Faith In Motion- James 3

Joshua D. Lee

Faith In Motion • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

James 3

Wisdom

Tongue

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Transcript

The Read

James Chapter 3 offers a couple of different themes when it comes to walk as Christ followers but it starts with a bit of a warning that introduces one of the topics.

(ESV) Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Taming the Tongue

James gives a little bit of a warning here because of what most scholars assume is a problem of everyone wanting to be influencers in this church.

3 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

He kind of repeats what his brother Jesus said in Mark chapter 12. He said that the scribes

So three questions that I think we need to ask ourselves about this specific verse.

First, How does this serve as an introduction to what’s coming next?

Well, James chapter 3 deals alot with the power of our words. The things we say are more powerful that we may want to believe.

So James is starting off here saying, “Teachers have a platform because people listen to them.”

It’s an introduction because when we talk about the power of our words, we need to think about the power of those who we listen to and we need to think about our own power as people listen to us.

The second question we need to ask ourselves is, why are teachers judged more strictly.

Here’s the answer. If the things we say have power, then we are responsible for those people that listen to our teaching.

I’m gonna let you guys in on a little glimpse of my week.

There’s a joke that pastors only work 2 days a week because that’s when the people see them teaching.

When I first got into this my cousin, who was well meaning, asked me, “So what do you do the rest of the week?”

And honestly I’m not gonna take offense to it! I take it as an opportunity to show someone what it looks like to craft a sermon.

You guys see me up here preaching for about 30 minutes a week but you don’t know what kind of prep work goes into it. Now this series is really surface level scripture study so I’m not putting as much time in it as I normally do but normally when I preach a 30 minute sermon I’ve spent at least 15 to 20 hours in the office studying and preparing what I’m going to say.

So why do I spend so much time in preparation for such a short time to be speaking? Because I know that when I say something, people are listening and applying it to their lives. And more importantly it is effecting their eternity.

And so one of the reasons that James said there’s a stricter judgement is because teachers with a platform have a big impact. Will that be a positive impact or a negative impact.

Another reason there is a stricter judgement, I think, is because when you gain people’s trust and they listen to you intently, they also watch you intently. As a teacher you have an opportunity, not only to impact people with your words, but also by example with your actions. And I don’t want to gain people’s trust with my words and then lead them astray by my actions.

Then the third question we need to ask is how does this impact us today?

Think of all the influencers. That’s a term that means something different today than it did 15 years ago. Think about all the people on instagram and youtube who are hoping to influence the world. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I follow several influencers in the fields of mountain biking and woodworking.

What are they influencing people to? There’s nothing wrong with having a skill that you teach people about. That’s great! God gave you that skill so you should teach others! But in doing so are you leading people farther from Christ.

This is tricky because it can come across as if you teach about anything other than your field of expertise, you are bad. That’s not what I’m trying to say. I’m not even saying you have to share the gospel in your make up tutorial.

When I go to youtube to look up proper techniques for jumping a mountain bike I’m not looking for a lesson on scripture with it. So I think its ok to teach people about a skill.

But if someone use their platform of teaching to lead people away from Christ, that’s where there is a problem because we’ve all seen people who do that and they will be judged more strictly because they did use that platform for bad.

Now going back also, I think if you do have a platform, you absolutely need to figure out a way to use it share the gospel and share about Jesus.

So how does this impact us? Well I hope that it causes us to think more carefully about the way we teach others, and I hope it causes us to choose more carefully who we allow to teach us because it is obvious that the Lord wants us to only follow the teaching of certain people.

Do you want to be a teacher? That’s great! James isn’t trying to discourage people who are truly called to teach the Bible from doing it. He’s just offering a friendly reminder that your work is important.

So now we can move into the meat of . And as I already said alot of it has to do with our words.

(ESV)

2 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. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 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. 5 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!

Taming the Tongue

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!

3 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

James uses a three different illustrations here that perfectly show what the something so small is capable of doing.

First he compares it to the bridle that we put in a horses mouth. Some of you know a whole lot more about horses than I do.

I had a horse when I was a kid. His name was pogo. He was a loyal and noble steed.

A bridle just a little bar that you stick in a horses mouth and its got a leather strap on either side and you use it to steer kind like your on a zero turn mower.

You use this little metal bar that’s about 6 inches long and it helps you to control a 1500 pound animal.

