James 3:17 – “Floored”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

¹⁷But the from above wisdom is first pure, then peaceable, reasonable, agreeable, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, [and] without pretense.

I’ve just started studying this verse and here I sit just floored. The Lord is so good. I’m so rotten and screwed up inside. I come to Him wanting to know Him and it’s so overwhelming … just to see His face makes me better. Here I am, this conflicted person who naturally thinks he has “wisdom” and yet inside I’m full of bitter passions. I’m just plain messed up. But I find in Him everything I should be, everything my heart truly wants to be.

I’m just floored. So many people think God is this mean, distant God who sits in Heaven and throws thunderbolts at everyone who doesn’t toe the line, but they are so, so, so wrong. They think if they get close to Him, He will make them harsh, judgmental, unreasonable, unapproachable people. But that is all so, so, so wrong. He is Jesus. He is love. His heart is full of love. If only we can see His face, we’re “drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes.”

Just look at this list – His wisdom is first of all pure – as opposed to the conflicted person in verses 14-17 (me) who tries to be “wise” on the outside but is rotten on the inside. God makes us real. He teaches me to know my own heart, how to be quiet inside, so I am really who I should be, from the inside out. The word “pure” means to be “free from admixture, the real thing.” That’s what the Lord makes me. Then, so far from harsh and judgmental, He makes me peaceable, reasonable, agreeable …” He makes me the very person I should be. Just to be near Him, to know Him, to look in His face, to hear His voice, to listen to what He thinks and what He wants me to be – it all makes me better. It makes me whole.

He fixes me!

I look back and think how much even as a young person, I wanted to love, to live a good life, to have good relationships, to “amount to something,” but I so utterly failed. I was clueless. I remember the awful feeling of wanting to have good relationships and yet knowing I had absolutely no idea how to make it happen. And of course everything I thought should “work” blew up in my face.  I remember the awful feeling of realizing I could not control my mouth. Confusion. Clueless and endlessly screwing up everything. It was so awesome when the Lord first opened my eyes and I knew He would be a part of the rest of my life. I finally had hope things would be different.

But He did something completely different than what I imagined. He didn’t “fix” me all at once. Oh, He helped me a lot, right off the bat. Immediately there was way more peace in my heart. Right away, even if I was clueless, I knew He had the answers and that gave me hope. He helped me to stop being such an idiot in so many ways. And yet now, looking back, I see how much of an arrogant idiot I’ve still been these last thirty years. I still had so much to learn.

But I have gotten up most mornings to study His Word and spent the last minutes every night reading that Word, and bit by bit by bit, He has chipped away at my idiocy. It took probably 25 years, but He finally helped me to see it’s all about love. He drug me through fire and pain and helped me to see so much of the rottenness inside myself. And, at the same time, He let me see Him and His beautiful face, His beautiful heart, and “beholding His image” I’m “changed into that image.” He makes me like Him. He makes me better. Just walking with Him makes me who I should be, who I want to be. He more and more and more gives me a quiet heart. He rescues me from  me.

Hallelujah. What a Savior!

I just look at this list of qualities in v17 and I’m so floored. This is exactly who I want to be. It’s what my heart longs for, has always longed for. I think it is who we all want to be. But it’s not who I am. I didn’t know how to make it happen. But it’s what my wonderful Lord desires for me and He knows how to make it happen. Wow. He makes me so much better than I am. “Oh, to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer!” “Adam’s image now efface. Stamp Thine image in its place!”

I’m just floored. I came to Him all those years ago wanting Him to “fix” me. “And He answered by setting me free!” “Immeasurably more than I could ask or think.” “Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!”

I’m still absolutely rotten and I know it. But “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” He makes me better. He gives me hope. He makes the world make sense. Oh to know Him better, to stay closer to His heart, to give Him all of me.

“Love Divine, all loves excelling.”

James 3:13-16 – “Way Down Deep”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³Who [is] wise and understanding among you? Let him display his works out of the good lifestyle in humility of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter passion and factiousness in your heart, do not boast over or lie against the truth. ¹⁵Such wisdom is not coming down from above but [it is] earthly, animal, demonic, ¹⁶for, where [there is] passion and factiousness, there [is] disorder and every foul practice.

