Study of James: To Teach or Not to Teach
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Peace to Live By Study of James: To Teach or Not to Teach - Daniel Litton
(Tap or right-click link to download broadcast)
For full sermons without edits for time, tap here to go to downloads page.
(Tap or right-click link to download broadcast)
For full sermons without edits for time, tap here to go to downloads page.
[Transcript may not match broadcasted sermon word for word. Sections in bold are extra material that was cut from the broadcast due to time constraints]
I trust everyone had a great holiday break, and we are now back with a continuation of the Book of James. In the fall, we went over the first two chapters, and now we are going to go through the rest of the book by covering chapters 3 through 5. Now, these chapters are a bit shorter than the first two, but nonetheless, we have quite a bit to cover.
You will also remember that I outlined three different methods of understanding that I want us to use as we approach the Book of James in our study. Recall, they are the Four Levels of Inner-Self, the practice of Giving Up Control, and thirdly, the Law of Liberty. I want us to carry these along as we continue our study here, as I believe by understanding these concepts, we can approach the Book of James in a more helpful way, a way where we can take more out of it and apply it to our lives, to our daily living.
I want us to go back over these methods before we get started here, as it is good for us to remind ourselves of them, and perhaps there are some who have tuned in for the first time. The first method I said is the Four Levels of Inner-Self. So, this is a tier, a line, that goes from the bottom to the top level of human consciousness. In the middle is a great divide, and in that divide is the point where life moves from flowing against us to flowing with us. So, on one side of the divide is the Depression State and Negative Existence. These are to the two lower levels, with, obviously, the Depression State being the lowest. This state has the common attributes of unhappiness, lowness, bitterness, and hopelessness. Now, the second level, the Negative Existence, has the attitudes of anxiety, self-righteousness, aggravation, and wantingness. It is the second level that is common among individuals, and I would say is correlated with a person’s personal severity level.
Where we want to be is on the positive side of things, where the river is flowing with us instead of against us. The two levels of Inner-Self on this side are the Positive Existence and Above State. The former of these two levels of consciousness, the Positive Existence, begets attitudes of faith, easygoingness, acceptance, and enjoyment. Hopefully, we are a person displaying these characteristics. A lot of people are on this level. And, of course, the top level is the Above State, which is characterized by attitudes of love, joy, peace, and patience. Those attributes should sound familiar because they are the first four fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is the last level, the actual top level, that is people’s ultimate goal, the state we all wish to reach at some point in our lives and stay there. The thing of it is, to reach this top state requires a great deal of Giving Up Control, or surrender, on our parts. It requires us to get past all the worries, the feelings of pride in whatever area, any bitterness or anger that is built up in us, and of course, the constant drive to obtain more in our lives—more of anything.
In speaking of Giving Up Control, let us remind ourselves of what this method of understanding means. The whole premise behind Giving Up Control, or we might say surrendering, is to get out of a fear state in our minds. Fear is attached to the lower levels of consciousness, the Depression State and Negative Existence. Remember, the Apostle John talked about this, as he had superseded these levels in his own life, living on this earth, before he transcended (that is, unless he is still around, perhaps wanting in a cave for Indiana Jones). Regardless, remember what he said, and it’s within one of our verses, “but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18, ESV). Do you see? John spoke of this Above State. Often the New Testament writers speak to us more on an everyday, common, human level, a level that most people would understand due to the degradation in their level of consciousness. John here shows us that of which the ultimate goal is, and that is getting out of the fear state.
Again, Giving Up Control means that we are not focused on fear, but on letting out all that emotional pressure behind it. It means that when fear crops up in our minds, and this may be several times a minute initially, we have to let that fear out by not moving against it, by not trying to push it back down within ourselves. This begets actual resistance, and true resistance is not the traditional resistance we have all been taught. So, when a fearful thought is presented to us, a bothering thought, no matter what that is, we need to face it head on if we are ever going to overcome it. Pushing the thought down inside ourselves and saying, “Oh, I don’t want to the think about that! I don’t want to deal with that!” won’t do us any good. That is because the thought will just come back later on in time to, again, be dealt with. When we keep pushing negative thoughts down, it’s like being at Chucky Cheese when we were kids and playing ‘Whac-A-Mole.’ You know the game. You hit a mole’s head, he goes down, but then another one pops up, and you keep doing this over and over.
