THE BOOK OF JAMES
THE TONGUE
DR. JIM DIXON
APRIL 21, 1985
JAMES 3:1-13
There was once a speaker at a conference who got up to speak and divided his audience into small groups of three. He told each person in each group to confess the greatest sin in his life to the other people in the group. Now, in one group there were three ministers. They were all near retirement. They’d each ministered for more than 40 years. They’d fought the good fight, but they were kind of awkward and uneasy as they sat in their chairs and faced each other because they were used to hearing confessions and not to giving them.
Finally, one of the ministers broke the ice. He said, “Gentlemen, I know I have an outstanding reputation in the community and I’m viewed as perhaps above reproach. But I want you to know there’s one very serious sin in my life. I want to confess it to you. That sin is drunkenness. I’ve done a good job of hiding it. I stayed sober by day so that I could do my work conscientiously and responsibly. But when I’d be done with my work, I’ve returned to my home and there I’ve began to drink and I have one drink after another. And guys, I just have to confess that, if the truth is known, I’m a drunk.”
Well, the other two ministers just reeled in shock. Finally, the second minister spoke and he said, “Well, your honesty and frank openness have impressed me. I’d like to take this opportunity to confess a great sin in my life. That sin is theft. I’ve tried to rationalize it. I’ve told myself that I’m underpaid and overworked, and that if I could get a job in the business community I could make a lot more money than I do as a clergyman. It began innocently enough—I just took a dime or a quarter out of the offering plate. But as the years passed, I began to take larger sums of money. And boy, in all honesty, I’ve got to say that through the years I’ve probably confiscated more than $50,000 from the treasuries of the church.”
There was just stunned silence. The two ministers who had confessed looked with anticipation at the third minister. He had a smirk on his face and he said, “Brothers, I have to confess that I too have a sin. That sin is gossip.” He said, “I want you to know that I can’t wait to get out of here.”
All over the world, there are men and women who just love to gossip. We shouldn’t be too quick to judge them because we’ve all had times when we’ve told a story or two. We’ve had times when we’ve used our tongues to slander other people (either consciously or unconsciously). Studies show that the average man speaks 25,000 words a day and the average woman speaks 30,000 words a day. The average person spends one-fifth of his time speaking. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a gift from God. But God is very much concerned with how we speak and the way we use our words. This morning from the Book of James we have two teachings concerning the use of the tongue.
The first teaching is a warning. It is simple, it is clear, and it is a warning. That teaching is this: the tongue is dangerous. It is very, very dangerous. “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire.” And the tongue, says James, is a fire. It is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. The tongue is a restless evil full of deadly poison. The tongue is extremely dangerous.
I’m sure you’ve all seen garden snails in your backyards. There are many different types of snails. Some snails are very, very small—the size of a pin head. Other snails are quite large—two feet in length. Some snails have relatively long lives. Some snails live two years. Some snails live 20 years. Some snails are vegetarians (most snails are). A few snails are carnivorous. All snails have tongues. And on their tongues, snails have teeth. Some snails have 30,000 teeth on their tongues. And with those tongues, they’re able to do great danger, raising havoc in their little worlds. But however dangerous the tongues of animals can be, the tongue of man is far, far more dangerous because only man—male and female—has the ability to slander.
On July 9th, 1977, a young woman named Cathleen Crowell reported to the authorities that she had been raped. She described her alleged assailant to the authorities and the circumstances of her rape. That was the beginning of a manhunt. Finally, a man named Gary Dotson was apprehended. He was brought to trial. He swore that he was innocent and that he had never seen this woman named Cathleen Crowell. But he was tried and convicted in Cook County in the state of Illinois. He was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison. But then, earlier this month (and I’m sure you’ve all read about it in the newspapers and seen it on the news) Cathleen Crowell, who is now married and is called Cathleen Crowell Webb, made a confession. She said she’d made the whole story up.
Until the moment of the trial, she’d never met Gary Dotson. She’d never been raped. She said she’d been sexually promiscuous and she was afraid that she was pregnant and her sexual promiscuity would be discovered. So she contrived the story of a rape. She stuck with it. Gary Dotson had been sent to prison falsely. That’s what she said. Everyone anticipated the release of Gary Dotson. Cathy Crowell apologized to Gary Dotson’s mother and asked for her forgiveness. And of course, she sought the forgiveness of Gary Dotson.
Then came that moment on April 11th of this month when, to everyone’s shock, a judge in Cook County ruled that Cathy’s recantation was not acceptable. A judge ruled that Gary Dotson would have to go back to jail and serve the full years of his term because he had been proven guilty and he now had to be proven innocent. And Cathleen’s recantation could not be proven to be true. In that moment in the courtroom, Gary’s mother wept and his sister fainted. His brother was indignant, but nothing could be changed and he has returned to prison.
I’m sure that none of us in this room know for sure whether Cathleen’s recantation is true, but this much is sure and this much is clear: Cathleen Crowell Webb has found that it’s very, very difficult to undo what you have done with your tongue. It’s very, very difficult to repair the wounds and the injuries that are performed and accomplished once you have slandered. It is very difficult to make things right. The Bible says in the 12th chapter of Proverbs that a slanderous tongue is a piercing sword. And God wants us to understand that the wounds of that sword are not easily repaired.
I shared a story some years ago (it’s an amazing story to me) that tells of a dike in England and a tiny rat that burrowed through that dike. Two workman saw the rat come out of the dike through a little hole and through the hole in the dike the water began to trickle through. They ran to get help. But by the time they came back, that hole in the dike was now 40 feet wide and the water pouring through was just a raging torrent. Three million gallons of water poured through that dike. The canal behind it was drained for seven miles, more than 1 million fish were killed, and it made a gorge in a nearby field that was 20 feet deep. It took 60 men with bulldozers three weeks moving 30,000 tons of earth to repair what that one little rat had done. You see, God wants us to understand that the human tongue is like that. It has that kind of a potential for danger. And when you slander another person you cause damage that is not easily repaired.
At the First Security National Bank in Boise, Idaho, some years ago, a janitor made a horrible mistake. He took 8,000 checks, in value totaling $840,000 (they had not been recorded yet—they’d been cashed, but they were waiting to be sent to a clearing house), and by a mistake he put them on a trash table and a paper shredder came by and put all the checks in the machine. And those 8,000 checks were made into hundreds of thousands of little tiny shreds of paper. All the paper was then put into a trash bin at the back of the bank. When the bank president found out about it, he literally wept. He brought in 50 men, put them in five rooms, and put them on six-hour shifts around the clock pasting, sorting, and putting all those checks back together.
God wants us to understand that the tongue is a shredder. It literally has the ability to shred the reputation of another person. The Bible says a good name is better to be had than riches. And when with your tongue you shred another person, you’ve committed a crime greater than theft because you’ve taken away something more valuable than money. You’ve taken away a person’s reputation. This is a warning from God and a warning from James: the tongue is very, very dangerous. Be careful.
There is a second and final teaching from James, and that teaching is this: the tongue was meant for blessing. It’s not meant to curse. The tongue was meant to bless. It’s not meant to shred. It is meant to heal. It was not meant to tear down, but was meant to build up. James says, “By the tongue we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse man who is made in His image. From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brethren, it ought not to be so. Can a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh water and brackish? Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine, figs? No more can salt water yield fresh. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show forth his works in the meekness of wisdom.” God doesn’t want us to use our mouths to produce brackish water, but fresh water—not cursing, but blessing.
Dr. Henry M Kathy, who is chief of the ornamental laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture, tells us that it’s actually possible for us to speak words to our plants and help them to grow. We can help our plants become more healthy and actually bless our plants by talking to them. That’s what he says. Now, many of us have heard strange stories that plants have personalities and feelings and that if you speak lovingly to your plant you can help that plant grow. But Dr. Kathy says that’s not exactly the accurate explanation. It’s not quite so relational as all that. It’s not quite so romantic.
He said it’s actually very scientific. When you speak to your plant, Dr. Kathy says, you emit carbon dioxide, and what oxygen is to the human body carbon dioxide is to a plant. Now, Dr. Henry Kathy says that if you really want to help your plant you have to speak to it during the day because at nighttime it’s pores are closed and the carbon dioxide doesn’t do it any good. And he also said it doesn’t matter what you say to your plant. You can curse your plant or you can bless your plant and it’ll still help the plant. You can say loving, kind, gentle words to your plant, or you can be enraged and indignant and you can shout at your plant. Either way, you’re going to help that plant grow if you do it in the daytime.
But you see, there’s a difference between people and plants (even though some people vegetate). If you want to bless people, you have to be careful what you say. You can’t just say anything. You have to be careful how you use your tongue. You have to always let the words of your mouth be motivated by love. You need to say words of exhortation and encouragement. The Bible says, “Exhort and encourage one another and build one another up in love.” The tongue actually has the power to bless another person if you would do that for Christ’s sake.
About a month ago, Barb and I and Drew and Heather were having dinner at home around the kitchen table. When we were done with dinner, Barb suggested that we all go around the table and just share something good, something we liked about each other. Every person was to share something they liked about every other person at the table. That wasn’t hard for Barb and I because we’re kind of used to saying nice things to each other and to the kids. But I think the kids felt a little awkward. They weren’t so used to that. And they felt a little embarrassed.
At first they acted kind of goofy, and Heather told Drew she liked the way he picked his nose. Finally they settled down and Heather told Drew that she liked the way he shared so much and was so willing to share his toys. Drew told Heather that he really appreciated the way she was willing to play with him and even to share her friends with him (although he added that he wished that she did that more). But when we were all done, everyone really felt good around the table. I know Barb and I did. And the kids did too. The reason for that is that the tongue actually has the power to bless. It actually has the power to make another person feel good, to encourage and help and strengthen and exhort another person.
We all need to hear something good said about us. James says that we’re to use our tongue to bless people. In the Greek word for blessing is the word eulogia, a compound word from eu-, meaning “good” and logos, meaning “word.” To bless somebody is literally to say a good word about them. It is to say good things about them. And the Bible says we are to bless even those who curse us. We are to say good words about people who say bad words about us. There’s not a single person in this room who doesn’t need some good words spoken concerning them, and only the tongue can do that. It has the power to bless.
It’s easy to think of bad things to say about people. God doesn’t want us to do that. He wants us to think of good things to say. As Christians, we’re not supposed to be like the world. We’re supposed to be different than the world. This last Friday, Heather and Drew came home from school, got off the school bus, and came in the house and Heather told us that there was a new girl on the school bus. Heather said this new girl had real short hair and she kind of looked like a boy and all the other kids on the bus were picking on this little girl. Heather said they all began to chant on the bus, “You are an it, you are an it.” And then some little boy on the bus got a little clever and he decided to throw a word in there that sounds like “it,” but starts with an “s.” And they all begin to chant that.
Heather said when she got off the bus on Friday she passed by this little girl. And she said, “You’re alright. Don’t listen to what they’re saying to you.” She said the little girl smiled. And I have to say that I’m awfully proud of Heather and that she did that, because as Christians we’re supposed to be different than the world. We’re supposed to use our tongues to bless and never to curse. We’re supposed to use our tongues to build up and not to tear down. The Apostle Paul in the fourth chapter of Ephesians said, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such words that are good for edification, that grace may be imparted to all who hear you.” Solomon in the 12th chapter of the Proverbs wrote, “A slanderous tongue is an abomination to the Lord, but a faithful mouth is His delight.” The Apostle Peter in the third chapter of 1 Peter said, “He who would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile.” David said a similar thing in the 34th Psalm when he wrote, “He who desires long life and covets many years and seeks good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.”
In Syracuse in Sicily (with this we’ll close) there’s a cave and the cave is called the ear of Dionysius. It’s a strange cave. On the outside of the cave the appearance is like a human ear. You enter the cave through a little door, and once you enter that little door you find yourself in this vast cavern. Above that cavern there’s a hidden chamber. You can’t see it in the darkness of the cavern. It’s hidden and has a secret entrance through the top of the hill. But anyone who’s sitting in that chamber at the top of the cavern can hear every single word that is spoken in the cavern below, even the faintest whisper.
Centuries ago, the evil Dionysius used to sit in that chamber at the top of the cavern and he would listen to the conversations of his slaves that he had imprisoned in the cavern below. He would hear every word that came from their mouth, even their whispers. He heard their plots against him, and the slaves marveled that he was always able to discover those plots and circumvent them. He was able to do that because there was not a word spoken that he did not hear.
It’s not given to us to hear the private thoughts of other people. It’s not given to us to hear their whisperings behind closed doors or in secret conversations. It’s probably good that we can’t hear those things. But there’s one person to whom that is given, and that person is God. He hears every single word that is spoken. He is in a chamber looking down on this cavern called Earth, listening. He hears every word that is spoken. Before Him there is not one idle word spoken. Before Him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we have to give an account and to the ears of Him to whom we have to give an account. He hears everything.
In the 12th chapter of Matthew, our Lord Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, on the day of judgment men must give an account for every careless word.” By your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. Obviously, the words we speak are very, very important to the living God. There are two teachings from James. Firstly, the tongue is dangerous, literally able to shred other people’s reputations. Be careful how you use it. Secondly, the tongue was meant for blessing. It was meant not to curse, but to bless. It was meant not to tear down, but to build up. It was meant not to wound, but to heal. We are even called to bless those who curse us. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Shall we pray?
Father, we marvel at Your power, power by which You created the worlds, the galactic systems, and the Earth on which we live. We marvel at Your power by which, dear Father, You created the very bodies in which our souls and spirits dwell. Sometimes these bodies seem so frail to us. Sometimes, Lord, we marvel at how intricately woven they are—how sophisticated, how complex, how wonderful these bodies are. You created our ears, eyes, arms, and legs. And Lord, You created our mouths. You created our tongues. Help us, as we live in this world, to be good stewards, to use all things in accordance with Your will. Help us to speak as You would have us to speak. Lord, help us never to wound other people intentionally through the use of our tongue. Help us not to gossip. You have told us that it’s an extremely dangerous thing to slander another person and You grieve when we do that. Lord, help us to learn to use our tongues to bless. Let us use them to proclaim Your good news to this world that we might be light in the darkness, to share Your love in everything we do and say with other people. Help us not to tear down, but to build up, to look for things that we can compliment in each other. As Your servant Paul said, help us “to outdo one another in giving honor.” Thank You, Lord Jesus. Help us to serve You in this world. We pray these things in Your great name. Amen.