- 4 days ago
The Common Sense Bible Study crew discusses James 3:1-12. "The tongue is a fire." Guarding your speech is one of the most important skills to learn when you're part of a community. It's also one of the hardest. It's doubly important for Bible teachers.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
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From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Send me a friend request on The Torah Network: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
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LearningTranscript
00:00:00Welcome back to Common Sense Bible Study, and we're reading the Epistle of James.
00:00:06We're starting in Chapter 3 today.
00:00:09If you remember back when we first began, we talked about how the letter of James is
00:00:15divided up into kind of sections, and the technical term for this is a pericope.
00:00:20And whether or not James intended it to be divided up this way, it kind of works out
00:00:25logically that he talks about certain things in certain parts of the books.
00:00:28And so we can divide it up into chunks that are logically coherent within themselves.
00:00:37So that's what's on the screen now.
00:00:39These are, I've kind of divided the book up into four sections, and within each of those
00:00:46are two to four pericopes.
00:00:48And for the first part of the book, Chapters 1 and 2, the focus was more on being faithful
00:00:55through trials and doing good works despite the temptations we have to do evil.
00:01:02And of course, there's going to be lots of overlap in these sections because these are
00:01:07the topics that are common throughout the entire Bible.
00:01:11But now we're getting into this new section where he's talking about conflicts among people
00:01:16in the fellowship, and especially driven by selfishness and pride.
00:01:23So keep that in mind as we read.
00:01:26Our opening exercise, as usual, we're going to read through this pericope.
00:01:31And as I read, I want you to pay attention to any significant words or phrases or ideas
00:01:41and jot those down or keep them in mind.
00:01:44And then we're going to just list them out.
00:01:46This is just going to give us an overview ahead of time about what we're going to expect
00:01:51within this when we take a closer look at the text.
00:01:55So, and I've been listening to some commentary from Tim Haig on the book of James.
00:02:03I've listened to a number of his commentaries before, but I think this is the first time
00:02:06I've noticed that he did this, is that each week when he does his audio commentary, he
00:02:12reads from a different translation of the Bible.
00:02:14So one week he'll do NASB, another week he'll do the ESV, and maybe he'll do the TLV.
00:02:21So I really like that idea.
00:02:23And I have almost always read from the ESV.
00:02:27It's one of the best translations.
00:02:30I don't think there's such a thing as best, but, you know, I like the ESV and I like the
00:02:35NASB and there are some other ones that I like, but, um, so I'm going to read from the
00:02:40TLV this week, just because we're going to do it a little bit differently.
00:02:45Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, since you know that
00:02:52we will receive a stricter judgment, for we all stumble in many ways.
00:02:56If someone does not stumble in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body
00:03:01as well.
00:03:02And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole
00:03:06body as well.
00:03:08See also the ships.
00:03:09Though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small
00:03:13rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
00:03:16So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
00:03:20See how so small a fire sets ablaze so great a forest.
00:03:24And the tongue is a fire.
00:03:26The tongue is a world of evil placed among our body parts.
00:03:29It pollutes the whole body and sets on fire the course of life, and is set on fire by
00:03:34Gehenna.
00:03:35For every species of beasts and birds and reptiles and sea creatures is tamed and has been tamed
00:03:42by mankind.
00:03:43But no human being can tame the tongue.
00:03:46It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.
00:03:48With it we bless Adonai and Father, and with it we curse people, who are made in the image
00:03:53of God.
00:03:54From the same mouth comes blessings and cursing.
00:03:57My brothers and sisters, these things should not be.
00:04:00A spring doesn't pour out fresh and bitter water from the same opening, does it?
00:04:04My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives, or a vine produce figs?
00:04:09Neither can salt water produce fresh water.
00:04:13So I'll tell you one thing that stood out to me immediately, and this is kind of a gimme,
00:04:20and that's the tongue.
00:04:21James is talking a lot about the tongue.
00:04:23So go ahead and unmute yourselves, and let me know what big ideas or what words really
00:04:30stood out to you in this passage.
00:04:31Tongues, like you said, fire, blessing and curses, bits and bridles, and tame.
00:04:43Yep.
00:04:44Good.
00:04:45The idea that blessings and cursings come from the same source.
00:04:49Mm-hmm.
00:04:49I would say, important phrase, he's talking about for every, in verse 7 and 8, just, hey,
00:05:02we could tame these animals, but we can't, but no man can tame the tongue.
00:05:09Mm-hmm.
00:05:09Like, I guess I'd like to go into that a little bit further, and then, where's the other one?
00:05:20I guess I'm trying to understand why he starts off with, let not many of you become teachers,
00:05:27knowing that we shall receive stricter judgment, and then how does that interplay with the following
00:05:33Yeah, that is a, that's a big deal here.
00:05:40And it doesn't, it does seem to kind of disrupt the flow.
00:05:43He's talking about, you know, the tongue and how difficult it is to control, but then, yeah,
00:05:49how do teachers fit into there?
00:05:51But I'll give you an idea, just something to think about, is that a lot of this has to do
00:05:56with one thing controlling a bigger thing.
00:05:59One small thing, how does it relate to the bigger thing?
00:06:02How does it steer it?
00:06:03Well, that's kind of what a teacher is.
00:06:05A teacher is, like, somebody who's supposed to be steering a much bigger ship.
00:06:10That down is small things.
00:06:13Yeah, he talks about the spring, which is kind of what Paula talked about, or with the,
00:06:17a single source.
00:06:22And, let's see, Alan mentioned the fire.
00:06:28Okay, so we've got the tongue, fire, blessing, curses.
00:06:34Bits and bridles, everything related to animals and taming them.
00:06:38Two things coming from a single source.
00:06:42Teachers, judgment.
00:06:43And small things controlling big things and the spring.
00:06:48The point of this exercise isn't really to get any real understanding of the text yet.
00:06:55It's just to give you an idea of what the author is talking about in general.
00:06:59What is his main point and what kind of topics is he going to focus on?
00:07:03Well, this verse begins what I believe is a chiasm, whether it's, I kind of doubt that James meant,
00:07:12was deliberately trying to create a chiastic structure in this letter.
00:07:15But this seems to be the way that this next chapter and a few verses in chapter four are structured,
00:07:22that he starts talking about the authority of teachers and ends talking about the authority of judges.
00:07:28And in between, he's talking about speech and how do you control your speech and relating to other people.
00:07:35And where does wisdom come from in humility?
00:07:39And in the middle is the peace that comes from humility and the conflict that comes from pride.
00:07:48Like I said, I can't really say that James meant to structure it this way.
00:07:52It seems to be just the way that the Hebrew thought works is it starts with an idea and ends with it with an idea that's connected to that first one.
00:08:02And in the middle just kind of focuses into a single topic.
00:08:06Like I suspect that a lot of chiastic structures in the Bible are not purposeful.
00:08:12It's just accidental because of the way that Hebrew writers would think about things.
00:08:18Let's look at verses one through two.
00:08:20Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, since you know that we will receive a stricter judgment.
00:08:25For we all stumble in many ways.
00:08:27If someone does not stumble in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.
00:08:36All right.
00:08:38So here we're just going to start right off talking about this topic, Kevin.
00:08:43And a couple of things I want to say first is that I want to remind you that James isn't really talking about laws.
00:08:51He's not telling us if A plus B equals C, you know, he's not talking about mathematical formulas and physical laws of the universe.
