Taming the Tongue

At one of our youth group events a few years ago, one kid jumped into the cold pond to retrieve a ball when no one else would. No one had even brought a swimsuit including the kid who jumped in. I made a comment to one of the adults whose house we were at that kids do crazy things to impress the opposite sex. We have witnessed this over and over again working with teenagers. They do crazy things just to fit in with their peers, and crazy things to get the attention of the opposite sex. I didn’t mean my words to be an attack on this particular kid, but my words were spoken in the context of what that particular kid had done. I didn’t need to make any comment. My words weren’t words that built up or encouraged or added any good to the conversation.

Someone overheard me and repeated what I said to the kid. The kid was hurt thinking I was criticizing them. The kid told their parents. The parents were angry. The kid also told other kids. I asked forgiveness, but my words had already spread like a fire. I wasn’t trying to be mean or hurtful, but my words still had a damaging effect that spread. Our words matter.

Last week we began to look at bridling the tongue. James gave us two illustrations to grasp the disproportionate effects of the tongue. A relatively small bit in the mouth of a horse guides the whole horse. A small rudder guides the large ship even in strong winds. Both are directed by a person – the rider and the pilot. Likewise, the tongue is a small member of our bodies, but it can do great damage or great good. Our words are an overflow of our hearts.

James continues with an illustration of the destructive potential of the tongue.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.[1]

James 3:5b-8

A fire is an illustration we can understand. Having lived in Southern California and Montana, fires are a common occurrence. A careless cigarette tossed to the ground can set a fire in motion that burns thousands of acres, destroying forests, homes, and lives.

James uses the Greek word hylē which is translated as forest in the ESV. It can mean wood but also brush. Due to Israel’s limited rainfall, there are no forests like the dense forests we have in Montana. The land is primarily grass, weeds, and brush,with some trees. Fire can spread quickly in a forest, but even more quickly through dry brush. This is the image James uses for the destructive potential the tongue holds. Even a few, small words can set a great forest ablaze.

“There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing” (Proverbs 12:18).

“Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 29:20).

“A worthless man plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire. A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends” (Proverbs 16:27-28).

“18Like a maniac shooting flaming arrows of death 19is one who deceives their neighbor and says, ‘I was only joking!’ 20Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down. 21As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife. 22The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts” (Proverbs 26:18-22).

It's no wonder James states the tongue is a fire: “And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell” (vs 6).

Before we delve into verse 6, there are some difficulties in the Greek sentence structure. We will look at the most probable interpretations.[2]

A fire not only can spread rapidly and destroy everything in its path, but the smoke from the fire can permeate everything around it. My in-laws had a fire in their attic. The fire itself was contained in the attic, but the smoke got into everything. Their two-story house had to be gutted because the smoke smell was even in the walls. Our tongues can do damage that we don’t even see.

James characterizes the tongue by the phrase “a world of unrighteousness.” This is one of the places where the structure is difficult. The preceding is in the Greek means to set, establish, or appoint. The most probable way to understand the first part of verse 6 is that the tongue appoints or makes itself the unrighteous world in our members. “What does it mean, then, to say that ‘the tongue makes itself the unrighteous world in our members’? Presumably, James wants to suggest that the tongue contains within it the sins of the fallen world. As Calvin puts it, ‘a slender portion of flesh contains the whole world of iniquity’.”[3]

James then follows with three more descriptions of the tongue:

• “staining the whole body” – staining is to pollute, contaminate, or defile (Mark 7:20; Jude 23). The whole body indicates the influence the tongue has. It is the opposite of James 1:27: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (emphasis added).

• “setting on fire the course of life” – the tongue’s influence stretches beyond the individual speaking. “The point, then, is that the tongue’s fiery destructive power affects all of human existence, from beginning to end, and in all its circumstances.”[4] James wants us to understand the extent and magnitude of the tongue.

• “set on fire by hell” – Yikes! James used some shocking words, even scary words. Our hearts are the source from which our mouths speak (Mark 7:20), but Satan is behind the potential destructive power of the tongue. We often rationalize and minimize what goes on in our hearts, but James brings the destructiveness of the tongue into sharp focus when he says the tongue is “set on fire by hell.” Is Satan and hell who and what we want our words to be rooted in?

A brief note on hell: The Greek word is geenna or ghenna. It was the city dump outside of Jerusalem, also called the Valley of Hinnom, where a perpetual fire burned. Jesus used it symbolically to represent a place of ultimate condemnation (Matthew 5:22, 29-30; 10:28).

“For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (vs 7-8). For is a clue. It ties what follows it to what preceded it. In other words, verse 7 is the basis for verse 6. The untamable nature of the tongue is the proof for James’ pronouncement that the tongue receives its power from hell.

James echoes Genesis 1 when he lists the kinds of animals. He makes clear that the whole range of living creatures are included in what can be tamed. In contrast, no man can tame the tongue. It’s a paradox. We are supposed to tame the tongue (1:26) but we cannot. “Augustine explains that James ‘does not say “no one can tame the tongue,” but “no man,” so that, when it is tamed, we admit that it was done by the mercy of God, the assistance of God, the grace of God.’”[5]

Taming the tongue is beyond difficult. It is something we must make every effort to do as children of God, but we cannot tame our tongues apart from God’s grace and help.

James has two more descriptions of the tongue. “It is a restless evil” – restless is the same Greek word that is used in 1:8 for unstable. Here it is a modifier for evil, likely meaning that the evil of the tongue is difficult to control.

The tongue is also full of deadly poison. James may have had Old Testament teaching in mind:

“They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah” (Psalm 140:3).

“With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered” (Proverbs 11:9).

As James has emphasized throughout verses 5b-8, the tongue has great destructive potential. We have all been guilty of using our tongues for destruction. We need God’s grace and help to tame our tongues, but we also need Jesus’ perfect record of using His tongue only for good, only for life. We can rest knowing that the Father sees us with the perfect record of Jesus’ words.

Reflection

1.     Think of a time your tongue set a fire. Did you consider your words before you spoke them? How did the damage spread?

2.     How have you felt being on the receiving end of a fire set by someone else’s tongue? How have those words lingered with you even if you have forgiven that person? What truth about your identity in Christ counters the damaging words?

3.     How is your perspective of your words changing based on James’ teaching?

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jas 3:5–8.

[2] If you would like detailed explanations and the different possible interpretations, I recommend Douglas Moo’s, James: An Introduction and Commentary

[3] Douglas J. Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 16, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 129.

[4] Douglas J. Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 16, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 130.

[5] Daniel M. Doriani, James, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2007), 112. (Augustine, On Nature and Grace, in The Fathers of the Church, trans. John A. Mourant and William J. Collinge (Washington, D. C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1992), 86:33.)