The Power of Words

This passage says that a man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth, his words. The words we speak, then, produce fruit of some type in our lives. And it says that he shall be filled with the increase of his lips, not just the words he speaks, but the increase, the harvest those words produce.

Verse 21 says that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it, [love what?] love to speak words, love to talk, shall eat the fruit of their words.

The word for power in the phrase “power of the tongue" comes from a word that means hand. Death and life are in the hand of the tongue, a figure of speech meaning under the control of. Death and life are under the control of the tongue, or, that is, our words.

So, the Bible leaves little doubt that there is power in the words we speak, a power that affects primarily our own lives.

And, though our words do have a definite impact upon others in a good way or bad, the message in these verses is focused on the fact that the words we speak greatly affect our own lives. They produce fruit that we ourselves must eat.

Idle words, leisurely or lazy words, words we don’t even put much thought into. Do we sometimes speak those kinds of words? Of course. We all do at one time or another. But look at what Jesus says in the next verse.

Do words matter? After all, they’re just words. Right? Well, our words must be important if we are going to be judged by them, if they can justify us or condemn us.

This verse states that the one who keeps his mouth under control keeps his life. The one who opens his mouth wide and just says whatever he wants to shall have destruction.

Is it important what we say? Is it important what we don’t say? He that keeps his mouth keeps his life. If we restrain our mouths we’ll live longer. Otherwise, we may not.

Sinning with Words

Did you know we can sin by talking? In the multitude of words, there is no lack of sin, And the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. So, the more we talk, the more we sin. Like one preacher said, the less I talk, the less I have to repent of.

The Bit in the Horse’s Mouth

There is a passage in the book of James where he compares the tongue, that is, our words, to a type of guiding force in our lives, much like the bit in a horse’s mouth or the rudder of a ship.

A horse is big and much stronger than we are, but we can guide it by its mouth. We can pull its mouth one way, and it goes that way. If we pull it the other way, it goes the other way.

A horse will not move in a direction it is not looking toward. The direction we pull the horse’s mouth becomes the direction it’s looking in. And that becomes the direction it’s going in. It goes where it’s looking. What a beautiful analogy!

Now, remember, James is not teaching us about horses. He is talking about how our words affect our lives, and he uses the horse as an example. What is the message? It is that the direction we talk in is the direction we set our gaze upon, just like the horse, and it becomes the direction we move in our life.

Have you ever met someone who you regretted asking them how they were doing? Because it took about thirty minutes for them to tell you all the bad stuff going on in their life. They cannot take their words off of their problems. And we should, of course, help them and pray for them the best we can.

But they are always talking about the bad things in their life. Their gaze is always in that direction. And guess what, they are always moving in that direction. They will generally be in the same case when you see them five years later.

If we want to go in a different direction, then we need to pull our mouth in a different direction. Because when we pull our mouth another way, our gaze is fixed on something else, and that’s the direction we’ll start moving in, just like the horse.

The Helm of the Ship

If we turn our tongue in a different direction, the whole ship will go that way. If we move the very small helm of a ship, like the tongue, the whole vessel will follow the helm’s direction.

Just like the horse’s bit, just like a ship’s rudder, the tongue is a small member, yet it exerts great power over the direction of our life. And a spark is also a very small thing, but notice how big a fire it can kindle. He’s still talking about the power of the tongue, the power of our words.

The Wheel of Life

The unbridled tongue is a world of iniquity, so much so that it, the tongue, though a small member, can defile the whole body, and it, the tongue, is able to set on fire the course of nature.

The course of nature. The word translated here as ‘course’ means wheel. The tongue sets in motion the wheel of nature, the wheel of life, if you will, the natural cycle of cause and effect. And it is set on fire by hell itself. Now that couldn’t be good.

So then, if we don’t bridle our tongue, then what comes out of our mouth may come from hell itself. Does it matter what we say? Of course, it does. Should we learn to bridle our tongues? Yes. It probably wouldn’t hurt some of us to learn the vocabulary of silence for a while, and maybe pray for a crop failure.

Unable to Speak

Remember Zacharias in the first chapter of Luke. The angel told him that his wife, Elizabeth, was going to have a child, and he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and many would turn to the Lord because of him.

God was doing something in Zacharius’ and Elizabeth’s life, and Zacharias was about to mess it up with his unbelieving mouth. So, he had to be rendered speechless until it came to pass.

You see, the Bible says that our words set in motion the wheel of life, the cycle of cause and effect. And so, saying the right words should set in motion the wheel of life in a good way, while saying the wrong words will likely set it in motion in a destructive way.

We must agree with the promises of God with our mouths. And we must reject the things the devil speaks to us that are contrary to God’s promises. And then our words will produce good things in our lives.