SS04-17-05
“CONTROLLED SPEECH.” JAMES 3: 1-12, 4:11-12, 5: 12
JAMES 3:2b, 3-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12; 4:11-12, 5: 12
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO JAMES 3.
We Americans are a nation of talkers. We love to talk. We love to watch others talk! How many talk shows are on the air every day and how many new ones come out each year?
The average American has about 30 conversations per day and spends 20 percent of his or her life talking. The annual conversations of most individuals would fill about 66 books of 800 pages each.
From the moment we start talking, we learn quickly that our mouths can get us in a lot of trouble. Sadly, a lot of people never conquer their own tongues. They might be surprised to learn that the greatest enemy they face---the greatest threat to their relationships, success, and testimony—is their own tongues.
Speech is powerful. This God-given ability was intended by our Creator to increase human happiness and to honor Him. A well-spoken word of encouragement can change lives eternally. A discouraging word can inflict irreparable harm. Too often people use the gift of speech to hurt rather than to help others.
Hurtful, vicious, lying speech, and even careless speech destroys relationships and ruins families, churches, businesses, and even nations.
James acknowledged the difficulty of taming the tongue so that it is used only in ways to help others and to honor God. However, he indicated that real faith opens us up to God’s help in dealing with this vital matter. With His help we can use our God-given gift of speech to bless and encourage others and to honor God.
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.” Obviously, Arabella had difficulty taming her tongue.
James 3: 1-2a are background verses for today’s lesson. James began the passage about speech by addressing teachers.
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 be a teacher meant position, power and prestige.
James gave an excellent reason for his warning in 3:1: “You know that those who teach shall be judged with greater strictness.” James included himself in his warning. He, too, was a teacher. The final judgment will be more exacting for those who teach Christian truths. James
3:2b says, “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” The Holmon Bible reads, “If any man does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man who is able to control his whole body.”
In the last part of vs. 2, the theme of vs. 1-12 is spelled out. James was dealing with what people say. Although James began with the responsibility of teachers to watch what they say, he enlarged the challenge to include all believers
What James wrote applies especially to those who teach, but it also applies to all Christians. And James felt that none of us is without fault in what we say. However, vs. 2 does not exclude the possibility of some Christians learning with God’s help to control what they say. Nothing is opened more by mistake than the mouth.
Anyone who achieves this goal is perfect or mature. Because of the importance of controlling what we say, James said that the one who controls what he says is able to bridle or control the whole body.
The word bridle literally refers to putting a bridle on a horse in order to hold the animal in check. This passage is about the importance of controlling what we say. This is a key to exercising self-control in every area of life. Of course, the biblical view of self-control is not that any person achieves this without God’s help. “Self-control” or “temperance” is one of the fruits of the Spirit in Gal 5;23. As Edmond Hiebert said, “The ability to check and guide the tongue effectively only comes through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.”
PLEASE READ JAMES 3: 3-6.
James did not imply that the tongue held the only possibility for sin. He wrote in vs. 2, “We all stumble in many ways.” All people trip up spiritually and physically. Yet, humans are nowhere more apt to stumble than in their speech. To tame the tongue requires the same strength of determination as breaking a wild horse.
James fired off in rapid succession three illustrations in these four verses: bits in a horse’s mouth, huge ships that are guided by a very small rudder and a large…forest ignited by a small fire.
In these illustrations James provided great insight into the power of the tongue. In the first two illustrations James made the point that the tongue directs where a person goes. The way to control the direction of a horse is to put a bit in his mouth. By controlling the animal’s mouth, the rider can direct an animal that is much bigger than he or she. A ship is very large, but its direction is set by a very small rudder.
The Hebrews were not a sea-going people, and they were impressed by large ships and the people who sailed in them. Some of the ships of that day were impressive in size. The second ship on which Paul was traveling to Rome in Acts 17:37-38 had 176 passengers in addition to a cargo of wheat.
Not only were some ships great in size, but they also were driven by fierce winds. Yet the pilot of a ship or governor was able to guide the vessel with a small rudder.
