September 16, 2018
James, the author of our epistle reading today, seems pretty paranoid about the power of the tongue. A few examples from his epistle “The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity.” “no one can tame the tongue-- a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” If any does “ not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.” “the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.” “As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” He obviously believed that we should watch our words carefully.
Today's trait from Jacob's 11 is the trait of gentleness. We are in week ten of the eleven traits, just one week left. It is awfully easy to fail to be gentle in how we use our words in relating to one another.