Therewith bless we the Lord and Father, and therewith curse we men made after [the] likeness of God.
The verse sets two uses of one mouth side by side: praise going up to God, and curses going out at people. James's point turns on one fact about those people: they carry God's likeness. That makes the second use unthinkable for anyone who does the first.
The argument here rests on a contradiction anyone can see. One writer points out that speech is God's gift to man, so misusing it is a disorder He could never approve.
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.
The first half of the verse narrows the audience. Blessing God as Father is not something everyone does.
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.
The verse describes people alive now as made in God's likeness. One writer explains how that can still be true after the fall, using a worn coin as the picture.
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.
The reason for holding back the tongue is not that people deserve better. It lies in how they were made, and in the mercy we ourselves received.
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.
The problem is not limited to loud cursing. A quiet, cutting sentence does damage a person would never do with his hands.
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.
The same lips can serve God or serve sin, and one man's story shows how fast the switch can happen.
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.
- Same mouth, worse fault. The sin is not just harsh speech. It is praising God and cursing people with the one gift of speech He gave. And it is least excusable in those who know Him as Father.
- Same stamp, still there. Man fell, but the likeness was not cancelled; like a battered coin, he still represents God and no one else.
- Same mercy, no standing. We do not spare people because they have worth of their own. We spare them because we who bless God were blessed by pure mercy — and we want them to share it.
- Same heart, showing. The tongue follows the heart, so a hard word can strike where a hand never would. No one can tame the tongue by effort. The grace of Christ governs it by filling the heart.
- Same lips, two futures. The mouth that confessed Christ became the mouthpiece of Satan within hours. So let Christ fill the heart, and the speech will follow.
Out of the same mouth goes forth blessing and cursing. It is not right, my brethren, that these things should be thus.
James points at something we would rather not look at: the same mouth that blesses God also turns on people. He does not explain the contradiction away. He says it has no place among believers.
Someone who has never known God does not bless Him as Father in the first place. So the clash James describes belongs to believers.
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."
The word behind "ought" appears nowhere else in the New Testament.
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 appeal is quiet, and it points us to one perfect standard.
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.
Two things make the cursing unfitting: who the target is, and what we ourselves received.
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.
In nature one source yields one kind of thing. So how can both blessing and cursing come out of one Christian?
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.
But the explanation is not an excuse.
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 is the standing example. The same mouth that made the great confession about Christ was later used against Him.
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.
The mouth reports what is inside, so the cure has to start deeper than self-control.
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.
- One mouth. Praise to the Father and abuse of people come from the same set of lips.
- Two fountains. The old nature stays alongside the new, so both kinds of water rise in one believer. Nature knows no spring like that.
- No excuse. The cross judged the old nature, so a believer who lets it speak deserves blame, not pity.
- Every target. The people we curse bear God's likeness, and we were blessed by mercy alone — so we should want them blessed too.
- One remedy. The tongue is a clock face showing the works inside. Fill the heart with Christ and the speech turns meek.
Does the fountain, out of the same opening, pour forth sweet and bitter?
James asks a question everyone can answer. No spring sends fresh water and salt water out of the same opening. Older translations read "sweet and bitter," which is why the writers quoted below use those words. James aims that plain fact from nature at a mouth that blesses God one moment and curses people the next.
James does not argue. He points at a spring and lets nature deliver the reproof.
Here as elsewhere, the plainness of the examples gives the reproof more force. Take the first instance: who ever heard of a spring sending out sweet water and bitter from the same opening? Nature itself rebukes such a shameless mixture and such contradictory results in people who praise the Lord and the Father... Nowhere do we find more telling thrusts of this kind than in the letter before us. What is impossible in nature exposes and punishes what is inconsistent in behaviour. Their claim to be related to God and to enjoy His favour makes it far worse. Is the new nature to be disgraced by what the old universal nature refuses, fallen though it is?
A spring has an opening, and whatever is in the source comes up through it. The tongue is that opening in a person.
What is really filling my heart will come off my tongue. And so you can always tell what my heart is occupied with, because I have a tongue. I cannot deceive you for long.
So the mixture is not a slip of speech. It is evidence about the source.
If the heart did not contain these evils the mouth could never give them out... Notice as well that this dreadful description belongs to religious Jews, not to pagan Gentiles. So a person can sing God's praises on Sunday and be guilty of cursing and bitterness towards people on Monday.
If nature never does this, why do Christians? The answer lies behind the tongue, not in it.
The answer is of course twofold. First, they began as sinful creatures with an evil nature, just like everyone else. Second, they have now been born again, so they now have a new nature. The old nature has not been rooted out of them. So within them there are, if we may put it this way, two fountains. One can produce only evil, the other only good. This is where the strange mixture that the Apostle so strongly condemns comes from.
Two natures could become an excuse. The same writer refuses to allow it.
Someone may want to object. If this is the believer's situation, surely he should not be condemned so strongly when his tongue acts as an opening for the bitter waters of the old nature. But anyone who thinks this is forgetting that the flesh, our old nature, has been judged and condemned at the cross. "Sin in the flesh," as Romans 8:3 puts it, has been condemned. The believer knows this. So he is responsible to treat it as a judged and condemned thing, which is therefore not allowed to act. So the believer IS to be reprimanded if his tongue acts as an outlet for the evil of the flesh.
