Verse (Click for Chapter) New International Version Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. New Living Translation If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. English Standard Version If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Berean Standard Bible If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless. Berean Literal Bible If anyone seems to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, the religion of this one is worthless. King James Bible If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. New King James Version If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. New American Standard Bible If anyone thinks himself to be religious, yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless. NASB 1995 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. NASB 1977 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Legacy Standard Bible If anyone thinks himself to be religious while not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Amplified Bible If anyone thinks himself to be religious [scrupulously observant of the rituals of his faith], and does not control his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless (futile, barren). Christian Standard Bible If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. Holman Christian Standard Bible If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, then his religion is useless and he deceives himself. American Standard Version If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain. Aramaic Bible in Plain English And if a man thinks that he serves God, and does not hold his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's service is worthless. Contemporary English Version If you think you are being religious, but can't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is useless. Douay-Rheims Bible And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain. English Revised Version If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain. GOD'S WORD® Translation If a person thinks that he is religious but can't control his tongue, he is fooling himself. That person's religion is worthless. Good News Translation Do any of you think you are religious? If you do not control your tongue, your religion is worthless and you deceive yourself. International Standard Version If anyone thinks that he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but instead deceives himself, his religion is worthless. Literal Standard Version If anyone thinks to be religious among you, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, the religion of this one [is] vain; Majority Standard Bible If anyone among you considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless. New American Bible If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, his religion is vain. NET Bible If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile. New Revised Standard Version If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. New Heart English Bible If anyone thinks himself to be religious while he does not control his tongue, but deceives his heart, this one's religion is worthless. Webster's Bible Translation If any man among you seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Weymouth New Testament If a man thinks that he is scrupulously religious, although he is not curbing his tongue but is deceiving himself, his religious service is worthless. World English Bible If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Young's Literal Translation If any one doth think to be religious among you, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, of this one vain is the religion; Additional Translations ... Audio Bible Context Hearing and Doing…25But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does. 26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless. 27Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.… Cross References Psalm 34:13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech. Psalm 39:1 I said, "I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are present." Psalm 141:3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips. Luke 8:18 Pay attention, therefore, to how you listen. Whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him." James 3:2 We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body. Treasury of Scripture If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain. seem. Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Luke 8:18 Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. bridleth. James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: James 3:2-6 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body… Psalm 32:9 Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. but. James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Deuteronomy 11:16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; Isaiah 44:20 He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? this. James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Isaiah 1:13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Malachi 3:14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? Jump to Previous Although Bridle Considers Control Curbing Deceives Deceiveth Deceiving Heart Lets Rein Religion Religious Scrupulously Seem Seemeth Seems Thinketh Thinks Tight Tongue Tricked Vain WorthlessJump to Next Although Bridle Considers Control Curbing Deceives Deceiveth Deceiving Heart Lets Rein Religion Religious Scrupulously Seem Seemeth Seems Thinketh Thinks Tight Tongue Tricked Vain WorthlessJames 1 1. James greets the twelve tribes among the nations;2. exhorts to rejoice in trials and temptations; 5. to ask patience of God; 13. and in our trials not to impute our weakness, or sins, to him, 19. but rather to hearken to the word, to meditate on it, and to do thereafter. 26. Otherwise men may seem, but never be, truly religious. (26) But St. James has thus far dilated only on the first part of his advice in James 1:19, "Let every man be swift to hear"; now he must enforce the remaining clause, "slow to speak." If any man among you seem to be religious . . .