UNDERSTANDING THE POWER OF WORDS
Tame Your Tongue
Tame Your Tongue: A word is a meaningful combination of sounds, an element of language, the building block of communication, which can be expressed in signs, speaking, and writing. Words are what we use every day from birth until this day. We often use it the way we feel. According to Burton F. Porter, “we use words all the time without thinking too much about it. they seem like ordinary simple things that can be taken for granted.” (Porter, 2002, pg. 23). Some of us have learned to make judicious use of it, with the understanding of its power in our everyday communication, while some of us have learned by reason of upbringing (nurture) or other cause (nature) to negatively abuse the use of words in our communications. Words are very powerful, and its usage should be of great concern to us if we must effectively communicate with others.
Words give life and can also take life depending on the usage, the user, and the situation. (Balaam story). There is this wonderful illustration given in the book of James about the power of words. In this part of the scripture, the source of spoken words was greatly emphasized. The mouth is small, but it is where spoken words are processed. The heart, which is the origin of words, whether spoken, written, or any other form, for this reason, the book of proverbs encourages us to “keep our heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life” [Proverbs 4:23]. We were also made to understand in the scripture that “A man’s heart deviseth his ways [Proverbs 16:19a], and according to Matthew “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies [Matthew 15:19]. The book of Mark has this to say also, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders.
The scriptures above have helped us to establish the heart as the source, where the words that guide our life come out from to either make us or break us. It is quite reasonable that we all make a mistake in one way or the other, but if we can put our tongue under control, then perfection could have been a way of life, and we would have been able to boast of having control over our self in all ramification. For instance, those who ride horses could make a huge and stubborn horse go wherever they desire just through a small bit in its mouth. Another example that I can think of is that of a large ship. Only by a small rudder, it is easy to make a huge ship turn in any direction the sailor desires to go even in great turbulence or fierce wind. As we can see here that the rudder and the bits are too small, compare to what they control. We understand that it only takes a little spark of fire to set a forest ablaze. Just as bit, rudder and a spark of fire are what we refer to as small but mighty in action, so likewise is the tongue.
The tongue is also a tiny part of the body that boasts of doing great things to the body. The tongue has just as much power to defile the whole body and cause damnation to one soul. James emphasized this when he wrote, “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature; it is set on fire by hell [James 3:6]. Remember I mentioned earlier that a spark of fire can set a forest ablaze, in the same way, scriptures made us understand that the power of life and death lies in the tongue. The fire also has its usefulness in the forest when tamed, so likewise the tongue when tamed. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind [James 3:7]. The tongue, like any other kind, can be tamed, but the tongue of humanity, no one can tame by his or her own power. It is evidently a restless evil, very undisciplined, unstable, and fully packed with deadly poison as scriptures will put it. It is only God that can tame the tongue, most notably when He becomes our personal lord and savior.
With our tongue, we can be a blessing to our heavenly Father, ourselves, and humanity as a whole. And with the same tongue, we can curse others who were delightfully created in the likeness of our heavenly Father. With it, we can also stray away from the path of our Lord Jesus Christ. So out of our mouth, the tongue can produce both blessings and curses, life, and death, bitter and sweet. Scriptures bring to our comprehension that these ought not to be so. For the sake of our moral obligation to God and our fellow humans, we ought to utilize our tongue in the manner that will always reflect the fear of God in our hearts and the profound honor of these precepts.
For some of us still trying to comprehend this, just imagine both sweet and bitter water gushing out from the same opening of spring. Also, just imagine a fig tree producing olives, grapevine producing figs and saltwater producing freshwater, these are naturally impossible, but the tongue does this every now and then. I can understand if you ask me, “how can we tame our tongue, or how can we make our tongue produce life and blessings? The Holy Spirit is the one that will help us tame our tongue, if only we invite and allow Him. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to be our teacher in all things. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you [John 14:26]. One way to kill old habits is to stop feeding it while at the same time, feeding the desired good habit. To tame your tongue, you will also feed it by increasing your vocabulary (desired or gracious words).
To wrap this up, I strongly encourage you to always depend on the Holy Spirit to help you tame your tongue regardless of any situation you may find yourself. Also, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person (Colossians 4:6 ESV).
