Text -- James 1:11-27 (NET)

1:11 For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away. 1:12 Happy is the one who endures testing, because when he has proven to be genuine, he will receive the crown of life that God promised to those who love him. 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. 1:15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death. 1:16 Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters. 1:17 All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. 1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Living Out the Message

1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. 1:20 For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. 1:21 So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls. 1:22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 1:23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. 1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. 1:25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out– he will be blessed in what he does. 1:26 If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile. 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: Jam 1:11

Ariseth ( aneteilen ).

Gnomic or timeless aorist active indicative of the old compound anatellō , used here of plants (cf. anathallō in Phi 4:10), often of the sun (Mat 13:6).

Robertson: Jam 1:11

With the scorching wind ( sun tōi kausōni ).

Associative instrumental case with sun . In the lxx this late word (from kausos ) is usually the sirocco, the dry east wind from the desert (Job 1:19). In Mat 20:12; Luk 12:55 it is the burning heat of the sun. Either makes sense here.

Robertson: Jam 1:11

Withereth ( exēranen ).

Another gnomic aorist active indicative (Robertson, Grammar , p. 837) of xērainō , old verb (from xēros , dry or withered, Mat 12:10), to dry up. Grass and flowers are often used to picture the transitoriness of human life.

Robertson: Jam 1:11

Falleth ( exepesen ).

Another gnomic aorist (second aorist active indicative) of ekpiptō to fall out (off).

Robertson: Jam 1:11

The grace ( hē euprepeia ).

Old word (from euprepēs well-looking, not in the N.T.), only here in N.T. Goodly appearance, beauty.

Robertson: Jam 1:11

Of the fashion of it ( tou prosōpou autou ).

"Of the face of it."The flower is pictured as having a "face,"like a rose or lily.

Robertson: Jam 1:11

Perisheth ( apōleto ).

Another gnomic aorist (second aorist middle indicative of apollumi , to destroy, but intransitive here, to perish). The beautiful rose is pitiful when withered.

Robertson: Jam 1:11

Shall fade away ( maranthēsetai ).

Future passive indicative of marainō , old verb, to extinguish a flame, a light. Used of roses in Wisdom 2:8.

Robertson: Jam 1:11

Goings ( poreiais ).

Old word from poreuō to journey, in N.T. only here and Luk 13:22 (of Christ’ s journey toward Jerusalem). The rich man’ s travels will come to "journey’ s end."

Robertson: Jam 1:12

Endureth ( hupomenei ).

Present active indicative of hupomenō . Cf. Jam 1:3.

Robertson: Jam 1:12

Temptation ( peirasmon ).

Real temptation here. See Jam 1:2 for "trials."

Robertson: Jam 1:12

When he hath been approved ( dokimos genomenos ).

"Having become approved,"with direct reference to to dokimion in Jam 1:3. See also Rom 5:4 for dokimē (approval after test as of gold or silver). This beatitude (makarios ) is for the one who has come out unscathed. See 1Ti 6:9.

Robertson: Jam 1:12

The crown of life ( ton stephanon tēs zōēs ).

The same phrase occurs in Rev 2:10. It is the genitive of apposition, life itself being the crown as in 1Pe 5:4. This crown is "an honourable ornament"(Ropes), with possibly no reference to the victor’ s crown (garland of leaves) as with Paul in 1Co 9:25; 2Ti 4:8, nor to the linen fillet (diadēma ) of royalty (Psa 20:3, where stephanos is used like diadēma , the kingly crown). Stephanos has a variety of uses. Cf. the thorn chaplet on Jesus (Mat 27:29).

Robertson: Jam 1:12

The Lord.

Not in the oldest Greek MSS., but clearly implied as the subject of epēggeilato ( he promised , first aorist middle indicative).

Robertson: Jam 1:13

Let no one say ( mēdeis legetō ).

Present active imperative, prohibiting such a habit.

Robertson: Jam 1:13

When he is tempted ( peirazomenos ).

Present passive participle of peirazō , here in evil sense of tempt, not test, as in Mat 4:1. Jam 1:12-18 give a vivid picture of temptation.

Robertson: Jam 1:13

I am tempted of God ( apo theou peirazomai ).

The use of apo shows origin (apo with ablative case), not agency (hupo ), as in Mar 1:13, of Satan. It is contemptible, but I have heard wicked and weak men blame God for their sins. Cf. Pro 19:3; Sirach 15:11f. Temptation does not spring "from God."

Robertson: Jam 1:13

Cannot be tempted with evil ( apeirastos kakōn ).

Verbal compound adjective (alpha privative and peirazō ), probably with the ablative case, as is common with alpha privative (Robertson, Grammar , p. 516), though Moulton ( Prolegomena , p. 74) treats it as the genitive of definition. The ancient Greek has apeiratos (from peiraō ), but this is the earliest example of apeirastos (from peirazō ) made on the same model. Only here in the N.T. Hort notes apeiratos kakōn as a proverb (Diodorus, Plutarch, Josephus) "free from evils."That is possible here, but the context calls for "untemptable"rather than "untempted."

Robertson: Jam 1:13

And he himself tempteth no man ( peirazei de autos oudena ).

Because "untemptable."

Robertson: Jam 1:14

When he is drawn away by his own lust ( hupo tēs idias epithumias exelkomenos ).

Epithumia is old word for craving (from epithumeō , to have a desire for) either good (Phi 1:23) or evil (Rom 7:7) as here. Like a fish drawn out from his retreat.

Robertson: Jam 1:14

Enticed ( deleazomenos ).

Present passive participle of deleazō , old verb from delear (bait), to catch fish by bait or to hunt with snares and Philo has huph' hēdonēs deleazetai (is enticed by pleasure). In N.T. only here and 2Pe 2:14, 2Pe 2:18. Allured by definite bait.

Robertson: Jam 1:15

Then ( eita ).

The next step.

Robertson: Jam 1:15

The lust ( hē epithumia ).

Note article, the lust (Jam 1:14) which one has.

Robertson: Jam 1:15

When it hath conceived ( sullabousa ).

Second aorist active participle of sullambanō , old word to grasp together, in hostile sense (Act 26:21), in friendly sense of help (Phi 4:3), in technical sense of a woman taking a man’ s seed in conception (Luk 1:24), here also of lust (as a woman), "having conceived."The will yields to lust and conception takes place.

Robertson: Jam 1:15

Beareth sin ( tiktei hamartian ).

Present active indicative of tiktō to bring forth as a mother or fruit from seed, old verb, often in N.T., here only in James. Sin is the union of the will with lust. See Psa 7:14 for this same metaphor.

Robertson: Jam 1:15

The sin ( hē hamartia ).

The article refers to hamartia just mentioned.

Robertson: Jam 1:15

When it is full-grown ( apotelestheisa ).

First aorist passive participle of apoteleō , old compound verb with perfective use of apo , in N.T. only here and Luk 13:32. It does not mean "full-grown"like teleioō , but rather completeness of parts or functions as opposed to rudimentary state (Hort) like the winged insect in contrast with the chrysalis or grub (Plato). The sin at birth is fully equipped for its career (Rom 6:6; Col 3:5).

Robertson: Jam 1:15

Bringeth forth death ( apokuei thanaton ).

Late compound (kueō to be pregnant, perfective use of apo ) to give birth to, of animals and women, for normal birth (papyrus example) and abnormal birth (Hort). A medical word (Ropes) rather than a literary one like tiktō . The child of lust is sin, of sin is death, powerful figure of abortion. The child is dead at birth. For death as the fruit of sin see Rom 6:21-23; Rom 8:6. "The birth of death follows of necessity when one sin is fully formed"(Hort).

Robertson: Jam 1:16

Be not deceived ( mē planāsthe ).

Prohibition with mē and the present passive imperative of planaō , common verb to lead astray. This is the way of sin to deceive and to kill (Rom 7:7-14). The devil is a pastmaster at blinding men’ s eyes about sin (2Co 4:4; Rom 1:27; Eph 4:14; etc.).

Robertson: Jam 1:17

Gift ( dosis )

- boon (dōrēma ). Both old substantives from the same original verb (didōmi ), to give. Dosis is the act of giving (ending ̇sis ), but sometimes by metonymy for the thing given like ktisis for ktisma (Col 1:15). But dōrēma (from dōreō , from dōron a gift) only means a gift, a benefaction (Rom 5:16). The contrast here argues for "giving"as the idea in dosis . Curiously enough there is a perfect hexameter line here:

Robertson: Jam 1:17

pāsa do / sis aga / thē kai / pān dō / rēma te / leion . @@Such accidental rhythm occurs occasionally in many writers. Ropes (like Ewald and Mayor) argues for a quotation from an unknown source because of the poetical word dōrēma , but that is not conclusive. @@From above ( anōthen ).

That is, from heaven. Cf. Joh 3:31; Joh 19:11.

Robertson: Jam 1:17

Coming down ( katabainon ).

Present active neuter singular participle of katabainō agreeing with dōrēma , expanding and explaining anōthen (from above).

Robertson: Jam 1:17

From the Father of lights ( apo tou patros tōn phōtōn ).

"Of the lights"(the heavenly bodies). For this use of patēr see Job 38:28 (Father of rain); 2Co 1:3; Eph 1:17. God is the Author of light and lights.

Robertson: Jam 1:17

With whom ( par' hōi ).

For para (beside) with locative sense for standpoint of God see para tōi theōi (Mar 10:27; Rom 2:11; Rom 9:14; Eph 6:9.

Robertson: Jam 1:17

Can be no ( ouk eni ).

This old idiom (also in Gal 3:28; Col 3:11) may be merely the original form of en with recessive accent (Winer, Mayor) or a shortened form of enesti . The use of eni en in 1Co 6:5 argues for this view, as does the use of eine (einai ) in Modern Greek (Robertson, Grammar , p. 313).

Robertson: Jam 1:17

Variation ( parallagē ).

Old word from parallassō , to make things alternate, here only in N.T. In Aristeas in sense of alternate stones in pavements. Dio Cassius has parallaxis without reference to the modern astronomical parallax, though James here is comparing God (Father of the lights) to the sun (Mal 4:2), which does have periodic variations.

Robertson: Jam 1:17

Shadow that is cast by turning ( tropēs aposkiasma ).

Tropē is an old word for "turning"(from trepō to turn), here only in N.T. Aposkiasma is a late and rare word (aposkiasmos in Plutarch) from aposkiazō (apo , skia ) a shade cast by one object on another. It is not clear what the precise metaphor is, whether the shadow thrown on the dial (aposkiazō in Plato) or the borrowed light of the moon lost to us as it goes behind the earth. In fact, the text is by no means certain, for Aleph B papyrus of fourth century actually read hē tropēs aposkiasmatos (the variation of the turning of the shadow). Ropes argues strongly for this reading, and rather convincingly. At any rate there is no such periodic variation in God like that we see in the heavenly bodies.

Robertson: Jam 1:18

Of his own will ( boulētheis ).

First aorist passive participle of boulomai . Repeating the metaphor of birth in Jam 1:15, but in good sense. God as Father acted deliberately of set purpose.

Robertson: Jam 1:18

He brought us forth ( apekuēsen ).

First aorist active indicative of apokueō (Jam 1:15), only here of the father (4 Macc. 15:17), not of the mother. Regeneration, not birth of all men, though God is the Father in the sense of creation of all men (Act 17:28.).

Robertson: Jam 1:18

By the word of truth ( logōi alētheias ).

Instrumental case logōi . The reference is thus to the gospel message of salvation even without the article (2Co 6:7) as here, and certainly with the article (Col 1:5; Eph 1:13; 2Ti 2:15). The message marked by truth (genitive case alētheias ).

Robertson: Jam 1:18

That we should be ( eis to einai hēmās ).

Purpose clause eis to and the infinitive einai with the accusative of general reference hēmās (as to us).

Robertson: Jam 1:18

A kind of first-fruits ( aparchēn tina ).

"Some first-fruits"(old word from aparchomai ), of Christians of that age. See Rom 16:5.

Robertson: Jam 1:19

Ye know this ( iste ).

Or "know this."Probably the perfect active indicative (literary form as in Eph 5:5; Heb 12:17, unless both are imperative, while in Jam 4:4 we have oidate , the usual vernacular Koiné perfect indicative). The imperative uses only iste and only the context can decide which it is. Esto (let be) is imperative.

Robertson: Jam 1:19

Swift to hear ( tachus eis to akousai ).

For this use of eis to with the infinitive after an adjective see 1Th 4:9. For eis to after adjectives see Rom 16:19. The picture points to listening to the word of truth (Jam 1:18) and is aimed against violent and disputatious speech (Jam 3:1-12). The Greek moralists often urge a quick and attentive ear.

Robertson: Jam 1:19

Slow to speak ( bradus eis to lalēsai ).

Same construction and same ingressive aorist active infinitive, slow to begin speaking, not slow while speaking.

Robertson: Jam 1:19

Slow to anger ( bradus eis orgēn ).

He drops the infinitive here, but he probably means that slowness to speak up when angry will tend to curb the anger.

Robertson: Jam 1:20

The wrath of man ( orgē andros ).

Here anēr (as opposed to gunē woman), not anthrōpos of Jam 1:19 (inclusive of both man and woman). If taken in this sense, it means that a man’ s anger (settled indignation in contrast with thumos , boiling rage or fury) does not necessarily work God’ s righteousness. There is such a thing as righteous indignation, but one is not necessarily promoting the cause of God by his own personal anger. See Act 10:35 for "working righteousness,"and Jam 2:9 for "working sin"(ergazomai both times).

Robertson: Jam 1:21

Wherefore ( dio ).

Because of this principle. See Eph 4:25.

Robertson: Jam 1:21

Putting away ( apothemenoi ).

Second aorist middle participle of apotithēmi , to put off, metaphor of removing clothing as in Rom 13:12; Col 3:8; Eph 4:22, Eph 4:25; 1Pe 2:1.

Robertson: Jam 1:21

Filthiness ( ruparian ).

Late word (Plutarch) from ruparos , dirty (Jam 2:2), here only in N.T. Surely a dirty garment.

Robertson: Jam 1:21

Overflowing of wickedness ( perisseian kakias ).

Perisseia is a late word (from perissos , abundant, exceeding), only four times in N.T., in 2Co 8:2 with charas (of joy), in Rom 5:17 with charitos (of grace). Kakia (from kakos , evil) can be either general like ruparia (filthiness, naughtiness), or special like "malice."But any of either sense is a "superfluity."

Robertson: Jam 1:21

With meekness ( en praūtēti ).

In docility. "The contrast is with orgē rather than kakias "(Ropes).

Robertson: Jam 1:21

The implanted word ( ton emphuton logon ).

This old verbal adjective (from emphuō to implant, to grow in), only here in N.T., meaning properly ingrown, inborn, not emphuteuton (engrafted). It is "the rooted word"(Jam 1:18), sown in the heart as the soil or garden of God (Matt 13:3-23; Mat 15:13; 1Co 3:6).

Robertson: Jam 1:21

Able to save ( dunamenon sōsai ).

Cf. 1Pe 1:9; Jam 2:14; Jam 4:12; Jam 5:20; Rom 1:16. Ultimate salvation (effective aorist active infinitive sōsai from sōzō ).

Robertson: Jam 1:22

But be ye ( ginesthe de ).

Rather, "But keep on becoming"(present middle imperative of ginomai ).

Robertson: Jam 1:22

Doers of the word ( poiētai logou ).

Old word for agent (̇tēs ) from poieō to do as in Jam 4:11; Rom 2:13, but in Act 17:28 our "poet"(long regarded as a "doer"or "maker").

Robertson: Jam 1:22

Hearers ( akroatai ).

Old word for agent again from akroamai (to be a hearer), in N.T. only here and Rom 2:13.

Robertson: Jam 1:22

Deluding yourselves ( paralogizomenoi heautous ).

Present middle (direct) participle of paralogizomai , to reckon aside (para ) and so wrong, to cheat, to deceive. Redundant reflexive heautous with the middle. In N.T. only here and Col 2:4. Such a man does not delude anyone but himself.

Robertson: Jam 1:23

And not a doer ( kai ou poiētēs ).

Condition of first class, assumed as true, and ou (rather than mē ) contrasts poiētēs with akroatēs .

Robertson: Jam 1:23

Unto a man beholding ( andri katanoounti ).

Associative instrumental case after eoiken as in Jam 1:6. Note andri as in Jam 1:8 in contrast with gunaiki (woman), not anthrōpōi (general term for man). Present active participle of katanoeō to put the mind down on (kata , nous ), to consider attentively, to take note of, as in Jam 1:24 (katenoēsen ).

Robertson: Jam 1:23

His natural face ( to prosōpon tēs geneseōs autou ).

