The Untamable Tongue
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.
James 3:1-12
“The words of his mouth begin with foolishness, And the end of his talk is raving madness.”
Ecclesiastes 10:13
Question: What has stirred up more strife than any other thing in the history of the world?
Reprinted from Bible Portal
For Reading and Meditation:
Ecclesiastes 10:12-15
Bible Verses: Ecclesiastes 10:12-15
Question: What has stirred up more strife than any other thing in the history of the world?
Answer: The tongue!
Sometimes when you go for a medical examination the doctor says: “Put out your tongue.” Our tongue, Solomon suggests, the little thing we use to frame words, needs examination. Whereas the words of a wise man are gracious, Solomon tells us, the words of a fool consume him. The one who suffers the most consequences in life is the fool, not those he offends. The fool is “consumed” (v. 12). Strong word. It really means to be “swallowed up.” The fool is the one who finishes up in difficulty, in police court, or even in prison. He speaks words that lead to his own undoing.
Early in my ministry, I learned to differentiate between people who are naive or silly and those who are just plain “fools.” I learned also not to spend time trying to counsel a fool, but I would give all the time I could to help those who really wanted to be helped. Listen to this: “No one knows what is coming – who can tell him what will happen after him?” (v. 14). Those of you who are parents will, I imagine, have used similar words: “If you keep acting like that there’s no telling where you will end up.” Then, continues Solomon, fools exhaust themselves by their inefficiency (v. 15). They can’t even find their way to town or get from here to there.
And it’s not a matter of IQ. It is just plain stupidity. Fools are ever learning but never arriving.
O Father, save me, I pray, from having the tongue of a fool. May my words be Your words, coming from thoughts that are Your thoughts. And help me not simply to learn, but to arrive. In Jesus’ Name I ask it. Amen.