James 3:1-12
James • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewDouglas Moo - Pillar Alec Motyer - BST Christopher Morgan - Theology of James
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Transcript
Good morning Church. How are you doing today? It’s great to see you. If you’re new here, welcome. We are so glad that you’re here.
For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Brian. I am a part of the church here with my wife and four kids.
Tyler is out of town taking a well deserved long weekend and he asked me to share with you this morning our next section of the series on James that we have been going through. I am so thankful and honored for the chance to share the Word with you this morning.
I love the chances to study and share in this way, and have been praying that this might be a blessing to you in your relationship with the Lord and the journey that He has you on.
Last week, we wrapped up the second chapter of James. That section, if you’ll remember with me, talked about Faith and Works. James, writing to the early church, had given the church a challenge of our faith being more than just belief, but a life of living in response to that belief. He talked about Abrahams faith being active together with his works, and the justifying of Rahab’s by faith as well as works.
Today, we will see how he is continuing along the idea of interweaving our faith and our works. Showing us that the true change that God does inside of us, is made complete by how we respond to our faith here in the physical world.
What’s interesting, is that James doesn’t follow up his case for the importance of works by giving us a detailed list of things to do.
His focus is on wisdom and understanding of what will lead to spiritual maturity. Living a life that pulls us deeper into looking more like Jesus, and in doing so, bringing us closer to Jesus.
Therefore, that’s where he continues his instruction, by building up our understanding and wisdom.
The wisdom what we are going to see is the revealing a dangerous piece of who we are and the potential for sin and hurt that it wields.
Not because the Bible looks to shame us, for as we will see from the get go scripture telling us that “we all stumble in many ways”.
Rather, he reveals to us a restless evil, that if tamed, is the key to controlled living. Controlled living of who we are in Christ and how we are called to be so that our works and our faith might be able to further thrust our life closer to our Father. A control that helps us to be used for Gods works not ours. Work to grow His church, care for the needy, love our neighbor, bring kindness, joy. Work that will point to Jesus, and not ourselves.
In order for us to have hope, joy and closeness with our God, and for His ways in and through our lives, scripture reveals in today's passage that we must know the danger and sin that lives inside of us and the ways in which we can easily bring hurt, pain and destruction if not careful.
Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body. Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.
**Prayer**
Today’s passage has a clear message for us. The tongue, is dangerous.
“The tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things”
“The tongue is a fire.”
“The tongue, a world of unrighteousness”
“It stains the whole body”
“No one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
With the tongue we bless the Lord and curse those made in His image.
It’s easy to see pretty quickly that James’ follow up to faith plus works doesn’t start with a list of go get ‘em’s and to goods to follow. Rather, he starts with wisdom. He gives us understanding.
James follows up the importance of faith plus works by revealing to us the part of our body that can most easily disrupt and stain the works we strive to do out of faith.
He knows that as much as we might cry out, “God, teach me to do your will”, then what we need to know is what part of us is most likely to derail us from doing that.
To quote Alec Motyer, “The tongue is the key-factor in controlled living. We ask ourselves how we are to control the powerful forces within us that drive us into sin, and James replies...—do we control our tongues?... The tongue is the key-factor in consistent living.”
We saw that in the first chapter when James said
If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself.
Now, if you haven’t figured out yet, the writer James is talking about more than just the physical tongue. More than just our mouths. Rather, he is talking about word. Speech. What we say. The things that come out of our mouth.
See, when this letter was written, the majority of those that were receiving it weren’t reading it, rather, it was likely being read to them. That’s because many of them couldn’t read. That’s why the passage starts out pointing out the seriousness of the teachers. Not only were they the ones that were leading the congregation and moving them with their words, they were also one of the only means by which many people would ever engage with the written Word of God, when it was spoken to them.
I think in this day and age, we can take that even further.
Because today’s context is a little different. Not only can most, if not all of us read, but we can write, text, email, comment, tiktok, memo, facetime, whatever. You want to say something, chose your vehicle of choice.
So when we go through this passage, when we talk about taming the tongue. The potential for evil that our words have. It’s not just what is spoken our mouths.
So all ya’ll typing away with those thumbs, having the robot voice read the words for you in a tiktok video, or commenting on facebook, when James talk about the tongue, we can apply it to all that other stuff too alright.
Maybe we should say “the tongues and thumbs on keyboards”
But big picture, as Christians, we all make a lot of mistakes. That is because sin remains, until Christ returns, our universal experience. And sin shows up in our lives a lot of different ways. Among those, sins of speech are prominent—the hasty word, the deceitful statement, passive remark, or sly suggestion, harmful gossip, innuendo, impurity, name calling. The list is long.
