Study of James: Thoughts Beget Speech
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Peace to Live By Study of James: Thoughts Beget Speech - Daniel Litton
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For full sermons without edits for time, tap here to go to downloads page.
[Transcript represents full sermon's text]
We are continuing along in James chapter 3 today. Last week, in the introduction to our second part of this series, I went over the three methods for understanding again that we are using for the Book of James here, so we can try to squeeze more out of our text here. We also jumped into the beginning of James chapter 3, and I went over the first several verses of that chapter. Remember, our context is the teachers of God’s Word—those whom have decided to become teachers, both men and women in our day and age. And we focused on the outward actions of those individuals, and again, we will do that today.
So we come to verse 4 of James chapter 3. So, our text states: “Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.”
As I just said, technically speaking, the context represented here in the beginning of James chapter 3 is still about the teachers of God’s Word, but really the concepts can be applied to the Christian population as a whole. I think strictly to limit this section to only deal with teachers of the Word of God would be to limit our understanding of it. All Christians, no matter what their status is, should care about the quality of the words that come from their speech.
It should be noted right off the bat that we are allowed to speak in whatever manner we want to—for James said we have the will to decide what direction our speech is going to go. Sometimes we decide to speak about something, and sometimes we withhold our speech. It’s up to us. This is part of the Law of Liberty for us. God definitely has granted us freedom of speech, and to those who are gifted in speaking, it comes naturally. No effort really needs to be put forward. It is the gifting of the Spirit. This speech, however, produces strong winds, as James stated. So, that means that what we say can have a great impact of the negative as well as the positive.
Again, it all comes down to a person’s level of Inner-Self. The person on the negative side of things, the people going against the current of life, are going to be more apt to say the wrong things, or to speak of things which aren’t clearly thought out. The reason for this is that the higher the level of consciousness of an individual, the more freedom from negativity they have which begets greater understanding in general. Certain things can only be understood at Levels Three and Four, the Positive Existence and Above State. A person in the Depression State and Negative existence is limited in their scope of understanding. God’s power is not freely flowing in their lives. There may be a little power every once in a while, but it cannot last because it isn’t supported in a manifestation of obedience to God.
A very poignant example of this comes to us during Jesus’ earthly ministry, and this is the instance where the disciples had a mis-judgement. Turn back to Luke chapter 9. I think this is an excellent example of what I am talking about here. Go to verse 51:
“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.” (Luke 9:51-56, ESV)
Ok, do you see what is going on here? Recall, the Samaritans and the Jews were arch enemies, and this was probably more due to the attitude of the Jews. They thought because Samaritans were only partly Jewish, that they really were not true Jews and therefore lesser people. So, the disciples of Jesus, all being Jewish, were upset that the unworthy Samaritans had the audacity to reject Jesus’ message. Since they believed the Samaritans were lesser people, and didn’t think they had the right to make such a rejection, but rather take orders.
Herein, nonetheless, we get to see one human in the Above State, namely Jesus, we get to see his reaction versus the disciples spoken reaction, who were clearly in the Negative Existence. Same situation, but two different kinds of humans with two different reactions. The disciples wanted instant judgment. They wanted the Samaritans to pay. What is wrong with this? Well, several things actually. For one, it assumes that the Samaritans will always believe what they believe today. It assumes that due to the initial rejection that there is no hope for them—hopelessness is displayed. It doesn’t consider that perhaps, just perhaps, if we give it time, maybe they’ll come around, which later, in the Book of Acts, we find that many of them did, perhaps even some who were in this very scene.
Another problem here is that God never forces anyone to believe in him—at least, in this life. That is our current order of things. People have the ability to choose to reject God, to reject Jesus, to pass on the the Gospel message. That’s everyone’s choice. Whether you consider this instance in Luke, or whether you consider any instance afterwards in Christian history, it never turns out well when people by using God’s name try to force others to believe in God. It goes against our very human nature, and the nature order of things. It is no different than what Islamic extremists do today in our current world. They go around in some areas and kill those who refuse to convert to their religion, or perhaps they don’t even give them an opportunity to convert. Anyway, it doesn’t work, does it? People really aren’t joining the extremist group, that is, at least Jews or Christians.
