City Life Starter

I. The Word:

James 3:9-10 – “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.”

Romans 3:10-20

10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

11     there is no one who understands;

   there is no one who seeks God.

12 All have turned away,

   they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

   not even one.”

13 “Their throats are open graves;

   their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

14     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16     ruin and misery mark their ways,

17 and the way of peace they do not know.”

18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

By Stefan Johnsson

James states in chapter 3, verse 2 that we all stumble in many ways. I am sure that, as the younger brother of Jesus, he understood that he did not add up, that he was not perfect in many ways compared to Jesus.  As Paul points out in Romans chapter 3, there is no one righteous, not even one. Both James and Paul knows that there is no possible way that we will add up to perfection, that we will make mistakes. They saw their own flaws and knew that only in Jesus could they find forgiveness and salvation.

Both Paul and James focus on how our mouths can either praise God or curse others. In general, as humans, we tend to do the latter. Our words can do great harm, even if it is just one word in a day full of talking and texting. Paul says that our throats are open graves, our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness, and our tongues practice deceit.

Though we are not of this world, we are new creations through the renewal of the Holy Spirit, being born as new creations. We are to praise God with our lips and encourage those around us and not practice the habits of our old selves. We know this, yet…is this what we practice? What comes out of our mouths cause great harm and yet we try to praise God the next day. The hypocrisy is there and James says in verse 10, that this should not be.

Our tongue speaks what is in our hearts and if our thoughts are not dwelling on God, it will produce bad fruit. As Jesus said in Matthew 15:18, “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them”.  Our mouth and what we say has grave importance. Psalm 15 speaks on the adjectives of the mouth. As David asks in the psalms, who may live on God’s holy mountain?

Verse 2, “…who speaks the truth from their heart”

Verse 3, “whose tongue utters no slander…and casts no slur to others.

Verse 4, “…honors those who fear the Lord…who keeps an oath even when it hurts.

We will never add up to the perfection that our Lord Jesus had on Earth. Though, if we focus on his glory and praising Him, our mouths will start to encourage others instead of cursing them. We will seek to help others instead of putting them down. We will speak more of God’s love for us rather than seeking to find a flaw in another person.  The more we do this, the more our tongue will be tamed for the glory of God.

I have become more aware of my own words and flaws while dwelling on James chapter 3. This is one of the hardest parts of my own faith walk. I have received much forgiveness and second chances from people and I cannot be more thankful for this. All I can do is give others the same chance that I have been given in my personal relationships and hope that God will continually overflow in my life more than any faults that I have. May you also be forgiven for your mistakes and let the Lord shine in your life to those around you.