The teacher: the weight of teaching and the wisdom from above

The letter of James is addressed 'to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion' (1:1), meaning Jewish Christians living outside Palestine. The author calls himself 'James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.' The usual identification is James the brother of the Lord (Mark 6:3; Galatians 1:19), who led the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:13-21; Galatians 2:9). Josephus reports that a James, the brother of Jesus called Christ, was stoned in Jerusalem around AD 62. Those who accept this authorship date the letter before then, some placing it in the 40s, which would make it among the earliest New Testament writings. Many critical scholars hold that a later writer used James's name, partly because of its polished Greek. This class follows the traditional authorship and does not depend on the date.

The letter reads as a collection of exhortations in the style of Jewish wisdom writing, much like Proverbs, and its sayings often echo the teaching of Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount. Its concern is a faith that shows itself in action (2:14-26) and in speech. Chapter 3 follows the discussion of faith and works and has two parts: a warning about the tongue (3:1-12) and a contrast between two kinds of wisdom (3:13-18).

Teaching was a role of honour in Jewish and early Christian communities (Acts 13:1), and where a role carries prestige, people want it. James writes to those who would take it lightly.

James is a letter in the form of wisdom literature. Wisdom writing speaks in vivid pictures, sets two ways side by side, and aims at conduct. It is read as concentrated moral instruction, not as an argument built step by step. Here the pictures are the horse's bit, the ship's rudder, the spark and forest fire, the animal tamed and the spring that gives either sweet or salt water.

The chapter's first verse is the key to its place in this course. 'Not many of you should become teachers' is not a prohibition of teaching. The Greek is a caution (me polloi, 'not many'), and James includes himself: 'we who teach will be judged more strictly.' The whole discussion of speech that follows is the reason. Teaching is done with the tongue, and the tongue is the hardest part of a person to control. The chapter should be read as one argument that runs from 3:1 to 3:18, not as a free-standing essay on the tongue followed by an unrelated passage on wisdom. The man who claims to be wise and understanding (3:13) is the teacher of 3:1, and the test of his teaching is his conduct.

James describes a function and its moral hazard, not an office with duties and appointment. The fuller picture of teaching in the church must be gathered from the rest of the New Testament, which is why this class does not stop at James 3.

Verse 1

'Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.' The word for teacher is didaskalos. The word translated 'judged more strictly' is krima meizon, a greater judgment. James does not mean that teachers are damned. What they say shapes others, so more is asked of them, as Jesus said of everyone to whom much is given (Luke 12:48) and of every careless word (Matthew 12:36). Hebrews 13:17 says the same of church leaders, who 'keep watch over your souls as those who must give an account.'

Verse 2

'We all stumble in many ways.' The word is ptaio, to trip or fall, used earlier for breaking the law at one point (2:10). 'If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man' (teleios, complete or mature). Since no one is, the standard humbles. Whoever could bridle the tongue could bridle the whole body.

Verses 3-5a. Two pictures of small things that steer large ones. A bit in the mouth of a horse guides the whole animal. A small rudder turns a ship driven by strong winds 'wherever the pilot is inclined.' In the same way the tongue is small but 'boasts of great things.' James does not say the tongue is evil. He says it is powerful.

Verses 5b-8. A spark can set a forest ablaze, and 'the tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body.' The phrase 'a world of wickedness' is kosmos tes adikias; it means that the tongue is a whole sphere of unrighteousness within the body. It 'pollutes the whole person' and 'is itself set on fire by hell.' The Greek word is Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, which Jesus used as a picture of final judgment (Matthew 5:22). The phrase translated 'sets the course of his life on fire' is difficult in Greek and translators differ, but the sense is that a damaged tongue damages the whole of life. People have tamed every kind of creature, 'but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.'

Verses 9–12

The tongue is double: 'with it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness.' The reference is to Genesis 1:26-27, and the argument is that cursing a person insults the God whose likeness that person bears. 'My brothers, this should not be!' A spring does not give both fresh and salt water. A fig tree does not bear olives. The pictures resemble Jesus' teaching that a tree is known by its fruit (Matthew 7:16-20) and that the mouth speaks from the heart (Matthew 12:34).

