Managing Your Mouth
James 3:1-12
3 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 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. 5 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. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
These words of James' are words that our culture struggles with, maybe more than any other words in all of the Bible. Now don't get me wrong, our culture struggles with faith and worry, love and kindness, but our struggle to "tame the tongue" likely outshines all our other struggles when it comes to our cultural ethic. Just hop on Twitter and see how our culture is doing in taming our tongue. There's a mantra among those with a robust social media platform and brand, "Don't read the comments." Another is just like it, "Don't feed the trolls." Both of these maxims point to the fact that our culture continues to spew vitriolic speech online. But we must remember, James is writing to committed Christians and the Bible doesn't demand that culture adopt a Christian ethic or lifestyle. No, Christians must adopt an Christian ethic and lifestyle, and what I've noticed over the past few years is that Christians are just as bad at taming our tongues than non-Christians. I've been saddened so many times when I've watched Christians tearing down other Christians in online Twitter wars.
This Sunday at OKC First Church we will be examining James' words about managing our mouth. We will explore the cause of our foul speech, how our untamed tongue causes chaos in our lives, and steps we can take to manage our mouth. I hope to see each of you online or in person this Sunday at 10:45 at OKC First Church!
Pastor Lesly
