Sermon Tone Analysis

! Tame the Tongue (James 3:1-18)

There is nothing more slippery or loose than the tongue.

John Calvin

On a windswept hill in an old English churchyard stands a slate tombstone.

The elements almost have erased the inscription, but one barely can make out the epitaph:

{{{"

Beneath This Stone, a Lump of Clay,

Lies Arabella Young,

Who, on the Twenty-fourth of May,

Began to Hold Her Tongue.

}}}

During that period, many tombstones bore statements of truth.

What epitaph truthfully would state the case of our speech?

Obviously, Arabella had difficulty taming her tongue.

James gave more attention to the dangers of the tongue than any other New Testament writer.

He mentioned some aspect of speech in each chapter of his letter.

James 2:14-26 pronounces judgment on separating faith and works.

In no area is this more likely than in human speech.

While Christians profess one thing with their speech, often they practice something quite different.

Nothing is opened more by mistake than the mouth.

James's cautions about the tongue comprise one of the most vivid passages in the New Testament.

He began with a warning about the tongue and the teacher (3:1-2).

He continued with memorable illustrations of the tongue's disproportionate influence (3:3-5).

Selecting from the various levels of creation, he compared the tongue to fire, stains, beasts, and poison (3:6-8).

He marveled at the tongue's contradictory behavior, unlike anything else in nature (3:9-12).

Finally, he contrasted speech that was controlled by worldly wisdom to speech controlled by heavenly wisdom (3:13-18).

James warned: Don't let your tongue be your undoing.

!! The Tongue and the Teacher (3:1-2)

Jewish culture prized the office of teacher beyond our ability to convey.

The word *rabbi* meant my great one.

To fear the rabbi-teacher was equated with fear of God.

The student who argued with his rabbi argued with the Shekinah, God's presence.

"To speak with the teacher, to invite him to be the guest, to marry his daughter, Israel was taught to consider the highest honour.

The young men were expected to count it their glory to carry the Rabbi's burdens, to bring his water, to load his ass.'"

Many Israelites of means wanted to be rabbis.

To be a teacher meant position, power, and prestige.

One easily can see that mixed motives propelled men to seek the office of teacher.

For that reason James warned: "My brothers, do not crowd in to be teachers" (3:1, Moffatt).

He prohibited the continuation of a danger that he had detected in the early church.

The Jewish rabbi's prestige carried over to the Christian teacher.

One must keep in mind the informal structure of the earliest churches.

Paul indicated that the services were spontaneous affairs where anyone in the fellowship could stand and speak.

At Corinth, virtually everyone had something to teach (1 Cor.

14:26).

In such a situation, the seductive prestige of the teacher's office tempted many.

James stated that not many of his readers should become teachers.

James gave an excellent reason for his warning: "You know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness" (3:1).

James included himself in his warning.

He, too, was a teacher.

The final judgment will be more exacting for those who teach Christian truths.

John Calvin ascended a high pulpit in his Geneva church.

He once stated that it would be better for him to fall and break his neck while climbing to the pulpit than to preach the truth without first applying it to his own life.

Everyone acknowledges the contradiction of preachers who do not practice what they preach.

A doctor who neglects his health, an accountant who cannot balance his checkbook, or an attorney who is in trouble with the law contradict the things for which they stand.

Likewise, Christian teachers who do not control their tongues contradict their teaching.

James did not imply that the tongue held the only possibility for sin.

"We all stumble in many ways" (3:2, NASB).

All people trip up spiritually many times and in various ways.

James included himself as he stated sin's universal and repetitive character.

I have seen a great deal of embarrassing stumbling.

I have witnessed brides stumble at the wedding altar, student preachers stumble walking into the pulpit, and a funeral attendant stumble into a grave.

I have watched wide receivers of my /alma mater/ stumble on the twenty-yard line with no one between them and the goal line.

The human race is a stumbling race—spiritually and physically.

Yet, humans are nowhere more apt to stumble than in their speech.

When persons can control the tongue, they can do anything that the Christian faith demands.

"If any one makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also" (3:2).

If Christians tame their tongues, they can control any passion of their bodies.

The word perfect implies a full-grown person as compared with a child.

Such a Christian will not be sinless, but he~/she will have reached ripe, spiritual maturity in controlled speech.

James alone used the word /bridle/ in the New Testament (3:2; also 1:26).

The word suggests the tongue's energetic willfulness.

To tame the tongue requires the same strength of determination as breaking a wild horse.

Wise individuals often desire to do the most difficult task first, leaving the easier task for later.

In Christian living, one is wiser to start with the tongue.

Victory there would indicate mature self-control and self-discipline.

!! Small but Strong (3:3-5)

The tongue is a small piece of muscle covered with mucous membrane.

Do not let its size mislead you.

According to James, it is tiny but terrible.

He gave three vivid illustrations of things that are small but strong: (1) The small bit controls the great power of the horse; (2) the small rudder controls the significant direction of the ship; and (3) the small brushfire can destroy the great forest.

"If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies" (3:3).

By controlling the mouth, the rider controls not only the horse's head but the whole horse.

This illustration particularly suited James's direction of thought.

If people can control their tongues, they can control their whole bodies (3:2).

If one can control the bit in a horse's mouth, he~/she can control the entire horse.

The power of a bit in the horse's mouth is, enormous.

One of the largest horses ever recorded was a purebred Belgian stallion named Brooklyn Supreme.

The horse weighed 3200 pounds and stood 19.2 hands tall.

He died at age twenty on a farm in Callender, Iowa, more than thirty years ago.

Yet this horse was useless without a two-pound metal bit.

With such a bit, the versatility of these animals matches their enormous strength.

In the same way, the control of the tongue commands the whole person.

Ships that are driven by rough winds and strong gales yield to the direction of the relatively small rudder.

In verse 4, the emphasis rests on a small thing that decides great direction.

James could not have imagined the size of modern ocean liners.

Yet, even they are directed by comparatively small rudders.

In the same way, the small muscle in the human mouth can change the direction of human history.

Adolf Hitler recorded his Nazi philosophy in the book /Mein Kampf/.

Someone has noted that for every word in that book, more than a hundred lives were lost in World War II.

Words do change the direction of history.

"How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!" (3:5).

James described the tongue's destructive capacity.

In James's day, a tiny spark could set the desert scrub brush afire.