Have you ever said something you regretted and thought, what just happened? Why did I say that? We all know the guy (or girl) who constantly lets stuff leak out of his mouth that shouldn’t (whether it’s filth or judgment or discouragement). But why is it so hard to control what comes out of our mouth?  

The book of James says that our tongues, though small, are very powerful in their influence. He uses horses to make his point – They’re these huge, powerful animals. They weigh over a thousand pounds and can pull more weight than any man could ever hope to. They can sprint a quarter mile in about 25 seconds. Huge, powerful, and somewhat dangerous.  

And yet put a bit in its mouth, and it can be controlled by a 12 year-old (who knows what they’re doing). 

And then ships – They’re huge and pushed forward by powerful winds, but look at what controls them! This tiny piece of hardware called a rudder. And it’s the same today, even though ships have engines or motors. It doesn’t matter if it’s a ski boat, a cargo ship, or an aircraft carrier – it’s steered by a rudder.  

And he who controls the rudder, controls the ship.  

The tongue is just like that! Even though it’s small, it’s extremely powerful. The tongue has this amazing amount of potential. Like the rudder and the bit, it too can be used for good. So James’ first two word pictures are to help us realize the raw power and potential the tongue has. Then he talks about the downside of that.  

Bits, rudders, now sparks – How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. (James 3:5-6) 

Did you see the turn he made? He goes, “The tongue is small yet powerful – it can do great things!” And then, “But there’s a problem…it’s actually less like a bit and a rudder and more like a spark that though tiny can destroy an entire forest.” To James, the tongue is not a good thing. It is wholly unrighteous, dangerous, and full of hellfire.  

You and I were born with tongues of hellfire. There’s not one of us who doesn’t deal with this or need to deal with it. All of us have this problem. All of us tear lives apart with the things we say. 

We guide horses with the words we say, but we don’t lead them to good places; we don’t lead them to joy or happiness. We lead them off cliffs. 

We have steered ships with our words, but not safely into the harbor. We’ve steered them into rocky banks, and glaciers, and down to the depths of the sea. 

We have all looked at a beautiful forest and with one spark of speech set it ablaze with fires from hell. 

Each of us was born with this incredible burden to control what we say; to tame this evil yet powerful member of our body. And yet James says this: no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3: 8) 

So not only are we born with this tongue of hellfire that naturally destroys whatever it can, but we have no hope of taming our tongue. Isn’t that just really bad news? James 3 doesn’t make me feel real good about myself. But it’s in the Bible for a reason. “The tongue is wildly destructive, inherently evil, and we have no hope in taming it.” Awesome, James…thanks. What else you got?  

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. (James 3:9-10) 

James’ point is that we’re doing both to God. When we curse people; when we mistreat people; when we tear them down with our words, we’re doing that to God, because they were made in His likeness. So, blessing and cursing are coming from the same source – our mouth. And it shouldn’t be that way. 

But he takes it another step and basically says that it’s actually impossible. Look at nature and try to find it there…you can’t. A spring is either fresh or salt water but can’t be both. It’s impossible. A fig tree can’t produce olives and a grapevine can’t produce figs! It’s impossible. A salt pond can’t magically have fresh water in it. It doesn’t work that way.  

Our tongue is the same. When blessing and cursing flow out of it, only one is real. And since there’s no gain in faking cursing, it’s the blessing that must be fake, right? So he’s saying in essence, whatever comes out of your mouth reveals (without fail) what’s really inside your heart. I can say all these flowery, churchy things and even quote verses from the Bible, but if it’s not what’s really in my heart, other not-so-churchy things will come out of that same mouth when I’m angry or stressed or my pride is hurt. I can’t hide what’s really in my heart. 

Have you ever caught yourself yelling at your spouse and kids one second and saying something about Jesus the next. Or maybe you’re cussing people out in fits of road rage on the way to church where you raise your hands and sing praises to God?  

We need to tame this incredibly divisive, evil thing full of hellfire…our tongue. But James said it’s hopeless. So what now? What do we get out of this? Three gospel reminders for you today if you’ve stuck with me this far: 

1) We are hopeless without Christ. 

This is not about us trying to be better. It’s not even about discipline, positive thinking, or good habits. Those things help, but they’re ineffective in and of themselves. We’ve got no shot at winning this battle with the tongue apart from Jesus. 

2) No human can tame the tongue…but God can! 

While we (in and of ourselves) are inadequate to tame the tongue, Christ is sufficient. Our inadequacy is far surpassed by His sufficiency. So our prayer has to be “God, please have mercy on me, a sinner!” Without Christ, we will choose ourselves over others or Him 10 times out of 10. And even when we do “good” things, we’ll be doing them for ourselves — because it makes us feel good or to be seen by others. It’s who we are – sinners.  

And when we realize that we’re sinful and need help, we can’t do what the bulk of humanity does, which is to try to fix ourselves. How ludicrous is that!?!? “I’m broken. I’m sinful. Let me see if I can fix myself.” I can’t fix myself any more than I can, by sheer willpower, fuse the bones in my arm back together after it’s broken. I need God. Go to Him and confess that you can’t tame your tongue on your own. Ask for His mercy and lean into Him. 

3) Salvation is not the end, but the beginning.  

After I give my life to Christ, that’s not the end of what God wants to do in me. It’s just the beginning. You see, as soon as a person does that, they’re justified before God because of Christ’s sacrifice, but God also begins this process of making them more like Jesus called sanctification. It doesn’t happen all at once. The road to spiritual maturity is no highway…it’s a crawl. 

Here's my prayer for us today: May we understand the power and wickedness of our tongues and ask God to help us control them. May we be like a spring that only pours forth freshwater in that only blessing comes out of our mouths. And may we realize in the deepest part of our souls that all of this is hopeless without Christ.