Covenant Presbyterian Church

The abandonment of faith in God leads to an increasing focus upon the identification and prevention of danger. This has many causes, not the least of which are the paralyzing guilt of the sin-burdened conscience, the existential fruit of naturalism to make the "brave new world" safe for the all-alone man, and the general absence of independent, non-mass controlled thinking. With respect to the latter, men of sense and judgment, while they exercise a wise degree of prudence, do not concern themselves overmuch with dangers that may or may not occur and that are ultimately under the providential government of God. Instead they focus upon the pursuit of faith, righteousness, and freedom for themselves and for their fellowman. They have little time or tolerance for busy-body regulators, class-action lawsuits, or mass hysteria. They do not value security above liberty, a sterile, ostensibly danger-free existence above the inevitable uncertainty associated with taking personal responsibility and pursuing new horizons of dominion under God’s blessing, provision, and protection.
This is not our culture. Having jettisoned God, we have become fearful slaves, easy pawns for low-level indoctrination (government education), constant social scares (our health, the economy, retirement), and government-assigned terrorism threat alerts (fear-induced and inducing control efforts). In our danger-sensitive culture, profitable cottage industries and non-traditional health practitioners warn us against mercury fillings, vaccinations, and fluoride. Economic strategists make us fearful of overseas competition, as if competition were something to fear. Our government has solidified itself as our savior by promising to protect us from everyone and everything, when perhaps we truly need protection from a Federal behemoth with a God-complex. A burgeoning cadre of lawyers, bureaucrats, and social scientists make a good living thinking up potential dangers, making criminals of the unwary, assigning responsibility before any harm occurs, and creating legislation to insulate us from every possible danger. Even when these or other dangers have some legitimacy, we are paralyzed by "danger warning overload," unable to distinguish true danger from another marketing ploy.
For example, man’s most dangerous instrument of destruction receives little if any meaningful attention. Few are warned of its destructive power in marriages, parent-child relationships, and denominations. It was involved in man’s first sin and in almost every sin thereafter. It has brought down nations, deceived hundreds of millions, and oppressed billions. Every person has one; almost every person has one that is out of control. I am speaking of the tongue.
The damage being done through the organ of human speech is of profound proportions. Even ignoring the more obvious though indescribably horrific blasphemies and vulgarities that stridently spew from virtually every outlet of our culture’s septic system, i.e., the infotainment industry, lies, deceptions, exaggerations, half-truths, and self-promotion are the warp and woof of our daily discourse, the standard stock of our language, if we can call it that. Politicians and preachers, businessmen and sport-celebrities, educators, think-tanks, and privately funded research foundations, each furthers its agenda through lies, misrepresentation of fact, sweeping generalizations, and the self-serving manipulation of words. We have become a society of liars and deceivers, trampling truth under our feet in the furious attempt to get ahead, evade personal responsibility, and vainly create a reality in which we say or do not say whatever we choose, whatever suits us at the moment, whatever furthers our own interests, whatever protects our sense of personal power and wellbeing.
The tongue, however, is the best barometer of a man’s true identity. Because of this, it explodes the myth that a distinction exists between public and private morality. The tongue is the fleshy bridge between both spheres. In both it reflects the singular condition of man’s heart. Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. 12:34). This abundance can be reflected negatively and positively, or better, as much as through what a man does not say as through what he says. For example, blasphemy, anger, vulgarity, and gossip are positive indications of what lies in the heart. No façade of morality or excuse can be made. You said it; it is in your heart. Religious indifference, failing to defend the honor of the Lord, silence in a good cause, or self-absorbed speech are equally indicative of the state of the heart. It is never a mystery who a man is. Never. The tongue reveals all. Even its silence can deafeningly condemn. The connection between the tongue and heart, even in the absence of other important considerations, provides a sufficient justification to take seriously what our tongue is saying about us.
When we add what James says about the tongue, we begin to recognize the danger. His description of the tongue strikes a chord as familiar as our own doorbells. We have felt and kindled the fire of the tongue. We have hurt and lost precious relationships through its influence. From the same source, we speak love and hate. We bless and curse, pray and gossip, praise and criticize, build up and tear down. We can control powerful ships and horses, but we are powerless over the tongue. No other human instrument is described as "a fire, a world of iniquity, set on fire by hell." It cannot be tamed. James is not fatalistic. He knows the power of grace. He also knows that it is completely beyond the ability of man to deal with this monster, this double-edged sword, this source of pleasantness and scorching fire. The tongue is like the human heart - its depths are awful to behold, turbulent as the sea, black as the darkest night, fierce as the hurricane. We cannot control the tongue because we cannot still the raging of our hearts.
In an age given to the identification and control of danger, James’ description of the tongue is a sober, necessary reminder of the great beast lurking within our mouths, which reflects the greater beast lurking in our hearts. We feel his presence and hear his roaring every day. We do not tell the truth about ourselves. We misrepresent our motives. We exaggerate our accomplishments and downplay our failings. We create and tell lies that become our truth. What else is post-modernism than a lie told so frequently that we have come to believe it, that truth is like Play-Do, or a fairy tale, or simply inaccessible? Even as believers, we lie and oppress with our tongues, exaggerating and dramatizing in order to cover up the absence of substance. We turn very small gains in our lives into epoch-making victories, compounding the sin by glorifying ourselves when we should ascribe all glory to God’s grace. We do not accurately portray the beliefs and practices of others, thinking to make ourselves look better by making others look worse. The list of tongue treacheries is very long indeed.
Consider just one of these treacheries: gossip. How incorrigibly deceptive we are with respect to this sin! We misrepresent the words or character of others, secretly slander them, whisper about them, make negative insinuations, or share truthful things about them that put them in a bad light. We may follow it with a pious plea to pray for the person or situation. We may even balance it with feigned sorrow, as if our hearts are about to break with concern. There is, however, no such thing as sincere gossip, prayer-request gossip, or sanitized gossip. While it is sometimes necessary for the glory of God and the preservation of the purity of the church to report on the sinful activities of others, whenever we pass on information about others that cannot have any other effect than to expose unnecessarily their weaknesses and sins, place them in a poor light, or make them appear beneath ourselves, we have sinned grievously against them. And we delight in it. This is twisted. That we delight in it is evidenced by the fact that we are not nearly as prompt to share the good we know of others or as careful to conceal their sins. Gossip is one variety of idle words for which we shall be brought into judgment. It is one of the tongue’s many words of fire, its tendency toward hellishness. If we have any sincere sense of our own infirmities and sins, any mercy toward others as we have been shown, we will, as far as we are capable, cover a multitude of sins with love and always seek to place the lives and words of others in the best possible light.

