Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

whether in the teaching office or elsewhere, because of the insurmountable
barrier in the tongue, so it is impossible to attain any holiness whatsoever.
“Teachers and their Tongue” is a case-study that carries universal implications
and applications. It is a sample of a universal problem that touches everyone
everywhere. This should become crystal clear when we carefully analyze
James as he proceeds with his argument.
In fact, James could not have made his case more strongly than he does
in James 3:2-9! The upshot of his message is what the upshot of every sermon
should be. All audiences and addressees should invariably be compelled to
come face to face with the very impossibility that Jesus himself already had
verbalized in no uncertain terms, “without me you can do nothing” (John
15:5), whether it pertains to speaking or otherwise. That will not only cure
any “itch” in a hurry. It will shut everyone in every circumstance and every
place up to total dependence upon grace alone, not just the grace of justification,
but also the grace of sanctification! This constitutes a solemn reminder
for Christians neither to seek in the law what they can only find in the Gospel,
nor in themselves what they can only find in Christ.
However, let me emphasize at this juncture already that James, in line
with all of Scripture, complements his present diagnosis in James 3:17-18
with the assurance that in Christ we can be all that we ought to be, and cannot
be in ourselves apart from the Gospel, whether in our speaking or otherwise
(See also Ps. 37:30; Prov. 11:30; 12:18; 15:7; 16:1; 20:20; see also Ps. 39:1;
Eph. 4:29; 5:4).
There is a theological trend which insists that God will not ask mankind
to do what it cannot do. James clearly disagrees. In fact, he goes on record
that God will only ask mankind what it cannot do. The tongue is merely one,
be it telling, instance. In fact, it may well be called a symbol of universal applicability.
To put it in very graphical terms, since the tongue could not be
more toxic, James for all practical purposes informs his addressees that for
the tongue to be an instrument on the plus side in any kind of speaking, God
must “suck honey out of poison.” When James’ message is understood, it
warrants only one comment. Does God ever do anything else? After all, there
is poison not only in the tongue, as we shall see, but in “all our members”
(Rom. 7:23). So God must always and incessantly “suck honey out of poison”
everywhere, if there is going to be any practical godliness in anyone anytime
and anywhere!
All this puts the earlier statement in perspective. There is death and life
in the tongue (Prov. 18:21). Death by definition and life by grace! The concentricity
of life commands us to complete the picture. There is death and life
in the totality of human existence. Death by definition, and life only from
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