7. People have tamed all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures.
8. Yet, no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil filled with deadly poison.
9. With our tongues we praise our Lord and Father. Yet, with the same tongues we curse people, who were created in God’s likeness.
10. Praise and curses come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, this should not happen!
11. Do clean and polluted water flow out of the same spring?
12. My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a grapevine produce figs? In the same way, a pool of salt water can’t produce fresh water.
13. Do any of you have wisdom and insight? Show this by living the right way with the humility that comes from wisdom.
14. But if you are bitterly jealous and filled with self-centered ambition, don’t brag. Don’t say that you are wise when it isn’t true.
15. That kind of wisdom doesn’t come from above. It belongs to this world. It is self-centered and demonic.
16. Wherever there is jealousy and rivalry, there is disorder and every kind of evil.