Month: September 2012

One of the things that my father wanted to make sure I understood was my place in the working world. One of the jobs I had in my early years was in the labor pool at Mobil Oil’s refinery, then in Paulsboro, New Jersey. The job was exactly what it sounded like…labor. I have to admit that I was very tired by the end of the day, but it was GOOD TIRED. The second summer I worked there I was assigned to my father’s section. Though he was an electrician, he was upgraded to a “boss” and I was one of a few dozen men assigned to do his bidding. Working for dad was not as challenging as I thought it would be, because I understood what he wanted. Some of the bosses I had were not communicators. They knew how to do the work, they just didn’t explain the job very well. My father made sure that I learned early who to address with questions, and who to stand silent before when receiving the work for the day. It was important for me to remember the vast responsibilities of some of the men, and not pick away at small issues when they were facing real problems that needed their leadership energy. I needed to know my place. My issues weren’t the most important ones the man in charge was dealing with, and that was important for me to consider.

In recent generations American education has focused on building up the self-image of students. They have been encouraged to think for themselves, and to see themselves as capable. Some in scholastic circles pressed the case that a healthy self-image was essential to a healthy citizenry. In most ways, the theory has proven to be somewhat helpful – as students can dream bigger and engage hard tasks more adeptly if they don’t defeat themselves before they try. At the same time, it has fed something within the national ego that has reminded us of the battle of deep pride in self within fallen men. It has made the American student consistently rank highest in self-image while sinking in other scores. It has covered over a pride that manifests itself in arrogance of speech and the clear certainty of the uncertain. For many of us, we have come to expect things to be as we plan them, as if we can control wind, sea, weather and outcome. We have become quite excellent judges of one another. All of it shows a heart problem within. All of it echoes a heart filled with its own song of praise.

In the early church, such arrogance already showed itself. Believers are not exempt from the arrogance. In fact, because they have tasted the goodness of God, they may be tempted to think His goodness had something to do with the object of His affection. They may have actually begun to believe that God saved them because of something about them – and they would, of course, have been dead wrong. As they grew in their faith, some would have learned the truth and believed it – while others would have politely kept their judgmental spirit under wraps. Under pressure, sometimes we say the thing we would not say had the day been a bit lighter.

Key Principle: Our mouths sometimes betray the carefully covered arrogance within. We speak of people and plans in ways that demonstrate we do not truly know our place.

In effect, James argued that the early believers were being UPPITY. They didn’t seem to “know their place” in God or in the world. I suspect James would say similar things about modern believers if he were writing today. Some of truly think we are able to mock others because we are better than they are, and many of us speak of our plans ahead as though we are in control of the days ahead – and neither are true and both reflect an arrogant heart. James is on target with another precision strike against the tongue. Take a look at the end of James 4:

James 4:11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

An overview of James 4 uncovers the notion that people were walking in pride and self-willed pursuits of business, fighting in the flesh with one another! God longed for them to come to Him humbly and tearfully! The chapter can easily be divided into three parts:

• Understanding the source of our striving – pride and self-centered will; These impulses lead us to heartache! (1-6)
• Calling out believers to come close to God in humility; He will bring victory! (7-10)
• Using the mouth as a demonstration of God’s truth in both relationships of the spiritual family and plans for the future; knowing my place before God and others! (11-17)

It is the last one that we will look at today. James demonstrated in two ways that believers quickly forget their place…

The first way our mouths show we have placed ourselves too highly is the way we speak of PEOPLE.

I am going to be very deliberate in taking apart of each of the verses in this text, because they are being used almost daily in our day in a way that misrepresents the author’s intent. In fact, whenever we are in a debate of right and wrong in America today, someone naively whips out these verses, or some popular paraphrase of them to suggest that Christianity only speaks in tolerance terminology, and real Christians make no value judgments about right and wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth, and that ISN’T what the passage truly teaches. James wrote to early believers in Jesus – so the language is intended to be by believers and to believers. The term “brothers” or “brethren” here refers to brothers in Christ, not primarily to physical family members.

When we mock our brother, we show the arrogant thinking of self-importance.

The instruction is as follows:

James 4:11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. (katalaléō from katá, “down, according to,” intensifying laléō, “to prattle on” – properly, speak down to in a hostile, deriding way; to mock (revile), detracting from someone’s reputation by “malice of speech directed against one’s neightbor” in order to defame or slander.

• The issue is NOT one that blocks people from having honest disagreements – The issue is intended to remind us that mocking and malicious words are out of bounds. Disagreements about ideas close to us may bruise our ego, but that is not the same as mocking. Polite but firm disagreement may be necessary, and that is NOT UNCHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR.

• The issue is NOT about the world – Again we recognize the issue is between believers. We may critique actions and words, but we must keep the discussion both civil and kind. How we say what we say is terribly important.

The text continues. James 4:11b: “He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother…

What does that truly mean, to “speak against” a brother? Properly “he who mocks or derides his brother” or “he who separates out his brother for condemnation before others”…The term judgment or “krino” is used in two ways:

• J. Thayer comments that “the proper meaning of krínō is to pick out (choose) by separating” and refers to making a determination of innocence or guilt, especially on an official (legal) standard.

• The term is used in contemporary literature for “bringing to trial” (the trying of fact) in a court of law. (The problem is that it implies a superior position of authority of the person bringing the defendant).

James was concerned that believers were disagreeing in unbiblical ways. Unfortunately the quote gets lifted out of context to suggest that we cannot be both CRITICAL and CHRISTIAN.

Here is the problem- Our culture has accepted two huge lies… The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle or choices, you must be living in fear of them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do – or that what they do makes no difference to you. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate. Real caring feels pain from another’s bad choices. The uncaring don’t care what you do, because they don’t really care about you.

Sometimes we are accused of arrogance when the issue is Biblical, not personal judgment – and that isn’t a fair analysis. There are two totally different standards in God’s Word on judgment – one for the believer about the believer, and one for the believer about the unbeliever.

These get blended and confused, but must be kept distinct when studying God’s Word. When a believer is thinking about the actions and ideas of another believer, there is considerable tolerance that must be employed, and there must always be politeness and civility in our tone – especially when we disagree. There is no other choice. We can disagree wholeheartedly, but speak tenderly. We can stand powerfully opposed, but speak thoughtfully.

Let us say it clearly: A brother can disagree with another brother – but they are in no place to condemn them – only the ideas they espouse or deeds they do.

A brother can determine the path of another to be unbiblical as judged by the Scriptures, but they cannot stand as the ultimate judge over another’s heart or destiny – for they do not see the whole picture. God looks at the heart; He alone knows the motives and recognizes the reasoning within. Let’s say I have a friend who is pro-choice. They are a believer, but they are wrong about this issue. I am not unsure about God’s view on caring for the unborn, but they don’t agree. I am to be respectful, not strident and uncaring. Loving words will do more than rebukes. If I am not their Pastor, I need to even MORE careful about my approach, because I have no spiritual charge over them before the Lord.

The case of the believer’s treatment of the unbeliever is somewhat different according to the Word and here is where young believers, in particular, get into confusion. A Christian is STILL (and always) to be kind and respectful in our deportment (speaking the truth in love), but we need not be so uncertain about the position we take on ultimate issues before an unbelieving world. If an unbeliever challenges our right to “judge them” just because they have chosen to publicly hate Jesus and the Gospel, we have recourse – turn them back to the Word. We do not judge, God does. At the same time, when God has been clear, we should not be unclear. We are NOT being judgmental when we declare the LOST as being LOST – we are called to do that!

The point is that you can be both Christian and critical of actions and ideas. You cannot truly be Christian and sit as mocker or judge over another’s eternal destiny unless the Bible itself already CLEARLY does that for you.

I don’t need to hem and haw about the eternal destiny of some people in an effort not to be a judge of an unbeliever. The Bible is clear: if you die rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior, there will be no other chance in the future to turn things around in the afterlife… “It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment” the Scripture teaches. The conditions of the gift of God for eternal life are carefully marked out in Scripture.

The matter gets even worse when we encounter in Scripture that some lifestyle choices are choices of NON-BELIEVERS – no matter if the person SAYS they know Jesus or not – so says the Scripture.

• 1 Corinthians 6:9 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

• Galatians 5:19 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

How does this work exactly? We know the Bible believer does not take those verses to suggest that stealing keeps a person from Heaven, or that coveting another somehow “slams the door shut” on future eternal bliss. Some of those listed works of the flesh are part of the ongoing battle with the flesh that we face as believers – so how can they block one from Heaven? That’s a fair question! The issue of both these passages is this: real believers DON’T find living in A LIFESTYLE of opposition to God’s Word comfortable – and if someone IS comfortable in these practices – living as though they make no difference to God – they ARE NOT to be considered a real believer, no matter what decision they think they made at some emotional moment in the past. Real believers know that God is unhappy with things that violate Scripture, and they are actively seeking the Spirit’s work in them to be freed from these practices. I don’t have any magic glasses to know who is IN or who is OUT, but I do have the command to consider people comfortably rooted in those activities as unsaved. It is God’s job to decide who is in and who is not – it is my job to place boundaries around my participation with them as a brother or sister.

The Bible clearly says that people who live comfortably in violation of the Scriptures and argue for the right to do so are probably not believers at all – no matter whether they were raised in church and know all the “God words” or not. We are not being judgmental when we deem them outside the Kingdom, we are being Biblical. We can’t know if they are or aren’t one of the Lord’s people – because they are acting badly.

