THE TONGUE, PART II - JAMES 3:7-8

Verses 7-8: For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.

James is not finished with the subject of the tongue. Here he declares what is evident, that members of the human race have tamed all sorts of critters—including the fierce and dangerous land beasts, reptiles, sea creatures and the birds of the air.

This was God’s design for mankind from the very beginning, to have dominion over every living thing:

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

He also gave Adam the responsibility of naming and categorizing them:

Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. (Genesis 2:19–20)

This gave Adam a tremendous responsibility in his undertakings with God’s creatures. Even to this day, people have continued to demonstrate their ability to tame animals. This is evidenced by the control of animals in farm, in circuses, in zoos and even household pets.

Untamed Tongue

The main verb in this phrase is can; the Greek word from which it is translated means “to be able, have power, whether by virtue of one’s own ability and resources.”[1] It is important to make note that the English translation is missing a word in the original Greek: mankind. It should read that “no one of mankind can tame the tongue.” One might think that this makes very little difference, but putting the word mankind in the verse as it should be, James is emphasizing the futility of human effort in controlling the tongue.

James maintains a definitive contrast, that man can tame God’s creatures, but he cannot tame his own tongue because he does not have the power to do so. The underlying truth is that it takes a supernatural power source to have victory over taming the tongue. Dr. Radmacher rightly notes that "Only the work of the Holy Spirit within us can bring this destructive force under control."[2]

For the apostle Paul has much to say about the Spirit controlled life of the believer. On this very issue of the tongue he stated:

But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (Galatians 5:15–16, cf. Romans 8:4 [emphasis mine])

And if we are not walking by the Spirit, Paul charges us, “Do not quench the Spirit.”[3] Here he is likening the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit with that of a fire which can be extinguished or stifled. When we stifle to Holy Spirit we attempt to take over the control of our lives by our feeble human efforts.

And as a response to our attempts to superimpose our effort over the Spirits’ control in our lives, Paul commands that we “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30). We understand the English word grieve as meaning sorrow or sadness. But the Biblical meaning here is to vex, irritate, offend, insult.[4] We offend and insult the Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, when we straight-arm Him, or in effect say ‘talk to the hand’, basically pronouncing that our efforts are superior to His.

Next, James emphatically states that the tongue is a restless evil. The English word restless has the connotation of fidgety, twitchy, edgy. But a word better suited to what James is trying to convey is unstable. To be unstable means being unbalanced, unsound or volatile—these are the evidences of an untamed tongue characterized as evil, wicked and vicious.

Full of deadly poison is an additional description of this untameable tongue. James equates it to the bite of a poisonous snake whose venom will cause physical death. The apostle Paul likewise asserted this in his description of sinful mankind by quoting two passages from Psalms 140:3 & 10:7:

           “Their throat is an open grave,

         With their tongues they keep deceiving,

         The poison of asps is under their lips.”

           “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” (Romans 3:13–14)

Our Lord compared the Pharisees to vipers proclaimed:

“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” (Matthew 12:34)

The heart is therefore the source of the tongues’ deadly poison. While the human tongue may not inject actual poisonous venom into its victim, it does cause bitterness and divisiveness within the Body of Christ. This is the reason for James’ exposition of the subject of the tongue, for its poison has been the ruin of many who claim Christ as their Savior.

---

[1] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, G1410.

[2] Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1997). The Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version. Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, Jas 3:7–8.

[3] 1 Thessalonians 5:19

[4] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1979). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 481.

 

 © 2023 David M. Ross

THE TONGUE, PART I - JAMES 3:5-6

Verses 5-6: So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

In verses 3 and 4 James has just demonstrated how something small, a bit and a rudder can control something larger, a horse and a ship.

Now James points out how the small object of a tongue can control a person, causing them to “boast of great things.” James is the only New Testament writer to us this Greek word for boast (αὐχέω/aucheo). It provides the image of someone who would lift up their neck and speak in a haughty reproachful manner in order to ignite discord and cause provocation by bragging of great things.[1] James likens this to a forest fire. An uncontrolled tiny spark can ignite the dried leaves and wood of trees which will engulf the rest of the forest into flames.

The Tongue of Fire

James’ readers would have been familiar with the phrase ‘the tongue is a fire’, for the writer of Proverbs 16:27 stated: “A worthless man digs up evil, while his words are like scorching fire.”