James made clear his point in using the examples of the horse’s bit and the ship’s rudder. The tongue is a little member of the human body, but its influence is far greater than its size suggests. This small part of the body boasteth great things.
Douglas J. Moo wrote: “Boasting’ is often in the N.T. a sinful activity and manifests an arrogant presumptuousness before God. Here, however, ‘boasting’ is used without these negative connotations—the tongue does have considerable importance and it can legitimately boast about its power to determine a persons’ destiny. Phillips paraphrases, ‘’the human tongue is physically small, but what tremendous effects it can boast of.’
Most interpreters, however, give to the word boasteth its usual meaning of sinful boasting. Thus the arrogant boasting of the tongue is the first in a series of evil uses of the tongue. The Bible condemns the arrogant boasting that grows out of human pride.
Controlling one’s mouth is the first step to controlling one’s destiny. A person’s conversation usually betrays that person’s desires and direction in life. We shape our words, and then our words shape us. Although the tongue is tiny, it has tremendous power. A little bit of a word or a phrase can influence a person’s entire life. Like a rudder, the tongue is the steering wheel of life. People who don’t like where they are going in life should change the way they talk.
In vs. 5 James used the word tongue to refer to human speech. We know that the tongue is only one part of the physical act of speaking, and other passages use “lips” and “mouth,” but each of these words stands for all that God gives people as part of the gift of speech.
When your think about this, you recognize that speech is a precious gift. For you to communicate something in your mind to the mind of another person using a certain combination of sounds is amazing. Only God could have created us with the capacity to do this. God is concerned, therefore, with how we use this gift. And all too often He is disappointed by our sinful use of a divine gift.
The verses 3-5a have shown that the small tongue has disproportionate influence. The small muscle in the human mouth can change the direction of human history. Adolph 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 W.W. II. Words do change the direction of history.
Not only can the tongue direct where a person goes, but it can also destroy what a person has. James’s imagery of fire indicates that the tongue can be a force for good or for destruction. When under control, fire provides warmth and light; when out of control, it devastates and destroys. In the same way a loose tongue can do a world of damage and demolish in just a few moments what took a long time to build or to grow.
A forest can burn in a few hours, but it will require years and years to grow back again. Often a person with a cigarette or a smoldering campfire causes these fires. All too often these fires are deliberately set. Just as one match or spark can cause a forest fire, so does the tongue set fires or devastation proportions in the field of human relations.
So the misuse of one’s tongue can wipe out relationships, churches, families, and testimonies in just a few minutes, and they may never truly recover. Unfortunately, some people play the role of verbal arsonists. With hateful words and harsh tones, they ravage relationships and devastate feelings.
Vs. 6 continues the fire analogy, making several points about the comparison. James wrote, “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.” Both words, world and iniquity, represent evil things. The former describes the way of life of unredeemed humanity: the latter describes the unrighteousness of the sinful world. Uncontrolled speech produces a vast system of evil. It has an evil impact on the whole body. It defiles a person’s total being. And it setteth on fire the course of nature.”
James did not say that the tongue can be bad: he candidly called it “a world of unrighteousness that pollutes the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is set on fire by hell.”
When sin entered the world through Adam’s sin, it found a ready abode in the human mouth. Although every part of a human being’s body is tainted by sin, the tongue seems to have gotten a double dose. The tongue can make for a hellish existence on earth because that is where troubles so often originate.
Once again James called the attention of his readers to the connection between the tongue and the body. Controlling the tongue is a necessary step toward restraining and managing one’s entire life. Prov. 21:23 says, “The one who guards his mouth and tongue keeps himself out of trouble”---but how rare that is!
James capped off the fire description by adding that the tongue is set afire by hell. Hell is the word for the place of punishment, gehenna. The meaning may emphasize that sins of speech can lead to this place.
In effect James said, “Do you want to know what Hell is like?” “Look at Gehenna where the fire goeth not out, dieth not and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” James could not have chosen amore appropriate figure to describe an evil tongue. Uncontrolled speech is one manifestation of worldly wisdom, which in James 3:15 is called “earthly, sensual, demonic.” Controlling the tongue is the first step toward restraining other physical appetites.
