Taming the Tongue
Notes
Transcript
Greeting
Greeting
Thank you for letting me preach this morning.
Pray
We are going to be in James 3:1-12.
We all like to talk. Some more than others. I was doing some research and found a study that showed men speak about 10,000 words a day. It showed that women speak about 20,000 words a day with gusts up to 50,000. Needless to say we like to talk. But, we don’t always speak life when we talk. Today we are going to look at what James has to say about the tongue(talking) and taming it. John MacArthur makes a good observation about the book of James. There is always tension between the way things are and the way things should be.
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
In verse 1 James is telling us that if we are a teacher or preacher that we will have a higher standard of judgment on us. He is talking to anyone who stands up and teaches about God’s Word. Sunday school teachers, Children’s teachers, youth teachers, pastors and preachers are all included in this higher judgement. The standard is higher because of who we are teaching about and the stakes that are at risk. We don’t have the luxury of being wrong or teaching a different message than that of the Bible. We can’t teach what we want to, or what the people want to hear. We must preach Christ and Christ crucified. If we teach a different message then people could be lead astray and think that they are hearing God’s Word, when they are really hearing man’s word. Man’s words can not change a person’s heart. Man’s words will only make their heart harder. Only the Word of God can change man’s heart to soften it and allow it to be drawn to Him. We must preach and teach His message. God’s truth must be taught no matter what His message is. The hard painful truth along with the joyful loving truth must be taught. When a person teaches they are teaching for the approval of one. We do not teach or preach to please the hearers, but rather for the approval of God. If the preacher/teacher is trying to please the hearers then the message will not be fruitful. The only fruitful message is the message from God, His words change lives. This is a big problem in the Western Church today! Too many teachers and preachers want to make people happy and not offend them. In 2 Timothy 4:3
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
Today, people do not want to hear the truth. They want to be told how good they are, or that they don’t need to change their ways to get to heaven. They have put teachers and preachers in place to tell them what they want to hear, instead of what God wants them to hear. They want their ears tickled. They want what sounds good to them. For this reason there is a higher standard for those who teach and preach. It is easy to say what we want and avoid the hard truths of God’s Word. Woe to the one who leads the people astray.
In verse 2 James tells us that we all stumble(sin) in many ways. We all sin and fall short of God’s standard. Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;”. Since sin is a matter of the heart, and our speech reveals what is in our hearts, we all are prone to the dangers of the tongue. James tells us that if we do not stumble in our speech, we are a perfect man. The Greek word that James uses for perfect has two possible meanings. One is the idea of perfection, being without flaw. If he is using this meaning, then he is obviously speaking hypothetically. None but Jesus would or did qualify for that perfect speech. The other meaning is to mean complete or mature. If this is the meaning he is using, then he is talking about a mature Christian. One with a purified and mature heart, which is the source of their righteous speech. The commentaries that I read lean toward the second meaning. Because no one can have perfect speech until they have been fully sanctified, I believe that James is talking about the mature believer. The teaching is that only spiritually mature believers can control their tongues and speech. Then James makes the claim that a believer that can bridle his tongue is able to bridle the whole body. Since our actions often follow our words, then if we are able to control our words then our bodies will follow along with them. So many times we speak without taking the time to think about the ramifications of our words. When we take the time to think first, we usually won’t say the wrong thing. When we have disciplined our tongues to wait till we think first, that discipline will transfer over to our actions as well. If we are honest with ourselves we can admit that our actions often align and follow our words. I work in the construction industry and when I don’t take the time to think first before I speak, I often find myself having to apologize for what I said. It is a struggle to have a bridled tongue when everyone you are around all day during the week don’t. Let us start being intentional about our words and take the time to pause and think before we speak.
