Truth Archive

Jas 3:1-8 Teachers will face stricter judgment. The tongue, though small, has great power. It can cause a lot of harm, like a fire, and is difficult to control. Our words can be both positive and negative, so we should be careful with what we say.

Jesus is the only one who could perfectly control his tongue. He knew what to say. He knew when to say it, when not to say it. It did not always make people happy, but it was perfect. They didn’t always agree with him, but it was perfect. If you do not offend with your tongue, you are amazing. I have a very special knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and not knowing when to be quiet. I am thankful that Jesus knew when to speak and when to be quiet. I am thankful when he spoke it was true and right.

Jesus told the disciples that offences will come (Lk 17). No matter how hard you try, you are going to suffer offences. You may not have caused it all. You will have a chance to be offended. The disciples responded by saying “Increase our faith.” If our faith is in God, his Son, and his plan, we will never be offended. If we are trusting in them, it will help us never to offend someone else. If we do, we may be able to apologise and set it right.

I had a co-worker several years ago who seemed to offend everyone one evening after our meal. When we woke in the morning there was a note under our door. We thought we’d had a good evening, but we’d had a bad evening. The note was from the man of the home. He didn’t like some of the things my co-worker had said. He wrote this very long nasty note. We left the house and went to the next house. My co-worker was pretty much done with people! We got to the house. We shook hands with this older couple and came into their house. My co-worker said “If I offend you, I am sorry.” The old lady shook his hand and said “Great peace they have which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them” (Ps 119:165). We had a very nice time in that home. We try to be careful with what we say. We also want to be careful with what we hear and how we respond. So we are not giving offence and we’re not taking offence.

“Behold, we put bits in the horse’s mouths that they may obey us.” You put a bit at the very tender part of a horse’s mouth. You pull on the reins and put pressure on the tender part of the mouth and it turns. It is the Master or the rider that turns the horse. A horse without a master and without a purpose is useless. They are useful when they are obedient and under control. The ship has a small helm. The captain does not turn the rudder that is under the ship. He turns the small helm and it affects the direction of the ship. A horse needs a master. A ship needs a captain or it won’t have direction. A horse without a master is useless. A ship without a captain is dangerous. A tongue out of control can kill. It can kill our spirit. It can send us to a lost eternity.

The control for your tongue is in your heart. Lk 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” If my heart is right with God, he will help me control my tongue. What is in your heart controls your tongue. I was in a home once. Everything in my room was white. Carpet was white. Bedspread was white. I was putting a new cartridge in my printer. The door opened. I was bumped. You know what happened. The cartridge had black ink in it. There was black on the carpet. Black on the bedspread. Black on the pillow slip. The reason I had black everywhere was because the black was in the cartridge and it came out everywhere. When we are bumped, what is on the inside comes out. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

James was very aware of that. He talked about the horse and the ship. Then he said Behold how great a matter a little fire kindles! Another version of the Bible says “Forest fires are started with a little match.” I grew up in the mountains of Colorado. Some years ago, there was a horrible fire. It burnt hundreds of thousands of acres, took lives and burned houses. When they investigated it was discovered it was started by a woman. She claimed she was burning some love letters and got out of control. She thought she would start a fire, put it out and be a hero. She got it started, but she never got it put out. The breeze came up and the fire got out of control. It took lives. It started as a little tiny flame, and it got out of control. With our tongue we can start a huge disaster that will affect lives and souls. James was saying in bold letters: Be careful with your tongue! Be careful with what is in your heart. Be careful with what we text and email. Be careful with what is in here, in our hearts. Because when it comes out it could cause disaster.

Solomon also was aware of that. Prov 21:23 “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.” If we want to keep our soul from troubles, we can ask for help with our mouth and with our tongue. Prov 18:6 “A fool’s lips ever into contention.” v7 “A fool’s mouth is his destruction.” v8 “The words of a talebearer are as wounds.” v21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” In another version: “Those who spend a lot of time talking get the result of it.” So don’t spend all your time talking. Make sure you are saying something worthwhile. We want to be careful what we say and how we say it.

