in this way (referring to what precedes or follows) · adverb
be
γίνεσθαι.ginesthai
G1096
to cause to be ("gen"-erate) · verb — present middle or passive deponent infinitive
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
1 Peter 3:9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit…
Psalms 50:16-20 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?
1 Corinthians 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1 Timothy 5:13 And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things…
Micah 3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean up…
Genesis 20:9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me a…
Jeremiah 7:4-10 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on James 3:1-12
The foregoing chapter shows how unprofitable and dead faith is without works. It is plainly intimated by what this chapter first goes upon that such a faith is, however, apt to make men conceited and magisterial in their tempers and their talk. Those who set up faith in the manner the former chapter condemns are most apt to run into those sins of the tongue which this chapter condemns. And indeed the best need to be cautioned against a dictating, censorious, mischievous use of their tongues. We are therefore taught,
I. Not to use our tongues so as to lord it over others: My brethren, be not many masters, etc., Jam 3:1. These words do not forbid doing what we can to direct and instruct others…
The tongue, says ÆSOP, is at once the best and the worst of things. So in a fable, a man with the same breath blows hot and cold. "Life and death are in the power of the tongue" (compare Psa 62:4).
brethren--an appeal to their consciences by their brotherhood in Christ.
ought not so to be--a mild appeal, leaving it to themselves to understand that such conduct deserves the most severe reprobation.
Adam Clarke on James 3:10
Out of the same mouth - This saying is something like that, Pro 18:21 : Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and on this, for an illustration of St. James' words, hear Vayikra Rabba, sec. 33: "Rabbi Simeon, the son of Gamaliel, said to his servant Tobias, Go and bring me some good food from the market: the servant went, and he bought tongues. At another time he said to the same servant, Go and buy me some bad food: the servant went, and bought tongues. The master said, What is the reason that when I ordered thee to buy me good and bad food, thou didst bring tongues? The servant answered, From the tongue both good and evil come to man: if it be good, there is nothing better; if bad,…
Nothing bitter should come out of a mouth which has uttered the praise of so great a mystery, nor should the tongue say anything which is unworthy of a holy mouth. Let us keep it pure and not use it to curse. For if those who rail against God will not inherit the kingdom, how much more will this be true of those who curse?
From out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be done. Does the fountain give forth out of one hole sweet and sour water? Can, my brethren, the fig tree yield grapes: or the vine, figs? So neither can the salt water yield sweet. "From out of the same mouth." This kind of sacred discipline has received nothing bitter to be emitted, nothing ungrateful.
Blessing and cursing proceed from the same mouth. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth sweet and bitter water from the same opening? Just as sweet and bitter water cannot simultaneously bubble up from a single vein of the fountain, but if they are mixed in a vessel or a cistern, the sweet water immediately becomes bitter from the bitter water, but the bitter water cannot be changed into sweetness by the mixture of sweet water, so blessing and cursing cannot be in any way combined in one mouth; but whoever is accustomed to bless God by praying or preaching His word, but still does not cease to curse men, it is evident that the sweetness of his blessing is consumed by the bitterness of the cursing. For a little leaven corrupts the whole mass (I Cor. V). And there is no fair praise in the mouth of a sinner (Eccli. XV). Finally, if you make a pipe with double openings for the water to enter, and a single one for it to exit, and you pour bitter water in one side and sweet water in the other side, without any doubt where there is one exit opening, they will be mixed, and the water will appear bitter. For it is certainly much easier for sweet to turn into bitter when they are mixed together, than for bitter to turn into sweet. From this example, it is gathered that bad conversations, as testified by the Apostle, corrupt good morals as well as good speech.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Blasphemy · 3:2; — 3:2;
Speaking · 1:29,30;3:13,14; — 1:29,30;3:13,14;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing,.... Which is not only a contradiction, but unnatural, as well as wicked and sinful:
my brethren, these things ought not so to be: in any, and much less in professors of religion: such things are unbecoming men, are a scandal upon human nature, and exceeding unworthy of the Christian name; see Psalm 50:16.
John Calvin on James 3:7-12
James 3:7-12
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
7 Omnis enim natura ferarum et volucrum et serpentium et marinorum, a natura humana domatur et dimota est:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
8 Linguam vero nullus hominum domare potest, incoercibile malum, plena veneno mortifero.
9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
9 Per ipsam benedicimus Deum et Patrem; et per ipsam execramur homines ad similitudinem ejus factos.
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My b…
praises . . . curses: Praising our Lord and Father is the best activity of the tongue, whereas cursing those made in his image is one of the worst, because it is an implicit curse on God himself (Gen 1:26-27; 9:6).
