words stir it up, and gentle, encouraging speech keeps anger and harshness from darkening family life. Parents must therefore guard their words and avoid scolding and fretful speech, cultivating soft tones, gentle words and expressions of approval.
Parents should especially guard speech when tired, nervous or impatient, because a single irritable word can distress the whole family. Children are especially sensitive to changing moods and need tender sympathy, kindness, forbearance and expressions of approval, and pleasant words with a cheerful home help them be happy and develop sweet dispositions, while patient speech soothes them and brings peace to the home. Gentle, restrained speech with a soft, persuasive tone and pleasant words turns away anger, prevents unhappiness, preserves peace, and wins the confidence and affection of family members. Harsh, dictatorial speech, by contrast, creates hurt feelings, stirs up anger and undermines respect.
In correcting children mothers should avoid a hasty spirit and develop the habit of speaking in gentle tones, and this brings great change within the family. Controlling speech is part of educating children to help in the household, to make the household happy and pleasant, and to prepare them for evangelistic work so that parents can present their children to God as an offering. Harsh or unkind words stir up the very worst feelings of the human heart and must never be spoken by lips God has given in the home. Answering gently when provoked is meekness and patience formed as the soul is purified, showing Christ's gentleness in daily family life, and this conduct leaves children a clear example of Christian character.
Soft, kind and gentle answers to a husband's provocations turn away further trouble and prove a great blessing to both husband and wife. Contention, retaliation and becoming provoked always make matters worse and bring a wrong influence into the home. Giving such soft answers requires watching unto prayer, seeking Jesus' help, avoiding passionate words, with patience, kindness, gentleness and a daily example of patience and love before the children, silence at times being the wisest response to unkind speech. Husbands and wives should treat each other kindly in every circumstance, teaching their children forbearance by example.
Ministry and Daily Work
Those who care for the sick are to remain kind, composed and firm, answering calmly even when met with passionate, abusive, unfair or provoking words. They are to choose words suited to the moment and use tact, courtesy and kindness to soothe troubled minds, control distress and benefit the sick. Harsh or censuring speech offends patients and leaves them resentful, so they are not to contend with patients or use harsh words. Self-control under provocation is a great conquest. A gentle, respectful reply turns away anger, while harsh or irritating words provoke it.
In ministry self-control is needed because hasty, sharp words and sharp criticism stir up strife. Such criticism harms others and is unfit for ministers of righteousness. Gentle, loving words help win people from error, while impatient, hasty or discourteous speech shuts hearts and prevents reform. Truth is to be spoken gently and in love, trusting God to give it power and the Holy Spirit to apply it to the soul. In writing and preaching this means using care and kindness and avoiding provoking prejudice, so that people may be open to the truth.
Those in charge of other workers are to use gentle speech that makes way for love, while harsh and dictatorial speech drives it away. Gentle words break down obstinacy, warm hearts in gratitude when mistakes are not met with stinging rebuke, and bind hearts together in love and esteem and confidence. Severity, masterly dictation and wounding words create dislike, strengthen stubbornness and put hatred in place of love. Associates are to be treated as one wishes to be treated, with the same love that meets mistakes with love.
The same principle requires each worker to help his brethren and each institution to help the other institutions, carefully guarding against unnecessary losses and against temptation and trials coming to workers. Care is to be exercised to avoid friction when making decisions that affect others. In practice this means avoiding friction, doing nothing to bring out new editions from one office while others hold large stocks of old editions without consulting them, taking no course that brings loss upon institutions, and dealing in all things with equity and with sanctified judgment. A gentle response averts anger and can always be relied upon.