The only way to get rid of a thought, any thought, no matter what it is, it to stop whacking it with our mallet. We have to allow the thought to play out with no judgment about it whatsoever, by observing it as if it didn’t belong to us, and we will see that overtime it will pass. It’s an incredible thing. My own experience in doing this is that most thoughts will last either 10 or 20 seconds and then pass. Sometimes if one is deeper, it will last longer and require prolonged periods of time and eventually subside. All thoughts though, those we don’t want, can and will subside using this method. This is Giving Up Control of our minds so that we can what? So that we can be more pleasing to God with our thought-life. What does this also get for us? It gets us peace, happiness, joy, and the rest of the positive emotions. We are no longer controlled by our thoughts, no longer at the mercy of them, but by Giving Up Control we truly gain total control.
Nonetheless, there is a second part to Giving Up Control that I want us to understand, and that is that while doing this, while getting out of the fear state, we also need to be at a place where we can accept whatever life brings to us, both small and big. We enjoy people and we enjoy things, material possessions, while they are in our lives. In view of that, we should never be so attached to someone or something that in being so, the departure of the person or thing prevents us from moving forward in life. We love our families and we love our friends. Anyone, though, can exit our life at any time, whether that be moving out of it and or entering the next life. We know that same thing is true with things, with possessions. We need to be able to grieve naturally, grieve appropriately, but then move on because, remember, I said at the beginning of our study that, “All that matters is God.”
Behind this statement, “All that matters is God,” is the realization that God is the one who will always be with us, and who is unchanging. He loves us no matter what, no matter what life circumstance we are in. From the time we come to know him, to our transcendence, he is there with us. This is a beautiful thing, and a very encouraging thing at that. Like I said, we love and trust other people, but no matter who they are, they cannot always be with us (though perhaps they are with us in spirit; it would seem we are all connected on the spiritual level much like a computer network is tied together, but this only begets more questions than answers, so it’s best not go here right now). Things we have, the things in our lives, they break down over time. They can even be stolen. They can be destroyed, taken out of our lives.
And finally, and I do not wish to go too far longer with this recap, we have what I have titled the Law of Liberty. This is the awareness within our own lives that we are free. God has given us freedom within our lives, as Christians, and we live in this freedom making the choices which come from our hearts, those pure choices which aren’t driven by the sin nature. Each of us has been gifted by the Creator with natural abilities, those abilities which he bestows within all individuals in creating them. Likewise, once we become a new creation in Jesus, having left the natural, then we are in a new life, and within this new life is the manifestation of God-bestowed spiritual gifts, like the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter talked about. These again, manifest themselves in our drives, our desires, in what we find comes natural, in what we decide we like to do. And more can be gained over time, and perhaps even change from one to another as we choose.
The reality is, we all have the freedom to make various decisions in our lives. This comes from were we decide to attend church, to fellowship with other people, where we work in our lives, what our careers are, and any other ways in which we decide we want to help other people, whether that be people out of relationship with God or whether that be those who already know him. We decide who we marry. We choose what we wear. We pick our pet out, if we decide to have one. The car we drive is our choice. The place we live is up to us. This freedom comes from God. As God has blessed the Great States of America, so it is that within those abundant blessings we find ourselves in double blessing, in that we benefit from God’s grand provision for our country as well as his grand provision for us, as new creations.
Ok, so now that I’ve gone through all this once again, let’s go ahead and try to understand the Book of James through these concepts, these methods of understanding. So, tapping or turning to chapter 3, starting in verse one. The text states: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.“
James left us at the end of chapter 2 with the thought that faith without works is dead. That was an interesting discussion. And so, in coming to chapter 3 now, we are presented with a specific work that many Christians can choose to perform in their lives. Notice the choice that is present in the wording. There is no discussion of a person being called by God to become a teacher. Rather, it is stated, “Not many of you should become teachers” as if there’s a choice from the individual on whether he or she would like to do that. Yes, this is the Law of Liberty in its manifestation. James tells his readers, his listeners, that they get to choose whether they will become teachers. Is there a call from God? Perhaps, or perhaps not. The point here is that we are to evaluate, if we are interested, in whether we wish to come a teacher.
