Facing the Flame of the Tongue

The tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! (James 3:2-5).

It doesn’t take a lot to start a raging fire. Even a little fire can grow into a raging conflagration. Tradition has it that the great Chicago fire was started by a mule kicking over a lantern. Huge forest fires have begun with a careless cigarette. In the same way, the Bible teaches us that our words can serve as both the spark and the kindling that set of a raging inferno.

Though I’ve spent most of my career in the area of suppression -- those are the guys who come in the big red trucks and put out the fires -- I also hold a fire inspector certification. Fire inspectors have a very different role in the fire department. Their role is not as glamorous. They don’t get the news coverage and they don’t have their picture in the paper. But they are equally adept at dealing with tragedy. Indeed, it could be argued that they are even more effective than the suppression crews who respond to emergencies. It is the fire inspectors who seek to stop fires before they even start. That is what is described here in the third chapter of James.

If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well (3:2).

James uses the present tense as he describes this status of “not stumbling.” This is significant. He is not necessarily saying that the Christian will reach a plateau in which he never stumbles. Rather he is speaking about a habit of life. The mature Christian is one who is not continually stumbling over his tongue. He does not have a “foot-shaped mouth.”

Why is it so important to control the tongue? After all, aren’t deeds more important than words? Not necessarily. Words often lead to deeds. James illustrates this in two ways:

1. The Illustration of a Horse: Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they may obey us, we direct their entire body as well (James 3:3).

When I was a lot younger, our family used to vacation on my grandfather’s farm in the Ozarks. He and my aunts had several horses and we used to ride them upon occasion.

Once I tried to ride a horse without the use of a bridle. I jumped onto his back and away he went. That was the first and only time I ever tried that. I found that I had absolutely no say in the matter as to where we were going. The horse immediately headed toward a tree with a low, overhanging branch. I ended up in the branch instead of on the horse. That horse would have never been able to accomplish that maneuver if it had a bit and bridle. I would have been the one in control.

Here is the point. In the same way that a bridle controls a horse, so also the tongue controls the body.

2. Illustration of a Ship: Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. 5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things (James 3:4-5).

The second illustration is of a ship. A ship is a very ponderous affair. It is so big that it would seem impossible to maneuver. And yet, one man is able to steer a huge ocean liner without even breaking a sweat.

How can this be? It is because a huge ship is directed by a relatively tiny machine called a rudder. If James were writing today, he might have said, “Behold, the 747, a huge plane that is controlled by a single lever.

In the same way, your body is directed by an organ that weighs only a few ounces -- the tongue.

Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! (3:5).

Most forest fires begin with a single match. Thousands of trees are destroyed by the spark of a single tiny splinter of wood. In the same way, a single careless word can cause enormous damage. You’ve heard someone say, “I don’t hold my feelings in. I just explode and then it’s over with.” The same can be said of a nuclear bomb and the result is about as devastating. It is like the little rhyme that says:

Sticks and stones may break my bones,

But words will flat destroy me.

Yet the warning of James does not refer only to words spoken in anger. We have already looked at the proverb that speaks of the danger of words spoken in jest, of idle gossip and of the contentious man.

Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows and death,

So is the man who deceives his neighbor,

And says, “Was I not joking?”

For lack of wood the fire goes out,

And where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down.

Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire,

So is a contentious man to kindle strife. (Proverbs 26:18-21).

The proverb describes three different type of men in this passage and they are all bad. The one thing they all have in common is that their words stir up hurt feelings and strife and contention. That is the lesson James brings to us. It is the lesson that words can hurt and they can burn.

And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. (James 3:6-8).

Having shown the power of the tongue as illustrated and compared to a horse’s bridle and a ship’s rudder, James now moves to his next point -- that the tongue in uncontrollable. This is seen in three areas:

The tongue is not bad in itself. It was created by God and is a wonderful thing. The source of the fire described in this passage does not come from the tongue, but from the powers of hell. It is not that the tongue is inherently sinful. It is that it has such a powerful potential. It can do great good. And it can do great evil.

When the tongue is set on fire by hell (that is, when it is used in a sinful way), there are two results.

1. It Defiles the Entire Body.

Jesus Himself said that it is not that which goes into a man, but that which comes out of a man that defiles him (Matthew 15:11).

The point is that you are what you say. The words that you utter are indicative of what you are like on the inside.

