Being all wet ... and admitting it
James 3:9-13
When, as a kid, I was obviously ignorant and wrong, my dad used to say I was "all wet." I guess that is something more than being wet behind the ears. He saw some of the weird things I said and decided I was more wet than just around the ears. And I spoke consistently with just how wet I was.
Either living water is in us and flowing out of us in words and deeds to others or we are:
A. lying about having living water in us or
B. lying in our words and actions about who we are
Everything we say and do should be consistent with who we are.
In this passage, James is speaking about how uncontrollable the tongue is. One of the important ways he is discussing the tongue is a warning to teachers, who will be held to a stricter standard concerning what they say. It is better to be silent than to be a teacher without control over what you say.
The central point of James’ discussion in verses 9-13 has to do with what kind of speech and action is appropriate for believers.
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. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. (James 3:9-13 NIV)
It is a matter of expectation
We dug a new well out back in our yard. Because of where we are, we expected fresh water. And that is what we got.
There are places in Florida, that a person would expect to sink a well and find bitter sulphur water. In that place, they sell water filters as a mater of course. Nobody expects anything else. In some places down in Louisiana, near the bayous a person would expect salt water. That is what is in the water table.
What a person does not expect, is to sink a well here and find salt water. There are specific minerals in the water and that’s what we find.
We had an apple tree in our yard when I was a kid
We got apples off it, not pears
When I was older, we had pecan trees
It grew pecans, not peanuts
James is telling us that
• Just as we can expect consistency between a well and its water
• Just as we can expect consistency between a plant and its fruit
• Everything we say and do should be consistent with who we are
James is not being overly demanding by insisting on consistency in speech. This was a well accepted idea in Greece and Rome of the ancient world. Their poets, politicians and philosophers also talked about the importance of consistency between belief and action. Plato actually said if you say you believe something, but don’t do it, you don’t actually believe it.
In some ways we could say, "if even the world expects this kind of behavior, how much more should we as believers be consistent?"
The idea is not very hard
• We say we believe that Jesus is the Son of God
• We say we believe that He died on the cross to save us from our sins
• We say His power changes us from people of sin to people of righteousness
Do we behave that way or do we keep reaching back for the sin?
• We say that Jesus is the most important person in the world to us
• We say that we love Him and would do anything for Him
• We say that we want to be like Him
So do we talk about Him around people who don’t know Him? When was the last time you said His name to an unbeliever?
The question is very simple:
• When you are shouted at, do you shout back or do you exhibit humility like your Lord?
• When you are confronted with violence, do answer with violence or do you answer with gentleness like your Lord?
• When you are confronted with filthy things, do you enter into the filth or do you extract yourself?
• When you are asked to give to the needy, do you give or do you justify your hard heart?
• You love Jesus, does anyone who doesn’t love Him know it?
• The Bible says don’t lie. Do you lie?
• The Bible says to consider others better than yourself, do you criticize them instead?
It is one thing to come to church and claim around other people who know Jesus that it is important to you. It is another thing entirely to let that belief permeate your life and change you so that all you say and do around others is consistent with that claim.
Here is the thing:
You are a well of living water. Jesus said this:
But anyone who drinks the water I give him will never be thirsty. In fact, the water I give him will become a spring of water in him. It will flow up into eternal life." (John 4:14 NIrV)
If you have asked Jesus and He has given you this water of eternal life, it is an artesian well inside you that cannot help but overflow.
• Do you think that the eternal life given to you by Jesus is meant to be lived in any way you please?
• Do you think that by "eternal life" Jesus means more of the same life you had before?
God forbid
The idea of "eternal life" is more difficult than it sounds. It is more than "life that goes on forever." The idea of "eternal" in "eternal life" conveys more than duration of time. It also suggests a supernatural connection with the only self-sufficient person in existence ... God.
• It means eternal
• It also suggests supernatural
• It also suggests Spiritual
• It also suggests Holy
If life is that essence which we can only get from God and only He can take it away, breathed into humans when we became a living soul, then the abundant life, the eternal life available to us is the breath of God.
