Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
The same mouth is used both to bless God the Father and to curse people who are made in God's likeness. Such double use is a contradiction that ought not to be, for cursing people dishonors God and is inconsistent with blessing Him because they bear His likeness. The tongue is therefore to be wholly governed, beginning with a sanctified heart cleansed and ruled by wisdom from above, with careful, prayerful guarding of thought, feeling, and word. The cursing condemned includes faultfinding, gossip and talebearing, accusation, evil surmising, sowing dissension, and harsh, hasty, angry words that wound, divide, and destroy. When sanctified by the Holy Spirit, speech becomes a sacred power for good, to praise God, to represent His character in justice, love, and compassion, and to comfort, encourage, heal, build up, and save others.
Contradiction in Speech
The same tongue or mouth is used both to bless God, even the Father, and to curse men who are made after the similitude or likeness of God. Speech that blesses God must not be turned to curse people made in His likeness, and this teaching belongs to the control of the tongue as a necessary guide for living out God's commandments and forming Christian character. The warning reaches how people treat one another, requiring those serving God to represent His character in their dealings rather than use authority in ways that dishonor others.
Such blessing and cursing from the same mouth is a contradiction and inconsistency that ought not to be. Using speech to curse people contradicts honoring God, and honoring Him while cursing them is inconsistent because they are made in His likeness. Words used to honor God and words used against people made in His likeness are in conflict, so blessing God while speaking evil of them is inconsistent. Hasty, harmful words can wound people for whom Christ died and dishonor God, and speaking harshly to others dishonors Him rather than reflecting a changed, Christlike character.
In this mixed use the tongue is untamed, an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Out of the same mouth blessing and cursing ought not to be, no more than a fountain can send forth sweet water and bitter at the same place, or a fig tree bear olive berries, or a fountain yield both salt water and fresh.
Made in God's Likeness
Human beings are made after the similitude or likeness of God. That likeness is the measure of what humanity was meant to be. God's people are therefore to be molded and fashioned after God's likeness, not after human ideas. Perfecting character after the divine similitude is a goal of Christian education. That call points to becoming like God in character.
That similitude is the pattern for character to be perfected now in preparation for receiving higher education in the school above. This calls for companies organized and educated most thoroughly to work as nurses, as evangelists, as ministers, as canvassers, and as gospel students.
Sinking deeply in sin causes that similitude to be lost. With it comes loss of the sense of eternal realities, so that sinners hardly know whether they have souls to be saved and have neither faith in God nor confidence in man. Because sin is the greatest of all evils, such sinners are to be pitied and helped. Many who have fallen this far can be reached only through acts of disinterested kindness. That kindness first cares for physical wants by feeding, cleansing, and decently clothing them, so that seeing evidence of unselfish love makes it easier for them to believe in the love of Christ.
The language about divine likeness warns that taking control of property one should not control is not conduct after that likeness.
Governing the Tongue
James 3:9, together with James 3:2-18, teaches the necessity of entirely controlling the tongue, the unruly member, by educating oneself in carefulness of words and acts instead of acting unfettered as if restraint is hypocrisy. The tongue can be used both to bless God and to curse people made in His likeness, and therefore it must be guarded.
Its truths must be carefully considered, laid to heart, and made the rule for forming character, with the Word of God carefully studied and carried out into daily life. It is a necessary guide for living out God's commandments and forming Christian character, and keeping the principles of the ten precepts of Jehovah is impossible without regarding what these verses teach. Speech that blesses God must not be used to curse people who are made in God's likeness.
Control must begin with the heart and be shaped by meekness, kindness, and wisdom from above, for blessing and cursing should not come from the same mouth. The tongue belongs to God and must be sanctified, beginning with the heart, since condemning suspicious or malicious speech against those made in His likeness shows blessing God while speaking evil of them to be inconsistent. It must be governed with good judgment and guarded in thought and feeling, for using speech wisely helps people live peaceably and makes speech an influence for good. The mind must be disciplined because words come from the heart, and excitable, unreflecting speech when the heart is not imbued with God's Spirit dishonors God and can cause mischief and harm. Constant care and restraint are therefore required, since speaking without reflection, purpose, or edifying intent can do harm, while silence and reflection may better honor Him.
Bridling the tongue requires prevailing prayer and strength from God to keep silent rather than answer unjust treatment in anger, since hasty or angry words can give temptation a victory. With Christ's help the mind can be disciplined and angry, hasty, hurtful speech resisted, for Christ met ridicule without sinning in His words.
To preserve peace and unity, harsh, contentious words that insist on personal opinions, preferences, and one's own way must be restrained. Such words create strife and dispute, wound others, hurt one's own soul and the souls of others, and leave wounds hard to heal. Unless a question of vital importance is involved, personal differences and individual preferences that would cause discord should not be introduced into conversation but kept quiet and told only to God, yielding one's own opinion rather than breaking unity. Even winning an argument or gaining one's point can place a burden on another far outweighing any advantage gained.
Forms of Cursing Speech
The cursing condemned is jealousy and faultfinding, talebearing and gossip, sowing seeds of dissension, stirring up strife, and busybody meddling with other men's matters. Such works are bitter envying and strife in the heart, earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom bringing confusion and every evil work, not the wisdom from above which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. They reveal decidedly that such a church member is not a branch of the true vine but is manifesting the attributes of Satan.
It includes being an accuser of the brethren by questioning and finding fault with everything and with every man's teaching and holding that no one is perfect. That course is standing on the devil's ground and turning the face from Jesus Christ. It gives the greatest evidence of the accuser's own imperfection of character. The remedy is to leave that ground, stop accusing others, and turn severe criticism upon self.
It includes bitter words, telling grievances, evil speaking, watching for evil, creating unjust suspicion, catching at supposed evil and feeding on it, presenting brethren in a distorted perverted light, and setting thoughts and tongue on fire over trifling matters. Such speech defiles souls, plants poisonous fibrous roots, creates suspicion and distrust, poisons faith, hinders the work of God, places His servants in the worst light, lays stumbling blocks before the feeble, and kills rather than restores. It makes men Satan's best agents, for Satan accuses the brethren day and night.
It includes envy, evil thinking, evil speaking, fault-finding, watching for evil, evil surmising, striving for supremacy, and demeriting others to build up self. Those sent as missionaries and all church members must not work in that spirit, for it sows seeds that produce a harvest of evils and closes the field. God will not work with them unless they humble their hearts, confess these sins, put away watching and evil surmising, and carefully discipline the imaginative faculties and the tongue.
It includes careless words spoken in doubt or accusation against others, which can injure minds and hearts and, like seed, produce unbelief and apostasy. It includes fault-finding words against fellow believers, which show distrust of God and damage Christian confidence and brotherly unity. It includes using the power of speech to tear one another down by finding fault, which becomes a great curse causing dissension and strife and doing Satan's work instead of representing the character of Christ. The one who gives himself up to finding fault neglects his own precious soul, and those who see that spirit and allow such unchristlike work to go on unrebuked are themselves accountable for injury to their brethren.
It includes suspicious, malicious, harsh, hasty, and angry speech, persecuting brethren with the tongue through strong prejudice and jealousies, and mischief-making talk that hurts the soul, stirs up strife, and circulates scandal. Such talk is evil and self-deceiving, not doing God's work or will. It separates friends, creates suspicion and ill feeling, drives out the joy of the Lord from the church, greatly displeases God, pleases the enemy, and lessens influence for good in the church and in the world. The tongue must therefore be restrained and corrected, guarded in thought and feeling so that speech heals and unites and heaven can approve it.
It includes judging and speaking evil of fellow believers from a finite human standpoint, misinterpreting words and deeds, and being led astray by imagination and unsanctified feeling. Such unsanctified, unholy, un-Christlike work does great wrong, sows dissatisfaction, divides brethren, serves Satan as accuser, and reveals lack of self-understanding.
It includes hasty, harsh words that wound brothers and sisters, nurse supposed wrongs, stir dissatisfaction and bitterness, and tear down fellow workers, which must be confessed and not vindicated. Impatient, fretful, and quarrelsome words destroy family peace and happiness and can lead to the loss of eternal life, while God's restraint over words and temper brings peace, humility, and growth in grace to speaker and hearers. Hasty, harmful words can wound people for whom Christ died and dishonor God, shape the speaker's own thoughts and actions, and pride can keep someone from taking back a wrong decision. Coarse, unrefined speech dishonors the Spirit and can hinder people from being reached by the words of the Lord. The use of the tongue decides everlasting consequences.
Right Use of Speech
Speech is a precious, sacred gift and talent, a power for good or for evil, for which account must be given to God. When sanctified by the Holy Spirit it becomes a power for good, to be used in prayer and praise to God and in sharing the love of Christ and the truths of Scripture. Restrained by God, words and temper bring benefit to the speaker and to those around, bringing peace and humility and growth in grace, whereas impatient, fretful and quarrelsome words destroy family peace and happiness and can lead to loss of eternal life. With the tongue belonging to God and the heart cleansed as if touched with hot coals, speech comforts the discouraged, shows kindness, helps others to know Christ, persuades others, shares thoughts of the Redeemer's love, and carries the seeds of truth to many hearts.
Words should express gratitude and praise for God's goodness and mercy and love in giving His Son, and should help and encourage others in their Christian experience, and pure words of praise can convict unbelievers. Those serving God are to represent His character in dealings and actions toward one another, with justice, love, compassion, tenderness, liberality, courtesy and Christlike character, rather than using authority or harshness in ways that dishonor others. Speaking harshly dishonors God, while speech reflecting a changed, Christlike character builds one another up in the most holy faith and helps one another day by day to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ, and in that work closes the door to the enemy. Speech saved to comfort and encourage and bless, to heal and unite, brings love and true elevation and a better Christian experience. Used wisely and with good judgment, speech helps people live peaceably with others and becomes an influence for good, while harmful words separate friends, create suspicion and ill feeling, and drive out joy.
The use of the tongue decides everlasting consequences, so hasty, harsh words that wound brothers and sisters, nurse supposed wrongs, stir dissatisfaction and bitterness, and tear down fellow workers must be confessed and not vindicated. Reconciliation requires going alone to the one thought to have caused injury or to have been injured, removing all rubbish of disunion, healing old wounds with grace, humbling pride, clearing the way, and making straight paths so the lame are healed rather than turned aside. Ministers especially must build up and not tear down, speaking only words under the Holy Spirit that soften and subdue, bring peace and holiness, and leave no obstruction to corrode and break forth again. Charity is required, drawing nourishment from Christ the True Vine to bear genuine fruit, feeding on His Word which is Spirit and life, and using speech to help the weak in faith, strengthen the tempted, make straight paths for the feet, and save perishing souls.
The same mouth is used both to bless God the Father and to curse people who are made in God's likeness. Such double use is a contradiction that ought not to be, for cursing people dishonors God and is inconsistent with blessing Him because they bear His likeness. The tongue is therefore to be wholly governed, beginning with a sanctified heart cleansed and ruled by wisdom from above, with careful, prayerful guarding of thought, feeling, and word. The cursing condemned includes faultfinding, gossip and talebearing, accusation, evil surmising, sowing dissension, and harsh, hasty, angry words that wound, divide, and destroy. When sanctified by the Holy Spirit, speech becomes a sacred power for good, to praise God, to represent His character in justice, love, and compassion, and to comfort, encourage, heal, build up, and save others.
Contradiction in Speech
The same tongue or mouth is used both to bless God, even the Father, and to curse men who are made after the similitude or likeness of God. Speech that blesses God must not be turned to curse people made in His likeness, and this teaching belongs to the control of the tongue as a necessary guide for living out God's commandments and forming Christian character. The warning reaches how people treat one another, requiring those serving God to represent His character in their dealings rather than use authority in ways that dishonor others.
Such blessing and cursing from the same mouth is a contradiction and inconsistency that ought not to be. Using speech to curse people contradicts honoring God, and honoring Him while cursing them is inconsistent because they are made in His likeness. Words used to honor God and words used against people made in His likeness are in conflict, so blessing God while speaking evil of them is inconsistent. Hasty, harmful words can wound people for whom Christ died and dishonor God, and speaking harshly to others dishonors Him rather than reflecting a changed, Christlike character.
In this mixed use the tongue is untamed, an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Out of the same mouth blessing and cursing ought not to be, no more than a fountain can send forth sweet water and bitter at the same place, or a fig tree bear olive berries, or a fountain yield both salt water and fresh.
Made in God's Likeness
Human beings are made after the similitude or likeness of God. That likeness is the measure of what humanity was meant to be. God's people are therefore to be molded and fashioned after God's likeness, not after human ideas. Perfecting character after the divine similitude is a goal of Christian education. That call points to becoming like God in character.
