The text this morning is from the Epistle of James, the third chapter:
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
James this week is hitting at all of us here by pointing out the fact that our tongues, the words of our mouths, are the greatest ways that we sin. It really is amazing, isn’t it, that such a small organ like the tongue can cause the greatest sins, but it’s true. It’s like when you get an hangnail right on your pinky finger. It’s a small little thing on the smallest finger and yet, you hit it the wrong way on something and man, does it tell you that you’re alive, or what? The smallest things can cause us the greatest pain. A bee sting. A mosquito bite. A cancer cell. A toothache. So, it shouldn’t surprise us, really, that the tongue is a huge cause of sin in our lives.
In fact, our tongues cause us to sin so often that it is one of the most ignored sins in the church. It’s easy to preach against racism or homosexuality. It’s easy to preach against sex outside of marriage. It’s easy to tell people not to sin or to hate others or to honor God. It’s much harder to tell you to cool your tongues. It’s much harder to tell you to stop gossiping about someone. It’s much harder to tell others to watch their words. It’s much harder to tell someone that the way they’re speaking isn’t showing respect.
It really is. I mean, we can say it, but how often do we fall back into familiar patterns? How often do we get passive-aggressive? How often do we tell people we don’t like to complain, but… How often to we make a mockery of ourselves with our tongues while trying to put others down? How often do we give a backhanded compliment? Oh, Pastor had the service go over an hour today, who does he think he is? Doesn’t he think my time is valuable. Oh, Pastor made us sing unfamiliar hymns today, who does he think he is? Can you believe she said that? Can you believe she did that? Can you believe he’s not doing what I want him to do? You know, most people really care about their health, but you’re carrying that extra weight really well!
My goodness! The damage we do with our tongues! And not only to ourselves, but then to our neighbors, and then to other neighbors by encouraging the behavior. You know how it is: a false word spreads like wildfire. You say one thing and it gives permission to others to spread the venom. And that’s just the things we say and couch as meaningless, cheap gossip.
We’ve even devolved as a society to speak rudely to others, marching up to them and demanding our way, that they give us their time, that we call them names or call them worthless. We make them feel less-than for our benefit, all by the power of our tongues. We insist on our own way, we do what we want, we say what we want, what we’re thinking is the most important thing, and it all comes out on our tongues.
Brothers and sisters, it should not be! Our tongues are that which receive the very body and blood of Christ and we should let talk which tears down the brothers come off of it? Our tongues are made holy by their use as tools to receive the good gifts of Christ and we should make them unholy? Our tongues are the tools given to us to build one another up and we use it to tear down. I mean, it’s ridiculous when you think about it, but it’s so completely widespread.
Think for a moment, think hard, about the last time you used your tongue, your speech, inappropriately. Were you gossiping at work? Were you badmouthing someone behind their back? Were you lying? Were you complaining by not complaining? When were you using it inappropriately? If you actually thought about it, you probably realized it wasn’t that long ago, and that you were doing it all day. This is why we’re reminded in our Small Catechism of the eighth commandment. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. What does this mean? Answer: We should fear and love God so that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, ‹think and› speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.” This is hard for us to do, isn’t it, to always speak well of our neighbor, to defend them in everything they do. This is what the Christian must do, yet it’s what we’re most tempted to disobey.
The reality is we’re really bad at training ourselves to stop using our tongues this way. We like it and we can get away with it, and it’s bad. It’s sinful. James tells us that the tongue is like a bit for a horse, and a tug on it changes the direction you’re galloping in. He says it’s like a rudder on a ship, small, yet directs the whole mass. So, think about that for you. Your tongue can direct you towards the good and gracious will of God, but if you use it inappropriately, it’s like your entire body and life go off course.
Have you ever driven a boat? I want you to imagine that you are going in a straight line down the lake. Now, pull the boat to starboard. You’re no longer going toward your destination right? You’re off-course. Now, pull the boat to port. Are you going back to the path? Are you back on-course? Actually, you’re not. You could be headed in the same cardinal direction, but maybe not. It might depend on the degree to which you yanked the boat left or right and then back again. It could depend on a lot. But, the reality is if you get off-course, it requires at least two turns to get back to the same place you were before. You’re going straight, you turn. To get back on course, you have to turn back toward the original path, and then you have to steer back onto the path. One turn is toward the path, the next is onto the path.
It’s the same with our tongues. One slip of the tongue takes us off the path. To get back on it requires much more effort than it did to get off. And that’s because the direction we’re taking, the path we’re on, the destination we’re headed towards actually matters. It matters where we’re going. We’re going toward the day of resurrection. We headed for this day, the hope of all Christians, that we might be counted among the holy ones of God, and stand with reverence over the good things we have done in this world.
Now, if your tongue slips and you speak against others, or it’s causing you to sin in another way, does this mean that you’re not saved? No, of course not. We talked about this last week. James is speaking of sanctification, how we’re made and kept holy through this life. He’s not talking about justification, how we’re saved and redeemed. Justification is brought solely through the work of Christ; it’s unearned by you and given to you freely. Sanctification, however, is a joint effort with Christ. He’s the one who sanctifies us, makes us holy, but we cooperate by our works and efforts in this life.
This is kind of like a person who goes to college. They tell the school what they’d like to study and the school enrolls them in certain classes. They then take all the classes for their major in chemistry, but the college actually confers on them the degree. The person can’t claim that they have a major in chemistry on their own, despite all their coursework. It has to be given by the college. We are sanctified by Christ, we’re declared holy by Him, and we work with Him in that holiness. This is not to make ourselves holy, but because we are holy in Christ.
I know this is confusing, but, again, James isn’t saying that this is about your salvation, it’s about how you live. That’s why he warns people against being teachers of the Church; they will suffer a stricter judgment than anyone else. This isn’t a salvific judgment, but a judgment of their works. They will be saved like all who believe in Christ, but their works will stand up to the fires of judgment as well, in a more strict fashion than any other believer.
So, when James tells us that in our sin our tongues are freed, we should pay attention. We should want to keep saying that which is good and right and holy that we may keep progressing in our sanctification and not present ourselves as growing in unholiness. We should want to bear the fruit keeping with our conversion by Christ and not bear different fruit, or rotten fruit.
The reason for all this is our justification. You are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. You put our trust in Him, the one who lived, died, resurrected and ascended for you, that you might have your sins forgiven and be given the promise of eternal life. You are justified, washed in the blood of Jesus, baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are saved, forgiven, redeemed, restored, and welcomed into the eternal realm of life with God forever. You are so beloved by God that He sent His Son to die for you, and so He has. He has brought you to Himself and He has given you a gift, the gift of a holy life. How then shall you keep it?
Shall you take His gift and run in through the mud? Shall you take His justification and spit on it? Shall you take it and turn it into something that dishonors the name placed upon you by God Himself? It should not be!
Rather, because you are redeemed by Christ, because you are baptized in His name, because you have the body and blood of Jesus put on your tongues, you should care to live in His holiness forever, to seek after His good name, to seek His will, to speak justly and wonderfully of others, to defend them, and put the best construction on everything. Otherwise, we go off-course. We sin. Praise be God in Christ Jesus, then, that even when our tongues steer our whole lives off-course, that through repentance and the forgiveness of sins, He steers us back to Him, that we might be His and be with Him forever. And so He does. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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