• Parents aren’t wrong for limiting access of some other young people in your life, teenager, if they deem them harmful to your moral growth. That isn’t intolerant – it is responsible parenting.

• Churches aren’t being mean when people who want to continue in a pattern of sinful practices feel uncomfortable in the pew – unless they are treating people with disrespect in the way they are sharing truth. It isn’t our job to raise your self-image at the expense of your obedience. We can be nice about making the standard clear, but we don’t get to make the standards – that is God’s job. Ours is to pronounce them with a broken heart to those who forsake God.

Here is our problem today: People will drift out of a Christian family or Bible teaching church (or both) because they are in conflict with Biblical morality. Maybe they want to live with someone outside of wedlock, or abuse a substance that causes the family or church to get involved and attempt to redirect their behavior, and they resent that as an intrusion. They don’t want the constraints and they walk away. Soon after, they go shopping for affirmation and acceptance. They may find a church without Biblical standards, or perhaps find themselves surrounded by some of the most “forgiving and accepting” people in the world – others who are continuing to make life choices contrary to God’s Word. Because their new friends don’t want to be judged, they don’t judge others. They don’t make anyone feel uncomfortable so our wanderer then begins to feel as though THAT is real righteous behavior – and their parents or their church were just JUDGMENTAL people.

Our prodigal finds others who have equally misshapen values and begin to rail against God’s standards as MEAN and unnecessarily restrictive. They see Biblical Christians as judges and godless pagans as good people. They have made the whole transformation into the darkened logic of the fallen world, and they feel empowered and licensed to do so. Wrong is now right and right is now wrong. They become incensed when those harsh and judgmental Christians try to uphold truth and see them as somehow more hypocritical than all others – even when those followers of Christ espouse truth that has been a part of their faith since the first century. Any attempt to say any behavior is wrong, brings out deep anger and stirred hateful speech in their mouths. The difference now is they think they are actually right for being verbally hateful and defending tolerance by their intolerance toward Christian thinking. They will bully believers and call it forbearance – when it is nothing of the kind.

Remember: Our passage is not about unbelievers, only how we handle one another in the kingdom of God. In that regard, let’s be careful. We need to be careful about thinking it is our job to pronounce judgment on people and NEVER mock them. There are times that leaders were called on to “mark out” an individual to the community – Paul did it and it was the right thing to do. Yet, our propensity to judge can also be a sign of our arrogance inside – and that is the tragedy of it. We may not see all there is to see in regard to the person in question.

Remember that in human laws, there is little or no separation between the person and their actions. In our faith, because we are all guilty of holy infraction – there is. We can be utterly against one’s idea (because we believe it to be morally wrong or Biblically flawed) but absolutely for them (because they are another person for whom our Savior died). Ours is a people centered faith. It was PEOPLE Jesus came to save – not just a vague morality or judicial right. He loves people, and He is the judge – how can I not love people and make myself out to be a judge?

When we mock our brother, we display that we don’t know our true place in God’s Kingdom.

We are acting like we are better than our brother, or have more authority over him… James continues with a complicated sentence structure. James 4:11b “He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother… speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.

The complication of the end of this sentence sounds like legal jargon! When we draw a brother into the sights of our condemnation, we are playing a role we were not given. The police officer is not the judge and the messenger is not the Master. If we place ourselves in the position of ultimate judge over a brother, we are taking a place above the law as a final arbiter of it – and not a fellow citizen bound by it. There is POWER in the place of judgment that we do not possess, because we have not been granted it. We do NOT decide the value of one Scriptural rule over another – that is above our station as a spiritual citizen of the Kingdom. That is the work of the Judge above all of us. We must know our place and live within it in our relationships with our brothers.

When we mock our brother, we show that we think our faith is about US, and not about our Master.

James goes on (James 4:12) “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?

God gave the Law and God judges man – because He is in the position to do so – we are not. He can create and He can destroy and I have neither power. I am not above my brother, I am one of the flock created by and for God –and judged by God. I must demote myself in my heart before I speak about a brother – careful to critique only action while ever being gracious to his person.

Our mouths can so easily betray a heart that is not right. We can so quickly take on a role in the lives of others that neither God nor they have offered to us. Because we are Facebook friends, does that mean I have earned the right to speak about everything they post? Probably not.

The second way we place ourselves too highly is seen in the way we speak about our PLANS.

James 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Again there is sufficient reason to be careful with this simple teaching, since we can take what James is saying in a completely WRONG WAY. It is not wrong to PLAN for the FUTURE. There are dozens of Proverbs that urge planning ahead. Here are just a few:

• “Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.” (Proverbs 4:26).
• “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” (Proverbs 15:22).
• “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” (Proverbs 21:5).

James 4:15 clarifies the issue before us. The issue is PRESUMPTION not PLANNING. The objective of the passage is not just to get us to say “Lord willing” in our mouths, but to believe it in our hearts.

James was concerned about their presumptive living, and I believe he would be SHOCKED at ours. We don’t even HIDE our presumption involved in much of our lives. We have come to believe, not only that things WILL work, but that things SHOULD work out well for us. We seem DERAILED by sickness and setbacks – as though God was somehow not doing His job, because life was supposed to go well for me!

In Catholicism there is a “sin of presumption” that is sometimes explained as deciding to sin because one can always go to confession and receive a remedy. In Protestant circles, our way of living presumptuously is probably easier explained as the mistaken sense that we were made for peace and prosperity – and all that hinders this is somehow wrong. That isn’t really true when you take into account that we live in a fallen world, surrounded by a groaning creation that longs for ultimate redemption.

James 2:16 calls living with such presumption “BOASTING” – because we do not demonstrate in our thinking that we are ever subject to God’s plan. The Proverb writer says: “The mind of the man plans his way, but the Lord directs His steps.” At the center of surrender is the notion that “He is in control, and I am not!” Living as a believer that is in control of his own life and destiny is not living as a believer at all. It is a hard lesson to learn and learn and learn – but He is God and any attempt I make to seize the throne of my life is met with failures that grow from my arrogant heart. Maybe an illustration will help…

Two hunters got a pilot to fly them into the far north for deer hunting. They were quite successful in their venture and bagged six big bucks. The pilot came back, as arranged, to pick them up. They started loading their gear into the plane, including the six deer. But the pilot objected and he said, “The plane can only take four of your deer; you will have to leave two behind.” They argued with him; the year before they had shot six and the pilot had allowed them to put all aboard. The plane was the same model and capacity. Reluctantly, the pilot finally permitted them to put all six aboard. But when the attempted to take off and leave the valley, the little plane could not make it and they crashed into the wilderness. Climbing out of the wreckage, one hunter said to the other, “Do you know where we are?” “I think so,” replied the other hunter. “This is just about the same place where we crashed last year.” As a man I recognize that there are times in my life where I have had a hard time learning from my mistakes. Too often as men we are rely on our own strength and our self dependence gets us in trouble. (sermon central illustrations).

Our mouths betray the carefully covered arrogance within. We speak of people and plans in ways that show we do not truly know our place.

I began telling my students this week something that brought up a strong feeling from my past – so I have to cleanse my soul of a bit of bad feeling… You see, I don’t really like camels all that much. It isn’t that I haven’t tried, I have spent significant amounts of time in the heat, traipsing through the southern deserts of Israel, and the eastern deserts of Egypt in the Sinai peninsula. I just don’t like them that much. I can’t say that I enjoy their smell very much, and their temperament is worse than their smell!

We had a camel when the children were younger – his name was Fred. He lived beside the Wilderness Tabernacle, and his job was giving rides to the tourists. It wasn’t much of a life, but Fred didn’t seem to mind. Fred was simple – and he lived life with simple objectives. You know, camels will eat virtually anything – right down to the leather straps of your sandals if you leave them outside the tent – ask me, I know! They aren’t fussy about food. With three stomachs, they can digest anything by sheer endurance of acids – if they don’t get it on the first one, they will on the next two! Fred had a particularly bad habit when it came to his drinking… Fred loved beer. He would sing, he would bellow, and I believe he would tap dance for a beer. There was something about the taste of beer that evidently reminded him of digestive juices. That alone should put you off of the taste! As much as I tried to tell him about his weight gain and heightened cholesterol, he liked dark beer – the kind that really packs on the pounds. So it was that Fred lived life going around a circle with tourist on his back, and waiting for the sun to go down and Abdullah to bring the feed bag, and on some nights of the week, a few beers. That was his life. Sunrise, sunset…sunrise, sunset.

Fred was separated from a herd because he didn’t play well, or should I say “work well” with others. Camel caravans have a specific pecking order, and camels know where they “line up” in that order. They know which camel they are stronger than, and which camel has greater power than they do. If a camel driver mistakenly puts them in the wrong order on the line – it will not take five minutes on the trail before the caravan is disrupted and the problem is addressed. Camels want their place in line – and they won’t tolerate not getting what they want.

While I understand that may be the life of a working camel in Judea, what truly saddens me is when I see Fred’s life played out in some of the PEOPLE. They live life, one day at a time, between work, a little relaxation, and an occasional refreshment. They don’t seem to have much more going on, and when I ask them about goals, they seem to think that a new car or a new TV is the high water mark for the coming year. I get sad around people that remind me of Fred.