It is easier to speculate about taming the tongue than to do it. When James says, "No one can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison," he means it. In our own strength, we are powerless before this malicious enemy. But as believers, in union and communion with Jesus Christ, we must labor to tame this beast. First, we must recognize the sins of our tongue. By this is meant a careful and honest inventory of our sins in this area, without concealment, hypocrisy, or excuse. Second, we must repent before the Lord. Isaiah is a good example. His recorded encounter with the glory of God in chapter 6 of his prophecy is a telling reminder of the uncleanness of the tongue. The purity and holiness of God immediately brought his unclean lips to his painful attention. We must be cleansed from this stain, and this can only be obtained through the blood of Jesus Christ. Hence, we would do well to make a regular inventory of our words, spoken and written, confess our sins to the Lord, entreat his mercy, and seek his grace. Third, David’s prayer in Psalm 141:3, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips," must be upon our lips daily. We must seek from the Lord the strength that we completely lack in ourselves. He alone can tame our tongues, transforming them from instruments of destruction into messengers of love and grace.

Due to the culture of lies in which we live, it is imperative for us to pursue tamed tongues, that the power of the gospel of grace may be vividly demonstrated in the changed lives of those who profess to know the Savior. Make it your prayerful goal, for example, to use your tongue each day for building others up, encouraging them, praising their comely virtues, and encouraging them to seek God’s grace for their many failings. Never become party to gossip; rebuke it. Make sure every gossip, slander, and juicy tidbit that reaches your ears stops with you. When you hear of the failings and sins of others, pray for them and seek opportunity to encourage them. Cover the multitude of sins with love. Endeavor to speak the unexaggerated truth in every circumstance. Pray that the body of believers throughout the world may again be known by the truth we speak. And never lie - to protect yourself, make yourself look better, dramatize your personal experience, or get ahead. Be willing to speak the truth even if it means you stay behind, lose the sale, or are not the dramatic center of your circle of relationships. Be slow to speak and quick to hear. There is much sin in the multitude of words.

It may sometimes seem that there is little we can do to stem the tide of lawlessness rising around us. Faith says otherwise. We spend far too much time looking for the dramatic, the bottom of the ninth homerun, and the miraculous intervention. If we could but by the power of the risen Savior have tamed tongues, if our words of fire would be quenched by the Spirit of fire, it would mark an important change in the fortunes of the church and gospel. It would demonstrate that ours is a religion of power, that there is a quenching flood of grace to put out the fire of the tongue.