An Exposition on the Book of James Part 11
If you haven’t yet, please check out part 1 of this series, The ideas of James are all centered around the idea of a perfectly forged faith that makes us perfect.
Before there were people on the earth, in fact, before there was an earth, God was. We know that the Bible teaches that God has always existed as he is now. He is immutable, he cannot change. Reading through the genesis account of creation has always fascinated me. Wondering what God did before he made earth or even how he created everything. As I have Matured in my faith, I have grown to appreciate the literalness of the Bible. I see Genesis 1 and John 1 talking about the same thing from a very different perspective. But they have something in common, the word.
We see in Genesis that God spoke the worlds into existence, and in John 1 we see that Jesus Christ was that very Word. When God said, let there be, and there was, that was God speaking life into – well – nothing. God’s words have power, and his Word has power. The Bible tells us in Hebrew 4:12 that “the word of God is quick and powerful…” The word quick there means alive! the Word of God is alive and it is powerful! So much so that when God speaks, things come alive. When we speak, it is literally breath coming out of us, and breath is life. Without it we are still dead. That is why God had to breath into Adam the breath of life.
God created us in his image, and in his likeness, and so we often share some of the qualities of God – but to a lesser degree. God’s words are incredibly powerful, and he has given us the ability to speak with words as well. Our words are not nearly as powerful as God’s but that is to be expected. It is not something that we should take lightly though. Just because I can’t speak to nothing and turn into a masterpiece, does not mean that my words are powerless.
Certainly, James thinks that our words are of a great importance. He gives us two illustrations. He talks about a horse, and how with a bit in its mouth we can control it. Horses have been used for millennia to achieve some great construction projects. People have used them to pull trees out of the forests and pull carts long distances. They are fast and powerful, but we can control them and harness that power for our benefit by a small piece of metal in its moth attached to a strap of leather.
The other example used by James is that of a ship. Ships in his time were giant wooden vessels that were driven by the winds. As the winds hit the giant canvas sails they would push the boat along in the direction of the wind. At the helm – or wheel – of the ship stood the captain or sometimes called governor. With the spin of the wheel he can change the angle at which the winds hit the sails and therefore change the direction and speed of the ship. Often, they would be forced to go in a zigzag pattern to get to their desired destination, because the winds did not just propel them in the direction they wanted to go. A skilled captain new how to control his vessel.
Our body is what we want to control. James chapter 2 is all about faith needing to produce a work. Our bodies are the objects that will be preforming that work. However, our tongues are seen as the steering wheel. We need to make sure that our words are in alignment with the faith that we possess. It is not enough to know that God is good in the midst of the trial, we must communicate that he is good. Why, because words are a controlling mechanism. The whole body is engaged when words are spoken.
However, when our words are not in alignment with God’s Word, when our words lake faith, when our words are harsh and not loving, when our words are trying to gain a mastery over another, or when our words are not true, they become like a deadly poison. We can be a hypocrite with our actions, when our deeds don’t math our words, but a more subtle and even more dangerous pitfall is when our words don’t math that faith that we claim to believe in. If we have an understanding that God is good, but we cannot muster up the words in the moments when we cannot perceive his goodness than we have embedded into our life a deadly seed of hypocrisy and infidelity. And when the temptations of James chapter 1 happen upon us, these seeds that have taken root in our life by the words we have said or left unsaid will spring up and choke that perfect fruit of patience and perfectness that God wants to produce through that trial of our faith. This is why many falter when the trials come. They are like the blade that has been hammered and fired and under the surface where no eye but God’s can see there are some microscopic flaws. when the blade is quenched in the oil that stress becomes too great and the iron blade shatters like glass.
Our words must be in alignment with the eternal Word of God. They matter so greatly to our perfection! that is why the Bible emphasizes the giving of thanks and the giving or praise, because they are what will define our truest beliefs when the day of testing comes. Unfortunately, “the tongue can no man tame.” It must die like the rest of our body, maybe even be the first martyr among our members. Christ must give us the power to rule over our tongues and keep them under his control.
Words are powerful! They bring life or death; They can save, or they can destroy; They can bring mercy or bring judgment. How are you employing your tongue? is it in alignment with the Word of God. Is it being used to bring glory and honor and power and praise and thanksgiving to an omniscient, all-powerful, omnipresent, immutable, thrice holly, merciful, just God? Or are you harboring seeds of poison within your faith? are you using your words to build up others, or are they destructive and evil?
James 3:3-8 KJV
Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
S.T.
Acts 20:24
"But none of these things move me..."
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