James 3:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Be not many masters Διδασκαλοι, teachers. Let none of you rashly, and without proper qualifications, undertake the office of teachers of others; an office into which many are ready to intrude themselves, without being called of God to it. “The great desire which the Jewish Christians, to whom this letter was written, had to become teachers in the church after their conversion, and to inculcate the obligation of the law of Moses, is noticed by St. Paul, 1 Timothy 1:7. Desiring to be teachers of the law, &c. These teachers of the law in the Christian Church were the great corrupters of the gospel.” Knowing that If we err, we shall receive the greater condemnation On account of our taking upon us an office for which we are not qualified, and in the exercise of which more is required of us, in many respects, than of others in a more private station of life. St. James here, as in several of the following verses, by a common figure of speech, joins himself with the persons to whom he wrote, to mitigate the harshness of his reproof: we shall receive we offend we put bits we curse, none of which particulars, as common sense shows, are to be interpreted either of him or of the other apostles. For in many things we offend all Through natural infirmity and strong temptation, we are all liable to fall. The original expression, πταιομεν απαντες, is literally, we all stumble. “It is a metaphor taken from persons who, walking on slippery or rough ground, slide or stumble without falling; as appears from Romans 11:11, μη επταισαν ινα πεσωσι, have they stumbled so as to fall? Therefore, as in Scripture, walking denotes the course of a man's conduct, stumbling, in this passage, signifies those lesser failings in duty, to which common Christians are liable.” If any man offend Stumble; not in word Keep his tongue under constant government, so that no corrupt discourse proceeds out of his mouth, at any time or on any occasion, but only that which is either about necessary business as far as is necessary, or good to the use of edifying, (see note on Ephesians 4:29,) the same is a perfect man Eminently good; one who has attained to a high degree of wisdom and grace, and able also to bridle the whole body To keep all his senses, appetites, and passions under due regulation. The tongue is an index of the heart, and he who does not transgress the law of truth, or love, or purity, or humility, or meekness, or patience, or seriousness, with his tongue, will, with the same grace, so rule all his dispositions and actions, as to manifest that he has in him the mind that was in Christ, and walks as Christ walked.