Reflections on James 3

James 03 (Contemporary English Version)
1. My friends, we should not all try to become teachers. In fact, teachers will be judged more strictly than others.
   
2. All of us do many wrong things. But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body.
   
3. By putting a bit into the mouth of a horse, we can turn the horse in different directions.
   
4. It takes strong winds to move a large sailing ship, but the captain uses only a small rudder to make it go in any direction.
   
5. Our tongues are small too, and yet they brag about big things. It takes only a spark to start a forest fire!
   
6. The tongue is like a spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person's entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself.
   
7. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be tamed and have been tamed.
   
8. But our tongues get out of control. They are restless and evil, and always spreading deadly poison.
   
9. My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses. We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this isn't right.
   
10. (SEE 3:9)
    
11. Can clean water and dirty water both flow from the same spring?
    
12. Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?
    
13. Are any of you wise or sensible? Then show it by living right and by being humble and wise in everything you do.
    
14. But if your heart is full of bitter jealousy and selfishness, don't brag or lie to cover up the truth.
    
15. That kind of wisdom doesn't come from above. It is earthly and selfish and comes from the devil himself.
    
16. Whenever people are jealous or selfish, they cause trouble and do all sorts of cruel things.
    
17. But the wisdom that comes from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere.
    
18. When peacemakers plant seeds of peace, they will harvest justice.

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Though attention in chapter 3 is often given only to its teaching regarding the tongue, it is actually a passage about teachers. In its regard to teachers, it offers both wise counsel to those who teach and a standard by which to judge those whose teaching under which one chooses to sit.

James begins this section with the advise that not many should become teachers. Why? Because teachers receive a stricter judgment and not many are mature enough to avoid that judgment by not stumbling in what they say. After describing the unruliness of the tongue through illustrations, James concludes that the only way the tongue is controlled is with wisdom from above. We might then conclude that those who should be teaching are those who demonstrate sufficient wisdom to control their tongues, and conversely, that we need not sit under the teaching of one who does not possess such wisdom.

This attention to the tongue might give the impression that the tongue is an agent of the body that functions independently, and unlike animals, such as horses, cannot be tamed by man. But on the contrary, the tongue operates only as directed by the mind, therefore, the tongue serves as a window on the mind of the individual wielding the tongue. What if the tongue espouses conflicting thoughts, such as cursing men on the one hand and blessing God on the other? Which reflects the true thoughts of the person in question? Anyone who is prone to curse men can easily speak blessings of God as well, but one who truly blesses God cannot easily curse men. The true person in such instances is the one who curses men.

James tells us that the wisdom from above is, "first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without favoritism and hypocrisy." (3:17)  Those who possess this wisdom will be slow to take the position of teacher. Rather, teaching will be drawn from them by those who recognize their wisdom and seek their counsel or request them to teach.