Two Real Stumbling Blocks to Taming the Tongue

April 13, 2016 | ziononth | 1 Comment | Pastor's Blog

Do wild animals suddenly become tame? Why should we think our tongues can be tamed with just a little work?

James 3 says: ⁷ Every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰ From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

People give up so easily when it comes to taming the tongue. They take the easy way out. They think they’re overwhelmed by the evilness of it all. But the reality is, the Lord is working in you through these tough times. The Lord has a plan for the struggle that you are experiencing, and He has a plan of celebration for and with you when you make that first breakthrough.

The reality is: sin makes it impossible to tame the tongue fully. Even the tamest of tongues will have those moments where they give in to the primal nature from which they come. The tongue sees the open plains of freedom and irresponsibility, and it gets that yearning to chase after things it should not be catching. That is the legacy of a primordial trait that never fully dies. The devil will have his way with your tongue; you must be prepared.

James encourages us to keep working on this back and forth, tame vs. wild obsession our tongue has with embarrassing us, harassing others, and disappointing our God. On a good day it provides the soundtrack to Heaven’s joy; on a bad day its lyrics sing Highway to Hell. God tells us that our tongues need not look like the tongue of an asp. God tells us our tongues need not provide the melody of someone’s destruction.

Here are some warnings and insights James provides for our meditation and contemplation:

(1) We are afraid to curse God but not those around us

If you’re smart, you know not to curse God. There is a big difference between questioning the way God allows for certain outcomes and outright mockery or blasphemy. Nothing good has ever come from cursing God. Even Job, in the midst of his circumstances, was smart enough to realize that.

We know these things. We understand that God has the power of eternal life and eternal death in His hands. Others, not so much. And so we become careless with our words against those whom we see as not so much of a threat to our everlasting existence.

But why?

All people are created in the likeness of God, as James says, and so are meant to have a share in His message of redemption (just like us), but we treat other people like a curse or insult or open message of mockery is insignificant because they are lesser than God. This cannot be, as James says. All people should be seen as a part of the story of creation, glory, and worth. God has eyes of mercy for those whom He has created; He calls us to do the same. When we don’t, our words stand in judgment of themselves. They speak as they are. They cry out as a message of judgment upon those we deem unworthy to stand on our plane of existence.

But have heart, God sees our struggle. God sees the inequality that we give to those around us. On the one hand, He is pleased that we dare not curse Him, but, on the other hand, He would have us be wary of giving others over to the incantations borne of our desire to exalt ourselves. As a man in Christ Jesus, God received the words of James: the Father dare not be mocked, but Jesus, the man around us, was given no mercy by the tongues of those willing to strike. God sees the inequality, and so His compassion rests in the necessity of the cross to save all whose tongues turn people into whipping boys. From God’s heart to the tongues of God’s prophets, He speaks peace to those who feel the regret of the tongue and its choice of ignorant vocabulary. Your struggle is real to God, and so the curses we carelessly throw on others, is removed from us because God chose the favor of the Christ to speak redemption instead of discrimination.

Be thankful God does not treat us as we often treat others.

(2) We expect different outcomes no matter what comes in

We expect strawberries to grow on a fig tree. C’mon, admit it: no one likes Fig Newtons. They’re the fruitcakes people give outside of Christmas. We would prefer the Strawberry Newtons. They taste much better.

We’re the fig tree trying to produce the better-tasting fruit. The problem is, it can’t be done. (If some geneticist has found a way to do it, don’t call me, you’re missing the point) The only way to produce different fruit is to be a different tree.

You have to be the different tree, and to be the different tree means you have to control what comes into your head and into your heart. Garbage in, you’re going to produce Fig Newtons; good things in, you’ll transform into a tree that produces fruit people want to be a part of. This does take a lot of work, but it can be done. It calls you to sometimes reject what would have, once upon a time, been commonplace for you to partake in.

Don’t be overwhelmed and discouraged. The Lord had to deal with fig trees of Pharisees and other people who hated Him. They had been receiving the bad stuff borne of this world, and so what came out was borne of earthly understandings. They were not thinking of Heavenly things. Their struggle is often the same struggle we have. We think we’re pursuing the Heavenly things, but we get so burdened with the earthly messages that we get confused as to what is right. We forget, or lay aside for a time, the pleasing ways in which God would have us behave, and as time goes on, it gets harder to discern the righteous things. That is why we must refocus our attention back on God and our Lord Jesus to get us to be the different tree. The reason the Pharisees and those that followed them were perpetually bad trees was because they could not accept the premise of Jesus’ earthly ministry. When we respond to the way of Jesus, and combine it with a different income of spiritual food, we don’t have to produce what people would prefer to not have to partake.

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No one wants a mouth full of salt water. No one expects it in the bathtub or in a freshwater stream. But we do expect it from the ocean. Do you want to give people a mouth full of salt water or give them something refreshing? No one wants a glass of purified salt water from their fridge on a hot day. Even 2000 years ago people understood that.

James gives us quite the sobering reality of the tongue. His State of the Union address reminds us that we are not nearly as sinless as we think we are. As soon as we get comfortable, that housecat of a tongue decides to bite and scratch us. We can miss the reality that no one wants the fruit we produce. And no one wants a glass of salt water.

God doesn’t either. But He is there, helping us get uncomfortable so that He can prepare a time when we can be truly comfortable. He wants us to have rest and peace with our tongues. His will isn’t that we always be restless, and so He gives us messages of hope while we feel weak. If you struggle with your tongue, then take to heart the challenge of James to be better. Let the Lord share in your battles, because He’s willing to do it. And there you will find a righteous exchange. Amen.