Wisdom & The Tongue

James warns about the considerable and potentially destructive power of human speech. He points out that wisdom from above or below will directly affect our speech. James’ concern seems to be the violent quarrels that were shaking the community. He highlights that teachers especially should not use the tongue in a destructive way and that true wisdom is humble and peaceable.

Tongue Control Reveals A Transformed Heart

The tongue is you in a unique way. It is a tattletale that tells on the heart and discloses the real person. The misuse of the tongue is perhaps the easiest way to sin. The tongue has no built in restraints or boundaries.
James personifies the tongue and mouth as representatives of the depravity & wretchedness of the inner person. The tongue only produces what it is told to produce by the heart, where sin originates. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. Matthew 15:19

Teachers, Be Careful with the Tongue

James 3:1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 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.

James introduces the issue by warning people who want to be teachers about the peculiar difficulty of controlling the tongue. Teachers were prominent in the life of the early church from the beginning. It is possible too many were seeking the status of teacher without the necessary moral qualifications. Perhaps unfit teachers were a major cause of the bitter partisan spirit, quarreling, and unkind, critical speech that seemed to characterize the community.

Teachers, because they bear so much responsibility for the spiritual welfare of those to whom they minister, will be scrutinized by the Lord more carefully than others.

The Tongue is Difficult to Control

James 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

When the tongue is not restrained, small though it is, the rest of the body is likely to be uncontrolled also.
Very small things can direct very large things. We are given the imagery of the small rudder that steers
a huge ship, and a small bit in the horse’s mouth. Each are small objects, yet they control the larger mass.

The imagery of the spark and the forest fire in the last part of the passage is powerful as well. It reflects how something small can possess power all out of proportion to its size; it also has the potential to bring disaster— like the spark in a dry forest.

The Double Use of the Tongue

Can one use the same tongue both to praise our Lord and Father and to curse men? The inconsistency of the tongue is a clear indication of the restless evil that is in you.

Christians who have been transformed by the Spirit of God should manifest the wholeness and purity of the heart in consistency and purity of speech.

James Illustrates the Absurdity of a Double Tongue

How absurd it would be for one thing to produce something of a completely different kind. Can one plant produce two different fruits? Can a salt spring produce fresh water? Bad things don’t produce good things.

And so a person who is not right with God and walking daily in His presence cannot consistently speak pure and helpful words. One who is double and inconsistent with regard to the things of God in his heart
will be double and inconsistent in his speech.

True Wisdom Brings Peace

James 3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

James is especially concerned about the unrighteous and misguided zeal or envy that people characterized
by “earthly” wisdom are displaying that is leading to bitter arguments in the community.

James calls on his readers to demonstrate the reality of their wisdom in humility and goodness. The right kind of wisdom is above all “peace loving” the first specific fruit of wisdom.

James assesses the people’s claim to wisdom in practical terms: Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. Good conduct, James insists, is the basis on which one can demonstrate wisdom.

True wisdom produces good works and true wisdom produces humility. If a person harbors bitter envy and selfish ambition in the heart, that person is, in effect, living a lie: claiming to be wise but conducting himself in a way that denies that claim.

James quite clearly continues to operate with the biblical understanding of wisdom as a basic, God-given orientation that has profound practical effects on the way a person lives. Let’s pray for and commit to godly wisdom, in action & speech.