Chapter 3 begins a new discussion. The first two chapters of James have been about trials and temptations and how we can overcome them. These trials and temptations are common to everyone. We all have things that cause us to walk through a valley in life. We are all tempted from time to time. But now James tells us that these trials and temptations are especially common to teachers.
Teachers are being specially addressed now. What is the first temptation common to us all, but especially to teachers? That of misusing the tongue. I am sure that most teachers and preachers have said something that could not be backed up by Scripture. So, we must be careful. Let’s get into the passage.
READ v. 1. If a church was soliciting for Sunday school teachers, this might not be the verse to have them read. But what James says is so true. Not many believers should become teachers because teachers shall face a stricter judgment from God. A teacher is always telling others how to live and correcting them when they come short. A teacher, in that position, is responsible for the lives and spiritual growth of those under him/her. God holds the teacher responsible.
So, if the teacher fails to live what he teaches, he will bear a greater judgment and condemnation. Teachers must live what they teach and preach. Let’s note three facts about this.
1. A person should commit his life to teach only if he cannot keep from teaching. Teaching is a high calling. It’s ranked second only to the apostles and the prophets.
2. A person is not to fear this responsibility and neglect the gift of teaching. If a person is called to teach or preach and is gifted in it, then that person must teach or preach.
3. A teacher’s main tool for work is speech or the tongue. So, it’s the tongue and its use that will have a great bearing on the teacher’s condemnation. The tongue is where the first great temptation attacks teachers, the temptation to misuse the tongue. Now, there are four things about the tongue that believers must know, but especially teachers, and these 4 things are the subject for the remainder of this passage.
READ v. 2. The tongue stumbles and sins often. Note that it says “we all stumble.” This includes teachers and preachers. No believer, no matter how great a teacher he is, is free from stumbling and falling. The verse says, ”In many ways” we all stumble. We don’t just occasionally fall and sin. We are always coming up short before God. Is there anyone here that has never come up short before God? Thank you for being honest.
You see, this includes all teachers or preachers as well. So, what is the proof of this? When some believers live such pure and righteous lives and walk so faithfully among us, how can Scripture say that they are always offending and stumbling? Look at the tongue. Is our tongue always showing that we are patient, kind, rejoicing in the truth, bearing all things, believing God in all things, hoping in God in all things, enduring all things for God? Do our tongues never brag, or act puffed up, or jealous, rude, or never think evil thoughts?
How short we are of the glory of God! The tongue shows us that we are always stumbling and coming short. We are held accountable by God for every word we speak so we must learn to control the tongue.
The tongue speaks what is in the heart or mind, and it’s the tongue that will either acquit or condemn us before God. That’s why Jesus said, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks…For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12: 34, 37)
READ vv. 3-5. This speaks for itself. The tongue is a little part, making great boasts. James gives two illustrations of how the bit in a horse’s mouth steers the whole animal, and how the small rudder guides the large ship.
He says, so it is with the tongue. It’s such a little part but can have such destructive power. That destructive force comes in the form of boasting. A person can boast about anything and can boast in a quiet, unassuming way or boast by talking big. But no matter how the boasting is done, it’s destructive.
It either lowers the image of a person in the eyes of others because of his boasting, or it makes the listener feel inferior or less of a person than the boaster. Boasting is nothing more than vain or empty talk, but it’s destructive force must never be underestimated.
READ v. 5-6. The tongue is a fire, a world of evil. Verse 5 says that a great forest is set on fire by only a little spark. So, it is with the tongue. The tongue is a fire that can set the whole forest of lives and relationships on fire, destroying anything in its path.
Just think about the great damage that has been done by the fire of words. Rumors, gossip, cutting remarks. Words have destroyed marriages. Words have disturbed children, damaged friendships, ruined relationships, caused fights and even wars. The list could on and on, but the point is well made. The tongue can be a little fire that sets ablaze and consumes a whole forest of people and relationships.
