On Resolving to Control My Tongue, 1-5

In his Some Pastors and Teachers, Sinclair Ferguson “takes a leaf out of Jonathan Edward’s Resolutions” and writes twenty resolutions on the tongue from James (pages 638-642). They are resolutions I need to better keep. I will be posting all twenty, and here are the first five.

(1) Resolved: To ask God for wisdom to speak and to do so with a single mind.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. … in faith, with no doubting. … For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything … he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:5-8).

(2) Resolved: To boast only in my exaltation in Christ or my humiliation in the world.

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away (James 1:9-10).

(3) Resolved: To set a watch over my mouth.

Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one (James 1:13).

(4) Resolved: To be constantly quick to hear, slow to speak.

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger (James 1:19).

(5) Resolved: To learn the gospel way of speaking to the poor and the rich.

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 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 2:1-4).