James 3

Introduction

I hope you guys are having a good morning. I was at drill last weekend so I wasn’t able to go over James 2 with you guys. James 2 is probably one of my favorite chapters in the new testament. And it isn’t my favorite because it gives me joy to read it or makes me feel good. The reason I like it so much is because of the reminder it gives that our faith and relationship with God is so much more than just belief in him. When we have a genuine relationship with God and have truly been transformed by the spirit our actions will be a natural byproduct of that. As we continue our series on James we will be digging into James 3 today. Now James 3 is going to be very similar to James 1 in the sense that James is going to be talking about taming the tongue and the power of speech. Like I had said in week 2 of this series, speech was clearly an issue among his readers because he talks about it so much. So as we dig into chapter 3 we will continue to see a theme of how our speech and control over it is an important aspect of our faith.

James 3: 1-12

Alright so lets dig into our Bibles here. If you guys want to open to James and follow along with me we are starting in chapter 3 verse 1. James 3:1-2

“Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.”

So James starts off by giving a warning to those who want to be teachers. Now one thing to keep in mind is what kind of teacher James is talking about. It wasn’t an equivalent to what we think of as teachers today. In those times, becoming a teacher was a huge responsibility and with that came great status. Considering his Jewish background and the Jewish reader, a teacher would have the same status of a Rabbi. And Rabbis were considered to be very important people they had great social influence and respect. So why does James take time to talk about this? In 3:13 we will see James talk about some arrogance among leaders within the church and so we can surmise here that this was becoming a problem for his audience. Perhaps too many people were seeking the status of teacher that may not have had the proper qualifications to do so. In fact in chapter 4 we will see James talk about conflict between the believers and that conflict could be rooted in people who were teaching who should not have been. Whether that is the case, speech amongst believers, not just the teachers, for sure played a big part in James 4. Either way, James here is giving a warning that everyone should be a teacher and in this context we can think of it as a preacher. He goes on to say that teachers will be judged more strictly than others based on what they say. Now James isn’t saying that those who teach will be judged more harshly than others, what he is saying is Teachers are more susceptible to judgment than others because they regularly engage in that activity which is hardest to keep from sin—one’s speech. Think about how much influence a pastor can potentially have and what he says can influence the choices that a person makes in their life. This is a huge responsibility and one that should not be taken lightly, which is why James is warning against this. Evil people often seek positions that will give them power and influence and unfortunately the teacher or pastor role will often get abused. James will circle back on this in verse 13 so for now lets move on.

James goes on to say that we all stumble and by saying ‘we’ here James is reaffirming that he falls into this teacher or pastor position. But then he goes on to say that the one who is never at fault in what they say is perfect and able to keep their whole body in check. So here we have James saying that there are plenty of ways to sin. We all stumble in many ways, speech is just one area in which we get ourselves into trouble. But what he is trying to emphasize is that our speech is the area in which we sin the easiest and possibly the most frequent. And that if we can control our speech and we have the ability to control our tongue then ‘taming’ the rest of the body will be easy. Obviously James knows that no one is perfect, and he doesn’t expect us as Christians to achieve perfection because that would be an unattainable goal. But if we can manage something as crazy and as wild as the tongue then the rest of body should follow suit. And this will make more sense as we continue to read the metaphors that James provides us in the following verses.

Let’s read James 3:3-8

James 3:3–8 NIV

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

So here James gives us some really good and simple metaphors that almost any reader would be able to understand. Now what is interesting is these images of a controlling a horse, steering a ship, and a fire, they are super common imagery used not just in the bible, but in non biblical literature at this time. Now it is doubtful that James is pulling for other literature to make this metaphor because it is so common, but I just thought that was interesting. Anyways, James paints a picture bit that goes into a horses mouth and once in there it is used to control the direction in which the horse moves. And if you had never ridden a horse he gives us another metaphor with the rudder of a ship. The rudder of a ship is so small and yet it controls direction of the entire ship. And yet again, if you hadn’t been on a ship he uses the fire metaphor. Now in the NIV it translates into forest, which makes alot of sense for us because we know what those are and have seen those. But the greek word actually translate closer to wood or timber. If you think about it, an actual forest is very rare in Israel. It’s mostly desert and scattered vegetation. But a similar picture would have been painted. There is definitely areas where those brushes are thicker and given the climate would go up in flames very quick. The point is that our tongue, which is such a small part of our body can determine alot.