Some of you might already be thinking of something in your life that was said and was hurtful. Maybe something you’ve said to a friend or written to a colleague, or maybe it was said to you by a family member, or an email from your boss.
Maybe something was said about you, or about someone you love. Maybe you categorized someone, or humiliated them when they were wrong.
You might be hearing everything we are talking about here and this idea of controlling our words and thinking “this is an impossible task”.
There is an encouragement in the beginning of this passage that we need to remember.
For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body.
The Bible often times reveals these beautiful little reminders of the cross throughout it, and we will see more of them today. That we are sinners, broken, offensive to God. Not worthy of Him. That we have stumbled Yet Jesus came into this world, died for our sins, rose again and says that whoever believes in Him has eternal life and is washed clean and justified before the Lord. And when we are redeemed to Him, there is a path to a healthier more Christlike way of living. A controlled way of living.
So when we go through this section of scripture that is often called the “taming the tongue”, we cannot forget who we are in Christ. This instruction is not given because we need to be good enough to earn something. Not even that we need to be good enough to stay. But that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be stronger and better, and more like Jesus.
And that’s why the taming of the tongue is so important . Because as God has designed us, it is by works that our faith is everyday made complete here on earth. For in giving our lives to Christ, He says let’s be close. Not pen pals. Not even neighbors. No, Jesus calls you friend. Jesus calls you a child of God. He draws so near to us that He sends His own Spirit to dwell in us eternally, to guide and comfort us in this life. And He says life in a way that reveals this truth about you.
And it is by doing His works and growing in spiritual maturity we can break further from our old self, and closer into our new spiritually mature self who is in relationship with our Lord and Savior. And control of the tongue plays a huge role in this.
As Alec Motyer puts it.
“The control of the tongue is more than an evidence of spiritual maturity; it is the means to it.” - Alec Motyer
So with Spiritual maturity in mind, and equipped with the grace of God, let us see what this passage teaches.
We will start the first detail of the tongue that is addressed, which is this idea of it’s power in steering our lives. Being able to influence our whole being despite it’s size compared to the rest of our body.
James 3:3–5 (CSB)
Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things.
This first section reveals to us the impact that our words have on our direction in life. Greater than any other part of our body, our words will define who we are in life, how others see us, and the path we will take.
That’s because things that you say have a great influence on the direction of your life.
This is important, because I think it can be easy some times to down play the impact that words can have on who we are.
We’d like to think we can get away with saying things we probably shouldn’t. That they won’t have much influence in who we are and where we are going.
Maybe it’s a careless word for a laugh, that we might respond to with “it’s just a joke”. Or an impulsive response that you didn’t really consider whether it was wise to say. Maybe there is a conviction in our hearts and we feel angry or justified, because “people need to know the truth”. Or maybe we are just speaking with the intent to be kind, but not actually considering how it might come off to the other person.
I know in my own experience, there have been a lot of times where I think what I have to say is the exception.
“I know we’re not supposed to normally talk like this, make that kind of comment, be angry about these things, but my circumstance is unique.”
Or embarrassingly, of greater quantity in my past, I just don’t want to be accountable to the things I say.
“Can’t I just go with the flow, say what I’m thinking. If I say something stupid, like, just get over it. I didn’t mean to be hurtful.”
Whether it was complaining, gossip, anger, making fun of people, inappropriate jokes. It won’t really have an impact on my life, right?
It’s like, my words are Vin Diesels character Dominic Toretto from the Fast and Furious franchise. Anyone ever seen the Fast and Furious franchise? There’s been like 10 released in the last 20 years. If you have watched any new movie in the last 20 years, there’s like a 1 in 5 chance it was a fast and furious movie.
***story about fast and furious and how you are somehow always the exception to the rule to be reckless, or aggressive, and not only will you always come out alive, but justified as well.***
But scripture doesn’t encourage that risky way of being. It doesn’t say walk the line of your words, you’ll probably come out okay on the other side. No.
Jesus doesn’t call us to the edge of right and wrong.
But my brain does.
“Brian, even though you might say the wrong thing, these people need to know the truth.”
“Brian, your anger is justified, it needs to come out.”
“Brian, don’t worry so much about what you say. Just be yourself.”
“Brian, that’s okay to say. You need to vent.”
“Brian, did you hear what they just said? Aren’t you going to put them in their place?”
The sin in my heart would like for me to think that there is no decision being made here. That I am acting as I should. It’s not my fault this is how I should respond.
Jesus says something very different about careless, angry, and hurtful words.
Check out what He says to the Pharisees in the book of Matthew.
