You?? You?? You go there?

James 3:6-9 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

So we were out of town over the weekend of Easter and I heard it got really windy here in Phoenixville. The morning after I got home we got a text from my wife with a picture of our bunny cage – the roof had blown off while we were gone. My terrible wife was disappointed because the bunny didn’t jump out and run away (she doesn’t like pets) but when given the chance to bounce free our bunny stayed in his cage. The bunny is trained to stay in the cage if it wants to be fed. The bunny also has a little plastic “potty” in his cage … he’s not perfect but he’s pretty much potty trained…  took longer for my kids to get potty trained. If you have pets you know that you can train them to do stuff. Animals can be tamed and trained, some people even tame wild animals (don’t do that it’s dumb) but people do it with good success.

This passage says that an animal can be tamed but the human tongue is a different story.

When I was in high school as a freshman and sophomore I played football. I also was very active in the school Bible study. One day the big name Senior quarterback Bobby Green came walking into the locker room and asked something about the school’s Bible study and where it was meeting that night. Now Bobby had never come to the Bible study, I would have noticed that, everyone noticed what Bobby Green did. If he started coming to the Bible Study then everyone would start coming!! Imagine how cool that would be that we could be getting the Gospel out to all the cool kids in the school and then all the other kids would want to come too. So Bobby is asking in the locker room about where the Bible study is and so I answered and told him who’s house it was at. He stopped, looked at me, then laughed ..  “Harkins, you don’t go to a Bible Study!”. You see, when I was at Youth Group and around my Christian friends I was a Super-Christian, I was like leading stuff at Youth Group. Around my family I was also a Super-Christian…  but in the locker room…  that was different. In the locker room and on the football field I pretty much cursed like a Norwegian sailor. I loved Jesus, but I had a terrible mouth because I wanted to fit in…   Now Bobby Green, most popular kid in school, is interested in the Bible and when I try to talk he actually laughed because he didn’t believe I had anything to do with the Bible or God.   Ouch.

The tongue is so hard to tame. It’s been years since I’ve cursed or taken God’s name in vain. I just don’t talk like that anymore, I can get proud because I have tamed that tongue…  well, until I get into an argument with my wife. The woman I love more then my life itself but if I get stuck on myself and end up arguing with her I know exactly what to say to hurt her. It’s awful that we hurt the ones that we love, but it's true we do it and it usually comes from our tongue. It’s so hard to tame the tongue. Without God, it’s simply impossible.

1. When is the last time that you wounded someone with your tongue (words).

2. You don’t tame anything without a plan – what do you plan to do to make yourself choose better choices with your tongue?

3. With it we _________ our Lord and Father, and with it we _________ people who are made in the likeness of God.

4. Take a minute to journal about this topic.

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Written by Jeffrey Harkins