<p>3:11<i> Does the fountain send forth from the same spout both fresh and bitter water?</i>-<i>&nbsp; </i>We have already made some comment on this in our notes on v.10. The spring gushing out (the idea of &quot;spout&quot;) sweet and bitter water corresponds to the mouth having blessing and cursing proceeding from it. The idea of their words gushing from them corresponds to the rebuke that their tongue was unbridled in v.3. Note that both blessing of God and cursing of brethren gushed from them. For our words in regard to God to be unbridled is a sin, as much as to curse a brother without restraint. It is so tempting to feel that our relationship with God is fine, and therefore to assume that our attitude to our brethren is therefore beyond rebuke. These who blessed God and cursed their brethren fell into this trap. Our praise of God needs to be bridled or restrained by the word. Any ecstatic release of praise to God can therefore only be acceptable if it is within the bridle, or control, of the word- i.e. if its root motivation is in the word rather than human emotion. The word for &quot;bitter&quot; is from a root meaning 'to pierce'; the words of this group in the ecclesia who are being reprimanded must have really pierced the heart of the poor, humble brethren. A spring can either emit sweet or bitter water, depending on the surrounding soil type- cp. the parable of the sower/types of ground. So our words really are an indication of our spiritual status; they will not really alternate between sweet and bitter, although they may appear to in our human self examination. In God's eyes they are either sweet or bitter. There is a significant link with Jer.6:6-8: &quot;Cast a mount against Jerusalem (ecclesia?): this is the city to be visited (AD70 language); she is wholly oppression in the midst of her (cp. James 2:6;5:4 concerning the Jewish believers oppressing their brethren). As a fountain casts out her waters, so she casts out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her (i.e. the waters cast out are paralleled with her words of violence- that is how violence is <i>heard</i>)... be instructed (the same idea as &quot;endued with knowledge&quot; in the Greek of James 3:13), O Jerusalem, lest My soul depart from you; lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited&quot;- as happened after AD70. The Jewish believers are thus being likened to apostate Jerusalem-fitting, seeing they were all once members of the Jerusalem ecclesia that had since been &quot;scattered abroad&quot; (James 1:1 cp. Acts 8:1,4; 11:19).</p><p>The sending out of sweet and bitter waters must also look back to Marah, where the bitter waters were changed to sweet by the tree cast into the waters (Ex. 15:25), pointing forward to the cross. James' way of changing the bitter water of human nature into sweet waters was by true obedience to the word in our heart. Ex. 15 suggests that this change is due to the cross being applied to the waters. By doing so, &quot;there He proved them&quot; (Ex. 15:25) whether they would believe in the efficacy of the tree or not. Therefore our belief in the cross of Christ and the power he has subsequently made available for the development of 'sweet water' is only shown by our zeal to obey the word. The need to obey the word in order to drink the sweet waters is also stressed in Ex. 15. The people feared they would catch disease from drinking the bitter water, and so immediately after the tree had been thrown into the waters &quot;there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them, and said, If you will hearken to the voice of the Lord... I will put none of these diseases upon you...and they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of (sweet) water, and seventy palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters&quot; (v.25-27). Obedience to the word would lead to the bitter waters being changed to wells of good water, of the spirit, as witnessed by their coming to the prosperous oasis of Elim. Compare the wells of Elim with James' fountain (spring) of sweet waters.</p>