Be Careful Of Your Tongue!
The letter of James delivers a sharp rebuke to all of us with regards to the words that come out of our mouths. With just our tongue, we are able to bring so much destruction beyond belief. Case in point: World War 1 began with bad words. Wrong words can give offence to the wrong ears, and the result can be the fall of empires, or the wiping away of complete nations. I want us to consider the weighty responsibility that God has given us when he granted us speech. Do we use our speech for the healing of nations or for their destruction? There is power behind our words. The words that we utter can create situations. Funny enough, that’s exactly how our God created the world. He spoke creation into existence: “And God said: Let there be light.” I spotted a similar occurrence in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus asked his disciples: “ But who do you say that I am ?” Peter answered: You are the Messiah . That confession itself was powerful because it created a huge amount of faith in Peter’s life.