I want to invite you to open up to James chapter 3. That’s what we’ll be looking at this morning. That last song we just sang, and all the songs we sang, but singing the mighty power of God. It’s always a good reminder as we sing songs like that, but just thinking about do we, when we sing those songs, are we reflecting upon the mighty power of God, the goodness of God? Beautiful, beautiful songs. We’ll be looking at James chapter three, verses one through 12 this morning.

I’m gonna go ahead and open with prayer, and we’ll get into the text. Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless this time of preaching this morning. that I am simply your mouthpiece, that what I am saying and speaking is from Your Word, that I rely on the Holy Spirit, and that You open up the hearts of everyone here, that we just don’t Let the words go in one ear and out the other, but we really reflect upon what the text is saying, what it’s telling us to do, how it’s telling us to live our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Many of us throughout our lives, in fact, I say many of us, I think it’s all of us, this can be applied to all of us, but have experienced what it’s like to say something, the wrong thing at the wrong time, or even saying the wrong thing at any time whatsoever. Saying something we should not have said is a feeling we can all resonate with. Oftentimes, there’s times like those where you want to put your foot in your mouth. I don’t know if any of you have had times like that, but I’ve definitely had times like that.

Sometimes my wife will be making a meal. She’ll be telling me what she’s preparing. And it may not be one of my favorites. And at times where I should just be thankful and keep my mouth shut, I say, oh, you’re making that. And I say it that way. It’s a time where I’m like, I probably should have just stayed quiet. My wife is an amazing cook, though. She doesn’t cook bad things. I’m just sometimes complaining a little too much, maybe. But we can all resonate with that.

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the battle that goes on in our mind when there’s something we want to say, and yet we know we shouldn’t say it. We’re talking to somebody, we’re looking at something. In fact, sometimes my wife, I guess when you’re married after time, your spouse can tell what you’re thinking, because sometimes I’ll be looking at something and I’ll even go to mouth the words and maybe Carrie just squeezes my hand or just pats me on the knee, because she knows about what I’m about to say. So we know that goes on. I want to say this, but I know I shouldn’t say it. And we also know what it’s like, we all know what it’s like to say something we know is sinful. a lie, a hateful remark, and maybe even gossiping about someone.

And when we come to this passage today, when we come to James 3, verses 1-12, we see that the tongue is a powerful tool that can be destructive, so Christians must use it wisely. The tongue is a powerful tool that can be destructive, so Christians must use it wisely. And this whole passage, all 12 verses, James is showing the power of the tongue, but he also highlights the destructive power of it as well. And to use it wisely, we must understand its potential for great power and destruction. To use it wisely means we must speak in a godly way, we must control what we say, control the words that come out of our mouth.

But before getting to the actual text, I want us to remember where we are in James. James is instructing these Christians in this letter how to live as Christians in a godless, pagan, and changing world. In chapter 1, he introduced what some of his main topics would be throughout the letter. And he ends chapter 1 by saying they are to be doers of the Word. And then the rest of the letter is essentially showing them, hey, this is how you are a doer of the Word. At the end of verse one, he says, obey the word, do it. And then he goes on through the rest of the letter saying, this is how you do it, this is how you live as Christians.

In fact, in chapter one, verse 18, James says, in chapter one, verse 18, he says, in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be kind of firstfruits among his creatures. Kind of firstfruits among his creatures.

We’re special, which means we’re to act different. We’re to act as Christians. And also in chapter one, he talks about how we’re to be slow to speak. And this passage today provides more explanation on that slow to speak. It provides more of a information on it. In chapter two, he emphasizes not being partial and that true saving faith should produce good works. And in fact, one way we can show that we have true saving faith is by using our tongue wisely. So the tongue is a powerful tool that can be destructive, so Christians must use it wisely. Which brings us to our first point, the tongue is powerful, and this covers verses one through five. Right off the bat, in verse 1, he says, And I want to emphasize, we see again, he says, my brothers.

