Slow to Speak; James 3:1ff
James is writing to teach us
what to do in order to handle the tests of doctrine. The theme is set forth in
the first chapter, verses 2-4. James is addressing the believer’s response to
tests in life. He organizes his material around three basic points which are
covered in
That section concluded with
the section on faith and works at the end of chapter two, and now we move to
the second division, being slow to speak. So the subject of chapter three from
3;1 down through
James 3:1 NASB
“Let not many {of you} become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we
will incur a stricter judgment.”
This begins with a prohibition in the Greek, a compound of the negative ME [mh] plus the verb GINOMAI [ginomai]
in the present passive imperative. GINOMAI by form does not have an active voice form, it is
what is called a deponent verb, which means that it is passive in form but is
active in meaning. So it is an active verb in the sense that an individual makes
the decision as to whether he is going to teach or not. The negative ME indicates
that this is a prohibition. GINOMAI with the negative means
not to become something. A better
translation here would be, “Do not let many of you become.” We need to
understand what it means when it is a present imperative. The present tense
normally emphasizes continual action; the imperative means that this is a
mandate for the spiritual life. As an imperative it is addressed to the
volition of James’ readers and by application it is addressed to every believer
in the church age. When it includes the negative ME it means it is a prohibition. Now
we have to ask the question: What is the sense of this prohibition? A present
imperative or prohibition has two meanings. First of all, it can mean to stop doing
something already in progress. Secondly, it can refer to just a general
prohibition which makes no comment at all about whether the action is presently
going on. What we have here is the second, a general prohibition for the spiritual
life. It does not necessarily imply that this was taking place, that they
needed to stop this, although that definitely could be, but James is pointing out
one of the problems that comes up in handling testing. The subject is many
teachers. The word there is DIDASKALOI [didaskaloi]
which is the main word in the Greek for a teacher or for an instructor.
James is the first epistle
written in the New Testament. It is written between 40-44 AD, before Paul writes any of his epistles.
Therefore it is written before the mystery doctrine is revealed, before any of
the mandates are revealed concerning the structure and organization of the
local church, before any information has been revealed about spiritual gifts.
It is written very early, so it is a mistake to read technical meanings from
the later pastoral epistles back into James, because
James is still writing in the context of a very Jewish situation. He is still
operating within a very Jewish context where the Christians were beginning to
separate out from the synagogue but were still conducting their worship
services in a manner that was very similar to a synagogue. There would be a
main teacher who would come and present whatever it was that he was studying,
but then there was a time of informal teaching within the congregation where
different people could stand up and teach on whatever subject they wanted to. This
was the standard operating procedure and they just carried this over in this
early stage of the church. This was before there was full revelation given
regarding the spiritual gifts and the role and function of the pastor-teacher
and so many people would just stand up because they thought they had something
to say. This happens in a lot of churches and it happens for a lot of different
reasons, and part of the corrective is given right here in James chapter three.
It is a warning for those who think that they have something to say and want to
get involved in teaching the Scriptures when they really don’t have any
training for it. The warning is: “Do not let many of you become teachers.”
We have to ask the question
here as to why James includes this? Why does he put
this shift in here in the middle of this discussion on how to handle testing
and trial? In the previous section we have seen that there is a tendency in the
hearers to emphasize the accumulation of academic knowledge instead of
application of that knowledge. They stopped short of application, so that when
the pastor-teacher communicated doctrine it went through the Holy Spirit who
makes it understandable as PNEUMATIKOS [pneumatikoj] doctrine, the hearer exercised volition and it came into the outer
lobe of the mentality of the soul, the NOUS [nouj]
where it became GNOSIS. That is as far as it went, it became academic
knowledge. And, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:1, knowledge—GNOSIS, not EPIGNOSIS—puffs
up, makes arrogant. This was the typical response of young immature believers
who start accumulating a lot of knowledge of Scripture. They understand
doctrines academically but they don’t transfer them into the inner lobe of the
soul as EPIGNOSIS. they have no maturity, and like immature people are
wont to do they begin to want to show everybody how much they know and start
butting into everybody else’s business and telling everybody else how they ought
to be handling trials when they haven’t gone through the maturing process
themselves, and they have not converted this into EPIGNOSIS. This is
one way that people tend to assert their own self-importance and build themselves
up. They are impressed with what they have learned and so they want to impress
others with what they have learned and how well they can help other people
handle the adversities in their life. They immediately get into the sin of
judging other people and they want to stand up and tell others how they ought
to run their life. This operates from a position of weakness because it flows
from arrogance.