--Better, If any one imagine himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain. The sense of the Greek is slightly obscured by the English version. "If any man . . . seem"--i.e., to himself, and not to others merely; the warning is not to the hypocrite, but the self-deceived. A Christian may have, or rather cannot help having, the feeling that he is a religious man; and so far well. But if such a one deceive his own heart, as confessedly he may, and give to those around him the proof of his self-delusion in not curbing his tongue, vain and useless is all his religious service. Just as some mistakenly suppose there can be a religion of hearing without acting, so others rest satisfied "in outward acts of worship, or exactness of ritual." "But," remarks Bishop Moberly on this passage, and his voice may win an audience where another's would not, "if a man think himself a true worshipper because he conforms to outward services, while he lets his tongue loose in untruth or unkindness or other unseemliness, he deceives himself." The first mark of true religion is gentleness of tongue, just as the contrary, blasphemy, is the most damning fault of all. Our Lord directly says, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matthew 12:37). The text, however, is more a guide for self-examination than a stone to be cast at a neighbour; and "well is" it indeed for "him that hath not slipped with his tongue" (Ecclesiasticus 25:8). The Apostle returns to this subject, though from a different point of view, in James 3, which compare with the above. The best commentary on the whole is Bishop Butler's Sermon, No. IV., "Upon the Government of the Tongue." Verse 26. - Seem (δοκεῖ); seems to himself rather than to others; translate, with R.V., thinketh himself to be. Vulgate, Si quis Putat se esse. Religious (θρῆσκος). It is difficult to find an English word which exactly answers to the Greek. The noun θρησκεία refers properly to the external rites of religion, and so gets to signify an over-scrupulous devotion to external forms (Lightfoot on Colossians 2:18); almost "ritualism." It is the ceremonial service of religion, the external forms, a body of which εὐσεβεία is the informing soul. Thus the θρῆσκος (the word apparently only occurs here in the whole range of Greek literature) is the diligent performer of Divine offices, of the outward service of God, but not necessarily anything more. This depreciatory sense of θρησκεία ισ well seen in a passage of Philo ('Quod Det. Pot. 'Jus.,' 7), where, after speaking of some who would fain be counted among the εὐλαβεῖς on the score of diverse washings or costly offerings to the temple, he proceeds: Πεπλάνηται γὰρ καὶ οϋτος τῆς πρὸς εὐσεβείαν ὁδοῦ θρησκείαν ἀντὶ ὁσιότητος ἡγούμενος (see Trench on 'Synonyms,' from whom the reference is here taken). "How delicate and fine, then, St. James's choice of θρῆσκος and θρησκεία! 'If any man,' he would say, 'seem to himself to be θρῆσκος, a diligent observer of the offices of religion, if any man would render a pure and undefiled θρησκεία to God, let him know that this consists, not in outward lustrations or ceremonial observances; nay, that there is a better θρησκεία than thousands of rams and rivers of oil, namely, to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God (Micah 6:7, 8); or, according to his own words, ' to visit the widows and orphans in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world'" (Trench on 'Synonyms,' p. 170: the whole passage will well repay study. Reference should also be made to Coleridge, 'Aids to Reflection,' p. 15). Bridleth not (μὴ χαλιναγωγῶν). The thought is developed more fully afterwards (see James 3:2, etc., and for the word, cf. Polyc., 'Ad Philippians,' c.v.).Parallel Commentaries ... Greek IfΕἴ (Ei) Conjunction Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc. anyone τις (tis) Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Singular Strong's 5100: Any one, some one, a certain one or thing. An enclitic indefinite pronoun; some or any person or object. considers himself δοκεῖ (dokei) Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular Strong's 1380: A prolonged form of a primary verb, doko dok'-o of the same meaning; to think; by implication, to seem. religious θρησκὸς (thrēskos) Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular Strong's 2357: Probably from the base of throeo; ceremonious in worship, i.e. Pious. [and yet] does not bridle χαλιναγωγῶν (chalinagōgōn) Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular Strong's 5468: To bridle, curb, restrain, sway. From a compound of chalinos and the reduplicated form of ago; to be a bit-leader, i.e. To curb. his αὐτοῦ (autou) Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons. tongue, γλῶσσαν (glōssan) Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Strong's 1100: The tongue; by implication, a language. he deceives ἀπατῶν (apatōn) Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular Strong's 538: To deceive, cheat, lead into error. Of uncertain derivation; to cheat, i.e. Delude. his αὐτοῦ (autou) Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons. heart καρδίαν (kardian) Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Strong's 2588: Prolonged from a primary kar; the heart, i.e. the thoughts or feelings; also the middle. [and his] τούτου (toutou) Demonstrative Pronoun - Genitive Masculine Singular Strong's 3778: This; he, she, it. religion θρησκεία (thrēskeia) Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Strong's 2356: From a derivative of threskos; ceremonial observance. [is] worthless. μάταιος (mataios) Adjective - Nominative Feminine Singular Strong's 3152: Vain, unreal, ineffectual, unproductive; practically: godless. From the base of maten; empty, i.e. profitless, or, an idol. Links James 1:26 NIVJames 1:26 NLT James 1:26 ESV James 1:26 NASB James 1:26 KJV James 1:26 BibleApps.com James 1:26 Biblia Paralela James 1:26 Chinese Bible James 1:26 French Bible James 1:26 Catholic Bible NT Letters: James 1:26 If anyone among you thinks himself (Ja Jas. Jam) |
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