5 Ways Our Words Can Be Verbal Cyanide

Destructive Power

James’s principal concern in the third chapter of his epistle is with the destructive power of the tongue, and this produces a most provocative statement: “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell” (James 3:5–6). The tongue has awesome potential for harm, as the forest fire analogy suggests. As the story goes, on Sunday evening, October 8, 1871, poor Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over the lantern as she was being milked, starting the Great Chicago Fire. That disaster blackened three and one-half miles of the city, destroying over seventeen thousand buildings before it was checked by gunpowder explosions on the south line of the fire. The fire lasted two days and cost over 250 lives.

But ironically, that was not the greatest inferno in the Midwest that year. Historians tell us that on the same day that dry autumn a spark ignited a raging fire in the North Woods of Wisconsin, a blaze that burned for an entire month, taking more lives than the Chicago Fire. A veritable firestorm destroyed billions of yards of precious timber—all from one spark!

The tongue has that scope of inflammatory power in human relationships, and James is saying that those who misuse the tongue are guilty of spiritual arson. A mere spark from an ill-spoken word can produce a firestorm that annihilates everyone it touches. Furthermore, because the tongue is a “a world of unrighteousness,” it contains and conveys all the world system’s wickedness. It is party to every evil there is and actively intrudes its evil into our lives.

What is the effect of the tongue’s cosmic wickedness? “The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life” (James 3:6). “Course of life” is literally “the wheel of our genesis,” with “genesis” referring to our human life or existence.¹ What an apt description of human experience! About nine-tenths of the flames we experience in our lives come from the tongue.

Having grabbed our imaginations with his graphic language, James adds the final touch: “and set on fire by hell.” Here the language means continually set on fire. James uses the same word for hell that his brother Jesus used—“gehenna.” It is derived from the name of the perpetually burning garbage dump outside Jerusalem, a place of fire and filth where, as Jesus said, “their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:47).

Can anyone miss the point? The uncontrolled tongue has a direct pipeline to hell! Fueled by hell, it burns our lives with its filthy fires. But it is also, as John Calvin says, an “instrument for catching, encouraging, and increasing the fires of hell.”²

Those who misuse the tongue are guilty of spiritual arson.

Five Forms of Verbal Cyanide

Significantly, James does not tell us how the tongue’s destructive power is manifested in human speech. He knows that the spiritual mind, informed by the Scriptures, will have no problem in making the connections.

1. Gossip

The tongue’s destructive power in gossip leads the list, of course. A physician in a Midwestern city was a victim of a disgruntled patient who tried to ruin him professionally through rumor, and almost did. Several years later the gossiper had a change of heart and wrote the doctor asking his forgiveness, and he forgave her. But there was no way she could erase the story, nor could he. As Solomon wisely observed, “The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body” (Prov. 18:8).

Gossip is greedily picked up and stored away by the hearers like tasty tidbits. Vigorous denial by the doctor would only bring more suspicion—“He protests too much!” The damage was done. Thereafter the innocent doctor would always look into certain people’s eyes and wonder if they had heard the story—and if they believed it. Gossip often veils itself in acceptable conventions such as “Have you heard . . . ?” or “Did you know . . . ?” or “They tell me . . . ,” or “Keep this to yourself, but . . . ,” or “I do not believe it is true, but I heard that . . . ,” or “I wouldn’t tell you, except that I know it will go no further.” Of course, the most infamous such rationalization in Christian circles is “I am telling you this so you can pray.” This seems so pious, but the heart that feeds on hearing evil reports is a tool of hell, and it leaves flaming fires in its wake. Oh, the heartache that comes from the tongue.

2. Innuendo

A cousin of gossip is innuendo. Consider the ship’s first mate who after a drunken binge was written up by the captain on the ship’s log: “Mate drunk today.” The mate’s revenge? Some months later he surreptitiously wrote on his own entry, “Captain sober today.” So it goes with the word unsaid, the awkward silence, the raised eyebrows, the quizzical look—all freighted with the misery of hell.

3. Flattery

Gossip involves saying behind a person’s back what you would never say to his or her face. Flattery means saying to a person’s face what you would never say behind his or her back. The Scriptures warn us repeatedly against flatterers, for they are destructive people who carry a legion of unwholesome motives: “A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet” (Prov. 29:5); “A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin” (Prov. 26:28); and “May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, those who say, ‘With our tongue we will prevail . . . ” (Ps. 12:3–4).

4. Criticism

Fault-finding seems endemic to the Christian church. Perhaps this is because a taste of righteousness can be easily perverted into an overweening sense of self-righteousness and judgmentalism. Once while John Wesley was preaching, he noticed a lady in the audience who was known for her critical attitude. All through the service she sat and stared at his new tie. When the meeting ended, she came up to him and said very sharply, “Mr. Wesley, the strings on your tie are much too long. It’s an offense to me!” He asked if any of the ladies present happened to have a pair of scissors in their purse. When the scissors were handed to him, he gave them to his critic and asked her to trim the streamers to her liking. After she clipped them off near the collar, he said, “Are you sure they’re all right now?”