00:09:00James is talking about moral principles.
00:09:05And so when he says that.
00:09:08That if someone does not stumble in speech, he is a perfect man.
00:09:12Well, he's think of it like Proverbs, where it's true in principle, but it's not a mathematical formula.
00:09:20By perfect, he doesn't, I don't think he means without any flaw whatsoever, because there's only one of those.
00:09:28And that's Yeshua.
00:09:30Generally, when the Bible talks about perfect, it's really talking about mature.
00:09:34Somebody who has become who they're supposed to be or is well-developed spiritually and mentally.
00:09:43So he's saying that a mature, well-developed man is someone who does not stumble in his speech.
00:09:53He's able to control his tongue.
00:09:55But, you know, that's not 100 percent true all the time, because we know that even the best men, the best women sometimes say things that they shouldn't say.
00:10:04They get angry.
00:10:05They'll make a rash vow or say something insulting to somebody without meaning it.
00:10:11So he's really talking about a principle here.
00:10:15But the principle that he's talking about is that if you are able to control your tongue, which is such a difficult thing, then you probably have a lot of other things under control, too.
00:10:26You probably have, you know, most of your unself-disciplined random urges to be bad to people.
00:10:34You probably have that pretty much wrapped up.
00:10:37So if the tongue is the only thing that you are still struggling with and you've mostly mastered that, then you're probably a pretty mature, trustworthy kind of person.
00:10:47And you're probably qualified to be a teacher.
00:10:51Not guaranteed, of course, because somebody can be have their tongue under control and not have other areas of their life under control.
00:10:58So this idea of teachers, that not many of you should become teachers, that's another one of those principles.
00:11:07It's not true 100 percent of the time.
00:11:10And in this passage, especially, we're going to find lots of connections with the book of Romans.
00:11:17And, you know, the the famous connection is the one we talked about last time with, you know, when James says that faith without works is dead.
00:11:26And people like to put that up opposed to Paul saying that we're saved by faith apart from works.
00:11:32So we talked about that in the last session.
00:11:36So you can go back and listen to that recording or watch that video if you want.
00:11:40But there are lots of other connections here with Romans.
00:11:42And this is one of them, because really, we should all be teachers to some extent.
00:11:48We're all supposed to be teaching our children.
00:11:50In fact, we're commanded to.
00:11:52We're all supposed to be teaching each other to some extent.
00:11:55And Paul talks about this in Romans 15, 14, when he says, and concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another.
00:12:10So Paul is saying that in general, the people in the Rome congregation were these perfect, mature people, not perfect in the in the sense that they never sinned, but they are mature as as believers and as disciples of Yeshua.
00:12:28And so since they understand God's law, they understand the scriptures, they understand who Yeshua is and how we're supposed to behave, then they're qualified to admonish each other and offer some correction and teaching to each other.
00:12:46So in that sense, everybody is supposed to be a teacher.
00:12:50But there's a difference between being someone who teaches on occasion or teaches your children and being in what we might call the office of a teacher.
00:13:00Someone who is called to be a teacher is someone who is taking on a lot more responsibility.
00:13:06You know, if I come to you just as a brother in Christ and I say, hey, Joe, I think you kind of got a problem here.
00:13:12And I've been I've seen this behavior in your life and I care about you and I want to call this to your attention.
00:13:18And I think this needs some some work.
00:13:21Well, that's just one believer admonishing another.
00:13:23And that's teaching of a sort.
00:13:25But that's not someone putting himself out as a teacher.
00:13:28A teacher is someone who steps out in front of the congregation and says, let me teach you about God's word.
00:13:35Essentially, that's what I'm doing here.
00:13:39And James is saying not everybody should try to step up into that position that should be reserved for people who are called to do it,
00:13:48who have the character and the experience.
00:13:52You know, look at the the qualifications that Paul laid out for Timothy and Titus for elders and deacons.
00:13:58Those are essentially the characteristics that we should be looking for in teachers and especially that able to teach,
00:14:04which means that, you know, the scriptures very well.
00:14:07Well, I would certainly not put myself up in in, you know, the category of somebody like Tim Haig.
00:14:16I don't know the scriptures nearly as well as he do.
00:14:18He does. Sorry.
00:14:19I don't even know English as well.
00:14:21I can't read the Greek and the Hebrew without lots of help.
00:14:25Whereas somebody like Tim, he could teach it.
00:14:27So, you know, there's a whole spectrum of people who are qualified or who should be in those teaching positions.
00:14:35And it's it's a good thing to aspire to.
00:14:37I don't even think we should discourage people from wanting to become teachers or be qualified to be teachers.
00:14:43But I don't think that people should step out and assume that position unless they really feel called to do it.
00:14:49And they have some confirmation through personal characteristics, through some some word from the spirit or confirmation from other people, all those kinds of things.
00:14:59So that was that was like one of my questions about who what does it mean teachers and how does it relate to the office of bishop or whatever?
00:15:19It's not bishop, but what is the title in Timothy?
00:15:23Like what what what does teacher actually refer to?
00:15:28Does it is it is it it's not meaning teaching your kids or is it and I know you went over a few things, but like I guess my confusion is this verse is very popular when it comes to being a pastor.
00:15:46Right.
00:15:47Or or teaching others, let's say, doctrine.
00:15:52Um, so I guess is this is this like exhortation from like like as Timothy or Titus or is this is this in a different different area?
00:16:12Yeah, I think.
00:16:13Well, he's not talking about just teaching in general.
00:16:18Trying to think of a different way to put it.
00:16:22Think of it.
00:16:23If you talk about the medical field.
00:16:25I can bandage wounds and I can, you know, put a.
00:16:30Put some antibiotic on my son's wound or I can I can help Paula or somebody else.
00:16:35You know, I can do some first aid, but not everybody should put themselves out as a physician, as a doctor, because those are different qualifications.
00:16:44Everybody should be willing to help somebody who's in trouble, who's how to help somebody who's been injured.
00:16:49Learning first or first aid is a great thing that everybody should aspire to do.
00:16:53But should everybody seek to be a doctor?
00:16:56Well, probably not, because then where would we have engineers?
00:17:00I mean, who would be out there building the bridges and making our roads if programming our computers, if everybody was a doctor?
00:17:06So in thinking about ministry, there are even very different roles there.
00:17:14I mean, one person can be a Bible translator and maybe not be not have the temperament to be a teacher or even the skills to be able to communicate ideas.
00:17:24He can understand the language and translate Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic into English and maybe even very fine English, but maybe he's not very good at expounding on those, the Greek or the Hebrew or the English in explaining what it means to people.
00:17:45And then there could be somebody who is not good at languages, whether I'm good at languages or not.
00:17:52I'm not really sure. I just haven't had the time to go to study them.
00:17:57But I don't have a huge knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, but I do have skill at taking complex ideas and simplifying them, you know, explaining something out and looking for patterns in text and illustrating those patterns to people.
00:18:13So at least at this stage of my knowledge, I would make a terrible translator and maybe I always will.
00:18:20But, you know, I make an adequate teacher, I think, I hope.
00:18:27Does that explain the difference?
00:18:30Yes.
00:18:31Okay. And you asked about the bishop or the elder.
00:18:37I don't remember if that's presbyteroi.
