“No human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” James 3:8 pulls no punches. That muscle in our mouth can kill or heal, spark wars or absolve a world.
From beginning to end, the Bible speaks about the power of speech, for good or for ill. With speech, the Lord God worded the world into being. And with speech, the serpentine foe wooed the world into evil.
To ignore our tongues is to court disaster.
When God commanded, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor,” he made explicit what we all know: that human society, relationships, justice, and one’s own soul are destroyed by lies.
Some of the hardest moments in my life were when, knowing a lie would be the easy way out, that it would save me embarrassment, I raged war against my every inclination and spoke the truth. It hurt but it also opened a door to incremental healing. Truth was the Spirit’s gift.
“I am the Truth,” Jesus said. And, in many ways, that said it all. Truth is life. Truth is inner peace. Truth is of God.
God grant that Christ the Truth may rule our hearts and govern our tongues, that he may kindle within us a fervent devotion to honest words, and that when we fail — and fail we will — that he may move our tongues to confession and thanksgiving for his absolution.
For God, who began our world with “Let there be,” heals our world through, “I forgive you.” And when God says that, no truer words could be spoken.
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