Taming the Tongue

So we're in James chapter 3 tonight and we are talking about the tongue. So we're

James 3 · chapter mention

gonna read, I'll read the passage for us and then I'm gonna tonight just kind of

do an expositional bit of a verse by verse teaching through these 12 verses

that deal with the tongue. So if you have your Bibles turn to James chapter 3

James 3 · chapter mention

starting in verse 1. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you

know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness, for we all

stumble in many ways and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a

perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths

of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the

ships also, though they are so large driven by strong winds, they are guided

by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue

is a small member yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze

by such a small fire and the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The

tongue is set among our members staining the whole body, setting on fire the

entire course of life and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird of

reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no

human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With

it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the

likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing, my brothers,

these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening

both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine

produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. This is God's word.

Now let me make sure I can share my screen real quick. I have some slides for

you and pulling at Thomas Davis tonight. There we are. Can you all see that? Yes,

okay good. Very good. Alright, so we're going to begin by looking at just kind of

chunk by chunk. We're gonna look at the first two verses. Not many of you should

become teachers, for teachers will be judged with greater strictness. Now I

just want to notice a couple things here. I will spend less time in this section

and then the later sections. Teachers, teachers of the Bible particularly in a

church context are judged according to their words. They're judged with a

greater strictness. And we all probably know that. I mean teachers primarily talk.

It's what we do. So of course the words that we say are really

important. But I just want to draw this out. This is really important that

teaching in a church is more about responsibility than it is a privilege of

status. And so I just want to say quickly that your ministers need your prayers

more than they need your admiration. Now I think you already know that. But it's a

good reminder. I think the Lord wants us tonight to remember our teachers in prayer.

I think that's very important. And not just of course our preachers, although

I cover your prayers too. But you know if you're plugged into St. Columbus you're

in a city group most likely. Your city group has one, two, maybe three teachers

who teach occasionally. If you're joining the Abide Studies you're gonna have

you know four, five, or even six different teachers next month in the next two

months. They all need your prayer. You know the women who teach it at women of

the word in all these different contexts we need to be lifting up our teachers

with prayer because it's a serious business. It's a very serious business.

But notice also that James doesn't restrict this passage to teachers. He's

not just talking about teachers, the Bible. You know those of us who don't

teach don't have permission to check out at this point. He actually follows that

up by saying you know we all stumble with what we say. We all stumble with

the tongue. So it is important for teachers but it's important for all of

us as well. So James goes right into introducing the topic at hand. He's

talking about the tongue. He's talking about the words that we say and he

teaches us that if you can master the tongue you can master your whole self.

Now he says that the one who can control the tongue is a perfect man. And

remember from our conversation about James chapter one I think it was our

first engine room on James. When James talks about perfection he's not talking

about sinlessness. He's talking about maturity. He's talking about growing into

the sort of person God intends for you to be. And James one shows us that you

know he talks about perfection or maturity there and actually the whole

letter of James is deeply concerned all throughout the whole thing with wisdom

and maturity. It's a letter about Christian maturity. So that's kind of

the first gleaning we get from that section is that mastery of the tongue

is a mark of Christian maturity. Now let's look at the next section versus three

through five A the first half of verse five. If we put bits into the mouths of

horses so that they obey us we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the

ships also they're so large and are driven by strong winds but they are

guided by very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the

tongue is a small member yet it boasts of great things. So James is using here two

images to illustrate how something so small can have such a great impact. The

tongue is small but it has great potential. The bridle just a bit that

goes in a horse's mouth is a small little piece only about that long but you

can steer this huge horse with it. You know a ship's rudder is tiny in

comparison to the size of the ship. You get the idea. But there's a danger with

these illustrations. An uncareful maybe a hasty reading could set us often in a

bit of the wrong direction. You know James as I think we talk about this a lot

James is wisdom literature which means it's literature meant for careful

study and long reflection. You know you read James and then you brew a cup of

tea and you have a you have a sit and think where you go for a walk and you

just chew on it. You think it over. So let's reflect on this together. It's easy

to think that James is saying that the whole horse is controlled by means of

the bit or that the ship is controlled by means of the rudder. Now of course in

actuality that's true but that's not the image he's drawing out because if it

were the inference would be that the whole Christian is controlled by means

of harnessing their tongue. But that's clearly not the case. If you can get a

hold of your tongue and control your tongue that is not the sum total of

Christian maturity. Right? If you can master your tongue that doesn't mean

that therefore your work is done. James chapter one makes this clear when he

says that maturity or perfection is is achieved by letting steadfastness have

its full effect when we're in trials. So of course they can't be mutually

exclusive. Okay so so he's not saying that the whole Christian is controlled by

means of controlling the tongue. What is he saying? Well we need to read this in

light of verse two. So on the screen you can see verse two there he says well

there's a very careful word there that is able. It's a very important word. He

says if anyone does not stumble in what he says he's a perfect man able also to

bridle his whole body. He doesn't say he's a perfect man by bridling his whole

body. So I think we can kind of rephrase this and how and understand these

two images of the horse and the ship in this way. If the rider can control the

horse's mouth she can surely control the whole horse. If the pilot can control the

rudder he can surely control the whole ship. If the Christian can control that

unruly tongue they can surely control the whole self. So there's really two

gleamings from this section then. If you can master your tongue you can master

the whole self. If you can do that what can't you do? It's that hard and the

small tongue has great potential. Now let's move to the next section. How great

a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. The tongue is a fire, a world of

unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members staining the whole body

setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell. Let's stop

there for a moment. So with those two illustrations of the horse and the ship

James taught us that though the tongue is small it has great potential but now

now he's talking about fire and hell. Now we learn that the kind of great

potential that the small tongue has is this kind of great potential that a

spark has in a dry forest. With merely a word just a rumor a murmur we can

destroy life. We can watch someone else's world come crashing down because of

careless words. Our own world can come crashing down around us because of

things that come out of our mouths. It's a world of unrighteousness set on fire

by hell. Now when I was a kid growing up in Washington State I had a little

pellet gun. It was actually kind of a high-powered one like a handgun and

just you know and one day I was out shooting trees and branches and stuff in

the yard and I saw this little robin. North American robins are about twice as

big as the robins that are out here in Scotland but they're beautiful with the

orange breast. It's just a lovely bird and on a whim I took aim and I shot kind of

carelessly actually and I hit that robin in the neck and it fell over and

started flopping around on the ground and it took a long time to die and I

really can't... I'm a bit of a softy I suppose. I'm still kind of haunted by

the guilt and the shame that I felt in that moment. It's vivid for me still you

know 20-25 years later. There was no going back from that moment. That bird was

dead or dying and there was nothing I could do to undo what I had done and I

felt awful about it. And like a bird in its last throws of life or like a forest

fire raging out of control our tongues can cause damage that is not easily

mitigated. Sometimes there's just no going back from our words. The Westminster

larger catechism question 135. Does anyone have that memorized? Thomas? No? Okay.

Question 135 asks what are the duties involved in the sixth commandment? Now

the sixth commandment out of the ten is thou shalt not kill. What are the duties

involved? Well the answer is long and I'm not going to read it all for you but one

of the surprising duties involved in obeying the command to not kill is that

we have mild and courteous speech. Isn't that interesting? The Westminster

Divines understood that the great potential that the tongue has to destroy.

They understood that to obey the commandment thou shalt not kill. We

didn't just have to avoid killing. We had to actively seek to give life with our

whole bodies including our tongues. That we use our tongue to give life not death.

We use our tongue to build up and encourage not to destroy and tear down.

We use our tongue to be mild and courteous not to be brash and to trample

people and make them feel small. Now look at verses seven and eight. This is the

bad news. You thought that was bad. This is the bad news. For every kind of beast

and bird of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind

but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of poison.

Deadly poison. Excuse me. That small tongue has great potential. We just learned

that from the last section. Now he's telling us the small tongue has great

potential for evil. The potential inside the tongue is for destruction and

there's nothing you can do about that. No human being can tame it. Well where do

we go from there? So those are our two gleaning that small tongue is great

potential for evil and you can't tame tongue. Now our final section verses 9

to 12. With our tongue we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people

who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and

cursing. My brothers these things ought not to be so. And by the way James didn't

need to say that part about these things ought not to be so. We should all

have the clarity of sense to to see that. It's almost like he couldn't help

himself. He's like this is awful. We shouldn't be you know berating our

children or our spouses on the morning on the way to church and then lifting up

that same voice and praise of God. There's something awful and evil about

that. Something double-minded to use the language of James 1. My brothers these

things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both

fresh and salt water? Of course the answer is no. It's kind of fig tree. My

brothers bear olives or a grapevine produce figs. Again no. Neither can a

salt pond yield fresh water. Okay so earlier we saw two illustrations

followed by a teaching. The horse and the ship followed by his teaching on the

tongue. Now we see the teaching followed by three illustrations. Okay so the first

illustration is or the teaching is that from the same mouth come blessing and

cursing. He's just telling us what we're like. This falls under the category of we

all stumble with what we say. We all do this. So no one's getting out here

including me. That's the teaching from the same mouth come blessing and

cursing. Now the three illustrations. One does a spring give forth fresh and salt

water. Fig tree produce olives. Salt pond give fresh water. In other words James

wants us to be thinking about and reflecting on not just the tongue but

the source. The tongue's source. In all his illustrations this is the case. The

horse has a rider. The ship has a pilot. Water has a spring. A fig has a tree.

And the tongue has a heart.

James wants us to understand that the tongue gives expression to what's in the

heart. Let's flip that around and think about it from the other perspective. If

the tongue gives expression to what's in the heart then you can know a man or a

woman's heart by how they use their tongue. Isn't that a bit terrifying? So I

have here a bottle of hand sanitizer. St. Columbas brand so it's extra holy.

You know it's very purifying cleansing. Now this is liable to get a little messy.