00:18:39I don't remember exactly what the word is in Timothy, in Titus, but actually, let me just go look.
00:18:50I think that's in 1 Timothy 3.
00:18:52Yeah, the office of episcopae.
00:18:56So episcopae is the word that's usually translated as bishop there.
00:18:59And it really means the same as an elder.
00:19:03It's, you know, somebody who has leadership qualities.
00:19:06And somebody who's in spiritual leadership should be a teacher.
00:19:11They should have those qualifications also.
00:19:14But they're not necessarily the same thing because somebody who is in leadership may know people.
00:19:20I don't have a lot of real good people skills, so I don't make a good leader in that sense.
00:19:28So there's definitely some overlap between teacher and what we might call pastor, elder, bishop.
00:19:35I think those terms are mostly interchangeable.
00:19:39But they're not exactly the same thing.
00:19:41Does that make things more confusing or less?
00:19:46Less.
00:19:47It's not confusing.
00:19:49I'm just...
00:19:50What I was just trying to...
00:19:52Because he starts off with this statement.
00:19:55So everything else that he talks about is in regards to this statement, right?
00:20:02Like this...
00:20:03I don't know.
00:20:05Maybe I'm wrong.
00:20:06Yeah.
00:20:06Well, it's kind of a stream of consciousness kind of letter.
00:20:08Where he's flowing from one topic to another, not randomly, but one topic kind of leads into the next.
00:20:17So he says not many of you should become teachers.
00:20:19Well, what is it that a teacher does?
00:20:22A teacher speaks.
00:20:24He uses his mouth to communicate ideas to other people.
00:20:29And so he says that he goes straight from that into talking about speech.
00:20:34Well, one of the big temptations of a teacher is pride in the idea that I might understand scripture better than somebody else.
00:20:46And so then I start not listening to people.
00:20:49I say, well, you know, I'm the teacher here, not you.
00:20:52So you just sit down and be quiet and I'll tell you what the truth is.
00:20:55And when we get into that kind of place, we really start getting ourselves into trouble.
00:21:01I mean, that's not humility.
00:21:04It's pride.
00:21:06And when we're speaking or teaching from a place of pride, then we're teaching from our own heart instead of God's.
00:21:13We're not teaching scripture anymore.
00:21:15We're teaching our own ideas, even if we think we're teaching scripture.
00:21:19So that's why he says that the teachers will receive a stricter judgment.
00:21:25Well, we can get into more of that later, but this is related because you have to be even more careful about what you say.
00:21:32If you are putting yourself into a position where you are trying to explain right and wrong to other people,
00:21:40like this is the way you should behave and this is the way you should not behave.
00:21:43If you are saying things from your own heart instead of what God has to say, you are going to be judged for what that person does because you have led them astray.
00:21:54So you have to be even more diligent to keep your tongue under control so that you know what you're saying and you're not being flippant about things.
00:22:05And I can't say that I'm always perfect that way.
00:22:08Sometimes I say things that later I regret.
00:22:10And sometimes I've taught things that are wrong.
00:22:13I don't think there's a teacher on earth that doesn't teach error.
00:22:17But the key there is to always be learning, to never be the teacher.
00:22:22Everybody is also a student who is a teacher.
00:22:26And the day that you stop being a student is the day you need to step down from being a teacher because you're not qualified anymore.
00:22:33So James is warning people who are putting themselves out saying, I'm the one qualified to teach other people.
00:22:40He's telling them, you better watch out because if you are coming from a place of pride, you are not you don't have control over your tongue anymore.
00:22:49And your tongue is going to master you instead.
00:22:53Alan, I saw you had your hand up earlier.
00:22:54Do you want to add something?
00:22:55Yeah, I was just wondering or curious if if really kind of like to your point about the perfect man, if he's really just emphasizing the weight of being a teacher and the responsibility that carries in in to your point, again, like shaping somebody's mind and directing their lives and the heart behind it.
00:23:16If it's the ego thing and or if you're really serious about about helping someone.
00:23:25Yeah.
00:23:26You know, when when Paul was talking about the qualifications for elders, he lists all of these characteristics, you know, not a drunkard, not a brawler, a man of good character whose house is in order.
00:23:39All of these qualifications and these aren't just like with James, he's not putting down the law.
00:23:45He's not saying, thus saith the Lord, you must be this.
00:23:48There are always going to be exceptions.
00:23:50These are principles in these are general guidelines for people who who should be in these positions.
00:23:54If you look at them, you know, as a whole, they are painting a picture of what James is calling the perfect man.
00:24:02This is a mature man, someone who has experience, who has understanding, some wisdom.
00:24:07And this is someone you can trust in this leadership position.
00:24:10And so if somebody has gotten to the point where he can control what he says and he's speaking truth and not error.
00:24:19This is a mature man that that you can trust in this position.
00:24:23The perfect man.
00:24:25I think we get tripped up over this idea.
00:24:27Perfect.
00:24:27I wish the translators wouldn't have used that.
00:24:30But I mean, that that's the literal meaning of the word, apparently.
00:24:34So.
00:24:35Like I said, I'm not the translator.
00:24:36I do want to talk about that a little bit more before we move on.
00:24:42There are some things I wrote down in my notes.
00:24:45This idea that teachers will receive a stricter judgment.
00:24:49In Luke 12.
00:24:53See, Yeshua is talking about faithful stewards.
00:24:58And he says, who then is the faithful and sensible steward whom his master will put in charge of his servants to give them their rations at the proper time?
00:25:06Blessed is that servant whom his master finds so doing when he comes.
00:25:10Truly, I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
00:25:14But if that servant says in his heart, my master will be long in coming and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk.
00:25:22The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
00:25:32And that servant who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will will receive many lashes.
00:25:39But the one who did not know it and committed deeds worthy of a flogging will receive but few.
00:25:44From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask the more.
00:25:50We usually think about this in the context of the parable of the talents, where the master has gone on a trip and left his possessions in the care of three stewards.
00:26:02And, you know, each of them are responsible for not only guarding those possessions, but putting them to work, to making them grow.
00:26:10And when the master comes back and sees that, you know, two of them did a great job and expanded his resources and one just hit it in the ground.
00:26:18But it's this idea is about more than just material resources or the skills that somebody that God has given you.
00:26:28It's about the responsibility that God has put in you through authority or through a position as a teacher or an elder or a priest, if you are in that role.
00:26:39I'm not sure that anybody is really in the role of a Levitical priest right now, but they will be again someday if they're not now.
00:26:48But being in that role carries responsibilities.
00:26:51He says at the end here,
00:27:21that even though some of these servants who are under the head servant, they're living incorrectly.
00:27:28I mean, they're not doing what the master wants them to do.
00:27:32They will be held accountable for that, but they're doing so because the headmaster or the head servant gave them bad instructions.
00:27:41So their punishment, even though they're the ones who's doing it wrong,
00:27:45their punishment will be less than the one who taught them incorrectly.
00:27:48The person who teaches the error not only receives the punishment for his own error,
00:27:54but for the errors of the people that he taught incorrectly.
00:27:57And that's a scary thing.
00:28:02And if you want an even scarier warning about this, we'll go to Ezekiel 33.
00:28:08In verses 6 through 9.
00:28:38That's a pretty dire warning.
00:29:00And I try to be very conservative when I'm teaching anything.
00:29:08I try not to say, if I'm not sure of something, I try not to say, this is the way it is.
