Burning Down the Neighborhood With Your Flaming Tongue

Suggested Reading: James 3:1-12

When I lived in Snook, just outside of College Station, most of the time people just burned their own garbage because garbage pick-up was either too expensive or unavailable. And while there was a dump less than ten miles away, many people waited and only took the things that couldn’t be burned to the dump. Now, if you’ve ever burned your trash in a metal can like most of the people around there, you’re used to seeing little sparks shoot off, especially when you first get the fire going. Normally, those sparks aren’t a big deal; they usually burn out before they hit the ground and the ones that don’t can be stepped on and easily put out. Well, this one time, a neighbor who lived just a few doors down was burning his trash like he always does. On this particular day, however, a spark shot off unnoticed by the neighbor and the grass was extremely dry. Within seconds, the field was aflame. Fortunately, we have a volunteer fire department based just a couple blocks away and the fire was put out before any houses were damaged. But after that all of the neighbors watched those sparks very carefully for a while, worried that the smallest spark could set the whole neighborhood on fire.

In James chapter 3, Jesus’ brother described a different kind of spark. He wrote, “The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is also 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 3:5-6, NIV). In the verses immediately before, James also compared the tongue to the rudder of a ship or the bit in a horse’s mouth, both of which are small things which are able to dramatically influence the direction being traveled. The tongue and the words it produces may seem insignificant at times but they can have a dramatic effect. 

Proverbs 18:21 tells us that the tongue itself holds the power of life and death. And yet we use our tongues constantly, rarely thinking about the dramatic influence a few words can have. We recount a dramatic conversation and shift a few minor things to make us look a little better without considering that we have moved into deceit. We allow ourselves to speak in anger, knowing that the words we use will be words we regret in a few hours. We make a joke at someone else’s expense, all in good fun, of course, without considering the effect the joke will have on the person we’re discussing. Or we simply let a few words slip in the wrong company and a key fact given without the proper context destroys someone’s reputation.

Words are tiny things, but they are more powerful than most weapons of war. Words have the power to alter the course of history, to bring death and pain, or to heal and give life. Don’t let your words fly lightly. The tiniest spark can start uncontrollable fires. 

Diagnosing Slips of the Tongue

Suggested Reading: James 1:19-27

A couple of years ago, a Pittsburgh couple got into trouble for selling their neighbor’s dog on Craigslist. Two dogs had wandered into their backyard and the couple had initially called the police asking what to do. The police told them to take the dogs back. The couple took one of the dogs back but decided to sell the other on Craigslist (I guess it was rather valuable). After giving several false statements to the police and covering their tracks, the couple almost got away with it. What got them into trouble was a slip of the tongue. Apparently, they had discussed selling the dog in front of their five year old. When the police stopped by one last time to question the couple, their five year old mentioned something about mommy giving the dog to a lady from the internet. All the money they had earned from the sale and all of their hard work covering their tracks was wasted because they said something they shouldn’t have in front of their young son.

Our tongues can be very troublesome things at times. James, the half-brother of Jesus addressed this problem in James 1:26, saying, If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, then his religion is useless and he deceives himself (HCSB). Our tongues are not only very troublesome things but very powerful things. We can spend years building relationships with people, caring for them and extending friendship and love, but destroy nearly all of those efforts with a few misplaced words. Proverbs 18:21 tells us, Life and death are in the power of the tongue (HCSB).  Communicating just how powerful the tongue can be, Scripture described the creation of the world with the words, God said, “Let there be light”.

We let our tongues “slip” far too often.  We speak before we think, allowing thoughtless words to inflict pain on others. We allow harsh, vulgar terms to escape our lips which destroy much of the work we’ve already done in building our witness. But more than that, failing to control our tongues demonstrates our own lack of maturity. Claiming to follow Christ while we continue to let our tongues wag freely means we are only fooling ourselves about our walk with Christ. We can do all of the good things we want to hide the true condition of our hearts but our tongues will eventually blow that disguise away, revealing who we truly are. 

Jesus told us that "What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart" (Matthew 15:18), which means that controlling your tongue requires that you focus on what is going on inside you. Controlling your tongue means that you guide your thoughts and feelings rather than letting them guide you, that you practice self-control when things you don’t want to exist inside try to bubble out of you, that you allow the Holy Spirit to reform and reshape you from the inside so that what comes out of your mouth is different because you are different. 

Don’t dismiss slips of the tongue as aberrations and exceptions. Deal with them immediately. Examine your heart and your thought processes. Otherwise you’ll just end up deceiving yourself.