TAMING THE UNTAMABLE

TAMING THE UNTAMABLE

READ:  James 3:1-12

No man can tame the

tongue. -James 3:8

From Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs to Siberian foxes, humans have learned to tame wild animals.  People enjoy teaching monkeys to “act” in commercials or training deer to eat out of their hands.  As the apostle James put it, “Every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind” (3:7).

But there is something we cannot tame.  All of us have trouble getting a little thing called the tongue under control.  “No man can tame the tongue” James tells us (v.8).

Why?  Because while our words may be on the tip of our tongue, they originate from deep within us.  “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthews 12:34).  And thus the tongue an be used for both good and evil (James 3:9).  Or, as scholar Peter Davids put it, “on the one hand [the tongue] is very religious, but, on the other, it can be most profane.”

If If we cannot tame this unruly tongue of ours, is it destined to be a daily problem for us, always prone to speak evil? (v.10).  By God’s grace, no.  We are not left to our own devices.  The Lord will “set a guard” over my mouth; He will “keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalms 141:3).  He can tame the untamable.  -Dave Branon

Lord, my mouth sometimes speaks words that

don’t honor You.  Thank You that by Your Spirit 

my untamed tongue can be brought under divine

control, please guard my mouth today.

To rule your tongue, let Christ rule in your heart.

INSIGHT

James’s letter is filled with practical wisdom that deals with responding

to trials (ch.1), living out our faith (ch.2), taming the tongue (ch.3), interpersonal conflict (ch.4), and waiting on the Lord (ch.5).  James is sometimes called “the Proverbs of the New Testament.”