James' Bit and Rudder
One of the main points that Pastor Clayton made in his sermon this morning will be the focus of the message this evening. That focus will be that ‘Words mean things’. When God created the universe and all that is – God SAID let there be light and there was light! God SAID let there be animals and birds and fish and it happened. What God said became matter – became reality for us. God also said that it was GOOD. Through out the OT there is the action of naming both animals and people. Adam participates in creation by naming the animals. God changes Abram’s and Jacob’s names to reflect the new things started with each of them. In the New Testament, Jesus tells us that if we have the faith of a mustard seed we could speak and move a mountain. With a tiny tongue, Peter betrayed Jesus three times, Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, the Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus. Words have meaning! Actions and Words are important to the author of James. Not just the action deeds but the spoken deeds as well.
In our passage from James, there are two points that seem straight forward: First, The size of the tongue does not diminish its importance; second, it is difficult to control the tongue. I will be the first to admit that this author seems to have a dark outlook on the tongue and our ability to control it – possibly the author was the parent of a teenager. The world doesn’t seem to have changed much from what ever situation was occurring at the time that this book was authored.
The theory about to whom this letter was written is based on the time and subject matter of the book. The time of the writing is placed between 45 and 50 A.D. This comes from some hints in the letter. For instance the letter has a strong Jewish orientation so could have been written prior to the gentiles beginning to convert. There is also an absence of reference to some of the troubles that would raise their heads later in the early church, in combination with the use of the word synagogue for church meeting seem to point to the earlier writing date.
It was soon after Stephen’s death and the recently dispersed Jews were living in a bit of confusion. There were voids in some of the local leadership that may not have been filled yet so there was a lack of instruction as well. This movement to new areas lead to difficulties and is evidenced by what is written. In chapters 1 and 2 there is reference to religion being superficial maybe because they find themselves separated from their former communities without leaders. Chapter 2 also mentions that there was a lack of love in the new communities that were forming. Chapter 3 talks about bitterness in speech and attitude that were hurting the fellowship of the believers. These inner struggles were not being helped by the oppression being set upon them by the rich mentioned in chapter 5. That is the nutshell of what was going on when this letter was authored to give some advice and help to the people of the early church. Ecclesiastes was right, “there is nothing new under the sun”.
This morning, Pastor Clayton referred to many of the same issues and how they affect the church today. Money still seems to bring oppression when the rich attempt to control the course of the church. Religion is still suffering from the superficial practices where people leave church on Sunday morning and seem to forget everything they have heard and more importantly what they professed to believe. We discriminate against others through our words and deeds and our attitudes could certainly use an adjustment – not to put to soft a point on it.
So our focus is Words have meaning, and the first main point that comes out of the passage to support this is that the size of the tongue does not diminish its importance.
James illustrates the importance of the tongue in relation to its size using two examples, the bit and the rudder. The bit is that of the type used to control a horse. The horse is a big animal yet a bit – small in comparison – controls the direction and “makes them obey us”. If a person controlling a horse wants the horse to perform a certain action then the reigns are given pressure on that bit on side or another and the horse responds. The entire big animal is controlled by the little bit in its mouth.
The same is true for the rudder of a ship. The ships that sail on the seas at the mercy of the wind in the author’s time and even since -think of the great cruise ships today – they have a rudder that steers them. Granted the rudder is more complex now but it is still a rudder. I was watching a show on the Discovery channel lately about cruise ships and it told about the GPS device on the ships. The global positioning units can hold cruise ships, Yachts, and even small fishing boats in place or tell them where they are and even guide the auto pilots on ships and planes. The actual GPS unit can be the size of a postage stamp – that is how small they can make them now. That is how most cell phones can have a GPS locator inside them and still be so small. The GPS on a Cruise Ship is about the size of a laptop computer. This unit works with the other mechanisms of the ship to steer it. The GPS can – in conjunction with the side jets- keep the floating city within 2 feet of the mark that is set. 2 FEET! That is a pretty small thing – a postage stamp – that can control something the size of a cruise ship!!