You know the type. They don’t dream about much more than the next thing they want to buy, eat, consume or enjoy. They are in a world filled with needs, but they seem to feel they didn’t get a fair share, so they are exempt from caring about other people’s issues too much. Their relationships are poisoned with problems, strife and anger. Life around them is both simple and tumultuous – dull and disturbing. They don’t seem to have enough and they sometimes get mad about those who seem to have more. They have in their wake damaged people and relationships – but they don’t really focus on that much, since they can’t figure out why life has treated them the way it has. That condition would be fine, but far too many of them call themselves, Sunday after Sunday – Christians. They are an awkward combination of eternal hope and temporal dissatisfaction. They know they will be in Heaven, but live like God isn’t very kind of good or very good at management when it comes to life on earth. Their goals seem mostly about THIS WORLD, their theology about THE NEXT. They are often filled with worry, yet sing “Trust and Obey”. They are unhappy now, but speak lofty words about “the sweet by and by”. They look forward to an eternity with the very ones they can’t seem to get along with in this life! Sadly, stirred up and troubled believers have always been a part of the church. James dealt with them all the way back in the first century.

Key Principle: There is a conflict resolution toolbox provided to believers, but resolution requires knowing how to use the tools inside.

He asked some of them to reflect on why they were constantly so stirred up, and that opens our passage for this lesson in James 4:1-10.

James 4:1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

There is a reason believers fight with one another.

“Why are believers fighting?” That seems like a fair opening question. James is quick to supply the God-given answer. The primary source of interpersonal conflicts between believers is selfish and sensual desires that have been strengthened in the sin strongholds within the hearts of believers.

James 4:1 What is the source of quarrels (from pelomai: to bustle– battle, fight, war.) and conflicts (from machai: strife, contention; quarrel) among you? Is not the source your pleasures (hedones: pleasures of a sensual nature) that wage war (strateúomai – properly, to contend, fighting like a soldier in war; from stratos: a army encampment) in your members (melos: a bodily organ, limb, member within)?

If you peel the answer James offered by the prompting of the Spirit, it comes down to this: Struggles happen between us because of the struggle that goes on INSIDE of each of us. There is not supposed to be any “i” in the spelling of “we”, yet in the concept of relationships it is unavoidable – there ARE at least two individuals there. Each is fighting a war within – between our old man (who was positionally removed – crucified at our salvation), and the tentacles of his remaining control that still haunt us (practically). It should become clear to us that peace will come between us only when we submit to the Spirit’s work of dominating the old man’s voice inside us.

When struggles, contentions and strife are evident among believers, we can put a stop to them. God has provided in the Scripture a tool box of specially made gear to fix what’s broke. I want to painfully clear on each point – because time spent here will save time in the battle zone:

• First, when troubles arise, we must identify those involved in the struggle. We dare not include more than need be involved – for the troubles spread as more are brought into the issue. Remember the rule: If they are not part of the problem when you find it, and they cannot bring about a solution – they should not be included in the issue. If you are talking to people about things they have no business knowing – you are the source of more strife – even if you don’t see it. Even if they promise not to tell anyone, and not to let it bother them. You are feeding the ego as one “in the know” and they are feeding theirs as well. Egos don’t need feeding, they need quelling. The Spirit is at work to quell the very thing you are busy building in both you and the hearer. Remember: gossip fans the flame of discord, just at the time when we most need it to calm. Identify the parties and keep the circle closed – as much as possible.

• Second, when the parties are identified, each must be carefully encouraged to look within BEFORE trying to solve problems WITHOUT. James 4:1 is clear that is, at the very least, part of the source of the trouble. One party or both of the contentious ones are reacting rather than responding. Let’s be clear: reactions are about PROTECTION of self, responses are about HONEST ASSISTANCE to another. When I react – it is because you hit a nerve that I feel I must instinctively cover that nerve to protect myself from further disruption. When I respond, I think about how what I am going to say will HELP you, without being caustic to you. Even parents struggle to do this well. If our adult children say something unwise, we must consider carefully our response to them, and not react because we took personally their foolishness. Response is about the other person and real help. Each party must be honest and quietly evaluate inside their role in the strife. Remember that we will need to apply intense prayer to introspection – because we are not simply wrestling against FLESHH, but against those that want to see the flesh win in the spiritual world.

• Third, in our self evaluation, we must be willing to identify the encampments we have constructed within, and what improper pleasures they are nurturing. Look for the things that have dominated your mind… the things that keep popping up. If you keep replaying something in your heart, it is probably the key to the stronghold you are protecting. Inside the strong place you are protecting a lie.

Let me give you an example: John and Sue were really at odds. For months, they were both working on the outreach project, but there was always tension. Each had friends that subconsciously “sided” with them – and each had “opposition” – though it was never spoken out loud. The other night the whole thing blew up at a committee meeting. They exchanged words and their faces clearly showed they were really disgusted with one another. The committee chair wanted to keep peace and move ahead, but this wasn’t going away without some kind of intervention and resolution.

If it follows the pattern of most conflicts, when you address John or Sue – both believe the other person is at fault. A certain number of Christians on the committee are willing to deny that they think the dissention is even a problem – because they are peace keepers and don’t want a problem to exist. Denial is never a good strategy in conflict – it often emboldens the strife stirrers. If real intervention is to be successful, the leader must prayerfully and carefully get each of them to do a careful self examination. They must understand why they are reacting the way they are. Very likely EACH are partly responsible, and neither are fully mature. Mature people resolve conflict, immature live in conflict. They haven’t the will, or they haven’t the tools to defeat it.

Light must be shined exposing the lies within – like one that is harboring fugitive thoughts that must be found and confined. What do I GET from this struggle? What energy am I adding to my life through the ANGER underlying it, and why do I want that in my life? At the heart level, we must recognize that there is an inner yearning of an unbridled lust or feeling that keeps leading to painful disharmony and disputes. Each of the parties must honestly evaluate: “Am I harboring ungodly and selfish desires that are driving the conflict with another?”

Notice that in handling our conflict resolution with James 4:1 in mind – most was handled by each party dealing with themselves. If this can be done effectively, each will take responsibility for their part, and most of the strife will ease without interaction between them. This isn’t all there is to resolving the conflicts –but it is the largest part. When I understand and confess my role in strife – I react less to another and things settle down in my heart. When my heart is calm within – tensions drop on the outside.

There is a reason some of us are at the source of the conflicts.

The strongholds were formed by a believer allowing his or her focus to remain intensely and increasingly on jealous yearnings while they observed what other brothers and sisters had been given by the Master.

2 You lust (epí, “focused on” intensifying thymós, “passionate desire”) – properly, to show focused passion as it aptly builds on (Gk epi, “upon”) what a person truly yearns for) and do not have (echete: to possess); so you commit murder (phoneuo: kill). You are envious (dzaylo:become jealous or hunger over) and cannot obtain (or acquire); so you fight (machesthe as in v. 1) and quarrel (polemeite as in verse 1).

Before even investigating how the sin camps take up position in our minds, it is necessary to connect the notion of envy and murder. Jesus said the command “Thou shalt not kill” was intended to be something much greater than what it presents on the face of the command. He said:

Matthew 5:21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ 22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. 25 “Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you are thrown into prison. 26 “Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.

The issue was that Jesus saw contemporary Jews as limiting the Scriptures to their WORDS and not their broader PRINCIPLES. He argued:

1) It is about a PRINCIPLE. The law forbade murder, making it punishable (21) but the restriction was actually intended to make men aware of their responsibility to maintain and grow relationships (22).

2) It is about a PRIORITY. The relationships were so important to God, that He would prefer right relationships over Temple presentations (23-24).

3) It is about PEACE. Reconciliation should be very important to a believer, making every effort to contain the problem and resolve it before it grows to a larger court of judgment (25-26).

James defined the violation of the MURDER statute in the same way as his Master did – to divide, denigrate or demean another was a form of killing. Proper relationships are a key to reflecting godliness, and are part of the standards of obedience. We are SUPPOSED to care about the feelings of others, and about the welfare of others.

James 4:2 makes the case that once it is clear I am in the struggle with fellow believer, I need to be willing to examine my heart for an encampment or stronghold of desire that I have allowed to build there. I must identify any area that may have become a camp of selfish longing. What is the heart of this conflict for me? Is it an unbridled mind? I should be able, with the help of the Spirit’s conviction, to recognize that ambition for what it is – an enticement that has become so dear that I am willing to sacrifice a good relationship with others for it.

Most often, the desires of our hearts are NATURAL and INBORN. It is a work of the enemy to torque those desires and warp them into something fallen and base. For instance, a desire for companionship is natural, but a desire to hold someone back from growth that would move them from a close place to us is warped. In another case, a hunger for physical intimacy is natural and God-given, with the purpose of sharing life with another. When the enemy grabs that hunger and warps it, the expressions of intimacy become SELFISH and SELF GRATIFYING – no longer about relationship but rather about entertainment. The issue is not the original root need, but the replacement of the original God-given purpose of that need with a self-focus that changes the essential nature of the responses to the need.

When I take the throne of my life, my needs become the most essential thing. All else becomes less significant. I no longer truly see the needs of others- except through my own cravings. In time, I will no longer even truly distinguish between needs and desires – all hungers must be equally met for my impatient sense of happiness. In this state I will allow any feeling of lack to dominate my mind, and grow into an insatiable hunger – becoming greater than its natural place of importance in life. My will to resist any tug toward pleasure is substantially weakened. With each passing day, the need dominates more of my thinking – for sin is a seed that is watered by the flesh and fed by the fallen world.

