Q. 82 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, a series of questions that summarize the confessional doctrine that we subscribe to, the Westminster Confession of Faith, asks the question: “Can anyone perfectly keep the commandments of God?” Answer: “Since the fall no ordinary man can perfectly keep the commandments of God in this life but breaks them every day in thought, word, and action.” Any time I get into a conversation about sin and not conforming to the will of God, I am reminded that it isn’t just about how we act, but how we act, what we say, and even what we think. We can have hatred in our hearts for someone, yet outwardly show them acceptance and speak kindly to them, but we still find ourselves to be guilty of sin. When we truly view sin as it is, then we have a whole new level of understanding for how depraved we truly are. It’s like when we walked through the Ten Commandments at the beginning of last year, how we saw that Jesus not only stated that we are to keep each commandment, but that we must go a step beyond that as well. Well, James, in teaching this group of Jewish Christians about the relationship between faith and works, has to show them that their works truly cannot save them; that they are not justified by their works. Now, if he would have had this question from WSC, then he could have made his point much more precisely. However, Westminster Assembly didn’t exist yet, and wouldn’t for quite some time (roughly 1500 years). So, he had to teach this idea of the severity of sin by some other means.
Well, it was pretty well understood that sin could be manifested through outward expressions, through actions. In fact, that was how these Jewish Christians had grown up viewing sin. That’s how many of us today view sin. We have an almost child-like view of sin. I was sitting in the bed with Thomas the other night and we were talking about sin and I asked him to tell me what sin was. His definition was that sin is when we do bad things. I told him that he was right, but that it was much more than that. I told him that sin was when we did things, said things, or even thought things that God didn’t approve of (it’s a working definition). Unfortunately, many of those in James’ audience and many Bible-believing Christians today stop their definition of sin at outward actions. So, James’ words that we’re going to look at for the next few weeks have to do with teaching us about the dangers that come from our speech and our thoughts. Today, we’re going to look at the dangers of speech.
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, one of the things that seemed to keep coming up was the Pharisees constant questioning of Jesus’ actions. They constantly questioned in particular, his and his disciples’ actions concerning the keeping of Pharisaic and Jewish laws and customs. In Mark’s gospel account, he records for us an encounter in which Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and told them what they claimed was law was actually more of a tradition that they had created, particularly the ritual cleansings before eating (although it cannot be disputed that God did give certain ceremonial laws to Israel). After this encounter, he taught a little further, saying these words: “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” Now, the disciples didn’t understand this, which isn’t surprising because they were often confused. So, they asked Jesus to clarify. “And he said to them, ‘Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’”
The tongue is a powerful muscle. Growing up, I would always hear people say that the tongue was the strongest of all the muscles in the human body. Now, while that may not be scientifically accurate, it sort of is from a relational perspective. You see, no other muscle in the human body carries with it the devastating power or potential that the tongue does. Even when we hurt someone physically or emotionally, we almost always accompany that with some sort of verbal harm as well. Words have the power to crush like a hammer or cut like a knife. It’s ironic that my parents are here and that it’s Mother’s Day and yet I’m going to talk about how awful I was as a kid, especially with my tongue. You see, when I was younger, I said some awful things to my parents and in particular to my mom. We can laugh about some of them now (kind of) since we’ve gotten past that point in our relationship, but that doesn’t mean that the damage that they did isn’t still there. There are nights that I hear my kids say things to me or about me that aren’t even in the same stratosphere as some of the things that I said to my mom, yet they cause me to shudder. When I leave the house for meetings, my kids cheer. “Yeah, daddy’s not going to be here, he’s going to a meeting.” Now, we laugh about it, but I’ll be honest, it hurts a little. It never fails, as I’m driving to one of those meetings, I sit and think about how if them saying that to me hurts me like it does, I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for my mom to hear some of the things I said. Now, I know that there is coming a day when my kids will possibly say something worse to or about me. Hopefully not, but I know that it certainly is a possibility.
