Articles
A Double-tongued Man
“With it [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way” (3:9-10).
In an earlier discussion James made reference to “a double-minded man” (1:8). Now at the conclusion of his paragraph about the tongue he condemns what we would call “a double-tongued man”; or sometimes we say “two-faced.”
This is the man who tells his wife he loves her, then a short time later he is harshly cutting her down. It is the man who tells the preacher he had a good lesson today, then on the way home bemoans how long and dry it was. It is the man who offers prayers at church on Sunday and spouts profanity at work on Monday. It is the man who sings about his faith in God but constantly complains about his lot in life. It is the man who says he is willing to help but consistently says no to every specific request.
A. T. Robertson effectively expressed the problem in historical terms: “We make our tongue a sort of combination of Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.”
The problem, of course, is not the tongue itself; it is the heart, the source of our communication. James notes that. “Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh” (vv. 11-12).
Conflicting speech reflects a conflicted heart. That is where the cleanup must begin. Jesus observed, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart” (Luke 6:45).
