I’ve been working through the book of James recently and while I’ve really enjoyed the experience of looking at a book from scratch and considering its structure and themes and message without assistance (something we don’t do a lot of at College), I’ve been suitably challenged.

James is a book that you can’t hold off at arms distance. His words are judgements on my behaviour and I’m challenged not to be “like a man looking at his own face in a mirror; for he looks at himself, goes away, and right away forgets what kind of man he was.” (1:22-23).

Consider the passage in James that speaks about our use of our tongues.

James 3:3   Now when we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide the whole animal.a 4 And consider ships: though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.  5 So too, though the tongue is a small part |of the body|, it boasts great things. Consider how large a forest a small fire ignites.  6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among the parts of our |bodies|; it pollutes the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is set on fire by •hell. 

7   For every creature—animal or bird, reptile or fish—is tamed and has been tamed by man,  8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  9 With it we bless oura Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in God’s likeness.  10 Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things should not be this way. (HSCB)

The truth of this reflection is confirmed in the words of novelist Ben Okri:

It sometimes seems to me that our days are poisoned with too many words. Words said and not meant. Words said and meant. Words divorced from feeling. Wounding words. Words that conceal. Words that reduce. Dead words.

If only words were a kind of fluid that collects in the ears, if only they turned into the visible chemical equivalent of their true value, an acid, or something curative - then we might be more careful. Words do collect in us anyway. They collect in the blood, in the soul, and either transform or poison people’s lives. Bitter or thoughtless words poured into the ears of the young have blighted many lives in advance. We all know people whose unhappy lives twist on a set of words uttered to them on a certain unforgotten day at school, in childhood, or at university.

We seem to think that words aren’t things. A bump on the head may pass away, but a cutting remark grows with the mind. But then it is possible that we know all too well the awesome power of words - which is why we use them with such deadly and accurate cruelty.

We are all wounded inside in some way or other. We all carry unhappiness within us for some reason or other. Which is why we need a little gentleness and healing from one another. Healing in words, and healing beyond words. Like gestures. Warm gestures. Like friendship, which will always be a mystery. Like a smile, which someone described as the shortest distance between two people. (quoted in Richard Bauckham, James, 205).