Christian Foundations (5) - Training the Tongue

After receiving Christ, we are being transformed by God's SPIRIT as we HEAR and DO God's WORD (Romans 12:1-2, 2Corinthians 3:16-18, James 1:21-25). (1) A man must first receive GOOD TREASURE into his HEART, by meditating on the Word of God and receiving His transforming life into your heart from the Spirit. This way his heart has an abundance of good treasure. (2) He must then BRING FORTH those GOOD THINGS from his HEART into his LIFE, by his words and actions. The primary way we express and release what is in our heart is by our WORDS: “For out of the ABUNDANCE of the heart the MOUTH SPEAKS” (Matthew 12:34-35). Your WORDS are very important to the final outcome of our lives (Matthew 12:37). We release the good things in our heart into our life by our words, for: “with the HEART one BELIEVES unto RIGHTEOUSNESS (right standing in the promise of God), and with the MOUTH CONFESSION (of the promise) is made unto SALVATION (the manifestation of the promise in our life)” (Romans 10:10). We must be DOERS of the WORD, and not HEARERS ONLY, otherwise we are deceiving ourselves if we think we are growing spiritually (James 1:22, Matthew 7:24-27), for we are BLESSED in our DOING of God's Word (James 1:25). Then James says that DOING the WORD starts by CONTROLLING our TONGUE – that is the first thing (James 1:26). James expands his teaching on the TONGUE in James 3, which is a chapter entirely devoted to our use of the TONGUE. He says is it the CONTROL CENTRE of our BODY and LIFE. If we can control our tongue, we are mature, and able also to bring our whole body under control (v2). We control the direction of our life by controlling our tongue, just as we can control a horse by using a bit in their mouth (v3), and just like a pilot can control the direction of a large ship, by using a small rudder, representing our tongue (v4). The tongue is also capable of great destruction, like a fire. If you do not control it, it has the power to destroy the course of your whole life. Because God set the tongue as our control centre, if we allow our tongue to be controlled by the fire of evil, then that destructive fire will spread to our whole body and life (v5-6). The tongue is like a wild beast, so we need God’s help to tame our tongue (v7-8). If we do not exercise control, both blessing and cursing will proceed from our mouth, which should not happen (v9-10). In nature, a spring either sends forth fresh water or bitter water through the opening, but not both (v11). The reason why both blessing and cursing can come out of our mouths, is that there are 2 springs or fountains within us - the SPRING of the SPIRIT and the FOUNTAIN of the FLESH. We choose which spring we yield to. Your FLESH FOUNTAIN can produce nothing good, and your SPIRIT SPRING can only produce good (v12). We need to learn to discern between these 2 FOUNTAINS, between the wisdom from BELOW (words which are earthly, sensual, demonic and produce evil fruit), and the wisdom from ABOVE, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. Words from above flow in a Spirit of peace and TASTE good (sweet), and produce good FRUIT (righteousness and peace) - (James 3:13-18).