James 3:1-6 (The Message)
[1-2] Don’t be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends.
Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the
strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified.
We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths.
If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true,
you’d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.
[3-5] A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse.
A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain
sets a course in the face of the strongest winds.
A word out of your mouth may seem of no account,
but it can accomplish nearly anything – or destroy it!
[5-6] It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire.
A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth
can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world,
turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation,
send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it,
smoke right from the pit of hell.
James 3:7 (The Message)
This is scary: You can tame a tiger,
but you can’t tame a tongue – it’s never been done.
The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer.
James 3:8-12 (The Message)
With our tongues we bless God our Father;
with the same tongues we curse the very men and women
he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water
one day and brackish the next, does it? Apples trees don’t bear
strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples,
do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole
and get a cup of clear cool water, are you?
THINC
True
Honoring
Inappropriate
Necessary
Christ-Centered