Our master describes the power of the heart.  We understand that the Lord is the one who is ultimately in charge of everything, however, in this discussion we want to see the power that the Lord had placed in the heart of man.  The abundance of the heart controls the tongue.  Jesus said: “. . .out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh” (Matt. 12:34-35).  The words that we speak come forth from the heart.  Only what comes out of the mouth defiles the man.  What goes into his mouth never defiles him (Matt. 15:10, 11, 15-20).  What comes out of the mouth comes out of the abundance of the heart (Matt. 12:34).  We must conclude there is great power in the heart.  By controlling the tongue, we control more than the tongue.

The tongue controls the body.  Just as the rudder of a ship, or the bridle of a horse controls the ship and the horse, so the tongue controls the body (James 3:3-5).  It is not possible to tame the tongue (James 3:8), but it is possible to bridle it.  In fact if we do not bridle our tongue our religion is in vain (James 1:26).  Self-will can never bridle the tongue, but if we work together with God to form the heart in the image of Christ, the heart will bridle the tongue. The kind of heart we have determines the words we speak.  For example, if we have the heart of Satan, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak Satanic words (Matt. 12:34).  If we grow fully into the complete heart of Christ, out of the abundance of the good heart good words will come.  If we are half like Satan and half like Christ we will have mixed words – good and evil – coming out of our mouths.  The solution to controlling our bodies is to grow fully into the image of Christ.  With the heart of Christ, we will speak and do only good no matter what bodies we will have.  The heart will control this physical body and also the new spiritual body we are given in the resurrection.