There is a story of a young man who started working in the produce section of the local grocery store. One day at the end of the day right before closing, a little old lady came up to him and said she wanted to buy half a head of lettuce. He said that he didn’t think that they sell half a head of lettuce. He went a couple of isles over and found the manager. He said that this crazy old lady wanted to buy half a head of lettuce. After saying this he notice that they lady had followed him to the manager. Without missing a beat, he said luckily this lovely lady is willing to buy the other half. After the lady left, the manager said that he saw what had happened and was impressed. The manager asked the young man where he was from. The young man said I am from Lancaster, PA. The manager said oh I have heard of that place. The young man said that they were famous for 2 things in Lancaster, PA. 1 we are famous for our hockey teams. We have the meanest, fastest, roughest, toughest hockey teams. The manager said wow that is awesome. What is the other thing? Well, we don’t like to talk about it, but we have the ugliest women in Lancaster, PA. I don’t know if it is the cold or what it is, but the ugliest women on earth are from Lancaster, PA. The store manager said, my wife is from Lancaster, PA. Without hesitation, the young man said, oh really, what team does she play for.
Think before you speak.
in verse 3 and 4 James shows us that a very small item can control a very large one. We see that a small piece of metal placed in the mouth of a horse, and you can control where that horse will go. With the bit in the horses mouth, a child can make the horse go where they want. A 1200 pound animal is controlled by a 100 pound person. Also we can see that a massive ship is directed by a small rudder. Now the ships in James’ time were big, they were nowhere as big as the ships we have today. The largest ships in the world are still directed by a small rudder. The largest ship in the world, fully loaded weighs about 600,000 tons. Yet it is directed by a rudder that weighs a couple hundred pounds. The bit and the rudder control the horse and the ship, but they are controlled by the person holding the reigns and the steering wheel. There is a person guiding and directing the path. The same is true with us. Who is controlling your tongue? Is it you, a sinful person, or is it the Holy Spirit, tugging on the reigns or gently turning the wheel to guide you? It won’t take a long time of reflection to see who is in control.
In verse 5 we see James is comparing the tongue to those small things that steer and guide the bigger things. Our tongues have the power to control the rest of our bodies. The tongue is the master switch to the whole body. It directs virtually every aspect of behavior. If we can’t control our tongue, then it is impossible for us to control the rest of our body. The tongue is a small member of our bodies, yet it is one of the most power parts of it. With the tongue we can build people up, or tear them down. The tongue likes to boast and say self centered things. Whenever the tongue boasts, it leaves a path of destruction behind. It is a path that is littered with causalities. When the tongue boasts, it can split churches, families, marriages. It can even lead to murder and to war. The small tongue is one of the most powerful things in the world. We must resist the temptation to let our tongues boast. We must give the reigns of our tongue over to the Holy Spirit and let Him guide us. Our words must build people up. They must be gracious, kind and comforting. Our words need to edify, bless and encourage others. These words can only come when the Holy Spirit is in control. Now James turns his focus on how the tongue has such a potential to destroy. He compares the tongue to a spark in a large dry forest. How easy it is for the tongue to cause great damage. James is calling attention to the hateful, false and simply careless words that the tongue loves to use. James carries this analogy over to verse 6. He calls the tongue a fire. Fire is unique, in its ability to grow and reproduce itself as long as there is enough fuel and oxygen. If it has these two things it will burn indefinitely. Fire feeds on itself, in the blink of an eye, it can be out of control and raging. On October 8, 1871, at about eight thirty in the evening, a lantern in Mrs. O’Leary’s barn, presumably kicked over by her cow, ignited the great Chicago fire. Before it could be contained, 17,500 buildings were destroyed, 300 people died, and 125,000 others were left homeless. In 1903, a pan of rice boiled over onto a fire, spreading coals across the room and starting a blaze that eventually consumed a square mile of a Korean city, burning some 3,000 buildings to the ground. Our tongue can do far more damage than that. The tongue is the source of unrighteousness, and ungodly behavior in sinful man. One commentator