“Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus, no spring yields both salt water and fresh.” James 3:5-12
The story is told of a young woman who confessed she had been speaking ill of people. The minister with whom she shared this persistent failing told her to go home, get a hen, and pluck the feathers of the hen on her way back to the church building where they were, dropping them on the ground as she walked. Upon her return, he told her to go back home and pick up each feather she had dropped on the way. She told him it would be impossible to get the feathers back because the wind would undoubtedly have blown them away. He replied: “You see, just as it is impossible to pick up the feathers once the wind has scattered them, it is likewise impossible to gather gossip and calumnies back up once they have come out of our mouths.”
How many times have we wished we could retrieve something we said? Sadly, even though forgiveness can be extended, the damage from our words remains. Relationships have been altered or altogether destroyed by careless words. This is without doubt the reason Jesus and the apostles spoke so strongly against unfettered speech. If we hope to maintain unity in all the various relationships the Lord has blessed us to enjoy, we must be careful what we say.
Words are powerful. Power of any kind is as useful or as harmful as we make it. As one unknown poet said, “The tongue has no bones, but it is strong enough to break a heart. So, be careful with your words." On the flipside, words have the power to lift us from the depths of sorrow and add a new quality to life (Ephesians 4:29; Colossians 4:6; Proverbs 15:23). Jesus was quite clear the words which we speak do not reveal some abstract concept, but the very essence of our hearts (Matthew 15:18). For this cause, we must face the consequences of our words at the judgment (Matthew 12:36).
With all this in mind, let us strive to tame our tongues and thereby avoid the harmful effects of improper speech. As my parents would tell me when I was a kid, “Sorry doesn’t fix everything.” Thus, we must be careful what we say lest we cause damage we cannot correct. As another unknown source put it, "Words are seeds that do more than blow around. They land in our hearts and not the ground. Be careful what you plant and careful what you say. You might have to eat what you planted one day."