The Book of James - 1
Controlling the Tongue
Do you ever write any letters? How do you do them? Many people today send letters and messages by the Internet, or even by phone in text messages. In the days when the Bible was written they had to write on a material made from the centre of the papyrus plant, laid in strips and glued together and for a pen they had to use a stick or reed sharpened at the end. Their ink was often made from soot. These reed pages were rolled up into a scroll so that they could be carried about. There are fourteen letters originally written like this in the New Testament, written mainly by the apostle Paul. Most of them were written to particular churches throughout what we know today as Greece and Turkey. One or two are not to any one church but are general letters to Christians.
The letter of James we are going to study in these talks is one of these general letters. It was written by James, the Lord's brother who, after Jesus' resurrection became the leader of the church in Jerusalem where Jesus had been put to death. All the letters of the New Testament were written to help Christians to become strong believers, not upset by troubles and difficulties, not even put off from following Jesus because of persecution or physical attacks from their enemies.
Although James and the other early leaders of the church in Jerusalem were Jews, they were Jews who had come to trust in Jesus as their saviour and Lord. The word "saviour" which they gave to Jesus means one who rescues from death and disaster They gave him this name Saviour because Jesus, by his death on the Cross, can forgive all who come to him and to bring them back to God his Father.
They also called Jesus Lord because he is both God and Man and the one Christians are to obey; he is their Master. These first Jewish Christians wanted all non-Jews to become followers of Jesus, to obey his teaching and be welcomed into the churches.
James's letter is a very practical one. He is very concerned that his readers, and you who are listening to this programme, should not be foolish, ignorant or selfish. His letter is meant for Christian believers. He does not tell his readers how to become Christians, but he does tell us that it is God's word coming into our hearts that gives us new birth. (Chapter 1 verse 18) He is concerned here about a Christian's behaviour.
James calls himself "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ". (Chapter 1 verse 1) A Christian, therefore, is someone who has come to bow the knee before Christ as his Lord and know him as his saviour from sin. The name Jesus means the God who saves.
In this letter he says to us, in effect, "If you are a follower of Jesus, then this is how you should live." At times James seems to be a very strict teacher, but this is because he knows that living a careless, selfish life does not honour God who is completely holy and good and true. At the end of each talk I will close with three short thoughts that have come from James' letter, a sort of summary of each session. If you have something to write with, perhaps you could note them down to help you to remember what we have discovered.
So, first of all, let us hear what James has to say about how we should use our tongues:
"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless". (Chapter 1 verse 26) By speaking about keeping a tight rein on your tongue he is thinking about a person who rides a horse, but is not in control of the horse, he lets it go where it wants instead of checking it, by the reins, to go where the rider wants to go.
So, says James, control your tongue, your words, not to say things that are wrong. Once we have said something cruel, or unkind, or untrue, or selfish, it cannot be unsaid, it has run away with us, we cannot go back in time and not say it.
Yet if we do wrong in this way, there is hope for us, for if we are Christians, God is our Father who gave us our birth into his kingdom. Listen to James: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of all he created". (Chapter 1 verses 17 and 18) And one of the good and perfect gifts the Father gives to us is forgiveness when we do wrong. Have you said something evil and wrong in the past? Confess it to God and ask for his forgiveness.
Then what about the future? How can you control your tongue? Here is James's advice:
"Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry". (Chapter 1 verse 19)
Quick to listen. Listen to what is being said to you so that you can understand properly the other person's thoughts. Often we say things in reply to others before we have really understood what they have said to us and this can cause lots of confusion.
Slow to speak. Before you say things, think carefully about what you say. Words can bless people or cause them pain. This does not mean that you will never have to say things that other people don't like, but that you will have thought carefully about it first.
Slow to become angry. Keep anger out of your heart. Usually when a person speaks angrily he has lost the plot as we say, he is getting himself out of control. James is not saying that anger is always wrong; for example, if the poor are being oppressed, if injustices are happening in our society, we should speak out against them as James himself does here in his own letter, but, in most situations, our anger is not helpful and can do a lot of harm. (Chapter 5 verses 1 to 6)
So, in summary, here are the three short thoughts from James to end this session, taken from chapter 1 verse 19:
- Everyone should be quick to listen,
- Slow to speak, and
- Slow to become angry