James 3:6-Your Tongue is a Fire

This particular Old Testament passage of Scripture was written by James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ. His epistle gives us practical advice on how to successfully live our lives for Jesus Christ. Almost the entire third chapter breaks down the dangers of the small member of your whole body and that is your tongue.

What we have learned so far about the power of the tongue is found in the article that I wrote called: James 3:4-5-Be Mindful of Your Tongue. It discloses that our tongue is like a very small rudder on a ship. It is just a tiny piece on an enormous ship but that little piece has the ability to direct the ship any route that it chooses to.

Likewise, your tongue is one of the smallest parts of the body, but has the ability to change the entire course of life based off of the words that you say. Often times we underestimate the power of the tongue. That is why there are so many passages of Scripture that warn against speaking careless words, bitter words, and harmful words that can cause great damage in your life.

For instance:

1 Peter 3:10 details, “For He who would love life And see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit.”

Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”

Matthew 15:11 “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

Here we can see that the Lord is giving us warnings regarding the verbiage that comes out of our mouths. Remember that death and life is in the power of your tongue, Proverbs 18:21. You could unknowingly be speaking word curses over your life and not realize the repercussions of them. That is why we need to make it a point to remain in the Word of God day and night. That is where your true wisdom will come from.

God will never leave you hanging if you have a lack of wisdom on anything, all you have to do is ask and He will give you wisdom liberally, James 1:5. The problem is that we rely on the word of others like: our pastor, a family member, spouse, and even a friend to spoon feed us the Word of God instead of studying to show ourselves approved, 2 Timothy 2:15.

If you are not filled with the Scriptures, you are filled with something else. All it takes is a matter of time before what you are consuming will spew out of your mouth which will be good or evil. The Lord is definitive when He discloses the dangers of allowing just anything to resonate in our hearts.

Luke 6:45 exposes, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” In other words, what you allow to store up in your heart is what will either bring forth good fruits or fruit of unruly evil.

Now let’s take a closer look at the passage of Scripture that I am highlighting out of the book of James.