Mastering My Tongue
James 3:1-12
Richard M. Nixon served as the 37th president of the United States.
He was a polarizing figure who won the presidential office by a landslide and then later resigned in disgrace just 21 months later.
His disgrace culminated with the Democratic party getting their man, Jimmy Carter, into the White House.
The victory of the Democrats came about because they learned of attempts where their conversations were to be “bugged.”
Watergate occurred on June 17, 1972 when five men attempted to break in to the Democratic national headquarters in Washington’s Watergate complex.
The men were arrested, after police were notified by an alert security guard, as they were in possession of cameras and electronic surveillance equipment.
They were suspected of attempting to tap the telephones there in order to gain the upper-hand on the Democratic campaign.
When the Democrats realized that President Nixon among others was attempting to “bug” their conversations, that is they were listening in on their conversations, in an attempt to win the election.
We need to learn a lesson from Watergate.
If we are going to win the battle of Mastering our Mouths, it will come when we realize that God is “bugging” our conversations.
Listen to the words of Jesus:
“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Matthew 12:36-37
God knows everything you and I say and when the Day of Judgment comes, God will replay our words.
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.
James 3:1-12
In a lifetime you and I could fill a library with the words we have said.
It is estimated that the average person says around 30,000 words every day.
We fear nuclear weapons.
We fear the bird flu,
The Ebola virus,
and the possibility of biological weapons.
We fear powerful weapons of mass destruction.
Yet, the tongue is one of the most powerful weapons in the world and there is no inspection of it!
We all know that big things come in small packages.
In these verses, James gives us 6 pictures of the tongue in these passages:
the bit;
the rudder;
a fire;
an animal;
a fountain
and a fig tree.
You can put these 6 pictures into 3 classifications that reveal the power of the tongue:
The Power to Direct,
The Power to Destroy,
The Power to Delight.
1. The Power to Direct
(James 3:1-4)
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
James 3:1
Eugene Peterson paraphrases this 1st verse of James by saying:
“Don’t be in any rush to become a teach … Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards.”
One of the joys of my life is that God can use my mouth to bless others, to Direct others.
Verse 3 compares the tongue to a bit in a horse’s mouth.
“If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.”
James 3:3
No where is the saying, “out of the horse’s mouth” anymore true than right here in this verse.
The bridle can pull the horse’s mouth to his ear and the horse is glad to go in that direction.
In verse 4, James uses another power-packed illustration when he says a large ship is guided by a small rudder.
“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.”
James 3:4
The great power of the ship and the horse can be directed by the use of the small bit and rudder.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”
Proverbs 18:21
Notice Solomon uses the extremes of life and death and nothing in between.
He says the tongue’s Power to Direct can be life building or death destroying and nothing in the middle!
God’s Spirit is so strong within us, that if we allow it, just as the rudder of a large cruise ship, it can knife through those strong winds that blow us one way or another.
Many of us need a bridle placed in our mouths.
Did you know that the health of a person can be gauged by a person’s tongue?
When you go to the doctor and say you’re not feeling well, the doctor says, “Stick out your tongue!”
The tongue is both the measure of your health spiritually and physically.
The bit and the rudder have the Power to Direct, which means they affect the lives of others.
The words we speak affect the lives of others.
A judge says “Guilty!” or “Not Guilty!” and those words affect the destiny of the accused, his family, and his friends.
The President of the United States speaks a few words and signs some papers and the nation is at war.
Even a simple “yes” or “no” from the lips of a parent can greatly affect the direction of child’s life.
2. The Power to Destroy
(James 3:5-8)
In Harlem several years ago, New York cops were videotaped as they stuffed stolen money into their pants.
In all, a dozen (12) officers were accused of federal and state crimes in a Police Department corruption scandal.
These bad apples used their badges “not for protection but as weapons”, Commissioner William Bratton said, “to punish, to brutalize, to steal, to rob, and to cheat.”
The tongue is a badge which you and I wear.
It is frequently the greatest index to our lives.
It is also the Table of Contents to our lives.
The badge has the Power to Destroy.
There are two very practical ways our tongues destroy others.
2.1 FACE-TO-FACE ASSAULTS
Verbal violence that is deliberately calculated to hurt the other person.
Oftentimes this is unintentional yet it is done with a callous insensitivity.
This is only done to people that we know well (such as spouses & friends) because we have the knowledge to really hurt them.
Unleashing fury, deeply sarcastic cuts about their weaknesses, etc.
What Solomon says is true of Face-to-Face Assaults:
“There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
Proverbs 12:18
When you’ve been on the receiving end of this, you know how hard it is to recover and ever look at the person the same way again.
Constant critical cuts that just wear the other person down and erode their sense of self-worth.
Two excellent examples of this are PARENTS with CHILDREN and BOSSES with EMPLOYEES.
Nothing is ever good enough; it’s always what you did wrong that gets primary attention.
If you’ve been subjected to this as a child, you know why Paul warns parents against the danger of exasperating your children so that they lose heart (Colossians 3:21).
“Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.”
Colossians 3:21
2.2 BEHIND-THE-BACK ATTACKS
SLANDER is saying untrue things about another person to a 3rd party— this includes deeds, words, and motives.
GOSSIP is spreading the truth about someone’s faults or failings.