He said this throughout this letter already, but he says, my brothers. James is writing to believers, and they’re believers he cares about. He wants to see them be godly. He wants to see them do well in their lives. That’s why he’s writing this letter to them. My brothers, I love you. Listen to what I’m saying. He wants them to hear what he’s saying. And he begins with an interesting warning, a warning with those desiring to teach. And he’s most likely talking about those who teach in the church, those who are instructing individuals with spiritual instruction.

Now he has not mentioned the tongue yet, in fact he doesn’t mention the tongue until verse 2, but it seems evident from the context that teachers will face this greater or stricter judgment because of their teaching, because of what they will say. Now we need to be clear, James is not discouraging people from teaching. So we shouldn’t come to this text and say, You can’t be teachers, you shouldn’t be teachers. That’s not what he’s saying, but he’s providing a warning, a helpful warning, is really what it is to those aspiring to teach, to be teachers.

Teachers in the early church had an important role. Remember, this is the early church, and we see these house churches popping up in different places in this area of the world. They were respected and looked up to. Teachers in the Christian church, and these churches would kind of have been equivalent to sort of the rabbis in the Jewish community. And they were responsible, as they are today, for explaining the truths of Scripture.

And it’s possible that as James is writing this letter, he’s writing to a church with a lot of people who are desiring to be teachers. People saying, I want to teach. Let me teach. And some wanted to teach for maybe the right reasons, and some for maybe the wrong reasons. Some may have just wanted the prestige that they thought came with the position. They wanted to be looked up to.

So James is providing this warning. And James’ warning here should be heeded by all those desiring to teach. And it is also a good reminder for those who teach. So for those aspiring to teach, he says this, but it’s also for those who teach, it’s a good reminder for us and for the people he’s writing to. And he gives this warning in part because of the tongue, because of what they say, the words they say when they teach.

A tongue has the power to say sinful things and righteous things. It has the power to sin and to be righteous. Now it does not act on its own. When I say the tongue has the power to be sinful, righteous, I don’t mean the tongue acts on its own. The sin is our sin. We say what we want to say. But we sin via the tongue. We sin through our tongue. Same as we sin through maybe other parts of our body, whatever it might be. We sin through our tongue. And in just a little bit, we’re going to look more specifically at the destructive power of the tongue. But the tongue has the power to shape lives, provide instruction, build up, tear down, and lead astray.

That’s one of the things I think that’s really fascinating about these 12 verses in this passage. As James doesn’t just say one or two things about the tongue, he spends 12 verses on it. He really shows the importance and power of it. He says this, in fact, in verse five, he basically says this is not just some little thing. This is not just some needless part of your body. This is important, capable of boasting great things. I think we need to remember that when we read this passage.

What we say matters. What we say has consequences. I think that’s what James is really getting at here. Teachers will receive greater judgment because they teach. Doug Moo, a New Testament scholar, says this, Being entrusted with spiritual instruction is a weighty responsibility that we are not to take lightly. It’s important. Whether you’re teaching children’s church, whether you’re teaching a nursery, whether you’re teaching the Cubbies, the Sparkies, the TNT, the youth, the adults, the rejoicers. No matter who you’re teaching, it’s a big responsibility because you’re being entrusted with the Word of God and you’re teaching it to others. And James is saying that here. He’s saying this is a big deal.

We need to be reminded that false teachers, whatever the false teaching they are teaching, false teachers will be judged severely. 2 Peter 2 verse 1 says this. But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. These false teachers bring swift destruction upon themselves, not just destruction, not just bad things, swift destruction.

Teaching from the word of God, spiritual instruction is a weighty responsibility. And James wants his audience to hear this. He wants those who want to teach to hear this. He says, listen to me, this is a big deal. And I think verse one of chapter three can also show us that teachers are held to a higher standard in a way. As we move into verse two, James begins to introduce the topic of the tongue.

For if a man comes into your, nope, sorry, that’s chapter two. Verse 2 of chapter 3, sorry, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body’s will. I just proved that I stumble because I read the wrong verse. But we all stumble sometimes. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body’s will.

