From the Pastor

Tongue Tied - Sept. 2006

James 1:26 says, If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. In other words, if you can't control your tongue, what you profess to have in Christ is useless.

Here are some diseases of the tongue the Bible mentions. Excessive talking. A wife said to her husband, “This here article claims that the average person speaks 10,000 words a day.” Her husband replied, “Yes, dear, but remember, you are far above average.” Proverbs 10:19: When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. It is a fact that when you talk all the time, sin is unavoidable. Here's a bad joke. It was said, Adam was created first. . .to give him a chance to say something.

A still tongue makes no enemies. People who hold their tongues rarely have trouble holding their friends. Ecclesiastes 5:3 As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words. Wise men think without talking, fools talk without thinking.

A second disease is speaking idle or careless words. Matthew 12:36 says, But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. Matthew 5:37: Simply let your 'Yes', be 'Yes', and your 'No', 'No'. In other words, don't say, “Yes, I swear on my mother's grave. . .I swear on the Bible. . .I swear I'm telling you the truth this time.” If you tell the truth all the time then it's not necessary to swear. If you're a liar it makes no difference what you swear on; nobody will believe you anyhow.

Disease number three: Lying. A man tried to sell his neighbour a new dog. “This is a talking dog,” he said, “and you can have him for five dollars.” The neighbour said, “Who do you think you're kidding with this talking dog stuff? There ain't no such animal.” Suddenly the dog looked up with tears in his eyes. “Please buy me, sir,” he pleaded. “This man is cruel. He never buys me a meal, never bathes me, never takes me for a walk. And I used to be the richest trick dog in America . I performed before kings. I was in the Army and was decorated ten times.”

“Hey!” said the neighbour. “He can talk. Why do you want to sell him for just five dollars?” “Because,” said the seller, “I'm getting tired of all his lies.” Rev. 21:8 says that all liars will have their part in the lake of fire. Jesus said Satan is a liar and the father of lying (John 8:44 ). When you lie you are saying your allegiance is with the devil. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Fill your life with Christ, and you will fill your life with the truth.

The fourth disease is flattery. Psalm 12:3 says, May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue. Now think about that for a minute, What if God surgically removed all flattering lips and boastful tongues? Would you still be able to talk? Proverbs 29:5 says, Whoever flatters his neighbour, is spreading a net for his feet. Flattery is excessive praise. When a salesmen comes to your door and says, “We've surveyed the neighbourhood and found that you are the leader of leaders. You're brilliant. You're articulate. You are a take-charge personality. I want you to have these free books---only $99.99 per month for the rest of your life.” That's flattery.

Honour is praise for what you have justly done. The Bible says to give honour to whom honour is due. But flattery is excessive praise, and some people use flattery to control other people. They excessively praise you, and their end motive is to control you.

The Bible goes to great lengths to tell the power of words. The words If we say. . .If we say. . .If we say. . .are recorded over and over again in scripture. Why? Because what you say is an indication of what’s inside. When you say, ‘wish I could die,’ you're inviting the spirit of death into your life. Nothing neutral comes out of your mouth. When you say to your children, ‘You're stupid,’ you're murdering their self-esteem. When you say, ‘I hate my life,’ your life goes into a negative downward spiral because of the poison of your speech. David said, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” If you woke up this morning and didn't find your name in the obituary column, rejoice and be happy. It's a great day to be alive.

We lock up for life a person who willfully, maliciously murders another, but the person who will criticize and castigate another person's reputation. . .a man who will destroy in moments what another man has taken a lifetime to build. . .We do not see him as a murderer. I John 3:15 says that whoever hates his brother is a murderer. You don't have to take a gun and shoot somebody to be a murder in the eyes of God. Just hate somebody bad enough to open your mouth against them negatively. A slanderer is powerless unless he can get someone dumb enough to listen. Watch out for the tabloids and tabloid TV. They have been known to slander.

Words spoken in anger, bitterness and retaliation cannot be taken back; the damage cannot be undone. A peasant slandered a friend and later went to the priest for confession. He said to the priest, “I want to make peace with God for my vicious words.” The priest told him to fill a big sack with goose feathers and drop them on the door step of every person's home whom he had slandered. So he did it. Then he came back to the priest and said, “Now what must I do?” The priest said, “Take your sack and now go and collect all those feathers.” When the peasant tried to collect the feathers, he could not find a one. He went back to the priest and told him the wind had blown the feathers away. The priest said, “And so it is with your words. They are easily dropped, but you can never collect them again.” Like those feathers, you cannot recover the careless words you speak.

It was a fool who said, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.’ Words can hurt you. Words cannot only hurt you, words can kill you. Proverbs 18:21 says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Notice the extremities here: life and death, nothing in between. Nothing neutral comes out of your mouth.

That passage goes on to say that you will have to eat your words, too. That means you cannot sow wild oats and then pray for crop failure. God says “you will reap what you sow.” If you plant bitterness, you're going to reap bitterness. If you plant criticism, that's what you'll reap. If you are a talebearer, you yourself will be the subject of tale bearing. Those who gossip to you will also gossip about you. Someone once said the reason a dog is a man's best friend is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue.

The Bible compares the tongue to a bit or bridle that you put into the horses mouth. A bridal is an instrument of force that makes the horse obey. If you want him to go right you pull on this side. If you want him to go left, you pull on the other side. If you want him to stop, you pull straight back and he will stop. God wants us to put a bridle on our mouth to keep us from sinning.

People say something mean or stupid and they say, ‘Oh, I just said that before I thought. It just slipped out.’ Wrong! Your tongue is not connected to the parasympathetic nervous system. The only things connected to the parasympathetic nervous system are your breathing apparatus and your cardiovascular system. Everything else requires thought. Your tongue cannot move neurologically without your brain telling it to. You may not have thought long about what you said, but you thought before you said it.

The Good News—finally the good news—that helps us deal with our wayward tongue is the wisdom from God. That wisdom from God is Jesus Christ and as we trust and believe in Him, as we take and eat and fill ourselves of the Bread that came down from heaven then we will have the power and ability to overcome the sins of the tongue. Because Christ who overcame death and the devil now lives and reigns within us through His Word. So we don’t have to be unwise. We don’t have to be foolish. We can make the most of every opportunity.

There are four tests that should judge every conversation. FIRST, is it absolutely true? NEXT, is what you're saying absolutely necessary? THIRD, is it kind, and will it bring glory to God? The Bible says whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. FOURTH, will everybody be blessed by your saying it? If it doesn't pass those four tests, shut up.

We need to ask God to give us the power to control our tongues. Proverbs 21:23 says He who guards his mouth and his tongue, keeps his soul from calamity.

Where we have failed Christ has succeeded. We cannot control our tongues. No one can! But Christ can. And He did for us. The Bible says that as Jesus was on trial for the sins of the whole world, He could have claimed His innocence. He could have called down the legions of heaven to His rescue, but the Bible describes Jesus like this during His suffering and death. He opened not His mouth. Like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. He controlled His tongue and did not sin. He did this to save us. He could have saved Himself with one word, but instead He saved us. Why? Because He loves us, and promises to be with us and to give us the power to control our tongue.

We can do all things through Christ. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other--Why?--just as in Christ God forgave you. There’s the motivation—just as in Christ God forgave you! Be imitators of God—there’s the direction—as dearly loved children—there’s the motivation again—and live a life of love—direction—just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. There is the motivation!

If we think about what God has done for us through His Son Jesus Christ, and if that is ever before us—we will soon find ourselves, better, we will soon find God controlling our tongue. To God be the Glory! Amen.

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