Author: Kristen Kansiewicz, LMHC

Take a moment to read James 3:7-12 before reading the devotional below.

When I was learning how to drive, my mother repeated one phrase over and over (and it still comes to mind at times when I am driving even now): a car is a dangerous weapon. Today’s passage has a similar message: your tongue is a dangerous weapon. Let’s use the analogy of driving a car for a moment. Suppose you are a careful driver who is very aware of the dangers on the road and you faithfully go the speed limit. If this is central to your belief system about how a car should be handled, you are not likely to suddenly decide to drive 100mph on the highway just for kicks. You would see that as counter to your philosophies of driving and you would choose not to engage in this type of reckless behavior.

Your faith and your tongue have a similar relationship. If at the core of your beliefs you are aware that your tongue is a dangerous weapon, you will be very careful how you use it. In this case, our “speed limit” is God’s words about being slow to speak. When our faith is not fully integrated into our thoughts and behavior, we quickly forget this wisdom and our tongue speaks evil (at times even on the same day that we also use it to praise God). Understanding how and when to use your tongue is central to understanding how to follow Jesus.

You do not need to fear it (just as I do not fear driving my car). You need to respect its power. You need to respect the way your flesh can take over the words of your mouth. Practice periods of silence, both when you are alone and when you are with others. Take 24 hours to practice being slow to speak. Experience the freedom that comes with holding your tongue. Then, when you have a word to speak into someone’s life, it will penetrate their heart like a sword as the Holy Spirit uses your words to win a victory for you and for the other person.

“We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.”

In our current social and political climate, I resonate so strongly with the reality that “the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.” We’ve seen a lot of forest fires when evil words are spoken. Christians are lining up to form bucket brigades in these testing moments, and I believe there are unfortunately more to come. Whoever said that words had less power than sticks and stones had no idea what they were talking about.

When our tongues reveal our inner hate or evil, the fire that comes from that is a destructive one. It is no coincidence that the Holy Spirit fell upon his people with the image of tongues of fire, symbolically replacing the destructive fire with one that can refine, purify, and heal. Our powerful, damaging words replaced by a greater power that transforms us and our world.

Don’t be limited (and even controlled) by your own natural use of language. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak through you and for you, both in your native language to speak the truth and in supernatural languages as God releases you and gifts you. Supernatural encounters are not designed to be “cool” experiences that we seek out for the sake of the experience. Rather, Spirit-controlled tongues create an supernatural encounter with the world as we enter into a spiritual battle far beyond our understanding.

“Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.”

It is fascinating to me that right after James goes off on a faith-rant, he transitions into a discussion on how complicated it is to be a teacher. As a form of non-apology for his earlier statements, he is letting people know of the risk he is taking in being willing to teach. He’s acknowledging that even teachers make mistakes, and he is publicly accepting any negative consequence that could come were he to be wrong in the things he is saying.

Even teachers say too much. Teachers risk greater levels of scrutiny because their mistakes are public, but really we are all in the same boat. I hate walking away from a situation knowing that I spoke in ways I did not intend. Our ideal statements are hardly ever the same as what actually comes out of our mouths.

James’ point here is not to shame his readers or even to tell them to strive for perfection. The key word is “if.” IF we could control our tongues, we’d have it all figured out. But since we all know that is never going to be possible for us in our human frailty and sinful state, we can come to an acceptance that “we all make many mistakes.” If you are facing regret or shame about mistakes you have made, especially when you have said things you wish you could take back, sit in solidarity with all of humanity. We all have been there. In fact, we are all there now. It’s why we so desperately need God’s grace, which is available to us in the moment that we humbly say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

Take a moment to read James 2:21-26 before reading the devotional below.

To illustrate his point about action being essential to faith, James offers a couple of examples that would be very familiar to a Jewish audience: Abraham and Rahab. (In case you are not familiar, the links on each name will take you to the stories referenced.)

Honestly, each of these stories represent how weird faith is. Unorthodox orthodoxy. In the first one, Abraham is seemingly told to participate in child sacrifice, something God was clearly against. His faith leads him to act on this, and God saves the child at the last minute. The second story has some pretty key leaders of God’s people staying overnight at the house of a prostitute who is then honored by God for lying when authorities come looking for them. American evangelicals (and perhaps other Christian groups) would never, ever say that these ideas were from God if he asked them to do the very same things today. So that makes me wonder, how much are we getting wrong about the way God thinks? (A lot.)

Sometimes, to do the right thing, you need to lie. Our brothers and sisters who were part of the Underground Railroad or those who protected Jews from the Nazis offer us tremendous examples of faith. Sometimes, to do the right thing, you have to trust that God’s character will not change when he asks you to do something that sounds off. God was testing Abraham, and his faith that God would come through enabled him to follow. Challenge your assumptions, biases, and sensibilities today. God might just ask you to break them all for the sake of his Kingdom.

“Now someone may argue, ‘Some people have faith; others have good deeds.’ But I say, ‘How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.’ You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?”

James is just getting started on what is starting to sound a little like a rant as he calls his readers out on their understanding of faith. You can feel the fire under him, and ultimately this is the fire of the Holy Spirit speaking this message to His people. To me it feels akin to when Jesus turned over the tables in the Temple — God will not tolerate injustice in his kingdom.

We know that James is speaking about a justice issue here because of the verses we have been reading in the past few days. He started off talking about favoritism which led right into arguments about the very worth of Christian faith in the first place. If we are going to oppress people, why are we even claiming to have a faith in Jesus? You cannot follow Jesus and walk in the opposite direction at the same time. And no, it is not that some people are gifted in “faith” and others in “good deeds.” Loophole door slammed shut on that one. Demons have faith. Let that sink in.

The things that become core to your very existence are the things that make your faith in Jesus either real or useless. When we ask the Holy Spirit to cultivate Christ-likeness in us, we get a supernatural fire that we are seeing here in James himself. I have no doubt that he was living out his faith in some pretty dynamic ways. Not because of a legalistic system in which he was trying to check off his “good Christian” boxes. No, he couldn’t help himself. The Holy Spirit burns in you when you participate in this kind of faith, and when that fire is burning your life’s work will be Kingdom work.