When we are sharing the Gospel then, as preachers and teachers of God’s Word, it is important how we speak. I think the best thing we can do is just speak about the Bible. God is already in the background working on the person’s heart. It is my personal belief that if the person is to be saved by God’s grace, that God will certainly see to it that the person comes into personal faith with him at some point in time. It isn’t our job, no matter who we are, to try to twist someone’s arm into come into faith. I have often seen a great amount of fear from Christians in the form of worry and concern that this person or that person won’t come into saving faith. Why the concern, though? Why the fear? We do our part and God will do his part, and it will happen at the appointed time. Living in fear isn’t going to do any of us any good. The eagerness needs to go too because that eagerness is based in fear also. We do what we do relaxed and patiently, just like Jesus did.
Next, James says, “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.” (James 3:5-6, ESV)
We know the destruction that can be caused by a single sentence. What I want us to consider is how we avoid this kind of destruction. What is it that we do? I think in order to find that we enjoy the fruit of our mouths, the things we speak, is to give up such a desire to control what we speak. First and foremost, we have to accept the reality that, no matter who we are, not one of us can speak perfectly all the time. It’s just not going to happen. It’s not going to happen for the preacher, and it’s not going to happen for anyone else. I’ve definitely said things in sermons, or giving examples, that in retrospect, I think could have been more clearly articulated. Does that bother me? Not really. It use to, but it doesn’t anymore because chasing after perfection is like chasing after the wind. You’ll never catch it. The only way to be seemingly perfect is to never take any risks, to never say anything colorful, to just play it safe on everything. That goes against my very nature, as it does for many of you who aren’t wimps.
But what about sin? What about this “unrighteousness” that James speaks of? Certainly, if we let ourselves go too far down the consciousness scale, it is easy for us to start saying things about ourselves and about others that truly don’t make any sense. These negative things that hurt ourselves and hurt others. Things that tear down, and do not build up. We can be a blessing to another or a bother to the same person; the choice is ours. It’s like Thumper in the great classic movie ‘Bambi’ taught us long ago, (paraphrasing) “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” That’s a good start. Generally speaking, I think we can always find a positive in any circumstance if we look hard enough. God’s grace is everywhere. It surrounds all living things, and all situations. The point is for not to be so negative inside our minds that we cannot identify it, or cannot see it.
The reality is, words that reach our mouths and go out into the world come from the thoughts we are having in our minds, right? So, the logical conclusion is that to correct our words, we need to correct our thoughts. This means, invariably, that if we are thinking negatively of others on a regular basis, we are more likely to speak negatively of them to others, and not give them our best welcome when we are around them. So, to fix this issue, one thing we could do is to start thinking positively about others on a regular basis, even when we are not around them physically and they come into our minds, and that way when we do see them, we can speak better words to them. We can be more welcoming and hospitable.
There is also the reality that we have given expectations of others, and more often than not, they do not meet those expectations. This again can lead to negative speaking, and reinforce an overall view of life that is negative. People have different standards for what they expect from themselves and from others. We may have set the bar at a certain height, but others, our family and friends, our acquaintances, haven’t set the bar at that height. What is perfectly acceptable to them is offensive to us. So once we are presented with our own self-righteousness, we have the choice of whether to surrender it, to give it up, or to keep it and be constantly disappointed with others behaviors. It is an amazing thing when we give up our expectations of others behaviors (that is, what you expect them to do or not do). Your feelings of being offended over this and that will fall dramatically. This allows for positivity then to flow.
