Your Tongue Is Powerful

Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (ESV) – talk about a bold statement! The Proverbs claim that there’s no neutrality in your speech; you’re either building someone up (towards life) or tearing someone down (towards death). Talk, according to the Bible, is not cheap at all.

James writes in his letter that “the tongue stains the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life […] it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:6,8).

We want to believe that our talk is cheap and that our actions speak louder than words because it means that we don’t have to work on taming our tongues. But the Bible tells us that there are significant consequences not only for what we do but also for what we say every day.

We utter thousands of words each day and communicate in hundreds of conversations. Each of those little moments is an opportunity for you to build up and bring life, but it’s also an opportunity to poison and set on fire.

In the next conversation, will you use your tongue to bring life and encourage? Or will you use it to poison and set on fire? Be mindful of its power!