In James 3:3 the author of this epistle puts a horse’s bridle for a tongue. At first I thought pointing to the bridle meant one should control his speech. While it is true that everyone of us should control what we say (cp. James 1:19), yet, James is using the bridle of the horse to show what the tongue actually is able to do (James 3:3). Just as the bridle is used to bring the whole body of the horse into obedience to its rider, so, too, the tongue is able to demand the obedience of many listeners.
Paul mentions that “mouths must be stopped” (G1993; G1163) in Titus 1:11. Why? because they overthrow (G396) whole houses (i.e. house churches) “teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.” Likewise, he wrote to Timothy:
Even as I begged you to remain at Ephesus, when I was going to Macedonia, that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies (which provide doubts rather than the nurture of God in faith). But the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, from which some, having swerved, have turned aside to foolish talking, desiring to be teachers of the law, neither understanding what they say nor that which they affirm. (1 Timothy 1:3-7)
Just as the horse obeys the pull of the bridle, so men will obey the words of a man, whom they respect or fear. As mentioned in Titus and Timothy, Paul sought to bridle the tongues of certain people who were using their tongues to bridle whole houses (i.e. house churches). To be self-disciplined (James 1:19) is desired, but, if not, then the “bridle” needs to be used by one in authority; in the instances above Paul urged Timothy to remain at Ephesus, and he left Titus on the isle of Crete to bridle certain men who were apt to teach, when they should have remained silent. They were overturning whole church bodies and leading them away from the truth by what they claimed. Indeed, some of these unruly tongues (false teachers) may have been bridled by Jerusalem (cp. Matthew 23:15), especially in the context of James’ letter, as viewed in the context of the other general epistles. Paul, remember, was sent in chains to Rome. Meanwhile, persecution, instigated by the Jerusalem authorities, had broken out in several Roman provinces in what is part of modern Turkey (see 1Peter 1:1), and Jude claimed certain men had crept into the church unawares and believers needed to “earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3-4). All these things occurred, because of the tongue that refused to submit to the authority of the word of God.
For James’ second example of the power of the tongue, he pointed to the rudder of a ship (James 3:4), which enables the helmsman to steer a great ship through the waters, even through the strong winds of a storm. The idea is that the tongue, although only a small part of the body (the rudder being a small portion of the ship) has the great power to steer the whole ship (read the whole church body) in the direction the rudder allows. We dare not overlook the power of the spoken word. The Lord used his Word to create the whole universe, and men use their words to undo the order the Lord has put in place. Hence, the importance of the spoken word both for following the Lord and in rebelling against him.
Consider for a moment the arrogance of the tongue, how it boasts of what it will do or of the things it has done (James 3:5). Think of the candidates for public office how they boast of what they’ll do, promising this or that. Yet, they could do nothing without a large body of people who dedicate themselves to doing what the tongue of the candidate promised the public. Moreover, the holder of the office boasts of the criminals he brought to justice (district attorney), the public programs he established (governor, president etc.), yet there were vast numbers of individuals working toward those goals for which the officeholder took sole credit.
Yet, James’ example of the power of the tongue was not for good (viz. putting away criminals or building important public programs) but for evil, for destruction. He referred to a very small fire (James 3:5) and what great a matter (G5208) it is able to destroy. The Greek word (G5208) for matter means forest or felled wood according to Thayer’s Greek Definitions, and it is used to refer to such in the Septuagint at Job 38:40 and Isaiah 10:17. Moreover, the wood or the forest is put for people in Isaiah 10:17, and the Lord speaks of the good tree and the evil tree (Matthew 7:17-18). The point is that the fire James mentioned refers to the tongue(s) that were leading the believers (the good trees—the forest or matter [G5208] in James 3:5) astray. In other words, the tongue (a fire in James 3:5) was burning up or seizing for itself the Lord’s heritage (Matthew 21:33-41).
He concludes this theme in James 3:6 by personifying the tongue, saying it **is** a fire, “a world of iniquity among our members” (i.e. among believers). It is a defiling influence within the body (i.e. the Body of Christ or the local church where it is found). James says: “it sets on fire the course of nature” or the wheel of nature, which is put for the normal course of the will of God, once put in place. In other words, the tongue, in the context of James’ epistle, works against the will of God, just as the scribes and Pharisees worked against the labors of Christ. In the context of the first century AD this was done by Jerusalem, which was responsible for the persecution noted by Peter in the five Roman provinces to whom he wrote both his epistles (1Peter 1:1, 6-7; 2Peter 3:1). Finally, James says this fire was set ablaze by hell (gehenna – G1067), which is, literally, the valley of the sons of Hinnom (Joshua 18:16). This was the valley of the giants, which Caleb conquered (Joshua 15:14), and their presence was feared by the ten spies Moses sent into the land (Numbers 13:33). The giants of Numbers 13:33 and Genesis 6:4 were actually bullies or tyrants,[1] not necessarily great is physical size. Once more, it was the tongue that moved people through fear to accomplish the goals of the one who spoke. In the context of James 3:6, the tongue was set ablaze by the tyrants at Jerusalem, those who worked against the Gospel and the will of God. The interesting thing is that Jesus said hell or gehenna (G1067) was a place of judgment (Matthew 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 18:9; viz. the judgment upon Jerusalem in 70 AD), but Jesus also indicated that the disciples of the scribes and Pharisees were twice the sons of hell or gehenna that they were (Matthew 23:13), and both the scribes and Pharisees and their disciples were guilty of using their tongues to lead their generation away from God (Matthew 23:33).
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[1] See my study on the Genesis Flood in What Was the Sin of Genesis 6?
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