Series: Youth for Jesus, Number: Vol. 3, No. 36
“The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:6NIV)
Self-control is a major virtue that everyone who does not want his life ruined before it even gets started needs to possess. And one area of our lives in which we need to cultivate self-control is that of the way we use our tongues. In other words, we need to learn to control what we say with our tongues. Otherwise trouble will never be far from us.
To say the fact, one major reason some people will never have any moment of peace in this life is that they do not know how to control their tongues. They just say anything that comes into their mind and in exactly the way it comes into it. It is true that we may not always be able to control what thoughts come into our mind. But we surely can control what we do with those thoughts. I mean that we can determine which among the thoughts of our hearts we give expression to with our mouths and which ones we are going to remain silent about. And that is because it is not everything we think in our hearts that will do us or others good, if we should express it with our mouths.
Unfortunately, some people don’t even think at all before they open their mouths to speak. Once they are angry, depressed, happy or excited, they will just say anything that enters their mind, without considering how it may affect them or others. So, they end up putting themselves, others or even generations of people in some difficult situations or in some path of destruction.
Look, for example, at the case of one Herod of bible days (Mark 6:17-29). This man on a particular birthday of his gave a banquet for his high chiefs, army commanders and the leading men of Galilee. And was anything wrong with that? No! But when the daughter of his wife, Herodias, got him excited with her dance, he did not know when he, on oath, promised to give her anything she wanted, even up to half of his kingdom. And who does that? Even if that young lady was the most tender person in the world, was she capable of managing a household, not to talk of a kingdom? Had she been proved worthy of managing her own life, not to talk of managing an entire half of a kingdom that probably took several years of hard labour, diligence and wisdom to build?
Yet because this Herod got carried away in his moment of excitement, he made a promise to that girl that her mother took advantage of to get rid of John the Baptist, a righteous man that she considered to be her enemy. And because of his oath, there was nothing he could do about it. So, even though he did not deliberately kill John the Baptist, he would someday have to take responsibility for his death before God. But how did he find himself in this mess? It was through the careless use of his tongue.
Now there are several other examples both in the bible and in life of how people got themselves into trouble and set whole lives on fire because they could not tame their tongues. You yourself may even be able to speak of cases in which you got into trouble or lost some good things because you did not use your tongue wisely and carefully. Did you learn anything from such cases? If you didn’t, then, take advantage of these words that are coming to you now to learn the relevance of taming your tongue.
See, as apostle James makes very clear to us in our opening bible text, it is true that the tongue is a very small part of our body. However, it is also a fire that is capable of setting someone’s entire life of fire and devouring it. And the truth is that it has devoured many lives. I am saying there have been lives, homes and even nations that have been set on fire and ruined because of some people’s careless or foolish words. You may even know some of them. And if you don’t want to set your own life or other people’s lives on fire with your tongue, if you don’t want to shut the door of God’s favour against yourself or continually get trapped in problems that are never meant to be yours, you need to begin to consciously and consistently control the way you use your tongue.
Look at what the bible says to us about this: “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.” (1Peter 3:10NIV) Did you see that? If you want to enjoy your life and see many good days, what do you need to watch? The way you use your tongue! And may God enable you to tame your tongue to be blessing to you and others and not a curse of fire that will burn down your life and every good thing you have.
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