1Not many of you should
become teachers, my brothers, for you realize that we will be judged more
strictly,
2for we all fall short in many respects. If anyone does not fall short in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body also.
3If we put bits into the
mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide their whole bodies.
4It is the same with ships:
even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are steered by a
very small rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination wishes.
5In the same way the tongue
is a small member and yet has great pretensions.
Consider how small a fire
can set a huge forest ablaze.
6The tongue is also a fire.
It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and
setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna.
7For every kind of beast and
bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human
species,
8but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9With it we bless the Lord
and Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in the likeness of
God.
10From the same mouth come
blessing and cursing. This need not be so, my brothers.
11Does a spring gush forth
from the same opening both pure and brackish water?
12Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh.
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