6 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. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. ~ James 3:6-8NKJV
I just finished listening to a Christian novel that wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was pretty good. Much better than many others I have read. Sure, there were theological discrepancies that I wasn’t a fan of, but I let them go since they weren’t hills to die on. The author ended the novel by explaining that he took theological liberties since it’s just fiction. That made me feel much better about the novel. In fact, I was getting ready to buy the next one to listen to, but he didn’t stop there. He made this statement:
This wasn’t a theology book. It wasn’t a doctrinal treatise. It was a story. And every story is an analogy. There are things people have read into many of Jesus’ parables, for example, that weren’t there and don’t make sense in context. Jesus even tells some downright unrealistic stories but still powerfully drives home His point.
It’s one thing to defend your writing, which I was on board for, but it’s another thing to insult Christ in the process. Sometimes, we go too far. We allow our flesh to get in the way. I believe his fear of pushback from the Church because of the theological liberty he took led him to respond arrogantly. Not everyone is going to support every single thing we do. No matter what we do, we’re going to have haters. We’re going to have pushback. We’re going to have people trying to tear us down. Why? Because we’re in the middle of a spiritual battle, and our enemy will do anything in order to take us down. In order to stop us from fulfilling our God-given call.
We can’t allow the enemy to cause us to speak against our own God. There isn’t a single parable the LORD told that was “downright unrealistic.” Not one. We can’t allow the enemy to use us in any way, shape, or form. We can’t allow our tongue to insult Christ in one sentence, and then in the very next say, “To God be the glory.” We glorify God in our actions and our words. This isn’t just a trivial matter. Words are powerful. It is by words that the LORD God Almighty created the entire universe. How can we speak so carelessly about the Creator of the entire universe? The Creator of all things. Both seen and unseen.
We’ve lost the fear of God. The respect for the Almighty. We just speak carelessly about Him as if He were just a tamed animal, instead of the Almighty Himself who once flooded the entire earth, sparing only eight souls. The Angel of the LORD who went out into the Assyrian Camp and slaughtered 185,000 of their soldiers in one night. The God of Abraham who rained down fire from Heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah, leaving no survivors in the cities. We, who live in a time of grace, have forgotten who our God was, is, and always will be. A God not to be played with. C.S. Lewis nailed it on the head when he said:
Lucy asks, “Is He safe?”
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Mr. Tumnus also says, “He’s wild, you know. Not a tame lion.”
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Hold Your Tongue.