James 1:19-20; 26 – Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

THEME OF THE DAY: THE MOST DAMAGING WEAPON IN THE WORLD. In today’s scripture, we find the most damaging weapon in the world. It isn’t found in the militaries of the world’s superpowers. Nor is it contained in a nuclear missile hidden in a secret silo somewhere. The most damaging weapon lies in our mouth. It is that little piece of cartilage called the “tongue.” However, this weapon does not operate independently. We may say it has a “trigger” and that would be the heart. The tongue is only the messenger of the heart. It gets the “credit” as being the weapon of destruction, but it only obeys the heart. What lies in the heart is revealed through the tongue. Jesus would tell us this truth in these words, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

In considering the damage an uncontrolled tongue may unleash to those on the receiving end of our words, the Apostle James identifies the area the tongue may inflict its worse pain on people – anger. Do a Bible study of anger. It will awaken us to the seriousness of this sin. It will show us how far and wide the damage will be to people who receive outbursts of our anger. And why is sinful anger so bad? It reveals a heart engulfed in selfishness and lacking love. It is focused on self and is basically defined as “A hostile outburst toward another person when our desires for comfort, personal wishes, and agenda are refused or rebelled against.” Simply put, “Anger is what we transmit with words, body language, even physical acts, when people upset us by not conforming to our wills, opinions, and desires.” Do we see how bad sinful anger is? It makes our wills supreme and reveals our prideful desire for control of people and circumstances.

For Christians, sinful anger is never justified and should not be downplayed because it reveals a spiritually sick heart. When anger gets the upper hand in our lives, we have drifted away from the Lord. Neglect private times with the Lord and it is inevitable sin in some form, maybe anger, will make its way in our lives. But two other things have happened in our hearts when the sin of anger spews forth from us.

First, we have forgotten the person or persons irritating us and causing anger is an image-bearer of God. Yes, they are flawed; yes, they are sinful; yes, they are selfish, but they are still created in the image of God. Remember the patience of God with us when tempted to unleash a barrage of anger at another image-bearer.

The next thing a sinful outburst of anger reveals is we have forgotten the sinful nature of all people, including ourselves. We have the powder keg of anger in all of us with a fuse ready to be lit at any time. Let this humble and remind us only the grace of God and love of Christ can change a heart and control our anger.

Now the tongue doesn’t have to be used for destructive purposes and particularly in expressions of sinful anger. It may be directed to good and edifying purposes. The choice of our tongues being weapons of damage or tools of blessings is ours. And that will be determined by the diligence we give to keep our hearts close to the Lord who always spoke gracious words and displayed only righteous anger.

PRAYER: “Lord, put a guard on my heart and a restraint on my tongue so I won’t sin against You.”

QUOTE: “A heart of anger and a tongue revealing it is one of the most destruction weapons in our world.”