Now, James says that, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers.” This is one of those instances where the “my brothers” is not noted as being alternatively translated “my brothers and sisters”; this is in the ESV Bible. In James time, only men taught. That’s the way it was in Jewish society. As a matter of fact, remember, the Apostle Paul came down pretty hard on this, saying that women weren’t even allowed to ask a question in a church setting, whether that be within in a service or even a Bible study. Now, in our day and age, no one I know (except maybe the Amish), practices this latter concept (1). Some churches, especially in the traditional evangelical sect, do not allow women to be ministers, pastors, or reverends. These churches still practice Paul’s section about not letting a women teach, but not the section about the women speaking in church (they let them ask questions or give announcements or whatever). We know sisters who preach within various evangelical congregations, like the Methodists and Presbyterians, and even other groups such as Vineyard congregations.
Regardless, to any person out there, male or female, if you are considering becoming a preacher, you need to consider what James says here today. And that’s because of the next part of the verse: “we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” For a real long time, in my early evangelical days, I use to believe this verse was referring to God himself. I read it that God was going to judge me with greater strictness at the Judgment Day if I decided to become a teacher. After thinking about this verse for years, I came to the conclusion that it is probably better understood that other people, instead of God, are the ones who will judge us with greater strictness.
You see, one issue is that people may question the right of the person who has decided to preach, as if they are the ultimate decider and judge in such matters. God may gift a person to great preaching skill who has no higher education, anything above a four year college degree or even one who has no college degree at all. In American society, God calls women to preach (2). He gifts them with effectiveness and good ability to do so. In other parts of the world, where women preachers might not be acceptable, God perhaps will not call a woman. The point is that God is the ultimate decider in these matters. No human tradition, or even traditional interpretation of the Bible can prohibit the Spirit of God from doing what he wants and decides to do.
A second issue is that none of us are perfect. It’s not that a preacher needs to maintain a certain level of perfection more than others as is commonly believed. That’s self-righteousness, a characteristic of the Level Two Christian. Really, that’s not possible. All of us, no matter who we are, first have a sin nature. Secondly, we have the capacity to make mistakes. I think behind what James is saying to us then is that if you do not wish to be criticized, if you don’t have thick skin to endure God’s people who are on the lower levels of consciousness, then perhaps you might want to decide not to be a preacher. This is the Law of Liberty in action. Really, though, this is something that is developed over time—that is—having thick skin, at least to some degree. Some of our boldness is obviously inborn or gifted by God.
Christians on the lower levels of consciousness, and definitely those who don’t closely follow Christianity, in a way desire for a preacher to be less than perfect, even to perhaps fail. Why is that? Well, the obvious answer becomes true: people wish to feel better about themselves in their lower level of thinking, whether that be the Depression State or the Negative Existence. People on the higher levels of the Positive Existence and the Above State wish for their fellow peers to succeed, even those peers who are ranked in society above them. These kinds of people feel bad when a player on the opposing sports team is unable to get up because he is injured. The lower level person, though they may not express it, secretly is happy and delighted that the player was injured because they will take any advantage that will benefit their team and the winning of the game.
We are talking about preachers here—that is what James is referring to—though this truth is seen in just about any celebrity, any person who is looked up to above the rest. Going back to sports, we know that a player can be either highly praised or highly criticized, depending on his or her performance for the game he or she just partook in. They can be a star one week, and highly disliked the next. The athlete has to be able to endure the criticism, the times when people aren’t happy with their choices and performance. Like the athlete performs in front of others for all to see, so does God’s preacher. The sports player is judged with greater strictness, and so is God’s minister.
Now James says, “For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.”
The goal of the preacher, or really anyone for that matter, is to pay careful attention to what we say. What James says here about a person being able to control their tongue and at the same time their whole body is apparent to us. A person who cannot control what they are saying to others won’t be able to control what they are doing in the rest of their actions. The preacher who chooses his or her words carefully is one whom you can count on that they are likely practicing, at least to a certain degree, what they preach. The person isn’t just saying whatever it is because it sounds nice. We can easily detect a preacher who is giving textbook answers, but they are really answers that don’t benefit much to anyone. I know, because I have done this is the past. I have given textbook answers because I thought that was what I was supposed to say. The minister though needs to say what works and aligns with practicable truth, and not just what sounds nice but really doesn’t do anyone any good. These are worthless responses, a worthless religion.
One of our methods of understanding of course is Giving Up Control. It’s something small, something so simple, yet it has a profound effect on our lives. Giving Up Control involves observing our thoughts, rather than fearfully reacting to them, so that we can gain control over them, and in turn develop our self-control. What James is talking about here in our text in regard to putting bits into the mouths of horses is such a simple thing, and yet it makes something big happen. By feeding a horse a treat, one can guide that horse into lots of training and victories. So like it is with horses, so it is with the treats we give our dogs.
It definitely is true that we don’t want to say everything that comes to our minds. Sometimes when we are talking with friends, something true comes to mind but it is something that would be much better left unstated. We need to learn to let these thoughts pass by us in using the Giving Up Control method I have outlined for us. I think this can be an even greater temptation for women, since, let’s face it, women usually like to talk more then men. It’s just the way God designed them. If we say what we are thinking all the time, even if it’s true, we will find over time that we don’t have a lot of friends. What is said may be funny at first, but too much cutting into people isn’t good.
As a matter of fact, a rewards based system for obedience is actually a pretty good way to increase one’s success rate for being obedient in whatever way possible. I remember when I was growing up as a kid my Mom used to train our German Shepherd on agility. Actually, Smokey took agility classes with other dogs. The best kind of dog, they said in training, was the one who could go through the agility course without being rewarded until the end. Some dog-owners wanted to give their dogs treats at different junctions, but the most professional dog was the one who could wait to receive the treat until after completing the course.
As a matter of fact, for their final exam in Smokey’s agility course, there was sausages placed throughout the course, as temptations. The goal of the dog was to finish the whole entire course without stopping to eat any of the sausages. I can remember, as a kid, watching this final exam, and indeed, Smokey completed the course without touching a signal sausage. In fact, among the variety of dogs that were there, Smokey was the only one who was able to accomplish the mission. All the other dogs stopped to have at a sausage along the way. And why didn’t Smokey do this? How was she able to accomplish the course? Besides her sheer loyalty, I would say that it was because she knew if she did, my Mom would stop at Dairy Queen along the way home and get here a double cheeseburger and vanilla ice cream cone. Smokey knew of the grand reward in the future and that was her driving force.
The rewards system set aside, again, the best method I know of for controlling our thoughts is the Giving Up Control method, or surrendering as we might call it. This practice, though it be so simplistic, produces the maximum results for us. I would venture to say that Jesus, during his earthly ministry, really during his whole life, had to do this a lot. He, being a sin-free person, had to come across situation after situation that he had to choose not to think about. Even if it was right before him, he had to choose not to think about bad things, not to worry about anything, not to fear anything at all. Remember, he had human flesh just like we do, for it was on one occasion, namely, right before he went to the cross to die for our sins, that he said, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41, ESV).
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgements
Psychologist David R. Hawkins and Joyce Meyer
(1) The evening after recording this sermon, in my free time I was reading a book about an Amish couple and they in fact confirmed what I thought would likely be the case, that Amish women do not speak during their services or Bible studies. This book is an excellent read, by the way, and is called ‘Plain Faith' by Irene & Ora Jay Eash with Tricia Goyer. See pages 74 & 75 for what I am referring to.
