Read James 3:5-18
Another lesson about the tongue. Yesterday we talked about how the tongue is like a rudder that can steer us in our path: good or bad. Today we are comparing the tongue to fire. It starts with a flicker on the tip of a matchstick, but if touched to straw, it can become a forest fire. I know you remember playing “gossip” as a child. What a picture of how the tongue can start a rumor. Even the truth can become a blown-out lie that can destroy many people. The flip side of that is that we are to be a fire that spreads. The group that waited in the upper room for receive the gift of the Holy Spirit were given tongues of fire on their heads and they went out and spoke the gospel in languages they didn’t even know. They started a fire that is still going in us. That is the kind of fire we want to be not the destructive fire. Hell is depicted as a place of fire. Fire can be painful and destructive or healing and cleansing. We can either bless or curse with our tongues. Our tongues are like a fountain spewing forth evil or righteousness. Verse 8 says that no man can tame the tongue, only God can do that. We can’t live righteously apart from the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, but with God anything is possible. Jesus was a man, but showed us that speaking rightly can be done if we submit all of our members to him. If we are a good tree (buried with Christ and walking as a new creature) then we will bear good fruit. Then we can do verse 13: show God’s wisdom through our conversation. If we have strife and bitterness in our hearts then that hatred and bitterness will come out in our speech. God’s speech comes from a heart of wisdom and is pure, peaceable, gentle and compassionate, easy to confront, full of good works, not biased, and truth. It brings about peace.
Lord, help us to walk in your wisdom and your speech.
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