Teachers and Factors in Stumbling

Okay, James, chapter 3, 1 through 4, we had a review last week. We go into this chapter, and I'll just read the verses we're doing today, verses 1 through 4. James says, let not many of you become teachers, my brother, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. And Roger will tell us what that is. I didn't know there was fine print like that. You didn't read the fine print before you taught. Yeah, right, right. We'll have to renegotiate my contract.

Verse 2. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also. Though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they're still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.

And then I'll just This is a whole section. We'll get to this next week in the next two weeks, verses 5 through 12. And James says, So the tongue is also a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire. The very world of iniquity, the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

For every species of birds, beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed by is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the Tongue. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brother, produce olives? Or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

So there's the next task for the next two weeks. And that's bad, isn't it? That list on the tongue is certainly a condemnation of the use of the tongue, but we'll look at that. Again, here in emphasis, here's emphasis on temptation. Here's an outline. So, we're at number six here, temptation to misuse and not restrain the tongue. Temptation, isn't it? So, as we're talking about, it's broken up into 15 temptations here in James. And it's the whole book. You can look at it temptation-wise. And we're at chapter 3, 1 through 12. Temptation to misuse and not restrain a tongue. So, James 3, 1.

Let not many of you become teachers, my brother, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. So it's a cautionary word to teachers of the word. Let not is an imperative command, so it has the force of don't even start to become teachers, is what Macaulay says, as opposed to you're doing it and you should stop it. What it is is Don't even start. Right. And that is, it's interesting because it's that word, kinomai. Let not many of you become teachers. That's kinomai. So that's to come into an existence as a teacher, a new state of being as a teacher.

But why is he saying this? Why, you know, wouldn't he want to recruit teachers, old James, back in the first century? He's certainly discouraging it, but, and I wonder that myself, but some folks had good, some good reasons why that was. Why not many brethren, why he was trying to stem that tide into becoming a teacher back then.

There was a mass rush of teachers in the early church. Many, as Colly said, were trying to get on the bandwagon. And the reason for that was it's prestigious, right? It's prestigious being a teacher. Before the church, you had rabbis, and they had followings, and they were mucky mucks, and they were wise. Jesus was a rabbi, and he had a teacher. He had a following. So it was a place of honor and importance. And then, all of a sudden, the church came about at Pentecost. And that's a new thing, brand new thing in church.

And then there were no, you know, you don't have to, in the Jewish tradition, they started them as little boys and they went to rabbinical school and years and years and years before they became a rabbi. Well, in the church, right, men were just called and it was sort of open, right? So many of these people who didn't get into rabbinical school were flocking to the church to become these teachers and they were prestige seekers. So I thought that was interesting. That's the historical background to it.

And you can see this from 1 Timothy 1, 6 and 7. For some men, straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless discussion. wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. And there's more. In Titus chapter 1, 10, 11, for there were many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of assorted gain. So they were, you know, there are some, not a lot, but getting into it for the wrong reasons back then. And false prophets also arose among the people, just as there are many false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies. even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

That's 2 Peter 2.1. Another one from Colossians. Paul talked to the Colossians about this same problem. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking a stand on visions he has seen. inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head.

That's Colossians 2.18 and the first part of 19. So these are all examples of men who were getting into the business and didn't have, weren't serving in love and humility, right, for the right reasons. So that's why A few commentators thought that he brought this up here at the beginning of Chapter 3.

There's a stricter judgment associated with teaching, isn't there? That's what he says. The teacher must adhere to sound doctrine, as Paul told Timothy, and Someone, it was Grant, F.W. Grant, said, with greater responsibility comes greater accountability from God.

So let's look at this term of stricter judgment. The word stricter is megas, meaning greater. And it could be greater in things like mass or scale. Think of a megalodon or a megashark. or mega millions, perhaps. It's bad news because it relates to judgment, which is crema, a sentence or a decree.

I went through this exercise of thinking about, is this judgment in relation to good things or bad? Is it bad judgment or good judgment? or judgment from a penalty sense, or judging the work of teaching with a view towards letting it come out as gold and silver, right? A beam-of-seat judgment. Is it in a good sense? And I thought about that. So let's do this little exercise that I went through. What's this judgment relating to? Incurring a stricter judgment.

