Praise the Lord! We pray, and we believe that we have the Spirit of power upon us. We also speak the word of God to others at all times and in every place. Then, what kind of word should we speak? There are ten major categories of the word of God: the word of grace, the word of truth, the word of the gospel, the word of life, the healthy word, the edifying word, the good word, the word of righteousness, the word of knowledge, and the word of wisdom. First, the word of grace and the word of truth are a pair. Second, the word of the gospel and the word of life are another pair. Third, the healthy word and the edifying word are also a pair. The good word and the word of righteousness are the fourth pair, and the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom are the final pair. Altogether these constitute ten categories of the word of God.
To speak the word of God to people is to speak these ten major categories of the word. This does not mean that besides these there are no other categories of God’s word; rather, it means that on the whole, these are what people need the most today. Both believers and unbelievers need the grace of God and the truth of God; they also need the gospel and life. They need the healthy word and the edifying word; furthermore, they need the good word, the word of righteousness, the word of knowledge, and the word of wisdom.
Let me give you a simple explanation. The Lord Jesus is the Word of God. John 1:1 and 14 say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” Read footnotes 145 and 171 on John 1:14 and 17 in the Recovery Version. Those footnotes explain clearly that grace is God coming to be enjoyed by us. The Lord Jesus is God. When He became flesh, He brought God to man, and the God whom He brought is grace. When God is enjoyed by us, He is grace. At the same time, when this God is realized by us, He is reality, which is the proper meaning of the word “truth.” The word truth in Greek means reality. God is grace and God is reality. When God is enjoyed by us, He is grace, and when God is realized by us, He is reality.
The third category is the word of the gospel. The gospel is the Lord Jesus Himself. Acts 5:42 clearly says, “They did not cease...bringing the good news of Jesus as the Christ.” The Greek word translated “bringing the good news” is a form of the verb euaggelizo, which carries the connotation of preaching the gospel. Hence, the word in Acts 5:42 may be rendered “preaching the gospel,” indicating that the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Romans 1:1, 3 speaks of “the gospel... concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Thus the gospel is the Son of God. Therefore, to speak the word of the gospel is to speak the Lord Jesus. The more we speak the Lord Jesus, the more we speak the word of the gospel.
It is a pity that very few Christians labor on the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is a wonderful Person, and His name is called Wonderful (Isa. 9:6). He is God and He is man; He is the complete God and He is also a perfect man. Why do we say that He is the complete God? Because God is triune—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Jesus is not only the Son, but He is also the Father (John 14:7-11; 10:30), and He is also the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). He is God who became flesh (John 1:1, 14). This God is not only God the Son, but He is also God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. He is the entire and the complete God.
God became flesh by entering into the womb of Mary. Therefore, in His conception there were both the divine element and the human element. He obtained the divine element through the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18, 20) and the human element through Mary. Conception requires two elements; one element alone cannot cause conception. For conception to take place there must be two elements. The Lord Jesus has these two elements: one is divine, and the other, human. Therefore, the One who was born was a God-man. He was truly God and also truly man. You must believe and thoroughly understand these things. Then when you speak to people, you will surely impress them.
One of the major points of the gospel is life. John said, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld, and our hands handled concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). Here the Word of life denotes the Lord Jesus. When you read the context you will see that the Word of life is the Lord Jesus Himself. If you have not labored and have not learned, how can you speak? I am only giving you an outline here, but you must spend time regularly to dig out from the Bible the word of grace, and you must also spend time to dig out the word of truth. You must also dig out the word of the gospel, which is the word concerning the Lord Jesus, and also the word of life. Store all these kinds of words within you, and when you speak to people, use them according to the situation.