Possible and Impossible for Believers
Spiritual Maturity • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsThis message will see James introduce new illustrations from nature to demonstrate how stable the tongue of the believer should be.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
James has used numerous illustrations throughout this discussion of the tongue.
Animals: horses, beasts, birds, snakes, and sea creatures.
Boats.
Fire/Forest fire.
He has illustrated the following at a minimum:
Controlling big with small (horses-bits, ships-rudders).
Humans can tame animals of all types but are powerless to control tame the tongue.
The small tongue can bring large scale destruction.
Proverbs and the Tongue
Proverbs 10:20 “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth.”
Proverbs 13:3 “Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.”
Proverbs 12:18 “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
Proverbs 15:2 “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.”
Proverbs 15:4 “A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.”
He then describes it as:
an unstable evil
full of death carrying poison
True believers are not to be unstable.
We are to be consistent and constant.
This even applies to speech.
Human Capacity for Contradiction
Human Capacity for Contradiction
James demonstrates the instability of the tongue.
We use it to bless the Lord and the Father. This means to extol his virtues, much like a teacher of his Word might do as he explains the scriptural accounts of God’s acts. (Ps. 31:21).
We also use it to curse humans who have come to be in the likeness of God.
Curse = to cause injury or harm by means of a statement regarded as having some supernatural power, often because a deity or supernatural force has been evoked—‘to curse, curse.
He then offers editorial judgment, or a theological explanation based on the contradiction.
Brothers should not live out this contradiction.
The development of the text at this point gives us two possibilities:
James wishes to point out that it is only the human tongue that is capable of diametrically opposite actions. He heightens the current illustration/point with this new series of comparisons.
James wishes to make the point that it is completely inconsistent with nature and with the wisdom of God to produce such binary opposites in God’s people. Thus, the mature individual will show himself thus, indeed, he will “show his faith” by using his tongue appropriately to praise God and his fellow human beings.
Mitigating against this last thought would be the inserted editorial by James that “it is not necessary for these things to be thus.” It not only should not be this way, it does not have to be this way. Nature would also teach us the same.
More Lessons from Nature
More Lessons from Nature
What humans do in the above mentioned contradictions contravenes nature.
A spring does not produce sweet and bitter waters from the same crack.
Figs do not produce olives.
Grapes do not produce figs.
Sweet water does not produce salty.
James 4:11.
Colossians (Let your speech be always seasoned with salt).
Introduction: Part 2
Introduction: Part 2
When we began this study, I wanted to do a review of James and parts of 2 Timothy and 2 Peter because it has been so long since we studied through those letters.
They share a common theme, one that for many years went neglected among many believers.
We sometimes wonder: what am I supposed to do.
God’s people should not live in angst over how to please him.
It is also important to have a clear sense of what the Bible teaches so we don’t lose heart or our sense of identity as the world becomes more chaotic and unstable.
God’s people should be stable because our identity and way of life does not depend on worldly conditions.
James 1:16–18 “Μὴ πλανᾶσθε, ἀδελφοί μου ἀγαπητοί. πᾶσα δόσις ἀγαθὴ καὶ πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθέν ἐστιν καταβαῖνον ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων, παρʼ ᾧ οὐκ ἔνι παραλλαγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα. βουληθεὶς ἀπεκύησεν ἡμᾶς λόγῳ ἀληθείας εἰς τὸ εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἀπαρχήν τινα τῶν αὐτοῦ κτισμάτων.”
Impartiality
Controlled tongues.
Clarity that tribulations lead to spiritual maturity. Natural behavior in the midst of temptations to sin do not come from God.
The congregation to whom James wrote serves as an alarm to any true church. It was a church filled with behavioral problems, but the real concern for James, and for us, was that those practical problems were symptoms of deceptions about who the God of creation and salvation is. We might not wish to consider that even God’s people can be so confused in their thinking that we can attribute our worldliness to God.
Another question that we may ask, as well, is what does an “encounter” with God look like. What is the visible effect on our lives that we have salvation provided by the Father through his word? So many of our standard answers find little currency in scripture. Do you want God to change you? Do we want God to change us? God’s salvation doesn’t leave little trace of its reality. Instead, it transforms and empowers our ability to live obedient lifestyles that have more in common with God’s nature than with the world.
Consider James 3:16 - Isn’t it interesting how we use jealousy and selfish ambition to justify greater acts of sin? Cain vs. Abel - rivalry and jealousy. Joseph and his brothers, rivalry and jealousy.
88.63 ἐπιεικής, ές: pertaining to being gracious and forbearing—‘gentle, gracious, forbearing.’ μηδένα βλασφημεῖν, ἀμάχους εἶναι, ἐπιεικεῖς ‘not to speak evil of anyone, nor to be quarrelsome, but to be forbearing’ Tt 3:211 Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 748). United Bible Societies.