“Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!”

James 3:5 NKJV

I have witnessed what the tongue is capable of. I have seen the eyes of someone who has been cut down by words. I empathize for I, too, have been the victim. And I’m ashamed to say that I sometimes am the cause.

For being such a small part of the body the tongue often does more damage than even a clenched fist. Once words are released they thoroughly accomplish what they were set out to do and it can never be undone.

The Bible puts a heavy emphasis on our words and also relates our conversation to our conduct. Read Ephesians 5. The two are often linked in scripture.

Jesus also speaks of the Pharisees “acknowledging God with their lips while their hearts were far from Him.” The tongue gets us all into trouble whether it’s when we say one thing and do another, or when we twist the truth to make ourselves appear better. For us to attempt to negate words that we say by throwing out the “just kidding” or “I didn’t mean it” cliches is to cover up the real sin that is lodged in our heart.

The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and its bull-horn is the tongue. When we have wickedness on our lips it is the outpouring of what is going on in our hearts and is also evident in our conduct. If we spent as much time boasting in the cross of Christ as we do boasting in ourselves, then how many more people would be comforted and healed instead of left battered and bleeding by the assault of our unkind words?

“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.”

James 3:8-9 NKJV