Jubilee Life Coach: Daily Meditations

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On Saturday evening, October 17, the bell tower of the town hall in Limoges, France, fell into the fire.

A building with a bell

The Hôtel de Ville in Limoges opened in 1883. That afternoon, masked rioters broke in and set it on fire. The roof and the bell tower collapsed (Euronews, 2026).

It happened on a day when more than half a million people marched across France over school conditions and the high cost of living. Most of them marched in peace. Some did not. Shops were looted in several cities, and at least 2,500 people were arrested (Al Jazeera, 2026).

I want to say this plainly. Burning a town hall is wrong. So is looting a family's shop. Someone built that hall with their hands. Someone else swept its floors for 143 years. Grief is the right response.

Watching it on the news

This week I watched a Fox News segment on the riots. The host and his guests were angry. Some of that anger I share. They see the fire as part of a larger war on Western civilization. One guest blamed an alliance of far-left activists and Islamists. The host spoke of open gates and "barbarians."

Every newsroom has a theology of its own, whether it admits it or not. It carries assumptions about what is wrong with the world and who can fix it. So we listen carefully. We check the facts, and we filter the presuppositions.

Some of what they said checks out. Three days after the fire, police arrested a man known as a radical left-wing threat (blue News, 2026). Other claims are disputed. President Macron said he saw no visible foreign interference. He also called some foreign leaders' comments "stupid" (Al Jazeera, 2026). I cannot settle that debate from across an ocean. I have put what I could and could not verify in a note below.

The concern behind the segment is not new, and it deserves a serious hearing. In 2010, Angela Merkel said Germany's multicultural model had failed (Reuters, 2010). The next year, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy said much the same (Neuding, 2011). In 2025, Britain's government moved toward Denmark's stricter immigration model (Ara, 2025).

So it would be naive to say this unrest has nothing to do with immigration and integration policy. The first wave of unrest in early October began in Paris suburbs with large immigrant populations (i24NEWS, 2026). But we do not yet know how large a cause it is. France does not record the backgrounds of those arrested, and the Limoges suspect is a French far-left activist (The Korea Times, 2026). Criticizing a policy is fair. The trouble comes when that criticism turns into words about whole peoples.

What I can speak to is the language. What happened in Limoges was criminal, and some of it was barbaric. Mob, looters, arsonists: these are honest words, and I would use them. But the segment reached for "hordes" and "barbarians" and aimed them at whole peoples by where they came from. Brené Brown writes that "dehumanizing always starts with language" (Brown, 2018). As a 1.5-generation Korean American, I read words like these slowly.

Rome burned too

In AD 410, the Visigoths sacked Rome. People called Rome the eternal city, so the shock was deep. Some blamed the Christians, who would not worship Rome's gods (Nichols, 2014).

Augustine answered them. He spent fourteen years, from 413 to 427, writing The City of God. He described two cities that live side by side until the last day (Mathison, 2009).

Augustine, The City of God, XIV.28 (M. Dods, Trans.)

Augustine did not say Rome was worthless. He said Rome was never our hope. Those are two different things.

Scripture holds both. Jeremiah wrote to the exiles in Babylon:

"But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."

Jeremiah 29:7, ESV

Babylon. The city that burned their temple. Even there, God's people were to pray.

Paul reminds us where our true home is: "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20, ESV). And Hebrews tells us what we have already received:

"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe."

Hebrews 12:28, ESV

So we can do both. We grieve the bell. We pray for France. We pray for the shopkeepers, the police, and the firefighters. We pray for the young people on the streets. We pray even for the man in custody.

The part of us that wants someone to blame

IFS lens

News like this wakes our protective parts. In Internal Family Systems, firefighter parts rush in when we feel threatened. They want a name to blame, and they want it fast. Richard Schwartz teaches that protectors carry good intentions (Schwartz, 2021). The part of you that is furious about Limoges loves something good: beauty, order, and the memory of the people who built it.

But when a protector takes over, fear starts reading every face in a crowd as an enemy. David Powlison wrote a whole book on how God redeems our anger, irritation, and complaining (Powlison, 2016). Anger is not the end of the story.

A Reformed corrective

IFS speaks of a calm, curious Self that leads the inner system. We value those eight C's. But the Self is not our savior. Augustine's two loves point deeper. What our heart loves most shows which city we live in, and only God can reorder those loves. "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13, ESV).