People often borrow the image of sweet and bitter water to describe a Christian's inner struggle. One writer warns that this stretches James past what he wrote.
To use "sweet water and bitter" that way is a false use of James. He is speaking about what comes out of a person — "cursing man and blessing God" — and he condemns it. It has nothing to do with the inward experience of a soul. The man in James may be a fully delivered soul if he has grown careless.
Sweet water is possible too, and one writer points to the company that produces it.
When we are in the company of the Lord Jesus, we will be blessed. Learning from His example, we will be encouraged and refreshed. Like these fountains, we will produce sweet water to drink.
The same tongue can go either way, as one of Jesus' own disciples shows.
Through the tongue we can praise and exalt the Lord. We can bear witness to that worthy Name, tell others of Him, and become channels of eternal blessing. But how quickly, if it is not controlled, it can be used in the service of sin. Peter spoke with his tongue 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 shows!
- Source. A spring gives what it holds; the tongue gives what the heart holds, and it cannot keep the secret for long.
- Opening. The mouth is the outlet, not the origin. Praise on Sunday and bitterness on Monday expose the same person.
- Two fountains. A believer has two natures. The old produces only evil, the new only good. The mixture comes from there.
- No excuse. The old nature was condemned at the cross, so its bitter water is to be treated as forbidden, not explained away.
- Sweet water. Kept in the company of the Lord Jesus, the same tongue that could curse becomes a channel of blessing to others.
Can, my brethren, a fig produce olives, or a vine figs? Neither [can] salt [water] make sweet water.
James has just described people whose mouths pour out blessing and cursing together. Now he points to the orchard and the spring, where nature never mixes its produce like that.
The examples are ordinary on purpose, and that is what gives the rebuke its force.
Here, as elsewhere, the plainness of the examples makes the rebuke stronger. Take the first one. Who ever heard of a spring pouring out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening? Nature itself condemns such a shameless mixture, and such contradictory results, in people who praise the Lord and the Father… here what is impossible in nature exposes and punishes the person whose conduct contradicts itself — worse in him, because he claims to belong to God and to enjoy His favour. Is the new nature to be disgraced by what the old nature everywhere refuses to do, fallen though it is?
Jesus used a picture of trees and fruit too. The two passages aim at different things.
The Lord was showing there that it is a mistake to expect good fruit from a bad tree. His servant James is doing something else. He wants to rebuke the glaring inconsistency of calling on the Lord of glory while indulging in evil speech, so he sets against it the natural impossibility of a tree bearing any fruit but its own. Both are plainly true, and each fits its purpose perfectly.
The same writer notes that the closing line is not a second mention of a fountain, as some older translations have it:
In 12 it is "a" fig tree, and the last clause does not speak of a fountain, like the Received Text and Authorised Version, but says, with the Revisers, neither can salt water yield sweet.
James is not describing outsiders here. He is describing people who really do praise God.
People who are not converted do not bless God, the Father. They do not know God at all, and they know Him as Father even less. Christians know Him and bless Him as Father. Yet there are times when words of quite the opposite kind come out of their lips. Sometimes they even go so far as to curse people who are made in the likeness of God. So blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. No wonder James says so forcefully, "My brothers, these things ought not to be so."
If nature never does this, how can a believer? The answer offered is that the Christian carries something no fig tree carries.
First, they were sinful creatures to begin with, with an evil nature, just like everyone else. Second, they have now been born again, so they now have a new nature. The old nature has not been removed. So inside them there are, if we may put it this way, two fountains. One can only produce evil, the other can only produce good. That is where this strange mixture comes from, and the Apostle condemns it strongly.
That explanation does not remove our responsibility. Another writer notes what James leaves out:
In verses 11 and 12 James appeals to creation itself to show how consistent it is, in contrast to the ugly treachery of the tongue… note that James speaks only of what is seen from the outside. Elsewhere we are told why both good and evil come from the same person… James does not speak of that reason. He puts the responsibility where it belongs: on our own shoulders. So although the tongue cannot be tamed, we are still called to govern it.
The rule that limits a tree also marks out a Christian.
Every seed, as we know, brings forth the plant and the fruit that are proper to it. As James has said, a fig tree cannot bear olives, nor a grapevine figs. So a Christian is marked by what is Christian, and by nothing else… The apostle will not dishonour the Father by treating anything as the fruit of new birth unless it is worthy of Him.
James says no one can tame the tongue. That limit is not the end of the matter.
Even if no one can restrain the tongue, the grace of Christ can do it. On one side the inner man 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 that same meekness and lowliness… it is very useful to see that the tongue shows what is working inside, just as the hands of a clock show the hidden workings of its wheels.
- Nature. A spring, a fig tree and a vine each give one thing only — their own. Creation keeps the rule that their speech was breaking.
- Contradiction. The people rebuked are people who really do bless God; the shame is that cursing comes out of the same mouth.
- Cause. Two fountains sit in one believer: an old nature that can only produce evil, and a new one that can only produce good.
- Character. The seed God plants brings forth its proper fruit, so a Christian is marked by what is Christian and nothing else.
- Cure. No one can tame the tongue, but the grace of Christ can. A heart filled with Christ speaks with His meekness, because the tongue shows what is working inside.