He says we here. I think this is important. He says, he’s going to say it throughout the rest of the passage, but he says we. He includes himself in this conversation. He just doesn’t say, you guys, you people struggle with this. This isn’t my problem. He says, we. He says, I struggle with it too. He’s identifying with them. And we see the humility of James. The humility of this early church leader. He says, I struggle with this too.

This is something we all need to work on. All be aware of. Now James seems to be moving on from talking about just teachers to talking about all believers. That’s kind of a shift that happens from verse 1 to verse 2. And verse 2, through the rest of this passage, really seems to be geared towards all believers and not just teachers or those desiring to teach.

James says that we all sin, but then he quickly moves to the more specific sin of sinning with our tongue, which is the focus of the passage. And he then gives a picture of someone who does not stumble in their speech and how they are perfect. Now obviously no man, except Jesus Christ, has or ever will be able to do this while on this sin-filled world. No man is ever going to be able to, will be perfect while on this sin-filled world. But what James is showing here is the importance of the power of the tongue. He’s giving an illustration.

And this is kind of where we were first clued in, if you want to say, to seeing how important and how powerful the tongue is. James, all throughout this letter, has used illustrations to bring out his main points. And he uses several illustrations in these 12 verses. And this is the first one.

But he shows how the tongue affects all of us to an extent. Like I said, it’s not a little unimportant part of the body. It has great significance, has the power to keep the whole body in check. John MacArthur helpfully points out that if we can control our tongue, which is considered one of the most difficult things to control, then we can control the rest of our body, from our hands to our feet. And James gives this picture of this perfect man to show how hard it is to control the tongue. He says if there’s a perfect man and he can perfectly control his tongue, then he probably can control the rest of his body. But he’s also showing that none of us are perfect. He’s trying to show, hey, this is hard to do. Something we all struggle with. It’s hard to control what we say. It’s hard to control our speech. It’s hard to use our tongue wisely.

Now, not impossible. We don’t need to walk away thinking like, man, James has made this so difficult to do. I don’t think I’m capable of this. No, that’s not what he’s saying. We’re not supposed to walk away thinking this is some impossible task. We’re supposed to walk away thinking, okay, I know what I need to do.

But he’s showing how powerful and sinful it can be. If you can control the tongue, then you can do it with everything else. As we move into verses 3 and 4 of this passage, James provides two illustrations to show how controlling a very small thing can affect a very big thing. So reading verses 3 and 4, James says this, Now if we put the bits into the horse’s mouth so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.

And these illustrations probably would have been clear to his audience. Horses would have been everywhere in this area. This area would have been close to the sea, whether it’s the Mediterranean or other large body of water, they would have been used to shipping and different things. So these are illustrations that are familiar to his audience. And even to us, many of us are familiar with these as well.

But the horse is primarily controlled by the bit in its mouth, or at least if you want to direct the horse, you use the bit in its mouth. If you want to go left, you move it to the left, or you want to go right, you move it to the right. At least I think that’s how it works. I’m not exactly a horse expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s the general idea. But that’s what he’s showing. To control the direction of the horse, you need the bit. This small thing controls this large animal. You literally can change the direction of the horse with it. By using the bit properly, you control the whole horse. The bit is powerful.

And the rudder on a ship, he uses the illustration of a ship, is critical to its proper functioning. If the rudder is broken or messed up or there’s no rudder, you have a ship that’s dead in the water. A ship needs a rudder. If you ever look at or read about these massive ships in, I mean, even today, but even in the 1700 and 1800 you see these huge massive ships of war that some of them had like 90 cannons on them and all these huge mass and they were crewed by hundreds and hundreds of men and they had all these rooms and all this storage and all these the food storage they needed and yet they all they all these big ships were controlled by they needed that tiny little rudder if the rudder got messed up then the ship was dead in the water one tiny little thing that could control the direction of the big ship The bit and the rudder both affect direction.

They’re both small, but powerful. Just like the tongue is small, but powerful. So James is showing his audience, he’s showing these Christians, hey, the bit in the horse’s mouth, the rudder on the ship, you see how small they are. How sometimes we take them for granted. Sometimes we don’t even think about them maybe. But they are critical to what they’re being used for. Just like the tongue is critical and powerful. In verse five, we see that James sort of sums up what he’s been talking about so far. Verse five, James says this.

