Religious (2357) (threskos which some say derives from threomai = to tremble, whereas more modern scholars link it with therap- = to serve) is used only in this verse and describes the individual who is preoccupied with religious observances. Rogers has this note on threskos, used only here in Scripture... The word denotes the scrupulous observance of religious exercise, in action or words, sincerely or hypocritically performed in the guise of devout religion. The word describes one who stands in awe of the gods and is tremendously scrupulous in regard to them. (Rogers, C L - originally by Fritz Rienecker: New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament. Zondervan. 1998) Vincent observes that threskos is used... Only here in New Testament, and nowhere in classical Greek. The kindred noun threskeia, religion, occurs Acts 26:5; Col 2:18-note; Jas 1:26, 27; and means the ceremonial service of religion. Herodotus (2:37) uses it of various observances practised by the Egyptian priests, such as wearing linen, circumcision, shaving, etc. The derivation is uncertain. Threomai, to mutter forms of prayer, has been suggested, as the followers of Wycliffe were called Lollards, from the old Dutch lullen or lollen, to sing. Hence the adjective here refers to a zealous and diligent performance of religious services. (James 1: Greek Word Studies) Spurgeon - You know what that means; and there are some who do seem to be wonderfully religious. Butter would not melt in their mouths, as we say; they are so solemn ><>><>><> Three Types of Dogs - Dr. A. T. Schofield used to point out that there were three sorts of dogs in his city of London: the wild, masterless dog that roamed the streets at will, stole his meals from garbage pails, and often came to an inglorious end in the lethal chamber of the humane society; the chained dog, which could not be trusted for more than a few feet; and the dog that knew and loved his master and responded obediently to his voice. The first of these had liberty but no law; the second had law but no liberty; whereas the last enjoyed the perfect law of liberty. All men seem to be like one of these three dogs. The masses are utterly lawless when it comes to the authority of God. They are dominated by sin, and “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). And then, there are many who are like the dog on the leash—they have law, but no liberty. These are legalists in the religious realm. The cheerless Pharisee is the representative of thousands who, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3). But the Christian who knows the truth of New Testament deliverance is like the third dog. He needs no chain but is guided by his Master’s eye and his Master’s voice. (C. Ernest Tatham, from the book, “How May I.”, in Confident Living, January, 1988, p. 14) AND YET DOES NOT BRIDLE HIS TONGUE BUT DECEIVES HIS OWN HEART: me chalinagogon (PAPMSN) glossan autou alla apaton (PAPMSN) kardian autou: (Bridle - James 1:19; 3:2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Ps 32:9; 34:13; 39:1,2; 141:3; Pr 10:19,31; 13:2,3; 15:2; Pr 16:10; 19:1; 21:26; Ep 4:29; 5:4; Col 4:6; 1Pe 3:10) (Deceives - James 1:22; Deuteronomy 11:16; Isaiah 44:20; Galatians 6:3) Discretion in speech is better than fluency of speech - Jamieson, F, B Bridle (5468) (chalinagogeo from chalinos = a bridle + ago = to lead) literally means to guide with a bridle. It signifies the picture of one leading or alternately restraining by use of a bridle, in the present context the latter nuance being emphasized. The present tense indicates continuous action. In other words, James describes the one whose tongue is habitually unbridled! For anyone who has every been around horses and put a bridle in the horse's mouth in order to lead and guide this massive and powerful animal, the picture James draws is indeed striking! It says a great deal about the power of this little member of our body. David... I said, "I will guard my ways, That I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle, While the wicked are in my presence." (Ps 39:1) Spurgeon comments on this verse: I said. I steadily resolved and registered a determination. In his great perplexity his greatest fear was lest he should sin; and, therefore, he cast about for the most likely method for avoiding it, and he determined to be silent. It is right excellent when a man can strengthen himself in a good course by the remembrance of a well and wisely formed resolve. "What I have written I have written," or what I have spoken I will perform, may prove a good strengthener to a man in a fixed course of right. Unguarded ways are generally unholy ones. Heedless is another word for graceless I will take heed to my ways. To avoid sin one had need be very circumspect, and keep one's actions as with a guard or garrison. Unguarded ways are generally unholy ones. Heedless is another word for graceless. In times of sickness or other trouble we must watch against the sins peculiar to such trials, especially against murmuring and repining. That I sin not with my tongue. Tongue sins are great sins; like sparks of fire ill words spread, and do great damage. If believers utter hard words of God in times of depression, the ungodly will take them up and use them as a justification for their sinful courses. If a man's own children rail at him, no wonder if his enemies' mouths are full of abuse. Our tongue always wants watching, for it is restive as an ill broken horse; but especially must we hold it in when the sharp cuts of the Lord's rod excite it to rebel. I will keep my mouth with a bridle, or more accurately, with a muzzle. The original does not so much mean a bridle to check the tongue as a muzzle to stop it altogether. David was not quite so wise as our translation would make him; if he had resolved to be very guarded in his speech, it would have been altogether commendable; but when he went so far as to condemn himself to entire silence, "even from good," there must have been at least a little sullenness in his soul. In trying to avoid one fault, he fell into another. To use the tongue against God is a sin of