James 3:1-12 (NRSV)
3
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know
that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For all
of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect,
able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3 If we put bits
into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4
Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to
drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the
pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts
of great exploits.
How great a
forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire.
The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the
whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by
hell. 7 For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea
creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8 but
no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With
it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the
likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.
My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring
pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 12 Can
a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more
can salt water yield fresh.
James
3:1-12 has the theme of controlling the tongue.
Such a theme is typical of wisdom literature. A babbling fool will ruin
come to self-ruin (Proverbs 10:8). The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of
life while the mouth of the wicked conceals violence (Proverbs 10:11). Hiding
hatred with lies is the act of a fool (Proverbs 10:18). The godless destroy
their neighbors with their mouths (Proverbs 11:9). Rash words are like the
thrust of the sword while the tongue of the wise brings healing (Proverbs
12:18). Truthfulness will stand while lying lasts for the moment (Proverbs
12:19). Lying is an abomination to the Lord while acting faithfully bring
delight to the Lord (Proverbs 12:22). A soft answer turns away anger while
harsh words stir it up (Proverbs 15:1). A gentle tongue is a tree of life while
its opposite breaks the spirit (Proverbs 15:4). Gracious words sweeten the soul
and heal the body (Proverbs 16:24). The speech of the scoundrel is like a
scorching fire (Proverbs 16:27). Covering an offense is to love while talking
about it separates close friends (Proverbs 17:9). We are stop quarrels before
they get to the point of harsh words (Proverbs 17:14). The speech of fools is
their self-destruction (Proverbs 18:7). The tongue has the power of life and
death (Proverbs 18:21). One will find it better to be alone than to be with a
quarrelsome and fretful person (Proverbs 21:19). Holding one’s tongue will keep
one out of trouble (Proverbs 21:23). One
who bears false witness commits an act of war on the neighbor (Proverbs 25:18).
A quarrelsome person starts a destructive fire (Proverbs 26:21). Honor and
dishonor come from speaking (Sirach 5:13). The wise wait to speak, especially
when in the presence of elders, they do not interrupt the speech of others, and
they are slow to answer (Pirke Aboth 5:7).[1]
One can make a sheaf of empty opinions, as if they were the greatest opinions,
a brilliant possession, and most useful to life (Philo, On Dreams 2:42).[2]
Jesus cautions that even insulting a brother or sister makes one open to
judgment (Matthew 5:22). Jesus urges that the words of his followers be
trustworthy, yes or no, rather than requiring an oath (Matthew 5:33-37). God
will hold us accountable for every careless word, for our words will either
justify us or condemn us (Matthew 12:36-37). The first century church knew of
people who learned to be idle, gadding about from house to house as gossipers
and busybodies who say what they should not say (I Timothy 5:13). James gives
us an opportunity to reflect upon the role of language in human communities.
To understand the
viewpoint of James here, we first need to look at how the cultures of the
first-century world viewed speech in general. Whereas everyday life constantly
bombards us by words and idle speech in the form of gossip, advertising and the
white noise of a technological society, all cultures of the first century, both
Greco-Roman and Jewish, agreed that words and speech contained both power and
peril in ample supply. From the wisdom literature of Egypt to the writings of
Plutarch and Seneca to the wisdom traditions in the Bible, ancient sages
believed that silence was better than speech, that listening and not speaking
was the pathway to wisdom and that one should carefully guard all human speech,
never expressing rage or envy.
Moreover, the
ancient world depended on a strong oral tradition for the transference of
cultural identity and mores from one generation to another. An oral culture has
heightened awareness of the harmful nature of gossip. No written texts exist
that are attributable to Jesus. The dissemination of the good news depended for
some time on the veracity of oral accounts. Gossip, therefore, was an
especially egregious form of oral conduct.[3]
James urges
Christians to evidence their conversion in all aspects of their lives — not
with their faith only, but with their actions (James 2:26) and words as well
(3:1-12). For James, this forms a type of “identification through negation” of
Christianity’s two main rivals — Judaism and Hellenistic religion. Christians
are not to be mere philosophers with good answers to the questions of life like
the adherents of Hellenistic religion, nor are they to be simply the possessors
of a venerated faith such as Judaism. It is obvious from the content and style
of the epistle, that its author knows both of these communities well.
