JAMES 3:6

Victor M. Eskew

 

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity:  so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

 

1.    Tongue

A.   Strong (1100):  the tongue

B.    Thayer:  the tongue, an organ of the body, an organ of speech

C.   Vine:  the tongue, as an organ of speech

 

2.    Fire

A.   Strong (4442):  fire

B.    Thayer:  fire

C.   Vine:  fire

 

3.    World

A.   Strong (2889):  orderly arrangement…by implication the world

B.    Thayer:  an apt or harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, government

C.   Vine:  order, arrangement…of the tongue…expression of magnitude and variety

 

4.    Iniquity

A.   Strong (93):  injustice…moral wrongfulness

B.    Thayer:  injustice, unrighteousness of heart and life, a deed violating law and justice, act of unrighteousness

C.   Vine:  denotes unrighteousness, lit. “unrightness,” a condition of not being right, whether with God, according to the standard of His holiness and rightness

 

5.    Members

A.   Strong (3196):  a limb or part of the body

B.    Thayer:  a member, limb:  a member of the body

C.   Vine:  a limb of the body

 

6.    Defileth

A.   Strong (4695):  to stain or soil

B.    Thayer:  to defile, spot

C.   Vine:  to make a stain or spot, and so to defile

 

7.   Whole

A.   Strong (3650):  whole, all complete    :-  all, altogether, every whit, + throughout, whole

B.    Thayer:  all, whole, completely

C.   Vine:  the whole

 

8.   Body

A.   Strong (4983):  the body

B.    Thayer:  the body of man

C.   Vine:  the body as a whole, instrument of life

9.   Setteth on fire

A.   Strong (5394):  to cause to blaze, that is, ignite

B.    Thayer:  to ignite, set on fire…fig. to operate destructively, have a pernicious power

C.   Vine:  to set on fire, burn up…of the tongue, of its disastrous effects upon the whole round of the circumstances of life

 

10. Course

A.   Strong (5164):  a wheel…a circuit of physical effects

B.    Thayer:  a wheel

C.   Vine:  a wheel…with metaphorical reference to the round of human activity…as a glowing axle would set on fire the whole wooden wheel

 

11.  Nature

A.   Strong (1078):  nature

B.    Thayer:  the wheel of life…the wheel of human origin which as soon as men are born begins to run, i.e. its course of life

C.   Vine:  …the course of birth or creation, or the course of man’s nature according to its Divine purpose…the whole round of human life and activity

 

12. Hell

A.   Strong (1067):  Valley of Hinnom, gehenna…the place (or state) of everlasting punishment

B.    Thayer:  the place of future punishment…the place for the wicked’s future destruction

C.   Vine:  hell is described as the source of the evil done by the misuse of the tongue, whose characteristics and destiny are those of hell