James 3 warns us about the misuse of our tongue. James begins in v. 1 by saying that not many of us should be teachers, because we will be judged with greater strictness. His first illustration of our common “stumbling” (v. 2) is our “small member,” the tongue (v. 5). Like a small flame that can lead to a great forest first (v. 5), so the tongue can set ablaze the whole of our life (v. 6). It is untameable, restless, and full of deadly poison (vv. 7-8). The same tongue can bless God and cure those in the image of God (vv. 9-10). As James says, “My brothers, these things out not to be so” (v. 10).
How do we apply the misuse of our tongue to the redeeming power of the gospel?
Sinclair Ferguson points us to the work—and then the example—of Christ our silent savior substitute:
He was silent because of every word that has proceeded from your lips; because of every word that provides adequate reason for God to damn you for all eternity, because you have cursed him or his image.
The Lord Jesus came into the world to bear the judgment of God against the sin of our tongues. When he stood before the High Priest and the judgment seat of Pontius Pilate, he accepted a sentence of guilt.
But that was my guilt. He bore in his body on the tree the sins of my lips and my tongue.
Do you wish you could control your tongue better? Do you want to follow the example of Jesus? Then you need to understand that he is Savior first, and then he is Example. You need to come, conscious of the sin of your lips, and say:
God be merciful to me a sinner.
I thank you that Jesus came and was silent
in order that he might bear the penalty of all my misuse of my tongue.And when you know that he has taken God’s judgment and wrath against your every sinful word, you cannot but come to him and say:
O, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise.
He is able to answer that prayer, and its companion petition:
Be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power.
All the guilt can be cleansed away! Christ can deliver you from the misuse of the tongue. And when you come to him conscious of that sin, you discover what a glorious Savior he is. Delivered—albeit not yet perfected and glorified—your tongue now shows forth his praises. Taken out of the pit and from the miry clay on your lips is now a new song of praise to your God. Then people not only hear a different vocabulary, but they hear you speak with a different accent. That is what leaves the lasting impression of the power of Christ and the transformation of grace in your life.
Ferguson recounts that as a native of Scotland ministering in the United States, he is often asked where he is from—his accent indicates he is from another land.
That is surely a parable of what it is possible for the people of God to become in the way we use our tongues, as by God’s grace we learn to speak with a Jesus-like accent.
At the end of the day, it may not be so much what people say to you when you are in a room that is the really telling thing about your speech as a Christian. Rather it may be the questions people ask when you leave the room. “Where does he come from?” “Do you know where she belongs?”
Do you speak like someone who “sounds” a little like Jesus because, born broken in your consciousness of your sinful tongue, you have found pardon and renewal in Christ, and now his Word dwells richly in you?
—Sinclair B. Ferguson, “The Bit, the Bridle, and the Blessing,” in The Power of Words and the Wonder of God, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), 65-66.
