set on fire by hell

I had the opportunity to speak @ C3 today. I talked about the power of our words. 

The key text was James 3:2. He talks about how incredibly hard it is to control the tongue. Even though it is small, it has HUGE potential to do incredible, irreversible damage. James gives some very clear word pictures about the damaging effects that the tongue can cause if we are not careful. 

James 3:6 has a very interesting statement about our tongue. It says "... for it has been set on fire by hell itself."

Wow, that's a pretty graphic statement. Cool choice of words.  I can't wait until someone mouths off or speaks negative or mean. My response is gonna be "your mouth has been set on fire by hell..." I will let you know how it goes.

The point of this statement is that none of us ever get to the place in our lives where we NEVER have to worry about the impact of our words. We can never stop guarding the words we speak. Our words have amazing destructive power and we need to be cautious of how we use them. 

My point: We need to be careful. We need to think before we speak. Once the words leave your mouth it is like a fire. You can't control or reverse the damage they do. Once they are out there, you have to deal with the consequences and they have to deal with the pain you cause.

Think before you speak and never forget the negative potential of your words.