"But the tongue can no man tame:
it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."
- James 3:8

Would YOU ever do this...

Would you ever walk up to someone and hand them a bottle of POISON and say to them, "Drink this"?

Well, would you?

Of course not.  That would be ridiculous, right?

I mean, good grief, we would never intentionally poison someone, would we?

You know, we do it all the time.  Really.  We do.  We walk up to people and we give them poison.  And we don't just give it to them, we shove it down their throats.  And we don't just say "Drink this," we scream it at them, "Drink This!!!"

And here's how we do it.

We do it with POISONOUS WORDS.  James says that the "tongue can no man tame:  it is an unruly evil, FULL OF DEADLY POISON." 

You see, when we GOSSIP, we poison the minds of others.  That's all we do.  When we walk up to someone and share the latest tidbit of gossip, all we do is hand them a bottle of Poison and say "Drink this."  We've poisoned their minds against the person we just gossipped about.

And not only gossip.  When we tell those "little white lies" that no one knows but us, we do the same thing.  We poison others with untruth.  We force them to open wide so we can pour poison down their throats as we say, "Drink this."

What about complaining and griping and whining?  Poison.  It may have a different label on the bottle, but the contents are the same.  They are harmful.  They do damage.  And we tell people "Drink this."

Discouraging comments?  Another bottle from the shelf.  When we say things that drag others down we are once again pour that poison down their mouths.  It hurts them.  It creates sickness and poor spiritual, emotional, mental and even physical health.  We rip that cap off and say, "Drink this."

James says that the tongue is full of deadly poison.  How much have you been handing out lately?

Despite all of this, our words CAN be used for good.  Proverbs 16:24 says "Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones."  Yep, the Bible says that, when used properly, our words can bring health to others.  It can leave a good taste in the mouths of others.  It can be sweetening to their souls.

Instead of gossip, we can share good and edifying things about others.  And when someone shares gossip with us, we can counter it with something pleasant instead of adding more fuel to the fire!

What about the truth?  Rather than telling "little white lies", let's tell the truth!  And that means the "truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."  If we're going to pour something down the throats of others, let it be the sweet and nourishing words of truth.

And good heavens, let's stop the complaining and griping and whining?  Instead, let's start praising and thanking and rejoicing!  Let's create good health!

Discouraging comments?  No way!  We are going to ENCOURAGE -- building others up instead of tearing them down!

Christian, our words can bring sickness or health, they can build up or tear down.  The tongue can be used to distribute poison or honeycomb.  What will you give others today?

Know this without a doubt, each and every person that you come into contact with today will receive something from your words.  You'll either hand them a bottle of poison and say "Drink this"...

...or, you'll hand them honeycomb to sweeten their souls.

What will it be?