Thus also the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. See how little a fire, how large a wood it kindles!
Two pictures come just before this verse: a bit in a horse's mouth and a rudder on a great ship. James now turns to the tongue. Why does something so small carry such weight? And why does its damage spread so far beyond its size?
The two illustrations before this verse are not decoration. They set a rule about size. James then applies that rule to speech.
He shows that it may seem a little thing to man. But we must not excuse what is wrong just because its source looks small. He proves that the smallest things are often the ones that govern far larger bodies.
The same smallness that makes the tongue easy to dismiss is what makes it dangerous.
The tongue is small in size. That only makes its power for mischief beyond reckoning or measure more vivid. Who can conceive the destructive effects of an evil word?
"Boasts of great things" is not vague bragging. It is what an unbridled tongue does, and it works in two directions at once.
If we do not bridle the tongue, it can express the vanity of our hearts by condemning others and exalting ourselves, for it can boast "great things." So it can become the source of great mischief. Though it is "a little member," it is like a little fire which may destroy a forest.
Many people grade sin by action and treat loose talk as harmless. One commentator sets that habit against the Lord's own estimate of words.
In every age many people take account of deeds only. Freedom of speech seems a necessary right of a man, and going too far with it the most forgivable of all faults. Our Lord judged words very differently (Matt. 12). Words express the feelings and bent of the inner man even more than deeds do.
Kelly adds why this matters for the tongue in particular: it "boasts habitually and also great things and is so much the more readily enticed to persevere and grow bolder, if sin is limited to deeds of the body."
Older English versions read "how great a matter a little fire kindles." Commentators point out that the Greek word behind "matter" usually means wood or forest. That is the reading the ESV follows, and it sharpens the picture.
It is like a tiny spark, yet that spark can set everything on fire and produce a disastrous blaze. "Behold how much wood is kindled by how small a fire" — this is the correct rendering of the text.
Kelly prefers "wood" too, but allows that the older wording had a basis. Commentators differ over the word, not over the picture.
This fire catches in ordinary places. One writer applies the verse to a disagreement between two women at Philippi.
Two devoted women at Philippi differed in judgment. The Apostle foresaw how something the saints might judge to be of small importance could soon lead to great sorrow and weakness in the assembly. "How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!" (James 3:5).
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The scale of that damage among believers is hard to overstate.
The rash, foolish and wicked use of the tongue has caused so much mischief among Christian people… It has brought more defilement into the church of God than anything else.
James is describing the tongue running loose, not the tongue itself. The same power that does such harm can serve the other way.
Of course, he is speaking of the tongue when the fear of God does not restrain it and the power of the Spirit does not guide it. How much might we speak of the wonderful power of the tongue on the other side! What a ministry of comfort and blessing is in it! But the best gifts, when perverted, are just as fruitful for evil as they are good when used rightly.
And the restraint does not come from effort at the lips but from what fills the heart:
Nothing but the power of the Spirit filling the heart with the grace of Christ can restrain the tongue. When the heart is enjoying the grace and love of Christ, the tongue will speak in grace out of the abundance of the heart.
- Small — the bit and the rudder show a rule: little things steer far larger ones. A small source never excuses a wrong.
- Boastful — a tongue off the bridle shows the heart's vanity. It exalts self and condemns others.
- Counted — words are not a lesser class of sin; the Lord treated them as revealing the inner man more than deeds do.
- Spreading — one spark takes a forest. One small difference can bring deep sorrow and weakness among God's people.
- Governed — the tongue that defiles can also carry comfort and blessing. Only a heart filled with the grace of Christ will restrain it.
and the tongue [is] fire, the world of unrighteousness; the tongue is set in our members, the defiler of the whole body, and which sets fire to the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell.
Here James pushes his warning about speech to its sharpest point. He calls the tongue a fire: evil in its whole range, and lit from a source outside itself. So how far does careless speech reach, and where does its heat come from?
The picture goes deeper than a spark that spreads far.
How energetic is the opening of verse 6! "The tongue is fire." It is not only that a mighty blaze follows from a seemingly trivial spark. The tongue itself is "fire" in its moral character. A man may be free from open acts of unrighteousness. Yet if he gives his tongue loose rein without God before his eyes, that tongue is already "a world of iniquity."
Why press so hard on speech, rather than on deeds?
In every age many people take account of nothing but deeds. Freedom of speech seems a necessary privilege of a man, and going too far with it seems the most excusable fault of all. Our Lord judged words very differently (Matt. 12). Words express the feelings and bent of the inner man even more than deeds do.
