SPEAKING FROM THE HEART
I am going to tell you something from my heart: I really enjoy talking with people. You probably know this already. I love preaching. I love teaching. I enjoy conversations with many different people. I listen a lot, but when given the chance I will prattle on about theology or history, some biblical topic that has moved me, or just some story from my past. I really enjoy laughing and making people laugh.
Here’s where I get into trouble. Sometimes I don’t know when to quit. And then it’s too late. When I allow myself to go off leash, you can be sure I will regret what I said. Did people know that I was joking? My mother’s dry humor often got her in trouble this way. I will lay awake at night replaying the stupid things I said. The rawness of my heart has been exposed and I feel vulnerable.
If I told you I was going to speak to you from my heart this morning, you would probably assume a couple of things. First, you may think that I am going to abandon my notes and speak freely. At the same time, you would assume that I don’t usually speak from the heart when I preach because I use notes. Or when I go off script, that’s when the Spirit really takes over. Next, you would assume that I am going to tell you something personal that you could really relate to in your own life (like I just did).
Speaking from the heart can be a risky venture. When I think about it in light of James 3:1-12, it can be downright dangerous. Jeremiah spoke truth when he said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). Put like that, I must conclude that I don’t trust my heart. It would be better for me to plan my words than to speak from the heart in most situations.
The main thrust of James’s issue with of speech is about controlling the tongue. We must control how we talk to each other because our words have power to do good or evil in others’ lives.
You are accountable for what you say (3:1-2a)
James’ primary concern appears to be with those who want to be teachers. “Not many of you should become teachers…for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness,” (1) Why? The reason is that teachers are in the business of articulating and defending truth. They use their words, and their words need to be credible.
James was probably reflecting on Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:2-7. There, Jesus grieves the fact that many Jewish teachers in his day did not practice what they preached, and they made life difficult for those who were under them (2-4). Jesus also lamented that they gloried in their roles and demanded respect wherever they went (5-7).
In the church, the Christian teacher took the place of the Rabbi of Judaism. How a Rabbi was exalted by people could ruin any person. The title itself means “my great one.” Rabbis were treated with way too much respect. If a man’s parents and his rabbi were captured by an enemy, it was expected that the man would ransom his rabbi first. It was way too easy for a rabbi to become the person that Jesus depicted, a spiritual tyrant and someone who expected special treatment. He had better live up to his teaching. But according to Jesus, the rabbi’s words were not consistent with his life.
In contrast, when Paul taught, he offered himself as the model of his own teaching. “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ,” Paul wrote the Corinthians (11:1). And to the Philippians he said the same, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things…” (Phil. 4:9). If you are going to teach, you will be watched very carefully by your students, but also by God. Are you sure you want to be a teacher, James asks? Can you live what you teach?
Okay, so you know you aren’t a teacher. Does this warning about words apply to you? James includes you when he says, “For we all stumble in many ways…” (2a).
Your Tongue’s Potential to do Good (3:2b-5a)
We all stumble in various ways. James emphasizes that the tongue is at the center of the storm of our sins. He says, “And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body,” (2b). In other words, if people could remain sinless in speech, they could attain perfection. The implication is that since speaking-sins are the most difficult to stop, if we could stop them, then surely, we could stop all the rest. So, the logic suggests.
Before James scares us all into never talking again, he reminds us of the good things that speaking well can accomplish. James proceeds to give us illustrations of how small things can control big things in a good way.
Consider the bit in the horse’s mouth. My brother-in-law owns a big black Percheron named Teddy. When he called the horse over to us, that big animal came running like a dog to get some pets. It was freaky having a 2000-pound horse come bounding over like that. Even more amazing is that a tiny piece of metal under the tongue can control the going, stopping, turning, and direction of this beast.
If we could bridle our tongues, James writes, we could direct our own lives in a positive direction. The book of Proverbs speaks wisdom concerning the tongue. It says, “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,” (10:11a), and “A gentle answer turns away wrath,” (15:1a). My favorite is this, “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body,” (16:24).
There is power in the tongue. Like a bit or a rudder, it is small and can shape one’s entire personality. As James said, “…the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things,” (5).
Your Tongue’s Potential to Destroy Lives (3:5b-8)
The tongue can also be deadly.
James presents the dark side of the power of speech describing it as a fire. “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 whole course of life, and set on fire by hell,” (5b-6). That’s a lot of fire.
There are two reasons why the damage of the tongue is like a fire: 1) It is wide-ranging. The tongue can damage at a distance. We think of the spoken word as being destructive, but in our culture, a text, an email, a comment on social media has the potential to wound like nothing else. A gun or knife kills at close range, but the tongue is a long-distance killer. You can block a punch in a close-quarter altercation, but a person can digitally transmit a thought from the other side of the world and cause irreparable harm.
I am reminded of the BC teen, Amanda Todd, who was bullied online in 2012 by a man from the Netherlands. She hanged herself after years of being sexually harassed by the man and socially ostracized by her peers. Words literally kill.
2) It is uncontrollable. The summer of 2021 was so dry and hot that forest fires erupted across the country with little more than a spark. The fires were hard to stop. So is the spoken word uttered out of hate or carelessness. Once a word is spoken, it is out of your control. Like the toothpaste proverb, once it’s out of the tube it’s impossible to put back.
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin speaks to the power of negative words. He asks audiences if they can go 24 hours without saying an unkind word about or to anybody. Most laugh and say no. Some say yes with an impish grin. But he says, “Those who can’t answer ‘yes’ must recognize you have a serious problem. If you cannot go 24 hours without drinking liquor, you are addicted to alcohol…if you cannot go 24 hours without saying unkind words about others, then you lost control over your tongue.”
James goes on to talk about how humankind has tamed every animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature. He may have been exaggerating to make a point. Animals can be tamed, “but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison,” (8-9).
George Stulac observed, “Spread gossip, and people will not trust you. Speak with sarcasm and insults, and people will not follow you. Yet what is especially on James’s mind is not the reaction of others to your speech but the spreading of sin from your speech to the rest of your life. Be hateful with your tongue, and you will be hateful with other aspects of your behavior. If you do not discipline and purify your speech, you will not discipline or purify the rest of your life,” (Blomberg, ECNT 165).
“Consider the Source” (3:9-12)
You can tell that James is aiming this at the church in these verses (read 9-12).
You know that expression “consider the source”? In one of our churches, we had a lady who always complained about the volume of the worship, the ‘dead spots’ in the sanctuary, the perfume someone was wearing, or a host of other things. At times it was overwhelming and as staff we would discuss her issues. Someone would invariably say, “consider the source.”
What is the source of our speech? It’s not really the tongue; it’s the heart. Jesus responded to the just-plain-stupid comments from the Pharisees that the only reason Jesus could cast out demons was because he was possessed by Satan. He said, “How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say,” (Matt 12:34).
Your heart is like a cup of liquid, they say. When someone bumps your elbow, the cup sloshes, and whatever is in the cup spills out. Is it full of bitterness? Or full of joy?
There was a duplicity in the churches under James. On Sunday they sang their songs of praise to God, but on Monday, those same mouths were full of cursing. The focus of their cursing, James says, is a person made in the image of God. That’s the tragedy. Whatever you say to a person out of anger or spite or frustration or whatever, is said to a person, however imperfect, made in the image of God. Abuse or neglect of the poor and the outcast (including LGBTQ+) is offensive because such treatment demeans individuals God made to reflect himself.
You can tell James is familiar with the teaching of Jesus because he concludes with imagery Jesus used. The fig tree bearing olives, or grapevine producing figs imagery comes from Matthew 7:16-20 and 12:33. You can tell whether a tree is good or bad by its fruit. The picture is clear: Jesus is saying that you can identify a believer by the words he or she speaks and by the actions that follow.
I want you to know two things as we wrap up this study.
1) Jesus died for the poor choice of words we have spoken. In other words, if you have felt the conviction of the Spirit as we talked about the wild and sinful tongue, there is forgiveness.
I have a sensitive conscience and so I live with a lot of regret. I remember things I said a long time ago that I wish I could take back. I’m sure many of you have those regrets too. I know that I hurt people. If, as Dr. Lloyd-Jones once wrote, we could just shut up, we would stay out of trouble. He said, “How do you know whether you are a Christian or not? It is that you stop talking.” That’s extreme. But then I open my mouth and I am in trouble again. Maybe he’s right.
But there is forgiveness. The same grace that covers your many sins, covers the sins of your mouth. When Isaiah saw God on the throne and the angels flying around crying “Holy, holy, holy,” he knew he was exposed as a sinner. What did he say? “I am a man of unclean lips.” Of all things? Then God touched his lips with a hot coal and cleansed him.
2) You cannot tame your tongue and you cannot change your heart. If the heart is the source of the words we speak, then change your heart. Right? What’s in your heart?
Some would say that if you say dark things and curse it’s because you watch too much TV, view R-rated movies, and read trash on the internet. Your heart is being filled with garbage – so garbage in, garbage out.
To a degree you can clean up your intake of influences. But I wonder if this isn’t backwards and upside down. Perhaps the stuff we watch and read reflects where our hearts are at in the first place. Take away the mediums and you still have a deceitful heart, as Jeremiah said.
Remember what James said in v. 8? “…no human being can tame the tongue.” No human being can renovate the heart either without the help of Jesus Christ and his life-giving Spirit. There is no formula for taming the tongue. There is no self-help book for renovating the heart. But there is Jesus, and to him we turn, confess, and cry for help, “Lord, tame my tongue.”
AMEN
Lord Jesus,
Tame my tongue,
Change my heart,
Fill me with your Holy Spirit.
I choose you; fill my mouth with gracious words.
Amen
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