James 3:9-12

MR. TWO-FACED

Text 3:9-12

9.

Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God:

10.

Out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren these things ought not so to be.

11.

Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter?

12.

Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.

Queries

224.

What is the difference between reference to God as Lord and as Father?

225.

What is the inconsistency herein in praising God and cursing men with the same tongue?

226.

What does curse mean as it is used here?

227.

What is repeated in this verse, that has just previously been stated?

228.

Why the repetition?

229.

Why point out the impossibility of nature doing what James 3:9 states that we do?

230.

Compare James 3:11-12 with Matthew 7:15-23.

231.

Do we actually accomplish what James 3:9 states?

232.

Why do you think the fig, olive, and vine were selected as illustrations?

233.

Can you think of several others that illustrate the same point?

Paraphrases

A. 9.

The same tongue at one time praises the Lord and spits forth curses upon man made in the likeness of God. Thus we bless the Father and curse the Father's image.

10.

The purity of praises and the filth of curses spring from the same mouth. My brethren, is this consistent and proper?

11.

Does a fountain simultaneously from the same opening spill forth both sweet and bitter waters?

12.

Does an apple tree bear both pecans and apples? Can a grapevine grow peaches? Neither can one fountain give two kinds of waters!

B.*9.

Sometimes it praises our heavenly Father, and sometimes it breaks out into curses against men who are made like God.

10.

And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Dear brothers, surely this is not right!

12.

Can you pick olives from a fig tree, or figs from a grapevine? No, and you can-'t draw fresh water from a salty pool.

Summary

With an inconsistency not found in all nature we bless the Father and curse the Father's image, man.

Comment

Blessing God is contrasted with cursing man. When the father of John (the baptizer) had his tongue loosed on the eighth day of the new-born child, his first speaking was to bless God, Luke 1:64. And when he began to prophesy, his first words were, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel. (James 3:68). It is not necessary to use the term blessed in order to bless the Lord. Any praise or extolling directed to Him or on His behalf is a means of blessing God. Even giving thanks unto God is a means of blessing him. (see Mark 14:19; Mark 26:26; 1 Corinthians 14:16). Thus it is that most people claiming to be a Christian cannot make this claim, nor pray, nor sing praises unto Him without blessing God.

Yet how many people will with one breath claim to be a Christian and with another breath, from the same mouth, invoke evil upon their fellowman? Sometimes the expressed evil desire upon the fellow man may reach the proportions of beseeching God to bring damnation upon his fellow man. God does not wilfully or wishfully bring damnation on any man. God's desire to save man from his own damnation was so intense it brought about an unspeakable sacrifice. Hell is not fit, and was not designed, for man. Although man may chose to be fit for hell, God has done and is doing everything to prevent man from bringing upon himself this horrible death.
To ask such a God to damn our fellow man is the height of affrontery and a disregard for His revealed love. Such a request reveals a tendency within our own hearts that is completely foreign to the ways of God. To request or charge our fellow man to go to hell is in complete opposition to the desire of God so constantly expressed. even by His tears and His shed blood. This is so obvious that a Christian needs but reflect a moment to agree.
But can we not also curse men without using curse words? In the same way in which we bless the Father by singing praises unto Him, can we not also curse our fellow man by expressing ill-will, by slander, by sending forth destructive verbal missiles? How many times men are tempted to climb the ladder of success by stepping upon the rungs of the spoiled reputations of their fellow men. Although we can never get ourselves out of the pit of guilt in this fashion, we sometimes attempt to feel elevated by trampling underfoot our fellow man. While we trample our neighbor into the mire of sin and shame, our own feet become stained with his blood, and the stench of our murderous action causes all mankind to withdraw from us in horror!

It is no wonder the Lord admonishes us to bless and curse not. (Romans 12:13). Although the Christian may himself be the object of cursing and receive reviling, defamation, and even the filth of the world, he is still admonished to bless and endure, as did the apostle Paul. Even to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and we toil, working with our own hands; being reviled, we bless; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, the off scouring of all things, even until now. (1 Corinthians 4:11-13).

Oh, that entire congregations of God's people would read this third chapter and tremble. Countless are the broken hearts and broken lives that are left in the wake of a poisonous tongue. How many ministers have ceased to preach, driven to despair by the loose tongues of those who should be on the Lord's side? How many thousands have been driven from the assembly of God's people in shame and disgust over slander and tale-bearing? How many churches have been split asunder by the everlasting venom of poisonous tongues?

Who is the image of God? Some may argue that only the Christian bears this stamp. Yet, is not this very chapter addressed to Christians? Are not Christians involved in the very sins so strongly admonished in this epistle? No doubt, the saint of God is to grow in God's image (2 Corinthians 7:2; Romans 8:29; 2 Peter 1:4 ff), and no doubt he shall one day indeed be as He is (Philippians 3:21; 1 John 3:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:5 ff). The Image of God however applies to all men. Man (mankind) was created in His image. Although man has corrupted and defaced this image; and although it is in no single instance all that it should be; the likeness of God is there. in both Christian and the non-Christian. (see 1 Corinthians 11:7; Genesis 1:26; Genesis 5:1; Genesis 9:6; Malachi 2:10).

What then is this image? Is it man's body, having two legs; a creature that walks upright and has a thumb different from all other animals? Although a few may hold to this conviction, often using the argument to support strange and unusual doctrines not found in the Scriptures; the consensus is that man's likeness of God is in the nature and capacity of the inner man. God's image includes such attributes as reason, conscience, knowledge, the power of dominion, the capacity for moral and spiritual holiness, conviction through testimony (faith), etc. In potential and capacity, man is in the image of God. In freedom of will, freedom to choose heaven or hell, man is in God's image. In his guilt, his sin, his temporary body, his limitations to time and space he is certainly not in God's image; but one day, by the mercy of God even these things will change!

The problem of cursing seems to trouble many commentators. The allowable cursing within the Old Testament (Proverbs 11:26; Proverbs 24:24; Genesis 9:25; Genesis 49:7; Joshua 6:26; Judges 5:23; Judges 9:20; Judges 9:57.) seems to conflict directly with the prohibition of James. The problem seems to dissolve, however, when we recall that a curse does in reality exist, especially for the benefit of the devil and his angels. But we should also reflect that man is the author of neither salvation nor damnation. We can no more create a curse than we can create a scheme of redemption. To repeat the salvation offered by God, and to repeat the curse of sin revealed in the Scripture, is not only our privilege but our duty. But to set ourselves up as the judge of man and the author of either salvation or damnation is to assume in arrogance a responsibility we should by all means prefer to avoid. We have neither the capacity nor the right for such a task, and we only work havoc when we try.

Man with a free will of his own is able to do that which nature, moving only by instinct and intuition, cannot do. Thus man accomplished transgression and soul destruction beyond the ability of other creatures. Man can, and does, do things that ought not so to be. He succeeds in being inconsistent because he is two-faced, The fountain is not two-watered, the tree is not two-fruited, but man can make himself two-faced. The tree was designed to bear fruit after its kind (Genesis 1:11). Mankind was also intended to bear fruit in God's image. It would be far better to have been a tree with no will of one's own than to be a man who deliberately makes the wrong choices in life.

The sweet waters from the hills around the dead sea sometimes go underground and furnish pressure for springs near to the dead sea. Before they spring forth, they mix with the waters of the dead sea, which are very salty. There are salt water springs near the dead sea and there are also sweet-water springs in Palestine. But no spring is both salty and sweet at the same time. Can a man love God and hate his brother? Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)