With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it
we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come
praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. James 3:9-10
Growing up in Orlando, my dad’s company had a yearly picnic
at Altamonte Springs. Hundreds of men,
women, and children assembled under the huge pavilion rented for the Bendex
Corporation. While the adults spent most
of the time there, down the road was the object of a kid’s desire: the
springs. The water came from an
underground aquifer and the temperature was a brisk 60 plus degrees. On the sunny Orlando days, sliding down the
water slide and landing in the cold water was so refreshing. It was something to dream about year after
year.
James begins the discussion by addressing first
those people of the church who had great influence and their speech could cause
others to stumble. In addressing those teachers to the church, he
reminded them they face a stricter judgment.
While he does use the word for judgment, it is not the one which speaks
of God’s final judgment.
It was understood God holds those who teach
falsely leading others astray responsible and here James includes the rest of
the congregation.
While some had sought the position within the
church, his warning suggests their desire to teach had other motives than teaching
the accepted teaching of Christ and the Apostles.
There were Jewish Christians teaching believers
had to be circumcised and follow the Mosaic Law in addition to following
Christ. There were others who believed
such false teaching which denied the virgin birth, or the full humanity of
Jesus. They believed flesh was sinful
and evil; God could not be flesh. So the
speech of these teachers was leading others to stumble. James tells us that we all have a moral
failure in one way or the other. He tells the church if such a person could be
found who bridled the tongue; he would be complete or perfect controlling the
rest of his body.
We can remember is James 1:19 he warned the
believers to be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger.
James discusses the effectiveness of the
uncontrolled tongue. Once untamed horses
are trained to the bit, it will follow the direction of the rider as he pulls
on the bit. In the times of the Bible, there were large
ships carrying a 1,000 passengers and cargo.
Even these large ships would still be tossed about by the fierce storms,
such as the one which shipwrecked Paul. In
the face of such fierce storms, the small rudder at the rear of the ship set
the course. While you could not see the wind, it was
effective and destructive. Likewise the
tongue, a small member of the human body and can be deadly. This tongue makes great boasts—not the individual. The boasts are lofty of the individual’s
abilities and means to “lift up the neck”.
The tongue is seen as a fire which starts so
small and yet it kindles up and destroys anything in its path. The tongue is
established as a world of evil—injustice, wickedness, and wrong-doing. In this world, the tongue then defiles the
rest of the body by its actions. The
tongue in the Old Testament is deceitful, the seat of sinning, mischief and
vanity.
It is in the book of Psalms we start to see the
relationship of the tongue to the inner nature of man. The unbridled tongue sets the course of one’s
life. It is set afire by Gehenna, which from the history of
Israel held much shame. Here children were sacrificed to pagan gods and was
declare declared unclean. Jesus used this place, which now was the city of
Jerusalem’s garbage dump which continually burned to refuse from the city, as a
reference for the eternal fires of hell.
This tongue of hell cannot be restrained. It is an evil which is full of poison—like
that of a viper. It destroyed the victim
from the inside out—bringing death.
The last example seemingly is the most
destructive—both to the offender/and the offended. James begins describing the speech within the
church. He calls them brothers and speaks of the idea of
praising God and cursing man. The words
he used describe action which is ongoing in his own church.
What the tongue is doing in the church is
causing the destruction of other Christians.
The highest use of the tongue is in the
proclamation, adoration, and glorifying of God and Father. James usage of the term God and Father may make
the following part of the sentence even more destructive because not only has
mankind been made in the image of God, but fellow worshipers are reborn in the
image of God by faith in Christ.
As Jesus taught, what comes out of the mouth is
a measure of the heart, James reminds these brothers the double tongued speech
of praising God and cursing of brothers is wrong and must be stopped.
The metaphor he used describes completely the
speech which praises God and curses man—it is bitter.
Salt water added to sweet water makes the sweet
water unusable; just as worship of praise for God mixed with the abuses to his
creation makes worship-speech unusable.
Application
Pausing and thinking before I speak and take the
time to discern what if anything should be said.
a.
Honor the other person as a child of God and not
harm them with my speech.
b.
End gossip/speak harshly about someone I may
have a conflict with.
Deadly Speech
Do you love life; do you relish
the chance to enjoy good things? Then you must keep your tongue from
evil and keep your lips from speaking lies! Turn away from evil! Do
good! Seek peace and go after it! Psalm 34:12-14
The next step in knowing what springs
from you is to take an active stance against deadly speech.
a.
Speaking falsely can happen in two ways: one is
the intentional lie and the other is not completely honest with the facts.
b.
Take the action to literally turn away from evil
and to do good.
c.
Do whatever is needed to maintain peace.
Destructive Speech Without wood a fire goes out;
without a gossip a quarrel dies down. As charcoal to embers and as wood to
fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife. The words of a
gossip are like choice morsels;
they go down to the inmost parts.
Proverbs 26:20-22
I will seek to live in peace with my brother or
sister who has been made in image of God.
a. I choose to stop the continuation of a matter by
not being the means of transmission.
b. I choose to stop being the kindling which
creates a fire which destroys.
