My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. — James 3:1–5a (NKJV)
James just finished busting on faith without works. Now he’s going after speech, especially for teachers. Why is that so important?
It’s important because there is great power in speech. In his 2016 book The Kingdom of Speech, Tom Wolfe (bestselling author of Bonfire of the Vanities and The Right Stuff) says:
Speech is 95 percent of what lifts man above animal! … In hand-to-paw, hand-to-claw, or hand-to-incisor combat, any animal his size would have him for lunch. Yet man owns or controls them all, every animal that exists, thanks to his superpower: speech.
Speech makes man the apex predator in every land and every sea, despite being slow and without sharp teeth or claws.
But why? How?
Mainly because of one thing we can do with speech—teach.
So, we allocate great resources to teaching. Using the gift of speech, we teach children to read (an extension of speech).
Then we move on to mathematics and science.
The result is impressive. Pre-adolescent children already have amazing levels of understanding of the world. No animal even thinks in those terms.
Thus, it’s impossible to explain the gospel to an animal. You can’t explain anything. Because they don’t have the gift of speech, there’s no such thing as explain in an animal’s world. They’re hopelessly stuck in a state of almost total ignorance.
So, James is onto something big in today’s passage. Speech is power, and that power is most manifest when teaching.
In a way, all speech is teaching.
Unless you’re lying. That’s part of James’s point. Like the rudder on a boat, the tongue has the power to control things much larger than itself.
But what larger thing does the tongue control?
Others. Notice the connection with what I said about partiality. Sin that impacts other people can spawn other sin. Speech has that kind of power.
Notice that James’s examples of partiality all involved speech.
For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? — James 2:2–4 (NKJV)
Of course, the power of the tongue can be literally amplified by a microphone, but that’s nothing compared to the power of the printing press.
And now that’s multiplied again by the power of the internet. I don’t even know how many people are “listening in” to this dialogue. And that number can grow without limit in the future.
So, since this is teaching right here, are you worried about it?
Absolutely! No one elected me to have this kind of power over others. Granted it’s all voluntary; no one is forced to read this.
Still, it gives me the creeps to think that people may act on my recommendations. I never stop thinking about this very warning in James. I depend on editors and other mentors to keep my writings from going totally off the rails. I’d be lost without them.
The same holds for teachers—although professional teachers have at least been through some kind of certification before they are given power over students. Still, the fact that they give out grades makes that power explicit.
The tongue gives any teacher the power to alter the course of a student’s life.
They almost can’t avoid that.
And mass communication gives any speaker or writer great power over an almost unlimited audience. A writer can change the course of history.
The pen truly is mightier than the sword.
Right. This is a fair point by James—and not just for Christians.
Hadn’t thought about that.
James is going to kick this up a notch tomorrow.
See you then.
