Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary James 3

James’s first concern in this passage has to do with those who desired to be “teachers” in the scattered Jewish Christian congregations (cf. 1 Timothy 1:7). It seems to have been a common practice for many of the readers to seek to become teachers. So James warns that they should stop becoming teachers in such large numbers. No doubt many who were not qualified by natural ability or spiritual gift were coveting the prestige of teaching. They are warned that teachers “will be judged more strictly.” It is apparent from the words “we who teach” that James includes himself as a teacher. The judgment of teachers will be especially strict because greater responsibility rests on them. The reason for this is that the teacher’s essential instrument, the tongue, has such great influence.

James gives the basis for what he has just said in v.1: The tongue is the most difficult member of the body to control. To say that “we all stumble” (GK 4760) is not merely to declare that everyone makes mistakes. This word is used figuratively to refer to acts of sin (cf. 2:10). Thus the author declares the universality of sin, even among believers. The person who “is never at fault” in his speech (i.e., never commits sins of speech) “is a perfect man.” If anyone could be found who never sins with the tongue, that person would never sin in any other way, either. Since sins of the tongue are hardest to avoid, anyone who can control the tongue is surely able to “keep his whole body” from being used as an instrument of sin.

James illustrates the powerful influence of the tongue by the practice of putting “bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us.” A small bit “can turn the whole animal.” So a person who controls the tongue can control his or her whole being.

The next illustration on the influence of the tongue is the rudder of a ship. Three factors made ships of that day difficult to control: they were “so large”; they were “driven by strong winds”; and they were “steered by a very small rudder.” The rudder was a small blade on the end of a tiller, extending through a form of oarlock from the rear of the ship. Compared to the size of the vessel and the power of the gale, the rudder was but a minute part; yet it guided the ship “wherever the pilot want[ed] to go.”

With the words “likewise the tongue,” the application of the two preceding verses is introduced. Like bits (v.3) and rudders (v.4), the tongue also is a small item. Yet, also like them, it exerts a powerful influence. “It makes great boasts,” and these are not empty claims. The tongue is able to sway multitudes. It can alter the destinies of nations. The destructive potential of the tongue is graphically pictured by a forest fire. Thousands of acres of valuable timber may be devastated by a “small spark.” In the first two illustrations, animals and ships are controlled by small objects; in this last illustration, a huge forest is destroyed by a tiny spark. The tongue likewise can either control or destroy.