• If you claim to be a believer in Jesus
• If you claim to love God
• if the life you have, and more so, the eternal life you have is the vehicle by which you expend the breath of God
Do you seriously think it is acceptable to live any way you want to?
In the Fall of 2003 Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the Mexican Ambassador to the United Nations made a statement. He said, "unfortunately, the understanding that the political and intellectual class of the United States has of Mexico is a country whose position is that of a back yard.’’
The Mexican people said that he was expressing the sentiments of the citizens. He may have been right in many ways.
However, he made this statement on the eve of a series of sensitive diplomatic talks about to begin between the U. S. and Mexico. Mexico’s President Fox did not appreciate the criticism and immediately forced the ambassador’s resignation.
Why?
• If the ambassador was speaking his mind
• And the Mexican public agreed with him
• And his statement may have even expressed the truth from some points of view
Why did President Fox fire him?
Because, an ambassador is not appointed to:
• speak his own mind
• or express the opinion of the populace
• or even to reflect an obvious point of view
He is appointed to uphold the policy of his nation’s government. He is meant to do and say things that reflect the perspective of the president or the monarch of his nation. He is not his own man, he is a representative, not of his country, but of his country’s national policy and leader.
It is only natural. If a man represents another man, he should reflect that person’s interests and viewpoint, not his own. A lawyer in a courtroom does not represent his own perspective, but his client’s.
Here is the way Paul expresses it:
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV)
This passage is specifically talking about sexual sin, but the application is more general. "Honor God with your body." This includes your body in every part
• The hands you strike others with or serve them
• The mouth you speak curses with or blessings
• The tongue you promote yourself with or Christ
• The feet with run toward evil with or follow Jesus
Make a note
Begin a habit. In a journal, record your actions, not just the nature of the actions themselves and how you felt about them, but record their moral character. Record any action that you do or word you say that can have the direct affect of expressing the truth about your commitment to Christ or pointing another person to Him.
For example:
Today my coworker (or classmate, or spouse) swore at me. What he said really got under my skin. It does every time. Usually, I would verbally abuse him or shout at him in response, but today I decided to take a different approach. I paused and took a deep breath to get control, then I looked him in the eye and said, "Usually I would have a come-back, but not today. I’m not going there."
I didn’t feel any better. In fact I was so angry, I walked away very quickly to avoid getting sucked back in. I found a place where I could cool off by myself. I didn’t say anything about Jesus or the Bible, but hopefully I did a better job reflecting Jesus than I usually do. Hopefully also, I can do it again next time. Eventually, maybe I will have opened a door for something more in the future.
Another example entry:
Today my friend and I were talking. She asked me about any New Years resolutions I made. It wasn’t exactly a resolution, but I told her how I had taken up the challenge to read the Bible completely through this year.
I was surprised. She didn’t laugh or say anything negative. She just expressed how that was a huge challenge because it is such a big book and so hard to read. I think she was impressed.
She asked how I was doing. I told her, "I’m a little behind, but I’m getting a lot out of it." Now I have another reason to keep up. The door is opened and I can tell her how it is coming or tell her about what I am reading. I think she’ll be interested.
There are a couple of extremes in which we think of expressing our faith.
A. We don’t express it at all, for fear of ridicule or misunderstanding. We don’t want to be seen as a religious nut like the people on TV who everyone looks at suspiciously because they are Christians.
B. We imagine the courage of the martyrs. Who are these people who are so bold that they stood for Christ even to the point of death?
The fact is our witness is most naturally everywhere in between. We should not be silent, and we will probably never be threatened because of our faith.
What we need is the most casual kind of courage. We need the courage to be ourselves.
Jesus has forgiven us and He calls us to change in the way we speak and act.
Everything we say and do should be consistent with who we are.
The spring of living water in us will only become a flood plain if we let it flow out freely.
We don’t have to confront people with our faith to express it. We don’t have to impose Jesus on them to mention Him. We don’t have to be a stick in the mud to do the right thing.
We just have to love enough to be open, and be honest enough to be real.
If Jesus is giving us living water, enough and to spare, we should be all wet with it.
And we should be happy to admit it to others.
It is the only way they will get wet too.
