Bona Fide
A study of James
Genuine Christian Living
Part 7
“Taming the Tongue”
I have recently been building a new tack room
And part of that process as many of you know
Involves
Going through tack and organizing
Sometimes getting rid of old or extra stuff
This is really hard to do
No good cowboy feels he or she ever has enough tack
But as I was going though box after box of tack
I kept coming across more and more bits
Now some of these bits are considered to be very mild
Others very harsh
In the right hands any of these bits can be a tool
But in the wrong hands
Any of them can actually become a weapon as well
Causing damage instead of producing the desired outcome
We are continuing in our study of James this morning in the series called Bona Fide
We have connected a lot of dots that James has drawn out for us
He has done this in an effort to show us
Though scripture
Through the eyes and words of Jesus
How to live as Bona Fide Believers in Christ
And just as importantly
How to take the love of Christ
Outside of the walls
Of the church building
Out into the community
Out into the world we live in
And show the world
And the lost of this world
First where to find the instructions for living a truly blessed life
And then
Teaching them how to follow those instructions
Through our actions
Through of love
Through our words
--Words---
Think about this with me this morning
Have you ever been hurt by words
I know if you are being honest
That there is no one sitting here that can say otherwise
Have you ever hurt anyone with your words?
Once again
Let’s get real
It happens more than we would like to admit
We say something without thinking it through
We pop off before we consider the effect our words will have
We use the wrong words
At the wrong times
In the wrong ways
This is a problem that all humans have
It is not just a Christian Problem
But
Always a but right
As Bona Fide Believers
When we do this
It is often Christ and his cause that suffer
So
Let’s connect a few more dots this morning
That will help guide us towards that Bona fideness that we desire
And that Pleases Our Lord
Please open your bibles to James Chapter 1
Keep your bulletin there as we will be looking at James charter 3 as well this morning
James chapter 1
Verse 26
“If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.”
James in this passage of scripture
Mashes on all of us just a bit
In fact he flat stomps on some of us
He says we must control our tongue
Or
Once again
Or
Not Are
We are only fooling ourselves
And
Our claim to be Bona Fide
Is just the opposite
It is counterfeit
I know I paraphrased that a bit
But I think you get the point
When we claim to be believers
When we say Jesus is the Lord of our lives
When we say we are Bona Fide
And then we can’t shut our mouths, notice I said we
Not ya’ll- we all can do better in this area
We show just the opposite
You may say
Preacher
What do you mean?
Shut our mouths
What does James mean?
Well in order to better understand what he means by controlling our tongues
It is necessary to skip forward just a bit
In the book of James
To Chapter 3
James 3 Verse 1-11
Dear brothers and sisters,[a] not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.
3 We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. 4 And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. 5 In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.
But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 6 And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.[b]
7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water?
Let’s look first at verse 1 of Chapter 3
“Dear brothers and sisters,[a] not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.”
James is not meaning to discourage anyone from becoming a teacher or from preaching
What he is saying here in Chapter 3 is
If you are teaching
Whose wisdom are you teaching from?
What is the source of your wisdom?
In real easy to understand terms
He is stating that we as believers will be held accountable for what we teach
And when we teach from our own wisdom and our wisdom does not line up with God’s wisdom
We will be judged severely
When we claim to teach in the name of Jesus
We need to be certain of what we are teaching
And be even more certain that the words coming from our mouths line up with scripture
If we truly believe scripture
God’s word says we are to go and make disciples
It does not say the preacher or the elders or the lay pastors or Sunday school teachers are to go
It says we
As believers are to go
That makes each believer a teacher in a way
Because you are influencing others either for Christ
Or against Christ
What message are you teaching?
Chapter 3 verse 2a
“2 Indeed, we all make many mistakes.”
I can tell you as long as we live we will make mistakes
Paul says we are all sinners
Every one of us
Here at Caney Creek we like to say
All people are knot heads
And God loves knot heads
You see mistakes are just part of the human condition
But in the area of Godly teaching we will make fewer mistakes when we teach from scripture
In context, covered by prayer
Instead of teaching our own opinions, views and desires
Many in this world have made the mistake of adding to or taking away from God’s word in an effort to support their personal agenda
Their own views and ideas
Many do this to rationalize their sins
Many even use the name of Jesus to teach something all together different than the word teaches
Listen
If what you are teaching or being taught does not line up with scripture
In context
It ain’t from God
And he won’t be happy about the new ideas
Verse 2b
“For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.”