describes it as the microcosm of evil among our members. No other body part has such far reaching potential for destruction as the tongue. The tongue is what defiles our bodies. The evil spreads from the tongue to every part of our body. Mark 7:20–23 “And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”” . We see next that the tongue not only sets us on fire but everything around us also. It sets our entire course of life on fire. How we talk lets others know who we really are. This goes for the good and the bad. James emphasis is on the bad speech. Our tongues have so much power that we must be mindful of it. The tongue has the power to destroy. Many churches have felt the pain of the tongue of one or two members. It affected the whole church body. The tongue is so powerful that God put it in a cage of teeth, that is enclosed by the mouth. Finally at the end of this verse, James tells us where the fire comes from, HELL. The word that James uses here for Hell is the word gehenna. It is not found any where in the NT other than the synoptic gospels where it was only used by Jesus. The word referred to a location SW of Jerusalem, where trash, garbage, and the bodies of dead animals and executed criminals were dumped and continually burned. It was a fire that never went out. This is the same idea with our tongues, it is a fire that we can not contain on our own. The tongue can be Satan’s tool, fulfilling hell’s purposes to pollute, corrupt, and destroy. It is unimaginably destructive and deadly. Even mature believers know that their tongues have great power to destroy and is in need of constant guarding and control.
In verses 7 and 8 we see that man has been able to tame all kinds of wild animals. We have tamed the lion, the king of the animals. We have even tamed the killer whale. Yet we have not been able to tame our own tongue. No one outside the help of the Holy Spirit has been able to tame their tongue. Even in believers, it is so easy for the tongue to get out of control. We tend to take the reigns back from the Holy Spirit and start spewing fire out of our mouths. Even the most mature believer will lose control of the tongue every once in a while. Adam’s first sin after eating the forbidden fruit was to slander, but not only slander but to slander God. He said that it was the women that He gave him. Our tongues left unchecked will lead to death because it is full of poison. Our tongues are restless and want to run unchecked and out of control. The tongue desires to set fires everywhere it can. We must not let our guard down. We must be vigilant in guarding our tongues.
In verses 9 and 10 we can see the final characterization of the tongue that James uses. The final one is that of deliberate breech of trust, or treachery. The unbridled tongue is frequently guilty of such evil. The tongue is hypocritical and eager to deceive. One side is sweet as honey and the other is like a poisonous viper. James tells us that we use the tongue for good and evil. We bless God and then curse man. This is the breech of trust that James is talking about. Even the most unredeemed person still has the likeness of God, and we use our tongue to curse them. It is the definition of hypocrisy, the way we use our tongues. We speak life and then turn around and unleash an unquenchable fire. We are all guilty of it.
In the final verses 11 and 12 James tells us that our speech will reveal what is in our hearts. We must strive to bridle our tongues and give control to the Holy Spirit. There is no place in a Christians life for unholy talk. When we were made a new creation at the moment of salvation, we were given the capacity for renewed, holy, redeemed speech. God expects us to only speak that which is holy and right. In James’ illustrations he asks questions in a way that we know the answer is no. It is obvious that for the believer, we should be producing the fruit of the Spirit that is in us. A hateful heart cannot produce life giving, loving words or works. An unrighteous heart cannot produce righteous words or works. The world will know us by our fruits, works and words. The life of the true believer is one of a constant battle between our flesh and the Spirit in us. We must be feeding the Spirit and not our flesh. Our flesh must become weak and the Spirit strong. If we don’t keep our mind on the things of God, then the flesh will take over. We will have moments of failure in this battle, but they must be just that, moments.
So what does this mean for us?
Who has control of the bit in your mouth?
Who is at the wheel steering your words?
We must be different than the world, in both deed and word. We must not be the hypocrite that the world is waiting for us to be, so that they can say, see they are not different than us.
I challenge you to begin to think before talking, and to be intentional about your words. Let the world know who is guiding you. Show them the fruit that is in you.