She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

The ladies’ Bible study circle at our church recently finished a short book which focused on the sayings of James the preacher regarding the human tongue and the taming thereof. In chapter three of the small letter from James, the author uses a few poignant illustrations to express the outsized power of the tongue—of speech.

He compares the tongue to a small bit in the mouth of a large horse, the small rudder which can direct a large ship, and a small flame which can cause a large fire. James cautions that the tongue, like these small items, can have a large and, if not used carefully, devastating impact. He says that the tongue can set on fire the entire course of a life. That is scary.

Jesus taught that what a man speaks comes from his heart (Luke 6:45), and his younger brother James picks up on this in his letter. James speaks of the inconsistency of one who claims to know God but is unable to harness his tongue. He says such a person’s religion is worthless (James 1:26).

Later in the letter, James uses the illustrations of a tree bearing fruit and of a spring giving water. A fig tree cannot bear olives, and a spring cannot produce both fresh and salt water (James 3:11-12). If you found a tree at the garden center that had a tag stating “apple,” but you could clearly see oranges on it, you might have a hard time believing it was an apple tree; its tag is worthless.

It is in the fig tree’s nature to produce figs; it is in the spring’s nature to produce fresh water. Is it in the nature of the Christian to produce godly speech? The point we need to understand from this is consistency of heart and mouth. If we claim to know God in our heart, our speech must match. I and my Bible study friends found this very convicting. We could all think of times when we said things that were out of character for a Christian. We repented.

As usual, the Proverbs 31 woman sets for us a good example. She employs wisdom (the fear of the Lord) to guide her speech. Because she is wise, she is inclined to kind speech. A careless tongue, one not inspired by divine wisdom, can destroy a person’s life; but worse yet, a careless tongue can destroy a witness for Christ.

May we heed the warning of James and emulate the example of Proverbs. Let us pray for redeemed tongues, so we may have the consistency of heart and mouth which glorifies God.

By Grace Barnes, Bible League International volunteer, Michigan, U.S.