James 3

We can identify mature Christians by their attitude toward suffering (chap. 1) and by their obedience to the Word of God (chap. 2). Now James tells us that a Christian’s speech is another test of maturity. We read and hear many words every day and forget what a wonderful thing a word is! When God gave us the faculty of speech, He gave us a tool to build with; but it can also become a weapon of destruction.

A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.” Benjamin Franklin

3 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

As he did in the previous two chapters, James introduced a new subject with a command

James 1:2 (ESV) 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

James 2:1 (ESV)1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

Every Christian is responsible to teach (share, impart to) others what God has revealed in His Word

Matthew 28:19 (ESV) 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Hebrews 5:12 (ESV) 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,

The Jews regarded teachers (rabbis) with great awe and gave them much honor in James’ day (cf. Matt. 23:8). The synagogue service allowed opportunity for the men in the congregation to rise and address the rest of the assembly (cf. Acts 13:15). The Christians carried this opportunity over into the meetings of the early church (cf. 1 Cor. 14:26–33). Consequently there were many in James’ audience, who, though not qualified with ability, aspired to teach others publicly for the sake of prestige or some other motive. James warned that someone will judge a teacher more strictly than a non-teacher, because a Christian teacher presumably knows the truth and claims to live by it. That someone might be a listener to the teaching, but He will definitely be God.

Apparently there was a rivalry in the assemblies over who would teach, for James warns them, “Let not many of you become teachers!” The reason? Those who teach will be judged more strictly than those who listen. It is a sad thing when immature Christians try to become teachers before they are ready. They think they have attained a great place of honor, when they have really asked for a more severe judgment from God!  

James 3:2

For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

The person who speaks much is going to err (“stumble”) much in his or her speech, because the tongue (vv. 5–12) is the hardest member of the body to control. No one has been able to master it yet, except Jesus Christ. Yet spiritual maturity requires a tamed tongue 

Titus 1:11 (ESV) 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

James is quick to agree that all of us stumble in many ways, especially in what we say. In fact, the person who is able to control the tongue proves that he or she has control over the whole body. Read 1:26 again, and note also the many references to the tongue in the Book of Proverbs. Peter is a good illustration of this truth. In the Gospels, while an immature disciple, he often lost control of his tongue and had to be either reproved or taught by the Lord. But after Pentecost, his spiritual discipline was evident by his controlled speech.

We often think that our words are unimportant, but the wrong word can direct the listener into the wrong paths. An idle word, a questionable story, a half-truth, or a deliberate lie could change the course of a life and lead it to destruction. On the other hand, the right word, used by the Spirit, could direct a soul out of sin and into salvation. Just as the horse needs a guide, and the rudder needs a pilot, so our tongues need the Lord to control them.

James 3:3

If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

It is the same with horses as it is with humans. If we can control the tongue, we can bring the whole animal under control.

“Nothing seems to trip a believer more than a dangling tongue.”

James 3:4

Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

This second illustration adds another element. The controlled tongue can overcome great obstacles. James had undoubtedly observed many ships on the Sea of Galilee, and perhaps on the Mediterranean, driven by strong winds, yet directed by a very small rudder.

James 3:5

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!

The tongue has as much destructive power as a spark that can ignite a large forest. It is petite but powerful.

"Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." Eleanor Roosevelt

A police officer pulls over a speeding car… The officer says, I clocked you at 80 miles per hour, sir.” The driver says, “Gee, officer I had it on cruise control at 60, perhaps your radar gun needs calibrating.” Not looking up from her knitting the wife says: “Now don’t be silly, dear, you know that this car doesn’t have cruise control.” As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, “Can’t you please keep your mouth shut for once?” The wife smiles demurely and says, “You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did.” As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, “Darn it, woman, can’t you keep your mouth shut? The officer frowns and says, “And I notice that you’re not wearing your seat belt, sir. That’s an automatic $75 fine.” The driver says, “Yeah, well, you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket.” The wife says, “Now, dear, you know very well that you didn’t have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you’re driving.” And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and barks, “WHY DON’T YOU PLEASE SHUT UP??” The officer looks over at the woman and asks, “Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma’am?” “Only when he’s been drinking.”

