James 3:9–10

From this point our Epistle takes up the ground of obvious and gross inconsistency. Only the most careless can treat lightly a fault that condemns itself. God cannot start such a plain disorder, nor approve it. Speech is an excellent possession, given to man by his Creator, and this is a misuse of it. The inconsistency is least excusable in those who claim a relationship with God and the Lord.

Unconverted people do not bless God, even the Father. They do not really know God at all, and much less do they know Him as Father. Christians know Him and bless Him in this way, and yet there are times when words of a very contrary sort come out of their lips.

You might have thought that man at his fall stopped being in the image and likeness of God. But that is not how Scripture presents it… In James 3:9 we find man "made in the likeness of God." We may not fully grasp in what respects man is the image and likeness of God. But it is at least obvious that an image is a representation. When they showed the Lord a coin, He asked whose image it was. They said, Caesar's. It may not have been well made, and so not a good likeness. It may also have been badly battered, as coins often are, yet that would not stop it being the image of Caesar: it represented him, and no one else.

We are objects of His loving purposes, born of Him by the word of truth. We should be the last to curse anyone, since we ourselves are blessed by pure mercy. It is not that fallen men have any moral worth in themselves, as we above all should know from our own humbling experience. So we at least should never forget how they were brought into being in God's likeness… Instead of cursing others, we want them to obey the truth, share the blessing, and join us in blessing Him who is the source and giver of it all.

Many who live by the flesh would avoid striking a blow, yet cannot hold back an angry or hard word against a neighbour. But if no man can control the tongue, the grace of Christ can do it. The inner man is under the yoke of the Lord, and is gentle and lowly in heart. Christ fills the heart. And because the tongue follows the impulses of the heart, the speech will express that gentleness and lowliness.

Through the tongue we can praise and exalt the Lord, bear witness to that worthy Name, tell others of Him and become channels of eternal blessing. But how quickly, if uncontrolled, it may be used in the service of sin. Peter uttered with his tongue his great, God-given confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." But a short time later that same tongue became the mouthpiece of Satan. Peter rebuked the Lord for saying that He would go to Jerusalem to suffer and to die.

There is a strange inconsistency about the tongue when it is a question of the people of God. Unconverted people do not bless God, even the Father. They do not know God at all, much less as Father. Christians know Him and bless Him in this way, and yet at times words of a very contrary sort come out of their lips. Sometimes they even go so far as cursing men whom God made in His own likeness. No wonder that James says, "My brothers, these things ought not to be so."

This word occurs only once, in James 3:10. It comes from a root meaning "to deliver an oracle" or "to be fated," and passes into the sense of what is necessary, what is fitting or proper — or the opposite, with the negative, as here. Compared with the other words, it is a necessity of time or circumstance, and does not have the same moral force.

The incongruity is heightened by the quiet but pungent appeal, "My brothers, these things ought not to be so." The consistency of the Christian in its perfection is ever and only in Christ; and He is the sole and constant standard for us.

The principle is plain beyond all question. No inconsistency can be worse than to use the tongue one moment to bless the Supreme God, and the next to curse men made in God's likeness. We are objects of His loving purposes, born of Him by the word of truth, and should be the last to curse any, since we are blessed ourselves by mere mercy... Instead then of cursing others, we want them to obey the truth, share the blessing, and join us in blessing Him Who is the source and giver of it all.

The answer of course is twofold. First, they began as sinful creatures with an evil nature, just like the rest. Second, they have now been born again, so they now have a new nature, and the old nature has not been removed. So within them there are two fountains: one can produce only evil, the other only good. This is where the strange mixture comes from, and the Apostle condemns it strongly.

Someone may want to say that, if this is the case with a believer, he hardly deserves such strong blame when his tongue acts as an opening for the bitter waters of the old nature. But any who think this are forgetting that God judged and condemned the flesh, our old nature, at the cross... The believer therefore IS to be reprimanded if his tongue acts as an outlet for the evil of the flesh.

Peter spoke his great, God-given confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." A short time later that same tongue became the mouthpiece of Satan, when he rebuked the Lord for saying that He would go to Jerusalem to suffer and to die. What an inconsistency the tongue of man reveals! Nature shows nothing like it anywhere. A tree does not produce two kinds of fruit. A fig tree bears no olives, and a vine no figs. No fountain pours out both salt water and fresh water.

If no man can restrain the tongue, the grace of Christ can do it. The inner man on one side is under the yoke of the Lord, and is meek and lowly in heart. Christ fills the heart, and because the tongue follows the impulses of the heart, the speech will express this meekness and lowliness... it is very useful to see that the tongue shows what is working within, just as the hands of a clock show the hidden workings of its wheels.