Last Sunday James 1-12 was read in church. The author reminds us that small objects guide many large things — horse bits, ships rudders, and small fires set ablaze great forests. But the author places special emphasis on the tongue saying “it stains the whole body” and that “no one can tame the tongue — a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
The author doesn’t mince words. So much for the child verse “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”
I was considering cutting our my tongue at this point in the reading, when that author struck to the heart of his point.
“With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God…. Brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.”
When our tongues take over our heart and speak evil of our neighbors “this ought not to be so.”
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