Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight reign on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. James 1:26
Words are everywhere. Humans, it could be argued, are only distinguished from the animals we were placed on this earth to take care of, by our ability to express our thoughts through a recordable, historical language.*
Because words are the only conduit through which we may know ourselves and understand others, their importance cannot be underestimated. But because we also are surrounded by words, except for maybe when we sleep, it is all too easy to take words for granted.
But God makes it more than clear throughout the Bible that our words are never meaningless. We shall be held accountable for every word. I try not to think about that verse too often because its implications for my day in the judgment seat are just too frightening.
Make yourself an exercise sometime of looking up all the references to our words, our tongues, our speech throughout the Bible. And once you have contemplated the immense emphasis God places on our words, consider ways in which you may watch your words from day-to-day.
As James tells us, if we cannot keep a tight reign on our words, we are only fooling ourselves if we think we are Christians. As the representatives of Christ on this planet, how often do we say things that actually present a false religion to those who are not yet believers in Christ? That, perhaps, is the scariest truth of all.
*(Far be it from me to denigrate the conversations that take place between chirping squirrels or from mail post to mail post in a doggie world, but we must admit that until we are more evolved or the animals catch up to us, depending on how one looks at it, we are supposed to be the caretakers of the planet with, presumably, the most advanced minds.)
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