Main Idea
How we speak should reflect the God we worship
Recap - Last 10 Weeks
NUMBER 10 - GENUINE FAITH
Last week we saw the difference between fake faith and genuine faith. We used the faith formula to define genuine, salvific faith, as knowing God, believing God, and obeying God.
BONUS - GENUINE FAITH SUPPLEMENTAL
Some Christians struggle in reconciling James and Paul on the issue of how faith and works interact in the Christian life, particularly in relation to salvation. We didn’t dive deeply into that in person, but in our online Genuine Faith Supplemental video..
In that video, we talked about how Paul and James both are talking about the idea that genuine faith is the means by which we are saved, but that genuine faith produces a life that is growing in good works, because genuine faith includes knowing, believing, and obeying God. We believe James would agree with the formula in Ephesians 2:8-10 - 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
We are saved by faith, not by works, but for works so that if our faith is not producing good works, we probably don’t have genuine faith. But we never trust in our works, we trust in the work of Jesus for us, in us, and through us.
NUMBER 9 - FAVORITISM
In week 9, Pastor Andrea walked us through the theme of favoritism and showed us that mercy triumphs over judgment. But, too often we judge others by the standards of our society, treating people as means and tools to give us what we want. But, if we are going to really love our neighbor as ourselves, we can’t give into acting like everyone else, we have to act like Jesus.
NUMBER 8 - LIVING THE WORD
In week 8, we talked about the idea that we need to not only listen to the word of God, but we need to also live out the word of God. During that week, we talked about the power of words and how important it is for us to control our words, and focus on God’s word.
NUMBER 7 - CHOOSE LIFE!
In week 7, we talked about how when hardships happen in life, we have two choices - we can choose to walk the path of death, or the path of life. And we talked about the idea that God, in his grace, mercy, and love, through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, gives us the power at each step along the path to choose repentance and life.
NUMBER 6 - WISDOM FOR THE RICH AND POOR
In week 6, Pastor Bob walked us through James’ discussion on how we should perceive wealth. He showed us how James teaches us that earthly status is temporary, but identity in Christ is eternal, and both poverty and wealth should drive believers to re-center their confidence in God rather than in changing circumstances.
NUMBER 5 - GOT WISDOM?
In week 5, we talked about the idea that if we are going to live the Christian life, we need wisdom and that wisdom is whole-hearted devotion to God. Wisdom is knowing God, trusting God, and living for God. For those of you who are keen listeners, you might have picked up on the idea that wisdom sounds a lot like genuine faith. If you did, 10 points.
NUMBER 4 - PERFECTION
In week 4, we talked about the theme of perfection that runs not just throughout James, but throughout all of the New Testament. We talked about how the word teleios can mean perfect, or mature, or complete, or whole.
And we talked about the salvation equation. We said that salvation involves justification or being made right with God, sanctification or the process of becoming more and more like God, and glorification, the culmination of being fully confirmed to the image of Jesus.
NUMBER 3 - TRIALS
In week 3, Pastor Andrea walked us through the theme of trials. He challenged us that when trials come, we need to choose joy as a faith-shaped perspective and posture of trust, remain faithful by staying with Jesus in the middle of trials, and allow perseverance to form us more and more into the image of Jesus.
NUMBER 2 - A PRAYING PEOPLE
We took a detour in week 2 to set our yearly theme as A Praying People. While this was not taken directly out of James, we talked about how prayer is a fundamental, essential, and foundational aspect of the Christian life - we can’t do any of the other things we have talked about in James without prayer.
NUMBER 1 - INTRODUCTION
Our first week, we introduced the Book of James. We talked about the context of the book, we talked about James himself, and we talked about the outcomes that the preaching team was praying we would hear through this series.
In case you forgot them, they are:
That we would not just hear the word, but live the word
That we would have a long-term vision of life, focused on Jesus, His Kingdom, and the New Heavens and New Earth
That we would see trials and tribulations as opportunities to become more like Jesus, and see God’s redemptive hand in them.
That we would live out of gratitude for the abundance of grace that we have received.