"The face of his birth"(origin, lineage, nativity). For this use of genesis see Jam 3:6; Mat 1:1, Mat 1:18; Luk 1:13.

Robertson: Jam 1:23

In a mirror ( en esoptrōi ).

Old word (from eis , optō ) in N.T. only here and 1Co 13:12. The mirrors of the ancients were not of glass, but of polished metal (of silver or usually of copper and tin). See katoptrizomai in 2Co 3:18.

Robertson: Jam 1:24

He beholdeth himself ( katenoēsen heauton ).

Usually explained as gnomic aorist like those in Jam 1:11, but the ordinary force of the tenses is best here. "He glanced at himself (katenoēsen aorist) and off he has gone (apelēluthen perfect active) and straightway forgot (epelatheto , second aorist middle indicative of epilanthanomai ) what sort of a man he was"(hopoios ēn , back in the picture, imperfect tense). The tenses thus present a vivid and lifelike picture of the careless listener to preaching (Christ’ s wayside hearer).

Robertson: Jam 1:25

He that looketh into ( ho parakupsas ).

First aorist active articular participle of parakuptō , old verb, to stoop and look into (Joh 20:5, Joh 20:11), to gaze carefully by the side of, to peer into or to peep into (1Pe 1:12). Here the notion of beside (para ) or of stooping (kuptō ) is not strong. Sometimes, as Hort shows, the word means only a cursory glance, but the contrast with Jam 1:24 seems to preclude that here.

Robertson: Jam 1:25

The perfect law ( nomon teleion ).

For teleion see Jam 1:17. See Rom 7:12 for Paul’ s idea of the law of God. James here refers to the word of truth (Jam 1:18), the gospel of grace (Gal 6:2; Rom 12:2).

Robertson: Jam 1:25

The law of liberty ( ton tēs eleutherias ).

"That of liberty,"explaining why it is "perfect"(Jam 2:12 also), rests on the work of Christ, whose truth sets us free (Joh 8:32; 2Co 3:16; Rom 8:2).

Robertson: Jam 1:25

And so continueth ( kai parameinas ).

First aorist active articular participle again of paramenō , parallel with parakupsas . Paramenō is to stay beside, and see Phi 1:25 for contrast with the simplex menō .

Robertson: Jam 1:25

Being ( genomenos ).

Rather, "having become"(second aorist middle participle of ginomai to become).

Robertson: Jam 1:25

Not a hearer that forgetteth ( ouk akroatēs epilēsmonēs ).

"Not a hearer of forgetfulness"(descriptive genitive, marked by forgetfulness). Epilēsmonē is a late and rare word (from epilēsmōn , forgetful, from epilanthomai , to forget, as in Jam 1:24), here only in N.T.

Robertson: Jam 1:25

But a doer that worketh ( alla poiētēs ergou ).

"But a doer of work,"a doer marked by work (descriptive genitive ergou ), not by mere listening or mere talk.

Robertson: Jam 1:25

In his doing ( en tēi poiēsei autou ).

Another beatitude with makarios as in Jam 1:12, like the Beatitudes in Mat 5:3-12. Poiēsis is an old word (from poieō for the act of doing), only here in N.T.

Robertson: Jam 1:26

Thinketh himself to be religious ( dokei thrēskos einai ).

Condition of first class (ei̇dokei ). Thrēskos (of uncertain etymology, perhaps from threomai , to mutter forms of prayer) is predicate nominative after einai , agreeing with the subject of dokei (either "he seems"or "he thinks"). This source of self-deception is in saying and doing. The word thrēskos is found nowhere else except in lexicons. Hatch ( Essays in Biblical Greek , pp. 55-57) shows that it refers to the external observances of public worship, such as church attendance, almsgiving, prayer, fasting (Matt 6:1-18). It is the Pharisaic element in Christian worship.

Robertson: Jam 1:26

While he bridleth not his tongue ( mē chalinagōgōn glōssan heautou ).

"Not bridling his own tongue."A reference to Jam 1:19 and the metaphor is repeated in Jam 3:12. This is the earliest known example of the compound chalinagōgeō (chalinos , bridle ago , to lead). It occurs also in Lucian. The picture is that of a man putting the bridle in his own mouth, not in that of another. See the similar metaphor of muzzling (phimoō ) one’ s mouth (Mat 22:12 ephimōthē ).

Robertson: Jam 1:26

Deceiveth ( apatōn ).

Present active participle from apatē (deceit). He plays a trick on himself.

Robertson: Jam 1:26

Religion ( thrēskeia ).

Later form of thrēskiē (Herodotus) from thrēskos above. It means religious worship in its external observances, religious exercise or discipline, but not to the exclusion of reverence. In the N.T. we have it also in Act 26:5 of Judaism and in Col 2:18 of worshipping angels. It is vain (mataios , feminine form same as masculine) or empty. Comes to nothing.

Robertson: Jam 1:27

Pure religion and undefiled ( thrēskeia kathara kai amiantos ).

Numerous examples in papyri and inscriptions of thrēskeia for ritual and reverential worship in the Roman Empire (Moulton and Milligan’ s Vocabulary ; Deissmann, St. Paul , p. 251). As Hort shows, this is not a definition of religion or religious worship, but only a pertinent illustration of the right spirit of religion which leads to such acts.

Robertson: Jam 1:27

Before our God and Father ( para tōi theōi kai patri ).

By the side of (para ) and so from God’ s standpoint (Mar 10:27). Amiantos (compound verbal adjective, alpha privative, miainō to defile), puts in negative form (cf. Jam 1:4, Jam 1:6) the idea in kathara (pure, clean). This (hautē ). Feminine demonstrative pronoun in the predicate agreeing with thrēskeia .

Robertson: Jam 1:27

To visit ( episkeptesthai ).

Epexegetic (explaining hautē ) present middle infinitive of episkeptomai , common verb to go to see, to inspect, present tense for habit of going to see. See Mat 25:36, Mat 25:43 for visiting the sick.

Robertson: Jam 1:27

The fatherless and widows ( orphanous kai chēras ).

"The natural objects of charity in the community"(Ropes). Orphanos is old word for bereft of father or mother or both. In N.T. only here and Joh 14:18. Note order (orphans before widows).

Robertson: Jam 1:27

Unspotted ( aspilon ).

Old adjective (alpha privative and spilos , spot), spotless. This the more important of the two illustrations and the hardest to execute.

Robertson: Jam 1:27

To keep ( tērein ).

Present active infinitive, "to keep on keeping oneself un-specked from the world"(a world, kosmos , full of dirt and slime that bespatters the best of men).

Vincent: Jam 1:11

For the sun is no sooner risen, etc. ( ἀνέτειλεν γὰρ ὁ ἥλιος )

By the use of the aorist tense James graphically throws his illustration into the narrative form: " For the sun arose - and withered, " etc.

Vincent: Jam 1:11

With a burning heat ( τῷ καύσωνι )

Rev., with the scorching wind. The article denotes something familiar; and the reference may be to the scorching east-wind (Job 1:19, Sept.; Eze 17:10), which withers vegetation. Some of the best authorities, however, prefer the rendering of the A. V.

Vincent: Jam 1:11

Falleth ( ἐξέπεσεν )

Aorist tense. Lit., fell off.

Vincent: Jam 1:11

The grace of the fashion ( εὐπρέπεια τοῦ προσώπου )

Lit., the beauty of its face or appearance. Εὐπρέπεια only here in New Testament.

Vincent: Jam 1:11

Fade away ( μαρανθήσεται )

See on 1Pe 1:4.

Vincent: Jam 1:11

Ways ( πορείαις )

Rev., goings. Only here and Luk 13:22. His goings to and fro in acquiring riches.

Vincent: Jam 1:12

Is tried ( δόκιμος γενόμενος )

Lit., having become appro ved. See on trial, 1Pe 1:7. The meaning is not, as the A. V. suggests, when his trial is finished, but when he has been approved by trial. Rev., rightly, when he hath been approved.

Vincent: Jam 1:12

The crown ( στέφανον )

See on 1Pe 5:4.

Vincent: Jam 1:12

Of life ( τῶς ζωῆς )

Lit., the life: the article pointing to the well-known eternal life. The figure is not that of the athlete's crown, for an image from the Grecian games, which the Jews despised, would be foreign to James' thought and displeasing to his readers. Rather the kingly crown, the proper word for which is διάδημα , diadem. In Psalms 20:3 (Sept.), στέφανος is used of the royal crown. In Zec 6:11, Zec 6:14, the reference seems to be to a priestly crown, forming part of the high-priest's mitre.

Vincent: Jam 1:13

Of God ( ἀπὸ Θεοῦ )

Lit., from God. Not by God, as the direct agent, but by agency proceeding from God. Compare Mat 4:1, where the direct agency, " by the spirit," " by the devil," is expressed by ὑπό .

Vincent: Jam 1:13

Cannot be tempted ( ἀπείραστος ἐστι )

Lit., is incapable of being tempted. But some of the best expositors render is u nversed in, evil things, as better according both with the usage of the word and with the context, since the question is not of God's being tempted, but of God's tempting. Rev. gives this in margin. Ἀπείραστος , only here in New Testament.

Vincent: Jam 1:13

Neither tempteth he ( πειράζει δὲ αὐτὸς )

The A. V. fails to render αὐτὸς : " He himself tempteth no man." So Rev.

Vincent: Jam 1:14

Drawn away ( ἐξελκόμενος )

Only here in New Testament. This and the following word are metaphors from hunting and fishing. Drawn away, as beasts are enticed from a safecovert into a place beset with snares. Note the present participle, as indicating the progress of the temptation: " is being drawn away."

Vincent: Jam 1:14

Enticed ( δελεαζόμενος )

As a fish with bait. Also the present participle. See on 2Pe 2:14.

Vincent: Jam 1:15

The lust

Note the article, omitted in A. V. The peculiar lust of his own.

Vincent: Jam 1:15

Hath conceived ( συλλαβοῦσα )

Lit., having conceived.

Vincent: Jam 1:15

Bringeth forth ( τίκτει )

Metaphor of the mother. Rev., beareth.

Vincent: Jam 1:15

When it is finished ( ἀποτελεσθεῖσα )

Better, Rev., when it is full grown. Not when the course of a sinful life is completed; but when sin has reached its full development.

Vincent: Jam 1:15

Bringeth forth ( ἀποκύει )

A different verb from the preceding, bringeth forth. Rev. has rendered τίκτει , beareth, in order to avoid the repetition of bringeth forth. The verb is used by James only, here and at Jam 1:18. The image is interpreted in two ways. Either (1) Sin, figured as female, is already pregnant with death, and, when full grown, bringeth forth death (so Rev., and the majority of commentators). " The harlot, Lust, draws away and entices the man. The guilty union is committed by the will embracing the temptress: the consequence is that she beareth sin....Then the sin, that particular sin, when grown up, herself, as if all along pregnant with it, bringeth forth death" (Alford). Or (2) Sin, figured as male, when it has reached maturity, becomes the begetter of death. So the Vulgate, generat , and Wyc., gendereth. I am inclined to prefer this, since the other seems somewhat forced. It has the high endorsement of Bishop Lightfoot. There is a suggestive parallel passage in the " Agamemnon" of Aeschylus, 751-771:

" There is a saying old,

Uttered in ancient days,

That human bliss, full grown,

Genders, and dies not childless:

And, for the coming race,

Springs woe insatiate from prosperity.

But I alone

Cherish within my breast another thought.

The impious deed

Begets a numerous brood alike in kind;

While households ruled by right inflexible

Blossom with offspring fair. Insolence old

In men depraved begetteth insolence,

Which springs afresh from time to time

As comes the day of doom, and fresh creates

In Ate's dismal halls

Fierce wrath from light,

Unhallowed Daring, fiend invincible,

Unconquered, with its parents' likeness stamped."

The magnificent passage in Milton's " Paradise Lost," ii., 760-801, is elaborated from these verses of James.

Vincent: Jam 1:17

The first words of this verse form a hexameter line, thus:

Πᾶσα δό |σις ἀγα |θὴ καὶ | πᾶν δῶ |ρημα τέ |λειον .

Such verses, or parts of verses, occur occasionally in the New Testament. Sometimes they are quotations from the Greek poets; sometimes the writer's words unconsciously fall into metrical form. Poetical quotations are confined to Paul, Act 17:28; 1Co 15:33; Tit 1:12.

Every good gift and every perfect gift (see Greek above)

The statement that these gifts are from God is in pursuance of the idea that God does not tempt men to evil. The gifts of God are contrasted with the evil springing from man's lust. Two words are used for gifts. Δόσις occurs only here and Phi 4:15; there in an active sense; but here passive, as in Proverbs 21:14: (Sept.). Δῶρημα is found Rom 5:16. It enlarges slightly upon the other word in emphasizing the gift as free, large, full; an idea which is further developed in Jam 1:18, of hi s own will. The Rev., rather awkwardly, endeavors to bring out the distinction by the word boon, for which the American Revisers insist on retaining gift. Boon originally means a petition; favor being a secondary and later sense, as of something given in response to a petition. The word is of Scandinavian origin, and the meaning favor seems to indicate a confusion with the Latin bonus , good; French, bon .

Vincent: Jam 1:17

Perfect

Enlarges upon good, bringing out more distinctly the moral quality of the gift.

Vincent: Jam 1:17

And cometh down ( καταβαῖνον )

A present participle, to be construed with ἄνωθεν ἐστιν , is from above. Lit., is coming down, from above. As usual, this union of the participle with the finite verb denotes something habitual. Render, descendeth from above. Compare Jam 3:15.

Vincent: Jam 1:17

Father of lights ( τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων )

Lit., the lights, by which are meant the heavenly bodies. Compare Psalms 135:7 (Sept.); and Jeremiah 4:23 (Sept.). God is called " the Father of the lights," as being their creator and maintainer. Compare Job 38:28; Psa 8:3; Amo 5:8.

Vincent: Jam 1:17

Is no variableness ( ἔνι )

Abbreviated from ἔνεστι , is in. Stronger than the simple is , and denoting inherence or indwell ing. Rev., can be.

Vincent: Jam 1:17

Variableness ( παραλλαγὴ )

Better, Rev., variation. The word is not used, as some suppose, in a technical, astronomical sense, which James' readers would not have understood, but in the simple sense of change in the degree or intensity of light, such as is manifested by the heavenly bodies. Compare Plato, " Republic," vii., 530: " Will he (the astronomer) not think that the heaven and the things in heaven are framed by the Creator in the most perfect manner? But when he reflects that the proportions of night and day, or of both, to the month, or of the month to the year, or of the other stars to these and to one another, are of the visible and material, he will never fall into the error of supposing that they are eternal and liable to no deviation (οὐδὲν παραλλάττειν ) - that would be monstrous."

Vincent: Jam 1:17

Shadow of turning ( τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα )

This is popularly understood to mean that there is in God not the faintest hint or shade of change, like the phrase, a shadow of suspicion. But the Greek has no such idiom, and that is not James' meaning. Rev., rightly, renders, shadow that is cast by turning; referring still to the heavenly orbs, which cast shadows in their revolution, as when the moon turns her dark side to us, or the sun is eclipsed by the body of the moon.

Vincent: Jam 1:18

Begat ( ἀπεκύησεν )

Rev., brought forth. See on Jam 1:15, and compare 1Jo 3:9; 1Pe 1:23.

Vincent: Jam 1:18

A kind of first-fruits ( ἀπαρχήν τινα )

A kind of indicates the figurative nature of the term. Time figure is taken from the requirement of the Jewish law that the first-born of men and cattle, and the first growth of fruits and grain should be consecrated to the Lord. The point of the illustration is that Christians, like first-fruits, should be consecrated to God. The expression " first-fruits " is common in the New Testament. See Rom 8:23; Rom 16:5; 1Co 15:20, 1Co 15:23; Rev 14:4.

Vincent: Jam 1:19

Wherefore

The A. V. follows the reading ὥστε . But the correct reading is ἴστε , ye know, and so Rev. Others render it as imperative, know ye, as calling attention to what follows.

Vincent: Jam 1:21

Filthiness ( ῥυπαρίαν )

Only here in New Testament, but James uses the kindred adjective (Jam 2:2), " vile raiment." Ῥύπος , filth, occurs in 1Pe 3:21 - on which see notes; and the verb ῥυπόω , to be filthy, is found in Rev 22:11.

