With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the image of God.Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God:
3 sermons cite this verse
… the half brother of Jesus wrote the book of James. James three, verses nine through 10. With the tongue, we praise, wheels on, our Lord and Father, and with it, we curse, wheels off, men who've been made in God's likeness out of the same mouth. Is this convicting? Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this shouldn't be. So if you want to alliterate this outline, if you want to alliterate the cussers, you got the clueless, the capricious, and you have the callous swearer. But let's keep with category two just for one second. Okay, if you are a capricious cusser, many of you are, What do you do about it? Well, the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 12, verse two, that we could be transformed by the renewing of our mind. So it's a mind issue. And please don't take this message out of context. This message is not, don't cuss. If you think that's this message, you're totally missing it. This is a heart issue. …
… With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing, my brothers, this should not be. Now, are you going to be better off if you know that? No question you would be. The Word is the fuel that God gives us. Why did He say in Psalm 119, How can a young man keep his way pure by living according to your word? Two verses later, I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not do what? Sin against you. This is the fuel that we have in becoming fully devoted followers of Christ and in showing Christ and teaching Christ. If we try to do it apart from the word, we will fail miserably. We are foolish to think that we can live this Christian life and accomplish this mission apart from his word. His truth sanctifies us in the world. We need his word. You will not get sanctification from TV and DVDs and internet. You will not get sanctification from all those things. You will find sanctification in the word. We've got to have. So we value his word as gift and we experience those effects. Now that mainly deals with how we follow Christ as disciples of Christ. We value His Word. We're seeing the example of Jesus here. But how does this look now, not just in my life, but in others' lives? …
It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. The tongue is an instrument of hell. It starts fires. We know that. Let's go back to Ephesians then, kind of wrap it up. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth." No abusive speech. Down in verse 4 of chapter 5, no filthiness, no silly talk, no coarse jesting, dirty jokes which are not fitting. But rather, back to verse 29, only such a word as is good, agathos again, only such a word as is good, noble, pleasing. And how is something deemed to be good? Well, there are three ways. It is good for edification. That is to say, it is good to build up someone. In other words, your words all ought to be uplifting. They ought to be illuminating. They ought to be instructive. They ought to be enlightening. They ought to bring to people the truth that helps them understand better, know better, live better. …