Setting the Stage
James 3:1-12 does, however, hark back to numerous passages earlier in the epistle. That not many should become teachers (v. 1) conceptually parallels the command of 1:19 to be slow to speak. The judgement that teachers must face (3:1) reminds us of James’ discussion of judgment without mercy for those who show no mercy in 2:13a, but also of the liberating judgment for believers (2:12, 13:b). The references to “perfection” or “maturity” in 3:2 echoes the language of 1:4 with some of the same debates over the meaning of the term. Keeping one’s tongue in check in 3:2 employs the same root as the word for the “bit” in the horse's mouth in 3:3 and the identical verb translated “bridle” in 1:26, where the tongue was also its object. The analogy of the boat kept under control during strong winds (3:4) contrasts favorably with the “double-souled” person in 1:6, who is simply blown and tossed about. The “uncontrollable” evil of 3:8 employs the same term that in 1:8 meant “unstable”. The curses that duplicitous believers call down on their opponents (3:9-10), finally, sound too close for comfort like the blasphemy the Christians’ oppressors uttered in 2:7. (Blomberg and Kamell)
Passage
James 3:1-12 (NASB)
Do not become teachers in large numbers, my brothers, since you know that we who are teachers will incur a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to rein in the whole body as well.
3 Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their whole body as well. 4 Look at the ships too: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are nevertheless directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot determines. 5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.
See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of unrighteousness; the tongue is set among our body’s parts as that which defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one among mankind can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.11 Does a spring send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh
The Flow of the Passage
These verses, more than any others in the epistle, reveal the breadth of James’s background. The problem of uncontrolled speech is a frequent theme among secular moralists and in OT and Jewish Wisdom literature. Especially is this motif prominent in Proverbs, which constantly singles out speech habits as a key marker of godliness (see, e.g., 10:8, 11, 21; 11:9; 12:18, 25; 13:3; 16:27; 17:14; 18:7, 21; 26:22). (Moo)
Just as a quick sample, in the book of Proverbs alone, we have all of these verses about how we talk. Proverbs 10:8, 11, 21; 11:9; 12:18, 25; 13:3; 15:1, 2, 4, 22, 31; 16:24, 27; 17:14; 18:7, 21; 26:22
This segment of James has spawned more distinct proposals for its structure than any other comparably sized unit in the letter. (Blomberg and Kamell, 150)
While there is a lot of debate on the structure of this passage, we are going to break it down into three sections:
A Warning in verses 1-2
The Power of Words in verses 3-8
The Problem of Duplicity in verse 9 - 12.
So, let’s dive into the Warning in verses 1 and 2.
VERSES 1-2 - Warning
The office of teacher was roughly the equivalent of the rabbi in the Jewish community (cf. Matt. 23:8; John 1:38). Paul ranked the gift of teaching very high on the list of gifts the Spirit bestows on the church (1 Cor. 12:28; see also Acts 13:1; Rom. 12:7; Eph. 4:11). Unlike the prophet, who transmitted to the community revelations received from the Lord (cf. 1 Cor. 14:30), the teacher had the task of expounding the truth of the gospel on the basis of the growing Christian tradition (cf., e.g., 2 Tim. 2:2). The rough equivalent to the rabbi would have meant that a teacher in the early Jewish-Christian church would have had considerable prestige. (Moo)
In the ancient Mediterranean world teachers were held in high respect, so perhaps many in James’ congregation were trying to attain that status, possibly as a way to overcome other social oppressions. (Blomberg and Kamell 151)
In the Christian world, teaching is not so much a privilege as a responsibility for which we will be held accountable…The choice of the verb and the sense in “will receive” implies that judgment is something that God metes out, ultimately, at the final judgment, although “anyone who has ever taught knows that evaluation and criticism are daily occurrences.” (Blomberg and Kamell 152)
But the logic of James’s argument, as we follow it into v. 2, suggests a third interpretation of the “greater judgment”: teachers, because their ministry involves speech, the hardest of all parts of the body to control, expose themselves to greater danger of judgment. Their constant use of the tongue means they can sin very easily, leading others astray at the same time. (Moo)
No one can reach the ideal of sinless speech, given the assertion in 2a. Thus, we should be doubly wary of teaching; the damage from bad instruction can be quite grave, and sooner or later every teacher will do damage. (Blomberg and Kamell, 153)
James starts his discussion on wise words by focusing on an important truth - we all sin. Let’s never deceive ourselves into thinking that we have arrived - until we see Jesus face to face and are fully conformed into His image, we will all stumble, we will all sin in many ways.
Once again this theme of perfection, or maturity, shows up. If persevering or enduring in trials is to make us perfect - make us more like Jesus - then the evidence of that shows up in our language.
It’s what Jesus says in Luke 6:45 - The good person out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil person out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.
