James 3:1 - Meaning and Application

The last chapter showed how useless and dead faith is without works. This chapter warns that such a faith also tends to make people proud, overbearing, and loose with their words. Those who defend the kind of faith the last chapter condemned are often the ones most likely to fall into sins of speech. Even the best people need warning against using their tongues in a harsh, judging, and harmful way.

James therefore teaches us not to use our tongues to act superior over others: “My brothers, do not many of you become teachers” (James 3:1). This does not forbid helping others, guiding them in duty, or correcting them in a Christian way when they are wrong. But it does forbid the spirit that always wants to take the chair, give orders, and make our own opinions the rule for everyone else. God gives different gifts to different people, and he expects each person to answer for the light he has received.

James gives two reasons for this warning. First, those who make themselves judges and censors of others will face a stricter judgment. If we are eager to find faults in others and quick to condemn them, we should expect God to be just as careful in examining our own words and deeds (Matthew 7:1-2). Second, we should remember that we all sin in many ways (James 3:2). If we thought more about our own failures, we would be less eager to judge others. People who defend themselves too strongly are often fooling themselves. We are all guilty before God, and those who speak proudly about other people’s weaknesses often do not see how many faults they have themselves. Their harsh, superior way of speaking may even be worse than the sins they condemn. So we should be strict with ourselves and charitable toward others.

James also teaches us to govern our speech so that we may show ourselves to be mature and upright people, with real self-control. “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body” (James 3:2). This means that a person who is careful about sins of speech and works to avoid them gives a strong sign of true grace. On the other hand, if someone seems religious but cannot control his tongue, his religion is empty. A person who does not sin with his words is not only sincere, but also far along in Christian growth. The grace that helps him rule his tongue will also help him rule the rest of his life.

James illustrates this with two comparisons. First, a horse is guided by a bit in its mouth: “We put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, and we turn their whole body” (James 3:3). There is much wildness in human nature, and it shows itself strongly through the tongue. That is why the tongue must be restrained, as the psalmist said, “I will keep my mouth with a bridle” (Psalm 39:1). The tongue is quick and lively, so it needs careful control. Otherwise, like a wild horse, it can carry its owner wherever it wants and even throw him down. But if the tongue is held in check by resolve and watchfulness under God’s grace, then the rest of life is easier to direct.

Second, James points to a ship steered by a small rudder: “Look at the ships also, though they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, yet they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires” (James 3:4). In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it can boast great things (James 3:5). A tiny rudder can guide a huge ship, and a rightly governed tongue can help govern the whole person. These comparisons are striking because they show how something small can have great power for good or harm. That is why we should pay close attention to the use of our words.

For that same reason, we should fear an unruly tongue as one of the most dangerous evils. James compares it to a small fire among dry fuel that quickly spreads and destroys everything around it: “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!” The tongue is a fire, a world of evil (James 3:5-6). There is so much sin in speech that it can rightly be called a world of evil. It causes many kinds of pollution and can light many terrible fires. It defiles the whole person, and sins of the tongue often stir up sinful passions and keep them alive.

The damage does not stop there. The tongue often pulls the whole body into sin and guilt. That is why Solomon warned, “Do not let your mouth lead your flesh into sin” (Ecclesiastes 5:6). The traps people are led into by their words are painful for themselves and harmful to others. The tongue can also set the whole course of life on fire, stirring up confusion in families, societies, and public life. No age and no condition of life is free from examples of this.

James adds that the tongue is “set on fire by hell” (James 3:6). This means that evil speech often comes from satanic influence and wicked purposes. The devil is called a liar, a murderer, and the accuser of the brothers, and when people use their tongues for lies, murder, or accusation, they act under that same dark fire. By contrast, the Holy Spirit once came down in tongues like fire at Pentecost (Acts 2).

When the tongue is guided and influenced by a fire from heaven, it kindles good thoughts, holy feelings, and earnest devotion. But when it is set on fire from hell, as it is in every wrong burst of anger, it becomes harmful and produces rage, hatred, and other works of the devil. So, if you fear fire and flames, you should also fear quarrels, insults, slander, lies, and anything that stirs up wrath in your own heart or in others.

We are also taught how hard it is to control the tongue. Every kind of beast, bird, serpent, and sea creature has been tamed by human beings, but no human can tame the tongue (James 3:7-8). Lions and other wild animals, horses and camels, birds that are hard to catch, venomous snakes, and creatures from the sea have all been brought under human control. This has not happened only by miracles, like the lions who did not harm Daniel, the ravens who fed Elijah, or the fish that carried Jonah. These are things people commonly do, yet the tongue is worse than all of them, and human skill alone cannot master it. No one can tame the tongue without God’s help and grace.

James does not mean this is impossible, but that it is very difficult. It will take great watchfulness, effort, and prayer to keep it in order. Even then, that is sometimes not enough, because the tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Animals can be kept within limits, and even dangerous snakes can be handled so they do no harm. But the tongue tends to break through every limit and spread its poison on one occasion or another, no matter how careful we are. So it must be watched, guarded, and ruled more carefully than a wild or poisonous creature, because its harmful outbursts can do far greater damage.

James also teaches us to think about how we use our tongues in worship and in serving God, so that this will keep us from cursing, judging harshly, and other evil speech in daily life. With the tongue we bless God, even the Father, and with the same tongue we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be so (James 3:9-10). It is deeply wrong for people who pray and praise God with their tongues to use those same tongues for cursing, slander, and similar sins.

If we bless God as our Father, that should teach us to speak well of, and kindly to, all who bear his image. A tongue that speaks with reverence to God cannot, without great inconsistency, turn around and use harsh, insulting speech against other people. The angels who praise God do not bring accusations full of abuse. And for people to shame those who not only bear God’s image in their human nature, but are also renewed by the grace of the gospel, is a disgraceful denial of their claim to honor God. These things should not be so, and if we kept this in mind, they would not be so. True devotion is disgraced if charity, that is, love toward others, is missing.

The tongue exposes itself when it claims at one time to honor God’s greatness, and at another time condemns even good people because they do not use the same words or phrases. James strengthens this point by showing that opposite results do not come from the same source in nature, and so they should not be expected in grace either. Does a spring send out both fresh and bitter water from the same opening? Can a fig tree bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Or can the same spring produce both salt water and fresh water (James 3:11-12)? True religion does not allow contradictions, and a truly religious person should not allow them in words or actions either. How many sins this would prevent, and how many people it would bring back to a steady, consistent way of living.