As I’ve noted earlier, James started this chapter with his admonition that not many should “presume to be teachers.” As he went on discoursing on “the tongue” and as he arrives at the passage before me today, I don’t think he’s ever lost sight of this application to the whole business of teaching. In my last post, I particularly emphasized the “teaching” application.

But, all of that said, I don’t think James’ thoughts are confined to church teaching. His words apply directly to all of us as we live our everyday lives. I believe he is back to helping us examine our hearts. He’s giving us some valuable tools to discern and suppress our evil pride. Here is how I’m seeing his teaching: As I’m living my life, thinking, talking to people, dealing with issues or whatever, I basically always think I’ve pretty well got it “figured out.” It’s only natural to think we’re “right.” But that is obviously a place for our evil pride to hide. What we need to be monitoring is not whether we’re quite sure we’re right but, instead, what is happening in our heart.

He says, “If you have bitter passion and factiousness (selfish ambition) in your heart …” Now, who would know whether in fact there is “bitter passion” in my heart? Who’s supposed to know it? I am. He’s calling me to some very honest self-evaluation. Here I am dealing with life, quite sure I’m right, but God calls me to be deeply honest about what is going on in my heart. He is saying that, if I would be honest, and if I would admit that there are bitter passions and factiousness in my heart, then the next thing I need to do is admit that my “right” (though it may truly be right) is at this very time being fueled by hell, not heaven!

To refuse to do so is “lying against the truth.” It will not produce whatever “good” I have in mind but rather “disorder and every foul practice.”

This is all so deeply profound. When I think I’m “right,” the last thing in the world I could imagine is that at that very time, my “wisdom” is coming from hell and will actually do far more damage than the good I am envisioning. Once again, the sin of pride is hiding itself behind my sense that I’m “right.” And again, the only answer is for me to look past my “right” and take an honest evaluation of my heart.

I have been trying the last week or two to be aware of this. It is surprising to find it nearly a constant problem. I really need the Lord to help me. I find that my heart is often harboring bitter, angry, irritated, or otherwise negative feelings even as I speak. Sometimes, just realizing that helps me to change it on the spot and let the Lord help me to love instead. But sometimes it seems almost impossible to get the ugliness out of my heart. But I would say at least I’m seeing where the battle is. Hopefully, as I see it and as I’m asking the Lord to help me (even if it doesn’t seem to be helping), somehow the power of hell is being restrained. And hopefully, “by reason of use” I can “exercise myself to godliness” and at least improve.

God help me. I’ve never seen the issues this simply before. Obviously I’ve done my share of letting hell’s wisdom do its damage. The Lord alone can deliver us all. He not only needs to help me from here on but also He will have to “give beauty for my ashes” and “restore the years the locusts have eaten.” On the one hand I can deeply regret the swath of pride and evil I have drug through life, but, on the other hand, I can lift up my eyes to the One of whom it was said, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” What is amazing is that He knows all about it – He can handle it – He knows when He saves us that, though we try, our lives will be colossal failures. He can handle what we are even while He’s making us what He wants us to be. “Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name, who forgives all your sins and redeems your life from the pit!”

He’s the best Coach there ever was.

What’s exciting is that He will go on in the next few verses to help us understand what true wisdom looks like. I’m looking forward to that study!

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

James 3:13-16 – “Unheeded Warnings”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³Who [is] wise and understanding among you? Let him display his works out of the good lifestyle in humility of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter passion and factiousness in your heart, do not boast over or lie against the truth. ¹⁵Such wisdom is not coming down from above but [it is] earthly, animal, demonic, ¹⁶for, where [there is] passion and factiousness, there [is] disorder and every foul practice.

