Hung By The Tongue

How many times have others had to pay the price?

It wasn’t the horse’s fault.... it was mine.

And it is not the fault of the tongue either. The tongue is a 2 ounce piece of muscle and tendons.

2. The tongue is very small but VERY DANGEROUS!

It is dangerous because IT CAN NOT BE TAMED!

James had been to circuses in his day. He talks about dancing bears, dogs that jump rope and elephants that balance on barrels.

I once saw a buffalo that could ride a skateboard.

Any animal is capable of being tamed and trained.

But James says NOT THE TONGUE.

Just when you think you have it tamed, BAM! It jumps up and bites you.

1. The tongue is very small but VERY POWERFUL

2. The tongue is very small but VERY DANGEROUS

AND

3. The tongue is very small but VERY REVEALING!

Someone wise once said, “The eyes are the window to the soul.”

I don’t completely understand that but I think I agree Someone named Bruce Barton, whom I don’t know but I do agree with him, said, “For good or evil, your conversation is your advertisement. Every time you open your mouth you let people look into your mind.

Or as the 70’s song said, What you see is what you get.”

When you hear wrath and bitterness and hate and bragging and profanity and vulgarity and bigotry and perversion coming from a mouth.... you have seen their soul, their true self, their deepest self.

They may claim to be holy and god-fearing... but the fruit does not lie.

James makes it clear...

Nothing has been found in nature that can compare to the double use of the tongue—to the blessing and cursing out of the same mouth.

1. A fountain cannot produce sweet and bitter water at the same time

2. A fig tree cannot produce olives

3. A vine cannot produce figs

4. The ocean cannot produce sweet water

You may think that you are passing the Christianity test too... BUT THE FRUIT DOES NOT LIE!

Jesus said in Matthew 15:18-20, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean.’”

Jesus also said, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:34-37).

Not only is the tongue so dangerous because it reveals our true self....

It reveals that Satan is at work in us.

James described the tongue as a fire, a ravenous destructive fire. Then he says “that it is set on fire by hell itself.”

James is saying...

A VILE, gossiping, lying, destructive tongue is the instrument of Satan himself, that kind of talk comes straight from the pit of hell.