James 3:6-12
How quickly can you complete this maze?
Now, put yourself inside the maze, not above it. (This may take some deep abstract spatial thought. If you aren’t an abstract thinker, then place your hand in the air now and someone will be by shortly to help you.) Do you think completing the maze would be harder if you couldn’t see the whole thing? I would probably take many more wrong turns if I could not see the path to the goal.
What if you could follow someone who had been through the maze before? Would this make getting through the maze easier? What if you had someone looking at the maze from above and telling you which way to go? Would you trust that he would not lead you astray?
So often in life we blindly trust the people around us to lead us where we are supposed to go. The problem is that many times those people are leading us where they want us to go. How can we be sure that the direction that a leader is giving us will not lead us astray or to a dead end? How do we know that our teachers are telling us truth for our benefit and not half-truths or outright lies out of their ignorance or for their benefit?
The following questions can be answered in a simple way. God’s Word is Truth! We must compare what we are being taught to the Truth that is revealed in God’s Word. This is the crux of the 4 WARNINGS discussed in Crushing Cans & Cutting Boots (see below).
James now brings these warnings down to a personal level in verses 6-12. You may be saying, “But I’m not a teacher, so these verses don’t apply to me.” Oh, but they do!
The Truths
Here are Three Truths we can learn from James 3:6-12:
Truth 1: We influence ourselves and others through out tongue. (v 6)
The tongue is an influence over our entire being and also sets on fire the course of our life. The course of our life, in turn, affects the course of other people’s lives, whether intentionally or not.
Truth 2: Our tongue may be small, but it is a powerful tool of Satan. (v 7-8)
The tongue is described as a restless evil that is full of deadly poison. What sort of deadly poison is your tongue filled with? Gossip? Slander? Anger? Hate? Disrespect? Unbiblical beliefs?
Truth 3: Our tongue reveals sin in our life. (v 9-12)
This is where the rubber really meets the road. Do you want to know the direction of your life, whether it is honoring God or not? Listen to your words. Listen to your thoughts (the tongue of your mind). Our tongue reveals the bitterness of sin that is in our lives. That same deadly poison in v 8 is the sin that is revealed through our words and thoughts. (I say thoughts because you can cuss someone out by never opening your mouth. They may not know you are cussing at them, but your Spirit sure does!)
The Challenge
So, where does this leave us? Beaten up, convicted, and discouraged over the sin that is so easily revealed to the people around us? NO!!! It leaves us with the hope that there is someone ready to take all that bitterness and poison away, giving us the sweetness of His Truth! Jesus Christ is the cure! While we may not be able to tame the tongue, He can!
As you see your words and thoughts drift away from God, check yourself, because your life is drifting away too. Anchor yourself in the TRUTH, His Word, so that you will continually speak and think on those things that are true, honorable, right, pure, and lovely. (Phil 4:8)
Ask God right now to reveal these things to you:
o Who He wants you to have an influence over.
o People who have an ungodly influence over you.
o People that you are having an ungodly influence over.
o Sin in your life…and the tools and courage to deal with it through Jesus Christ!
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