Our Duplicitous Tongues

August 7th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

James 3:9-12 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. 11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

The unstable nature of the tongue is its ability to “bless” (i.e., “praise”) God—our Lord and Father, in one breath and curse men in the next. Interestingly, James does not say that man blesses God one second and curses Him the next; rather, he says that cursing humans, made in God’s image, is the same as cursing God Himself. Though man was indeed made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26; 9:6), that image was marred when man sinned. In spite of this, mankind still has communion with God and is able to reason, act morally, express emotions, and have a personal will—all of which are indicative of creatures made in God’s image. Therefore, when one man denigrates another, he is actually cursing God by proxy.

James did not specifically fault man for cursing common things, or even animals, but by highlighting how man curses his fellow man, he once again shows how he deplores double-mindedness—the sin of those who claim to love God while at the same time following in the ways of the world (1:8; cf. 4:8). Therefore, James is resolved to stress the importance that Christians rise above it. As faith without works is dead (2:14-26), a believer with an unstable tongue lacks the necessary works to vindicate his faith. A professed believer simply cannot continue in the Christian faith while at the same time denigrating his fellow man.

In Judaism, all who were disobedient to God were considered cursed while those who obeyed Him were blessed (Deut. 26 & 28). Those outside the Jewish faith were not only considered cursed, they were often verbally cursed by self-righteous Jews. Since James mentions this issue, the problem seems to have been prevalent in the early Church. In fact, Peter is a prime early example of one who confessed Christ as the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), yet just a short while later, when asked if he knew Jesus, he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the man!” (Matt. 26:74). Likewise, Paul, who when falsely accused by the high priest Ananias, let his tongue get the best of him, calling him a “whitewashed wall” (Acts 23:3). Though Peter and Paul became stalwarts of the faith, even they struggled with their tongues.

What James explains is that blessing God, giving Him the sacrifice of praise (Heb. 13:15), is the highest form of human speech. In contrast, cursing human beings is the lowest. In Judaism, the curse called upon God to keep blessings away from others and consign them to nothing but misery. Jesus, however, forbade His disciples from cursing anyone. Instead, we are to “bless those who curse you” (Luke 6:28; cf. Matt. 15:11, 17-20; Rom. 12:14). For a Christian to curse another man is as hypocritical and absurd as a fresh water spring pouring forth both fresh water and bitter (i.e., “salt”) water (v. 11); it is as absurd as a fig tree producing olives or a vine producing figs (v. 12). Bad things do not produce good things, and one kind of thing does not produce another kind of thing. Now although a man is not a tree or a stream of water, indeed it is as unbecoming a follower of Jesus Christ to curse another human being as it is absurd that a clear sky should produce rain. James essentially says, it “ought not be this way!”

Food For Thought
Be careful watching or reading the daily news, and watch out when your candidate is beaten by the hated opponent. These situations tempt us to curse others made in God’s image rather than blessing God for our freedom. Let us rather seek to bless both in our actions and with our words.