The Epsitle of James: a Commentary | Page 6

the Jew, their 'article of faith' was circumcision. 'In
Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has
any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing
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itself through love.' (Gal 5:6; italics added) To which James
would say 'Amen'.
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Chapter Three
1Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my
brothers, because you know that we who teach will be
judged more strictly. 2We all stumble in many ways. If
anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect
man, able to keep his whole body in check. 3When we put
bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we
can turn the whole animal. 4Or 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. 5Likewise 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. 6The tongue also is a
fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts
the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire,
and is itself set on fire by hell.
7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the
sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but
no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of
deadly poison.
9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it
we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness.
10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My
brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and
salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a
fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a
salt spring produce fresh water.
13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him
show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that
comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and
selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or
deny the truth. 15Such "wisdom" does not come down from
heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16For where
you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder
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and every evil practice.
17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all
pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of
mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of
righteousness.

3:1-12 A controlled tongue: the second test of
growth
If having worked through chapter 2, we think that the
test of our faith and its maturing is complete, we are
now in for a rued shock! For we aren't judged just by
our deeds. Much more potent than deeds are words!
Most wrong acts can be put to rights and the wrong
restored. But words have a life of their own. God's
word is creative. Gen 1:3 says 'And God said..' and
the creation is set in motion- and thus formula is
repeated time and again. But words of man can be
equally destructive!
The Fall of Man was initiated when the serpent said
'Did God really say?' (Gen 3:1). When Isaiah was
confronted with God's holiness, his immediate
confession was: 'I am ruined! For I am a man of
unclean lips..' (Isa 6:5). Jesus often taught that good
fruit can only come from a good tree; evil from evil.
Evil comes from man's heart (Mark 7:21); but 'out of
the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks' (Matt
12:34).
So it should be no surprise that James directs us to
examine how we speak, and especially what we
speak in unguarded moments. He has told us already
(1:26): the man whose religion is a superficial
observance only will not control his tongue.
The tongue is a very powerful instrument and James
uses many strong metaphors to liken its power on life.
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The tongue can speak in anger, in denial of Christ, in
blasphemy and cursing can be Satan's tool. ('Out of
my sight, Satan', Matt 16:23). Satan himself is a liar, a
deceiver and an accuser. He will do all he can to get
us to speak deceitfully, to deceive, to accuse others,
to speak maliciously and slanderously. The tongue as
much as sex can feature in works of immorality (just
examine the list of 'works of the flesh' in Gal 5:19-20).
James' words on the tongue may be divided into
three:
i. On teaching
ii. On the power of the tongue
iii. On praising and cursing.
vv1-2 Teaching
One way in which we use the tongue is to teach
others. (We all like to tell others what we think is right
and and wrong and true and what they should do!)
The particular teaching James has in mind is the
teaching of the truth. Thus teaching of (Christian) truth
carried a note of authority, because it is God's truth
that is being taught and also because the ministry of
teaching is one of the gifts of ministry in the Christian
church. (Eph 4:11), the aim of which is to build the
church up to