STAND STRONG
STAND STRONG
7.9 - James 3, No More Than Four
In this episode, Paul and Noah spend time discussing some of the most important applications from James 3.
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Paul and Noah both preach and teach with the Cedar Park church of Christ in Cedar Park, TX. You can visit our site at: https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/
Well welcome today to all who are tuning in, following us in our journey in the book of James. We are in chapter three. We have been in chapter three, seeing God and then seeing ourselves. And Noah, today we've called this no more than four. So we did it in chapter one and in chapter two. Now it's in chapter three. Mm-hmm. We each get to pick two. That's right. So no more than four. So Noah, thank you for joining me today and participating in this in James chapter three.
Noah:Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. I, I love this book. I love this opportunity to discuss it. And I'm okay with the limit of no more than four. So.
Paul:Well, so if, if you've listened, if you've listened to especially last week where we were seeing ourselves. The tongue is all over. Mm-hmm. Chapter three, and most everybody who's studied chapter three or read it realizes that the tongue is a big part of what is under discussion in chapter three. So part of my conversation in, in what I picked, goes back to the tongue. Just listen to this translation verses three and four, when we put bits into the mouths of horses. To make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal, or James says verse four, take ships as an example. Although they are so large and driven by strong winds, they are steered by very small rudder. I. Wherever the pilot wants to go. So he uses imagery here when he talks about horses and he talks about ships. He's trying to help us to appreciate Noah about the tongue. Its power to direct. Mm-hmm. We can change the course, we can change the direction of a conversation. By how we use our tongue. A soft answer does what? And everybody that's listening says, turns away wrath. Yeah. James is just emphasizing those points. Proverbs 10, verse 19. He who restrains his lips is wise, but I'm, I'm going back to, he says, you know, you put boots in the horse's mouth to make them obey. And we think about it just on the level of parents who say, well, well, you can't make your child. Well, yeah, you can make your child do certain things, but what we want is in every parent is we want to. Capture the heart of the child, right? And part of doing that is using our tongue wisely. And so when we dealt with the Proverbs 31 woman, I think last season in our podcast, we just made the point about own her tongue as a law of kindness. I mean, James is telling us about the tongue, how we can change the direction of someone's life or the direction of a conversation. In a good way.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:It's a small member, but it has the potential to do great and good things. And so not just the power to direct, power to destroy. He talks about a forest fire. The tongue is a flame of fire, right? A little spark can cause a lot of damage. And you look at forest fires, I mean, look at the fires recently in California. You know how much damage was done in just a short amount of time. And again, that's what James is telling us. So I want to end with Proverbs 18, 24 or 21. Life and death is in the power of the tongue. So we kind of talked about that last week, but I wanted to get more of that in because James says so much there about, about the tongue.
Noah:Yeah. Just a moment ago you said we need to use our tongue. Wisely. So I'm gonna use that as my springboard into the first of my my two in this episode. I, I think something that we sometimes. Lose in when we are studying this section of James is we tend to split. And this could be because of a heading in our Bible that got put in there, or just because we tend to think very topically. I think we sometimes miss the connection between what James says, has to say about the tongue. And then what he starts talking about in verse 13 when he says, who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct. Let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. Mm-hmm. So you said just a moment ago, we need to use our tongues wisely. And I mean, that, that's one of the, the. Highest impact points, I think in this chapter is that we need to show wisdom in our words, in how we speak, because what we say reveals what's inside. And so if we look at verses 13 and following, when he talks about things like bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in our hearts. Okay? So if, if that's what's in our hearts, well, what's gonna come out? Well, it's gonna look kinda like verse 15. It's gonna be earthly unspiritual, demonic. It's gonna be jealous. It's gonna be full of selfish ambition. What we talk about and the way that we talk reveals what's inside. And if, if the way that we talk stirs up these kinds of things, if it stirs up stre strife, if it expresses envy or jealousy or it incites, envy or jealousy, then in what, what we can see in this context is James is saying. It reveals the wisdom of the world in us. Mm-hmm. Not the wisdom from above. The wisdom from above doesn't talk like that. The, the words that we speak need to reflect the wisdom from above. And I, I love the fact that James uses the word meek here, the meekness of wisdom. And that's going to, that's gonna connect to, another part of James pretty, pretty strongly. But ultimately, if we're gonna show wisdom in our words, then we shouldn't speak God's wisdom and then turn around and speak worldly wisdom.