Note what the fire of the tongue does. It corrupts the whole person and sets on fire the whole course of a man’s nature. The tongue can pollute and dirty a man’s whole body. How? Just think for moment how all the evil of the world finds expression in our words. Words that lead to immorality & wickedness, idolatry & murder. Words that are malicious, envious & divisive. I think you get the picture.
Name the sin, and words are involved either through thoughts of the mind or verbally through the tongue. And the source of a fiery tongue is hell. Satan himself is the igniter of a fiery tongue. A believer’s tongue is never to speak forth the fiery flames of hell’s destructive words.
READ vv. 7-12. The tongue is the only creature that cannot be tamed (v.7). Men have tamed every kind of creature there is: animals, birds, reptiles, and some creatures of the sea. The tongue cannot be completely tamed by any man (v.8). That is, fully and completely tamed. The verse says that no man can tame the tongue. But God can.
So, the point is this, no man is able to tame his own tongue, not fully, not completely, not adequately, not enough to please God. Only Christ can control a man’s tongue—control it so that it can be under enough control to please God.
James describes the tongue as being restless, full of deadly poison. It can bless God in one breath and curse men in the next, men who are made in the image of God. So, the tongue is inconsistent. It blesses God and curses men. Imagine! The very same tongue that blesses is the same tongue that curses.
How many sit in church on Sunday or at meals blessing God and then turn around on Monday and curse or use foul and off-colored language? It’s the same tongue that does both. It’s difficult to hold the tongue still, and when it speaks, it’s just as liable to speak some curse word as it is to speak some blessing.
It’s like the guy who got a phone call from God. All you hear is this side of the conversation. “Yes, Lord. Do I what? Do I ever use foul language? No, sir. Never! I only and always give you the praise. Never to I ever utter a single foul word or use Your Name in vain.”
“Say, what? What did I say when I slammed my finger in the cabinet door? Well, ah, Lord. I don’t quite remember but I know I just didn’t feel like giving the praise at that moment.”
You see, it can slip up on anyone if we are not careful. So how can we control or learn to control our tongues? The tongue has to be controlled by believers with the grace and mercy of God—with God’s help.
James says, “Brother—all who are brothers of James—brothers in the Lord—this should not be.” It’s not fitting or right for a believer’s tongue to be untamed. Because, when you think about it, it is totally inconsistent for a believer’s tongue to be untamed. A believer is just like a fountain, a fountain for God.
It’s contrary to the nature of believers to have an untamed tongue. A believer is just like a fig tree. Does the fig tree bear olives? Or a vine, figs? No fountain yields both salt and fresh water. No good tongue yields both words of blessing and words of cursing. Only an evil tongue, speaking from an evil heart could do this.
I guess a lot of our church members, most of whom I have baptized as they professed Christ as their Savior, must forget that I, too, am on FACEBOOK. Either they forget or just don’t care. Some of the language I see posted in their comments just plain embarrasses me. I have commented on some but it hasn’t made a difference.
Some have gotten so bad that I have finally unfriended them so I don’t see all the vulgarity and foul language they use—using God’s name in vain. Do they know better. Yes, they do. Many have been trained up as a child or youth in this church. So, yes, they know better.
What’s the solution to using foul language? If you are one that slips every now and then and blurts out something tainted, what can you do to correct it? It must come from God’s conviction of one’s heart. Some have been cussing so long that they don’t even realize the foul words they use in conversation. So, you pray that God will convict you of it. And start substituting more pleasant, less harmful, less graphic words in place of what you are used to using.
I had an uncle, my mom’s brother, Uncle Charlie. I never heard him say a curse word. He had other words. And you knew by those words that he was angry.
“Dad burn it!” he would say. “What in the Sam hill do you think you’re doing?”
Things like that. But he was a man of God. He still expressed his anger, but only in terms that didn’t degrade our Lord.
And we can do the same. If any of this pertains to you, ask God for help. Ask Him to cleanse your heart so that when you heart shows through, it won’t be offensive to our Lord. And remember, Jesus said, “The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.”
