Dirty Words

James 3:9-10 James returns to the theme of double-mindedness (from chapter 1), specifically in the context of conversation. Of all of James’ commands, I would imagine modern readers can most easily relate to the sin behind these exhortations. Each of us can identify with our own hypocrisy in the manner in which we both bless God and curse man. Indeed, I would not be surprised to learn that the way in which people speak to one another is even more problematic now than in James’ day. We condone verbal abuse partly because of positive modern societal ideals such as the equality of all people and the freedom of speech, ideals that were not shared in the first century. Any man woman or child in America can curse any other person from sunrise to sundown with little consequences. However in James’ day, an impoverished woman could not hurl epithets at a wealthy merchant or government official with no fear of repercussion. Based upon the honor code of James’ community-minded culture, men of equal status could not even confront one another without the risk of being shunned (not exiled but shamed) by each one’s own community. You could not so much as publicly ask another man a question without it being viewed as a contest to determine who has the highest status. Thus, I would assume that verbal attacks were much less common.

Yet, James broaches the subject of language quite a bit. Specifically, in these verses, he points to the hypocrisy of both cursing and blessing via words as a proof of immaturity. These things should not be this way. It is wrong. And for modern readers, it is an area in which we need to trade our perspective for God’s perspective. In other words, we must understand that cursing others, because they are just as loved by their Creator God as we are, is unacceptable. Instead of viewing verbal attacks as minimal offenses that God cares little about, we must change our perspective so that we approach conversational abuse with the seriousness that God sees it. You wouldn’t kiss your mother with that mouth, and God certainly doesn’t want your worship to come from it either.

-Matt