‘Silence is unnatural to man. He begins life with a cry and ends it in stillness. In the interval he does all he can to make a noise in the world, and there are few things of which he stands in more fear than the absence of noise. Even his conversation is in great measure an attempt to prevent a dreadful silence.’ I don’t know who said that – I came across it and noted it down over 30 years ago now – but it expresses well a commonplace attitude to human speech: that is caution, not to say disapproval, over how much we all speak. “Silence is golden,” we say, and no doubt sometimes that is so.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “I would rather remain silent and be thought a fool than speak out and remove all doubt.” But despite the apparent warnings about the use of the tongue here in James chapter 3, this chapter is emphatically not telling us that silence is golden. And if we are going to grasp what it is saying to us, then we must understand its context (particularly, if I may say so, if you are somebody who is not yet a Christian. If you’re not clear yet about what you believe, then I think you need to understand that this passage is not simple moralism – it’s not simply telling us how human beings ought to behave – it’s also telling us about God and His character and nature.)
1) The Place of the Word (James 3:1,2)
‘Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 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’ (vv. 1, 2).
Why is speech so important for human beings? The answer is because God has chosen to speak to us. It is His chosen method of communication: not primarily by symbol, nor by sign or silent picture or mime, but by speech, by word. If we glance back to chapter 1 verses 18-21, we will see that James has already introduced this theme: ‘He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.’ Do you notice that? It’s an implanted word, according to James, that is able to save us. Speech is enormously important to the human race, not just because its development and sophistication in humanity are part of what distinguishes us from the rest of Creation, but primarily because God has spoken to us. He has communicated to us in words, and that is why the tongue is so important. That is why its use is so vital to the health of the congregation.
‘Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly’(3:1). He’s not trying to keep people out of education as a career – if you’re doing a PGCE at the moment this verse is not aimed at you primarily. Nor is it a negative remark about human speech. It is to underline the importance of the use of the tongue. The gospel is proclaimed by our most unruly member. Our words matter because God reaches people through words. And it is the communication of Christian truth by the tongue, in words, that is the background to the whole of this chapter. That is why James starts with the teacher.
He uses the little phrase ‘the whole body’ in verse 2 and also in verse 3 (where it has been translated ‘the whole animal’) and again he uses it in verse 6 (where it has been translated ‘the whole person’). James is almost certainly not just thinking of the anatomical body, the physique. One commentator wrote, ‘The meaning oscillates between the anatomical human body, of which the tongue forms a small yet powerful member, and the whole body of the congregation, in which the tongues of teachers’ can ‘exercise a baneful influence’. James has the speaking of Christian truth in view here, how we talk to one another about God.
So he is not just concerned about moral truisms of the ‘silence is golden’ variety. Nor is his basic attitude to the tongue negative. It is very positive indeed because God speaks to us, and His implanted word is able to save us.
And because of that these verses are an awesome warning for the preacher: ‘Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 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’ (vv. 1, 2). It means that apology should be part of our stock-in-trade as preachers and teachers of God’s word. If only the perfect can avoid stumbling in what they say, how many apologies do I owe to you for my inadequacies as a communicator of God’s truth? For all those times I have resorted to short cuts or manipulation – like the preacher who writes in the margin of his sermon notes, ‘Argument weak here: shout loudly and thump the pulpit’. And you’ve heard me do it! One commentator wrote on these verses, ‘It is a heady thing to dress in your Sunday best and stand in front of a congregation and be the authority for one hour – the voice of God to His people. But it can ruin your soul!’ And indeed, one might add, do more harm even than that: Lord Chesterfield, the 18th century aristocrat, wrote once in a letter to a friend (A.C. Stanhope, 12th October 1765): ‘In matters of religion and matrimony I never give any advice; because I will not have anybody’s torments in this world or the next laid to my charge.’ It is a solemn thing to speak about God to others, and so we need, as we prayed just now, to keep praying for those who teach God’s word, in whatever context and at whatever level. And I would suggest that the context of this passage is the vitally important place of the word. But next James draws our attention to the power of the tongue.
2) The Power of the Tongue (vv. 2-8)
‘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.’ (vv. 2-8).