So I thought about it, and it can't mean the Tribulation. It's not the Tribulation judgment, because we're not there. Two, it can't be the judgment at the end of the Tribulation, where the sheeps are separated from the goats. We aren't there either. That's the judging of unbelieving nations at the end of the Tribulation. And then it certainly can't be the Great White Throne judgment, right?

Because we aren't the dead. And we're just not there. We're already in heaven. So I went through that exercise just to say, hey, does this relate to one of the formal judgments mentioned in Scripture? And I said, no, it doesn't. 1 through 3, it doesn't match up. But it could mean this Bema Seat Judgment, couldn't it? From 1 Corinthians 3, chapter 3 and 12.

Now if a man builds on a foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on remains, he will receive a reward, and if any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss. But He Himself will be saved as through fire.

So this is a good judgment. This is a Bema Seat Judgment. So let's take a poll. Do you think you could relate to that judgment, this stricter judgment? Well, you know, from the study we did back in Corinthians there, you know, the focus certainly is it's a reward ceremony.

But it does seem like if If these teachers were teaching things that were worthless, they would be burned up. So by the time the believer gets to the other side of the fence of his life with the Lord, that's gone. But they could be burned up, all these things that he thought his big pile of, you taught here, you taught here, you said this, you said that.

It's all gone. Yeah, and maybe he's only you know as a verse. It's only Helen gets through the fire He he makes it so I don't know what he sees the things come out. That's exactly remain right now silver and the goal Hopefully you don't see the whole big Trash pile they got burned up. It was huge and then out comes this little Nugget of gold at the end.

That would be discouraging because or or Andrew and maybe gonna get her or could be a Temporal judgments for the person? Could he get judged temporally? And maybe you're going to go there. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it was just a question I put in my mind, so I just put it in a lesson as to what the questions I'm asking myself. So, Jim, you know. Yeah, actually, it says he will suffer loss. Okay. You cannot deny that. There will be a loss and there will be tears that Jesus is going to wipe away.

Yeah, and it's not going to be all a bed of roses, a desert seat of Christ. And I think that, and it's, um, and you're talking about the Bema seat. You're talking about the Bema seat of Christ, yes. And sometimes it's called the judgment seat of Christ, but it's a reward ceremony.

It's a reward ceremony, but it's also a ceremony of loss. yeah so opportunities we had that we didn't take advantage of you know yeah there's going to be tears at the judgment seat of christ and it is a judgment seat so and the loss would mean if you have i think we're going to remember all the things we've lost oh yeah it will be turned up yes but i think we're going to remember them yeah but but don't you have a problem with that how long do we remember those remember well it'll be a short Right there where your focus is going to be. Your focus is right there at the judgment. On him, right? 2 Corinthians 5 says, we must all appear before the judge in the seat of Christ, so that each one may be repaid for what he has done, whether good or bad.

So we're going to be repaid for maybe some of the bad things we've done. through the loss. It's not all going to be happy and joyful and all that stuff. I think there will be tears. He's going to wipe away all our tears. It may help to bring marshmallows.

Yeah, really. And Hercules chocolate. And aren't those things of the loss part of the old man? Right. Yeah. And not the new creation who was in Christ. Well, are they? Or are they the other judgment of work? Well, in crime you can't do those things. Yeah.

And the loss could be, like, if you have three truckloads of stuff going through the judgment works that you've done, and you come out with just a pickup truck full in the back of gold and silver. That's what I think of the loss. So you had three semi-trucks. And then what happened to all the others?

Yeah. See, that's a loss. Yeah, it is. You're losing the bad things, basically, I guess. Yeah. But this is interesting. We will appreciate what we lost. because it served no purpose. We're not going to go into heaven with any kind of baggage that we've wrecked. No, all the baggage. It all gets burned away, doesn't it?

Well, I came to this conclusion that I think What it relates to is just generally, it's a general statement of judgment. Judging a man's teaching as to bad doctrine versus good doctrine or sound doctrine or his intentions. Were they righteous or were they, you know, for the wrong intent, fleshly intentions, bad intentions. So... Andrew? Yeah.

One of the things in context here is the teaching. And the judgment that is in view is the teaching. Related to teaching, yeah. The context also includes the tongue, right? Right. So it's what's being taught that is going to be coming under judgment in this particular passage, okay? Yeah. So that's good, Roy, picking up on that.