Just like our obedience becomes a means for us to gauge how much we honestly love and trust in God, so our words become a gauge for us on the state of our heart.
They become an indicator for us on how well we are practicing self-control and discipline, how well we are genuinely embodying the Lord’s prayer and seeking God’s kingdom come, His will be done.
Verses 3-8 - Power
Our words, James has now made clear, have an enormous impact on our spiritual condition. But has not James perhaps exaggerated the issue? Can our speech really have that big an impact? James anticipates this objection and now launches into a series of illustrations to reinforce his belief that a comparatively small “member,” such as the tongue, has influence out of all proportion to its size. James compares the tongue to the bit that controls the horse (v. 3), the rudder that steers the ship (v. 4), and the spark that causes a forest fire (v. 5). Each of these illustrations is found quite widely in the ancient world, sometimes in conjunction with one another. James again reveals himself as a pastor concerned to bring home his message to his readers by selecting images from his world and the literature of the time. (Moo)
James has not prepared his readers for any such theological application of the word “body.” Probably, then, it is not so much “control” that James intends to illustrate but “direction”: as the bit determines the direction of the horse, so the tongue can determine the destiny of the individual. Believers who exercise careful control of the tongue are able also to direct their whole life in its proper, divinely charted course: they are “perfect” (v. 2). But when that tongue is not restrained, small though it is, the rest of the body is likely to be uncontrolled and undisciplined also (Moo)
Second, he points out that the rudder controls the huge ship in the midst of strong winds. “Strong” translates a Greek word (sklēros) that means “hard,” “rough,” “cruel” (other NT occurrences are Matt. 25:24; John 6:60; Acts 26:14; Jude 15). Applied to winds (cf. Prov. 27:16 [LXX] and Isa. 27:8), the word must mean “violent,” “rough” (REB translates “gales”). Another difference between this image and the first is the explicit reference to the ultimate “will” or “impulse” (Gk. hormē) that controls the rudder and hence the ship: the pilot. James thus sets up the application that he will make of these images in v. 5, with all three key components in place: “the guiding desire (the steersman), the means of control (the rudder), and that which is controlled (the ship), corresponding in turn to human desire, the tongue, and the body.” (Moo)
The imagery of the small rudder that steers a huge ship was widespread in the ancient world. Aristotle, for instance, contrasted the small size of the rudder, turned by one man, with the “huge mass” of the ship it controls (Quaestiones Mechanica 5). But what is especially interesting is that a number of writers used the same combination of illustrations that we find in James. The rule of God over the world is compared to the charioteer’s guidance of the horse through reins and bit and to the pilot’s steering of a ship (e.g., Pseudo-Aristotle, De mundo 6; frequently in Philo). We also find texts that refer in the same context to the charioteer, the helmsman, and the taming of the animal world (cf. v. 7) (Philo, Creation 83–86). Still others combine the images of horse, ship, and fire—as James does in vv. 3–5. The best example is perhaps a passage in Philo, in which he talks of the power of the mind to direct the senses:
Mind is superior to Sense-perception. When the charioteer is in command and guides the horses with the reins, the chariot goes the way he wishes.… A ship, again, keeps to her straight course, when the helmsman grasping the tiller steers accordingly.… Just so, when Mind, the charioteer or helmsman of the soul, rules the whole living being as a governor does a city, the life holds a straight course.… But when irrational sense gains the chief place, … the mind is set on fire and is all ablaze, and that fire is kindled by the objects of sense which Sense-perception supplies. (Allegorical Interpretation 3.224)
The moralist Plutarch even uses the imagery of a runaway ship and a fire to illustrate the destructive and uncontrollable nature of loose speech (De garrulitate 10). The point in citing these parallels is not to argue that James depends on any one of them directly. So widespread were the images of horse, ship, and fire in the literature that they must have been common sources for illustrations in the everyday world of James’s environment. And, indeed, all three were so common that they would have been natural sources for illustrations. (Moo)
And for each of these, we see that great power can be harnessed and controlled, or unleashed and devastated by something small and seemingly insignificant.
