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by Logan Ames

One of my favorite all-time talk radio segments was something that Mike & Mike in the Morning used to do once a week called “Just Shut Up." It would typically be at the end of the week so the show’s producers had enough time to gather interview or press conference clips from throughout the week to find some of the dumbest things that athletes and coaches had said. After playing those clips, the hosts would collectively say, “Just shut up!” Sometimes, the person making the dumb comment is the same person the show had been praising earlier for their performance. This goes to show that no matter how successful you are in life, no matter how much money you have, and no matter how good of a day you are having, every single person is susceptible to opening his or her mouth and ruining it!

James continues his writing about the problem human beings have with the tongue in James 3:7-8: “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." James had already written in verse 2 that “anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect," suggesting that language is the one thing keeping even the most righteous individual from being perfect. Just before that, he wrote in the same verse, “We all stumble in many ways." James, who was a leader in the early Church writing to many other believers, included himself in that statement because he understood that no one is exempt from the issues caused by an out-of-control tongue.

It’s surprising that something so small could cause such big problems. James compares the tongue to animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures because all of them can be wild and out-of-control if not properly handled. The difference, though, is that all of those creatures have been brought into submission to mankind, yet man has not been able to control his mouth. Many times, the mouth has control over the human being.

The question, then, is how do we battle this issue of an out-of-control mouth? The Greek language gives us a bit of a hint in these verses. Where it says that “no human being can tame the tongue," I found it fascinating that the Greek word there for “can” comes from the root dunamis. It’s where we get the English word “dynamite." This word is translated as “power” in Acts 1:8, where Jesus said his disciples would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. So, when James says that “no human being can tame the tongue” (3:8), he means that, in our own carnal ability, we don’t have the same dynamite power that the Holy Spirit has to tame the untamable.

The next question in my mind would be, why are our words untamable? James tells us that the tongue is “a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (3:8). The Greek word for “restless," which is akatastaton, could also be translated as “unstable." I don’t think that anyone who has ever gotten into trouble because of something they said would argue that this is true. It’s almost like you are surprised at the magnitude of your own stupidity with words, asking yourself, “Why in the world did I just say that?” Since we’ve all been there, we ought to accept what James says about the tongue being completely unstable.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to blame some object that cannot think on its own for my struggles. That seems like a bit of a cop-out. However, I think James knows this. I don’t believe he is trying to blame the tongue or give it some sort of power that it doesn’t actually have. He’s teaching the new believers to take sin seriously. He wants them to realize that if we want to have better results with whatever comes out of our mouths, then we need to “walk by the Spirit," as Paul tells us in Galatians 5:16. Just a few verses later, Paul says we must “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). It’s not just walking with Him in a general sense; it’s letting Him lead us and guide us every step of the way!

We need to do this because the real problem isn’t the tongue but the HEART. Jesus says in Matthew 12:34 (ESV), “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." James draws attention to the tongue because the dumb, hurtful, or sinful things we say are the RESULT of the problem, but the ROOT of the problem goes far deeper than words. God created us with perfect hearts and minds that were reflected perfectly in what we say. But after the fall in the Garden of Eden, we had a serious problem, a disease with no cure. Genesis 6:5 tells us, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." Once Adam and Eve sinned and brought into their lives the knowledge of evil, fear, shame, guilt, blame, selfishness, and everything else that comes with sin, the corruption of the human body from the inside out was in full swing.

The only answer we have to this serious problem is Jesus. The inclinations of the flesh are still the same, but because Jesus defeated sin, we too can have victory over the human heart, the human tongue, and anything else that has been corrupted by evil. The best way to learn and walk in that victory is to “just shut up” sometimes. James already wrote earlier in his letter to the believers that they should be “quick to listen and slow to speak” (James 1:19). His older brother, Jesus, had sent the disciples out one time to share the good news in Israel. As he was commissioning them, he gave them many instructions, one of which had to do with making sure their words were used for His glory. In Matthew 10:18-20, Jesus says, “On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." When you read through the Book of Acts, you see that these words of Jesus come true as the apostles and early Church leaders are often “filled with the Holy Spirit” as they speak.

If you’ve been finding yourself being made a fool of by the words that come out of your mouth, the only real advice I have for you is to be quiet and seek the Holy Spirit. I am as guilty of this as anyone. I find myself not only saying too much at times but also saying it too quickly. When I do that, I’m basically trying to lead the Holy Spirit, rather than letting Him lead me. We cannot move ahead of the Spirit, but we must let Him lead us step by step. May God bless our words!

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