Article Library

---

By Pastor Chuck Swindoll

---

Tame Your Tongue

“Your tongue, the tongue God wants to use in your mouth for the rest of your lives to minister to people, is the same tongue that can destroy the heart of one of your children or break the heart of your spouse or ruin your ministry and hurt your reputation. It’s, humanly speaking, untamable. Washington Irving once wrote, ‘No other tool except the tongue gets sharper with constant use.’ Publius, the less known among the philosophers, said, ‘I have often regretted my speech but never my silence.’ One of my mentors used to say, ‘You know, Chuck, I never felt sorry for the things I did not say.”

Speak Only What is True

“Is it true? Now in order for you to know it’s true, if it’s about someone else, you need to check the source. You need to find out before you spread that word regarding that person, whether it’s a fellow student or a teacher, or whether it’s a fellow teacher or a student. Be sure it’s true. That’ll cut out about eight tenths of most of the things we are going to say about other people. Is it true?”

Refuse to Share Confidential Information

“Is it confidential? Has someone said to you in the passing of information, ‘I’d like you not to share this.’ Then don’t or if you can’t control your tongue, say to the person before they unload that information, ‘Really I’m not sure I can keep from telling someone else, so just keep it.’ Is it confidential? I’ve found in ministry over these years it’s easier to find purity among others than it is to find confidentiality. Very, very few people are completely confidential, and a pastor who isn’t confidential is a train wreck getting ready to happen.”

God’s Standard for Teachers

“Why would there be a stricter judgment on those who teach? First, because it is our task not to give our opinion, but to represent truth and to be careful in the articulation of the truth that we are representing in this case, what the text is teaching, rather than how we feel about it, or for that matter, what our prejudice may be regarding the subject. It is about communicating truth. The other reason is that there are a lot of people that are impacted by what we say. The teacher stands before groups, sometimes large groups. James warns those who will be doing that not to rush into that role without realizing that you’ll be judged by a stricter judgment. When someone in our congregation has a slip of the tongue, it may affect a family or a few friends. When I have a slip of the tongue, an entire congregation is impacted by it. The point’s clear, with that comes a stricter judgment.”

The Tongue Speaks from the Heart

“Now, make no mistake about it. The source of the evil is not the tongue. The tongue is only a messenger like the bucket that dips down in the well. If the water is pure and good, then the bucket brings up pure and good water. If the water is soiled and diseased, that’s what the bucket delivers.”

Additional Resources

First, sign up for our Chuck’s Insights on Ministry email where we bring you his best thoughts on preaching, leadership, and ministry each week. By signing up, you’ll instantly receive a one-page checklist with 20 preaching insights from Chuck. See this page’s sidebar.

Second, check out our new Preach The Word articles and video series on YouTube where we’re teaching Chuck’s best insights on this important calling.

Third, listen to Chuck’s messages to those in ministry through our Seminary Chapels page. For decades, he offered students at Dallas Theological Seminary his best thoughts on church leadership and ministry. Now, we have put them at your fingertips. Also, you can find them through this YouTube playlist we created for you.

Fourth, if you don’t own a copy of Chuck’s book on preaching, Saying It Well, we highly recommend you add it to your library. It’s his preaching memoir that is also like a practical preaching manual. You won’t be able to put it down.

---