An interesting thing happened while I was studying this passage. I came to a point where I wanted to say, “Wow. This is really negative. After the whole tongue thing, I’m tired of thinking about the negative. I wish I could just move on.” However, as I pondered it all, I was reminded that the Lord is never wrong – if He wants to focus on some negatives, then I need to just sit still and “take my medicine.” Even if it’s negative and even if it feels like it’s been negative too long, it must be truth I need to hear. So that’s what I’ve tried to do – just listen and take my medicine.

Of course, the result has been that again I feel like I hear the Lord telling me things I’ve completely missed every time I’ve ever read or studied or taught or just pondered the book of James. Earlier in this same chapter, He really floored me with the reality that my mouth is “an unruly evil, full of deadly poison, and set on fire by hell!” Set on fire by hell??? Yikes! I know I’ve never really taken that truth seriously. I’ve never before lived in holy fear of my own mouth.

What He helps us see in vv13-16 is that we need just as much to fear what we think is our “wisdom.” “Who is wise and understanding among you?” he asks. “Who thinks they have something to teach, something to ‘tell’ others?” James’ prescription is, “Then focus your energies on actually living that truth – all the while realizing that your ‘wisdom’ is a very dangerous thing!”

What does he mean? Think about what he’s saying: “But if you harbor bitter passion and factiousness (or selfish ambition) in your heart, don’t boast over and lie against the truth.” If you think you have some “wisdom” or some knowledge of truth but it generates inside of you bitter energies, you have reason to fear that “wisdom.” God is love, so, if the “truth” I think I know generates inside of me hateful passions instead of love, something is seriously wrong.

He’s saying, as I would talk and as I would “teach” or explain what I think is truth, I have need to be very alert to what’s going on in my heart. The symptom to beware of is these bitter energies. If I would admit they’re there, then I have need to pause further.

He says, if they’re there, then don’t be “boasting over or lying against the truth.” Boasting? Lying? My first response is to say, “I don’t think I am.” Wrong answer! That is exactly what I’m doing. The truth is, according to James, such “wisdom” is straight out of hell! If in my heart there are bitter energies going on, the Lord Himself warns me here in James 3:15, “Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven …” Here I am, thinking I have something to say for God, thinking I’m being “valiant for truth” and He says, “You didn’t get what you’re saying from Me!”

Instead, He says, such “wisdom” – the kind of “wisdom” that generates contentiousness inside of me – is not from heaven but rather is “earthly, animal, demonic.” Demonic??? Yikes! There it is again – “Set on fire by hell!” Here is where I really need to “take my medicine.” It is really ugly but obviously I need to see it: Even as I would “teach” God’s truth, it is possible my “wisdom” is itself set on fire by hell. It is possible its origin is not God but demonic!

Demonic! God help us! You mean a pastor can be preaching Bible from a pulpit, that it really can be Bible, and yet his “wisdom” is coming from hell not heaven? Is that possible? What is James saying? Yes, it is possible. Could I be “sharing the Gospel” with someone, telling them how to be saved, and yet my “wisdom” is coming from hell not heaven? What is James saying? Yes, it is possible. Could I be “explaining” to someone else what I think is the truth, could I actually be quoting Scriptures to them, trying to “help” someone else, “contending earnestly for the once-delivered faith” … could I be all of these things and yet my “wisdom” is coming from the very pits of hell? What is James saying? Yes, it is possible. What’s going on in your heart? “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels …”

If that doesn’t fill our hearts with holy fear, what will???

Makes me want to say again, what I need is not better rules. I need a Savior!

Thank God He puts His very Holy Spirit in us. No wonder. Earthly. Animal. Demonic!

Earthly. It is so easy to say things like, “Well, that’s just natural.” Animal. It’s easy to just go with whatever appeals to me. In both of those cases and in the right setting, you can get us all to admit that is not good. But are we willing to see it’s not just earthly, it’s not just animal – it’s demonic! It’s not just “not good;” it’s straight out of hell!

He reiterates His point with verse 16, “For where you have passion and factiousness (selfish ambition) there you find disorder and every evil practice.” God is not the author of confusion (same word as “disorder”), but of peace. As we’ll see in the following verses, God’s wisdom brings peace. But our “natural” human wisdom and the wisdom that we hold along with bitter passions in our hearts – that wisdom will not produce peace but disorder and exactly the opposite behaviors we might hope for.

