The mere mention of delight tends to change our mood. It lifts our thoughts to things that make us feel good. Yesterday I walked out on our deck , it was 62 degrees. I took a deep breath of the fresh fall air, looked around at the cool refreshing water of the lake, and instantly my soul was filled with a song. I wanted to shout, “How Great Thou Art.” For me, this was a delight. It was an energizing change from the hot, humid atmosphere that had hovered over, and around us for months.
In James 3:9-12 he turns the corner of the destruction of the tongue to how it can be a delight. How our tongues can be used to bless or curse, but both cannot be evident of the same tongue unless we are a hypocrite.
James 3:9-13 “Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.”
James then proceeds to show how two different types of water cannot come from the same fountain. How a tree cannot bear two different kinds of fruit. These are warnings! If the tongue is inconsistent there is something radically wrong with the heart. A tongue that blesses the Father, and turns around and curses men that are made in the image of God, has a desperate need for spiritual medicine.
What is the culprit of this kind of behavior? The heart. Jeremiah 17:9 describes the heart, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” So much of the time we don’t even know our own heart, or what it is capable of doing. The medicine for this is to fill our hearts with God’s Word, to yield to the Holy Spirit, then God can use us to bring delight to others.
One of the smallest parts of our body is the largest troublemaker. The tongue! However, it does not have to be that way! If we are submissive to the Holy Spirit this part of our body can bring great blessings. It can tell people of the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It can speak words of encouragement to those who are suffering, and to those who seemingly have no hope. God created the tongue to be a blessing, to reveal the truth of who he is. But, sin changed the nature of man. However, Jesus gives hope, not just for eternity, but for the here and now! Through him, we can once again do what God designed our tongues to do. Our words can be a delight to others and to God. What a great opportunity to be the fuel that ignites a fire that turns hearts toward God. The tongue is like our eternity, there are two options, and it is our decision which choice we make.
