James 3

James 3:1

VI. THE TONGUE: ITS USE AND ABUSE (3:1-12) The first twelve verses of chapter 3 deal with the tongue (also mentioned in Jam_1:19, Jam_1:26; Jam_2:12; Jam_4:11; Jam_5:12). Just as an old-fashioned doctor examined a patient’s tongue to assist in diagnosis, so James tests a person’s spiritual health by his or her conversation. Self-diagnosis begins with sins of speech. James would agree with the modern wit who said, Watch your tongue. It’s in a wet place where it’s easy to slip!3:1 The subject is introduced by a warning against the hasty desire to be a teacher of the word of God. Although the tongue is not specifically mentioned, the underlying thought is that one who uses his tongue in teaching the Scriptures assumes added responsibility before God and man.

The words Let not many of you become teachers may be paraphrased: Do not become unduly ambitious to be a teacher. This should not be interpreted as a prohibition against the use of his gift by one who has actually been called of God to teach. It is a simple warning that this ministry should not be undertaken lightly. Those who teach the Word of Truth will receive heavier judgment if they fail to practice what they teach. It is a great responsibility to teach the Bible. The teacher must be prepared to obey what he sees in the word. He can never hope to lead others beyond what he himself has practiced. The extent of his influence on others will be determined by how much he himself has progressed. The teacher begets others in his own image; he makes them like himself. If he dilutes or explains away the clear meaning of any Scripture, he hinders the growth of his students. If he condones sin in any form, he fosters lives of unholiness. No other book makes such claims on its readers as the NT. It calls for total commitment to Jesus Christ. It insists that He must be Lord of every phase of the believer’s life. It is a serious matter to teach from such a book! 3:2 James now moves from the specific ministry of teaching to the general area of conversation. We are all prone to stumble in many areas but if anyone can control his tongue, so that he does not commit the various sins of speech, that person is truly well-rounded and well-disciplined. If one can exercise control in speech, he should not have difficulty in practicing self-control in other areas of life as well. Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is the only One who ever did this completely, but there is a sense in which each of us can become perfect, that is, mature, complete, thoroughly disciplined. 3:3 Five figures of speech, or pictures of the tongue are given. First of all, it is compared to a bridle. Bridles are the harnesses which go over the horses’ heads and hold the bits in the horses’ mouths. Connected to the bit are the reins. Though the bit itself is a very small piece of steel, yet if a person can control that bit, he can control the behavior of the horse. So the tongue can direct the lifeeither for good or for evil. 3:4 The second picture is that of a rudder. Compared with the ship itself, a rudder is very small. It weighs only a fraction of the weight of the ship. For example, the Queen Elizabeth weighed 83,673 gross tons. The rudder of that ship weighed only 140 tonsless than two-tenths of one percent of the total. Yet when the rudder is turned, it controls the direction of the ship itself. It seems incredible that a man can control so huge a vessel with such a relatively small device; yet this is exactly what happens. Thus we should not misjudge the power of the tongue by its size. Though it is a very small member of the body, and relatively hidden, yet it can boast of great accomplishments, both good and evil. 3:5, 6 A third simile of the tongue is a fire. A lighted match, carelessly thrown, may start a brush fire. This in turn may ignite a forest and leave a charred mass of ruins. What possibilities, then, a small match holds of destruction and devastation! One of the great catastrophes of history was the Chicago fire of 1871. Tradition has it that it started when Mrs.

O’Leary’s cow kicked over her lantern. Whether or not that was true, the fire burned for three days over three and one half square miles of the city. It killed 250 people, made 100,000 homeless, and destroyed property valued at 175,000,000. The tongue is like a small lighted match or a turned-over lantern. Its potentials for wickedness are almost infinite. James speaks of it as a world of iniquity … among our members.

