3:1  NOT MANY [of you] should become teachers (self-constituted censors and reprovers of others), my brethren, for you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard {and} with greater severity [than other people; thus we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation].

3:2  For we all often stumble {and} fall {and} offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things], he is a fully developed character {and} a perfect man, able to control his whole body {and} to curb his entire nature.

3:3  If we set bits in the horses' mouths to make them obey us, we can turn their whole bodies about.

3:4  Likewise, look at the ships: though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman determines.

3:5  Even so the tongue is a little member, and it can boast of great things. See how much wood {or} how great a forest a tiny spark can set ablaze!

3:6  And the tongue is a fire. [The tongue is a] world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating {and} depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth (the cycle of man's nature), being itself ignited by hell (Gehenna).

3:7  For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea animal, can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius (nature).

3:8  But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless (undisciplined, irreconcilable) evil, full of deadly poison.

3:9  With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God's likeness!

3:10  Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.

3:11  Does a fountain send forth [simultaneously] from the same opening fresh water and bitter?

3:12  Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water.

3:13  Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the [unobtrusive] humility [which is the proper attribute] of true wisdom.

3:14  But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry, selfish ambition) in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be in defiance of {and} false to the Truth.

3:15  This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal), even devilish (demoniacal).

3:16  For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil {and} vile practices.

3:17  But the wisdom from above is first of all pure (undefiled); then it is peace-loving, courteous (considerate, gentle). [It is willing to] yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits; it is wholehearted {and} straightforward, impartial {and} unfeigned (free from doubts, wavering, and insincerity).

3:18  And the harvest of righteousness (of conformity to God's will in thought and deed) is [the fruit of the seed] sown in peace by those who work for {and} make peace [in themselves and in others, that peace which means concord, agreement, and harmony between individuals, with undisturbedness, in a peaceful mind free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts].