Bridleing the Tongue

One of the cool things I see about James and the other writers of the New Testament is that they include themselves in their admonitions. James says, “For we all stumble in many things.” He does not exalt himself above his students or to the people he is writing to but stands, conscious of his own weaknesses. Yet he is ready to follow his own instruction.

We all stumble. No one is exempt. Everyone must heed these words. That is because we all stumble at many things…all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Everyone must be careful of their tongue and recognize the danger that they can do with it or they will continue to stumble and do damage if they don’t (or refuse to) see or acknowledge it.

There is a danger in justifying what is said or the tone in which it is said. Instead of using soft and healing words we can be guilty of using harsh and hurtful ones. Some folks want to call it being strong or honest but in fact they can be neither. Something can be said that is true but how we say it can reveal our motive for saying it. Gal 6:1 says if we see someone in a fault we should seek to restore them. All too often we want to punish them. We may use correct words but still with harshness. Many times our tone reveals our motive for saying anything.

In vs.3 and 4, James uses the visual of a bridle and a rudder of a ship to illustrate the need to get a handle on our tongue. The bridle is used to control the direction of the horse, the whole horse. The same is of the rudder with a whole ship. But a steady hand must be kept on both at all times or they can both drift or, in a sudden situation go in a direction that was not intended. If something startles the horse or a sudden squall comes up on the lake or the sea and there is no steady hand then things get out of control quickly. The same is true for the tongue. We need to be careful to “keep a hand” on our tongue at all times so that it doesn’t get out of control when we are in a sudden situation. We also need to be careful that it doesn’t drift into places it does not belong. We need to stay on course. This takes a watchful eye and a steady hand on our tongue at all times. Not ours…but the hand of the Captain of our soul. It takes listening to His direction and cautions to keep us on course and moving on the right path. He will let us know if our grip is too loose or too lax on our tongue. It doesn’t have to be tight or taut so much as it just needs to be firm and steady. If we look to Him we can learn to have just the right grip and move a little closer to being perfect.