Read the Other Articles in this Series
The Power of Our Words
The Gravity of Our Words
The Difficulty in Controlling Our Words
The Destructive Potential of Our Words
The Christian and Our Words
In a recent collection of articles, we have been exploring what James 3 teaches about the speech of a Christian. Today, we’ll explore the hypocrisy of our words when Christians don’t control their speech and speak sinfully.
James 3:9-12
With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Our Speech and Our Nature
As believers, we do have redeemed tongues and the Holy Spirit to help us with self-control. We use our tongues to give thanks to God, to pray to Him, and to sing His praises. We can do great good with our tongues by encouraging one another.
In Colossians 3:16, Pauls says we should:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
We can use our tongues for the Lord to produce great good.
Yet—we know that we still sin with our mouths. We know that we gossip. We know that we speak words of anger. We know that we are not always truthful. We know that we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
James is recalling Genesis 1:26, when, prior to creating man, God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” All people have been made in the image of God – that means they are rational, moral, intelligent beings with emotions and wills.
When we curse people, this is not in line with our new nature and shows the hypocrisy of our words. Out of the same tongue come blessing and cursing
James states the obvious and says: My brothers, these things ought not to be so. We shouldn’t do that. That’s hypocritical.
He goes on to give multiple examples of why there shouldn’t be a duality to our speaking.
Illustration #1. Water Springs
Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?… Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Water sources are true to their nature—they don’t switch back and forth. Oceans are salty—they don’t produce fresh water. Freshwater lakes and streams don’t produce salt water.
This happened to my neighbor and it was really gross, but his plumbing got messed up and there was a blockage and he had sewage from the toilet flowing through his shower. That’s disgusting, because you expect your shower to produce fresh water and you take a shower to get clean. It’s entirely against the intent of what you’d expect to have dirty, disgusting water coming through. Similarly, it’s against our new nature to have dirty, sinful words coming out of a redeemed mouth.
Illustration #2. Fruit Trees
Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs?
James goes on to hammer this point home by using the example of fruit trees. These are the three main fruits produced in the region: figs, olives, and grapes.
His point is that fruit is produced based on a tree’s nature. If you plant a fig tree, you know you’re going to get figs. An olive tree will produce olives and a grape tree will produce grapes.
Similarly, a person will produce words consistent with their nature. A true Christian should be speaking in accord with our new nature. A test of saving faith is whether or not your speech is honoring God. Now, we are still sinful and will never be perfect, but the overall pattern of a believer’s speech should not be sinful words. If your speech is never righteous, that may be a sign that you were never redeemed.
James said this in chapter 1:26:
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
Truly following Christ will result in righteous fruit, including righteous speech, because your words will reveal the root of who you are on the inside. Jesus made this exact same point and tied it to our speech:
For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:43-45)
As Christians, we should be speaking righteous words that are honoring God, not the sinful words of Satan.
In our final article in this series, we’ll look at practical ways we can apply the teaching of the Bible regarding our speech into our day-to-day lives.