(2) I would recommend the book ‘She Offered Them Christ: The Legacy of Women Preachers in Early Methodism’ by Paul W. Chilcote. This book provides a good summery of the becoming and therefore history of women preachers in England several hundred years ago. *My bad. I originally said this book contained American history as well; however, it actually is a summery of mainly English history with a little bit of Irish history. The focus on the 1800 and 1900s is brief.
I trust everyone had a great holiday break, and we are now back with a continuation of the Book of James. In the fall, we went over the first two chapters, and now we are going to go through the rest of the book by covering chapters 3 through 5. Now, these chapters are a bit shorter than the first two, but nonetheless, we have quite a bit to cover.
You will also remember that I outlined three different methods of understanding that I want us to use as we approach the Book of James in our study. Recall, they are the Four Levels of Inner-Self, the practice of Giving Up Control, and thirdly, the Law of Liberty. I want us to carry these along as we continue our study here, as I believe by understanding these concepts, we can approach the Book of James in a more helpful way, a way where we can take more out of it and apply it to our lives, to our daily living.
I want us to go back over these methods before we get started here, as it is good for us to remind ourselves of them, and perhaps there are some who have tuned in for the first time. The first method I said is the Four Levels of Inner-Self. So, this is a tier, a line, that goes from the bottom to the top level of human consciousness. In the middle is a great divide, and in that divide is the point where life moves from flowing against us to flowing with us. So, on one side of the divide is the Depression State and Negative Existence. These are to the two lower levels, with, obviously, the Depression State being the lowest. This state has the common attributes of unhappiness, lowness, bitterness, and hopelessness. Now, the second level, the Negative Existence, has the attitudes of anxiety, self-righteousness, aggravation, and wantingness. It is the second level that is common among individuals, and I would say is correlated with a person’s personal severity level.
Where we want to be is on the positive side of things, where the river is flowing with us instead of against us. The two levels of Inner-Self on this side are the Positive Existence and Above State. The former of these two levels of consciousness, the Positive Existence, begets attitudes of faith, easygoingness, acceptance, and enjoyment. Hopefully, we are a person displaying these characteristics. A lot of people are on this level. And, of course, the top level is the Above State, which is characterized by attitudes of love, joy, peace, and patience. Those attributes should sound familiar because they are the first four fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is the last level, the actual top level, that is people’s ultimate goal, the state we all wish to reach at some point in our lives and stay there. The thing of it is, to reach this top state requires a great deal of Giving Up Control, or surrender, on our parts. It requires us to get past all the worries, the feelings of pride in whatever area, any bitterness or anger that is built up in us, and of course, the constant drive to obtain more in our lives—more of anything.
In speaking of Giving Up Control, let us remind ourselves of what this method of understanding means. The whole premise behind Giving Up Control, or we might say surrendering, is to get out of a fear state in our minds. Fear is attached to the lower levels of consciousness, the Depression State and Negative Existence. Remember, the Apostle John talked about this, as he had superseded these levels in his own life, living on this earth, before he transcended (that is, unless he is still around, perhaps wanting in a cave for Indiana Jones). Regardless, remember what he said, and it’s within one of our verses, “but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18, ESV). Do you see? John spoke of this Above State. Often the New Testament writers speak to us more on an everyday, common, human level, a level that most people would understand due to the degradation in their level of consciousness. John here shows us that of which the ultimate goal is, and that is getting out of the fear state.
Again, Giving Up Control means that we are not focused on fear, but on letting out all that emotional pressure behind it. It means that when fear crops up in our minds, and this may be several times a minute initially, we have to let that fear out by not moving against it, by not trying to push it back down within ourselves. This begets actual resistance, and true resistance is not the traditional resistance we have all been taught. So, when a fearful thought is presented to us, a bothering thought, no matter what that is, we need to face it head on if we are ever going to overcome it. Pushing the thought down inside ourselves and saying, “Oh, I don’t want to the think about that! I don’t want to deal with that!” won’t do us any good. That is because the thought will just come back later on in time to, again, be dealt with. When we keep pushing negative thoughts down, it’s like being at Chucky Cheese when we were kids and playing ‘Whac-A-Mole.’ You know the game. You hit a mole’s head, he goes down, but then another one pops up, and you keep doing this over and over.
