Bridgeway Bible Commentary - James 3:1-12
3:1-5:6 WORLDLY AMBITION AND CHRISTIAN FAITHControl of the tongue (3:1-12)James warns his readers not to be too ambitious to be teachers in the church, because if they instruct others and then fail themselves, they will receive greater judgment. This places teachers in particular danger, because they cannot avoid making some mistakes (3:1-2). A person who can control his tongue can control the whole self. Just as the bit controls the horse and the rudder controls the ship, so the tongue... read more
Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - James 3:11-12
James 3:11-12. Doth a fountain send forth at the same opening, alternately, and at different times, sweet water and bitter As if he had said, No such inconsistency is found in the natural world, and nothing of the kind ought to be known in the moral world. Estius observes, “that the apostle’s design was to confirm his doctrine by four similitudes; the first taken from fountains, the second and third from fruit-trees, and the fourth from the sea, which being in its nature salt, does not... read more