James introduced the idea of the tongue in 1:26. "If anyone considers himself religious and does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless."
It seems that we've fallen into the pit of despair when he approaches the topic in chapter 3. But there are some clues to what he is thinking.
Someone with a worthwhile religion WOULD keep a tight rein on his tongue. hm... worthwhile.
Someone who can't keep a lid on it is deceived. Doesn't that mean he CAN keep a lid on....?
But the best clues are in James' illustrations. He gives three in chapter 3: a fountain, a fig tree and a grapevine. The clue in each of those illustration is that they produce exactly what they are. A fresh stream produces fresh water. Salty water sends out a salty stream of water. Figs produce figs. Grapevines produce grapes.
So the place where we can be deceived seems to be the place where we consider ourselves religions, but don't act like it [sounds familiar, doesn't it?] by speaking as one would expect as a religions person.
That's why I wanted to read to the end of the chapter. Verses 13-18 clarify the source of our less than religious speech. Our hearts harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition. Whoa... that sounds pretty nasty. Yet Jesus brings up this idea several times in the gospels; e.g. Luke 6:45. "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his moth speaks."
So even though controlling the tongue is impossible, we aren't without hope. A change of heart will produce a change of attitude and a change of words. We don't have to harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition. We can have God's own wisdom. Remember 1:5 said we should ask God, "who gives [wisdom] generously to all without finding fault..."
3:17 shows how that wisdom changes our heart. First of all it is pure. It is undivided; not double minded. It has only one desire, which is submission to God. [More on that in chapter 4!] Listen to the description of the heart of wisdom. It's peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Wow. Imagine the words that would come from that heart. And what a blessed promise: "peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness."
There's no way to control the tongue? Thank God there is a way to control the source, a changed heart, filled with the Spirit and wisdom from God.
Everyone did such an amazing job of sharing verses related to changing. 2 Corinthians 10:4-6. Matthew 15. Philippians 4:8. I should have jotted them all down.
I hope everyone went away encouraged [because it was certainly clear everyone was very discouraged when we started out!!!] The Second Corinthians passage is so clear; even though we live in the world, we don't wage war as the world does. We don't only have the world's tools. Positive self-talk. I sentences. Counting to ten. I'm not saying those aren't useful tools and good habits, but God can change our hearts! And that is the source of all the crap coming out of our mouths.
Don't give up! We're going to be talking about this a lot more next week. [Two weeks, sorry. We have a break next week. Coffee? } 4:1 says, "What causes fights and quarrels among you?" What's the source. Yep. We're going to keep talking about this.
I like to pick a verse from each book that hints at why the book is written. Although it is not one of the verses I had originally even considered, I'm thinking more and more of 2:12. "Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom." Paul said in Ephesians to walk in a manor worthy of your calling. Peter said to grow up into your salvation. Jesus himself said, "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.'
The bar for our words and actions are very high. But the source of both our words and actions is our changed, Spirit filled heart. We are Christians. We can live like Christians.
No comments:
Post a Comment