James 3

“So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!” (v5). James, schooled in the Proverbs, knew the power of words and saw that aggressive, unkind speech – a “world of unrighteousness” - was harming church relationships and could potentially cause terrible destruction (v2-12). He urged believers to tame their tongues and show their maturity by the “meekness of wisdom” (v13), rejecting the world’s “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” ways of ambition and jealous competition (v15).

James reminds us that the goal of “a harvest of righteousness” doesn’t come through harshness or anger; it is “sown in peace by those who make peace” (v18).