Good morning and happy Friday! I still think of Fridays as Aloha Fridays. What a cool ring that has to it. Did you know that in the late 60’s the tourism board of Hawaii used this term to encourage local Hawaiian residents to wear aloha shirts to work on Fridays? By doing this they exposed the tourists to the bright prints of traditional Hawaiian shirts, and it created the Aloha shirt boom that we are still experiencing today. You can’t visit Hawaii without either taking your Aloha shirt with you or buying one when you’re there! Oh, the power of creative marketing!
My good friends we have the honor today of studying one of the most impactful, powerful, practical topics in all of God’s Word. A topic that is extremely personal to each and every one of us. A topic that I guarantee at one point in our lives has caused great turmoil and pain, not only to ourselves but many of those around us. Our topic? The tongue and the speech that comes from it. The power of our words.
It’s been said that the most dangerous weapon in the world is the tongue. I would agree with resolve. Wars have been started and millions of people killed because of the tongue. 6 million Jews were killed in World War II because of the tongue. Nations have fallen because of the tongue. Marriages fail every day because of the tongue. Churches have been destroyed because of the tongue and folks today, people are dying and going into eternity without a Savior because of the tongue. The power of our tongue in our world today, is by far the most dangerous weapon we could ever wield.
You might be saying, “oh, Dan, your being melodramatic. I’m really pretty good, I don’t say stuff that’s really that bad.” Think about it this way. If I could time travel back and record every thing that you have said about everybody in your life in the last 30 days, could I play all of it on the 6 o’ clock news? Would you be proud of every single word that you uttered about every person? When I’m honest and answer this question myself, that horrible moment of recollection surfaces. Uh-oh. What did I say? You see if I’m honest, I KNOW that I have said something about somebody that I would not be proud for the world to hear. So, what is it about our tongues that is so hard to control?
Let’s look at our passage this morning. In it, James holds nothing back. You can feel the passion in James’ voice oozing off the pages. Folks, I think James had seen some stuff. I think he had seen firsthand the ravages that our language can have on others, the church, our community and even to our own selves. Our passage in God's Word today will be a little longer than normal but it needs to be read that way. This passage is woven together tightly and cannot be separated. Let’s read the hard, direct, passionate words from God on taming the tongue.
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 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. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 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! 6 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. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
WOW. Thank you God and thank you James for writing down these words today so that we can study them. I can think of nothing more the world can use today than a study on how to control our language and speech towards others. Let’s explore.
James starts out at the top of the pyramid and goes straight for those that teach the Word of God. If you speak harshly to someone, you risk the chance of hurting them. But if you misspeak about the Word of God, you run the risk of leading people away from God and not to God. My friends, that’s bad…very bad. James starts out with saying, “if you can’t tame your tongue, you should Not be teaching the Word of God.” He goes on to say that if you are teaching the Word of God you will be judged with greater strictness. This brings up a great side point. What would you think if I said, “Hey guys I want all of you to come over to my house on Tuesday night for a Plane Geometry study!” Hopefully the first thing you would say is, “Dan, I didn’t know that you knew a lick about Plane Geometry!” And you would be right. Why would I teach about a subject that I knew nothing about and that I have never studied? So why would somebody attempt to hold a Bible study and teach the Word of God if they don’t study it regularly and know it? James is saying just this. Be careful, if you teach the Word of God, you’d better know what your talking about!
James goes on to use five colorful analogies and I love them. Let’s look at them to better correlate the power our tongue and our language has on others.
1) “If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.” If you’ve ever been around horses, they’re big! We see them on TV and in movies but when you get on a horse you fully realize how big and tall they are! Hence the old saying “sitting tall in the saddle.” But that big powerful horse can be controlled with one small piece of metal inserted into his mouth. That bit, when attached to the reins can be used to guide them in any direction the rider wishes. You see this powerful steed is under control in order to be useful to the master. In fact, do you know that’s where the term meek comes from? We think of meek as in the beatitudes from the sermon on the mount. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matt 5:5) We think of meek as weak or timid, but listen to this excerpt from where the root of the word came from:
“The word meek comes from the Greek word “praus” (prah-oos΄). The word “praus” was borrowed from the military and relates to horse training. “The Greek army would find the wildest horses in the mountains and bring them to be broken in. After months of training they sorted the horses into categories: some were discarded, some broken and made useful for bearing burdens, some were useful for ordinary duty and the fewest of all graduated as war horses. When a horse passed the conditioning required for a war horse, its state was described as ‘praus,’ [that is, meek]. The war horse had ‘power under authority,’ ‘strength under control.’ A war horse never ceased to be determined, strong and passionate. However, it learned to bring its nature under discipline. It gave up being wild, unruly, out of control and rebellious. A war horse learned to bring that nature under control. It would now respond to the slightest touch of the rider, stand in the face of cannon fire, thunder into battle and stop at a whisper. It was now ‘meek’.”
I bet after reading that you have a new found respect for being meek before God. Hopefully also you see the analogy of James using the bit and the horse as a picture for us controlling our tongue. We should through the Holy Spirit, allow our language to be “powerful but under authority” and be “strength under control.” What a beautiful, powerful picture we have here.
