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Matthew Henry |
J A M E S.
CHAP. III.
The apostle here reproves ambition, and an arrogant magisterial tongue;
and shows the duty and advantage of bridling it because of its power to
do mischief. Those who profess religion ought especially to govern
their tongues,
True wisdom makes men meek, and avoiders of strife and envy: and hereby
it may easily be distinguished from a wisdom that is earthly and
hypocritical,
| Government of the Tongue. | A. D. 61. |
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1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall
receive the greater condemnation.
2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in
word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the
whole body.
3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey
us; and we turn about their whole body.
4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and
are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a
very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great
things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the
tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and
setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of
hell.
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and
of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full
of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse
we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My
brethren, these things ought not so to be.
11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water
and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a
vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
The foregoing chapter shows how unprofitable and dead faith is without
works. It is plainly intimated by what this chapter first goes upon
that such a faith is, however, apt to make men conceited and
magisterial in their tempers and their talk. Those who set up faith in
the manner the former chapter condemns are most apt to run into those
sins of the tongue which this chapter condemns. And indeed the best
need to be cautioned against a dictating, censorious, mischievous use
of their tongues. We are therefore taught,
I. Not to use our tongues so as to lord it over others: My brethren,
be not many masters, &c.,
v. 1.
These words do not forbid doing what we can to direct and instruct
others in the way of their duty or to reprove them in a Christian way
for what is amiss; but we must not affect to speak and act as those who
are continually assuming the chair, we must not prescribe to one
another, so as to make our own sentiments a standard by which to try
all others, because God gives various gifts to men, and expects from
each according to that measure of light which he gives. “Therefore by
not many masters” (or teachers, as some read it); “do not
give yourselves the air of teachers, imposers, and judges, but rather
speak with the humility and spirit of learners; do not censure one
another, as if all must be brought to your standard.” This is enforced
by two reasons.
1. Those who thus set up for judges and censurers shall receive the
greater condemnation. Our judging others will but make our own
judgment the more strict and severe,
Those who are curious to spy out the faults of others, and arrogant in
passing censures upon them, may expect that God will be as extreme in
marking what they say and do amiss.
2. Another reason given against such acting the master is because we
are all sinners: In many things we offend all,
v. 2.
Were we to think more of our own mistakes and offenses, we should be
less apt to judge other people. While we are severe against what we
count offensive in others, we do not consider how much there is in us
which is justly offensive to them. Self-justifiers are commonly
self-deceivers. We are all guilty before God; and those who vaunt it
over the frailties and infirmities of others little think how many
things they offend in themselves. Nay, perhaps their magisterial
deportment, and censorious tongues, may prove worse than any faults
they condemn in others. Let us learn to be severe in judging ourselves,
but charitable in our judgments of other people.
II. We are taught to govern our tongue so as to prove ourselves perfect
and upright men, and such as have an entire government over ourselves:
If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able
also to bridle the whole body. It is here implied that he whose
conscience is affected by tongue-sins, and who takes care to avoid
them, is an upright man, and has an undoubted sign of true grace. But,
on the other hand, if a man seemeth to be religious (as was
declared in the first chapter) and bridleth not his tongue,
whatever profession he makes, that man’s religion is vain.
Further, he that offends not in word will not only prove himself a
sincere Christian, but a very much advanced and improved Christian. For
the wisdom and grace which enable him to rule his tongue will enable
him also to rule all his actions. This we have illustrated by two
comparisons:–
1. The governing and guiding of all the motions of a horse, by the bit
which is put into his mouth: Behold, we put bits into the horses’
mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body,
v. 3.
There is a great deal of brutish fierceness and wantonness in us. This
shows itself very much by the tongue: so that this must be bridled;
according to
I will keep my mouth with a bridle (or, I will bridle my
mouth) while the wicked is before me. The more quick and lively the
tongue is, the more should we thus take care to govern it. Otherwise,
as an unruly and ungovernable horse runs away with his rider, or throws
him, so an unruly tongue will serve those in like manner who have no
command over it. Whereas, let resolution and watchfulness, under the
influence of the grace of God, bridle the tongue, and then all the
motions and actions of the whole body will be easily guided and
overruled.
2. The governing of a ship by the right management of the helm:
Behold also the ships, which though they are so great, and are
driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small
helm whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a
little member, and boasteth great things,
v. 4, 5.
