Young's Literal Translation YLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 Many teachers become not, my brethren, having known that greater judgment we shall receive,
1
Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards.
2 for we all make many stumbles; if any one in word doth not stumble, this one [is] a perfect man, able to bridle also the whole body;
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And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.
3 lo, the bits we put into the mouths of the horses for their obeying us, and their whole body we turn about;
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A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse.
4 lo, also the ships, being so great, and by fierce winds being driven, are led about by a very small helm, whithersoever the impulse of the helmsman doth counsel,
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A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds.
5 so also the tongue is a little member, and doth boast greatly; lo, a little fire how much wood it doth kindle!
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A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it!
6 and the tongue [is] a fire, the world of the unrighteousness, so the tongue is set in our members, which is spotting our whole body, and is setting on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by the gehenna.
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A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
7 For every nature, both of beasts and of fowls, both of creeping things and things of the sea, is subdued, and hath been subdued, by the human nature,
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This is scary: You can tame a tiger,
8 and the tongue no one of men is able to subdue, [it is] an unruly evil, full of deadly poison,
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but you can't tame a tongue - it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer.
9 with it we do bless the God and Father, and with it we do curse the men made according to the similitude of God;
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With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image.
10 out of the same mouth doth come forth blessing and cursing; it doth not need, my brethren, these things so to happen;
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Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
11 doth the fountain out of the same opening pour forth the sweet and the bitter?
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A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it?
12 is a fig-tree able, my brethren, olives to make? or a vine figs? so no fountain salt and sweet water [is able] to make.
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Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?
13 Who [is] wise and intelligent among you? let him shew out of the good behaviour his works in meekness of wisdom,
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Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here's what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts.
14 and if bitter zeal ye have, and rivalry in your heart, glory not, nor lie against the truth;
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Mean-spirited ambition isn't wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn't wisdom.
15 this wisdom is not descending from above, but earthly, physical, demon-like,
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It's the furthest thing from wisdom - it's animal cunning, devilish conniving.
16 for where zeal and rivalry [are], there is insurrection and every evil matter;
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Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats.
17 and the wisdom from above, first, indeed, is pure, then peaceable, gentle, easily entreated, full of kindness and good fruits, uncontentious, and unhypocritical: --
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Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced.
18 and the fruit of the righteousness in peace is sown to those making peace.
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You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.