James 1:26
“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.”
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
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.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Counter-Arguments
The strongest case that this verse does not belong in this theme.
Related Verses
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
“But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”
“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.”
“For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”
“But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”