You are like me, you have been both a receiver of words and a dispenser of words. Words can be good or bad. Words can be encouraging or discouraging. Of course, this is all contingent on how the words are given and how they are received. Either way, you and I are in control of our actions despite words. When I was a teenager and employed at a local grocery store, I was spouting off words that reflected my age and I.Q. (both were very low at the time). A very nice customer who had been an encouragement to me and was always nice to me was writing a check for her groceries as I was bagging them and preparing them for transport to her car. She stopped writing her check, looked at me, peered over her glasses, and said, “You can tell a lot about someone by what they say and laugh about.”” Ouch! Even though I was young, immature, and didn’t possess much of an attention span, her words connected rather painfully. Others were in “ear shot” of my elementary comments and her proverbial ““putting me in my place” with verbal redirection. Since that time, I am certain I have demonstrated more childlike behavior because of my emotional feebleness and frailty, but I still remember the lesson of the importance of how I should be using my words. Just as important as words are the actions that are connected to those words.
Scripture says so much about our verbal expression, the impact of our words, and the one of the most powerful things in the world, the tongue. James 3:1-12saysMy brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
Much can be learned from this text when it comes to the words that proceed from our mouths. We all get caught up in the heat of the moment while involved in conversations. We all would agree controlling our tongues in and of itself is a full-time job that requires thought, discipline and restraint. Earlier, in James 2:22, we are taught when we respond to the commands of God, we are more mature than before we made a declaration to be obedient. With this “maturity” comes responsibility. The way in which we speak and the content of conversations reflect our maturity. In sum, our faith controls the tongue! We should never sell the power of our words short. James 3:5 tells us our tongue may be little but it is powerful! How many times do we use our words for good and people are drawn to Christ? How many times have our words pushed someone closer to the world and away from the church? Let the words of our mouth be acceptable to God (Psalm 19:14).
Our words are heavy in the sense they can “knock down” or be the “foundation” for good. The weight of words can be like a wrecking ball or they can be the basis on which to build. Let us be mindful of both the weight and power of words and the influence of the tongue. Humanity has found ways to tame, manage, and control so much in the world, but restraining the tongue continues to be elusive. While we may struggle at restricting our words, may we attempt to overcome this struggle by asking, “How heavy are words?” To ask the question, is to answer the question.
