James 3:9-12

The tongue is quite an interesting thing. James describes it as being used to both bless our Lord, and also to curse people. The ironic thing is that people are made in the image of God, but we curse those very same people while blessing the God who made them all. If blessing and cursing comes from the same tongue, it just doesn't make sense. Sure, we see people do that every day, including ourselves. However, this is the kind of thing that shouldn't be happening. To emphasize his point, James uses a couple of illustrations. First of all, springs of water do not act this way. A spring of water doesn't spout both fresh and salt water at the same time. In addition, trees also properly coincide with their vegetation. Fig trees bear figs, and grapevines bear grapes. It wouldn't make sense for a fig tree to bear grapes or for a grapevine to bear figs. The last illustration is similar to the first, describing how it doesn't make sense for a salt pond to produce fresh water. In the same way, it doesn't make sense for a tongue to spout both blessings and curses with regards to God and his creation.