Chapter 3

¹Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ²For we all make many mistakes. Anyone who never makes a mistake in what he says has a character that is fully developed and is able to control his whole body as well. ³If we put bridles into horses’ mouths to make them obey us, we can guide their whole bodies. ⁴Even ships, great as they are, and driven by strong winds, are steered with a very small rudder wherever the pilot pleases. ⁵So the tongue is a little organ and yet very boastful. What a great forest a spark will set on fire! ⁶And the tongue is a fire, a world of wrong the tongue proves in our bodies, soiling the whole body and setting fire to the whole round of nature, and set on fire itself by hell. ⁷For every kind of animal and bird, reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by man, ⁸but no human being can tame the tongue. It is an irreconcilable evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless the Lord our Father, and with it we curse men made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰Blessing and cursing issue from the same mouth! This is not right, my brothers. ¹¹Does a spring pour forth fresh and brackish water from the same crevice? ¹²Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers, or a grape vine figs? A salt spring cannot give fresh water.

¹³What wise, intelligent man is there among you? Let him show by his good life that what he does is done in the humility of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you cherish bitter feelings of jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus belie the truth. ¹⁵Such wisdom does not come from above. It is earthly, animal, demon-like. ¹⁶For wherever jealousy and rivalry exist, there will be confusion and every low action. ¹⁷The wisdom that is from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, considerate, willing to yield, full of compassion and good deeds, whole-hearted, straightforward. ¹⁸The harvest uprightness yields must be sown in peace, by peacemakers.