The tongue-A Fire; A World of Iniquity

Philip John Barrington said:

James 3:6

6. And the tongue [is] a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.


The Tongue is a fire. What does this mean? A fire can destroy property; this means a tongue can ruin one financially so they cannot afford to live where they are. A fire from the tongue gives a devastation of reputation; that is; One that had high standing in their community now destroyed by fire. The tongue can destroy like fire the reputation of others. It can leave people with ashes or things in their lives that cannot be repaired.Photos and personal belongings can be destroyed in a fire. The Tongue like fire can destroy or stop people from doing God's service in the community. What a tragedy that this is happening from the most supposed mature Christians of today. Satan wants to destroy peoples testimonies not only in churches but in the community so that churches even believe the supposed wrongness that was started by the fire of the tongue.

The Tongue is a World of iniquity. How big is the tongue of iniquity. It is world size. It is a world size of darkness; evil; immortality; injustice; unfairness and wickedness.

It defiles the whole body or it pollutes the whole body. We have heard much about pollution in this expanding world. We learn over the TV and News media, how we need to clean up pollution. Yet there is not much said about cleaning up the defilement or the pollution in our lives from the fire of the tongue. If we have a real fire and there were chemicals near by; the air would stink. So do our lives when we defile the whole body and others with our tongue.

It sets on fire the course of nature.> If we were to leave things alone then in time things would take care of themselves. But we think that we have the personal authority in our lives just to take care of it. We have had serious situations in our family that have come up in our lives, as a result I have had to take the leadership and say 'give it time, the truth will come out' It usually does. After taking no action and time had fixed the issue, because I left it to God. I have then went back in thought and said to myself. "If I had tried to fix the problem, it would have made it worse or it would have taken longer to resolve. The tongue sets on fire the course of nature or it is a block for the Holy Spirit to have His intervention.

1John 2:11. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

So if we sin we have an advocate or a counselor to whom we can talk to, He is, our Lord Jesus Christ the righteous. We can also safely say that when others sin against us we have our righteous Lord Jesus Christ, the one in whom we can cherish His counsel, because He is righteous.

Do we need to get counsel from our Lord Jesus Christ the righteous, regarding our problems and His wisdom to guide our tongue. I think we all do. So let us pray.

Father in Heaven, forgive us this day if we have used our tongue in an unwise way that could have destroyed someone's life. I pray for that person and that he or she will ask God for His wisdom and to guide them in the way that would be pleasing to you. I also ask that you would forgive me for saying things that I should not have said and ask that you will teach me to ask of you what I should say before I speak. I pray this in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ amen.

         Peace and Joy to you, Philip John!       

                           *smile*

                     You share some very good and pleasant thoughts.  Enjoyed reading your post .........      The tongue is indeed powerful - to do evil (even though not intended) - to do good (although how often do we hear positive things about conversations and the tongue accomlishing "good"?)     How sad! 

                         Are you saying something in your "post" about the Logos Forum???  It doesn't seem to me to be likely, but are you perhaps equating speaking (the tongue) with writing (what we do here)???

                     I guess that I'm saying, Good Brother, is that I don't understand the "why" of your post and what it has to do with Logos - or the Logos Forum???

Yours in Christ,

 .......   Mel