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“When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds the tongue is wise” (Proverbs 10:19); “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil…” (James 3:6).

“Words are like leaves; And where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is seldom found.” Pope. One cannot talk about nothing forever, so the talk finally degenerates into small rap about people. Some wonderful advice comes to us from the ancient Orient. We should test our words to see if they can pass through three golden gates:

1) Is it true?;
2) Is it necessary?;

3) Is it kind?

Dr. James T. Jeremiah of Cedarville College in Ohio gives an apt description of the backbiter: “It has been suggested that biting is not always done with the teeth. The tongue feels soft compared to your teeth, but it is twice as sharp. A backbiter is not a person who bites back, but one who bites behind your back.” Hannah More handled backbiters and talebearers by asking them to go with her to the person slandered to see if the story was really true. Cuts from a knife heal, but we have no guarantee that cuts from our tongue will heal.

Proverbs is full of admonitions about what we do with our tongue. I particularly like The Message Proverbs, by Eugene H. Peterson. Here are a few on the tongue from Chapter 10:

“The mouth of a good person is a deep, life-giving well, but the mouth of the wicked is a dark cave of abuse.”

“Hatred starts fights, but love pulls a quilt over the bickering.” What a lovely thought!

“The wise accumulate knowledge, a true treasure; know-it-alls talk too much, a sheer waste.”

“The more talk, the less truth; the wise measure their words.”

“The talk of the good person is worth waiting for; the blabber of the wicked is worthless.”

The following is from the Biblical Illustrator, James 3:

The power of the tongue:

I. WORDS ARE THE EXPRESSIONS OF THOUGHTS.

Says Max Muller, with concise truth, “The word is the thought incarnate.” The Greek word translated “brotherly love” was unknown until Christianity coined it to declare a new relation revealed to men. It depended upon the Christian Church to exemplify the virtue expressed in the word “humility.” Every word we speak has its history, and in its appointed time each has been added to the library of the world’s thought. “Words are things,” said Mirabeau, and he was right.

II. WORDS, AS INCARNATE THOUGHTS, ARE REVELATIONS OF CHARACTER.

The morality both of nations and men is stamped in their words. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality-, and without hypocrisy.” The speech of every Peter betrays the man. Just as the despatches of Napoleon were of “glory,” while those of the Iron Duke centred in “duty,” so may their respective characters be known. He whose thoughts are on noble things will never grovel in speech. The “IncarnateWord” was compelled to reach men through their own vernacular, yet the purity of His teaching is as matchless as His own Divine nature. Humanly speaking, the voice of Jacob will always be Jacob’s, though he dissemble Esau.

Conversation touching impurity photographs for the world an impure heart. Ecstatic language, like purling brooks, denotes shallowness of thought. Repeated quotations of others’ opinions are proofs of having no substantial opinions of our own. Willingness to speak freely about others’ business is proof positive that we are not attending to our own affairs.

III. THIS POWER OF LANGUAGE DECLARES THE SOLEMNITY OF ITS USE.

The spoken word, like an arrow from the quiver, has its mark. Said Hawthorne, “Nothing is more unaccountable than the spell that often lurks in a spoken word.” A kind word has given courage to more than one despondent heart; and, struck by a cruel word, more than one gentle spirit has sobbed itself into the grave. Each word has a meaning, and the word is that meaning sent home to another a word alive with fear, or joy, or love, or hate. It matters not as to their derivation, the words we speak mean ourselves back of them.

IV. THIS POWER OF SPEECH EMPHASISES THE NECESSITY OF SELF-CONTROL.

Man is at the same time a king to rule his tongue and a slave to suffer from its abuse. The school of life deals with a double danger the arrogant assumptions of self and the oppositions experienced from without. The first is illustrated in the control of the nervous horse held in with bit and bridle; the other means the steadfastness of the ship that no tempest can turn from its course. The helmsman’s duty on the tongue is no easy calling. It requires strength to hold the bits. The small rudder firmly held gives the promise of safety to the ship.

V. OUR WORDS SHALL CONFRONT US AT THE JUDGMENT.

We often unwittingly send them on before us, as though they were sand to be blown into the eyes of others, forgetting that they shall blind or bless ourselves. It is serious business to write a book like the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” or its opposite, “The Age of Reason.” It is serious business to declare in speech even the gospel of Christ. It is no meaningless service to expound the Bible in the Sabbath school. It is no less serious when every word of father and mother makes its impression upon the children’s lives, to see that such words are rightly spoken. (Monday Club Sermons.)