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James 3:3-5 (NIV)
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.
Both the bit and the rudder must overcome contrary forces.
The bit must overcome the wild nature of the horse, and the rudder must fight the winds and currents that would drive the ship off its course. The human tongue also must overcome contrary forces. We have an old nature that wants to control us and make us sin. There are circumstances around us that would make us say things we ought not to say. Sin on the inside and pressures on the outside are seeking to get control of the tongue.
The tongue has power to persuade others to hate certain race, people or person. But yet under control the beauty of a tongue that can direct one soul to Christ.
But when misused:
The tongue has power to destroy(3:5b-8)
James 3:5-6 (NIV)
5b Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
James said it is like fire. Under control, fire cooks your breakfast, heats your home, and powers your car. Out of control, fire burns down great forests and buildings. The Chicago fire in 1871 burned for three days over three and one half square miles of the city. It killed 250 people, made 100,000 homeless, and estroyed property valued at $175,000,000. The danger of tongue is that it not only direct but destroys lives. James calls this a wicked tongue set on fire by hell. This is the only occurrence outside the Gospels of the word, gehenna. It refers to the valley outside Jerusalem where children were burned to the god, Moloch. Later it became a trash dump and crematorium for criminals. Finally it became the image of hell, a place of everlasting punishment for the ungodly.
Its intent is evil to destroy and divide the body of Christ, the church.