I’m sure you’ve read the verses in the book of James that talk about the tongue. It is a “restless evil”, says James. He compares the tongue to many things. A tiny ‘spark’ that sets a forest on fire. A small ‘rudder’ that steers a whole ship. A ‘bridal’ in a horses mouth that can be used to guide it around.
James argues that the tongue, although it is small, is the source a great deal of trouble for man.
Every teaching I’ve ever heard on this verse gives a good deal of personal application. Congregations are to control their tongue and this is an excellent argument for that.
But I’m not sure that the congregation is really who James had in mind when he wrote this bit about the tongue.
Possibly for the first time, I noticed that another frequently quoted verse is actually a tiny piece of context that puts a whole new spin on James’ message about the tongue. The very first verses in fact. James 3:1-2:
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
Why does James go directly from a word on teaching and teachers and the fact that every teacher make’s mistakes in his teaching into a discussion of bridling the tongue? I think it’s because the ‘body’ he talks about throughout the rest of the chapter is not one individual body who is guided by his own tongue, but the whole body of believers who is guided by the tongue of their teacher.
Not many should aspire to be teachers because all teachers make mistakes, and with many, many teachers comes many misconceptions and the church ends up ‘set on fire’.
Of course, I don’t think this is the only viable interpretation of this verse, but I think it makes perfect contextual sense. And perhaps it’s a concept churches who turn teaching authority over to small group ministries should consider.
