In our previous post on James 3:3-12, we studied how the tongue is both influential and inflammatory. In today’s study, we consider two more characteristics of the tongue.
The Tongue is Incorrigible
James says:
“For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”
If you have visited the zoo or have been somewhere like Sea World, you likely have marveled at man’s ability to tame all kinds of creatures. Both lion and lion tamer is in the same cage. Elephants gently place their foot upon a man’s body. Dolphins jump through hoops to the delight of a watching crowd.
James suggests that it is remarkable that man can tame these wild animals but is not so good at taming his own tongue.
Yet surely James does not mean that man is left without a solution. Indeed he is not just ranting, concluding that nothing can be done about the matter. Indeed, it is by God’s grace and our sanctifying growth in Christ that we can control our tongues. After all, “what is impossible with man is possible with God (Luke 18:27).”
Humanly speaking, “no man can tame the tongue.” Left to our own devices, we are incapable of “breaking it” and taming it successfully and consistently. We are sinners! No amount of grit and human effort will finally culminate in our overcoming the unruly tongue. This is James’ point.
He describes the incorrigible tongue as “an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” Like an arrow with a poisoned tip ready to be shot at one’s enemies, so are the words we shoot at others, words “full of deadly poison.”
We must watch our words, how we talk to others, how we speak to our children, our spouses, our neighbors, our co-workers, and our fellow church members. To quote Solomon: “He who holds his tongue is wise (Proverbs 10:19; NIV).”
Some are proud of their ability to “tell it like it is.” Like the woman who approached the great Methodist evangelist John Wesley and boasted, “Mr. Wesley, I pride myself in speaking my mind. That,” she added, “is my talent.” Wesley replied, “Well, ma’am, the Lord wouldn’t mind if you buried that talent!”
The tongue is influential, the tongue is inflammatory, and the tongue is incorrigible. Finally:
The Tongue is Inconsistent
James notes the irony that with the same tongue, we praise God and then turn right around and say something that destroys others. We are inconsistent in using our tongue for good. He writes, “With it, we bless our God and Father, and with it, we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.”
How inconsistent we are with our tongues! We gratefully exclaim, “Praise God” or “God is good,” and then immediately spew hateful invective upon a person who has wronged us. One moment we are using our tongue for good and the next for evil. And when we speak evil of others, we are guilty of “cursing men who have been made in the similitude (or likeness) of God.”
When you speak evil of another person, you are verbally attacking someone made in the image of God—believers and unbelievers alike. No other creature on the planet is more like God than a human being. There is a very real sense, then, that when you and I speak hatefully about another person that, we are talking hatefully about God Himself.
Incredulously James states, “Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” We can almost picture James saying these words. Shaking his head, he lifts his hands palms upward as if to grasp for something he can’t find and then proclaims to any who will hear him, “These things ought not to be so!”
He is right, of course. These things ought not to be so. Yet how often are we guilty of doing the very things God forbids? We can be singing praises in a worship service and then, immediately after worship, approach another church member and engage in gossip. Moments earlier, we were singing, “I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God,” and now we are using that same tongue to speak inappropriately about one of the family members. These things ought not to be so.
James draws upon nature to further illustrate the utter inconsistency with which we use our tongues. Rhetorically he asks, “Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?” And, of course the implied answer is “No,” as indicated by his conclusion: “Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.”
A modern-day equivalent might be something like, “When you turn on your kitchen faucet, does it produce both fresh water and salt water?” Of course not! So just as a spring (or kitchen faucet) produces only one kind of water, our tongues should be used to speak in only one kind of way. We should consistently use our words in a helpful way rather than a harmful way.
Mixing metaphors, James proves the point further by interposing questions related to horticulture. He asks, “Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or a grapevine bear figs?” Again, the implied answers are, “No, of course not!” No one has ever seen a fig tree that bears olives instead of figs or a grapevine that produces figs instead of grapes.
James is using absurdity to illustrate the tragic inconsistency of the tongue. We should use our tongues consistently, using our words only for good and never for evil.
Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, illustrates how inconsistent use of the tongue harms families:
Such inconsistency compromises our confession, and in the family it can scar our children. Have you ever stopped to think what it is like to be a child and hear some of the things they hear coming out of the mouth of mom and dad? The same mouth that hopefully says, “I love you, I’m so proud of you, I thank God He gave you to me,” may also be heard to say, “Shut up. Put that down. Stop that right now. I don’t care what you are doing, come here right now. Listen to me. Give me that. Don’t touch that. Not like that, stupid. Go away. Leave me alone. Can’t you see I’m busy? Boy, that was really dumb. Can’t you do anything right? You’d lose your head if it wasn’t screwed on. Hurry up, we don’t have all day! What’s the matter with you? Can’t you hear anything? I don’t know what I’m going to do with you. You will never grow up to amount to anything.” And with words like these we don’t bless, we curse. We don’t build up, we tear down. And parents, words are powerful when directed at our children.
Daniel Akin, SEBTS
When we return to James’ teaching next time, we’ll consider three helpful suggestions to curb our tongues!
**Excerpt from You’re Either Walking The Walk Or Just Running Your Mouth (Preaching Truth: 2020), pages 110-114, available on Amazon.
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