Vincent: Jam 1:21

Superfluity of naughtiness ( περισσείαν κακίας )

A translation which may be commended to the attention of indiscriminate panegyrists of the A. V. Περισσεία is an unclassical word, and occurs in three other New-Testament passages - Rom 5:17; 2Co 8:2; 2Co 10:15. In all these it is rendered abundance, both by A. V. and Rev. There seems to be no need of departing from this meaning here, as Rev., overjoying. The sense is abounding or abundant wickedness. For haughtiness Rev. gives wickedness, as in 1Pe 2:1, 1Pe 2:16, where it changes malice to wickedness. It is mostly rendered malice in both A. V. and Rev. In this passage, as in the two from Peter, Rev. gives malice, in margin. Malice is an adequate translation, the word denoting a malevolent disposition toward one's neighbor. Hence it is not a general term for moral evil, but a special form of vice. Compare the wrath of man, Jam 1:20. Naughtiness has acquired a petty sense in popular usage, as of the mischievous pranks of children, which renders it out of the question here.

Vincent: Jam 1:21

With meekness ( ἐν πραΰ́τητι )

Lit., " in meekness;" opposed to malice.

Vincent: Jam 1:21

Engrafted ( ἔμφυτον )

Only here in New Testament. Better, and more literally, as Rev., implanted. It marks a characteristic of the word of truth (Jam 1:18). It is implanted; divinely given, in contrast with something acquired by study. Compare Mat 13:19, " the word of the kingdom - sown in his heart." Grafted or graffed is expressed by a peculiar word, employed by Paul only, ἐγκεντρίζω , from κέντρον , a sharp point, thus emphasizing the fact of the incision required in grafting. See Rom 11:17, Rom 11:19, Rom 11:23, Rom 11:24.

Vincent: Jam 1:21

Which is able to save ( τὸν δυνάμενον σῶσαι )

Compare Rom 1:16, " the power of God unto salvation. "

Vincent: Jam 1:22

Hearers ( ἀκροαταὶ )

Used by James only.

Vincent: Jam 1:22

Deceiving ( παραλογιζόμενοι )

From παρά , beside, contrary to, and λογίζομαι , to reckon, and hence to conclude by reasoning. The deception referred to is, therefore, that into which one betrays himself by false reasoning - reasoning beside the truth.

Vincent: Jam 1:23

Beholding ( κατανοοῦντι )

With the notion of attentively considering (κατά , down into, or through; compare εἰς , into, Jam 1:25). Compare Luk 12:24, Luk 12:27; Heb 3:1. So that the contrast is not between a hasty look and a careful contemplation (Jam 1:25, looketh ) . It is not mere careless hearing of the word which James rebukes, but the neglect to carry into practice what is heard. One may be an attentive and critical hearer of the word, yet not a doer.

Vincent: Jam 1:23

His natural face ( τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς γενέσεως )

Lit., the countenance of his birth; the face he was born with.

Vincent: Jam 1:23

In a glass ( ἐν ἐσόπτρῳ )

Better, Rev., a mirror; a metallic mirror. The word occurs only here and 1Co 13:12.

Vincent: Jam 1:24

He beholdeth ( κατενόησεν )

The aorist tense, throwing the sentence into a lively, narrative form: he beheld himself and forgot. Compare Jam 1:11.

Vincent: Jam 1:25

Whoso looketh ( ὁ παρακύψας )

Rev., more strictly, he that looketh. See on 1Pe 1:12. The verb is used of one who stoops sideways (παρά ) to look attentively. The mirror is conceived as placed on a table or on the ground. Bengel quotes Wisdom of Sirach 14:23: " He that prieth in at her (Wisdom's) windows shall also hearken at her doors." Coleridge remarks: " A more happy or forcible word could not have been chosen to express the nature and ultimate object of reflection, and to enforce the necessity of it, in order to discover the living fountain and spring-head of the evidence of the Christian faith in the believer himself, and at the same time to point out the seat and region where alone it is to be found" (" Aphorisms" ).

Vincent: Jam 1:25

Into ( εἰς )

Denoting the penetration of the look into the very essence of the law.

Vincent: Jam 1:25

The perfect law of liberty ( νόμον τέλειον τὸν τῆς ἐλευθερίας )

Lit., the perfect law, the law of liberty. So Rev. The law of liberty is added as defining the perfect law.

Vincent: Jam 1:25

Continueth therein

Better, Rev., so continueth; i.e., continues looking.

Vincent: Jam 1:25

Forgetful hearer ( ἀκροατὴς ἐπιλησμονῆς )

The latter word only here in New Testament. Lit., a hearer of forgetfulness; whom forgetfulness characterizes. Rev., very happily, a hearer that forgetteth; a rendering which gives the proper sense of forgetfulness as a characteristic better than A. V., a forgetful hearer .

Vincent: Jam 1:25

Doer of the work

Lit., of work, as the noun has no article. Rev., a doer that worketh.

Vincent: Jam 1:25

In his deed ( ἐν τῇ ποιήσει αὐτοῦ )

More correctly, as Rev., in his doing. Only here in New Testament. The preposition ἐν (in) marks the inner connection between doing and blessedness. " The life of obedience is the element wherein the blessedness is found and consists" (Alford).

Vincent: Jam 1:26

Seem to be ( δοκεῖ )

Rev., correctly, thinketh himself to be. A man can scarcely seem to be religious, when, as Trench observes, " his religious pretensions are belied and refuted by the allowance of an unbridled tongue."

Vincent: Jam 1:26

Religious ( θρῆσκος )

Only here in New Testament, and nowhere in classical Greek. The kindred noun θρησκεία , religion, occurs Act 26:5; Col 2:18; Jam 1:26, Jam 1:27; and means the ceremonial service of religion. Herodotus (ii., 37) uses it of various observances practised by the Egyptian priests, such as wearing linen, circumcision, shaving, etc. The derivation is uncertain. Θρέομαι , to mutter forms of prayer, has been suggested, as the followers of Wycliffe were called Lollards, from the old Dutch lullen or lollen , to sing. Hence the adjective here refers to a zealous and diligent performance of religious services.

Vincent: Jam 1:26

Bridleth ( χαλιναγωγῶν )

Used by James only. See Jam 3:2. Lit., to guide with a bridle. So Plato, " Laws," 701: " I think that the argument ought to be pulled up from time to time, and not to be allowed to run away, but held with bit and bridle."

Vincent: Jam 1:27

Undefiled ( ἀμίαντος )

See on 1Pe 1:4. The two adjectives , pure and undefiled, present the positive and negative sides of purity.

Vincent: Jam 1:27

To visit ( ἐπισκέπτεσθαι )

See on Mat 25:36. James strikes a downright blow here at ministry by proxy, or by mere gifts of money. Pure and undefiled religion demands personal contact with the world's sorrow: to visit the afflicted, and to visit them in their affliction. " The rich man, prodigal of money, which is to him of little value, but altogether incapable of devoting any personal attention to the object of his alms, often injures society by his donations; but this is rarely the case with that far nobler charity which makes men familiar with the haunts of wretchedness, and follows the object of its care through all the phases of his life" (Lecky, " History of European Morals," ii., 98).

Vincent: Jam 1:27

To keep ( τηρεῖν )

See on 1Pe 1:4.

Vincent: Jam 1:27

Unspotted ( ἄσπιλον )

See on 1Pe 1:19.

Wesley: Jam 1:11

There is an unspeakable beauty and elegance, both in the comparison itself, and in the very manner of expressing it, intimating both the certainty and the suddenness of the event.

Wesley: Jam 1:11

In the midst of his various pleasures and employments.

Wesley: Jam 1:12

Trials of various kinds.

Wesley: Jam 1:12

That fadeth not away.

Wesley: Jam 1:12

And his enduring proves his love. For it is love only that "endureth all things."

Wesley: Jam 1:13

To sin. Say, I am tempted of God - God thus tempteth no man.

Wesley: Jam 1:14

In the beginning of the temptation.

Wesley: Jam 1:14

Drawn out of God, his strong refuge.

Wesley: Jam 1:14

We are therefore to look for the cause of every sin, in, not out of ourselves. Even the injections of the devil cannot hurt before we make them our own. And every one has desires arising from his own constitution, tempers, habits, and way of life.

Wesley: Jam 1:14

In the progress of the temptation, catching at the bait: so the original word signifies.

Wesley: Jam 1:15

By our own will joining therewith.

Wesley: Jam 1:15

It doth not follow that the desire itself is not sin. He that begets a man is himself a man.

Wesley: Jam 1:15

Grown up to maturity, which it quickly does.

Wesley: Jam 1:15

Sin is born big with death.

Wesley: Jam 1:16

It is a grievous error to ascribe the evil and not the good which we receive to God.

Wesley: Jam 1:17

Whatever tends to holiness.

Wesley: Jam 1:17

Whatever tends to glory.

Wesley: Jam 1:17

The appellation of Father is here used with peculiar propriety. It follows, "he begat us." He is the Father of all light, material or spiritual, in the kingdom of grace and of glory.

Wesley: Jam 1:17

No change in his understanding.

Wesley: Jam 1:17

in his will. He infallibly discerns all good and evil; and invariably loves one, and hates the other. There is, in both the Greek words, a metaphor taken from the stars, particularly proper where the Father of lights is mentioned. Both are applicable to any celestial body, which has a daily vicissitude of day and night, and sometimes longer days, sometimes longer nights. In God is nothing of this kind. He is mere light. If there Is any such vicissitude, it is in ourselves, not in him.

Wesley: Jam 1:18

Most loving, most free, most pure, just opposite to our evil desire, Jam 1:15.

Wesley: Jam 1:18

Who believe.

Wesley: Jam 1:18

The true word, emphatically so termed; the gospel.

Wesley: Jam 1:18

Christians are the chief and most excellent of his visible creatures; and sanctify the rest. Yet he says,

Wesley: Jam 1:18

For Christ alone is absolutely the first-fruits.

Wesley: Jam 1:19

This is treated of from Jam 1:21 to the end of the next chapter.

Wesley: Jam 1:19

Which is treated of in he third chapter.

Wesley: Jam 1:19

Neither murmuring at God, nor angry at his neighbour. This is treated of in the third, and throughout the fourth and fifth chapters.

Wesley: Jam 1:20

The righteousness of God here includes all duties prescribed by him, and pleasing to him.

Wesley: Jam 1:21

As a dirty garment.

Wesley: Jam 1:21

For however specious or necessary it may appear to worldly wisdom, all wickedness is both vile, hateful, contemptible, and really superfluous. Every reasonable end may be effectually answered without any kind or degree of it. Lay this, every known sin, aside, or all your hearing is vain.

Wesley: Jam 1:21

Constant evenness and serenity of mind.

Wesley: Jam 1:21

Into your ears, your heart, your life.

Wesley: Jam 1:21

Of the gospel.

Wesley: Jam 1:21

In believers, by regeneration, Jam 1:18 and by habit, Heb 5:14.

Wesley: Jam 1:21

The hope of salvation nourishes meekness.

Wesley: Jam 1:23

How exactly does the scripture glass show a man the face of his soul!

Wesley: Jam 1:24

To other business.

Wesley: Jam 1:24

But such forgetting does not excuse.

Wesley: Jam 1:25

Not with a transient glance, but bending down, fixing his eyes, and searching all to the bottom.

Wesley: Jam 1:25

Of love as established by faith. St. James here guards us against misunderstanding what St. Paul says concerning the "yoke and bondage of the law." He who keeps the law of love is free, Joh 8:31, &c. He that does not, is not free, but a slave to sin, and a criminal before God, Jam 2:10.

Wesley: Jam 1:25

Not like him who forgot it, and went away.

Wesley: Jam 1:25

There is a peculiar force in the repetition of the word.

Wesley: Jam 1:25

Not barely in hearing, but doing the will of God.

Wesley: Jam 1:26

Exact in the outward offices of religion.

Wesley: Jam 1:26

From backbiting, talebearing, evilspeaking, he only deceiveth his own heart, if he fancies he has any true religion at all.

Wesley: Jam 1:27

With counsel, comfort, and relief.

Wesley: Jam 1:27

Those who need it most.

Wesley: Jam 1:27

In their most helpless and hopeless state.

Wesley: Jam 1:27

From the maxims, tempers, and customs of it. But this cannot be done, till we have given our hearts to God, and love our neighbour as ourselves.

JFB: Jam 1:11

Taken from Isa 40:6-8.

JFB: Jam 1:11

Rather, "the hot wind" from the (east or) south, which scorches vegetation (Luk 12:55). The "burning heat" of the sun is not at its rising, but rather at noon; whereas the scorching Kadim wind is often at sunrise (Jon 4:8) [MIDDLETON, The Doctrine of the Greek Article]. Mat 20:12 uses the Greek word for "heat." Isa 40:7, "bloweth upon it," seems to answer to "the hot wind" here.

JFB: Jam 1:11

That is of the external appearance.

JFB: Jam 1:11

Referring to the burdensome extent of the rich man's devices [BENGEL]. Compare "his ways," that is, his course of life, Jam 1:8.

JFB: Jam 1:12

Compare the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5:4, Mat 5:10-11).

JFB: Jam 1:12

Not the "falling into divers temptations" (Jam 1:2) is the matter for "joy," but the enduring of temptation "unto the end." Compare Job 5:17.

JFB: Jam 1:12

Literally, "when he has become tested" or "approved," when he has passed through the "trying" (Jam 1:3), his "faith" having finally gained the victory.

JFB: Jam 1:12

Not in allusion to the crown or garland given to winners in the games; for this, though a natural allusion for Paul in writing to the heathen, among whom such games existed, would be less appropriate for James in addressing the Jewish Christians, who regarded Gentile usages with aversion.

JFB: Jam 1:12

"life" constitutes the crown, literally, the life, the only true life, the highest and eternal life. The crown implies a kingdom (Psa 21:3).

JFB: Jam 1:12

Not found in the best manuscripts and versions. The believer's heart fills up the omission, without the name needing to be mentioned. The "faithful One who promised" (Heb 10:23).

JFB: Jam 1:12

In 2Ti 4:8, "the crown of righteousness to them that love His appearing." Love produces patient endurance: none attest their love more than they who suffer for Him.

JFB: Jam 1:13

Tried by solicitation to evil. Heretofore the "temptation" meant was that of probation by afflictions. Let no one fancy that God lays upon him an inevitable necessity of sinning. God does not send trials on you in order to make you worse, but to make you better (Jam 1:16-17). Therefore do not sink under the pressure of evils (1Co 10:13).

JFB: Jam 1:13

By agency proceeding from God. The Greek is not "tempted by," but, "from," implying indirect agency.

JFB: Jam 1:13

"Neither do any of our sins tempt God to entice us to worse things, nor does He tempt any of His own accord" (literally, "of Himself"; compare the antithesis, Jam 1:18, "Of His own will He begat us" to holiness, so far is He from tempting us of His own will) [BENGEL]. God is said in Gen 22:1 to have "tempted Abraham"; but there the tempting meant is that of trying or proving, not that of seducement. ALFORD translates according to the ordinary sense of the Greek, "God is unversed in evil." But as this gives a less likely sense, English Version probably gives the true sense; for ecclesiastical Greek often uses words in new senses, as the exigencies of the new truths to be taught required.

JFB: Jam 1:14

Every man, when tempted, is so through being drawn away of (again here, as in Jam 1:13, the Greek for "of" expresses the actual source, rather than the agent of temptation) his own lust. The cause of sin is in ourselves. Even Satan's suggestions do not endanger us before they are made our own. Each one has his own peculiar (so the Greek) lust, arising from his own temperament and habit. Lust flows from the original birth-sin in man, inherited from Adam.

JFB: Jam 1:14

The beginning step in temptation: drawn away from truth and virtue.

JFB: Jam 1:14

Literally, "taken with a bait," as fish are. The further progress: the man allowing himself (as the Greek middle voice implies) to be enticed to evil [BENGEL]. "Lust" is here personified as the harlot that allures the man.

JFB: Jam 1:15

The guilty union is committed by the will embracing the temptress. "Lust," the harlot, then, "brings forth sin," namely, of that kind to which the temptation inclines. Then the particular sin (so the Greek implies), "when it is completed, brings forth death," with which it was all along pregnant [ALFORD]. This "death" stands in striking contrast to the "crown of life" (Jam 1:12) which "patience" or endurance ends in, when it has its "perfect work" (Jam 1:4). He who will fight Satan with Satan's own weapons, must not wonder if he finds himself overmatched. Nip sin in the bud of lust.

JFB: Jam 1:16

Do not err in attributing to God temptation to evil; nay (as he proceeds to show), "every good," all that is good on earth, comes from God.

JFB: Jam 1:17

Not the same words in Greek: the first, the act of giving, or the gift in its initiatory stage; the second, the thing given, the boon, when perfected. As the "good gift" stands in contrast to "sin" in its initiatory stage (Jam 1:15), so the "perfect boon" is in contrast to "sin when it is finished," bringing forth death (2Pe 1:3).

JFB: Jam 1:17

(Compare Jam 3:15).