Jesus wept over a city

"And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it" (Luke 19:41, ESV). Jesus knew Jerusalem would fall. And He wept. He did not gloat. He did not shrug.

Then He went to the cross for the people of that city, and for us. Our citizenship is in a city that will not burn.

Limoges may rebuild its bell tower. I hope it does. Either way, the city we are waiting for is safe.

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Summary

Twice in today’s passage James says, “Come now” (4:13; 5:1). It is the voice of a pastor who stops us in the middle of a busy life. The first time, he speaks to people making plans. Today or tomorrow we will go to a town. We will stay a year. We will trade and make a profit (4:13). It sounds like an ordinary business plan. But James sees what is missing. “You do not know what tomorrow will bring” (4:14). Our life is a mist. It appears for a little time and then vanishes. So we ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (4:15). Boasting about tomorrow is evil (4:16). And knowing the right thing to do and not doing it is sin (4:17).

The second time, James speaks to the rich (5:1-6). His words sound like the Old Testament prophets. Weep and howl. Your riches have rotted. Your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded (5:2-3). The very corrosion will be evidence against them. They laid up treasure “in the last days” (5:3). Then James shows how that treasure was gained. Laborers mowed their fields, and their wages were kept back by fraud. Now those wages cry out. The cries of the harvesters have reached “the ears of the Lord of hosts” (5:4). The rich lived in luxury. They fattened their hearts in a day of slaughter (5:5). They condemned and murdered the righteous person, and he did not resist (5:6).

Notice one small thing. From 4:13 to 5:6, James never once says “brothers.” He used the word in 4:11, and he will use it again in 5:7. Here he sounds like a prophet calling out to anyone who will hear. The planners and the rich have one thing in common. They live as if tomorrow belongs to them and no one is listening. James tells them, and us, that both are wrong. Tomorrow belongs to God. And God hears.

Meditation Points

1. If the Lord wills (4:13-17)

Read verse 13 slowly. Today or tomorrow. A town. A year. Trade. Profit. Every detail is in place except one. God is not in the sentence.

James is not against planning. A plan can be a good and faithful thing. What James sees is the heart behind the plan. Proverbs said it long ago. “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” (Proverbs 27:1).

Why do we plan as if tomorrow were ours? Sometimes it is pride. Sometimes it is fear. Internal Family Systems (IFS) notices that some parts of us work very hard, ahead of time, to keep us safe and in control.1 They make lists. They run every scenario. They try to stay one step ahead of pain. I think this is a helpful observation. The busy planner inside us is often a frightened one.

But James offers that frightened heart something better than control. He offers a Lord. “If the Lord wills” is not a lucky phrase to tack onto our plans. Paul spoke this way too (1 Corinthians 4:19). It is the posture of a child who knows whose hand holds tomorrow. David prayed, “My times are in your hand” (Psalm 31:15). In Christ, we know what kind of hand that is. It is the hand of a Father who has already given us His Son.

Then James adds verse 17. “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” If life is a mist, the good we can do today should not wait for a tomorrow we may not have. Coaches know this gap well. One of the ICF core competencies is “Facilitates Client Growth.” ICF describes it this way: “Partners with the client to transform learning and insight into action.”2 Insight that never becomes action stays a nice thought.

As Christians, we take one more step. We do not cross from knowing to doing by willpower alone. Grace has already acted for us. So we can act today.

2. Treasure that rots (5:1-3)

“Weep and howl.” These are heavy words. Most of us do not think of ourselves as rich. So it is easy to read these verses as a word for someone else. Let’s not do that too quickly.

Look at what James lists. Riches. Garments. Gold and silver. Everything these people trusted is falling apart. Moths are eating the clothes. Corrosion is eating the gold. And James says that corrosion “will eat your flesh like fire” (v. 3). What we hoard does not stay outside of us. Slowly, it begins to eat at the heart.

Jesus said the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy” (Matthew 6:19). Then He gave the reason. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Notice the phrase “in the last days” (v. 3). These people stored up as if time would never run out. But James has just told us that life is a mist (4:14).

So the question is not only how much we have. The deeper question is where our heart rests. For some of us, the treasure is money. For others, it may be security, a good name, or a ministry that looks successful. Anything we hold more tightly than we hold God will begin to rot in our hands.