James 3:6

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

Fire is a good illustration of the tongue’s effect. It is potentially a world of unrighteousness, perverse as well as powerful.

The tongue is the gate through which the evil influences of hell can spread like fire to inflame all the areas of life that we touch. This is the only place in the New Testament where the word hell (Gr. geennes) occurs outside the Synoptic Gospels. Here the entire body (Gr. soma) represents the whole person. However, it may also allude to the church as well.

james 3:7

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,

Human beings have brought all the major forms of animal life under control. For example, people have taught lions, tigers, and monkeys to jump through hoops. They have taught parrots and canaries to speak and sing. They have charmed snakes. They have trained dolphins and whales to perform various tricks and tasks. The ancients took pride in the ability of humans to tame and control the animal kingdom. Tamed is perhaps too strong a word. Subdued might be a better translation of the Greek word (damazo). All animals have been controlled but not necessarily domesticated.

James 3:8

but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

Apart from the Holy Spirit’s help no human being has ever been able to subdue his or her own tongue. It is much more dangerous than any deadly animal because it never rests, and it can destroy simply with words (cf. Ps. 62:4). Fire, animals, and the tongue all have power to destroy (cf. v. 5).

No man can tame the tongue; only God can control it through His Spirit. The tongue is restless, unruly (that is, it cannot be ruled). What poison it can spread! A spiritual tongue is medicine

Proverbs 12:18 18 There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

James 3:9–10

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

We honor God with our words, but then we turn right around and dishonor other people with what we say. This is inconsistent because people are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27).

“The lesson is that he who curses him who was made in the image of God implicitly curses the prototype as well.”

“Although the believer has in the indwelling Holy Spirit the potential for controlling the tongue, he may not be appropriating this potential.”

Psalm 103:1–5

 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

“To the person who speaks praise to God in the worship service and then abuses people verbally at home or at work, James commands, ‘Purify your speech through the week.’ With the person who says, ‘Oh, I know I talk too much,’ and laughs it off, James is not amused. He insists, ‘Be quick to listen, slow to speak.’ By the person who boasts, ‘I always speak my mind, no matter who gets hurt,’ James is not impressed. He commands, ‘Discipline your speaking.’ Of the person who says, ‘I know I gossip too much, but I just can’t help it,’ James still requires, ‘Control your tongue.’ Of the person who is in the habit of speaking with insults, ridicule or sarcasm, James demands, ‘Change your speech habits.’ He expects discipline to be happening in the life of a Christian. Any Christian can ask for the grace needed, for God gives good gifts (1:17) and gives them generously (1:5). There is, then, no justification for corrupt habits of speech in our churches today.”

James 3:11–12

Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

A water fountain can yield only one kind of water: fresh or not fresh. A tree can only produce fruit of its own kind. A salt spring cannot produce fresh water any more than a fallen human nature can naturally produce pure words. A fountain, a tree, and the tongue all have power to delight

The illustrations from nature would have been familiar to inhabitants of Palestine. Areas around the Dead Sea contained many salty springs. Farther north of the Dead Sea travelers could find springs emitting fresh water. One spring could produce only one type of water.

The farmers of Palestine produced figs, olives, and grapes in abundance. James emphasized that a tree produced its own kind of fruit. We don’t go to grapevines to find figs. We do not pluck olives from fig trees. Nature is consistent, but our tongues have never provided models of consistency.

James was dealing, as in the preceding chapters, with root causes of human behavior. His teaching contrasts strongly with that of the religious teachers whom Jesus rebuked for their superficiality and hypocrisy. James was, of course, picturing human behavior as it is naturally apart from the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit.

Social Media is an example of the human behavior guiding our “electronic tongues”

Colossians 4:6

6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Proverbs 18:20–21

20 From the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips. 21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

James 3:13

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

The real qualifications of a teacher (v. 1) are wisdom (the ability to view life from God’s perspective) and understanding (mental perception and comprehension). James may have had the Old Testament sage in mind. We can perceive understanding in others quite easily, but wisdom is more difficult to identify. James said to look at a person’s behavior if you want to see if he or she is wise. The wisdom that James had in mind did not result so much in what one thinks or says but in what one does.

