Faith and Speech

I have been pondering the relationship between our speech, our actions and our faith. While I have often looked at these passages out of James separately, it is just recently that I have been pondering them together. Here's the passages:

James 2:14-26
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe-- and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

James 3:2-10
For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue-- a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.

At the moment, it seems clear to me. Our faith ought to bear fruit (the works I believe that James is talking about it). Faith is transformative...faith ought to call forth recognition and love of the other in our midst to the point that we might actually feed the hungry rather than just bless them and send them on their way.

It is also clear that our mouths can get us in trouble.

But taking these passages together, it seems as though our tongues can even be the undoing of the works that faith has called forth. Whether it is by proclaiming the differences between us and others (thereby impeding the works of faith) or reversing our works of faith by allowing our tongues to get away from us.

It seems as though speech (God honoring speech) can be a catalyst for our faith and works while speech that is not God honoring can be an impediment. It seems that our actions (the works of our faith) can be an affirmation of our words or (the lack thereof) can be a negation. And it seems to me that this can be as true for an individual as it is for a group (the body of Christ in any sized expression).

What do you think?