So James warns them off. He
says it is very dangerous to put yourself in the position of being a teacher,
whether it is a formal position as a pastor-teacher or whether it is a more
informal position such as a Sunday school teacher or lay teacher or just
wanting to put yourself in the position of teaching someone else how they ought
to run their life. James says that doing that is going to involve a lot more
divine discipline. So the first part of the verse should be translated: “Do not
let many of you become teachers.” Why? James understands because of the
revelation that has been given to him that the gift of teaching is going to be
restricted to a few people; it is not something that just anybody can do.
“My brethren” emphasizes the
fact that he is talking to believers. Then we have a perfect active participle
of the verb OIDA [o)ida] which means to know. This isn’t the word we usually
run across, GINOSKO [ginwskw],
and it is important to take a moment to analyse the difference between these
two words. GINOSKO means to come to know something,
it emphasizes the process, especially when there is a distinction with OIDA. OIDA indicates a
fullness of knowledge, so here it is roughly comparable to the noun EPIGNOSIS. For
example, we see the contrast in John 8:55 where Jesus says in a response to the
Pharisees: “and you have not come to know [GINOSKO]Him, but I know [OIDA] Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be
a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.” This indicates that the
Pharisees have not come to know God, they have not been involved in the process
of learning about God, but in contrast Jesus claimed that He had intimate full
knowledge of God. So here in James we have a shift, the verb is OIDA; it is a
perfect active participle. OIDA is always found in the perfect tense but it has a
present tense meaning, and as a participle we have to define whether it is an
adverbial or adjectival participle, and because it lacks the article it is
adverbial. It is an adverbial participle of cause. It is going to modify the
main verb, “do not become,” in the sense of cause. It should be translated: “Do
not let many of you become teachers, my brethren, because you know something.” Then
we have the English translation “that,” in the Greek it is HOTI [o(ti], which indicates that we are getting ready to see a principle: “as such
we shall incur”—literally in the Greek it is LAMBANO [lambanw] which means to receive something—“we shall receive
judgment”—KRIMA [krima],
which indicates a sentence handed down from the Supreme Court of heaven, and
this is divine discipline to the believer—“greater judgment.” This is the comparative
from MEIZON [meizon], meaning the larger
or greater judgment. So this isn’t just standard divine discipline but it
indicates an increased level of divine discipline on someone who gets involved teaching
and starts getting involved in other people’s business, trying to straighten people
out, operating from a position of arrogance.
The doctrine of triple-compound
divine discipline for sins of the tongue: Matthew 7:1, 2 NASB “Do
not judge so that you will not be judged.
As we start off with this
we see somebody judging somebody else, and they move from mental attitude sins
of arrogance into sins of the tongue—slander, malice, gossip, telling a lie
about somebody else, misrepresenting somebody else; all of these things are
very destructive. We just need to keep our mouth shut from judging somebody
else. So that is level one and we are going to accumulate divine discipline for
that. Level two: we are going to get divine discipline for the mental attitude
sins that motivated the judging. Third, we will receive the discipline for the
sin that you are judging: “for in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by
your standard of measure, it will be measured out to you.” Then we will receive
discipline for every sin that we mention, whether true or not, and it will be
brought back on our head. This doesn’t mean the other person gets of free, but
now we have intensified our discipline threefold and receive triple-compound
divine discipline.
This is a major problem
that we should avoid, and that is why James says: “Let not many {of you} become
teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.”