00:29:15And I've had people even rebuke me for that, saying, you need to give people confidence.
00:29:20You need to, if you're not sure, you need to pound the pulpit harder.
00:29:23I think that's a terrible way to do things.
00:29:28If I'm not sure about something, I will tell you, I'm not sure.
00:29:31I think it's this way, but it could be this way.
00:29:34Because I don't want to be in a position where I'm telling you the wrong thing,
00:29:38and then I end up being judged for that.
00:29:41Because you did something wrong, and I'm responsible for it.
00:29:44Yeah, so based on what you said about teacher and having that greater responsibility,
00:29:56there's a lot of confusion throughout the ages, throughout the centuries,
00:30:04where doctrine has really just went out of control.
00:30:12And now we have all these denominations.
00:30:15And I mean, it freaks me out, because everyone believes in something different.
00:30:25There's different views on different topics of everything,
00:30:30ranging from the end times to the Sabbath to, like, you just name it.
00:30:40It just seems like there's a lot of confusion out there.
00:30:44And then I know that God's Word says He's not the author of confusion.
00:30:50So that I'm like, but you say you're not the author of confusion,
00:30:56but then it's, like, confusing.
00:30:58And, but I don't blame God, I blame the people for making it more confusing.
00:31:04And then, ultimately, Satan.
00:31:07But how does that relate to what's going on here in regards to teachers?
00:31:16You'll receive a stretch of judgment.
00:31:18And is it talking about those things?
00:31:22And do you see that what James is talking about in this passage?
00:31:29Do you think the, what do you call it, schism,
00:31:33like all the different denominations are a result from just bad teaching?
00:31:39Or, like, you know what I'm saying?
00:31:41Like, we're, we got ourselves here.
00:31:43We have different denominations.
00:31:46And I think, you know, I just, it's hard for me because when I read God's Word,
00:31:55it actually doesn't seem that confusing.
00:31:59What's confusing is when you have the Baptist or you have the Messianic,
00:32:07even the Messianic community, they're just all over the place.
00:32:10Like, they, they believe in different things.
00:32:13So, it's like, it's, we're, how, how do you, I guess my question to you is,
00:32:19do you believe that's what James is talking about?
00:32:25Well, it's certainly a part of it.
00:32:27We can, it's reflected in what Peter said about Paul's letters.
00:32:31That, from 2 Peter, chapter 3, verses 15 and 16.
00:32:42Just as also our beloved Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
00:32:46as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things,
00:32:49in which are some things hard to understand,
00:32:52which the untaught and unstable distort,
00:32:54as they do all the rest of the scriptures,
00:32:56to their own destruction.
00:32:57So, that is, it's the same idea.
00:33:01And I think you're right, that for the most part,
00:33:04scriptures are pretty simple.
00:33:05There are some very, pretty complicated stuff,
00:33:07especially when you get into prophecy and the apocalyptic literature.
00:33:12It can, it gets confusing.
00:33:14And it's very difficult to understand.
00:33:17And there are some parts otherwise that are very difficult.
00:33:21But mostly, I think the difficulties come from either translation issues or biases
00:33:30that our doctrines and creeds get in the way of understanding what scripture actually says.
00:33:36Because we come to it and we read the Bible,
00:33:39but instead of actually reading what it says,
00:33:42we're reading our creeds and trying to interpret the scriptures from our creed.
00:33:49Instead of deriving our creed from the scriptures.
00:33:55We do that all the time.
00:33:57And I think that's exactly what Peter is talking about here,
00:33:59is that people who don't really know the scriptures,
00:34:02they only know part of it.
00:34:03And this is the biggest problem with our Sunday churches,
00:34:06is that most of the pastors and teachers in these churches don't know the scriptures.
00:34:12They only know the New Testament.
00:34:14And maybe they had an Old Testament survey when they were in college or something.
00:34:20Yeah, I'm sure they have more experience than that.
00:34:23Most of them have read the Bible many times,
00:34:25and they're not trying to lead people astray.
00:34:29But they're twisting the scriptures around because they just don't know them.
00:34:33They have completely ignored the foundation,
00:34:36and then they're trying to build the roof.
00:34:38They're like, well, you skipped a few steps here,
00:34:42and it's not going to work.
00:34:46So somebody tries to come and read Paul's letters,
00:34:49or probably the worst of them all, the book of Hebrews,
00:34:52with no understanding of the Levitical system,
00:34:56no understanding of Torah,
00:34:59you are not going to know what Paul is talking about.
00:35:01And you are definitely not going to understand the book of Hebrews.
00:35:04People will say, just read Hebrews, just read Galatians.
00:35:11Well, I've read them, thank you.
00:35:14But just read Leviticus.
00:35:17Just read Deuteronomy.
00:35:20But, yeah, it doesn't really go over very well.
00:35:24All right, let's move on,
00:35:25because we're getting flashbacks to Romans here.
00:35:28We've been talking for over half an hour,
00:35:31and we're only into two verses.
00:35:32Yeah.
00:35:34Okay, verses three to five.
00:35:39If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us,
00:35:42we guide their whole body as well.
00:35:44See also the ships.
00:35:45Though they are so large and are driven by strong winds,
00:35:47they are steered by a very small rudder,
00:35:49wherever the will of the pilot directs.
00:35:52So also the tongue is a small number,
00:35:54yet it boasts of great things.
00:35:56See how so small a fire sets ablaze so great a forest.
00:36:00I think this is pretty straightforward.
00:36:04James is using some really dramatic illustrations of the idea that the tongue is a,
00:36:12it's like that saying that's attributed to George Washington.
00:36:15I don't think he really said it.
00:36:17Government is like fire.
00:36:18It's a troublesome servant and a fearful master.
00:36:23And so we,
00:36:24you know,
00:36:25they create the constitution to try to reign the government in to make sure that it doesn't do things that it's not supposed to do.
00:36:31And it's been ignoring the constitution ever since.
00:36:33And the tongue is the same way that it's this appears to be this tiny little thing,
00:36:42you know,
00:36:42that by the tongue,
00:36:43of course,
00:36:44he means our mouth and our ability to speak,
00:36:46but it's this little part of our,
00:36:48of our body.
00:36:49And it controls so much.
00:36:52Just the things that we say control our personal universes.
00:36:56You can build lives and wreck lives with a casual word.
00:37:02I read recently that when Einstein was a student and he wasn't doing well in school,
00:37:08I think there's some myths built up around that.
00:37:10I don't,
00:37:10I don't think he was ever flunking out of school,
00:37:12but I could be wrong about that,
00:37:14but he was having trouble.
00:37:16And somebody said to him,
00:37:18and I don't know who it was,
00:37:19it was a friend or a relative or something,
00:37:21but they said,
00:37:22you're not dumb.
00:37:22You just learn differently.
00:37:23And that changed the entire course of his life.
00:37:27And by changing the course of Einstein's life,
00:37:29that changed the course of everybody's life on earth.
00:37:32Everybody's life has been transformed by Einstein,
00:37:35whether he knew that that was going to happen or not.
00:37:38And it's just because one day somebody pointed out something to him that he might not have thought of on his own.
00:37:45And they were probably just trying to be encouraging.
00:37:48It's like,
00:37:48you know,
00:37:48you're a smart guy and it's not because you're dumb.
00:37:50You're just different than other people.
