Inside Out Living

Last week I preached a message titled tongue depressor on James 3:1-12.

It was a challenging passage for all of us to look at because as James says, no one is able to control their tongue perfectly. We all sin and we all stumble.

After the message I received the following question from one of our regular attenders.

Your sermon last week dealt with the tongue. You made the statement that none of us can control our tongues perfectly and yet James 1:26 says the following.

If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.

I don't doubt that you are correct in your assessment; I just don't know what to do with this pesky little verse.

It is not entirely impossible to harmonize these two different passages.

In James 1:19-27 the point that James is making is that our beliefs should influence our actions. He says that we should be doers of the Word, not merely hearers of it. So in verse 26 his point is that if you think yourself religious and yet your religion does not impact your life, specifically here influence the words you say, then your religion is not accomplishing anything, it is worthless.

This would be the individual who maybe attends church religiously or even reads their Bible religiously but never allows God to change their life. They continue to live their life according to their rules and have merely added a religious life on top of what they are already doing. Religion that works, is that which actually changes us from the inside out so that we are changed not just in what we do, but what we say and think as well.

Now in the section I preached on in James 3:1-12, the main point that James is trying to make is that even though no one can ever live without making a mistake with their words, for those who claim to be children of God we should not be both cursing people and praising God. To say that you aren't always perfect in what you say is not the same as the 'uncontrolled' or 'unbridled' tongue that James speaks of in 1:26.