The tongue like the bit and the rudder is a small part of our body yet look at the trouble an untamed tongue causes. We have all had moments when we spoke without thinking or said things we wished we could have taken back. The damage was done and could only be controlled with apologies and time to heal. Sometimes healing may not have taken place. There is a phrase in verse six that is not given justice when translated from the Greek – the phrase in the NIV reads, “…sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” In the Greek it literally reads, “…inflaming the cycle of the origin and being inflamed by the gehenna.” More smoothly it would read that the whole wheel of life is set on fire by Gehenna. The wheel of life refers to the whole of human existence. This is complete, everything in a persons life. Everything. Everything in a person’s life can be undone by the tongue – burned up and consumed. The word Gehenna refers to hell by way of an image that would be very clear to the audience that James was writing to. This is the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem. This is a valley where all the dead animals, garbage and waste was dumped from the city and burned. It has been used m any times as a picture of what the suffering of hell will be like for the wicked – a very potent image. The nasty fires of hell can be used to set the whole of someone’s life on fire by the tongue if not controlled. So we see that in spite of its size the tongue can have a huge influence. The second point to support that Words have meaning is that the tongue is hard to control.
Because there are two words that are important to understand, we will jump back to the Greek for a minute. The two words are:
- (vs. 2) χαλιναγωγέω: exercise self-control – The nature of this word is to control the whole body with the one part. This is translated as control. The idea seems to be that if one can control ones tongue, then that person can control ones whole body – willingly or not. This has a less passive sense to it – there is a sense that at times there may be a desire to go against what should be done but then self control is exercised and the right path is chosen. In this case what the tongue should say is spoken and the damage is not done.
- (vs.3) μετάγω: to turn about, to direct – The meaning of this seems similar to the previous word however it is more of a passive meaning. The focus of this word is more passive and we see that by using this word here the author had an option for a more passive word to use in vs. 2. The bridling of the tongue can not be a passive action but must be a direct and purposeful action that takes concentration. The bridling has a more direct and hands on kind of meaning, while turning about is more a guiding of a willing subject.
The size and difficulty of the tongue paint a bleak picture. We have images of our lives burning up – lit on fire by hell itself because of what we have said. The author has used images that carry negative overtones that speak to a people who are suffering. But there is history to support this.
The tongue is hard to control and can be used to tear down and in this passage James speaks to the danger of the uncontrolled dental demon – But God created it good and we can bridle our tongue and steer it in a new direction. A direction of love, that leads to works that gives our faith a life and brilliance that radiates and speaks the gospel message to others. God SAID let there be light and there was light! God SAID let there be animals and birds and fish and it happened. God said that He sent his only Son to die for us and our sins and to save the world. There are many other things that God teaches us about love and about sin and about His saving grace – have we said anything about that to others lately? Are we discriminating against others through what we say and do – and what we DON’T say and DON’T do? We need to bridle our tongues and use them to speak the truth of Christ into the lives of those around us – those who need to hear the Good News.
James uses the example of never having a salt spring produce fresh water, or a fig tree bear olives to show that what is said by a person sheds light on what they believe - on the faith in their hearts. No man, James says, can tame the tongue! And how right he is. No human can accomplish this formidable task. So where is our hope? This seems to be a hopeless passage leaving us without a promise of a future as our tongues burn away any possibility for a life of purity and worship. We can tame our tongue, but not alone.
Only through the grace and strength of Jesus Christ living in us can we hope to have our bitter waters run sweet like the waters at Marah. In Exodus, a divinely appointed tree was cast into the waters to purify them and so we can be purified by the blood of Christ that runs down the tree – the cross – that Jesus died on to save us from our sins. Then our bitter waters will become sweet and then we will have the ability to bless instead of curse and reveal the love of God to others.
Brothers and Sisters, if it were not for Jesus, we could not take vows and promise to live a life that we could not begin to live on our own. Reaching up takes words, Reaching out takes words, and reaching over takes words – with Jesus living in us – we can use our words to show the world the love that God has to offer to it.
AMEN.