PLEASE READ JAMES 3: 7-8.
In vs. 3-4 James spoke of controlling a horse with a bit. In vs. 7 he wrote of taming all kinds of living creatures. His list is consistent with Gen. 9:2. H included those that walk or fly as well as those that crawl or swim. Each of these “is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind.”
At one time all animals were untamed, but many have become domesticated. And people have tamed some wild creatures. Circuses display many of these animals that are under human control.
James was struck by an interesting irony: every creature…has been tamed by man, but no one has been able to tame the tongue. This means that a person can never relax about the danger of the tongue because it is never totally under control.
A dog is a domesticated animal. After it is housebroken and grows accustomed to its owner, the owner does not worry that the dog might suddenly become vicious. But the tongue is never completely domesticated.
Just when a person relaxes, the tongue attacks in a moment of anger, weakness, doubt, or pain. The tongue is restless and evil, ready to attack at any moment. Like a baby rattlesnake, the tongue may seem harmless but the deadly poison can kill nonetheless. Prov. 18: 21 asserts “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
If no one can tame the tongue, does anyone ever reach the level of spiritual maturity described in vs. 2b? This statement doesn’t take into account what God’s grace and power enable us to do. As we already noted in the comments on vs. 2, self-control is a fruit of God’s Spirit, not an achievement of human effort.
The last part of vs. 8 gives two more descriptions of an uncontrolled tongue. First, it is an unruly evil or “a restless evil.” The adjective “unruly” or ‘restless’ is rendered “unstable” in 1: 8. The tongue is like someone handling an unstable chemical or explosive device. It is dangerous and destructive.
Second, the words “full of deadly poison” suggest an implied picture of another analogy from nature---a poisonous snake. We should fear an uncontrolled tongue (our own or someone else’s) as if it were a poisonous serpent ready to sink its fangs into people. The psalmist wrote of evil men in Ps. 140:3, “They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips.”
PLEASE READ JAMES 3: 9-10.
These verses point to the potential of the tongue for good or evil and the inconsistency of people who use their tongues for good and evil. In vs. 9 James condemned those who bless…God and curse…men. He reminded his readers that God is the Father and people are made after the similitude of God or “in His likeness.”
This kind of behavior is among the most obvious forms of hypocrisy. Like the man of 1:26, this person’s religion is worthless and false. Yet how many people are guilty of singing praises to God in church but cursing others outside of church?
In the ancient world a curse was spoken against someone in an effort to call supernatural powers to bring calamity on the person. Most people today do not view curses the same way as the ancients did. Yet many people use words that involve God to condemn someone else to hell.
Some people use such curses lightly when they are annoyed, but they curse people with more emotion when they are infuriated. The people we curse are creations of God. They have the potential for fellowship here and hereafter. We profane God by curing those created in His image.
When James wrote out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing, he may have been thinking of Jesus’ teaching about the source of evil in Matt. 15: 18. How can blessing and cursing come out of the same heart? Such inconsistency shows something is wrong with a person’s heart. Thus James wrote, “My brothers, these things should not be this way.” Brothers in Christ were responsible for some of the combination of blessing and cursing. This ought not ever be true.
According to James controlling the tongue is the key to controlling the entire body. One significant way to glorify God is to get a grip on the way we talk and the things we say.
PLEASE READ JAMES 3: 11-12.
In the ancient world in which James lived, water was a major concern for everyone. Hardly anyone had running water, so water had to be drawn every day and carried home. Homes had to be built near rivers or springs for the water supply. Drinking from a source with which one was not familiar was risky.
Before purification tablets or water treatment plants, water was invested with parasites or tainted with naturally occurring chemicals such as sulfur and salt. James readers knew what it was like to search for good water. When he asked whether a spring could pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening, they knew that was not the case. Bad water and good water did not coexist. The same principle applies to what comes out of one’s mouth. James also compared the tongue to a fig tree and grapevine. The fig tree can’t produce olives, nor the grapevine figs. Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.
