Sermon Tone Analysis

James 3:1-12

A Tongue on Fire

 

/Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

We all stumble in many ways.

If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check/.

/When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.

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.

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/.

/All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison/.

/With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.

Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.

My brothers, this should not be.

Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?

My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?

Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water/.

/Set on fire by hell/…  What a frightful description of the tongue!

James is speaking of and to Christians.

Though redeemed by the power of the Living God and though called to speak the language of Zion, we Christians are not only capable but also disposed to speak a language which is empowered by the very fires of hell.

Perhaps you should know that the picture James conveys is not a tongue set on fire with the fires of Hades (terrible as that may be), but his is an even more frightful picture of the eternal fire of Gehenna (th`" geevnnh")—the lake of fire described in *Revelation 20:14, 15*.

James also speaks of the inability to draw both salt water and fresh water from the same spring.

He will remind his readers that fig trees do not produce olives nor do grapevines bear figs.

He employs this as a vivid confrontation of the tendency for us as Christians to glorify God with the same mouths used to denigrate and destroy mankind.

Praise and cursing out of the same mouth is not simply unseemly—it is impossible.

Underscore this sobering truth: if you possess a destructive tongue it is impossible for you to praise God.

Worship is impossible for the individual with an unrestrained tongue.

Speaking of the wicked, Asaph, in the *73rd Psalm* says:

 

/From their callous hearts comes iniquity; /

/the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.

/

/They scoff, and speak with malice; /

/in their arrogance they threaten oppression.

/

/Their mouths lay claim to heaven, /

/and their tongues take possession of the earth.

/

/…/

/This is what the wicked are like…/

[*Psalm 73:7-9, 12*]

We are assured that if we will worship we must meet the Lord on His terms.

What we do, what we think and what we say during the week will in no small measure determine whether we actually meet the Risen Son of God on Sunday.

Harbouring anger or malice makes us susceptible to destroying others with our tongues.

Those oozing the poison of a bitter heart will have made themselves vulnerable to satanic work with their tongues.

Should your tongue have been employed to disgrace the Saviour through surrendering to the fires of hell to destroy and injure fellow saints you must not think that you shall worship until you have repented of your sin.

This is a stunning conclusion!

The Fiery Tongue Stains the Saints’ Lives [*verses 3 through 6*] — The pastor of the Jerusalem Church begins by issuing a caution against rushing to assume the role of a teacher.

If you teach you are held to a stricter standard than are those who listen.

Pastors may either richly bless a congregation or destroy many people through what they say.

The preacher bears an awesome responsibility before God and toward the congregation.

This is the reason I caution that you must carefully weigh the Scriptures even as the preacher speaks.

Anything which is not taught in the Word but which rather bears the imprimatur of culture or reflects human supposition should be rejected.

However, that which is clearly stated in the Word of God imposes responsibility upon you to embrace and submit to the will of God.

We are obligated to put into practise that which God teaches; and teachers are responsible to teach all that is in accord with the Word of God.

James segues into a warning against the tongue.

He acknowledges that each of us are prone to stumbling.

Of course there is not a perfect individual.

In the course of his message a pastor raised this issue on one occasion by stating, “There is no one perfect.”

“John Smith is perfect,” a voice from the congregation responded.

The preacher was astonished and sought to clarify the matter by forcefully stating, “No one is perfect.

Not even John Smith!”

“John Smith is perfect,” the voice asserted once again.

The preacher asked man who was responding to identify himself by standing.

When the man stood the preacher asked, “Who is John Smith?”

“My wife’s first husband,” the man replied.

Of course there is no perfect person.

Among reasons James gives for this lack of perfection is our inability to keep the tongue in check.

Who among us has not wished at one time or another that we could retrieve words spoken hastily—words spoken in anger, words spoken unadvisedly.

That failure to control the tongue is the basis for James’ warning issued in this passage.

Horses may be controlled with a bit.

Ships may be steered with a relatively small rudder.

The tongue, though small in comparison to the entire body, is powerful in exerting control over the entire body.

James’ purpose appears to be to confront each of us with the power which the tongue exerts over the whole of our bodies.

A forest may be set on fire with one match.

One ember from a campfire may spark a blaze which destroys many hectares of timber.

A hot exhaust on a motorcycle sparked one of the most devastating fires southern California ever experienced.

Scores of families were left without homes and the memories of a lifetime were destroyed.

The fires which burned out of control around the Los Alamos nuclear facility in New Mexico this past summer were the result of fire control efforts by the Bureau of Land Management.

A small fire was set to burn brush and the crew failed to control that fire.

I am fascinated by James’ statement that the tongue corrupts the whole person.

The word which our translation presents as corrupts is the Greek word spilovw, which is normally translated *stain* or *defile*.

One translation faithfully translates the word thusly.

/The tongue … stains the whole body/ [*James 3:6 nrsv*].

The concept is not a mere spotting of one’s life, however.

The thought James conveys to his first readers is the warning that the tongue is capable of ruining one’s life rendering that life unfit for service to God.

This *sixth verse* from the *New Contemporary Version* reads: /The tongue is like a fire.

It is a whole world of evil among the parts of our bodies.

The tongue spreads its evil through the whole body.

The tongue is set on fire by hell, and it starts a fire that influences all of life/.

In the *New Living Translation* the verse reads as follows: /The tongue is a flame of fire.

It is full of wickedness that can ruin your whole life.

It can turn the entire course of your life into a blazing flame of destruction, for it is set on fire by hell itself/.

By this point you will have no doubt understood that James is warning against permitting what you say to contaminate either your life or the lives of others.

The words you speak have that ability to contaminate so thoroughly that it will seem as if all hell itself has broken loose.

The work of God will be hindered.

God’s Name will be disgraced.

Saints will be wounded.

Relationships will be destroyed.

The whole of your life will be left in smouldering ruins.

All as result of a tongue on fire.

The reason the tongue contaminates our lives is that it is expressing what is in our heart at that moment.