Paul:Right? Right. I
Noah:mean, that's verse 10. This ought not be so. And so how we speak is a, like we've said, last episode, this episode, this is a big part of what James three is about. But how we speak. James is also saying is an indication of wisdom or a lack thereof, and it's not because, oh, well wise people will use, you know, fancy words or will talk about esoteric ideas. That's not the wisdom that he's talking about. Mm-hmm. He's talking about meek wisdom. Mm-hmm. And the wisdom from above. That's verse 17. It's pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. That is what our speech ought to look like,
Paul:right?
Noah:That's wise words. And that's a challenge. I think that, that, that just ought to be a challenge for us to use our words with wisdom.
Paul:Yeah. Well notice how he starts. So I'm going to my second one. Here's how he starts this whole conversation. That's gonna emphasize the importance of the tongue or taming the tongue. Verse one. This translation, I think it's the New American standard James three verse one. Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren. Mm-hmm. Knowing that as such, we shall incur a stricter judgment, man. No. Whenever you hear something in scripture that speaks about a stricter judgment, man, that's, that's an attention getter. It seems counterintuitive. We was like, wait, hold, hold on, James. What, what are you doing here? Are you trying to discourage teachers in teaching? And he's not. I, I do like the NIV. Not many of you should presume, presume to be teachers. Mm-hmm. Because you know that you'll, those of you who teach will be judged more strictly presumed to be teachers. And I may not understand. I think there was something. That James' audience, those in James Day, when they would read this, they would know, okay, James is bringing this up because Right. We may not know all the reason or reasons why. I mean, yes, if you're gonna talk about the tongue, then yeah, teachers should be encouraged to pay attention because those of us who are teachers, we have a greater propensity to send with our words. We, we talk more.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:Everybody gets that, but you know, okay. Maybe what was going on? Was this, this idea among teachers that, Hey, hey or this thought among Christians in James Day is, look, I, I want to teach, give me a turn. I. Let me teach I, I want to be a teacher and maybe James is trying to get them to rethink in his day about why you want to be a teacher.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:Why you're so quick to, to want to assume this role or responsibility. I would say in our day. Maybe what you would say is, Hey, slow your roll, you know, or cur curb your uneducated enthusiasm. Because I think even today there's a tendency if, if we don't check our motives, there's a tendency sometimes in Christians to say, Hey, let me teach. Let me have a turn.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:And we need to give some careful thought and consideration to us as teachers. If you look at the theme throughout James, he had already said things like, words are worthless without actions or faith without works is dead.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:Or blessings come to those who hear and do not just hear. So I think to follow that theme, maybe there was a, the a way of thought in James Day that was not productive and so James says, Hey, I'm gonna talk about the tongue in general to everybody, teacher or non-teacher, but before I do. Let me address something else that also is connected to the tongue, but maybe a problem in the way of thinking among those who teach. Jesus did it quite often. Mm-hmm. Matthew five, Matthew 23, Luke 20, A lot of other occasions where, especially among the Pharisees who desired to be teachers of the law and Jesus was trying to get them to check their motives and check their heart. I mean, how can you make someone twice as. A son of hell.
Noah:Right.
Paul:Or shut up the kingdom of God. So there is a lot of things connected to their teaching
Noah:mm-hmm.
Paul:That Jesus addressed and he was hated for it. Yeah. But may, maybe one of the things that's going on here is Yes teachers influence the thinking of others. And so because we do, we need to pay attention to what we teach or how we teach, um. I wanna offer this Noah I, I can, I can lead somebody astray by what I teach. I mean, we get that, right? We could teach error. There's a lot of places in scripture in the New Testament where Paul is saying to the young preacher, Timothy, pay attention to what you. Teach. Yeah. But there can be an abuse to that role or position. If I'm trying to draw attention to myself to show off my knowledge
Noah:mm-hmm.
