THE CORRUPTING POWER OF A LYING TONGUE
James 3:6 (NIV 1984) The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
The tongue speaks words, and words can produce unrighteous responses. They can set on fire the entire course of life, leading a person into a decades-long battle with lies they have heard from the tongues of both others and themselves. This battle is intensified with a constant attempt to replace the words that are hurting us with more words; words which often include more lies, compounding lies upon lies. For instance, we are troubled with life’s circumstances that are bearing down on us; lying words come into our minds that we will not make it, that we will be crushed, causing us to feel bitter toward everyone or everything responsible for the pain we feel. So what do we do? We conjure up words in response, telling ourselves that God will not put on us more than we can handle. Another lie! The Bible never says that. So we believe this "lie upon lie" that proves untrue and causes us to get bitter with God for not doing something that He never said He would do. He may actually give us more than we can handle because He wants us to stop trying to handle and let Him handle, something we can only learn when we are utterly impotent and at the end of our own strength (See 2 Cor 1:8-9). Our world is filled with half-truths and outright lies, many coming from a genuine attempt to counsel ourselves out of the hurt that words have brought on us. We see them in what is called “Cat Posters”. “Believe in yourself!” “Don’t worry! Be happy!” “You got this!” “Follow your heart!” “You be you!” “Find yourself!” “Hang in there!” “Make it happen!” “Yes you can!” Half truths at best, whole lies at worst. The lies, and the lies upon lies we believe, shape the direction of our lives in a bad way. How much damage have we caused ourselves and others due to character flaws that have been nourished by the lies we have believed? We have a much more stable source from which to counsel ourselves than these; we have the Word of God. His word is truth (Jn 17:17).
When we get God’s words replacing the world’s words, we get truth replacing lies, and this is how we get a better mental outlook on things. The Apostle Paul says to set our minds on things above (Col 3:2), and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds (Eph 4:23). He also says that we can be set apart and our character transformed by God’s word (Eph 5:26); Jesus tells us this (Jn 17:17). As the tongue can utter lying words that destroy, it can also utter the words of life (Jn 6:68), bringing joy, hope, and purpose. Let us be careful that we are not burned in the fires kindled by unguarded tongues, for others do not always speak with our best interest at heart; and let us be careful to watch closely the words that come from our own tongues. Using wisdom and truth, we are to be a people that combat the spoken fires birthed from hell itself, casting down every argument that exalts itself above the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:4-5), and effectively rendering inert the corrupting power of a lying tongue.
