The tongue is the way to communicate to the world and to our friends and have a wonderful time as friendship deepens. It opens the world of happiness and completes the feeling of well being toward others. It is a mental exercise needed to keep our mental health, as we communicate and share our feelings. It expresses the thoughts and the attitude of the mind when necessary to alleviate the burden we carry at the time. It is a useful member of the body, for its many benefits and uses. Small as it is, it performs several functions. However, the tongue is a “weapon of mass destruction.” It constitutes danger to the soul and body. When the tongue is without control, the body suffers. For it causes the body to sin. James describes the tongue as a fire; a world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth (the cycle of man’s nature), being itself ignited by hell; the human tongue can not be tamed by man. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison (James 3:5-8). The tongue has caused mental and physical diseases as a result, and even suicide. The power of words can penetrate deeply into our mind, causing depression insecurity, when we believe those flammable words. The mind of a carnal Christian, insensitive and outside of God’s love and the Holy Spirit’s control is capable of destroying a person with one word. Taking seriously the danger of the tongue, David prayed, Set a guard, O Lord, before my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips (Ps. 141:3); You have proved my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress (Ps. 17:3); I said, I will take heed and guard my ways, that I may sin not with my tongue; I will muzzle my mouth as with a bridle with the wicked are before me. (Ps. 39:1).
Light from the Word 