Paul:I can sin with my tongue. Now everything that comes outta my mouth can be right. Right. But if I'm trying to draw attention to myself Paul was speaking about those, the Apostle Paul to the Philippian church about preachers. Or teachers who had impure motives and had selfish ambition. Yeah. So that's possible. Yep. So maybe what what James is doing is trying to get us to take the role of teaching seriously in our responsibility. I. Very seriously. So real quickly, I'm gonna offer to very quickly to teachers, because he says, this is serious business, those of you who teach. And so before you just assume, Hey, I, I want, I want a chance to teach, let me teach, pay attention. So wrong motives. Wrong motives can cause me as a teacher to stumble in word.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:I need to pay attention to my motives. Secondly, a lack of proper preparation can cause me to stumble in my words.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:So, you know, if you say, oh, hey, let me teach. Okay. Can you devote yourself to that responsibility?
Noah:Right.
Paul:Right.
Noah:So,
Paul:Anyway, judge, more strictly, some offer that it could be translated punished more severely. Mm. And I know Jesus talks about that punish more severely concept. He talks about the Pharisees and those who desire to be teachers of the law. Luke 20, verse 47. Jesus says, these will receive greater condemnation. Yeah. So I, there's, there's some something there in, in James three in verse one that's directed to teachers. So we may need to slow our role.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:And think about that responsibility before we're so quick to assume that role.
Noah:Yeah. I, I think what we see in this is there is a tension, and this is something that we can see through, I think throughout much of the New Testament. There's a tension between the responsibility, the need to teach and the responsibility that comes as a teacher. And quite frankly sometimes we're so eager to be encouraging that we don't treat it with the sobriety that it needs to be treated with. Like, oh, well, someone's eager to teach. Oh, that's wonderful. We need to encourage in them, them in that.
Paul:Well,
Noah:yes. I don't think that w we should discourage them unless, like you said just a moment ago, they're unwilling to. Devote themselves to the responsibility that's entailed. And quite frankly, that just means that we have to approach this concept of influence. Mm-hmm. And teaching with sobriety. And I, I, sometimes I think we're just not very good at sobriety. We, we want, we want to either be all in or completely out, when in reality there's a tension here of this is a good thing. But it comes with a lot of responsibility and you need to keep that in mind.
Paul:Right.
Noah:Um, and the fact is that in our, in our current situa, in our current culture, influence is highly sought after.
Paul:Mm-hmm.
Noah:And when it is attained. It's oftentimes it's a, I will go to any lengths to retain this position of influence and that we may, when we think of that, we may automatically start to think in, you know, governmental and political arenas. No, no, no, no. It's much closer to home than that. We all, we all have got our phones and our computers and it, you know, we, we vie for positions of influence because everybody has a voice. And it makes me think, didn't know Jurassic Park was gonna come up today, but it, it makes me think of Jurassic Park when I forget the character's name. I think Ian Malcolm says something along the lines of. You were so preoccupied with what you could do that you never stopped to think whether or not you should.
Paul:Mm-hmm.
Noah:Paraphrase. I think oftentimes that's the case when it comes to influence. We see that we have the potential to have some sort of audience, some sort of influence, and we're just eagerly jump on board. Yeah, we can. So we should. And James says, not necessarily,
Paul:not necessarily. You know, it's this, this way of thought sometimes is, well this, this would be a good thing to help'em grow, give, give them this responsibility that that will help help them to grow. That'll speed up the process. Mm-hmm. That will force them. We need to be careful. I need to be careful with that. Very, very careful. Checking your motives is very hard to do. Jesus talked about it in his day and it's still true today. You give a man a platform and you give him an opportunity where everybody else, or most everybody else is sitting at his feet and has to be quiet and he's the only voice that, that is a high accountability. Mm-hmm. And that is a high level of trust and not everybody is where they should be. And can be trusted to handle that.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:Doesn't make'em a bad person, right. It just says, Hey, you got some growing to do. You need a mentor first? We need to slow this thing down because the last thing we would want to do is to draw away disciples unto ourselves.
Noah:Yes.
Paul:To make it about ourselves. Yeah. So James says, be not many of you teachers.
