Fire Triangle
“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity” (James 3:5-6).
When I was in the fire protection business, I used to give seminars and demos on fire prevention and safety. One thing we always taught was the fire triangle, or the three things that it takes to constitute a fire, namely, oxygen, heat, and fuel. In fighting a fire you eliminate one of the three elements and the triangle is broken, and as a result the fire is extinguished. This usually means eliminating the oxygen by smothering, or the heat by cooling.
However, when it comes to the gossip spreading fires that the tongue ignites, it is the fuel that needs to be removed. “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth” (Proverbs 26:20). Let’s eliminate the fires of rumor and gossip that do such great damage by learning to hold our tongue…by removing the fuel.