The lesson here is that an uncontrolled, unbridled, rudderless tongue is like a destructive fire. It is characterized by James as ‘the very world of iniquity’—a phrase that has puzzled many Bible scholars. But since the word ‘world’ is identified with evil in this epistle (1:27; 2:5; 4:4) James equates iniquity—wickedness—with that specific substance of evil in the world controlled by Satan. The Greek scholar Spiros Zodhiates clarifies this:

This wickedness is seen more particularly in the neglect of the true God and His laws and in an adherence to the world or to idolatry; hence, adikía [iniquity] means impiety, ungodliness, contempt of God.[2]

Not only does this tongue unleash its hatred and derision of the Creator, it has devastating consequences upon the individual—defiling the entire body. The root meaning of this Greek word defile means: “a spot or stain, is used metaphorically of moral blemish.”[3] R.C.H. Lenski explains:

The wicked tongue defiles not merely itself with its fire but “the whole body,” for there is no sin that is committed by any member of the body and no sin that requires the whole body for movement, attitude, etc., in which the tongue does not assume the control; and it does this by the way in which it speaks of sin, helps to plan it, joins with what it says in carrying out the sin, defends, upholds, and continues the sin after it is done, etc. By means of a final modifier James explains how this one little member can thus control the whole body with defilement.[4]

Our Lord stated that this defilement affects the very core of a man:

 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” (Matthew 15:18-19, cf. Matthew 12:36-37)

James proceeds to explain the extent of this defilement: it is actively setting “on fire the course of our life.” The Greek word for course is wheel (τροχός/trochos), and is used figuratively for the cycle of our lives. Just as the wheels of an automobile rotate and proceed on a given route so does our lives. But the image here is not a positive one. As a fire will consume its source of fuel, the tongue will actively devour our lives— draining a person of all joy and happiness, and for believers, causing estrangement in their relationship with the Lord. Plus, there is an associated danger: just as a fire tends to spread, igniting other fuel sources, the tongue on fire will seek to devour those around us.

Next, James identifies the ultimate source of this devastatingly iniquitous tongue: set on fire by hell. The intent here is that hell is the active agent that causes this “tremendous destructive power of the tongue.”[5]

You might ask: How is hell able to accomplish this? Isn’t hell a place—a non-person without a personality or human characteristic? The answer lies in the context of the word hell.

The Greek word is Gehenna (γέεννα/géenna). Dr. Ryrie identifies it as a place “where the continuous burning of rubbish made it an apt illustration of the lake of fire (Mark 9:44; James 3:6; Rev. 20:14)."[6] Lenski explains further:

[Gehenna] has the connotation of both defilement and fire. South of the walls of Jerusalem lay the valley that had been desecrated by the worship of Moloch, in which children were burned (Jeremiah 2:23; 7:31; 2 Chronicles 23:3; 33:6). Josiah declared the place unclean (2 Kings 23:10), and it was then used as a place for the disposal of offal* (Jeremiah 7:32ff; 31:40).[7]

James’ readers would no doubt have been familiar with this location and its awful history of blasphemous worship and the burning of garbage. They would identify this as an unclean place based upon their Jewish belief system. From this they would understand that he is asserting that the wicked tongue is no different than an item of refuse burning in Gehenna.

 We should strive to insure that our tongue is used for the glory of God and not as Paul has stated of those of "a depraved mind" (Romans 1:28), and went on to declare that they have wicked tongues: gossips, slanderers, boasters (Romans 1:29-30). Never should this be said of us who claim Christ as our Savior! We need to heed Paul's command: 

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. (Ephesians 4:29)

---

[1] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.71.

[2] Zodhiates, S. (2000). ἀδικία/adikía. The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, G93.

[3] Vine, 2.596.

[4] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament. Hendrickson Publishers, Inc, 10.606.

[5] Ryrie, C. C. (1995). Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update. Chicago: Moody Press, p.1971 note.

[6] Ryrie, p.1520 note.

[7] Lenski, 10.608.

 * The edible, mainly internal organs of an animal, e.g. the heart, liver, brains, and tongue, sometimes regarded as unpalatable.

 

© 2023 David M. Rossi

---

 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BASICS

To be successful in the workplace a person must understand the basics of that particular profession. The factory worker must know the specifics of the process that they have been trained for in addition to other factors, such as, safety and company policies. Management individuals also need to know the basics of their profession: corporate objectives; people skills; time-management; safety.

It is no different in the Christian Life. The following are the principal building blocks of Christianity. By a further in-depth study of God’s Word, knowing and comprehending these basics can ensure an effective and fruitful relationship with God, in time and in eternity.

