Destruction from small places

In March of last year, an oil tanker from Hong Kong named the Pacific Adventurer ran headlong into a tropical storm. The results were disastrous. From a leak in the ailing vessel, almost 250 tons of oil oozed across a 37-mile stretch of Australia’s Sunshine Coast. What’s more, 31 containers of ammonium nitrate broke loose and punctured the ship’s hull. The BBC reported how “environmental experts fear [that] the nutrient-rich fertilizer could cause [damage to] algal blooms, suffocate fish, and kill natural habitats.” What a wide swath of mayhem from one ship being tossed in a tempest!

Scripture often warns of the vast destruction that comes from small and overlooked places. We might think that ruin comes only from the sins that get the most attention: adultery, murder, injustice. For most of us, however, the temptations that undo us will emerge from more subtle corners. As James says, “We all make many mistakes” (3:2).

The writer goes on to state that a small bit in a horse’s mouth will make it “go wherever we want”; and mammoth ships are turned by “a small rudder” (vv.3-4). Nearer to James’ concern was the tongue, that small (usually hidden out of sight) piece of flesh that has the capacity to do great good or great harm. The tongue “praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God” (v.9).

Wise pastors and Bible teachers have taught us that blatant, abhorrent sins rarely arrive all at once out of nowhere. Usually, sins take root after we’ve given ourselves over to long patterns of disobedience as we harbor a heart chilled to God’s voice. Supposed “small” sins do destroy us and others. As we start this new year, let’s make sure we don’t miss the little things that can bring us down.

by winn collier

PRAISE GOD
BLESSED BE THE ONE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD