3. "If we set bits in the horses' mouths to make them obey us, we can turn their whole bodies about."God loves us so much, and because of His love, He wants us to obey Him. Of course we feel we should obey Him because of who He is, and that is true, but "He" says we should because His way, is the ideal way for the object of His love to live. He knows best for what He created, yet our lack of understanding the depth of His love, keeps us from seeing it this way.
Through God's inspiration, James makes us look at the difference between trying to appease Him by just keeping the commandments - and fulfilling the law through a personal love for God. Remember, "The Royal Law", verses "The Law of Liberty". James, reveals a bit of the secret unknown to much of the world here, pointing out that something is "set" into such a powerful creature which makes it to obey. We started chapter three with a look at the great power our tongue has, and the importance to God in how we use it... that we are accountable for every word spoken.
Like a horse, there is something set (like the bit placed into a horse), inside of us that makes us turn... effects the outcome of where we go or don't go in life... it's been this way since we were born. We started with just cries and grunts, insisting on our wants and needs. As we learned to speak, our words began to set the course of life. We experience both positive and negative affects of our words. God spoke all things into creation. Similarly, we speak things and a scholarship is offered, or we speak things and a friend takes their life... the power of our tongue is mighty. Small, our tongue, but ever so powerful at moving, changing, or affecting our life and those around us, it can be. Let's look at another example before we get to the mystery that is revealed in this teaching.
Let's pick up with James verse 3:4 next time.
I love you.
No comments:
Post a Comment