This is you. You are this bottle. Okay. Life comes along. This is life. This big

grabby hand. And life sometimes just squeezes you. Right? Just squeezes you

with stress and frustration and anxiety. What comes out? What comes out of the

bottle is what's inside the bottle. My hands are very clean now by the way. My

apologies to Hamish who's gonna have to clean that mess up later. I'm kidding. When

life squeezes us what comes out of our mouths is what's in the heart. That's a

good diagnostic for you to ask yourself in all honesty in your times with your

in your times of prayer with the Lord and talking to your spouse, your friends.

It's good to reflect on what comes out of your mouth and ask is that is that the

state of my heart? Because a spring cannot pour forth fresh and saltwater.

Alright I'm gonna stop sharing my screen. Here we are. So the real question is now

how do we use our tongues to not destroy? How do we not light the forest fires? How

do we not tear down the people around us? You know we're decades into these

bad habits. All of us are. How do we undo it? Well James doesn't just come out and

give you the answer I'm afraid to say but if we read this passage in context of

the whole letter because remember it's just a letter it's meant to be read kind

of at once and understood as a whole then I think the answer will become

fairly clear. James is guiding us toward thinking about the source of the tongue

the thing that controls the tongue which is the heart and when he talks about the

heart he always talks about wisdom. For instance the next two verses so verse

Invition in your hearts do not boast and be false to the truth. See wisdom and

the heart go hand in hand for James. So throughout the whole letter of James as

I said that one of the threads that runs through it all is wisdom and this is

really important for James. Wisdom does not spring out naturally from us. We

aren't just born with this natural wisdom you might have some common sense to

you but you don't have godly wisdom innately. Wisdom comes down to us from

God. For example James 1.5 if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives

generously to all without reproach. James 1.17 every good and every perfect gift

comes is from above coming down from the father of lights. James 3.17 but the

wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle open to reason full of

mercy and good fruits etc. If there is any hope for us to grow in maturity as

Christians and to sow seeds of life and peace with our tongues rather than using

our words to light the fires of hell then we must have hearts full of the

wisdom that comes down from God. So let me start to wrap this up with a few

points of application something hopefully a little bit less theoretical and

more practical. So just four short things that we can remember for application

here ask receive do and think. I didn't try to put that in a clever

monomic device if you tried to pronounce it it would be art so that

doesn't work but ask receive do and think okay. So number one ask James 1.5

that I just read is just a marvelous invitation we never get beyond this in

the Christian life if anyone lacks wisdom that's me if anyone lacks wisdom

let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be

given him excuse me when he says that God gives generously without reproach he

means that God's not going to belittle you for asking. So if you come and say

Lord I can't get my tongue under control I need help and I need your wisdom he's

not gonna say yeah you do it's about time you ask for help you've really messed

this up haven't you that is not the heart of God the heart of God is deeply

generous his impulse is generosity and warmth and kindness he loves it when we

ask him for wisdom and if that doesn't seem true to you go read the story of

Solomon he's deeply generous so we ask we just ask number two we receive we just

receive the wisdom from above what I mean is with kind of the empty hands of

faith saying I don't have the wisdom Lord but you do we just we receive this

wisdom by hearing the word hearing the word of God the Spirit makes it come

alive we can receive that wisdom number three do so ask receive do our theme for

this year is be doers of the word and not hearers only that's our whole theme as a

church if we if we ask for the wisdom and we hear it in God's word we see the

wisdom there and we do nothing what use is it we must then put in practice what

we see in the word of God we must receive and hear and go do it we need to

live out the wisdom that we see even when it's hard ask receive do number four

thank if you follow this if you ask the Lord for wisdom and you receive it and

you begin to put it into practice it's all by his grace Philippians says to

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in

you both you're willing and you're working in other words every mark of

progress we make in the Christian life we can look back on where we just came

from and say I'm not there anymore praise God he did something in me he's so

faithful and generous I can't take credit for that you can't take credit for

your own spiritual growth that's God's work in you that's marvelous so that's

that's how we end that application we ask receive we do and we thank him for

what he's doing in our lives

you know when we first moved to Scotland which was almost two years ago now

every day we thought so often about the difference in accent and dialect we all

had such different ways of saying things and such different words for all sorts of

normal things now of course obviously I still don't sound like you I probably

never will but when I talk on the phone to my friends in Nashville I don't sound

like them either as we spent time with you all our speech began to change our

imperceptibly we began accidentally adopting phrases that we never would

have said in the States so a trash can became a rubbish bin you know instead of

saying hello we say hiya instead of saying come on in we say in you come

instead of saying thanks you say cheers these are all entirely foreign to the

Nashville dialect but that's what happens when we spend time with people we

love you start to talk like them

friends if we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly you will pick up the

accent and dialect at the kingdom of heaven

without Christ our tongues are set on hell by fire with Christ our tongues are

doused with the waters of baptism as we're united to Christ by His Spirit and

they can be a spring of life not just for us but for those around us too

Amen