Use Caution When You Speak

I am more deadly than the screaming shell from the howitzer, I win without killing. I tear down homes, break hearts, wreck lives. I travel on the wings of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to intimidate me, no purity pure enough to daunt me. I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice, no mercy for the defenseless. My victims are as numerous as the sands of the sea, and often as innocent. I never forget, and seldom forgive. My name is gossip.

Our words are important aren’t they? In a unique way, what we say is who we are. We can’t shove back words in our mouths, once we’ve said them, they’re said forever, and we can’t unsay them. What we say is who we are. This James’s next test in his letter to the dispersed Christians, the Christians who were struggling, who were attracted to worldliness, who were tempted by riches. How do you speak? James mentions the tongue in every chapter, it’s an important issue for him. And in the rest of the Bible. Matt 12:34 Jesus tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Psalm 45:1 tells us that our hearts overflow with a pleasing theme when we’re close to God.

So how do you speak?

James 3:1-8 tell us to speak with caution. Caution means being alert and aware around danger. First of all we should be cautious with our words, because, as verse one tells us, those who preach or teach will be judged with greater strictness.  The more you speak the more you are accountable for. This makes sense. Those who teach the Bible have a huge spiritual influence, for good or for evil. Those who teach lead people, and thye lead people either well or poorly. Either closer to God or further away from Him. What a power words have over others that they can decide where they spend eternity! No wonder there is a greater strictness in judgment. A hundred atheists can’t match the damage of one poor Bible teacher. So use caution when you speak.

The second reason we find in verses 2-7, is that the tongue has a huge influence over us, and over others. James says if we’re able to tame the tongue, we’re able to keep our whole body under control. The tongue is small but has a great power over us. Our words shape us, our words express who we are. The tongue is like a rudder on a ship. Now in James’s time they didn’t have the great ocean liners that we have, but Acts tells us that Paul travelled to Rome on a ship with 276 people on it, so they weren’t all small sail boats. And what controls these huge ships? Tiny rudders. And what controls you? Not your hands or your eyes or your feet, your tongue. So be careful what you say, and don’t boast. Next James tells us that the tongue is like a single spark that burns down a forest. One person starts a rumor or tells a lie, and before you know it everyone’s talking about. Everyone’s mouth is burning with the lie you’ve told. James tells us these lies are set on fire by Hell. Use caution when you speak because the tongue can easily be used as the devil’s tool. Like a rudder on a boat, a spark in a forest and a wild animal on the rampage, the tongue has a huge influence, so use caution.

And use caution because the tongue is full of deadly poison. 

James really doesn’t mess around with his words does he? He’s not coddling his listeners or protecting their feelings. Every kind of animal has been tamed, but who can tame the evil of the tongue? Not Peter who told Jesus to stop talking about the cross, not Paul, who insulted a High Priest when he was on trial. And not you. If you were carrying a vial of deadly poison around with you you’d be careful. You wouldn’t drop it, or spill it or hurt anyone with it. Well, guess what, James says you do. So use caution when you speak.

Growth and Growth.

Eleven men on a Galilean hillside, listening to their leader. Go and tell all the world, i have all authority, and i'll be with you. All the doubts and worries of the last few days seem like a dream...He's alive, and He's coming with us. It's all going to be ok.

Why did Jesus choose just twelve? You know He could have efficiently disciples a thousand times that number. Why twelve when one was a betrayer? Why not disciple all of Israel, and send them out? Now you're a light to the nations.

The church always works when it's the shepherd boy agains the giant. The church is Ruth, starving and looking for mercy, the church is Esther, casting herself on the mercy of the king, the church is Jeremiah preaching from the sewer, the church is the unpopular kids at Corinth High School. And in that way, the church thrives. Jesus loses about twenty thousand followers in a day in John 6, and then turns to His guys and asks if they're leaving too. He doesn't count gain and loss like we do, His ushers aren't in the balcony counting because the Kingdom of God is not a matter of flesh and blood.

The Kingdom advances as Bibles are opened in caves in northern Iraq. Demons flee as the Gospel is proclaimed from makeshift pulpits in primary schools in southern England. The sick are healed as 'thus saith the Lord,' rings out from a multi million dollar campus in Texas.

Trendy music isn't growing the Church. Neither a light show, or the best kids work in town, or the greatest summer camps, or the newest programs, or the biggest offerings. Those things might grow a church, but not the Church.

The Church grows as one man finds other faithful men to find other faithful men. It always has. Not the rich and the famous, but the poor, the weak, the needy. Men like you and me.