¹Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.

The subject turns to tongue control, an obvious metaphor for how we speak to people. This follows after James’ dealing with faith and works, and it seems we are to take control of how we talk to others, as in the realm of what James calls works, or the evidence of genuine faith.

Interestingly, James begins with those who aspire to be teachers of the Word. There is a sense in which all fathers (or parents) teach their children (Deut. 6:6–7), but that is not what this passage is talking about; nor is he speaking about schoolteachers, although there might be some residual application in that area. But in the context of James writing to Christians, we take this to mean the teaching of God’s Word on His behalf. This is a serious ambition for anyone to have in light of the responsibility involved. No place do our words take on greater import than when spoken in a spiritual teaching role.

God takes words seriously, and so should we. Words have meaning; they have impact. We use them to love, heal, and encourage, or we use them as weapons to inflict pain, strife, and manipulation. They can lead to truth, or they can lead to error—and woe to the teacher who leads people into error, like the blind leading the blind.

Teaching the Word is not wrong, of course. The writer to the Hebrews pines that there are few teachers:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (Heb. 5:12)

Those who teach, though, must be well-grounded in the basic principles of God’s truth. Paul’s warning about putting a new believer into an elder/leadership role too soon with its temptation to conceit (1 Tim. 3:6) applies to teachers as well. The headiness of having a captive audience hanging on one’s word is a temptation too many cannot resist.

Someone has said teachers of the Word are in the precarious position of teaching that which they have not yet themselves attained. It requires tremendous humility to recognize one’s own weaknesses and failures. Teaching must include the sense of not having already arrived at obedience, but nevertheless leading others in seeking to become more obedient through knowledge and understanding of the Word. So teachers of the Word must approach their task in the fear of the Lord, for they will be judged by the very things they teach others.

Lord, I commit to practicing what I preach! Help me when I fail in this.