“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures [or, baskets] of silver” (Proverbs 25:11).
“The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity … it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:6, 8).
“If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle [control] the whole body” (James 3:2).
The next part of our body we want to discuss is the tongue. It is not very large, and it can do a lot of good, but also a lot of damage. How much trouble we can get into by what we say! Yet, if we say something good, how much help it can be!
Our first verse today speaks of a word “fitly spoken.” That means knowing how to say just the right thing at the right time. Only the Lord can help us do that, for often we say the first thing that comes into our minds, without thinking about it. But the Lord, by His Spirit, can show us just the right thing to say at any given time. When this happens, it is like a basket of silver with apples of gold in it. We would all like to get a gift like that! I am sure that we can all remember hearing someone say just the right thing, and how much it meant to us. We often remember something like that all our life.
Then we have the opposite in the next verse. James points out to us that the tongue is like a fire. It may be small, but a small fire can light a big pile of wood, and sometimes a whole forest. Lately we have been hearing about wildfires in forests in different parts of the world, and how much damage they do. Sometimes houses catch fire from these wildfires, and people have to be evacuated in order not to be killed. Those fires started out small, but they became big.
Usually, if someone can control his tongue, he is able to control the rest of his body. I think we can all understand that it is usually our tongue by which we sin, and get into trouble. If you read the whole 3rd chapter of James, you will see that the tongue is also compared to the rudder of a ship, or a bit in the mouth of a horse. Both of these are small, yet they turn the ship or the horse in the right direction. It is important for each of us to be on guard as to what we say, and how we say it.