“Yes, that’s much better.”

“Then let me have those shears a moment,” said Wesley. “I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I also gave you a bit of correction. I must tell you, madam, that your tongue is an offense to me—it’s too long! Please stick it out . . . I’d like to take some off.”

On another occasion someone said to Wesley, “My talent is to speak my mind.” Wesley replied, “That’s one talent God wouldn’t care a bit if you buried!” This is good advice for all Christians.

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5. Diminishment

In a subsequent context James gives the command, “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers” (James 4:11)—literally, “Do not speak down on one another, brothers.” James forbids any speech (whether true or false) that runs down another person.

Certainly no Christian should ever be a party to slander—making false charges against another’s reputation. Yet some are. But even more penetrating is the challenge to refrain from any speech that intends to run down someone else, even if it is totally true. Personally I can think of few commands that go against commonly accepted conventions more than this, for most people think it is okay to convey negative information if it is true. We understand that lying is immoral. But is passing along damaging truth immoral? It seems almost a moral responsibility! By such reasoning, criticism behind another’s back is thought to be all right as long as it is based on fact. Likewise, denigrating gossip (of course it is never called gossip!) is seen as okay if the information is true. Thus, many believers use truth as a license to righteously diminish others’ reputations.

Related to this, some reject running down another behind his back, but believe it is okay if done face to face. These people are driven by a “moral” compulsion to make others aware of their shortcomings. Fault-finding is, to them, a spiritual gift—a license to conduct spiritual search-and-destroy missions.

What people like this do not know is that most people are painfully aware of their own faults; they would so like to overcome them, and are trying very hard to do so. Then someone mercilessly assaults them, believing they are doing their spiritual duty—and, oh, the hurt!

This destructive speaking down against others can also manifest itself in the subtle art of minimizing another’s virtues and accomplishments. After being with such people, your mental abilities, athletic accomplishments, musical skills, and domestic virtues seem not to be quite as good as they were a few minutes earlier. Some of this feeling might have come from their words about your Steinway—“What a nice little piano”—or from surprised exclamations about what you did not know. It was also the tone of the voice, the cast of the eye, and the surgical silences.

There are many sinful reasons why brothers in Christ talk down one another. Revenge over some slight, real or imagined, may be the motivation of “Christian” slander. Others imagine that their spirituality and sensitivity equips them to pull others from their pedestals and unmask their hypocrisies. Gideon once righteously cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” (Judges 7:20), and we may do the same, but in our case it is too often a sword of self-righteousness.

Talking down others may also come from the need to elevate oneself—like the Pharisee who thanked God he was not like other sinners “or even like this tax collector” (Luke 18:11). We thus enjoy the dubious elevation of walking on the bruised heads of others.

Sometimes this diminishing of others simply comes from too much empty talk. People do not have much to talk about, so they fuel the fires of conversation with the flesh of others. The abilities and motivations of the body of Christ to run itself down could fill a library.

We are all skillful in rationalizing such talk, but God’s Word still speaks: “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.” Verbal cyanide comes in many forms. Gossip, innuendo, flattery, criticism, and diminishment are only a few of the venoms with which Christians inject each other. And the results are universal: toxic gastric juices brew a Devil’s feast—the swill of souls.

The Disciplined Tongue

The tongue, so tiny, is immensely powerful. It is indeed mightier than generals and their armies. It can fuel our lives so that they become fiery furnaces, or it can cool our lives with the soothing wind of the Spirit. It can be forged by hell or it can be a tool of heaven.

Offered to God on the altar, the tongue has awesome power for good. It can proclaim the life-changing message of salvation: “And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Rom. 10:14–15). It has power for sanctification as we share God’s Word: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). It has power for healing: “For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more” (2 Cor. 7:5–7). It has power for worship: “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (Heb. 13:15).

No sweat, no sanctification! First, we must ask God to cauterize our lips, confessing as Isaiah did, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isa. 6:5). Then we need to submit to the cleansing touch: “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me’” (Isa. 6:8). Isaiah’s outline as a spiritual exercise, performed with all one’s heart, will work wonders in our lives. Let us all do this today!

Second, hand in hand with the first step there must be an ongoing prayerfulness regarding the use of our tongues—regular, detailed prayer. This, coupled with the first step, will work a spiritual miracle.

Third, we must resolve to discipline ourselves regarding the use of the tongue, making solemn resolutions such as the following:

• To perpetually and lovingly speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15)
• To refrain from being party to or a conduit for gossip (Prov. 16:28; 17:9; 26:20)
• To refrain from insincere flattery (Prov. 26:28)
• To refrain from running down another (James 4:11)
• To refrain from degrading humor (Eph. 5:4)
• To refrain from sarcasm (Prov. 26:24–25)
• To memorize Scripture passages that teach the proper use of the tongue.

Discipline your tongue for the purpose of godliness!

As Charles H. Spurgeon said, “Who keeps the tongue doth keep his soul.”

This article is adapted from Disciplines of a Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes.

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