Mind Your Tongue

The most thoughtless thing we can do is forget how powerful our spoken words are.

"And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light". Genesis 1:3

When the world was birthed forth, it was by the tongue of our Creator.

Spoken words have power. The power to create and destroy. As human beings God created us with the ability ourselves to create. We were tasked with being His love, cultivating the pleasant Earth He designed.

When the world fell, it started with the tongue. How did the enemy tempt Eve except by the deception of his words? Crafted to lead astray, to question, to pervert the Lord's commands and intentions.

The Bible has a lot to say about our tongue, almost all of it bad. The tongue itself is an instrument that rears against our Spirit, commanding to do evil.

James said it like this, "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell". James 3:6

He goes on to say, "But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison" (verse 9).

Fire, evil, restless, deadly poison. The tongue, small as it is, can destroy not only your body but your life, in total.

The words we speak affect our minds, not only on a spiritual level, but also a physical one. We have neural pathways that our brain likes to send signals down. The ones most traveled are the ones our brain automatically wants to travel (humans are not good with change if you hadn't discovered that yet). That is why cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on "rewiring" our brains. If we can change our most frequented neural pathways, we are changing our brain's functioning, and therefore ourselves.

Have you ever caught yourself saying "Wow, I'm so stupid?" Or some other favorite dig like, "I'm ridiculous?" You might think these words have no weight, but in reality they do. From a physical standpoint the more you think and say these things, the more your brain will automatically revert to those thought patterns.

If our tongue has the power to rewire our brain, despite knowing our own intentions and capacities, how much more power does it have to rewire someone else's?

Gossiping is something most of us do. It's easy. the Bible describes gossip as "choice morsels" in NIV. The actual Hebrew root for this means to "swallow greedily" according to Strong's dictionary. These "choice morsels" are said to go down into one's innermost being (Proverbs 26:22).

When we gossip it tastes good, it feels good, and others eat it up. But gossip is destruction and creates in us an unflattering heart for one who claims to love Jesus.

I've been personally convicted of this time and time again. But it's so easy to waive it off and say, "I'm not gossiping, I'm venting," or "Well it isn't untrue, so can it be gossip?" We as Christians make any excuse to go on wagging our tongues about one another, myself so included. We ignore the nagging in our heart that says "Bite your tongue" and instead we unleash it. We bring the fire of hell from our mouths and feed it to anyone willing to listen, to take our side, or to share our negative opinion of another.

We trade friendships, godliness, and peace for the tasty little bits of morsels we can share about someone else. In this process we destroy souls.

Ephesians 4:29 tells us to only let talk that is good for edifying others come from our mouths, yet since when is it edifying to the listener, ourselves, or the one being spoken about to point out flaws?

This is not by any means saying do not confront someone who has done you wrong or to keep quiet when someone else is being harmed, but it is to say, keep your drama to yourself. Because anyone with ears would love to listen, and they simply should not get to!

And another thing...

Watch what you say in jest, in anger, in passing. Your words have so much weight, again- to rewire minds! I wrote it like this in a poem:

everyone is haunted. ghouls don’t just exist in nightmares. they exist inside us, around us, and they follow us. so shut your mouth, before you conjure up a devil in someone’s life… your words have weight, so much more weight than rash examples have led you to believe. words can heal a broken soul, words can plant a seed that grows, words can simply make someone feel beautiful. but words can also pierce a heart, destroy a spirit, and tear down a home. words are our most powerfully misunderstood weapon, the most healing salve on the tongue of a wise man, and the most poisonous arrow on the tongue of a fool. how do you wield your tongue? do you conjure up footholds and devils? or do you help grow forests of flowering trees, and ripest fruit? -Proverbs 12:18

Proverbs 12:18 as referenced above says:

"The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing".

Let our words be salves, let our lips not defile others.

The Lord points out our tendency to do this in James 3:10, "Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be".

We are called to come higher. To leave behind the pits and the dressings of our flesh, to be clothed in righteousness (Isaiah 61).

So why then do we tear down ourselves and each other? This is the opposite of how we are called.

Jeremiah the beloved (to us) prophet described his enemies as plotting to "attack" him with their tongues (Jeremiah 18:18). The word attack here means in Hebrew to hit, beat, slay, or kill.

That is one powerful word for "just words".

The phrase "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me", is ignorant. Words hurt. Words kill. Sure we need to be careful what we let into our hearts, and take what others say with a grain of salt and with prayer, but words hurt.

Church, we must be better.

Stop waiving your words off as petty and simple. See how they harm or how the heal. Pay attention to even the smallest sensitivity. The stupid curse word that flies so easy off your tongue, and the meanest insult you speak over a rude passerby. And remember also for yourself how words have impacted your life. The abundance of them, or the lack thereof. Remember how you lit up someone's face when you encouraged them, or how you contorted it when you tore them down.

Christians,