James 3:1-12

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: James (Acts)

Rusty's Notes

• James 1 – Patient when in trouble.
• James 2 – Lives out who they are.
• James 3 – Controlling our tongue.
• Obviously was an issue worth repeating:
• James 1:19 - “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger”
• James 1:26 - “If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself.”
• James 2:12 - “Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.”
• James 4:11 - “Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters.”

CONTROLLING THE TONGUE
James 3
1 Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body.

• James’ complaint was simply that too many believers were overly anxious to speak up and show off
• Don’t get the teachers James is speaking to vs the teachers Jesus was speaking to: New Jewish Christians vs Pharisees & Sadducees.
• Jesus spoke of great warnings against teachers who led astray (Jesus is not the Messiah).
• James is speaking to spiritually young teachers whose morals were not lining up with what they were teaching. Too many teachers.
• A teacher’s condemnation is greater because, having professed to have a clear knowledge of duty, he is all the more bound to obey it.[1]
• Not the duty of the Christian Life but the duty of the teacher position.
• “’We’ all stumble in many ways…”
• You can tell the more spiritually mature people by the public decisions they make.
• This is not the goal!!!
• This judgment James speaks about for the teaching believer is not about a heavenly judgment later.
• This judgment is by the world, both believers and non-believers.
• James concentration was on what was being said... or not being said… controlling the tongue.
• The power of speech is one of the greatest powers God has given us.
• We are not perfect in our speech… or behavior… We are perfect in who we are!

3 Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. 4 And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

• During World War II they were accustomed to seeing posters that read LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS!
• But loose lips also wreck lives.
• A person makes an unguarded statement and suddenly finds himself involved in a fight.
• Twitter is a spark that starts a roaring fire.
• His tongue has forced the rest of his body to defend itself.
• The tongue is a small member in the body, and yet it has the power to accomplish great things.
• The sense of “guide” here is important, for it not only implies the curbing of evil action but also the directing of the body into good action.[2]
• Both the bit and the rudder must overcome contrary forces.
• The bit must overcome the wild nature of the horse, and the rudder must fight the winds and currents that would drive the ship off its course.
• The human tongue also must overcome contrary forces.
• We get thoughts through the power of sin (noun) dwells in our flesh and wants to control us and make us sin (verb).
• Sin on the inside and pressures on the outside are seeking to get control of the tongue.[3]
• Spiritual maturity says, “Know the Father (Creator), be able to hear the Spirit that lives inside of you, obey when to speak and when to listen.
• When you are listening… you will probably say “I” less.
• A runaway horse or a shipwreck could mean injury or death to pedestrians or passengers.
• The words we speak affect the lives of others.
• A judge says “Guilty!” or “Not Guilty!” and those words affect the destiny of the prisoner, his family, and his friends.
• The President of the United States speaks a few words and signs some papers and the nation is at war.
• Even a simple yes or no from the lips of a parent can greatly affect the direction of a child’s life.[4]
• This small piece of meat in your mouth has much power to direct many lives.
• The tongue is just another piece of meat that is connected to your body.
• It is not evil or good.
• It can only respond because you tell it to.
• It does what you choose to tell it to do.
• Someone controls both the horse bit and the rudder.
• The tongue is used as a metaphor for the choice you make… walk according to the flesh or to walk by the Spirit.
• The tongue gives DIRECTION.

5 So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. 6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by humankind, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

• James just switched gears here and went from the direction of the tongue to the results of what the tongue can do.
• In a dry and barren land, there was fear of great fires.
• Fires leave a lasting impression. Fire memories?
• You always remember a fire.
• Untamed beast…
• If James would have written this letter today, he would have compared this small Corona Virus that is unseen by the naked eye as illustration of how something bad could travel so fast and infect and affect so many lives.
• Like the poison of a serpent, the tongue is loaded with the venom of hate and death-dealing gossip.[5]
• Have you ever been bitten by an animal?
• I avoid getting bit at all costs.
• You won’t ever see any snake-handling going on at Leavener… that is for sure.
• The tongue isn’t evil… the results of the tongue can be evil.
• No man can tame his tongue.
• In a circus, you can see that man has tamed elephants, bears and lions… but just get on line or watch some media for a minute or two and you will see that man struggles with taming a tongue.
• Living in your own strength, you will not be able to control that small piece of meat in your mouth.
• Living your life by another… your tongue no longer needs to be tamed.
• I have a friend who this week told me they dreaded talking to their own family members.
• It was exhausting and didn’t want to debate.
• Good! Give up the battle! Answer the phone and trust the Spirit inside of you to speak.
• The tongue can easily DESTROY.

9 With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. 10 Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. 11 Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.[6]

• With the tongue, man can praise God, pray, preach the Word, and lead the lost to Christ. What a privilege!
• But with that same tongue he can tell lies that could ruin a man’s reputation or break a person’s heart.
• The ability to speak words is the ability to influence others and accomplish tremendous tasks; and yet we take this ability for granted.[7]
• Prov. 18:4 - “The words of a person’s mouth are deep waters, a flowing river, a fountain of wisdom.”
• Prov. 10:11 - “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,”
• Prov. 13:14 - “A wise person’s instruction is a fountain of life, turning people away from the snares of death.”
• Water is life-giving, and our words can give life.
• But yet we have been under flood warnings all week.
• Think about when you have been so hot and thirsty… a bottle of water never sounded so good.
• Water was used to cleanse the hands & feet of the Jews for purification reasons. It cleanses.
• Instead of contrasting what is useful with what is not, the argument stems from the natural order of living things: grapevines produce grapes, not figs; and fig trees produce figs, not olives.[8]
• James is speaking about a person’s “nature” now.
• Your nature will naturally produce the correct fruit.
• If you have a sinful nature… you will produce sin (evil).
• If you have a new nature… you produce beneficial fruit.
• What will your tree produce? It depends on the seed… How deep are your roots? Soaking up water?
• It all comes down to knowing and living out of who you really are.
• It can’t be both good and bad… It is either good or bad.
• You have to know who you are!
• The tongue gives DIRECTION
• The tongue can easily DESTROY
• The tongue has power to DELIGHT.

This is a metaphor… you know it is based upon the Holy Spirit working inside of each believer.

[1] Blue, J. R. (1985). James. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 827). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[2] Richardson, K. A. (1997). James (Vol. 36, p. 148). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 358). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 359). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[5] Blue, J. R. (1985). James. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 828). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[6] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jas 3:1–12). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[7] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 358). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[8] Richardson, K. A. (1997). James (Vol. 36, p. 159). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.