The only way to get rid of a thought, any thought, no matter what it is, it to stop whacking it with our mallet. We have to allow the thought to play out with no judgment about it whatsoever, by observing it as if it didn’t belong to us, and we will see that overtime it will pass. It’s an incredible thing. My own experience in doing this is that most thoughts will last either 10 or 20 seconds and then pass. Sometimes if one is deeper, it will last longer and require prolonged periods of time and eventually subside. All thoughts though, those we don’t want, can and will subside using this method. This is Giving Up Control of our minds so that we can what? So that we can be more pleasing to God with our thought-life. What does this also get for us? It gets us peace, happiness, joy, and the rest of the positive emotions. We are no longer controlled by our thoughts, no longer at the mercy of them, but by Giving Up Control we truly gain total control.
Nonetheless, there is a second part to Giving Up Control that I want us to understand, and that is that while doing this, while getting out of the fear state, we also need to be at a place where we can accept whatever life brings to us, both small and big. We enjoy people and we enjoy things, material possessions, while they are in our lives. In view of that, we should never be so attached to someone or something that in being so, the departure of the person or thing prevents us from moving forward in life. We love our families and we love our friends. Anyone, though, can exit our life at any time, whether that be moving out of it and or entering the next life. We know that same thing is true with things, with possessions. We need to be able to grieve naturally, grieve appropriately, but then move on because, remember, I said at the beginning of our study that, “All that matters is God.”
Behind this statement, “All that matters is God,” is the realization that God is the one who will always be with us, and who is unchanging. He loves us no matter what, no matter what life circumstance we are in. From the time we come to know him, to our transcendence, he is there with us. This is a beautiful thing, and a very encouraging thing at that. Like I said, we love and trust other people, but no matter who they are, they cannot always be with us (though perhaps they are with us in spirit; it would seem we are all connected on the spiritual level much like a computer network is tied together, but this only begets more questions than answers, so it’s best not go here right now). Things we have, the things in our lives, they break down over time. They can even be stolen. They can be destroyed, taken out of our lives.
And finally, and I do not wish to go too far longer with this recap, we have what I have titled the Law of Liberty. This is the awareness within our own lives that we are free. God has given us freedom within our lives, as Christians, and we live in this freedom making the choices which come from our hearts, those pure choices which aren’t driven by the sin nature. Each of us has been gifted by the Creator with natural abilities, those abilities which he bestows within all individuals in creating them. Likewise, once we become a new creation in Jesus, having left the natural, then we are in a new life, and within this new life is the manifestation of God-bestowed spiritual gifts, like the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter talked about. These again, manifest themselves in our drives, our desires, in what we find comes natural, in what we decide we like to do. And more can be gained over time, and perhaps even change from one to another as we choose.
The reality is, we all have the freedom to make various decisions in our lives. This comes from were we decide to attend church, to fellowship with other people, where we work in our lives, what our careers are, and any other ways in which we decide we want to help other people, whether that be people out of relationship with God or whether that be those who already know him. We decide who we marry. We choose what we wear. We pick our pet out, if we decide to have one. The car we drive is our choice. The place we live is up to us. This freedom comes from God. As God has blessed the Great States of America, so it is that within those abundant blessings we find ourselves in double blessing, in that we benefit from God’s grand provision for our country as well as his grand provision for us, as new creations.
Ok, so now that I’ve gone through all this once again, let’s go ahead and try to understand the Book of James through these concepts, these methods of understanding. So, tapping or turning to chapter 3, starting in verse one. The text states: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.“
James left us at the end of chapter 2 with the thought that faith without works is dead. That was an interesting discussion. And so, in coming to chapter 3 now, we are presented with a specific work that many Christians can choose to perform in their lives. Notice the choice that is present in the wording. There is no discussion of a person being called by God to become a teacher. Rather, it is stated, “Not many of you should become teachers” as if there’s a choice from the individual on whether he or she would like to do that. Yes, this is the Law of Liberty in its manifestation. James tells his readers, his listeners, that they get to choose whether they will become teachers. Is there a call from God? Perhaps, or perhaps not. The point here is that we are to evaluate, if we are interested, in whether we wish to come a teacher.
