Nature reinforces the observation that small objects often possess a power that is proportionally far greater than their size. Nuclear energy is a prime example. Scientists tell us that they can generate enough electricity to supply the world for millions of years through harnessing the power of the atom. But what makes this statement so astonishing is that this incredible power is unleashed from the nucleus of particles that are smaller than one one-millionth of the width of a piece of human hair! 

            It is important to remember that vast power can be used either for good or bad. We have all seen pictures of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atom bombs were dropped on them at the end of World War Two, killing over seventy thousand people and flattening over five square miles. Yet the same nuclear energy can provide the electricity that lights our homes and runs our appliances! 

            The apostle James wanted us to see our tongues in a similar way (James 3:1-8). Our tongues are the nuclear reactors of our bodies. On the one hand the tongue is so small that it seems relatively unimportant. But our tongues can be extremely powerful sources for either good or bad. How we control our tongues will determine whether we use them as bombs to blow people away or as tools to bestow blessing and healing. 

The Necessity of a Controlled Tongue 

            Notice that James does not tell us to say nothing at all. There is a time to be silent, but there is also a time to speak (Eccl. 3:7). You don’t control something you never use. Rather, controlling the tongue is the ability to direct what we say in ways that please God. The ability to harness the tongue is the difference between using it for good or evil. 

James illustrates this point in two ways. The first is how a small bit and bridle can be used to lead a powerful horse. The second is how even a ship driven by fierce winds can be directed by the helmsman who steers the rudder. James says the tongue is just like the bit and the rudder—if we control the tongue, we can exercise self-control in every other area of our lives. “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well” (v. 2). It is, as one man put it, “the master key” of self-control. Christian maturity is measured by the ability to harness the tongue’s potential for good. 

Five Pictures of a Tongue Gone Bad 

            1. The tongue as a fire. “See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire . . . [it] sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell” (vv. 5-6). Here the apostle reminds us of the destructive capacity of our words. Sometimes just one or two unguarded words is all it takes to destroy a relationship, a marriage, a family, a church.

            I’ll never forget one evening when the field behind our house caught fire. Our neighbor had a pail of ashes that had come from his fireplace. The ashes had sat for several days, so he thought it was safe to throw them over the back of his chain-link fence. When he got back to the house, he noticed a flame reflected in the glass of the back door. Turning around, he was surprised to see the whole field in flames! It only took a few smoldering coals that our neighbor didn’t even see to catch a field on fire before he even got back to the house. Our words can be just like that—smoldering coals waiting to work destruction on those around us. 

            2. The tongue as the world. The tongue, he says, is “the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body” (v. 6). Here the thought before us is that of the defiling nature of the tongue. The world of iniquity here refers to the world in rebellion against God (John 1:9-10). What this means when applied to the tongue is that all the sins that are latent in the fallen, rebellious world can expose themselves through the tongue.

This is just what our Lord taught in Matthew 15:18-20. “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man.” Therefore Agur wisely gave this counsel: “If thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth” (Prov. 30:32, KJV). What begins in the heart will reveal itself through the mouth. The tongue used wrongfully results in the opposite of true religion, which is to keep yourself “unstained by the world” (Jam. 1:27).

            The tongue becomes a world of iniquity defiling the person in one of two ways. We can defile ourselves and we can defile others. We defile ourselves when we listen to and love the ungodly speech of wicked men. The psalmist proclaims a blessing on the man “who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers” (Ps. 1:1). We ought to flee such unhallowed influences. Many movies and television sitcoms today are full of profane and ungodly speech. If we think that we are not affected by them, we are mistaken.

But we can defile others with the tongue by allowing the world to mold our words. Rather, let our hearts be in love with the Lord and His Word, and allow the Holy Scriptures to mold our thinking and our speaking. If we do this, we will purify both ourselves and others; as we speak the truth, we are sanctified by it (John 17:17). 

            3. The tongue as hell. The tongue, he says, “is set on fire by hell” (v. 6). Here the apostle tells us the source of the evil in our tongues can be devilish. We need to realize that when we do not exercise self-control over our tongues, we are presenting them to the devil as channels for him to work through. When Peter once rebuked the Lord, Jesus rebuked him by saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (Matt. 16:23). How surprised Peter must have been to hear those words coming from the mouth of Jesus! But if it can happen to Peter, it can happen to us. It is possible for us to yield our tongues for the service of the Archenemy of our Savior. Shall we become traitors to Jesus by giving our tongues as weapons for Satan to fight with?

            4. The tongue as an animal. James says, “For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no [man] can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil” (vv. 7-8). The idea here is the defiant nature of the tongue. When the apostle describes the tongue as a “restless evil,” he is in effect saying that the tongue is like a tiger in a cage pacing back and forth, just waiting to break out in acts of violence.

            I remember hearing or reading a story of a man during the nineteenth century who went to Africa and brought home a large cat, like a cheetah or leopard. But he brought it back as a kitten and raised it so that it seemed domesticated. One night, however, as the man lay sleeping, this large cat, now grown to full size, happened to taste some blood from a scar on the man’s arm. It was the last night the man spent alive. Immediately the ferocious nature of the cat was unleashed, and all the domestication was quickly forgotten. 