Oh, how much I need to let the Holy Spirit control the very emotions simmering within me. He alone can empower me to see the troublesome simmerings as demonic and fear them enough to run for shelter to His heart! God help me to love better, to love very deeply – from my heart, to be aware when the symptoms are there to warn me there’s another “control” going on!

And so I conclude, once again, the only safe place to be is wrapped in His arms! God help us all to stay so close to You, help us to so treasure Your presence, to so know you that we quickly recognize when our hearts are bittered and let you instead fill us with Your love.

I can’t believe how many times I’ve read this passage and never seen all of this. It’s right there in plain English. Falls in the sad category of “unheeded warnings!”

James 3:13 – “Heeded Warnings”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

¹³Who [is] wise and understanding among you? Let him display his works out of the good lifestyle in humility of wisdom.

The general principle stated here is probably patently obvious: If you think you’re wise, prove it by the life you live.

As we would think about this, I’m afraid we could all nod our heads and smile and think we’ve “got it.” On the other hand, I suspect the truth expressed should profoundly affect who we are. Let’s see if I can put on paper what I think I mean.

James started this whole discussion with his admonition that not many of us should presume to be teachers, then headed off on the problem of our tongues and the difficulty of controlling them. Now he says, “Do you think you’re wise? Prove it by your life.” I would suggest the two thoughts are very much related. Especially with “religion” what is typically the first thing we are inclined to do when we learn something new? Is it not to somehow “teach” others? As soon as we think we “know” something, we are quite sure we now possess something others lack and/or need, and so we need to “tell” them. Our “default” position is to “teach” when we think we’ve become in some way “wise and understanding.”

I would suggest what James is saying ought to be a bombshell in our hearts. “Really? You’ve learned something true and important? That’s wonderful. Now live it. Teach it? That can come later. First live it. First make sure it has really changed you.” Our default response to learning ought to be practice, not speaking and teaching. We need to somehow realize learning should not set our mouths in motion! It needs to set our lives in motion!

What I suspect James has confronted is perhaps a very subtle expression of our evil pride. You have wisdom or knowledge? Of course, you should “share” it. But what if way down deep what that “wisdom” has done is made us feel like we’re “better” than everyone else? What if way down deep the real truth is it has made us arrogant? If that is the case, when we “teach” it, how well will we really communicate God’s truth? Even if it really is “truth,” even if it really is “wisdom,” even if it really is God’s truth and truth that could be very helpful to others – what will happen if the real, way down deep reason we want to “teach” it is because we have the sin of pride hiding in our hearts? One way or another that fact, the fact of arrogance in our hearts, will certainly torpedo our determination to “help” others.

I think there is way too much emphasis in American Christianity to run out and “tell” everyone. James is saying that our most immediate focus ought to be living what we think we’ve learned. I would even suggest, based on James’ admonition, we should be reluctant to be “telling” when we really haven’t lived out the teaching ourselves. James says, “Don’t be quick to want to teach. Instead, display the beauty of the truth out of a good lifestyle in the humility that (really) comes from wisdom.”

Interesting he goes on in the next few verses to distinguish real godly wisdom from devilish. We’ll read that God’s wisdom makes people humble and virtuous, while Satan’s “wisdom” makes us angry and quarrelsome. If we are rushing ahead, not heeding warnings like James’, not fearful of our tongues set on fire by hell, and not even considering that our passion to “tell” might just be a very subtle form of evil pride, then should we be surprised if, in one way or another, it ends up leading into contention rather than blessing?

