James 3

₁My friends, you must not all try to teach other people. You know that when God judges us, He will judge teachers more harshly than other people. Their lives must be even better than those of others. ₂All of us sometimes do something wrong. If someone never says something wrong, then that person lives completely as God wants, and he can tell his whole body to do what is right.

₃When we ride a horse, we put a bit in its mouth so that we can turn the horse to the side that we want him to go. ₄It is the same with sailing boats: Boats are very big, and strong winds make them sail on the water. But the captain uses only a very small rudder to make the boat go where he wants it to go. ₅It is the same with your tongue that you use when you are speaking: The tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts that it can do great things. A small flame of fire can set a big forest on fire. ₆The tongue is like a fire that is burning. The tongue is one of the parts of the body but it is also like a world full of bad things. It can make the whole body bad. The things it can say can destroy your whole life with a fire that comes from hell.

₇People can take all kinds of wild animals and birds and teach them to do things, even reptiles and animals in the sea. People have already done that ₈but no one can stop his tongue from saying bad things. It is dangerous like poison that can kill people. ₉We praise the Lord and Father with our tongue, but with the same tongue we curse people. And those people are important to God. He made them to be like Him. ₁₀My friends, it is wrong when we use our tongues to praise the Lord and to curse people too. ₁₁You know that fresh and bitter water can not come from the same fountain. ₁₂My friends, a fig tree can not have olives and a vine can not have figs. This is sure. It is the same: When a fountain is full of salty water, it can not give fresh water.

₁₃If one of you thinks that he has wisdom and that he understands the things of God, then he must show that he is wise. He must do things that are good and wise, things that God wants him to do. He must be humble like a wise man. ₁₄But if you are jealous and you always want everything to be like you want it to be, then you must not boast and say that you have wisdom, because then it is not_true. ₁₅That is not wisdom, and it does not come from God. It comes from people who think only of the things of this world. It is not spiritual and it comes from the devil. ₁₆Because when people are jealous and always want things to be like they want them to be, then they make problems for other people and they do bad things.

₁₇No, the wisdom that comes from God is pure. God's wisdom brings peace between people. It makes you friendly so that you want to listen to other people. Wisdom is good to people. It is like a tree that has good fruit. Wisdom does not think that one person is more important than another person. It is not hypocritical. ₁₈When someone makes peace between other people, more people live righteous as God wants them to live.