The tongue (Part 1)

Call to Prayer

Title: The Tongue (Part 1)

By: Simon Nuhu Maina

Date: 22.11.2024

²¹ Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.  (Proverbs 18:21)

The tongue is just a little organ in the human body, yet it commands great things. It is the smallest organ compared to the skin, hand, leg, liver, lungs, and intestines but it does unimaginable things. The natural man (unconverted) can tame all kinds of animals, (James 3:7.8) wild or domestic; on land, in the sky, and water, yet he cannot control his tongue. This is to tell us how powerful the tongue is! It is necessary to however note, that despite the powerful effect of the tongue, it does not act on its own; meaning that the tongue is the spokesperson of the heart.

The tongue most of the time reveals the condition of the heart of any man. A corrupt tongue reveals a polluted heart. A lying tongue is connected to a deceitful heart! A bitter heart births a poisonous tongue. An uncircumcised heart is revealed by a corrupt tongue. Today, our opening text gives us two major impacts (life or death) the tongue can have in our lives. What does that mean? it simply means we can determine the path of our earthly life and eternal destiny by how we use our tongue! With it, we can choose life or death. I would like to share some insight on how one chooses life or death by using their tongue.

Choosing death with the tongue: Choosing death using the tongue happens when a fellow engages in communication that is quite unhealthy, unprofitable, or careless on a frequent basis. Many people to some extent even believers, are not conscious of how they use their tongue. One can use their tongue to choose death without even knowing. One can use their tongue negatively to choose death through corrupt communication and unedifying conversation (1 Corinthians 15:33, Ephesians 4:29), another example is through idle or vain words which come with severe eternal consequences (Matthew 12:36-37).

It is also possible to choose death with the tongue through curse words (Romans 12:14, James 3:9-10). Through swearing, one can choose damnation unto themselves (Matthew 5:34-37, James 5:12), through blasphemy and speaking heresies (Matthew 12:31-32; Revelations 16:11, Revelation 22:18-19), through great swelling words of vanity (2 Peter 2:18), through false teachings and prophecies (Jeremiah 28:1-17; 23:25-28), through crude jokes, jesting and foolish talk (Ephesians 5:4).

More so, bearing false witness is also one of the ways one can choose death with their tongue for it is one of the seven things God hates (Proverbs 6: 16-19), also, taking the judgment throne of God by passing judgment on others especially wrongdoers using one´s tongue is bad (Matthew 7:1-5, 1 Corinthians 4:5-6). Using the tongue to gossip about others or criticize Pastors and men of God is one of the possibilities of choosing death with the tongue (Numbers 12:1-10; 2 Kings 2:23-24; 2 Samuel 6:20-23). We will continue in the next section… God bless your reading.

Prayer point:

Let´s thank God for today´s message and also ask God to bridle our tongue so that we don´t use it negatively by choosing death.