Commentary on James 3:1-12

In chapters 1 and 2 the author of James has made clear that certain outward characteristics— impartiality and faithful action versus favoritism and the mistreatment of vulnerable people, for example—are reflective of either inward integrity or a duplicity of being. In chapter 3 another piece of external evidence of one’s interior person is brought to the fore, namely speech. This passage is notoriously difficult and interpreted with wide variability by commentators both historical and modern. As earlier in chapter 2 on the subject of faith and works, here too the author’s rhetorical style is frank, intended to shock and appall. 

Chapter 3 begins with a warning: teachers will be judged more strictly (verse 1). It is not immediately obvious how this links to the paradox that leads on from this initial claim: everyone makes mistakes; anyone who does not make any mistakes is perfect (verse 2). A series of contrasts follow:  

• a large horse controlled by a small bit (verse 3) 
• a large ship steered by a small rudder (verse 4) 
• a small tongue with large boasts (verse 5) 
• a small blaze versus a large forest fire (verse 5) 
• blessing versus cursing (verse 9–10) 
• fresh and brackish water (verses 11–12) 

Though horses can be guided by a bit and bridle, and large ships can be steered by a very small rudder, and any number of animals from the land, sea, and air can be tamed by humans, the tongue is wild and dangerous—itself set on fire by Gehenna (gehenna, a place of punishment; James 3:2–8). Even such a markedly small part of the body can have a massive impact: “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!” warns the author (verse 5), and “no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil full of deadly poison” (verse 8). 

If we compare chapter 3 to the rest of James, the issue here appears to be one of consistency. The tongue may be untamable, but it is a stable conduit: whatever is inside wells up through one’s speech. Just as favoritism or faith without action demonstrates for the author of James an inward fracture, so too should it not be possible that the same mouth could both bless and curse (verses 9–10). 

James offers a series of rhetorical analogies from nature to demonstrate that this discrepancy is against the natural order of things: “Can a stream pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water?” (Answer: no—this is not possible.) “Can a fig tree … yield olives, or a grapevine figs?” (No, of course not—fig trees grow figs, olive trees grow olives, and grapevines grow grapes.) Well, “no more can saltwater yield fresh” (verses 3:11–12). The tongue is unwieldy because it is capable of producing conflicting substances, both curses and blessings. This is not only morally corrupt, to James, but analogically against the laws of nature. 

And yet, concedes James, “all of us make mistakes” (verse 2). Anyone who does not make mistakes keeps their whole body in check as a horse is controlled by a bridle, or a ship by a rudder—but, as we have seen, “no one can tame the tongue”; in other words, the tongue speaks on behalf of its imperfect body (verse 8). 

It is for this reason that taking on the role of teacher should be weighed carefully. Those who teach are partly responsible for cultivating the moral life—and therefore, according to James, the outward actions—of those who learn from them. This is why the author cautions against teaching: if the tongue drives the body like a rudder steers a ship, then we might say that teachers are like navigation software—highly influential, if also possible to misunderstand or disregard.

Other New Testament apostolic letters caution against false teachers, likening them to false prophets. For example, 2 Peter warns that “false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers (pseudodidáskaloi) among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. … Even so, many will follow their debaucheries, and because of these teachers, the way of truth will be maligned” (2:1–2). 

Likewise, 1 John warns readers to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (4:1). Discerning between truly good and (at times very stealthy) bad teaching is key, and some advice is provided: anyone who denies the incarnation of Christ is a false teacher, for example (verses 2–3). 

As we have seen, James also warns of the consequences, the weightiness, of teachers’ influence: teachers will be judged more strictly than their students. In the end, teachers bear the brunt of the consequences, reaping what they have sown. The false prophets/teachers of 2 Peter “deny the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves” (2:2). 

Cain, Balaam, and Korah are all put on blast by the author of Jude as exemplars of false teaching, leading ultimately to their total destruction: “Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain and perish n Korah’s rebellion” (verse 11). 

Cain was cursed and kicked out of Eden, eventually becoming an archetype of apostates (Genesis 4:10–16; 1 John 3:12; Jude 1:11); Balaam was rebuked by a donkey, blamed for suggesting to Balak that he tempt the men of Israel, and killed by the sword (see also Numbers 22:22–25; 31:8, 16; 2 Peter 2:15–16; Jude 1:11; Revelation 2:14); and Korah and his followers were dramatically swallowed up by a chasm that opened in the earth (Numbers 16:32–35; Jude 1:11). 

Bad teaching leads to bad consequences for all involved, because plants produce fruit in kind: fig trees yield figs and grapevines yield grapes. So, too, are outward speech and action the yield of one’s soul, whether curse or blessing.