Words As Well As Works

My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

—James 3:1–12

For the past several years, talk radio has come to fill more and more of America’s airwaves. We are a nation of talkers. We have something to say, and, it seems, most everyone wants to be heard. The disappearing print media still have their opinion pages, but talk shows have cornered the conviction market. There is no shortage of deep-rooted convictions blasting through the airwaves at any hour, day or night.

But words don’t become public through our lips alone. Social media venues (Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, YouTube, Instagram, and the like) are making verbal communication a dying art. The vast majority of communication today takes place via a smartphone text or computer. (Who would have thought so much could be said with only 140 characters on Twitter?) And who can predict what tomorrow’s new communication toys will be? We are full of words, but they come, more and more, through fast-moving fingers on a keyboard. We don’t seem to heed James’s warning that we should “be swift to hear [and] slow to speak” (James 1:19).

But what comes out of our mouths—and what we might type in a text message or send out on Twitter—is of such vital importance that James devoted twelve entire verses to it. Having just addressed the relationship between our faith and our works, he turned to the relationship between our faith and our words. Our words reveal what is actually within us. Having just made it clear that it’s not enough to have the right words without good works, James explained that having good works isn’t enough if we don’t have good words.

Recently, I attended a high school reunion. One person I saw hadn’t been athletic as a kid. He could not throw a ball or hit one with a bat. Because of this he was the target of some cruel ridicule, taunting, and bullying. When he was young, he generally told his harassers, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

Through the years, however, I have found that statement untrue. For decades I have worn several scars from sticks and stones. I have a scar on the back of my head from the day a boy up the street bounced a rock off it. I have a scar on my left thigh from the time I was climbing over a picket fence and fell. On my shin is the scar from when a kid slid into second base with his spikes high in the air. All those wounds have healed, and I haven’t given one of them a single thought in years. But some people who have been the target of harsh words carry wounds for a lifetime that never heal.

Words have power. They can bless or break; they can help or hurt. Too many children have heard a frustrated parent say, “You are worthless and will never amount to anything.” And the children believed it, allowing those words to shape their self-image and determine their self-worth. Other children have had parents affirm them: “You are important, and God has something for you to do that no one can do quite like you can.” These children believed that message and ultimately acted on it. Much of who I am today, apart from the saving grace of God, is due to a mom and dad who constantly let me know they were proud of me and that I could do anything if I set my mind to it and worked hard. The words we say have tremendous power—for good or for bad.

As James addressed the topic of our words, he was echoing what Jesus had said years earlier when rebuking the Pharisees: “For every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36–37). James made three statements about the use of our tongues, and he gave two illustrations to substantiate each point. First, James reminded people that speech can, in fact, be controlled and directed, and he illustrated his point with a horse bridle and ship rudder. Second, James related that contentious speech can be destructive like fire and poison. Finally, James pointed out that conflicting speech can be deceptive and illustrated this fact with images of a spring of water and a fig tree.

Words define us: they reveal what is in our hearts. Whether we speak words or type them, they have power to heal or to hurt, to help or to hinder.