Salvation

Salvation is obviously the first basic. At the heart of the issue, salvation is God reaching out to man to provide redemption—restoring His creatures to the relationship which He had intended when He first created them. Man must understand that sin is the barrier which separates him from his Creator. And since there is nothing man can do to span this obstacle, God has provided a solution: Jesus Christ.

And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

This is the demonstration of God’s amazing grace provision for mankind:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

It is true that the only thing a person must do to gain salvation is to understand that the obstacle of sin has been removed by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and then by personally believing in His finished work on their behalf:

 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved...” (Acts 16:31)

This gift has no strings attached, it is a gift and a gift is always free. This gift has no work requirements, no begging or promises to be made—it is redemption through faith alone in Christ alone (cf. John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 4:4-5).

Learning Doctrine

On the first day of a new job, someone is usually assigned to the new employee to “show them the ropes,” that is, to show them how to become knowledgeable of the job and a successful employee. The same is true with the Christian life. In order for the new believer to be flourishing and productive they need to be “shown the ropes.” This is accomplished by the study of God’s Word taught by a pastor-teacher, preferably in a local church. This is what Our Lord had commissioned His disciples prior to His ascension:

“Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you...” (Matthew 28:20a)\

 There is evidence that this was carried out by the early churches:

Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers... (Acts 13:1a)

 And teaching was a gift that God established and the apostle Paul proclaimed:

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching. (Romans 12:6–7; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:28f; Ephesians 4:11)

In addition to learning God’s Word from teachers, believers are instructed to study what they have been taught, to enable them for this life of faith:

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

Also, the believer should adopt the same approach as the Bereans in establishing the accuracy of what they were taught:

Now these [Bereans] were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11)

Spirit-Controlled Life

The apostle Paul emphasized many times that the believer was to be guided by the Holy Spirit. It is no wonder since Our Lord promised His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit as their “Helper” (John 14:16; 15:26; 16:7). Our Lord stated that the Helper is “the Spirit of truth,” and that His objective is to “guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13)—all truth is contained in God’s Word (John 17:17).

Paul declares that to be an effective Christian, the believer is to “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25) and those who are led by the Spirit “these are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).

An elementary way of understanding being led by the Spirit could be put this way:

The Spirit of God, using the Word of God, in the life of the child of God, making the child of God more like the Son of God.

Being led by the Spirit is not waiting to get a ‘feeling’ of His directing us—it entails studying God’s Word and allowing His truth to permeate our stream of consciousness so that moment-by-moment we may know His directives. For Paul asserts that we can know His mind:

For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)

Witnessing the Gospel

Just prior to Our Lord’s ascension into heaven, He declared to the disciples:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

The empowerment and leading of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers is meant to empower them to be a witness of Jesus Christ—specifically, a witness to His saving work for all mankind:

And He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:46–48)

We are to be witnesses of the gospel of salvation, able to provide the specifics of the gospel (1 Peter 3:15), and by a manner of life that reflects godly righteousness.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. (Titus 2:11–12)

This means that our entire lives should demonstrate that God saved us, that we are His, and that this life of faith is the ideal life intended by God for all to partake of:

Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4)

Specialized Ministry

A myth in Christianity is that there are specialized ministries. Some might classify them as: a pastor of a church; a missionary; junior church leader; Sunday school teacher; etc.

The truth is that every believer is in full-time Christian service. It is important to understand that in every area of life, believers are to serve the Lord in whatever they are doing: being a spouse; a parent; a child; a factory worker; a restaurant worker; a homemaker; a public servant (and yes, even a pastor,  missionary, or church worker)—right down to eating and drinking:

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31; cf. 1 Peter 4:11)

The lives of believers are to be an open and consistent witness of the gospel. When all believers are doing this, there is a unifying exhibition within the culture—evidence of the truth that God does exist and that He sent His Son to redeem all mankind.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. (Colossians 3:16–17)

SAVAGE WOLVES: ACTS 20:17-32

It is essential that we note that at this present moment our culture is in a crisis mode—and the Church of Jesus Christ is entangled right in the middle. We are confronted with apostasy as a result of the massive infiltration of false teachings. The present apostasy didn’t begin in our century—it started in the 1^st Century. At that time, the apostle Paul was deeply concerned with the potential destruction this would have to the churches he had founded during his missionary journeys. It was for this reason that he requested a meeting with the elders from Ephesus (Acts 20:17) to convey a dire warning and to remind them of their solemn responsibility:

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. (Acts 20:28)

They needed to fully understand that it was by the divine appointment of the Holy Spirit that they were placed in their position of shepherds (elder) of the church of God. Therefore, Paul commands them to be on their guard, watchful and alert, to ensure the protection of their flock against false teaching.

