Proverbs 1:20-33

²⁰Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. ²¹At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: ²²“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? ²³Give heed to my reproof; I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you. ²⁴Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded, ²⁵and because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, ²⁶I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you, ²⁷when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. ²⁸Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but will not find me. ²⁹Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, ³⁰would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof, ³¹therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices. ³²For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; ³³but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”

James 3:1-12

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 6And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. 10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. 11Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 12Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.