Functional Faith + your Tongue | James 3:1-12
How many words do you say in a day? The average woman speaks around 20,000 words: the average man around 15,000. (Most men spend 14,998 at work and come home with just two words left, “Feed me.”) Another study found that the average person spends around 1/5 (20%) of their lifetime talking. Have you ever wondered what the transcripts of what you say would look like? In a year, it would be about 18,250 pages, or roughly 92 (200 pages) books. We are talkers. Dr. Francis Collins, the former head of the Human Genome project, in his book, The Language of God, says “that human beings at the level of genetic code are in essence a living language. What separates us from the animals is our capacity for speech.” We were created to talk, communicate, think, express ourselves, and share our thoughts and feelings. In a day of incessant talk, 24-hour news cycles, social media, and texting, we all find ways to communicate more than ever before. What we say to others and what others say to us matters. Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. Most of the issues in our world come because of words.
One of the big themes in James (and the New Testament) is about our words and tongue. In Chapter 3, James is following up on a topic he started in chapter 1. If the gospel has infected you, you are going to be impacted by it in how you live your everyday life. One of the areas is how it impacts what comes out of your mouth. He said that we should be “quick to hear and slow to speak,” and “if anyone thinks he’s religious but does not control his tongue, his religion is worthless.” In other words, what we say says a lot about what we believe and who we truly are. Real faith in Jesus should change how we speak to and about other people. James teaches us that what we say is powerful, it points to the condition of our hearts and it pushes us to our need for Jesus to be healed.