How come we can so quickly switch from praising God to cursing his image-bearers?
- We praise God in church then attack his image in the parking lot
- We praise God in our devotions then attack his image on Facebook
- We praise God at work but then attack his image in the coffee room
Do you feel the inconsistency? Do you want your tongue to be more consistent, steady, and uniform? Do you want a one-faced rather than a two-faced tongue? Let’s see how James addresses this contradiction in James 3:9-12 and helps us to be more consistent
NATURE CANNOT PRODUCE OPPOSITES (11-12)
- A spring gushes salt or fresh water (11)
- A tree can only bear its own fruit (12a)
- A salt pond cannot supply fresh water (12b)
That’s a great nature lesson, but what’s it got to do with me?
OUR TONGUE SHOULD NOT PRODUCE OPPOSITES (9-10)
- Our tongues bless our Lord and Father (9a)
- Our tongues curse divine image-bearers (9b)
- These things should not be (10)
Do you see how the consistency of nature exposes the inconsistency of our tongues?
LIVING THE BIBLE
Use nature to teach your tongue to bless God and his image-bearers.
PRAYING THE BIBLE
We praise you our God and love to praise you. But we confess that we often curse your image-bearers and that we sometimes enjoy doing that too. Indeed, we can quickly switch from praising you to cursing your image-bearers
Your creation shows us that opposites cannot come out of the same thing. Therefore stop our tongues from producing the polar opposites of blessing God and cursing God’s image-bearers.
We thank you for Jesus Christ who died under your curse so that we can be blessed. Amen
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