James 3:6 Kommentar

The apostle here reproves ambition, and an arrogant magisterial tongue; and shows the duty and advantage of bridling it because of its power to do mischief. Those who profess religion ought especially to govern their tongues (Jam 3:1-12). True wisdom makes men meek, and avoiders of strife and envy: and hereby it may easily be distinguished from a wisdom that is earthly and hypocritical (Jam 3:13 to the end).

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES 3 In this chapter the apostle cautions against censoriousness, and reproving others with a magisterial air; advises to bridle the tongue, and guard against the vices of it; and shows what true wisdom is, and from whence it comes. He advises the saints not to arrogate too much to themselves, and take upon them to be the censorious reprovers of others; which he dissuades from, by the consideration of the greater damnation such shall receive, and by the frailty of all men, and a common proneness to offend by words; for he must be a very singular man indeed that does not offend by words, Jam 3:1 wherefore he exhorts them to watch over their words, and bridle their tongues; which he illustrates by the methods used with horses to keep them in subjection, and with ships, to turn them as occasion serves, and the master pleases, Jam 3:3 and though the tongue is a little member, and not comparable to a horse, or ship, for its bulk; yet it boasts of great things, has a world of iniquity in it, and much mischief is done by it, being influenced by the powers of hell; therefore care, and all possible means, should be used to restrain it, Jam 3:5 though it is not tameable by man, only by the Lord, when all sorts of creatures are, even the most fierce and savage, and therefore are worse than they, being an unruly evil, and full of deadly poison, Jam 3:7. And what is the most monstrous and shocking, blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth, are pronounced by the same tongue, which is used in blessing God, and cursing men made after his image, which by no means ought to be done, Jam 3:9 and which is not to be paralleled in nature; no instance like it can be given, no fountain sending forth, in the same place, water sweet and bitter, salt and fresh, or any fig tree bearing olives, or vine figs, Jam 3:11. And because all this evil springs from a vain opinion men have of their own wisdom, the apostle proceeds to give an account of true wisdom; and observes, that that shows itself in good works, in a holy conversation, attended with meekness and humility, and not in envying, strife, and lies, Jam 3:13. Such sort of wisdom is not from heaven, but of the earth; it is not rational; it is no better than that of brutes; yea, no other than that of devils, since where the above sins prevail, it is a hell on earth, there is nothing but confusion, and everything that is vile and wicked, Jam 3:15 but, on the other hand, true wisdom is of an heavenly original, of a pure, peaceable, gentle, and tractable nature, and is full of good fruits or works in its effects, particularly mercy, and is clear of partiality and hypocrisy, Jam 3:17 and as one of its fruits is righteousness, that is sown in peace by the peacemaker, and produces it, Jam 3:18.

