“I” is for incarnating Christ’s love for the world, or bringing the love of Christ to life in our actions. In our desire to keep in step with Jesus, we practice holding back reactionary and volatile behavior specifically in our words. As far as James is concerned, controlling the tongue is the mark of Christian maturity and the one qualifier for human religion that isn’t worthless. According to Jesus, it isn’t breaking religious restrictions that defile one’s holiness, but careless words.
