Modern James 3

My interpretation of a Modern James 3

1.        Remember that when you’re a teacher, God is going to hold you accountable for everything you teach and the life you lead. So don’t go into this leadership position lightly.

2.       Everyone makes mistakes. If you think you don’t, you must be able to control everything about your life.

3.       If you lightly touch a steering wheel, it can change the direction of a whole car. Just a finger can direct 2 tons of machinery.

4.       Think about space shuttles, they are able to circle the globe. But they use the tiniest of instruments to control the spacecraft.

5.       Just like this, the tongue seems so small and insignificant. But it makes a huge difference in everything you do! Remember that a spark can burn an entire building down.

6.       The tongue is a fire and it can ruin your whole life. The words that come out of your mouth are constantly battling the life you want to lead. This type of evil comes from hell and will lead you there as well.

7.       Humans have figured out how to catch every animal.

8.       Except their tongues. Your words will always cause destruction.

9.       Just think, one minute you’ll be praying and praising God and the next minute you’ll be talking badly about someone (someone who God created and loves as much as He loves you).

10.    It’s not right. We use the same mouth to lift each other up and bring each other down.

11.      Can you get clean, fresh bottled water from a dirty, old, elementary school water fountain?

12.     Can you peel open a banana and find oranges? Or peel open an orange and find a banana?! Yeah, that elementary school fountain has been licked all over- no Dasani coming out of that.

13.     Who understands what I’m talking about? Well, prove it with actions that come from gentleness and wisdom.

14.    But if you are bitter and jealous about someone or something then you are being selfish in your heart. Don’t be prideful and try to hide the truth.

15.     When you’re just pretending to be gentle but you’re actually being passive aggressive and manipulative, that’s totally behavior that’s rewarded in the world, not in heaven. This is what demons do; it’s not godly behavior.

16.     When you have jealousy or selfishness, there is chaos and people are nasty to one another (hello: Survivor, The Apprentice, America’s Next Top Model, etc.).

17.     But actual godly behavior is real wisdom and not deceitfulness. Your actions are pure, peaceful, gentle, logical, merciful, sweet, confident, and not hypocritical.

18.     Righteousness comes from peace that is encouraged by real peacemakers.