Read the passage several times through, slowly and prayerfully. It might help to use your imagination to picture the scene. At the end of the text you will find helpful background information in our ‘Setting the Scene’ section.

As you read, look out for shockers and blockers.

Shockers – a phrase, word, image or something from the text that resonates, stands out or connects with you.

Blockers – something from the text that raises questions for you.

James 3.1–12

My friends, we should not all try to become teachers. In fact, teachers will be judged more strictly than others. All of us do many wrong things. But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body. By putting a bit into the mouth of a horse, we can turn the horse in different directions. It takes strong winds to move a large sailing ship, but the captain uses only a small rudder to make it go in any direction. Our tongues are small too, and yet they brag about big things. It takes only a spark to start a forest fire!

The tongue is like a spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person’s entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be tamed and have been tamed. But our tongues get out of control. They are restless and evil, and always spreading deadly poison.

My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses. We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this isn’t right. Can clean water and dirty water both flow from the same spring? Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Setting the Scene

Teaching was an important role within the early church, probably because of the high regard in which rabbis were held within Judaism.
James wants to emphasise the importance of teaching, and the closer scrutiny of our lives that inevitably comes with that responsibility. The main tool for this ministry is the tongue. Most of us, not just teachers, struggle with controlling our tongues.
Control is the emphasis in verses 2-4. If the tongue is not restrained, then the whole person is likely to be uncontrolled and undisciplined.
James uses imagery of his day – horses, boats and the dry Mediterranean forests that could so easily catch fire – to convey the danger of an uncontrolled tongue.
Blessing and cursing are opposites. Cursing in this culture was not simply swearing but the expression of a desire that the cursed person be cut off from God.
James sees a person’s speech as a barometer of their spirituality: a pure heart cannot produce false, bitter or harmful speech.

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