26 If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile. 20 For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. Our subject is not new to James he spoke of the tongue in chapter 1:ġ9 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. As we come to James 3, it would have been very easy for me to title this message: “Teachers, Hold Your Tongues.” You can see from the first verse of chapter 3 that this would be a fitting title for the chapter. I think we would all have to admit that Arabella Young began to hold her tongue a bit too late. My Son Jesus Christ has given His life so that you can live.In his book entitled Killing Giants, Pulling Thorns, 26 Chuck Swindoll has reminded us of this epitaph, etched faintly on a gray slate tombstone on a windswept hill in an English country churchyard: If we repent and believe in Jesus Christ, then we can be assured that Almighty God says to us: “I love you with an everlasting love. How can we receive a new heart? By confessing our sins to Jesus Christ, including our evil words, and by receiving His grace and forgiveness. What we need is a new heart-a heart that can only be given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” In James 3:8, God’s Word says: “No human being can tame the tongue. If our hearts are evil, then the words we speak and write will be evil too. The words we speak show what is in our hearts. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. He says:Įither make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. He says that simply trying harder to be good will not work because the root of the problem is within us. In Matthew 12, Jesus teaches the connection between our words and our hearts. Her words were: “We never wanted you you were simply an accident.” With our words, we have the power to do good or to harm. In his old age, he was still struggling with words that his mother had spoken to him when he was a child. In Proverbs 18:21, we read, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Growing up in Germany, I remember my pastor talking about a man who was about seventy years old. Scripture is clear that words can be powerful. But this gift of words comes with a great responsibility: to use our words to glorify God-to build up, to encourage, and to show love. We use our words in ways both great-such as building relationships-and trivial-such as discussing the weather or sporting events. The fact that you and I can speak words and write words is a great blessing from our holy God. Language is a gift that we don’t often appreciate. We need to communicate, to be heard, to speak our hearts to other people and to be understood. I am sure that you would be surprised, wondering what’s going on, and would maybe even be terrified. No spoken word and no written word whatsoever. Now imagine that on the same day you wrote several e-mails and a couple of things on Facebook and sent some text messages and didn’t get a single response. Imagine how you would feel if just for one single day you talked to a number of people, but no one responded no one said a single word back to you. We need the spoken word from other people we especially need to hear that we are loved and appreciated. The ability to speak and use words is crucial to our human existence.
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