Depends on who's talking. Bill Clinton was paid approximately $50 million in speaker fees in 2007 (according to Business Week). Daily News says Clinton averages $187,000 per speech to say a few words. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is paid handsomely for talking, too. He rakes in up to $200,000 per speech. At a normal speech rate of 150 words per minute, he would utter 4,500 words in a 30-minute speech, netting roughly $44 per word.

Some talk isn't so cheap. It's especially expensive if it replaces action.

Countless kids talk about furthering their education. But for many, it's just talk. And it costs them plenty. On average, a person with a high school diploma can expect to earn $1 million less over a lifetime than someone with a college degree. Talking about adding a master's degree earns nothing. Getting the degree adds $400,000 to your lifetime earnings. Talking about maybe getting a Ph.D? Doing it increases earnings by $1.5 million over a bachelor's degree.

Talk is costly in marriage, too. Many talk about loving their spouse. Couples make grand promises to love each other faithfully through thick and thin "till death do us part." But if it's all talk instead of actually living out that kind of love, the emotional cost (and often the financial cost) is enormous.

The one place where talk is most expensive if it replaces action is in our relationship with God. Most Americans talk about being Christian. Over 80 percent self-identify as Christian, according to Gallup. But actually living like Christ did — avoiding sin, loving neighbors and enemies, putting the needs of others first, etc. — that gets harder. Only 56 percent of us rate religion as "very important" in life. It would seem that for nearly one-third of us, it's just talk.

Employers don't give raises to those who only talk about getting more education. Spouses are not happy with a mate who says, "I love you" but doesn't show it. Yet somehow we seem to expect God to be satisfied with us even if all we do is talk.

Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).

Talk without action can be very expensive. Lord, help me do your will, not just talk about it.

Keith Wishum is minister, Williams Road Church of Christ, Americus.