Full Transcript

Welcome back to Share the Word podcast. We’re in chapter 3 in the book of James, and we’re truly blessed to have Jeffrey Arthurs, a professor of preaching and communication at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. As you’ll hear, there is no better person behind the microphone today regarding this subject. Let’s listen in. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. My name is Jeffrey Arthurs, and I am delighted to participate with you as your teacher today on Share the Word.

James chapter 3 is about the tongue, or language, or the words that we speak. And this topic is very close to the heart of Jesus, and thus it’s very close to the heart of James. He teaches about it in every chapter. In chapter 1, he talks about being slow to speak, slow to become angry. In chapter 2, he talks about hollow words, empty words that we might speak to poor people, needy people. In chapter 4, he talks about boasting.

In chapter 5, he says, Hey, if you’re happy, you can sing. If you are in need, you should pray. But here in chapter 3, he gives the topic its fullest treatment in the book of James, maybe the fullest treatment in the whole New Testament, as he talks about language, or words, or the power of the tongue. Let’s take as our main idea today a verse from Proverbs chapter 18. James may have had this proverb in mind as he wrote chapter 3, and here’s the proverb: Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Death and life, and all things in between, are under the control of this smallest member of the body, the tongue, the words we speak.

The average person in North American cultures speaks about 16,000 words a day, a little bit more for women, a little bit less for men. And with those words that are so common and just roll out of our mouths and seem so insignificant, Proverbs and Jesus and James say those words have great power for life and for death. Why is this topic close to the heart of James and Jesus? Maybe because there’s a direct link between the heart and the tongue. That is to say, what is inside in the heart, you know, our feelings, our motivations, our beliefs, you might say our worldview, out of that inner person, the heart, the mouth speaks. That’s what our Lord said: Out of the heart, the mouth speaks.

And Jesus is all about the heart, right? He wants to transform the inner person. He wants to get at the soul, the eternal part of you. And so this topic of what we say being linked to the heart is very important to Jesus and to James. All right, let’s dive in then to this passage about the tongue. He begins by addressing teachers, verses 1 and 2.

James chapter 3, verse 1: Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. Now, what does this mean? Well, it means don’t be eager to be telling other people what to do. You know, teaching people, explaining this and correcting them and giving them advice. Don’t be eager to be a know-it-all or even a professional teacher. Why?

Because you know that we will be judged with greater strictness. What does that mean? It may mean judgment from other people. You know how listeners hold the speaker accountable for what she or he says, right? If this teacher says, Hey, do such and such, then the listeners expect, well, the teacher ought to be doing that. And if the teacher doesn’t do that, they say, You’re a hypocrite.

Who do you think you are? And they judge. They hold the teacher to a higher standard. We will be judged with greater strictness. This judgment may also refer to God’s judgment, not just sort of human judgment. Now, God’s judgment, that’s not a topic that we talk about very much today, but it is in the Bible.

Here it is in James, and Jesus talked about it. And so what is the idea of being judged by God based on what we say? Well, first of all, we need to be clear that those who believe in Jesus, they’re in a covenant or a relationship with God through Jesus. Those people’s sins are forgiven. They are wiped away. This is a covenant of grace, kindness, mercy.

The love of God has been poured out for those who are trusting in Christ. But having said that, there is a day of reckoning, of recompense that is coming for the deeds that we do in the body, whether those deeds are good or bad. And here James is simply echoing what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 12. Men will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. That judgment, for those who believe in Christ, will not be like an eternal judgment of like heaven and hell, but there is some kind of reckoning coming when God will hand out rewards for faithful service. And so James begins this passage about the tongue by addressing teachers, and he says, Don’t be eager to do that because a day of judgment is coming.

Now, maybe you see the irony in this. Here I am teaching about, Don’t be eager to be teachers. Well, I recognize the irony, and may the Lord help me, and may he help you as you give advice to other people, or maybe you’re a professional teacher. May he help you to tame the tongue. Verse 2 says, We all stumble in many ways. That is true, and it is certainly true for me.

Okay, that’s the specific introduction to this passage. Now, James pulls the camera back in verses 3 and following, and he talks about the life-giving power of the tongue and the deadly power of the tongue. This power is far out of proportion compared to the size of the tongue. The tongue is a little member, right? Or words seem to be a little matter, right? Sixteen thousand words a day, right?

They’re no big deal, right? Words are just puffs of air vibrating the atmosphere, right? Causing sympathetic vibration in your inner ear. That’s all, just puffs of air, right? Or in writing, with written communication, they’re just strokes and dots and dashes on a page, no big deal. But James says, Wrong.

They are a big deal. Life and death are in the power of puffs of air, strokes and dots and dashes on a page. All right, so the first part then of our passage, or the next part, deals with the life-giving power of the tongue. And here it is in verses 2, the second part of 2 and following. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man or perfect human. Able to bridle the whole body.

Now, when it says if you control your tongue, if you don’t stumble in what you say, you’re a perfect person. It doesn’t mean like sinless, like some saint or something. It means mature and grown up, adult-like. You’re able to—what does it say?—able to control the whole body. Because the tongue is the hardest thing to control, and if you master that through the power of God, you can control the whole body. Then James illustrates this: If we put bits into the mouths of horses, they obey us.

You know what a bit is, right? It’s that little piece of metal in the horse’s mouth, and if you pull on the right side of the bit, the horse turns right, and if you pull on the left side of the horse, it turns left. Just a little thing, just a little bit, just a few inches or centimeters long, and it controls this big old animal, this horse. He says, or look at ships, boats. They are very large, and they’re driven by strong winds, but they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the pilot directs it. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it has great power.