Now, James says that, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers.” This is one of those instances where the “my brothers” is not noted as being alternatively translated “my brothers and sisters”; this is in the ESV Bible. In James time, only men taught. That’s the way it was in Jewish society. As a matter of fact, remember, the Apostle Paul came down pretty hard on this, saying that women weren’t even allowed to ask a question in a church setting, whether that be within in a service or even a Bible study. Now, in our day and age, no one I know (except maybe the Amish), practices this latter concept (1). Some churches, especially in the traditional evangelical sect, do not allow women to be ministers, pastors, or reverends. These churches still practice Paul’s section about not letting a women teach, but not the section about the women speaking in church (they let them ask questions or give announcements or whatever). We know sisters who preach within various evangelical congregations, like the Methodists and Presbyterians, and even other groups such as Vineyard congregations.
Regardless, to any person out there, male or female, if you are considering becoming a preacher, you need to consider what James says here today. And that’s because of the next part of the verse: “we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” For a real long time, in my early evangelical days, I use to believe this verse was referring to God himself. I read it that God was going to judge me with greater strictness at the Judgment Day if I decided to become a teacher. After thinking about this verse for years, I came to the conclusion that it is probably better understood that other people, instead of God, are the ones who will judge us with greater strictness.
You see, one issue is that people may question the right of the person who has decided to preach, as if they are the ultimate decider and judge in such matters. God may gift a person to great preaching skill who has no higher education, anything above a four year college degree or even one who has no college degree at all. In American society, God calls women to preach (2). He gifts them with effectiveness and good ability to do so. In other parts of the world, where women preachers might not be acceptable, God perhaps will not call a woman. The point is that God is the ultimate decider in these matters. No human tradition, or even traditional interpretation of the Bible can prohibit the Spirit of God from doing what he wants and decides to do.
A second issue is that none of us are perfect. It’s not that a preacher needs to maintain a certain level of perfection more than others as is commonly believed. That’s self-righteousness, a characteristic of the Level Two Christian. Really, that’s not possible. All of us, no matter who we are, first have a sin nature. Secondly, we have the capacity to make mistakes. I think behind what James is saying to us then is that if you do not wish to be criticized, if you don’t have thick skin to endure God’s people who are on the lower levels of consciousness, then perhaps you might want to decide not to be a preacher. This is the Law of Liberty in action. Really, though, this is something that is developed over time—that is—having thick skin, at least to some degree. Some of our boldness is obviously inborn or gifted by God.
Christians on the lower levels of consciousness, and definitely those who don’t closely follow Christianity, in a way desire for a preacher to be less than perfect, even to perhaps fail. Why is that? Well, the obvious answer becomes true: people wish to feel better about themselves in their lower level of thinking, whether that be the Depression State or the Negative Existence. People on the higher levels of the Positive Existence and the Above State wish for their fellow peers to succeed, even those peers who are ranked in society above them. These kinds of people feel bad when a player on the opposing sports team is unable to get up because he is injured. The lower level person, though they may not express it, secretly is happy and delighted that the player was injured because they will take any advantage that will benefit their team and the winning of the game.
We are talking about preachers here—that is what James is referring to—though this truth is seen in just about any celebrity, any person who is looked up to above the rest. Going back to sports, we know that a player can be either highly praised or highly criticized, depending on his or her performance for the game he or she just partook in. They can be a star one week, and highly disliked the next. The athlete has to be able to endure the criticism, the times when people aren’t happy with their choices and performance. Like the athlete performs in front of others for all to see, so does God’s preacher. The sports player is judged with greater strictness, and so is God’s minister.
Now James says, “For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.”
