are the best, the specially holy portion. Thus James underlines God’s good gift and intention in the lives of the Christians. 1:19 / Deliberately paralleling the style of 1:16, James warns, My dear brothers, take note of this. James 1:16–18 discussed wisdom as a gift of life descending from God (cf. 1:5–8); now comes the related topic—the wise person controls his or her speech (cf. 3:1–18), for speech-ethics were a very important topic in both Jewish literature and the world in which James lived.