[AI translation] Reading this part of James' letter, one is amazed at the extraordinary, strange nature of human language: the smallest of our members, yet of such great importance! It is through it that speech, the word, becomes real. And the word is the most suitable expression of thought, and thought is man himself. Man's innermost being is revealed in his speech, whether he lies or remains silent. James says all he can say about the word in language, about the organic image of the word, and through this image he offers a glimpse into the problem of what might be called the mysticism of the word.The most wonderful mystery of the word, of speech, is precisely that God also speaks, God also communicates Himself to us and seeks to communicate with us through the word, through speech. The whole Bible bears witness to the fact that God is not a God who is closed off, a God who lives for Himself, but a God who reveals Himself, communicates Himself, speaks, addresses Himself. He comes to us again and again through his word, giving us strength, giving us light, creating new life and new possibilities. God's word is the greatest mystery in the world. And this great mystery, the divine word, comes to us through the words of men, through the words of men, and is heard by our ears. It is through human words that God interprets, speaks his word. The Bible is full of human words, yet it is the word of God. It is a bit like when you buy a gramophone record and hear the voice of a great artist through it. Is it really the voice of that artist? Yes! Sure, - it's just that the gramophone and the record's side-notes are mixed into his voice. This sidetone is no longer the voice of the master, but the scratch of the needle on the ebonite. But that's the only way I can hear the voice of that artist. This is how we are with the Bible: it is the voice of the real, true Master, His voice, His words that He makes audible to us, truly His voice, the words He wants to say. But there are also side voices mixed in, because God speaks His word through human words. Because Paul and Peter and Isaiah and Moses are human. Yet it is all His word, God's word, with all the human confusion that usually goes along with man. And wrong is he who listens to human distractions instead of listening to the Master's voice!
So, in order for God to speak to us, for His Word, which communicates Himself and communes with us, to reach us, to meet us: for this great fact of grace, God needs the human word, the human speech as an instrument. We cannot receive the word of God, Jesus Christ, except by having that word made audible to us through a human language. And when the human word clearly interprets the word of God, when we hear it, it penetrates our lives like seed into the field. Then there is a divine sowing of seed in our lives that gives rise to new life. That is why it is so important that the language which proclaims the word of God should be pure, as free from distortion as possible, as free as possible from the distortions which are the result of human imperfection in general. Thus we understand this warning of James: 'Brethren, do not be many teachers, knowing that we shall be judged more severely. For we all sin in many ways. If anyone does not sin in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body." (James 3:1-2) For the human word is not only a means, but can also be an obstacle to the divine word. It is always a miracle again when the word of God speaks to someone through the mouth of a preacher. It is a special grace of God when He puts His message into the vessel of human words. The greatest problem in all preaching is that the noise of the human word should not drown out the Master's voice, that the contamination of the human word should not corrupt the purity of the word of God, but should be an instrument of God's speaking grace. Just as healing and life may arise from pure preaching, so sickness and death may arise from preaching contaminated with human thoughts.
That is why the preaching of the Word, the interpretation of God's word, is such an unheard-of undertaking. To struggle and pray for a clear preaching of the Word is the task not only of the preacher, but of the whole congregation. All of you must pray that the word of God may truly speak among us, that God may give the congregation instruments whose tongue faithfully interprets what God wants to say! For this is possible! For the instrument, the language, which would serve to do this, is a very dangerous thing! It must be a very sad experience for James when he says of the tongue that "the tongue is fire, the whole of wickedness... it defiles the whole body, it sets on fire the course of our life... no one can tame it, it is an uncontainable evil, full of deadly poison" (James 6-8).
Nothing bows so heavily to God's word as our own word! In vain does God speak, man continues to speak his own words. In fact, he can even argue with the divine word. We know the words. Is not James right when he calls this smallest member of our body a dangerous fire that can set the course of our life on fire? Only one word has passed between us, we used to say, and what mysterious power has that word! Only one word between husband and wife, and the spouses hate each other, only one word and the peace between two people is shattered. Just one word, a sharp word, a poisoned word, has been put on our tongues, it has hit someone and broken a friendship. One word and brothers fall on each other. Just one impatient word on the tram and it set the whole car on fire with murderous passions. Just one word and it saturates the whole apartment with nervous tension. One word can turn a home into hell. One word and a man leaves hurt and wounded to the core. Just one word, one dirty, ambiguous word, and a fury of unclean emotions is in the air. Just one word and whole nations march against each other in a destructive war!
