For, “The one who wants to enjoy life and see good days [good—whether apparent or not], Must keep his tongue free from evil and his lips from speaking guile (treachery, deceit).
1 Peter 3:10 AMP
The tongue is the smallest part of the body, but it is the most powerful. The Bible emphasizes severally the tongue and its power. For example, Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue”. It is the steering wheel of our life.
Through it, we set the course of our life. We decide our path and chart our course through the utterances of our mouths. The narrative of Numbers 13:31-33 shows how a faithless people declared their faith against their enemies. They described themselves as grasshoppers before their enemy, and they could not be anything more than that; their fate was defined by their own words. It did not matter that they were on their way to Canaan-the promised land.
So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
Numbers 14:28-30 NIV
They all died. Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who gave a good report (Numbers 13:30). They got to Canaan. The writer of Proverbs was spot-on when he said that “death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
Likewise, in James chapter three, the tongue is described in this way: “In the same way, our tongue is a very small part of our body. But it speaks as if it is very great. Think about this. A very small fire can cause even a big forest to burn completely. And our tongue is like that fire. It has the power of everything in the world that is bad. It is a small part of the body but it can spoil the whole person. Like a fire, it can destroy all of a person’s life. It is a fire that comes from the fire of hell itself.” – James 3:5-6 (EASY)
Everyone has a fire that must not die, as it keeps us warm and refined. However, we must control this fire so that its destructive flames do not consume us. We need to use our tongue to praise God, pray, and share our faith with others, but we must also be careful not to use it to curse and speak evil. Such negative usage of the tongue brings forth death.
Meanwhile, it is important to note that the source of the words the tongue utters is not the mouth nor the tongue but the heart. The tongue only echoes the content of the heart. It is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). Our tongue can only speaks the content of the heart, therefore, we must guard the heart with all diligence.
As a believer, who wants to enjoy a good life and see good days, you need wisdom to tame the tongue. There’s possibly nothing else that can cause swift destruction for a man as his tongue. The Bible says that “It has the power of everything in the world that is bad.” An untamed tongue does not produce anything that is pleasing to God.
As one who is following the examples set by Jesus our Lord, it is good for us to focus on who God says we are. Our tongue is powerful. It is backed up by the highest power and authority in the universe. We can choose to use the power of our tongue for good; to bless rather than curse; and to embrace life. We can choose to use it to align our lives with what God has said about us. Ephesians 4:29
If you think you are being religious, but can’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and everything you do is useless.
James 1:26 CEV
You can control your tongue. You are not its slave. Use it well to chart the course of your life.
