James 3

How to Use Our Mouth

We can find out a lot about a believer’s maturity by just listening to his words. Words are powerful tools given by God to His children to teach the word of God, to praise Him, to encourage and edify others like spring with fresh water, and to product fruits.

v1: Every believer is a priest, all of us have spiritual gift to serve the Lord. However not every one is gifted in teaching. Our role as teachers or students also depend on the context. For example a young man is a student and learned from the elder men at church. But hen the young man is at home, he is the teacher of his children in his home.

v1: God has higher standard for the teachers in His church, because teachers are given with greater talents to teach the word of God to His church. For those who He gave five talents, He expect greater return than the ones with one talent. (Matt 25)

v2: There is no perfect man other than the Lord Jesus. That means all of us have spoken words that displease the Lord in our life, and would happen again in the future.

Analogies of our mouth

1. mouth of horses (v3)
2. rudder of ships (v4)
3. fire (v5)
4. animals (v7)
5. spring (v11)
6. tree (v12)

That proper use of our mouth

1. Teach (v1)
2. Praise (v9)
3. Produce fresh water (v12)
4. Produce fruits (v12)
   • Is our heart the tree and our words the fruits or the other way around? I think both of true. The more godly truth we speak, more fruits are product in our heart. The closer we are to Christ in our heart, more fruits are produced by our mouth.

Heavenly and Earthly Wisdom

Characters of Heavenly Wisdom (v17-18)

1. pure
2. peace loving
3. considerate
4. submissive
5. full of mercy
6. good fruit
7. impartial
8. sincere
9. harvest of righteousness

Characters of Earthly Wisdom (v14-16)

1. unspiritual (v15)
2. came from the devil (v15)
3. envy (v14,16)
4. selfish (v14,16)
5. disorder (v16)