James 3

James warns that “not many of you should become teachers,” for we are judged with greater strictness, and no one can perfectly control the tongue. Though small like a horse’s bit or a ship’s rudder, the tongue is a great force, “a fire,” “a restless evil, full of deadly poison,” with which we both “bless our Lord and Father” and “curse people who are made in the likeness of God” — “these things ought not to be so.” He then contrasts two kinds of wisdom. Earthly, unspiritual wisdom, marked by “bitter jealousy and selfish ambition,” produces “disorder and every vile practice.” But “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere,” and “a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”