As the helm is a very small part of the ship, so is the tongue a very
small part of the body: but the right governing of the helm or rudder
will steer and turn the ship as the governor pleases; and a right
management of the tongue is, in a great measure, the government of the
whole man. There is a wonderful beauty in these comparisons, to show
how things of small bulk may yet be of vast use. And hence we should
learn to make the due management of our tongues more our study,
because, though they are little members, they are capable of doing a
great deal of good or a great deal of hurt. Therefore,
III. We are taught to dread an unruly tongue as one of the greatest and
most pernicious evils. It is compared to a little fire placed among a
great deal of combustible matter, which soon raises a flame and
consumes all before it: Behold, how great a matter a little fire
kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, &c.,
There is such an abundance of sin in the tongue that it may be called
a world of iniquity. How many defilements does it occasion! How
many and dreadful flames does it kindle! So is the tongue among the
members that it defileth the whole body. Observe hence, There is a
great pollution and defilement in sins of the tongue. Defiling
passions are kindled, vented, and cherished by this unruly member. And
the whole body is often drawn into sin and guilt by the tongue.
Therefore Solomon says, Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to
sin,
Eccles. v. 6.
The snares into which men are sometimes led by the tongue are
insufferable to themselves and destructive of others. It setteth on
fire the course of nature. The affairs of mankind and of societies
are often thrown into confusion, and all is on a flame, by the tongues
of men. Some read it, all our generations are set on fire by the
tongue. There is no age of the world, nor any condition of life,
private or public, but will afford examples of this. And it is set
on fire of hell. Observe hence, Hell has more to do in promoting of
fire of the tongue than men are generally aware of. It is from some
diabolical designs, that men’s tongues are inflamed. The devil is
expressly called a liar, a murderer, an accuser of the brethren; and,
whenever men’s tongues are employed in any of these ways, they are set
on fire of hell. The Holy Ghost indeed once descended in cloven
tongues as of fire,
Acts ii.
And, where the tongue is thus guided and wrought upon by a fire from
heaven, there it kindleth good thoughts, holy affections, and ardent
devotions. But when it is set on fire of hell, as in all undue heats it
is, there it is mischievous, producing rage and hatred, and those
things which serve the purposes of the devil. As therefore you would
dread fires and flames, you should dread contentions, revilings,
slanders, lies, and every thing that would kindle the fire of wrath in
your own spirit or in the spirits of others. But,
IV. We are next taught how very difficult a thing it is to govern the
tongue: For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and
of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed, of mankind. But
the tongue can no man tame,
v. 7, 8.
As if the apostle had said, “Lions, and the most savage beasts, as well
as horses and camels, and creatures of the greatest strength, have been
tamed and governed by men: so have birds, notwithstanding their
wildness and timorousness, and their wings to bear them up continually
out of our reach: even serpents, notwithstanding all their venom and
all their cunning, have been made familiar and harmless: and things in
the sea have been taken by men, and made serviceable to them. And these
creatures have not been subdued nor tamed by miracle only (as the lions
crouched to Daniel, instead of devouring him, and ravens fed Elijah,
and a whale carried Jonah through the depths of the sea to dry land),
but what is here spoken of is something commonly done; not only hath
been tamed, but is tamed of mankind. Yet the tongue is worse than
these, and cannot be tamed by the power and art which serves to tame
these things. No man can tame the tongue without supernatural grace and
assistance.” The apostle does not intend to represent it as a thing
impossible, but as a thing extremely difficult, which therefore will
require great watchfulness, and pains, and prayer, to keep it in due
order. And sometimes all is too little; for it is an unruly evil,
full of deadly poison. Brute creatures may be kept within certain
bounds, they may be managed by certain rules, and even serpents may be
so used as to do not hurt with all their poison; but the tongue is apt
to break through all bounds and rules, and to spit out its poison on
one occasion or other, notwithstanding the utmost care. So that not
only does it need to be watched, and guarded, and governed, as much as
an unruly beast, or a hurtful and poisonous creature, but much more
care and pains will be needful to prevent the mischievous outbreakings
and effects of the tongue. However,
V. We are taught to think of the use we make of our tongues in religion
and in the service of God, and by such a consideration to keep it from
cursing, censuring, and every thing that is evil on other occasions:
Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men,
who are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed
blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be,
v. 9, 10.
