PURIFY THE DISPENSER! – James 3:9-12

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 6, 2012 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group; June 6, 2012

James 3:9-12

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

It used to be that, whenever you went to a fast-food restaurant and requested a cup of water with your meal, the water would come to you with a dingy orange color. It looked dirty. If you watched the person behind the counter, though, you would have discovered why your water came in that unappetizing way. The water was being poured out of the same beverage dispenser that dispensed the orange soda. If you asked the person behind the counter to run the water for a few seconds—to clear out the orange soda from the dispenser—before they gave it to you, you wouldn’t get something you didn’t want mixed in with something you did want. Similarly, God wants some things from us; but He want them to be contaminated with things He doesn’t want. What He wants from us is our praise. What He doesn’t want is for that praise to be contaminated by having come from a “dispenser” that also pours forth unwholesome speech.

In the third chapter of his letter, Pastor James continues his instructions regarding the use of our tongues. And in James 3:8-12, he gives a call for us to ‘purify the dispenser’. He is speaking to believers; and he exhorts us that it’s God’s desire that our lips be purified from what displeases Him; so that what comes out of our mouths will be consistently pleasing to Him—with no impurities mixed in with our praises.

Note how he shows us that . . .

I. OUR TONGUES ARE INCONSISTENT BEFORE GOD (vv. 9-10a).

A. In verse 2-7, James stressed that our tongues are humanly impossible to control. And because of that, they are inconsistent. They sometimes produce good things, and sometimes produce bad things. What’s more, because of our fallenness, the bad they produce is very bad! In verse 8, he calls our tongues “an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” As believers, we’re certainly not immune to this. We may desire to do good with our tongues and use them in a way that’s consistent with God’s holy standards; but the principle of sin abides in us and wages war against that desire (Romans 7:22-23). We seek to offer praises to God through our mouth; and yet, we defile the same mouth with the sin that so displeases Him.

B. James describes our inconsistent use of our tongue this way: “With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing” (vv. 9-10a).

1. In his massive book, A Christian Directory, the great Puritan pastor Richard Baxter argued that merely ‘restraining’ our tongues from doing evil was not enough; and that we also needed to understand several holy “duties” of the tongue. He suggest such duties as to glorify God by magnifying His name; to sing praise to Him, to give Him thanks, to pray for others, to swear by His name to tell the truth, to make covenants and vows before Him, to preach the word, to defend the truth against falsehood, to exhort others to their duties and reprove them of their sins, to confess our own sins, to ask advice of others regarding God’s will and the way of salvation, to praise that which is good in others, to bear witness of the truth when called to do so, to defend the cause of the just and innocent, to share with others the good things God has taught us, and to carry on common conversation and transact our business in life.a

2. But James reveals to us that with the very same tongue with which “we bless our Lord and Father”—which, of course, is it’s highest and most honorable use—we also “curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God” (see Genesis 1:26). Humankind is the highest work of God’s creation; and the image of God in people is like the ‘signature’ of the divine Artist upon His masterpiece. And yet, we seek to both praise the Artist while, at the same time, cursing His signature! From the same instrument—one that is meant for such high and noble purposes—comes both blessings and curses. What a horrible impurity this inconsistency is! How could we expect God to accept our praises when they come from out of such a contaminated and defiled dispenser?

II. THIS INCONISTENCY SHOWS THAT THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG IN US

A. James goes on to show how unnatural this inconsistency is. He writes, “My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh” (vv. 10b-12). He puts the matter in terms that are both ‘tender’ (in that he affirms our relationship together as ‘brethren’), and ‘strong’ (in that he affirms that these things are, literally, ‘not fitting’ or ‘not appropriate’ to be this way).

B. He gives three ‘impossible’ illustrations to show that this is an unnatural and unfitting state of things:

1. A fountain sending out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water. This illustrates the impossibility of two contradictory things coming from the same source in a pure way. Obviously, if a fountain did this, it would defile the opening of the fountain; and would show that there was bitterness inside the well. (A professing Christian once, in anger, insulted a co-worker. He apologized and said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that. That isn’t like me.” And the co-worker said, “It wouldn’t come out of you if it wasn’t already in you.”)

2. A fig tree that produces fruit contrary to its nature. This illustrates the impossibility of something of one nature producing something of a completely different nature. You can tell the nature of a tree by its fruit. Fig trees produce figs; and grape vines produce grapes. Pure praises come from a heart that is—by nature—made right with God. But praises mixed with bitter curses come from a heart of a completely different nature—a heart with unrighteousness in it.

3. Salt water producing fresh. This illustrates the impossibility of something bad producing something good. If you want a drink of fresh, clear drinking water, you don’t dip your drinking cup into the ocean or the bog. God is seeking praise from people whose hearts are cleansed of bitterness and impurity, and whose lips are purified for His use. Then, when He looks to them for pure praises, He knows He’ll get what He desires—with nothing else mixed in.

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How should we respond to what James is telling us? We should (1) recognize that God desires the praise of His people; (2) recognize that indwelling sin has given a horrible potential to our tongues; so that we are prone to offer praise to God with impure lips; (3) recognize that things shouldn’t be this way and repent of our inconsistency; (4) follow the pattern of Ephesians 4:29-32: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”