James 3:1-12
Announcements:
Preschool Teacher Carpet and Kitchen Floor Change June 16 – Brito’s
Introduction:
Fitting that I should come to a strong deterrent to being a teacher on a week that I’m asking for teachers for preschool!
Well, so be it. Teaching is a serious responsibility. Today in America we have many teachers, more than I can number. I’m not just talking about school teachers. Musicians teach with the songs they sing. Directors teach with the movies they direct. Journalists teach with the news stories they write. Counselors teach. Authors teach. People teach with their Facebook accounts, twitter, etc.
And a large number of people who are teaching today ought not to do so. Behind the majority of sinful behaviors and ideas contrary to God, you will find a teacher. Are you dismayed by something your kids are doing or saying? Chances are there is a teacher somewhere behind it – maybe music, maybe a friend, maybe a show they enjoy.
James says in our passage today that not many should become teachers because the tongue is a restless evil that can be used for great destruction. And humans are unable – apart from the Holy Spirit – to tame the tongue. You do not have to look far to see the damage caused by words spoken.
With the general rejection of God that is going on in society today, the relegation of religion to the realm of the unimportant, and the massive multiplication of teachers through the development of mass media – it is no wonder that things are not good.
We have many people with what James calls “a restless evil” in their mouths, teaching things they ought not to, and not having any control of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
But actually, contrary to this being a deterrent to teach, I hope these verses help you to see the need for good teachers. We need less bad teachers and more good teachers. We need waves of healing and goodness and godliness to counter the fires of hell spread by sinful tongues. If you desire to teach, you desire a good thing. But do first submit your words to the Holy Spirit for His guidance and control.
If you are able to teach and by the Holy Spirit your tongue is under control, then please prayerfully consider becoming a teacher! We need more good teachers. Part of why I think we need a new preschool teacher to stand up from within our congregation is the fact that here in this church, and in other churches, is where people who are controlled by the Holy Spirit can be found.
Text: James 3:1-12
Theme: Humans cannot bridle the tongue, so we need God to do it for us.
Verses 1-2
Because “will be judged” is a future tense, this refers to when believers are evaluated at the end of days for rewards. If this was speaking about the fact that teachers are judged with greater strictness by humans, then it would have used the present tense. But the future tense points to the judgment in the future.
People who teach will be held accountable for what they teach. Just like those who judge, where it says in Matthew 7:2 “for with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”
*Illustration: Sermon about following the will of God. “Thank you for the sermon! We wanted to let you know that we have decided to quit our jobs and go with a job offer my husband has. We’re going to be putting our house up for sale and moving soon.” Preacher was frightened. “You mean the things I am saying on a Sunday morning can have THAT kind of effect?”*
I don’t know whether those individuals made the right decision or not, the story didn’t follow up with that, I’m assuming they did. But you can see the danger. Teaching changes lives. How do you think it will look for teachers who have been teaching things they ought not to teach when they stand before God?
Imagine a preacher who encourages sinful behavior. Let’s say they encourage people to love money and pursue earthly treasure. Or let’s say they twist words to make certain things seem not so sinful: they try to make stealing or rebellion justified or something. What is it going to look like for them when they stand before God and have to answer for why they were encouraging people to pursue money so much, when they should have been encouraging them to pursue love, evangelism, and good works?
It will be embarrassing, to say the least. They will wish they had not opened their mouths. It will be better for them had they not been a teacher.
These verses have never been more applicable, because today anybody can be a teacher and pretty much everyone is engaged in teaching in some way. When these verses were written, teaching was mostly restricted to individuals who had the role assigned to them. The internet didn’t exist, so teaching mostly took place in synagogues and forums and schools.
But today, social media in particular has enabled anyone to teach simply by posting a tweet. So if you look at these verses and think: “I’ll never be a teacher, doesn’t apply to me.” Don’t be so sure! You might already be one and you just don’t know it. What are you communicating to people? How are you communicating? If you think about it, you can probably find instances where you have taught. I bet these verses do apply to you and you just didn’t realize it!
You probably are teaching. And that can be a good thing! As I said, we need more good teachers. Use Facebook and Twitter and whatever platform you have to teach good and wholesome things. But don’t post things that teach people garbage. If God isn’t going to overlook a preacher who teaches garbage, he isn’t going to overlook you when you teach garbage either.
Matthew 12:36, Jesus says “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.” You don’t get a pass for putting it in text or not bearing the title of teacher. Even if you are not a teacher, you still have a tongue and speak and so these verses still apply.
So we all need to be very careful before we presume to teach, because we know that we all stumble in many ways. We make mistakes every day. And we all have our areas of weakness. And we all have remaining and indwelling sin that we need God’s help to put to death. The last thing that any of us should want to do is to pass those mistakes and sins on to other people through our teaching.
Before you presume to teach, be sure that your tongue is controlled by the Holy Spirit. And, indeed, not many should become teachers.
Link: James gives a number of illustrations in the following verses to drive home this point:
Verses 3-5a
Small things can influence big things. A horse is a large and powerful animal. It can kill a person with a kick. They can run for miles. They were used in work and war for a long time. They are extremely muscular. I remember in China watching four large horses being used to pull thousands of fish up from a lake. But with just a little thing in its mouth, a horse can be controlled.
Ships are even larger today than they were then, but they are still controlled by rudders. Such a small thing directs a much larger.