The word world here is used to express vastness. We sometimes use it in this sense; for example, a world full of trouble. We mean a tremendous amount of trouble. The tongue, though so small, has vast possibilities of iniquity in it. The manner in which the flame of evil-speaking spreads is illustrated by the conversation between two women in Brooklyn. One said, Tillie told me that you told her that secret I told you not to tell her. The other replied, She’s a mean thing. I told Tillie not to tell you I told her. The first speaker responded, Well, I told Tillie I wouldn’t tell you she told meso don’t tell her I did.The tongue can defile the whole body. A person can corrupt his whole personality by using his tongue to slander, abuse, lie, blaspheme, and swear. Chappel writes: The faultfinder injures himself. … The mud slinger cannot engage in his favorite pastime without getting some of the mud that he slings both upon his hands and upon his heart. How often we have come away from such an experience with a sense of defilement! Yet that was not our intention at all. We were vainly hoping that by slinging mud upon others we might enhance someone’s estimate of our own cleanliness. We were foolish enough to believe that we could build ourselves up by tearing another down. We were blind enough to imagine that by putting a stick of dynamite under the house of our neighbor we could strengthen the foundations of our own. But this is never the case. In our efforts to injure others we may succeed, but we always inflict the deeper injury upon ourselves. The tongue sets on fire the course (or the wheel) of nature. This is the wheel set in motion at birth. It describes the whole round of human activity. An evil tongue pollutes not only a man’s personal life, but it contaminates all his activities as well. It affects the whole of wickedness in the whole of man for the whole of life. A wicked tongue is set on fire by hell. All evil speech has its source there. It is hellish in its very character. The word used for hell here is Gehenna; apart from this instance, it is used only by the Lord Jesus in the NT. 3:7 The fourth figure to which the tongue is likened is a wild, untamable creature. All kinds of beasts, birds, serpents and marine life can be tamed. It is not uncommon to see tame elephants, lions, tigers, birds of prey, serpents, porpoises, and even fish. Pliny lists among creatures that were tamed by men in his day: elephants, lions and tigers, among beasts; the eagle, among birds; asps and other serpents; crocodiles and various fishes, among the inhabitants of the water. To argue that not every kind of creature has actually been tamed is to miss the point of James’ argument; there is no reason to believe there is any kind of creature that could not be tamed by man, given sufficient time and persistence. Robert G. Lee expresses it eloquently: What has man done with huge elephants? He has invaded their jungle homes, trapped them, trained themscores of themin carrying lumber, in pushing heavily laden wagons, in all kinds of labor. What has man done with many green-eyed Bengal tigers? He has caught them, taught them, and made them his playmates. What has man done with fierce, furious, strong African lions? He has captured numbers of them and has trained them to jump through hoops of fire, to ride horseback, to sit on high pedestals, to leave untouchedwhen hungrybeef placed between their paws, to lie down, to stand up, to run, to roar in obedience to man’s spoken word, in obedience to the crack of man’s whip. Why, once I saw (years ago at a circus) a lion open wide his cavernous and ravenous mouth and hold it open while a man, his trainer, thrust his head far down into the lion’s mouth and held it there a full minute. What has man done with the huge boa-constrictor? With the great python? Go to the circus and see little women, frail as flowers, coil these hideous monsters about their bodies with impunity. Go to the animal show, consider how man has made the spotted leopard and the blood-thirsty jaguar harmless and dumb before him. Go to the show and see the trained fleas, see the hungry jackal lie down with the meek lamb, see the dove and the eagle nest together, see the wolf and the rabbit romp in play. 3:8 But man’s success with wild animals does not extend to the area of his own tongue. If we are honest, we will have to admit that this is true in our own lives. Because of the fall, we have lost dominion over this small piece of flesh. Human nature does not have the ability or strength to govern this little member. Only God can bring it under control. James next characterizes the tongue as an unruly evil. Linking this expression with the words full of deadly poison we suspect that James has in mind a restless serpent, with exceedingly poisonous venom. A drop or two would be fatal. So the tongue can poison minds and assassinate characters. We all know how easy it is to gossip about others. How often we have engaged in mudslinging in order to get even for supposed wrongs.

And often for no reason at all we have belittled others, criticized them, downgraded them. Who can measure the harm done, the tears that have flowed, the broken hearts, the ruined reputations? And who can measure the misery it has brought to our own lives and to our families? The inward bitterness that has been aroused, the shame of having to apologize, the bad effects on our health. Parents who have openly indulged in criticism of fellow-believers have had to watch their children adopt the same critical spirit and wander off from Christian fellowship. The price we have to pay for the undisciplined use of our tongue is enormous. What is the remedy? Pray daily that the Lord will keep us from gossip, censoriousness, and unkind speech. Don’t talk unfavorably about anyone; love covers a multitude of sins (1Pe_4:8). If we have something against another person, let us go to him directly, discuss it in love, and pray together (Mat_18:15; Luk_17:3). Let us try to see Christ in our brethren instead of magnifying minor failures. If we start to say something unkind or unprofitable, let us stop in the middle of the sentence and explain that to continue wouldn’t be edifying. Some things are better left unsaid. 3:9, 10 It is inconsistent to use the tongue for both good and evil purposes. It is completely unnatural; there is nothing like it in nature. One minute a man blesses God with his tongue, the next he curses those who are made in the image of God. How incongruous that a common source should ever produce such opposite results! Such a state of affairs should not exist. The tongue that blesses God should help men instead of wounding them.

