The Tongue

It never ceases to amaze me how powerful our tongues (speech) can be and how our language can encourage or tear down those around us. The tongue can be used as a powerful weapon in any language, in any context or situation, to tear down or build up. People have been killed over a simple verbal misunderstanding, or difference of opinions. How do we know the power the tongue holds? By the words we speak! We can see how our speech can build up or tear down (just look at people’s response to your words). How many of us have gotten into a verbal exchange or altercation with another about the most stupid things? Maybe it was with a spouse, a friend, or a total stranger. One little word used in anger or rage can have varying consequences. Have you used negative words lately? What was the result? How did you feel afterwards? Maybe you felt wronged, upset, embarrassed, or lied to. A good question to ask yourself is it ever okay to use your tongue as a weapon to hurt others (remember this shows your heart)!

For example, have you ever yelled a cuss word at a person who cut you off in traffic, or raised your voice at a store clerk for treating you poorly? Verbal abuse can come out of nowhere and can happen at any time or anyplace. I am sure all of us at one point or another have used language as a weapon to hurt another or to get our way. Some people are masters at using language to control, manipulate, or spew out hatred and lies. Are you a person like this? Or, on the other hand, are you a person who uses your language to build up and encourage? Are your words used to help others, give them hope, or correct them in a loving fashion when they are wrong. Do you build up rather than tear down? Remember those times a person has said the most encouraging things to you, a simple word, which changed your day for the better. How did you feel or respond? Probably with a smile on your face and an encouraged heart.

In today’s cancel culture, words are used typically to tear down or to proliferate lies, to show that one person’s agenda is correct and the other person is wrong. The hatred, rage, and foul language of today is a sad reflection of how ruthless our society is becoming, especially with the desire to attack those they disagree with. We see a recurring theme in the media, the political process, or with politicians (both republicans and democrats) of a desire to destroy the thoughts and words of those they disagree with. Many people who support the far left in politics or in personal life are using their voice to spread lies, terrible lies, to put what they believe in a positive light (and cancel the culture they do not agree with). Over the recent past, our culture has allowed people to lie with no accountability. We have allowed them to change the truth with no ramification, and we just sit around and take it (this is not driving our nation in a positive direction). Joseph Goebbels who was the Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany during WWII wrote this:

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

This appears to be the approach of many today, to include many on the far left who desire only their opinions and voices to be heard (the cancel culture = Fascism). What is America coming to when you cannot speak out and share your beliefs, your opinions, your values, and be heard and respected? James in the New Testament addresses this specific topic.

James chapter 3:1-12 (ESV). Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

What can we do to help stem the tide of so many people (the far left/right in our political system) from using their tongues as a weapon? These people use their tongues to intimidate, create fear, to cancel others’ voices and opinions, while using fear and condescending language/attitudes to silence many. As Christian believers, what is our best approach to come along side this tide of negative speech and push it in a direction to help build up and not destroy? Well, we can take encouragement from Proverbs.

Proverbs 10:19 (ESV). When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

Proverbs 10:32 (ESV). The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse. Proverbs 12:6,13,14,17,18,19 (ESV). The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers them. An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous escapes from trouble. From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man's hand comes back to him. Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit. There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Proverbs 13:2-3 (ESV). From the fruit of his mouth a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence. Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

We need to speak the truth in love, have patience, and show kindness, even to those who are speaking harshly. This is difficult, and at times it may seem impossible, but believers have to show how they are different from the world!

Ephesians 4:15-16 (ESV). Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Who have you encouraged today? Who have you helped to get over their anger and see the love of Christ in you? So many are in need of a loving tongue, an encouraging word, to help them see what a wonderful God we serve. Be bold, be strong, be different, let your love for Christ be infectious, and share with your tongue the Gospel Message of Jesus Christ!