To look at it another way, what are some ways that we can speak negatively to, or about others? We can be jealous of them, speak angrily to them, we can snub them, not give them the credit that is due them, we can hold something negative in mind when we see them (perhaps something they did we didn’t like), and we can even intimidate others to try and get them to act in ways in which we feel are right. The problem with all of this, all of these negative thoughts which lead to negative speech, is that they are self-righteous. They come from this characteristic which is prevalent in the Level Two person, the person in the Negative Existence. We feel we are right. We feel we have a right to do what we are doing. This is not what God has setup as his universal truth, though. These are not the ways God’s wants us to act.
The reality is, no matter what you think, the thoughts, the beliefs, and finally, the things that come out of our mouths, and even our non-verbal communication, have an impact on others. This is for the positive or for the negative. I mean, it’s common sense right? If we want our tongues to be full of gold, to be full of love, compassion, assistance, help, support, and encouragement, we should be thinking those kind of thoughts beforehand. We should be thinking those kinds of thoughts during the week, when we are not around a brother and sister at church. Then when we are around them, the good thoughts will beget good speech, and this good speech will bless another. Then, in blessing another, we really have blessed ourselves, because we feel good about the positive interaction, the good fellowship really, we have had with another.
One more thing before I wrap this section up, and I think this needs to be said, that it is important to watch our joking and teasing of others, even when we think it is all in fun, because it may not be so fun for the person being teased. Perhaps someone committed a social faux pas, and everyone knows about it. Perhaps they gave a speech during church service and said a couple of things we think they shouldn’t have said. You might kid the person the first day for it, but it should not be something that is now eternally reoccurring every time we have an interaction with the person. For the jokers and teasers, that’s a negative characteristic. Remember, you also could do something wrong in the future, and you most certainly will, because everyone does wrong, it’s just that most of the time people aren’t publicly aware of the wrong. So, we should not go all high-horse, self-righteous, toward others, even in the form of joking. That’s what joking and teasing really is, isn’t it. It’s a display of our own self-righteousness.
Back in James. Next he says, “For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:7-10, ESV)
We’ve all seen the movie Jurassic World (2015). We know in that movie that the character Owen had tamed four velociraptors on the Island where the park was, and he had great control of these dinosaurs. He had trained them in all kinds of ways, and even so much so that some evil people thought the dinosaurs could be used for warfare. It’s a darn shame. The presence of the dinosaurs always seems to lead to some sort of destruction. Anyway, the point in all of this is that any wild animal can be tamed by man, whether that’s a velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus rex (I don’t see why not), a bear, a lion, a German Shepherd, or a chihuahua. I suppose even a house cat could be tamed.
Psychologists, or animal psychologists (yes, there is such a thing), differ on to what level of consciousness an animal can reach, or what its maximum potential is. Nonetheless, we know that animals certainly are not as advanced in consciousness as we are, as humans. That being the case, why is it that James says that the tongue cannot be tamed? Why is that an animal can display better behaviors than we as humans often do? Why is it that people will turn to animals after a bad experience with a human for comfort and encouragement? What makes us as humans among the most vile, even more so than a T-Rex?
The control of our mouths, then, is going to correlate with the level of Inner-Self we currently find ourselves on. The person in the Depression State is going to say all kinds of harmful things to themselves and to others. Life is seen as totally pointless and hopeless, and this is expressed in their speech. Even if the person gives God glory, they are full of cursing. They are cursing themselves and others because they are blinded by their situation. Once at the Positive Existence, a person is going to do more blessing than cursing. The person trusts God more, and sees God as a truly admirable father, and not as someone who is working against them, or is out to punish them. These feelings about God, though, can only be manifested at the higher levels of Inner-Self. A person in the lower levels may criticize the position of one in the higher levels because he cannot see how the goodness expressed from the higher person could be true. The lower level person sees these expressions as false, deceptive, and magical thinking.
