Enemy At The Gates

James is has become my default book of the Bible that I tend to peruse whenever I feel the need to be reminded of some essential Biblical wisdom. There is just so much packed into those 5 glorious chapters written by Jesus' brotha himself.

I have always been an outspoken person. Controlling my tongue has been, and will be, a life-long effort. If you've known me for more than a day, or ever read any of the other posts on this blog, this will come as a very obvious statement. That's why James 3:1-12 has always stood out to me. Verse 3 in particular says "If we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every way." I never equated control of the tongue with control of the heart, mind and soul as James seems to say here, but honestly it makes sense. Controlling the tongue demonstrates a deeper control that comes from something divine within us, and it takes something divine to control such a dangerous weapon as our tongues.

Now, that may sound drastic to call your tongue a dangerous weapon, or "The Enemy at the Gates" as I like to call it, but James paints a similar picture in chapter 3. In verses 5-6 James compares the tongue to a tiny spark that starts a great forest fire. He goes on to say that the tongue is "A whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself." Clearly James understood that the tongue is Satan's muscle of choice for he knows that we humans are helpless to control it. Verses 7 and 8 say "People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison." These verses demonstrate the lop sided war we wage against our tongues, for we can only hope to contain it while it can control our entire being.

Going backwards a bit, verses 3-5 say "We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches." Isn't that passage humbling in a profound way? We create amazing technology, travel incredible distances and yet we can be controlled by such a simple part of our own anatomy. I know I know, most women would say that men are controlled by another part of their anatomy, but if you think about it the tongue really is to blame for even the sexual indiscretion in our lives.

What do men use to lie to women, brag about sexual conquests, and provoke others to do the same? It is the tongue. What is every political leaders greatest tool in swaying the masses to commit the most horrendous atrocities? Again, it is the tongue. How do we tear down the love we struggled to build up with those we are closest to? Sadly, we utilize the tongue.

I was once told that "One seldom regrets unspoken words." I think that goes for those of us who tend to talk more when we are angry, which may be most people. James 1:19 is famous for saying "You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry." I like to jump straight from that to James 1:26, which says "If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless."

BOOM, roasted. How huge of a statement is that?! James is the freakin' man. He's basically saying that all those beliefs you invest your life in, all that you worship, is complete GARBAGE if you don't check what you say and watch how you treat people. There are so many "christians" who snap at people and are complete ______s to one another because of the slightest disagreements. We have to be able to control our words and patiently interact with the people in this world who firmly stand against what we believe or we will never make any progress in advancing the Kingdom of God. I can't imagine what our secular societies would think about Christians if we adhered to what we read here in James.

I could write all day about the wisdom we find in the book of James, but I'll stop here. I hope you find this all to be as enlightening as I do. If not, it was all just my shot in the dark anyway.