Taming the Tongue

“He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from trouble.” Proverbs 21:23

Just last week I found myself in a very vulnerable position in which God began to teach me truth about living a Christ-centered life. It was eight in the morning, I had yet to have my first cup of coffee, I was reclined back in the dentist chair with my head below my feet and two sets of hands were in my mouth when I heard the dentist say, “Donald you’re going to have to learn to control your tongue. With as many times as you’ve been in here this last year I would’ve thought you’d have tamed that tongue by now.”

Wow! What profound words. It was as if the voice coming from behind that bright light and spectacles was God saying, “Donald, you’ve been a Christian for a while now. I would’ve thought you’d have tamed that tongue by now.” These words did not come as I was losing control of my tongue through speaking. I was not lying, boasting, gossiping, or speaking evil. In fact, I was physically being prevented from saying anything at all. Yet in the midst of my tongue being restrained by the dental assistant, the point was made. God was concerned with the actions of my tongue, the words coming from my mouth, just as He was with my actions of my life and the fruit I produced.

The believers’ life is one that is called to be brought into submission to the Spirit of God. In Mark 12:30 we see the two greatest commandments, “Love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength… and love your neighbor as yourself.” Yet often it is the tongue that takes us away from doing just that. The tongue can harm our relationship with God and our relationship with others. It can dictate life!  Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

In James chapter 3 we find that the man who can control is tongue can “bridle the whole body as well.” James describes the tongue as a bit in a horses’ mouth or the rudder on a ship. Both objects (the horse and ship) have immense power behind them but their direction is dictated by something small … as with the tongue. The same can be said with the human life, even the life of those who follow Jesus Christ. The tongue often dictates our actions, our efforts, and our power. Our words have profound effects on those around us and to those at whom they are directed. Yet because they come from such a small part of our body we often neglect our words.

As the dentist neared the end of his work in my mouth he said, “Now Donald, hold really still and keep that tongue out of the way. Keep it as far back as you can because it can ruin all that we have done so far.” James ascribes the image of the destructive power of the tongue to that of the flame to a forest fire. As the song says, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going”, the same is true with the destructive power of the tongue. As my tongue could have ruined all the dentist had done by knocking something out of place or allowing moisture to get into the wrong spot, so can our tongue destroy all that has been accomplished in and through us. Our reputation, our motives, our love of God and obedience to His words can all be brought into questions and even destroyed by that which our tongue produced. Our credibility with the gospel message can be permanently damaged by such a small part of our body. James says, “From the same mouth comes both blessing and cursing.”

What does that mean for us as believers? After all, James does say that “no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.” Does that mean there is no hope? Far from it! If you read further in James you see he makes a distinction between that which comes from man and that which comes from God in heaven. Paul would describe this as our human (flesh) nature on one side and Christ who lives in us on the other. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “I have bee crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

So, as believers, Christ lives in us and we are dead to our old selves. This is true with the tongue as well. The “fleshly” nature of the tongue no longer controls us but through the power of our risen Lord it can now be put into submission to Him and controlled. Yet, often we do not fully submit our tongue to God. We may lay it at His feet but we often pick it back up. I encourage you to live out your life with every part of you, even your tongue, in constant submission to the One who lives in you.

I didn’t know the extent of the damage my tongue could have caused as I sat in the dentist chair and I still don’t because I choose to obey the dentist and keep my tongue as still as possible. I pray the same for each of us as we seek to live out our lives in submission to the Lord. 1 Peter 3:10 says, “Let him who means to love life and see good days refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.” May we be people who mean to love life and see good days for the glory of God as we tame our tongues and keep them from deceit. Let us keep our tongues out of the way and allow God to work in and through us without the hindrance that is so often spoken of in Scripture.

P.S. As I finished writing I was invited to participate in a “lunch meeting” at Panda Express. Here is the fortune that came out of my cookie, “The Superior Person is Modest In Speech But Exceeds In Action.”

No Joke!

He Must Increase

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

As Christians we often have an attitude contrary to the words of John the Baptist in this passage. We take on the mind-set that for Christ to increase we must increase as well. The perception of our participation in the work of God has been inflated to the point where Christians view the advance of God through their own blessing or position. We do not understand how our decrease could be advantageous to the increase of the working of God around us. Yet, that is what this passage calls us to.