Now with the ship and the horse metaphor there are two ways of taking this. And to be honest I don’t know if we will know which way James actually meant this but I am going to present both ideas to you and you can do with it as you will. So the first idea is that if we carry on with James warning about teaching, then the metaphor of the horse and the ship and steering the animal or ship one way or another could be James continuing his instruction about teaching and how what we say influences the the direction of the church. Just like you can steer a ship with a rudder, a pastor can steer the direction of a community and influence the actions that people take. Likewise, a pastor can destroy a community very quickly with what he says just like a fire. Or slowly like a poison like we see James mention at the end of verse 8.

And it is not so much “control” that James intends to illustrate but “direction”: as the bit determines the direction of the horse, so the tongue can determine the destiny of the community. Believers who exercise careful control of the tongue are able also to direct their whole life in its proper, divinely charted course: they are “perfect” (v. 2). But when that tongue is not restrained, small though it is, the rest of the body is likely to be uncontrolled and undisciplined also

The other school of thought is that James has moved on from his warning against becoming a teacher for the moment and is now shifted to an individual focus and isn’t explicitly addressing those who want to become teachers.

Whichever way you want to think about it, both ways of looking at it have wisdom and can apply to our lives. He goes on to say that we have managed to tame every kind of animal but man can’t seem to tame the tongue. Now this is where we see that James wasn’t exception perfection from his readers because he says no man can do it. Then he goes on to say that the tongue itself is evil and full of poison. Now if you remember two weeks ago when I talked about the genre of wisdom literature and how the writers often used absolute statements to prove a general point, here we see it in action again. James isn’t trying to tell us that the tongue itself is inherently evil and that it’s better for us to go ahead and cut it out, rather he is just emphasizing again the potential that our speech has. When we don’t control what we say disaterous things can happen. One last thing to point out that is a little interesting is James use of the word “hell’ here. This word translates to Gehenna which was a valley located outside of Jerusalem. Now we can spend a whole sermon here on just this word hell beuase when we think of hell we think of a place that bad people go whenever they die. But that is not the imagery that the reader would have had. They would have pictured a physical location that they knew of and has possible seen. The place had a terrible reputation which is why we see Jesus compare separation from God to being there. The reason that I bring this up is because outside of matthew, mark, luke, and john, this is the only book in the new testament that uses this word. Jesus is the only other person who uses this word to make a comparison to something, and the fact that James is uses it is another link of James to Jesus.

Lets move on to the next verses here. James 3:9-12

James 3:9–12 NIV

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

So this paragraph here is calling back to the common imagery that James has been using throughout his letter. He is painting the picture of someone who is spirtually divided. Going back a bit, that word restless that is used in 8 is the same word that James used when described someone who is unstable and double minded in chapter 1. So we see this theme coming back into play here in verses 9-12. With our speech we both praise the lord and curse those humans that have been made by God. Now these words bless and curse are supposed to be opposites of equal gravity in the greek language. We do something as pure and righteouss and praise God but also we do something so evil as to ‘curse’ humans. Now this word curse literally means to call down a curse upon. It is the same word that Peter used to describe the fig tree that Jesus had cursed in Mark 11:21 “Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”” It is generally used to descibe the demise of something. So James is saying we lift up God with our words but we also bring about the death of others with our words. And he says this should not be. He gives us the meataphor of a spring. an produce either salt water, or it can produce fresh water. It can’t produce both at the same time. Now can a spring get contaminated? Absolutely, but the point James is trying to make is that a spring can produce fresh water one day, salt the next, and then turn around and produce fresh water again the next day. Springs dont just flip flop with the type of water they produce. In the same way, a fig tree can’t bear olives or a grapevine produce figs. It just can’t happen. And James is emphasing that again, if we are going to call ourselves Christians and say that we follow Jesus we can’t flip flop and praise God and then turn around and slander the people around us.

Which brings us to probably the biggest topic for today. When we talk about controlling our tongue or watching what we say, what does that mean? Does it mean that as long as we dont cuss or say certian words that we are good? I think that sometimes that is the trap that we fall into. We have a list of certain words that we avoid because they are taboo and as long as we don’t use any of those words on that list then we have a clean mouth and we have control of our tongue. But this is a trap that we need to avoid. You see words, no matter what words they are, have no inherent moral value. The only moral value that words have is the word that we, as a culture, assign to them. Words by themselves are just random noises that we make that get interpreted. And that value that we assign to them and how we interpret them over time changes. Take the word faggot for example. It used to mean a bundle of sticks, and in fact if you look up the definition online that is one of the meanings. However it has changed over time to mean something completely different. Now it is considered hateful to say that word and if you use it you run the risk of facing severe consequences depending on the environment you say it in. The reason I say this is to show that James is talking about something much more than just words themselves, but rather the intent in which we use those words. James is going to go further into this in Chapter 4 where he says James 4:11

James 4:11 NIV

Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.

