Cincinnati Church of Christ: Good News You Can Use! NEW TESTAMENT FOUNDATIONS: THE POWER OF THE TONGUE By Tom Caswell January 31, 2005 This paper was written for a class that I took last semester in the Masters Program at Cincinnati Bible college. The intended audience was the professor of the course, but as you read it I hope you too can benefit from it. --TC Researchers say that we spend 70 percent of our awake time communicating, and 30 percent of our communication is speech. That may vary upon the person, but one thing that is common to all is the power of the tongue. The tongue may be small, but it is influential. It is thought of as the expressive instrument of the will. The tongue is described in a variety of ways in the Bible. The tongue can be sharpened, i.e. made to utter caustic words (Ps. 64:3; 140:3). It is a sharp sword (Ps. 57:4). It is a soft tongue when it uses quieting language (Prov. 25:15). Ranting is a rage of the tongue (Ps. 31:20; Hos7:16). It is the pen of an eager writer (Ps. 45:1), a shrewd antagonist (Ps. 52:2). It is a mark of wisdom (Isa. 50:4). It is like a bow (Jer. 9:3), an arrow (Jer. 9:8), and a lash (18:18). The tongue is little but can do great things (James 3:5, 8).1 What the Bible stresses throughout is that the tongue is vital to our spirituality. In this paper we shall discuss the tongue’s potential for good and evil. We will also discuss weather it can be tamed or controlled, and how this information can be applied to our daily lives. The Egyptian King Amasis once sent a sacrifice to his god and requested the priest to send back the best and worst part of the animal. The priest sent back the tongue, which, he said, met both demands.2 This story makes the point quite clear, the tongue has the potential for both good and bad. Nowhere is this explained in the Bible more so than the book of James, specifically verses 1:26; 3:2-12, and 4:11. James says that, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be” (James 3:9-10). In other words, our tongues are a great contradiction. What we say has the potential to carelessly hurt and tear down others. In his book Sticks and Stones William Baker writes, “People have changed in many ways since Bible times, but the ways we hurt each other in our talk has not changed. Irresponsibly, we say things that are insensitive, pass on gossip, put people down or just let our anger take over.”3 The tongue gives us a picture of our basic human nature. We were made in God’s image but we have also been cursed with sin, more specifically, the sin of wrongful speech. Barclay makes the comment, “There is no sin in which it is easier to fall and none which has graver consequences than the sin of the tongue. The damage the tongue can cause is like that caused by a great fire. Three things come not back – the spent arrow, the spoken word, and the lost opportunity. That, indeed, is the peril of the tongue.”4 From my own experience, I have seen the potential of my speech for evil to be far greater than for good. Careless words, grumbling, complaining, tactlessness, and gossip seem to roll off my tongue easier than words of encouragement, especially when driven by emotions. I have witnessed this not only with myself but also in God’s Kingdom within the past three years. Words were spoken, hurts and feelings expressed with anger and malice, with no regard for the damage caused, much of which, sadly will be life long. And this was done by people in the church, our own brothers and sisters, friends and family. So how does one tame the tongue? Can it be tamed or controlled? In James 3:7-8, he says, “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” If it can’t be tamed, what can we do? Willmington’s Bible Handbook states, “The person who can control his or her tongue probably has total self-control – just as the person who controls the rudder controls the whole ship.”5 Following this logic, our aim should not be to tame the tongue, but rather to control it. Obviously, controlling the tongue does not mean we should be silent, but that we should use restraint and think before we speak. How many times have you said something without thinking, only to wish you could take it back? William Baker suggests we must begin control in the most basic areas of our speech. A good place to begin is our daily interactions with people. He goes on to say, “Damage control is what we must apply to our tongues. We cannot hope to stop the harm that it causes. However, we can dig trenches. We can decrease its range. We can box it in. We can hold it down. If we desire to grow in our Christian lives, this is the place to begin real change. “We will not gain much control over this powerful force in our lives without access to a mightier power. Although James does not specify what this is, Psalm 141:3 poignantly supplicates God: ‘Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; Keep watch over the door of my lips.’”6 Since I have begun researching and writing this paper, I have noted how often I must control my speech, how often I must catch myself from saying something hurtful, and how often I fail in my attempts to control my tongue. It has been said that a person should control his or her tongue in such a way that he would not hesitate