14.05.07
James (8): A World of Evil (James 3:1-12)
Did you know that although it was written in the pre-nuclear age, there is a weapon of mass destruction in the Bible? A weapon we don’t have to send UN experts to find – a weapon which each of us has? James 3:1-12 tells us that never mind Iraq, each one of us has a WMD – our tongues. The tongue is a dangerous and evil member of our bodies and if we want to be like Christ, we need to control it.
It may be hard for you to see how Chapter 3 follows on from what went before in Chapter 2 about faith and works. The links is fairly straightforward if we go back to 1:26-27 where James is talking about what it means to live out our faith in Christ. It means to care for the needy - that is what James talks about in Chapter 2 – good works on behalf of the needy; and it means to control our tongues, and that is what James is talking about in Chapter 3:1 to 4:12. So we are still in the area of living out our faith in Christ – showing that we are His and living consistent Christian lives. And in particular, remember, in the context of ‘faith without works is dead’, that words are works. Words do thing, they achieve things – and so the man or woman of God, if he or she is to live out his or her faith consistently must combine good works with good words.
In James 3:1-12, James sets forth four stages in his discussion of the dangers of wrong speech and my prayer tonight, from this study, is that we will each take our tongues more seriously and pray for grace to control what we say and how we say it.
[A] Teaching and the Tongue (vs. 1-2a)
James begins with a salutary warning to all those who aspire to teaching positions in the Church – we shall receive greater judgment than everybody else. We need to take this on board when we are thinking about leadership roles – for sure, these positions are privileges, but they are also very solemn responsibilities. The man who goes forward and teaches is taking judgement into his own hands. How then those of us who teach need to depend upon the grace of the Holy Spirit to fulfil our responsibilities! But then James begins to expand on why we expose ourselves to greater judgment – it is because when we teach, we are in a talking profession. The tools of our trade are our tongues and the tongue is a dangerous member. There are some commentators who believe that this whole section – from vs. 1-12 – talk of the way in which leaders use their tongues. They see this from allusions in vs. 2, 3 and 6 to the body, which can mean either an individual’s physical body, or the body of the church; and from the subject of worship in vs. 9-12 where a teacher leads the body of Christ, the church, in the communal blessing of God’s name. And I think there is merit in what these commentators are writing – the teacher must be exemplary in the use of his tongue. His words must be carefully chosen and He must control His speech ruthlessly – and he will be held accountable for what he says. But, the passage surely also applies to individuals within the church body.
But this passage also talks not just of the Church of Christ, but of the Christ of the Church. In vs. 2 James gives a universal confession – “we all stumble in many ways”. This is universally true – there is no such thing here and now as a perfect church teacher or a perfect church member. But then James says, “if anyone in word does not stumble, this is a perfect man”. But James has just said we all stumble, so he cannot be referring to any of us here. Surely he is referring to his brother, of whom it is written, “there was no deceit found in his mouth and no guile on his lips” – he is referring to Jesus Himself – the great model of Christian speech. And James is holding up Jesus as the example to which we must all aspire in the use of our tongues. All of us, but especially Christian teachers must study hard and pray hard to be more like Christ in the way we speak.
[B] Direction and the Tongue (vs. 2b-5a)
In these verses James wants us to understand that the tongue, whilst a small member of our bodies, has immense influence. It is the bridle on the horse – the iron bit in its mouth we use to turn the horse to the right or to the left. It is the rudder on a huge boat – the direction setting device we use to turn the ship in the direction we want it to go. James is telling us here that the tongue is the master key of the body – it is responsible for setting the direction of our whole lives. What the tongue says, we do. And the key to consistent holy living is therefore to be found in controlling our tongues. The man who claims to be holy, but cannot control what he says, is a liar and a fraud. And what we say is not merely our verbal speech, it is also what we say to ourselves. Think of it like this: many of us think in words-pictures; we harbour resentment through words we internally speak to ourselves; we feel sorry for ourselves through self-pitying words we internally speak to ourselves. But James is telling us that the key to holy living is not merely to control what we say to others, but to control what we say to ourselves – to kill off the self-pity by refusing to form the word-picture of ‘I’m so hard done by’ from our minds; and to kill off the resentment by refusing to speak those words of hatred to ourselves. If we will do this, we starve the fire of its fuel and the fire goes out. If you would get rid of resentment, lustful thoughts, bitterness, self-pity, greed, then you must control your tongue – it is not only the sign of holy living, it is also the means to holy living. It sets the direction of your life towards holiness or towards immorality.
[C] Evil and the Tongue (vs. 5b-8)
I wonder have you ever thought of muzzling your tongue! If we took to heart the words of James here I think we’d all be a lot more careful in what we say. The tongue is a fire – it is a world of unrighteousness. The use of the word ‘world’ here is technical – it is the ‘cosmos’ – the created order which exists in rebellion towards God – it is in unrighteousness – it is anti-God. Our tongues are, by nature, anti-God – our tongues are the focus of all our unrighteousness. But not only do our tongues damage our relationship with God, they also destroy us as individuals – they pollute everything! They ruin the whole body. And then there is an escalation of the horrors of the tongue’s impact – ‘it sets on fire the course of life’ – and we’ve all seen how verbal violence escalates into physical violence. But not only for the individual. The Great Fire of London started in a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane when the baker forgot to douse some embers in his oven. The resultant fire destroyed most of medieval London. Our tongues can initiate such a disaster. But then, whereas James has started the verse by telling us that our tongues are ‘anti-God’, he finishes by telling us that our tongues are positively ‘pro-devil’ – their fuel comes from hell.
The tongue is wild – it is more dangerous than any lion, any snake or any great sea creature. It is untameable. It is unstable in that just when you think you have it under control, it breaks out in even more evil. It is like a caged animal, just looking for opportunities to escape. The tongue kills – it is full of lethal poison. “Sticks and stones only break my bones, but words forever harm me”. We are terrified of the fangs of a poisonous snake, but we each have tongue-shaped fangs which are even more lethal than the cobra. How dangerous is the tongue! No wonder James is calling for us to control it – and no wonder it takes the supernatural input of God’s grace to master it!
[D] Worship and the Tongue (vs. 9-12)
Remember the overall message of the Book of James – don’t be double-minded! Double-ness of tongue is a symptom of double-ness of mind. Praising God is the highest thing our tongues can do, cursing men, who are made in His image, and therefore by extension, God Himself, is the lowest thing our tongues can do. Our use of the tongue is a spiritual thermometer – it is a measure of where we are with the Lord. The single-minded man, who is all out for the glory of Christ, does not talk out of both sides of his mouth. James then gives the example of salt and sweet water coming out of the same fountain. Of course, the salty water will trump the sweet – you won’t taste the sweet, only the salt. In the same way, words of cursing will dominate your words of blessing – they will render the words of praise meaningless, empty and hypocritical. He finishes off by talking of the deformity of a fig tree which bears olives, or a grapevine which bears olives – such trees are genetic monstrosities and deformities.
Good speech is the product of a good heart, and the only way we can have a good heart is if we have a new heart – a new heart given to us by Christ Jesus and which yearns to be like Him in every area of our lives. And so, James’ message to us tonight is this: by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and through His power, learn to control your tongue. Send in the disarmament team to take the fangs out of your tongue. Only then, can you not only be single-minded in what you say, but single-minded in your devotion to Christ. AMEN