All that we say should be subject to the threefold test: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Constantly we should ask the Lord to set a watch before our lips (Psa_141:3), and pray that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts might be acceptable in the sight of Him who is our strength and Redeemer (Psa_19:14). We should remember that our members in Rom_12:1 include our tongue. 3:11 No spring gives fresh water and bitter at the same time. The tongue should not do so either. Its outflow should be uniformly good. 3:12 Just as water from a fountain speaks of refreshment, so fruit from a fig tree speaks of nourishment. A fig tree cannot produce olives, neither can a grapevine bear figs. In nature, a tree produces only one kind of fruit. How is it, then, that the tongue can produce two kinds of fruitgood and evil? This passage should not be confused with a similar one in Mat_7:16-20. There we are warned against expecting good fruit from bad trees. Evil men can only produce wicked works. Here we are warned against using the tongue to produce two opposite kinds of fruit. No spring can yield salt water and fresh water at the same time. It must be one or the other. These lessons from nature are intended to remind us that our speech should be consistently good. Thus James puts us on trial as far as our speech is concerned. Before leaving this section, let us ask ourselves the following questions. Do I teach others things that I have not obeyed myself? Do I criticize others behind their back? Is my speech consistently clean, edifying, kind? Do I use minced oaths such as gosh, golly, gee, jeepers, good heavens, heck? After a solemn meeting, do I engage in levity or talk about football scores? Do I pun on the Scriptures? In retelling a story, do I exaggerate in order to make people more impressed? Do I habitually tell the truth, even if it means loss of face, friends, or finances?

James 3:13

VII. WISDOM: THE TRUE AND THE FALSE (3:13-18) James now discusses the difference between true wisdom and false. When he speaks about wisdom, he is not thinking of how much knowledge a man has, but how he lives his life from day to day. It is not the possession of knowledge but the proper application of it that counts. We have here a portrait of the truly wise man. Basically, this man is the Lord Jesus Christ; He is wisdom incarnate (Mat_11:19; 1Co_1:30). But also the wise person is one who manifests the life of Christ, one in whom the fruit of the Spirit is evident (Gal_5:22-23). We have also a portrait of the worldly-wise man. He acts according to the principles of this world. He embodies all the traits that men glorify. His behavior gives no evidence of divine life within. 3:13 If a man is wise and understanding, he will demonstrate it by his good conduct coupled with the humble spirit that comes from wisdom. The Lord Jesus, the embodiment of true wisdom, was not proud and arrogant; He was meek and lowly in heart (Mat_11:29). Therefore, all who are truly wise will have the hallmark of genuine humility. 3:14 The worldly-wise man is characterized by bitter envy and selfish ambition in his heart. His one passion in life is to advance his own interests. He is jealous of any competitors and ruthless in dealing with them. He is proud of his wisdom that has brought success. But James says that this isn’t wisdom at all. Such boasting is empty. It is a practical denial of the truth that the man who is truly wise is truly humble. 3:15 Even in Christian service, it is possible to be bitterly jealous of other workers, and to seek a prominent place for oneself. There is always a danger that worldly-wise men will be given places of leadership in the church. We must constantly guard against allowing worldly principles to guide us in spiritual affairs. James calls this false wisdom earthly, sensual, and demonic. There is an intended downward progression in these three adjectives. Earthly means that this wisdom is not from heaven, but from this earth. Sensual means that it is not the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but of man’s lower nature. Demonic means that it stoops to actions that resemble the behavior of demons rather than of men. 3:16 Whenever you find envy and self-seeking, you will also find confusion, disharmony, and every other kind of evil. How true! Think of the unrest and agitation in the world todayall because men reject true Wisdom and act according to their own supposed cleverness! 3:17 The wisdom that comes from God is first pure. In thought, word, and deed, it is clean. In spirit and body, in doctrine and practice, in faith and in morals, it is undefiled. It is also peaceable. This simply means that a wise man loves peace, and will do all he can to maintain peace without sacrificing purity. This is illustrated by Luther’s story of the two goats that met on a narrow bridge over deep water.