Here is the good news. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). The truly rich One became poor. He did it for us. In Him we already have a treasure that moth and rust cannot touch. People who know they are rich in Christ can finally open their hands.

3. The cry reaches the Lord of hosts (5:4-6)

You can almost hear verse 4. The wages that were kept back are “crying out.” The harvesters are crying too. And their cries have reached the ears of God.

God cares about wages. His law said so plainly. “You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin” (Deuteronomy 24:15). A paycheck held back is not a small thing to God.

This word reaches us from two directions. Some of us hold something that others are counting on. It may be pay. It may be time, attention, or a promise we made. James asks us to give it, and to give it on time.

Others of us stand on the other side. Perhaps you were wronged, and no one seems to notice. A part of you may still be carrying that old injustice. Then hear this. Your cry has reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. He is the Lord of heaven’s armies. You are not invisible to Him.

Verse 6 ends quietly. “You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.” I think James is speaking first of righteous poor people who were crushed by the powerful. But I cannot read this verse without thinking of Jesus. Stephen called Him “the Righteous One,” whom his hearers had “betrayed and murdered” (Acts 7:52). Peter wrote that “when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).

The Righteous One was condemned so that people like us could go free. That grace reaches the oppressed. It even reaches the oppressor who repents. “By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

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[Verse 1: confident, piano, bass and drums]
Jesus, You're all the world to me,
My life, my joy, my song;
You are my strength through every day,
You keep my footsteps strong.
When I am low, I come to You,
No other love has seen me through;
You lift my head, You dry my tears,
You're my friend.

[Verse 2: Hammond organ joins]
Jesus, You're all the world to me,
My friend when storms are near;
I bring my need, You meet me there,
Your mercies new each year.
You send the sun, You send the rain,
You fill the fields with golden grain;
In sun and rain, in field and grain,
You're my friend.

[Verse 3: driving, guitar accents]
Jesus, You're all the world to me,
I'll walk with You, I'll stay;
How could I turn from such a friend
So faithful every day?
You guide my steps, You set them right,
You keep me through the darkest night;
By light of day, through darkest night,
You're my friend.

[Harmonica Solo]

[Key Change]
[Verse 4: full band, joyful, solo lead voice with his own stacked harmonies]
Jesus, You're all the world to me,
No better friend I'll find;
I trust You now, I'll trust You still
When life is left behind.
A lovely life with such a friend,
A life with You that has no end;
Eternal life, eternal joy,
You're my friend.

[Outro: staccato piano chords, button ending]
Jesus, You're all the world to me,
You're my friend.

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Summary

James has just set two kinds of wisdom side by side. One sows peace. The other leaves “disorder and every vile practice” behind it (3:16). Now he asks a plain question. “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” (v. 1). And he answers it himself. The fights come from within. Our passions are at war inside us. We desire and do not have, so we fight (v. 2). We do not ask God. Or we ask wrongly, to spend it on our own passions (v. 3). These are not outsiders. James calls them “brothers” (v. 11). The quarrels he describes were happening inside the church.

Then James uses a hard word. “You adulterous people!” (v. 4). Friendship with the world is enmity with God. God does not share His people with other loves. He yearns jealously over us (v. 5). That is a warning, and we should hear it as one. But the very next line turns the whole passage. “But he gives more grace” (v. 6). James quotes Proverbs 3:34. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

So James calls us home (vv. 7-10). Submit to God. Resist the devil. Draw near to God. Cleanse your hands and purify your hearts. Grieve over sin. Humble yourselves before the Lord. Each command carries a promise. The devil will flee. God will draw near. The Lord will exalt. Then James returns to the tongue (vv. 11-12). We must not speak evil against one another. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge. “But who are you to judge your neighbor?” (v. 12).

Meditation Points

1. Passions at war within (vv. 1-3)

When a quarrel breaks out, we usually look outward. Who said what. Who started it. James looks inward. The word he uses for “passions” means pleasures, the things we crave. The fight across the table usually begins as a fight inside the chest.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) makes a similar observation. It sees the mind as made up of many parts. Much of our inner conflict, it says, comes from parts pulling in opposite directions, each trying to protect us.1 An angry part may be standing guard over a frightened one. I find this observation helpful. I think it agrees with what James saw long ago. There is more than one voice inside us, and those voices are not at peace.

