24 Bible Verses About Controlling Your Tongue

Proverbs 18:21

“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Reflection: The verse before sets up the picture: “From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied.” Words are treated as a crop that the speaker ends up eating. Verse 21 raises the stakes to life and death and keeps the same image: those who love the tongue “will eat its fruit.”

James 3:5-6

“Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”

Reflection: James opens the chapter with a warning to would-be teachers, who “will be judged more strictly,” and then widens it to everyone: “Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check” (James 3:2). After the images of a bit in a horse’s mouth and a small rudder steering a large ship, he turns to fire. A spark is small and a forest is large, and the tongue, he says, sets “the whole course of one’s life on fire.”

James 3:7-8

“All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

Reflection: Here James sets the human record of taming animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures against the tongue, which no one has tamed. Two verses later he still says of blessing and cursing from one mouth, “this should not be.”

James 3:9-10

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”

Reflection: The same mouth blesses God and curses people, and James finds the contradiction in who those people are: they “have been made in God’s likeness,” a reference to Genesis 1:26-27. The next verses ask whether fresh and salt water can flow from one spring, or a fig tree bear olives, and expect the answer no.

Proverbs 12:18

“The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

Reflection: Reckless words are compared to sword thrusts, and wise words to healing. The proverbs on either side are also about speech, and both concern truthfulness: “An honest witness tells the truth, but a false witness tells lies” (verse 17), and “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment” (verse 19).

Proverbs 16:28

“A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.”

Reflection: Of the two troublemakers in the proverb, the gossip is the one who works by speech, and what the gossip breaks up is a close friendship. The verse before describes a scoundrel who plots evil, and “on their lips it is like a scorching fire,” the image James 3:6 later uses for the tongue. Proverbs 18:8 compares a gossip’s words to “choice morsels” that “go down to the inmost parts.”

Luke 6:45

“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Reflection: Near the end of the sermon in Luke 6, Jesus uses the picture of a tree known by its fruit (verses 43-44) and applies it to speech: what a person says shows what is stored in the heart. Matthew 12:34 records the same saying, spoken to Pharisees who had said Jesus drove out demons by Beelzebul, and follows it with a warning: “everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken” (Matthew 12:36).

Matthew 15:18

“But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.”

Reflection: The Pharisees had complained that the disciples ate without washing their hands (Matthew 15:2). Jesus answers that food goes into the stomach and out of the body, while what comes out of the mouth starts in the heart. The list in the next verse includes two sins of speech, “false testimony” and “slander,” beside murder and theft.

Proverbs 4:23-24

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.”

Reflection: A father addresses his son (“My son, pay attention to what I say,” verse 20) and starts with the heart, “for everything you do flows from it.” The charge then moves outward: the mouth and lips, the eyes (verse 25) and the feet (verses 26-27). Keeping corrupt talk far from the lips is one part of a charge that ends, “Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”

Proverbs 10:19

“Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues.”

Reflection: Piling up words does not end sin, and the prudent hold their tongues. The verse sits between a warning about “lying lips” and slander (verse 18) and a line valuing the speech of the righteous: “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver” (verse 20).

Proverbs 17:27-28

“The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered. Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues.”

Reflection: Restraint in speech goes together with an even temper in verse 27. Verse 28 adds that even a fool who keeps quiet is taken for wise.

Proverbs 18:13

“To answer before listening—that is folly and shame.”

Reflection: The proverb gives a verdict rather than advice: answering before listening is “folly and shame.” Verse 2 of the chapter names the fool’s motive, delight “in airing their own opinions.” Verse 17 shows what the hasty answer misses, from the courtroom: “In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines.”

Proverbs 21:23

“Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.”

Reflection: Guarding the mouth is presented as self-protection: those who guard their mouths and tongues “keep themselves” from calamity. Proverbs 13:3 makes the same point from the other side: “those who speak rashly will come to ruin.”

James 1:19

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”

Reflection: James links three habits in one sentence: listening quickly, speaking slowly and getting angry slowly. The next verse gives the reason for the last of them: “human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”

James 1:26

“Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.”

Reflection: The verse comes at the end of a passage about hearing the word and doing it (James 1:22-25). James counts speech as part of that doing: a person who claims to be religious but lets the tongue run free is self-deceived. The next verse describes the religion God accepts, caring for orphans and widows and staying unpolluted by the world.

Psalm 141:3

“Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.”

Reflection: The psalmist asks God to post a guard at the mouth and watch “the door of my lips.” The next verse carries the request inward: “Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil.” Earlier in the psalm, the prayer itself is offered “like incense” and the lifted hands “like the evening sacrifice” (verse 2).

Psalm 19:14

“May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

Reflection: Psalm 19 moves from the heavens declaring God’s glory (verse 1) to the law of the Lord, “sweeter than honey” (verse 10), and then to the psalmist’s own faults: “Forgive my hidden faults” (verse 12). The closing verse asks that both spoken words and inward thoughts be acceptable to God.

Proverbs 15:1

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Reflection: A gentle reply calms anger, and a harsh one provokes it. The chapter goes on to connect the tongue with wisdom: “The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly” (verse 2).

Proverbs 15:4

“The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.”

Reflection: A “tree of life” is the phrase Genesis 2:9 uses for the tree in Eden, and Proverbs applies it to wisdom (Proverbs 3:18) and here to a soothing tongue. The opposite is a perverse tongue, which “crushes the spirit.”

Proverbs 16:24

“Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

Reflection: Gracious words are compared to a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the body. The verse before is also about speech: “The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction.”

Ephesians 4:29

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Reflection: Paul places the verse in a list of old habits to put off and new ones to put on, beginning with “put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor” (verse 25). Unwholesome talk is replaced with speech fitted to what the listener needs. Two verses later come “brawling and slander,” among the things to get rid of.

Colossians 4:6

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Reflection: The instruction follows directly from verse 5, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders,” and just before that Paul asks for prayer that he may proclaim the message clearly (verses 3-4). The verse ends with the purpose of gracious speech: “so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

1 Peter 3:9

“Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

Reflection: Peter forbids trading insult for insult and backs the instruction with Psalm 34:12-16, quoted in the next verses: “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.” The instruction is addressed to “all of you” and follows a list in verse 8: be like-minded, sympathetic, compassionate and humble.

Proverbs 31:26

“She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.”

Reflection: The verse belongs to the portrait of “a wife of noble character” that closes Proverbs (31:10-31). Among her work in the household and trade, her speech is singled out: she speaks with wisdom, and “faithful instruction” is on her tongue.