How true it is that James says: "Behold, a small fire burns up a great forest" (James 3:5b). And so our family, our environment, the world, burns and is consumed in the fire we light with our words. Yes: "The tongue is also a fire, the sum of all evil. The tongue is so among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the flow of our life." (James 3:6a) James says that these words take this terrible power from very deep, so he continues, the tongue itself is "set on fire by the flame." (James 3:6b) By this he means that the word is not born on our tongue, but is born before, deeper, before it is on our tongue. Down there, in the depths, there is something of the gyehenna in us. We know, don't we, that sin comes from a conversation, and that is man's conversation with the serpent. And that serpent continues to speak to us and within us. And we talk to it, we listen to it, we are receptive to its voice. And from this inner conversation comes our outer speech. And the internal conversation with the snake - it breaks out in the speech of our tongue. That's how our tongue is set on fire by the gyehenna.
James is talking about the tongue, but he is actually describing the corruption and sinfulness of the human soul. He reveals the trouble, he exposes the great depths - all the way to the gyehenna - but he does not give the solution, not because he assumes that he knows it, since he has already spoken of it many times! The solution is inner renewal, rebirth through the word of truth, through the Word of God. There is another fire that can set the tongue on fire: not only the fire of the resinous, but also the fire of the Holy Spirit. God also speaks, speaks. His Word, His Word is creation, redemption, His Word is Jesus Christ! To whom the Holy Spirit of God gives life to this word, whoever accepts the message of God expressed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, whoever comes back to it with the grateful offering of his whole life, whoever is made new by the fire of the Spirit, to whom the Holy Spirit puts a new word on his lips: a word of joyful thanksgiving to God and a word of love for men. The demonic tongue is silenced and the angelic tongue begins to speak in him! Which does your tongue speak: blessing or curse, prayer or damnation, sweet or bitter?!
On this Sunday, on the very threshold of the World Peace Congress in Budapest, it is especially good that the Word of God draws our attention to the great importance of the human word. All over the world, humanity, tired and tired of warfare, is proclaiming, ever more loudly and in ever greater numbers, a word that God has sealed for us as his very own word through the death and resurrection of Jesus: peace. It is a word that marks out for a world in crisis the possibility and the path of the unfolding that everyone longs for. Just as one word, one word of war, can set the whole forest of men on fire, can set the world on fire, so one word, one word of goodwill, one word of peace, one word of understanding, can even extinguish the existing fires of war.
The churches of Christ in every part of the world have clearly taken up the cause of peace. We therefore look forward to the Peace Congress not only with good hope, but also with heartfelt prayer that this much-talked-about word "peace" may be imbued with the content and energy that will truly create the possibility of resolving international tension. May this word be as true and pure a word and as powerful a word as the true, pure and powerful word of God proclaiming peace through Christ to the world!
James says: "With this (language) we bless God..." (verse 9) Yes, that is what our tongue, our speech, is for. Whoever blesses God puts out the mysterious, destructive fire that smolders in our words. By God's blessing, a word that destroys community becomes a word that builds community. The blessing of God restrains evil, quenches deadly poison, makes the lips a sweet fountain of gurgling water. God has raised up this sweet spring for us in Christ. Take His word on your lips and pass it on, pass it on! Your whole environment, your whole family, the whole world is longing for the right, the true, the pure, the word that proclaims and works joy, peace, salvation: Christ!
Behold, how good and how great a beauty
Is straightness among the brethren,
If they dwell together in peace.
Like balsamic oil, they are!
God bless such as these,
He gives them long life.
(Psalm 133:1)
Amen
Date: 14 June 1953.
Lesson
Jak 3,1-12