James points out here the power that the tongue can have by comparing it to three tiny objects that can steer or maneuver some pretty major things. He likens the tongue to the rudder of a ship, the bit in a horse’s mouth, and a spark that sets a whole forest ablaze. All three of these things are tiny, but can cause some major activity. A bit is only a few inches long, yet has the power to steer a powerful animal such as a horse. A rudder is relatively small compared to a ship, yet it directs the entire vessel. And a spark is seemingly insignificant, yet it can set a whole forest on fire. The tongue, while being relatively small compared to the rest of our bodies, has the power to steer us into some terrible places.
James says that “every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.” Now, this may seem like a bit of an odd statement to make. If mankind can’t tame the tongue, then how are we expected to ever live up to the standard of not sinning in word? Well, two things are of note about this verse. First, we were capable at the time of our creation, but we lost that in the fall just as we lost the ability to not sin in action or thought. Secondly, the Greek used here that is translated “human being” could more accurately be interpreted as no ordinary man. In other words, we don’t have the power to abstain from sinning in word, but Jesus does, and he did. You see, we’re prone to do exactly what James talks about in verses 9 and 10. “With [our tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” It’s nothing for us to use our tongues to do good things for God’s kingdom and then turn around and do something destructive. We can witness and evangelize and proclaim God’s word one minute, and then turn around and spread rumors and gossip the very next. It is both a blessing and a curse. Instead, James says that our tongues ought to be like springs or fig trees which produce only what they ought to produce. Springs produce a constant flow of water that is seemingly always the same temperature regardless of what the climate is like around it. Fig trees produce only figs, not grapes or olives or any other fruit. Our mouths ought to only produce things that are glorifying to God. Our words ought to be those that seek only the promotion of his kingdom and not the destruction or desecration of it.
Now, James doesn’t really give the answer here as to what we are to do about taming the tongue. No, instead he waits quite some time (halfway through chapter 4 to be exact) before giving us the answer. Notice that even though James has said that we ourselves cannot bridle the tongue, he never once removes that responsibility from us. Instead, James is building up to the point of telling us just one more reason as to why it is that we need Jesus so desperately. We’re going to look at the words that James penned as to how we tame the tongue and deal with sin in other areas of our life by submitting ourselves to God and resting in His grace in a few weeks, so I’m going to save that for such time. However, I want to connect the reliance that we have upon Jesus for taming the tongue to another reliance that we remember this day through the elements on the table before us. Well, in actuality, it’s really the same reliance, just seen through this means of grace known as the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. You see, these elements that sit on the table before us, the bread and the cup, representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ, represent our only hope. They represent our only hope for salvation. They represent our only hope of overcoming our sinful thoughts, our sinful words, and our sinful actions. These elements represent everything to us.
As we look at these words of James about the taming of the tongue and our need for Jesus to help us do so in the overall context of this sermon series title True Faith Works, what do we take from these words? Well, first off, this is, as I said earlier, one more reason for us to be thankful for the work of Christ. This is one more reason for why we ought to respond to the good news of the gospel with good works instead of complacency. The second thing is that James tells us that we can glorify God through our words. It’s not as if the only thing that our mouths can be used for is destruction. Good things can be done the sake of the gospel through the right and proper use of our tongues. So, I want you to ask yourself how you use your tongue. Do you spread gossip? Do you talk about other folks regularly? When you get around some of your friends is your conversation dominated by the friends that aren’t there at that moment? Maybe you don’t talk about other people, but do you talk about anything good? Or is your conversation filled with vulgarities or sinful desires? Is it filled with words about earthly wealth and material things? Friends, we may not have the power to tame our own tongues, but we have the power of the Holy Spirit working in us to give us that ability. Don’t let this instrument of such wonderful potential be used in the service of Satan to tear down the gospel. Instead, use your words to build up God, to strengthen His people, and seek the glorification of His kingdom here on earth. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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