It's not so much a focus on the person, but it's what he taught, you know. What he says. And was he, was that, you know, sincere, was he sincerely an error or was he, you know, Anyway, but the focus is on what he taught because the rest of the passage is what comes out of a person's mouth and that's just the same topic.

And I wonder if he didn't bring it up because of that very thing he talks out at the very beginning. And in first one we're not quite, the tongue hasn't been introduced yet. We're still, let's see, let's go back to first one. Let many of you not become teachers, my brother, knowing that we will incur a stricter judgment. So we're getting to the reason right now, and I think we'll get to what Roy's point was.

So when I did the study, when I started, I had a difficulty. You know, why is one verse he's talking about teaching? you know, something you do in the church, like a spiritual gift or something. And then all of a sudden he goes into this long tongue section of 11 verses. And I thought, well, Why is teachers in verse 1 when he's really talking about the tongue, right? So I had, did anyone else have problems with that when they think about it? Or is it just me? I had some difficulty with it.

But Paul says, now you are Christ's body and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, and then gifts of miracles, gifts of healing, helps, ministrations, and various types of tongues. Not the tongues we're studying today, but just the ability to miraculously speak languages, right? That's 1 Corinthians chapter 12, 27 and 28.

So, do you guys see the relationship? And I didn't see this at first, and that's why I struggled, but then I saw it. Do you see the relationship of those, what pulses are the, how the church is conducted by people, men appointed in the church, men and women, with various jobs? Do you see how that relates to the tongue or the church body offices, is what I have there, how they relate to the one through...

It seems like the first three concern the tongue. Apostles, prophets, and teachers. Yeah, right. And see, I didn't see that. Everybody has a tongue. And you can see that apostles will speak, prophets will definitely speak, And then teachers will speak. And then if you're doing miracles, you don't have to speak. Healings, you don't have to open your mouth there. Helps, you've got a gift of helps.

That's not necessary. Administrations, you're doing the counting, you're doing the books. I guess so. Yeah. You don't have to, well, no, you're just in front of a spreadsheet. You don't have to talk. You're writing down numbers. And then the gift of tongues, you wouldn't have to be elegant, because that was spirit given, and you're just going to say whatever the Holy Spirit gives you to say. So that's what I didn't see, and that's interesting. So that's why he brings up teachers. He could have included pastors and apostles and things like that, prophets. So that's why that little teacher section is in there in verse 1. So Constable says in regards to stumbling, the person who speaks is going to err in his or her speech much. The tongue is the hardest member of the body to control. No one has been able to master it yet except Jesus Christ.

The man who is able to say nothing is a perfect man, it says. He's mature. Macaulay says that speaking one's mind is something that the world says is a good thing, a strength. But in scripture, it's not. Don't speak your mind. It's a vice, which I like what he said there. Your foot does not cause you to stumble. It's your tongue. Yes, especially. If you're talking, you're not paying attention.

Oh, and here's this point too here. He is a perfect man, able to bridle the body as well. Man is aner, the Greek word aner, not Anthropos. Does anyone care to guess why that's important? Why he doesn't use Anthropos there? And there actually means male, boy, husband, fiancé, betrothed husband, and anthropos is men and women, humankind in general. Isn't that interesting?

So, yeah. Hitting on that point, you mentioned above that only the Lord Jesus controlled his tongue? And certainly we want Him to be the one speaking through us, not us. Yeah, that's a good point. So this verse, I guess you ladies are dismissed. You can go. It fits what Paul teaches him now. in Corinthians, in the church, men are to be the teachers. Women can't teach, but in the church, men are to be the teachers. And isn't that interesting how he switched that just for this very verse, to teachers, and he used the word iner, not anthropos. So, I guess lady can't go, you have to stay. But yeah, that was an interesting point there. Andrew?

Yeah. The Goodrich-Holenberger Dictionary defines it as a male person of full age and stature as opposed to a child or female. Interesting. So, this is definitely a man that he's talking about. Yeah, right. Not just a human being. In other verses he says somebody or someone, so he's very careful about both the gender and who he's talking to and things like that. So, scripture is very precise, isn't it? Yeah, it's kind of neat. Well, you know, women were not supposed to teach men at that time, you know, not cultural. Right, yeah. It was cultural for a man to teach. Women were not allowed to teach. Yeah, right. So, this is definitely...