As I think more about the need – It grows in strength. As I nurture it, the lack grows and becomes a powerful stronghold of the mind. I begin to judge others through the window of a darkened mind, and any who challenge my imbalance are judged harshly and found wanting. From this self-dominated mind I argue and complain, because others seem to be in the way of my satisfaction. If they experience some good, I experience misery and jealousy. If they experience some misfortune, I find myself less and less caring – for the troubles are their problem. This is the life of self, and it never gets enough to be truly happy. It cannot be reformed…like a cancer it must be scraped away and thoroughly removed by a skillful surgeon. Fortunately for me, such a Healer stands ready in the person of my Savior.

There is a reason some of us don’t seem to be heard by God.

We want things for the wrong reason. Though the inflicted believer hungers for what they do not have, they don’t ask God, Even if they did, they would not get their desire, for the whole focus is on something they will consume on selfish desires.

2b “…You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

They left purity for personal indulgence. They have left their cause to join the enemy, reveling in self-filled moments on earth in exchange for eternal honor to their Father in Heaven.

4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

We act like our problem is a mystery. The burning desire should not have taken them by surprise – because God warned us concerning this in the past.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

This verse is tough to discern from a scholarly standpoint, and there is much disagreement about its intention.

• First, we are not certain what scripture James references – though there are many opinions in various sources. Among them, some have suggested places like Genesis 6:5 : “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

• Second, we must look without further word from James as to his point, for he moves on to another quote that is known immediately after, but does not follow the same line of thinking.

Though we may not know what the specific reference, however, the truth that in our fallen state man is prone to envy, is clear in the Word. Consider the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 4:4, “I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after wind.” Proverbs 14:30, “envy is the rottenness of the bones” and Proverbs 27:4, “who is able to stand before envy?” offer a tone from wisdom literature. There is, Biblically speaking, a strong pull in the fallen heart to yearn with envy. Such yearning exists as to draw from deep within a hatred of the prosperity of others, and a burning jealousy of their fortunes that we may even feel entitled to ridicule, or even worse – to take it from them if such an advantage should arise.

6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

The proud resists God; in his understanding he resists the truths of God; in his will he resists the truths of God; in his will he resists the laws of God; in his passions he resists the providence of God; and therefore no wonder that God sets himself against the proud. Let proud spirits hear this and tremble-God resists them. Who can describe the wretched state of those who make God their enemy? He will certainly fill with same (sooner or later) the faces of such as have filled their hearts with pride. We should therefore resist pride in our hearts, if we would not have God to resist us. 2. The honour and help God gives to the humble. Grace, as opposed to disgrace, is honour; this God gives to the humble; and, where God gives grace to be humble, there he will give all other graces, and, as in the beginning of this sixth verse, he will give more grace. Wherever God gives true grace, he will give more; for to him that hath, and useth what he hath aright, more shall be given. He will especially give more grace to the humble, because they see their need of it, will pray for it and be thankful for it; and such shall have it. For this reason,

There is a path back to peace.

How can I gain God’s grace in the face of my inclination to rebel? How can I experience the GRACE of God and the PEACE of God in the world of struggles and contentions?

1. Take second place.

Place myself – my desires, my yearnings, my hungers – beneath in importance the pleasing of my Heavenly Father. The term “submit” is hupotasso – to place beneath. Some translators say “in God’s arrangement” which is the SAME as saying: “I am second, He is first”.

James 4:7 “Submit therefore to God…”

2. Take your stand.

The idea of resist is found in the Greek word “anthístēmi” (from antí: opposed or against” and hístēmi, “to stand”) – properly, take a complete stand against. Do not be surprised if each time you back away from truth and God’s way in your life, the enemy gains strength over you.

James 4:7b “…Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

3. Take hold of Him.

The term “draw near” is from the word “eggízō” (from eggýs: “near”) – it is properly, has drawn close (come near). In the fourteen times it is used in the NT it expresses “extreme closeness, immediate imminence.

James 4:8 “…Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

4. Get cleaned up.

The term for “cleanse” is the one from which we get catharsis – the term “katharízō” – to make pure and clean by removing all filth. The last part of the verse communicates the same idea with “purify your hearts” – from ‘agnos; to make clean or sanctify (ceremonially or morally). There are two senses to this truth – an active one, where you are ridding yourself of impurity, and a passive one – where “He is faithful and just to cleanse us”. Not ot overthink the intent – it appears James is focusing on actively pursuing the former expecting God to do a work in the latter.

James 4:8b “…Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Don’t be so quick to point out that God alone can cleanse you – because it is often a subtle way of removing responsibility from changing our behavior. Grace is not a safe harbor for continual rebellion – it is the expression of God’s goodness in the life surrendered…the lavish gift after God is welcomed within. We have no right to ask God to pour out His grace where we intend to use it as a license to mutiny.

5. See clearly your heart.

James uses terms like “Be miserable” is talaipōréō –afflict yourself and show a wretched condition – like callouses or scars from sustained beating or wear (used only here in the NT) and “mourn” is penthéō (“the deep grief expressed over a death ” and “weep” is klaíō – cry aloud inconsolably. The second half of the verse expresses the same idea: Face how serious your deep allegiance is to the wrong world and wrong king!

James 4:9 “…Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.”

You cannot help but hear the echo of Jesus’ voice in Matthew 5 as He first called out the desired heart of a disciple: Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

6. Don’t end looking in – move to looking UP!

The answer is NOT fully solved WITHIN – that is preparatory to bowing down and looking up to God. Real surrender is not just about getting off the throne of my life, it is about asking Him to be ON the throne of my life.

James 4:10 “…Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

There is a conflict resolution toolbox provided to believers, but resolution requires knowing how to use the tools inside. Even on days when things aren’t going well, you need to remember something else… It is true that we live today in conflicts – both within and between us. It is true that on many days recently it has appeared that evil in coming over the walls and we are under siege. In the short term, we may have set backs that are real and deep – but the longer view tells a different story:

Imagine a city under siege. The enemy that surrounds the city will not let anyone or anything leave. Supplies are running low, and the citizens are fearful. But in the dark of the night, a spy sneaks through the enemy lines. He has rushed to the city to tell the people that in another place the main enemy force has been defeated; the leaders have already surrendered. The people do not need to be afraid. It is only a matter of time until the besieging troops receive the news and lay down their weapons. Similarly, we may seem now to be surrounded by the forces of evil, disease, injustice, oppression, death. But the enemy has actually been defeated at Calvary. Things are not the way they seem to be. It is only a matter of time until it becomes clear to all that the battle is really over. – Richard J. Mouw, Uncommon Decency, pp. 149-150.

I am getting ready for a war – because it is coming! You can feel it all around you. Domestically, we are facing continuous and unrelenting attacks on any who take the Bible seriously. Our nation has shuddered off its foundation and appears sagging in places that once stood firm and secure. Abroad, we are feeling the effects of an ill wind that we cannot seem to harness – no matter how much money we pour on the regions afar. Christians that I know well are incensed, exhausted and feeling marginalized. Many are angry and most are pessimistic. Before you give in to those feelings, I want you to join me in the coming fight. I want you to take all the hurt, all the anger, all the pain – and bring it with you to the recruiting office where we will sign you up to fight. Be patient with me, and you will understand what I am talking about. Listen closely to the Scriptures I read to you, and you will leave with weaponry and a pack that has been significantly lightened of all the weight some of you are carrying.

James is my hero in the call to fight. He understood what it meant to hear the rising call of negativity and anger. His writing tipped his hand that he was neither deaf to the cries of believers nor ready to given in and join them in their whining. He argued very forcefully that believers have a mandate, a manual and a mission – and it all ends well. He lifted broken down people and enlisted the angry and weak to fight back – and I want to do the same. He offered by the power and guidance of the Spirit and incredible truth I want you to consider carefully in the few verses we are looking at in this lesson. He stared straight into the faces of hurting and beleaguered followers of Jesus and told them to stop talking the way they were. He shared this important truth…

Key Principle: God has spoken on a way to settle down people who are stirred, and create peace from chaos.

I want to warn you of something as we share a teaching from God’s Word today. This lesson may feel a bit unusual – different from the norm. In part, this is because I need to include in the instruction a personal confession. I am uncomfortable with sharing the personal side of my own inner life, but I am compelled by God’s Spirit to do so. Because of the nature of the morning, I am asking you to be particularly patient with me, as I work through something in front of you that is both personal and painful – because I believe it will bring out God’s intended direction and truth to us. If you will hear me out, I believe you will fully understand both the problem, and the solutions. I will ask for the prayerful support of my friends as I open up my heart along with opening up the Scriptures…

First, let’s set the passage in the letter from which it is drawn. In the lessons we have already shared in James, we have been paying attention to the way James addressed issues of the tongue, particularly as it was set in the life behaviors of one that desired to follow God.

• We noted that a careful reading of the beginning of the letter by James forced us to conclude that some of the early believers were complaining about the weight of troubles in their lives, perhaps feeling like God wasn’t sufficiently caring for them in the midst of trials.

• Still others of that corps, blistered by the harshness of the troubles of their lives, felt God may have even been responsible for dangling temptation in front of them – as if to entrap them. The pains of the time were causing them to slip into a view of God that was incorrect, and James laid the matter to rest – God uses weight of troubles to train us, but not bait of temptations to ensnare us.

