What to Read When…You Need to Control Your Tongue

Matthew 15:10-20 –Then calling out to the crowd, he addressed them, “Listen and understand! 
Mat 15:11  It is not what goes into the mouth that makes a person unclean. It is what comes out of the mouth that makes a person unclean.” Then the disciples came and asked him, “Do you realize that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?” He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be pulled up by the roots. 

Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If one blind person leads another blind person, both will fall into a ditch.” Then Peter told him, “Explain to us this parable.” Jesus said, “Are you still so ignorant? Don’t you know that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and then is expelled as waste? 

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and it is those things that make a person unclean. It is out of the heart that evil thoughts come, as well as murder, adultery, sexual immorality, stealing, false testimony, and slander. These are the things that make a person unclean…

James 3:1-12 –Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more severely than others. For all of us make many mistakes. If someone does not make any mistakes when he speaks, he is perfect and able to control his whole body. Now if we put bits into horses’ mouths to make them obey us, we can guide their whole bodies as well. 

  And look at ships! They are so big that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are steered by a tiny rudder wherever the helmsman directs. In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it can boast of great achievements. A huge forest can be set on fire by a little flame. 

  The tongue is a fire, a world of evil. Placed among the parts of our bodies, the tongue contaminates the whole body and sets on fire the course of life, and is itself set on fire by hell. 

  For all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be or have been tamed by humans, but no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil filled with deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in God’s likeness. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. It should not be like this, my brothers! 

A spring cannot pour both fresh and brackish water from the same opening, can it? My brothers, a fig tree cannot produce olives, nor a grapevine figs, can it? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.