So, there again, yeah, you have that, hence the word in there. And I wouldn't have caught that. had not someone else let me know that. So this note does not stumble in what he says. James also is on that a lot. You see that phrase, what he says. Before he was talking about works and faith. You say you have faith, but show me your works. So it's this emphasis on what someone says. I thought that was an interesting little point here in verse 2 of chapter 3.

A perfect man, that's a teleos man. He's spiritually finished out, wanting nothing. He's fully mature. That is the man who is able to bridle his tongue, or bridle his whole body as well. Paul says, we proclaim him, Jesus Christ, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. And that complete in Christ is what is a perfect man from Colossians 128. And that's the goal, isn't it? To let Christ speak through us. What kind of mans are these? Oh, yeah, good question. In Colossians 128, I don't know anyone who looked at it. I haven't seen a perfect man yet.

So it's either a knitter or an amplifier. It's probably a knitter. But it could be because women need to be spiritually fitted up and complete too. So the word bridal, he is able to bridle his body. You've got to do that guttural thing of it. That's a bridle. And there you have the spelling. C-H-A-L-I-N-A-G-E-O. For people who are listening to this on the internet later and I think that I have something in my throat or something. That's what I'm trying to pronounce. You can both lead by a bridle and you can guide by with a bridle. But you can also hold and check a horse. Hold and check a horse or restrain a horse.

It's used two times in the New Testament, only by James. Isn't that interesting? Only in this book, James. is the word bridal used. But in the Old Testament, it's used six times. And then you have the books there, 2 Kings, Isaiah, Psalms, Proverbs, and Job. And it has the effect in the Old Testament of things like this. Therefore, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridal in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came in 2 Kings 19, 28. And a couple times he's talking about a nation putting something in his nose and dragging him down, or a bridle. I looked up Colossians 128 and the word is POS. It's everyone. It's not every man. Oh yeah, there's more. There's more words for everyone. Yeah, okay. Well, POS means... POS is basically... It's not gender specific.

Yeah, it's basically you all, right? You all. And so, yeah, we all need to be complete in Christ. One of the things, too, in that verse that's an emphasis is that we proclaim Him. Yeah. The focus is on our Savior. Yeah. Uh-huh. Here, this is a... I'm doing this, but you'll see why I'm doing this in a minute. But this is fun and very related back.

There are 453.6 grams in one pound, right? The average man is 83,000 pounds, 83,916 grams. is what he weighs. That's the average man. The average weight of a tongue is 70 grams. So the tongue is 0.000834167 of a man's weight. So you see this, the power, the very small thing has an incredible amount of leverage on the well-being of the entire body, according to James. And it's true.

What if you go downtown Denver and someone looks at you funny and you say something? You could get beat up. You could be in jail. Stabbed, killed. Yeah, so your tongue kind of keeps your body healthy, doesn't it? And it's all controlled by the mind. Right. But remember that. I just, I don't know why, I was just, I thought of that, putting that in there, because we get to 3 and 4 here. Verse 3, now if we put the bits into horses mouth so that they will bass, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also in verse 4.

Though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they're still directed by a very small rudder, which, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So, you see how that weight of the tongue that I just, and that ship, that rudder, think of how heavy a ship is, and then the rudder, very small in the back. Very negligible as far as weight, right? But that ship, think of the Titanic. That's how that relates to that, and I thought that was pretty interesting. David in the Old Testament has some similar things to say.

He says in Psalms 32 8 and 9, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule, which has no understanding. whose trappings include bit and bridle, to hold them in check, otherwise they will not come near to you."

So you see that definition of bridle, that Chah-len-gar-gay-oh, is one of them was hold in check, and that's exactly what David says there. Hey Andrew? Tongue in check, yeah. I was just wondering, do you want to amplify on that in our lives? Who holds us in check? Is it not the Holy Spirit who reveals Christ through us and to us? He is our bridle, isn't he? Our sin nature wants to run wild and he's the only one that can control it. Yeah, that sin nature wants to express itself, doesn't it? Yeah. In all ways.

Like David says here in Psalm 39.1, I said, I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue. I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle, while the wicked are in my presence. That word inclination, that's small rudder, directed by small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires, that's horme inclination. And this is interesting. It's a violent motion or a violent impulse. It's horme.