2. It sets on Fire the Course of your Life.

Your words have a dramatic effect on the course of your life. Many years ago, a preacher asked me, “Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” I only said two words: “I do.” My life hasn’t been the same since.

James goes on to say that the tongue...is set on fire by hell (3:6). The word here translated “hell” is not the normal Greek word for hell. This is the word Gehenna. It is not really a Greek word at all. Instead it is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word Ge-honom -- “Valley of Hinnom.” It was originally called “The Valley of the sons of Hinnom.”

The Valley of Hinnom lay outside the southwest walls of Jerusalem. During the days of Ahaz and Manasseh in the dark days of Judah’s history, human sacrifices were offered there to the pagan god Molech (2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6).

When Jeremiah was warning Judah of the coming judgment of God against the nation, he said that the Lord would turn the Valley of Hinnon into a valley of slaughter.

“For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the LORD, “they have set their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.

“Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, "when it will no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place. 33 And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.” (Jeremiah 7:30-33).

When Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. there were so many killed that the bodies were dumped into the Valley of Hinnom. In later years, this valley came to be the dumping ground for the refuse of Jerusalem as well as for the bodies of criminals. Fires were kept burning constantly to destroy the rubbish and the filth. It became a place of defilement and continual fire. Because of this, the Valley of Hinnom came to be regarded as a picture of the final punishment of the unrighteous.

When James uses the word Gehenna, it refers to all of the filth and the stench of sin that will one day be punished in the Day of Judgment. Jesus said that on that day we will have to give an accounting of all of the words that we have ever said.

Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.

You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. 35 The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil.

And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. (Matthew 12:33-37).

Jesus said that the reality of what you are comes from the heart. If the heart is good, then it will bear good fruit that will be manifested in good words. The truth of the heart will be manifested in what you do and in what you say.

There is a danger here. It is that you begin to concentrate all of your efforts on cleaning up the outside. But God isn’t worried about only cleaning up the externals. He doesn’t say, “I want you to be a Christian so we are going to get rid of that habit over there and remove this item over here and then you will be okey.” Instead He changes your heart. And if the heart is changed, then after a while the other things begin to change, too.

Being a Christian isn’t primarily what you DO as much as it is what you ARE. The corollary to that principles is that what you ARE will manifest itself in what you DO.

Here is the point. You cannot tame the tongue because the tongue merely reflects that which is on the inside. Only God can tame the tongue and He does that by working from the inside out. You go to the Lord and ask Him to change you from the inside out and He will. As a result, you might begin to learn to utilize your tongue in a consistent manner.

With it we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.

Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh. (James 3:9-12).

When you come to church and sing praises to the Lord and pray to Him, you are using your tongue to bless His name. And when you leave and get into your car and are driving on the highway and someone cuts you off, you find another use for your tongue. The point is that the two uses are inconsistent with one another.

There is a principle here. It is the principle of SANCTIFICATION. When you came to Christ in faith, believing in Him as your Lord and Savior, something extraordinary happened to you. You entered into a process known as sanctification. It means that you began to be set apart from the world and dedicated to the Lord for His special purpose. Your hands are no longer just your hands. They are also His hands. Your tongue is no longer just your tongue. It is now His tongue.

Here is the point. It is inappropriate for a tongue that has been dedicated to the worship of the Lord to be used in the cursing of the Lord’s creation.

Imagine driving by your church next Friday evening and you see a great crowd gathered. Wondering what is going on and thinking that you might have slept through the announcements last Sunday, you stop and go inside. There you see that a disc jockey is announcing that mud wrestling will be held in front of the pulpit. What would be your reaction? I hope that you would think it is completely inappropriate. If there is a place for mud wrestling (and I’m not saying that there is), it certainly is not in the place that has been dedicated to the worship of the Lord.

If you are a Christian, then your tongue has been dedicated to the worship of the Lord. To use it for any purpose that does not honor Him is inconsistent. Here is the lesson. When both good and evil come out of the same mouth, one is a lie.

Have you been having trouble with your tongue? Do your words sometimes seem to take on a life of their own? Do you ever catch yourself thinking, “I really wish I had not said that”? Use your tongue. Go to the Lord and confess your sins. He promises that He will hear that prayer of confession and that He, in turn, will speak a word of forgiveness.

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