They could not go back and they did not dare to fight. After a short parley, one of them lay down and let the other go over him, and thus no harm was done. The moral, Luther would say, is easy: be content if your person is trod upon for peace’s sake; your person, I say, not your conscience. True wisdom is gentle. It is forbearing, not overbearing; courteous, not crude. A wise man is a gentleman, respectful of the feelings of others.

Says A. B. Simpson, The rude, sarcastic manner, the sharp retort, the unkind cutall these have nothing whatever in common with the gentle teaching of the Comforter.The next characteristic is willing to yield. It means conciliatory, approachable, open to reason, ready to give in when truth requires it. It is the opposite of obstinate and adamant. Wisdom from above is full of mercy and good fruits.

It is full of mercy to those who are in the wrong, and anxious to help them find the right way. It is compassionate and kind. There is no vindictiveness in it; indeed, it rewards discourtesy with benevolence. It is without partiality, that is, it does not produce favoritism. It is impartial in its treatment of others. Finally, true wisdom is without hypocrisy.

It is sincere and genuine. It does not pretend to be other than it actually is. Now let us put all these thoughts together to form the portraits of two menthe truly wise man and the man with false wisdom. The man who is truly wise is genuinely humble. He estimates others to be better than himself. He does not put on airs, but does put others at ease right away. His behavior is not like that of the world around him; it is otherworldly. He does not live for the body but for the spirit.

In words and deeds, he makes you think of the Lord Jesus. His life is pure. Morally and spiritually he is clean. Then too he is peaceable. He will endure insult and false accusation but will not fight back or even seek to justify himself. He is gentle, mild-mannered, and tenderhearted.

And he is easy to reason with, willing to try to see the other person’s viewpoint. He is not vindictive but always ready to forgive those who have wronged him. Not only so but he habitually shows kindness to others, especially to those who don’t deserve it. And he is the same to all; he doesn’t play favorites. The rich receive the same treatment as the poor; the great are not preferred above the common people. Finally, he is not a hypocrite.

He doesn’t say one thing and mean another. You will never hear him flatter. He speaks the truth and never wears a mask. The worldly-wise man is not so. His heart is filled with envy and strife. In his determination to enrich himself, he becomes intolerant of every rival or competitor. There is nothing noble about his behavior; it rises no higher than this earth. He lives to gratify his natural appetitesjust as the animals do. And his methods are cruel, treacherous, and devilish.

Beneath his well-pressed suit is a life of impurity. His thought life is polluted, his morals debased, his speech unclean. He is quarrelsome with all who disagree with him or who cross him in any way. At home, at work, in social life, he is constantly contentious. And he is harsh and overbearing, rude and crude. People cannot approach him easily; he keeps them at arm’s length.

To reason with him quietly is all but impossible. His mind is already made up, and his opinions are not subject to change. He is unforgiving and vindictive. When he catches someone in a fault or error, he shows no mercy. Rather he unleashes a torrent of abuse, discourtesy, and meanness. He values people according to the benefit they might be to him.

When he can no longer use them, that is, when there is no further hope of profit from knowing them, he loses interest in them. Finally, he is two-faced and insincere. You can never be sure of himeither of his words or actions. 3:18 James closes the chapter with the words, Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. This verse is a connecting link between what we have been discussing and what is to follow. We have just learned that true wisdom is peace-loving. In the next chapter we find conflict among God’s people. Here we are reminded that life is like the farming process. We have the farmer (the wise man who is a peacemaker); the climate (peace); and the harvest (righteousness).

The farmer wants to raise a harvest of righteousness. Can this be done in an atmosphere of quarrels and bickering? No, the sowing must take place under peaceful conditions. It must be done by those who are of a peaceful disposition. A harvest of uprightness will be produced in their own lives and in the lives of those to whom they minister. Once again James has put our faith on trial, this time with regard to the type of wisdom we manifest in our everyday life. We must ask ourselvesDo I respect the proud men of the world more than the humble believer in the Lord Jesus? Do I serve the Lord without caring who gets the credit? Or do I sometimes use questionable means in order to get good results? Am I guilty of flattery in order to influence people? Do I harbor jealousy and resentment in my heart? Do I resort to sarcasm and unkind remarks? Am I pure in thought, in speech, in morals?