James 3:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Consider what this member is. It is the member by which we converse with God and by which we offer praise to Him. It is the member by which we receive the dread Sacrifice.

The faithful know what I mean. Therefore it must be pure from every judgment, reproach, foul speech, and slander.

If any impure thought is born in us, we must suppress it within and not allow it to pass into words. If faintheartedness compels you to murmur, this root also must be destroyed.

The door must be held firmly and guarded strictly. We must not permit corrupt desires to be born. When they begin to arise, we must suppress them within and dry them up at the very root.

This also must be understood in interrogative form, as with what follows: “From the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.”

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.

Christians must remember that they invoke, sing, and praise the holy and fearful name of God. How will they invoke the great and holy name of God with the same tongue they defile by shameful speech, foul language, foolish talk, mockery, oaths, blasphemy, slander, and every other stench? They must also remember that they partake of the most pure Body and Blood of Christ. How will they receive that Holy Thing into their mouth, I say, into a mouth defiled by rotten and stinking words? Attend to this diligently, unbridled tongue, that you may invoke the name of God without condemnation and partake of the Holy Mysteries.

“With it we bless God,” and so forth. The Apostle points especially to two actions performed by the tongue. They are opposed to one another, and when set side by side they appear wholly unnatural. Yet they occur precisely because the tongue is unbridled. These actions are the glorification and praise of God (Ps 144:21), and the cursing of men, that is, wishing every evil upon them. Yet these men are created in the image of God. This expression strengthens the thought that such action toward God and men is unnatural. What is meant here is an undeserved curse, a curse born of personal passion instead of Christian forgiveness of one’s neighbors, as ought to be the case.

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.

Suppose you were testing a man whom you intended to receive into your house. Suppose he spent a few minutes doing what you entrusted to him, then for a whole day, or longer, turned to what pleased him.

Suppose that what pleased him was displeasing to you and contrary to the order of your house. Would you receive him?

How then can one think that the all-holy God cares less than we do for His eternal house, the heavenly city of His Kingdom, where "nothing unclean shall enter" (Rev 21:27)?

How can one think that He will be pleased with a man who remembers Him for a moment, and forgets Him for a whole day, or even many days?

How will He be pleased with one who fasts somehow for a few days, and then gives himself over to intemperance for a year?