John 21:18 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.

Do you realize the significance of this passage? Does it seem that Jesus is telling Peter he will end up in a nursing home feeble and unable to care for himself? Not likely since nursing homes did not exist in those days. Men in those days worked themselves to death and it was the widows who were cared for in their old age by others. So what is this cryptic message really saying?

All we have to do is look to the preceding passages to discover context.

John 21:17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

Peter’s ministry was to build the new Christian church from the converts from Judaism. His beginning ministry was at Jerusalem. Consider this his young start. What is said about this young upstart is noted to be in his own strength. The issue of girding oneself is the inner clothing, not the outer garments. The issue of walking where he wanted was in making his own choices.

So now dealing with the older man, the mature man, Peter would no longer strengthen the inner man nor would he make decisions for himself.

As we mature in Christ we will discover that we too have been transformed thru growth in Christ in the same manner as we seek to serve and obey. If you do not seek to serve and obey, then you are still young and have a lot of growing up to do. That has nothing to do with age.

James 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

That is a rather harsh and bold statement. I sometimes think it could use a bit of editing.

These devotionals are short and easily edited. I can for the most part read them three or four times and do self-editing. I will from time to time publish one with a minor flaw, usual a syntax error or alternate spellings of words that sound alike but mean something different. Their, there, they’re. Simple meaningless, harmless. Our scripture today is anything but harmless.

Larger works, periodicals, pamphlets and books undergo a series of edits and fact checks before being released. Not so with speech. The words come out of your mouth and nothing can be done to change the words, inflection, tone, or impact. Those words can often be loosed without any amount of self-editing.

I would like to tone down the speech James gives here, it seems harsh. But it is factual in context if not content. The tongue will give away what is in the heart of each of us. We may by intentional practice deceive others but the tongue will eventually give us up for what we are inside.

If the inner man has changed, the tongue will reveal it. God places a high degree of importance on the condition of the heart. Your tongue will be honest in revealing your heart. If you repent of things you have said, do not blame the tongue, it cannot be tamed. In can only reflect the intent of the heart. Those moments need to be taken to heart and offered up to correction in the spirit, for the spirit has the power to change the heart.

The Holy Spirit is The Editor in Chief and has the last say.