Now, clearly those verses are a serious warning, because the Devil works so hard to corrupt what God has made so special. God speaks. He spoke at Creation: ‘ “Let there be light,” and there was light.’ He spoke to save us: ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ And so the Devil targets human speech for special attention. It’s always his way – what God puts a high value on, Satan attacks. (Just think how he has attacked the Bible over recent centuries.)
(a) We all stumble in many ways (v. 2)
All of us make many mistakes – and I find that very comforting! Some of us here this morning can’t bear the thought of making any mistakes at all. So we check our behaviour meticulously, to make sure that none of it could be faulted by anyone, torturing ourselves with a false sense of perfectionism. But, says James, ‘We all stumble in many ways.’ That doesn’t let any one of us off the hook. Others of us here are convinced that we alone make all the mistakes. “No-one ever makes all the mistakes that I make, or commits the sins that I commit.” But James says that we all stumble in many ways. We all make many mistakes. I don’t know if you find that as reassuring as I find it. We are all in the same boat, and our tongue shows all of us up – just as in the old days the doctor used to get you to stick your tongue out to check on your general health. So what we say reveals the state of our hearts; and it directs our lives and influences our church. ‘We all stumble in many ways.’
(b) The tongue’s influence is out of all proportion to its size (vv. 3-5)
I’m told that the tongue weighs approximately 0.4% of your and my total body weight. (I haven’t thought of a painless way of checking that for myself, and I don’t intend to.) But like a rudder or a spark or a bit, it can have an influence far greater than we might expect, for good or for bad. Remember James probably has the teaching of the local congregation in the back of his mind here. There was a Puritan preacher at the end of the 16th century called William Perkins, who had a great impact on the whole Church. He used to preach here at St Andrew the Great (or Great St Andrew’s, as they used to call it in those days), and he used to write this message to himself at the head of the title page of each of his manuscripts: ‘Thou art a minister of the word. Mind thy business.’ As his successor, 400 years later in this church, I have those words written up above my desk as I prepare sermons week by week: ‘Thou art a minister of the word. Mind thy business.’ It is faithful Bible teaching that will keep a church on course.
‘Thou art a minister of the word. Mind thy business.’ Pray for me, pray for everybody who teaches the Bible in any way in this church, that we would be faithful, and that God would go on drawing men and women to Himself through His word.
But, alas! …
(c) The tongue can also do much damage (vv. 6-8)
‘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’ (vv. 6-8).
The tongue is so spontaneous, so unruly, so untameable. I cannot call back a word once I’ve spoken it. It wings on its way and it may do so much damage. I speak as somebody who regularly wishes I had not said about half the things I do say every day. Thoughtless, careless, unthinking, unfeeling, unkind words that wound other people, that twist the truth in my favour, that exalt me but dishonour Christ.
Somebody said to me many years ago, and it was very good advice for me, “Mark, make sure your brain’s in gear before you open your mouth.” In his novel, The Fall, Albert Camus makes one of his characters say: “I, I, I is the constant refrain of my life. You can hear it in everything I say.” Do you listen to yourself sometimes and hear that refrain? We do it in very subtle ways, we disguise it in our conversation, “I, I, I, – the constant refrain of my life. You can hear it in everything that I say.” Is that true of your conversation? It is so true of mine so much of the time. I thought that little quotation had me to a tee.
And we live in a culture (probably unlike James’ culture) where we communicate a lot by the written (or the typed or the word-processed) word. How that can increase the damage of unwise words! My father always taught me: when there is strife in the family watch what you put on paper. Very good advice. When I feel strongly about a matter I need to be very careful indeed about what I write. If in doubt, leave it unwritten if it is critical. We won’t then live to regret it (perhaps for years to come).
But, grim as the warning is in these verses, it is not without hope. Look again at the first part of verse 8: ‘… no man can tame the tongue.’ The Greek has a slightly funny expression emphasising that no human can tame the tongue. Augustine commented on that verse: ‘He [James] does not say that no-one can tame the tongue, but that no-one of men [which is what the Greek is literally]’ can tame the tongue. You see there was one of whom it was said, by one of the people who knew Him best during His time on earth, ‘He committed no sin. No guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled he did not revile in return. When he suffered he did not threaten, but he trusted to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed’ (1 Peter 2:22). And there is further hope in the final verses of our passage.
3) The Right use of the Tongue (vv. 9-12)
‘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’ (vv. 9-12).