Why should Paul be concerned with protecting these churches of Ephesus? Because he knew that a great opposition to his ministry was coming. He characterizes them as savage wolves:

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. (Acts 20:29)

Paul had the perceptive ability to know there was a crisis on the horizon. Having experienced plenty of the trials and testing along the way, he instinctively knows what is coming—trouble is brewing.

Note three things about these savage wolves: First, they are cowards since they are waiting until Paul has departed. They know they are no match for the apostle Paul. Second, they will come among them, meaning they will be right in their midst, without any disguises. Thirdly, they will not spare the flock. Real wolves rip their prey wide open and scatter those that they do not catch. Here, these wolves will shred the truths which Paul has taught and scatter away those who are weak of faith, as borne out in this next verse.

And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. (Acts 20:30)

The work of these savage wolves will entail the leading astray of believers within the Ephesus churches. They will be trained to rise up against the elders twisting and distorting Paul’s sound teachings.

Over 1900 years ago Paul predicted that these wolves would come and they are still coming even today. Over the centuries they have come in many manifestations: the Gnostics, the Church of Rome, the Charismatics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Emerging Church—to name just a few. The evil machination of the savage wolves has metastasized into many Christian denominations today. They have mesmerized, hypnotized and lulled to sleep believers, convincing them that whichever way the cultural winds blow, it must be acceptable. This is evidenced by their twisting and distorting of Scripture. They do this by the syncretization of the Bible with the cultural dictates of infanticide, euthanasia, same sex marriage, and gender manipulations, in order to fit their narrative, usually one that espouses ‘love’ or ‘truly committed’ in their attempt to outmaneuver those who maintain Biblical Christianity.

Today the true believer is not only contending with the culture but also with perverse forces within Christendom. But the good news is that we have a strategy laid out for us in Scripture. Just as Paul commanded these elders, we are to “be on the alert” (v.31), aware of the impending advance of these savage wolves. But not only are we to be alert, he explains exactly what our strategy should be:

And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (Acts 20:32)

 Paul is telling us that the word of His grace—Scripture—is able to build you up.1  What does he mean to build you up? The word in the original Greek, as Paul is using it, means “to build up in the faith, to edify, to cause to advance in the divine light.”2 In other words, the sound doctrine contained in Scripture will provide us with the defense we need to resist and prevail over the savage wolves. Paul states elsewhere that this conflict we are embroiled in is not on the physical level. These spiritual forces are led by none other than Satan:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

Paul also outlines the nature of this struggle:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. (2 Corinthians 10:3–4)

And this weapon he speaks of is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). And since the word of God is able to build us up in our faith, Paul instructs that we should be “taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).

R.C.H. Lenski underscores the necessity for the believer to be built up or edified by sound doctrine from God’s Word:

When we call this building up “edification” we do so only in the New Testament sense of the word. Edification is by no means the arousing of pleasant religious sensations but an increase, an unfolding of the whole spiritual life, including more and better knowledge, but especially centering the will and the character more deeply in Christ and in His Word. Men who are thus built up are proof [resistant/immune] against wolves and errors.3 [Emphasis mine]

This building ourselves up is a means of enlightening ourselves with the pertinent doctrine of Scripture that will fortify our spiritual defenses.4 This is not an isolated principle of Scripture, Jude also writes concerning false teachers, providing the same directive as Paul:

These [savage wolves/false teachers] are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. (Jude 19–21)

In conclusion, we believers in Jesus Christ must also be on our guard against the savage wolves. We must be able to identify the wolves and recognize that their ‘end game’ is to disrupt and scatter the flock of God. They will ridicule and mock us for our adherence to Biblical truth—this is evidence of the “last days” forewarned by Peter and Jude (2 Peter 3:3; Jude 18). Our vigilance requires the consistent study of God’s Word5 and persistent praying6 for God’s intercession and victory over these savage wolves.

---

[1] cf. Hebrews 4:12

[2] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, G3618.

[3] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001) Commentary on the New Testament, Peabody, MA: Hedrickson Publishers, 5.853-854.

[4] cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Timothy 4:6; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Matthew 4:4

[5] 2 Timothy 2:15; Isaiah 28:13

[6] 1 Thessalonians 5:17

 

© 2022 David M. Rossi