It is hard to grasp the understanding and calmness of John the Baptist in this passage. In the preceding verses his disciples come to him with the concerns that people are going to Jesus instead of John for baptism. There is an attitude of concern and maybe even competition on behalf of his disciples. Isn’t John “The voice calling our in the wilderness” (John 1:23), doesn’t he call the people to “repent” (Matt. 3:1-2), and isn’t he the one referred to by the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 40:30)? They had heard him testify about Jesus but they could not see how fewer people coming to John for the baptism of repentance and purification, and more seeking out Jesus could advance the Kingdom of God. What would this mean for them?

John the Baptist makes it clear that all authority, power, position, reputation, and even message is given from heaven. He then sets himself apart from Jesus, elevating Jesus in verses 31-34. For, Jesus comes from heaven and testifies about what He knows, baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11). John the Baptist, being only a man, can only testify to the things of earth which he knows, baptizing with water for repentance (Matt. 3:11). He makes it clear that he is only a messenger while Jesus is the Son of God. The Father gives “all things” into the hands of Jesus and it is only those “who believe in the Son” who have eternal life. John the Baptist is telling his disciples that their message and baptism pale in comparison to that if Jesus. Thiers is for purification while His is for salvation. It is the working of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the lives of people that is important and not John or his disciples. He says, “I must decrease so I can point more people in the direction of Jesus and not retain them with my message.” For John the Baptist, it is not about his message or the blessings he receive but about pointing others to the Son of God.

Often as Christians we claim to know that our role is to be pointing others to Jesus and the salvation only He can bring. Yet, there are many times we allow our message, our position, and our desires to be in opposition to people coming to Jesus. I do not say this lightly or with the presumption that this occurs out of malice intent or even with the knowledge of our opposition, though at times it may. We allow our lives for Christ to become a distraction to the gospel message.

As Christians we are a new creation in Christ Jesus, yet we still struggle with our human nature and earthly desires. John the Baptist was aware that while he knew his role was to prepare the way for Jesus and point people towards Him, he did so from an earthly point of view. We also must be aware of this. It is our human nature and earthly desire that does not understand how our decrease could promote His increase.

I am aware that often my thoughts, troubles, and desire can distract me from God. Often it can be good and right things that are distractions. I can get so focused on myself, my calling, and my blessings that I get distracted from God. Sadly this may even hinder others from focusing on God. Oswald Chambers says, “The more you realize yourself the less you will seek God.” Yet, we must seek to live with the attitude we find in John the Baptist, we must seek to decrease so Christ can increase.

Once we put our trust in God and become followers of Christ, a whole new world of opportunities and blessings open up to us. We must fight against the desire to see these opportunities as “rights”. As children of God we are endowed with rights and responsibilities, yet we must use our right to relinquish our rights to God and allow Him to choose for us and direct us. Otherwise it becomes more about us and less about Him. We increase and He decreases.

Often we seek things we feel are our rights as believers or things we believe God desires for us, yet we seek ourselves over God. It may be the single person who desires to be married, the married couple who desires a child, or one called to vocational ministry who seeks a position. Things which are good and desirable, yet our desiring can be a hindrance to Gods working and presence in our lives. Chambers says, “Whenever right is made the guidance in the life, it will blunt the spiritual insight. The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough.”

May you be encouraged in your life of faith and may that life be lived in pursuit of pointing others to Christ above all. May you decrease so that He may increase. As Christ pours out His blessing upon your life, may you never seek the good things of God above God himself. As John the Baptist was in complete surrender to the will and nature of Christ, I pray the same for all of us as we seek to live a life of faith and obedience. 

Sole Sustainer

Recently I have been driven into Scripture, into prayer, and the contemplation of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a disciple of the living God. In times of joy, peace, and prosperity there is an abundance, an overflowing of the tangible goodness of our heavenly Father. However, in times of difficulties, when trials of every kind and nature abound, it is hard to lay hold of the purposes and plans of God. We are often caught between a physical and spiritual reality; the truth we know and that which we experience. Human nature leads us to believe there is a rift between who God is and what we experience. Yet as people of faith we know nothing changes the truth and nature of God.