Unlike our modern
notion that words have no actual power, James insists that the tongue can do
more real damage than a playground full of sticks and stones. Truly “hearing”
the word, for James, means becoming one who turns those words into action
(2:14-17). In this self-contained argument about
speech ethics, James portrays reverence and fear before the power of the
tongue. When wielded by an authoritative teacher, the spoken word can guide a
community, as does a small tap on a ship’s rudder; however, it can also destroy
a community, as does an errant spark on a forest bed. “Which type of teacher
are you?” James asks. “Are you the sure-handed equestrian, skillfully steering
a beast more powerful than yourself? Or are you the duplicitous spring, pouring
forth brackish water that irritates those whom you once nourished?” Although
James exhorts teachers toward the proper use of speech throughout his epistle —
implying that he believes the tongue can be somewhat controlled — this passage
laments that the human tongue is ultimately too powerful to be tamed.
Although the argument of 3:1-12 can stand on its own, it
relates to other issues of speech ethics throughout the epistle. The proper use
of speech runs through James as a theme.[4] Do not make self-justifying claims of being tempted by God
(1:13); do not flatter the rich (2:3-6); do not make empty promises (2:16) or
superficial claims (2:18); do not judge or slander another member of the
community (4:11); do not boast of future plans without regard for God’s will
(4:13); and do not grumble against one another (5:9). Finally, the concluding
exhortations (5:12-18) delineate various human conditions and their proper
responses through speech, whether prayer, singing or confession. Though too
powerful to tame, one can harness the tongue and put it to proper use for the
health of the community.
In verses 1-2, James states his theme. 1Let not many of you become
teachers, my brethren. Acts 13:1, Romans 12:7 and I Corinthians 12:28 show
the importance of teachers in the early church. His concern may be that people
wanted the honor of the position but did not suitably fill the role. The office
of teacher carries great responsibility. Preachers and teachers are especially
cognizant of the power of speech. While some people live or die by the sword,
preachers and teachers live or die by their words. For you know that God shall
judge we who teach with greater strictness. Possible punishment for the
teacher is severe. They are in jeopardy. 2For we all make many mistakes. The
tone here is practicing the virtue of readiness to forgive.[5]
No one is without fault, and James seems to include himself here. The authority of public teaching comes with the
responsibility of speaking rightly. One major mistake can lead to a loss of
authority. James appears to contradict himself in the following sentence.
Further, if any one makes no
mistakes in what he says he is a perfect (teleioV. or
mature[6]) man. He has just claimed that “all of us make many mistakes,”
but then he implies that perfection in speaking is attainable. The
thoughtless exercise of the gift of speech can bring a person to
destruction. Control of speech is the only
way to perfection. In educational and moral
literature of the time, the word has a nuance of “maturity” or “authority.” A teleioV
person has completed the full training regimen necessary for a particular life
skill. This is similar to when we call the highest teacher in a university a
“full professor.” We mean that he or she has attained the utmost maturity and
training in a field of teaching, not that he or she is without fault. A person
in the community achieves this status because he or she is able to bridle the whole body also. The body here must refer to the church,
and thus the passage refers to demagogic speech. The illustrations of the bridle-horse and
rudder-ship will suggest this interpretation. The
analogy to a full professor encapsulates the proper translation of teleoV,
but it does not express the reverence James has for the power of the tongue.
For James, the tongue is not just one among many things to master in life. The
tongue is pre-eminent, able to keep the whole body in check. Regardless of what
field of knowledge a teacher has mastered, the spoken word will be the
necessary conduit for its transmission.
