Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

The president of Swarthmore College organized a huge celebration to honor a widely known scientist that you may have heard of: Albert Einstein. The president made sure that everything was perfect, down to the smallest detail. Best of all, he had arranged for Einstein himself to deliver the keynote address.

Finally the evening arrived. Things were progressing beautifully. The dinner was delicious. All the important guests and dignitaries were enjoying themselves immensely, and now the time had come for Einstein’s speech. He arose from his chair, walked to the podium, and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I am very sorry but I have nothing to say.”

And with that, he returned to his seat. He sensed the tension in the room, so he walked back to the podium and said, “In case I do have something to say, I’ll come back.”

Six months passed, and then one day the college president received a wire from Einstein. The message said, “Now I have something to say.” The president organized another dinner and Einstein made his speech.

As unorthodox as it was, you’ve got to give Einstein credit because he was able to do something that a lot of us can’t seem to master. He had nothing to say, so he said nothing. He was able to control his tongue.

This is message #3 in our Everyday Faith series where we’re working through the book of James in the New Testament. James just has a knack of hitting on issues that we face everyday in our lives. He’s calling us to develop a faith that goes beyond Sunday morning and extends into our everyday life. And in the third installment in this series, James really gets into our kitchen. Today we’re in James 3. We’re talking about Killer Words.

This is a long passage, but you really have to read it in its entirety to get everything that James is saying. Let’s pick it up in James 3:2. “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.

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. 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. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.

Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” (James 3:2-12, NIV)

What I want to do is just pull out three different principles from James was written for us. If we can take ownership of these four guiding principles in our lives, it will help us all make some essential changes in our speech and in our lives.

The first principle we can pull from this passage is that little words are a big deal. James gives three different illustrations of something that seems little, but in fact does something big. With a small bit, we can turn a big horse. With a small rudder, we can maneuver a big ship. With a small spark, we can start a big forest fire. What seems small and insignificant can have far-reaching consequences. Same deal with our words. Little words are a big deal.

There are times when we make a big deal about our words. When you have a big speech to give, you measure your words carefully. You pour over them, you dig out the dictionary and the thesaurus. You try to use just the right words at just the right time. After all, these words you speak are a big deal.

Word can be a big deal when you’re picking out a card for someone. Especially for you ladies. You’ll spend an hour in the card aisle, reading everything that Hallmark has ever written. You’re searching for just the right words to express your feelings to someone else. Guys usually don’t have the luxury of being that choosy because we wait until the last minute to buy a card. For example, I stopped at a drugstore on Mother’s Day to buy my Mother’s Day cards. Earlier this year, I stopped at a store on Valentine’s Day to buy my wife’s Valentine’s Day card. It really hasn’t been a good card year for me so far. But even I know that the words on the card are important.

But remember that the name of this series is Everyday Faith. The problem is that we measure our words carefully on special occasions, but it’s different in day-to-day life. In everyday conversation, we get careless. We don’t really think about our words. We just talk. After all, words are invisible. They come out of your mouth and they’re gone. You say it and then you forget it. What we say just seems pretty insignificant most of the time.

But through this passage in James, God reminds us that little words are a big deal. The damaging words we speak don’t usually come in a presentation at work, a speech at school, or a card for Mom. They come out in everyday chit chat. They come out when we get comfortable and careless. Little words are a big deal.

The reason they’re a big deal is because this is a spiritual issue. Everything you say has spiritual significance. In verse 6, James writes, “The tongue…is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:6, NIV)

The tongue is a fire, and the source of that fire comes from hell itself. Hell is a spiritual realm, so that makes this a spiritual issue. We don’t usually see our words as spiritually significant. But James confronts us with the truth, and the truth is that every single time you open your mouth, it is a spiritual act. Every word you speak is a spiritual one. And just like a bit can turn a horse, your words have the power to direct your destiny. Just like a rudder can steer a ship, your words set the course for your life and for your eternity. Every time you speak, you’re making a choice. You are turning your life in a spiritual direction.

But most of us do so much turning that we need a daily dose of Dramamine. With our words, we turn our life in one direction, and then we almost immediately do a 180 and head in the other direction. Our mouths turn us into a walking, talking contradiction.

But the next principle that James points out to us is that God honors consistency, not contradiction.

Starting in verse 9, James writes, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” (James 3:9-12, NIV)

God’s creation is consistent. Fresh water and salt water don’t originate from the same spring. Plants produce only after their kind. There is a consistency throughout creation because God who created it is consistent.

The only inconsistent thing in God’s creation is us. We use our tongue to worship God, but then we don’t give it a second thought when we use that very same tongue to condemn someone else. This kind of contradiction is unthinkable to James. And it should be unthinkable to us.

Think about how crazy this is. We come here and we praise God. We sing our hearts out in worship. But then later on in the day, we start thinking about something in the church that we don’t like. Someone has done something to upset us. Jesus teaches that, when this kind of problem comes up, we’re supposed to go straight to that person to resolve the issue. But that’s too awkward. It’s a lot easier to talk about someone behind their back. So we deal with the problem by lighting the phone lines on fire. We call someone else to complain about this person. The person we called then calls someone else, who then calls someone else. Our little words are a big deal because they have set the wheels of criticism and gossip in motion. And then next Sunday rolls around and we show up here with smiling faces ready to worship God again.

James points out that we use the very same tongue to praise God and to curse another person. Gary Holloway points out that, “This is equivalent to both praising and cursing God, since humans bear God’s image or likeness.”

In Revelation 3, Jesus speaks to the church in Laodicea. To that church, Jesus says, “I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth!” (Revelation 3:15-16, GNB)

God doesn’t deal with fenceriders. He would rather us be hot or cold. He rejects lukewarm. When we use our words to worship him and criticize and tear down someone else, God tells us, “You need to choose.” He would rather us just stop worshipping him instead of trying to have it both ways. The inconsistency of our words separates us from God. Our tongue is killing us spiritually. And to make matters worse, there’s nothing you and I can do about it ourselves.

