2 For we all often offend. If any one offend not in word, *he* [is] a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body too.
If any one think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, this man's religion is vain.
for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Thus also the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. See how little a fire, how large a wood it kindles! and the tongue [is] fire, the world of unrighteousness; the tongue is set in our members, the defiler of the whole body, and which sets fire to the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell.
He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his soul; destruction shall be to him that openeth wide his lips.
according as it is written, There is not a righteous [man], not even one;
And we are all become as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have carried us away;
Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
If they have sinned against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and give them up to the enemy, and they have carried them away captives unto the enemy's land, far or near;
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us [our] sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
I find then the law upon *me* who will to practise what is right, that with *me* evil is there.
For whoever shall keep the whole law and shall offend in one [point], he has come under the guilt of [breaking] all.
perfect you in every good work to the doing of his will, doing in you what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ; to whom [be] glory for the ages of ages. Amen.
whom *we* announce, admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ.
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these things are opposed one to the other, that ye should not do those things which ye desire;
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on James 3
Commentary on James 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
The apostle here reproves ambition, and an arrogant magisterial tongue; and shows the duty and advantage of bridling it because of its power to do mischief. Those who profess religion ought especially to govern their tongues (v. 1-12). True wisdom makes men meek, and avoiders of strife and envy: and hereby it may easily be distinguished from a wisdom that is earthly and hypocritical (v. 13-18).
Jam 3:1-12
The foregoing chapter shows how unprofitable and dead faith is without works. It is plainly intimated by what this chapter first goes upon that such a faith is, however, apt to make men conceited and magisterial in their tempers and their talk. Those who set up faith in the manner the former chapter condemns are most apt to run into those sins of the tongue which this chapter condemns. And indeed the best need to be cautioned against a dictating, censorious, mischievous use of their tongues. We are therefore taught,
Jam 3:13-18
As the sins before condemned arise from an affectation of being thought more wise than others, and being endued with more knowledge than they, so the apostle in these verses shows the difference between men's pretending to be wise and their being really so, and between the wisdom which is from beneath (from earth or hell) and that which is from above.