In verses 3-4, to make his point clear, James uses two
common metaphors from the ancient world: the equestrian / bridle / horse and the
helmsman / rudder / ship we come to the image of the bridle and horse and the
image of the rudder and the ship. One can subdue an angry horse with a
small bridle.[7]
A ship or chariot may reach its destination without charioteer or pilot, but
human prudence in guiding them is usually necessary.[8]
A skillful pilot may command the perfectly furnished ship to its destination.[9]
In Platonic and Stoic philosophy and in a typical
Greek educational curriculum, the metaphors of the equestrian and helmsman
represented the power of human rationality over the human body. Just as one can
control a big object by a small device, so can one control the whole body by
the power of the mind. 3
If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their
whole bodies. 4Look at the
ships also; though they are so great and strong winds drive them, a very small rudder guides them by wherever the will of the pilot directs.
One can view this as suggesting that the teacher is responsible for any actions
that ensue in the community, whether healthy or damaging. A slip of the tongue
might seem to be a small thing, but a rudder is a small thing that still steers
ships of enormous size. A bridle is a small thing, but it allows a rider to
steer a horse. A slip with of these “small” things can either injure or even
kill those who wield them. James applies these
metaphors to the tongue, which is an extension of the human mind or reason.
Indeed, the Greeks used the same word (logoV) to mean a word, a story,
an account and rationality itself. One expresses the logoV
(reasoning process) of the human mind by the logoV (spoken words) of
the tongue. Therefore, the tongue connected the mind and the body, thus
offering a chance to bring the body under control.
In verses 5-6, the
fire = tongue and what it consumes is the whole world. 5 Therefore, the
tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. The positive potential of the tongue is clear: The mature
teacher is capable of gaining great benefits through speech. A small fire can set ablaze a great a forest
is set ablaze by! 6Further, the tongue is a fire (an allusion to
Pentecost). Nevertheless,
the remainder of the passage emphasizes the other side of this power — the
negative effects of teachers unable to control their tongues. Certainly, a
bridle and rudder can control a large object, but so can a spark of fire
consume an entire forest. As bridle, speech could control the body (v. 2), but as
fire, speech stains the body. The
tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body,
setting on fire the cycle of nature (or the wheel of existence) and set on fire by hell.[10]
James suggests the ancient idea of fate, with one’s life alternating between
fortune and misfortune. He may mean the course of life that the tongue
destroys. The idea seems to be that the power of wicked speech can spread evil
through everything in human existence. This part of the verse may be an example
of the concept of an eye for an eye. The tongue will receive the punishment it
deserves. While the Spirit brought the
fires of Pentecost and led to the conversion of many, only a mature human being
could hope to wield such fire in a productive way. If the phrasing were a hint
of Hellenistic religion and human sacrifice, it would emphasize the point that
the same tongue that the Holy Spirit may inspire to speak holy words, can also
pronounce pagan rituals of the most appalling kind. James intends the words of
the gospel to inspire action as well as faith. Therefore, those who would teach
must be able to control their own emotions so they can control the shape their
words will take in the real world. If they cannot do this, their religion is
worthless (James 1:26).
7For humankind can tame every kind of beast and bird, of
reptile and sea creature 8 but no human being can tame the tongue--a
restless evil, full of deadly poison. Think
of the difficulty we have in keeping secrets. If we tell the secret to another
person, we are expecting that person to do something we could not do, namely,
keep it to ourselves. That person will have a friend in whom he or she confides
everything, and so on into infinity. What we tell another will become the
property of all.[11]
We cannot control nature, but we do try to predict its behavior.[12]
One wonders what social situation inspired James
toward such a hyperbolic assessment. In early Christian communities, were there
too many people trying to be teachers, thus fracturing the communities through
their quarrelsome words? Alternatively, does he offer this critique to everyone,
not just the teachers? One must assume the pessimistic conclusion
focuses on unredeemed humanity. Christ
is the unspoken guide of the ship and the one who helps a person control the
tongue. The sad fact of the matter, says James, is that while humans can tame
all manner of creatures, standing above the animal kingdom in their ability to
use speech, the one animal that human beings can never seem to tame is their
own impulsive nature. This is why not many should try to master the art of
using words to educate others.
In verses 9-10,
the tongue has a double function of blessing God and cursing humanity. Duplicity characterizes an untamed tongue. It seems
natural to do this, as far as the readers are concerned. 9 With it, we bless the Lord and Father, and, as
prophets of doom, with it we curse people,
whom God has made in the likeness of
God. He refers to Genesis 1:26. We find here the basis for theological reflection on the
Christological and soteriological notion of the divine likeness. Christian theology
had to work out the connections between them if it was to cling to the
interrelation of our creation and redemption.[13] 10From
the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought
not to be so. In verses 11-12, he
compares preaching to water, bitter or sweet.
