Watch Your Mouth!

Did your parents ever day to you, "Watch your mouth!" Mine did. There were times I had to lick a bar of soap. Can I get a witness? I'm thankful for the discipline I received because I needed it.

So yesterday, May 1st, I read the righteous and convicting words of James in chapter 3. I'm not going to list the entire chapter in this blog because I'm going to encourage you to go grab your Bible, open it, and read it for yourself.

However, I will share something that stirred me yesterday and is bugging me today.

I read James 3 yesterday morning and then around noon I attended a Pastors' Prayer meeting on the Westside of town where a friend of mine, Pastor Dale Miller, and I sat talking, waiting for other Pastors to arrive to pray and worship together. We were talking about various topics when he told me he is speaking on James the 3rd chapter this Sunday. "Okay Lord, You have my attention."

This got the conversation rolling even more and iron started sharpening iron. He told me of his plans to preach the truth in James 3 to his church to bring about change on how we speak; on how we use our tongue...whether to praise or curse.

       So here is what James said on the matter.


James 3:7-12 (...by the way...the previous 6 verses speak even more on the tongue...check it out)
⁷ All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. ¹¹ Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹² My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.


So check this out. I was reading someone's Facebook comment and thread yesterday afternoon; which everything they presented in their opening statement was true and scripturally sound. There were variant viewpoints, however, to this individual's belief and, in turn, because others did not agree with this person, they were called names. Here's what stirs a righteous anger in me. The person doing the name calling professed to be a Christian. Weird huh? Christians calling Christians names. What??? Did you know that the greatest cause of atheism is Christians?! The world sees us divided, unloving, uncaring, and calling each other names...they don't want what we have to offer because they think what they have is better.

Let me ask you this, would our Master Teacher, Savior, Lord, and King approve of such conduct in His Church? I'm not going to answer that...I'll let you wrestle with it.

To turn this around a little...how are you using your words, your ability to speak, your tongue?
Are you proclaiming the praises of Jesus or cursing men?
Are you thanking God for your job or cursing your employer?
Are you participating loyally in your home church or cursing the leadership?
Are you ministering to the unreached or complaining about the worship team singing the same song over and over? (Sorry, as a worship leader this one makes me laugh.)
Are you praying for revival or cursing other congregations you may not fully line-up with doctrinally?
Are you using your tongue to glorify God and bring people to the salvation knowledge of who Jesus is or are you using your tongue to curse, cuss, and speak vulgarly?

Don't just take my word for it.

Psalm 34:7-9
"Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it."

Psalm 39:1
"I said, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth while in the presence of the wicked.”

Psalm 52:4 (a confession we all could say)
"Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?  You who practice deceit, your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor. You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth. You love every harmful word, you deceitful tongue!"

Proverbs 12:18
"The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."

Colossians 3:8
"But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth."

God's Word says much more on this topic of the tongue so I encourage you to dive into His Truth and seek it out. To refer back to James' statement and pose it to you as a question to wrestle with...as am I...

With your tongue, are you praising our Lord and Father or are you cursing human beings?
All in all, watch your mouth. Wrestle with this and let it tame your tongue.