JFB: Jam 1:17

Creator of the lights in heaven (compare Job 38:28 [ALFORD]; Gen 4:20-21; Heb 12:9). This accords with the reference to the changes in the light of the heavenly bodies alluded to in the end of the verse. Also, Father of the spiritual lights in the kingdom of grace and glory [BENGEL]. These were typified by the supernatural lights on the breastplate of the high priest, the Urim. As "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1Jo 1:5), He cannot in any way be the Author of sin (Jam 1:13), which is darkness (Joh 3:19).

JFB: Jam 1:17

(Mal 3:6). None of the alternations of light and shadow which the physical "lights" undergo, and which even the spiritual lights are liable to, as compared with God. "Shadow of turning," literally, the dark "shadow-mark" cast from one of the heavenly bodies, arising from its "turning" or revolution, for example, when the moon is eclipsed by the shadow of the earth, and the sun by the body of the moon. BENGEL makes a climax, "no variation--not even the shadow of a turning"; the former denoting a change in the understanding; the latter, in the will.

JFB: Jam 1:18

(Joh 1:13). The believer's regeneration is the highest example of nothing but good proceeding from God.

JFB: Jam 1:18

Of his own good pleasure (which shows that it is God's essential nature to do good, not evil), not induced by any external cause.

JFB: Jam 1:18

Spiritually: a once-for-all accomplished act (1Pe 1:3, 1Pe 1:23). In contrast to "lust when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin, and sin . . . death" (Jam 1:15). Life follows naturally in connection with light (Jam 1:17).

JFB: Jam 1:18

The Gospel. The objective mean, as faith is the appropriating mean of regeneration by the Holy Spirit as the efficient agent.

JFB: Jam 1:18

Christ is, in respect to the resurrection, "the first-fruits" (1Co 15:20, 1Co 15:23): believers, in respect to regeneration, are, as it were, first-fruits (image from the consecration of the first-born of man, cattle, and fruits to God; familiar to the Jews addressed), that is, they are the first of God's regenerated creatures, and the pledge of the ultimate regeneration of the creation, Rom 8:19, Rom 8:23, where also the Spirit, the divine agent of the believer's regeneration, is termed "the first-fruits," that is, the earnest that the regeneration now begun in the soul, shall at last extend to the body too, and to the lower parts of creation. Of all God's visible creatures, believers are the noblest part, and like the legal "first-fruits," sanctify the rest; for this reason they are much tried now.

JFB: Jam 1:19

As your evil is of yourselves, but your good from God. However, the oldest manuscripts and versions read thus: "YE KNOW IT (so Eph 5:5; Heb 12:17), my beloved brethren; BUT (consequently) let every man be swift to hear," that is, docile in receiving "the word of truth" (Jam 1:18, Jam 1:21). The true method of hearing is treated in Jam 1:21-27, and Jam. 2:1-26.

JFB: Jam 1:19

(Pro 10:19; Pro 17:27-28; Ecc 5:2). A good way of escaping one kind of temptation arising from ourselves (Jam 1:13). Slow to speak authoritatively as a master or teacher of others (compare Jam 3:1): a common Jewish fault: slow also to speak such hasty things of God, as in Jam 1:13. Two ears are given to us, the rabbis observe, but only one tongue: the ears are open and exposed, whereas the tongue is walled in behind the teeth.

JFB: Jam 1:19

(Jam 3:13-14; Jam 4:5). Slow in becoming heated by debate: another Jewish fault (Rom 2:8), to which much speaking tends. TITTMANN thinks not so much "wrath" is meant, as an indignant feeling of fretfulness under the calamities to which the whole of human life is exposed; this accords with the "divers temptations" in Jam 1:2. Hastiness of temper hinders hearing God's word; so Naaman, 2Ki 5:11; Luk 4:28.

JFB: Jam 1:20

Man's angry zeal in debating, as if jealous for the honor of God's righteousness, is far from working that which is really righteousness in God's sight. True "righteousness is sown in peace," not in wrath (Jam 3:18). The oldest and best reading means "worketh," that is, practiceth not: the received reading is "worketh," produceth not.

JFB: Jam 1:21

"once for all" (so the Greek): as a filthy garment. Compare Joshua's filthy garments, Zec 3:3, Zec 3:5; Rev 7:14. "Filthiness" is cleansed away by hearing the word (Joh 15:3).

JFB: Jam 1:21

Excess (for instance, the intemperate spirit implied in "wrath," Jam 1:19-20), which arises from malice (our natural, evil disposition towards one another). 1Pe 2:1 has the very same words in the Greek. So "malice" is the translation, Eph 4:31; Col 3:8. "Faulty excess" [BENGEL] is not strong enough. Superfluous excess in speaking is also reprobated as "coming of evil" (the Greek is akin to the word for "naughtiness" here) in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5:37), with which James' Epistle is so connected.

JFB: Jam 1:21

In mildness towards one another [ALFORD], the opposite to "wrath" (Jam 1:20): answering to "as new-born babes" (1Pe 2:2). Meekness, I think, includes also a childlike, docile, humble, as well as an uncontentious, spirit (Psa 25:9; Psa 45:4; Isa 66:2; Mat 5:5; Mat 11:28-30; Mat 18:3-4; contrast Rom 2:8). On "receive," applied to ground receiving seed, compare Mar 4:20. Contrast Act 17:11; 1Th 1:6 with 2Th 2:10.

JFB: Jam 1:21

The Gospel word, whose proper attribute is to be engrafted by the Holy Spirit, so as to be livingly incorporated with the believer, as the fruitful shoot is with the wild natural stock on which it is engrafted. The law came to man only from without, and admonished him of his duty. The Gospel is engrafted inwardly, and so fulfils the ultimate design of the law (Deu 6:6; Deu 11:18; Psa 119:11). ALFORD translates, "The implanted word," referring to the parable of the sower (Mat. 13:1-23). I prefer English Version.

JFB: Jam 1:21

A strong incentive to correct our dulness in hearing the word: that word which we hear so carelessly, is able (instrumentally) to save us [CALVIN].

JFB: Jam 1:21

Your true selves, for the "body" is now liable to sickness and death: but the soul being now saved, both soul and body at last shall be so (Jam 5:15, Jam 5:20).

JFB: Jam 1:22

Qualification of the precept, "Be swift to hear": "Be ye doers . . . not hearers only"; not merely "Do the word," but "Be doers" systematically and continually, as if this was your regular business. James here again refers to the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 7:21-29).

JFB: Jam 1:22

By the logical fallacy (the Greek implies this) that the mere hearing is all that is needed.

JFB: Jam 1:23

The logical self-deceit (Jam 1:22) illustrated.

JFB: Jam 1:23

More literally, "a notdoer" [ALFORD]. The true disciple, say the rabbis, learns in order that he may do, not in order that he may merely know or teach.

JFB: Jam 1:23

Literally, "the countenance of his birth": the face he was born with. As a man may behold his natural face in a mirror, so the hearer may perceive his moral visage in God's Word. This faithful portraiture of man's soul in Scripture, is the strongest proof of the truth of the latter. In it, too, we see mirrored God's glory, as well as our natural vileness.

JFB: Jam 1:24

More literally, "he contemplated himself and hath gone his way," that is, no sooner has he contemplated his image than he is gone his way (Jam 1:11). "Contemplate" answers to hearing the word: "goeth his way," to relaxing the attention after hearing--letting the mind go elsewhere, and the interest of the thing heard pass away: then forgetfulness follows [ALFORD] (Compare Eze 33:31). "Contemplate" here, and in Jam 1:23, implies that, though cursory, yet some knowledge of one's self, at least for the time, is imparted in hearing the word (1Co 14:24).

JFB: Jam 1:24

The repetition expresses hastiness joined with levity [BENGEL].

JFB: Jam 1:24

In the mirror. Forgetfulness is no excuse (Jam 1:25; 2Pe 1:9).

JFB: Jam 1:25

Literally, "stoopeth down to take a close look into." Peers into: stronger than "beholdeth," or "contemplated," Jam 1:24. A blessed curiosity if it be efficacious in bearing fruit [BENGEL].

JFB: Jam 1:25

The Gospel rule of life, perfect and perfecting (as shown in the Sermon on the Mount, Mat 5:48), and making us truly walk at liberty (Psa 119:32, Church of England Prayer Book Version). Christians are to aim at a higher standard of holiness than was generally understood under the law. The principle of love takes the place of the letter of the law, so that by the Spirit they are free from the yoke of sin, and free to obey by spontaneous instinct (Jam 2:8, Jam 2:10, Jam 2:12; Joh 8:31-36; Joh 15:14-15; compare 1Co 7:22; Gal 5:1, Gal 5:13; 1Pe 2:16). The law is thus not made void, but fulfilled.

JFB: Jam 1:25

Contrasted with "goeth his way," Jam 1:24, continues both looking into the mirror of God's word, and doing its precepts.

JFB: Jam 1:25

Rather, "a doer of work" [ALFORD], an actual worker.

JFB: Jam 1:25

Rather, "in his doing"; in the very doing there is blessedness (Psa 19:11).

JFB: Jam 1:26-27

An example of doing work.

JFB: Jam 1:26-27

The Greek expresses the external service or exercise of religion, "godliness" being the internal soul of it. "If any man think himself to be (so the Greek) religious, that is, observant of the offices of religion, let him know these consist not so much in outward observances, as in such acts of mercy and humble piety (Mic 6:7-8) as visiting the fatherless, &c., and keeping one's self unspotted from the world" (Mat 23:23). James does not mean that these offices are the great essentials, or sum total of religion; but that, whereas the law service was merely ceremonial, the very services of the Gospel consist in acts of mercy and holiness, and it has light for its garment, its very robe being righteousness [TRENCH]. The Greek word is only found in Act 26:5, "after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee." Col 2:18, "worshipping of angels."

JFB: Jam 1:26-27

Discretion in speech is better than fluency of speech (compare Jam 3:2-3). Compare Psa 39:1. God alone can enable us to do so. James, in treating of the law, naturally notices this sin. For they who are free from grosser sins, and even bear the outward show of sanctity, will often exalt themselves by detracting others under the pretense of zeal, while their real motive is love of evil-speaking [CALVIN].

JFB: Jam 1:26-27

It and the tongue act and react on one another.

JFB: Jam 1:27

"Pure" is that love which has in it no foreign admixture, as self-deceit and hypocrisy. "Undefiled" is the means of its being "pure" [TITTMANN]. "Pure" expresses the positive, "undefiled" the negative side of religious service; just as visiting the fatherless and widow is the active, keeping himself unspotted from the world, the passive side of religious duty. This is the nobler shape that our religious exercises take, instead of the ceremonial offices of the law.

JFB: Jam 1:27

Literally, "before Him who is (our) God and Father." God is so called to imply that if we would be like our Father, it is not by fasting, &c., for He does none of these things, but in being "merciful as our Father is merciful" [CHRYSOSTOM].

JFB: Jam 1:27

In sympathy and kind offices to alleviate their distresses.

JFB: Jam 1:27

Whose "Father" is God (Psa 68:5); peculiarly helpless.

JFB: Jam 1:27

Not in the Greek; so close is the connection between active works of mercy to others, and the maintenance of personal unworldliness of spirit, word, and deed; no copula therefore is needed. Religion in its rise interests us about ourselves in its progress, about our fellow creatures: in its highest stage, about the honor of God.

JFB: Jam 1:27

With jealous watchfulness, at the same time praying and depending on God as alone able to keep us (Joh 17:15; Jud 1:24).

Clarke: Jam 1:11

For the sun is no sooner risen - We need not pursue this metaphor, as St. James’ meaning is sufficiently clear: All human things are transitory; rise and fall, or increase and decay, belong to all the productions of the earth, and to all its inhabitants. This is unavoidable, for in many cases the very cause of their growth becomes the cause of their decay and destruction. The sun by its genial heat nourishes and supports all plants and animals; but when it arises with a burning heat, the atmosphere not being tempered with a sufficiency of moist vapours, the juices are exhaled from the plants; the earth, for lack of moisture, cannot afford a sufficient supply; vegetation becomes checked; and the plants soon wither and die. Earthly possessions are subject to similar mutations. God gives and resumes them at his pleasure, and for reasons which he seldom explains to man. He shows them to be uncertain, that they may never become an object of confidence to his followers, and that they may put their whole trust in God. If for righteousness’ sake any of those who were in affluence suffer loss, or spoiling of their goods, they should consider that, while they have gained that of infinite worth, they have lost what is but of little value, and which in the nature of things they must soon part with, though they should suffer nothing on account of religion.

Clarke: Jam 1:12

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation - This is a mere Jewish sentiment, and on it the Jews speak some excellent things. In Shemoth Rabba, sec. 31, fol. 129, and in Rab. Tanchum, fol. 29, 4, we have these words: "Blessed is the man שהיה עומד בנסיונו shehayah omed benisyono who stands in his temptation; for there is no man whom God does not try. He tries the rich, to see if they will open their hands to the poor. He tries the poor, to see if they will receive affliction and not murmur. If, therefore, the rich stand in his temptation, and give alms to the poor, he shall enjoy his riches in this world, and his horn shall be exalted in the world to come, and the holy blessed God shall deliver him from the punishment of hell. If the poor stand in his temptation, and do not repine, (kick back), he shall have double in the world to come."This is exactly the sentiment of James. Every man is in this life in a state of temptation or trial, and in this state he is a candidate for another and a better world; he that stands in his trial shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. It is only love to God that can enable a man to endure the trials of life. Love feels no loads; all practicable things are possible to him who loveth

There may be an allusion here to the contests in the Grecian games. He is crowned who conquers; and none else.

Clarke: Jam 1:13

Let no man say - Lest the former sentiment should be misapplied, as the word temptation has two grand meanings, solicitation to sin, and trial from providential situation or circumstances, James, taking up the word in the former sense, after having used it in the latter, says: Let no man say, when he is tempted, (solicited to sin), I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he (thus) any man. Thus the author has explained and guarded his meaning.

Clarke: Jam 1:14

But every man is tempted - Successfully solicited to sin, when he is drawn away of his own lust - when, giving way to the evil propensity of his own heart, he does that to which he is solicited by the enemy of his soul

Among the rabbins we find some fine sayings on this subject. In Midrash hanaalam, fol. 20, and Yalcut Rubeni, fol. 17, it is said: "This is the custom of evil concupiscence, יצר הרע yetser hara : To-day it saith, Do this; to-morrow, Worship an idol. The man goes and worships. Again it saith, Be angry.

"Evil concupiscence is, at the beginning, like the thread of a spider’ s web; afterwards it is like a cart rope."Sanhedrim, fol. 99

In the words, drawn away by his own lust and enticed, ὑπο της ιδιας επιθυμιας εξελκομενος και δελεαζομενος, there is a double metaphor; the first referring to the dragging a fish out of the water by a hook which it had swallowed, because concealed by a bait; the second, to the enticements of impure women, who draw away the unwary into their snares, and involve them in their ruin. Illicit connections of this kind the writer has clearly in view; and every word that he uses refers to something of this nature, as the following verse shows.

Clarke: Jam 1:15

When lust hath conceived - When the evil propensity works unchecked, it bringeth forth sin - the evil act between the parties is perpetrated

Clarke: Jam 1:15

And sin, when it is finished - When this breach of the law of God and of innocence has been a sufficient time completed, it bringeth forth death - the spurious offspring is the fruit of the criminal connection, and the evidence of that death or punishment due to the transgressors

Any person acquainted with the import of the verbs συλλαμβανειν, τικτειν , and αποκυειν, will see that this is the metaphor, and that I have not exhausted it. Συλλαμβανω signifies concipio sobolem, quae comprehenditur utero; concipio foetum ; - τικτω, pario, genero, efficio ; - αποκυεω ex απο et κυω, praegnans sum, in utero gero. Verbum proprium praegnantium, quae foetum maturum emittunt. Interdum etiam gignendi notionem habet . - Maius, Obser. Sacr., vol. ii., page 184. Kypke and Schleusner

Sin is a small matter in its commencement; but by indulgence it grows great, and multiplies itself beyond all calculation. To use the rabbinical metaphor lately adduced, it is, in the commencement, like the thread of a spider’ s web - almost imperceptible through its extreme tenuity or fineness, and as easily broken, for it is as yet but a simple irregular imagination; afterwards it becomes like a cart rope - it has, by being indulged produced strong desire and delight; next consent; then, time, place, and opportunity serving, that which was conceived in the mind, and finished in that purpose, is consummated by act

"The soul, which the Greek philosophers considered as the seat of the appetites and passions, is called by Philo το θηλυ, the female part of our nature; and the spirit το αρῥεν, the male part. In allusion to this notion, James represents men’ s lust as a harlot; which entices their understanding and will into its impure embraces, and from that conjunction conceives sin. Sin, being brought forth, immediately acts, and is nourished by frequent repetition, till at length it gains such strength that in its turn it begets death. This is the true genealogy of sin and death. Lust is the mother of sin, and sin the mother of death, and the sinner the parent of both."See Macknight.

