If We Want To Live As Christians, We Must Tame The Tongue

Last updated on: April 27, 2008 at 12:24 pm by Henry Karlson

If We Want To Live As Christians, We Must Tame The Tongue 2008-04-27T12:24:08-05:00 Henry Karlson

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So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no human being can tame the tongue — a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening fresh water and brackish? Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh. (James 3:5-12).

One of the greatest difficulties we have in the world, especially those of us who read and write on blogs, is to know how to use the tongue for its rightful purpose. Of course, when talking about blogs, this must not be seen as a literal statement. The tongue must be understood as a symbol for all the ways we communicate with each other. And communication is not meant to be used as a way to destroy others, but to lift them up. It’s not meant to be a thing of cursing, but a thing of praise. Those before us are made in the image and likeness of God and so we should find a way to lift them up, for when we do so, we glorify God. This is not easy for many of us; we quickly turn those who confront us into an enemy to be proven wrong, a foe to be destroyed. However, as Christians, we should come to them with grace and perfect that which is imperfect in them instead of, like the devil, tearing them down through accusations. We must come to realize that when we do good to those who curse us, we do the will of God, and when we curse those who curse us, we do the will of the devil, and ultimately blaspheme God. This is a hard statement for most of us to take. It is all too easy to engage others, not for the will of God, not for their betterments, but as a way to show off who we are, what we know, and how much greater we think we are to them. They are the sinner we must rebuke, and we are the saint who must always be right. Pride and arrogance are two weapons most of us who engage blogs wield, whether or not we desire to do so. When our sense of personal worth is hurt, we get enraged, and we seek to eradicate our opposition. I am as guilty of this as the next person; it is very easy for me to let the heat of the moment overcome my good Christian sense – a sense of love for others – and instead to engage the way destructive criticism which ignores what my dialogue partner is saying and the value of their words. I just let my tongue get in the way and prove how untamed it remains.

This is not to say there should be no disagreements nor criticisms being given to others on blogs. But the spirit behind it should always be for the glory of God by imitating his ways – the way of love, the way of grace. Since grace perfects nature, since grace takes what is given and finds a way to improve upon it and make it what it is meant to be, so too must our response be one which seeks to improve and perfect what our dialogue partner already has. Moreover, this should go two ways. In our conversation with others, we should also seek to listen and learn from them; we must let ourselves be improved by them. We must desire to be mutually improved by our dialogue instead of thinking we have all one needs, that we are the only one who is right, and there is nothing we can learn from our dialogue partner.

In such dialogues, we must also recognize a simple fact: we often are not communicating on the same level, with the same context, and same implied meanings with the words we use with our dialogue partner. Instead of looking for what “mistakes” others make in how they proclaim a truth or a concern, we must look for what truths they share with us, and even what truths they have which we do not have. Then, once we have done that, we can show them in return what we know and understand as a way to help them in our mutual pursuit for that which is good, true and beautiful. To do this properly, we must interpret what someone else says – not in the worst possible manner – but in the best possible way. Of course this is difficult; and sometimes we might even have to stretch things to do so, but when we try to do this and present what we understand the other has said, we must do this. If in response they say our charitable interpretation is not what they meant, so be it; we will learn how much further we need to build them up, which is how we must think of the situation, instead of how much more we have to overcome and destroy. Again, I admit this is easier said then done; when we reply to one another quickly, things get fast and furious; charity is usually lost in such a situation. And thus, when dialogue becomes like this, no communication is possible. For it is only through love that antinomies can be overcome; it is only through love that division can be reconciled. Until we realize this basic fact, all we do here can end up as babbling monologues which work for the glorification of the self – and not the God of Love whom we should follow. Just as love is self-sacrificial, so we must come to learn that to converse in the way of love, we must sacrifice ourselves, our desires, our perceived glory, for the sake of something greater: a way to unite ourselves with our dialogue partner, often our so-called “enemies”. It is this way we can follow Christ’s will for us.

We are called to bless those who curse us. It is only when we do this can we find a way to turn our so-called enemies into friends. If we seek to destroy them, we will find out we cannot do it. The only one we can destroy is ourselves. Even if we kill them, they will not be overcome: their message will not only live on, but be confirmed as having a strength which we could not adequately respond to. This, of course, is what the ancient Romans learned when they killed Christians. And this is why the Nazarene remains ever alive in the world, while all those who sought to squash his message have found their work undone. For love will always remain stronger than hate, and Jesus is love incarnate.

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