Watch your tongue!

 Watch your tongue!

The tongue… is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.  All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. James 3:3-10

James doesn’t mince his words when he’s talking about the tongue, does he?

Even allowing for an element of hyperbole (defined by one dictionary as “a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect”) he is obviously very keen that his readers should get the message: loose or careless words can have awesome power.

Just sense his passion…

The tongue … “is a fire”. Fire is powerful, we all know that. Used properly, of course, it’s a great thing for keeping warm, cooking, and various other uses. But if it gets out of control – well, it’s just so destructive as to be utterly terrifying.

The tongue… “is a world of evil among the parts of the body”. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but yes, I think we get the message! It “corrupts the whole body”. Ditto; but the basic drift is clear: the tongue has the power to ruin lives, as it “sets the whole course of one’s life on fire”. That’s a seriously alarming thought, don’t you think?

The tongue “is… set on fire by hell”. A bit over the top, surely? No, apparently not! Jesus said that the devil is “a liar, and the father of lies (John 8:44). Which can only mean that falsehood and deception are his weapons, invented by him alone (the first lie is reported in the garden of Eden, when the serpent convinced Eve that “you’re not going to die!” through eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:4)).

James goes on to say that the tongue is untameable. He points out that mankind has demonstrated amazing skill in bringing the animal kingdom under its control – think guide dogs for the blind or sniffer dogs helping the police, not to mention horse-trainers, lion-tamers and even snake-charmers. Wonderful! (as long as it doesn’t involve cruelty, of course).

But… that little floppy, fleshy organ inside our mouths – well, that’s a different matter altogether: “no human being can tame the tongue”.

James changes the picture here – not fire now, but poison: “a restless evil, full of deadly poison”. Take note, James is saying; every time you use your tongue for ill you are releasing lethal toxins into the atmosphere.

That phrase “restless evil” is striking. “Restless” could be translated “unstable” or “disorderly”. It’s a fact that evil in all its many forms is often marked by an unceasing and uncontrollable activism; it can’t rest. (It’s no accident that people who have an over-curious imagination coupled with an over-active mouth are often described as busybodies.)

True faith in Christ, on the other hand, is marked by peace, calm and composure.

Every day we are bombarded with words, often coarse and vulgar – on television and radio, in newspapers, plus of course the everyday interactions we have with other people. The utterly vile things that people are prepared to say on line to others they don’t like almost leave you gasping – how can people say such things!

And lies are in the very air we breathe – in anonymous opinion polls the majority of people say they have no qualms about lying if they think it will be to their advantage.

All of us can remember words spoken to us which went like arrows to our hearts. We probably pretended we weren’t bothered, that we had a “pretty thick skin”. But that wasn’t true – those words went deep and cut sharply and have since affected both our behaviour and how we think about ourselves in ways we never imagined.

Other words, thank God, had the opposite effect – words of wise advice, loving concern; words of encouragement, support, perhaps of warning.

Forgetting for a moment words spoken to us, what about words spoken by us? Don’t we all have a sense of burning shame as we remember things that we said that were cruel, heartless, untrue, insensitive or just plain stupid? This applies particularly to words spoken to the young or the specially vulnerable. It’s a disturbing question to put to ourselves: “How often have I set somebody off down a wrong path by something I said? How often have I squashed somebody’s already flat self-esteem, crushing their confidence by an unguarded word?”

It’s worth noticing that this whole section of James’s letter – from 3:1 to 3:12 – is directed particularly to people who occupy positions of influence: “Not many of you should become teachers… because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (3:1).

Listen up, you preachers, teachers, small group leaders and youth workers! – you’re going to have to account one day for your words. If that thought makes us feel uncomfortable – good! So it should.

It’s up to each of us to respond to James’s words as we see fit. But for the moment we could do worse than take on our lips the prayer of the psalmist (Psalm 141:3):

Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Amen!