James 3:9-12, Blessings, and curses from the same mouth

You ever have a conversation with someone, and you get mixed messages; their mouth says one thing, but their body language and attitude is saying something completely different. You don’t know whether to believe what you were just told or not and the conversation does nothing but leave you confused. Mixed messages are what James speaks of in verses 9-12 when he says that from one mouth blessings and curses should not flow. One shouldn’t praise God in one breath and then curse their neighbor in the next breath, those things don’t align with each other and cause confusion. James has spoken heavily of the how the tongue is a powerful member of the body and here lets us know that the way a believer uses their tongue is very crucial. A spring doesn’t produce both fresh and salt water and a Christians tongue shouldn’t produce both righteous and unrighteous conversations.

Ephesians 4:29 says that we should let no corrupt communication come from our mouths and that our communication should be used to edify and uplift others. Other scriptures in the New Testament says that our speech should always be clean and point others to God. (Matthew 5:11, Colossians 4:6, Ephesians 5:4, etc.) When as believers we allow corrupt communication to come from our mouths all we are doing is sending mixed messages to this world as to who we serve. The words we speak should always point those we are speaking to, towards our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we stated in earlier blogs on this chapter what is in our hearts should be guiding and governing our tongues. Fresh and salt water cannot flow from the same spring.