Verse 6
Fire is a good illustration of the tongue’s effect. It is a "world of iniquity," perverse as well as powerful.
". . . all the evil characteristics of a fallen world, its covetousness, its idolatry, its blasphemy, its lust, its rapacious greed, find expression through the tongue." [Note: Tasker, p. 76.]
"From the context it seems best to accept that James thinks of the tongue as a vast system of iniquity." [Note: Hiebert, James, p. 195.]
The tongue is the gate through which the evil influences of hell can spread like fire to inflame all the areas of life that we touch. This is the only place in the New Testament where "hell" (Gr. geennes) occurs outside the Synoptic Gospels. Here the body (Gr. soma) represents the whole person. However it may also allude to the church as well. [Note: Martin, pp. 111, 112, and 123.]
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