It makes me think back to my own youth. As part of American fundamentalism, I was immediately cast into “teaching” situations. At the time I found it all very exciting. God had blessed me and I wanted to bless others. That is all well and good. But was it? If we had all taken James’ admonitions to heart, if we really believed our tongues are set on fire by hell, if I had realized just how subtle and utterly fatal is the sin of pride, I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to do what James says. I wonder what difference it would have made if someone had set me down and said, “OK, Don. It’s great that you’re excited. It’s great that you are learning amazing things from God’s Word. But, Don, you need to focus for now on actually integrating those truths into your own life. If you rush out to “tell” everyone else, you are in enormous danger of being motivated by pride and arrogance, not real love. The only cure is to humble yourself, live out God’s truth, and when He’s ready for you to “teach” others, He’ll call you to it. For now, humble yourself, keep your mouth shut and your ears open, and wait on the Lord to graduate you to greater responsibilities.” What difference would it have made?

Once again, I don’t know what should have transpired. But I am convinced no one took James 3 seriously. God forgive me. It was there all the time. Unfortunately arrogance blinds us. Pride is the one sin that hides itself in a sinner’s heart. Only the Lord can open our eyes, help us to see it for all its hideous ugliness, and repent of it.

God deliver us all. Make me a living epistle, known and read by everyone. And help me know how to be content with that when I should be.

James 3:3-12 – “Seeing”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³Observe the horses: We place the bridles into their mouths into them obeying us and we turn about their whole body. ⁴Observe also the ships, being so great and driven by fierce winds, and turned about by a very small rudder, wherever the impulse of the pilot purposes. ⁵Thus also, the tongue is a tiny member and boasts great things. Behold! A small fire ignites an entire forest, ⁶and the tongue [is] a fire, the world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, defiling the whole body, igniting the circle of the life, and being ignited by hell.

⁷For every nature of creature, whether birds, reptiles, or sea creatures, is tamed or has been tamed to the nature of humans, ⁸but no one is able to tame the tongue, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless the Lord and Father and with it we curse the men, ones made according to the likeness of God. ¹⁰Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers, these things ought not thus to be. ¹¹A spring never produces the sweet and the bitter out of the same opening. ¹²My brothers, a fig tree is not able to do olives or a grapevine figs, thus neither sweet water to do salt.

Another thing that strikes me about this passage is its predominantly negative posture. There are definitely passages in the Bible to encourage us in the positive uses and effects of the tongue, such as “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life” (Prov 15:4), “The lips of the wise spread knowledge” (15:7), and “… How good is a timely word!” (15:23). However, James here only suggests two possible positive uses, teaching and “blessing” God. Other than that, he seems to be highlighting our mouths at their absolute worst: “… the tongue [is] a fire, the world of unrighteousness… defiling the whole body, igniting the circle of the life, and being ignited by hell… no one is able to tame the tongue, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”

It is “ignited by hell … an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” “Ignited by hell” is certainly a fearful epitaph, and then he describes it as “an unruly evil.” The word translated “unruly” conveys the image of a violent beast which cannot be safely caged or chained. “Full of deadly poison” obviously suggests the image of an evil serpent like a reared up cobra or a huge rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike.

I would think a good question to ask is why? Why in this particular place in the Bible is so much negative about the mouth emphasized? In fact the passage doesn’t go on to say, “Okay, instead of that, here’s how you should talk.” Interestingly, the very next verse (v13) says, “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.” Nothing about words.

Paul admonishes us in Eph 4:29: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” There we’re warned against the negative, then encouraged in the positive. But not here in James.

I wonder why? What in particular is the Lord trying to accomplish through James in this specific passage?

Here’s another intriguing thought: This is, in the Bible, the single largest passage regarding the tongue. If one stops at v12, then it is twelve verses together in one continuous thought allowing us to see our mouths through God’s eyes. The only other major “tongue” emphasis in the Bible would be the book of Proverbs, although there, of course, the “speech” verses are peppered throughout the entire book, mingled with a host of other subjects. There are, in the Bible, certainly many other verses on the mouth, but they are always, like Proverbs, mingled with a host of other thoughts. It occurs to me, if we were to ask the question, “What does God think of our mouths? How does He see our use of speech?”—if we truly believe in the sufficiency of Scripture, the answer would be to ask, “Well, where in the Bible does the Lord most directly address our mouths?” The answer? James 3. This is it. This is that major passage. This is what God sees and what He thinks.