That, James would say, is like the tongue. It may one moment be used in a praiseworthy and honorable way, but it can in the next be used to tear someone apart with cruel, vicious, biting words. 

            5. The tongue as poison. “No one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison” (v. 8). This phrase points to the deadly nature of the tongue. The apostle Paul, when he wanted to describe the sinfulness of humanity, pointed to the sin of the lips: “‘Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving,’ ‘the poison of asps is under their lips’; ‘whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness’” (Rom. 3:13-14). Just as poison kills, so can the tongue. Malicious words can kill peace in a church, order in a home, or love in a marriage. Just as it doesn’t take much poison to kill someone, so it doesn’t take a lot of sinful words to ruin a relationship.

Don’t Say That! 

The way to gain control over our tongues initially lies in the ability to recognize and avoid sinful patterns of communication. The warnings in Proverbs concerning the wrong use of the tongue are very instructive in this regard. 

One of the ways the destructive power of the tongue can be felt is in thoughtless chatter. Proverbs 29:20 says, “Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” The impact of this verse will not come through unless we realize that a fool in Proverbs is more than just a simpleton. A fool is someone who is in rebellion against God’s wise law.

            A second way the harmful power of the tongue is felt is through lying. “Truthful lips will be established forever, but a lying tongue is only for a moment” (Prov. 12:19). “Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who deal faithfully are His delight” (v. 22). God hates lying so much that He inscribed a prohibition against it with His own finger in tables of stone in the Ten Commandments. He hates it today in all its forms, regardless of whether it presents itself in half-truths, embellishments of the truth, or downright lies.

            A third way we sin with our words is seen in arrogant boasting. “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, but humility goes before honor” (Prov. 18:12). “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips” (27:2). God hates falsehood, but He hates pride even more. Of the seven things Solomon says are an abomination to the Lord, pride is the first one on the list. Let us therefore beware of a boastful tongue.

            A fourth way we sin with our words is through gossip. There is probably nothing more hurtful and harmful to the life of a church than gossip. Gossip is the talk of an aggrieved coward. A gossip is not necessarily one who spreads false rumors about someone. He or she is someone who is too afraid to confront an individual over a matter and therefore goes behind that person’s back to slander him or her. Solomon addresses this matter, too: “He who conceals hatred has lying lips, and he who spreads slander is a fool” (Prov. 10:18).

            Finally, the tongue becomes destructive when it is given to flattery. The difference between this and gossip is that a gossip is someone who will say something behind someone’s back that he will not say to their face; a flatterer is someone who will say something to a person’s face that he will not say behind their back. Perhaps we do not think of it in this way, but according to Proverbs, to flatter someone is to spread a net for the feet of others and to insure their swift destruction (Prov. 26:28; 29:5).

Say This! 

A governed tongue will exhibit itself in the following ways. First, it will seek to glorify God in all that it says. This is, of course, the ultimate rule in everything we are to do: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). And we can only glorify God in what we say if what we say is in conformity to God’s Word. If the Bible forbids a certain way of talking, we will avoid that. We will never talk about God in an irreverent manner, nor will we joke about sin.

Second, it will seek to edify others (Eph. 4:29). Puritan John Flavel once said that we should never let anyone leave our company without conviction or edification. Let us study to heed his advice.

Third, it will discern the proper timing for the words it speaks. Solomon said, “How delightful is a timely word!” (Prov. 15:23). To speak to someone who is angry, for example, is likely only to make matters worse, no matter how good what we have to say to them is. That is why Solomon wrote, “The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things” (Prov. 15:28, emphasis added). If our words gush out like cataracts of water, they will most likely carry evil things in the current.

Fourth, it will speak the truth. It will study to cover up nothing, but to portray an accurate presentation in everything. It will do this even if saying the whole truth hurts.

Finally, it will spread a mantle of love over everything it says (Eph. 4:15). Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13 that if we do not have love, we are nothing. What applies in every other area of our lives also applies in the matter of the tongue. When we speak, therefore, let us open our mouths and speak with the love of Christ in our hearts.

The Power to Change 

It would be easy, on the basis of the text, to plead helplessness and simply throw up our hands and say that such a task is impossible. Did not James himself say that no man can tame the tongue? If that is so, is it possible for us to tame our tongues? 

            It would have been futile for James to command something that was impossible. Clearly the implication of his words is to stimulate a closer watch on the tongue. And the key to taming the tongue is found, amazingly, in the very phrase that most might use to prove the impossibility of the task, “But no man can tame the tongue” (v. 8, NKJV, emphasis added). In the Greek the word man is emphatic, so that James seems to have placed considerable stress on this word.

The lesson he wants to get across is simply this: though no man can, in his own strength, conquer the powerful might of the tongue, yet we can by the assistance of the Lord and by the power of His grace. Let us therefore cry unto the Lord, with David, “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Ps. 141:3).

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. 

Scripture quotations marked “NKJV™” are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.