32. Forked Tongue

Meditations in James: 32 : Forked Tongue

Jas 3:9-12      With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

We don’t seem to have many Western films these days, especially those showing American Indians, now referred to as native Americans, but when I was young it was the day of the Western and the ‘Indians’ were both warlike and noble. Thus they had codes of honour and truth was one of them.  When they encountered a white man who they believed was lying to them, they spoke the immortal phrase, “White man speak with forked tongue.”  The picture of a tongue that speaks two different things is a good picture and it’s one that James now picks up on in his teaching about the use of the tongue.

He has spoken of the tongue being the thing that directs our path through life, a thing that though small has the potential to wreak havoc, and yet a thing that is impossible to tame, and now he focuses on the ability we seem to have of being able to speak good and bad from the same mouth.  He starts off pointing out that Christians have this awful ability to praise God one minute and curse people, who are part of God’s design, the next.  Here we have our Christian on a Sunday morning, singing for all their worth, joining in the worship whole-heartedly and, in some circles, raising holy hands and perhaps even dancing.  When you look at them you think what a spiritual person they must be.  But follow them home, follow them into the school, college or workplace the next day, follow them through the week and watch what they do and watch what they say. Here they are in a discussion at home about the neighbours who they are roundly condemning for a variety of reasons. True, these may not be Christians they are talking about, but they are still part of God’s creation, and the sadness it that they haven’t come to know Jesus as their Saviour yet, but we don’t see it like that and so we demean them in our conversation.  It’s tantamount to cursing them.

Then there’s the conversation in the classroom or office about someone senior in the place.  We don’t like them, or they’re not very good at their job, and in our talk we pull them down.  We don’t feel sorry for them and we haven’t prayed for them, we just pull them down in our talking, and it’s tantamount to cursing them.

This, says James should not happen, and to put weight to that declaration he illustrates it.  Stop and think about it, is what he is implying.  If you have a spring of water, can pure water and salt water come out of the same spring? No, of course not!  And if we still haven’t got the message, he adds in a further illustration. Can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? No of course not.  These things go against nature.  They are not designed that way, and so it should be with the mouth. We should not be saying good things one minute and bad the next.

Solomon gave us an interesting proverb: “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Prov 18:21).  First of all he notes the power of the tongue.  With your tongue you can bring either ‘life’ or ‘death’.  You bring life by leading someone to the Lord, or by sharing His love with them.  That person is blessed by what has happened to them because of what you have said.  But you can say wrong things and lead people into low places of depression, anxiety, fear or even temptation.  You can lead them into a place of spiritual or even literal death, by the use of your tongue. But implies Solomon, depending on the direction of your heart, you will love that use of your tongue and as a result of using it in that way you will reap the fruits of that – either life or death.  If you joy in bringing blessing to other people by the use of your tongue, you will be blessed. If you enjoy using your tongue to pull down others, you will be cursed and will pull yourself down. But Solomon saw it as one or the other.  You cannot joy in both things, and in that he is saying the same as James.

Perhaps there is one further facet of this we should consider to ensure we are wise in our understanding.  Equated with this are truth and lies. For instance Solomon said, “He who rebukes a man will in the end gain more favor than he who has a flattering tongue.” (Prov 28:23). He saw that sometimes rebuking a person is a good thing. Telling someone off or pulling them up, for having done something wrong, is a good thing. We shouldn’t see the good use of the tongue as being only saying nice, comfortable words, because sometimes those words are not appropriate. If you flatter someone and in fact they have been doing wrong, then your words were not appropriate. Truth is a key element to be considered with our words. We should not be speaking truth one minute and untruth the next. Somehow we are to speak truth all the time. Perhaps that is why Paul refers to “speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15). Perhaps there are times when we need to seek the Lord for His wisdom (Jas 1:5) to know how we are to say corrective things that build up rather than pull down.

These are just a variety of ways that we can let ourselves down and fail the Lord. These are things He wants us to think through and work on. The tongue, as we have been seeing, has the potential to guide us, or bring destruction. It is only changed when our heart of changed and it should not be bringing good one minute and bad the next. Our tongue has the capability of speaking truth with love and bringing the wonderful love of God, and therefore His blessing in to many people’s lives. “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life.” (Prov 10:11). May it be like that with us all the time! Ask the Lord to help you be that each day.