Speech Patrol
James 3:1-12
My reading habits have drastically changed over the last several months. Where
Reader's Digest and the sports section once cluttered our coffee table, a new
monthly magazine now sits: New Baby. I found this quote in an article a few
weeks back. "You spend the first two years of your child's life teaching them to
talk and the next sixteen trying to get them to be quiet!"
Tongue trouble is, in fact, a lifelong struggle. You never reach the age or
level of maturity where you have completely conquered it, for "no man can tame
the tongue" (vs.8). Anyone who thinks otherwise dangerously underestimates its
power and potential. Solomon said that death and life are in its hand (Prov.
18:21) and that the one who guards his mouth is able to keep his whole soul from
trouble (21:23).
The first twelve verses of chapter three make up James' sermon on the tongue.
This section first appears to be a lesson for teachers; let not many of you be
"masters" (KJV), for few can master the tongue. But the applications reach to
include anyone who speaks.
"The tongue is a small part of the body" (vs. 5).
When you think about all of the organs and muscles that make up your body, the
tongue seems rather small and insignificant. "Yet it boasts of great things."
The two examples that James uses, the horse's bit and the ship's rudder,
indicate that a little can do a lot. Even children can guide the direction of a
horse when they have control of its mouth; for a little bit goes a long way. And
a captain can steer a massive ship through the winds and waves of a storm by
using a small rudder. He can overcome the elements and the odds against him by
controlling that little device. As Wordsworth observes, "we rule irrational
animals with a bit, how much more ought we to be able to govern ourselves." If
you can't, James says your religion is worthless (1:26).
"The tongue is a fire" (vs. 6). Gossip sometimes
begins innocently, even accidentally. But all it takes is one careless match,
one slip of the tongue, and a whole community of people can be brought down.
What's worse, it doesn't take long for a flickering flame to become a raging
inferno. And have you ever tried to put one out? You might be able to correct
the matter with the people you told. But how will you ever track down the people
they told, and the people they told... It's almost impossible to take a home
destroyed by fire and put it back together. What about taking back the words you
used to burn someone else? You can apologize and make it right, but your mouth
has already spoken out of that which fills your heart.
"The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles
the entire body" (vs. 6). Don't believe the old adage about sticks and
stones. Words will harm you. In a matter of seconds, they can crumble
reputations that took years to build. They have the power to separate intimate
friends, destroy influence, and bring about any man's demise. And if somehow you
escape this life unscathed by your words, don't count on the Lord letting them
slip by. Jesus said that "every careless word that men shall speak, they shall
render account for it in the day of judgment" (Matt. 12:36). The trouble with
the tongue is not just that we use it to hurt one another. It's that we end up
hurting ourselves even more. The inevitable result of all lying, gossiping,
slandering, and cursing is death by our own poison.
"The tongue is a restless evil" (vs. 6). The word
restless denotes instability, a result of blessings and cursings coming for the
same mouth. Nature will not allow a fountain to bring forth fresh and bitter
water or a fig tree to produce olives. Neither will it allow those made in the
image of God to use their tongues for both good and evil. Such inconsistency is
a self-destructive sin. But the one who does not stumble in what he says is "a
perfect man" (3:2). He is complete, lacking nothing, attaining his true purpose.
And he has probably bitten a hole through his bottom lip.
David referred to his mouth as the "door of my lips" (Psalm 141:3). More often
that not, it needs to be shut.
By Bubba Garner
From Expository Files 9.6; June 2002