How absurd is it that those who use their tongues in prayer and praise
should ever use them in cursing, slandering, and the like! If we bless
God as our Father, it should teach us to speak well of, and kindly to,
all who bear his image. That tongue which addresses with reverence the
divine Being cannot, without the greatest inconsistency, turn upon
fellow-creatures with reviling brawling language. It is said of the
seraphim that praise God, they dare not bring a railing
accusation. And for men to reproach those who have not only the
image of God in their natural faculties, but are renewed after the
image of God by the grace of the gospel: this is a most shameful
contradiction to all their pretensions of honouring the great Original.
These things ought not so to be; and, if such considerations
were always at hand, surely they would not be. Piety is disgraced in
all the shows of it, if there be not charity. That tongue confutes
itself which one while pretends to adore the perfections of God, and to
refer all things to him, and another while will condemn even good men
if they do not just come up to the same words or expressions used by
it. Further, to fix this thought, the apostle shows that contrary
effects from the same causes are monstrous, and not be found in nature,
and therefore cannot be consistent with grace: Doth a fountain send
forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig-tree bear
olive-berries, or a vine, figs? Or doth the same spring yield both salt
water and fresh?
v. 11, 12.
True religion will not admit of contradictions; and a truly religious
man can never allow of them either in his words or his actions. How
many sins would this prevent, and recover men from, to put them upon
being always consistent with themselves!
| Properties of Wisdom. | A. D. 61. |
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13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let
him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of
wisdom.
14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts,
glory not, and lie not against the truth.
15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly,
sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and
every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and
good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that
make peace.
As the sins before condemned arise from an affectation of being thought
more wise than others, and being endued with more knowledge than they,
so the apostle in these verses shows the difference between men’s
pretending to be wise and their being really so, and between the wisdom
which is from beneath (from earth or hell) and that which is from
above.
I. We have some account of true wisdom, with the distinguishing marks
and fruits of it: Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among
you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of
wisdom,
v. 13.
A truly wise man is a very knowing man: he will not set up for the
reputation of being wise without laying in a good stock of knowledge;
and he will not value himself merely upon knowing things, if he has not
wisdom to make a right application and use of that knowledge. These
two things must be put together to make up the account of true wisdom:
who is wise, and endued with knowledge? Now where this is the happy
case of any there will be these following things:–
1. A good conversation. If we are wiser than others, this should be
evidenced by the goodness of our conversation, not by the roughness or
vanity of it. Words that inform, and heal, and do good, are the marks
of wisdom; not those that look great, and do mischief, and are the
occasions of evil, either in ourselves or others.
2. True wisdom may be known by its works. The conversation here does
not refer only to words, but to the whole of men’s practice; therefore
it is said, Let him show out of a good conversation his works. True
wisdom does not lie in good notions or speculations so much as in good
and useful actions. Not he who thinks well, or he who talks well, is in
the sense of the scripture allowed to be wise, if he do not live and
act well.
3. True wisdom may be known by the meekness of the spirit and temper:
Let him show with meekness, &c. It is a great instance of wisdom
prudently to bridle our own anger, and patiently to bear the anger of
others. And as wisdom will evidence itself in meekness, so meekness
will be a great friend to wisdom; for nothing hinders the regular
apprehension, the solid judgment, and impartiality of thought,
necessary to our acting wisely, so much as passion. When we are mild
and calm, we are best able to hear reason, and best able to speak it.
Wisdom produces meekness, and meekness increases wisdom.
II. We have the glorying of those taken away who are of a contrary
character to that now mentioned, and their wisdom exposed in all its
boasts and productions: “If you have bitter envying and strife in
your hearts, glory not, &c.,
Pretend what you will, and think yourselves ever so wise, yet you have
abundance of reason to cease your glorying, if you run down love and
peace, and give way to bitter envying and strife. Your zeal for truth
or orthodoxy, and your boasts of knowing more than others, if you
employ these only to make others hateful, and to show your own spite
and heart-burnings against them, are a shame to your profession of
Christianity, and a downright contradiction to it. Lie not thus against
the truth.” Observe,
1. Envying and strife are opposed to the meekness of wisdom. The heart
is the seat of both; but envy and wisdom cannot dwell together in the
same heart. Holy zeal and bitter envying are as different as the flames
of seraphim and the fire of hell.
