James: Where Faith
and Life Meet
Tongues and Fire
April 22, 2012
Introduction
The largest fire in a church
in modern history was the one which destroyed the Church of La Compania in
Santiago, Chile, on the night of December 8, 1863. The service was to be the
last of a month long celebration; and the walls, ceiling and altar were
decorated with thousands of yards of muslin, gauze and tinsel and illuminated
by 2,000 long candles and 20,000 oil lamps, the later being strung from pillar
to pillar throughout the building.
A moment before high mass was to begin, a bit
of the flimsy material swayed too close to the flame of a candle, became
ignited and, within three or four minutes, the whole interior of the church was
an inferno. As the terror-stricken people frantically struggled in the aisles,
the lamps fell and sprinkled them with blazing oil and those who managed to
reach the doors and exits found them blocked with tightly-wedged bodies. Of the
nearly 3,000 worshippers in this congregation, some 2,500 perished in the fire
or died from their injuries. [1] Entire families were
wiped out. The clean-up of the bodies took about ten days, and since most of
the bodies were burned beyond recognition, they were placed in a mass grave at
the Cementerio
General de Santiago.
(Read James 3:1 -12)
Tongues and Fire
As
parents we remind our children (and may have been reminded ourselves by
experience) that fire can be a very dangerous thing. Even a tiny spark can be very dangerous if it
is not properly contained. We may say to
our children, “Do not get to close to the fire or else you may get
burned.” Since fire has the potential to
cause a great deal of pain and damage it is no wonder why James uses fire as an example to describe the potential painful and
destructive powers of the tongue (or more specifically the words we
speak). Words have been responsible for
starting wars, abusing people, breaking up marriages, devaluing people and
destroying countless lifelong relationships.
The tongue of a human is considered one of the smallest muscles in the
body, but it has the potential to cause a world of damage and destruction if
left unchecked and unfiltered.
The topic of this passage is obviously the power of the
tongue or the words we speak. However
before James tackles this subject he first gives a warning to his readers. He warns them about becoming teachers, or
better yet he warns them to not become teachers. According to Douglas Moo, “Teachers were
prominent in the life of the early church from the beginning… the teacher had
the task of expounding the truth of the Gospel on the growing Christian
tradition… The teacher in the early Jewish Christian church would have
considerable prestige.”[2] In a society where few people could read the
teaching of the Gospel was to be taken seriously.
James then informs them why they should not be eager to
become teachers; because those who do teach will be judged more harshly and most
notably for the words we speak. One of the most difficult parts of the body
to control is our tongues or speech (don’t
believe me? Try hitting your finger with
a hammer and we’ll see if this is true) and what we say can easily lead to sin or cause others to be led
astray. I have heard people say that
being a preacher would be an easy job; since all we have to do preach a sermon
on Sunday, tell people how to live their lives and guilt members into attending
and giving to the church. On the
contrary James says differently. The job
of a Pastor is to be discouraged (unless one is clearly called by God) because
he (I) will be judged more strictly for the words I speak.
We
now skip down to verse 5 where James cuts to the chase about the power and
danger of our tongues. We must keep in
mind James is not only speaking to leaders and teachers now; he is speaking to
Christians as a whole. The tongue is symbolism for the words we
speak. In some ways our words are a
sort of works. In this portion of
scripture he is talking specifically about the power of words. Like a fire if used irresponsibly or without
care the end result will cause great destruction. I
think we all know the power of negative or hurtful words as we have at one time
been at the receiving end of some hurtful words. I know throughout my nearly 20 years of
ministry some hurtful things have been said to me as a person and as a pastor
and they stick with you for a long time.
The words we use can cause great pain and suffering if not used
properly. According
to Proverbs 18:21, “The tongue
has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” How true this is, our words have the power to
leave everlasting positive or negative impact on someone. Evangelist and author Leonard Ravenhill says,
“Our words reflect what’s in our hearts.
If a man loves sports, he talks about sports. If he loves money, he talks about money. If he loves art, he talks art… Our speech
shows where our hearts are.” How often
can you tell what kind of person someone is by his or her words? It doesn’t take too long to find out what a
person is like just by engaging in a conversation with him.
I
think James does a pretty good job in verses five and six of talking about the
potential damage our words can cause to others.
He equates our words to fire, unrighteousness and hell. He obviously knows and understands our human
nature and tendency to take something wonderful and use it for harm and
destruction.
Whenever
I read this portion of scripture I am often convicted because I sometimes
forget the power my words have. There
may be times that I go after my children or may say a harsh word to my wife and
not truly realize at first the impact of what I have said. I have often spoken unkind words and know
that I cannot take those words back.
When I do this I know what I am saying is hurtful or wrong yet I go
ahead and say them anyway and why is that?
