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. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Today’s verses are hard to swallow. I have been guilty more times than I would like to admit of the same type of duality James teaches against. I have both: read my Bible, offered praise to God…and held a grudge at the same time. One of those things does not belong! I don’t want to praise God one minute and grumble against someone the next – but I do. And claiming I am just human is only acceptable to a point. Yes, I am very human! My faults are many. But the truth is that I was created in the image of God. The DNA of who God is, is imprinted in the very core of who I am. Often my humanness fights against that. But if my goal is to be more like Christ, then I need to fill myself with the things of Christ so that only words and actions that exemplify the image in which I have been made spill out of me. That, my friends, takes work – and a whole lot of daily surrender to God! Scratch that…moment by moment surrender!
Let’s not allow ourselves to be divided any longer! Let’s surrender to God, allowing Him to fill us so that what comes out looks more like who He has created us to be and a whole lot more like Him.
