1 Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment. 2 For in many things we all stumble. If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. 3 Now if we put the horses* bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also. 4 Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, whither the impulse of the steersman willeth. 5 So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind: 8 but the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison. 9 Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God: 10 out of the same mouth Cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11 Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter? 12 can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.

In a previous passage of the epistle, James has exposed the folly of imagining oneself to be religious while the tongue is uncontrolled. It is natural, therefore, for him to enlarge upon this theme, after setting forth the vanity of a "faith" which expresses itself only in words and not in works. Those most tempted to such self-deception and to such dead orthodoxy are teachers of religious truth, and it is such, first of all, who are in the mind of the writer as he pens this searching passage on the sins of the tongue. It is hardly necessary to note that by "the tongue" James means the gift of speech. The whole paragraph abounds in figures and pictures. We see the horse held in by the bit, the ship turned by the touch of the pilot, the forest set aflame by the smallest spark, venomous beasts, fruitful trees, and gushing fountains. It is a striking instance of the vivid and picturesque style of the writer; but it suggests what to his mind was the importance and the power of human speech. While he dwells on the evil possibilities of the tongue, he nevertheless has in mind its possibilities for good. Thus when he warns his readers against too great eagerness to be teachers, it is on the ground that as such their responsibility is greater; but the responsibility is greater only because of the largeness of their opportunity and privilege. Of course the abuse of such privilege involves the greater guilt. "Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment." Teachers of religious truth are sorely needed; theirs is the highest of callings; yet one should be diffident in assuming the task as he remembers that "in many things we all stumble." The right use of speech, the proper control of the tongue, James declares, is a proof of Christian maturity, whether in the case of a teacher or a hearer: "If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also." This point he illustrates by his picture of the horse; in spite of its spirit and strength its whole body can be controlled by the one who controls the bit. The same point is illustrated by the ship: even though its size is so vast, and opposing storms are so fierce, still its course is easily determined by the one who holds the helm. These two pictures illustrate also another principle: they not only show how one who controls his tongue can control his whole being, but also that if the tongue is given control it will imperil the entire life. The tongue is like the bit and , like the rudder. "So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things." It boasts. We were ready for the word "directs" or "controls" or achieves," but the word "boasteth" is suggestive of evil and prepares us for the following description of perilous power.

As a single spark sets fire to the stately forest, so one malicious word may bring disaster to a life or a community. Thus James calls the tongue "a fire: the world of iniquity among our members . . . which defileth the whole body"; it sets ablaze the whole round of our existence and our being, and its destructive power is satanic: it "is set on fire by hell." The impossibility of bringing it under control is further emphasized by comparison with savage and venomous animals: "For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind: but the tongue can no man tame." Of course James is not considering here what can be done by the grace and Spirit of God. He means that by nature the gift of speech is less commonly brought under control of man, than are the fiercest of the beasts about him. Like such beasts, the tongue is restless, unreliable, treacherous; like a serpent it is armed with venom, "it is full of deadly poison."

Last of all James emphasizes the strange perversity and inconsistency with which men use the gift of speech. With the tongue praises are offered to our heavenly Father, and with the same tongue curses are pronounced upon his children whom he has created in his own image; "out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing." "My brethren, these things ought not so to be." The simplest objects in the world about us rebuke such a practice as unnatural: "Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter?" It is not unusual to find a spring the water of which is brackish and bitter, but who ever found such a spring which at the same time produced water which was sweet? "Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet." These last figures contain not only a rebuke of the perverse and sinful abuse of speech; they also suggest the probable explanation of such an abuse. "The tree is known by its fruit," and "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." An evil tongue is a sign of an evil nature. Unkind, bitter, impure speech suggests the need of a new birth; it is an indication that the speaker, whatever his position or profession, is not filled with the Spirit of God. His faith is dead, his religion is not true. The use of the tongue is a test of life. Unless controlled by the power of Christ, the gift of speech may prove a deadly peril to the soul.