NOTES for Jam 3:1-18

The apostle’s discourse on the need to bridle the tongue is one of the most eloquent passages in his epistle. From antiquity there has come down to us the story of Aesop, whose master twice sent him to the market with orders to bring back the best and the worst thing in the world. Both times Aesop brought back a tongue, an instrument of both evil and good. But while Aesop merely testified to the actual state of affairs, James, acknowledging the actual state of affairs, in which from the same mouth come blessing and cursing, concludes: my brothers, this ought not to be so.

These words of James seem to be contradicted by his own statement that no human being can tame the tongue. This thought might be called excessively pessimistic, though it is not difficult to understand that James had grounds for such a statement, since he is speaking of purely human efforts. But if one relies not on them but on the wisdom that comes from above, much changes.