The human race's most problematic issue is that more often than not we have no control over our verbalisations. We tend to speak before we think and in doing so we create more issues than solving them even when that is what we are about. The writer of James is quite correct in pointing this out (James 3:8). It is an ongoing issue and we only have to look at our current crop of politicians to gain insight into this. A few weeks ago I posted regarding our ability to listen, or not (https://faithindaba.blogspot.com/2021/08/words-and-action.html) and this comes in to play once more here. We fail to listen and in failing to listen we often open our mouths to say things that we should not be saying or are detrimental to ourselves and our neighbours.
In World War II there was a saying "loose lips sink ships", which is mirroring what is happening here. In not listening and in not understanding what God is saying to us we misinterpret and become bigoted and closed rather than open hearted and accepting. The author of James is very specific and detailing out the power of the tongue comparing it to the rudder of a boat that steers the ship (James 3:4). A small part of the overall which abused can land the ship in major difficulties. In our lack of discernment around the concepts that are interpreted for us we often allow ourselves to speak out in error thus creating tension and discriminatory practices within our communities and lives. Our outburst becomes a spark which lights the tinder of dissatisfied people this then causes a fire to burn. We just need to look at the anti vaxxers and other groups who for one reason or another believe the false information they are fed to see the harm being created in the community.
Even the disciples are prone to a looseness of tongues as they think about themselves being the greatest (Mk. 9:34). They have not listened well to God's call upon their lives and must needs take time to listen to Christ reinforcing the need to be humble in approach rather than to speak out without understanding. Even the writer of Proverbs understands the need to keep a steadfast hold on what one says in public (Prov. 31:24). If we are unwise with what we say then we are going to be unwise in what we do for it is out of our mouths that we enunciate our plans. If, we are not careful with what we state then we will not be careful in our planning. The disciples were all gung ho with regards who was going to lord it over the others. Their plans were about themselves and not about those around them. So often in our lives our decisions are often based on what we think is best not necessarily what God thinks is best.
In our desires to become more prominent in society or increase our popularity we will do and say things which will "win over" the majority. In other words we do not necessarily tell the truth but only what our constituents wish to hear so that we can attain our goal rather than the goals of the community. Our desires overrun and manipulate our tongue, which guides our speech and our attitude. We have no control as we cannot control our desires and so we let our tongue run away with a multitude of promises with little truth. However, we need to control our tongues which means we need to control our desires so that they conform with the desires of God rather than human desires. The tongue is the symptom rather than the causal root of the problem. Yes, like any good programme we do need to eradicate the symptoms but the better way is remove the causative agent.
Everything that we do must be focused on the one thing that we profess as Christians. Our profession of belief in Christ and followers of Christ suggest that we should place before us the one single goal of love of God and neighbour. The singularity in this duality is the one word love. No matter what our thoughts, our deeds or our words may be they should be centred on this singular thing called love. The wife held up at in the last chapter of Proverbs displays this wisdom. Christ attempts to pass this understanding on to the disciples by his words and actions. Yet we still fail because our desires are not aligned with Christ or with the wisdom that is imparted. We still look to the symptoms of our loose tongues to remind ourselves of the control that is required rather than looking at our hearts which are the root of the issue.
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