Taming the Tongue (James 3:1-12)

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. ² We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. ³ When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴ Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. ⁵ Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. ⁷ All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. ¹¹ Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹² My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

In this section, James writes of the need to control our speech. It may seem strange to us that he begins by saying that “not many of you should become teachers,” but teachers communicate knowledge. God gives teachers a special responsibility for the growth of the Christian community and they can have both a positive and a negative effect on it. In verse two, James makes this clear, writing that we all fail in our speech. Only a perfect person will never say anything wrong or bad and, sadly, none of us is perfect. In verses three to four, he gives some examples. The bridle and bit determine the direction a horse will take while the rudder does something similar for a ship. Both are relatively small – but key – parts of something much bigger.

James then makes the same point about the tongue which, after all, is only a small part of the human body, but, because it gives voice to our thoughts, an inordinately powerful one. He compares it to a forest fire that begins with only one spark. In the same way, the tongue has a tremendous destructive power. It can spread God’s word but it can also spread the values of the world which are in opposition to the kingdom of heaven. In this way, evil can enter the believer and, indeed, the whole Christian community. Its evil even finds its way into all of creation and receives its power from hell itself.

The reference to hell should make us think of Genesis and the fall which occurred because of the serpent’s tongue. James reinforces this image in verse seven when he refers to all the creatures that humanity has tamed. Tragically, the human tongue now possesses the same “deadly poison” as the serpent – which, of course, comes from Satan. James concludes the passage by observing that both praise of God and cursing of humans comes from our tongues. In another reference to Genesis, James notes in verse nine, that humans are made in God’s image – thus suggesting that cursing humans is the same as cursing God. James concludes with examples from nature where this dichotomy does not exist. Everything else in nature fulfills its function. Only humans are duplicitous and unable to control what comes out of themselves through the tongue.