So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. So he’s talked about the bit in the horse’s mouth, the rudder on the ship, they’re small, they’re powerful, and here’s where he says it. Though the tongue is a small part of the body, and it is a small part of the body, it boasts of great things, capable of great things. It’s small, powerful, and capable of great things, capable of good and evil.

Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21 says this, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. The tongue can grant life and take it away. And even on the most basic level, we think of maybe a king from the days of old, the king who said, off with your head, or I grant you your life. But even today’s world judges, judges and law courts have the ability to say, this person lives or dies. But even us as Christians, We are commanded by our Lord and Savior to take the gospel everywhere. Through our mouth we tell of the gospel. We are commanded to actually speak of the gospel. We’re to tell others about it. Tell others about true life. And others through their tongue reject the gospel and true spiritual death.

He ends verse five by giving the illustration of how forest fires are started by just a small fire. Verse 5b says this, see how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. So he’s moving on a bit, but he’s still talking about that idea of a small fire can rise to a great big forest fire. And because the tongue is so powerful, we must use it wisely. We need to remember as we think about just these first five verses in our own lives that, and like I said, our words matter and are powerful.

They can be used for God’s glory or they cannot be used for God’s glory. Even our tongue can be used for the glory of God. We must have self-control with what we say and how we say it. And that’s a really important thing to note about this passage is self-control. We have to have self-control over our whole body, including our tongue.

Our words are not said in a vacuum, but to people. They’re said to people. And because what we say can have great consequences, we must speak wisely, speak godly. Think before we speak. That’s something we’ve heard, I’m sure, all our lives, but it’s true. Think before we speak. Is this something that will glorify God, what I’m about to say? This is something we all have to do.

We are blessed here at Fellowship Baptist to have so many great and godly teachers, who have a desire to teach and to provide spiritual instruction. But we also need to remember for those desiring to teach, and even those who teach, that we should not consider it without paying attention to what James says here. As I said, teachers are responsible for providing spiritual instruction. It’s a big responsibility. It’s a responsibility that requires intentional studying of the Word of God and intentional praying. Praying over your students, praying over your teaching. It’s a big responsibility.

But I also think what James talks about in verse one of this passage can be applied to teachers in all areas of life. We have a lot of school teachers here at our church. And for those who are in teaching scenarios, whether they’re in the classroom or they’re over teachers in an administrative role, are we controlling our tongue? Are we speaking in a godly way? It’s the end of the year for teachers, which is, Needless to say, sometimes a very hectic and stressful time of the year. Everyone wants to get out of school. Kids, student, admin, everyone wants to be done. But we still have to remember this message, to speak in a godly way. Our teachers, are we speaking truth? Are we speaking truth to our students, to your students?

Controlling our tongue is not possible, though, without the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. And we need to emphasize that. We need to talk about that. Because I’m talking about controlling the tongue, and we need to. But if we want to control it in a holy, godly way, we need the work of the Holy Spirit. Need Him to work in our lives. Are we listening to Him? When we’re having that battle in our mind of, should I not say this? It’s probably because the Holy Spirit’s saying, you shouldn’t. And we need to listen to Him. He is our helper. We have a helper in this battle. Jesus called the Holy Spirit the helper, the great comforter. He helps us.

And as we think about using the tongue wisely and just even wisdom in general, and that’s actually something James gets onto in the next section of this chapter, as we think about wisdom, we need the wisdom of Christ. We need Christ in our lives. We need to give our lives to him. If we want to truly speak in a godly way, in a pure way, a way where we control our tongue, we need to be saved. We need to have given our lives to Christ, to repent of our sins and put our trust in Him, to save us from our sins, because we cannot be saved without Christ. So we see that the tongue is powerful, but we also see that the tongue can be destructive. Which brings us to our second point, the tongue can be destructive, covering verses six through 12.

And the end of verse five actually serves as a segue into this theme. I’ll read it again, the end of verse five. See how great a forest fire is set aflame by such a small fire. First time we see the word fire used in the passage. And he’s gonna go on to explain what this fire, this looks like. And James is introducing here how destructive the tongue can be. He uses the picture of fire because fire is destructive.

