William Burkitt on James 3:4

The design of our apostle, by this and the former similitude, is to shew, that little things well governed can govern great bodies; as the rider by a small bit can govern the horse at pleasure, and the pilot, by a small rudder, can manage the ship with ease; so the government of that little member the tongue, is a special mean for governing the whole man.

Next he compares the tongue to fire, in regard to the danger that attends it: Will a spark of fire set a house, a town, a city in a flame, and lay it in ashes? In like manner will a fiery tongue inflame a family, a society, a church, a kingdom: Yea, the whole world, by strife and contention, putting all into combustion; such a tongue being set on work by the devil, and kindled by that fire which came from hell; but verily, a tongue set on fire from hell, shall, without repentance, be set on fire in hell.

Learn hence, that a wicked tongue is of a hellish original, the fire of such a tongue is blown up by the breath of hell; let us abhor contentions, revilings, and reproaches, as we would hell itself.