Please Help Us Keep These Thousands of Blog Posts Growing and Free for All

$5.00

From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. (James 3:10)

From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. This can be taken in two different ways. First, it could be saying that we get a blessing from one and cursing from the other out of the mouth of two different men. Second, it could be saying that we get both blessings and cursing out of the mouth of one man. Both are undoubtedly true. And they are inappropriate and wrong for anyone cursing (κατάρα katara) another. Cursing someone is appealing to some superhuman power in hopes that harm or something terrible comes to them. No Christian should use his mouth to curse another. Instead, it should be used for saying things that are just, compassionate, kind, generous, and good. Some Christians have gotten control over their mouth, and we find blessings coming from them, while others have mostly harmful and negative things to say about others. And it is also true that some Christians walk on the edge because they praise their Creator and curse their fellow man with the same mouth. After one has a spiritual moment at church, the Christian dives off after the service with the feelings of hatred and evil in his heart, and the words of a slanderer, gossiper, or even blasphemy on his lips.

My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Blessing and cursing out of the same mouth is the same as fresh sweet water and bitter water coming from the same fountain, or for an apple tree to produce oranges. It is absurd.

Yes, two things nothing like each other can come from the same tongue, one a blessing, the other a curse. The primary point of James is that Christians should not be praising God and then curse others who were in the likeness of God. The only curses that Christians should utter are those that have been recorded in his Word. Even then, we cannot direct those curses toward any person because there is but one judge, Jesus Christ. Even if Christians are alone, they should not utter something evil toward another or even in their own heart. Think of the hypocrisy of standing in a Christian service singing praises to God, then on the car ride home together, they say something evil, gossip, revile, or slander someone. This will place the reviler in bad standing with God, causing God to draw away from him.

When we think of cursing another or calling down evil upon him, not to mention associated wrongs, such as badmouthing, malicious gossip, cruel criticism, and slander, would make known the presence of a depraved heart (inner person). As Jesus said, “How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matt. 12:34) If we are honest with ourselves, using the God-given gift of speech in such an unpredictable way is at odds with why God gave us the ability to speak in the first place. But also, we would not only be at odds with this divine will of God to evangelize to everyone, love our neighbor, and pray for our enemy, it would also be a blatant, glaring, grave absurdity.