11/14/2023
James 3:5: “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things”.
Although the tongue is small, it can speak and boast of great things. Boasting is associated with pride. Those who boast of doing great things are sinning and often putting others down with those boasts. So, we see in this first section of James 3, the need to control our speech. When our speech is controlled, the rest of our lives are in God’s control. When our words are out of control, then our words are destructive.
Our words can be either righteous or unrighteous, holy or sinful. Much of this chapter deals with the need to avoid sinful speech. The Bible has much to say about what types of speech to avoid. The view that words don’t really matter is not true.
A tongue that is tamed and under God’s control will speak pure words, gentle words, reasonable words, merciful words, sincere words, words that don’t show partiality. The fruit of godly speech will be good. Ungodly words of any kind produce conflict between people and promote evil. We must grow in speaking wisely.
In today’s world, ungodly speech is everywhere and growing worse every year. Ungodly words are demonic and fuel hatred and division between people. These negative words reveal the sin that is in the hearts of people who use them. Sometimes, we excuse using ungodly words by saying, oh, that just slipped out, I didn’t mean to say it. Well, if we use that kind of excuse, we’ve just lied as well. Ungodly words come from sin in our hearts that needs to be owned and repented of.
To speak with godly wisdom requires courage as you will be in the minority. As believers, God calls us to be leaders for Him. Leaders do not give in to peer pressure, they say the right things, even though everyone around them is saying the wrong things. Quite frankly, unwise speech is part of many believer’s vocabulary. First of all, we need to look at our own hearts and learn to tame our own tongues. Then we can speak the truth in love to help others speak wisely as well.
A tamed tongue not only does not speak the wrong things, it always speaks the right things. We can’t learn to control our speech by sheer will-power. Much of our speech patterns are habitual. We need Holy Spirit’s help to develop new, godly speech habits. Part of learning to change in the use of words is to realize the destructive power of words. God wants us to use our words to speak His wisdom into every situation.
Do you want to know what godly speech looks like? The Bible is filled with God’s Word, which by definition is godly speech. Look at how Jesus addressed situations and people and seek to follow His example. Make a decision to be a leader in your speech, not afraid to be different. As we do, God will help us be peacemakers and influence a lost world for Him.