So strokes and dots and dashes on the page, or just puffs of air, there is a life-giving potential in those puffs of air. I hope you’ve experienced that. Perhaps you had a coach who spoke life-giving words to you. Maybe the coach said, You are very valuable to this team, and you thought, Wow, I didn’t know that. And it lifted your spirit, and it improved your performance, and maybe it directed the course of your life like the rudder of a ship. Maybe the coach said to you, You are valuable to this team both on the field and off the field, and you thought, Wow, this coach is showing me something about myself that I didn’t realize.

I don’t think of myself that way. So there’s life in the power of mere words. Maybe you had a teacher who spoke life-giving words to you. Maybe the teacher said, Well done, or, You do beautiful work, or, Hey, you’re really improving, or, You have a gift, and you thought, Wow, I didn’t know that. I tend to criticize myself and not think of myself like that. And the life-giving power of the tongue, the teacher’s words, may have directed the course of your life.

And maybe, hopefully, you have heard life-giving words from God. Maybe you have heard Him say, I will never leave you or forsake you, and you thought, Wow, I thought God was sort of, you know, on again and off again and with me and departing from me. And to have Him say, I’m not going anywhere. I will never leave you or forsake you, can do something to your behavior and your attitudes and your heart. Right? Maybe you have heard God say, Even if you descend to the grave, I am with you.

What a promise. What an encouragement. And so, the tongue has the power of life, far out of proportion to its size. Mere words can have a life-giving power. But then, here’s what happens in our passage. We turn the corner.

James turns the corner, and we’re no longer talking about the life-giving power of the tongue. Then he starts talking about the deadly power of the tongue. And so now we have a warning. The tongue can exert influence for evil, far out of proportion to its size. We see this in verses five and following. So, the tongue is a small member, but it boasts of great things.

And now he’s going to illustrate it, as he did before, how great a forest is set on fire by such a small fire. Maybe just a little campfire or even a spark, and it can set on fire the whole forest. Verse six. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among the members of our body, and it stains the whole body, setting on fire the course of our lives. Wow.

There’s deadly potential in mere words, just like there’s life-giving potential, right? Now James has a very imaginative style. He uses lots of word pictures. We have bits in the horse’s mouth, and we have ships and rudders and beasts and birds. And here he talks about fire. It’s a small thing with great power.

Today we might use the image of a virus, like a physical virus, just a little microscopic particle that can lay you low. It can affect the whole body. Or a computer virus, a little unseen problem can wipe out your computer capabilities. But here James says fire. Now fire was greatly feared in the ancient world. It’s greatly feared today also.

But in the ancient world, buildings were made out of wood for the most part, and houses and other buildings were crammed together. And boy, if a fire started at point A, it could easily spread to point B and C and D, and it could just spread like crazy. So when James says the tongue is a fire, he means it can be out of control. It can be self-perpetuating, like it has a life of its own. It feeds on itself. And of course he means it can be very destructive.

So who we talk to, and what we say when we talk to them, and when we say it, like the timing, and how we say it, like tone of voice, these seemingly small issues greatly determine. The course of our lives. The use of the tongue greatly determines the success or the failure of your marriage, of your friendships, of your work relationships. Your success at work greatly determines your small group or your church or your team. And unfortunately, James here reminds us of the deadly power of the tongue. We can tame all sorts of animals.

We can tame the powerful lions. We can tame the swift dolphins. We can tame the large elephants. We can tame the larger killer whales. We can tame the stubborn camels. We can tame the intelligent chimpanzees.

We can tame the stupid animals, chickens. But the tongue, it’s very difficult to tame. Why is that? Because words start in the heart. The heart generates words. And so if we are angry inside, if our hearts are angry, then you know what kind of words come out.

It’s so easy to blow up or to cut up someone. If our hearts are jealous, it’s very easy to criticize other people and minimize their abilities and their gifts and their contributions. If our hearts are proud, it leads to boastful words or condescending words. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. All right, let’s wrap it up here and conclude and ask, okay, what are we going to do about it? What’s the solution to this seemingly untamable component of our bodies, the tongue?

Here’s the solution. Tame the heart. Ask God to tame the heart. Ask God to give you a courageous heart so you will speak truthful words. Ask Him to give you a pure heart so you will speak words that build up. Ask Him to give you a humble heart so you won’t be bragging and boasting.

Ask Him to give you a joyful heart so you won’t complain. Ask Him to give you a loving heart so you won’t tear down others. Start with the heart, because out of the heart come the words. Remember, life and death are in the power of the tongue, and so we go to God and say, Change the inner person. Start with the heart. Change me from the inside out.

And so may the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, God, our rock and our redeemer. Thank you, Dr. Arthurs, for the great insight to this chapter. It brings to mind the thought, Have you ever heard something over and over again, and yet that one time your eyes are opened wide by what you’ve just heard? Well, today was that moment for me. How about you?

When we open our hearts, God truly speaks to each of us, and today was no exception. Every week I learn more and more as I listen to all of the teachers that share the Word, and I thank God that they are able to put so much of their time into bringing us the big ideas of the New Testament chapter by chapter. Please pray with us that we continue to attract those who would like to be part of Share the Word and sit behind this microphone helping us with the Great Commission project. Check out our podcast at sharetheword.org, and from all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.