What We Still Can’t Do.
I recently read an article that began like this: “Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.”

American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes, “Words: So innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”

Austrian neurologist and psychotherapist, Sigmund Freud, also says, “Words have a magical power. They can either bring the greatest happiness or the deepest despair.”

While there are many things on which humanity will never agree, there are a few on which we do. One such point of agreement is this: words are powerful, and their power can either be manifested positively or negatively. They can be used to build up or tear down; to encourage or discourage; to create or to destroy.

James, under the inspiration of the Spirit, expresses this truth, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.” (James 3:9-10)

In the beginning of his letter, James reminds us that a “double-minded” person is “unstable in all they do.” Then, in chapter 3, James brings up a specific form of double-mindedness related to our words. James shows us that our speech can betray evidence of a heart that is not single-mindedly focused on the things of God. We cannot think that it is acceptable to bless God with our tongues and then use the same tongues to curse others. For all of us, male and female, are made in the image of God and reflect his glory and dignity, however imperfectly. Thus, when we curse others, we actually curse God.

Humanity has accomplished things that were unimaginable to the people of James’ day, but we still have not been able to do what he prophetically told us we couldn’t – “no human being can tame the tongue.”

Lord, have mercy. Can he help us? Of course He can.
May our prayer be…
“May the words of mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Love in Christ,

Pastor Dan