Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing
James 3:9-10 - Our words should be consistently glorifying to God
“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”
James 3:9-10 NIV
Christmas is now in the past, and within a week we’ll be in the year 2025. There’s an odd human tendency for us to make resolutions for the new year, most of which we don’t keep. If there is one thing that I’d personally like to resolve for 2025 and after, it’s to stop cursing other people.
As I’ve pointed out before here on Heaven On Wheels, that bad part of my humanity tends to show up most frequently when I’m driving. Sure, I’m not a perfect driver, but about 50 years of experience has taught me what not to do while operating a motor vehicle and it appears that most of the other people on the roads have never learned those lessons.
The vast majority of the invectives are rather tame, but they’re still not nice. As James points out in these verses, those other people “have been made in God’s likeness.” The first part of James 3 (verses 1 through 12) is all about taming the tongue, and here he points a spotlight at the contradictory nature of the tongue. We can use it for one of the highest callings of mankind — praising God — yet we also use it to speak ill of His most amazing creations.
It’s a very human failing, and the apostles were just as guilty of this as we are. James writes this section of his epistle as if it is from personal experience. We can also look at Peter, who confessed Jesus as the Messiah yet denied Him not once, but three times! Or how about John, who could repeat the commandment of Jesus to love one another (1 John 3:11), yet also (along with James) ask Jesus if they could call down fire on a Samaritan village (Luke 9:54)?
Reading these words of James, we know that our words should be consistently glorifying to God. We know that we shouldn’t have one way of speaking while at church or around other Christians, and have a completely different manner of talking when we’re at home or in the car. But we’re all fallible sinners, and we are all guilty of speaking ill of others to some extent.
Jesus pointed out in Matthew 12:35 that our innermost character is revealed by our words: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” While we are still able so speak evil of our fellow human beings, we are displaying that evil side to the world.
Jesus follows these words in Matthew 12:36-37 with a succinct description of the consequences of our words: “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
While we cannot take back those empty words that we’ve spoken about others in the past, we can certainly pray for forgiveness for what we’ve said, and work to reduce or eliminate the all-too-human habit of cursing others.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
God, You gave us Jesus as an example of how to live to Your praise and glory. Please help me to not act in a hypocritical way, praising You in one sentence and cursing Your creation in another. I pray that You teach me to reflect the life of Jesus, speaking always in truth with wisdom and understanding. This I ask in the name of Jesus, AMEN.