Words Matter Week: What Speech or Document Do You Believe to be the Most Important?

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In honor of Words Matter Week, a holiday that is celebrated annually the first full week in March, the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE) is hosting a Blog Challenge with a specific daily topic Monday through Friday.

Today’s topic is: Words can change history. What speech or document do you believe to be most important. Why?

Although most would not call it a speech, and indeed the title given it by man does not do so, to me the greatest speech ever given is the Sermon on the Mount.

The so-called Beatitudes that begin the Sermon on the Mount indicate that this message deals with the inner state of mind and heart.

In the Sermon, Christ is explaining to the Jews that there is now a new dispensation, that no longer will they be under the Law, but under Grace. Here He outlines the before and after—that observing the tenets of Judaic Law is now passing from a physical obedience, to obedience of the heart.

Dr. Edward E. Hindson, Th.D.,D.Min., explains,  “While the Sermon on the Mount is not a way of salvation, neither is it only a message to those under the law, for it obviously goes beyond the law. It is a presentation of Christian discipleship which can be wrought in the soul of an individual only by the power of God.”

The spirit of Christ goes beyond the outward demand of the law. The Christian, though not under the law, is to live above the law.

Hindson continues, “In communicating the depth of His message, Jesus used a series of contrasts between the outward demand of the law and the inner attitude of heart desired by God. In this series of contrasts, we see the depth and dynamic of the teaching of Jesus Christ, the great Master Teacher. Here we discover the practical application of genuine Christian character to true spiritual living. Here we see the Gospel in action. Here is piety on the pavement of life. The Christian may live above the demands of the law and the temptations of the world because he has an inner depth of character which is the product of the divine nature within him.”

There have been many inspiring, encouraging, entertaining, or moving speeches since the day Christ stood on the side of a mountain and talked to the gathered crowd. However, if you listen to or read all those speeches that inspire, encourage, or move you, and perhaps even those that entertain, you will see that the grace and truth taught in the Sermon on the Mount, is expressed, in part perhaps, in each of those speeches.

That is why the Sermon on the Mount has my vote.