• As he continued, James showed that the preferential treatment of people was a thinly veiled manipulative behavior – verbally trying to “curry favor” with people they believed had the means of adding to things their flesh hungered for – fortune, fame, power and pleasure. Their flesh driven heart showed through in their attitudes and actions offering favor to one, but distance to another – and that just wasn’t right. Poor and rich – people should be cared for because God loves them, not because they can help out our quest or cause.

• James became even “prickly” to some of us as we kept studying, and he noted growing trend of SPOKEN FAITH that was not backed up by surrendered life – we exposed the fake faith of some. James argued those who decided to speak one way but live another were not authentically part of the Kingdom. Many of us simply said, “Ouch!”

• By our last study together in the first part of James 3, it became obvious that some people wanted to teach, but they didn’t have control over their tongue – and that is a problem that I personally understand very clearly! When you speak and teach as much as I do in a week – it is a constant feeling of inadequacy and lack of control.

The letter by James systematically exposed a central truth – words weren’t the CAUSE of the problems of the early believers – they illustrated where their hearts already had gone. Over and over we see it illustrated… the mouth is the window to the heart and its condition.

Then my eyes fall on the words from the end of James 3, and they hit me like a hammer. I confess that I was not happy reading these words this week, because they came at a time of intense, personal struggle for me. Let’s first look at the text, then I will explain the struggle a bit more:

James 3:13 “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. 18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

As I read the words of James about real wisdom, peaceable wisdom, productive wisdom…I was not at all happy with this passage of Scripture, set in the week we have just experienced as a nation. Let me explain:

Reading from the New York Times published on September 12, 2012: “Islamist militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a lightly defended United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, late Tuesday, killing the American ambassador and three members of his staff and raising questions about the radicalization of countries swept up in the Arab Spring. The ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, was missing almost immediately after the start of an intense, four-hour firefight for control of the mission, and his body was not located until Wednesday morning at dawn, when he was found dead at a Benghazi hospital, American and Libyan officials said. It was the first time since 1979 that an American ambassador had died in a violent assault.”

The next day, Politico published this on September 13, 2012: “TIME magazine switched from a science cover to “THE AGENTS OF OUTRAGE: An embassy attacked. Diplomats murdered. The new calculus of violence against America … A chain of violence from Cairo to Benghazi raises the question, Did the Arab Spring make the Middle East more dangerous?” (The writer Bobby Ghosh continued): “As the Obama Administration struggles to contain the fallout of the ­killings-and even to piece together exactly what happened-there’s an increasing apprehension that this attack may herald a new genre of Middle East crisis. The Arab Spring replaced the harsh order of hated dictators with a flowering of neophyte democracies. But these governments-with weak mandates, ever shifting loyalties and poor security forces-have made the region a more chaotic and unstable place, a place more susceptible than ever to rogue provocateurs fomenting violent upheavals, usually in the name of faith. [T]hese hatemongers form a global industry of outrage, working feverishly to give and take offense, frequently over religion, and to ignite the combustible mix of ignorance and suspicion that exists almost as much in the U.S. as in the Arab world. Add to this combination the presence of opportunistic jihadist groups seeking to capitalize on any mayhem, and you can begin to connect the dots between a tawdry little film and the deaths of four American diplomats. … The new normal in Egypt and Libya is not as perilous as in Pakistan. … But as the fledgling democracies of the Middle East struggle to cope with the genies unleashed by the Arab Spring, you can count on the industry of outrage to work overtime to drag the Middle East in that direction.”

Maybe you are just beginning to catch a glimpse of my problem, and hear the faint beginning echo of my confession. Brothers and sisters, I get worn out in the face of the coming darkness.

• I get angry when I see a mob mentality descend on people as they ignorantly pummel innocents in the name of their religion. I get angry inside at them, and I want to find someone to blame for it all.

• I get angry at my fellow Americans, that seem more intent on justifying the hatred against my country then addressing the unjust and outrageous behaviors perpetrated against it.

• I am disgusted when I see a photo of a dying young man, who served his country and then became a simple political football for the current news cycle.

• I hurt for his family, and I am sickened by the parade of happy barbarians that took pleasure in his death – and I don’t care why they did. Their hollow religion never looked more hollow than when they were happy killing someone.

• I become incensed when the argument shifts from the policies of the country to which candidate said what about events and when did they say it – because minutiae of a process story quickly overtook a sincere discussion about why we have sent men and women into harm’s way and poured out their blood and what we hope to achieve in all the blood and dollars poured into the region.

We haven’t even moved to the domestic side of the street, where a Christian science professor in a state university is removed from his position for “admitting in response to a question raised by a student that he believes in the Bible and Jesus” though he offered no further details to his students at all, and specifically did nothing to try and make them believe what he did. Simple belief in the very things that Senators and Presidents get elected saying they believe now gets one summarily tossed into a review board as our freedom of speech is reduced to ashes when it includes anything Christian.

• I could rant all morning and many I suspect that many of you would not only agree with the feelings, you may volunteer to chant beside me. I know you feel it, and I know you are disgusted by it all.

• I want to blame Islam, because I cannot accept any statement of defense of a religion that is defended by violence.

• I want to blame my government, because they are borrowing money, spending my children’s America into oblivion over blind greed. They claim to want to help me, but take the equity of all that I have worked hard to build and squander it on Wall Street and helping banks to recover – those same banks that jack up our interest rates when we are most vulnerable and try their best to empty our personal prosperity into their stock portfolios.

• I want to blame my President, because he has replaced by executive order a proud military tradition, reducing the United States Marine Corps to a gay pride parade.

If I tried, I think I could get a political rally going here. I think I could get some of you to believe that we accomplished something together by ranting and yelling and anger and outrage.

But then I recognize the problems:

First, we don’t all see the political world through the same lens–  and this isn’t a political forum – it is a church where we study God’s Word.

Second, ranting won’t help. It will stir us up, but it won’t actually change anything! What’s more, it won’t yield what we WANT or NEED from the future.

Thirdly, and here is the part that made me struggle so – it isn’t Biblical. It isn’t wisdom from above. It isn’t reasonable. It is fleshly, and angry and wrong. I will show you this in Scripture should you doubt that.

Before I do, let me say that the enemy has DIGITALLY DUPED US. He has sapped our strength and halted our progress by a trick so slick that most believers are infected, but few are aware of the symptoms.

• To the younger generation – they have been “digitally duped” into setting aside enormous numbers of hours of real life interaction and accomplishment by believing they are accomplishing something in a fake digital world. Instead of learning honor and standing for their country, they are shooting at digital enemies in a game that lacks any moral concept upon which such violence can be understood. Instead of training their bodies to grow strong and be disciplined, they are making “Madden” passes on a digital screen and feeling like they are “playing football”. The inborn God-given desire to accomplish and work is fast being replaced in this passive generation by people that think their score in a game online is an actual sign of achievement. They have satisfied a need to accomplish within, but fill it without accomplishing anything in the real world.

• I know parents and grandparents reading this that will agree with me. They see it. They are worried about it. At the same time, they have also, many of them, been DIGITALLY DUPED. The older generation may not be wasting effort and energy on DIGITAL GAMES but they ARE burning up many hours on DIGITAL SPARRING. Instead of helping in a shelter, they are raging about the inequity of society on Facebook, acting like saying more about it, posting more about it, finding cute pictures about it – are the same as DOING something about it. They will chide their grandchildren  for lack of activity as they sit in a chair for hours on end blaming Islam for world instability, blaming the government, blaming Hollywood, and anyone else that MSNBC, CNN or FOX will help them blame. They will feel justified posting angry rhetoric because they feel that writing about it so much is tantamount to real change.

Here’s the truth – It isn’t. Posting about Roe vs. Wade isn’t the same thing as the young woman that spent yesterday outside the abortion clinic sitting quietly praying for the girls that were going in. Four babies were saved as they spent their own money to have an ultrasound van sitting across the street, and they quietly counseled young women and provided real and tangible help to them. Most Christians yelled at them on Facebook or tried to preach at them on T-shirts. These ladies, armed with real wisdom, went out and made a difference. They fought the war, and they saved four children.

I have talked around the text a lot. It is time to look straight into the text and see if we can understand what James was saying about real, productive and godly wisdom. James opened with a simple and profound question:

James 3:13 “Who among you is wise and understanding? There are two words that are related in the question – wise (Sophia) from which we get words like sophistry and philosophy from, and understanding (epistimos) from which we get words like epistemology – the term for that branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and limitations of human knowledge.

After telling them that:

• God is training them but not baiting them (James 1),
• That currying favor with their mouths is wrong (James 2),
• That speaking one way but living another is WRONG (James 2),
• That controlling the tongue was nearly impossible, and too many people wanted to teach but hadn’t nearly mastered it…(James 3):

They were probably pretty beat down. Then James said, “Who ACTUALLY is valuable as a teacher? Who has truth that can change our understanding of the problems around us and the Spirit within us?

Then came the answer it two segments. On the one hand, James shared what wisdom IS in James 3:12. On the other hand, James showed what real wisdom IS NOT in James 3:14-16. Finally He drew a picture of wisdom in eight characteristics – lighting the room of the wise with eight windows.

What Wisdom Is (James 3:13b)

James wrote: 3 :13b “…Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.”

• Wisdom is practical – it is behavior and work not simple theory and word. It is something people can SEE in action, not just hear in word or read in print.