He offers the two images of a spring and a fig
tree to balance the horse and ship images at the beginning of the argument. 11 Does a spring pour forth from
the same opening fresh water and brackish?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine
figs? No more can salt water yield fresh. The
untamed tongue emits fire that stains, but the bridled tongue should offer
fresh water that nourishes. Just as a freshwater spring does not emit brackish
salty water — which is literally “poison” to those who drink it — so also
should the tongue of a teacher avoid duplicity. Moralists often contrast
the regularity of nature with the changes of human behavior.[14]
James returns from hyperbolic imagery to address a
practical offense. How can the same source offer two products? If the tongue is
the gateway to the inner person, then does this duplicity reveal an inner
duplicity? In other parts of the epistle, James exhibits a concern with this
same issue, and concludes that there are some “double-minded” (diyucoV)
people in need of humility and purification (1:8; 4:8). The duplicity of the
tongue is inextricable from the duplicity of the inner mind.
Here are a few
random bits of contemporary wisdom regarding our speech.
A bad word whispered will echo a
hundred miles. --Chinese proverb.
The right word may be effective,
but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. --Mark Twain.
Three things in life are important:
The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.
—Henry James.
Be kind whenever possible; it is
always possible. —Dalai Lama.
We could all benefit from
developing the art of tact, which is the art of making a point without making
an enemy.[15]
The spirit of a conversation consists
in building on the observation of others rather than overturning it.[16]
Let it not be said of us that we
have lost the art of conversation but not, unfortunately, the power of speech.[17]
We should saying nothing important
to people when they are tired, angry, or just after they have made a mistake.
The
bucket of the mouth reveals what is in the well of the heart.[18]
Be
careful with your tongue. It is in a wet place and can easily slip.
Before You Criticize Someone, You
Should Walk a Mile in Their Shoes — That
Way, When You Criticize Them, You’re a Mile Away and You Have a New Pair of
Shoes.[19]
I
conclude with a hymn.
Lord speak to me that I may speak,
in living echoes of thy tones,
As thou has sought, so let me seek, thy erring children lost and lone.
O teach me Lord, that I may teach, the precious things
As thou has sought, so let me seek, thy erring children lost and lone.
O teach me Lord, that I may teach, the precious things
I now
share a bit about gossip.
Gossip is the art of saying nothing
in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid.[21]
One who gossips is one who can give
all the details without knowing all the facts.
Oscar Wilde once famously said at a
dinner party, “If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody, come over
and sit next to me.” Of course, he also said, “There’s only one thing in the
world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
It is easy to forget that he or she
who gossips to you will just as readily gossip about you.
Laura Johansson, a
New Jersey horse trainer, enjoys discussing celebrity gossip with her friends
around the hot tub. “You’re bonding with your friends, and it’s the one time
you can be outrageously judgmental,” she explains. “When you’re learning about
the misfortunes of jerks, it makes you feel good. And when it’s some good news
about someone you like, you enjoy it vicariously.”
It may well be
that gossip is a social skill. An experiment with some college students
involved stories that were perfect for spreading around the dorm. They were
fictional, with some positive and some negative. They ranked the stories how
they would rank them as to whether the story described a relative, professor,
acquaintance, friend, stranger or enemy. The result was the students were
willing to share freely damaging information when it involved a same-sex rival.
They passed on good news only if it were about a friend. We feel pleasure
whenever we share savory scraps of information because gossip helps build
relationships and bond people together. The study seems to imply that a little bit
of gossip is actually necessary for the wheels of social convention to keep
turning. It can create positive buzz. Of course, when taken too far, it becomes
a problem. Sharing information is important, but indiscriminate sharing is not
helpful. When gossip serves no purpose but to ingratiate oneself with a group,
we have a problem.[22]
I offer some
advice.[23]
First, be slow to
speak. In a world of instant messaging, Twitter and sound bites, it is tempting
to react quickly when confronted with an idea or a provocation. The reptilian
brain wants to immediately fight or flee (or, in the case of Twitter, retweet
or bang out a 280-character response). Give it five minutes. Take a walk, make
dinner, do some deep breathing — whatever it takes to get your body involved.
