How to Control Your Tongue - James 3

In James 3, James said that the tongue could not be tamed. He left a hint that blessings and curses should not come from the same mouth. The solution to controlling the tongue is then about changing the heart. What is within the heart comes out from the mouth is taught by Jesus in Luke 6:45. So, we control our tongue by guarding our heart as in Proverb 4:23. Follow the simple GIGO principle - Garbage In Garbage Out.

The Mindmap for Controlling tongue, with bible references from James 3:1-12. Luke 6:44=45, Pro 4:42-47:

The Takeaway:

1.  Check Our Heart - Our Intention of wanting to be a Teacher:
   Don't be a teacher for the sake of glory and pride. Be a teacher because of your calling where has given you the wisdom and the compassion. Our influence comes not from our talking but more from our behavior. Children copy the behavior and not the mere nagging talks. So we should check ourselves. Are we doing what we preach? Are we able to model the right behavior more than just talking?
2.  The Perfect or Matue Man is One who have Self-Control --- Especially the mouth.
   However, the perfect man could be good or evil! The evil ones know how to 'bless' to manipulative people to get what they want besides knowing how to curse and to bad-mouth others.
3. Power is NOT determined by Size but by Position of Influence.
   The horse bit, the ship rudder, the forest fires are all under the control of something that is much smaller in size. But they are in the positions of great influence. Where you stand, what you stand for, your integrity, your position are not determined by your external size but by what is inside you.
4. The tongue is Most Powerful.
   Our influence on others is determined by what we say with the tongue and what we do with our hands and feet. Speaking is much easier than doing. Influence begins with what we say. Check our speeches. Do we gossip? Do we bad-mouth others? Do we discourage others? Are our speech comforting, guiding, encouraging, correcting? We can and must follow up our speech with our actions. Our actions that reinforce our speech will bring about greater influence.
5. How to tame the tongue?
   James says how can a spring bring forth both fresh and salt water James 3:11.  It cannot. So to change the output of the tongue, we must change the inside, the heart of the person. Jesus said in Luke 6:45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  So we much heed the advice of Proverb 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.  We must be careful of what we take in, our seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and eating, Then we can control the tongue and feet. 
• talk - 24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.
• see -  25 Let your eyes look ... straight before you.
• think before doing - 26  Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. 
• Stay Right - 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

Guard our input to control our output. That's the simple formula GIGO that we learn from the computer school.

Lim Liat (c) 19 May 2017