Speech Reveals Our Inner Life

James 3:4 says this, “And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even thought the winds are strong.”

James is speaking about the tongue.

Oh the power of the tongue!

And it has become the repeated message from my heart for some time now as I have investigated it within my own life and examined it closely for months now.
There is more power in the smallest muscle of our entire body than we realize.
Our choice of words matter more than we could ever know.

And I notice it in my daily habits.  The difficulty of keeping guard over my speech.

Because it’s rather easy to recognize the glaringly obvious use of ugly and bitter language, but its more difficult to realize the significant influence of even those things we consider “small and insignificant.”

Like, “This idiot is driving too slow.”  or, “Why is our waitress taking so long?”  or even little things tacked to the end of innocent-enough phrases, like, “This is ridiculous!”  or “I can’t believe this is happening!”

Because I really think James was trying to give us a waning here, that ALL words not used for the edification of a soul or to bring glory to Jesus, are, “set on fire by hell itself.”  (James 3:6)

I have seen ill-spoken words spewed from bitter spirits.  I have been the subject of those words… and I have, very unfortunately, been the executioner of such words.  And the damaging effect they have had has been monumental.

James uses, here, a unique example of a rudder, which by definition is this: “a vertical blade at the stern of a vessel that can be turned horizontally to change the vessel's direction when in motion.”  Though it is small in size, it is powerful in impact and influence.

We simply cannot say that we are devoted to Jesus, and committed to righteous living if we continue to engage in the practice of sick-speech.  My commentary says this, that the course of the godly life, “will not admit contradictions.”  In fact James says it too in verse 9 and 10, “We use our tongue to praise God our Father and then turn around and curse a person who was made in his very image! Out of the same mouth we pour out words of praise one minute and curses the next. My brothers and sister, this should never be!”

I have seen it with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears, and likely spoken it from my own mouth… and the scariest thing I can image is the interior damage I am doing by improper use of words.  It is my strong conviction that they have held us in more places of complacency and affliction than anything else in our life!

One of the most frightening things I’ve seen… literally the thing that I have feared almost more than anything else… is witnessing someone engage in a prayer, and then walk away completely unmarked by that petition and fall prey, once again, to speech that, simply put, negates the entirety of that appeal.

When this happens, it’s time to check out heart.
What’s in there that need to be removed?
Because all speech is revealed by our inner life.
And the words we choose speak volumes about the One we say is our Redeemer, Miracle-Worker, Grace-Giver, Promise-Keeper.

We must learn, by way of mouth, how to stay alive in Christ, how to glorify the King, and how to effectively demonstrate the God of the universe to the world around us.  Trust me, we forfeit many a conversion by our conversation.

It matters!