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Grow With Me

James 3:1–12

James: the tongue, small like a bit or a rudder, is a fire that no one can tame

1Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a greater judgment.

2For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able to bridle also the whole body.

3And if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we steer also their whole body.

4Look also at the ships: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the pilot wants.

5So also the tongue is a small member and boasts of great things. See how great a forest so small a fire sets ablaze.

6And the tongue is a fire, the world of unrighteousness; the tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of existence, and is itself set on fire by Gehenna.

7For every kind of beasts and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures, is tamed and has been tamed by humankind,

8But no human being can tame the tongue: it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who have been made in the likeness of God.

10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

11A spring does not pour forth from the same opening the sweet and the bitter, does it?

12My brothers, a fig tree cannot produce olives, or a vine figs, can it? Neither can salt water produce sweet water.

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13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct his works in the gentleness of wisdom.

14But if you have bitter jealousy and rivalry in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth.

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The Tongue