Clarke: Jam 1:16

Do not err - By supposing that God is the author of sin, or that he impels any man to commit it.

Clarke: Jam 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above - Whatever is good is from God; whatever is evil is from man himself. As from the sun, which is the father or fountain of light, all light comes; so from God, who is the infinite Fountain, Father, and Source of good, all good comes. And whatever can be called good, or pure, or light, or excellence of any kind, must necessarily spring from him, as he is the only source of all goodness and perfection

Clarke: Jam 1:17

With whom is no variableness - The sun, the fountain of light to the whole of our system, may be obscured by clouds; or the different bodies which revolve round him, and particularly the earth, may from time to time suffer a diminution of his light by the intervention of other bodies eclipsing his splendor; and his apparent tropical variation, shadow of turning; when, for instance, in our winter, he has declined to the southern tropic, the tropic of Capricorn, so that our days are greatly shortened, and we suffer in consequence a great diminution both of light and heat. But there is nothing of this kind with God; he is never affected by the changes and chances to which mortal things are exposed. He occupies no one place in the universe; he fills the heavens and the earth, is everywhere present, sees all, pervades all, and shines upon all; dispenses his blessings equally to the universe; hates nothing that he has made; is loving to every man; and his tender mercies are over all his works: therefore he is not affected with evil, nor does he tempt, or influence to sin, any man. The sun, the source of light, rises and sets with a continual variety as to the times of both, and the length of the time in which, in the course of three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, and forty-eight seconds, it has its revolution through the ecliptic, or rather the earth has its revolution round the sun; and by which its light and heat are, to the inhabitants of the earth, either constantly increasing or decreasing: but God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, is eternally the same, dispensing his good and perfect gifts - his earthly and heavenly blessings, to all his creatures, ever unclouded in himself, and ever nilling Evil and willing Good. Men may hide themselves from his light by the works of darkness, as owls and bats hide themselves in dens and caves of the earth during the prevalency of the solar light: but his good will to his creatures is permanent; he wills not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may come unto him and live; and no man walks in wretchedness or misery but he who will not come unto God that he may have life. See diagram and notes at the end of this chapter.

Clarke: Jam 1:18

Of his own will begat he us - God’ s will here is opposed to the lust of man, Jam 1:15; his truth, the means of human salvation, to the sinful means referred to in the above verse; and the new creatures, to the sin conceived and brought forth, as above. As the will of God is essentially good, all its productions must be good also; as it is infinitely pure, all its productions must be holy. The word or doctrine of truth, what St. Paul calls the word of the truth of the Gospel, Col 1:5, is the means which God uses to convert souls

Clarke: Jam 1:18

A kind of first fruits - By creatures we are here to understand the Gentiles, and by first fruits the Jews, to whom the Gospel was first sent; and those of them that believed were the first fruits of that astonishing harvest which God has since reaped over the whole Gentile world. See the notes on Rom 8:19, etc. There is a remarkable saying in Philo on this subject, De Allegoris, lib. ii. p. 101: God begat Isaac, for he is the father of the perfect nature, σπειρων εν ταις ψυχαις, sowing seed in souls, and begetting happiness.

Clarke: Jam 1:19

Swift to hear - Talk little and work much, is a rabbinical adage. - Pirkey Aboth, cap. i. 15

The righteous speak little, and do much; the wicked speak much, and do nothing. - Bava Metzia, fol. 87

The son of Sirach says, cap. v. 11: Γινου ταχυς εν τῃ ακροασει σου, και εν μακροθυμιᾳ φθεγγου αποκρισιν . "Be swift to hear, and with deep consideration give answer.

Clarke: Jam 1:19

Slow to wrath - " There are four kinds of dispositions,"says the Midrash hanaalam, cap. v. 11: "First, Those who are easily incensed, and easily pacified; these gain on one hand, and lose on the other. Secondly, Those who are not easily incensed, but are difficult to be appeased; these lose on the one hand, and gain on the other. Thirdly, Those who are difficult to be incensed, and are easily appeased; these are the good. Fourthly, Those who are easily angered, and difficult to be appeased; these are the wicked."Those who are hasty in speech are generally of a peevish or angry disposition. A person who is careful to consider what he says, is not likely to be soon angry.

Clarke: Jam 1:20

The wrath of man - A furious zeal in matters of religion is detestable in the sight of God; he will have no sacrifice that is not consumed by fire from his own altar. The zeal that made the Papists persecute and burn the Protestants, was kindled in hell. This was the wrath of man, and did not work any righteous act for God; nor was it the means of working righteousness in others; the bad fruit of a bad tree. And do they still vindicate these cruelties? Yes: for still they maintain that no faith is to be kept with heretics, and they acknowledge the inquisition.

Clarke: Jam 1:21

All filthiness - Πασαν ῥυπαριαν . This word signifies any impurity that cleaves to the body; but applied to the mind, it implies all impure and unholy affections, such as those spoken of Jam 1:15, which pollute the soul; in this sense it is used by the best Greek writers

Clarke: Jam 1:21

Superfluity of naughtiness - Περισσειαν κακιας· The overflowing of wickedness. Perhaps there is an allusion here to the part cut off in circumcision, which was the emblem of impure desire; and to lessen that propensity, God, in his mercy, enacted this rite. Put all these evil dispositions aside, for they blind the soul, and render it incapable of receiving any good, even from that ingrafted word of God which otherwise would have saved their souls

Clarke: Jam 1:21

The ingrafted word - That doctrine which has already been planted among you, which has brought forth fruit in all them that have meekly and humbly received it, and is as powerful to save your souls as the souls of those who have already believed. I think this to be the meaning of εμφυτον λογον, the ingrafted word or doctrine. The seed of life had been sown in the land; many of them had received it to their salvation; others had partially credited it, but not so as to produce in them any saving effects. Besides, they appear to have taken up with other doctrines, from which they had got no salvation; he therefore exhorts them to receive the doctrine of Christ, which would be the means of saving them unto eternal life. And when those who were Jews, and who had been originally planted by God as altogether a right vine, received the faith of the Gospel, it is represented as being ingrafted on that right stock, the pure knowledge of the true God and his holy moral law. This indeed was a good stock on which to implant Christianity. This appears to be what the apostle means by the ingrafted word, which is able to save the soul.

Clarke: Jam 1:22

But be ye doers of the word - They had heard this doctrine; they had believed it; but they had put it to no practical use. They were downright Antinomians, who put a sort of stupid, inactive faith in the place of all moral righteousness. This is sufficiently evident from the second chapter

Clarke: Jam 1:22

Deceiving your own selves - Παραλογιζομενοι ἑαυτους· Imposing on your own selves by sophistical arguments; this is the meaning of the words. They had reasoned themselves into a state of carnal security, and the object of St. James is, to awake them out of their sleep.

Clarke: Jam 1:23

Beholding his natural face in a glass - This metaphor is very simple, but very expressive. A man wishes to see his own face, and how, in its natural state, it appears; for this purpose he looks into a mirror, by which his real face, with all its blemishes and imperfections, is exhibited. He is affected with his own appearance; he sees deformities that might be remedied; spots, superfluities, and impurities, that might be removed. While he continues to look into the mirror he is affected, and wishes himself different to what he appears, and forms purposes of doing what he can to render his countenance agreeable. On going away he soon forgets what manner of person he was, because the mirror is now removed, and his face is no longer reflected to himself; and he no longer recollects how disagreeable he appeared, and his own resolutions of improving his countenance. The doctrines of God, faithfully preached, are such a mirror; he who hears cannot help discovering his own character, and being affected with his own deformity; he sorrows, and purposes amendment; but when the preaching is over, the mirror is removed, and not being careful to examine the records of his salvation, the perfect law of liberty, Jam 1:25, or not continuing to look therein, he soon forgets what manner of man he was; or, reposing some unscriptural trust in God’ s mercy, he reasons himself out of the necessity of repentance and amendment of life, and thus deceives his soul.

Clarke: Jam 1:25

But whoso looketh into the perfect law - The word παρακυψας, which we translate looketh into, is very emphatic, and signifies that deep and attentive consideration given to a thing or subject which a man cannot bring up to his eyes, and therefore must bend his back and neck, stooping down, that he may see it to the greater advantage. The law of liberty must mean the Gospel; it is a law, for it imposes obligations from God, and prescribes a rule of life; and it punishes transgressors, and rewards the obedient. It is, nevertheless, a law that gives liberty from the guilt, power, dominion, and influence of sin; and it is perfect, providing a fullness of salvation for the soul: and it may be called perfect here, in opposition to the law, which was a system of types and representations of which the Gospel is the sum and substance. Some think that the word τελειον, perfect, is added here to signify that the whole of the Gospel must be considered and received, not a part; all its threatenings with its promises, all its precepts with its privileges

Clarke: Jam 1:25

And continueth - Παραμεινας· Takes time to see and examine the state of his soul, the grace of his God, the extent of his duty, and the height of the promised glory. The metaphor here is taken from those females who spend much time at their glass, in order that they may decorate themselves to the greatest advantage, and not leave one hair, or the smallest ornament, out of its place

Clarke: Jam 1:25

He being not a forgetful hearer - This seems to be a reference to Deu 4:9 : "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life."He who studies and forgets is like to a woman who brings forth children, and immediately buries them. Aboth R. Nathan, cap. 23

Clarke: Jam 1:25

Shall be blessed in his deed - In Pirkey Aboth, cap. Deu 4:14, it is said: "There are four kinds of men who visit the synagogues

1.    He who enters but does not work

2.    He who works but does not enter

3.    He who enters and works

4.    He who neither enters nor works

The first two are indifferent characters; the third is the righteous man; the fourth is wholly evil.

As the path of duty is the way of safety, so it is the way of happiness; he who obeys God from a loving heart and pure conscience, will infallibly find continual blessedness.

Clarke: Jam 1:26

Seem to be religious - The words θρησκος and θρησκεια, which we translate religious and religion, (see the next verse), are of very uncertain etymology. Suidas, under the word θρησκευει, which he translates θεοσεβει, ὑπηρετει τοις θεοις, he worships or serves the gods, accounts for the derivation thus: "It is said that Orpheus, a Thracian, instituted the mysteries (or religious rites) of the Greeks, and called the worshipping of God θρησκευειν threskeuein , as being a Thracian invention."Whatever its derivation may be, the word is used both to signify true religion, and superstition or heterodoxy. See Hesychius, and see on Jam 1:27 (note)

Clarke: Jam 1:26

Bridleth not his tongue - He who speaks not according to the oracles of God, whatever pretences he makes to religion, only shows, by his want of scriptural knowledge, that his religion is false, ματαιος, or empty of solid truth, profit to others, and good to himself. Such a person should bridle his tongue, put the bit in his mouth; and particularly if he be a professed teacher of religion; ho matter where he has studied, or what else he has learned, if he have not learned religion, he can never teach it. And religion is of such a nature that no man can learn it but by experience; he who does not feel the doctrine of God to be the power of God to the salvation of his soul, can neither teach religion, nor act according to its dictates, because he is an unconverted, unrenewed man. If he be old, let him retire to the desert, and pray to God for light; if he be in the prime of life, let him turn his attention to some honest calling; if he be young, let him tarry at Jericho till his beard grows.

Clarke: Jam 1:27

Pure religion, and undefiled - Having seen something of the etymology of the word θρησκεια, which we translate religion, it will be well to consider the etymology of the word religion itself

In the 28th chapter of the 4th book of his Divine Instructions, Lactantius, who flourished about a.d. 300, treats of hope, true religion, and superstition; of the two latter he gives Cicero’ s definition from his book De Natura Deorum, lib. ii. c. 28, which with his own definition will lead us to a correct view, not only of the etymology, but of the thing itself

"Superstition,"according to that philosopher, "had its name from the custom of those who offered daily prayers and sacrifices, that their children might Survive Them; ut sui sibi liberi superstites essent . Hence they were called superstitiosi , superstitious. On the other hand, religion, religio , had its name from those who, not satisfied with what was commonly spoken concerning the nature and worship of the gods, searched into the whole matter, and perused the writings of past times; hence they were called religiosi , from re , again, and lego , I read.

This definition Lactantius ridicules, and shows that religion has its name from re , intensive, and ligo , I bind, because of that bond of piety by which it binds us to God, and this he shows was the notion conceived of it by Lucretius, who labored to dissolve this bond, and make men atheists

Primum quod magnis doceo de rebus, et Arcti

Religionum animos Nodis Exsolvere pergo

For first I teach great things in lofty strains

And loose men from religion’ s grievous chains

Lucret., lib. i., ver. 930, 93

As to superstition, he says it derived its name from those who paid religious veneration to the memory of the dead, ( qui superstitem memoriam defunctorem colunt ), or from those who, surviving their parents, worshipped their images at home, as household gods; aut qui, parentibus suis superstites, colebant imagines eorum domi, tanquam deos penates . Superstition, according to others, refers to novel rites and ceremonies in religion, or to the worship of new gods. But by religion are meant the ancient forms of worship belonging to those gods, which had long been received. Hence that saying of Virgil: -

Vana superstitio veterumque ignara deorum

"Vain superstition not knowing the ancient gods.

Here Lactantius observes, that as the ancient gods were consecrated precisely in the same way with these new ones, that therefore it was nothing but superstition from the beginning. Hence he asserts, the superstitious are those who worship many and false gods, and the Christians alone are religious, who worship and supplicate the one true God only. St. James’ definition rather refers to the effects of pure religion than to its nature. The life of God in the soul of man, producing love to God and man, will show itself in the acts which St. James mentions here. It is pure in the principle, for it is Divine truth and Divine love. It is undefiled in all its operations: it can produce nothing unholy, because it ever acts in the sight of God; and it can produce no ungentle word nor unkind act, because it comes from the Father

The words καθαρα και αμιαντος, pure and undefiled, are supposed to have reference to a diamond or precious stone, whose perfection consists in its being free from flaws; not cloudy, but of a pure water. True religion is the ornament of the soul, and its effects, the ornament of the life

Clarke: Jam 1:27

To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction - Works of charity and mercy are the proper fruits of religion; and none are more especially the objects of charity and mercy than the orphans and widows. False religion may perform acts of mercy and charity; but its motives not being pure, and its principle being defiled, the flesh, self, and hypocrisy, spot the man, and spot his acts. True religion does not merely give something for the relief of the distressed, but it visits them, it takes the oversight of them, it takes them under its care; so επισκεπτεσθαι means. It goes to their houses, and speaks to their hearts; it relieves their wants, sympathizes with them in their distresses, instructs them in Divine things and recommends them to God. And all this it does for the Lord’ s sake. This is the religion of Christ. The religion that does not prove itself by works of charity and mercy is not of God. Reader, what religion hast thou? Has thine ever led thee to cellars, garrets, cottages, and houses, to find out the distressed? Hast thou ever fed, clothed, and visited a destitute representative of Christ

The subject in Jam 1:11 suggests several reflections on the mutability of human affairs, and the end of all things

1.    Nature herself is subject to mutability, though by her secret and inscrutable exertions she effects her renovation from her decay, and thus change is prevented from terminating in destruction. Yet nature herself is tending, by continual mutations, to a final destruction; or rather to a fixed state, when time, the place and sphere of mutability, shall be absorbed in eternity. Time and nature are coeval; they began and must terminate together. All changes are efforts to arrive at destruction or renovation; and destruction must be the term or bound of all created things, had not the Creator purposed that his works should endure for ever. According to his promise, we look for a new heaven and a new earth; a fixed, permanent, and endless state of things; an everlasting sabbath to all the works of God

I shall confirm these observations with the last verses of that incomparable poem, the Faery Queene, of our much neglected but unrivalled poet, Edmund Spenser: -

"When I bethink me on that speech whylear

Of mutability, and well it weigh

Me seems, that though she all unworthy wer

Of the heaven’ s rule; yet very sooth to say

In all things else she bears the greatest sway

Which makes me loath this state of life so tickle

And love of things so vain to cast away

Whose flow’ ring pride, so fading and so fickle

Short Time shall soon cut down with his consuming sickle

Then gin I think on that which Nature sayd

Of that same time when no more change shall be

But stedfast rest of all things, firmly stay

Upon the pillours of eternity

That is contrayr to mutability

For all that moveth, doth in change delight

But thenceforth all shall rest eternall

With him that is the God of Sabaoth hight

O that great Sabaoth God, grant me that Sabaoth’ s sight!

