Not long ago, I posted something called Careless Words. I think God’s trying to tell me something, for I’ve been running into a series of readings that revolve around the issue of our words. There are plenty of verses that speak to this topic.
In Mark 7:9, Jesus chides the Pharisees for focusing on man-made tradition rather than God’s law. “And he said to them: ‘You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!’” In the parallel passage in Matthew, he says, “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’” (Matthew 15:17-18).
If indeed the words of our mouth reflect the state of our hearts, we have good reason to listen carefully to what we say. It might just be a sure-fire cure for becoming complacent and resting on our spiritual laurels.
Further on in the book of James, an early follower of Jesus teaches at some length about the importance of controlling the tongue:
All of us get tripped up in many ways. Suppose someone is never wrong in what he says. Then he is a perfect man. He is able to keep his whole body under control.
We put a bit in the mouth of a horse to make it obey us. We can control the whole animal with it. And how about ships? They are very big. They are driven along by strong winds. But they are steered by a very small rudder. It makes them go where the captain wants to go.
In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body. But it brags a lot.
Think about how a small spark can set a big forest on fire. The tongue also is a fire. The tongue is the most evil part of the body. It pollutes the whole person. It sets a person's whole way of life on fire. And the tongue is set on fire by hell.
People have controlled all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea. They still control them. But no one can control the tongue. It is an evil thing that never rests. It is full of deadly poison.
Have you found tricks that help you start to "tame the tongue?
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OH - by the way...
This is W-A-Y off topic, but check here for a neat video.