The phrase covers the full range of wrong a person can do. It also exposes a quiet self-deception: the idea that damage done in words does not really count. Older translations read "world of iniquity"; the ESV has "world of unrighteousness."
Through the fall, and through the self-will or lawlessness that marks sin, the tongue comes to be such a burning power of evil in the members. It is the defiler of the whole body, for there is no limit to its unrighteousness. It is "the world of iniquity," thinking itself safe as long as it only injures in word.
Kelly notes that the wording guards against a wrong idea. The tongue comes to be this defiler. God did not arrange it for so evil an end.
The staining does not stop at the speaker. Writers apply it both to the individual and to the company of Christians.
When we read that the tongue is set among our members and defiles the whole body, the context shows that James meant the human body. Yet it would be just as true of the church, which is the body of Christ, and of which we are all members. The tongue has brought more defilement into the church of God than anything else.
The next clause widens the damage again — beyond the body, into everything a life touches.
The Apostle describes the tongue as a fire which not only kindles trouble but keeps the trouble in existence. It can stir up every form of unrighteousness, and so becomes a world of iniquity. By its evil suggestions it can lead to the defiling of every member of the body, and set the whole course of fallen nature in motion.
The last clause names the source of the blaze. The word behind "hell" here is Gehenna.
Verse 6 shows what the tongue is when nothing restrains it. It is a fire, a world of iniquity. It defiles the whole body and fans the evil of man's nature into a devouring flame. The words "and it is set on fire of hell" are deeply sobering. Except for this one instance, the word "Gehenna" was used by the Lord alone when He was on earth.
One writer names who struck the first spark:
When the tongue is used this way, we may be quite sure that hell first set the tongue itself on fire. The devil has enslaved it to serve his ends. He struck the spark that, through the tongue, has fired the whole train of evil.
Since no one can tame the tongue, the answer is not a stronger resolution.
The Apostle is not speaking of the tongue when used by grace and restrained by the Spirit, but of the tongue used under the influence of the flesh and energised by the devil. Nothing but the power of the Spirit filling the heart with the grace of Christ can restrain the tongue. When the heart is enjoying the grace and love of Christ, the tongue will speak in grace out of the abundance of the heart.
- Fire. The tongue does not merely start a blaze. It is fire in its moral character, once a man gives it loose rein.
- Fire's fuel. Words expose the inner man even more than deeds do. So "it was only talk" is the very self-deception James attacks.
- Fire's spread. It defiles the whole body. Writers extend that staining to the whole company of Christians, where it has done more damage than anything else.
- Fire's source. The blaze is lit from hell: the devil struck the spark, and the tongue serves his ends.
- Fire quenched. No one can tame it. Only the Spirit, filling the heart with the grace of Christ, makes the tongue speak in grace.
For every species both of beasts and of birds, both of creeping things and of sea animals, is tamed and has been tamed by the human species;
Man rules the animal world — he trains lions, tames birds, handles snakes, works with creatures of the sea. James uses that success to set up a contrast: the creature who has mastered creation has not mastered his own tongue.
One writer walks through that record, class by class.
Here the inspired writer states an undeniable fact. What savage brute has not yielded to the rule of man? What has not been subdued and become his pet or playmate? What bird of the air, fierce or timid, has not bowed to his superiority and obeyed his will? Even snakes, however cunning, powerful, or poisonous, have often been taught to live harmlessly beside him. Creatures of the sea have made friends with him and served him or paid him honour.
James names four classes — beasts, birds, creeping things, sea creatures. Together they cover all animal life.
Set that record beside a man's own speech, and the success ends. The same writer asks the obvious question:
But where is the man who has truly tamed either his own tongue or another's? We can point to what everyone sees, and just as strongly and painfully to our own experience. It may and should be a heart-breaking confession, but is it not entirely true? Who does not know how quick and ready the tongue is to break its limits, how slow to seek or keep the peace?
Resolutions do not close the gap. One writer names the one thing that does:
James speaks of the power man has to tame every kind of beast and bird, even creeping things such as snakes, and things in the sea. But man, the conqueror of the animal creation, is helpless when it comes to taming the tongue... All resolutions man makes to keep his tongue under control fail. But if a man has a new nature with the Holy Spirit living there, the tongue can be governed and its evils overcome.
The tongue holds out because it is not really the problem. It is the outlet.
Man can tame all kinds of creatures but he cannot tame his own tongue. The reason for this is clear enough. Speech is the great channel by which the heart of man expresses itself. So the only way to really tame the tongue is to tame the heart. But this is impossible for man. The grace and power of God are needed for it.