But James does not stop at the observation. He names what drives the war. It is desire that has turned away from God. “You do not have, because you do not ask” (v. 2). Even when we do pray, we can ask “wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (v. 3). So our inner conflict is a wound that needs gentle care. It is also a heart that needs to come back to God.

Perhaps, then, the first question in any conflict is this. What do I want so badly that I am willing to fight for it? And the second follows close behind. Have I brought that want to God? James has already told us how God answers those who ask. He “gives generously to all without reproach” (1:5).

2. But he gives more grace (vv. 4-6)

Verse 4 is hard to read. “You adulterous people!” James borrows an old picture from the prophets. God is the faithful Husband. His people keep running after other lovers. We may never bow to an idol of wood or stone. But we can still want the world’s approval, comfort, and success more than we want God.

God does not shrug at that. He told Moses that “the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14). His jealousy is the love of a Husband who will not share His bride.

Then comes what I believe is the heart of this chapter.

Our sin is great. His grace is greater. And notice where that grace lands. Pride keeps grace out. Humility lets it in. We see what humility looks like in Jesus. “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). The proud world crucified the humble Son. And through that very cross, God gives more grace to people like us.

3. Draw near to God (vv. 7-12)

Verses 7 to 10 can sound like a drill sergeant. There are ten commands in four verses. But read them again slowly. Right in the middle sits one of the warmest promises in the Bible.

We take a step. He runs the rest of the way. Jesus told of a father who saw his son coming home from far off and ran to meet him (Luke 15:20). And even our first step is the fruit of His grace at work in us.

Drawing near to God also changes how we see one another. James closes this section with the tongue again. “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers” (v. 11). When I judge my brother, I climb into a seat that is not mine. “There is only one lawgiver and judge” (v. 12).

Here is the good news. That one Judge has already given His verdict on those who are in Christ. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). A person who knows he is not condemned does not need to condemn others to feel safe.

Coaches learn something of this. One of the ICF core competencies is “Embodies a Coaching Mindset.” ICF describes it as a mindset that is “open, curious, flexible and client-centered.”2 Curiosity and judgment rarely sit in the same chair. When we stop judging, we can finally listen. Our neighbor becomes a person again.

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (v. 10). Lifting us up is His work.

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Summary

James has been speaking about the tongue. Now he asks a question. “Who is wise and understanding among you?” (v. 13). He is not asking for a diploma. He is asking for a life. Let the wise person show it by good conduct, in the meekness of wisdom. Then James names a counterfeit. If bitter jealousy and selfish ambition live in our hearts, we must not boast, and we must not be false to the truth (v. 14). That kind of wisdom does not come down from above. It is earthly, unspiritual, demonic (v. 15). Its fruit is easy to see. There is disorder and every vile practice (v. 16). The other wisdom comes from above. It is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere (v. 17). And those who make peace sow in peace, and a harvest of righteousness grows (v. 18).

I believe James is still thinking of those who want to teach (v. 1). A teacher wants to be thought wise. So James asks who is truly wise. His test is not how well we speak. It is how we live. Notice also where each wisdom comes from. One is earthly. The other comes down from above. James has used that phrase before. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (1:17). He has also told us how to receive it. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (1:5). True wisdom is something we receive, not something we produce. That alone should make us meek.

Meditation Points

1. The meekness of wisdom (v. 13)

James ties wisdom to an unexpected word. Meekness. To modern ears, meekness can sound weak. In the Bible it is closer to strength that has bowed before God. The meek person does not need to win every argument. He does not need to be the smartest person in the room.

We have met this word in James before. He told us to “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (1:21). Wisdom begins with being taught. A wise person is first a good listener to God.

Jesus described Himself in this way. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). The wisest Man who ever lived was also the gentlest. He did not grasp. He served.

Coaches know something of this. One of the ICF core competencies is called “Maintains Presence.”2 A coach who must prove himself cannot really listen. Neither can a pastor, or a parent. Meekness makes room. It makes room for the other person. And it makes room for the Holy Spirit, who is already at work in them.

2. Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition (vv. 14-16)

Now James names the counterfeit. “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth” (v. 14). These two sins rarely announce themselves. They hide well, even in ministry. We hear that another church is growing. We learn that a colleague was invited to speak. Something tightens inside. Then we explain it to ourselves in spiritual words. James calls that being “false to the truth.”