When our bodies are moving, our brains tend to have time to process. Forgo the
need for an instant response to that nasty email or “idiotic” tweet. Consider
not responding at all. Good and wise thinkers focus on thinking and responding
about the right things, not about everything. “Let everyone be quick to listen,
slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s
righteousness” (James 1:19).
Second, be
teachable. One of the reasons we are so quick to respond to things in a Twitter
culture is that others are watching and we want to impress our like-minded
friend group. We get good vibes from those folks when we trash an opposing
cultural group that our friend group considers repugnant. When we focus on the
friendship group, our speech becomes caustic toward the other. So focused upon
the friendship group, we forget that we have much to learn from the other. We
need good conversation partners. We must learn to choose the best and
fairest-minded of those who are other than us in their thinking. They think
differently, but they are not likely evil. You have been wrong in your life (v.
2). A caricature of the other and their ideas is something we can all do
easily. As such, it is a waste of intellectual capital. Learning is more
important than debating is.
Third, be honest.
When you speak, state what you think and believe with conviction. Draw upon
your resources of wisdom and love, which, we will find, is pure, peaceable,
gentle, willing to yield, merciful, and bearing of good fruit (James 1:17).
Such wisdom will yield righteousness and peace (James 1:18).
One time-honored
way of dealing with gossip is the “three-filter test.” Some say it dates all
the way back to Socrates.
• The first filter is Truth: Are you absolutely sure the
statement is true?
• The second filter is Goodness: Does the statement say
something good about another person?
• The third filter is Usefulness: Is the statement useful in
some way?
It is not
necessary for a situation to fulfill the conditions of all three filters. For
example, a statement may be true and useful but may still say something bad
about another person. While it could hurt the other person, there may still be
some value in saying it. Of course, if a situation fulfills none of the tests,
it should be easy to discard the statement as mere gossip.
We need to censor ourselves from saying much
that occurs to us. Yes, advice and guidance is useful. However, to speak of
others in a covert way is simply not the way to enhance the fellowship of the
church. We need to practice restraint in the use of our tongues. The proper use
of the tongue will have beneficial fruits. The discipline of the tongue will
free us from constantly scrutinizing other persons in judgmental or condemning
way. We resist putting others in their place. We resist doing violence by our
words to others. The other can exist in our presence as a free person whom God
has made for a unique purpose. Above the other, we can see the richness of the
creative glory of God. God has made the other in such a way that I might find
God through the other. [24]
[1]
There are seven things that characterize a boor, and seven that characterize a
wise man. A wise man does not speak before one who is greater than him in
wisdom or age. He does not interrupt his fellow's words. He does not hasten to
answer. His questions are on the subject and his answers to the point. He
responds to first things first and to latter things later. Concerning what he did
not hear, he says "I did not hear." He concedes to the truth. With
the boor, the reverse of all these is the case.
[2]
But the dreamer and interpreter of dreams himself, for he united both
characters, makes a sheaf of empty opinion as of the greatest and most
brilliant of possessions and the most useful to life. For which reason it is
originally by his dreams, which are things dear to night, that he is made known
to the king of the bodily country, and not by any performance of conspicuous
actions, which require day for their exhibition.
[3]
Ken Frantz
[4](Luke Timothy Johnson, The Letter of James
[AB 37A; New York: Doubleday, 1995], 255).
[5]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
3, 246.
[6]
Not spotless or without fault.
