AP

2 Corinthians 10:1, 10  By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you – I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” when away! … …  For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”

There is an important lesson for us all today in what Paul is writing to the Church in Corinth.  In our face-to-face spoken word, our tone of voice, our facial expression, and our body language generally, all make a significant contribution to the ‘message’ we are trying to get across, a message that cannot be conveyed in the same way in the written or texted word.

Too often a texted or written word has caused unnecessary damage to relationships because it is not interpreted in the way we intended.  This is probably even more the case with texted messages than with mailed letters.  When we write to someone, we have more time to reflect on how our words might come across, and to make appropriate adjustments.  In delicate situations, hasty texted responses can easily do irreparable damage that could have been obviated in the instant give-and-take of a phone call, or more especially of face-to-face conversation with the amazing healing power of a genuine friendly smile – or, in the ‘olden days’ when it was less likely to be taken wrongly, of a gentle touch or hug!

It is clear from all the correspondence of the Apostle Paul that we have available to us, that he had a truly ‘soft’, concerned and caring pastoral heart.  His own ‘Damascus Road’ experience of the love and mercy of God would have implanted this deep within him.  But some of the urgent difficult situations he had to deal with in the nascent Early Church, when the written word was all that was available to him in his extended missionary journeys, meant that he too easily came across as a bit of ‘hard-liner’ which he never intended, or wanted, to be.
– Bruce Christian