00:37:51Because he got that one little bit of encouragement,
00:37:55he went on to change the world.
00:37:57And this kind of thing happens every day.
00:37:59We say casual things.
00:38:02We say something cruel to somebody without even realizing it.
00:38:07And how do we know that that person might not have been the next Einstein or,
00:38:11you know,
00:38:11somebody else who might've done something great,
00:38:13but because we tore down their character one time on one day,
00:38:18they were discouraged.
00:38:20And that started a cascade of events where they were just more and more discouraged over time
00:38:24and never accomplished the things or became the person that God intended them to be.
00:38:28So our tongues are these little things that control so much.
00:38:37And if we could only learn to master what we say,
00:38:41to speak truth and to speak it in the right spirit,
00:38:45to speak it in love and to a good purpose,
00:38:48the world would be such a different place.
00:38:55There was another story I was thinking about along these lines,
00:38:59another historical anecdote.
00:39:02You've all heard of World War I.
00:39:04And everybody points to this dramatic thing that happened in Serbia,
00:39:09where somebody tried to blow up the car of the Archduke Ferdinand.
00:39:15But they, you know,
00:39:17they screwed that up and then they had to chase him down and shoot him instead.
00:39:21And, you know,
00:39:22this one assassination sparked a war between two smaller countries,
00:39:27which brought in Russia and Germany.
00:39:28And all of a sudden the whole world is at war.
00:39:31But really it goes back a little bit.
00:39:33It all of that could have been avoided.
00:39:35It wasn't the assassination that started the war.
00:39:39It was one thing that somebody said.
00:39:44After this assassination,
00:39:46it was Archduke Ferdinand.
00:39:49He was from Austria,
00:39:51the Austrian Hungary,
00:39:52Austro-Hungarian Empire.
00:39:54And the foreign minister for Austria
00:39:57was in communication with Germany.
00:40:00And who was it?
00:40:04Kaiser Wilhelm II in Germany.
00:40:07He sent a communication to the prime or to the foreign minister in Austria saying,
00:40:14you know,
00:40:15we trust you.
00:40:16You're going to do the right thing here.
00:40:18And whatever you decide to do about this,
00:40:20we're going to back you all the way.
00:40:21And don't worry about Russia
00:40:23because we've got a treaty with you.
00:40:24If Russia declares war on you,
00:40:26we're with you.
00:40:27Well,
00:40:28I'm pretty sure that they didn't mean for Austria to go and start a war with Serbia.
00:40:32They're just saying,
00:40:33you handle this and don't be afraid of the repercussions.
00:40:36Do the right thing.
00:40:36But Austria took this as permission to punish Serbia.
00:40:45And essentially they started a war because they figure,
00:40:47oh,
00:40:47Germany's on our side.
00:40:48Russia won't dare attack us because they don't want a war with Germany.
00:40:52Well,
00:40:52Russia didn't care about that.
00:40:54So as soon as Austria invaded Serbia,
00:40:56Russia steps in and then Germany's committed.
00:40:59And if Germany had just said,
00:41:00instead of saying,
00:41:01you know,
00:41:01whatever you do,
00:41:02we're with you.
00:41:03If they had said,
00:41:05hey,
00:41:05show some restraint here because we really don't want a world war.
00:41:08The whole thing would have ended.
00:41:10You know,
00:41:11maybe Austria would have had some trouble with Serbia and there would have been domestic,
00:41:17some riots or,
00:41:18you know,
00:41:18other civil unrest.
00:41:20But we probably wouldn't have had World War I,
00:41:22which means we wouldn't have had World War II either because World War I set the stage for World War II.
00:41:27And it was all because somebody made a rash vow.
00:41:31Like Jephthah and his daughter.
00:41:34If you give me victory,
00:41:35Lord,
00:41:35I'll sacrifice whatever comes out of my front door.
00:41:38Well,
00:41:38that was silly.
00:41:41And we say rash things all the time without really thinking it through.
00:41:46And talk about setting a great forest to place.
00:41:51Just that it bring me to numbers.
00:41:53I think it's 13 and 14 when the evil report from the spies,
00:41:58it,
00:41:59his tongue essentially wiped a whole generation out,
00:42:03like 600,000 people.
00:42:06Yeah.
00:42:07If only they had just trusted God and said,
00:42:11yeah,
00:42:11it's scary in there,
00:42:12but God said it's ours.
00:42:13But no,
00:42:14they said it's scary.
00:42:15We're all going to die.
00:42:16And so they did.
00:42:17I wrote down that what we say sets things in motion for life,
00:42:26for life or death,
00:42:27for building up or burning down,
00:42:30uniting or dividing.
00:42:31And it all starts with just that little rudder,
00:42:34how we direct it.
00:42:35Yeah,
00:42:35it does.
00:42:36Okay.
00:42:38Let's move on to the next couple of verses.
00:42:41Verses six through eight.
00:42:45And the tongue is a fire.
00:42:46The tongue is a world of evil placed among our body parts.
00:42:49It pollutes the whole body and sets on fire the course of life and is set on
00:42:53fire by Kehenna.
00:42:55For every species of beasts and birds,
00:42:57reptiles and sea creatures is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
00:43:01But no human being can tame the tongue.
00:43:03It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.
00:43:06All right.
00:43:08Just a reminder that again,
00:43:11about how James is talking about principles and not necessarily laws.
00:43:16We know that there are,
00:43:18there are other body parts that cause all kinds of trouble and that people have
00:43:21lots of trouble trying to control.
00:43:25We see that in,
00:43:26in the news all the time when some world renowned pastor or politician is
00:43:32caught in some kind of scandal.
00:43:33It's not always our tongue that gets us into trouble.
00:43:36But James is really talking about how we're treating each other.
00:43:39I mean,
00:43:39that's one of the primary topics of this entire letter is how do you treat each
00:43:44other in the fellowship?
00:43:46And speech is the very first thing about treating each other kindly.
00:43:50And so if you want to have peace in the fellowship,
00:43:55you want to have a congregation that is honoring God and honoring each other starts with the tongue,
00:44:02starts and ends with the tongue,
00:44:04control your speech.
00:44:05I was thinking because James uses these analogies of the animals and,
00:44:13you know,
00:44:13he has a little hyperbole here.
00:44:15Obviously we haven't tamed every species of animal on the earth.
00:44:20There are some species that we haven't even encountered yet,
00:44:22at least that we don't,
00:44:23that we've documented.
00:44:24And also it's not that no human being can tame the tongue.
00:44:30We just can't do it on our own.
00:44:32We need help to do it.
00:44:33But this reminded me in a couple of places of Genesis,
00:44:39Genesis one and two,
00:44:40because one of the very first instructions that God gave to mankind was to be,
00:44:47was to have dominion over the animals.
00:44:49You are to be the master of these animals.
00:44:52Well,
00:44:52that's easy.
00:44:53I mean,
00:44:53it's not easy because,
00:44:55you know,
00:44:55it's not necessarily easy to go tame a lion,
00:44:57but it can be done.
00:45:00And you don't need divine assistance to do it.
00:45:02And people can be dog trainers.
00:45:05I mean,
00:45:05people train alligators.
00:45:07I wouldn't,
00:45:08wouldn't trust their training,
00:45:09but they do it.
00:45:10And,
00:45:10you know,
00:45:11they do all kinds of crazy stuff and it doesn't take wisdom or a great
00:45:17relationship with God to train animals.
