2 for we all make many stumbles; if any one in word doth not stumble, this one `is' a perfect man, able to bridle also the whole body;
If any one doth think to be religious among you, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, of this one vain `is' the religion;
for from thy words thou shalt be declared righteous, and from thy words thou shalt be declared unrighteous.'
so also the tongue is a little member, and doth boast greatly; lo, a little fire how much wood it doth kindle! and the tongue `is' a fire, the world of the unrighteousness, so the tongue is set in our members, which is spotting our whole body, and is setting on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by the gehenna.
Whoso is keeping his mouth, is keeping his soul, Whoso is opening wide his lips -- ruin to him!
according as it hath been written -- `There is none righteous, not even one;
And we are as unclean -- all of us, And as a garment passing away, all our righteous acts; And we fade as a leaf -- all of us. And our iniquities as wind do take us away.
Who saith, `I have purified my heart, I have been cleansed from my sin?'
`When they sin against Thee (for there is not a man who sinneth not), and Thou hast been angry with them, and hast given them up before an enemy, and they have taken captive their captivity unto the land of the enemy far off or near;
if we may say -- `we have not sin,' ourselves we lead astray, and the truth is not in us; if we may confess our sins, stedfast He is and righteous that He may forgive us the sins, and may cleanse us from every unrighteousness; if we may say -- `we have not sinned,' a liar we make Him, and His word is not in us.
I find, then, the law, that when I desire to do what is right, with me the evil is present,
for whoever the whole law shall keep, and shall stumble in one `point', he hath become guilty of all;
make you perfect in every good work to do His will, doing in you that which is well-pleasing before Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom `is' the glory -- to the ages of the ages! Amen.
whom we proclaim, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,
for the flesh doth desire contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit contrary to the flesh, and these are opposed one to another, that the things that ye may will -- these ye may not do;
Keep thy tongue from evil, And thy lips from speaking deceit.
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.