The goal of the preacher, or really anyone for that matter, is to pay careful attention to what we say. What James says here about a person being able to control their tongue and at the same time their whole body is apparent to us. A person who cannot control what they are saying to others won’t be able to control what they are doing in the rest of their actions. The preacher who chooses his or her words carefully is one whom you can count on that they are likely practicing, at least to a certain degree, what they preach. The person isn’t just saying whatever it is because it sounds nice. We can easily detect a preacher who is giving textbook answers, but they are really answers that don’t benefit much to anyone. I know, because I have done this is the past. I have given textbook answers because I thought that was what I was supposed to say. The minister though needs to say what works and aligns with practicable truth, and not just what sounds nice but really doesn’t do anyone any good. These are worthless responses, a worthless religion.
One of our methods of understanding of course is Giving Up Control. It’s something small, something so simple, yet it has a profound effect on our lives. Giving Up Control involves observing our thoughts, rather than fearfully reacting to them, so that we can gain control over them, and in turn develop our self-control. What James is talking about here in our text in regard to putting bits into the mouths of horses is such a simple thing, and yet it makes something big happen. By feeding a horse a treat, one can guide that horse into lots of training and victories. So like it is with horses, so it is with the treats we give our dogs.
It definitely is true that we don’t want to say everything that comes to our minds. Sometimes when we are talking with friends, something true comes to mind but it is something that would be much better left unstated. We need to learn to let these thoughts pass by us in using the Giving Up Control method I have outlined for us. I think this can be an even greater temptation for women, since, let’s face it, women usually like to talk more then men. It’s just the way God designed them. If we say what we are thinking all the time, even if it’s true, we will find over time that we don’t have a lot of friends. What is said may be funny at first, but too much cutting into people isn’t good.
As a matter of fact, a rewards based system for obedience is actually a pretty good way to increase one’s success rate for being obedient in whatever way possible. I remember when I was growing up as a kid my Mom used to train our German Shepherd on agility. Actually, Smokey took agility classes with other dogs. The best kind of dog, they said in training, was the one who could go through the agility course without being rewarded until the end. Some dog-owners wanted to give their dogs treats at different junctions, but the most professional dog was the one who could wait to receive the treat until after completing the course.
As a matter of fact, for their final exam in Smokey’s agility course, there was sausages placed throughout the course, as temptations. The goal of the dog was to finish the whole entire course without stopping to eat any of the sausages. I can remember, as a kid, watching this final exam, and indeed, Smokey completed the course without touching a signal sausage. In fact, among the variety of dogs that were there, Smokey was the only one who was able to accomplish the mission. All the other dogs stopped to have at a sausage along the way. And why didn’t Smokey do this? How was she able to accomplish the course? Besides her sheer loyalty, I would say that it was because she knew if she did, my Mom would stop at Dairy Queen along the way home and get here a double cheeseburger and vanilla ice cream cone. Smokey knew of the grand reward in the future and that was her driving force.
The rewards system set aside, again, the best method I know of for controlling our thoughts is the Giving Up Control method, or surrendering as we might call it. This practice, though it be so simplistic, produces the maximum results for us. I would venture to say that Jesus, during his earthly ministry, really during his whole life, had to do this a lot. He, being a sin-free person, had to come across situation after situation that he had to choose not to think about. Even if it was right before him, he had to choose not to think about bad things, not to worry about anything, not to fear anything at all. Remember, he had human flesh just like we do, for it was on one occasion, namely, right before he went to the cross to die for our sins, that he said, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41, ESV).
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgements
Psychologist David R. Hawkins and Joyce Meyer
(1) The evening after recording this sermon, in my free time I was reading a book about an Amish couple and they in fact confirmed what I thought would likely be the case, that Amish women do not speak during their services or Bible studies. This book is an excellent read, by the way, and is called ‘Plain Faith' by Irene & Ora Jay Eash with Tricia Goyer. See pages 74 & 75 for what I am referring to.
(2) I would recommend the book ‘She Offered Them Christ: The Legacy of Women Preachers in Early Methodism’ by Paul W. Chilcote. This book provides a good summery of the becoming and therefore history of women preachers in England several hundred years ago. *My bad. I originally said this book contained American history as well; however, it actually is a summery of mainly English history with a little bit of Irish history. The focus on the 1800 and 1900s is brief.