00:45:19But those things are outside of ourselves.
00:45:22They're part of the world around us.
00:45:23And even though when God first gave that instruction,
00:45:28the world wasn't in rebellion against us.
00:45:31It took Adam's sin to do that.
00:45:33And once Adam sinned,
00:45:35corrupted the whole world,
00:45:36turned all of nature against us.
00:45:39So now we have to work at domesticating the animals and even the plants.
00:45:44They're all trying to kill us all the time.
00:45:45But the tongue is much harder because it's part of us.
00:45:50It's inside.
00:45:52And that does take wisdom to truly tame.
00:45:56The tongue takes the Holy Spirit,
00:46:01God's commandments,
00:46:03divine assistance.
00:46:03And we can't do that without his help.
00:46:07This reminds me of how it's not just one thing.
00:46:15It seems like the way of the world is always to look for the one thing.
00:46:22You know,
00:46:22like I think,
00:46:23unfortunately,
00:46:24a lot of people will just say things like,
00:46:27you just need Jesus.
00:46:29And sometimes I wonder what that really means when people say that,
00:46:36but it,
00:46:38you know,
00:46:38people tend to oversimplify things that they don't.
00:46:43They just tend to oversimplify things.
00:46:45Let me just put it that way.
00:46:46And I see this,
00:46:46I see this in practice in my work.
00:46:49It's the same thing with health.
00:46:52Everybody's looking for the one thing that's going to take care of everything,
00:46:57but that's just not how our bodies were designed to work.
00:47:00And I don't think that our,
00:47:02our beings were designed to work with just like one thing.
00:47:07It's,
00:47:07it's,
00:47:08it's more complex.
00:47:09It's like,
00:47:10you know,
00:47:10even when you would think about relationships,
00:47:12they're more complex than just having one conversation with a person or
00:47:18having one experience with a person or whatever it is.
00:47:22So I just,
00:47:22I just think that when you're saying that,
00:47:24I was just thinking about how,
00:47:27everything in the world is more complex than we would like it to be.
00:47:30Yeah.
00:47:33But yes,
00:47:34we need Jesus because of what his sacrifice has done.
00:47:38What,
00:47:38what his resurrection has done,
00:47:40but we need other things that help our being to be able to follow him.
00:47:49Well,
00:47:49when it comes to the tongue,
00:47:54it is very complicated.
00:47:55Just that one thing.
00:47:58Yeah.
00:47:59You know,
00:47:59if,
00:47:59if you were to lock yourself in a room,
00:48:01you're going to,
00:48:02you're going to be a monk and you're just going to sit in a room and pray and
00:48:05read the scriptures for the rest of your life.
00:48:08Well,
00:48:08that's kind of the lazy,
00:48:11easy way out.
00:48:11To be honest,
00:48:12it's,
00:48:13it's a difficult life,
00:48:15but it's an easy kind of self-discipline because it doesn't require any
00:48:19discipline.
00:48:21I mean,
00:48:21you're there by yourself.
00:48:23Obviously there are some kinds of discipline that you'd have to have,
00:48:25but it's not the discipline that requires any kind of love or self-restraint
00:48:32with other people.
00:48:33You don't have to love God to sit in a room all by yourself for years.
00:48:37You don't have to love anybody else.
00:48:39That's all about you,
00:48:40which really is kind of backwards.
00:48:44But if you're going to tame your tongue,
00:48:46that means that you have to be in places where you're using it.
00:48:51Taming the tongue doesn't mean being silent.
00:48:53It means saying the right thing at the right time to the right person in the
00:48:58right way,
00:48:59which means that you have to use it.
00:49:01You have to speak to people.
00:49:02You have to receive correction.
00:49:04You have to put it to work all the time.
00:49:07Just like with anything else.
00:49:09If you want something to get better or to get stronger,
00:49:12more capable,
00:49:13you have to keep using it.
00:49:14But the more you use it,
00:49:15the more opportunities you're giving yourself to use it incorrectly.
00:49:20So it's this complex interplay between learning God's commandments,
00:49:25God's way of doing things,
00:49:27putting them into action,
00:49:29spending time in,
00:49:30in prayer,
00:49:32in communion with the Holy spirit and with other people in listening to what
00:49:36they have to say and getting feedback.
00:49:37Any other thoughts about this passage?
00:49:43Now that we got past verse two,
00:49:45we're zooming through it.
00:49:48All right,
00:49:49let's move on to the next couple of verses.
00:49:53This is actually the last part of our pericope here.
00:49:56With it,
00:49:58that is the tongue,
00:50:00we bless Adonai and father.
00:50:01And with it,
00:50:02we curse people who are made in the image of God from the same mouth comes
00:50:06blessing and cursing.
00:50:07My brothers and sisters,
00:50:08these things should not be a spring.
00:50:10Doesn't pour out fresh and bitter water from the same opening.
00:50:13Does it?
00:50:14My brothers and sisters can a fig tree produce olives or a vine produce figs.
00:50:19Neither can salt water produce fresh water.
00:50:21Here's another instance of James giving principles over laws.
00:50:28From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing.
00:50:33And this shouldn't be.
00:50:34Well,
00:50:35technically that's not entirely true because there is a time for cursing.
00:50:40As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes,
00:50:42there's a,
00:50:42there's a time for everything.
00:50:44It's about context when,
00:50:46where,
00:50:47how,
00:50:47who there is a time for cursing the,
00:50:51the wicked,
00:50:52but that's not the context of what James is talking about.
00:50:57He's talking about in the fellowship.
00:51:00When you're relating to fellow believers.
00:51:03Now,
00:51:04even within the fellowship,
00:51:06there is,
00:51:07there are times for cursing.
00:51:09You know,
00:51:09we have the example of there are wolves in the,
00:51:13among the people.
00:51:14And there comes a time where you have to cut them off.
00:51:17You have false teachers and false prophets coming in among the flock and you have to protect the flock.
00:51:24So you throw these people out and this is a form of cursing.
00:51:27You have to rebuke people and make corrections.
00:51:30But the context of what James is talking about is relating to our fellow believers,
00:51:36people who are not the wolves.
00:51:39How do you treat the guy sitting next to you?
00:51:44Well,
00:51:44you treat him with respect.
00:51:46You treat him like the image bearer of God that he is.
00:51:50That's why James starts this with,
00:51:52with it,
00:51:52we bless Adonai and father.
00:51:55He's not saying that there are two different things here.
00:51:57He's saying we bless the one who is God and our father.
00:52:03And with it,
00:52:04we curse people who are made in the image of God.
00:52:06And I think he's saying father to emphasize the idea that we are made in God's image.
00:52:10And this is another connection back to Genesis where God says,
00:52:16let us make mankind in our own image.
00:52:18And so if we are cursing people simply because we feel like we are better or more important than they are,
00:52:26then we're really cursing the image of God because they are,
00:52:31I mean,
00:52:31everyone around you,
00:52:32no matter how wicked or righteous,
00:52:35just as equally bears the image of God as you do.
00:52:40The main focus here is about how you behave within the congregation of God.
00:52:45Among his people,
00:52:46how do you treat each other?
00:52:48If somebody is misbehaving within your congregation,
00:52:51do you curse him or do you go to him and try to correct him?
