Book Review The GospelDriven Tongue
The Gospel-Driven Tongue, By Brian G. Najapfour Reformed Fellowship, Inc., 2017 paperback, 70 pages Reviewed by Rev. John M. Moes “And God said . . .” –words. God has books. God made man in his image. God made man’s mouth (Exod. 4:11) with a tongue to say words. God the Holy Spirit used image-bearers to write books. One of those imagebearers wrote the book of James with five chapters. That writer had in thirty-three years probably heard directly more words than any other from the tender tongue of his brother, the God/man, the Light, the first recorded spoken word. “The pen is mightier than the sword,” they say, but man’s tongue, says James, is set on fire of hell. Pastor Najapfour, mining very deep, found material for a long series of sermons in James. Of that series, he chose five dealing with the tongue for the five chapters of this book.
(A foreword by Geoff Thomas and an afterword by Rev. Bartel Elshout add value.) Having heard the spoken sermons with their inflections, I think the written words can’t quite move as well as the spoken. But even these written words are rich and instructive. How powerful are spoken words! How creative in the mouth of God! How possibly destructive from the tongues of men! Pastor Najapfour with great interpretive skill lays this out in a forceful and organized way. His words will prick the heart of any that is alive enough to hear. He shows from Scripture how destructive the tongue can be and, therefore, how necessary it is to bridle it—and
getting down to details, what “bridle” means. These abundant details make this book rich. The book is highly recommended, not only for its saying in so few words so much about saying too much, but also for its good example of sermon making.
Rev. John M. Moes is a retired chaplain to the House of Representatives and a member of Dutton URC.
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