And I thought, well, that's kind of strange because don't you want the inclination of the pilot to, when he's steering a ship, to be very steady and slow because you want that ship to, you know, so he doesn't want to violently do that. But that's the word it says. And then that goes to Ruli's point that, and your point, I think, too, Jim, that sin nature wants to say something violent or make a violent impulse, wants to come out. But the thing that holds, that determines it is your tongue, is the rudder.

So I thought that word horme was sort of interesting in there. Can we say the straw wins? Oh, go ahead. Sorry, I was just gonna say, Andrew, I'm not as familiar with boats, but horses a little bit. And what's interesting is that, you know, the horse has a will all its own.

Yeah. And, and that little bit is the is what puts you in control of this thing that outweighs you 10 to 1. I imagine with the boat, you know, when you're working against a current or something, it's the same thing. The boat wants to go one way, that little rudder can take it. where you want it to go, right? Right. Yeah. Those horses, yeah, are very, especially if it's spirited. We have a, we've had Mustang, we have a couple of Mustangs at our place in the summer on our little pasture. And yeah, they're very high spirited.

And then, but that bit, and if you've ever, you know, no one's ever put a bit in their mouth, really. As kids, we used to put a spoon across our mouth and hold it with our teeth and then drink water to make hiccups go away, right? It never worked, but, Mom, I think you, didn't you tell us? So that's the feeling of a bit in your mouth, that metal.

And yeah, if you pull that, you can, you can direct your entire body. I say here in B, can we treat the strong winds, perhaps just making the observation here that perhaps the strong winds are the thoughts that we have, simple thoughts, fleshly thoughts, and the drive to express them in our daily life is very strong. That tongue is the thing that will express it, right? But really, and we're not going into this, but really what should be controlling us, right, is the Holy Spirit and His and Christ's life, as Roy pointed out. That's the thing that really should be motivating us. But, you know, James isn't really in that. He's doing this very practical lesson here. Who did not have this problem with the Tom? And I'll give you extra credit if you can guess that.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. And then he went, yes, from Isaiah 53. And then at his trial, right, didn't he say nothing to Pontius Pilate? And that infuriated Pilate.

He says, don't you know I have the power of life and death? Oh, really? Yeah. Boy. And there's one person who could really express something very pointed and very cutting. And that would be Jesus Christ. Because sometimes he would say something negative to the Pharisees. Especially the Pharisees. Because they had the truth. It was right there and they refused to believe it. He would call them the brood of vipers. So every once in a while he would pull that No, I think he points back to verse two. He was that perfect man, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, and thankfully we have him indwelling us and we can have this, we don't have to have our tongue control us wherever it wants to go because, yeah.

So, and then I'll close here and I just have some final thoughts. My word, there's Roger's final thoughts. It's supposed to be in fancier. This must be Microsoft 95 or something. Something that Ironside says here that you can look at on your own. But we'll close it here. So, Roger, do you want to close us out in prayer? Okay, you want me to pray and then you're going to read that afterwards? No, I'm just going to let, yeah. Okay, okay. You can do it if you want. I can do it?

Okay, for the sake of the people who listen later on the internet. So, Ironside, he sums this all up very well. Ironside, A.J. Ironside, from his commentaries, he says, the faith which James writes is a vital force that enables a man to live triumphantly even to controlling that unruly member, the tongue, by means of which God is so often dishonored and our fellow men are injured. An unbridled tongue is at the bottom of much strife both in the world and in the church. Those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was sinless in word as in all else, may well ponder the serious admonitions of this tongues chapter, chapter 3.

In place of masters in verse 1, James 3, 1, we might better read teachers. To be recognized as an instructor of other people is to be in a place of great responsibility. If the teaching given out be faulty or misleading, none but God himself can estimate the harm that may accrue to those who receive it. It is a serious thing indeed to attempt to influence men either for good or for evil. He to whom such a ministry is committed needs to be much before God as to how he fulfills it. Our greater condemnation than that to which his listeners are exposed and will be his portion if he fails to teach the truth as God has revealed it in his word. So that's a really nice summary of that, especially verse one there. Okay. All right. Now Roger. Okay. All right. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time today, Lord. Thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior. We just thank you for your word that shows us about ourselves and about our Savior. We ask in his name, Amen. Amen.