to sell his talking parrot to the town gossip! With that said, ask yourself, if you could hear a tape recording of everything you said last week, what would you want to edit out? I have come to the conclusion, that if we rely on our own strength to control the tongue we will fail. We need a power stronger that ourselves. We need God’s power working on us from the inside out, starting with our thoughts. The Bible says we are to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). So often our ungodly thoughts are the source of our hurtful speech. If we would only think of things that are praiseworthy, noble, and right, I believe we would have a much better control of our speech. I also think we could control our tongues if our hearts desired more of God and less of the world. The gospel writer says, in Mat. 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” And Luke says, in chapter 6:45, “For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks.” What we desire and long for is what we will talk about. What we admire and praise is what we will tell others. We must do this in order to make our enjoyment of it complete. How this controlled speech will look in our lives can be seen, not just at church on Sunday morning, but in each area of our lives, every day. At home behind closed doors we are ourselves more than any where else. It is there that we let our guards down and feel comfortable to show who we really are. How we talk to our spouse, our kids, our parents, will show how controlled our speech really is. I have seen myself be polite and encouraging to people in public, and on the same day, be short, harsh, and impatient at home. Knowing the potential our tongue has for good and evil, will be no more obvious than at home with the ones we love. Since we cannot playback a tape of all we said last week, the next best thing to do is ask those who hear us the most, “How is my speech around the house? How is my tone with the kids?” Those under our own roof will be the ones to help us the most in realizing our speech. Our speech will also be clearly seen when we are with our friends. Ask yourself, how is your speech influenced by others you spend time with? How does your speech influence your friends? Weather we want to admit it or not, we are influenced by our friends. We consciously and unconsciously pick up on their speech and actions, imitating them, and being imitated by them. The same can be said about the workplace. Those who hear you and see you, day in and day out, will be affected by your speech. One commentator writes, “The tongue can damage at a distance. Jewish rabbis had this picture: Life and death are in the hand of the tongue. Has the tongue a hand? No, but as the hand kills, so the tongue. The hand kills only at close quarters; the tongue is called an arrow because it kills at a distance. A man can drop a malicious word, or repeat a scandalous and untrue story, about someone whom he does not even know or about someone who is hundreds of miles away, and cause infinite harm.”7 He goes on to say: “Let a man, before he speaks, remember that once a word is spoken it is gone from his control; and let him think before he speaks because, although he cannot get it back, he will most certainly answer for it.”8 Recently, my wife did a family devotional with our two boys (ages 7 and 4 years old). She had them squeeze toothpaste out of a tube, and spread it around on a plate, making a thorough mess with their hands. Needless to say, the boys loved this exercise. Then she told them to put the toothpaste back into the tube. They tried, and tried again only to answer, “We can’t get the toothpaste back into the tube, it’s impossible!” That was her point exactally. She then began to teach them about words and that once they leave our mouths we cannot put them back in. It’s impossible! It would be easier to put toothpaste back into the tube, than it would to take back our hurtful words. From the tongue comes blessings and curses. It is truly a small part of the body, yet very influential, even to the point of setting the course as to where we will spend our eternity. The tongue has the potential for good and evil. It cannot be tamed but must be controlled. And its impact reaches every area of our lives. As James says in chapter 1:26, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” Our lives as Christians are characterized not so much by religious observances or experiences, but by the purity and love in our speech and actions for God, one another, and the lost. Let us all remember that the tongue is a small part of the body, not even considered or thought of, yet it is the rudder in our lives that will steer where we will spend eternity. 1Merrill C. Tenney, Ed., The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House) 1967. 2Harold L. Willmington, Wilmington's Bible Handbook. Book of James (NavPress Software Database) 1998. All Rights Reserved. 3William R. Baker, Sticks and Stones (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press) 1996. 4William Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter, Revised Edition (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press) 1976. 5Ibid, Book of James. 6Ibid, Pg, 87. 7Ibid, Pg. 85-86. 8Ibid, Pg. 86.