The goodness of God is not dictated by current events or momentary trials. We know this, yet when the unexpected happens, when our plans are challenged, and life heads in a new direction we often question in our search for understanding. This is not limited to our lives alone but as we seek to live in community and minister alongside others, their trials have a profound effect on us and ours on them. We learn and see the true nature of God as we observe Him working in the lives of those around us and the trials they face. Often their trials send us in search of a greater understanding of the nature and working of God.

I found myself in one of these places the other day as I opened the Scripture. There have been plenty of events in our lives, the lives of family, and the lives of those around us in recent months to drive us closer to God and cause us to ask hard questions. Current events have sent me to Scripture to see if I could understand why such trials happened in the lives of those who desire nothing more than to serve God and minister to His people. I went in search of words of wisdom and ways in which I could be an encouragement and what I found was a reminder of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. James says, "Consider it all joy, my brothren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (Jame 1:2-4) Not necessarily words of encouragement, or words those facing trials desire to hear, yet words of truth nonetheless.

As I continued to search Scripture I was reminded of one of the main threads within our relationship with Christ, if not the metanarrative of the relationship. Christ desires to be our sole sustainer. This can be seen in John 6 as Jesus compares Himself to the manna of the Old Testament, telling those around Him "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh...For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him. as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." (v.51;55-58) Colossians 1:17 says, "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." and Hebrews 1:3 says He "upholds all things by things by the word of His power".

Sitting within the truth of Jesus our Sustainer and His desire for us to "count all things to be loss" in comparison to Him, my mind was directed to familiar scriptures such as Luke 9:58-62 and Luke 14:26,33. I was struck by the nature of these passages as Christ directed His disciples to place all things below Him. He said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me...The foxes have holes an the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." (Luke 9:23,58) Here He challenges the notion and security of home. Later in chapter 14 he challenges the idea of relationship that one may put before Him saying, "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple". He does not say this to inspire malice towards family but to emphasize one's dependence on Him over all other relationships.

The more I searched Scripture the more I realized God was calling us to give up all hope, comfort, and security in things other than Him. He desires our dependence on Him and nothing else. In Luke 18 he called the rich young ruler to give up all is positions to follow Him. In Matthew 4 He called Peter, Andrew, James, and John away from their occupations, their homes, and their families. Later we see Jesus call Matthew away from wealth and position in chapter 9 and in the first chapter of John we see the calling of Philip and Nathanael. Often in Scripture we see those who desire to follow Christ falter as they first seek to secure other things. Some look to inheritances others to family and friends, but to all Christ says "look to Me first". Our dependence Christ alone does not mean a lack of care for others or an indifference towards certain situation. But it does mean that our hope, comfort, and security rest in Him alone.

As I look at the trials and testing that we face I see a pattern of dependence. Often the areas we are tested in or the areas the enemy brings before us, are the areas in which our hope and security rest. Sometimes it is in the loss of a job, a marriage, the health and suffering of children, or the care and love of parents and family. It can be the leaving of a home, a city, a country, or allowing those we love to leave. But Christ calls us to rest in Him, to be dependent on Him alone, and to seek our hope, security, and happiness in Him and not other things or people. These are things we know as believers, things we hold to be truth, but often in times of trials they are hard to hold fast too. We cling to the burdens of other, taking upon ourselves the hopes of children and parents. God calls us to let go! To lay our burdens at His feet and cling to our hope in Christ.

I recognize that not all trials and suffering are derived from things of a spiritual nature. Some of our suffering and trails come from the choices we make, their affect being felt by us and by others, as well as some suffering being the choices of others felt by us. While not all suffering comes from a spiritual source it all can lead to an experience of spiritual significance. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that God causes all thing to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Not that all things are caused by God, or all things are good, but God can take all things in life, even those caused by human actions and turn them to His glory and the good of His people. So lay it all at His feet, trust in God, and allow Him to work everything around you.

1 Peter 1:6-9 says, "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and through you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls."