Focus Day 7 Listen Up: Digging Deeper

1) What does verse 2 and its discussion of stumbling tell us of the Christian life?
James doesn’t sugar-coat any of his words, quickly cutting to the core of the matter. Within the space of a few words, God revealed through James’ pen how we are all, without exception, incapable of being flawless and perfect. “We all stumble in many ways”, James says, and with that, he effectively describes the human condition affecting each of us called sin. Sin, being anything that does not align with God’s perfect standard of righteousness, breaks our relationship with God, separating us from real life, causing a rift that is impossible to mend because we simply keep on “stumbling in many ways”. No ability to ever please God, no hope of ever becoming “good enough” to attain right standing before Him, we simply die in our sin, eternally cut off from the God of all life and love and goodness. Right? Exactly right. If it were not for the grace of God who refused to allow eternal separation from Him to be the period for our lives. Instead, He gave Himself to take on our consequence of Death for our Sin, though He never once committed sin. In this flawless sacrifice of atonement, He died our death and defeated Sin forever. So, He extends His offering of redemption to all mankind, all of us who stumble in our sin, all of us who will never be enough, all of us. What must we do to be reconciled to such a loving God? Simply take Him at His word that yes we are sinners, yes He is the Holy God, and yes, we gladly accept His gift of eternal safety by surrendering ourselves to His rule and reign in our life instead of our own.

2) According to this passage, why is controlling the tongue so important?
James gives several reasons as to why submitting to God’s Spirit as He teaches us how to control the tongue is of critical importance. 1) If the tongue can be controlled, it exhibits how that person has long been practicing submitting to God’s direction and will have also learned to control other aspects of his or her life because of the Holy Spirit’s wise counsel. (verse 2) 2) While an uncontrolled tongue exhibits unrighteousness, arrogance, and pride, a controlled tongue that submits to Jesus before self, will reflect the righteous, beautiful, holy things of God. (verses 6 and 8) 3) But perhaps the most crucial reason for why taming the tongue is important is found at the close of this passage, “With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way!” (verses 9-10)

3) What is James’ main point in giving the multiple illustrations in verses 9-12?
The tongue is like a gauge for our hearts yielding to the control of the Savior versus ourselves. If we say we are believing Christ-followers, and have fully surrendered to Jesus, then our everyday manner of speaking should reflect that heart-choice. Just as Jesus says we cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24), and John says we cannot love God and hate our brother (1 John 4:20), so James says we cannot praise God and curse others who are made in God’s image (James 3:9). Either we are one or the other, but we cannot be both. There is nothing God honoring about praising Him with lips that turn around and gossip, cut down, manipulate, and react in anger. Nothing. James has already spoken of the journey in following Jesus, alluding to how we aren’t “instantly” sanctified and made perfect like Christ, rather it’s a shaping process. These verses are not meant to shame the believer, because in Christ, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). Instead, James’ intention is to encourage the lover of God to walk with integrity and allow that love to overwhelm even the small and seemingly insignificant tongue. James emphatically argues how this “little” tongue is exceptionally powerful, and can either be used for righteousness or for evil, depending on which Master we choose to submit it to, the Lord or the enemy.