In every case, the outcome is a direct result of the source. Whatever is in the well comes out in the water. Whatever is in the tree comes out in the fruit. So it will always be true that whatever is in the human heart comes out of the mouth. The mouth is merely symptomatic of the inner human condition.
Solomon wrote in Prov. 18: 21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” The gift of speech has great potential for good or for evil. Sins of the tongue can destroy and even take lives. Right use of the divine gift brings life and joy.
A person who seems to have a harsh tongue actually has an angry heart. One with a negative tongue has a fearful heart. A person with a boastful tongue has an insecure heart. Behind a filthy tongue is an impure heart. The condition of a person’s heart is what controls the way he or she uses the tongue. A person’s tongue reveals the kind of person he or she really is.
One might argue that if the tongue is such a restless evil, why even try to tame it? Augustine gave the answer to such a complaint: “James does not say that no one can tame the tongue, but no one of men; so that when it is tamed we confess that this is brought about by the pity, the help, and the grace of God.
The way to conquer you tongue is to ask the Lord to conquer your heart. Ezekiel wrote in Ezekiel 18:31, “Throw off all the transgressions you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”
Turning over a new leaf isn’t nearly as effective as getting a whole new life in Christ. Changing old habits and one’s disposition is one of the most difficult things anyone could ever attempt, but with God all things are possible. He stands ready to provide help to anyone who will pray. Psalms 141: 3-4 says, “Lord, set up a guard for my mouth: keep watch at the door of my lips. Do not let my heart turn to any evil thing.”
PLEASE TURN TO JAMES CH. 4.
PLEASE READ JAMES 4: 11-12.
Speak no evil has been translated in several ways: “Do not speak against,” “Do not slander,”
“Don’t criticize,” “Never disparage,” “Never speak ill of,” “Don’t say cruel things about.” The Greek word for “speak against” refers to tearing others down with words, usually when those being spoken against are not present to defend themselves. Peter used this word in 1 Peter 2: 12; 3:16. to describe the slanderous lies that non-Christians inflicted on Christians. James used it to describe the evil things that Christians say against one another.
In his characteristically blunt fashion James wrote, “Don’t criticize one another, brothers”. His audience was mostly Jewish, so he was not particularly concerned about Jews with a knowledge of the law who criticized a brother or judged his brother. They were putting themselves in place of the law, especially the royal law of James 2:8. God’s law teaches what is right and wrong. It reveals God’s love and displays God’s care for His people.
One who goes through life judging others actually plays God and judges the law, as though neither the law nor God is doing the job correctly.
The person who is more concerned with the behavior of others than with his or her own behavior is not a doer of the law but a judge. Judging others removes the emphasis from one’s own faults and promotes pride.
There is a difference between the self-righteous criticism, that James forbid and the loving confrontation of sin that Jesus commended in Matt. 18: 15-17. James forbid the kind of criticism in which someone forbids an activity based on personal preference or opinion instead of biblical teaching.
Paul’s instruction in Eph. 4: 15-16, 25-32 about “speaking the truth in love,” is followed in by commands and exhortations to confront sin to keep the church in unity.
The greatest reason for giving up a judgmental spirit is that God alone is the one lawgiver and judge. The one who made the law and gave the law is the only One qualified to apply the law and enforce the law.
Wouldn’t it be foolish to have a judge in a court of law who listened to criminal cases, issued a verdict, but then had no power to enforce judgment or sentence anyone to jail? Yet that is precisely the situation when we judge one another. God alone is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? Judging someone on the basis of external facts is a dangerous business. God alone sees the heart and the law perfectly. He does not accept compromise to holy living!
The Ninth Commandment forbids bearing false witness against your neighbor. The Commandment applies directly to doing this in a law court, gut it also applies to any slandering of others. We like to think of gossip as a relatively harmless form of this sin. But the Bible considers every form of this sin to be deadly. This is one of those sins that can kill. Two of the seven things the Lord hates are “a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” (Prov. 6:19)
Gossip is sometimes malicious. Often it is more of a habit. Talking about other people becomes a kind of indoor sport. Whatever the motive for criticizing others, such talk inflicts great damage.