When this is to be the glorious issue, who can regret the speedy lapse of time? Mutability shall end in permanent perfection, when time, the destroyer of all things, shall be absorbed in eternity. And what has a righteous man to fear from that "wreck of matter and that crush of worlds,"which to him shall usher in the glories of an eternal day? A moralist has said, "Though heaven shall vanish like a vapour, and this firm globe of earth shall crumble into dust, the righteous man shall stand unmoved amidst the shocked depredations of a crushed world; for he who hath appointed the heavens and the earth to fail, hath said unto the virtuous soul, Fear not! for thou shalt neither perish nor be wretched.

Dr. Young has written most nervously, in the spirit of the highest order of poetry, and with the knowledge and feeling of a sound divine, on this subject, in his Night Thoughts. Night vi. in fine

Of man immortal hear the lofty style: -

"If so decreed, th’ Almighty will be done

Let earth dissolve, yon ponderous orbs descen

And grind us into dust: the soul is safe

The man emerges; mounts above the wreck

As towering flame from nature’ s funeral pyre

O’ er desolation, as a gainer, smiles

His charter, his inviolable rights

Well pleased to learn from thunder’ s impotence

Death’ s pointless darts, and hell’ s defeated storms.

After him, and borrowing his imagery and ideas, another of our poets, in canticis sacris facile princeps , has expounded and improved the whole in the following hymn on the Judgment

"Stand the Omnipotent decree

Jehovah’ s will be done

Nature’ s end we wait to see

And hear her final groan

Let this earth dissolve, and blen

In death the wicked and the just

Let those ponderous orbs descen

And grind us into dust

Rests secure the righteous man

At his Redeemer’ s beck

Sure to emerge, and rise again

And mount above the wreck

Lo! the heavenly spirit tower

Like flames o’ er nature’ s funeral pyre

Triumphs in immortal powers

And claps her wings of fire

Nothing hath the just to los

By worlds on worlds destroy’ d

Far beneath his feet he views

With smiles, the flaming void

Sees the universe renew’ d

The grand millennial reign begun

Shouts with all the sons of Go

Around th’ eternal throne.

Wesle

One word more, and I shall trouble my reader no farther on a subject on which I could wear out my pen and drain the last drop of my ink. The learned reader will join in the wish

" Talia saecla suis dixerunt, currite, fusi

Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae

Aggredere O magnos (aderit jam tempus!) honores

Cara Deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum

Aspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum

Terrasque, tractusque maris, coelumque profundum

Aspice, venturo laetentur ut omnia saeclo

O mihi tam longae maneat pars ultima vitae

Spiritus, et quantum sat erit tua dicere facta !

Virg. Eclog. iv

    There has never been a translation of this, worthy of the poet; and to such a piece I cannot persuade myself to append the hobbling verses of Mr. Dryden

2.    Taken in every point of view, Jam 1:17 is one of the most curious and singular in the New Testament. It has been well observed, that the first words make a regular Greek hexameter verse, supposed to be quoted from some Greek poet not now extant; and the last clause of the verse, with a very little change, makes another hexameter: -

Πασα δοσις αγαθη, και παν δωρημα τελειον

Εστ ’ απο των φωτων Πατρος καταβαινον ανωθεν.

"Every goodly gift, and every perfect donation

Is from the Father of lights, and from above it descendeth.

    The first line, which is incontestably a perfect hexameter, may have been designed by St. James, or in the course of composition may have originated from accident, a thing which often occurs to all good writers; but the sentiment itself is immediately from heaven. I know not that we can be justified by sound criticism in making any particular distinction between δοσις and δωρημα· our translators have used the same word in rendering both. They are often synonymous; but sometimes we may observe a shade of difference, δοσις signifying a gift of any kind, here probably meaning earthly blessings of all sorts, δωρημα signifying a free gift - one that comes without constraint, from the mere benevolence of the giver; and here it may signify all spiritual and eternal blessings. Now all these come from above; God is as much the Author of our earthly good, as he is of our eternal salvation. Earthly blessings are simply good; but they are imperfect, they perish in the using. The blessings of grace and glory are supreme goods, they are permanent and perfect; and to the gift that includes these the term τελειον, perfect, is here properly added by St. James. There is a sentiment very similar to this in the ninth Olympic Ode of Pindar, l. 41: -

- - Αγαθοι δε

Και σοφοι κατα Δαιμον ’ ανδρες.

Man, boast of naught: whate’ er thou hast is given

Wisdom and virtue are the gifts of Heaven

    But how tame is even Pindar’ s verse when compared with the energy of James

3.    In the latter part of the verse, παρ ᾡ ουκ ενι παραλλαγη, η τροπης αποσκιασμα, which we translate, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, there is an allusion to some of the most abstruse principles in astronomy. This is not accidental, for every word in the whole verse is astronomical. In his Πατηρ των φωτων, Father of lights, there is the most evident allusion to the Sun, who is the father, author, or source of all the lights or luminaries proper to our system. It is not only his light which we enjoy by day, but it is his light also which is reflected to us, from the moon’ s surface, by night. And it is demonstrable that all the planets - Mercury, Venus, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Jupiter, Saturn, Saturn’ s Rings, and Herschel, or the Georgium Sidus, with the four satellites of Jupiter, the seven satellites of Saturn, and the six satellites of the Georgium Sidus, thirty-one bodies in all, besides the comets, all derive their light from the sun, being perfectly opaque or dark in themselves; the sun being the only luminous body in our system; all the rest being illumined by him

The word παραλλαγη, which we translate variableness, from παραλλαττω, to change alternately, to pass from one change to another, evidently refers to parallax in astronomy. To give a proper idea of what astronomers mean by this term, it must be premised that all the diurnal motions of the heavenly bodies from east to west are only apparent, being occasioned by the rotation of the earth upon its axis in an opposite direction in about twenty-four hours. These diurnal motions are therefore performed uniformly round the axis or polar diameter of the earth, and not round the place of the spectator, who is upon the earth’ s surface. Hence every one who observes the apparent motion of the heavens from this surface will find that this motion is not even, equal arches being described in unequal times; for if a globular body, such as the earth, describe equally the circumference of a circle by its rotatory motion, it is evident the equality of this motion can be seen in no other points than those in the axis of the circle, and therefore any object viewed from the center of the earth will appear in a different place from what it does when observed from the surface. This difference of place of the same object, seen at the same time from the earth’ s center and surface, is called its parallax

As I shall make some farther use of this point, in order to make it plain to those who are not much acquainted with the subject, to which I am satisfied St. James alludes, I shall introduce the following diagram: Let the circle OKNS. in the annexed figure, represent the earth, E its center, O the place of an observer on its surface, whose visible or sensible horizon is OH, and the line EST, parallel to OH, the rational, true, or mathematical horizon. Let ZDFT be considered a portion of a great circle in the heavens, and A the place of an object in the visible horizon. Join EA by a line produced to C: then C is the true place of the object, and H is its apparent place; and the angle CAH is its parallax; and, because the object is in the horizon, it is called its horizontal parallax. As OAE, the angle which the earth’ s radius or semidiameter subtends to the object, is necessarily equal to its opposite angle CAH, hence the horizontal parallax of an object is defined to be the angle which the earth’ s semidiameter subtends at that object

The whole effect of parallax is in a vertical direction; for the parallactic angle is in the plane passing through the observer and the earth’ s center, which plane is necessarily perpendicular to the horizon, the earth being considered as a sphere. The more elevated an object is above the horizon, the less the parallax, the distance from the earth’ s center continuing the same. To make this sufficiently clear, let B represent an object at any given altitude above the visible horizon OAH; then the angle DBF, formed by the straight lines OB and EB produced to F and D, will be the parallax of the object at the given altitude, and is less than the parallax of the same object when in the visible horizon OAH, for the angle DBF is less than the angle CAH. Hence the horizontal parallax is the greatest of all diurnal parallaxes; and when the object is in the zenith, it has no parallax, the visual ray passing perpendicularly from the object through the observer to the earth’ s center, as in the line Zoe

The quantity of the horizontal parallax of any object is in proportion to its distance from the place of observation, being greater or less as the object is nearer to or farther removed from the spectator. In illustration of this point, let I be the place of an object in the sensible horizon; then will LIH be its horizontal parallax, which is a smaller angle than CAH, the horizontal parallax of the nearer object A

The horizontal parallax being given, the distance of the object from the earth’ s center, EA or EI, may be readily found in semidiameters of the earth by the resolution of the right-angled triangle OEA, in which we have given the angle OAE, the horizontal parallax, the side OE, the semidiameter of the earth, considered as unity, and the right angle AOE, to find the side EA, the distance of the object from the earth’ s center. The proportion to be used in this case is: The sine of the horizontal parallax is to unity, the semidiameter of the earth, as radius, i.e. the right angle AOE, the sine of ninety degrees being the radius of a circle, is to the side EA. This proportion is very compendiously wrought by logarithms as follows: Subtract the logarithmic sine of the horizontal parallax from 10, the radius, and the remainder will be the logarithm of the answer

Example. When the moon’ s horizontal parallax is a degree, what is her distance from the earth’ s center in semidiameters of the earth

10.0000000
Subtract the sine of 1 degree	8.2418553
Remainder the logarithm of 57.2987	1.7581447

Which is the distance of the moon in semidiameters of the earth, when her horizontal parallax amounts to a degree. If 57.2987 be multiplied by 3977, the English miles contained in the earth’ s semidiameter, the product, 227876.9, will be the moon’ s distance from the earth’ s center in English miles

The sun’ s horizontal parallax is about eight seconds and three-fifths, as is evident from the phenomena attending the transits of Venus, of 1761 and 1769, as observed in different parts of the world: a method of obtaining the solar parallax abundantly less liable to be materially affected by error of observation than that of Hipparchus, who lived between the 154th and 163d Olympiad, from lunar eclipses; or than that of Aristarchus the Samian, from the moon’ s dichotomy; or even than that of modern astronomers from the parallax of Mars when in opposition, and, at the same time, in or near his perihelion. The sun’ s horizontal parallax being scarcely the four hundred and eighteenth part of that of the moon given in the preceding example, if 227876.9, the distance of the moon as found above, be multiplied by 418.6, (for the horizontal parallax decreases nearly in proportion as the distance increases), the product will be the distance of the sun from the earth’ s center, which will be found to be upwards of ninety-five millions of English miles

When we know the horizontal parallax of any object, its magnitude is easily determined. The apparent diameter of the sun, for example, at his mean distance from the earth, is somewhat more than thirty-two minutes of a degree, which is at least a hundred and eleven times greater than the double of the sun’ s horizontal parallax, or the apparent diameter of the earth as seen from the sun; therefore, the real solar diameter must be at least a hundred and eleven times greater than that of the earth; i.e. upwards of 880,000 English miles. And as spherical bodies are to each other as the cubes of their diameters, if 111 be cubed, we shall find that the magnitude of the sun is more than thirteen hundred thousand times greater than that of the earth

The whole effect of parallax being in a vertical circle, and the circles of the sphere not being in this direction, the parallax of a star will evidently change its true place with respect to these different circles; whence there are five kinds of diurnal parallaxes, viz. the parallax of longitude, parallax of latitude, parallax of ascension or descension, parallax: of declination, and parallax of altitude, the last of which has been already largely explained; and the meaning of the first four, simply, is the difference between the true and visible longitude, latitude, right ascension, and declination of an object. Besides these, there is another kind of parallax, called by modern astronomers the parallax of the earth’ s Annual Orbit, by which is meant the difference between the places of a planet as seen from the sun and the earth at the same time, the former being its true or heliocentric place, and the latter its apparent or geocentric place. The ancient astronomers gave the term parallax only to the diurnal apparent inequalities of motion in the moon and planets; Ptolemy, who lived in the second century, calling prosaphaeresis orbis what is now named the parallax of the great or annual orbit. This parallax is more considerable than the diurnal parallax, as the earth’ s annual orbit is more considerable than the earth’ s semidiameter. This parallax, when greatest, amounts in Mars, the nearest superior planet, to upwards of forty-seven degrees; in Jupiter to near twelve degrees; in Saturn to more than six degrees, etc. In the region of the nearest fixed stars, i.e. those new ones of 1572 and 1604, double the radius of the earth’ s orbit does not subtend an angle of a single minute of a degree; whence it is evident the nearest fixed stars are at least hundreds of times more distant from us than the Georgium Sidus is, whose greatest annual parallax amounts to upwards of three degrees. The annual parallaxes of the fixed stars are, in general, too minute to be measured; hence their distances from the earth must be inconceivably great

Any farther description of parallax would be useless in reference to the subject to be illustrated

The words τροπης αποσκιασμα, shadow of turning, either refer to the darkness in which the earth is involved in consequence of its turning round its axis once in every twenty-four hours, by means of which one hemisphere, or half of its surface, is involved in darkness, being hidden from the sun by the opposite hemisphere; or to the different portions of the earth which come gradually into the solar light by its revolution round its orbit, which, in consequence of the pole of the earth being inclined nearly twenty-three degrees and a half to the plane of its orbit, and keeping its parallelism through every part of its revolution, causes all the vicissitudes of season, with all the increasing and decreasing proportions of light and darkness, and of cold and heat

Every person who understands the images will see with what propriety St. James has introduced them; and through this his great object is at once discernible. It is evident from this chapter that there were persons, among those to whom he wrote, that held very erroneous opinions concerning the Divine nature; viz. that God tempted or influenced men to sin, and, consequently, that he was the author of all the evil that is in the world; and that he withholds his light and influence when necessary to convey truth and to correct vice. To destroy this error he shows that though the sun, for its splendor, genial heat, and general utility to the globe and its inhabitants, may be a fit emblem of God, yet in several respects the metaphor is very imperfect; for the sun himself is liable to repeated obscurations; and although, as to his mass, he is the focus of the system, giving light and heat to all, yet he is not everywhere present, and both his light and heat may be intercepted by a great variety of opposing bodies, and other causes. St. James refers particularly to the Divine ubiquity or omnipresence. Wherever his light and energy are, there is he himself; neither his word nor his Spirit gives false or inconsistent views of his nature and gracious purposes. He has no parallax, because he is equally present everywhere, and intimately near to all his creatures; He is never seen where he is not, or not seen where he is. He is the God and Father of all; who is Above all, and Through all, and In all; "in the wide waste, as in the city full;"nor can any thing be hidden from his light and heat. There can be no opposing bodies to prevent him from sending forth his light and truth, because he is everywhere essentially present. He suffers no eclipses; he changes not in his nature; he varies not in his designs; he is ever a full, free, and eternal fountain of mercy, goodness, truth, and good will, to all his intelligent offspring. Hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! Amen

In concluding these observations, I think it necessary to refer to Mr. Wakefield’ s translation of this text, and his vindication of that translation: Every good gift, and every perfect kindness, cometh down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is no parallax, nor tropical shadow. "Some have affected,"says he, "to ridicule my translation of this verse, if it be obscure, the author must answer for that, and not the translator. Why should we impoverish the sacred writers, by robbing them of the learning and science they display? Why should we conceal in them what we should ostentatiously point out in profane authors? And if any of these wise, learned, and judicious critics think they understand the phrase shadow of turning, I wish they would condescend to explain it."Yes, if such a sentiment were found in Aratus, or in any other ancient astronomical writer, whole pages of commentary would be written on it, and the subtle doctrine of the parallactic angle proved to be well known in itself, and its use in determining the distances and magnitudes of the heavenly bodies, to the ancients some hundreds of years before the Christian era

The sentiment is as elegant as it is just, and forcibly points out the unchangeableness and beneficence of God. He is the Sun, not of a system, but of all worlds; the great Fountain and Dispenser of light and heat, of power and life, of order, harmony, and perfection. In him all live and move, and from him they have their being. There are no spots on his disk; all is unclouded splendor. Can he who dwells in this unsufferable and unapproachable light, in his own eternal self-sufficiency, concern himself with the affairs of mortals? Yes, for we are his offspring; and it is one part of his perfection to delight in the welfare of his intelligent creatures. He is loving to every man: he hates nothing that he has made; and his praise endureth for ever!

Calvin: Jam 1:11

Though the received reading is ἐν ταῖς πορείαις, yet I agree with Erasmus, and read the last word, πορίαις, without the diphthong “in his riches,” or, with his riches; and the latter I prefer. ¹⁰⁴

Calvin: Jam 1:12

12.Blessed is the man. After having applied consolation, he moderated the sorrow of those who were severely handled in this world, and again humbled the arrogance of the great. He now draws this conclusion, that they are happy who magnanimously endure troubles and other trials, so as to rise above them. The word temptation may indeed be otherwise understood, even for the stings of lusts which annoy the soul within; but which is here commended, as I think, is fortitude of mind in enduring adversities. It is, however, a paradox, that they are not happy to whom all things come according to their wishes, but such as are not overcome with evils.

