John Calvin Commentary James 3:6

"And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell." — James 3:6 (ASV)

He now explains the evils that come from neglecting to restrain the tongue, so that we may know that the tongue can do much good or much evil — that if it is modest and well-regulated, it becomes a bridle for the whole life, but if it is unruly and violent, like a fire, it destroys all things.

He represents it as a small or little fire, to indicate that the tongue's smallness will not prevent its power from extending far and wide to do harm.

By adding that it is a world of iniquity, it is as if he had called it the sea or the abyss. And he suitably connects the smallness of the tongue with the vastness of the world; according to this meaning, a slender portion of flesh contains in it the whole world of iniquity.

So is the tongue. He explains what he meant by the term world, namely that the contagion of the tongue spreads through every part of life; or rather, he shows what he understood by the metaphor fire, that is, that the tongue pollutes the whole person. However, he immediately returns to the fire and says that the whole course of nature is set on fire by the tongue. He compares human life to a course or a wheel; and γένεσις, as before, he takes to mean nature (James 1:23).

The meaning is that while other vices may be corrected by age or the passage of time, or at least when they do not possess the whole person, the vice of the tongue spreads and prevails over every part of life.

Unless one prefers to interpret setting on fire as signifying a violent impulse, for we call something fervid if it is accompanied by violence. Thus, Horace speaks of wheels, calling chariots in battle fervid because of their rapidity. The meaning then would be that the tongue is like untamed horses: just as these violently draw the chariots, so the tongue, by its own recklessness, hurls a person headlong.

When he says that it is set on fire by hell, it is as if he had said that the unruliness of the tongue is the flame of the infernal fire. For just as heathen poets imagined that the wicked are tormented by the torches of the Furies, so it is true that Satan, by temptations that fan the flames, kindles the fire of all evils in the world.

But James means that fire sent by Satan is most easily caught by the tongue, so that it burns immediately. In short, the tongue is a material suited for receiving, fostering, and increasing the fire of hell.