James 3:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Apostle wishes to move his hearers. If we are commanded to bless all, for revilers will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:10), how is it not shameful to use one and the same instrument for evil and for good?

Let nothing grievous proceed from a mouth deemed worthy of such divine initiation concerning God. Let the tongue say nothing contrary to the Divine. Let us keep it pure and not utter curses through it. If revilers will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:10), how much more those who curse.

By these words, Saint Mitrophanes interprets, the divine James shows a double and surpassing degree of sin.

The first is that from one and the same member, that is, from the tongue, two things opposed to one another proceed: blessing and cursing.

The other, and this is great, is that both blessing and cursing, proceeding from the same mouth, refer to one and the same God and Father. The blessing does so directly, and the curse indirectly, through the image of God, which is man.

"And God said, Let Us make man according to Our image and likeness" (Gen 1:26). Therefore, whoever honors by word the man made according to God's image and likeness honors God.

“From the same mouth,” and so forth. This repeats the thought of the preceding verse for emphasis, expressing astonishment at such unnatural use of the tongue. “These things ought not to be so”: such opposites must not be joined together. They are unnatural, quite apart from their inconsistency with the law of God.

Wishing to move Christians toward the good use of the tongue, the apostle points to it as a lofty gift. It is appointed for the great work of rational praise of God.

God has sealed in us a certain likeness of Himself, and this likeness must be attained through the proper use of this divine gift. But if cursing also proceeds from the mouth, this is a clear departure from the true order of things.

This ought not to be, just as sweet and bitter water do not flow from one spring. Nor do different trees bear fruits contrary to their kind and likeness (cf. Mt 7:16).

"No prudent man will mix mud and myrrh with the same instrument," says blessed Theophylact.

The tongue, itself inflamed by Gehenna, that is, by the devil, the father of every lie and unrighteousness, cannot be bridled by man's own efforts.

Only with the help of divine grace can a man tame his tongue. Calling Christians to this, the apostle points to the extreme unnaturalness of what is observed among men.

With one and the same tongue we bless God and the Father, and with it we curse men made according to the likeness of God. "Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so" (vv. 9-10).

In nature, a fig tree does not bear olives, nor a vine figs. Nor does salt water and sweet flow from one spring.