That similitude is the pattern for character to be perfected now in preparation for receiving higher education in the school above. This calls for companies organized and educated most thoroughly to work as nurses, as evangelists, as ministers, as canvassers, and as gospel students.
Sinking deeply in sin causes that similitude to be lost. With it comes loss of the sense of eternal realities, so that sinners hardly know whether they have souls to be saved and have neither faith in God nor confidence in man. Because sin is the greatest of all evils, such sinners are to be pitied and helped. Many who have fallen this far can be reached only through acts of disinterested kindness. That kindness first cares for physical wants by feeding, cleansing, and decently clothing them, so that seeing evidence of unselfish love makes it easier for them to believe in the love of Christ.
The language about divine likeness warns that taking control of property one should not control is not conduct after that likeness.
Governing the Tongue
James 3:9, together with James 3:2-18, teaches the necessity of entirely controlling the tongue, the unruly member, by educating oneself in carefulness of words and acts instead of acting unfettered as if restraint is hypocrisy. The tongue can be used both to bless God and to curse people made in His likeness, and therefore it must be guarded.
Its truths must be carefully considered, laid to heart, and made the rule for forming character, with the Word of God carefully studied and carried out into daily life. It is a necessary guide for living out God's commandments and forming Christian character, and keeping the principles of the ten precepts of Jehovah is impossible without regarding what these verses teach. Speech that blesses God must not be used to curse people who are made in God's likeness.
Control must begin with the heart and be shaped by meekness, kindness, and wisdom from above, for blessing and cursing should not come from the same mouth. The tongue belongs to God and must be sanctified, beginning with the heart, since condemning suspicious or malicious speech against those made in His likeness shows blessing God while speaking evil of them to be inconsistent. It must be governed with good judgment and guarded in thought and feeling, for using speech wisely helps people live peaceably and makes speech an influence for good. The mind must be disciplined because words come from the heart, and excitable, unreflecting speech when the heart is not imbued with God's Spirit dishonors God and can cause mischief and harm. Constant care and restraint are therefore required, since speaking without reflection, purpose, or edifying intent can do harm, while silence and reflection may better honor Him.
Bridling the tongue requires prevailing prayer and strength from God to keep silent rather than answer unjust treatment in anger, since hasty or angry words can give temptation a victory. With Christ's help the mind can be disciplined and angry, hasty, hurtful speech resisted, for Christ met ridicule without sinning in His words.
To preserve peace and unity, harsh, contentious words that insist on personal opinions, preferences, and one's own way must be restrained. Such words create strife and dispute, wound others, hurt one's own soul and the souls of others, and leave wounds hard to heal. Unless a question of vital importance is involved, personal differences and individual preferences that would cause discord should not be introduced into conversation but kept quiet and told only to God, yielding one's own opinion rather than breaking unity. Even winning an argument or gaining one's point can place a burden on another far outweighing any advantage gained.
Forms of Cursing Speech
The cursing condemned is jealousy and faultfinding, talebearing and gossip, sowing seeds of dissension, stirring up strife, and busybody meddling with other men's matters. Such works are bitter envying and strife in the heart, earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom bringing confusion and every evil work, not the wisdom from above which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. They reveal decidedly that such a church member is not a branch of the true vine but is manifesting the attributes of Satan.
It includes being an accuser of the brethren by questioning and finding fault with everything and with every man's teaching and holding that no one is perfect. That course is standing on the devil's ground and turning the face from Jesus Christ. It gives the greatest evidence of the accuser's own imperfection of character. The remedy is to leave that ground, stop accusing others, and turn severe criticism upon self.
It includes bitter words, telling grievances, evil speaking, watching for evil, creating unjust suspicion, catching at supposed evil and feeding on it, presenting brethren in a distorted perverted light, and setting thoughts and tongue on fire over trifling matters. Such speech defiles souls, plants poisonous fibrous roots, creates suspicion and distrust, poisons faith, hinders the work of God, places His servants in the worst light, lays stumbling blocks before the feeble, and kills rather than restores. It makes men Satan's best agents, for Satan accuses the brethren day and night.
It includes envy, evil thinking, evil speaking, fault-finding, watching for evil, evil surmising, striving for supremacy, and demeriting others to build up self. Those sent as missionaries and all church members must not work in that spirit, for it sows seeds that produce a harvest of evils and closes the field. God will not work with them unless they humble their hearts, confess these sins, put away watching and evil surmising, and carefully discipline the imaginative faculties and the tongue.
