1 Do not become teachers in large numbers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive the stricter judgment.
2 For in many things we all trip. If someone does not trip in speech, he is a mature man, able to rein in the whole body too.
3 See, we put bits into horses' mouths to make them obey us, and we steer their whole body.
4 Look at the ships also: they are so big, and are pushed along by hard winds, yet they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the one steering decides.
5 In the same way the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. See how great a mass of wood a little fire sets ablaze!
6 The tongue too is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. Among our members the tongue is so placed that it stains the whole body and sets aflame the course of life, and it is set aflame by hell.
7 For every kind of wild animal and bird, of creeping thing and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race,
8 but the tongue no one among men can subdue; it is an evil that will not be held still, full of death-bringing venom.
9 By it we bless God and the Father, and by it we curse men who were made after God's likeness.
10 From one and the same mouth proceed blessing and curse. My brothers, these things should not be so.
11 Does a spring send out from the same opening both the sweet and the bitter?
12 My brothers, can a fig tree produce olives, or a vine figs? Neither can any spring give both salty and sweet water.
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good way of life let him show his works in the meekness that belongs to wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter zeal and party spirit in your heart, do not exult and lie against the truth.
15 This is not the wisdom that descends from above; it is of the earth, of the natural man, of demons.
16 For where zeal and party spirit are found, there are unrest and every vile deed.
17 The wisdom from above, however, is in the first place pure, then peaceable, reasonable, ready to be persuaded, overflowing with mercy and good fruits, undivided, unfeigned.
18 And the fruit that is righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.