This Week’s Experience – 6/11/2023

“Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent and evil they become in the hands of someone who knows how to combine them.”

-Nathaniel Hawthorne

Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. All of us do many wrong things. But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. The tongue is a small part of the body, but it likes to make great boasts. It takes only a spark to start a forest fire! The tongue is like that spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person's entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

-James 3:1-10

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. My friends, don't say cruel things about others! If you do, or if you condemn others, you are condemning God's Law. And if you condemn the Law, you put yourself above the Law and refuse to obey either it or God who gave it. God is our judge, and he can save or destroy us. What right do you have to condemn anyone? You should know better than to say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!" How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. You should say, "If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things." Otherwise, you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.

-James 4:10-15

Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. He proved his faith was real by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.

-James 2:15-23