While those verses sound like another warning, they really point us to a solution. Look at the beginning of verse 9: ‘With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father.’ Your and my tongue is never better employed than when we use it to call Jesus Lord. Nor is it ever worse employed than when we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God. To curse someone is to desire that they be cut off from God, even though they are made in His image, and even though He specifically desires to bring them back into relationship with Himself. So these two kinds of speech are entirely incompatible with one another: ‘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?’ (vv. 10, 11). At the Family Service I illustrated this with a glass of orange squash and a glass with salt dissolved into it. We mixed the two together to see whether the orange squash would make the salt very nice to drink, or whether the salt would make the orange squash a little less nice to drink, and I made somebody else drink it. Just to make the point that the bad words that you and I speak have an extraordinary ability to mar the good. ‘My brothers, can a fig-tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.’ We’re trying to do what nature teaches us cannot be done. An unpleasant word can spoil a lovely occasion, and make a sad occasion worse.
So what is the solution to this problem of the tongue? It’s a heart-problem (the source of the spring) and so it requires heart-medicine (the gospel – the realisation that it is Jesus who saves, and Him alone). We can’t tame the tongue but God can. And He invites us to speak to, and about, Him. At the Day of Pentecost a very different fire came down to give a very different sort of speech to men and women. We need to concentrate on that (the speech that God’s Spirit leads us to), and on the fresh water flowing from the spring, rather than the salt water. ‘With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father’ – there is a great power in praising God. There is a great power in affirming, encouraging and building one another up with our tongues.
I know that affirmative language today can be a little overdone. We read of politically correct golf clubs no longer having players with handicaps. Instead they’re ‘stroke challenged’. But would it not be a good exercise for all of us to exclude from our talk some of the things that mar it day by day – innuendo, smuttiness, vanity, exaggeration, point scoring, spite, clever self-obsession – and instead, endeavour to use our tongues to build one another up in love? Particularly by speaking of God to one another. Let’s stop talking about ourselves. Let’s talk about other people; and especially let’s bless the Lord and Father to one another. This precious gift of communication has been given to us as one of the most precious things we have, and it has been given to us so that we may praise God with it, so that from our tongues, from that spring, may flow fresh, life-giving water to other people. We cannot tame the tongue but we can use it positively. Our words are very precious and very powerful. The more we use them to good ends, the less will the Devil be able to use them to bad ends.
So don’t waste words. Silence is not golden for the Christian. Speech is golden. For with our tongues we bless the Lord and Father; and it is His implanted word that is able to save us.
There will be those here today who don’t yet know Jesus for themselves, who have no living relationship with Him. What is said to them as this service ends may make a huge difference to them. It may even make an eternal difference to somebody at a church service. And God has given us this precious gift. ‘Silence is unnatural to man. He begins it with a cry and ends it in stillness’ (the quote with which I started). But silence is unnatural to us because we are made to speak to God and to speak of God: to communicate about the things that really matter. That’s what the tongue is for. Will you use it that way this week? Speak to somebody about God to whom you’ve never spoken about God before. Say grace before a meal. Do you ever do that in your family? Might it be a good thing to do? Might it change the whole nature of the meal if you said thanks to God at the beginning of it? Say a prayer when you wouldn’t normally pray – at the beginning of lectures, at the beginning of a match on the sports field, the beginning of an important encounter with somebody? Speak to fellow Christians – not about the ordinary things of life, but speak to them about the things of God – that we may build them up and encourage them. God has given us such a precious gift. Let’s use it for Him.
Now I want to say one last thing that I said earlier in this sermon series, but I want to say it again. We are so frightened about how badly we live as Christians, that we let the level of our lives silence our lips lest we appear as hypocrites. Well, we are hypocrites. We all are. There isn’t somebody in this building at this moment who isn’t a hypocrite. And there isn’t someone outside in the rest of Cambridge who isn’t a hypocrite (and they’d be most welcome to join us). We are full of hypocrisy, all of us. And it’s the Devil’s lie that says to you and me all the time, “Your life is not good enough for you to speak about God.” If we would reverse that and say, “Well, I am going to use my lips to speak of Him,” we might find that it had the most electrifying effect on our lives. If we let it be known on the sports field that we are actually Christians, in the lecture, in the place where we work and the place we live, it might have a very strange effect on our lives indeed.
Silence is not golden. Speech is golden. But let it be used for God. Take care how we use our tongues.