And look at the goals of the illustrations
Horses obey
Ship goes where directed
Forest set ablaze
The end result is determined by the power, discipline, and control of the piece. At first we just think this is a simple principle - words are like horses, ships, and fire - used for good or evil, and let’s make sure it's good. But then James does something unexpected and goes hard into the negative,
This teaching strikes us as so unexpected that we had better survey it a little longer to make sure we are grasping exactly what the Bible says. It is not that a person strong enough to control the tongue is therefore also strong enough for every other battle. It is much deeper and more important even than that: it is rather that winning this battle is in itself a winning of all battles. Think of a switchboard in a church or other large building. Each switch controls the lights in its own section of the church and the person who controls the switch controls those lights. But on the board there is also a master-switch. It does not need any special strength to operate it. There is no way in which anyone could say, ‘If you are strong enough to operate that switch then you are strong enough to operate any of them.’ The simple fact is that, if you control the master-switch, you control all the lights; you are lord of the switchboard. It is in this sense that the person who controls the tongue is able to bridle the whole body also (2). This is the great (and not unreal) boast the tongue can make (5a). (Motyer)
Pilots retain their power over ships because they control the rudders. If, however, a rudder does not work properly, the ship can veer wholly out of control. In the same way, if the tongue is not harnessed, the entire person can become uncontrollable. When functioning as it was designed, the tongue, like a rudder, enables those who steer wisely to set the course they desire. (Blomberg and Kamell, 156)
What James wants us to consider is what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. Impossible to convey in English translation is a striking rhetorical feature of this sentence: the words “great” and “small” translate the same Greek word. The word in question (hēlikos) “expresses magnitude in either direction” (Hort). By giving it contextually marked opposite meanings, James accentuates the contrast between the small initial “fire” (NIV spark; the Greek word is just the usual word for “fire” [pyr]) and the huge resulting conflagration.11 “Forest” translates a Greek word that means “wood.” James might then be referring not so much to a “forest” (a rare feature of Near Eastern topography in James’s day) but to the bush that covers so many Palestinian hills and which, in that dry Mediterranean climate, could so easily and disastrously burst into flame. (Moo)
But where does this enormously destructive potential come from? From hell, says James. “Hell” translates the Gk. gehenna, which is a transliteration of two Hebrew words that mean “Valley of Hinnom.” This valley, just outside Jerusalem, gained an evil reputation in the OT and intertestamental period. Pagan child sacrifices were carried out there (cf. Jer. 32:35), and trash was often burned in it. Jesus used the word to refer to the place of ultimate condemnation. James again betrays his connection to Jesus, since only in the teaching of Jesus do we find this word elsewhere in the NT (11 times). The power of Satan himself, the chief denizen of hell, gives to the tongue its great destructive potential. (Moo)
Well, first off we see the connection James is making to Jesus’ words in Matthew 15:11 "It is not what enters the mouth that defiles the person, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles the person.”
We need understand that was is happening here is James is raising the bar high on how we see every moment of our lives - there are no incidental words, just as there are no incidental actions, all of us, our minds, our bodies, our spirits, our strength, our words need to be brought under the Lordship of Jesus.
If we are going to be wise in how we live, we need to be wise in how we engage our tongue, and that starts by not trusting in ourselves.
We need to recognize that by default our words are not going to reflect God’s heavenly rule, but rather the devastating destructiveness of hell.
That’s because by default, what is within us is not goodness, but evil.
Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
Human ability to “tame” the animal world, suggests James, is inherent in the image of God and the divine mandate to “subdue” the world. The NIV obscures a detail in the text that adds weight to this point. For the verse begins with a reference to every “species” (NIV kind) of animal and concludes with a reference to the “species” of humankind. The “human species,” James is saying in brief, is subduing every animal “species.” Moreover, James uses the verb “tame” twice: once in the present tense to stress the continuing process by which human beings are subduing creatures, and again in the perfect tense—have been tamed—to show that this process is rooted in the state of affairs created by the divine mandate (Moo)
We were created to be good and we were created to reflect the good God, and so our words should reflect the good God.
We should speak wise words to reflect our wise God.
But we don’t - we are fallen - we are sinners - our hearts are in a condition of deception.