Paul uses the same phrase. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). Where ambition rules, quarrels follow. James says it plainly. “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice” (v. 16). I think many broken friendships in ministry began right here.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) offers a helpful observation. Jealousy is often the work of a protective part. That part may be afraid of being overlooked, or afraid of not being enough.1 When we turn toward it with curiosity instead of shame, we often find fear underneath. I believe this observation is worth our attention.

But IFS goes a step further. It teaches that healing comes from a core Self within each person, a Self already marked by calm, clarity, and compassion.1 James points us in another direction. The wisdom we need “comes down from above” (v. 15). It is a gift we ask for (1:5). Paul tells us that Christ Jesus “became to us wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30). So I welcome the observation. But I cannot accept the conclusion. Our fears need gentle care. Our hearts need a Savior.

3. Sown in peace (vv. 17-18)

Then James paints the other wisdom.

Notice the order. First pure, then peaceable. Peace from above is never peace at any price. It does not cover sin just to keep everyone comfortable. Yet it is gentle. It is open to reason. It is full of mercy.

Read the list slowly, and a face appears. Who has ever been pure, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy, impartial, and sincere? Only Jesus. This wisdom is His portrait. And Paul says, “For he himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14). He broke down the dividing wall of hostility in His own flesh. The peace we sow was first purchased for us.

James ends with a farmer. “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (v. 18). A farmer does not dig up the seed every morning to see if it is growing. He sows, and he waits. Making peace is slow work. A gentle word in a tense meeting. An apology we did not want to make. Mercy toward someone who has not earned it. These are seeds. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

We sow. God gives the harvest.

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Who Is Really Receiving?

Why do we help other people at all? Brain scientist Professor Na Heung-sik of Korea University has studied that question for years. In a short Sebasi talk, he says kindness needs a cool head. Then he tells a story from his college days, when he taught at a night school for working boys. Fifty years later, he says he feels he was the one who was served.

In this episode, Coach Brian reflects on Professor Na’s talk through Reformed theology and Christian Life Coaching. We are not just carriers of genes and memes. We belong to a faithful Savior. And before we ever gave anything, God gave first.

“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19, ESV)

Read the full bilingual blog post at jubileecoach.com.

Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbFopEiPQ0U

We are freed in Christ to live. Now let us live to free others.

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Summary

James now turns to the tongue. He begins with a warning for teachers. Not many of you should become teachers, he says, because those who teach will be judged with greater strictness (v. 1). Then he widens the circle to all of us. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who does not stumble in what he says is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body (v. 2). James gives three pictures. A small bit guides a horse. A very small rudder steers a large ship through strong winds. A small fire sets a great forest ablaze (vv. 3-5). The tongue is that fire. It stains the whole body and sets on fire the entire course of life, and it is itself set on fire by hell (v. 6). Mankind has tamed every kind of beast and bird, reptile and sea creature. But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison (vv. 7-8). With the same tongue we bless our Lord and Father and curse people made in the likeness of God (v. 9). “My brothers, these things ought not to be so” (v. 10). A spring does not pour fresh and salt water from the same opening. A fig tree does not bear olives (vv. 11-12).

James is not giving a lesson in communication skills. He has already told us that if anyone does not bridle his tongue, his religion is worthless (1:26). Now he shows why the tongue is so hard to bridle. It is small, but it steers the whole life. And it is never neutral. It can be set on fire from below. I believe verse 8 is one of the most humbling sentences in the Bible. “No human being can tame the tongue.” If that is true, the answer to this passage cannot be more effort alone. We need help from outside ourselves. We need a new heart. James 3 quietly points us beyond ourselves, to the One who can do what no human being can.

Meditation Points

1. “Not many of you should become teachers” (vv. 1-2)

I have to begin with myself. For more than thirty years I have stood in pulpits and at Bible study tables, in the States and in Korea. That is a great many words. James says, “We who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (v. 1). Notice the word “we.” James does not point at other teachers. He puts himself in the line.

Why the stricter judgment? Teachers speak more. And James is honest. “For we all stumble in many ways” (v. 2). More words mean more places to stumble. A teacher’s words also travel further. One careless sentence from a pulpit can stay with a listener for years. Many of us still remember a sharp word from a pastor, a parent, or a teacher. And some of us were the ones who said it.

