This sermon was first preached at St Denys Church, by Marion H in September 2024

I must admit I really like the book of James because it is so practical, it is all about faith and works. James message in this passage that the words we speak are an outworking of our faith. Once we have become a friend and follower of Jesus, once we have accepted what Christ has done for us through his death on the cross and his resurrection then our lives should be an outworking of that faith, not just through our actions, our service to others, but also through the words we speak to one another. In each of us there should be a transformation of the tongue.

A Health Warning for Preachers!

The opening words of this morning's passage are enough to make me think "I know, I'll just be quiet and go and sit down!" Why does James say that teachers, and by implication, those who speak and preach, will be judged more harshly? It is not that James has 'got it in for teachers', it is because of the influence their words can have. James was warning teachers to only teach God's truth and not to lead the congregation astray. 

He was of course talking about Bible teachers, at his time the teachers of the law. He was concerned that some were becoming teachers for all the wrong reasons. They enjoyed the status and deference that being a teacher of the law brought with it, but they had wrong motives in their hearts and as Jesus said in Luke 6:45 out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So if the content of their heart, their motivation, was wrong, they would not be teaching biblical truth and their listeners could be led astray. Remember too that Jesus called the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, hypocrites and white washed tombs, because he said they liked to present a righteous exterior, but when they spoke the death and corruption within became apparent.

The Power of the Tongue

So let's have a look at what James had to say about the power of the tongue and the effect of the words that come from it. The book of James mentions the tongue more than any other book in the bible, but this is hardly surprising as James is about practical Christian living. 

I expect that many of you grew up hearing all the old sayings, you know the things I mean, a stitch in time saves nine, don't cry over spilt milk, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and so on. However there was one expression I did not hear at home and only picked up on later, in school. And that was 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me'. When I first heard it as a young child I knew that it was not true, words could hurt very much. As I grew up and became an orthopedic nurse, I came to realize that broken bones can often be easier to heal than the mental and emotional trauma caused by vicious or unkind words, which for some people can cause a life long wound. Most broken bones heal eventually, but the wounds left by unkind words can last a lifetime. I am sure that James would be telling us that this saying about wounds caused by words not hurting is a fallacy and a deception. 

This passage feels to me like it was written with a real passion, a vehemence. So what was so important to James about words and how we use them? In James 2:17 he says that faith without works is dead. He believed that the transformed tongue is part of the transformed life that grows in each of us as we day by day follow Jesus, so he is seeing the words we speak as part of the works that follow on from faith. He is saying that if we have truly come to Christ and accepted the offer of salvation, made possible by the death of Jesus on the cross, then if our faith is active and genuine it should show in transformed lives, including transformed speech. 

Cooperation with the Spirit leads to transformation

The book of James is known for its practical approach, but you may have noticed in this passage there are no hints or tips, no ten steps to a tamed tongue. This is because as James says in verse 8, no man can tame the tongue. So are we to just throw in the towel and say sorry I can't do that? No, James knew that to control the tongue is a spiritual thing. It requires us day by day to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. When we give our lives over to the lordship of Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us and he wants to grow the fruit of the spirit within us. Part of this fruit is patience, kindness, gentleness and self control, all very relevant to the control of the tongue and growing this fruit is a sign of an active faith and a transformed life. In Matthew 16:24 Jesus talked about taking up our cross every day and following him and controlling our tongues is part of our daily cross bearing.  

James then goes on to give a couple of analogies for the tongue, he uses a bit in the mouth of a horse and a ship's rudder. He says that like the tongue they are small compared to the size of what they control. Think about the size of a race horse and the size of an aircraft carrier, and you can see that what controls them is tiny. Both of these analogies are passive, in that neither the bit nor the rudder can control anything by themselves. It takes the riders hand to move the bit in a horse's mouth and direct him and it takes the pilot's hand to operate the rudder of a ship. We can know that when we try to take control of our tongues we are not alone, we can think of it as having the hand of the Holy Spirit over ours, helping us to take control of our tongues and we can use all the patience, gentleness, kindness and self- control that he gives us.

The Power of Evil Words

James then goes on to very specifically speak about the power of evil that the tongue can wield. He says that evil words come from hell itself - strong stuff! He speaks about how a single spark can set a whole forest ablaze and that one evil word spoken can have the same devastating effect. Because I am a visual learner I find it easier to envision things rather than just looking at figures. So when it came to thinking about the effect of a spark, I looked up great fires that happened because of small sources. One I found was the Great Fire of Chicago which happened in 1871. This killed 300 people and destroyed 17,000 structures in the city. It was started by a cow kicking over a kerosene lamp in a barn. Of course, much nearer to home was the Great Fire of London in 1666. Although few died in the actual fire, historians believe that hundreds died later of exposure and hunger once they had been made homeless. Approximately 13,500 houses were destroyed, 87 parish churches, many public buildings, St Paul's Cathedral and three of the city gates. In modern terms the fire is estimated to have cost 2.3 billion pounds. And if we remember our school history lesson, it started from an overheated oven in a bakery. A tiny fire source that caused that much damage and this is how damaging James views the power of the tongue. In verse 6 James says that our tongue, in its untamed state, is full of deadly poison that comes from hell and can spread evil like an uncontrolled fire. Now I find that a terrifying thought.

