This Ought NOT to Be!

James 3:8-12 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. (9) Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. (10) Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. (11) Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? (12) Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. 

James decides that controlling our speech is so important that he makes it a topic for the second time in this short epistle.  His perspective this time is quite compelling.

James says that we praise God with our mouths and the turn right around and curse man with the same mouth.  Like our hearts and minds, our mouths ought to have a singular focus.  Either it be used for what ever WE want, or we must learn to control it and use it to glorify God, both by praising him and by encouraging others.

To think that we can mindlessly use foul language, tell lies, tell inappropriate jokes and beat people down by the way that we speak to them, all the while professing to be Christians is nothing short of hypocrisy!  We are destroying our influence and credibility among those in the world and in the church!

Matthew 23:23-28 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (24) Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. (25) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. (26) Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. (27) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. (28) Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 

If we cannot find a way of controlling what comes out of our mouths, we are only fooling ourselves by thinking that we are faithfully following God.