Taming the Tongue: The Power and Responsibility of Words

You might think that your words don't have that much power, that what you say doesn't matter all that much. Might matter what President Trump says, might matter what Governor Healey says. It might matter what uh Mayor Sarno or Mayor Johnson have to say. Maybe it matters what your boss has to say or some other more influential or eloquent person. But does it really matter what you say? [00:55:29]

But to wake us up, James helps us to see the danger and reminds us not to be fooled by the tongues relatively small size. He says in James 3:2:5, "For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well." [00:56:09]

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. So James gives us several illustrations of small things that have a big effect. First, he says, a bit in the horse of a mouth is a small thing that has a big effect guiding the whole body of the horse. Do you have any riders here? Any equestrians? maybe one or two. I'm not much of a rider. [00:56:49]

This is what James is telling us, not only about horses, but about our tongues. A ship's rudder, similarly, is minuscule compared to its size. It requires enormous amounts of energy to propel the ship forward. In James's case, wind. In our case, we might think of engines. Nevertheless, the direction of the ship is set by parts that are relatively small compared to the overall size of the ship, like a rudder. [00:57:53]

The Bible doesn't teach us a magical view of words as if just speaking things makes them so. You'll hear some charismatic Christians and prosperity preachers talking about speaking things into existence. This is not something that the scripture teaches that we can do. God did that when he created the world exhil. They didn't have any material before. And yet he created the material world out of nothing. [01:00:05]

But this isn't to say that your words don't have profound effects or bring about things that otherwise would not have been. That doesn't happen by magic. It happens by the communication of meaning and the expression of what's in your heart. Your will, in other words. And just because you say it doesn't mean it will happen. Even if you repeat it over and over again, but your words are still carrying power through meaning and the expression of who you are. [01:00:49]

Hopefully, you've had the opposite experience, too. When someone came to you discouraged and you were able to speak the right word at the right moment to bring energy and vitality to their spirit again, to offer hope to their soul, and you watched their face brighten, and you knew what it meant, that life is in the tongue. [01:01:53]

But listen to what Jesus says about what our tongues reveal and how they will be judged. He says, "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers. How can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. [01:03:18]

Your tongue has a profound impact on your life and on others. Our words aren't all powerful, but they certainly aren't of little consequence either. and they reveal what's really going on in our hearts. Often when we speak out of anger or we speak out of bitterness or we speak out of jealousy or in our insecurity or our pride, we will follow up a statement we kind of wish we hadn't said by saying something like, "I didn't mean that." Or, "That's not really me." [01:03:51]

No. You said it. And where did it come from? Jesus says, now you can fool yourself and tell yourself, "Well, it's just words." But Jesus says, "It came from the treasure in your heart. And your words revealed what was really there all along." In other words, it's kind of like a release valve for what's really happening inside. Our words don't reveal who we aren't. Our words reveal who we are really. [01:04:45]

If you haven't thought about how you use your words in a while, if you think of words as unimportant little things not affecting very much. If you let your tongue wag in conversations unrestrained, but never evaluate how it's impacting you and others, it's time to tame it by paying attention to something so small, but with so much power. James warns us about teachers. He alerts us to the outsized influence of the tongue. [01:05:27]

But now he turns his attention to showing us how really evil it can be. He transitions with the theme of small things that make huge impacts by talking about sparks that can set a forest on fire. And then he moves on to talk about the tongue's propensity toward evil. He says this, beginning in verse six, "And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. [01:06:07]

And James uses extreme language. The tongue stains the whole body, sets the entire course of a person's life ablaze, and is set on fire by hell itself. And this may sound outrageous, but it isn't difficult to think of examples of speech changing someone's life or of vitriol and hatred ruining someone. Social media, comment sections, and long- form podcasts have become playgrounds for hell's fire. [01:07:34]

You know how that little piece of gossip burns in your mind until you finally give in and release it? You know the feeling of trying not to share that little tidbit and finally giving in, reframing it as insight or a prayer request. You know those scary movie trailers that talk about something lurking beneath the surface of the wake of the lake and evil that never rests until it is unleashed on the world. This is what James says the tongue is like. [01:09:22]

But listen, you'll never tame your tongue unless your heart is first submitted to Christ. Because your tongue will always eventually produce what's going on on the inside because out of the overflow of the heart, Jesus said, the mouth speaks. It's like a pressure release valve. Eventually, it's going to say, "What's going on?" So, maybe you're at a point in your life where you're recognizing, "I've sinned," to use biblical language or things are not right and I feel guilty to use cultural language. [01:19:32]