2. The order of things here laid down. Envying is first and excites
strife; strife endeavours to excuse itself by vain-glorying and lying;
and then
(v. 16)
hereupon ensue confusion and every evil work. Those who live in malice,
envy, and contention, live in confusion, and are liable to be provoked
and hurried to any evil work. Such disorders raise many temptations,
strengthen temptations, and involve men in a great deal of guilt. One
sin begets another, and it cannot be imagined how much mischief is
produced: there is every evil work. And is such wisdom as
produces these effects to be gloried in? This cannot be without giving
the lie to Christianity, and pretending that this wisdom is what it is
not. For observe,
3. Whence such wisdom cometh: It descendeth not from above, but
ariseth from beneath; and, to speak plainly, it is earthly, sensual,
devilish,
v. 15.
It springs from earthly principles, acts upon earthly motives, and is
intent upon serving earthly purposes. It is sensual indulging the
flesh, and making provision to fulfil the lusts and desires of it. Or,
according to the original word, psychike, it is animal of
human–the mere working of natural reason, without any supernatural
light. And it is devilish, such wisdom being the wisdom of devils (to
create uneasiness and to do hurt), and being inspired by devils, whose
condemnation is pride
and who are noted in other places of scripture for their wrath, and
their accusing the brethren. And therefore those who are lifted up with
such wisdom as this must fall into the condemnation of the devil.
III. We have the lovely picture of that wisdom which is from above more
fully drawn, and set in opposition to this which is from beneath:
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,
&c.,
Observe here, True wisdom is God’s gift. It is not gained by conversing
with men, nor by the knowledge of the world (as some think and speak),
but it comes from above. It consists of these several things:–
1. It is pure, without mixture of maxims or aims that would debase it:
and it is free from iniquity and defilements, not allowing of any known
sin, but studious of holiness both in heart and life.
2. The wisdom that is from above is peaceable. Peace follows purity,
and depends upon it. Those who are truly wise do what they can to
preserve peace, that it may not be broken; and to make peace, that
where it is lost it may be restored. In kingdoms, in families, in
churches, in all societies, and in all interviews and transactions,
heavenly wisdom makes men peaceable.
3. It is gentle, not standing upon extreme right in matters of
property; not saying nor doing any thing rigorous in points of censure;
not being furious about opinions, urging our own beyond their weight
nor theirs who oppose us beyond their intention; not being rude and
overbearing in conversation, nor harsh and cruel in temper. Gentleness
may thus be opposed to all these.
4. Heavenly wisdom is easy to be entreated,
eupeithes; it is very persuadable, either to what
is good or from what is evil. There is an easiness that is weak and
faulty; but it is not a blamable easiness to yield ourselves to the
persuasions of God’s word, and to all just and reasonable counsels or
requests of our fellow-creatures; no, nor to give up a dispute, where
there appears a good reason for it and where a good end may be answered
by it.
5. Heavenly wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits, inwardly disposed
to every thing that is kind and good, both to relieve those who want
and to forgive those who offend, and actually to do this whenever
proper occasions offer.
6. Heavenly wisdom is without partiality. The original word,
adiakritos, signifies to be without suspicion, or free
from judging, making no undue surmises nor differences in our conduct
towards one person more than another. The margin reads it, without
wrangling, not acting the part of sectaries, and disputing merely
for the sake of a party; nor censuring others purely on account of
their differing from us. The wisest men are least apt to be censurers.
7. That wisdom which is from above is without hypocrisy. It has no
disguises nor deceits. It cannot fall in with those managements which
the world counts wise, which are crafty and guileful; but it is sincere
and open, steady and uniform, and consistent with itself. O that you
and I may always be guided by such wisdom as this! that with Paul we
may be able to say, Not with fleshly wisdom, but in simplicity and
godly sincerity, by the grace of God, we have our conversation. And
then, lastly, true wisdom will go on to sow the fruits of
righteousness in peace, and thus, if it may be, to make peace in the
world,
And that which is sown in peace will produce a harvest of joys. Let
others reap the fruits of contentions, and all the advantages they can
propose to themselves by them; but let us go on peaceably to sow the
seeds of righteousness, and we may depend upon it our labour will not
be lost. For light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the
upright in heart; and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the
effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
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