James 3:1–12

Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment. ²For in many things we all stumble. If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. ³Now if we put the horses’ bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also. ⁴Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, whither the impulse of the steersman willeth. ⁵So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire! ⁶And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell. ⁷For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind: ⁸but the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison. ⁹Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God: ¹⁰out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. ¹¹Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter? ¹²Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.