Noah:Yeah. Well, that whole discussion leads well into what my second one was, so the last of the four for today. And that is the very last verse of chapter three. He says, A harvest of righteousness is sewn in peace by those who make peace. Mm-hmm. And again, the context of that is what we've already talked about, about the contrast of worldly wisdom to wisdom from above, and showing, demonstrating wisdom in how we speak. And this, he describes it as the meekness of wisdom. I think all of this ra this all ties together very well with what you were just talking about. You know, we sometimes say meekness isn't weakness. It's strength under control, I think is a, a very common way of putting it. And I think that that is a really helpful thing to consider, that we have to be able to control. I mean, that's part of the whole theme of this chapter is controlling the tongue meekness is. Controlling what we do. It's, we have the capacity for X, Y, and Z, but we are putting that under control for the sake of, for the sake of God's righteousness. So here, here we are back at verse 18. We're sowing righteousness in peace. That's what we're called to do. And there it that reflects a universal principle. You reap what you sell. Mm-hmm. And we're not gonna reap God's righteousness if we sow worldly wisdom. We're not gonna sow reap the peace that God desires for us if we sow, you know, words of jealousy and bitter selfish ambition. And so what we see in this context is not a description of just kind of a soft righteousness. It is a righteousness that is in strength. Peaceable and gentle and open to reason and full of mercy. It is shown, it is righteousness that's shown through meekness and through wisdom, and that requires strength to resist the quarrels and the fighting and the passions that are James is gonna talk about in just a few verses at the beginning of James chapter four. It all comes back to this principle of you reap what you sow. And so if we want to, if we want to have a harvest of righteousness, then we need to sow in peace. James says We need to sow righteous behaviors. Righteous attitudes. He's aiming for the heart. These righteous attitudes coming from a heart that desires to serve God is gonna, it's gonna result in. The good works in the meekness of wisdom of verse 13. So I, I think that that verse has, it just kind of ties everything together about how we speak and how we act and the things that we avoid and the things that we pursue. It's all wrapped up in we're trying to sow to the righteousness of God. And if we do. There will be a harvest of righteousness and peace.
Paul:Yeah. I, I, I think that's so profound, and especially, I like Noah, how you, how you ended this, this podcast today and in chapter three by making those points, because I hear quite often from people, okay, I, I want to, I want to control, I, I want to be. Responsible for my family being stronger, the church that I'm a part of, becoming stronger and closer to God, closer to one another. What can I do? What can I control? Well, James is telling us a lot here in chapter three about what's on the inside, about our hearts, about our motives, about what we think, what we take in how we treat other people, the the good conduct that we want. I mean, all of that going on here. If I want to be a part of a church that is getting stronger, how am I using my tongue?
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:What do I think about, what to me is wise and what to me is beneficial and how, how can I be a part of James chapter three, sowing certain seeds, certain things into my family and into this church so that it will produce a certain harvest? I mean. Thinking about that regularly.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:That'd probably be a good thing for us to do.
Noah:That's a good opportunity for reflection, no doubt. Well, and the whole book of James is a great opportunity for reflection, and I think that as challenging as each section of this letter is we're getting into next time, we're gonna be getting into, I think, some of the, the most challenging words that James has. You know, he's gonna get. He's gonna get into the nitty gritty of selfishness and the effects of selfishness. And that's gonna be a tough time if we're willing to be honest with ourselves about ourselves. You can't read James four and not fill some toes getting stepped on. Mm-hmm.
Paul:Because we're gonna go and seeing God the next episode. Mm-hmm. Where we start chapter, excuse me four is to, is to see God. And Wow. One of the first things he wants us to see about God is are we really on his side?
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:Is he forced or against? Against us? Yeah. Is he our friend or our enemy?
Noah:Yeah. So that's what we're ramping up towards Next week. We'll start James chapter four first by trying to see God. The week after that we'll go to seeing ourselves and the applications for ourselves. And then of course, the week after that we'll do another, no more than four. But I'm looking forward to that section of James. It always challenges me every time that I read it. So to those who are following along, I encourage you if you have a chance before next Monday to read James chapter four, by all means do that. Join us next week as we continue this journey through James, and we pray that in the meantime, you'll continue to stand strong.
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