Today I want to work through this chapter of James. There’s an awful lot of teaching in this chapter. When working through it, we must think of nobody else, only ourselves. Sometimes we can miss that these things can apply to us.

1 My brethren, be not many masters,
knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

This first verse always puts within my heart the fear of death. To hold a position of responsibility is a fearful thing in the church. I remember Mr Black saying that if you are a pastor or a minister, you will answer for your congregation. You will have to give an account of how you’ve led them, how you’ve taught them, and what you’ve allowed to go on in your church. James doesn’t advise many to become masters. Don’t look for a position of leadership just for the sake of it. If God appoints you into that position, then that’s different. But don’t go seeking your own leadership because it brings with it its own condemnations and its own responsibility.

2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word,
the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

We all offend. We have all caused offence. We’re human beings and are not perfect. No matter how hard we try not to offend, we offend. Sometimes, no matter how tenderly and gingerly we approach a topic, we cause offence. Sometimes, we cause offence without even knowing we’ve done it. We cause to offence, we are not perfect. It is only when we get to heaven when there’ll be no offence.

7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea,
is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

We can tame so many animals. All of creation is tamed to some extent, or can be. We swim with dolphins, ride on the back of elephants. And yet, what cannot be tamed is the tongue. It is the most unruly member of our body. It’s more unruly than our hands that can slap, or the expression on our face. It’s our tongue – what we say. It’s unbridled. It’s like a very small rudder of a great ship. It actually directs the course of our life by what we say. It affects our relationships. It directs our lives. Think this week of the words you’ve spoken to someone else, the way you’ve spoken to someone else. How have you affected that person? What have you said about someone else to someone else?

5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.
Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members,
that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature;
and it is set on fire of hell.

The tongue is a fire, it’s a world of iniquity. If you have problems with your tongue, with what you say to other people, this is something you really need to work on. It needs to become a project in your life, that you will learn to control your tongue wherever you are and whatever you are doing, because it is a world of iniquity.

I think that is why in the baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues is so important. Mr Black used to say, why was it that there were tongues of fire above the heads of the disciples and why was it that they spoke in new tongues. I believe that this is the reason. It’s because the tongue is the hardest part of our being to control. When that part of us comes under the domination of the Holy Spirit, then we speak in new tongues, and we worship God. Then the tongue is under the control of the Holy Spirit. That is where it should stay and that is where we should aim to keep to keep it at all times. We should be able to, under God, control that part of us.

Miss Taylor, who was one of our founder leaders, had a fearful temper. She could cut you in two with her tongue. She said that when she came to Christ, the first thing she had to do was to hold her tongue. She said she bit her lip to the point it was bleeding with effort on one occasion. She dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands to try to keep herself right.

The first step to dealing with this part of us is to just shut up. We might be raging inside, like a volcano that’s going to explode. But we walk away. We take a deep breath. We pray and worship, we turn our mind to God. As someone once said to me – if you think about the thing that’s annoyed you, you get more annoyed; if you think of something that’s lovely, pure and of good report, the annoyance goes away. Stop thinking about the thing that was said, the look that was given, or the person who’s annoyed you. Think about Christ. Think about Jesus. Sing a song to Him. Worship Him, adore Him. Sing His praises. You’ll find that fire inside you, that world of iniquity, will die away. It’ll go down the plug hole rather than out of your mouth.

As the result of avoiding that, we can bring peace instead of trouble.

We mustn’t go home angry with a situation and complain to our families. When we do that, all we are doing are taking the seeds of anger and spreading them into other members of our families. That doesn’t benefit them. They won’t come to Christ as a result of that. We need to die to these things.

We must be a light wherever we go. Our workplace, our homes, our church. Whenever we allow darkness through us instead of light, people are affected by that. The tongue defiles the whole body and sets us and others on fire.

8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father;
and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing.
My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

In some ways this is an incredibly basic lesson in Christian matters, but we often fall into that trap. We turn to Christ and know that we need to turn away from this and that, and stop going here and there. We begin to follow Him and get active. All of a sudden, God begins to deal with not just the things you’re doing but you as a person – the ego and pride, the annoyance and irritation. To die to these things is much harder than all the other things put together. It might have been hard to walk away from a certain social scene or stop drinking for example, to die to the inner man is so much harder. We hate dying to ourselves.

11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs?
so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?
let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

If we’re truly converted, we’ll work at these things. Wisdom is a wonderful quality to have. We read here of the meekness is wisdom. Meekness really means to be put upon. It means we often have to make choices that we don’t want to make. Christ demonstrated the meekness of wisdom at the cross, when He was as a lamb at the slaughter. He opened not His mouth. When He was led the cross and the soldiers mocked Him and spat on Him, He opened not His mouth. He demonstrated the meekness of wisdom. “Father forgive them, they know not what they do” were the words that came from His mouth. The meekness of wisdom. The wisdom of understanding you’re not always right. The wisdom to know there’s a time and place not to say anything.

That’s not saying that we allow people to walk all over the top of us. We’re saints, the children of God, and there’s a dignity, calling and inheritance that is ours. We’re children of the King and stand up for what is right.

But within the church, working alongside our brothers and sisters, there is a meekness of wisdom. A beautiful meekness. That we need to clothe ourselves with. There are times when we can almost be uncomfortable with the circumstances and situation around us, and we still have to display meekness. The natural bit of us rises up and gets a bit defiant. The natural bit of us wants to take the situation by the throat and sort it out. The spiritual bit is leave it alone.

The meekness of wisdom. There is a place where we just close our mouths and put on Christ, no matter what has been said. Wisdom represents for us the Lord Jesus, and we learn to dwell in Him. We learn to dwell in Christ. We let the thing go. We keep letting it go every time it comes back, and it will come back. We turn to Christ again. It’s a form of death to self to keep doing that.

The opposite of that:

14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts,
glory not, and lie not against the truth.
15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

This is the opposite of meekness of wisdom. Instead of having meekness of wisdom and the beauty of Christ in our lives, we have bitter envy and strife. Lying against the truth. James says that such wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual and devilish.

There are two kinds of wisdom. There is a wisdom that is Godly and there is a wisdom that is devilish. The wisdom that is devilish tells us to go sort that out, get a grip of that situation. The wisdom that is from above comes with gentleness, it’s completely different. One brings bitterness, envy and strife. The other brings peace.

It suddenly becomes very easy to know how we should react in a situation. If we’re presented with an awkward difficult situation, if by taking one course of action we’re bitterness and envious, that’s the wrong course. If by going down the other road it brings Christ, then it’s the right way. Suddenly spiritual matters become very plain to us.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle,
and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality, and without hypocrisy

This is a lovely, lovely word. The wisdom from above, the wisdom that is Godly, is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be approached, full of mercy and good fruits. Without partiality and without hypocrisy.

We need gentleness. We need purity. We need peace. We need to work together for the kingdom of God. One of the things that the devil will try to do is divide and tear us apart. We need that meekness of wisdom from above to hold us and unite us in Jesus Christ.

Learn to walk in the Spirit. This is what it means to walk in the Spirit.

We need to abide in Jesus all of the time. Yes, there are difficult situations to deal with, and we need to deal with them. But we deal with them in Christ. That way, the church is strengthened.

Amen.