And the tongue is a fire,.... It is like to fire, very useful in its place, to warm and comfort; so is the tongue in Christian conversation, and in the ministry of the word; the hearts of God's children burn within them, while they are talking together, and while the Scriptures of truth are opening to them; but as fire should be carefully watched, and kept, so should men take heed to their ways, that they sin not with their tongue, and keep their tongue from evil, and their lips from speaking guile; for as fire kindles and rises up into a flame, so unchaste, angry, and passionate words, stir up the flame of lust, anger, envy, and revenge; and as fire is of a spreading nature, so are lies, scandal, and evil reports vented by the tongue; and as fire devours all that comes in its way, such are the words of an evil tongue; and therefore are called devouring words, Psa 52:4 they devour the good names of men, and corrupt their good manners, and destroy those who make use of them; and what wood is to fire, and coals to burning coals, that are whisperers, tale bearers, backbiters, and contentious persons to strife, Pro 26:20 a world of iniquity; that is, as the world is full of things, and full of sin, for it lies in wickedness, so is the tongue full of iniquity; there is a world of it in it; it abounds with it; it cannot well be said how much sin is in it, and done, or occasioned by it; as blasphemy against God, Father, Son, and Spirit; cursing of men, imprecations on themselves, their souls, and bodies, and on others, with a multitude of profane and dreadful oaths; obscene, filthy, and unchaste words; angry, wrathful, and passionate ones; lies, flatteries, reproaches, backbitings, whisperings, tale bearings, &c. And the Jews say, that he that uses an evil tongue multiplies transgression, and that it is equal to idolatry, adultery, and murder (h), and the cause of all sin; and which they express by way of fable, in this manner (i): "when Adam sinned, God laid hold on him, and slit his tongue into two parts, and said unto him, the wickedness which is, or shall be in the world, thou hast begun with an evil tongue; wherefore I will make all that come into the world know that thy tongue is the cause of all this.'' The Syriac version renders this clause thus, "and the world of iniquity is as wood"; or the branch of a tree; the tongue is fire, and a wicked world is fuel to it. So is the tongue amongst our members, that it defileth the whole body: the body politic, a whole nation, filling it with contention, strife, division, and confusion; and the ecclesiastical body, the church, by sowing discord, fomenting animosities, making parties, and spreading errors and heresies, whereby the temple of God is defiled; and the natural body, and the several members of it, even the whole person of a man, soul and body, bringing upon him a blot of infamy and reproach never to be wiped off; as for instance, the vice of the tongue, lying, does; and oftentimes through the tongue, the actions done in the body, which seem good, are quite spoiled: and setteth on fire the course of nature, or "wheel of nature": the natural body, as before, in which there is a continual rotation or circulation of the blood, by which it is supported; this is the wheel broken at the cistern at death, in Ecc 12:6 or the course of a man's life and actions, yea, of all generations, and the vicissitudes and changes which have happened in them, on which the tongue has a great influence; and so the Syriac version renders it, "and sets on fire the series of our genealogies, or our generations, which run like wheels": or it may intend the frame of nature, the whole fabric of the universe, and the general conflagration of it, which will be owing to the tongue; or because men's tongues are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory, because of the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Christ and his people, of which they will be convinced by flames of fire about them: and it is set on fire of hell; that is, by the devil; for as heaven sometimes is put for God, who dwells in heaven, Mat 21:25 so hell is put for the devil, whose habitation it is; see Mat 16:18, and the sense is, that the tongue is influenced, instigated, and stirred up by Satan, to speak many evil things, and it will be hereafter set on fire in hell, as the tongue of the rich man in Luk 16:24. To which purpose are those words of the Talmud (k); "whoever uses an evil tongue, the holy blessed God says to hell, I concerning him above, and thou concerning him below, will judge him, as it is said, Psa 120:3. "What shall be done to thee, thou false tongue? sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper", there is no arrow but the tongue, according to Jer 9:8 and there is no mighty one but God, Isa 42:13 "coals of juniper", , these are hell.'' (h) T. Bab. Erachin, fol. 15. 2. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 100. 1. (i) Otiot R. Aquiba in Ketoreth Hassammim in Gen. fol. 12. 4. (k) T. Bab. Erachin, fol. 15. 2. Yalkut, par. 2. fol. 127. 2.

If you love life, fulfill the commandment of life. “The one who loves me,” said Jesus, “keeps my commandments,” and the first commandment is this: “Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile.” For the sin which is caused by the tongue is very active and many-sided, being active in wrath, lust, hypocrisy, judgment and deception. Do we need to recall the many names which are given to sins of the tongue? For from it come slanders, coarse jokes, idiocies, irrelevant accusations, bitterness, swearing, false witness—the tongue is the creator of all these evil things and more.

Therefore, guard the tip of the tongue, for it is like a majestic stallion. For if you put a bit in its mouth and teach it to walk in order, it adapts to this and is satisfied. But if you let it run wild, it becomes the vehicle of the devil and his angels.

The bragging tongue fouls the whole body and is gangrene to the soul.

Iniquity stains us in the same way as wood is scorched by fire, and hell burns as if it were a fire.