Here in our area, just even recently, we’ve been on a burn ban. In fact, I’ve heard there’s even been people arrested because they’ve started a fire whether they’re burning something and it’s maybe gotten out of control and they’ve been arrested. I’m sure many of us have over the years seen pictures of wildfires that have gone on in the world, especially even in California, the wildfires they have that just destroy everything in their path. Homes, forests, even just, I think it was in the past year and a half to two years, there were fires raged in the LA area that destroyed numerous homes. Destructive and that’s what James is showing here He’s using the picture of fire of a forest to show how destructive our mouths can be and we have to think about that Because when we read that we think to ourselves my tongue My tongue is like that. I don’t know James.

Maybe not my tongue, but that’s what he’s saying Our tongues can be like that Like a raging fire they can cause massive amounts of damage and this is the picture he’s trying to paint This is what he’s trying to show him what our tongues can do And in fact, when we get to verse six, he says, and the tongue is a fire. He compares our tongue directly to a fire. So if anyone in his audience was not sure what he’s saying, he says it directly. The tongue is a fire. Which shows how seriously he takes this issue.

Proverbs 16, verse 27 says this, a worthless person digs up evil while his words are like scorching fire. Not just fire, but scorching fire. The worthless person has words that are like scorching fire, destructive words, destructive language. The rest of verse six says this. So it says the tongue and the tongue is a fire. The very world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which devils the entire body. and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

Now, verse six is, when you read commentators and different people, is notoriously difficult to translate. In fact, my version says, the world of iniquity. Many of your translations probably say the world of unrighteousness, but they struggle. It’s difficult to really understand what this is talking about.

But most likely, it’s probably talking about, and it’s best to understand it, as saying that the tongue represents the evil of what we’re capable of. So my version says, the world of iniquity, the tongue is set among our members. It’s probably, or the world of unrighteousness, what it’s saying is the tongue represents the evil of what we, ourselves, are capable of. And the New English translation, I really like the way they translate this part of the verse. They say this. The tongue represents the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. I think that’s a helpful translation that smooths it out a bit more. But the tongue represents evil better than any other part of our body.

And I think what James is getting at here is similar to what Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 15, verse 11. In Matthew 15, 11, Jesus says this. It is not what enters the mouth that defiles the person, but what comes out of the mouth This defiles the person. And I think this is what James is getting at.

He’s saying oftentimes our mouth reveals the wickedness of our heart more than anything else. So we have wickedness in our heart, we’re thinking an evil thing, we’re thinking a hateful thought, whatever it might be. Our tongue is usually what lets it out. If we’re angry with someone, usually we start by saying something hateful towards them, not by hitting them. Some of us could be different, but usually our sin starts with what we say. And I think that’s what James is saying here when he talks about world of iniquity, world of unrighteousness.

Our tongue best represents the evil of what we do, the evil of what we’re capable of. Reveals the wickedness of our heart more than anything else. And the tongue defiles, which is what Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 15, 11 as well. The tongue defiles. When we sin with our tongue, it makes us unclean. And we need to repent of that sin because we are unclean.

And just like a raging fire consumes everything in its path, the tongue is a fire that not only harms our body, but our existence. He continues on in verse six. The tongue is said among our members is that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life.

So he just doesn’t talk about this world of unrighteousness. He doesn’t stop at, hey, the tongue, it represents the evil you’re capable of. He goes on, he talks about how it’s harmful to your existence and your life. Once again, we step away and think, no way, he’s exaggerating. This is hyperbole. What is he talking about? But he’s showing the reality, the reality of life.

How many people’s lives have been destroyed because of what they said? And I’m not talking about those who are missionaries or people who are spreading the gospel or martyrs for the faith. I’m not talking about those. I’m talking about those who have said wrong things, sinful things, used their tongue for evil, and their life has been destroyed.

