I continue to be here in Chelan, WA on vacation with the family in this beautiful place. I am so thankful to the Lord for the ability to take little trips like this. It has been so refreshing and nice to get specific time focused on each other.
James 3:6-7 [AMP] And the tongue is a fire. [The tongue is a] world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth (the cycle of man’s nature), being itself ignited by hell (Gehenna). For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea animal, can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius (nature).
These two verses are extremely damning to our speech. It’s incredibly powerful how James does not characterize these evil tongues toward any single population (believer vs unbeliever)…Everyone has THIS evil member of their body. The whole aspect wrapped up in the ability to tame an animal, and how we’re able to do this with pretty good efficiency, yet man has still not been able to tame the tongue. What this pretty much tells me is that we need to learn to cage the animal; not tame it. God’s word gives us all we need to know about understanding His character and how to be more like His Son. In regard to our tongues, it needs to be more about when to hold it versus went to try to control it.