00:52:57Well,
00:52:57that's what we read from Paul earlier is that you admonish one another.
00:53:02You go to him in love and say,
00:53:05Hey,
00:53:05brother or sister,
00:53:07I think you got a problem here.
00:53:09And then if they won't listen to you,
00:53:11you follow the example that Yeshua gave and say,
00:53:15you know,
00:53:15you bring someone else with you.
00:53:16And if they still don't listen and you go to the elders and they still don't listen,
00:53:19you bring it to the congregation,
00:53:20but you don't go and say,
00:53:23Hey,
00:53:24you're stupid.
00:53:25And I,
00:53:27you're just never going to amount to anything because you never get this right.
00:53:32That's the kind of thing that James is talking about here.
00:53:34We don't treat each other that way because we're all the image of God.
00:53:40Yeah.
00:53:41It's just unfortunate because there are clear instructions of God's word and we are going to do things that are sinful because we are in our still in our sinful state of flesh.
00:53:58Uh,
00:53:59but there's,
00:54:00there's a big difference between,
00:54:02uh,
00:54:04a person who rejects God's word and they,
00:54:09you know,
00:54:10this all goes back to being perfect,
00:54:12right?
00:54:13If,
00:54:14if someone knows me well,
00:54:17they know,
00:54:19they know the bad things about me.
00:54:23And,
00:54:24and,
00:54:25uh,
00:54:25if I bring some,
00:54:27something to someone's attention,
00:54:28they will look at me and say,
00:54:31well,
00:54:32you've done this in the past,
00:54:33or,
00:54:34you know,
00:54:35you're not perfect.
00:54:37And why are you,
00:54:39you know,
00:54:39why are you telling me this?
00:54:40And so it's not that like,
00:54:43I w I would love for someone to rebuke me if I'm in the wrong,
00:54:48if I'm not following Christ,
00:54:49I would love someone to rebuke me.
00:54:51And I've had that happen before and it has humbled me.
00:54:56Um,
00:54:56and to reflect,
00:54:59but what,
00:55:02I just don't understand why some Christians,
00:55:04um,
00:55:06or people who call themselves Christians,
00:55:08they hold onto things when they shouldn't be.
00:55:15And God's instructions clear.
00:55:19Um,
00:55:19we follow Christ.
00:55:21So I,
00:55:23what you said just resonated with me of,
00:55:26we,
00:55:27we read the Bible,
00:55:28but then when someone comes,
00:55:33like if someone was to come up to you and tell you that you're doing wrong,
00:55:38and it could be a stranger even,
00:55:41but they tell you what,
00:55:43you know,
00:55:43that you're in the wrong,
00:55:45we seem to,
00:55:48uh,
00:55:50look at that person as for,
00:55:55like,
00:55:56they should be perfect in order to tell me that I'm wrong.
00:56:00And that's not what,
00:56:02that's not how Christ did things.
00:56:08I mean,
00:56:08we are ambassadors and,
00:56:11you know,
00:56:12I don't know.
00:56:14I'm trying to,
00:56:15I'm trying to say it in a way,
00:56:16but I'm like,
00:56:17how do I,
00:56:18how do I express myself?
00:56:19It's just weird because they'll look at the person,
00:56:22but they won't look,
00:56:24they won't look at it as this is God's word.
00:56:28This is coming from God.
00:56:30This is not something Jay came up with,
00:56:33or Kevin came up with.
00:56:35This is something that God has stated in his word.
00:56:41And so how,
00:56:43how do you,
00:56:45you know,
00:56:46when it comes,
00:56:50you know,
00:56:50when you were talking about perfection,
00:56:52it just seems like people like atheists,
00:56:57they think Christians are perfect.
00:56:58Well,
00:56:58we know that's not true.
00:57:00And then you got the Christians that think that Christians should be perfect.
00:57:03And we know that's not true.
00:57:04It's just very difficult because that's why doctrine is important.
00:57:10Because if we don't understand the doctrine that's being taught to us through James and other books,
00:57:18then we fell.
00:57:22Yeah.
00:57:23I think the key is humility.
00:57:25And it,
00:57:26obviously,
00:57:28the issue is discussion of,
00:57:30you know,
00:57:31the,
00:57:31the speck and the plank comes to mind,
00:57:33you know,
00:57:34before you go and try to pull the speck out of your brother's eye,
00:57:37take the plank out of your own.
00:57:38So there is some truth to the idea that,
00:57:41that before you go and try to correct somebody,
00:57:43you need to get your own yourself straightened out.
00:57:46But you're right that nobody's ever going to be perfect.
00:57:49Everybody's got problems.
00:57:51And,
00:57:51but we still have a responsibility to try to correct each other and encourage each other to better behavior,
00:57:57to be more Christ-like.
00:58:00And the key to doing that in a way that honors Christ is to do it in humility.
00:58:05And not to berate anybody,
00:58:09not to condemn them because they're getting something wrong,
00:58:12but to encourage them to do something right.
00:58:16And what,
00:58:18what God told us through Ezekiel is that sometimes you have to warn people and say,
00:58:23Hey,
00:58:23if you continue down this road,
00:58:25some really bad stuff could happen.
00:58:27These,
00:58:28these are things that God has said are horrible and he doesn't want people behaving this way.
00:58:34But,
00:58:36you know,
00:58:38if the,
00:58:38if you're really talking to a fellow believer,
00:58:40then you can,
00:58:42you can do it that way humbly.
00:58:45And,
00:58:45you know,
00:58:45if this is somebody who's not even in the kingdom,
00:58:48well,
00:58:48you know,
00:58:49things are different then.
00:58:51Sometimes there's a call for,
00:58:53you know,
00:58:53standing on the street corner and telling everybody that the end is nigh and you're all going to hell.
00:58:58But that's pretty unusual.
00:58:59That is not the norm.
00:59:00And I think you have to be called to something like that.
00:59:03That's not something that most people should ever do.
00:59:06Just like most people should never aspire to be a teacher in the office of teacher.
00:59:12Most people aren't called to be street corner prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah.
00:59:17We're called to be brothers.
00:59:21And so if we approach our brothers and sisters in that spirit that we are family and we want to preserve this relationship beyond this moment,
00:59:29I'm not here to end this relationship and accuse you of doing something terrible.
00:59:34I'm here to help you get past it.
00:59:37Help you grow through this and become something better.
00:59:40And I hope that in now that we've done this,
00:59:43that you'll do the same for me.
00:59:44And I think,
00:59:46you know,
00:59:48like I said,
00:59:48I'm not really a people person.
00:59:49So the precise mechanics and how to go about this,
00:59:53I'm probably not the best person to tell you how to do it.
00:59:56But my suspicion is that if you are clear to somebody that I know I'm not perfect,
01:00:03and if there's something in my life that you,
01:00:06you can see I'm getting wrong,
01:00:08please tell me.
01:00:09But I noticed this thing and I'd like to call your attention to it.
01:00:13I just want to make sure that you're aware,
01:00:14you know,
01:00:15just soften the blow a bit,
01:00:19do it in love.
01:00:20And as long as you're approaching it with humility and love,
01:00:22then I think you're,
01:00:24you're probably on the right track.
01:00:29Those can be difficult kind of situations though.
01:00:31There's always danger that somebody is going to take something the wrong way,
01:00:34no matter how well-intentioned you are and,
01:00:36or how careful you are.
