There is a language of the world and a language of the Christian and it needs to be different.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame carries the beautiful maiden high into the tower. They are talking to each other and he begins to weep. She asks him, “What’s wrong?” He replies, “I never knew how ugly I was until I saw how beautiful you are.” The vocabulary of a Christian can expose the empty words of a non-believer.
The words that flow from the Spirit-filled believer is like honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones (Proverbs 16 v24).
When you speak, Jesus speaks. When people listen to you, they listen to Jesus.
Our responsibility is to choose words to use.
- Foolish Words really do count and they can hurt, it is not just sticks and stones.
- Foolish Words that are slurs outweigh the over-sensitivity of people.
- Foolish Words lead to consequences.
- Foolish Words build on sand where nothing of substance is formed.
- Foolish Words come from fools who live to regret their words.
Today is Ordination Day for my denomination and we will celebrate the ministers who have shown full proof of their ministry which involves communicating the Word of God to people. I mention this because we are about to move into a passage where James speaks a lot about communication and he starts with those who teach.
Without doubt, the health of any church depends on whether the people within it from the pulpit to the pew have been able to tame their tongue. James wants to start in the pulpit.
“Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.” (James 3 v 1-2)
So why? Why should those who stand behind the ‘pulpit’ wherever that may be in a home or a church not be many? It is because ‘we all stumble in many ways’ both student and teacher. We all make mistakes. Even those who teach us how to avoid making them. We know this full well. But come the day when your Pastor is shown to have made a mistake then you realise who difficult it can be! On that day the Pastor wishes they could be anything but a person who taught what they then failed to do themselves. The truth is every person’s character is in the state of development, even those who teach others.
Those who have embarked today on a life of teaching have not reached perfection with their character nor their tongue. The price for going down this path is to be judged by God more strictly. When we stand before God we will be judged on how we encouraged the health of the Church and those we taught the Word of God to. Did we help or did we hurt?
Missions Paul 