In the Epistle of James, Chapter 3, James continues his teachings on wisdom. The first half of the Epistle instructs the Christian on the duty to guard his tongue. Adamson refers to James 1:26 for example.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, his religion is vain. (Bible quotations are taken from the Catholic Bible NABRE unless otherwise stated).
James B. Adamson tells us that this is not just a lament over the constant weakness of man. He warns Christians that becoming a teacher carries an ominous responsibility.
Seek not many of you to be rabbis, my brothers, knowing that we shall be adjudged more severe punishment (James 3:1, Translation by Adamson, p. 139).
In verses 5-12, James deliberately builds up to the condemnation of contentious heresy found in 3:14-16. Adamson’s emphasis is on verse 15:
This wisdom is not one descending from above, but is of the earth, of this life, of the devil.
The Importance and Responsibility of Wisdom
James is focused on wisdom in Chapter 3. At this time, the Christianity of the converts is itself being threatened by the teachers’ failure to guard their tongues. However, his caution to sincere Christians is sympathetic. He warns them about the higher standards expected of the leaders in wisdom and therefore, the greater risks involved for teachers. In speech, it is even harder than in bodily action to avoid the sin of error, willful or involuntarily.
The following is Adamson’s translation of 3:2-12:
For we are all guilty of many sins. Only if such a man there be as never sins in what he says, only there would be a perfect man, able as with a bridle to control his whole body also.
See, we put bits in horses' mouths to make them obey us, and so we are able to turn their whole body this way and that.
See also how ships, so great as they are, and driven by fierce winds, are turned this way and that by a very small rudder in whatever direction the steersman's desire may choose.
So too the tongue is a little member of the body vaunting great powers. See how much brushwood a little fire sets alight?
The tongue also is fire; the sinful world (is) wood. Thus the tongue stands among our members, defiling the whole body and setting fire to the circling course of creation, and being set on fire by hell.
For every genus of beasts and birds, reptiles and sea creatures, is subdued and stands subdued to mankind.
But the tongue no man can subdue; it is an evil irreducible to order, full of deadly venom.
With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been created in the likeness of God.
Out of the same mouth come forth blessings and cursing: it is wrong, my brothers, that this be so.
Does a fountain from the same outlet spout forth both sweet and bitter?
Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a vine figs? So no fountain can produce salt water and fresh.
James is Thinking First and Always of Sincerity
So, James warns sincere Christians that they should hesitate before taking on the responsibility, risk and punishment associated with becoming teachers. Adamson notes the words used in 3:8. ‘Unstable’ and ‘doubeminded’ occur together in 1:8; ‘Unstable’ or ‘treacherous’ occur in 3:8; and ‘doubleminded’ (plural) in 4:8.
The Unity of Chapters 3 and 4
“Chapters 3 and 4 both develop the thought of 1:5-8, the sincere seeking for God (literally, god’s wisdom). He starts, as in 2:1 where he deals with sincere faith, with a preliminary warning which is developed on somewhat divergent lines, for he deals with one aspect only of the matter. The tongue is represented as the acme of insincerity, a lie against that consistency and constancy of nature which should sound in the nature of everything that is uninfected (as, alas, “the world in iniquity” and unregenerate man, including the tongue, are infected) with sin.
[These two chapters]”… form almost a unity. It is one mark of James’s style, as of much other oratory, to round off a paragraph by coming in full circle to the point with which it began: 3:13-18 is an obvious example, beginning and ending with the duty of good works in meekness and peace as part of true wisdom. So here James begins Chapter 3 and ends Chapter 4 of these two allied chapters with the same warning, namely, the responsibilities of advancement in knowledge (3:1 and 4:17).
“James 3:1, 2, is an application of 1:19, “slow to speak”, 3:13-18, of the same verse, “slow to wrath”; and 3:3-12 is related to 1:26 on the duty of bridling the tongue. 3:13, 15, 16, indicate the special application to teachers of the directions against wrath (in 1:19, as already mentioned) and to humility and good works, as in 1:21…
In 3:17, on pure see 1:21; on peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated see 1:19; on mercy see 1:27 and 2:13; on good fruits see 1:22; on unwavering see 1:6; and without hypocrisy is close to 1:22, 26.
“This third chapter drives home the lesson of 1:5. Even with faith in God and in righteousness, I still constantly need his guidance in the daily problems of life” (Adamson p. 139).
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