For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. James 3:2

James 3:1–12 – Doing the Word: Directions for life to a scattered church from The Letter of James
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost – August 2, 2020 (am)
   

It was December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, that Winston Churchill, prime minister of Great Britain made the following statement, and instructed the British ambassador to Tokyo to communicate it formally to the Japanese government:

Sir,

On the evening of December 7th His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom learned that Japanese forces without previous warning either in the form of a declaration of war or of an ultimatum with a conditional declaration of war had attempted a landing on the coast of Malaya and bombed Singapore and Hong Kong.

In view of these wanton acts of unprovoked aggression committed in flagrant violation of International Law and particularly of Article I of the Third Hague Convention relative to the opening of hostilities, to which both Japan and the United Kingdom are parties, His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo has been instructed to inform the Imperial Japanese Government in the name of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom that a state of war exists between our two countries.

I have the honour to be, with high consideration

Sir
Your obedient servant,
Winston S. Churchill[1]

Churchill found himself in hot water over the wordiness and formality of the statement.  [In fact I suspect that our eyes began to glaze over a bit as well!]  To a nation already ankle deep in blood, eager for revenge it all seemed too ceremonial and statesmanlike for the nature of the moment.  He responded with his famous line, “When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite!”

He was right of course.  But what he did not elaborate on was the necessity for weighing every word, because of the gravity of what this would actually mean for the nation.   Also, he spoke in this instance as a representative of his sovereign King.  Every word mattered.  Every word anchored the resolve of his government to absolutely and by whatever means to commit to nothing less than victory no matter the cost.   And such is the nature of words.  They matter greatly.  In fact, I believe it can be said that there is no such thing as an idle word.   James, the author of the letter that bears his name, underlines that strange and quite inconvenient truth in chapter 3, verse 1-12.  Let’s read it together.

As we walk through this passage, with its colorful images and accelerating cadence, I want to answer three questions:

1.     What exactly is a perfect man or woman?

2.     Why are we here anyway?

3.     What will become of us with our poisonous tongues and careless words?
  

I.               3:1-2      What exactly is a perfect man or woman.

I had to check myself when I read this with focus when I began my study of the passage.  I had always presumed that the verse applies to ‘Elders.”  After all, it is they who are charged with ‘teaching.’  But the language is addressed more broadly to all those who would aspire to teach.  This would seem to be a follow up on the themes of fair treatment, the snare of partiality and the law of liberty so eloquently addressed already in this short letter.  To aspire to teach because of some idea of elevated status, or some misplaced sense of self-importance is to feed the very fires of disunity and meanness that James is so eager to expose among the church broadly.

I think the passage begs the question, ‘Why a stricter judgement for those who aspire to teach?’  Doug Moo in his commentary on James puts it like this:

…teachers, because their ministry involves speech, the hardest of all parts of the body to control, expose themselves to greater danger of judgment. Their constant use of the tongue means they can sin very easily, leading others astray at the same time. [2] 

What this means is that if you play with fire you may well get burned.  If words are your stock in trade, there is a greater chance that they can come back to bite you.  [More on this in my conclusion].  Let me put it another way.  If your job is to defuse unexploded bombs during the London Blitz, you had better have your life insurance policy paid up! 

There is another connection as well.  Luke 6:40 says this, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.”  For any of us who are teachers, this ought to be a scary thought.  A well-known Pastor was once asked his greatest fear.  He said that his greatest fear was that at the end of his ministry he would look around and realize that his church was filled men who thought, and spoke and acted just like him!

So, even under the royal law, this law of liberty, judgement still obtains.  And for those who aspire to teach that judgement will be strict.  It is a sobering caution, and it is also a reminder to us that for James, the law is a great and persistent presence, a great leveler, that gives anchor and identity to these dispersed tribes, be they Jew or gentile.  Notice for example chapter 2:8,                   

If you really fulfill the royal law according the  Scripture,  “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”, you are doing well.” 

The great penultimate commandment is found in Leviticus chapter 19 and is the fulcrum by which the other laws in Leviticus are ordered.  Or, look at James 2:19,

“You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe…and shudder.” 

This mirrors and echoes the great Shema in Deuteronomy 6:2.  [3]

Yet for James, mere assent to the law, no matter how loudly is not sufficient.  This law must be embodied, lived out and lived into.  And that brothers and sisters is where the subject of tongues is introduced.

Chapter 3, verse two is fascinating because it contains what seems at first glance to be an inherent contradiction.

“For we all stumble in many ways.  And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man.”  

 Now  we get the stumbling part and we  will own that propensity without much pushback, but to say that if we can somehow manage to be careful in what we say,  we can in spite of our stumbling in many areas yet… be perfect… is a bit harder to swallow. We see the same idea elsewhere in scripture don’t we. Leviticus 21:8 for example tells the Israelites how to look upon their priests: 

8 Regard them as holy, because they offer up the food of your God. Consider them holy, because I the Lord am holy—I who make you holy.

[This may be an opportunity to take a short detour.  How we see this verse can help us to better understand James 1:24-26 which speaks of a man who looks in a mirror and immediately forgets what he looks like.  Here’s how.  If we read scripture to seek out contradictions, to evaluate it according to our own judgements, we are like that man.  When we study scripture, we do well to surrender to it and allow it to examine our hearts, to show us as in a mirror our own need in order that we begin to see the beauty and power of God and not be satisfied with collecting ‘gotcha’ moments along the way.]

One problem we have is that we see this word ‘perfect’ or ‘perfection’ as if it describes the essence of a person, as if it were some kind of abstract character attribute.  But I want to suggest that logically it speaks not so much of the character of an individual, but rather the degree to which a person or an object is suited to fulfill the purpose for which they were designed.  Let me offer an example… I have a shop with many tools, most in various states of disrepair!  But I have a few tools that are ‘perfect.’  It is not that they are intrinsically of more worth.  In fact, they break down with just as much frequency as any other tool.  One of these is a right-angle-drill.  It spins a drill bit at a 90-degree angle from the operator.  It allows you to get in a tight spot, one that could not be reached with a regular drill.  I seldom use it because I seldom need it.  But, when I do need it, that is the ‘perfect’ tool.  It is uniquely able to perform the task for which it is designed.  That is perfection!  And, so it is for the man or woman who is able to guard and guide their tongue!  They can begin to more effectively put their shoulder to the wheel of the task that they were designed for, and now we are entering the wheelhouse of this letter and the consideration of the second question I posed earlier.

II.              Why are we here anyway?  Or,  what exactly have we been designed for?

For anyone interested Eleanor Roosevelt answered the question in this way, “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt [4]

This of course would sound great incorporated into a  commencement speech a 17 year old valedictorian might give, or it might sound pretty good in a political debate but it was more succinctly put I think in the old beer commercial,  ‘you only go around once in life, so grab for all the gusto you can!.’

Let’s see what the bible has to say.  And I can think of no better place to begin than Genesis 2:7-8  “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.  And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.’’

Let’s follow the thread in 2:15.  “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Finally, let me read 2:18-22:

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam[a] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[b] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[c] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

Notice a few important details. 

-Adam was placed in the garden to  ‘work it and keep it.’
-Adam was tasked with naming all the animals
-He was given  charge of this process and the name that he gave  became the authoritative name by    which each animal would be called.
-The task was large,  it required that he have a helper.

The purpose for which Man and woman were designed is not difficult to discern.  It is not wrapped in philosophy or platitudes.  It has to do with animal husbandry, scientific classification, attentive study of all things, matched with a careful, thoughtful dominion over the garden.  [5]

There is more to it of course, the command to be fruitful and multiply, to walk in the ways of God, to fulfill the law, to obey the word of God, to love justice and mercy.  But the root is in the thoughtful and careful dominion of the garden.  And for this design, man was a perfect fit!

The garden:  Now, because I have used our garden at home as an illustration often from this pulpit, I want to issue a disclaimer.  I have a love/hate relationship with the garden.  If the task requires the rototiller or the weed whacker or the garden tractor… I am all in!  But, boy do I hate pulling weeds.  For that reason, our garden is pretty much full of weeds.  Also, the garden is messy.  At any given point you will look around and see pots, pans, shovels, rakes, stakes of all sizes, fishing line, rabbit fences, hoses, watering cans, more pots, little piles of sifted earth and yes… buckets of worm compost.  I learned something this week. When you transplant a tomato you can ladle a couple of cups of worm compost on top of the freshly turned soil.  Then you can water and walk away! Not so fast.  You have to cover the worm compost with a little bit of regular dirt so that the sun does not dry out the worm compost too quickly.  And I am telling you this for a reason… In the tending of a garden, everything matters, absolutely everything. 

There is no detail that is too small to care about.  Every single thing makes a difference.   Every action is driven by the desire to tend and care for that garden.  If in a garden you get careless, forget to water, forget to nourish the soil, pay no attention to what gets planted when and where, it is predictable that you will get no fruit.  Now, I confess that this time of year can be discouraging because the lettuce has gone to seed, the strawberries are done for, the tomatoes are still green, the corn is not quite ready for the raccoons.  We are mocked however by the unstoppable zucchini, [which as you all know, no one really likes!]

Of course, it is fun to describe the garden for you, but the point is this, that we, you and me, have been designed for a purpose and toward the fulfillment of that purpose everything matters.  We have all been planted as it were, and the expectation is that we will bear good fruit.  Nothing is wasted, and to circle back to the text this morning, when it comes to the tongue, there is no idle word.  Let me say that again, ‘there are no idle words!’  Every word counts.  You may be sure that in the crafting of Churchill’s declaration of war every single word was measured and crafted according to a sober and frightening purpose.  So it is with our tongues.  The direction of my thought this morning is driven in part by the word pictures the James paints in vs. 3-8:

3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

Notice the nature of the word pictures:  horses, ships, the taming of animals, birds, reptiles, sea creatures.  These are all images of an authoritative dominion.  I do not know who first figured out that a metal bit in the jaw of a horse could control its movements.  I don’t know when the first horse discovered that if she would take that bit between her teeth, she could take the reins as it were… but I do know that this dominion is hard.  It takes effort, thought, competence and discipline.  For us today, called to fulfill that original design, it is not an easy thing.  To think that it is easy, is like making a decision to have children in order that they may help with the dishes!  And in this thoughtful dominion, words can be our greatest ally or our most bitter enemy.  With a word we can destroy one another, and we can build one another up.  James describes the tongue as a raging fire, a world of evil, as a corrupting presence, restless, filled with poison!  Wow!  How aptly does James underscore this truth [vs 10b:]  “My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” 

III.             What will become of us with our poisonous and careless words?

I hope that by now we have a little better understanding of what it means to be perfect, and I hope we have an idea of what we have been designed for.  I’d like to take a moment and explore just how it is that the tongue can destroy.  

-When hurtful words are chosen, they often cannot be taken back.  Think Isaac, Jeptha, Darius, Ahab, Ahasuerus.  These persons have one thing in common.  They spoke an authoritative word and their evil and reckless words could not be recalled.

-Conversely, words may also build, and comfort, and cement the good bonds of right loyalty.  Think Ruth, Naomi, Jethro, Caleb, Jonathan and many others.

When words are spoken for ill, they do not lose much of their potency over time.  They still sting years after they were spoken.  And they also freeze friendship and familial bonds in their tracks.  Where harsh words linger, relationship withers on the vine and simply dies.

[as an example, a Pastor friend of mine has described funerals that he has conducted where the acrimony among family was so palpable that you could cut it with a knife.  More than once he has had to have police officers on the scene to keep family members from killing each other.]

James ratchets up his argument thought by thought.  How can it be? he is telling us in consideration of the great purposes to which we have been called.  We are not given an easy task, to care for one another, to guard against partiality, to care for the widow and the orphan, to walk in faith that works, to take care of the poor, to genuinely love and tend the garden, into which we have been placed.   How is it he asks that a spring can flow with both fresh and saltwater.

True story:  Once upon a time, we discovered a spring in our back yard.  It was marvelous in our eyes.  Being a committed home school family we milked it for all it was worth as an object lesson, as an example of the Lord’s provision… until one day we were gazing at it in admiration,  and a dirty diaper slowly percolated to the surface!  Of course as you may guess our ‘spring’ was actually a ruptured sewer line!  And though we could easily have been persuaded prior to the diaper to drink heartily from the spring,  offering toasts to one another for our beautiful discovery, but  once the diaper floated to the surface you may be sure that we would never trust it ever again.  In fact, far from drinking from it, we would have been more likely to erect rope barriers with large caution signs.  Why?  Because that is what you must do if the spring becomes polluted! [6] 

IV.            Conclusion:

So, what are we to do?

1.     It is tempting as a teacher to want to just keep your mouth shut.  After all, we have less chance of stumbling if we remain silent.  Also, we have less chance of saying something hurtful if we but keep our mouth shut, yes?  Folks, this is not the answer.  If we are to build and comfort and exhort and sometimes even rebuke, words will be required.  Make no mistake, sometimes silence can be required as well.  But to remain silent as a teacher or leader is the coward’s way out.  The people who look to you for leadership, need to hear your voice.  Make sure that it a voice worth listening to.

2.     Be intentional about our words.  As James will point out in chapter four, make your affirmations without inflated drama or promises that you cannot keep.  Seek opportunities to speak love with truth to your brothers and sisters and to the children among us.  Be not quick to judge one another with our words.

3.     Ask God for wisdom, for discernment, for a grounded sensibility of what matters, of seeing who among us needs the protection that our words can give.  From James 1:5 we know that that prayer will be answered liberally.  Here is an example.  Our granddaughter Charity who is ten, headed off to ‘bible memory’ camp this past week. [7]  I suggested that she keep her eyes and ears open for a fellow camper who is lonely, or homesick or who seems to feel excluded.  Our prayer for her has been that she will have a tender word for such a one, that she will sit next to such a one in the dining hall, that she will look for opportunities to build blessing and wholeness into the life of another for whom Christ died.  Our desire for Charity is that her pattern of living and the words that escape her lips would flow with equally fresh streams.

4.     For many [all] of us, we know full well the words that we have uttered that have caused pain, that are still burning maybe years later in the ears of someone we have loved and hurt.  We read in Daniel that King Darius tried all day long to undo his words,  that he spent a sleepless night agonizing in prayer for the words he could not take back, that  as soon as the sun rose on that long long night he ran to the lion’s den desperate to know if God would by some means answer his prayer.  We too have lain awake at night aching for the word that we so wish we could take back.
 

There is good news for us in all this. There is hope, and it is not surprisingly found in a great salvation utterly beyond our craft. It is ‘perfect’ and able to accomplish what it was designed for, to wash us like the song says,

Lord Jesus I want to be perfectly whole
I want you forever to live in my soul
Break down every idol
Cast our every foe
Now wash me and I shall be
Whiter than snow. 

It may be this morning that you so identify with the character in the old Paul Simon song,  Slip-slidin’ Away:

 “I knew a father who had a son
who longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he’d done
He came a long way just to explain
Kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Turned around and went back home again. [8]

We proclaim better news than Paul Simon today.  There is healing. There is restoration.  There is wholeness.  We find it in one place. The Lord Jesus Christ who died for us in spite of receiving the worst of our poisonous words.  James pleads for our continued faith in Jesus Christ the Lord of glory. He is well able to heal and he even now, right now,  prays for us.   He  is our only real hope, people.   And what does this salvation cost us?  Only one thing, that we surrender to this one true King, lay down our arms, and present our swords to His extended mercy.  We do that through the power of the Holy Spirit, not through our reasoned, tentative and shrewd judgement.  And just as teachers and elders among us are thrown back in the end on the mercy of God, so it is with each of us.  It is a salvation that is perfect, that will accomplish its purposes in this messy, blooming garden of a world.

Amen

 

Notes:

1.     Churchill, Winston,  The Grand Alliance, 1950 page 610

Because I can’t resist,  Churchill followed up this telegram with a speech to Parliament  which he concluded with these words,  “We have at least four-fifths of the population of the globe upon our side. We are responsible for their safety and for their future.  In the past we have had a light which flickered, in the present we have a light which flames, and in the future there will be a light which shines over all the land and sea.”  [p.  611] 

2.     [1] Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2000), 145–251.  [page 6]

…. But the KJV suggests a different interpretation: “we shall receive the greater condemnation.” The Greek, if anything, favors this meaning, since the word krima, used here, usually refers to the negative outcome of judgment, for example, “condemnation,” in the NT (cf., e.g., Mark 12:40 [= Luke 20:47]; Luke 23:40; Rom. 2:2; 3:8; 5:16). However, the word can also have a neutral sense, referring to the act of judgment without regard to the outcome (John 9:39; 1 Cor. 6:7; Heb. 6:2). The translations prefer this alternative because of context: it would seem overly harsh for James to be claiming that teachers will receive a more severe penalty in the judgment than other believers. Not many, to be sure, would clamor to become teachers were that the case! But the logic of James’s argument, as we follow it into v. 2, suggests a third interpretation of the “greater judgment”: teachers, because their ministry involves speech, the hardest of all parts of the body to control, expose themselves to greater danger of judgment. Their constant use of the tongue means they can sin very easily, leading others astray at the same time. 

3.     Brendsel Dan, James to the Twelve Tribes in the Dispersion

Lecture at Wheaton College April 18,  2019

I am indebted to a number of thoughts articulated in Dan’s notes, way better than I am able to do, but especially  the consideration of the purposes of men and woman on this earth, as well as the connection between the letter of James to the law of Moses.

4.     Roosevelt, Eleanor,   attributed.

5.     Again,  this sense of the widely varied, divine purpose of man to exercise a thoughtful dominion over the earth has been helpful  in understanding the thematic ordering of this letter.

6.     The story of the ruptured sewer line is from long ago is absolutely true [as if the reader would doubt!] and stranger than I have described here.  Turns out that the city of Warrenville had been dynamiting in the creek to get rid of beaver dams!  In so doing, they accidentally ruptured our sewer which ran under the creek!   We do not know for how long the creek was filling up the sewer and being treated by the Naperville plant,  and we also do not know how  many diapers we lost!

7.     Our daughter Wendy  has now joined the ranks of seeing their child head off to camp for a week.  Charity left on Monday, and on Tuesday Wendy posted on ‘Whatsapp’  “…only five more days till Charity comes home!” 

8.     Simon Paul, from the album  ‘Still crazy after all these years’  1975

 

Next Sunday: James 3:14–18