Tongue-control

Read Proverbs 20

If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.

James 1:26

James makes the point that the tongue, while small, can cause lots of damage (James 3:5-6). We may know some people whose mouths always seem to get them into trouble, but we certainly don’t expect that from people who “claim to be religious.” Such people claim to have faith in the Lord, but if their mouths are out of control—either by use of profanity, gossip, or words that wound—then they are fooling only themselves about their faith. Their “religion is worthless” because it has made no change in their hearts.

Believers have received the Holy Spirit, and one of his fruits is “self-control” (Galatians 5:23). Self-control involves tongue-control. While we may not always be able to control the thoughts that fly into our heads at any given moment, we certainly ought to be able to control the words that seek to fly out of our mouths. The Holy Spirit promises to help us.

A WORD FOR TODAY

Words reveal both counterfeit and genuine faith.

Lord, help me to watch what I say. Give me self-control to think before I speak so that my words will reveal your Spirit in me.