By Rev Nicholas Sykes

A number of Scriptures refer to the tongue and its indiscipline, meaning the voice of a person or of people. Something that we often take rather for granted, what we speak, may have an influence for good or ill far beyond what may have been intended.

St. James, for instance, refers to the tongue as a fire. “The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members (he says), staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell.” The Satanically inspired loose comment, in other words, can start all sorts of terrible things going.

Today the media – the talk-shows and the newspapers - are domains in which untutored and uninformed voices sometimes hold sway, causing pain and damage to individuals and whole communities. Conversely, St. James says that if any one makes no mistakes in what he says, he has his whole self under control, like a horse with a bit in its mouth, or like a boat being guided well by the will of the pilot through the use of a small rudder.

It follows that spontaneous expression, which I consider is given inordinate value and praise in the modern world, may only too likely come from evil rather than good. In contrast, we see from Isaiah 50: 4 that the good word or helpful, uplifting or challenging speaking that is beneficial to those who hear it is described in terms of something that is taught.

The Scriptures confirm that spontaneous expression is not intrinsically a good thing. The important thing is that what is expressed is good and right. For that to be the case there must be direction from beyond the speaker; there must be teaching from a good source. And the assumptions underlying the use of schools in human civilisation support the view that the good thought, word or deed comes by a process of teaching - by God Himself, or through human agency.

S. Mark 8: 27-38 shows St. Peter acting spontaneously - and unadvisedly, as we should rightly say - when Jesus teaches the disciples that He must suffer and be rejected and killed by the authorities, and then rise again. Peter’s spontaneous rebuke of Jesus earns him a greater rebuke: “Get behind me, Satan!” For Jesus sees, in St. James’ terms, a tongue being set on fire by hell.

The unrebuked tongue of Peter could set fire to the calling of both Jesus and His disciples, whom He was teaching. Peter was not right to imply that what the Lord was saying was foolishness, indeed he was very wrong indeed. So Jesus then underlines his point by warning all the disciples that if they would continue to follow Him, they should expect to encounter a cross as well. To persist in the following of Jesus we have to draw on a wellspring of resources that goes deeper than a surface spontaneity.

We have to follow what we are taught from a resource that runs deeper than our own spirit. It is not “spontaneous” to be willing to lose one’s own way of living for the sake of a greater good - but that is what Jesus teaches his disciples to be prepared for, when he invites us to lose our life for His sake and the Gospel’s. Then, He says, we will truly not have forfeited our souls – our innermost life, so to speak.

In these days of information explosion through the media and the internet, circumstances that are of course far different from what St. James encountered, we could add to “the tongue” its electronic equivalent, the keyboard. Now we have twittering and tweeting, which may seem to imply an even greater value being placed upon spontaneity.

And the loose talk of our time often suggests that the church is dangerous and to be avoided in times of critical decision-making over the course of the country or the economy. It is said, loosely, that the church is too powerful, and that what it says is intended to oppress and persecute people.

Some religious language is indeed dangerous because of its defects, because of its wrongness – but not because it is religious. And that’s precisely the point. True discipleship, which is a life’s work for every Christian, must always be something that is being taught, and from a verifiably good Source. With what is thus taught, the church is mandated to engage in the issues of the day.

If we want to speak the kind of words that will lift up the depressed, refresh the weary and challenge the torpid, we need to have not merely human spontaneity, but a “tongue that is taught”. It is not by our own natural efforts and personalities that we can make a genuine difference to people’s lives and the world around us.

The words that will make that difference will be from tongues - or pens or keyboards - that are well taught. It is when we do not allow our tongues to be well taught, but allow them to run along on their own steam, that they will show themselves to be the instruments of the enemy.

For commentary, information and devotional material see www.churchofenglandcayman.com and www.anglicansatprayer.org