You see it doesn’t matter what words you use to do it, if you speak poorly against someone, or you use speech to make someone feel bad about themselves, it doesn’t matter how you said it, the fact is that what you have said have caused harm regardless of the words used. When I was in afghanistan I was in a position that had alot of authority and alot of stress, and sometimes when someome wasn’t doing what they were told to do or supposed to do it required us to call them out. And I had to chew quite a few people out. I was speaking with the authority of the ground force commander and I was his representation. Now another guy who was in the same role as I was whenever he did it he would use some language that would make a salior blush and he got written up several times and almost got sent back home. Me on the other hand, I did it a way that was professional but would still make people feel really bad about themselves. After one particular phone call I had with someone the Captian I was working with, who was an army ranger looked at me and said “ You are the most professional jerk I have ever met”. I asked him what he meant and he said “ You have a way of making people feel really dumb without saying anything that will get you in trouble. He thought it was funny and was getting quite a kick out of it. Now I am not saying this becuase I am proud of it , in fact after he told me that I was crushed when I realized that becuase I knew that my speech wasn’t reflecting God’s love but instead was being used out of anger. I was so disappointed with myself becuase I had also had conversations with this captain about God and he knew that I was a christian. Now in his eyes, this is how Christians acted, sure I didn’t say anything inappropriate but in his eyes I was still an jerk. But I want to illustrate the two scenarios. The other guy who got written up said things that humans judged as inapproirate that resulted in someone feeling bad and damaged the working relationship. Myself, I said something that humans didn’t judge as inapproirate, but resulted in someone feeling bad and damaged the working relationship I had with that person. You see, regardless of how we said it, the end result was still the same. Because of what I had said, i had damaged my ability to work better with that person. Now imagine if I was to turn around and try to witness to that person and tell them about christ love, do you think they would listen to a word I said? No way, it would take a long time for me to repair that relationship. This is what James is trying to get across is that words have power, doesn’t matter what words you use they still an cause damage. Don’t trick yourself into thinking that just because you avoid certain words that you are doing well in this area, you can use all the right words and still ruin relationships and burn bridges.

The pharisees were guilty of this two, which is why Jesus told them in Matthew 15:11

Matthew 15:11 NIV

What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

Words certianly have power, but the words themselves aren’t powerful, it is the intent behind the words that are powerful. So instead of having a list of words that we should or should not say, lets instead have a list of how we should or shouldn’t use words.

We can ask ourselves these questions:

Is what I am about to say going to lift someone up or tear them down?

Am i saying this in a manner that reflects Gods love.

Will talking about a person in this way honor, or dishonor them.

Am I gossiping, slandering, or being hateful right now.

Those are the questions we should be asking ourselves, and let’s also not disguise our intent with a ‘spiritual purpose’. I know that sharing information with someone under the guise of a ‘prayer request’ is a popular way for Christians to gossip and talk bad about eachother. Did you hear about so and so, we need to pray for them becuase they are struggling with their marriage. Do you actually care about that person and their marriage or are you just using a ‘prayer request’ as a way to speak ill of someone. See, intent is a big factor in our speech, which transitions us perfectly into the last part of this chapter.

Lets finish up with James 3:13-18

James 3:13–18 NIV

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

This last section circles back to James addressing those who want to become teachers. He says if you consider yourself wise then show it by leading a good life and doing good things done in humility. But if you have selfish ambitions or you desire the power and influence that comes with being in a position of power then the wisdom you claim to have is not wisdom that comes from the spirit. How many pastors have abused their power and spread ‘wisdom’ in order to gain money or make themselves look better. Too many unfortunately and James says that were envy and selfish ambition are you will have disorder and evil. True wisdom that comes from God is peaceful, loving, considerate, humble, merciful, impartial, and most important of all, sincere.

Closing

There are so many things that I wish I could take back that I have said, knowing that some of the things that I have said have pushed people away from God or inhibited my ability to bring someone to God breaks my heart. I don’t want to be a double minded Christian who praises God on Sundays and then leaves and forgets everything and spreads hate and discord with my speech. But taming the tongue takes a lifetime of practice and is something that, on our own, we will never accomplish. But when we align ourselves with his spirit, we find that taming our tongue becomes much easier. Accountability is huge as well, we need to keep each other accountable and when we hear a brother or sister gossiping or slandering to have the courage to step in and say “ i don’t think that what we are talking about is beneficial or honoring to God. “ It takes us coming together and working on this as a church and gently correcting our brothers and sisters and being open to correction ourselves in order for us to truly tame out tongue and have speech that is honoring to God. Let’s pray.