Every time I open my mouth to speak I feel as though I am walking a tightrope. One way there is the pitfall of saying too much and the other way there is the pitfall of saying too little.
It is very easy to say too much. The wise sages all down the years have produced many shrewd sayings about this danger and the results that can sometimes follow.
By saying too much you can do a great deal of damage. It is amazing the size of juggernaut that can be unleashed by a careless word. James, the brother of the Lord Jesus, compared the tongue to the rudder of a ship. It is relatively small compared with the vessel itself, but it can steer the whole of that vessel in whatever direction the pilot decides. I know that from my one brief experience of steering a vessel on water. It was an occasion where I was for a short while in charge of a narrowboat – I was at the tiller, in other words.
As a novice, I found myself always oversteering. The result was that the narrowboat took a zigzag course through the canal. I don't say the boat came to any harm. I did not go crashing into the canal bank or otherwise causing destruction. But I don't think the patient boat-owner who let me have a go at the tiller was particularly impressed by my skills. I hope to have another go soon as we look forward to a church outing on a narrowboat on the Kennet and Avon Canal.
My erratic course also illustrates another point that James makes in his letter. In his first chapter, James criticises the indecisive person – "double-minded, unstable in all his ways".
This double-minded character does not get what he asks for from the Lord. His problem is not just indecisiveness but a lurching between good and evil. About the tongue, James says this:
"... it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water" (James 3:8-12).
The other danger is in our saying too little. That way we may avoid saying the wrong thing, but if we look churlish that may equally send the wrong signals. Our silence can be as much of a weapon of mass destruction as the exercising of speech.
In order to truly use our tongue in the right way, the way that pleases God, we need His grace constantly. We need, in other words, following another piece of New Testament advice, to study how best to speak to each person we meet, and do it prayerfully.
May God help us in this precious work. It can bring enormous benefit where a hasty tongue would cause incalculable harm. It is also an excellent witness for Christ.
A church pastor I know explained to me one day how he was born into a non-Christian home. He found that non-Christians never seem to be able to avoid getting into shouting matches every time they have a difference of opinion. It clearly made a great impression on my friend that Christians see no need of this.
For most people, and for most of history, it has been a luxury to own a mirror. There were very few reflective materials of any quality in ancient times. Bronze was often used for mirrors among fashionable women in early civilisations. However, this was a rare commodity that only gave a fuzzy result. Being a luxury item it would not filter through to the poor.
Some years ago, I came across an inexpensive way of bringing delight to children in poorer parts of the world by giving them something that would reflect their face. For many this may indeed be the very first time they actually see what they look like! It was all to do with old CDs. I was about to have a whole consignment of them recycled. But one lady in the north of England found out and persuaded me to change my mind. Her church was taking old CDs, putting little stickers on the non-reflective side of them and attaching a ribbon whereby the CD could be pinned up on a wall. The reflective side, albeit with a hole in the middle, could be used as a mirror. What a brilliant way to add value to the shoeboxes full of gifts which were being sent out to these children for Christmas!
There are occasional references to mirrors in the Bible. One is from the apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 13 he describes our earthly selves as being like someone looking at a dim reflection in a mirror. By contrast, in heaven there will be complete transparency. We will see each other face to face, and we will know fully even as God fully knows us.
Another instance that comes to mind is an amusing reference from a letter of James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus. He says that a person who hears God’s word but doesn't act upon it is like a man who sees his getting-up-in-the-morning face in a mirror. He looks himself up and down, but in the end he wants to forget that face. He has a perfunctory shave, turns away and immerses himself in the working day. The person who is obedient to God's will and purpose is like somebody who stoops down to look at all the truth God has given him. He really takes notice of it, weighs it up, and puts it into practice in his life.
This is what we should be like. It is easy to think we've completed our daily devotions, when really we've only been through the motions. God wants us not only to read His word, not even just to think it is impressive, but to take it on board and put it into practice.
The Lord Jesus always practised what he preached and urged others to do the same. He predicted he would be put to death, rise again and return to His Father in heaven. He undertook not to cut His followers adrift, but to make His death an offering for the ransom of many. Thank God that our Lord Jesus was not like the man who ran away from the reality that the mirror showed!
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. James 1:22-25
