I am certain that everyone hearing this message has, at one time or another, wanted to just speak their mind and tell others what they think. Free speech right? I am reasonably certain that some hearing this have done it. I am in the group of “have done it.” Since I was 18, I have had basically 2 long term jobs. A person at one of the jobs was basically an “organizational terrorist.” He had a great job with great hours but just talked negatively about the organization and people. I was with him one day and told him to just shut up because he didn’t know what he was talking about and he should be lucky he had such a great job. Well, that is the clean version of what I said. And he complained on me. The speech was free but the results had some costs.

James has some really good examples of free speech and what we should think about before we speak. In an age of quick/easy and widespread communication and our face to face encounters, what we say has a huge importance in our Christian walk. This unpacks just a few concepts of how to win the battle with our speech.