Tape Your Face

September 3, 2017 Speaker: Tara Detiveaux Series: A Faith That Works

Topic: taming the tongue Scripture: James 3:1– :13

James…A Faith that Works

Tape Your Face 

James 3:1-12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlaWGd1cUms&t=83s (13:46-17:06)

My family is consumed with America Has Talent.  It is the show we watch together as a family and one of the first that my kids watched first coming to America.  Though normally someone with talent makes it to the end, it’s so interesting that this guy named “Tape Face” made it to the finals though he never spoke a word.  And James sort of encourages the same things as we should “Tape our Face.”

Taming the Tongue

3 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 (get tripped up and people see it bigger when you are on the teaching stage and it bring dishonor to God) 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.

We put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us: A strong horse can be controlled by a small bit in its mouth. A large ship can be turned by a small rudder. Even so, if we have control over our tongue, it is an indication that we have control over our self. Whoever can control the tongue can bridle the whole body (James 3:2).

The bit and the rudder are small, but extremely important. If they are not controlled, the entire horse is out of control, and the entire ship is out of control. Something as small as the tongue can have tremendous power, for either good or evil.

You don't solve the problem of an unruly horse by keeping it in the barn, or the problem of a hard-to-steer ship by keeping it tied to the dock. In the same way, even a vow of silence is not the ultimate answer for the misuse of our tongue.

In the use, you don’t it to become abuse. 

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,[a] and set on fire by hell.[b]

The fire of the tongue has been used to burn many. Children are told sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. But that child's rhyme isn't really true. The bitter pain of a word spoken against us can hurt us for a lifetime, long after a broken bone has healed.

What others say to us and what we say to others can last a long time, for good or for evil.

The casual sarcastic or critical remark can inflict a lasting injury on another person. The well-timed encouragement or compliment can inspire someone for the rest of their life. Proverbs speaks of the person who doesn't consider the destructive power of his words.

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. (Proverbs 16:24)

 

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21)

 

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, (and I get discouraged)

full of deadly poison. (and my heart is broken because I know it to be true, and because of James being who he is and calling us out for a faith that doesn’t have works he goes further…)

 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers,[c] these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men: The tongue can be used for the highest calling (to bless our God) and it can be used for the lowest evil (to curse men). But in those who are born again, it shouldn't be said that out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.

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. Thus, no spring yields both salt water and fresh:

James points to the ultimate impossibility of such a contradiction.

If bad fruit and bitter water continue to come forth, it means that there is no contradiction. The tree is bad and the spring is bad. So, what do we do?  Make an Exchange today. 

Tape Your Face…

Learn to Speak Grace!!

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