And it is overwhelmingly negative. “Set on fire by hell, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”

Yikes.

Woe is me. I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips.

Seems I’ve heard those words before somewhere.

Oh, yeah. That was the guy who saw the Lord, high and lifted up.

He didn’t say it until he saw the Lord. Then it crushed him.

Could it be that James’ negativity surprises me precisely because I’m not seeing the Lord “high and lifted up,” that I’m not seeing myself, and in particular my mouth, in the light of that Glory?

Yikes.

It is true. I don’t need more rules. I need a Savior! I need a coal from the altar.

Set on fire by hell. An unruly evil. Full of deadly poison. No wonder He says, “Be swift to hear and slow to speak.”

God deliver us. Probably nowhere is legalism’s failure more conspicuous than when it comes to our mouths, if we would only open our eyes to see. Here we are, thinking we need a few “rules of communication” and all will be well when in fact we’re dealing with a fire from hell, a raging beast that cannot be safely caged or chained, something the Lord Himself already told us no man can tame.

It is true. Fig trees don’t bear olives. A spring never produces sweet and bitter water out of the same opening … Except when the spring is my mouth.

I think this passage leaves us exactly where it should, with our hand over our mouth. It doesn’t conclude by offering guidelines for better communication, precisely because that isn’t above all else what we need. God resists the proud; He gives His grace to the humble. This is precisely where we need to end this major passage on the tongue – humbled before God, deeply aware how much we need Jesus, how badly we need to yield our hearts and mouths and lives to the Spirit of God, how utterly helpless (and evil) we are without Him.

I’m going to end this post with this prayer, “Lord, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen my mouth (perhaps myself) so clearly through Your eyes. It is true. My tongue is set on fire by hell. No amount of “rules” will fix it. I can’t tame it. For Isaiah, You took a coal from the altar and touched his mouth and said to him, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ Is there some way today that You take a coal from the altar and touch our lips? If there is, then do it to me. If You already have, if the answer is Your blessed Holy Spirit already living inside of me, then help me yield to Him more control. May He particularly do a miracle in me and change this water into wine, take my tongue from hell and make it a tongue from Heaven.”

Thou, God, seest me.

James 3:3-12 – “Plotting A Course”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³Observe the horses: We place the bridles into their mouths into them obeying us and we turn about their whole body. ⁴Observe also the ships, being so great and driven by fierce winds, and turned about by a very small rudder, wherever the impulse of the pilot purposes. ⁵Thus also, the tongue is a tiny member and boasts great things. Behold! A small fire ignites an entire forest, ⁶and the tongue [is] a fire, the world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, defiling the whole body, igniting the circle of the life, and being ignited by hell.

⁷For every nature of creature, whether birds, reptiles, or sea creatures, is tamed or has been tamed to the nature of humans, ⁸but no one is able to tame the tongue, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless the Lord and Father and with it we curse the men, ones made according to the likeness of God. ¹⁰Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers, these things ought not thus to be. ¹¹A spring never produces the sweet and the bitter out of the same opening. ¹²My brothers, a fig tree is not able to do olives or a grapevine figs, thus neither sweet water to do salt.

I haven’t read too many commentaries yet on this passage, but I wonder if anyone else notices that the passage contains a logical anomaly? I think it takes us in a direction we’re not used to going. It is something I noticed years ago, something I believe has helped me a lot, and perhaps something worth recording, in case one of my grandchildren or great-grandchildren ever stumble across these feeble scratchings.

Logical anomaly. What do I mean? Well, we are all long accustomed to the concept that “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matt 12:34). The concept is that, sooner or later, the mouth will express what is really in the heart. In a sense, the heart is the master and sooner or later the mouth will follow suit. As Jesus went on to say in Matthew 12, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (v35).  The admonition then would be, “Above all else, guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov 4:23). I would suggest it makes perfect sense that, if I want my mouth to speak kindness, then I must first of all make sure there’s kindness in my heart. If I’m harboring bitterness and resentment in my heart, then invariably that is what will come out of my mouth. The heart ultimately controls the tongue. That makes perfect sense to me.