In the Greek of this verse, the tongue comes first for contrast: human beings may subdue animals—but the tongue no one can tame. All the major English translations, including the NIV, translate something like no man here. But what James says is, literally, “no one … of (or among) people.” Why this awkward addition? James may simply be continuing the focus on human beings as a species that was so important in v. 7. But Augustine thought that James was making a more subtle point: “… he does not say that no one can tame the tongue, but no one of men; so that when it is tamed we confess that this is brought about by the pity, the help, the grace of God.”19 If this is James’s intent, he would be holding out hope to us that we could, through the powerful work of the Spirit, bring our speech into perfect conformity with the will of God. Such a person, James has indicated, would be “perfect” or “complete” (Gk. teleios) (v. 2). In addition, then, to the exegetical question (can James’s wording really bear this sense?), we must also consider the theological question: does James and/or the NT as a whole envisage the possibility of Christians attaining perfection in this life? We have answered this question in the negative (see our comments on 1:4). We therefore doubt that Augustine’s interpretation is correct. James does, indeed, suggest that the ultimate taming of the tongue is impossible. Should this lead us to abandon all efforts to bring our speech under control? Of course not. The realization that perfection in something is unattainable should not dampen in the least our enthusiasm to become as good at it as possible. We may never reach the point where the tongue is perfectly controlled; but we can surely advance a long way in using our speech to glorify God (Moo)
James continues his description of the tongue by likening it to a fatal attraction. We first saw the term “uncontrollable” in 1:8, where it was used of the restlessness of waves. Here it has an even worse connotation. To communicate this out-of-control aspect, a stronger translation than “restless” should be used. In addition to “uncontrollable”, it can mean “unstable”. Thus the imagery can convey the idea of something that may at any point lash out, a disorderly and unpredictable organism. (Blomberg and Kamell, 160)
James’ point is that people can either control their tongues or let their tongues control them. (Blomberg and Kamell, 156)
This is why we need redemption, we need transformation, we need Jesus and what He did on the cross. We can’t do this on our own.
Yes, we need to want to control our words, to watch what we say, to use the gift that God has given us in our ability to speak and to communicate for good and not for evil But we need to do it by the power of the Holy Spirit, conformed and transformed to the image of Jesus.
We need to watch our words everyday, but more than watching our words, we need to fill ourselves with the words of Jesus. If it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks - we need to recognize that our hearts need to become clean, need to be changed, need to become like Jesus.
James concludes the verse with a description of the tongue taken directly from the OT: full of deadly poison. See, for instance, Ps. 140:3: “They [evil men] make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips.” (Paul quotes the same verse to illustrate the manifold sins of the non-Christian world [Rom. 3:13].) (Moo)
The metaphor suggests the image of a serpent, poised to strike, much like the destructive, deceptive words of the snake to Eve in the garden of Eden, which poisoned paradise. (Blomberg and Kamell, 160)
James’ point is that the tongue can have the same effect: one careless statement can ruin careers and destroy lives. (Blomberg and Kamell, 157)
Those very words that now have warped and changed us and by listening to them, we ourselves have become like the Evil One..
Jesus says in John 8:44, that the Evil One was a murderer and liar from the beginning, and that our words reflect our true Father.
We have the responsibility to reflect God in our words, but too often we reflect the evil one with our words.
It is this image of a snake with its forked tongue, and this duplicity of speech brings us to verse 9 to 12.
Verses 9-12 - Duplicity
If we come here on a Sunday and sing songs of praise and worship to our Lord, we are doing well - we are blessing our Lord and Father.
But if we leave here and someone cuts us off in traffic, and we respond by calling them an idiot, there’s something wrong in that.
Our hearts aren’t in line with God’s heart.
John puts it this way: 1 John 4:20-21 If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.
And James goes even further - it’s not just our brothers and sisters we have to love and bless - it's all humans. For while the family of God consists only of those who have been adopted by God through the blood of Jesus, the image of God, the likeness of God, is true of all people.
We are too often too flippant with our words, thinking they are ethereal and a quick outburst is no big deal. But every word we speak is a big deal
And too often we are too flippant with people, thinking that someone we pass by on the street and never see again doesn’t really matter, or someone online isn’t really a person.
CS Lewis gives us a good correction to this: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”
When we understand the magnitude of what it means to interact with the imagebearers of God, when we wrestle with the idea that our words need to reflect the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ, when we grab hold of the idea that people aren’t actually the problem, sin and evil are, then we will start to get a hold of the importance of watching our words.
And when we fail, we fall on the grace of the Lord, on the fact that all of our destructive, evil words, and all of the destructive, evil heart that those words reveal, were handled on that cross.
And we can rest in all the destructive, evil words that were done to us and were handled on the cross as well, and trust that there is healing and wholeness available to us in the arms of the Savior.
And we can trust that what good we do with our words is because of the goodness of our God, revealed to us in our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit.