Richard Nixon was a popular political figure. He was a president who accomplished some notable things when he was president of the United States. But he is only remembered for the lies he told to cover up the Watergate scandal. Nixon was president in the 70s, I think late 60s, end of the 70s. And he did some notable things. But today, if you say Nixon, Richard Nixon, the next thing that pops in your mind is Watergate.

And historians have disagreed over the years whether he actually was the one who sanctioned or gave the order for the criminal act. But either way, history has proven he did try to cover it up. He did lie about it. In fact, he famously said on live television, I am not a crook. Problem was, he was a crook. And it came out. And everyone realized that the President of the United States, who’s supposed to be a man of integrity, who’s supposed to lead the nation, was a crook. So we see that his words were destructive and destroyed his legacy. He ended up resigning later. That just shows the destructive power of what we say.

Verse 6 ends by saying, and is set on fire by hell. Talking about the tongue. Tongue set on fire by hell. This is probably referring to the fact that Satan is the father of all sin and wickedness. Wickedness. A destructive tongue is sin and all sin belongs in hell. The tongue is set on fire by hell. Kind of looking at Satan is the author of all lies and sin. Now what this saying here, when we look at this phrase set on fire by hell, and thinking it probably shows, referencing Satan and him being the author behind all sin.

That’s not to take away, James is not saying that we can take away personal responsibility for our sin. I already said this, but I’ll say it again. When you sin, you sin. I was talking to this this morning, even with my middle schoolers in Sunday school. When you get to heaven, you can’t be like, God, he said this, he made me do it. God’s gonna be like, nah, that’s not right. You sinned, you used your tongue for evil.

But this also shows, this phrase, set on fire by hell, shows the seriousness of speech that is destructive. It comes from Satan. And we need to remember that. Sin, whatever the sin is, comes from Satan, the father of lies. The one who tempts us and wants us to fall, and then when we fall, says, look what he did. Look how he messed up. That’s where sin, that’s where this destructive tongue to sin comes from.

And as James moves on to verse seven, he continues to show the destructiveness of the tongue but he does it from a different angle. Verse seven, for every species of beasts and birds of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. The tongue is hard to tame. It’s hard to control. But because it can be destructive, we must control it.

And this verse seems to have echoes. Verse seven seems to have echoes from Genesis chapter one, verses 26 through 30. where God tells man that he is to rule over creation, have dominion over creation. It’s part of the creation mandate. Humans are supposed to responsibly rule over what God had entrusted to them.

And animal taming is part of that process. And animal taming is a very difficult process. I’m sure many of us have experienced what it’s like to get a pet, whether it’s a dog or a cat or whatever it is, and you have to house train the pet, train the dog to go to the bathroom outside. I remember when we had our dog, we got it during COVID.

And he’s like 9.2 pounds. I mean, he was tiny. And he could go to the bathroom outside, which was the main thing we were concerned about. I’ll never forget sometimes I would look at him and be like, sit, sit. And if I said sit loud enough and wag my finger hard enough, he would maybe sit. But it would take like four tries. And he never quite got it.

But you know, sometimes it’s hard to tame even an animal like that. But taming lions and tigers takes years of patience and experience. You don’t wake up one day and think, I’m gonna go tame a lion today. No, that’s a great way to get mauled and die. Takes years of patience.

But James is saying here, he says, for every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures, we’ve got a guy here, we’ve got several people here who knows what it’s like to tame reptiles. Which to be fair, I didn’t even know that was possible, but I guess it is. and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. So these hard creatures to tame, they’ve been tamed.

But verse eight, but no one can tame the tongue. No one can tame the tongue. It is easier to tame animals than to tame the tongue, to control animals than to control the tongue. And once again, it’s not an excuse to not try to control our tongue. He’s just saying, hey, this is how destructive it can be. And as we move into verse eight, we need to look at how he describes the tongue. He doesn’t hold back. This is what he says. But no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil. Restless evil, but he doesn’t stop there. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. Not just poison, but deadly poison. The tongue just isn’t kind of bad. It can be really bad.