But notice what James is saying. The bit in the horse’s mouth does what? It “turns its whole body.” The horse follows the bit. The ship’s rudder does what? It steers a ship even against fierce winds. The ship goes where the rudder leads. In vv. 5-7, he says the tongue is itself “a fire, a world of evil, a restless evil, full of deadly poison … It defiles the whole person, is itself set on fire by hell … and no man can tame the tongue.” The bit turns the horse and the rudder actually sets the path of a great ship. Illustrating the tongue, these things tell us it is an active player in the course of a person’s life. Clearly in the Bible, the mouth is controlled by the heart but James’ illustrations are telling us there is also a sense in which our life is controlled by our mouth.

That is the logical anomaly I’m speaking of. On the one hand, the heart is ultimately controlling the tongue, and so I need to be vigilant about my heart; but, on the other hand, there is a sense in which the tongue itself takes control of our lives. In some sense, like a ship’s rudder, the words I speak come back to actually control me.

Interestingly, Proverbs 4:23,24 actually presents this same anomaly. As quoted above, v23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life.” But v24 goes on to say, “Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.” The two show up side by side even there.

So we need to realize that what we say may turn around and control who we are and what we do. Its effect may be to actually influence our hearts.

What is going on? I suspect at least one answer lies in our realization that others are watching. If I talk like a tough guy, people will expect me to act like one. In that case I might end up doing something I wouldn’t have, except I was afraid people would laugh at me if I didn’t – after what I’d said. On the other hand, when I’ve owned the Lord and spoken of him to others, I am aware they’re watching and have high expectations of me. I may actually choose to act better because I have to live up to my words. So I said something and that something comes back to guide my life.

I have actually found this to work in a number of other ways. For instance, there is always what I call a “culture of negativity” where the easiest thing for people to do is talk badly about anyone who happens to not be present or say negative things about the company or the City or the church or whatever. The easiest thing to do is join them. But that isn’t who I want to be, so what I try to do as early as possible is to say positive things. Usually even as they come out of my mouth, I can feel that I’m swimming against a current. People pause and stare at me for a second and then tend not to go on with their negativity, but the most positive effect I find is on me. Once I’ve spoken positively it is like I’ve distanced myself from that culture of negativity. I’m no long “expected” to be a part of it and I find myself free to be positive. I spoke the words and they, like the bit or rudder, turn around and chart a course for my life.

This applies in a big way to my wife and children. Once again, I think there is a horrific culture of negativity out there. When “the guys” are all together, men are simply expected to berate and mock their wives and women in general. When “the girls” get together, they do the same to their husbands and men in general. They all tend to speak of their children as if they’re just completely frustrated. The kids drive them crazy. They’re apparently nothing but trouble. I decided from the very beginning I wouldn’t join in that kind of talk. I deliberately speak well of my wife and kids and I’ve found then that is what people expect of me and it is then easy to be that person – the person who actually loves his wife and children. You could say it started in my heart (and it did) but I also know that having spoken the words became a powerful inducement for me to be that person.

I would suggest such knowledge actually puts a powerful tool in my hand. Whatever I want to be or should be, there may be times when I can choose words which will then help me to stay that course. On the other hand, God help us, we need to realize that idle words may make it easy to fail and/or very hard to recover and do right.

Here is perhaps one place where our mouths are set on fire by either Heaven or hell. Satan is a liar and a murderer. He would persuade us in unguarded moments to say things that turn the course of our lives in the wrong direction. Perhaps it wasn’t deliberate. Perhaps it really wasn’t “in our heart” but just idle words. But still we said it and suddenly find ourselves being carried along by a current down the wrong river. Jesus on the other hand is Him whose “lips have been anointed with grace” (Psalm 45:2). He would have us speak truth and kindness and love, especially when, having done so, we in some way have charted a course that we’ll be glad to find ourselves following.

If we would make these choices, the choices themselves are still coming from our heart, but perhaps this is a tool we can use to further solidify our determination to live out grace? I would suggest we need all the help we can get.