• Wisdom is persuasive because it is invested. The term “behavior” (anastrophe) is actually two words combined – the word UPWARD and the word CHANGE. The idea of good behavior in the passage is behavior that pulls others upward toward positive change. It isn’t ranting – it is acting.

• Wisdom is polite because it is informed. The term “gentleness” is the term for consideration. To consider is to look carefully at. It is not to send out the email that has our political bias without checking the facts contained in it. That isn’t wise and it isn’t right. The world has PLENTY of propaganda, and we need to be careful not to pass it on. Be informed, and you may seek to inform –  but let the information be handled with great consideration to others.

What Wisdom Is NOT (James 3:14-16)

James went on to make sure that the reader completely understood what wisdom was NOT.  James 3:14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

Wisdom from God is not SHARP TONGUED (the term bitter is both sharp and bitter – but has the same idea). In consideration, we dare not ‘fire back’ and think we are doing God’s work. We can hold the line on truth, and we are called to ever be diligent to show what is RIGHT in God’s teaching before men – even refusing to get revenge (cp. Romans 12:17).

Wisdom from God is not SELF TOUTED (the term selfish ambition is two words that mean “self promoting strife”. The purpose of sharing godly wisdom isn’t to win the argument and look better than the other – that is just an EGO exercise. The purpose of godly wisdom is to bring God’s truth into the situation and settle the people with it. It doesn’t mean that men in darkness won’t oppose God – it means that you are not trying to get the to agree with you – you are striving to offer them the real hope that comes with TRUTH. It is for that reason the text goes on to say that when we hide our ego in the argument, we are being arrogant and lying (the actual word is pseudomai) – impersonating godliness.

Wisdom from above is not SOULISH THINKING (the word earthly in verse 15 is “physical”; the word “natural” is (pseuchikos) physical world minded. The idea is that godly wisdom comes from the spiritual realm of truth, and that sees BROADER than just the physical world. The values of a believer are NOT rooted in what is BEST on earth for him or her. Think of the sacrifices our mission partners make to be far from home and family. They do it because they are not thinking about pleasing themselves in this life, but in living for Jesus and celebrating in the next life. SOULISH THINKING chooses a career based on salary and perks. Godly thinking chooses a career based on where God can best use you for Himself. It can be a janitor or a greeter, a doctor or a gardener – it only matters WHY the choice was made – not WHAT the choice became.

Wisdom from above is not SATAN TREATED (the term “demonic” is from the underworld beneath. Pass the anger on. Don’t try to be considerate – just say the thing that cuts back. Even if your cause is just, a caustic deportment and an angry tongue provides the demonic world with a delight. Yell about Islam – it is a lot easier than spending time praying for that part of the world, and trying to support those who are reaching into it with the Gospel. Yell. You will feel better. So will the enemy beneath your feet.

Wisdom from above is not SENSELESS TANTRUM (the terms “disorder” and “every evil thing” are actually “instability” and “worthless deeds”. The enemy is using literally millions of Christians to spend their energy in arguments, draining and distracting them from PRAYER. Do you want to see people changed? Gather for prayer. Don’t just chat and throw a prayer on the end – PRAY. Spend time asking God for the right information to become an informed prayer partner. Adopt a missionary to the unborn, or to some part of the world. Take an issue and become its advocate before the Father. Don’t take them all – you will burn out and give up. Take one, maybe two. Invest your time, talent and treasure in making a difference in ONE AREA – you will get more done than the news media can inform you of after five continuous hours of nonstop noise.

Let me say it clearly: We can take one hour of prayer for our public schools and our dedicated Christian teachers and accomplish what we cannot do in ten hours of raging about the curriculum and its faults. We can sit with a young pregnant girl and offer real help to her – and that may save a life.

• We can visit an elderly person and take them a flower or a card, and that will do more for them than getting mad at the latest thing AARP supported that you don’t agree with.

Go to war with me. Pick up the armor and the sword. Call the Master to direct you from anger to accomplishment, from posting rants to praying relentlessly. Those deeds won’t be fruitless. They won’t be empty. They’ll change your perspective. The war always looks different when you are actually in it.

Don’t be duped into thinking your helping when you cannot see any real work you are accomplishing. You aren’t! You are just getting “crusty for a cause” or “grumpy for God”.

What Wisdom LOOKS LIKE (James 3:17-18)

Here is a picture of godly and productive wisdom: James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

It is PURE –which means untainted, innocent, free of stains. You don’t go to the clinic to serve Jesus and also get a date. You find a cause that is on God’s heart, and you follow through without SELF as a primary concern.

It is PEACEABLE – that is the word for seeking resolution. Don’t just kick up dust about a problem – do something about it that will help. If you can labor – do it. If you can’t – sit in a chair, learn about the issue, and pour over it in prayer.

It is PROPER – that is the word “gentle”, but it really means EQUITABLE. Handle all that God lays on your heart in a balanced and loving way. “Fair and balanced” shouldn’t be a news slogan – it should be your deportment, your behavior.

It is PERSUASIVE – that is the word translated “reasonable” but the term is two Greek words that together are “good” plus “persuade or have confidence”. It is reasoned, reasonable and draws people into understanding.

It is PASSIONATE – in the sense of the word “COMPASSION”. The term “full of mercy” applies to our desire to go out of the way to be fair to people. We can call wrong what it is, but we should not be unduly harsh. Calling names is not compassionate. Slamming someone’s intentions is out of bounds – since you cannot read their heart. You may disagree, but not denigrate.

It is PRODUCTIVE – it focuses on positive outcomes. The term “full of good fruits” means focused on actually offering productive insight and practical help.

It is POSITIVE – in the sense of certainty and surety. The term “unwavering” is a building term, and includes the idea of being settled and sure, but also RIGHTLY SETTLED. Our focus must be on offering HELP, not just WINNING AN ARGUMENT.

It is PURPOSIVE – it serves a PURPOSE. It is a marker of your authenticity and genuine caring. The term “without hypocrisy” carries the idea of sincere. It isn’t just a passing whim or irritation that causes us to “weigh in” – it is because we are invested deeply in that problem and its solution.

As James ends his tutoring on godly wisdom, he offers a PROVERB of how wisdom should be injected into the world: James 3: 18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

There it is: God said that real implanting of His wisdom that will produce JUSTICE and RIGHT is placed by people who have PEACE reigning within and desire to see PEACE triumph without.

There is no place for stirring up trouble to get things settled – that is fleshly thinking. We have seen that God’s wisdom comes a different way – and pushes us to prayer. It leads us to care. It beckons us to share. It brings CHANGE because it comes on the back of authentic personal investment. It can’t be sending money from afar – that won’t do. You cannot simply pay for missions in dollars, it must be paid for on the back of a vibrant seeking of God for the people in prayer. Programs can’t do it – prayer can. Shouting won’t do it – care can. Theory won’t cut it – sharing can.

 I can’t just yell about the Muslim world, I must be informed about them, pray for them, and if I can – find a way to show God’s love to them. I don’t have to agree with their behavior, as they don’t have to agree with mine – but I will win more hearts and minds with loving care then fiery posts about distant problems and anonymous faces. God has spoken on a way to settle down people who are stirred, and create peace from chaos.

I am ready to fight on my knees. I am calling on you to cry out to God for the people of Libya, and the pagans next door. I am pleading with you to spend more time helping than hearing, caring than cursing, loving then lashing out. There is a war on – and I am excited about where it is going.

Every actor wants one – the leading role in the movie. It is a time when their talent as an actor will be showcased. They will be the hero or heroine of the show – and all eyes will watch them. It is heady stuff. We understand, because we all grew up in a fame hungry world. Most of us, at least at one point, played “air guitar” in front of the mirror, and imagined ourselves playing before thousands of adoring and applauding fans. We know WHY people want to be up front, and what part of their ego fame feeds.

Before we know the Lord, many of us had our favorite music group, and perhaps even our favorite actors in posters on the wall. When we came to Christ, we may have left the world of lost celebrities– because they lost their appeal. We took down our old posters, put away our old CDs, and deleted some of our favs off the iPod music directory. Sadly, in a short time, we probably found that Christians had celebrities too. They had their own posters; their own heroes. If we were gifted to be “up front” people – teachers, leaders and the like – we probably started to want to be ONE of them – the noticed Christian famed leaders. We may have become enamored with the idea of leading people. Among youth, they often express the desire to lead a ministry among young people – perhaps as a Youth Pastor or Worship leader

There is no problem with wanting to use our gifts – that is as it should be. The problem comes when we misunderstand the nature of the gifts, and misplace the value of certain kinds of service to the Lord. An immature believer can easily end up thinking that what we SAY is the most important part of our testimony… when it is NOT. Speaking that isn’t backed up by living detracts from the clarity of the Gospel message to a lost world.

Key Principle: Serving Jesus is about how we discipline our lives- especially in the area of the tongue. The grand mark of maturity is the consistent ability to control the use of their tongue. Since the old man is ever within, mature believers limit the old man’s access to the microphone of the mouth.

Taming the tongue has always been a struggle, and James is clear to express it is a necessary one for maturity and testimony. We dare not think that our appetite for fame and affirmation will not creep up at a moment’s notice to grab control of our words – it will. How many of us were already embarrassed as we heard the words leaving our mouths on more than one occasion?

