Bible Reading
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
James 3:7-12
James 3:7-12
Devotional
Have you ever met a person who does not have a filter when it comes to the way they talk? A person like this puts those around them on edge because they never know what to expect. With just a word or phrase, a person with no filter can create drama, offenses, and situations where bridges are burnt which would have been better left standing. In today's passage, James isn’t talking so much about our literal words as he is talking about the fruit of our lips. What is our speech producing, both in our lives and the lives of others? Our tongue holds the power of life and death because our words can have such dangerous real world effects. The issue is not the grammar of the words but the aftermath. Once those words leave your mouth, there is no going back. Your words can leave a dent in someone’s heart or help to repair the damage, though damage is much more easily created than repaired. We often don't understand or fully grasp the heaviness of our words or the value of wisely taking our time when we express a thought. Our words can be full of poison or sweet as figs.
The truth is that without Christ, we cannot hope to produce good fruit. We cannot expect our mouths to speak words that heal if our hearts have not been healed already. People speak what they know, and if they know only pain and hurt, they will speak pain and hurt. And if they don't know Christ, how can they speak the healing words of Christ? Jesus said that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. If there is anger and bitterness in our hearts, our mouths will speak insults and complaints. The reason the world speaks in such a selfish and cruel way is that their hearts are filled with that same selfishness, pride, and cruelty. The enemy has blinded them with darkness, and therefore, their hearts produce evil fruit by their tongues. They speak words that cut through your personhood and defame you. Words that put you down and eradicate your concept of self-worth. Words that prophecy falsely over your life and future. Words that are meant to intimidate and accuse you. Often, we can be led to take on and adopt this worldly form of speech as our own. The heart is renewed through Jesus and yet, we still fight the need to speak nasty and hurtful things to each other.
James desires that Christians act like they have been changed. We can no longer go back to our old ways of speaking. Our tongues, along with our whole bodies, now belong to Jesus and we are being sanctified to become more like him. As we spend more time with Jesus, we reflect Him more and our fruit becomes more holy. The fruit of our lips is to be like figs, sweet, but not just decoration. A tree looks great with good fruit hanging from its limbs, but the fruit is only as good as the sustenance it gives. We don’t bear fruit to look like Christians, we bear fruit because we are Christians and it’s in our new nature to let Jesus bless people through us. That is what sanctification is all about, letting Jesus take over every part of us so that the blessing of God can flow through us. If your tongue is only creating fires and bringing forth bitterness, bring it to Jesus. Through yielding every part of us to the Holy Spirit, we bear more fruit that can in turn bless others. We can speak words that not only speak life but encourage and empower others to also be fruitful. We can enliven people as they walk in the Lord, and not corrode them with saltwater streams. We can instead become the cool stream of water to someone else that helps fruit to grow in their lives.
The truth is that without Christ, we cannot hope to produce good fruit. We cannot expect our mouths to speak words that heal if our hearts have not been healed already. People speak what they know, and if they know only pain and hurt, they will speak pain and hurt. And if they don't know Christ, how can they speak the healing words of Christ? Jesus said that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. If there is anger and bitterness in our hearts, our mouths will speak insults and complaints. The reason the world speaks in such a selfish and cruel way is that their hearts are filled with that same selfishness, pride, and cruelty. The enemy has blinded them with darkness, and therefore, their hearts produce evil fruit by their tongues. They speak words that cut through your personhood and defame you. Words that put you down and eradicate your concept of self-worth. Words that prophecy falsely over your life and future. Words that are meant to intimidate and accuse you. Often, we can be led to take on and adopt this worldly form of speech as our own. The heart is renewed through Jesus and yet, we still fight the need to speak nasty and hurtful things to each other.
James desires that Christians act like they have been changed. We can no longer go back to our old ways of speaking. Our tongues, along with our whole bodies, now belong to Jesus and we are being sanctified to become more like him. As we spend more time with Jesus, we reflect Him more and our fruit becomes more holy. The fruit of our lips is to be like figs, sweet, but not just decoration. A tree looks great with good fruit hanging from its limbs, but the fruit is only as good as the sustenance it gives. We don’t bear fruit to look like Christians, we bear fruit because we are Christians and it’s in our new nature to let Jesus bless people through us. That is what sanctification is all about, letting Jesus take over every part of us so that the blessing of God can flow through us. If your tongue is only creating fires and bringing forth bitterness, bring it to Jesus. Through yielding every part of us to the Holy Spirit, we bear more fruit that can in turn bless others. We can speak words that not only speak life but encourage and empower others to also be fruitful. We can enliven people as they walk in the Lord, and not corrode them with saltwater streams. We can instead become the cool stream of water to someone else that helps fruit to grow in their lives.