The second thing he compares it to is the rudder of a ship. It is again this small flat piece at the back of a boat that helps to determine the direction of the boat and everything in it.

And then the third thing he compares it to is a small spark that ignites a forest fire. When I lived out in Woodward we had this family in our church that were farmers. Neal was welding on a cattle pen one day and some sparks flew and caught some grass on fire. That fire that started with a welding spark burned around 50,000 acres. It went for miles and miles and miles before they got it contained and put out.

Your tongue may be one of the smallest parts of your body but the words that roll off of it have an insane amount of power.

(ESV)

6 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. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

It can be very difficult to control our mouths. Have you ever said something and immediately regretted saying it.

I know my wife really well. We’ve learned how to communicate really well. We’ve learned how to resolve conflict really well. But that has take work. And before we got to this point I remember in time that we may have an argument, where’d I’d say something and as soon as it left my mouth I’m like reaching for it because I knew it was a dumb thing to say.

I’m going to admit something to

We say things sometimes that we don’t even mean and its because we have trouble controlling out tongue.

James said we’ve learned how to tame wild animals but we can’t really get a hold on our tongues.

So what can we do about it? We can pray, pray, pray. We can study scripture. We can watch what goes in because ultimately what goes in and what’s going to come out.

I think James wrote this not so much as an instruction of what to do about it, but just as a warning that we need to be intentional about it because if we don’t watch what we say we will eventually put our foot in mouth because the tongue, even though it is so small, is very hard to tame.

(ESV)

9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

James wraps up this thought here and says our tongues are hypocritical. When dealing with these people he points out that they are praising the Lord in one breath and cursing men in the other and he’s very clear that this shouldn’t happen.

He uses the image of a water spring saying you can’t have fresh water and salt water come from the same place. You can’t have a fig tree that produces figs and olives.

If your life is dedicated to the Lord, it should only produce blessings.

But here’s what we do. We sing praises on Sunday morning! “How Great Is Our God!” And then on Monday morning we stand around with our friends and talk bad about people.” “Oh my gosh. Did you hear about what Becky did this weekend?” “Did you see the shirt that Ricky is wearing today?” “Can you believe that rumor that’s going around about the Miller family?”

And listen. James is clear. These two things don’t go together. The tongue if left uncontrolled is very hypocritical.

So what can we do about it. Well I think we need to keep the words of Paul written down somewhere so that we can remind ourselves of it often.

(ESV)

29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Let the words we say build each other up. Let the words we say point people to Christ. Let the words that say be a representative of the Savior who loves us!

But I want to take this a step father and address something that may seem a little more familiar to you.

The things you say on Snapchat and Twitter are just as powerful. And maybe even more because it can reach a much larger audience.

I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way, someone decided that our virtual world was separate from our real world. I’ve seen good people, say terrible things on social media and they just think its not a big deal. I’ve seen church people say very non churchy things on Facebook like they don’t think it is connected to them at all.

Reality Check: Your virtual world is as much a part of your life as anything else and it is a representative of who you are and who you serve. The things you say on social media have ramifications so just like I’m telling you all of these things about you spoken words, take the same advice on your typed and written words.

James changes gears a bit and starts talking about the differences between wisdom and foolishness.

(ESV)

Wisdom from Above

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

According to James the wise person will display these traits. Meekness, purity, peace, gentleness, they are open to reason (meaning they can have civil discussion even if they decide the other side is right), they are merciful, the display good fruit, they are impartial, and they are sincere. And their wisdom leads to righteousness.

The foolish person on the other hand will display these traits. They are bitter, jealous, selfish, earthly, unspiritual, and even demonic. Their folly leads to disorder and vile practice.

When you compare these two there’s one list of traits that sounds far superior and sounds like the life I want to live.

One of these outcomes sound far superior and sound like the outcome I want. Who wants to have a life of disorder when they could have a life of righteousness.

So how to we get wisdom? It comes from above. Don’t forget in that he said if you lack wisdom you should ask for it.

(ESV)

Wisdom from Above

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

A life of wisdom and righteousness, and a life that walks away from disorder begins by following the Lord.

The Ready

So here’s your challenge for the week. Start thinking about the people you follow. Be careful about the things you teach the people who are following you. Be mindful of the power of your words. Think biblically about the things you say and type. Ask the Lord for wisdom and live your life righteously.

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