seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
James 3:1 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.
Oh boy these verses are loaded with metaphors. Here's the link to the commentary.
Let not many of you become teachers: James has a sober admonition for those who would become teachers in the church. They must take the responsibility seriously, because their accountability is greater and they shall receive a stricter judgment.
For we all stumble in many things: The greater accountability of teachers is especially sobering in light of our common weaknesses. After all, we all stumble in many things. The ancient Greek word translated stumble does not imply a fatal fall, but something that trips us up and hinders our spiritual progress.
We all stumble over order: James included himself among those who stumble. Yet he did not excuse his or our stumbling. We know that we all stumble, but we should all press on to a better walk with the Lord, marked by less stumbling.
Every kind of beast and bird… has been tamed by mankind: A wild animal can be more easily tamed than the tongue. In fact, James tells us that no man can tame the tongue.
These things ought not to be so: Our speech should be consistently glorifying to God. We shouldn’t use one vocabulary or one tone of speaking at church and a different one at home or on the job. Like a spring of water, our mouths shouldn’t send forth fresh… and bitter from the same opening.
“This outburst of James suggests that he had suffered from the strife of tongues in the religious world… it reads like a transcript of bitter experience.” (Moffatt)
I wish I could take back a lot of stuff I've said over the years. It's those things that just come tumbling out of my mouth that I would take back. My mouth works overtime. You think I'm long winded.... but if I didn't have to type... I would be even mouthier! We spend a lot of time in church listening... or we should be. We should be listening to learn. We should be listening to what people need. We should be listening for new Biblical instruction. We should be listening in order to stop erroneous or bald face wrong preaching. We should be checking what we hear to make sure it lines up with what Jesus taught. We should be checking against the Bible. We should fact check... not from what the preacher or teacher says... We should be checking it in our own Bibles.
Once we hear hate or lies in the church.... We should leave. Jesus warned that there would be fakes sprinkled in the membership of the church. Jesus warned us against the "yeast" sprinkled in the flour. Once an idea pops up.... be it good or bad... It will spread like wildfire. Think back to COVID... Was closing the church right or wrong? Think back to COVID... was wearing a mask in church right or wrong? It was a controversy. People got downright hateful over both! A few people decided to close churches.... not everyone... but a few. People got downright hateful over the mask... a woman was shot for wearing a mask in Walmart. Could that be the reason for the shootings in the churches?
The time spent cleaning up hateful and deceitful speech could have been better spent adoring our God.
A lot of energy is spent identifying and removing hate and lies from the mouths of the membership of the church. That energy could have been spent much better, feeding those who could not work because of COVID. That energy could have been spent much better. No doubt it split a few churches.... you know, like vax and anti-vax started so many verbal assaults.
Teachers... leaders... elders... deacons.... preachers and priests.... should not just quote what was quoted to them.
Insults and lies sound horrible when spoken by Christians.
Think before you speak!
