No One is Perfect

 

Text: James 3:1-12

Focus: The tongue

Function: to help people see that people are not perfect and we should look to Jesus

3:¹Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ²For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. ³If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. ⁴Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. ⁵So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.

How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! ⁶And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. ⁷For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, ⁸but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. ¹¹Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? ¹²Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

The Tongue. Controlling the tongue is the subject for today’s lesson.

Reading this passage almost always leads me to regret. And for a person like me, regret can be bad because regret can lead to shame and shame is always of the Devil since it is contrary to the grace that is offered us freely through the blood of Jesus.

The problem with harmful words, most often said in anger and are almost always an exaggeration of the truth because they are said in anger, the problem, as I was saying, is that once they have left our lips they can never be taken back. And the harm that they cause can last a lifetime. Regret is the word that comes to mind when I think of the words that I have spoken that should have never left my lips.

Verse 8, then, is comforting. BUT, he says. BUT no one can tame the tongue, it is a restless evil full of deadly poison. More on that later, perhaps.

And he decries insincerity in worship. He points out the hypocrisy of saying that we love God and then at the same time saying that we hate others.

A few weeks ago we spoke of spiritual warfare and the protection that we have in God. God has called us to some sort of offensive work in the nature of spiritual warfare. He said that we do not fight flesh and blood, but we fight spiritual forces in heavenly places.

Our battles are against the influences of society that keep people in bondage. One of the influences in society that I think plagues us the most and we see it uprising with the increase in domestic terrorism with the rise of white supremacy is racism. I believe that the spirit of racism is demonic and it is something that we should be praying against and fighting.

I have spent a lot of time on short term missionary trips. I have spent a lot of time in Mexico and have gotten to know the people. They are loving, sincere, family people who care for their own just like we do. Many of them are in desperate poverty and we feel it is our Christian duty to go overseas or across borders to help the poor. But racism has raised its ugly head and the same Christians who donate money, go and serve, are also the ones who parrot the words that Mexicans are rapists and murderers and shouldn’t be allowed in decent society. It is a lie. And James says that if we are Christians we are not going to say that we love God and our neighbor and then call refugees by the name Illegal. Name calling merely justifies the lack of the loving response to their plight that Jesus calls us to.

James says it is the name calling, using the “N” word or any other derogatory word toward a group of people is a sin and a great hypocrisy.

If we bless God with our mouths then we need to bless others with the same mouth.

And, verse 8 tells us that it is hard and nearly impossible.

Kathy and I like NYC. We visited while ground zero while they were still cleaning up and we wept. What amazed me was how friendly and caring people were. Everyone was quick to say “God bless you” after a sneeze.

Today we include in the message a remembrance to what happened 20 years ago today. The towers had fallen and America was brought to its knees in prayer and shock. And on 9/12, we did not care if someone was white or black, Democratic or Republican, we just cared that we were all in this together and the idea of unity filled us.

As it happened, I had major surgery on 9/11 and was three weeks out of the pulpit recovering. So, a month later, after the shock had worn off, we were in prayer meeting and I was praying for peace, the kind of peace that would last through a terrible thing like this. And in that prayer, in obedience to Christ, I prayed that God would help us to love and forgive our enemies. 

Some people in the room rejected that idea of forgiveness because it is hard in situations like this. But it is commanded. Jesus forgave the men who murdered Him while they were gambling for His clothes. Talk about loving forgiveness.

But He was Jesus and we are not. He has an heavenly perspective, even into the spiritual forces at work against nations and He can see and understand the where and why and how of every situation. We cannot. If we had His perspective, we might be able to forgive better.

But that does not let us off the hook for forgiveness. That just takes it to the realm of trust that God is in control of humanity and will always be the loving and fair judge at the end of the ages.

That does not let us off the hook for what happens with the effect of our tongues.

He tells us that none of us is perfect. If we were, we would not need grace.

Many theologians would say that if it was possible for us to be perfect, then Jesus would not have had to come and die on the cross for our sins. It was our sin that lead Him to the cross and according to those same theologians, it was God’s plan from the beginning that we fail in the garden just so that He could become the Savior of humanity.

I am not sure I buy that, a lot of suffering has happened for it to just be an ego trip for God.

God is not like us. I don’t believe that God has an ego that needs to be satisfied. God, God says, is love.

And love understands the human condition as imperfect and gives it grace.

So, instead of feeling shame when I read this passage, I now feel grace because I know that only Jesus was perfect and that gives me something to do. I can now strive to be like Him.

Don’t bog yourself down with regret at misspoken words when reading this passage. It is a call to be like Jesus even though, only Jesus was perfect. Forgive yourself for mistakes because God has already done forgiven you.