James 3:1-12 ▼

1 MY brethren, do not allow doubtful teachers among you; but know, that we are under a great judgment.

2 For in many things we all stumble. Anyone who does not offend in word, this one is a perfect man, and able also to subdue his whole body.

3 Behold, we put bits into the mouths of horses, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.

4 Behold also the ships, great as they are, when driven by severe winds, they are turned about with a very small rudder, wherever the pilot wishes.

5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Likewise, a small fire sets ablaze the large forests.

6 The tongue is a fire, and the sinful world like a forest: that very tongue, while it is among our members, can defile our whole body, and set on fire the records of our race which have rolled down from the beginning: and in the end it is consumed by fire.

7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of creatures of the sea and of the land are under the subjugation of the will of man.

8 But the tongue no man can tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9 By it we bless the LORD and the Father; and by it we curse men, who are made in the image of God:

10 Out of the same mouth proceed curses and blessings. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

11 Can there spring forth from the same fountain, both sweet water and bitter water?

12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? Or the vine, figs? likewise also salt water cannot be made sweet.