James writes, "No one can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison" (James 3:8). If it is impossible to control our tongue, why try?
The tongue is not the issue. The tongue is only a symptom of what is in the heart. We need God to cleanse our hearts.
We need him to remove the hidden envy, selfish ambition and anger from us. If we do not trust that God is in fact directing our lives, we fall prey to the temptation of comparing ourselves to one one another. We praise God with our mouths and rip his children apart with our tongues. Our words may sound righteous to our ears but they are bitter in the mouth.
Just as it is impossible or a fig tree to produce olives, so a bitter heart cannot produce pure praise (James 3:8-14).
