James
Warning!!! Control the Tongue
There are many words like “hate” that can control your whole body
Many little words that can start fires of hell
In marriage the word divorce should never be used
We must not forget the power of the Gospel to save Romans 1:16
Or, the power of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin John 16:8
If you have received God’s grace, be humble not boastful
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Romans 12:3
Remember your mouth will reveal what is in your heart Luke 6:45
Keep a humble heart and you will be able to have a tame tongue
Any fool can start a fire
Only the wise and skilled can put it out
Warning!!! Control the Tongue
What does a horse bit, a ship rudder,
a tongue and a small spark have in common?
They are all little and control large things.
They are very powerful.
Every year we hear of the wild fires in California.
A little spark that destroys thousands of acres
of trees, flowers, animals, homes and people.
Amazingly, if we look at the list of
basic things you need to survive…
A spark for fire is one of them.
James is telling us the bit, rudder,
tongue, and spark “control”.
In proportion to size, they control huge things.
In verses 3-6 of James 3, he wants to make
the point of how damaging the tongue is…
Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
James 3:5-6
James says the tongue…
“It makes great boasts.”
The Greek word for boast is only found in this verse
so we do not have any other comparisons in scripture.
The word means…
“To boast, to make wild claims”
The dictionary definition is…
Excessively proud and self-satisfied talk about
one's achievements, possessions, or abilities.
Let’s get real for a minute.
If you are not proud of what you have done,
and who you are, you are miserable.
But if you boast of what you have done
and who you are, you make others miserable.
James uses very strong words to get
our attention about controlling the tongue.
In essence, he is saying in verse 6…
Your tongue can make your life a living hell.
The word “hate” is used a lot today.
It is hard to think of a word stronger than “hate”.
The other day I saw a man in his
early 70’s say he hated the President.
As he said he always did and always will
hate the President, his body began to shake.
What he said with his tongue
quickly controlled his whole body.
I asked him why and he was so
upset he could not tell me why.
His hate hindered his ability
to think and communicate.
I have seen people who hate someone,
take the other side of a issues, just
because they do not want to agree.
Jesus loved the world so much He died for the world.
John 3:16
It is not God’s will that any should perish but,
He is patient wanting everyone to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
With this in mind I find it hard to say I hate anyone.
For the believer we should remove the word
hate from our vocabulary when it comes to others.
Yes, there are times I want to get out the
2x4 and knock some sense into someone.
There are times I get angry,
but I remember the scripture…
“Be angry but sin not”.
Ephesians 4:26
For decades I did not like David
because he was a bloody man.
Even God would not let him build God’s
house because he shed so much blood.
1Chronicles 28:3
Yet, God loved David and made him king.
Can you imagine being there when they
stoned Steven to death and seeing Saul
hold the coats of the murders?
Saul, who persecuted the saint,
became Paul.
Look at the transformation of his life,
Paul who wrote 13 or 14 of the
27 New Testament Books.
There are many words like “hate”
that can control your whole body.
Many little words that can start fires of hell.
In marriage the word divorce should never be used.
We must not forget the power of the Gospel to save.
Romans 1:16
Or, the power of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin.
John 16:8
If you have received God’s grace, be humble not boastful.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Romans 12:3
Remember your mouth will reveal
what is in your heart.
Luke 6:45
Keep a humble heart and you will
be able to have a tame tongue.
Any fool can start a fire.
Only the wise and skilled can put it out.
Scripture Reading
James 3:3-6 NIV
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
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