One of the marks of wisdom is gentleness (or meekness, humility). The Greek word prauteti, that James used here, occurs in non-biblical literature to describe a horse that someone had broken and had trained to submit to a bridle. It pictures strength under control, specifically the Holy Spirit’s control. The evidence of this attitude is a deliberate placing of oneself under divine authority. The only way to control the tongue is to place one’s mind deliberately under the authority of God and to let Him control it (have His way with it; cf. Matt. 11:27; 2 Cor. 10:1). James’ concept of wisdom was Hebraic rather than Greek, moral more than intellectual

James 3:14

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are motives that must not inhabit the heart of a teacher or he will find himself saying things that he should not.

This is for everyone. We all tend to “slant our advise” when “teaching” others.

“Bitter envy (v. 14). The Greek word for ‘bitter,’ pikros, is the same word James uses to describe the bitter water which comes from the spring (3:11). The word denotes a sharp, pungent characteristic.

Envy is zelos, which can also be translated as jealousy or zeal. In verse 16, James contends that such envy leads to confusion and every evil thing

Self-seeking (v. 14). This word in Greek is eritheia, which is better translated as ‘strife.’ The most graphic translation of the word would be ‘faction’ or those involved in ‘party split.’

This is the expression of mankind’s sinful nature which is preoccupied with the indulgence of wanting our own way—doing our own thing. It creates the ‘we-they’ syndrome with which we are all so familiar. It is selfish ambition at its worst.”

Jealousy and ambition are manifestations of arrogance (Gr. katakauchaomai, boasting), and they result in promoting self rather than the truth that the teacher is responsible to communicate.

Lying (Gr. pseudomai) against the truth means teaching untrue things, things that oppose the truth. Those who boast of wisdom are not following God, because humility does not mark their lives. This is as true of Christians as it is of non-Christians.

Come to terms with the fact that if your words are bitter, it’s because your heart is bitter. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Bitter words come from a bitter heart.

Matthew 12:34 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

James 3:15

This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

This type of so-called wisdom, which springs from jealousy and ambition, does not have its source in the fear of the Lord. It comes from the earthly spirit of this world (cf. 2:1–7). It consists of only what is natural and excludes the supernatural influence of God’s Spirit. Furthermore, it is demonic: demon-like in its deception, hypocrisy, and evil. Note the correspondence between earthly, natural, demonic and the three spiritual enemies of people: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

“Wisdom is not measured by degrees but by deeds. It is not a matter of acquiring truth in lectures but of applying truth to life.”

James 3:16

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

God is not the God of disorder (Gr. akatastasia, commotion, tumult), but of order and peace (Gen. 1; 1 Cor. 14:33). He opposes every evil thing (1 John 1:5). Therefore, ungracious jealousy and selfish ambition are not a part of the wisdom that He provides.

1 Corinthians 14:33 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints

1 John 1:5 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

James 3:17

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

In contrast, the wisdom from above that God gives has several characteristics:

It is pure (Gr. hagnos), meaning free of the defilements mentioned.

It is peace-loving (Gr. eirenikos).

It is gentle (Gr. epiekes) or considerate of others.

It is reasonable (Gr. eupeithes), that is, open to reason and willing to yield to reasonable requests.

It is full of mercy (Gr. eleos) in that it is actively sympathetic to the need

it is full of good fruits (Gr. karpos, good works).

It is impartial (Gr. adiakritos): single-minded in its devotion to God, rather than double-minded.

It is, finally, without hypocrisy (Gr. anupokritos), namely, true to appearances.

Truly wise believers do not need to advertise the fact that they are wise; you will see it expressed in their daily life

James 3:18

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

People who are committed to making peace must teach the Word of God peacefully in order to reap a harvest of righteousness 

“To ‘raise a harvest of righteousness’ demands a certain kind of climate. A crop of righteousness cannot be produced in the climate of bitterness and self-seeking. Righteousness will grow only in a climate of peace.”

this verse underlined because it is a grid through which I can run any conversation, teaching, or any word of instruction. If there is envy and strife, tension and confusion in what I hear, then I know it’s from hell. But if there is purity and peace, righteousness and mercy in what I hear, I embrace it as being from the Lord.