We don't have to look too far to see examples of the power of evil words. We only have to look at the awful events in July in Southport when three little girls were murdered. Because of rumour, gossip and misinformation on social media, word got out that the young man responsible was an immigrant, which was untrue. With frightening speed there were soon riots in the streets in various parts of the country, attacks on emergency personnel and attacks on immigrants and their places of worship and housing. All the result of a few evil words.  

We can see the results of deceitful lying words in the bible. The first recorded sin in the Bible, regarding Adam and Eve, was not so much about the eating of the forbidden fruit, but the reason why they did. They were lied to and deceived, a sin involving words. The serpent asked Eve if God had really said that they could not eat of any tree in the garden, a deceptive twist on what God had actually said. When Eve answered that God had said they could eat of all the trees in the garden, but they must not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, otherwise they would die, the serpent directly contradicted God's word when he said you will surely not die and he cast doubt into Eve's mind by his words. So the first recorded sin in the Bible was all about the power of words to lead astray and deceive. It is interesting to note that this occurred at the beginning of God's relationship with man, but on the day of Pentecost, at the birth of the church the first element of the new order, the new creation of the transformed life involved tongues and words. What looked like tongues of fire descended from heaven, the disciples were filled with the holy spirit and they could speak different languages so that all those around them, no matter which language they spoke could hear the gospel being proclaimed in their own tongue. As words had been used in the fall of Adam, so at the coming of the second Adam, the lord Jesus, words were also pivotal. 

A Call To Consistency

This passage in James is also a call to consistency. He points out that a fig tree only produces figs and a vine grapes and if fresh water is mixed with brackish water it will always taste bitter. He talks about the inconsistency of the fact that out of the same mouth we can bless and curse , or speak unkind words, about the same thing, the image of God. We can sing praise to God at one moment and then curse or speak hard or unkind words to somebody, made in the image of God, the next. There is a line in one of the modern hymns written by Keith and Kristen Getty called 'Beneath the cross of Jesus' which says, "how could I now dishonour the ones that you have loved". It is helpful to keep this thought at the back of your mind and I must admit there have been occasions when it had brought me up short when I have been about to be critical or unkind about someone. Of course it is not saying you can't be critical or speak words of correction and do some straight talking when it is needed, but it is asking you to explore your motivation and think about your words, are they going to encourage and build up or are they going to tear down?

It underlines the fact that it is often wise to pause for a split second to consider our words before we open our mouths.  

Whilst I was researching this talk I came across a couple of quotes that I thought were worth sharing with you. They are both encouragements to give pause for thought before we speak, as what we say highlights what is going on in our minds. One is from President Abraham Lincoln and he said "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt". The second quote comes from Bruce Barton, another American. He was an author, adman and politician in the 1920s and 30s. He said "For good or ill, conversation is your advertisement. Every time you open your mouth you let men look into your mind".  

The Power of the Transformed Tongue

This morning it feels right to look at the other side of the coin, the power of the transformed tongue, because after all, it is our words as well as our actions that can take the love of God out into the world. There are many verses in the Bible that speak about the power of kind, loving words. The book of proverbs alone contains many examples. My favourite one if from Proverbs 16:24, it says pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. Some years ago, following major surgery and enforced stillness, I embroidered these words into a sampler and it hangs on my sitting room wall as a reminder of the fact that good, pleasant words are healing to the mind and body. In Psalm 141:3 it says set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the doors of my lips. So a form of prayer asking God to help us control what we say.

 I am sure we can all think of people who have spoken kind and encouraging words into our lives. Some of these may have happened long ago but we still remember the words because they had such a profound effect on our lives. For all of us the taming of the tongue is an ongoing process, as I said earlier, Jesus said we daily need to pick up our cross and follow him, so we daily need to fight this battle with the tongue, even if we know that the perfectly tamed tongue will not appear this side of heaven! I suspect that we all are trudging down this path and to a greater or lesser degree we are taking control of our tongues when we speak to other people, but there is one person who we can often give a right tongue bashing to and that is ourselves. We do not have to speak the words aloud, but when we think I'm useless, I'm a waste of space, I am not worthy of love ,then we are speaking negative words into our own lives. It is far better to speak God's words over our lives. 

So what does God say about me, about you? You can draw up a huge list from the Bible of all that we have become because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, this is the in Christ Jesus teaching. When I was at Bible College we were encouraged to draw up our own list of these verses and to put it beside our mirror. So in the morning we not only saw our own bleary self, but we saw a list of encouraging, life affirming words such as, I am a child of God,, I am a new creation and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and so the list goes on as there are many such scriptures. We were then encouraged to speak some of these words out loud over ourselves One of the side effects of reciting this list of biblical truths each day is that you learn them and it helps in everyday situations. When you realise that you are being made to feel worthless, in your mind you can speak over yourself I am a child of God. And if you feel you are being called by God to do what looks like a very difficult task, you can speak over yourself the words I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. As we have been saying, there is tremendous power in the spoken word and that includes the encouragement we can give and receive when we speak God's truths into our own lives and the lives of others. At the end of the day, it is a choice, are we going to believe the deceit of the devil when he whispers to us, you're no good, you're useless, or are we going to believe what God says about us which is you are my child, I love you and you were created in Christ Jesus for good works. It is up to each one of us to work with the Holy Spirit to tame our tongues so that we can speak kind and encouraging words to all whom we meet, and to ourselves. Instead of leaving sparks of destruction behind us just imagine, as we go about our daily lives leaving little sparks of God's love, just think what a wildfire we could start for the kingdom of God. Amen