James could choose no stronger contrast to illustrate the duality of the tongue than its use in “praising” God and “cursing” human beings. (Moo)
Blessing, or praising, God is one of the most important and positive forms of human speech. James might be thinking specifically of the worship of the community, in which believers united their voices in singing and asserting the praise of God. But if praising God is one of the highest forms of speech, cursing people is one of the lowest. (Moo)
The ancient curse was far more than abusive language; it called on God, in effect, to cut a person off from any possible blessing and to consign that person to Hell. Jesus prohibited his disciples from cursing others; indeed, they were to “bless those who curse you” (Luke 6:28; cf. Rom. 12:14). As James emphasizes, what makes cursing especially evil is that the one whom we pronounce damned has been made in God’s likeness. James has already alluded in this context to God’s creation utterance, as he designated the various kinds of creatures over which God has given man dominion (v. 7; cf. Gen. 1:26). Here he alludes again to the same passage (see also 1:27) to remind us of the special likeness that human beings bear to God himself. James is probably here again reflecting common Jewish tradition; the rabbis taught that one should not say “ ‘Let my neighbor be put to shame’—for then you put to shame one who is in the image of God” (Genesis Rabbah 24 [on Gen. 5:1]) (Moo)
This implies, derivatively, that human beings, despite the fall, retain vertiges of God’s image, and so to curse a fellow human, whether or not Christian, is to curse the reflection of the divine. (Blomberg and Kamell, 161)
James also views what comes out of the mouth as a barometer of spirituality. Though a small member, the tongue “makes great boasts” (v. 5) and represents in our bodies “a world of evil” (v. 6). And nowhere does the tongue reveal its evil power more than in its doubleness. (Moo)
Christians who have been transformed by the Spirit of God should manifest the wholeness and purity of the heart in consistency and purity of speech (Moo)
However, whatever the precise wording, James’s point is obvious: bad things don’t produce good things. And so a person who is not right with God and walking daily in his presence cannot consistently speak pure and helpful words. One who is double and inconsistent with regard to the things of God in his heart (dipsychos, 1:8 and 4:8) will be double and inconsistent in his speech. We have noted that James’s imagery of like things producing like probably depends to some extent on Jesus’ well-known proverb about the good tree bearing good fruit. If taken strictly, and without regard for other biblical teaching, such imagery could suggest that a person who is once made “good” by God through Christ and the Holy Spirit will inevitably live the right kind of life in all respects. But we must not make the mistake of pressing a helpful comparison between trees and the spiritual life beyond its intent. As theologian Hendrikus Berkhof trenchantly reminds us, “A man is after all not a tree.”25 The automatic natural processes of plant life cannot be exactly compared to the willing, deciding processes of human life. But, whatever its limits, the imagery conveys an important warning: only a renewed heart can produce pure speech; and consistently (though not perfectly) pure speech is to be the product of the renewed heart (Moo)
The idea that humans are like trees might seem strange to us until we see how the Hebrew Bible connects them with the same key words, images, and scenes. Humans and trees are found together at most of the hinge points in the biblical story. (Bible Project, Humans Are Trees)
People turn deceitful when they speak with forked tongues. Like Jesus, James insists that what comes from people’s mouths illustrates their hearts, so that this kind of double-speak reveals the vacillating allegiance condemned in 1:5-8 (Blomberg and Kamell, 161)
In America, we cherish freedom of speech. But with freedom comes responsibility. Responsible citizens in a democracy, and Christians in any form of society, must learn what is helpful and even necessary to say, even when unpleasant–such as in challenging injustice against others–and what remains only destructive. Evangelical Christians have at times had a poor track record of speaking the truth in love in situations such as these, even as more liberal Christians have often failed to speak the truth in love. And almost all people suffer from the tendency to pass on interesting rumors to others without scrupulously checking their accuracy, especially in the Internet age, which produces a torrent of misinformation, half truths, and personal opinions all subtly mixed together with genuine facts for just about any Google search that one executes! (Blomberg and Kamell, 165)
Resources Used
Allison, Gregg R. Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine : a Companion to Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. Zondervan, 2011.
Barclay, William. The Letters of James and Peter. The Daily Study Bible. Rev. ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003.
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Imes, Carmen Joy Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019.
Moo, Douglas J. The Letter of James. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000. (Digital edition)
Motyer, J. Alec. The Message of James. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1985. (Digital edition)
Packer, J. I. “Faith.” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, edited by Walter A. Elwell, Baker Publishing Group, 2001.
Wright, N. T. The Early Christian Letters for Everyone: James, Peter, John, and Jude. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2011.
Wright, N. T., and Michael F. Bird. The New Testament in Its World. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2019.