Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.
For we all stumble in many things. Anyone who doesn’t stumble in word is a perfect person, able to bridle the whole body also.
So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things.
See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!
The tongue defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Hell.
For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind.
Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water?
Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine, figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.
Who is wise and understanding among you? But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.