by Rose Murdock

"Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?"  James 3:11

This verse is talking about our words.  Back at the beginning of the chapter he begins a discussion about the tongue.  He compares how we put bits in horse’s mouths so we can direct them where to go (verse 3).  And then he talks about big ships with great winds blowing against them, yet they are steered with a very small rudder (verse 4).  In the same way, our tongue is a very small part of our body but, if untamed, it will take us where we don’t want to go.  We may be heading in one direction but our words are the thing that will take us to a place no matter how much we want to go somewhere else!  No matter how much effort we put into doing something (or not doing something), our tongue is the thing that will determine where we go!

The horse is taken where he doesn’t want to go by a bit in his mouth, the ship is steered against the fierce winds by a rudder and we are taken to where we end up going by the words we speak!

"If any man offend (err) not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle (control or restrain) the whole body."  James 3:2.

If you do not err in your words, you are able to control or restrain your whole body.  In other words, If you’re speaking the right thing you’ll end up doing the right thing and you’ll end up going to the right place.

He goes on in verses 5 and 6 of chapter 3 and says how even though the tongue is a little part of our body it’s a world of iniquity.  It defiles our whole body.  It sets on fire the course of nature (or our life, existence, origin), and it’s set on fire of hell.  The untamed tongue is set on course by hell.  The devil wants control of your tongue!  The tongue is a dangerous thing.  Why?  Because it’s so powerful!  If it didn’t have so much power then it wouldn’t be so dangerous.  But because our words have the power to determine the course of our life our tongue can be dangerous!

He says two different things the tongue does.  One is it defiles the whole body and the other is that it determines the course of our life.

"And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." James 3:6

We can see that our tongue defiles us when we are trying hard to not do something, (sin), and we keep messing up and doing it.  Look at your words.  Your words are leading you back into that sin.  If hell is setting your tongue on fire then it will lead you to sin, death and hell.

We can see that our tongue sets our course of nature (or the course of our life), when we’re trying to go a certain direction or do a certain thing according to the Word of God or the leading of the Lord and we can’t seem to do it.  Again, look at what you’ve been saying.  Your words may be leading you to another place.  Our words will lead us to where we don’t want to go if we allow them to.  Our tongues need to be tamed!

"But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."  James 3:8

No man can tame the tongue.  What does that tell us?  No man can do it.  We can’t do it without God.  By ourselves we can’t tame our tongue.  Our own carnal words aren’t going to cut it.  Jesus gave us some insight into taming the tongue by telling us that our hearts, or our inward nature, have something to do with the words we speak.

"Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."  Matthew 12:33-34

Jesus is telling us that the condition of our heart will determine what will come out of our mouth.  The sin nature we were born with causes us to have a wild untamed tongue that will take us places we really don’t want to go.  But once we are born again we have the nature of God within us and, through Him, we can control our tongue.  We have been given the Word of God to speak and by speaking God’s Word we are allowing Him to direct our whole lives!

James says in James 3:12; How can the fig tree bear olives or a vine figs?  A fig tree will bear figs.  A good tree will bring forth good fruit.  There has to be that new nature within in order for there to be any way of good coming out (Notice in Matthew that the Pharisees thought they were saying good things but Jesus told them they weren’t).

So how do I tame my tongue?  First of all, by your inward nature being changed into God’s nature.  You need to be born again.  Romans 10:9-10 says that we need to confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead and we will be saved.  It takes both the believing in the heart and the confessing with the mouth to be saved.

Once your inward nature has been changed, you have become a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), and you, as a ‘good tree’ will begin to bring forth good fruit as you yield to that new nature within you.  Your new nature has been born again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23).  But you still have a choice of whether you will allow your tongue to be controlled by the Word of God or by hell.

James 3:8 says the tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.  What does poison do?  It takes something that was intended for good and contaminates it so it causes harm instead.  God has intended for us to speak words of life but we poison our words and speak death instead if we don’t speak like He speaks.

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue…"  Proverbs 18:21

James explains how we poison our words by blessing God and then cursing men (who are made in the likeness of God).  (James 3:9)   He says that out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing and that this ought not be so! (vs. 10).

"Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?"  James 3:11

No, We need to be consistent in speaking words of life.  We need to bless God and bless people.  We need to consistently talk like God does.  To say what His Word says about us and everyone else.

Some time ago I had been having a particularly difficult time with the words of my mouth.  I had been struggling with wanting to say a lot of things that I knew were wrong.  It seemed like people were aggravating me and if I didn’t want to say anything to their face I at least wanted to talk behind their back!  I was keeping my mouth shut but I was struggling with it so much that I finally asked the Lord about it.  His reply was that I was trying very hard to not speak anything bad, or words of death, but that I needed to begin to speak good things, or words of life.  And He reminded me of this scripture about the sweet water and bitter.  He said, "You’re trying to stop up the fountain all together and you can’t do that.  Something is going to come out and it needs to be words of life.  It’s not enough to stop speaking the bad, you need to start speaking the good!"

We need to quit mixing the sweet and bitter waters so that blessing and cursing are not coming out of the same mouth.  And we also need to not just quit speaking the bitter but also start speaking the sweet.  Start speaking the Word of God because His Word is sweeter than honey!  (see Psalm 19:7-10).

"…so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh."  James 3:12

This is where we as Christians need to realize that once we are born again and have His life and nature within us we can’t afford to speak both death and life, good and bad, sweet and bitter or salt and fresh.  We wonder why God doesn’t answer our prayers sometimes yet do we listen to what we are saying?  We hear that our words are supposed to have power and yet it’s by the grace and mercy of God that we don’t get everything we say.  If we want to see more results in the words that we speak then we need to consistently allow that sweet water to flow out.  We need to be consistent about it.  Consistent not in what our old carnal nature controlled by hell would say.  But what our new nature controlled by the Word of God would say.

Remember when James and John asked Jesus if He wanted them to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans who wouldn’t receive Jesus?  Jesus said, No, you don’t know what manner of spirit you are of (Luke 9:51-56).

Instead of speaking what we think is the right thing, we need to do as Jesus did and speak the Words of the Father.

"For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak."  John 12:49

As we yield to the Spirit of God within us, and allow Him to direct our words, we will be a fountain that consistently yields the sweet water of God’s Word and then we will see those words taking us in the direction God intends for us to go.  When our words line up with God’s Word our lives will become what they were intended by Him to become!

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