2) “ Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.” Here James uses the rudder on a ship as a comparison to how our tongue and ultimately our speech towards others will guide our lives. I think we all probably know and understand how a rudder works on a ship but take note of what is emphasized here. The size. Marge and I love to go on cruises. We’ve been on some ships that were over 1100 feet long. These ships are really something to behold. At 14 stories tall they tower over everything they encounter at sea. But do you think the rudder is 1100 feet long? Nope, not even close. Proportionately, rudders are very small compared to the bulk of the ship, but yet they are effective in turning the ship. Note also that this comparison reaches back to the horse and the bit. Does this ship drive itself? Who is controlling the rudder? The pilot. The Captain. The master of the ship. Once again we have a beautiful picture here of our tongues being something small that contain great power. But that great power without control is dangerous. Our speech needs to be controlled by our master and our Captain, Jesus Christ.
3) “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!” Notice the exclamation point at the end. James is using great emphasis here. I think this analogy needs little explanation. We have all seen the power and the ravaging destruction of forest fires. It seems that monthly we see that some fire is raging out of control in California. It destroys houses, property and mainly…lives. But how did the fire start? One single, small, little flame. It’s said that the great Chicago fire of 1871 that destroyed most of the city was started by a cow kicking over a one lantern. One single spark can destroy countless lives. Such is the power of our speech towards others.
4) “Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?” My Memaw and Grandad used to have a pond that was fed by a spring. It was the craziest thing ever. There was an opening in the Earth and it always had a nice little trickle coming from it. I have no idea where it came from, you couldn’t see. But it came from somewhere. Somewhere deep within. My brothers and I would walk down there with our BB guns and shoot at anything that moved. (not really, we also shot at trees) But you know what? Every time we went down there, that spring was releasing fresh water. It was always clean, pure and fresh. You see deep within the Earth, that’s what it was and that’s what it produced. This analogy hits hard. Folks, what is deep down within you? Is it good? Is it full of joy? Is it full of goodness? Or is it full of hatred, anger and bitterness? No matter what it is, IT WILL come bubbling up to the surface. This harkens back to one of my all time favorite verses. “Out of the abundance of the heart flows the mouth.” (Matt 12:34) You see if there’s pure, fresh water deep down, it will surface and refresh those that encounter it. But if it’s salty and bitter deep down it will surface and be unusable at the surface. It will be one or the other…the spring can’t do both.
5) “Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs?” Another beautiful, vivid image of what lies within us. A fig tree is a fig tree and it will produce figs. It will not produce any other fruit. Do you know why? God made it to produce that certain fruit. We are no different as children of God. He made us in His image to bear fruit for Him. We cannot truly love and follow Jesus Christ and bear bad fruit. If we do, then the only obvious solution is that deep within we have a real issue with God. If you’re a fig tree, you make figs. If you follow Christ, you bear fruit for Him.
Now James moves on to a more direct comparison. Here is where God’s Word hits us right between the eyes. This is some of the most direct language you will ever hear in God’s Word. When you’re dealing with something that has the potential to destroy countless lives, you don’t just whisper about it, you shout it to the masses. Listen to God shouting to us about the dangers of our damaging speech.
“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. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.”
I got one word for you…OUCH. This does not paint a rosy, warm, fluffy picture of the power of our speech. As I said before this is some of the most direct, confrontational language you will hear in God’s Word. He REALLY wants us to learn this lesson! Our tongues are “fires full of unrighteousness” Righteousness means “to do right before God” so we’re told here that our tongues are not capable of doing right before God. Not only that, they are fires that can start forest fires. Vivid.
“The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body." Our tongue stains our whole body. That small little tongue adds a tint to everything that we are. No part of us is unaffected by our tongue, it stains it all. “Sets on fire the entire course of life.” My friends there is no part of our lives that our speech cannot damage. It can damage our relationships, our jobs, our fellowship, our families. I could go on and on. It can and will damage every single aspect of our lives. “Set on fire by hell.” You cannot get more direct than this. We’re told our tongues are fire but every fire HAS to be started by another fire, so where do our tongues get their spark? Hell. Hell is the absolute absence of God and we’re told right here that’s exactly where the evil of the tongue originates.
Here comes to me, the crux of the lesson, hence our title for the lesson today. “No human being can tame the tongue.” No human being. That means that ever has been and ever will be. “A restless evil full of poison”. Its restless, it won’t sit still, it’s like a fidgety kid with ADHD. Always moving and getting into trouble. “Full of poison.” Do you know what poison does? It kills. It’s deadly to all those who encounter it. “With it we bless our Lord and curse people who are made in His likeness.” This one hurts. I picture myself siting in church on Sunday morning singing to God and then later that day talking bad about someone that is not doing what I want them to do. That hurts.
Folks, today we have had the opportunity to study one of the most relevant, applicable portions of actually living out God’s Word. Our words have the power to lift up or the power to destroy. Our speech has the power to break down or build up. Our language can encourage or discourage. I pray the study today will help you to better understand the power that our tongues have as we speak to those in our lives. I pray that through the power of the Holy Spirit you will be able to bridle your tongue today and use it to bless other in your life. That you will use it to speak of Jesus and the power of the eternal life that can only be had through Him.
God Bless.
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