Taming the Tongue

Text: James 3:1-12

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It was just this last Tuesday evening. We’d finished dinner and I sat down to see what I might find on television to watch. When I do this, it’s generally a game that I’m looking for, baseball or maybe football. But then I remembered the event everyone was talking about that day. So, I reluctantly tuned to the news channel just as the presidential debate was beginning. I say reluctantly because I was pretty sure I knew what I was going to hear. Not just in the positions that each candidate would espouse, but also in how I’d hear them talking to, and about, one another. And in fact, I was not surprised. There were moments of severe cringing even as I sat back in my recliner, wondering, “Did they really just say that to each other?” “Is that even true?” “Was that necessary to say out loud?”

We have a poster in our schoolroom that goes along with a curriculum on manners that encourages kids to use the T.H.I.N.K method when considering whether something they are wanting to say should actually be said. Is it TRUE? Is it HELPFUL? Is it IMPORTANT? Is it NECESSARY? Is it KIND? When we don’t consider these questions what comes out of our mouths is very often going to be something very much the opposite of those things. James recognizes the reality that our sinful natures often present themselves through the words that spew forth from our mouths. And the futility of trying to tame the tongue. He says, “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.”

TAMING THE TONGUE IS A DIFFICULT TASK, BUT WITH GOD’S HELP THE GIFT OF OUR VOICE CAN BE USED FOR THE GOOD OF GOD’S KINGDOM.

The news out of California this week has been encouraging. Cooler weather is allowing firefighters to gain some control over the fires that have burned more than 100,000 acres of land and displaced tens of thousands of people. But there are still over 65 wildfires raging across the country. Destroying forests. Threatening homes and lives. How did they start? Various reasons. Lightning strikes in dry areas. Campfires left unattended. Something as simple as that can change so many lives and cause untold damage. That’s how wildfires go.

But there’s similar news closer to home. There are wildfires raging right here in Wisconsin, in our village, maybe even within our church. These aren’t fires that destroy trees but rather fires that wreak havoc on lives and relationships. These wildfires are ignited by the words of our mouths. And they’ve been raging forever. James knew about them in the first century when he wrote, “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.” It’s almost like this little organ floating inside our mouths is uncontrollable. But actually, it is able to be controlled. The problem is that too often we allow it to be controlled by sin and used by the devil to ignite these raging fires around us. That’s what James means when he says of our tongues that they are “set on fire by hell.”

But it doesn’t have to be so. James says, “It ought not be so.” But as with any other sinful aspect of our human nature, the tongue is not an easy one to tame. And it holds an oversized level of influence in our lives. Just a small part of our body, and yet the tongue often is the part that directs where we go and what we do. Our text speaks to this when it says, “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 boast of great things.” What we say, and how we respond in word and deed to what others say, will direct the course of our lives.

We’ll never be able to speak perfectly. We’ll never be able to hold our tongues at all the times we really should. And we’ll never be able to respond perfectly to the speech of others. But with God’s help our speech can a blessing and a benefit to the kingdom of God here on earth if we allow Him to direct it.

There was a man who heard a sermon and was convicted of his sin and determined that he would do better. Every week he had said, “I have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed.” And finally one week he recognized that it was true. He reasoned that his evil thoughts might be very difficult to change. His evil actions, he decided, were often a product of his thoughts and words. So, he decided to first focus on his words because he thought that might be something he could change. If he could catch himself before he said something he’d regret, he would also have more control over the things he did and, in time, perhaps even over the things he thought.

For a while, the man was very successful. He always took his time. He didn’t speak without considering what he would say. He wasn’t perfect, but he was doing pretty good. As time went on, though, he found himself back in his old habits. He hurt people with what he said. He created problems for himself with his words. I’ll try even harder, he thought, and he committed himself to being more diligent. But the harder he tried; it seemed the more he failed. Finally, he gave up.

The story is really the same for every one of us. We can’t control our tongue on our own. So, do we give up? Or is there something within giving up that allows for a greater strength to take on the task for us? It’s very much like the father of the boy who is healed in today’s Gospel lesson. When he hears Jesus say, “All things are possible for one who believes” his response is “I believe; help my unbelief.” That’s the position we’re constantly in. One that has security in the faith we’ve been given and yet an acknowledgement that we can’t do it on our own. When that father recognized that his boy could not stand on his own, being thrown around by the spirit that made him mute and convulsed him violently, he went to the Source of strength that could help him stand. When we can’t tame our own tongues, what we can do is abide in the One who we heard last week has “done all things well.” The One whose speech was perfect. The One whose life was perfect. In Him alone is the power to control the sinful nature that so easily entangles us, and so often causes our tongues to ignite raging fires around us.

I’m always very impressed by people who seem to have the ability to hold their tongues. It’s something I sometimes struggle with. One of the men I admire the most and I would consider a mentor throughout some of my mort formative years, was the president of the college I attended. Yes, my school was small enough that I could simply walk into the president’s office and sit on his couch and have a conversation. I have never known someone who said as few words as this man did and who was as respected as he was. I’d be in meetings with him in various capacities during and after college and he could sit quietly for an hour and then as soon as he decided to open his mouth every eye would be on him and every ear attentive to what he had to say. Long before there were posters with the acronym T.H.I.N.K on them, this man knew to ask the questions, Is it TRUE? Is it HELPFUL? Is it IMPORTANT? Is it NECESSARY? Is it KIND? Asking those questions will certainly limit the amount that many of us speak, but perhaps that’s a good thing. And it’s certainly a good thing to prepare a filter so that every thought that pops into our heads doesn’t immediately come flying out of our mouths. I know that these questions would be helpful to you as well in developing and maintaining the type of Christian speech that God desires that each of us would have.

Is it TRUE? Can you really verify that story that you’re so eager to share? Maybe the words are being said to advance your own position regardless of whether there is certain truth to them. Many a word has been said simply for the sake of having something to say without first evaluating whether that word would be HELPFUL or IMPORTANT. And even if those words are TRUE, HELPFUL, and IMPORTANT, they still need to be NECESSARY and KIND for them to be worth saying. And you know what’s always TRUE, HELPFUL, IMPORTANT, NECESSARY, and KIND? The Word of God is. You can never go wrong when the Word of God is on your tongue.

So, use that tongue to “bless our Lord and Father” as James says. To worship Him as we do here. But also, out there that others might hear of Him and desire to experience the healing and wholeness that He provides. And the more that the Word of God is on your tongue, the less the devil will be able to take hold of it and use it to his will. In fact, you know when and where I’ve never once heard a single tongue utter anything false or hurtful? Right here at the communion rail. At the altar of the Lord. Where the Word of God, Jesus Christ in flesh and blood, is literally placed on the tongue, taming it and curbing the sinful nature while offering the forgiveness of all sin through the saving work of Christ. May God’s precious Word be ever on your tongues that He would curb its “restless evil” and that you might sing His praises and tell of the glory of our risen Savior. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.