Fresh Water and Salt From the Same Spring

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, James writes, 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. Then he asks a series of questions from nature. Can fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? Can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

The argument is about consistency, and it cuts deeper than it seems. James is not merely observing that we say nice things and unkind things. He is pointing out that we do both toward the same object, because the person we curse bears the image of the God we praise. To bless God on Sunday and belittle his image bearer on Monday is not two separate acts. It is a contradiction, the way a spring giving sweet water one hour and brine the next would be a contradiction. Springs do not do that. Their output reveals their source.

This is where the passage becomes uncomfortable. If our mouths produce both, what does that say about the source? James does not resolve the tension by telling us to try harder at word management. He lets the question stand, and the rest of the chapter answers it by contrasting two kinds of wisdom, one from below and one from above. The mouth cannot be fixed at the mouth. The spring has to change.

For the believer, the spring has been changed. A new heart has been given. The contradiction James describes is therefore not our nature anymore but a remnant, a reflex of the old source that still surfaces. Which means it can be resisted. When a cutting word rises, the question is not simply whether it is true or deserved but which spring it is coming from.

The practical turn is to notice the pairing. Pay attention, for one day, to the people you speak about and the God you speak to, and treat them as connected, because they are. The person who annoys you carries the likeness of the Lord you will thank at dinner. Let the praise you offer him govern what you say about them. A spring gives what it is. Ask God to make you sweet water all the way down.