James reminds us, “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” (James 3:7-8, NIV)

I’m sure you remember a couple of years ago when Roy Horn of the famous duo Siegfried and Roy was attacked by one of the white tigers they used in the magic show. Everyone was amazed because these were some of the most well-trained animals on the planet. These tigers were trained to do amazing things. They performed thousands of shows without incident, so who would have ever dreamed that one of these tigers would maul and nearly kill one of its expert handlers? We can tame wild animals with great success, but not with 100% success. But James says that the wild animal trainer is still safer than anyone who has a tongue. No one has been able to tame that beast. No man came tame the tongue. No woman came tame the tongue. There’s nothing we can do about it ourselves.

How’re you feeling right now? Pretty rotten? I call the book of James the gospel of the sledgehammer. He doesn’t skirt the issues and he doesn’t sugarcoat anything.

So why even talk about this if James sees the situation as hopeless? That’s just it. He doesn’t. He doesn’t see it as hopeless. In fact, he’s already given us the answer. We just read it a second ago. All we need to do is change the emphasis in the sentence.

“No man can tame the tongue” sounds hopeless. But read it a little differently: “No man can tame the tongue.” There’s our answer. The last principle that we can pull from this passage in James is that, “I can’t do it alone.”

Remember one of James’ examples of the inconsistency of our words? He said, “No spring of water pours out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening.” (James 3:11, GNB)

When he said this, the original people James wrote to would have immediately remembered an Old Testament story. We can read the story in Exodus 15.

“Moses led Israel from the Red Sea on to the Wilderness of Shur. They traveled for three days through the wilderness without finding any water. They got to Marah, but they couldn't drink the water at Marah; it was bitter. That's why they called the place Marah (Bitter).

And the people complained to Moses, "So what are we supposed to drink?" So Moses cried out in prayer to GOD. GOD pointed him to a stick of wood. Moses threw it into the water and the water turned sweet.” (Exodus 15:22-25, The Message)

At Marah, it took a miracle of God to turn bitter water into sweet water. James tells us that it takes that same power of God to make our speech consistent.

If you walk out of here determined to change the way you talk and you rely on your own power to do it, you will fail. We all need to realize that no person has ever tamed the tongue, and we won’t be the first. Our words are so inconsistent, they are so deceptive and spiritually damaging, that it takes supernatural power to transform them.

The question, then, is how do we allow God’s power to change our words? Once again, James has already given us the answer. Remember his illustrations about the horse and the ship? We put bits in the mouths of horses. Ships are directed by a small rudder. The issue is control. The bit in the horse’s mouth puts the rider in control. With that small bit, you can turn the horse in any direction, or you can stop the horse altogether. The rudder on a ship puts the pilot in control. He can keep the ship on course so it arrives safely at its destination.

However, both require expertise and experience. An inexperienced rider can confuse the horse and put the rider in danger. A rookie captain endangers the entire crew because one small mistake with the rudder can sink the ship.

It’s all a question of who is in control. When we think we are strong enough and wise enough to control things ourselves, we’re inviting disaster. That’s why James isn’t prescribing some self-help philosophy. We live in a fallen world and we’ve allowed ourselves to get so mixed up in sin that we can’t help ourselves.

What’s at stake here isn’t just watching our words, but it’s living a life that is controlled by God.

A life that is controlled by God will see others as God sees them: people created in His image. When you see a person through God’s eyes, it will slow your criticism because you’ll realize that when you are critical and judgmental of another person, you are ultimately criticizing and judging God.

A life that is controlled by God places God’s desires above our own. It may feel good to us to tear someone down. After all, isn’t that why we do it? When we put someone down, it builds us up. But a God-controlled life finds value in Him. A life controlled by God allows Him to lift us up. It means that we put his will above our own.

A life that is controlled by God will commit everything to Him in prayer. It is impossible for us to conquer our own tongues. A life that is controlled by God asks Him to be the conqueror. James himself tells us in chapter 5, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16b, NIV) There is power in prayer. Life-effecting, life-changing power.

Finally, a life that is controlled by God will seek to please him even after we fail. Our sinful nature means that we’ll never achieve perfection, and that includes our words. We will still fall short of God’s standard. When that happens, a life that is controlled by God will come to God with repentance. It means that we will seek to restore the relationships that we have damaged. Our relationship with God and our relationship with the people that we hurt. A God-controlled life means that we have the ability and see the necessity of saying, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I said that. I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I talked about you instead of coming to you. I’m sorry.”

I want to take a minute as we close and give us all a chance for a little personal reflection. There is not a person in this room who is not guilty of misusing their words. Let’s all bow our heads and open our hearts. Take a minute to allow God to work in you. Let him chip away at your heart. Spend a minute allowing him to search you inside and out. Is there someone that you’ve hurt? Someone you’ve criticized and condemned, to their face or behind their back? Is there a relationship you need to restore? We’ve all got some business to do with our Heavenly Father, so let’s take a minute and do it now.

PAUSE FOR SILENT PRAYER

There may be nothing that demonstrates our imperfection more than our own tongue. Our words remind us that we live terribly inconsistent lives. They remind us that we are powerless to help ourselves. They remind us of our great need of God’s grace and forgiveness. They remind us why the cross was necessary. Jesus died to forgive us for our sinful, stupid choices. He died so that we could have a second chance at life. He died so that we could have the promise of a life of perfection for all eternity in the presence of God. If you’ve never accepted that free gift of God, we invite you to accept it this morning.

Mike Edmisten