This verse is not only for pastors. Parents teach. Small group leaders teach. Missionaries teach. Coaches mostly ask questions, but we teach too.

Isaiah knew this fear. When he saw the King, he cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). The prophet’s first confession was about his mouth. Then one of the seraphim took a burning coal from the altar and touched his lips. “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for” (Isaiah 6:7). The fire that cleansed Isaiah came from the altar, the place of sacrifice. Our lips are cleansed the same way. Christ is our sacrifice. The strict judgment that teachers fear fell on Him first. So we can still teach. With trembling, yes. But also with joy.

2. “How great a forest is set ablaze” (vv. 3-8)

James likes small things that do great work. A bit is a small piece of metal in a horse’s mouth. A rudder is a small board under a large ship. A forest fire can start with one spark. “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things” (v. 5).

Then James goes further. The tongue does not only start fires. It is itself “set on fire by hell” (v. 6). The word James uses for hell is Gehenna, the same word Jesus used. Our words can carry something darker than a bad temper.

Then comes verse 8. Mankind has tamed every kind of beast and bird (v. 7). “But no human being can tame the tongue” (v. 8). Most of us have tried. We make a quiet resolution. “This year I will not raise my voice.” Then a Tuesday morning comes, and the old words slip out again. James is not surprised. No human being can tame it.

That is not a reason to give up. It is a reason to look up. What no human being can tame, God can make new. At Pentecost, God sent another kind of fire. “And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them” (Acts 2:3). They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak “as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). A tongue set on fire by hell can be set on fire by heaven.

3. “From the same mouth” (vv. 9-12)

Here James puts his finger on the strangest thing about us. On Sunday we sing praise to our Lord and Father. Then, sometimes in the car on the way home from church, we speak harshly about a person made in the likeness of God (v. 9). James does not explain it away. He simply says, “My brothers, these things ought not to be so” (v. 10).

Why ought it not to be so? Because the person we curse bears God’s likeness (Genesis 1:26). To treat the image with contempt is to forget whose image it is.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) offers a helpful observation here. A harsh word is often not where the story begins. Many times a protective part speaks first. It may be trying to keep us from feeling small, afraid, or ashamed.1 If we look honestly, many of us find fear underneath our sharpest words. I believe this observation is worth our attention.

But here IFS goes further than Scripture allows. Richard Schwartz titled one of his books No Bad Parts.2 James does not call the tongue wounded. He calls it “a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (v. 8). And Jesus traces our words to an even deeper place. “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). Burdens and wounds are real, and they deserve gentle care. But as a Calvinist, I believe our deepest trouble is not only what was done to us. It is a heart that needs to be made new.

James closes with a fig tree and a grapevine. A tree bears fruit according to its kind (v. 12). So our hope is not a better technique for the tongue. Our hope is a new tree. And here the Gospel shines through. James spoke of a perfect man who does not stumble in what he says (v. 2). There has been only One. “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return” (1 Peter 2:22-23). And “he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). On that tree He bore the curse our tongues deserved. Now, in Him, we can become new trees that bear the fruit of blessing.

Lips touched by fire from the altar learn, slowly, to bless.

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[Verse 1]
Every plan that you made has been swept by the tide,
Every dream slipping through like sand;
You are weary and worn, you have nowhere to hide,
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand.

[Chorus]
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand,
Every scar tells the Father's plan;
He will keep to the end, He's the dearest of friends,
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand.

[Verse 2: drums enter]
When you walk all alone where the shadows grow long,
In a dry and a weary land,
He will quiet your fears, He will give you a song,
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand.

[Chorus]
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand,
Every scar tells the Father's plan;
He will keep to the end, He's the dearest of friends,
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand.

[Verse 3: full band]
Would you walk in the will of the risen King?
Would you build where His word will stand?
Lay your crowns at His feet, let your broken heart sing,
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand.

[Guitar Solo]

[Bridge: quiet, then building]
Is your soul bending low with its load of sin?
Is the weight more than you can stand?
It was nailed to the tree, and He's calling you in,
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand.

[Key Change]

[Final Chorus: gospel choir, full band]
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand,
Every scar tells the Father's plan;
He has held from the start, He will hold to the end,
Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand.

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