One of the main themes of the book of James is how we need to have control over our speech. There are repeated admonitions throughout the book about how we need to limit our speech, control our tongues, and be careful how we speak to one another. Every chapter has something new to say about the nature and the danger of the tongue.
James 1:19 (ESV) “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;”
James 1:26 (ESV)“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”
James 2:3-4 (ESV)“…and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
James 3:2 (ESV)“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 3:10 (ESV) “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.”
James 4:11a (ESV)“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law.”
James 4:16 (ESV)“As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
James 5:9 (ESV) “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.”
James 5:12 (ESV)“But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”
As we can see, for most of the book James is telling us about all the things that we should not be doing or saying with our tongues. Taken all together, it may come across as a very negative view of the tongue, with a heavy focus on how dangerous it can be when used incorrectly and how many different ways it can lead us into sin. However, this is not the feeling that James wants to leave the reader with at the end of the book, and the last few verses of chapter five shift our focus over to something different.
James 5:13-20 (ESV)“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
Now, after spending the whole letter telling us about all the things we should not be doing and all the ways we need to guard our tongues, James spends the end of the book telling us about how powerful the tongue can be when used correctly. Notice all the different applications of the tongue James mentions here. He reminds us that with our tongues we can pray for relief from suffering, sing songs of praise, ask for the prayers of our brethren, confess our sins to one another, and, perhaps most importantly, bring others back to the truth of God. He calls us back to the example of Elijah in the Old Testament, and tells us that our prayers today have just as much power—if not more—as the prayer of that great prophet that stopped the rain across an entire nation.
James chapter five is an excellent reminder that our words are an extremely powerful tool God has given to us for all kinds of good works. It is a tool that everyone has and that anyone can apply; it requires no special skill or talent to use it, just that we are careful to use it correctly. And, although it may take great effort to control it, once we do have our speech under control it becomes one of the best ways any of us have to serve God.