1 Sam 22: After David killed Goliath, he fled from Saul. He came to the priest Ahimelech and asked for some bread. He gave it to David. But there was a man named Doeg who saw that. Saul was feeling sorry for himself. He was giving a speech: “David is against me, blah blah blah.” It is gross. He was wanting sympathy because things were not going his way. Doeg spoke up: “I saw David the other day and he went to Ahimelech”. He was saying that Ahimelech was helping David, and he was on David’s side. They all came to Saul. He chewed them up. Said “What were you doing helping David?” Ahimelech was absolutely innocent. Ahimelech said that David was faithful, the king’s son-in-law, honourable in your house. Ahimelech did not know what was going on. He did not know there was strife between David and Saul. He did not know David was fleeing for his life.

Saul asked his footmen to kill Ahimelech and all his priests. They would not. So then he asked Doeg to do it. That day Doeg started a big fire with his tongue. To make it worse he killed some innocent people. He killed 85 priests. He also killed men and women and children and little babies with the sword. Doeg started a forest fire with his tongue and he assisted with his sword. Many innocent people died. We want to be very careful with our tongue.

Prov 31:26: the virtuous woman “opens her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.” Wisdom and kindness go together. Foolishness and unkindness go together. Prov 12:18 “There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword; but the tongue of the wise is health”. Wisdom and good words go together. Prov 15:1-2 “A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright; but the mouth of the fools poureth out foolishness.” v4 “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life; but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.” A kind tongue encourages, and harsh words crush the spirit. Wisdom and kindness go together, foolishness and unkindness go together.

We were singing hymn number 54. Every verse has some form of kind, kindly or kindness. That is why we sang that. It is speaking about God and his kindness to us. It is easy for us to take God’s kindness for granted. And maybe it is hard for us to be kind to others. There was a man that died. He was a friend of David’s. David said I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness to me. So David sent some of his servants to this man to show some kindness and comfort. But when they came, that man’s servants and friend said, David is not sending those men to comfort you. David is not sending those men to show kindness. He sent them to spy out the land. He sent them with ulterior motives. It could have been a nice situation if they had accepted the kindness and comfort of David. Instead he resisted it. He mistreated David’s servants. They cut their beards and removed their clothes. David’s servants disappeared to another city while their beards grew back.

Then the children of Ammon realised that was bad. Instead of saying we’re sorry, we made a mistake, forgive us, they started a fire. They went and hired the Syrians and there was a battle. Many people died in that battle. Because a man did not accept kindness and comfort and listened to wrong advice. 47,000 men died because of a man who wasn’t smart enough to know what kindness was.

James used some pretty descriptive words when talking about the tongue. “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and the things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind.” Somehow this little member, our tongue, which is run by the heart, is out of control. It causes so much hurt. So much damage. The plea from James was just be careful with our tongue.

v13-16 “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly sensual devilish. For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work.” Check your life with v17: “the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” Once again wisdom is connected with what comes out of our mouth. You may think you are wise, but you are stirring up envy and strife and that is not from God. Even if you are right, if your words and spirit are wrong, it is still wrong. The wisdom that is from above is pure. It is never selfish. It is first pure. Then it is peaceable, making for peace. It is gentle. That is a little checklist we could use for our tongue before we say something. Is it pure? Is it peaceable? Is it gentle? Is it easy to be entreated? Often when we get our tongue going we are not easily entreated. We cannot be stopped. We get going with our tongue and we are gone. James said if it is from God this is what it is like, and if it is not from God this is how it is.

I used to think kindness was optional. It is not optional for God’s people. It is mandatory. Something you have to have. Col 3:12 tells about things to put on and put off. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy. That is a description of you. God’s people. Put on bowels of mercy. That means you really feel it. It is not casual to show or feel mercy. Then he says kindness. As the elect of God it is mandatory. Show mercy and kindness.

There was an old man in Colorado who came to meetings with his wife for 54 years before he made his choice. She was an amazing lady. It wasn’t many years after he made his choice that he died. He was in his 80s. We were called to the funeral. The wife asked us to take the funeral, as we were in the mission when he made his choice. Visiting with his wife after the funeral, she said “You probably didn’t notice much change in George.” I didn’t. I knew him as a nice old man. She said “I wanted to tell you something. George was not nice to me for many years. He was unkind with his tongue. He was unkind with his actions. But I want you to know from the day George made his choice until the day he died he never did or said anything unkind to me.” Can your spouse say that about you? Can our companions say that about us? I really hope they can. I hope by the power of God in our hearts that we can let God control our tongue. And we can be kind in everything we do and say.

