James 3:1
Starting off in chapter three, James gives
a stern warning to those who think that they want to become a teacher of the
word of the Lord. He says that not many should want to become a teacher. The
reason is that those who are teachers of the word are going to be held to a
very high standard at the day of the judgment of the Lord.
The Bible is clear that all people will
stand before the judgment seat of Christ in order to give an account of what
they have done with their lives. For the believer, this has nothing to do with
one’s eternal destiny or salvation. We are saved by grace through faith and not
of works. For the believer, this judgment is a judgment about what our reward
and position will be in the world to come.
Those who have been given the privilege of
teaching and instructing others in the faith will be judged at a high standard.
The reason of this is that people’s lives and destinies are in their hands. A
teacher is responsible to make sure that they are telling the people what is right
and true in regard to the things of the Lord.
A teacher must also teach by example and
not just words. A teacher or pastor must lead an exemplary life. When people
see someone who is in authority in the church go down the wrong path or act in
a hypocritical manner, that is a turn off. It causes people to not want to come
to Jesus or not want to follow the Lord. That is not something that anyone
wants to have on them when they stand before the Lord at the time of the
judgment.
James 3:2-8
In these verses, James is going to tell us
what gets most of us into the most amount of trouble. This applies to leaders
and to all Christians. To all people really. The things that we say are what
get us into the most difficulties. Not being able to control our speech leads
to quarrels, hurt feelings and many other disastrous consequences. The things
that we say can fracture relationships causing people who were once friends to
never want to speak to each other again. And that happens all because people
are too quick to speak when they should be less quick to speak and quicker to
listen.
James is emphatic. If a person can control
what they say, that person will be more apt to be able to keep the rest of his
or her life in line with the principles and the precepts of the Lord.
Staring in verse 3, James gives two
examples of how a small thing like the tongue is to the human body can affect
something that is much larger. For instance, a bit in a horse’s mouth allows the
rider to make the horse slow down, speed up or turn to the left or to the
right. Also, the rudder on a ship is tiny. Without it, the ship is not able to
turn. It would be tossed to and fro and never get anywhere.
The tongue is small, yet James likens it
to a fire and to deadly poison. It can set a forest of lives on fire with the
little nasty spark that flies out of it. People make boasts and threats and say
horrible things to one another causing vast amounts of damage.
James says that an uncontrolled tongue it
a world of evil and is set on fire from hell. An uncontrolled tongue is the
devil’s tool to make people look at some Christians and not want to be one. We
have to get control of what we say, and that can only happen when our hearts
are yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.
James 3:9-12
In verses 9 through 12, James goes on to
tell us about the power and the potential hypocrisy of the tongue. James says
that with the same tongue we will praise the Lord in church on Sunday, and then
we go out in the world and assault people with the words that come out of our
mouths. James lays it out clearly. It
should not be this way.
What James is saying is that someone who
is really trying to follow the Lord will get control of what they say. A spring
cannot produce both fresh and salty water. A fig tree cannot produce olives,
and a grapevine can’t produce figs. So, a person who is filled with the Spirit
will not have speech that is praising the Lord at one moment and cursing people
the next.
What we need to do is learn by God’s power
to speak words that heal and not words that hurt. Jesus said to let our yes be
yes and our no be no. We need to mean what we say, and we need to use our words
to help people in life and to help them know more about Jesus. Our speech needs
to express the love of the Lord that is overflowing within our hearts.
James
3:13-16
In verse 13, James moves us on to a
discussion about earthly wisdom and the type of wisdom that comes to us from
Heaven. We are told that if a person lives a good life with good deeds marked
by humility, that is a sign that someone possesses true wisdom.
Good deeds done in humility means that we
don’t go around pointing out to every one all the good that we’ve done so that our
good works are seen by people and we get the praise of men. Someone who does
good deeds in humility is someone who is taking the words of Jesus seriously
and is doing good deeds to be seen by the Father who is in Heaven.
Those who are leaning into the so-called
wisdom of the world are those who boast about what they do and are filled with
selfishness and the ambition to be recognized by others as a significant person
in the world.
James tells us that the wisdom of the
world is demonic. It is not spiritual. It is a denial of the truth. He tells us
in verse 16 that envy and selfish ambition are at the heart of sin and evil
practice. When a person is filled with envy towards what others have, they
desire to get it, and they will be willing to harm others in order to obtain
that which they wish to possess. A person filled with selfish ambition is only
thinking about what is good for them. They are not loving their neighbor as
themselves. On the contrary, they are hating their neighbor because they can’t
stand that someone else should have more than them. They are filled with pride
thinking that they are the best thing that has ever hit the universe.
James
3:17-18
In these final two verses of chapter
three, we are told what the characteristics are of the true wisdom that comes
from Heaven. It is pure and peace loving. This means that it is not focused on
oneself and the fulfillment of selfish desire. To be peace loving means that we
desire that no one be in conflict, and we seek the path of peace and
non-violence.
The
wisdom of Heaven is characterized as being considerate, submissive and full of
mercy. We are willing to be those that forgive, and we don’t have to have our
own way all the time.
Good fruit in our lives is produced by the
wisdom from Heaven. It creates in us a sincerity of heart that is focused on
the things of God and upon doing His will.
As James closes out in verse 18, he
reiterates that the followers of the heavenly wisdom are peacemakers who sow in
peace. I so much wish that Christians where much more known as peacemakers.
Christians should not be known for violence, war and hatefulness. We must be
the peacemakers that Jesus called us to be in the Sermon on the Mount.
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