The Small Is Significant Series

The story is told of a man who had lived all his life on one of the

small islands of the South Pacific until he came to visit America. He

crossed the continent by train, and spent days watching the

landscape. When the train crossed the Mississippi River, and he was

told how much further he still had to travel, he said this to a fellow

passenger, "I have been thinking about Christopher Columbus.

People make such a fuss about his discovering America, but I don't

think it was so much. America is so big, I don't see how he could

have missed it."

After crossing Iowa three times in July, I can understand his

feelings. We live in a big country. Big is space, big in power, and big

in world influence. Bigness characterizes the thinking of Americans.

The huge Astrodome in Houston, Texas is symbolic of the American

Ideal. It has been called the eight wonder of the world. And 18 story

office building could be built between the surface and the dome.

Men have always been thrilled with bigness. The ancient world had

its pyramids, coliseums, towers and castles. From the time we can

first talk and our mother asks us how big we are, and we thrill her

heart by stretching our arms and saying so big, we are made

conscious of the significance of size.

Bigness is not bad in itself. Government can get too big and

domineering, and so can business. It can become a monopoly, but

bigness in itself is not bad. It has a tendency, however, to lead our

minds astray by making us ignore the significance of the small.

James was a man who fully realized that the small is significant. God

inspired him to share this truth with all believers. When we think of

a great Christian leader, we think of great Bible scholars, men of

deep prayer, and those with a powerful witness. These are the big

things in the Christian life, and we hear them exalted over and over

again. No one would think of ever denying there significance, but

James makes it clear that you can spend your life concentrating on

these big things and still be a failure because of your neglect of the

little things. He is thinking especially of that little thing in the lower

front part of your head called the tongue.

James does not say, if you read your Bible every day, you are a

perfect man, or an ideal and complete Christian. He does not say

you are perfected if you pray and witness effectively. He does say,

however, you are perfected if you have such control of your tongue

that you never offend with it. The ideal Christian is the one who has

realized the significance of the small, and has learned to make no

mistakes with his or her tongue.

If you have ever been wondering why you are not perfect, now

you know. Most sermons on the tongue are looked upon as messages

on a minor problem in the Christian life. They are just little talks on

trivial troubles that Christians have. The big things are what count,

and so we tolerate some of the topical talks on texts about the tongue,

longing to get back to the big stuff of Bible doctrine. There is so

much truth to our feelings that it is hard for us to grasp the

significance of the small. Certainly a message on the cross or

resurrection is far more important than a message on the tongue.

Nevertheless, God through James forces us to examine the

significance of the small, and the role of the tiny tongue in our total

testimony as Christians.

Big things only exist, and can only function properly, because of

little things. That is what James is saying in this passage. A realistic

look at any area of life will prove it is a true principle. We could

explore the great expanse of the universe, and point out that all of it,

in its gigantic colossal bigness, is composed of tiny atoms so small

that they are unseen. All visible reality exists and functions on the

basis of the minute and invisible atom. This is God's doing, and He

follows the same pattern in the spiritual realm. Jesus describes it in

Matt. 13:31 where He said the kingdom of God is like a grain of

mustard seed. It is the smallest of seeds, yet it becomes a huge plant.

God is concerned about the big also, and man can never match

God when it comes to bigness, but in all God does there is the reality

of the significance of the small. We must grasp this truth, and see its

application in all of life before we can deal seriously with the specific