01:00:39I think,
01:00:40I think a lot of that really does take a strong relationship.
01:00:45Like,
01:00:45I think,
01:00:46I think the key to being able to speak into someone's life with humility is,
01:00:53I don't want to say having earned the right,
01:00:56but I think,
01:00:57I think that there is a level of relationship,
01:01:01trust that,
01:01:03that has to be formed before you can speak anything.
01:01:07And I think just like a lot of other things in life,
01:01:10it comes in degrees where,
01:01:13you know,
01:01:13maybe,
01:01:14maybe you're building a relationship and it's not super strong,
01:01:19but there's a certain level of trust built.
01:01:22And so you can,
01:01:24you in that relationship,
01:01:25you can come to,
01:01:27come to the other person and say something.
01:01:29That's not really a,
01:01:31a huge kind of offense or a huge deal,
01:01:34but you can come to them and like confront them about it in some way,
01:01:38you know?
01:01:39Right.
01:01:39And,
01:01:40and the relationship grows because there's this trust and there's this
01:01:44confrontation that it can bear.
01:01:46And the other person learns to trust that you're coming in love,
01:01:52that you have their good in mind,
01:01:56but that you're also honoring God.
01:01:58And I think it just,
01:01:59it builds.
01:01:59And I think that's part of the difficulty of doing these things in the
01:02:08culture that we live in.
01:02:10We don't live in an ancient world and we live in a very fast paced world.
01:02:16And so I think that,
01:02:17and we also live in a world that many people don't understand how,
01:02:21how to have healthy relationships and what that really looks like.
01:02:24So I think,
01:02:25I think that it is very difficult if you don't know the,
01:02:30the background of the person that you're talking to or really understand.
01:02:35So I think it takes a lot of seeking to understand people and building
01:02:40relationship with them to really,
01:02:44to really get those opportunities.
01:02:48And I think it,
01:02:49it doesn't mean that you,
01:02:51you will never be called to speak something to someone.
01:02:54And that you don't have a strong relationship with.
01:02:57But my suspicion is that a lot of this is about building the trust and they,
01:03:05them seeing your character and seeing the character of God in you and trusting
01:03:10that,
01:03:11trusting that,
01:03:11that God is working in you.
01:03:16Even if you don't have it perfect.
01:03:19Right.
01:03:19And I think that's the,
01:03:21that part of that is really being able to show people who we are by our actions
01:03:26and not just by our words,
01:03:29which takes time.
01:03:34Yeah.
01:03:35That is a really important thing that if you just met somebody or you're new in a fellowship,
01:03:41then if you see a problem,
01:03:44you should probably keep your mouth shut.
01:03:47That you're not going to,
01:03:49you're not in a position to correct anybody or you don't even really know what's going on.
01:03:55You need to wait until you know these people better and they have some trust of you.
01:03:59When you've established some trust and you've established who you are,
01:04:03that you are somebody that,
01:04:05that they can hear from,
01:04:07then you can start speaking into other people's lives.
01:04:12You know,
01:04:12I mentioned earlier that,
01:04:14that James is using a lot of colorful analogies in this passage or colorful metaphors,
01:04:20uh,
01:04:21the ships and the animals and,
01:04:22uh,
01:04:23forest fires.
01:04:25Here he does this some more.
01:04:27He's talking about,
01:04:28uh,
01:04:30uh,
01:04:30in verse 12,
01:04:31olives and figs says that can a fig tree produce olives or a vine produce figs?
01:04:39I mean,
01:04:39this is typical of the Bible.
01:04:41It's the entire world was agrarian.
01:04:44I mean,
01:04:44even though James lived for decades in Jerusalem and he had probably been in Jerusalem for decades
01:04:49when he wrote this,
01:04:50it's still an agricultural society.
01:04:54Uh,
01:04:55the people in Rome,
01:04:56they were,
01:04:57they were used to seeing animals slaughtered.
01:05:01There was a temple on every other corner where they were doing animal sacrifices.
01:05:05If you went to the market,
01:05:06you could probably pick out a live chicken and they'd slaughter it right there.
01:05:09Or you'd take it home and do it yourself,
01:05:11even in the middle of the city.
01:05:13So these are people who are very familiar with the kinds of things that James is talking about.
01:05:18And so when he talks about fig trees and olives and,
01:05:22and vines,
01:05:23these are all very familiar things.
01:05:25And Yeshua uses some of these same analogies.
01:05:29He uses pretty much this exact same analogy in Matthew seven.
01:05:36Matthew seven,
01:05:3815.
01:05:39It says,
01:05:41Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing,
01:05:44but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
01:05:46You will know them by their fruits.
01:05:48Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles,
01:05:51are they?
01:05:52So every good tree bears good fruit and the bad tree bears bad fruit.
01:05:56A good tree cannot produce bad fruit,
01:05:58nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
01:06:00Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
01:06:04So then you will know them by their fruits.
01:06:06You know who a person is by what comes out of his life,
01:06:11whether it's his words or his actions,
01:06:14these things tell you who the person really is.
01:06:16And sometimes someone will tell you all kinds of things that sound great.
01:06:23You know,
01:06:23we've all heard of teachers who gave great sermons and wrote amazing Bible commentaries.
01:06:29And then it turns out they were evil people or who give great inspirational pep talks every Sunday morning.
01:06:37But they really don't have a whole lot to say about who God is and what he expects from you.
01:06:41They just give you encouraging words.
01:06:44There's a place for that.
01:06:45But this really tells you a lot about who they are.
01:06:49And if you let someone talk long enough,
01:06:51eventually they tell you.
01:06:52No matter how great their words sound,
01:06:55no matter what kind of wisdom they appear to have,
01:06:59let them talk long enough and they will show you who they are.
01:07:03And Yeshua talked about this with the Pharisees.
01:07:06You know,
01:07:06when they came to him and they said,
01:07:08why do your disciples eat with unwashed hands?
01:07:11And he talks about how,
01:07:13you know,
01:07:13what goes into the mouth that goes through the body and it's eliminated.
01:07:16It's not talking about saying that you can now eat any unclean animal and all meat is now clean.
01:07:23That wasn't the point.
01:07:24The point of what he was trying to say is that it's not the physical,
01:07:29tangible stuff of the world that makes you spiritually unclean.
01:07:34You know,
01:07:35unclean animals can contaminate the flesh,
01:07:37but it's what's in your heart that makes you spiritually unclean.
01:07:42And these are the things that come out of your mouth and out of your hands into the world.
01:07:46So if in your heart,
01:07:49you are a thorn bush,
01:07:51you're not going to be making any,
01:07:53any fruit in the world.
01:07:54You're not going to be producing any figs or olives or grapes,
01:07:57none of the above.
01:08:00Okay.
01:08:00Well,
01:08:01I,
01:08:01I just really appreciate how,
01:08:03just how real and earthy James can be,
01:08:05how it seems like he's giving a lot of just practical down home kind of advice.
01:08:11I mean,
01:08:11this is,
01:08:12this is the real world that he's talking about.
01:08:14And he's talking about the fellowship of believers.
01:08:18He's not even really talking about how do you live in the world?
01:08:21He's talking about how do you live in a community of believers?
01:08:26So it is perfect advice for a community of believers.
01:08:30Who's always at,
01:08:31always at each other's throats and trying to one up each other.
01:08:35James is talking to us.
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