For when he is tried. He gives a reason for the preceding sentence; for the crown follows the contest. If, then, it be our chief happiness to be crowned in the kingdom of God, it follows, that the contests with which the Lord tries us, are aids and helps to our happiness. Thus the argument is from the end or the effect: hence we conclude, that the faithful are harassed by so many evils for this purpose, that their piety and obedience may be made manifest, and that they may be thus at length prepared to receive the crown of life.

But they reason absurdly who hence infer that we by fighting merit the crown; for since God has gratuitously appointed it for us, our fighting only renders us fit to receive it.

He adds, that it is promised to those who love God. By speaking thus, he means not that the love of man is the cause of obtaining the crown, (for God anticipates us by his gratuitous love;) but he only intimates that the elect who love him are alone approved by God. He then reminds us that the conquerors of all temptations are those who love God, and that we fail not in courage when we are tried, for no other cause than because the love of the world prevails in us.

Calvin: Jam 1:13

13.Let no man, when he is tempted. Here, no doubt, he speaks of another kind of temptation. It is abundantly evident that the external temptations, hitherto mentioned, are sent to us by God. In this way God tempted Abraham, (Gen 22:1,) and daily tempts us, that is, he tries us as to what are we by laying before us an occasion by which our hearts are made known. But to draw out what is hid in our hearts is a far different thing from inwardly alluring our hearts by wicked lusts.

He then treats here of inward temptations which are nothing else than the inordinate desires which entice to sin. He justly denies that God is the author of these, because they flow from the corruption of our nature.

This warning is very necessary, for nothing is more common among men than to transfer to another the blame of the evils they commit; and they then especially seem to free themselves, when they ascribe it to God himself. This kind of evasion we constantly imitate, delivered down to us as it is from the first man. For this reason James calls us to confess our own guilt, and not to implicate God, as though he compelled us to sin.

But the whole doctrine of scripture seems to be inconsistent with this passage; for it teaches us that men are blinded by God, are given up to a reprobate mind, and delivered over to filthy and shameful lusts. To this I answer, that probably James was induced to deny that we are tempted by God by this reason, because the ungodly, in order to form an excuse, armed themselves with testimonies of Scripture. But there are two things to be noticed here: when Scripture ascribes blindness or hardness of heart to God, it does not assign to him the beginning of this blindness, nor does it make him the author of sin, so as to ascribe to him the blame: and on these two things only does James dwell.

Scripture asserts that the reprobate are delivered up to depraved lusts; but is it because the Lord depraves or corrupts their hearts? By no means; for their hearts are subjected to depraved lusts, because they are already corrupt and vicious. But since God blinds or hardens, is he not the author or minister of evil? Nay, but in this manner he punishes sins, and renders a just reward to the ungodly, who have refused to be ruled by his Spirit. (Rom 1:26.) It hence follows that the origin of sin is not in God, and no blame can be imputed to him as though he took pleasure in evils. (Gen 6:6.)

The meaning is, that man in vain evades, who attempts to cast the blame of his vices on God, because every evil proceeds from no other fountain than from the wicked lust of man. And the fact really is, that we are not otherwise led astray, except that every one has his own inclination as his leader and impeller. But that God tempts no one, he proves by this, because he is not tempted with evils ¹⁰⁵ For it is the devil who allures us to sin, and for this reason, because he wholly burns with the mad lust of sinning. But God does not desire what is evil: he is not, therefore, the author of doing evil in us.

Calvin: Jam 1:14

14.When he is drawn away by his own lust As the inclination and excitement to sin are inward, in vain does the sinner seek an cause from an external impulse. At the same time these two effects of lust ought to be noticed — that it ensnares us by its allurements, and that it does us away; each of which is sufficient to render us guilty. ¹⁰⁶

Calvin: Jam 1:15

15.Then when lust hath conceived. He first calls that lust which is not any kind of evil affection or desire, but that which is the fountain of all evil affections; by which, as he shews, are conceived vicious broods, which at length break forth into sins. It seems, however, improper, and not according to the usage of Scripture, to restrict the word sin to outward works, as though indeed lust itself were not a sin, and as though corrupt desires, remaining closed up within and suppressed, were not so many sins. But as the use of a word is various, there is nothing unreasonable if it be taken here, as in many other places, for actual sin.

And the Papists ignorantly lay hold on this passage, and seek to prove from it that vicious, yea, filthy, wicked, and the most abominable lusts are not sins, provided there is no assent; for James does not shew when sin begins to be born, so as to be sin, and so accounted by God, but when it breaks forth. For he proceeds gradually and shews that the consummation of sin is eternal death, and that sin arises from depraved desires, and that these depraved desires or affections have their root in lust. It hence follows that men gather fruit in eternal perdition, and fruit which they have procured for themselves.

By perfected sin, therefore, I understand, not any one act of sin perpetrated, but the completed course of sinning. For though death is merited by every sin whatever, yet it is said to be the reward of an ungodly and wicked life. Hence is the dotage of those confuted who conclude from these words, that sin is not mortal until it breaks forth, as they say, into an external act. Nor is this what James treats of; but his object was only this, to teach that there is in us the root of our own destruction.

Calvin: Jam 1:16

16.Do not err. This is an argument from what is opposite; for as God is the author of all good, it is absurd to suppose him to be the author of evil. To do good is what properly belongs to him, and according to his nature; and from him all good things come to us. Then, whatever evil he does, is not agreeable to his nature. But as it sometimes happens, that he who quits himself well through life, yet in some things fails, he meets this doubt by denying that God is mutable like men. But if God is in all things and always like himself, it hence follows that well-doing is his perpetual work.

Calvin: Jam 1:17

This reasoning is far different from that of Plato, who maintained that no calamities are sent on men by God, because he is good; for though it is just that the crimes of men should be punished by God, yet it is not right, with regard to him, to regard among evils that punishment which he justly inflicts. Plato, indeed, was ignorant; but James, leaving to God his right and office of punishing, only removes blame from him. This passage teaches us, that we ought to be so affected by God’s innumerable blessings, which we daily receive from his hand, as to think of nothing but of his glory; and that we should abhor whatever comes to our mind, or is suggested by others, which is not compatible with his praise.

God is called the Father of lights, as possessing all excellency and the highest dignity. And when he immediately adds, that there is in him no shadow of turning, he continues the metaphor; so that we may not measure the brightness of God by the irradiation of the sun which appears to us. ¹⁰⁷

Calvin: Jam 1:18

18.Of his own will. He now brings forward a special proof of the goodness of God which he had mentioned, even that he has regenerated us unto eternal life. This invaluable benefit every one of the faithful feels in himself. Then the goodness of God, when known by experience, ought to remove from them all a contrary opinion respecting him.

When he says that God of his own will, or spontaneously, hath begotten us, he intimates that he was induced by no other reason, as the will and counsel of God are often set in opposition to the merits of men. What great thing, indeed, would it have been to say that God was not constrained to do this? But he impresses something more, that God according to his own goodwill hath begotten us, and has been thus a cause to himself. It hence follows that it is natural to God to do good.

But this passage teaches us, that as our election before the foundation of the world was gratuitous, so we are illuminated by the grace of God alone as to the knowledge of the truth, so that our calling corresponds with our election. The Scripture shews that we have been gratuitously adopted by God before we were born. But James expresses here something more, that we obtain the right of adoption, because God does also call us gratuitously. (Eph 1:4.) Farther, we hence learn, that it is the peculiar office of God spiritually to regenerate us; for that the same thing is sometimes ascribed to the ministers of the gospel, means no other thing than this, that God acts through them; and it happens indeed through them, but he nevertheless alone doeth the work.

The word begotten means that we become new men, so that we put off our former nature when we are effectually called by God. He adds how God begets us, even by the word of truth, so that we may know that we cannot enter the kingdom of God by any other door.

That we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. The word τινὰ, “some,” has the meaning of likeness, as though he had said, that we are in a manner firstfruits. But this ought not to be restricted to a few of the faithful; but it belongs to all in common. For as man excels among all creatures, so the Lord elects some from the whole mass and separates them as a holy offering, to himself. ¹⁰⁸ It is no common nobility into which God extols his own children. Then justly are they said to be excellent as firstfruits, when God’s image is renewed in them.

Calvin: Jam 1:19

19.Let every man. Were this a general sentence, the inference would be farfetched; but as he immediately adds a sentence respecting the word of truth suitable to the last verse, I doubt not but that he accommodates this exhortation peculiarly to the subject in hand. Having then set before us the goodness of God, he shews how it becomes us to be prepared to receive the blessing which he exhibits towards us. And this doctrine is very useful, for spiritual generation is not a work of one moment. Since some remnants of the old man ever abide in us, we must necessarily be through life renewed, until the flesh be abolished; for either our perverseness, or arrogance, or sloth, is a great impediment to God in perfecting in us his work. Hence, when James would have us to be swift to hear, he commends promptitude, as though he had said, “When God so freely and kindly presents himself to you, you also ought to render yourselves teachable, lest your slowness should cause him to desist from speaking.”

But inasmuch as we do not calmly hear God speaking to us, when we seem to ourselves to be very wise, but by our haste interrupt him when addressing us, the Apostle requires us to be silent, to be slow to speak. And, doubtless, no one can be a true disciple of God, except he hears him in silence. He does not, however, require the silence of the Pythagorean school, so that it should not be right to inquire whenever we desire to learn what is necessary to be known; but he would only have us to correct and restrain our forwardness, that we may not, as it commonly happens, unseasonably interrupt God, and that as long as he opens his sacred mouth, we may open to him our hearts and our ears, and not prevent him to speak.

Slow to wrath. Wrath also, I think, is condemned with regard to the hearing which God demands to be given to him, as though making a tumult it disturbed and impeded him, for God cannot be heard except when the mind is calm and sedate. Hence, he adds, that as long as wrath bears rule there is no place for the righteousness of God. In short, except the heat of contention be banished, we shall never observe towards God that calm silence of which he has just spoken.

Calvin: Jam 1:21

21.Wherefore lay apart. He concludes by saying how the word of life is to be received. And first, indeed, he intimates that it cannot be rightly received except it be implanted, or strike roots in us. For the expression, to receive the implanted word, ought to be thus explained, “to receive it, that it may be really implanted.” For he alludes to seed often sown on and ground, and not received into the moist bosom of the earth; or to plants, which being cast on the ground, or laid on dead wood, soon wither. He then requires that it should be a living implanting, by which the word becomes as it were united with our heart.

He at the same time shews the way and manner of this reception, even with meekness. By this word he means humility and the readiness of a mind disposed to learn, such as Isaiah describes when he says,

“On whom does my Spirit rest, except on the humble and meek?” (Isa 57:15.)

Hence it is, that so far profit in the school of God, because hardly one in a hundred renounces the stubbornness of his own spirit, and gently submits to God; but almost all are conceited and refractory. But if we desire to be the living plantation of God, we must subdue our proud hearts and be humble, and labor to become like lambs, so as to suffer ourselves to be ruled and guided by our Shepherd.

But as men are never thus tamed, so as to have a calm and meek heart, except they are purged from depraved affections, so he bids us to lay aside uncleanness and redundancy of wickedness. And as James borrowed a comparison from agriculture, it was necessary for him to observe this order, to begin by rooting up noxious weeds. And since he addressed all, we may hence conclude that these are the innate evils of our nature, and that they cleave to us all; yea, since he addresses the faithful, he shews that we are never wholly cleansed from them in this life, but that they are continually sprouting up, and therefore he requires that care should be constantly taken to eradicate them. As the word of God is especially a holy thing; to be fitted to receive it, we must put off the filthy things by which we have been polluted.

Under the word κακία, he comprehends hypocrisy and obstinacy as well as unlawful desires or lusts. Not satisfied with specifying the seat of wickedness as being in the soul of man, he teaches us that so abounding is the wickedness that dwells there, that it overflows, or that it rises up as it were into a heap; and doubtless, whosoever will well examine himself will find that there is within him an immense chaos of evils. ¹⁰⁹

Which is able to save. It is a high eulogy on heavenly truth, that we obtain through it a sure salvation; and this is added, that we may learn to seek and love and magnify the word as a treasure that is incomparable. It is then a sharp goad to chastise our idleness, when he says that the word which we are wont to hear so negligently, is the means of our salvation, though for this purpose the power of saving is not ascribed to the word, as if salvation is conveyed by the external sound of the word, or as if the office of saving is taken away from God and transferred elsewhere; for James speaks of the word which by faith penetrates into the hearts of men, and only intimates that God, the author of salvation, conveys it by his Gospel.

Calvin: Jam 1:22

22.Be ye doers of the word. The doer here is not the same as in Rom 2:13, who satisfied the law of God and fulfilled it in every part, but the doer is he who from the heart embraces God’s word and testifies by his life that he really believes, according to the saying of Christ,

“Blessed are they who hear God’s word and keep it,”
(Luk 11:28;)

for he shews by the fruits what that implanting is, before mentioned. We must further observe, that faith with all its works is included by James, yea, faith especially, as it is the chief work which God requires from us. The import of the whole is, that we ought to labor that the word of the Lord should strike root in us, so that it may afterwards fructify. ¹¹⁰

Calvin: Jam 1:23

23.He is like to a man. Heavenly doctrine is indeed a mirror in which God presents himself to our view; but so that we may be transformed unto his image, as Paul says in 2Co 3:18. But here he speaks of the external glance of the eye, not of the vivid and efficacious meditation which penetrates into the heart. It is a striking comparison, by which he briefly intimates, that a doctrine merely heard and not received inwardly into the heart avails nothing, because it soon vanishes away.

Calvin: Jam 1:25

25.The perfect law of liberty. After having spoken of empty speculation, he comes now to that penetrating intuition which transforms us to the image of God. And as he had to do with the Jews, he takes the word law, familiarly known to them, as including the whole truth of God.

But why he calls it a perfect law, and a law of liberty, interpreters have not been able to understand; for they have not perceived that there is here a contrast, which may be gathered from other passages of Scripture. As long as the law is preached by the external voice of man, and not inscribed by the finger and Spirit of God on the heart, it is but a dead letter, and as it were a lifeless thing. It is, then, no wonder that the law is deemed imperfect, and that it is the law of bondage; for as Paul teaches in Gal 4:24, separated from Christ, it generates to condemn and as the same shews to us in Rom 8:13, it can do nothing but fill us with diffidence and fear. But the Spirit of regeneration, who inscribes it on our inward parts, brings also the grace of adoption. It is, then, the same as though James had said, “The teaching of the law, let it no longer lead you to bondage, but, on the contrary, bring you to liberty; let it no longer be only a schoolmaster, but bring you to perfection: it ought to be received by you with sincere affection, so that you may lead a godly and a holy life.”

Moreover, since it is a blessing of the Old Testament that the law of God should reform us, as it appears from Jer 31:33, and other passages, it follows that it cannot be obtained until we come to Christ. And, doubtless, he alone is the end and perfection of the law; and James adds liberty, as an inseparable associate, because the Spirit of Christ never regenerates but that he becomes also a witness and an earnest of our divine adoption, so as to free our hearts from fear and trembling.

And continueth. This is firmly to persevere in the knowledge of God; and when he adds, this man shall be blessed in his deed, or work, he means that blessedness is to be found in doing, not in cold hearing. ¹¹¹

Calvin: Jam 1:26

26.Seem to be religious. He now reproves even in those who boasted that they were doers of the law, a vice under which hypocrites commonly labor, that is, the wantonness of the tongue in detraction. He has before touched on the duty of restraining the tongue, but for a different end; for he then bade silence before God, that we might be more fitted to learn. He speaks now of another thing, that the faithful should not employ their tongue in evil speaking.

It was indeed needful that this vice should be condemned, when the subject was the keeping of the law; for they who have put off the grosser vices, are especially subject to this disease. He who is neither an adulterer, nor a thief, nor a drunkard, but, on the contrary, seems brilliant with some outward shew of sanctity will set himself off by defaming others, and this under the pretense of zeal, but really through the lust of slandering.

The object here, then, was to distinguish between the true worshippers of God and hypocrites, who are so swollen with Pharisaic pride, that they seek praise from the defects of others. If any one, he says, seems to be religious, that is, who has a show of sanctity, and the meantime flatters himself by speaking evil of others, it is hence evident that he does not truly serve God. For by saying that his religion is vain, he not only intimates that other virtues are marred by the stain of evil-speaking, but that the conclusion is, that the zeal for religion which appears is not sincere.

