Book of Common Prayer

Taming the tongue

3 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters; you know that we will be judged more severely. ² All of us make many mistakes, after all. If anyone makes no mistakes in what they say, such a person is a fully complete human being, capable of keeping firm control over the whole body as well. ³ We put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, and then we can direct their whole bodies. ⁴ Consider, too, the case of large ships; it takes strong winds to blow them along, but one small rudder will turn them whichever way the helmsman desires and decides. ⁵ In the same way, the tongue is a little member but boasts great things. See how small a fire it takes to set a large forest ablaze! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is a world of injustice, with its place established right there among our members. It defiles the whole body; it sets the wheel of nature ablaze, and is itself set ablaze by hell. ⁷ Every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, you see, can be tamed, and has been tamed, by humans. ⁸ But no single human is able to tame the tongue. It is an irrepressible evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ By it we bless the Lord and father; and by it we curse humans who are made in God’s likeness! ¹⁰ Blessing and curses come out of the same mouth! My dear family, it isn’t right that it should be like that. ¹¹ Does a spring put out both sweet and bitter water from the same source? ¹² Dear friends, can a fig tree bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water yield fresh.

Jesus before Pilate

15 As soon as morning came, the chief priests held a council meeting with the elders, the legal experts, and the whole Sanhedrin. They bound Jesus, took him off to Pilate, and handed him over.

² “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“You have said it,” replied Jesus.

³ The chief priests laid many accusations against him.

⁴ Pilate again interrogated him: “Aren’t you going to make any reply? Look how many accusations they’re making against you!”

⁵ But Jesus gave no reply at all, which astonished Pilate.

⁶ The custom was that at festival time he used to release for them a single prisoner, whoever they would ask for. ⁷ There was a man in prison named Barabbas, one of the revolutionaries who had committed murder during the uprising. ⁸ So the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do what he normally did.

⁹ “Do you want me,” answered Pilate, “to release for you ‘the king of the Jews’?”

¹⁰ He said this because he knew that the chief priests had handed him over out of envy. ¹¹ The chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask for Barabbas instead to be released to them. So Pilate once again asked them,