True Faith Speaks
Your words are the clearest and best indicator of what’s actually in your heart. This is why Jesus said every idle word will be brought into judgement, it’s why he says out of the heart the mouth speaks. James is going to get more into our business this week by talking about what our speech ought to be like as followers of Jesus.
Zondervan’s Bible Background Commentary says this powerful yet challenging statement: “Our speech, James makes clear, reveals the attitude of the heart. A “divided” heart will lead to inconsistent habits of speech, while the person with a wholehearted allegiance to the Lord will be marked by godliness in speech.”
To quote the great theologian, uncle ben, from spider man: “with great power, comes great responsibility.” The tongue, or our words, have a tremendous amount of power. They can be used to do powerful and earth-shattering things. Our words can build and our words can destroy.
Main Idea: We need to recognize that the tongue is untamable, capable of great damage, and an indicator of our hearts, but God has a gracious provision in the gospel for our sinful words.
God has given us a tongue as a vessel for his glory. But the enemy loves to take what God has made and turn it into a counterfeit. Today, I want to discover how to use our speech for the glory of God.
The power of what we speak
James gives us a lot of imagery in this passage. He starts with two in this first section: a horse and a ship. Although the tongue is small in size, its potential is incredibly large for both good and for evil.
Proverbs 18:21 says the tongue has the power of life and death. Mark Twain was quoted as saying, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” Do you know the power of your tongue?
Expositor’s Bible Commentary: “The tongue is able to sway multitudes. It can alter the destinies of nations. The destructive potential of the tongue is graphically pictured by a forest fire. Thousands of acres of valuable timber may be devastated by a ‘small spark.’”
We first need to understand this so that we can see the potential that our tongue has. We have all heard the very incorrect statement of: “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” It is the biggest lie! How many of us can remember words said to us when we were children?
I remember words said to me that were hurtful as young as the age of 4. These deep wounds and scars aren’t from any physical weapon, but from a far greater one: words. Words that have affected the way I live, think, and how I make decisions. The words said to us can change us and impact us forever.
On the other side, are men that spoke into my life and saw the call of God on my life. They saw my gifts, believed in my future, and took me forward into all God had called me to be.
Our words have power, we have to know this so we can wield our weapon responsibly. Whether you like it or not, you are born with a strong weapon, how you use it is up to you and if you surrender that to God or not.
The dangers of what we speak
Well great, verse 8 tells us how impossibly lost we are in this. No human being can tame the tongue… so who can?! Our tongue represents an opportunity for us to trust in God and learn to be conduits through which he can extend his power. There are few sins people commit in which the tongue is not involved.
This is a powerful opportunity! It places us in a position of great need, a position for our savior to step up in a big way. James is saying in verse 8 here that we have gotten dominion over all these animals, but because of the fall we have lost dominion over ourselves. James shows us that the tongue has extreme dangers represented by it, how will we respond to this? How do we overcome a restless evil? How do we live with something that is full of poison? We turn the wheel over to our savior and allow him to be the driver of our life.
Why is it so natural for us to swear when we stub our toe or make a critical mistake? How easy it is to drive down the road and say something at that person that must be driving for the very first time because they seem incredibly new at it! How natural it is to speak poorly of those who have treated us poorly…
God is well aware of this danger, he created us! When Jesus came, what does he use his speech for? To establish truth. To stand for what is right. To share the love of the father for this lost world. There is a better way! And it is found in Jesus and his example. “Father forgive them, they know not what they are doing” are not the words that would come out of my mouth if I was being brutally tortured for something that I didn’t do.
We must take these dangers seriously and turn them over to the only one that can help: Jesus. This problem is out of this world, literally! James says all humans can’t do this, we must look heavenly for this, we have to think spiritually and above our own selves.
The potential of what we speak
What are you producing? Saltwater or fresh? Figs or olives? Do the things that you say confirm what you say is true about what you believe? The whole theme of James is this: be doers, not hearers. Back up your talk with your walk. Do you talk like a follower of Jesus?
Is your Facebook page full of complaints or praises? Are your text messages angry or lovely? Is your speech joyful or joyless? Are we blessing God and cursing others?
The word that comes immediately to mind when I read this section of the text is hypocrite. Oh man, are we all in that category at times. I speak the word of God, and then I speak curses when the right things get me going.
It could be when our teams start playing bad, the politician we can’t stand is winning, the person who hurt us is being mentioned, or the anxieties and fears of life are screaming out. But what is most valuable to us? Who is in command and control of our life?
James is challenging us with a radical call here: if you are fresh water, let fresh water flow out of you. Listen, the world is full enough of people who talk like the world. We don’t need more of them, we need more of the voice of God in our homes, relationships, social media, and in our workplaces. We need to set the tone for what we say we believe. We need to be who God has called us to be by saying what honors him. In every context!
We all have “those days”, but God is calling us for “all of our days”, all of our moments to honor him with our speech. We have to bless him, bless others, and use this speech that he has given us for his glory.
Conclusion
Is Jesus Lord of your life? Then surely that means every part of you… including your tongue. Are you using it for his glory? Are you building others up, sharing his love and grace, and being the joy filled light that he has called you to be? Or is your look alike in life the groaning and whining Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years?
They wanted to go back to being slaves! They were saying crazy talk they were so blind by their words. It condemned them, and it can condemn us too. They never made it to the promised land because of their words. Where are your words leading you?