The Mighty Tongue

Song: Will You Not Tell It Today

Scripture: Proverbs 12:16-19

The tongue is man’s smallest member, but the most powerful. With but a word, it can tear down or build up. It can give hope or breed despair. It can promote life and health or death and injury. Today’s proverb celebrates the constructive potential and destructive power of the mighty tongue.

The tongue can build or ruin your credibility. An untimely explosion of rage or wrath and you’ll have a reputation for volatility to live down. But hold your tongue and temper, speak kindly, speak wisely, and you’ll earn a medal for diplomacy.

The tongue can make or break the reputations of others. If you’ve an appetite for tasty morsels of gossip, you’ll hurt somebody one day. Maybe not today, but someday. But no one is injured by a kind word, and a morsel of truth and charity is far more substantial than a mouthful of rumors and prattle.

The tongue is sharp. And like a sharp knife it can be wielded to help or to harm. You can use it to jab and cut, to stab and wound your opponents. Or you can use it to cut through a foul mood or “cut through the fluff,” as we say, and “get to the point” of an important discussion.

While the mighty tongue is powerful both for good and for evil, the Lord has mandated that only the truthful tongue shall endure. “It shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.” So be careful little tongue what you say today.

Jason Moore