[7]
I have known horses that show temper brought to order by a
little curb -Sophocles, Antigone, 477
[8]
For sometimes the voyage of a ship, or the course of a chariot, goes on
properly even without charioteers or pilots; but success is not only now and
then owing to providences, but very often to human prudence and invariably to
divine, since error is admitted to be altogether incompatible with divine
power. Now what object can the foolish man have who, speaking figuratively,
build up the reasonings of wickedness like a tower, except the desire of leaving
behind them a name which shall be far from a good name? Philo, On the Confusion of Tongues 115
[9]
The leader of the choir was in charge of the whole spectacle and directing the
entire heaven and universe, even as a skilful pilot commands a ship that has
been perfectly furnished and lacks nothing? Dio Crysostom Oration 12:34
[10]
Leahy notes that while the odd phrase, “setting on fire the wheel of birth”
(3:6, NRSV: “sets on fire the cycle of nature”), has baffled many exegetes,
phrases similar to this appear in the Orphic rites of Hellenistic religion
(319). If this is the allusion we are meant to make, then the following phrase,
“and is itself set on fire by Gehenna” (NRSV, “hell”), may be an allusion to
the rituals of human sacrifice practiced in the original Valley of ben Hinnom
from which the image of Gehenna is derived (Jeremiah 7:30-31).
[11]
Plutarch, On Talkativeness (10) § x. But, generally speaking, who
has the right to blame the person who has not kept his secret? For if it was
not to be known, it was not well to tell another person of it at 223all, and if you divulged
your secret yourself and expected another person to keep it, you had more faith
in another than in yourself. And so should he be such another as yourself you
are deservedly undone, and should he be a better man than yourself, your safety
is more than you could have reckoned on, as it involved finding a man more to
be trusted than yourself. But you will say, He is my friend. Yes, but he has
another friend, whom he reposes confidence in as much as you do in your friend,
and that other friend has one of his own, and so on, so that the secret spreads
in many quarters from inability to keep it close in one. For as the unit never
deviates from its orbit, but (as its name signifies) always remains one, but
the number two contains within it the seeds of infinity, for when it departs
from itself it becomes plurality at once by doubling, so speech confined in one
person's breast is truly secret, but if it be communicated to another it soon
gets noised abroad. And so Homer calls words "winged," for as he that
lets a bird go from his hands cannot easily get it back again, so he that lets
a word go from his mouth cannot catch or stop it, but it is borne along
"whirling on swift wings," and dispersed from one person to another.
When a ship scuds before the gale the mariners can stop it, or at least check
its course with cables and anchors, but when the spoken word once sails out of
harbour, so to speak, there is no roadstead or anchorage for it, but borne
along with much noise and echo it dashes its utterer on the rocks, and brings
him into imminent danger of shipwreck,
"As one might set on fire Ida's woods With a
small torch, so what one tells one person Is soon the property of all the
citizens."
[12]
Philo, On the Creation 58 And they
have been created, as Moses tells us, not only that they might send light upon
the earth, but also that they might display signs of future events. For either
by their risings, or their settings, or their eclipses, or again by their
appearances and occultations, or by the other variations observable in their
motions, men oftentimes conjecture what is about to happen, the productiveness
or unproductiveness of the crops, the birth or loss of their cattle, fine
weather or cloudy weather, calm and violent storms of wind, floods in the
rivers or droughts, a tranquil state of the sea and heavy waves, unusual
changes in the seasons of the year when either the summer is cold like winter,
or the winter warm, or when the spring assumes the temperature of autumn or the
autumn that of spring.
[13]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
2, 208.
[14]
An example is Epictetus, Discourses 220.18-19
[15]
Howard W. Newton.
[16]
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
[17]
She had lost the art of conversation, but not, unfortunately, the power of
speech. —George Bernard Shaw.
[18]
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
[19]
—Message on a T-shirt.
[20]
—Frances R. Havergall, 1872.
[21]
Walter Winchell
[22]
Frank McAndrew, Journal of Applied Social Psychology
[23]
Jacobs, Alan. How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds. New York:
Crown Publishing, 2017.
[24]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together,
wrote about the importance that Christians practice restraint in the use of
their tongues:
“It must be a decisive rule of every Christian
fellowship that each individual is prohibited from saying much that occurs to
him. This prohibition does not include the personal word of advice and
guidance. … But to speak about a brother covertly is forbidden, even under the
cloak of help and good will; for it is precisely in the guise that the spirit
of hatred among brothers always creeps in when it is seeking to create mischief.”
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