It includes careless words spoken in doubt or accusation against others, which can injure minds and hearts and, like seed, produce unbelief and apostasy. It includes fault-finding words against fellow believers, which show distrust of God and damage Christian confidence and brotherly unity. It includes using the power of speech to tear one another down by finding fault, which becomes a great curse causing dissension and strife and doing Satan's work instead of representing the character of Christ. The one who gives himself up to finding fault neglects his own precious soul, and those who see that spirit and allow such unchristlike work to go on unrebuked are themselves accountable for injury to their brethren.
It includes suspicious, malicious, harsh, hasty, and angry speech, persecuting brethren with the tongue through strong prejudice and jealousies, and mischief-making talk that hurts the soul, stirs up strife, and circulates scandal. Such talk is evil and self-deceiving, not doing God's work or will. It separates friends, creates suspicion and ill feeling, drives out the joy of the Lord from the church, greatly displeases God, pleases the enemy, and lessens influence for good in the church and in the world. The tongue must therefore be restrained and corrected, guarded in thought and feeling so that speech heals and unites and heaven can approve it.
It includes judging and speaking evil of fellow believers from a finite human standpoint, misinterpreting words and deeds, and being led astray by imagination and unsanctified feeling. Such unsanctified, unholy, un-Christlike work does great wrong, sows dissatisfaction, divides brethren, serves Satan as accuser, and reveals lack of self-understanding.
It includes hasty, harsh words that wound brothers and sisters, nurse supposed wrongs, stir dissatisfaction and bitterness, and tear down fellow workers, which must be confessed and not vindicated. Impatient, fretful, and quarrelsome words destroy family peace and happiness and can lead to the loss of eternal life, while God's restraint over words and temper brings peace, humility, and growth in grace to speaker and hearers. Hasty, harmful words can wound people for whom Christ died and dishonor God, shape the speaker's own thoughts and actions, and pride can keep someone from taking back a wrong decision. Coarse, unrefined speech dishonors the Spirit and can hinder people from being reached by the words of the Lord. The use of the tongue decides everlasting consequences.
Right Use of Speech
Speech is a precious, sacred gift and talent, a power for good or for evil, for which account must be given to God. When sanctified by the Holy Spirit it becomes a power for good, to be used in prayer and praise to God and in sharing the love of Christ and the truths of Scripture. Restrained by God, words and temper bring benefit to the speaker and to those around, bringing peace and humility and growth in grace, whereas impatient, fretful and quarrelsome words destroy family peace and happiness and can lead to loss of eternal life. With the tongue belonging to God and the heart cleansed as if touched with hot coals, speech comforts the discouraged, shows kindness, helps others to know Christ, persuades others, shares thoughts of the Redeemer's love, and carries the seeds of truth to many hearts.
Words should express gratitude and praise for God's goodness and mercy and love in giving His Son, and should help and encourage others in their Christian experience, and pure words of praise can convict unbelievers. Those serving God are to represent His character in dealings and actions toward one another, with justice, love, compassion, tenderness, liberality, courtesy and Christlike character, rather than using authority or harshness in ways that dishonor others. Speaking harshly dishonors God, while speech reflecting a changed, Christlike character builds one another up in the most holy faith and helps one another day by day to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ, and in that work closes the door to the enemy. Speech saved to comfort and encourage and bless, to heal and unite, brings love and true elevation and a better Christian experience. Used wisely and with good judgment, speech helps people live peaceably with others and becomes an influence for good, while harmful words separate friends, create suspicion and ill feeling, and drive out joy.
The use of the tongue decides everlasting consequences, so hasty, harsh words that wound brothers and sisters, nurse supposed wrongs, stir dissatisfaction and bitterness, and tear down fellow workers must be confessed and not vindicated. Reconciliation requires going alone to the one thought to have caused injury or to have been injured, removing all rubbish of disunion, healing old wounds with grace, humbling pride, clearing the way, and making straight paths so the lame are healed rather than turned aside. Ministers especially must build up and not tear down, speaking only words under the Holy Spirit that soften and subdue, bring peace and holiness, and leave no obstruction to corrode and break forth again. Charity is required, drawing nourishment from Christ the True Vine to bear genuine fruit, feeding on His Word which is Spirit and life, and using speech to help the weak in faith, strengthen the tempted, make straight paths for the feet, and save perishing souls.