Verse of the Week - James 3:5 - June 1, 2015

The point of this 1970's  commercial is all it takes to start a wild fire is one match. One burning match, held in a human hand, and dropped onto the ground can start a wildfire. An out-of-control wildfire that can burn thousands of acres. Now let's take this point and compare it to James 3:5 AKJV,

"Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles!" James 3:5 AKJV

My analogy is:
one match held in a human hand is to a wild fire as one tongue controlling a human hand is to a viral discussion

A Viral Discussion
It all starts with one small body part, the tongue,  and the tongue controls what the finger tips write as written speech. The tongue can't go online by itself,  but the tongue is connected to fingers that put written speech, from the tongue, online.

How many times have you seen a friendly, online discussion blowup into a feud when one person - one tongue, or one burning match - makes the decision to enter the conversation - typing hand, or hands - and tell why they have a different point of view - adding typed words, or drop the burning match? 

IF no one responds to the typed words,or dropped burning match, the conversation will usually proceed onto something else i.e. it is ended, or burnt out.

HOWEVER, many times the conversation is not ended. Someone will add more words - burning match catches fire to grass - and someone else will add more words - fire reaches the forest - until the entire conversation is burning everyone up - a wildfire is out-of-control. 

In conclusion, one small part of the body, the tongue can start a viral discussion that explodes across social media in a few hours,if we participate in it. 

The Apostle James is warning us that we need to watch what we say. We do not need to start a huge issue over a little thing. Interestingly enough, the original Greek word that James used for great is "megala". 

"Megala" makes me think of something very large, exceedingly big, or HUGE. 

So, do not start a mega fire, the next time you are part of a social media discussion.