My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
-- James 3:1-12
In Matthew 15 Jesus says, “Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” In other words, what is in the heart is what comes out of the mouth. If you want good things to come out of the mouth, you have to have good things in your heart. If your heart is lashed to the Lord then so will be your tongue and you will be unable to talk out of both sides of your mouth. Your tongue will not produce salt water, only fresh. Have you lashed your tongue to Christ?
We absolutely need to tie our tongues to Christ so that when we speak what comes out of our mouth will glorify God. So, how do we go about that? Well, if we want to tie something securely we need to learn knot tying. We can’t tie anything if we don’t know how to make any knots. The same can be said for our metaphorical knots, we need to learn how to tie a few or we won’t be able to securely lash our tongue to the Lord. With that in mind welcome to Knot Tying 101. Now, let’s take a look at how to make a handful of the knots we’ll need for our purpose.
Study – Paul tells Timothy that, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Immersing ourselves in scripture is one method of lashing our Tongue.
Prayer – In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” In fact it’s not the only time he exhorts believers to pray. When we pray, properly, we grow closer to Christ and tie our hearts more closely to His.
Meditation – In the next couple verses of Philippians chapter 4 Paul says, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. Meditation has become somehow tied to the eastern religions but meditating on the things of God is another good way of binding ourselves to the Lord.
Fellowship – Fellowship with each other and with God are important. Fellowship binds us to each other and to God. If we want to tie our hearts to Christ we need to be in fellowship. The most beautiful description of fellowship I’ve ever read is in Acts 2 where Luke, talking about the early church wrote, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”
We’ve briefly looked at a few knots for use in lashing our tongues to Christ, but there are many more. Service is another good one. I urge you to look for others and to go out into the world and give them heaven.
