Verse: James 3:7-12
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Devotion
You know what I have noticed in life? I can’t be saying something encouraging to someone, while at the same time saying something mean to them. I can’t be praying for someone, while at the same time gossiping about them. I can’t be speaking words of love and comfort to someone, while at the same time saying judgmental things about them.

James is calling out our inconsistency and, really, our hypocrisy in this text. How can we claim to be followers of Jesus and yet speak words of divisiveness, cruelty, gossip, slander, and cursing? Paul calls us to “Let [our] conversation be always full of grace.” There’s that word Paul likes to use: “always.” Always full of grace.

Can you imagine what it would like for everything we say to be full of grace? Grace is something that gives the benefit of the doubt to others. It encourages others. It gives people strength they didn’t know they had. It sees the best in people.

James is saying, “listen, you guys should be like a spring of refreshing water to the people around you, but instead when people come to drink from your words they find salt water!” What’s even more confusing is that people see us saying “spring water things” on Sunday, and then “salt water things” on Monday! They see us posting scripture on our social media, and then hating on someone in the comments. How can this be, they wonder? James wonders the same thing apparently.

So, here’s my thought. What if we concentrated on producing more spring water, and therefore there would be less opportunity for salt water to come out? What if we went out of our way to say encouraging things to (and about!) people. What if we tried to say uplifting things about people, behind their back! What if we tried to be peacemakers (this is tomorrow’s verse!) online, rather than drifting into divisiveness? What if our words were consistently full of grace: comfort, love, encouragement, truth, strength, and belief?

I think if we turned up the faucet on our spring water, maybe we’d find that we just don’t have room (or time) for much salt water anymore. And that would be a good thing for all of us!

Prayer
Help me, Jesus, to focus on saying words that are full of grace, rather than getting caught up in the discourse of this world that can be so hurtful to others.

Author: Christian Dunn