[THE POWER OF WORDS]
James 3 :2-12
"We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.
Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.
Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.
The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man,
8. but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in Gods likeness.
Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.
Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?
My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water."
I believe everyone has the same desire to live a decent life with dignity.
I think the decent life comes from the dignity of language, and the dignity of our words come from our inner thoughts and mind. So that Paul said that we should tame our thoughts as we need to tame our tongues. We should be transformed by renewing of our mind. That means that we should tame our thoughts.
Romans 12:2. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Gods will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will."1
So I would say that a decent life means a life of decent thought and speech.
The dignity of language comes from the dignity of thought.
As Christians, we should be aware of importance of our speech acts as well as our thoughs. If do not have proper thoughts,it is not possible to have proper speech acts.
The quality of speech or language is important, but the sincerity of speech or language is more important. No matter how polite and civilized you speak, if the sincerity contained in it is distorted or lies in it, it will be a destructive word. The word is lost in dignity.
How many people die and live through words. The tongue is the smallest part of the body. But it is the most powerful weapon. You should always remember that depending on how you use your tongue, you can save or even kill people.
We can see all the beginnings of unhappiness all around us are coming from words. Horses are living organisms. Words have great power and influence. Every word, whether negative or positive, has a color, personality, and also a type.
So what we really need to care about is not just how we look. If you want to be cultured in your speech, you should always train the ideas contained in us to be cultured.
So we must eventually return to the gospel. In particular, remember what Jesus said through his mountaineering exploits. How do you feel as the people of the kingdom of God must seriously and will act also talking about. We also need to take ourselves seriously every day about our words and actions.
In the end, the dignity of words comes from the dignity of thought.
So let us work hard to tame our tongues and thoughts to be imitators of Jesus Christ.