commission, but not to use it at all involves an evident sin of omission. Commendable virtues may be followed so eagerly that we may fall into vices; to avoid Scylla we run into Charybdis (see explanation). While the wicked is before me. This qualifies the silence, and almost screens it from criticism, for bad men are so sure to misuse even our holiest speech, that it is as well not to cast any of our pearls before such swine; but what if the psalmist meant, "I was silent while I had the prosperity of the wicked in my thoughts," then we see the discontent and questioning of his mind, and the muzzled mouth indicates much that is not to be commended. Yet, if we blame we must also praise, for the highest wisdom suggests that when good men are bewildered with sceptical thoughts, they should not hasten to repeat them, but should fight out their inward battle upon its own battlefield. The firmest believers are exercised with unbelief, and it would be doing the devil's work with a vengeance if they were to publish abroad all their questionings and suspicions. If I have the fever myself, there is no reason why I should communicate it to my neighbours. If any on board the vessel of my soul are diseased, I will put my heart in quarantine, and allow none to go on shore in the boat of speech till I have a clean bill of health. Edward Reyner comments - Man's mouth, though it be but a little hole, will hold a world full of sin. For there is not any sin forbidden in the law or gospel which is not spoken by the tongue, as well as thought in the heart, or done in the life. Is it not then almost as difficult to rule the tongue as to rule the world? Here is James' "handbook on tongue control"... For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. 3 Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they may obey us, we direct their entire body as well.4 Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. 5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. 11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh. (James 3:2-12) James ties what we say to what/who we are in our innermost being, our control center if you will, our heart. When the doctor examines us, one of the first things he does to determine our physical condition is to say “Stick out your tongue!” James is saying in a sense "Stick out your tongue so I can assess the condition of your heart". This principle applies to the life of the person whose religion is pure and undefiled, for the tongue reveals what is in our heart. Inconsistent speech bears witness to a divided heart (cp passages on whole versus divided heart - 1Ki 8:61, 11:4, 15:3,14, 2Ki 20:3, 1Ch 12:38, 28:9, 29:19, 2Ch 15:17, 16:9, 19:9, 25:2), for it is “out of the abundance of the heart” that the mouth speaks (Mt 12:34). “Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing,” James writes later in this same letter and adds “My brethren, these things ought not so to be” (Jas 3:10). It follows from what James says and from each of our own experiences, that the tongue is indeed a restless evil and full of deadly poison and cannot be bridled. The question then arises is how can one practice pure religion or religion "worth" anything in the eyes of God? James gives part of the answer in the next verse. But in regard to the tongue the answer of course is that tongue control is not possible in our natural power but requires supernatural Holy Spirit power and amazing, life transforming grace. As you have undoubtedly heard some pastor articulate "The Christian life is not difficult...it's impossible!" And so is tongue control, short of Spirit control. God's Holy Spirit alone can enable a saint to bridle his tongue from unholy speech (cp Eph 4:29-note, where unwholesome speech = "rotten speech"!) Tongue (1100) (glossa) is literally an organ of the body used for taste and also the pronunciation of words and thus is a metaphor for the act of speaking. The idea of one "bridling" one's tongue is not uncommon in the Scriptures - James 1:26; 3:8; 1Pe 3:10; Jdg. 7:5; Job 29:10; 33:2. See Pastor Cole's message dealing with our tongue -- Transformed Talk (or Listen to) Richard Wolfe makes a good point observing that "To guide the tongue, hold it in check, restrain it, is a task so difficult that he who has the grace to accomplish it has grace to accomplish anything. Such self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:23-note)." (Wolfe, R: General Epistles of James and Jude) Spurgeon - If religion does not salt your tongue, and keep it sweet, it has done nothing for you. If the doctor wants to know the state of your health, he says, “Let me see your tongue;” and there is no better test of the health of the mind than to see what is on the tongue. When it gets furred up with unkind words, when it turns black with blasphemy, when it is spotted with lasciviousness, there is something very bad inside the heart, you may be quite sure of that. Albert Barnes has an interesting comment on this verse writing that bridle... Restrains or curbs it not, as a horse is restrained with a bridle. There may have been some reason why the apostle referred to this particular sin which is now unknown to us; or he may perhaps have intended to select this as a specimen to illustrate this idea, that if there is any one evil propensity which religion does not control, or if there is any one thing in respect to which its influence is not felt, whatever other evidences of piety there may be, this will demonstrate that all those appearances of religion are vain. For religion is designed to bring the whole man under control, and to subdue every faculty of the body and mind to its demands. If the tongue is not restrained, or if there is any unsubdued propensity to sin whatever, it proves that there is no true religion. The great Puritan author John Bunyan's description of Talkative in The Pilgrim’s Progress in an interesting commentary on Jas 1:26, 27... FAITHFUL: Well, I see that saying and doing are two things, and hereafter I shall better observe this distinction. CHRISTIAN: They are two things indeed, and are as diverse as are the soul and the body; for, as the body without the soul is but a dead carcass, so saying, if it be alone, is but a dead carcass also. The soul of religion is the practical part. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27; see also Jas 1:22, 23,24, 25, 26. This, Talkative is not aware of; he thinks that hearing and saying will make a good Christian; and thus he deceives his own soul. Hearing is but as the sowing of the seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life. And let us assure ourselves, that at the day of doom men shall be judged according to their fruits. Mt 13:23. It will not be said then, Did you believe? but, Were you doers, or talkers only? and accordingly shall they be judged. The end of the world is compared to our harvest, Mt 13:30, and you know men at harvest regard nothing but fruit. Not that any thing can be accepted that is not of faith; but I speak this to show you how insignificant the profession of Talkative will be at that day.” (Ed: Bunyan is not teaching "works based salvation" but that genuine salvation works or bears fruit.) (Pilgrim's Progress - Part I - The Fifth Stage) R C Sproul - a true Christian keeps a tight rein on the tongue. James will have much more to say about the tongue later on, but here he seems to refer to people who continually prattle. They say whatever pops into their head, without listening to or caring about what others are telling them. They are too full of their own self-important ideas. Such people are not open to the Word of God. They are not open to those God has appointed as teachers in his church. We must read the Scriptures ourselves, but we must also listen to teachers, or the Bible will come to simply mirror our preconceived ideas. The test of submission to the Word is openness to what is taught by those appointed to teach the Bible in the church. A person who is full of his own words will not be open to the words of others. ( Before the Face of God : Book Four) R K Hughes writes that the words of James 1:26... is a spiritually terrifying statement, to say the least, for it cuts like a hot knife through warm butter, dissecting the cant and piety of the self-satisfied religious. An out-of-control tongue suggests bogus religion, no matter how well one’s devotion is carried out. The true test of a man’s spirituality is not his ability to speak, as we are apt to think, but rather his ability to bridle his tongue. The Lord Jesus Himself explained this in no uncertain terms in a heated exchange with the Pharisees: “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt 12:33, 34). The tongue will inevitably reveal what is on the inside. This is especially true under stress, when the tongue is compulsively revealing. A preacher with hammer in hand, doing some work on a church workday, noticed that one of the men seemed to be following him around. Finally the preacher asked why. The man answered, “I just want to hear what you say when you hit your thumb.” The curious parishioner understood that would be the existential moment of truth. The same could be said of the domestic stresses of the home, where the mouth unfailingly trumpets one’s essence. James does not mean that those who sometimes fall into this sin have a worthless religion, for all are guilty at times. Rather, he is saying that if anyone’s tongue is habitually unbridled, though his church attendance be impeccable, his Bible knowledge envied, his prayers many, his tithes exemplary, and though he “considers himself religious … he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” The ever practical James has cut through all the religious decorum, but it is not butter that glistens under his knife, but the marrow of our souls. True religion controls the tongue. Men, how is your religion? How is mine? Do you talk too much? Do you pass along choice morsels for others to gleefully take in? Do you say to people’s faces what you would never say behind their backs? Do you have the “gift” of a sharp tongue? Are people elevated or diminished through your words? (Hughes, R. K. Disciplines of a Godly Man. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books) (Google preview of many of the 19 chapters of this highly recommended book) “The boneless tongue, so small and weak, Can crush and kill,” declares the Greek, “The tongue destroys a greater horde,” The Turk asserts, “than does the sword.” The Persian proverb wisely saith, “A lengthy tongue — an early death!” Or sometimes takes this form instead, “Do not let your tongue cut off your head.” “The tongue can speak a word whose speed,” Say the Chinese, “outstrips the steed.” The Arab sages said in part, “The tongue’s great storehouse is the heart.” From Hebrew was the maxim sprung, “Thy feet should slip, but ne’er the tongue.” The sacred writer crowns the whole, “Who keeps the tongue doth keep his soul.” (From James S. Hewitt, ed., Illustrations Unlimited. Tyndale House) But (alla) introduces a contrast (whenever you encounter a "but" pause to ponder what the author is contrasting? why? why now? what is the "change of direction of thought?, etc [see 5W/H'S] In so doing you are beginning to "chew the cud" so to speak - you are in a real sense practicing the lost art of Biblical Meditation, a discipline God promises to greatly bless - Ps 1:1-note, Ps 1:2-note, Ps 1:3-note, Joshua 1:8-note) between not reining in his tongue (what he does not do) and deceiving his own heart (what he does do)! Notice the nature of deception - he thinks he is religious and yet has a problem with tongue control which shows that he has managed to deceived himself (into thinking he is "okay" with God, that he is religious). Deception is a frightening thing especially when you don't recognize it! (Which you won't if you are truly deceived). This person fails to see the illogic of his supposed "holiness" before God and his unholy words before men! The root of his deception lies in the fact that this person thinks that God is only interested in external worship, when in fact He is far more interested in the heart from which the worship flows. "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/james_126-27.htm#re