If we could control our tongues
We would be perfect
Think about this with me
This goes back to James’s teaching in chapter 1
He says when we grow our faith through perseverance
That when it matures
We will be perfect needing nothing
Controlling our tongue
Controlling our speech
Controlling our words
Falls right in line with his previous teaching
You see when our words
Make claims that we are Bona Fide
And we live as Bona Fide believers
We are nearing the perfection that Christ desires
But
When our words show otherwise
We are fooling ourselves
We are not fooling God
He sees our hearts
And seldom are we fooling anyone else either
They see through the farce
But we are definitely fooling ourselves
Verses 3-4
3 We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. 4 And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong.
Here we go back to the image I started with
Controlling animals with a bit
But remember I said a bit could be a tool or a weapon’ a bit in the right hands can make a champion
A bit in the wrong hands can ruin even the smartest well bred horse
And the tiny rudder of a boat when used correctly can guide a huge boat ever so gently even through raging storms
But in the wrong hands
It can capsize a boat even on calm waters
James compares our words
Our tongues
To these bits and rudders
Our tongues make up only a very small part of our bodies
But this part of our bodies
Especially in the area of speech can do more good
Or more damage than all the other parts combined
How so you may ask
Let’s see what James says
Verses 5-6
5 In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.
But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 6 And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.
James says our tongues are like flames of fire
They are tiny
Just a small part of our body
But just like a raging fire can be started by a tiny spark
So can our words
Do great damage
Our inability to control our tongue
Control our words
As we have discussed many times over the course of this study
Can and do hurt people
Our words can build up
Or tear down
Our words can encourage or discourage
Our words can show love or hate
Unkind words
Rude words
Foul or offensive language
Gossip
Bragging
And other wrong uses of our words
Can destroy what Christ is wanting to build
Unity
Like mindedness
Welcomeness
Love for neighbors
A desire for fellowship with him and other believers
You see when we use the gift of words that God gave us
Wrong
We are showing that our speech is motivated by our own evil desires
By Satan Himself
And by the wicked world we live in
When used wrong our tongues produce
Bitterness
Jealously
Selfish ambitions
Worldly thoughts and desires
Un Godly – unspiritual thoughts and ideas
They cause
Disorder
Dissention
Disunity
And division
In the church
In the body of Christ
And in all of our relationships
And none of these things are from God
In short our words when used wrong produce evil
And evil never comes from our Lord
But
When our words are seasoned with God’s love
And his wisdom
When we think before we speak
When we make certain that what we want to or feel we need to say
Is true
Kind
Necessary
and biblical
Then our
Words can produce
Purity
Peace
Order
Unity
Consideration for others
Compassion
Mercy
Sincerity
Impartiality
And
Goodness
And these things are pleasing to God
Chapter 3 verses 7-11
James continues with his word pictures of our tongues or words and speech
7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water?
Most of us have been to a circus or a zoo
Many have seen the old photos of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show
We have seen TV shows and movies
Where all sorts of animals
Have been trained to do the will of their trainer
James says we can train Horses and mules
Buffalo and elephants
And even lions and tigers and bears
Oh My
But that
No one
Can tame the tongue
Listen
We all struggle with this problem
Speaking before thinking
Being quick to judge – condemn- spread gossip
Shortness- rudeness- or simply lack of concern
Sometimes we use hurtful words to the ones we love most
Maybe because we know they are the most forgiving
I don’t know why I or you do this
It should be just the opposite
We should speak love to the ones closest to us
But we often don’t
Going back to James statement
That no one can tame the tongue
Let me ask you a question
Do you think that the horse you ride or the one I ride?
Or the Big Grizzly bear we see in the movies
Was trained in a day?
A week
Do you think they were born trained?
No
It took work
Lots of work
Patience
Lots of patience
And correcting of mistakes
To train them
But one of the most important aspects of training anything
Is submission to the trainer
This is how we learn to tame our tongue
Submit to our trainer
To our Lord and savior
When we speak
Mimic him and his words
Let fresh water flow in the form of love
And kindness
And compassion
Be forgiving of others faults
Or what you think are their faults
Look into the mirror of scripture
At your own heart
Before you speak
And
When you speak
Is fresh or salt water flowing?
What are your words doing?
Building up or tearing down
‘What are your words showing?
Love and mercy
Or hate and selfishness
What are they accomplishing?
Leading someone to the Lord and the joy and forgiveness he brings
Or
Pushing them away
Making them susceptible to the darkness of this word
Are you using words as a tool for Christ?
Or as a weapon for Satan
Let me leave you with this verse as food for thought this morning
Psalm 141:3-4
David was crying out to God
To help him
Tame his speech
To help him not speak evil
He says in Psalm 141
Take control of what I say, O LORD,
and guard my lips.
4 Don’t let me drift toward evil
or take part in acts of wickedness.
Don’t let me share in the delicacies
of those who do wrong.
Close from the heart
Pray
