Control What You Say

¹My brothers and sisters, most of you shouldn’t become teachers, because you know that those of us who do teach will be judged more strictly.

²We all fail in many ways. If someone never says the wrong thing, then they’re a perfect person who’s able to keep their whole body under control.

³We put a bit, a small metal bar, in the mouth of a horse to make it obey us, and we can control the whole animal with it.

⁴To give another example, ships are very big, and they’re driven along by strong winds. But they can be steered by a very small rudder that makes them go wherever the captain wants to go.

⁵In the same way, the tongue is a small part of a person’s body, but it brags about big things. Think how big a forest a small spark can set on fire.

⁶The tongue is also a fire. It’s like an evil world of its own, right inside our bodies. It corrupts the entire body, and it sets a person’s whole life on fire, from start to finish. And the tongue itself is set on fire by hell.

⁷People have tamed all kinds of wild animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures, and they still tame them.

⁸But no one can tame the tongue. It’s a restless menace, full of deadly poison.

⁹With our tongues we praise our Lord and Father, but with our tongues we also curse people who have been created to be like God.

¹⁰Praise and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, it shouldn’t be like that.

¹¹Can fresh water and salt water flow out of the same spring?

¹²My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives, or can a grapevine produce figs? Of course not! A saltwater spring can’t produce fresh water either.

Two Kinds of Wisdom

¹³If anyone among you is wise and understanding, they should show it by living a good life and doing things with the humility that comes from being wise.

¹⁴But if you have bitterness, jealousy, and selfish ambition in your hearts, don’t be proud and pretend you’ve got the truth.

¹⁵“Wisdom” like that doesn’t come down from above. It’s earthly, unspiritual, and demonic,

¹⁶because wherever there’s jealousy and selfish ambition, there will also be chaos and all kinds of bad activity.

¹⁷But the wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peace-loving, kind, cooperative, full of mercy and good fruit, fair, and genuine.

¹⁸People who make peace plant it like a seed, and they’ll harvest a crop of right living.