The apostle James, whoever he may have been (tradition attributes the New Testament treatise to James, Jesus’ brother by blood, acknowledged as the leader of “church HQ” in Jerusalem), was a harsh critic but a superb diagnostician of the human condition. In the section of his epistle we will hear this Sunday, he talks about the amazing power in what is one of our smallest muscles, the tongue.
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
He is not wrong – our tongues are often our most unruly and ungovernable faculty. Who hasn’t spoken words they wished they could take back? Who hasn’t unleashed unhappy dramas by words spoken in haste or in anger or in self-pity or aggression? Words can incite wars, divorce, addiction.
As Christians, we claim that a Word incited creation. Sure, this language reflects the influence of Greek philosophy on the writer of John’s Gospel, but John’s use of the word “Logos” conveys an important mystery about God: that all creation is God-breathed, the material expression of the thought of God conveyed in the Word of God. We can say that God “worded” creation into being.
And then there is this intriguing word Logizomai, used in the New Testament to speak of our having been justified, made righteous in Christ. This word, which means “reckoned,” “considered,” “regarded as,” also has in its root “logos,” or thought/word. Through Christ we are reckoned as righteous, not by our own merits, but by his. We have been “worded” holy by God, and we are to accept this reckoning by faith.
God’s Word created us, and God’s Word has saved us. How might the way we use our words reflect our status as saints made in God’s image and redeemed by God’s Word? Learning to tame our tongues, to listen more than we speak, is as difficult as thinking before we speak. There is such a fast connection between thought and speech, “taming” may be too strong a term. But we can learn to put a breath or two between thought and word so that we frame our words in the positive rather than the negative. We can train ourselves to choose our words to bless. As James writes about the tongue, "With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so."
Even chastisement can be offered with words of blessing, affirming the goodness of God’s creation and inviting a person into behavior that reflects their true selves. Few things build up a person like words of affirmation for who they are, apart from what they do.
Let’s start to notice, after we speak, the tenor of our words. Did we build up or take down? Bless or curse? We can practice on ourselves – if we speak more generously to ourselves, we might find ourselves blessing others more.
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