Verses 13–16

'Who is wise and understanding among you?' This shows the link with verse 1. The wise man proves it 'by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom' (prautes sophias, the gentleness of wisdom). The alternative is 'bitter jealousy and selfish ambition' (zelos pikros and eritheia), a self-seeking rivalry. James names this wisdom as 'earthly, unspiritual, demonic' (epigeios, psychike, daimoniodes), the opposite of what comes from above. 'Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice.'

Verses 17–18

'The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.' Purity comes first, and the other qualities follow. The picture is of a teacher whose teaching is marked by peace, not by competition. The chapter ends on an image of farming: 'Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness.'

The New Testament speaks of teachers and teaching in many places, and they fit together into a recognizable picture. Teaching is a gift: Romans 12:7 lists teaching among the gifts, and 1 Corinthians 12:28-29 puts teachers third, after apostles and prophets, among those God has appointed in the church. It is a ministry of Christ's giving: Ephesians 4:11 names 'pastors and teachers.' It is a recognized role in a local church: Acts 13:1 names prophets and teachers at Antioch, five men, among them Barnabas and Saul. It is a qualification and a task of elders: an overseer must be 'able to teach' (1 Timothy 3:2) and elders who labour in preaching and teaching deserve double honour (1 Timothy 5:17). It is a handing on: Timothy is to entrust what he has heard to faithful people who will teach others (2 Timothy 2:2). It includes defence of the message: an overseer must be able to encourage with sound doctrine and refute opponents (Titus 1:9). It is also an expectation of every maturing believer: Hebrews 5:12 rebukes readers who, by now, ought to be teachers, and Colossians 3:16 says the word of Christ should dwell richly in them as they teach and admonish one another.

The relation between teachers and elders is therefore close but not identical. Elders must be able to teach, and some teach fully (1 Timothy 5:17). But Ephesians 4:11 puts 'pastors' and 'teachers' under a single article, which most scholars take to join them closely: all pastors teach, though the grammar does not prove that all teachers are pastors. Galatians 6:6 speaks of someone who is taught the word sharing with the teacher, and Acts 18:26 shows Priscilla and Aquila explaining the way of God more accurately to Apollos. Teaching is also an apostolic matter: the early church 'devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching' (Acts 2:42), and the foundation is the apostles' word (Ephesians 2:20). Teachers hand on a body of truth already given, not a new revelation.

The New Testament also warns about false teachers (2 Peter 2:1; 2 Timothy 4:3) and sets a test for all teaching: faithfulness to the gospel and the apostles' word (Galatians 1:8-9). Whether women may teach, and in what settings, is disputed from 1 Timothy 2:12 and from the example of Priscilla (Acts 18:26), Titus 2:3 and the prophesying daughters of Philip (Acts 21:9); that debate is taken up in class 13.

Jesus is the Teacher. He is addressed as 'Teacher' throughout the Gospels and accepts the title (John 13:13). He taught with an authority that astonished his hearers, 'unlike their scribes (Matthew 7:29). The Sermon on the Mount, which James's letter often echoes, is his teaching. The commission at the end of Matthew has the disciples to teach disciples to observe all that he commanded (Matthew 28:20): the content of Christian teaching is what Christ taught. In Matthew 23:8-12 Jesus warns against the desire for titles, including 'teacher,' because his disciples have one Teacher, a passage that class 27 takes up.

Christ is also the wisdom James describes. Paul says Christ is 'the wisdom of God' (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30) and that in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). The wisdom 'from above' is pure, peaceable and gentle, and these are the traits of Jesus, who describes himself as 'gentle and humble in heart' (Matthew 11:29).

His speech is the one that met James 3:2. Peter says that Christ 'committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth,' and that when reviled he did not revile in return (1 Peter 2:22-23). That passage quotes Isaiah 53:9, a promise about the Servant. The tongue James calls untamable was in Jesus perfectly controlled. As to peace, James 3:18 is an echo of Matthew 5:9, and Ephesians 2:14-17 says that Christ himself is our peace and preached peace. In Isaiah 50:4 the Servant says that the Lord has given him the tongue of those who are taught, to sustain the weary with a word: an echo of the Teacher whom the teachers serve.