Passage: James 3:8-10
Second Commandment
God’s second commandment to us flows naturally out of His first. If we love and put God first in our lives, this will be reflected in the way in which we treat Him and use His name. James reminds us how much of a challenge the tongue can be when he writes that “no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:8-10)
Our tongues get us in trouble all the time, despite the potential for both good and bad speech to flow from it. The issue is a heart issue. When we keep God first in our lives, we are better able and are in fact enabled by God to better control our tongues and sing forth His praise. Yet, we know that when we stumble and lose our focus on God and place it instead on our own petty needs, our tongues begin to reflect that also. When we allow ourselves to believe that life is about ourselves, we set ourselves up for frustration and disappointment. The world is a broken place and we are broken people. As such any attempt to right things on our own terms is doomed to fail and end in much anguish and gnashing of teeth.
However, when we honor God with our heart and demonstrate that honor on our lips, we uplift God before others in such a way that we learn and demonstrate our ability to put God and subsequently others before ourselves. This focus on God and others frees us from self-centeredness and opens us up to a richer relationship with God and with our fellow man.
Thoughts for Reflection
In what ways are you able to seek God’s help in better taming your tongue?