Week 20: Day 1
How do you use your ability to influence those around you? Join Simon as he explores James 3 this week.
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
Intro: Hi everyone Simon here in Northern Ireland I’m so excited to be with you this week for Orbit. I’ve studied James before with a youth bible study and there are so many pearls of wisdom and godly advice in the whole book even though it’s just 5 chapters! – it’s very direct and doesn’t use any flowery language, James doesn’t mess about here, and chapter 3 is no exception – let’s get to it.
Bible: James 3:1-2 says:
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
Thoughts: This chapter starts with a warning to teachers. We should take verse 1 as a warning to prospective teachers to take their role seriously. It is not about the attention. A lot of responsibility comes with being a teacher.
Your words can have great influence on others and can alter the course of their lives.
These people are in the spotlight and they have a lot of influence over others. Their words have the power to bring people to the truth or mislead. Often they are admired and respected. This attention can lead to pride.
We don’t have to look too far, unfortunately, to see respected Christian teacher who have made some serious public mistakes over recent years, and that’s something I’ve really grappled with myself.
And while I think James specifically addresses those in the local church context who were teachers, it’s worth noting that these days, as we stand in 2022, anyone can teach in some capacity. From the junior Sunday school class to the pulpit and everything in between, the world is a stage. Even if we’re not standing on a physical stage of course, anyone can share their thoughts, opinions, and what they believe in some form on social media.
If we can control our tongues, we will show ourselves to be spiritually mature, not perfect as in totally perfect, Jesus was the only ever perfect man that lived of course!
Prayer: Dear God I pray that we would take these words of James seriously, because our words have consequences. We may think we have have small audiences, we may not be teaching from the pulpit, and we may not know if anyone is even listening to what we’re trying to say but Lord guide us and help us to teach the truth of the Gospel and communicating to others about Jesus, and in all of this help us to be to be very cautious and very humble.
Silence: And now a few moments of silence for you to pray, reflect on these ideas, or simply sit and be still.
Action: James understands that we all get things wrong in verse 2, we all stumble of course, but how we can stumble less? How can you stumble less with your tongue this week?
Outro: Today’s first two verses cut right to the chase here – James is telling us how it is and gives us plenty to think about! See you tomorrow for more James 3.