James points us to a consistent level in our speech. Since we know that our speech comes from the thoughts we have been thinking, as Jesus told his disciples, then we know that the thoughts we contemplate on in our minds matter greatly. But the point here is consistency. This is what I’ve been saying all along. This is why I have been saying we need to reach the higher states of consciousness. James said God doesn’t want us speaking good and bad, positive and negative, helpful and hurtful, at the same time, alongside each other. No, James tells us God wants us to be consistently positive in our speech, which means we need to be consistently positive in our thinking. And in order for this to happen, a transformation in our lives has to occur. For many, it simply hasn’t happened yet.
No matter how good you think you are in living out your Christian life, in how closely you follow the Bible and what it says, the reality is if that’s really true then that is going to be demonstrated in mostly positive speech. A person is going to be speaking blessings mostly. If you sit down and have a conversation with a person and what you hear is: “Boy, things are sure messed up in Washington. Look at this and that,” or you hear, “Sin is just increasing more and more in the world. The world is dark and dreary” or if the person says, “People are always up to no good. No one can be trusted,” if you hear these things, then you know you are dealing with a person on the lower levels of consciousness. You see, then, our speech gives away were we stand in our lives. The reality is, your negativity has blinded your focus on the positive things in the world, those things that the Apostle Paul told us to think about (see Philippians 4:8). You think you are wise in your ability to recognize sin and be sad about it. Actually, all you’re doing is being disobedient to God.
God help us from negative people. What should be our responses as we sit down and mediate about things? We should hear, “It’s amazing all the good that this person or that group is doing for others! They are making a big difference.” We should hear, “A lot of people mean well in our society. How blessed we are to live in the United States.” It should be said, “It was nice how so and so helped me the other day. People sure are kind toward one another.” If we hear mostly negative, or if we hear a mixed bag of the negative with the positive, statements that fluctuate based on a person’s mood, then we see more and more disobedience to God. It all starts in the mind, in the thoughts we think. If we aren’t thinking faith-filled thoughts, then there is no way we can speak positively when the time arises. It’s up to us to make the change—to put aside the negative character traits and embrace the positive ones. God isn’t going to do it for us. No, we have to do it through his power, his enabling.
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgements
Joyce Meyer and Psychologist David. D. Burns
We are continuing along in James chapter 3 today. Last week, in the introduction to our second part of this series, I went over the three methods for understanding again that we are using for the Book of James here, so we can try to squeeze more out of our text here. We also jumped into the beginning of James chapter 3, and I went over the first several verses of that chapter. Remember, our context is the teachers of God’s Word—those whom have decided to become teachers, both men and women in our day and age. And we focused on the outward actions of those individuals, and again, we will do that today.
So we come to verse 4 of James chapter 3. So, our text states: “Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.”
As I just said, technically speaking, the context represented here in the beginning of James chapter 3 is still about the teachers of God’s Word, but really the concepts can be applied to the Christian population as a whole. I think strictly to limit this section to only deal with teachers of the Word of God would be to limit our understanding of it. All Christians, no matter what their status is, should care about the quality of the words that come from their speech.
It should be noted right off the bat that we are allowed to speak in whatever manner we want to—for James said we have the will to decide what direction our speech is going to go. Sometimes we decide to speak about something, and sometimes we withhold our speech. It’s up to us. This is part of the Law of Liberty for us. God definitely has granted us freedom of speech, and to those who are gifted in speaking, it comes naturally. No effort really needs to be put forward. It is the gifting of the Spirit. This speech, however, produces strong winds, as James stated. So, that means that what we say can have a great impact of the negative as well as the positive.
Again, it all comes down to a person’s level of Inner-Self. The person on the negative side of things, the people going against the current of life, are going to be more apt to say the wrong things, or to speak of things which aren’t clearly thought out. The reason for this is that the higher the level of consciousness of an individual, the more freedom from negativity they have which begets greater understanding in general. Certain things can only be understood at Levels Three and Four, the Positive Existence and Above State. A person in the Depression State and Negative existence is limited in their scope of understanding. God’s power is not freely flowing in their lives. There may be a little power every once in a while, but it cannot last because it isn’t supported in a manifestation of obedience to God.