I think the answer is found in verse seven
and eight. James says wild animals,
reptiles and sea creatures can all be tamed by humans, but the tongue cannot be
tamed by any human being. We say what we
say because we have no control over that little 20 oz. muscle in our mouths. Can we use this as an excuse though? Can we
justify the hurtful words and cursing of others simply by saying we have no
control over our tongues? Or by
saying, “I have to say what I say (regardless of who I am harming in the
process… I refer to this as verbal regurgitation) otherwise I wouldn’t be true
to who I am.” We are responsible for
every word that proceeds from our mouths.
In
verses nine through twelve we see just how contrary our tongues/words can be. Our words have huge potential to be positive,
affirming, and glorifying to God. With
it we bless God… We go to church and sing praises we proclaim the wonderful
love of God to one another. We pray for
one another and lift each other up for the edification of the body. Tell someone you love her Etc. Yet in the same manner we curse our fellow
brothers or sisters through gossip, slander, abusive language and harsh tongue
lashings. It is not rare to hear things
like “Did you hear what so and so did? I
can’t believe she would do that. What a
_________.” You fill in the blank. Or we say, “He did what?! What a jerk!
I can’t believe he would even call himself a Christian. I hope God gets him in the end.” Or the ever so famous “but” statements, “She’s
a nice lady, but she annoys the heck out of me.
I just walk away from her when I see her walking my way.” Then the always helpful, “I’m not trying to
gossip BUT did you hear what she did?”
Then some of us have been recipients of some of the harshest words ever
spoken, “I hate you!”, “You are worthless!” or “I wish you were dead!” You catch my drift? Oh we
can say the sweetest of things to one another, but we can also speak venomous
and evil words as well.
With
our mouths we praise God and with those same mouths we speak evil of those
around us. James says, “This should not
be!” And I concur. It doesn’t make sense
naturally. How can something so
wonderful be capable of being so damaging?
He writes, “Can a fresh spring produce fresh and salt water? Can fig tree bear olives?” No. These
things are not natural. A fig tree
should produce figs. A fresh spring
should produce fresh water. James is
saying “The words we use should be a reflection of the God we serve.” If God gave us our tongues then we should use
them for his glory and edification to his children. Or let me put it the way I would have written
it had I written a this verse…”If you
are a Christian then you should not gossip, slander, curse, abuse or tear people
down with your words. You should speak
well of one another, be kind to each other, lift up your brother or sister in
Christ with words of encouragement and blessing.”
We
come now to the “HOW” part. As you
remember James says the tongue cannot be tamed by a human being. So if I can’t tame my tongue then who
can? Well, we are in church so the
obvious answer is God. Maybe I should
ask it like this instead, “If the tongue is untamable then why even try to tame
it?”
Only
God can give us the power to use our words positively. We need to submit our mouths to Him and He
will give us the power to be disciplined to use our words positively and for
His glory.
If
you recall in Acts 2 as the Holy Spirit fell upon the people and tongues of
fire were present over each person speaking in other languages. These tongues of fire were evidence of the
people being filled with the Holy Spirit.
The words they spoke were Spirit driven Words spoken for the glory of
God and the edification of the body of Christ.
So to answer the how question, I suggest
we pray for the tongues of fire to be present in our speech instead of
using the tongue as a fire. The difference between these two kinds of
tongues is the tongue of fire is driven by the spirit and the tongue as a fire
is driven by man.
Conclusion
Here’s
the application for the day it is found in Psalm 141:3 when King David prayed, “Set
a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.” And he
also prayed in Psalm 19:14 “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” May this be your prayer as well as you
consider how you use your words. The
king of Israel (or better yet the man after God’s own heart) knew the power of
his words and he also knew the potential of harm his words could cause. He knew that his tongue could not be tamed so
he prayed that God would be the watcher of his words. That he would help David to speak no evil
words that would bring harm or destruction to anyone. Ultimately he wanted his words to be pleasing
to God and acceptable to Him as well.
The
challenge for us today… Gossip, negative talk, criticism and back biting are
present around us all the time. I know
it exists here in the church… It is present in any church. However as believers we have the
responsibility to stop harmful speech in the body of Christ. The intent of the church is to glorify God,
worship Him and edify one another in Christ.
The
big challenge I have for you and me is to be conduits of change here in this
body of Christ. Let’s begin by putting a
stop to the use of harmful words against one another or against others in
general. If gossip, negative talk, criticism
and back biting come up then let us put a stop to it. Let’s be honest, the reason it is present is
because we allow it to be present. God
has given us voices, he has given us intellect, and he has given us new hearts
so let us use all of these God given gifts for his glory and not the tearing
down of the body.
Decide
today, will we use our words as bombs of death and destruction or will we allow
the Spirit to be present in our speech to be balms of comfort to those around
you and for praise to our God? For the
words we speak are in fact works (deeds) that people see in us to give evidence
as to whether we are true followers of Christ or not.
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