Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
An old lady went to a tombstone-cutter’s office to order a stone for her husband’s grave.
After explaining that all she wanted was a small one with no frills, she told him to put the words, “To My Husband,” in a suitable place.
When the stone was delivered she saw, to her horror, this inscription:
“To My Husband—
In a Suitable Place.”
Words matter.
How we say words matter.
If we are to clearly communicate we must use clear and well enunciated speech.
That is just one aspect of our speech.
Another is we need to bridle our speech sometimes.
We need to check it before we release it.
Just like when angry and you have written a scathing letter, email, Facebook post, tweet, or text message; you read it again before sending.
Make sure what you have said is not petty and vile when you should respond with grace and compassion.
That is what James meant when he said in Jas.
1:19 “let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
We are now in the section about speaking slowly.
James begins this section saying that not all should be teachers for this very reason.
Many will be rash and not listen to others and will speak in anger to get their point across, or they will speak in a manner that is not befitting the royal law.
Which is why James also said to Jas. 2:12 “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.”
Our speech matters because we can wreck or build up people with it.
I do not believe words are violence, but I do believe words can cause much grief and devastation.
This is what James is saying.
He is saying our tongue will reveal much about us and with it we can cause great harm or great good.
James 3:1–12 (ESV)
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 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! 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.
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.
The tongue is something that we can control through faith in Jesus, but James gives a strong warning in this section about what our tongue can do.
He begins with the strong warning about not all should teach because of a strict judgment and this is because...
The Tongue Shows Our Maturity (1-2)
Many people want to be the star.
They want to have the last word or “THE WORD” on something.
They will try to get many people to follow what they say and do, even if what they are saying or doing is incorrect.
Many people want to be the leader without realizing that the leader has a stricter judgment for what happens.
If someone was to get up and teach and did not know what they were teaching they could very well lead some astray.
This makes sense in this section because James wrote of the need to be quick to hear and slow to speak and to speak and act as one to be judged by the law of liberty.
Also, one is to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only.
If one is to teach and lead, they need to be mature in the word they have heard by taking the word to heart, it being implanted in them, and performing what they have learned.
When one does this they will be able to lead and teach well.
Or as James said, not stumble in what he says, and be able to bridle his whole body.
This is the person who has obtained a vibrant and vitalized spiritual life.
This is the person who has grown and matured through all the Lord has placed before them.
This person has sought God for wisdom in faith and without doubting.
This person has grown to maturity and is capable of seeing sin for sin and turning away from it and can teach why it is sin and why you should turn away from it.
Yet, being a teacher is a place that not all must try for.
It is one of intense judgment for what was said.
This is true because teachers have the influence to lead others astray if they teach wrong.
This does not mean we should not strive to learn much and help reach others.
“Christian teachers need to be primarily models of integrity and secondarily instructors of content; therefore, they should submit both their lives and their words to God’s scrutiny.
Their teaching must not be frivolous or selfish.
Teachers should teach God’s truth, not merely their own opinions.
If we teach others, we must make sure that our lives do not contradict what we teach.”
(Bruce B. Barton, David Veerman, and Neil S. Wilson, James, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1992), 75.)
We do so because...
The Tongue Will Guide Others (3-6)
James here uses three different small objects that control much larger objects.
The first is a bit in a horses mouth.
I know for a fact that this is important, even in gentle horses.
I had a horse that was gentle and one day a man acted like he was going to slip the bridle off.
I said go ahead this horse is gentle.
He did and another guy squalled and whipped him, causing him to runoff.
I had no bridle and it was a bit sketchy.
A bit is a good thing to have.
The next is a rudder on a ship.
It is tiny, like the bit, but it controls the large ship.
The third is a small flame.
We all know it only takes a tiny spark to set a massive blaze off.
A blaze that will burn thousands or more acres.
Small but dangerous.
He says that this is our tongue.
It is full of fire and it stains the whole body.
Why?
Because it is tiny but can control many people.
Think of men like David Koresh, Jim Jones, and many other cult leaders.
They convinced people to follow them with the talented use of the tongue.
They deceived many people with the small instrument.
If we play loosely with our tongue, it can be very dangerous.
Like the spark from the fire, it can cause massive devastation to many.
It can cause death to many just like a fire.
It can lead people correctly, or wrong, it all depends on our maturity level with the word of God.
We can use our tongue for God’s glory and lead many to Him.
We can do this through seeking Him for wisdom and strength.
We can also do it by not only hearing the word but diving into it and implanting it in our hearts so much so that when we speak we speak Bible.
We become a Bible fountain that just flows out naturally without force.
This does not mean we brow beat people, but that we are so filled with the Lord, that we exude Him at all times.
Peter preached at Pentecost and three thousand believed.
“On April 21, 1855, Edward Kimball went into a Boston shoe store and led young Dwight L. Moody to Christ.
The result: one of history’s greatest evangelists, a man whose ministry still continues.
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