“Either make the tree good and its fruit will be good, or make the tree bad and its fruit will be bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. A good person produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil person produces evil things from his storeroom of evil. I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Every careless word they speak.
What Jesus is responding to here is an accusation from the Pharisees that he is from the devil. A few verses before they tell Jesus they believe he healing people using the powers evil. They call him the “ruler of demons”.
And although, we aren’t the Pharisees looking Jesus in the face making this accusation, that’s no reason for us to not see here the seriousness with which Jesus takes careless words. Jesus makes clear there is a connection that careless, maybe even calculated, but careless words have with our heart. There is a connection between the words we say and the state of our heart.
And coming back to today’s passage and seeing this thread continued. James isn’t only warning us about the power of our words, and the need to control it.
He, like Jesus, is teaching us that there is a direct connection of what we say to what’s inside of us.
And he is also telling us that there is physical way in which we can influence the course of what is in our hearts, we can influence our hearts by controlling the way that we speak.
Paul digs more specifically into what this looks like in his letter to the Ephesians.
Ephesians 4:26-27,29-32 5.1-2
Be angry and do not sin., Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity... No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
**Walk a bit through the passage**
And what follows this statement from Paul?
His next sentence starts with the word; Therefore. Therefore, meaning, because of that.
Because of bringing kind and compassionate to one another. Because of forgiving. Because of speaking words that are good and kind. Because of striving to not grieve the Spirit, but rather reflect the forgiveness from God we have in Christ.
Because of your controlling of the tongue and speaking as one forgiven who gives forgiveness love and grace to others.
Because of these things.
therefore
Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.
What we see here, that James is bringing together.
He is saying because of talking like that, we will be imitators. When we control our tongues, we will become better imitators of God.
When we control our tongues, we are more and more becoming imitators of God, walking in love, just as Christ has loved us.
Let’s continue forward in James 3 and see another important danger of the tongue. Another reason that we must strive daily to control our words and direct our lives to love.
James 3:5–6 (CSB)
Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
Thinking back to the Fast and Furious movies. One of the things that we probably don’t think about when we watch those fast paced, high action, adrenaline pumping action movies, o, is that even when the good guy gets out alive, catches the bad guy and all seems right with the world… we often forget the carnage that was left behind in the wake of all the action.
Now yes, it is a movie. That’s not the plot. But in real life, it doesn’t work like that. In real life, when we speak careless words, lie and deceive others, gossip, mock people, inconsiderate, or are just simply rude or angry. When we come to the end of our movie moment of recklessness, whether we recognize that we messed up or not, there is very likely hurt and pain left behind.
Our passage says “Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. And the tongue is a fire.”
When that fire finally goes out, what is left?
When a fire rips through a forest, igniting the trees and brush and finally goes out, what is left.
The book of Proverbs has no shortage of warning as to how words can be a poison to others.
English Standard Version Chapter 16
A dishonest man spreads strife,
and a whisperer separates close friends.
He always plots evil with perversity in his heart;
he stirs up trouble.
An angry person stirs up conflict,
and a hot-tempered one increases rebellion.
A worthless person digs up evil,
and his speech is like a scorching fire.
As charcoal for embers and wood for fire,
so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.
Our words can be a fire of destruction in our communities if we do not watch what we say. Whether our family, our friends, workplaces, church, towns. How we speak matters.
If I can take this a step further, how we disagree matters.
I will point out that no where in these verses does it say that we all need to agree on everything. These passages aren’t saying “don’t gossip, and agree about everything!”
Church. As long as we are on this side of heaven, we are going to disagree on some things. We are going to hurt by one another. We are going to do stupid things and make mistakes. Even as brothers and sisters in Christ, we might not have the same opinion about everything.
But please, I beg you, friends. Do not let your differences and your hurts turn into words that spark the fire that burns down unification in Christ.
Whether it’s a difference of opinion or response to foolishness, neither is a good reason to set fire to our relationships by our words through gossip, pride, anger, or slander.
I pray that we set aside our pride and look at these passages and see the damage we can do if we do not control our tongues.
How can we prevent this?
Without wood, fire goes out;
without a gossip, conflict dies down.
Without careless words, the fire goes out.
Before we move on to the next section in today’s passage, I want to take a little side quest. Talking about something I haven’t ever talked about in a sermon before, but in going through this passage, I think it’s important that I do. And if Tyler is watching online, hopefully I don’t make him too nervous.
But, for just a moment, I’m going to talk about politics.
Now don’t leave. Please. Just, bear with me. Some of you might have just shuddered a little, I get it, and I ask that you track with me, whether your big on politics or not, I think this will apply.
Think about those verses from Proverbs we just read. Think about James’ warning about peoples words being like a wildfire.
