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- ¶ MY brethren, let not many teachers be among you;
but know that we are under a great judgment.
- 2
- For in many things we all stumble.
Anyone who does not offend in word, this one is a perfect man and able also to subdue his whole body.
- 3
- Behold, we put bits into the mouths of horses, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body.
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- Behold also the ships;
great as they are, when driven by severe winds, they are turned about with a very small rudder wherever the pilot wishes.
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- Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
Likewise, a small fire sets ablaze large forests.
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- The tongue is a fire, and the sinful world a forest;
that very tongue while it is among our members, can defile our whole body and set on fire the course of our race which has rolled down from the beginning; and in the end it is consumed by fire.
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- For every kind of beasts and of birds and of creatures of the sea and of the land are under the subjugation of the will of man.
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- But the tongue no man can tame;
it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
- 9
- By it we bless the Lord and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made in the image of God;
- 10
- Out of the same mouth proceed curses and blessings.
My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
- 11
- Can there spring forth from the same fountain both sweet water and bitter water?
- 12
- Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olives?
Or the vine, figs? Likewise also salt water cannot be made sweet.
- 13
- ¶ Who is wise among you and has training?
Let him prove his words by his good deeds in the humbleness of wisdom.
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- But if you have bitter envying among you or strife in your hearts, do not boast and do not lie against the truth.
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- This wisdom does not come from above, but it is earthly, sensual, devilish.
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- For wherever envy and strife are, there is confusion and every sort of evil.
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- But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then full of peace, and is gentle, obedient, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
- 18
- And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by the peacemakers.
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