Loving Our Neighbor With Our Tongue

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: James 3; Lord's Day 43
Psalters: 299, 336, 386, 26
  1. The concept.
    1. God speaks, i.e., communicates perfectly within Himself and to His creatures, especially His children.
      1. He created man in His image: able to know and speak the truth and able to communicate thoughts.
      2. The power of speech is very great.
      3. Truth is not just facts, but also a moral-ethical tone.
    2. Sin ruined communication and the ability to use the tongue for good.
    3. Grace restores the ability to know and speak the truth in love.
  2. The violations of this command.
    1. Natural man lives the lie.
      1. He believes the lie that there is no God, no truth, no standard, no necessity of answering to God one day.
      2. Natural man denies the danger of hell (Canons III,IV - 15).
    2. Also the regenerated easily lie.
      1. The most frequent lie is about ourselves.
      2. We lie about ourselves also when we see ourselves apart from Christ.
      3. Sometimes we lie directly, but more often it is a poisonous half-truth (distort the truth) or with cowardly silence.
      4. All listening to such talk also is to be condemned.
    3. Every violation of this commandment is most serious (Prov. 6:16-19; 12:22; 19:5,9; 21:28; Psalm 15:-3; Rev. 21:8).
  3. This command sets before us the duty to express their gratitude by speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4:15,16).
    1. The speaking God enables His children to be truth speakers.
    2. Because a part of God?s glory is that He is truth, the glory of believers is that we live and speak the truth.
      1. We learn the importance of working hard to bridle our tongue (James 1:26).
      2. We learn the put the best construction on things doubtful, of not entertaining suspicions
    3. As God?s servants, let us use the gift of speech to glorify His Creator and Master.