Many of us have politicians or political cultural figures we relate to and agree.
But consider this.
Just because you agree with a political figures policy’s, opinions, campaign strategy, doesn’t mean that you should necessarily imitate the way that they talk about it.
Cause let’s get real, sometimes politicians words whether local or national, can be, to put it bluntly, mean. Angry. Hurtful. Divisive. Mocking. Foolish. Inconsiderate. Regardless of whether they’re right or wrong, it can be these things.
When you hear someone you relate to or support talking about political issues, or policies or whatever. Just because you agree with them, doesn’t mean that you have to also agree with the way they are communicating those opinions, let alone imitate that way of talking about it.
I say this because, well, politicians are not always known for speaking in a way that is kind, gentle and building others up. And I know for myself, in my life, when I have agreed with someone on an issue, I sometimes have also adopted their way of talking about that issue, even if it was contrary to how scripture instructed me to communicate.
But as believers in Christ, we are called to speak in a way that is gentle, ways that are kind, forgiving, loving, and building others up.
So my challenge for myself, and for all of us is this.
How can we as Christians, talk about the issues that are important to us in a way that honors God and honors others?
These things aren’t all easy. James’ commission for us to control our words isn’t communicated lightly, because he knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Jumping back into the passage, we see that he highlights how real this struggle is.
Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.
Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.
James finishes this section of the letter by talking about the dysfunction between the source of our words, and what comes out.
He holds up these opposing expressions of our hearts.
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3
With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness.
Although he plays with this idea of how a spring can’t be sweet and bitter, a seemingly impossible idea, we, like the original readers of this letter, are the very ones wrestling with this whole idea that our own mouths produce both blessings and cursing.
One minute we are worshipping our Lord, another, speaking ill of someone created in our Lords image.
***Story of bad self talk.***
Then someone told me “what you say is a reflection of your heart"
That hit. That was hard to hear. I wanted to argue it away. But I knew I couldn’t.
It didn’t take long though for my heart to change. For these words I had been speaking to myself to seem less true. And don’t get me wrong, the rotten parts of my heart still want to seep out in the toughest of moments. But I was experiencing change. I was praying differently. Thinking about myself differently. Talking about myself differently.
What was crazy, is that the change of my heart didn’t start with some sorting out of the things inside me. I didn’t sit down and sort it all out
Rather, the change started when I changed how I talked. When I started saying no to what wanted to bubble out. When I said this isn’t true. And that’s when I started to hear more of what I was reading in scripture. My response instead started to be, how does God see me? Who am I to judge God’s creation? He says I am made in His image?
I think that’s what James is revealing here. That, yes, the spring water and the bitter water don’t mix. We look at this brown water that is contaminating the freshness of the spring water, and we say, no more. God, make it stop. But we don’t stop it by reaching in and cleansing that water.
What I think we are actually seeing, is not dirty water contaminating clean. But what we are really seeing is the state of our hearts. That there is ugliness inside of us that comes out and stains the work of Jesus in our lives. This is not revealed to shame us, but drive us directly into the arms of our Savior as we grow in understanding of our need for Jesus.
An understanding of our need for Jesus that leads us to run to Him. A longing for Him that says, “God, I don’t want to speak carelessly anymore. God, I can’t do this without you. God, I need you.”
James is revealing our sin, and saying let it drive you to Jesus. And let it remind you of the truth that is God’s truth.
But I couldn’t hear that as long as I kept declaring my sinful thoughts. Standing there, staring at myself in the mirror, tearing myself down, reaching as deep into my pockets of terrible names and thoughts and saying them to myself.
What I needed to hear instead was not what I had to say, but what God had to say.
And when I started changing how I talked, I heard that.
I heard that Jesus came into this world, and God proved His own love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
What I needed to hear was that He is making things new. He has made me new! He says believe in me, I will save you, and I will make you clean. And friends, He says that very same thing to you. Believe in me, and I will save you, and make you clean.
Therefore,
He commands us to speak in a way that acknowledges HIS truth, not ours.
His truth that says man is made in the image of God. His truth that says love is greater than all things. His truth that says no one is too far from Him and His saving hand. His truth that He is working all things for His good and His Son, Jesus, will someday return and make all things new. That He will reign forever.
He desires for us to share and experience this truth.
And in ridding ourselves of sinful speech, He desires to grow us into the salvation that we have received from him.
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation,
Friends, as believers in Jesus Christ, we are saved, and He calls us to controlling our speech that we might grow further into our salvation.
You are saved by grace and God wants you to experience that.
Because you see, that’s part of how this faith and works this comes together.
When we control our tongues, we will see our hearts changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and will experience more of our Savior as we grow in His likeness.