Another writer puts it in a picture. The tongue "shows what is working within, just as the hands of a clock show the hidden workings of its wheels" (J. N. Darby).
The verdict in the next verse is precise. It shuts out human ability without shutting out hope.
Is it written that absolutely no one is able to tame the tongue? Not at all. No "human being" can tame it. Ah, we can thank God. He is our desire, our expectation, and our strength. It would be a wholly unchristian thought that we could subdue our own tongue. It is our confidence to look up to God for what is completely beyond our capacity.
So where should our own effort go?
Who then can control the tongue? "No human being" can do it, but Christ can, and we have only to look to Him in simple faith. This means we feel both our own utter helplessness and His all-sufficiency... How often have we suffered from some blunder of the tongue and resolved to control that unruly member a little better next time! But our resolution proved to be like the morning cloud that passes away.
Restraining the tongue is not the same as finishing with it.
By the power of the Spirit of God, a believer may "bridle" his tongue — that is, hold it under restraint. This is a serious responsibility. But let no one convince himself that he has tamed his tongue. If he does, he will almost certainly learn by painful experience that it is still "a restless evil, full of deadly poison" (older versions: "an unruly evil"). So it needs constant guarding and restraining.
- Tamed — Every class of creature James names has yielded to man: beasts, birds, creeping things, sea creatures. Nobody argues with that record.
- Untamed — The one creature he has never subdued lives in his own mouth. The conqueror of the animal world is helpless here. Resolutions to do better fade like a morning cloud.
- Why — Speech is the channel the heart uses. Man cannot tame his tongue because he cannot tame his heart. The clock hands only show the wheels inside.
- Who — The verdict is that no human being can tame it. That wording leaves God out of the ban, and the believer looks up for what is beyond his own capacity.
- How — What God gives is a bridle, not a finished conquest. The Spirit restrains it day by day, and it is never declared safe.
but the tongue can no one among men tame; [it is] an unsettled evil, full of death-bringing poison.
James has just listed every kind of creature that man has tamed. Now he comes to the one thing man cannot tame, and the real question is whether anything can.
One writer shows how complete man's rule over the animal world really is:
Here the inspired writer states an undeniable fact. What savage brute has not yielded to man's rule and become his pet or playmate? What bird of the air, fierce or timid, has not bowed to his power and obeyed his will? Even snakes, however cunning, strong, or venomous, have often been tamed to live safely with him. Creatures of the sea have made friends with him and given him honour or service.
The same writer then turns that record against us, and the appeal is not to theory but to what every reader already knows about himself:
But where is the man who has truly tamed either his own tongue or someone else's? Here we can appeal to universal observation, but no less forcibly and painfully to personal experience. It may and ought to be a heart-breaking confession; but is it not entirely true? Who does not know how quick and ready the tongue is to break its bounds; how slow to seek or keep the peace?
The reason lies behind the mouth, not in it:
Speech is the main road by which the heart of man expresses itself. So the only way to really tame the tongue is to tame the heart. But this is impossible for man. The grace and power of God are needed for it. In itself the tongue only gives expression to the deadly poison that lurks in the human heart.
Another writer gives the same idea a picture worth keeping:
It is difficult not to fail, but it is very useful to see that the tongue shows what is working within, just as the hands of a clock show the hidden workings of its wheels.
The poison image is not reserved for obvious cruelty. Words that sound pleasant can carry it best:
It is indeed, as it is called here, an unsettled or unstable evil, full of deadly poison. The poison is never more attractive and dangerous than when someone hands it over in a gilded pill. Good words and fine speeches make the worse case look like the better one. This is a favourite trick of the enemy, and it fits perfectly to deceive innocent hearts.
The poison also spreads beyond the speaker:
Not only does it defile the body, but it can poison the mind. It has been truly said, "Many who live according to the flesh would avoid hitting a man, yet cannot hold back an angry or hard word against a neighbour." One thoughtless or unkind word can easily poison people's minds against someone.
The verse does not say the tongue cannot be tamed. It says no human being can tame it — and commentators press that distinction as the door of hope:
Underneath this dark description of an even darker reality, there is a streak of divine light. Is it written that absolutely no one is able to tame the tongue? By no means. No "human being" can tame it. We can thank God. He is our desire, our expectation, and our strength. It would be a wholly unchristian thought to subdue our own tongue. It is our confidence to look up to God for what is completely beyond our capacity.