Because he uses the word OIDA it indicates that those he is writing to have been
taught this principle and James assumes that by this time this has been
assimilated into their souls and should be able to apply this particular
doctrine.
The doctrine of spiritual authority in
the local church
1) Spiritual authority resides ultimately in the Word of
God and it is only derivatively in the communicator, the pastor-teacher or the
evangelist, the two communication gifts that are still operational in the
church age. They derive their authority not because of who and what they are
but because of their message and the inherent authority in the Word of God.
Remember, authority is always inherent in the very function of teaching,
whether you are a piano teacher, a school teacher, a workshop teacher, whatever
it is. This is something that should be taught kids from the time they start
school. Whether the teacher is right or wrong they are responsible to obey the
teacher.
2) Ultimately authority is derived from the Word of God.
That is where authority resides, it is simply
delegated to the communicator.
3) The pastor-teacher’s authority is limited to his own
congregation.
4) The limitation of the pastor’s authority: the extent of
the pastor’s authority extends to the communication of doctrine. That is his
job. It is not the pastor’s job to make sure that people are converting the
teaching from GNOSIS to EPIGNOSIS; it is not the pastor’s job to make sure that you are
applying the things that are taught.
5) The royal family honor code,
the protocol that governs the life of the believer, demands authority orientation
in the form of academic discipline whenever the pastor is teaching Bible
doctrine. This means the people need to be courteous, quiet, have good manners
and thoughtfulness of others and showing respect for the teaching of the Word
of God.
6) Ultimately the issue in the local church is that the
pastor is communicating the mystery doctrine of the church age so that the
individuals in the congregation can understand it, metabolise it into their
souls, and advance to spiritual maturity. This means that just as individuals
in the congregation are growing the pastor is also growing. The pastor has to
be advancing spiritually because the congregation can never advance beyond the
spiritual maturity of the pastor.
7) The pastors authority is
documented throughout Scripture. One of the clearest is in Hebrews 13:17 NASB
“Obey your leaders [pastors] and submit {to them,} for they keep watch over
your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not
with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.” So the congregation is
responsible to submit to the authority of the pastor and to submit to his
teaching.
James 3:2 NASB “For
we all stumble in many {ways.} If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he
is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” This begins with the
introductory phrase in the Greek, GAR [gar] and it always indicates an
inference or a conclusion from what has already been stated. Sometimes it
indicates a reason, so now he is going to explain why he has just given this
mandate in verse 1. One of the reasons we shouldn’t go around trying to
straighten everybody else out is because “we all stumble in many ways.” What
does it mean to stumble? Here we have the Greek word PTAIO [ptaiw],
and it means to trip, to stumble, to fall. But it is a synonym
for HAMARTIA [a(martia], the basic word for sin, and it means to miss the
mark. So when James says we all stumble in many ways he is saying we all sin.
Everybody is going to blow it when we go through various tests and so it is not
up to those who think they have figured it all out and have bloated themselves
up with academic knowledge to make teachers out of themselves, and to run
around and try to straighten everybody else out. We are all going to fall in
many different ways. One of the things we will see in this entire chapter is
the emphasis on the fact that we are not all perfect, we are all going to fail.
Then James goes on to show that this involves even the sins of the tongue. “If
[1st class condition] anyone does not stumble in what he says” –
assuming that there is a case where there is this one person who does not sin.
There is probably no such case but this is a person who is minus sins of the tongue.
He has complete control over his tongue and there is no sin – “he is a perfect
[TELEIOS/teleioj] man.” Perfect
implies sinless perfection, and that is not the sense in the Scriptures. We
never reach sinless perfection. TELEIOS refers to completion or maturity. What James is
saying is that if someone has complete mastery over the tongue then they indeed
have reached spiritual maturity. He is a spiritually mature individual able to
control the whole body as well. That is the emphasis in “bridle”; he is able to
bridle the entire body as well. So the greatest example of self-discipline is a
person who is able to control his tongue and not get involved in various sins
of the tongue.