Episode 857 Taming The Tongue
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 857 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:07] Karen Tiber Lealand: [00:00:07] I'm Karen Tiber, Leland, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to recognize when you are not managing your energy well is key.
[00:00:25] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.
[00:00:34]Scott Maderer: [00:00:34] the real truth is the way to get people to understand new beliefs and make changes is by asking questions. It's about asking them, what is it that you believe and how did you come to this belief and where did it come from in your story and your journey in your life? It's about getting to know people first welcome.
[00:00:59] And thank you [00:01:00] for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent. And your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the work.
[00:01:24]In today's spiritual foundation episode about investing in yourself. I talk with you about James chapter three, verses one through 12. I share why we must guard our tongue if we're to be kind. And I also talk about why this is not about lying, but loving James chapter three, verses one through 12. Sounds like this.
[00:01:46] 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 has never at fault in what they say is [00:02:00] perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them a Bay us, we can turn the whole animal or take ships as an example, although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot wants to go.
[00:02:17] Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body sets the whole course of one's life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being contained the tongue.
[00:02:47] It is a restless, evil, full of deadly poison with the tongue. We praise our Lord and father and with it, we curse human beings who have been made in God's likeness out of the same mouth, come praise and [00:03:00] cursing. My brothers and sisters. This should not be can both freshwater and saltwater flow from the same spring.
[00:03:07] My brothers and sisters can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear figs. Neither can assault spring produce fresh water. No. The truth is that this is set in a much wider context where James is dealing with a church that's suffering from conflict. Now, I don't know about you, but I've been in and out of church my whole life.
[00:03:33] And sometimes when I'm out of church, it's because of church conflict. It reminds me of a joke. The there's a ship that finds a man who's been trapped on a desert Island for three years and as they go and they wrote to the shore to pick him up and rescue him, they notice that there's three huts built on the Island, even though he's there all alone.
[00:03:55] And so the captain of the ship says, what's that first hut? And he says that's where I live. [00:04:00] He says what about the second hut? And he goes that's where I go to church. And they said then what's the third hut. And he goes that's where I used to go to church. And that's often the way we see our church families.
[00:04:11] We, we see conflict. It's a real thing. And James was dealing with this way back in the beginning of this church. That he's writing to this context that the church is in is one of conflict. And what he's pointing out here is a lot of that conflict comes. From our tongue, it comes from the words we speak.
[00:04:34] It comes from the fact that we speak to each other in ways that we would never speak to God. He says right there that we praise God. And then we curse human beings who are made in God's likeness. And by the way, he doesn't say. And the ones I like are made in God's likeness or the ones who agree with me are made in God's likeness or the ones that believe the same way [00:05:00] I believe are made in God's likeness.
[00:05:04] Instead, he says that it's the whole body, everyone who has made in God's likeness. And if you were to read on and chapter three, and I'm not going to read it all to you, James goes on to explain that at the end of the day, it's not, don't stand up for truth and it's not. Don't talk about the things that you believe in.
[00:05:28] It's not even don't disagree with others, but he does say you have to do it in the context of love. See, often I think what we hear from this is one of two things we need to either. Not argue with other people, because if we argue with other people, if we talk to other people that is unkind our alternatively, we need to stand up on the truth and everything that we believe in.
[00:05:55] And that means anyone who doesn't believe the same way that we do is [00:06:00] automatically wrong and evil. And somehow not made in God's image. We have a tendency to either move towards being wishy washy, or move towards being overly aggressive. And what James is saying is instead we need to make a move towards kindness.
[00:06:16] We need to make a move towards being loving. This isn't about lying to yourself or lying to others. This is about approaching people with love. It's about not making assumptions, but rather asking questions. It's about not looking at other people and saying, because I believe the way I believe I'm right in your wrong, but instead saying, what can we do to talk to each other and learn to love on each other and learn to work together even.
[00:06:46] Yeah. If I don't believe exactly the same way you do right now, the funny thing is that there's study after study on how to change people's minds. [00:07:00] And the truth is oftentimes we approach it from the point of view of let's. Just give them more facts. Let's just give them more information. If you had the same information as me, you would obviously believe the way I believe.
[00:07:15] And instead what studies show is we have to recognize that our beliefs and the feeling of confidence we have about them are separate. And the real truth is the way to get people, to understand new beliefs and make changes is by asking questions, it's about asking them what. Is it that you believe and how did you come to this belief and where did it come from and your story and your journey in your life?
[00:07:44] It's about getting to know people first. It's not about judging and it's not about looking at them and saying, you're wrong. I'm right. And what's funny is out of that sometimes in questioning and talking to the other person, you will change your mind and [00:08:00] it may not even be theirs. It might be yours instead.
[00:08:03] And I often think that's what people are afraid of and why they fight so hard about asking questions and talking to people in that way, because their fear is if I talk to you and I find out what you believe and why you believe it, I might somehow be changed. And I would argue that may actually be a good thing.
[00:08:27] What are you doing this week to tame your tongue? What are you doing this week to speak kindness instead of hatred, what are you doing this week to actually sing praises for all people who are made in God's image? Not just those that you like. Thanks for listening.
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