One writer traces our repeated failure back to trusting our own strength:
How often have we suffered from some blunder of the tongue and resolved to control that unruly member better next time. But our resolution proved like the morning cloud that passes away. We could only go away and weep over our sad failure in self-control. Why was this? Simply because we took the matter up in our own strength, or at least without a deep enough sense of our own weakness.
One writer draws a useful line between restraining the tongue and taming it. The first is a duty. The second no believer should claim:
A believer may "bridle" his tongue by the power of the Spirit of God. That is, he can put it under restraint, and this is a serious responsibility. But let no one convince himself that he has tamed his tongue. If he does, he will almost certainly learn through painful experience that it is still an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. So it needs constant guarding and restraining.
What fills the heart, then, decides what the restraint produces:
Nothing but the power of the Spirit filling the heart with the grace of Christ can restrain the tongue. When the heart is enjoying the grace and love of Christ, the tongue will speak in grace out of the abundance of the heart.
- Untamed — Man has tamed beasts, birds, snakes and sea creatures. The one creature he has never tamed is himself.
- Untameable — The tongue only reports what is in the heart. To tame the mouth you must tame the heart, and no one can do that.
- Poisonous — The poison spreads to others. It works best when it sounds pleasant: fine speeches are the gilded pill.
- "No human being" — These words are the hinge of hope. No person can tame the tongue. God can, and looking to Him for what is beyond us is the Christian's confidence.
- Bridled — So the believer guards his speech daily but never assumes the tongue is tamed. A heart full of the grace of Christ is what makes speech gracious.
Therewith bless we the Lord and Father, and therewith curse we men made after [the] likeness of God.
The verse sets two uses of one mouth side by side: praise going up to God, and curses going out at people. James's point turns on one fact about those people: they carry God's likeness. That makes the second use unthinkable for anyone who does the first.
The argument here rests on a contradiction anyone can see. One writer points out that speech is God's gift to man, so misusing it is a disorder He could never approve.
From this point our Epistle takes up the ground of obvious and gross inconsistency. Only the most careless can treat lightly a fault that condemns itself. God cannot start such a plain disorder, nor approve it. Speech is an excellent possession, given to man by his Creator, and this is a misuse of it. The inconsistency is least excusable in those who claim a relationship with God and the Lord.
The first half of the verse narrows the audience. Blessing God as Father is not something everyone does.
Unconverted people do not bless God, even the Father. They do not really know God at all, and much less do they know Him as Father. Christians know Him and bless Him in this way, and yet there are times when words of a very contrary sort come out of their lips.
The verse describes people alive now as made in God's likeness. One writer explains how that can still be true after the fall, using a worn coin as the picture.
You might have thought that man at his fall stopped being in the image and likeness of God. But that is not how Scripture presents it… In James 3:9 we find man "made in the likeness of God." We may not fully grasp in what respects man is the image and likeness of God. But it is at least obvious that an image is a representation. When they showed the Lord a coin, He asked whose image it was. They said, Caesar's. It may not have been well made, and so not a good likeness. It may also have been badly battered, as coins often are, yet that would not stop it being the image of Caesar: it represented him, and no one else.
The reason for holding back the tongue is not that people deserve better. It lies in how they were made, and in the mercy we ourselves received.
We are objects of His loving purposes, born of Him by the word of truth. We should be the last to curse anyone, since we ourselves are blessed by pure mercy. It is not that fallen men have any moral worth in themselves, as we above all should know from our own humbling experience. So we at least should never forget how they were brought into being in God's likeness… Instead of cursing others, we want them to obey the truth, share the blessing, and join us in blessing Him who is the source and giver of it all.
The problem is not limited to loud cursing. A quiet, cutting sentence does damage a person would never do with his hands.
Many who live by the flesh would avoid striking a blow, yet cannot hold back an angry or hard word against a neighbour. But if no man can control the tongue, the grace of Christ can do it. The inner man is under the yoke of the Lord, and is gentle and lowly in heart. Christ fills the heart. And because the tongue follows the impulses of the heart, the speech will express that gentleness and lowliness.
The same lips can serve God or serve sin, and one man's story shows how fast the switch can happen.
Through the tongue we can praise and exalt the Lord, bear witness to that worthy Name, tell others of Him and become channels of eternal blessing. But how quickly, if uncontrolled, it may be used in the service of sin. Peter uttered with his tongue his great, God-given confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." But a short time later that same tongue became the mouthpiece of Satan. Peter rebuked the Lord for saying that He would go to Jerusalem to suffer and to die.