The virtuous woman opens her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness. Up in the mountains of Colorado the growing season is not very long. Our crop would be up and growing and looking beautiful. Then we would get frost. The crop would be ruined. I had a very special grandmother where we went to meeting. Granny had a saying about unkindness. She would often say “Harsh words are like a killing frost. There may be some good days after the frost, but the damage is done.” If we could stop the harsh words before they come out, we would not do any damage. Swallow them. Eat them. Put them down. It would be wonderful if they never even came into our minds. If we can keep them inside and never let them out it would keep us from doing damage to someone’s heart or spirit. We want to be careful what we think. We want to be careful what we feed on. Be careful what we love. And we want to be kind in every situation.

A brother worker was out on horseback helping some friends move cattle. He got into a river that was flooded. The horse drowned and so did the brother. Someone mentioned at the funeral that when they were cleaning up after Convention last year they found a notebook. A little boy had written down all the hymns from convention but there were no notes. At the end of one of the days the boy had written this brother worker’s name and “This worker was kind to me today.” That is a pretty good testimony. Sometimes at convention the workers can be a little frantic. They have duties. In this hectic situation he was kind to this little boy. Wisdom and kindness go together. We want to have wisdom from God and kindness with each other.

Eph 4:29-32 Speak only words that build others up, and avoid harmful speech. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. Let go of bitterness, anger, and malice. Be kind, compassionate, and forgiving, just as God forgave you through Christ. ~ That is our homework for this year. Don’t say anything that is discouraging or hurtful. Be careful what you are saying. What you are sharing. The spirit you are exhibiting. Be careful it is not against God. What comes out of your mouth should be good for building up, encouraging, ministering grace to those who hear. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Don’t let God be sad with your life, your words, what you teach. Remember we belong to God. We have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Be kind, forgiving, tender hearted.

Put away bitterness, wrath, anger, and clamour. It shouldn’t be amongst God’s people. We want to be careful in what we think, do, and say. For some reason we think we are smarter than we are. Sometimes we think we understand a situation better than we do, and it motivates us to say something we should never have said. A man was on a train with some little children. The children were not angels. They were not well behaved. They were out of control. The father did not seem to be doing anything. Finally someone spoke up, upset with the noise. They asked the father “Where is the children’s mother?” He said “She is a couple of carriages back in a casket.” Suddenly everyone on the train was willing to help the father with those children. Their attitude changed. They realised there was a loss. We do not know what people are facing. We have no idea. We should not mistreat them. We should be kind to them. When we are tempted to say something sharp, hurtful, corrective, something that is not right, we could consider Jesus. That would help us to be kind, patient, and forgiving.

I am thankful for people who are kind to me. When someone is kind and you are not expecting it and not deserving it, it completely undoes you. I hope with God’s help our hearts can be soft, our tongues can be kind and we can show the spirit of Christ to others.

James 1:26-27 True religion involves controlling your speech, helping orphans and widows, and avoiding worldly corruption. ~ If you claim to be religious but you cannot control your tongue, your religion is absolutely useless. Pure religion is to have feelings for those in unfortunate situations, who have been hurt and treated unkindly. Spending time with them is pure religion.

A few years ago, we had the privilege of meeting the meanest man on what is known as the worst Indian reservation of America. We had some time with that man before he died. After he died, his brother came to some meetings. He took us out for supper after a meeting one night. He asked “Is this a religion?” I was trying to think of this verse. Before I could, he said “This is not religion. I have been watching these people. This is a way of life.” It would be wonderful if people looked at us as God’s people and God’s servants and saw pure religion. That we love. We are kind. We are considerate. We think of others. We meet the needs of others. We have a word to those that are hurt, mistreated, and misunderstood. There is a lot we do not know. There is a lot we do not understand. What we do know is that the tongue can cause a huge fire. A lot of destruction. The tongue can also show appreciation. Thankfulness. Encouragement. It can show comfort. Say something to help people feel loved and make them feel good. This is my assignment this year. To have my heart right, soft and true. So that even if I am hurt or disappointed or mistreated, my words can be gentle, few and kind. Because wisdom from God and kindness go together. I want God’s help to do that. Amen.