<p>3:5<i> So the tongue also is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire</i>-The believer is identified with his tongue. &quot;A little (Greek: micro) member&quot; stresses the small physical size of the tongue in proportion to the vast spiritual effect it has. If the body and its members also have reference to the ecclesia as a whole, it may be that James is implying that one very subtle member- i.e. an individual in the ecclesia- was using his words to mislead the ecclesia. The ship can be easily influenced- by either a good or bad governor. The individual referred to was probably an agent of the Judaizers, whom the New Testament often describes as doing their evil work through &quot;Great swelling words of vanity&quot; (Jude 16; see too 3 Jn. 10; 2 Pet. 2:3; 2 Tim. 2:14; 1 Tim. 6:4; Col. 2:4; Eph. 5:6; 1 Cor. 1:17; Rom. 16:18). The tongue boasting &quot;great things&quot; is looking back to Ps. 12:2,3: &quot;They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a <i>double heart </i>do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh great things&quot; (AVmg.) The context of bad words coming as a result of a double mind is exactly the same as in James (1:8; 4:8). the vain man of Ps. 12:2 is mentioned again in James 2:20. Ps. 12:4,5 also have connections with James. Psalm 12 concludes with praise of God's words: &quot;The words of the Lord are pure words&quot; (v.6), as if to suggest that the word of God is the antidote to proud speaking. This all fits the context of James nicely. Thus &quot;the tongue&quot; here in James 3:5 is being used to represent a group of proud, vain talkers within the ecclesial body, who were probably all influenced by the Judaizers, possibly with one specific ringleader. Being &quot;a little member&quot; of the ecclesia, this group may not have been numerically large. &quot;Behold, how great a matter ('wood') a little fire kindles&quot; (v.5). The Greek word for &quot;little&quot; here is different from that in the phrase &quot;a little member&quot;. This implies rather a short period of time- i.e. 'consider what havoc can be caused by fire so quickly'. The implication is that James' readers needed to act quickly both to bring their own tongue under control and also to restrain &quot;the tongue&quot; element that were leading the ecclesia astray, and soon would burn down the ecclesia- represented by the 'wood', composed of &quot;the planting of the Lord&quot;. The New Testament epistles often give reason to think that the ecclesia will be in a state of great spiritual weakness just prior to the second coming. Those who find this hard to believe should bear in mind how <i>quickly</i> a small group of brethren can influence the ecclesia for bad.</p>