Pambo said to Antony, ‘What shall I do?’ Antony said, ‘Do not trust in your own righteousness. Do not go on sorrowing over a deed that is past. Keep your tongue and your belly under control.’

And the tongue is fire, a whole world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members, which defiles the whole body, and inflames the wheel of our birth, inflamed of hell. "world of iniquity." In this place, some wish to signify the multitude, just as where it is said: "The world did not know him," (Jn. 1:10) that is, the popular multitude. Therefore, the world is also the tongue, that is, the multitude of iniquity. And how great if a multitude was said there when it was sent before, how great the matter.

James did not say that the course of our life ignites the tongue but that the tongue ignites the course of our life. For it causes us to make wrong decisions and leads us into rashness. By it, our life is thrown off course and subjected to many kinds of wickedness.

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is a fire because it consumes the forest of virtues by speaking badly. Hence the wise man says of the foolish: "The opening of his mouth," he says, "is a flame." To which indeed the fire of perdition is opposed, that saving fire which, being a tongue, consumes the hay, stubble, and vices, and illuminates the secrets of the heart. By this fire, the holy teachers are kindled, so that they both burn with love and, as if with fiery tongues, ignite others by preaching. Of such it is well written: "There appeared to them tongues as of fire, and they rested on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2). Rightly, it is said of the undisciplined tongue that it is a world of iniquity, because almost all crimes are either concocted by it, such as robberies, rapes; or perpetrated, such as perjuries, false testimonies; or defended when any impure person, by excusing the crime he has committed, pretends to display a good deed that he has not done.

And it sets on fire the wheel of our birth, being set on fire by hell. By hell, it means by the devil and his angels, for whom hell was made, and who, whether they fly in the air, wander on earth or under the earth, or are detained, always bring with them the torments of flames, like a feverish person who, even if placed on ivory beds or in sunny places, cannot avoid the heat or cold of his inherent disease. Thus, demons, even if they are worshipped in golden temples or roam through the air, always burn with the hellish fire, and, reminded by their own punishment, suggest to deceived men the fuel of vices that cause their downfall. In contrast, the holy city of God, the new Jerusalem, is said to descend from heaven by God, because clearly, whatever heavenly things we do on earth, we have certainly received the celestial gift to do so. Moreover, the wheel of our birth refers to the continuous course of temporal life, in which from the day of birth until death we are driven like a constantly running wheel. Hence, Solomon rightly said: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of affliction come” (Ecclesiastes XII), and shortly after added: “And the wheel is broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth from which it came.” Therefore, the tongue sets on fire the wheel of our birth, contaminating our entire state of being with corrupt speech. Again, he calls it the wheel of our birth, because due to the merit of the first transgression, having been cast from inner stability, we are carried hither and thither with a wandering mind, and in all our uncertain paths, we know not where danger or safety lies. This wheel of our birth is set on fire by the corrupting fire of the tongue when the vice of our inherent disturbance is further compounded by foolish and harmful words.

So also the tongue, a world of iniquity, is fire, for as fire destroys everything, so does the tongue. Some understand "world" here as multitude, as also in the words: "the world did not know Him" (John 1:10). The tongue is a world, that is, a mass of iniquity. Thus the tongue, setting ablaze the wheel of birth, defiles life. Life is also called a crown by the psalmist, when he says to God: "You shall bless the crown of the year of Your goodness" ("You crown the year with Your goodness") (Ps. 65:11). A crown and a wheel do not differ from each other in shape, being round. Life is a wheel in the sense that it revolves within itself. This is how this passage should be explained if the text reads "the wheel of hell," as in certain manuscripts; but if one reads "the wheel of birth," then by the wheel of birth one should understand our life.

They are exhorted not to be many masters, Jam 3:1. And to bridle the tongue, which is often an instrument of much evil, Jam 3:2-12. The character and fruits of true and false wisdom, Jam 3:13-18.

