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Sermon for the week of Trinity 12
James 3:1-12
In Sunday’s Gospel, the deaf man’s ears were opened by Jesus, and his tongue was also loosed, healed by Jesus in a moment. Last week in our lesson from Romans 10, we heard the apostle Paul explain what our tongues have been loosed for: with the heart, a man believes leading to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made leading to salvation. “Tongue,” “lips,” “mouth”—these are all figures of speech for the ability to speak, and for the words, the speech that comes out of our mouth. Having tongues that work is a great blessing from God, because the ability to speak can be a very useful thing, both in spiritual things and in mundane things, both for the speaker and for those who hear his speech. The greatest use of our tongues is to confess Jesus Christ as Lord, and to call upon His name for help, for mercy, and for salvation. That’s the “healing of the tongue” that took place when the Holy Spirit first used the tongues of others—the speaking, the preaching of the Gospel—to bring us to faith. That’s the first thing they were healed for.
But that’s not all they were healed for. They were also healed so that we can use them to build others up, to serve our neighbor with the things we say. But, as James reminds us this evening, the tongue can also do the opposite. It can also harm our neighbor with the things we say. And so the Holy Spirit guides us through the words of this epistle, and He warns us that our tongues haven’t been healed for the purpose of misusing them.
My brothers, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things.
There’s a very important use of the tongue that has to take place in the Church, but that shouldn’t be used by most Christians. It’s using our tongues to teach. James isn’t talking about parents teaching their children; all parents are to do that. He isn’t talking about teaching in school, either. He’s talking about teaching in the Church, which, again, is good and necessary, but shouldn’t be undertaken by many Christians. Why? Because it’s so easy to stumble, to teach the wrong thing, to say something about God that isn’t Biblical, that isn’t true. And that’s very dangerous, because teachers are supposed to know what they’re talking about, and people tend to believe what their teachers say. But if the teacher in the Church stumbles, he can lead many people away from God instead of toward Him. And so, as James says, teachers in the Church will receive a stricter judgment.
That’s scary. It’s supposed to be. And it’s also why it’s reasonable to be more understanding with the average churchgoer who attends one of the many false-teaching churches out there than we are with the pastors or priests or ministers who actually do the false teaching. Teachers will receive a stricter judgment from God. So use your tongues to pray for your pastor who teaches you, and for all pastors, that when we use our tongues, it may only be the true word of God that we teach, and that God would be merciful toward us if our teaching ever falters.
Now, on to the use of our tongues in general. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Not that James imagines that such a perfect person, who always speaks perfectly, actually exists. No, since the fall into sin, there has not been a perfect man, except for Jesus. Everyone stumbles, at times, in the words we speak. Remember that, when someone you know speaks imperfectly. Everyone does, at one time or another, including you. So have compassion on those around you and don’t be quick to attack them or to take offense when they stumble in their speech and say something wrong.
Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
In everyday life, it’s often the little things that control the big things. We use a little bit in the mouth of a big horse to turn the horse’s whole body. Sailors use a relatively small rudder on a big ship to turn the whole ship. So also the tongue, James says, is a little member of our body. But how we use it can change the whole course of our life, and can have a huge impact on other people’s lives, too.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
Just as a tiny ember, left unchecked and unsupervised, can cause a whole forest to be set on fire and burned to the ground, so a few hurtful words—spoken in anger, spoken in pride, spoken rashly or carelessly—can destroy lives and wreck relationships. It doesn’t matter if the words are spoken or written or typed. The tongue can be a very dangerous member of the body, for as small as it is.
And, as James says, it’s hell itself that sets the tongue on fire. It’s the devil who plays on people’s natural anger, and pride, and carelessness, and nudges people to “go ahead and speak your mind!” Well, speaking one’s mind can be good, can also be neutral, and, it can definitely also be harmful, which is what the devil intends, to cause harm to as many people as possible—and, whenever possible, to use the mouths of Christians to do it. So take James’ counsel from earlier in his epistle: Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Lions have been tamed. And elephants. And even killer whales. But no one has learned how to fully tame the tongue. But what conclusion should we draw from that? No one can tame it, so, oh well, it is what it is? No. No one can tame it, so repent before God for all the times you’ve lost control of it, offer a sincere apology to those whom you may have hurt, and be understanding when your brother or sister also fails to tame their tongue. No one can tame it, so be especially cautious when you speak, and work very hard to tame the tongue as much as possible, with the help of God’s Holy Spirit.
With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
Think, James urges us, how incongruent it is, how unfitting it is to speak a blessing upon God, our Father in heaven, in one moment, and to use the same mouth to badmouth your neighbor, whom God created, in the next moment. These things ought not to happen.
God has graciously given us all the ability to speak, and He has also brought us to faith and loosed our tongues to confess the Lord Jesus for our salvation. But He has healed our tongues, not so that we can let them run wild, not so that we can let them do damage to others, but so that we can praise our God and speak words that will edify our neighbor. So be diligent about this difficult task, whether you’re speaking to someone in person, or texting on the phone, or typing online. Use your tongue to ask your Father in heaven to keep you this day without sin, also in the things you say, and to help you use the tongue He has mercifully healed for good, and not for evil. Amen.