A very poignant example of this comes to us during Jesus’ earthly ministry, and this is the instance where the disciples had a mis-judgement. Turn back to Luke chapter 9. I think this is an excellent example of what I am talking about here. Go to verse 51:
“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.” (Luke 9:51-56, ESV)
Ok, do you see what is going on here? Recall, the Samaritans and the Jews were arch enemies, and this was probably more due to the attitude of the Jews. They thought because Samaritans were only partly Jewish, that they really were not true Jews and therefore lesser people. So, the disciples of Jesus, all being Jewish, were upset that the unworthy Samaritans had the audacity to reject Jesus’ message. Since they believed the Samaritans were lesser people, and didn’t think they had the right to make such a rejection, but rather take orders.
Herein, nonetheless, we get to see one human in the Above State, namely Jesus, we get to see his reaction versus the disciples spoken reaction, who were clearly in the Negative Existence. Same situation, but two different kinds of humans with two different reactions. The disciples wanted instant judgment. They wanted the Samaritans to pay. What is wrong with this? Well, several things actually. For one, it assumes that the Samaritans will always believe what they believe today. It assumes that due to the initial rejection that there is no hope for them—hopelessness is displayed. It doesn’t consider that perhaps, just perhaps, if we give it time, maybe they’ll come around, which later, in the Book of Acts, we find that many of them did, perhaps even some who were in this very scene.
Another problem here is that God never forces anyone to believe in him—at least, in this life. That is our current order of things. People have the ability to choose to reject God, to reject Jesus, to pass on the the Gospel message. That’s everyone’s choice. Whether you consider this instance in Luke, or whether you consider any instance afterwards in Christian history, it never turns out well when people by using God’s name try to force others to believe in God. It goes against our very human nature, and the nature order of things. It is no different than what Islamic extremists do today in our current world. They go around in some areas and kill those who refuse to convert to their religion, or perhaps they don’t even give them an opportunity to convert. Anyway, it doesn’t work, does it? People really aren’t joining the extremist group, that is, at least Jews or Christians.
When we are sharing the Gospel then, as preachers and teachers of God’s Word, it is important how we speak. I think the best thing we can do is just speak about the Bible. God is already in the background working on the person’s heart. It is my personal belief that if the person is to be saved by God’s grace, that God will certainly see to it that the person comes into personal faith with him at some point in time. It isn’t our job, no matter who we are, to try to twist someone’s arm into come into faith. I have often seen a great amount of fear from Christians in the form of worry and concern that this person or that person won’t come into saving faith. Why the concern, though? Why the fear? We do our part and God will do his part, and it will happen at the appointed time. Living in fear isn’t going to do any of us any good. The eagerness needs to go too because that eagerness is based in fear also. We do what we do relaxed and patiently, just like Jesus did.
Next, James says, “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.” (James 3:5-6, ESV)
We know the destruction that can be caused by a single sentence. What I want us to consider is how we avoid this kind of destruction. What is it that we do? I think in order to find that we enjoy the fruit of our mouths, the things we speak, is to give up such a desire to control what we speak. First and foremost, we have to accept the reality that, no matter who we are, not one of us can speak perfectly all the time. It’s just not going to happen. It’s not going to happen for the preacher, and it’s not going to happen for anyone else. I’ve definitely said things in sermons, or giving examples, that in retrospect, I think could have been more clearly articulated. Does that bother me? Not really. It use to, but it doesn’t anymore because chasing after perfection is like chasing after the wind. You’ll never catch it. The only way to be seemingly perfect is to never take any risks, to never say anything colorful, to just play it safe on everything. That goes against my very nature, as it does for many of you who aren’t wimps.
But what about sin? What about this “unrighteousness” that James speaks of? Certainly, if we let ourselves go too far down the consciousness scale, it is easy for us to start saying things about ourselves and about others that truly don’t make any sense. These negative things that hurt ourselves and hurt others. Things that tear down, and do not build up. We can be a blessing to another or a bother to the same person; the choice is ours. It’s like Thumper in the great classic movie ‘Bambi’ taught us long ago, (paraphrasing) “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” That’s a good start. Generally speaking, I think we can always find a positive in any circumstance if we look hard enough. God’s grace is everywhere. It surrounds all living things, and all situations. The point is for not to be so negative inside our minds that we cannot identify it, or cannot see it.
The reality is, words that reach our mouths and go out into the world come from the thoughts we are having in our minds, right? So, the logical conclusion is that to correct our words, we need to correct our thoughts. This means, invariably, that if we are thinking negatively of others on a regular basis, we are more likely to speak negatively of them to others, and not give them our best welcome when we are around them. So, to fix this issue, one thing we could do is to start thinking positively about others on a regular basis, even when we are not around them physically and they come into our minds, and that way when we do see them, we can speak better words to them. We can be more welcoming and hospitable.
There is also the reality that we have given expectations of others, and more often than not, they do not meet those expectations. This again can lead to negative speaking, and reinforce an overall view of life that is negative. People have different standards for what they expect from themselves and from others. We may have set the bar at a certain height, but others, our family and friends, our acquaintances, haven’t set the bar at that height. What is perfectly acceptable to them is offensive to us. So once we are presented with our own self-righteousness, we have the choice of whether to surrender it, to give it up, or to keep it and be constantly disappointed with others behaviors. It is an amazing thing when we give up our expectations of others behaviors (that is, what you expect them to do or not do). Your feelings of being offended over this and that will fall dramatically. This allows for positivity then to flow.
To look at it another way, what are some ways that we can speak negatively to, or about others? We can be jealous of them, speak angrily to them, we can snub them, not give them the credit that is due them, we can hold something negative in mind when we see them (perhaps something they did we didn’t like), and we can even intimidate others to try and get them to act in ways in which we feel are right. The problem with all of this, all of these negative thoughts which lead to negative speech, is that they are self-righteous. They come from this characteristic which is prevalent in the Level Two person, the person in the Negative Existence. We feel we are right. We feel we have a right to do what we are doing. This is not what God has setup as his universal truth, though. These are not the ways God’s wants us to act.
The reality is, no matter what you think, the thoughts, the beliefs, and finally, the things that come out of our mouths, and even our non-verbal communication, have an impact on others. This is for the positive or for the negative. I mean, it’s common sense right? If we want our tongues to be full of gold, to be full of love, compassion, assistance, help, support, and encouragement, we should be thinking those kind of thoughts beforehand. We should be thinking those kinds of thoughts during the week, when we are not around a brother and sister at church. Then when we are around them, the good thoughts will beget good speech, and this good speech will bless another. Then, in blessing another, we really have blessed ourselves, because we feel good about the positive interaction, the good fellowship really, we have had with another.
One more thing before I wrap this section up, and I think this needs to be said, that it is important to watch our joking and teasing of others, even when we think it is all in fun, because it may not be so fun for the person being teased. Perhaps someone committed a social faux pas, and everyone knows about it. Perhaps they gave a speech during church service and said a couple of things we think they shouldn’t have said. You might kid the person the first day for it, but it should not be something that is now eternally reoccurring every time we have an interaction with the person. For the jokers and teasers, that’s a negative characteristic. Remember, you also could do something wrong in the future, and you most certainly will, because everyone does wrong, it’s just that most of the time people aren’t publicly aware of the wrong. So, we should not go all high-horse, self-righteous, toward others, even in the form of joking. That’s what joking and teasing really is, isn’t it. It’s a display of our own self-righteousness.
Back in James. Next he says, “For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:7-10, ESV)
We’ve all seen the movie Jurassic World (2015). We know in that movie that the character Owen had tamed four velociraptors on the Island where the park was, and he had great control of these dinosaurs. He had trained them in all kinds of ways, and even so much so that some evil people thought the dinosaurs could be used for warfare. It’s a darn shame. The presence of the dinosaurs always seems to lead to some sort of destruction. Anyway, the point in all of this is that any wild animal can be tamed by man, whether that’s a velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus rex (I don’t see why not), a bear, a lion, a German Shepherd, or a chihuahua. I suppose even a house cat could be tamed.
Psychologists, or animal psychologists (yes, there is such a thing), differ on to what level of consciousness an animal can reach, or what its maximum potential is. Nonetheless, we know that animals certainly are not as advanced in consciousness as we are, as humans. That being the case, why is it that James says that the tongue cannot be tamed? Why is that an animal can display better behaviors than we as humans often do? Why is it that people will turn to animals after a bad experience with a human for comfort and encouragement? What makes us as humans among the most vile, even more so than a T-Rex?
The control of our mouths, then, is going to correlate with the level of Inner-Self we currently find ourselves on. The person in the Depression State is going to say all kinds of harmful things to themselves and to others. Life is seen as totally pointless and hopeless, and this is expressed in their speech. Even if the person gives God glory, they are full of cursing. They are cursing themselves and others because they are blinded by their situation. Once at the Positive Existence, a person is going to do more blessing than cursing. The person trusts God more, and sees God as a truly admirable father, and not as someone who is working against them, or is out to punish them. These feelings about God, though, can only be manifested at the higher levels of Inner-Self. A person in the lower levels may criticize the position of one in the higher levels because he cannot see how the goodness expressed from the higher person could be true. The lower level person sees these expressions as false, deceptive, and magical thinking.
James points us to a consistent level in our speech. Since we know that our speech comes from the thoughts we have been thinking, as Jesus told his disciples, then we know that the thoughts we contemplate on in our minds matter greatly. But the point here is consistency. This is what I’ve been saying all along. This is why I have been saying we need to reach the higher states of consciousness. James said God doesn’t want us speaking good and bad, positive and negative, helpful and hurtful, at the same time, alongside each other. No, James tells us God wants us to be consistently positive in our speech, which means we need to be consistently positive in our thinking. And in order for this to happen, a transformation in our lives has to occur. For many, it simply hasn’t happened yet.
No matter how good you think you are in living out your Christian life, in how closely you follow the Bible and what it says, the reality is if that’s really true then that is going to be demonstrated in mostly positive speech. A person is going to be speaking blessings mostly. If you sit down and have a conversation with a person and what you hear is: “Boy, things are sure messed up in Washington. Look at this and that,” or you hear, “Sin is just increasing more and more in the world. The world is dark and dreary” or if the person says, “People are always up to no good. No one can be trusted,” if you hear these things, then you know you are dealing with a person on the lower levels of consciousness. You see, then, our speech gives away were we stand in our lives. The reality is, your negativity has blinded your focus on the positive things in the world, those things that the Apostle Paul told us to think about (see Philippians 4:8). You think you are wise in your ability to recognize sin and be sad about it. Actually, all you’re doing is being disobedient to God.
God help us from negative people. What should be our responses as we sit down and mediate about things? We should hear, “It’s amazing all the good that this person or that group is doing for others! They are making a big difference.” We should hear, “A lot of people mean well in our society. How blessed we are to live in the United States.” It should be said, “It was nice how so and so helped me the other day. People sure are kind toward one another.” If we hear mostly negative, or if we hear a mixed bag of the negative with the positive, statements that fluctuate based on a person’s mood, then we see more and more disobedience to God. It all starts in the mind, in the thoughts we think. If we aren’t thinking faith-filled thoughts, then there is no way we can speak positively when the time arises. It’s up to us to make the change—to put aside the negative character traits and embrace the positive ones. God isn’t going to do it for us. No, we have to do it through his power, his enabling.
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgements
Joyce Meyer and Psychologist David. D. Burns