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James 3 (English Standard Version)

Taming the Tongue
1Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2For 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. 3If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4Look 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. 5So 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! 6And 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. 7For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

Meditation

Verses 1-12
James actually discouraged undue eagerness to take up teaching God’s word because teachers are judged more strictly. It is so not easy to be consistent with words. Our tongues have the power for both good and evil.
The power of the tongue is clearly shown in that it cannot be tamed, it is liken to the bits in horses’ mouth, the rudder on the ship, a spark that causes the forest fire, and it cannot be tamed! “Hell knows no fury like a woman’s scorn”, so goes the saying. To be fair similar things can be said of men’s violent words when they are enraged.
The malignity of the tongue is also clearly shown by the fact that both lies and truth can come out of the same tongue, so are cursing and blessing. We bless and praise God with the same tongue that curses people who are made in God’s image. James shows that this is ‘monstrously unnatural’ by posting the questions in verses 11 and 12:
“11Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.”
I must be careful in what I say lest I allow it to be the ‘deadly poison’ that corrupts the whole body. God cannot be mocked. I must not grieve the Holy Spirit in me by my careless words.

"Slander is worse than cannibalism."
- St. John Chrysostom