James has been addressing “thing people say” all the way through his letter – and this page will be no different. This short book has merely five short chapters but offers powerful and practical wisdom for life in “sound bite” style. As we have seen up to this point in our study of this letter, James was a man on a mission. God directed him to deal with loose lips of early believers. Reports were brought to his attention of the types of problems that came up in the early church, and God used his simple candor to communicate both the issues and the principles that would answer the problems caused, at least in part, by the tongue.

• Reading through the first part of the Epistle, it appeared that there may have been some bitter complaining about the troubles that surrounded the early Jewish believers scattered in the Roman world. Reading even further, some in the congregations were apparently beaten down to the point that they even blamed God for enticement in the intense temptations they experienced – as though He was willing to test them to the point of entrapping them. They were beat, and their mouths bore evidence of the pain. James pressed the believers to understand that trouble was not an enemy, nor was it always sent from one. Trouble could have been a sculpting tool of God to prepare and condition them for the future He planned for them. On the other hand, not a word of blame, said James, could rightly be aimed at God for the issue of succumbing to temptation – that was surrendering to the old man, or the flesh inside. God didn’t tempt them – He never does that.

• By what we now call chapter two, James showed another way their mouths were a window to their needy and fallen hearts. He exposed the inner root of preferential treatment of people. Privileged treatment of people was a thinly veiled manipulative behavior – verbally trying to “curry favor” with people they believed had the means of adding to things their flesh hungered for – fortune, fame, power and pleasure. (James 2:1-13). Because of that inner fleshly hunger, their mouth offered favor to one, but distance to another – and that just wasn’t right.

• In our last lesson we concluded the mouth also exposed the fake faith of some. James argued those who decided to speak one way but live another were not authentically part of the Kingdom. As in so many cases – the words didn’t CAUSE the problem – they illustrated where the heart already was.  Over and over we see it illustrated… the mouth is the window to the heart and its condition.

As we open James 3, we find another example of the things people were saying that exposed a heart problem. In fact, on quick inspection, it sounds in James 3:1, like the author was somehow discouraging people from being teachers of the faith because there was something wrong. James wrote: “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.”

When we look carefully at the letter, we can easily see that James was not ANTI-TEACHER. He wasn’t trying to stop the exercise of the teaching gift that God gave to some believers as a byproduct of the Spirit’s indwelling. Teaching God’s truth is a deep privilege – but it is also a definite responsibility. It is paired with a discipline that is very hard to master, which is what James emphasized. Perhaps a clearer reading of the text would be something like this:

“Do not be so quick to desire to be teachers, for they will be judged under more stringent rules. The more you say to others, the more possibility you offer to cause them error – and that can be devastating. The one who is able to harness every word that they utter is completely mature, since the hardest discipline of the body is the tongue.”

James highlighted is a critical truth: we must be careful about the way we consistently communicate so that we converse in a Christ-like way. In his world, that was PRIMARILY VERBAL. In our world, words are more often shared in writing. In either case, we must take full responsibility for our words.

When we say things like, “I only said that because I was under pressure” or “You made me so mad, that is why I yelled that!” we betray our own lack of discipline, and perhaps even our own desire to relieve personal responsibility. We are ALWAYS responsible for the words that come from our mouths. When the flesh tugs downward at the heart to share some bit of dirt about someone else – we are responsible. When outbursts of anger flare up within the flesh and we blurt out some hurtful sentence – we are responsible. The tongue is the window to the heart – and the heart shares the voices of both the Spirit of God and the old man within.

Let me apply this idea even further: Only recently did I begin to understand that some in the next-gen culture view words on a page in an entirely different way than the generations that preceded them. As I was growing up, we placed much more emphasis on anything you WROTE, even to the point that we avoided signing papers that were not thoroughly a representation of what we believed to be true. Yet, I am discovering that for some that sense has been badly eroded and is no longer a given. I confronted someone about a post they put on their Facebook page that did not represent what I thought they truly wanted to show to the world. They replied: I ONLY wrote that – it isn’t like I SAID it. I was stunned. You WROTE it but you thought that was LESS WEIGHTY than your words. “Of course” they replied.

When I thought more carefully about it, I think I began to understand where they could get that mistaken behavior. You see, my wife and I get a periodic updates to our credit cards in no less than eight pages, sometimes greater than sixteen pages – usually drafted in a number five font (small writing) to describe the routine changes my bank or lender is making to the terms of our agreement. Every software I install gives me  an “I agree” checkbox to pages of legal agreements as if I had any idea of what they may be truly saying. I sign my name entering a hospital claiming I will take ‘FULL RESPONSIBILITY’ when I don’t have a clue whether the bill will be $1000 or $1,000,000,000. We regularly are forced to sign things that are beyond our comprehension just to keep vital services in our lives. The written word has been diminished in its importance, and the younger people of our time have noticed.

Let me say this clearly: Whether in writing of in speech – your words are, as best as you are possibly able – to reflect a heart surrendered to Jesus Christ. To the extent that is NOT happening – there is a submission issue that must be dealt with before God. James illustrated the need carefully as he shared examples of one truth found in James 3:5a: “So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.”

James offered three mistakes we make about our tongue that are perhaps more clearly seen through visual examples. He wants to focus on underlying mistakes of judgment that keep us from dealing with discipline of the tongue:

Example #1: The bridled horse (James 3:3)

James 3:3 Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well.

Misunderstanding of destructive power: When we don’t discipline our tongue we demonstrate that we don’t understand how powerful a weapon it can be in the old man’s control.

The sheer size and strength of the weapon is aptly illustrated in the HORSE. Many people in the ancient world were familiar with few machines, but they knew of the damage a frightened runaway horse could cause in a marketplace. We can easily forget what a damaging effect our words can have on the heart of another – and it comes from an unbridled tongue. Controlling the outcome is made possible by controlling the tongue.

Example #2: The ship’s rudder (James 3:4)

Jame 3:4 Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.

Miscalculation of directive power: When we don’t discipline our tongue we demonstrate that we don’t really understand the significant effect our tongue can be on changing the direction of our lives or other’s lives.

The effectiveness of a tiny rudder against what seemed a limitless sea was highlighted in this argument. We can be duped into thinking that our words, because they are so small and come from one who is not so important, don’t matter much. We don’t take seriously their power to direct our thinking, other’s thinking and our collective direction. Future direction can often be charted by present speech.

Example #3: The forest fire (James 3:5b)

5b “…See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

Misjudgment of distinct purpose: We don’t discipline our tongue because we don’t truly recognize what it was made for and how its usefulness is also its greatest danger.

The tongue is in its nature a match. It was designed not only to express our thoughts, but to illicit assistance, evoke response, and even gain a reaction. It is the verbal equivalent to a lighter or match.

James completed the essay on the tongue with two ideals that form the goal of every believer:

Principle #1: The tongue requires…Absolute Control:

We seem to be able to subdue the earth and its animal kingdom, but not the tongue. The tongue requires complete control because it can do enormous destructive damage.

James 3:7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.

It is clear in these verses that the tongue can be terribly destructive, and that it is incredibly hard to get control over. How can we get control of our tongue? Are there any truths from the Word that will help us? Fortunately there are:

First, fear a loose lip – respect the power of your words.

I don’t mean one should fear that in speaking something it will come true – you don’t have the power to create reality with your voice. If you said a harsh word to a friend, only to have harmed in an accident, you didn’t cause the accident by your words. You cannot do that, and you musn’t walk around with that guilt in your heart. At the same time, you do have the power to create a perception in someone’s mind with your words. Your tongue is but three inches long, yet it can reduce to tears a man more than six feet tall.

Whoever taught us, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me?” was an idiot! It is a statement disconnected from reality – what the word “idiot” originally meant in Greek. Words can break our hearts. Broken bones can heal with time, but a broken spirit caused by words of death, is not quickly repaired. David never had a stone more deadly than the sling some people have for a tongue – don’t forget that.

A child can be built up or torn down with your words. A struggling friend can be lifted with a few simple and honest encouragements. A room of strangers can be cleared quickly with the shout of “Fire!” People DO respond to our words, and we need to remember that. We must learn to have a healthy respect for the damage we can cause will we be careful about what we say, how we say it, and who we say it to.

Proverbs 18:21 reminds: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Don’t simply fixate on the negative – the statement concerning death – because the author is trying to say something positive. He argues: “People who love the power of the word will use it to create positive fruit and enjoy that!” Words don’t only KILL… they also BUILD.

The tongue can express or repress; release or restrain; enlighten or obscure; adore or abhor; offend or befriend; affirm or alienate; build or belittle; comfort or criticize; delight or destroy; be sincere or sinister. The tongue can Xerox the good or X-ray the bad. (sermon central illustrations).

You have the power to encourage someone today with your words. You can keep someone from making a wrong decision that will scar them forever with a confident and loving word to them.

After Karen Carpenter died of heart failure at the age of 32 brought on by years of fighting an eating disorder, it came out that her fatal obsession with her weight was triggered by a single reviewer’s comment. When referring to Karen, this man called her “Richard’s chubby sister.” While I’m sure there were other factors attributing to Karen Carpenter’s struggles, this one comment unleashed a flurry of self-doubt, which led to her eventual disease and death. (sermon central illustrations).

