Duality of Power of the Human Tongue

UV 4139/10000 Duality of Power of the Human Tongue The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18 v 21 The human tongue has powers that no other species can boast of. It can produce life and death and life or death for the speaker as well as the listener. As it is written in the book Deuteronomy, life and death is placed before us and we are urged to choose life. This applies more with regard to the tongue than with regard to anything else in life. We need to love making the right choice of words to speak before uttering it. A right word, the book of Proverbs says, is like an apple of gold in settings of silver. It implies that we should use silence to forge golden words. We should be passionate in speaking the right word at the right time. One word amiss can mean a relationship spoilt, an opportunity botched, a person discouraged, angered or provoked. A lot of care needs to go into purifying the word in the furnace of the mind, in refining it over and over again till it is ready to be expressed. A lot of love of the word of God is needed to shape our own words. The natural human tendency is to use our tongues unwisely, inappropriately, ineffectively. We need to love wisdom, love God, love life intensely, love people immensely not to hurt others, not to tear them down, not to make them feel dejected, not to displease them, not to insult, harm, discourage the listeners. We need to know that the power of communication is an awesome power that humans alone are given in order to exercise faith, build faith, express love, gratitude, appreciation, blessings and not to curse, blame, boast, exaggerate, criticize, accuse, argue, conflict. If we are lovers of great or good communication, we should desist from idle talk, thoughtless words, excess talk, gossip, malicious talk and the like. The fruit of the evil spirit and of the Holy Spirit are both expressed using the tongue. The tongue that is controlled and directed by the former revels in lies, abuse, hatred, dissensions, strife, putting down others, provoking others, destroying goodwill, making others to fight. The tongue that is controlled by the Holy Spirit expresses love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. I heard yesterday of a herbal medicine that if placed under the tongue every half hour leads to covid affected critical patients with low oxygen saturation recovering to normal. Likewise, we should always keep a verse like the above under our tongue as a spiritual medicine continually to act as a rudder and a spur to speak wisely, aptly, correctly and consistently. For in the absence of such conscious guidance of the human tongue, it becomes a spark or flame that grows like a forest fire.