- Same mouth, worse fault. The sin is not just harsh speech. It is praising God and cursing people with the one gift of speech He gave. And it is least excusable in those who know Him as Father.
- Same stamp, still there. Man fell, but the likeness was not cancelled; like a battered coin, he still represents God and no one else.
- Same mercy, no standing. We do not spare people because they have worth of their own. We spare them because we who bless God were blessed by pure mercy — and we want them to share it.
- Same heart, showing. The tongue follows the heart, so a hard word can strike where a hand never would. No one can tame the tongue by effort. The grace of Christ governs it by filling the heart.
- Same lips, two futures. The mouth that confessed Christ became the mouthpiece of Satan within hours. So let Christ fill the heart, and the speech will follow.
Out of the same mouth goes forth blessing and cursing. It is not right, my brethren, that these things should be thus.
James points at something we would rather not look at: the same mouth that blesses God also turns on people. He does not explain the contradiction away. He says it has no place among believers.
Someone who has never known God does not bless Him as Father in the first place. So the clash James describes belongs to believers.
There is a strange inconsistency about the tongue when it is a question of the people of God. Unconverted people do not bless God, even the Father. They do not know God at all, much less as Father. Christians know Him and bless Him in this way, and yet at times words of a very contrary sort come out of their lips. Sometimes they even go so far as cursing men whom God made in His own likeness. No wonder that James says, "My brothers, these things ought not to be so."
The word behind "ought" appears nowhere else in the New Testament.
This word occurs only once, in James 3:10. It comes from a root meaning "to deliver an oracle" or "to be fated," and passes into the sense of what is necessary, what is fitting or proper — or the opposite, with the negative, as here. Compared with the other words, it is a necessity of time or circumstance, and does not have the same moral force.
The appeal is quiet, and it points us to one perfect standard.
The incongruity is heightened by the quiet but pungent appeal, "My brothers, these things ought not to be so." The consistency of the Christian in its perfection is ever and only in Christ; and He is the sole and constant standard for us.
Two things make the cursing unfitting: who the target is, and what we ourselves received.
The principle is plain beyond all question. No inconsistency can be worse than to use the tongue one moment to bless the Supreme God, and the next to curse men made in God's likeness. We are objects of His loving purposes, born of Him by the word of truth, and should be the last to curse any, since we are blessed ourselves by mere mercy... Instead then of cursing others, we want them to obey the truth, share the blessing, and join us in blessing Him Who is the source and giver of it all.
In nature one source yields one kind of thing. So how can both blessing and cursing come out of one Christian?
The answer of course is twofold. First, they began as sinful creatures with an evil nature, just like the rest. Second, they have now been born again, so they now have a new nature, and the old nature has not been removed. So within them there are two fountains: one can produce only evil, the other only good. This is where the strange mixture comes from, and the Apostle condemns it strongly.
But the explanation is not an excuse.
Someone may want to say that, if this is the case with a believer, he hardly deserves such strong blame when his tongue acts as an opening for the bitter waters of the old nature. But any who think this are forgetting that God judged and condemned the flesh, our old nature, at the cross... The believer therefore IS to be reprimanded if his tongue acts as an outlet for the evil of the flesh.
Peter is the standing example. The same mouth that made the great confession about Christ was later used against Him.
Peter spoke his great, God-given confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." A short time later that same tongue became the mouthpiece of Satan, when he rebuked the Lord for saying that He would go to Jerusalem to suffer and to die. What an inconsistency the tongue of man reveals! Nature shows nothing like it anywhere. A tree does not produce two kinds of fruit. A fig tree bears no olives, and a vine no figs. No fountain pours out both salt water and fresh water.
The mouth reports what is inside, so the cure has to start deeper than self-control.
If no man can restrain the tongue, the grace of Christ can do it. The inner man on one side is under the yoke of the Lord, and is meek and lowly in heart. Christ fills the heart, and because the tongue follows the impulses of the heart, the speech will express this meekness and lowliness... it is very useful to see that the tongue shows what is working within, just as the hands of a clock show the hidden workings of its wheels.
- One mouth. Praise to the Father and abuse of people come from the same set of lips.
- Two fountains. The old nature stays alongside the new, so both kinds of water rise in one believer. Nature knows no spring like that.
- No excuse. The cross judged the old nature, so a believer who lets it speak deserves blame, not pity.
- Every target. The people we curse bear God's likeness, and we were blessed by mercy alone — so we should want them blessed too.
- One remedy. The tongue is a clock face showing the works inside. Fill the heart with Christ and the speech turns meek.