In fact, I wonder if you ever considered that your words can make you guilty of MURDER. Jesus made that point in Matthew 5:21

“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ 22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”

Jesus was on a mountain north of the Sea of Galilee, early one morning. I know it was early, because you can fry an egg on a rock in midday out there, so if people sat down, it was early in the day. He argued that an disciple of His would need to recognize His call back to the Law in its original context. He did not desire to uproot the Law of Moses (since He wrote it 1400 years before), but rather to set it back in context with His original design. The passage above shows that WORDS were part of the formula for keeping that law. He argued: You would like to think you avoid violating the design standard of murder, but you cannot make that claim if you assassinate others with our mouth and leave destruction in your wake.” What we say matters in life and death – just as Proverbs reminds us.

Jesus said it many ways in His teaching: Matthew 12:34 and 15:19: “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks…for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lies and slander.” The tongue is no friend when not monitored constantly and carefully.

Here is a practical tip I got from a Sunday school teacher and wrote down years ago: THINK before you speak by asking these five questions in an acrostic before you speak.

• Is it Truth? Especially in this political season – don’t pass it on if you are not sure.

A bus load of politicians were driving down a country road when the bus suddenly ran off the road and crashed into an old farmer’s field. The old farmer heard the tragic crash so he rushed over to investigate. He then began digging a large grave to bury the politicians. A few hours later, the local sheriff was driving past the farmer’s field and noticed the bus wreck. He approached the old farmer and asked where all the politicians had gone. The old farmer explained that he’d gone ahead and buried all of them. “Were they ALL dead?” asked the puzzled sheriff. “Well, some of them said they weren’t,” said the old farmer, “but you know how them politicians lie.” (Sermon central illustrations).

A little girl asked her father, “Daddy? Do all Fairy Tales begin with ’Once Upon A Time’?” He replied, “No, there is a whole series of Fairy Tales that begin with ’If elected I promise’.” (Sermon central illustrations).

• Is it Helpful? Will your words offer a solution to their problem?
• Is it Inspirational? Will your words lift someone to think in a new way?
• Is it Necessary? Do we have to respond?
• Is it Kind? Is it based on a desire to genuinely help?

Second, limit your words.

Talk less than you do now in the future. Mature believers know that our chances of misusing the tongue are directly proportional to the amount of time we keep our mouths open. Former presidents have recognized the need to limit their words:

• Abe Lincoln said, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

• Calvin Coolidge said, “I have never been hurt by anything I did not say.”

Proverbs 10:19 puts it this way: “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.”

One Pastor wrote a simple story that helped me:

A woman had a very serious throat condition. The doctor told her that her vocal cords needed total rest ­ she was forbidden to talk for 6 months! With a husband and 6 kids, this seemed impossible, but she did what she was told. When she needed the kids she blew a whistle. Whenever she needed to communicate she wrote things on pads of paper. After six months, her voice came back. When asked what it was like to communicate only in writing, she said this: “You’d be surprised how many notes I crumpled up and threw into the trash before I gave them to anyone. Seeing my words before anyone heard them had an effect that I don’t think I can ever forget.”

Remember, “If you don’t say it — they can’t repeat it.”

Third, choose your words.

I loved this story:

Pianist Arthur Rubenstein, who could speak in eight languages, once told this story on himself: Some years ago he had a stubborn case of hoarseness. The newspapers were full of reports about smoking and cancer; so he decided to consult a throat specialist. “I searched his face for a clue during the 30 minute examination,” Rubenstein said, “but it was expressionless. He told me to come back the next day. I went home full of fears, and I didn’t sleep that night.” The next day there was another long examination and again an ominous silence. “Tell me,” the pianist exclaimed. “I can stand the truth. I’ve lived a full, rich life. What’s wrong with me?” The physician said, “You talk too much.”

Sometimes we MUST speak. The mouth was a GIFT of God that we share to move hearts. It can be beneficial, and we should actively seek to use it that way! James 1:19, 26: “…Take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry…if anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” He couldn’t be clearer – our faith’s power hangs on our ability to control our tongue- and we are on the planet to share our faith with others.

Proverbs 12:18 says: “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Who can I heal with words today – because I want to do it! The world is wounded and hurting people. They have been wounded by the verbal arrows shot from the bow of angry hearts. The pliers of truth can remove the arrows of harm. The salve of encouragement can ease the sting of past wounds. The bandage of loving and inspiring comment can cover the scars and keep them from becoming scabs. I want my breath to heal, my words to comfort, my verse to inspire.

Remember that it is not simply the words you choose, but the relationship you have had that gives the words power. If you know someone well, the words of encouragement root more deeply. Your richest appreciation should be liberally poured into the heart of the people closest to you. Don’t let someone else tell your parent how much you love them – YOU tell them. Don’t let someone else share how much your spouse means to you based on the things you say about them when they aren’t around – YOU say them direct to the person that you love. If they aren’t near, get a phone. Buy a card. Send a text. Tell them. Everyone needs sincere cheerleading in life. Encouragement is being drowned out by loud voices of blame, guilt, doom and despair. YOU have the power to help someone by verbalizing encouragement.

Years ago I heard Chuck Swindoll preaching on the tongue. He told a story that I am sure I will not get all the details perfect on – but it was a powerful story to me. He spoke of a friend he had who had a son with a large birth mark that was embedded across his face. It was an unmistakable mark that made Mikhail Gorbachev’s purple mark look tiny. There was no hiding it, and the boy didn’t seem to mind a bit. One day Pastor Chuck spoke to the young man about the mark, and asked him directly why it seemed to have so little negative effect on his self-esteem – although it was different than everyone in school. The boy told him that ever since he could remember, his father told him: “Son, that birthmark is where an angel kissed your face. You have it so that I can always pick you out of the crowd.” The young man surprised him as he continued, “You know, I almost feel sorry for those who don’t have a birthmark.” There was a dad who breathed life into a situation that could have devastated his son. Acceptance is powerful. Affirmation is securing. Love verbalized is empowering.

Fourth, improve your thinking – since that is where the words come from.

I once heard someone say “the first screw that gets loose in a person’s head is the one that controls the tongue” – and he longer I live, the more I am beginning to believe it. It is sad, in my view, that some who have known the Lord for many years still regularly lose to a wagging tongue. We can try to keep quiet, but for some of us, that probably won’t happen. Maybe a better strategy is to fill our minds with greater vision. Maybe by learning and growing, we will be more apt to speak words of positive encouragement.

Someone has said that “great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people.” I want to be known as an IDEA GUY. I want to lift those who listen to greater aspirations of following God and walking in truth. I want to pull people up – not push them down.

William A. Ward wrote: “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” That has surely been true of the best of my teachers. They inspired me because they helped me to see from a higher plane. They helped me recognize areas of danger in my choices without robbing me of the choices themselves. They offered positive reinforcement but were not warm and fuzzy –they were crisp thinking and they wanted me to be as well.

The best way to grow others around us is to keep growing ourselves. Don’t get stale. Read things that are hard for you to grasp at first. Flex the mind muscles. Learn… Dr. Howard Hendricks told of a professor who made an impact on his life. He passed his home many times, early in the morning and late at night, and often saw him pouring over his books. One day, Hendricks asked him, “Doctor, I’d like to know, what is it that keeps you studying? You never cease to learn.” His answer: “Son, I would rather have my students drink from a running stream than from a stagnant pool.”

The plain fact is this: We do what we do because we think what we think. If we want to change what we do, we should change how, and about what, we are thinking. When pressure comes upon us, the inner well of thoughts springs forth – for better or worse. What are you reading? What are you studying? What are you watching? A lazy mind will lead to a barren life.

James closed the passage with another important principle that we are all sure to agree is essential in relation to our mouths…

Principle #2: The tongue requires…Absolute Consistency:

We seem to be able to use it well at times, but not consistently. The tongue requires complete consistency because God didn’t make it for both good and evil.

James 3:9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. 11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

God created trees and plants to bear singular fruits. An apple tree was not designed to produce an orange. Grafting aside, the natural process is clear – God made things distinct from one another. Just as there are olives from an olive tree, grapes from a grape vine, figs from a fig tree, fresh water from a fresh spring – MIXED is not God’s way. The same truth should be applied to our mouths.

When a child is raised in an environment that is inconsistent – one day encouragement, the next day biting sarcasm and hurtful slander – they are misshapen by the sheer duplicity of it all. They don’t know what to expect when the parent begins to speak. Reliability is about predictability.

What do they hear us say? Do we bless people to their faces and bad mouth them at their backs? What should our child believe about us when that is what they see and hear?

Years ago I was at a party for a man retiring from a long time teaching in a Bible school. I did not know the man well, but I was impressed with his humility, especially in light of the way his teaching had dramatically impacted so many people I knew. He was teary and quite during tributes of his colleagues. It wasn’t until his son spoke that I saw him truly begin to cry. His son got up and simply offered this tribute to his dad:

“You all know a man that wears a public face. He teaches with authority and humility. I am here to tell you of another man – the one at home. He sounds, in every moment that I can recall – exactly the same. There is no guile in him. He is a man of integrity at home and authenticity outside – and I have never met another man like him. When I was young, I was proud of him. Now, I am a man that must begin to measure up to the standard he has lived before me.” I remember the room went quiet. We were all touched. We were all probably also a bit challenged. “Is that what my children would say of me?” I thought.

Serving Jesus is about how we discipline our lives- especially in the area of the tongue. The grand mark of maturity is the consistent ability to control the use of their tongue. Since the old man is ever within, mature believers limit the old man’s access to the microphone of the mouth.