Passing along rumors is judging other people without the facts. Even when we think we know the facts, we should follow biblical guidelines such as those in Matt. 18: 15-17; Gal. 6: 1; and Eph. 4: 15-16. The context of James 4: 11-12 is vs. 1-10. These verses warn about the conflicts that grow out of selfishness, greed, and pride. How many fights begin because of something that someone said about someone else? And once the fight begins, each side attempts to outdo the other in saying evil things.
In vs. 7-10 James had just called for a rigorous self-examination of our own moral and spiritual condition. Too often we apply such an examination to others, not ourselves. Jesus warned in Matt. 7: 1-5 against this sin.
James in Jas. 2: 8 equated it with judging the law, apparently the royal law to love our neighbor as ourselves. This law is in Lev. 19:18. In the same passage in vs. 16 is a warning against slandering one’s neighbor. When we speak against a brother or sister, we set ourselves above this law of love. Even more serious, we set ourselves up against God. We usurp the place of God when we pass judgment on others. Only God has full knowledge of all the facts: only He has the character of justice and mercy to be Judge.
PLEASE TURN TO JAMES 5.
6.PLEASE READ JAMES 5: 12.
As already noted previously, James’s instructions have parallels with Jesus’ teachings, especially from the sermon on the Mount. Jesus also in Matt. 5:33-3 7 warned against the contemporary practice of bolstering one’s words by adding an oath.
The reason this practice was so reprehensible was that at times people added an oath to make it sound as though they were telling the truth. People often swore by something that wasn’t binding. They might swear by Jerusalem, for instance, and fudge a bit since they weren’t actually swearing by God. Similarly, a child today might make a promise with fingers crossed, as though that negates the binding nature of the promise.
James cut through all of the cultural clutter and simply stated, Do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath.
He was not referring to cursing, although one shouldn’t do that either. Nor was he forbidding the practice of taking an oath in a legal setting. The heart of his message is that Christians should be people of their word. When they say yes or no, no one should have to wonder if they are telling the truth.
When the heat is on and days are difficult, for some people swearing replaces praying. In trying circumstances, Christians should use simple, true, transparent, speech. We live in a society that seems to find telling a lie far easier when the heat is on. Christians should obey James’ words: “Let your yes be yes and your no be no that you may not fall under condemnation.”
Truth should be the ultimate standard for Christians since we are people of the truth and our Savior called Him self “The Truth” in John 14: 6. If believers in Jesus don’t tell the truth, even when it might be inconvenient, why should the world listen when we tell them about our Savior?
James already established that a spring cannot produce water that is both good and bad. If Christians compromise their integrity on personal matters, no one will listen to them on spiritual matters either.
Telling the truth does not mean blurting out everything we think. We should not tell a new mother that her baby is ugly. But we must learn to speak the truth every time we open our mouths. One of our pastors said when he went to visit a new mother he had learned to always say, “Now that is a Baby!”
Not only must we as Christians tell the truth, but we must also keep our word, even when it costs us something. Children need to know that their parents will always keep their word—whether it is for a treat or an act of discipline. Churches need to see that their pastors are men of integrity and follow through on promises. Wives should be able to trust their husbands, and husbands should be able to trust their wives.
God takes telling the truth seriously, because truth is part of God’s nature (Rom. 3:4; Titus 1:2) and Jesus is the embodiment of truth. (John 14: 6) James gave this instruction about telling the truth so that you won’t fall under judgment, meaning that God will judge those who compromise the truth. Because God is truth, He values truth and insists that it be a hallmark in the lives of His people.
NEXT WEEK FROM JAMES 4 WE FIND THAT PERSONS WITH REAL FAITH IN GOD, OVERCOME SELFISH PRIDE BY HUMBLY SUBMITTING TO HIM. A.V. DAUGHERTY