The tongue is a fire - It is often the instrument of producing the most desperate contentions and insurrections. A world of iniquity - This is an unusual form of speech, but the meaning is plain enough; World signifies here a mass, a great collection, an abundance. We use the term in the same sense - a world of troubles, a world of toil, a world of anxiety; for great troubles, oppressive toil, most distressing anxiety. And one of our lexicographers calls his work a world of words; i.e. a vast collection of words: so we also say, a deluge of wickedness, a sea of troubles; and the Latins, oceanus malorum, an ocean of evils. I do not recollect an example of this use of the word among the Greek writers; but in this sense it appears to be used by the Septuagint, Pro 17:6 : Του πιστου ὁλος ὁ κοσμος των χρηματων, του δε απιστου ουδε οβολος, which may be translated, "The faithful has a world of riches, but the unfaithful not a penny." This clause has nothing answering to it in the Hebrew text. Some think that the word is thus used, Pe2 2:5 : And brought the flood, κοσμῳ ασεβων, on the multitude of the ungodly. Mr. Wakefield translates the clause thus: The tongue is the varnisher of injustice. We have seen that κοσμοςsignifies adorned, elegant, beautiful, etc., but I can scarcely think that this is its sense in this place. The Syriac gives a curious turn to the expression: And the tongue is a fire; and the world of iniquity is like a wood. Above, the same version has: A little fire burns great woods. So the world of iniquity is represented as inflamed by the wicked tongues of men; the world being fuel, and the tongue a fire. So is the tongue among our members - I think St. James refers here to those well known speeches of the rabbins, Vayikra Rabba, sec. 16, fol. 159. "Rabbi Eleazar said, Man has one hundred and forty-eight members, some confined, others free. The tongue is placed between the jaws; and from under it proceeds a fountain of water, (the great sublingual salivary gland), and it is folded with various foldings. Come and see what a flame the tongue kindles! Were it one of the unconfined members, what would it not do?" The same sentiment, with a little variation, may be found in Midrash, Yalcut Simeoni, par. 2, fol. 107; and in Erachin, fol. xv. 2, on Psa 120:3 : What shall be given unto thee, or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? "The holy blessed God said to the tongue: All the rest of the members of the body are erect, but thou liest down; all the rest are external, but thou art internal. Nor is this enough: I have built two walls about thee; the one bone, the other flesh: What shall be given unto thee, and what shall be done unto thee, O thou false tongue?" Setteth on fire the course of nature - Φλογιζουσα τον τροχον της γενεσεως· And setteth on fire the wheel of life. I question much whether this verse be in general well understood. There are three different interpretations of it: 1. St. James does not intend to express the whole circle of human affairs, so much affected by the tongue of man; but rather the penal wheel of the Greeks, and not unknown to the Jews, on which they were accustomed to extend criminals, to induce them to confess, or to punish them for crimes; under which wheels, fire was often placed to add to their torments. In the book, De Maccabaeis, attributed to Josephus, and found in Haverkamp's edition, vol. ii., p. 497-520, where we have the account of the martyrdom of seven Hebrew brothers, in chap. ix, speaking of the death of the eldest, it is said: Ανεβαλον αυτον επι τον τροχοι - περι ὁν κατατεινομενος· "They cast him on the wheel, over which they extended him; πυρ ὑπεστρωσαν και διηρεθισαν τον τροχον προσεπικατατεινοντες· they put coals under it, and strongly agitated the wheel." And of the martyrdom of the sixth brother it is said, cap. 11: Παρηγον επι τον τροχον, εφ' οὑ κατατεινομενος εκμελως και εκσφονδυλιζομενος ὑπεκαιετο, και οβελισκους δε οξεις πυρωσαντες, τοις νοτοις προσεφερον, και τα πλευρα διαπειραντες αυτου, και τα σπλαγχνα διεκαιον· They brought him to the wheel, on which, having distended his limbs, and broken his joints, they scorched him with the fire placed underneath; and with sharp spits heated in the fire, they pierced his sides, and burned his bowels. The fire and the wheel are mentioned by Achilles Tatius, lib. 7, p. 449. "Having stripped me of my garments, I was carried aloft, των μεν μαστιγας κομιζοντων, των δε πυρ και τροχον, some bringing scourges, others the fire and the wheel." Now as γενεσις often signifies life, then the wheel of life will signify the miseries and torments of life. To set on fire the wheel of life is to increase a man's torments; and to be set on fire from hell implies having these miseries rendered more active by diabolic agency; or, in other words, bad men, instigated by the devil, through their lies and calumnies, make life burdensome to the objects of their malicious tongues. The wheel and the fire, so pointedly mentioned by St. James, make it probable that this sort of punishment might have suggested the idea to him. See more in Kypke. 2. But is it not possible that by the wheel of life St. James may have the circulation of the blood in view? Angry or irritating language has an astonishing influence on the circulation of the blood: the heart beats high and frequent; the blood is hurried through the arteries to the veins, through the veins to the heart, and through the heart to the arteries again, and so on; an extraordinary degree of heat is at the same time engendered; the eyes become more prominent in their sockets; the capillary vessels suffused with blood; the face flushed; and, in short, the whole wheel of nature is set on fire of hell. No description can be more natural than this: but it may be objected that this intimates that the circulation of the blood was known to St. James. Now supposing it does, is the thing impossible? It is allowed by some of the most judicious medical writers, that Solomon refers to this in his celebrated portraiture of old age, particularly in Ecc 12:6 : "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern." Here is the very wheel of life from which St. James might have borrowed the idea; and the different times evidently refer to the circulation of the blood, which might be as well known to St. James as the doctrine of the parallax of the sun. See on Jam 1:17 (note). 3. It is true, however, that the rabbins use the term גלגל תולדות gilgal toledoth, "the wheel of generations," to mark the successive generations of men: and it is possible that St. James might refer to this; as if he had said: "The tongue has been the instrument of confusion and misery through all the ages of the world." But the other interpretations are more likely.

