• 1. ¶ MY brethren, let not many teachers be among you; but know that we are under a great judgment.
  • 2. For in many things we all stumble. Anyone who does not offend in word, this one is a perfect man and able also to subdue his whole body.
  • 3. Behold, we put bits into the mouths of horses, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body.
  • 4. Behold also the ships; great as they are, when driven by severe winds, they are turned about with a very small rudder wherever the pilot wishes.
  • 5. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. Likewise, a small fire sets ablaze large forests.
  • 6. The tongue is a fire, and the sinful world a forest; that very tongue while it is among our members, can defile our whole body and set on fire the course of our race which has rolled down from the beginning; and in the end it is consumed by fire.
  • 7. For every kind of beasts and of birds and of creatures of the sea and of the land are under the subjugation of the will of man.
  • 8. But the tongue no man can tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
  • 9. By it we bless the Lord and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made in the image of God;
  • 10. Out of the same mouth proceed curses and blessings. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
  • 11. Can there spring forth from the same fountain both sweet water and bitter water?
  • 12. Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? Or the vine, figs? Likewise also salt water cannot be made sweet.
  • 13. ¶ Who is wise among you and has training? Let him prove his words by his good deeds in the humbleness of wisdom.
  • 14. But if you have bitter envying among you or strife in your hearts, do not boast and do not lie against the truth.
  • 15. This wisdom does not come from above, but it is earthly, sensual, devilish.
  • 16. For wherever envy and strife are, there is confusion and every sort of evil.
  • 17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then full of peace, and is gentle, obedient, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
  • 18. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by the peacemakers.