And he’s not just talking about the silly things we may say sometimes. He’s not saying that we should be easily offended if someone says something we don’t like or something we don’t disagree with. He’s talking about speech that is intended to cause harm. Obviously, maybe not bodily harm, but emotional harm or whatever kind of harm we want to think of. Speech that is intended to cause harm. That it’s intended to be hateful and malicious. That’s what he’s talking about.

Restless evil, deadly poison. I’ll be honest, as I was studying this passage, I never really thought of my tongue in those terms. But that’s how we should think of our tongue. Restless evil, full of poison. Speech that is intended to cause harm. Our words, and this applies to all of us, can be like deadly poison. I’m reminded of the old adage, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt me, which is a complete and utter lie. Words do hurt. Words do cause harm.

And as James moves on from verse 8 until the last four verses, he shows the double-sidedness of the tongue. In these four verses, remember, he’s talking about this whole passage, he’s showing the power of the tongue. But in these specific verses, he’s showing the destructive power of it. And he’s doing that here again. Verse 9 through 12. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives? Or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fish.

And it’s important, once again, in verse nine, he says, we. Says it again. He includes himself in this indictment. He’s not saying, hey, this is your guy’s problem, figure it out. He’s saying, this is something we struggle with, we need to work on. This is serious. And he’s bringing out how we praise God at one moment with our mouth, but then we curse man. And Lord and Father in that passage probably is most likely referring to God the Father, because we see Lord and Father.

And curse can refer to any sort of malicious and hateful speech we say to each others. Can’t walk away from this passage saying like, oh, I don’t pronounce curses on people. If we have malicious and hateful speech towards others, You’re cursing them. And James is saying, hey, you can’t praise God with your mouth in this one moment, and then curse a human being in another moment.

That’s hypocrisy. And he’s hitting on this very important point, and he’s showing how Christians worship and praise God at one moment, and then turn around and say something hateful to God-image bearers. Verse 9, with it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, but he doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t stop at just we curse men. He says we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God, who are God-image bearers.

We cannot show up on Sundays acting like we love God and then go to work the next day and cuss out, berate, or even be rude to our coworkers. That’s not right. It’s not godly. Because this shows that we actually do not love God. And if we love God, then we love our neighbors, and you can’t love your neighbors if you’re cursing them.

And like I said, he brings out that we’re not just cursing something, we’re cursing people made in the likeness of God, we’re cursing people made in the image of God. We are speaking to God image bearers. When we are speaking to humans, and this is important, we need to remember this. When we are speaking to humans, we are speaking to God’s greatest creation.

Daniel Cummings was talking about how they were in Colorado looking at these beautiful majestic mountains. I’ve seen beautiful majestic mountains. The mountains of Switzerland are amazing. The forests of the Redwoods are amazing. The Table Mountain is this beautiful mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, where you can look and see the whole city and it’s beautiful. But humans are made in the image of God. We are the greatest of His creation. And why? It’s because we were made in His image. The mountains don’t have that. The animals don’t have that.

And this goes back to Genesis 1, verse 26. Then God said, let us make mankind in our image. according to our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth. Let us make mankind in our image.” This was a conscious decision by God, by the members of the Trinity. They wanted to do this.

Being made in the image of God sets us apart from the rest of creation. And even after the fall, even after Adam and Eve fell, we still maintain the fact that we’re made in the image of God. Though it’s marred, it’s not perfect, we still are made in the image of God. And there’s several different aspects of what this image of God looks like. The fact that we even have reason, a higher reasoning, moral sensitivity, even the appreciation of beautiful things. But there are three things I think that are really important when we’re looking at what it means to be made in the image of God.

One is our relationship with God. Because we’re made in the image of God, we can have a personal relationship with Him. The animals can’t, the rest of creation can’t, but we can. We can have that personal relationship with God where we can call him Lord and Father. The other aspect that I think’s important is that our relationship with other humans, we have personal, intimate relationships with each other. We have families, we have spouses, we have friends. That’s because we’re made in the image of God. We have special relationships. And because we can have relationships with each other, we’re to speak with each other in a godly way.

And the third important key thing of what it means to be made in the image of God is the fact that we rule over nature. I just read that from Genesis 1, verse 26. But we are to have dominion over nature, not nature over us, us over nature. We are to rule responsibly over with what God’s given us. And we must keep these three things in mind when speaking to each other, even ruling over nature.

