The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 275


The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 275

The Untamable Tongue

James 3:1-12 – My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

Christ/Messiah is Our Only Hope

‘My brethren’ Is this not a wonderful comfort to the Jerusalem church and to us, even today? Yes even to the women and children who are abiding in Christ, we are all the brethren in the church of Jesus Christ – universal. As Luke 8:21 records – But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it”. James uses in this section several examples of Creation and man’s ability to control nature—Metaphors to explain to his congregation and readers, one subject; the tongue.

The stiff or strict judgment that falls on those who teach the Word of God is mainly on one area. Not necessarily on false teaching (although vitally important), but on what a pastor/teacher, or evangelist might fail to control when he is not preaching or teaching. This same warning applies to all the brethren, of course, this includes YOU as you claim your rightful position as child of God, through or by the Blood of Jesus Christ.

It is vital that we CONTROL our tongue, do you control your tongue? Or are you like most of us who add to our lack of controlling the tongue with an excuse that adds even more evil, like silver dross? Proverbs 26:23 – Fervent lips with a wicked heart Are like earthenware covered with silver dross. It is as James says, we have the ability to tame every animal, invent machinery and do all sorts of marvelous things with our intellect. Yet! Whatever we tame, whatever we invent and whatever our intellect affords us to do becomes STAINED with our uncontrolled tongue and is ruined.

With the tongue, we bless our God and Father, and with the tongue, we curse men, women, and children who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. We do not have two mouths, but we do have two minds. The natural mind that was put to death when we became saved, and the Mind of Christ – 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. Why do we use the dead tongue when God has provided so great a salvation?

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