DANGER OF EAGERNESS TO TEACH, AND OF AN UNBRIDLED TONGUE: TRUE WISDOM SHOWN BY UNCONTENTIOUS MEEKNESS. (Jam. 3:1-18) be not--literally, "become not": taking the office too hastily, and of your own accord. many--The office is a noble one; but few are fit for it. Few govern the tongue well (Jam 3:2), and only such as can govern it are fit for the office; therefore, "teachers" ought not to be many. masters--rather, "teachers." The Jews were especially prone to this presumption. The idea that faith (so called) without works (Jam 2:14-26) was all that is required, prompted "many" to set up as "teachers," as has been the case in all ages of the Church. At first all were allowed to teach in turns. Even their inspired gifts did not prevent liability to abuse, as James here implies: much more is this so when self-constituted teachers have no such miraculous gifts. knowing--as all might know. we . . . greater condemnation--James in a humble, conciliatory spirit, includes himself: if we teachers abuse the office, we shall receive greater condemnation than those who are mere hearers (compare Luk 12:42-46). CALVIN, like English Version, translates, "masters" that is, self-constituted censors and reprovers of others Jam 4:12 accords with this view.

Translate, "The tongue, that world of iniquity, is a fire." As man's little world is an image of the greater world, the universe, so the tongue is an image of the former [BENGEL]. so--omitted in the oldest authorities. is--literally, "is constituted." "The tongue is (constituted), among the members, the one which defileth," &c. (namely, as fire defiles with its smoke). course of nature--"the orb (cycle) of creation." setteth on fire . . . is set on fire--habitually and continually. While a man inflames others, he passes out of his own power, being consumed in the flame himself. of hell--that is, of the devil. Greek, "Gehenna"; found here only and in Mat 5:22. James has much in common with the Sermon on the Mount (Pro 16:27).