Jas 3:1-12 NKJV My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. (2) For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. (3) Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. (4) Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. (5) Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! (6) And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. (7) For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. (8) But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. (9) With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. (10) Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. (11) Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? (12) Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
“Watch your tongue. It's in a wet place where it's easy to slip!”
James starts out by saying that not many should become teachers, knowing that teachers have a greater burden of speaking and teaching about the Word of God. In truth James is saying that we should not be too quick to step into the role of teacher, but first be sure that God is really calling you to become one who is to use his or her tongue to teach others about God. None of us is perfect, that is the point that James makes, we all slip up from time to time, he also points out that it does not take something big to cause problems. Talking about a ship that is controlled by a rudder which is in reality pretty small considering the size of the ship.l
It is a truth that if you are to teach the Bible, you can only hope to affect the lives of your students if you yourself live the scriptures yourself. You must be totally committed to Christ, morally upright and believe what the scriptures say. If you don't then you cannot hope to bring people into a knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Now the tongue as James says is a powerful thing, it can hurt or it can heal. Many things are said that are hurtful to others, and since we are Christian people it is our responsibility to not do things that are hurtful to others. James uses the example of a ship, it is a very large vessel, yet it is guided by a small item called a rudder. He also speaks of horses, we put a bit in the horses mouth and use it to make the horse move in the direction we want it to go. The tongue too is a small thing, yet it can be used in ways that cause great pain to others.
I have watched the events unfold in the Middle East this week, people have preached hatred against the United States and incited their followers to riots and then have used those riots to kill 4 of our embassy staff in Libya. There are those who say it is because of a movie that denigrates Mohammed their "prophet". I doubt that many people had seen this 15 minute "movie" which does indeed denigrate Mohammed. It makes him out to be somewhat of a weird person, but it is so poorly done it is actually quite stupid. I did go and watch it simply because I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Anyone who seriously believes what this thing says, is really having big problems in their own lives. I have studied the history of religion in our world, and it makes quite a different picture than what this thing does.
Of course part of the problem with good Christian people, is that we sometimes don't think about what we are saying. Sometimes we hear something from someone we know, or worse, get something from someone we know in an email, and pass it on without checking if it is true. We need to be more careful about our words than those around us, and we need to be sure that what we say is not hurtful to others. One of the worst things we can do is to pass on gossip, things we hear from someone that we think may be true. The problem with gossip is that the person who tells you that juicy tidbit, will probably be telling someone else something about you.
When I was in my first year in Rocksprings, my wife and I had moved from San Antonio and we moved into the parsonage and started to fill our refrigerator with the food we had brought with us, and with that which our parishioners had pounded us with. For those who don't know what a pounding is, it is or was one of the things that a church would do for a new pastor when that pastor first arrives. It used to be that there was no way for a pastor to carry food with them, so the congregation would each give what they could to feed the pastor for the first few days after arrival.
As we unpacked our truck, and our car I came across a partially used 12 pack of beer that we had bought for some friends who had come to visit with us a few weeks earlier. They had only drunk a couple of cans and so we had 10 cans left and I put it in a refrigerator that was outside in a utility closet. A few weeks after my arrival we had a Vacation Bible School and since it was set in Bible times and the kids were dressed in costume and assigned to the 12 tribes of Israel, the ladies who were responsible for the snacks for the kids had decided on figs, dates, grapes and other fruits. They needed to store the fruits in a refrigerator and they asked me if they could use the outside refrigerator. Of course I said yes. Well they brought the food and left it in the frig. That evening I happened to need a couple of items from the store and so went out to get them. At the store, the owner's wife a parishioner of our church saw me. She came up and asked to speak with me privately, when we got to a quiet place, she said to me, "do you drink beer?" I said no, I don't, why? Well I hear you have about 10 cans of beer in that outside refrigerator. We had a preacher a few years ago who was fond of the communion wine. We finally had to run him out of our church.
Oh, heavens, I said, that beer was purchased for a friend of ours who was visiting from another state, he only drank 2 cans. I have been saving the beer to make BBQ sauce, and maybe beer bread. I had forgotten it was there.
The rumor had gone all over town that I was a beer drinker, when in truth I had not had a beer in quite a few years. Instead of asking me about the beer, whoever it was that saw the cans, told others who told others and so on. I am glad that finally someone asked me about the beer in that frig, and I could set the record straight. But you see what could have come of that gossip going all over the town, it might very well have ruined my ability to preach and teach the word of God in that place.
I had a very good ministry instead because someone thought to ask me instead of continuing to pass on the gossip they had received. It pays to check out the stories we hear from others, and if it turns out that they are passing on gossip, tell them, confront them with the truth, gossip hurts not just the person it is about but can hurt the church you purport to be a part of. Why would anyone want to go to a church that is a gossip mill?
When someone sends me one of those things that circulate around the internet for years, I research it very carefully, if it is truth, then I pray about it and ask some questions of myself. One and most important, is it true. Two is it necessary to tell everybody I know about this? Third is it hurtful and fourth will it further the cause of Christ. If these things are answered in a truthful way, most of what I get will go in my trash folder to be deleted later on.
So we have looked at the ways that the tongue can be hurtful, what about how the tongue can be healing? How do we heal the hurts the world brings upon our fellow human beings? Jas 3:9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Jas 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. James then goes on to explain what he means in regard to the tongue and how it is used.
In verse 11 James asks if a spring or stream can produce both fresh water and salt water. Of course the answer is no it cannot. The tongue then should also not produce both blessing and cursing. In verse 12 James asks about a fig tree, can it also produce olives, again the answer is no. Just as a stream produces fresh water the fig tree produces figs. Both bring nourishment to the hungry or the thirsty person. That therefore is how our tongue should be - bring good to the soul of those we speak with. This really is a spiritual issue, if our spirit is right then we should speak rightly, we should speak words that bring refreshing to the soul of those around us. If we are truly persons who love God that love should be seen in our actions and especially in our words.
Here are some questions we can ask ourselves:
Do I teach others things that I do not myself follow?
Do I criticize others behind their back?
Is my speech consistently clean, edifying, kind?
Do I make jokes about the Scriptures? In retelling a story, do I exaggerate in order to make people more impressed?
Do I always tell the truth, even if it means loss of face, friends, or finances?
It is not easy to be different, yet we are asked to be different from those around us who may not know Christ. We are not of this world, we just live here for now, If Christ is truly Lord, then we should emulate Him, follow His example.
