Christian Bible Lesson 99: Power of your tongue

Bible Verses

“A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; from the produce of his lips he shall be filled.  Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” – Proverbs 18:20 & 21

“Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking righteousness.  You love all devouring words, you deceit tongue.  God shall likewise destroy you forever” – Palms 52:2-5

“And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.  The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.  But no man can tame the tongue.  It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” – James 3:6-8

Christian Bible Lesson Overview

The tongue has a lot of power.  What you say is important, but also how you say it is important.  As the Bible Verses above states, words have tremendous power.  You can help people and promote good, and you can also promote evil through the words you speak and how you speak them. 

It is important to develop discipline in your life and not speak words that hurt other people, even if those people have harmed you.  You will feel a lot less stress and avoid challenging situations if you develop the discipline to control your tongue and not hurt other people even if other people tried to hurt you. When someone is evil toward you, that does mean you need to be evil toward them.

Christian Bible Lesson For Today

John was a law student at a major university.  Becoming a good lawyer was very important to him.  He worked hard to prepare for all his classes and he looked forward to legal debates.  John would learn as much as he could about his fellow students prior to the debates in case he needed to use the information.  When John noticed a fellow student making a mistake, he would remember the mistake and use that information at a key time in the debate.  He was always trying to make his fellow students look bad so he would look good.

After a few months, the other students would avoid John as much as possible, but when they saw him make a mistake, they would attack him.  John realized that he created an environment where he had to defend himself from many of the other students. 

John talked with his best friend Bill about John’s challenges in debates.  Bill told John that he created the situation himself.  He needed to help the other students, not make them look bad.  Bill pointed out that you need to do more than just be truthful, you need to be there for other people.  Making people look bad is not a good thing even if you think it will help your grade on a specific debate.

John thought about what Bill told him.  He saw the point Bill was making.  John immediately quit targeting other students during the debates and talked with the other students about ideas that would help them.

Within a couple of months, the situation had completely changed for John.  He stopped attacking other students and he help them when he could. The other students began to like John and then helped him as well. 

When John finished law school, he felt prepared to move forward and work with other people.

Christian Bible Lesson Summary

How you use your tongue does not just mean whether you are truthful or not; it also controls the effect you have on other people.  Even when someone mistreats you, that does not mean that you will help yourself if you attack that person.  It takes a lot of strength to not respond to an attack, but the result is that you control your behavior, not allowing your enemy to control you.

Taking control of your tongue and promoting goodwill even when faced with people who try to hurt you, will help you and those around you. Some people will be evil regardless of what you do, but you do not have to let them make you evil.