The Key to Spiritual Maturity – James 3:1-11
July 3, 2016Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
What if I were to tell you that your computer keyboard can change the world? Or your smart-phone? Or that your Tweets or Facebook posts can destroy it? In the 1st century AD James writes that the tongue has the power to set your life on a course for good or evil. If James had written after the invention of the printing press, maybe he would have coined the phrase, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Neither James nor the playwright responsible for that expression, thought the organ of the tongue nor the pen itself had any power. They were both referring to words communicated. Whether they are said aloud or written, as long as they are communicated so they can spread their effect, words have the power to transform our lives for the good or for evil. It is equally true today that the smart-phone, or the keyboard, is mightier than the sword. Words, by whatever means they get out, are far more powerful than we suspect, and far too often we wield them like a semi-automatic weapon in the hands of 7 year old.
Who thinks it would be wise to put a semi-automatic weapon in the hands of a child? Or in the hands of a trained adult with the emotional maturity of a child and anger problems? But something just as powerful, as potentially destructive or protective, has already been given to each of us. If we do not heed James’ wisdom, we will wield it in as infantile a way as a automatic- weapon in the hands of a child with an anger problem.
In this message we will examine James 3:1-11 and how it fits into the teaching of Scripture on the power of our speech.