 The
Proclaimer
Gross Inconsistency
“The tongue can no man tame; it
is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we the
Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness
of God: out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My
brethren, these things ought not so to be” (James 3:8-10).
As a boy I lived a very sheltered life in many
ways. For instance, I didn’t know what a curse word was until I was about
13 years old, because I never heard one until I got to jr. high school.
Movies didn’t have curse words in them; you didn’t find them on ”Gunsmoke”
or “Bonanza;” and I certainly didn’t hear it at home. I wish this were so
with every child. But unfortunately our world today is filled with all
kinds of vile language and speech that our children are exposed to early in
life regardless of how we try to protect them. People curse one another as
though the words mean nothing. But they do, and God takes them very
seriously. As Christians we must understand this.
James argues that for a man to bless God and
then turn around and curse men is a gross inconsistency. He bases the error
of this inconsistency upon the fact that man has been “made after the
likeness of God.” But what does this mean? Certainly man’s likeness to
God is not physical, but spiritual and moral. God is Spirit (John 4:24),
and He created man with an eternal spirit. After creating man “in His own
image” (Gen. 1:27), God placed him in the garden where man enjoyed a close
and intimate relationship with God. This relationship was the result of the
spiritual likeness of man to God and existed until such time that the spirit
of man was touched by the death of sin. Since the fall of man in the
garden, the whole of human history and God’s dealing with man has consisted
of the means whereby God could once again bring man into this close
spiritual relationship and reestablish forever this lost intimacy based upon
man’s shared likeness with Him.
The word that is translated “curse” (katarometha)
is a word made up of the preposition kata, meaning “down,” and the
noun ara which means “a prayer.” Therefore, when one curses men he
is actually addressing God in the form of a prayer to bring spiritual death
and destruction down upon men whom He made in His own image. This appeal of
condemnation makes two presumptions:
1.
It assumes a position of judgment. Whether they realize it or not, men who
curse other men regard themselves as occupying a higher position than other
men; one that enables them to deal with them in this presumptuous way. We
must remember, “One only is the lawgiver and judge, even He who is able to
save and to destroy: but who art thou that judgest thy neighbor?” (James
4:12).
2.
It assumes God’s amenability. We must remember that God “would have all men
to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), and that
He is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
Jesus Christ died for
the express purpose of keeping man from going to hell. Our obligation as
Christians is to do all that we can to spread this “good news” and help
folks go to heaven, not pray that God will condemn them to hell.
-- Clark Dugger
The Proclaimer
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