Are we speaking to each other as co-rulers of this earth? That seems a little silly, but it’s true. When we’re speaking to somebody, we’re speaking to a God-image bearer who can have a relationship with God, who can have a relationship with people, and who is commanded, like us, to rule over creation. That’s who we’re speaking to. And these three separate us from everything else. And we must keep these in mind when speaking to each other. We’re made in the image of God, and when we speak to others, we’re speaking to others made in the image of God.

Verse 10 ends with a very blunt statement about this hypocrisy is wrong and it needs to stop. In verse 10 he says, my brethren, these things ought not to be this way. What he’s saying is stop it. You need to stop it. We need to stop it. And then he illustrates this even more in verses 11 and 12. He uses four illustrations to show that we cannot both bless people and curse them with our tongue. And what he’s trying to show them is the sheer ridiculousness of what they’re doing.

Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh water and bitter water? No, it doesn’t. And his audience will think that, no. And they’ll see the fresh water is the blessing, the bitter water is the curse. He says, oh, we can’t do this with our tongues. But he goes on. Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives? No, of course it can’t. Or a vine produce figs? No, it can’t. He’s saying with your mouth you cannot bless and curse. Nor can salt water produce fresh.

And James is echoing here Jesus, he’s echoing Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount. We’ve already talked about how this letter has a lot of elements and echoes from the Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says this in Matthew chapter seven.

You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. So what Jesus is saying and what James is saying is hey, these things don’t go together. You can’t be a bad tree and make good fruit. A good tree makes good fruit. Figs make figs. Vines make vines. We want fresh water out of the fountain.

You cannot bless your mouth with God and then curse man. It cannot be. The tongue is destructive and we must understand this so that we can battle it, but that’s so we can control it. We need to remember that us in our own lives, we, all of us, must control our tongues.

And in the digital age we live in, this applies to text, email, social media, whatever. Occasionally you’ll see comments on social media, and there’s some truly hateful comments on social media. In fact, a lot of times people will say on social media what they won’t say in public to your face.

Well, what James is saying here applies to that as well. It’s not, okay, I’m not talking to this person. Now I’m an ex, so I can say whatever I want. No! This applies to social media as well. It applies to the letters you write. It applies to whatever you write or whatever you say. What you say on social media is part of what he’s talking about, part of the tongue.

We must not say destructive things to God-image bearers. Or even say destructive things about them through maybe gossiping. Now if you’re talking about something somebody did to another person, make sure you are maybe bringing up whatever the topic is because you care about them and want to see them do better. Not because you just want to gossip about them and talk about the dirty details of their life. So if you are talking about a certain individual, kind of have some self-control and reflection. Why am I bringing this up? Am I talking to this person about this other individual because I’m concerned about them or I just want to talk about what they did?

Listen to the Holy Spirit when he lets us know when not to say something. I’ve already talked about this, but it’s good to remember. Listen to the Spirit. And we must also remember that what comes out of our mouths starts in our hearts. It’s something we were thinking about. Something maybe we’ve been thinking about for a long time.

So we shouldn’t be thinking about hating others or saying malicious things against them. We should be focused on loving others. And remember that our words have consequences. And finally, when someone does sin against you with their tongue, do not retaliate. Jesus warns against taking personal vengeance. In those moments, in their hearts, you want to lash back out, you want to give them what they gave you, but we’re called to not take personal vengeance. Do not sin in the same way that you were sinned against.

The tongue is a powerful tool that can be destructive, so Christians must use it wisely. We must seek to have godly speech that builds up instead of tearing down. We must seek to control our tongue with the help of the Holy Spirit. We must seek to use this powerful tongue for the glory of God. And instead of speaking destructive words, we should lift our voices to cry out about our great Redeemer’s praise, the glories of our God and King, and the triumphs of His grace. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this service, and I pray that we guard our tongues, we guard what we say, We think before we speak and we recognize the power and destructive nature that our tongue can have. In Jesus’ name, amen.