Both are done out of a desire to see them brought low in someone else’s eyes.
In the world, these are often done very overtly, but Christians usually do them in subtle ways.
We’ll say “Pray for Sue” or
“I’m really concerned for James.”
People’s reputations are destroyed through this, and others’ opinions of the person are unfairly colored so that they don’t have the opportunity to make their own impression.
It’s very unnerving to be around someone who talks freely about others in this way; you should wonder what they say about you when you’re not around!
Again listen to the words of Proverbs:
“There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”
Proverbs 6:16-19
Compare these words to James 3:6:
“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.”
James 3:6
The tongue is a coiled rattlesnake behind the enameled teeth in the mouth.
A lie on a man’s character is just as deadly as murder.
Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount that we put a murder in jail and applaud someone who assassinates another man’s character.
The Power to Destroy lies in the power of the tongue.
If we are going to Master Our Tongues, we’ll understand that the tongue is a spark that sets off a fire.
Fire can be a great benefit for us when it is under control.
It can warm us, cook our food, and can power many of our industries.
But when fire is out of control, it burn like the fire that started in the O’Leary barn in Chicago many years ago.
The Great Chicago Fire left over 100,000 people homeless, destroyed 17,500 buildings, and killed 300 people before it was through.
James tells us that our words can start fires.
Words are like containers that carry ideas within them.
These containers of ideas soon lead to actions and the actions frequently quench the Spirit of God working in our lives.
“For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.”
Proverbs 26:20
When we cannot control our tongues, the result is destruction.
Fire spreads, and the more fuel you give it, the faster and farther it will spread.
If you haven’t said it, you cannot be held responsible for it.
Many times the best policy is to keep quiet.
James has already warned us against the improper use of the tongue.
“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”
James 1:26
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;”
James 1:19
I believe the tongue has the Power to Destroy and its being used for the fire of hell itself.
Again, one of the things Proverbs 6 states that God hates is dissension (discord among the brethren).
Throughout Scripture, God has a field day with unity, whether it be in the church, the family, or just among friends.
Being unified around a common vision and certainly the truth of Scripture.
If you fail to Master Your Mouth, it will destroy both you and those you love around you.
Read with me Romans 10:9:
“…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9
In other words, the heart and the tongue are to sing a duet.
The two are to be in tune together.
Note the power of words.
The tongue under the direction of the Holy Spirit is part of one’s salvation.
Listen to the relationship Jesus’ paints about our words and our actions.
“You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Matthew 12:34
Whatever is in the heart will come out.
Our words are like Zip-lock bags and when the seal is broken, the heart is revealed.
Notice how one of the greatest churches (if not the greatest church) had over 8,000 in membership when we read the following words:
“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.”
Acts 4:32
When God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit got together to plan all of eternity, never once was there an argument over how it was to be done.
I think surely, under God’s power, we can operate a church without people nitpicking.
Discord and words that destroy others make God sick.
Examine closely the words of James 3:7-8:
“For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
James 3:7-8
If you were to travel to any zoo, circus, or pet shop, you could not find the tongue in captivity.
It is impossible by our own human efforts to tame it for James says in verse 8:
“It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
James 3:8b
3. The Power to Delight
(James 3:9-12)
The tongue has the Power to Delight, for by it alone we can praise the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Yet, it was this same instrument, the tongue, that Peter denied Jesus three times.
The tongue that denied Christ was the same tongue that boldly preached the message that Christ saves in Acts 2 where 3,000 people came to faith in Christ.
“With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.”
James 3:9
This verse states clearly that to curse any person is to curse God’s image in that person.
Equal to cursing God.
Devout Jews would not step on the smallest piece of scrap paper on the street lest it have written on it God’s name.
How quickly people today trample God’s image in another person with slander.
James asks in verse 11:
“Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?”
James 3:11
James is asking how the power of tongue have the Power to Destroy others and the Power to Delight the Savior with praise.
Water, like fire that was spoken of earlier, can be used for benefit and disaster.
If water is not controlled, it can bring tremendous disaster.
Jamestown, Pennsylvania experienced a flood in 1889 where 2,200 lives were taken and $10 million in property was destroyed.
Yet, water is life-giving and our words can give life.
When young people practice volleyball or basketball for two hours, what’s the first thing you search for?
A water fountain, for it is refreshment!
Water is the source of life!
When all hell breaks loose in your life, you should be able to turn to the water fountain of refreshment, a Christian friend who spouts forth encouragement.
You have the Power to Destroy or Delight with our tongues.
Jackie Robinson was the first black
major-league baseball player.
He was the victim of racial hatred nearly everywhere he played baseball.
There were fast balls thrown at his hear and curses and slurs hurled at him from the dugouts and stands.
One day, playing at home in Brooklyn, Jackie Robinson made several critical errors.
Taunts and jeers FROM THE TONGUE surfaced even from his own fans.
Teammate and shortstop Pee Wee Reece surveyed the situation.
He walked over to Robinson and placed his arm around his shoulder.
Reece simply stood there until the boo’s subsided.
The gesture spoke eloquently to the crowd more than any words.
Jackie Robinson later said that Reece’s arm around his should saved his career.
The church should be a place where we have an arm around our shoulders.
Where those who have made serious mistakes are loved through both words and deeds.
