When I think of the Book of James, some of the following are passages that come to mind: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally..." (1:5); "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." (1:8); "Every good and perfect gift is from above..." (1:17); "But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only..." (1:22)—and that is only part of chapter one. I could have continued on in chapter one, and then said just as much about the other chapters in this wisdom-packed little book, but you get the picture. However, one of the three things that I think about the most in this little book, is all the pointed things that God has to say about the tongue (the other two are— the relationship between faith and works and the brevity of life when it is described as a vapor).
James pens many things about the tongue, "If a man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain." (1:26); he also talks about how, in the same way that a horse can be turned with only a bit and a bridle in his mouth and a ship can be controlled by the rudder, so our lives can be controlled by our tongue (3:2-4); and he writes about how every animal can be tamed, but the tongue, "can no man tame, it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison." (3:7-8); and then the one that pictures the tongue so perfectly in my mind, is the picture of the tongue being a kindling for a great fire (3:5).
I am sure that many people have seen the devastating effects of a house fire or the far-reaching, absolutely disastrous results of a forest/bush fire. Scenes of the utter devastation of the California fires and those in the Pacific Northwest help us to see what an out-of-control fire can do to a landscape and anything in its path; then there are stories like that of the Black Saturday fires in Australia, in February of 2009, where 173 people were killed, 414 were injured, and over one million animals were killed. When taken in light of this passage, all of these stories can make you see the things that you say, in a more serious way.
When I think of the tongue in light of this portion of Scripture, I cannot help but think of a few analogies between a fire and the tongue. Firstly, whether a fire is accidental or arson, the effects are basically the same. We may be unaware of what to say in a particular situation, but if we remember Paul's words in Colossians 4:6 "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."—then it will help us filter our words. Secondly, although a fire may be contained, containment is rarely an option when it comes to our speech. Once it is spoken, (and in today's society, maybe even recorded) there is no control over where it goes or how far it spreads. An apology should be given, but that may only splash water on an already raging inferno. Lastly, our online comments can be classified in the same way as other words we say, and I think the Psalmist gave us a good guide for those things when he wrote, "Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile" (34:13).
As James closes that thought in Scripture, he brings out an interesting fact that is sometimes overlooked in this passage. We as Christians, use our mouths to tell people about our awesome God; and then we turn around, and with that same tongue, we curse mankind who is created in his image; he tells us "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren these things ought not to be" (3:10). Taking all these things into account, perhaps Paul ties it together well, when in his letter to the church at Ephesus he says, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers" (4:29).
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