James 3–4

Taming the Tongue

³Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will face stricter judgment.^{* 2}For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is mature,ⁱ able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle.^{* 3}If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. ⁴Or look at ships: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. ⁵So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!^{* 6}And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of life, and is itself set on fire by hell.^{j* 7}For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, ⁸but no one can tame the tongue—a restless^k evil, full of deadly poison.^{* 9}With it we bless the Lord^l and Father, and with it we curse people, made in the likeness of God.^{* 10}From the same mouth comes a blessing and a curse. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. ¹¹Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? ¹²Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

Two Kinds of Wisdom

¹³Who is wise and knowledgeable among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.^{* 14}But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be arrogant and lie about the truth. ¹⁵This is not wisdom that comes down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.^{* 16}For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.^{* 17}But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.^{* 18}And the fruit of righteousness^m is sown in peace by those who make peace.^*

Friendship with the World

⁴Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? ²You want something and do not have it, so you commit murder. And you covetⁿ something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have because you do not ask. ³You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.^{* 4}Adulterers!^o Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.^{* 5}Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the spirit that God caused to dwell^p in us desire envy?^{* 6}But God gives all the more grace; therefore it says,

“God opposes the proud

but gives grace to the humble.”^*

⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.^{* 8}Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.^{* 9}Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.^*

Warning against Judging Another

¹¹Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another speaks evil against the law and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.^{* 12}There is one lawgiver and judge^q who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?^*

Boasting about Tomorrow

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.”^{* 14}Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.^{* 15}Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”^{* 16}As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. ¹⁷Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it commits sin.^*