Your tongue, and by implications the words that you speak, might seem like a small thing. “It is only a sentence.” “It was just a joke.” Small. But man, what a big impact those words can have. I think we can all think of things that we have said both good and bad, which had a tremendous impact. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Not true.
Link: It might be small, but James compares it to a small fire which starts a forest fire.
Verses 5b-6
Very strong words for the tongue. Looking at verse 6 in Greek, and reading various commentators on it, what is being communicated is that the tongue – and again by implication our speech – is a world of unrighteousness. Any sin you can think of can be communicated, practiced, or encouraged by the tongue. And it acts as a fire, causing forest fires of unrighteousness, as the things it communicates spreads.
It is like a pebble hitting a pond. Someone says “Sometimes it is OK to cheat, or steal, or lie, or become drunk, or hurt others.” Any sin you can think of, it’s a world of unrighteousness. And then the pebble hits the pond and ripples start to spread out from there. But much more destructive than a ripple, it is a fire, destroying and ruining things in its wake.
The newest teaching being pushed, and indeed it is not actually new it is just resurfacing, is that virtually any expression of sexuality is OK. Homosexual, bisexual, open relationships, hook ups, pornography – which has been prevalent for a long time but frowned upon as evil, is now being normalized as a valid career choice. And this push is primarily happening through spoken and written words, especially in the form of teaching. And there have already been and will continue to be more and more negative consequences. I urge you to be careful with what you are being taught, because your marriage is under attack, and be especially careful that you do not contribute to this vile teaching.
School Shootings – A large part is what kids are and are not being taught.
The negative consequences from the sins committed with our tongue are not purely external to us, no, they stain us. They affect our whole person, causing sin to fester and grow in us and it can even go so far as setting on fire the entire course of life.
I think we can all think of people who have had their lives permanently and negatively altered by the things they have said. And again, these verses have never been more applicable thanks to social media and mass media which allow anyone and everyone to be a teacher. We see lives destroyed by speech all the time. A tongue without the control of the Holy Spirit can cause your life to become a walking inferno, harming you and everyone you come into contact with.
To cap it all off, James says that the tongue is set on fire by hell. The word used here is actually Gehenna. It was a place south of Jerusalem where they burned trash. It was a constantly burning pile of garbage. That’s the word usually behind the term “hell” in the New Testament. Gehenna. A place where the trash is always burning, used as imagery for the hell to come. I can’t think of any description less flattering than that.
Link: With that in mind, we really, really ought to think before we speak. And think twice before we teach. But more than that, we need the help of God.
Verses 7-8
“No human being can tame the tongue” – but with God all things are possible. The portrait painted for our speech is pretty grim, and fitting that it should be so grim because we all know the damage that speech can cause, but it is not hopeless. No human being can tame the tongue, but God can, or else no one should become a teacher.
But since no human can tame the tongue, but some can be teachers, it is evident that God can purify our speech and direct our words so that they aren’t a flaming pile of garbage but are instead words of healing, and goodness, and beauty.
A Christian who is living in fellowship with God, living obediently to God, sensitive to the leading of God, knowledgeable about the things of God, can have their tongue used by God to spread a wave of healing, joy, good news, love, purity, godliness. Instead of a destructive fire you have a bright light, illuminating what once was darkness. Or a healthy tree planted by a river, bearing fruit in its season, fruit which is a blessing to those who pass by and eat from it.
That’s what I want my speech to be like. I trust you want your speech to be like that too. If you turn to God and seek Him faithfully, walking in the light of His Word, praying and communicating with Him, reflecting on His will and desires, He can give you speech like that.
Link: But as it is, as long as we remain on earth, we find within ourselves a conflict of natures. We have been born again and have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us, and yet sin remains. And depending upon which nature we are encouraging and feeding, our speech will begin to reflect that more and more.
Verses 9-12
Our tongues reveal that there is something wrong with us. There is a double standard and hypocrisy revealed. Because come Sunday morning, we come to church and we sing several songs blessing our Lord and Father. We tell others about the good He has done in our lives. When we pray together, we lift our thoughts to Him in worship. But then come Monday we go and tear others down with the things we say.
But these people are made in the image of God. That doesn’t mean we should be worshipping them or something, for that would be idolatry, but it ought to keep us from harming people with our speech and yet we often do.
One of the reasons murder is such a bad sin is because it is the destruction of someone that God has made in His own image. It is a personal affront to God. People have intelligence like God, personalities, speech, the capacity to love, rejoice, do good – the image of God that we bear has been very seriously corrupted, to be sure, and the image that is there is only an infinitesimal microcosm of who God is, but the image is there and we ought to therefore avoid cursing others.
But out of our mouths come blessing and cursing. We know this is not how things ought to be, nature reveals it to us.
A spring of water does not pour forth both fresh and salt water. Fig trees bear figs. Olive trees bear olives. Grape vines bear grapes. But from our tongues come both blessing and cursing.
And so believers ought to be consistent, and this consistency is developed as we walk with God. No man can control the tongue, so by your own power and outside of fellowship with God, inconsistency and contradiction in speech will remain. But as we allow ourselves to be purified by God and transformed by God, our speech will more and more be that which is a blessing and builds people up.
Conclusion:
Draw near to God. Purify your speech. If not called to teach, don’t do it.
Don’t presume you aren’t teaching just because you aren’t called a teacher. You probably are.
If called to teach, we need you (preschool, Kid’s Hope). Bad teachers are multiplying. We need the good to counter that.