But deceiveth his own heart. I do not approve of the version of Erasmus — “But suffers his heart to err;” for he points out the fountain of that arrogance to which hypocrites are addicted, through which, being blinded by an immoderate love of themselves, they believe themselves to be far better than they really are; and hence, no doubt, is the disease of slandering, because the wallet, as Aesop says in his Apologue, hanging behind, is not seen. Rightly, then, has James, wishing to remove the effect, that is, the lust of evil-speaking, added the cause, even that hypocrites flatter themselves immoderately. For they would be ready to forgive were they in their turn to acknowledge themselves to be in need of forgiveness. Hence the flatteries by which they deceive themselves as to their own vices, make them such supercilious censors of others.

Calvin: Jam 1:27

27.Pure religion. As he passes by those things which are of the greatest moment in religion, he does not define generally what religion is, but reminds us that religion without the things he mentions is nothing; as when one given to wine and gluttony boasts that he is temperate, and another should object, and say that the temperate man is he who does not indulge in excess as to wine or eating; his object is not to express the whole of what temperance is, but to refer only to one thing, suitable to the subject in hand. For they are in vain religious of whom he speaks, as they are for the most part trifling pretenders.

James then teaches us that religion is not to be estimated by the pomp of ceremonies; but that there are important duties to which the servants of God ought to attend.

To visit in necessity is to extend a helping hand to alleviate such as are in distress. And as there are many others whom the Lord bids us to succor, in mentioning widows and orphans, he states a part for the whole. There is then no doubt but that under one particular thing he recommends to us every act of love, as though he had said, “Let him who would be deemed religious, prove himself to be such by self denial and by mercy and benevolence towards his neighbors.”

And he says, before God, to intimate that it appears in deed otherwise to men, who are led astray by external masks, but that we ought to seek what pleases him. By God and Father, we are to understand God who is a father.

Defender: Jam 1:12

On the "crown of life," see Rev 2:10, where persecuted overcomers in Smyrna-type churches are also promised "the crown of life.""

Defender: Jam 1:13

Since Jesus was God, and did not cease being God when He also became man, this statement assures us that Jesus not only did not sin, but also that He could not sin."

Defender: Jam 1:15

The word used for "finished" (Greek apoteleo) occurs only here. It is an emphatic word, implying an ultimate and final consummation. Thus sin, if allowed to continue without repentance and redemption, must result in eternal and irrevocable spiritual death."

Defender: Jam 1:17

God's first recorded words were "Let there be light" (Gen 1:3). He is the "Father of lights," but He did not create light, for "God is light" (1Jo 1:5) and is "dwelling in the light" (1Ti 6:16). In fact, He had to "create darkness" but only had to "form the light" (Isa 45:7). Scientifically speaking, as far as the physical creation is concerned, all matter is essentially energy in motion, and light is the most basic form of energy.

Defender: Jam 1:17

This attribute of the Father of lights - that is, no variableness - is suggested by the most basic and universal law of science, the law of conservation of energy. God can "form the light" into many different kinds of energy, but the total quantity is conserved, neither being augmented by creation nor decreased by annihilation. "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it" (Ecc 3:14).

Defender: Jam 1:17

The word "turning" is from the Greek trope. When combined with the Greek for "in" (that is, en), it becomes entrope, which means in the Greek "confusion" or "shame." We get our English word entropy from this source, which thus literally means "in-turning." In science, any system which turns in on itself, without drawing on external sources of energy or information (in other words, a closed system), will experience an increase of entropy, or disorganization. This is, so far as all evidence goes, a universal principle of science and seems to reflect God's primeval curse on "the whole creation" (Rom 8:22). That is, even though all things are being conserved in quantity by God, they are deteriorating in quality, running down toward physical chaos and biological death. But God Himself, who imposed these laws on His creation, is not bound by them. There is not even a "shadow of turning" with Him."

Defender: Jam 1:18

We are "born again" through the incorruptible "word of God" (1Pe 1:23; note also Jam 1:21; Eph 5:25, Eph 5:26).

Defender: Jam 1:18

Christ is, Himself, the "firstfruits" from among the dead (1Co 15:20, 1Co 15:23), but among His creatures, we are His firstfruits. There may be also a suggestion here, since James was writing specifically to and about Jewish believers in Christ, that these were considered His firstfruits, with Gentiles coming later. Even Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, agreed that the gospel should be preached "to the Jew first" (Rom 1:16)."

Defender: Jam 1:21

Instead of "superfluity of naughtiness," read "abundance of wickedness."

Defender: Jam 1:21

This is the only occurrence of the word; the basic meaning is probably "implanted.""

Defender: Jam 1:23

The Word of God is like a mirror which enables us to see ourselves as we are (Jam 1:25; 1Co 13:12; 2Co 3:18)."

TSK: Jam 1:11

risen : Isa 49:10; Jon 4:7, Jon 4:8; Mat 13:6; Mar 4:6

so : Jam 5:1-7; Job 21:24-30; Psa 37:35, Psa 37:36, Psa 49:6-14, Psa 73:18-20; Ecc 5:15; Isa 28:1, Isa 28:4, Isa 40:7, Isa 40:8; Luk 12:16-21, Luk 16:19-25; 1Co 7:31; 1Pe 1:4, 1Pe 5:4

TSK: Jam 1:12

the man : Jam 1:2-4, Jam 5:11; Job 5:17; Psa 94:12, Psa 119:67, Psa 119:71, Psa 119:75; Pro 3:11, Pro 3:12; Heb 6:15; Heb 10:32, Heb 12:5; Rev 3:19

when : Deu 8:2, Deu 13:3; Pro 17:3; Zec 13:9; Mal 3:2, Mal 3:3; Heb 11:17; 1Pe 1:6, 1Pe 1:7; 1Pe 5:10

the crown : Mat 25:34; Luk 22:28-30; Rom 2:7-10; 1Co 9:25; 2Ti 4:8; 1Pe 1:7, 1Pe 4:13; 1Pe 5:4; Rev 2:10, Rev 3:21

which : Jam 2:5; Isa 64:4; Mat 10:22, Mat 19:28, Mat 19:29

them : Jam 2:5; Exo 20:6; Deu 7:9; Neh 1:5; Psa 5:11; Rom 8:28; 1Co 2:9, 1Co 8:3; 1Pe 1:8; 1Jo 4:19

TSK: Jam 1:13

no man : Jam 1:2, Jam 1:12; Gen 3:12; Isa 63:17; Hab 2:12, Hab 2:13; Rom 9:19, Rom 9:20,

evil : or, evils

TSK: Jam 1:14

when : Jam 4:1, Jam 4:2; Gen 6:5, Gen 8:21; Jos 7:21-24; 2Sa 11:2, 2Sa 11:3; 1Ki 21:2-4; Job 31:9; Job 31:27; Pro 4:23; Isa 44:20; Hos 13:9; Mat 5:28, Mat 15:18, Mat 15:20; Mar 7:21; Mar 7:22; Rom 7:11, Rom 7:13; Eph 4:22; Heb 3:13

TSK: Jam 1:15

when : Gen 3:6, Gen 4:5-8; Job 15:35; Psa 7:14; Isa 59:4; Mic 2:1-3; Mat 26:14, Mat 26:48-59; Act 5:1-3

when : Gen 2:17, Gen 3:17-19; Psa 9:17; Rom 5:12-21, Rom 6:21-23; Rev 20:14, Rev 20:15

TSK: Jam 1:16

Do : Mat 22:29; Mar 12:24, Mar 12:27; Gal 6:7; Col 2:4, Col 2:8; 2Ti 2:18

my : Jam 1:19, Jam 2:5; Phi 2:12, Phi 4:1; Heb 13:1

TSK: Jam 1:17

good : Jam 1:5, Jam 3:15, Jam 3:17; Gen 41:16, Gen 41:38, Gen 41:39; Exo 4:11, Exo 4:12, Exo 31:3-6, Exo 36:1, Exo 36:2; Num 11:17, Num 11:25; 1Ch 22:12, 1Ch 29:19; 2Ch 1:11, 2Ch 1:12; Pro 2:6; Isa 28:26; Dan 2:21, Dan 2:22, Dan 2:27-30; Mat 7:11, Mat 11:25, Mat 11:26, Mat 13:11, Mat 13:12; Luk 11:13; Joh 3:27; Act 5:31, Act 11:18; Rom 6:23, Rom 11:30, Rom 12:6-8; 1Co 4:7, 1Co 12:4-12; Eph 2:3-5, Eph 2:8, Eph 4:8-11; Phi 1:29; Tit 3:3-5; 1Jo 4:10, 1Jo 5:11, 1Jo 5:12

from the : Gen 1:2-5, Gen 1:14, Gen 1:15; Deu 4:19; Psa 19:1-8, Psa 84:11; Isa 45:7, Isa 60:19; Joh 1:9; Joh 8:12; 2Co 4:6; Eph 1:18; 1Jo 1:5; Rev 21:23, Rev 22:5

no variableness : Num 23:19; 1Sa 15:29; Psa 122:6; Isa 46:10; Mal 3:6; Rom 11:29; Heb 1:11, Heb 1:12, Heb 13:8

TSK: Jam 1:18

his own : Joh 1:13, Joh 3:3-5; Rom 4:17, Rom 8:29-31, Rom 9:15-18; Eph 2:4, Eph 2:5; Col 1:20,Col 1:21; 2Th 2:13, 2Th 2:14; 1Pe 1:3, 1Pe 1:23

with : Jam 1:21; 1Co 4:15; Eph 1:12; 1Pe 1:23; 1Jo 3:9

kind : Lev 23:10; Jer 2:3; Amo 6:1 *marg. Heb 12:23; Rev 14:4

TSK: Jam 1:19

let : Neh 8:2, Neh 8:3, Neh 8:12-14, Neh 8:18, Neh 9:3; Pro 8:32-35; Ecc 5:1; Mar 2:2, Mar 12:37; Luk 15:1; Luk 19:48; Act 2:42, Act 10:33, Act 13:42-44, Act 13:48, Act 17:11; 1Th 2:13

slow to speak : Jam 1:26, Jam 3:1, Jam 3:2; Pro 10:19, Pro 13:3, Pro 15:2, Pro 17:27, Pro 18:13, Pro 18:21, Pro 21:23; Ecc 5:2, Ecc 5:3

slow to wrath : Neh 9:17; Pro 14:17, Pro 14:29, Pro 15:18, Pro 16:32, Pro 17:14, Pro 19:11, Pro 19:19, Pro 25:28; Ecc 7:8, Ecc 7:9; Mat 5:22; Gal 5:20,Gal 5:21; Eph 4:26, Eph 4:31; Col 3:8, Col 3:15

TSK: Jam 1:20

Jam 3:17, Jam 3:18; Num 20:11, Num 20:12; 2Ti 2:24, 2Ti 2:25

TSK: Jam 1:21

lay : Isa 2:20, Isa 30:22; Eze 18:31; Rom 13:12, Rom 13:13; Eph 4:22; Col 3:5-8; Heb 12:1; 1Pe 2:1, 1Pe 2:11

filthiness : Jam 4:8; Eze 36:25; 2Co 7:1; Eph 5:4

and receive : Psa 25:9; Isa 29:19, Isa 61:1; Zep 2:3; Mat 5:5; Act 10:33; 1Th 1:5, 1Th 2:13

the engrafted : Joh 6:63, Joh 6:68; Rom 6:17 *marg. Rom 11:17; Heb 4:2

which : Act 13:26; Rom 1:16; 1Co 15:2; Eph 1:13; 2Ti 3:15-17; Tit 2:11; Heb 2:3; 1Pe 1:9

TSK: Jam 1:22

be : Jam 4:17; Mat 7:21-25, Mat 12:50, Mat 28:20; Luk 6:46-48, Luk 11:28, Luk 12:47, Luk 12:48; Joh 13:17; Rom 2:13; Phi 4:8; Col 3:17; 1Jo 2:3, 1Jo 3:7; 3Jo 1:11; Rev 22:7

deceiving : Jam 1:26; Isa 44:20; Oba 1:3; 1Co 3:18, 1Co 6:9, 1Co 15:33; Gal 6:3, Gal 6:7; 2Ti 3:13; Tit 3:3; 2Pe 2:13; 1Jo 1:8; Rev 12:9

TSK: Jam 1:23

Jam 2:14-26; Jer 44:16; Eze 33:31, Eze 33:32; Mat 7:26, Mat 7:27; Luke 6:47-7:16

TSK: Jam 1:24

what : Jdg 8:18; Mat 8:27; Luk 1:66, Luk 7:39; 1Th 1:5; 2Pe 3:11

TSK: Jam 1:25

looketh : Pro 14:15; Isa 8:20; 2Co 13:5; Heb 12:15

the perfect : Jam 2:12; Psa 19:7-10, Psa 119:32, Psa 119:45, Psa 119:96-105; Rom 7:12, Rom 7:22, Rom 7:23

liberty : Joh 8:32, Joh 8:36; Rom 8:15; 2Co 3:17, 2Co 3:18; Gal 5:1; 1Pe 2:16

and : 1Sa 12:14; Joh 8:31, Joh 15:9, Joh 15:10; Act 2:42, Act 13:43, Act 26:22; Rom 2:7, Rom 2:8, Rom 11:22; Col 1:23; 1Ti 2:15, 1Ti 4:16; 1Jo 2:24

a forgetful : Jam 1:23, Jam 1:24

this : Psa 19:11, Psa 106:3, Psa 119:2, Psa 119:3; Luk 6:47-49, Luk 11:28; Joh 13:17; 1Co 15:58; Rev 14:13, Rev 22:14

deed : or, doing

TSK: Jam 1:26

seem : Pro 14:12, Pro 16:25; Luk 8:18; 1Co 3:18; Gal 2:6, Gal 2:9, Gal 6:3

bridleth : Jam 1:19, Jam 3:2-6; Psa 32:9, Psa 34:13, Psa 39:1, Psa 39:2, Psa 141:3; Pro 10:19, Pro 10:31, Pro 13:2, Pro 13:3, Pro 15:2; Pro 16:10, Pro 19:1, Pro 21:26; Eph 4:29, Eph 5:4; Col 4:6; 1Pe 3:10

but : Jam 1:22; Deu 11:16; Isa 44:20; Gal 6:3

this : Jam 2:20; Isa 1:13; Mal 3:14; Mat 15:9; Mar 7:7; 1Co 15:2, 1Co 15:15; Gal 3:4

TSK: Jam 1:27

Pure : Jam 3:17; Psa 119:1; Mat 5:8; Luk 1:6; 1Ti 1:5, 1Ti 5:4

To visit : Job 29:12, Job 29:13, Job 31:15-20; Psa 68:5; Isa 1:16, Isa 1:17, Isa 58:6, Isa 58:7; Mat 25:34-46; Gal 5:6, Gal 6:9, Gal 6:10; 1Jo 3:17-19

to keep : Jam 4:4; Joh 17:14, Joh 17:15; Rom 12:2; Gal 1:4, Gal 6:14; Col 3:1-3; 1Jo 2:15-17; 1Jo 5:4, 1Jo 5:5, 1Jo 5:18

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Jam 1:11

For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat - Isaiah Isa 40:7 employs the word "wind,"referring to a burning wind that dries up the flowers. It is probable that the apostle also refers not so much to the sun itself, as to the hot and fiery wind called the simoom, which often rises with the sun, and which consumes the green herbage of the fields. So Rosenmuller and Bloomfield interpret it.

It withereth the grass - Isa 40:7. It withereth the stalk, or that which, when dried, produces hay or fodder - the word here used being commonly employed in the latter sense. The meaning is, that the effect of the hot wind is to wither the stalk or spire which supports the flower, and when that is dried up, the flower itself falls. This idea will give increased beauty and appropriateness to the figure - that man himself is blasted and withered, and then that all the external splendor which encircled him falls to the ground, like a flower whose support is gone.

And the grace of the fashion of it perisheth - Its beauty disappears.

So shall the rich man fade away in his ways - That is, his splendor, and all on which he prideth himself, shall vanish. The phrase "in his ways,"according to Rosenmuller, refers to his counsels, his plans, his purposes; and the meaning is, that the rich man, with all by which he is known, shall vanish. A man’ s "ways,"that is, his mode of life, or those things by which he appears before the world, may have somewhat the same relation to him which the flower has to the stalk on which it grows, and by which it is sustained. The idea of James seems to be, that as it was indisputable that the rich man must soon disappear, with all that he had of pomp and splendor in the view of the world, it was well for him to be reminded of it by every change of condition; and that he should therefore rejoice in the providential dispensation by which his property would be taken away, and by which the reality of his religion would be tested. We should rejoice in anything by which it can be shown whether we are prepared for heaven or not.

Barnes: Jam 1:12

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation - The apostle seems here to use the word "temptation"in the most general sense, as denoting anything that will try the reality of religion, whether affliction, or persecution, or a direct inducement to sin placed before the mind. The word temptation appears in this chapter to be used in two senses; and the question may arise, why the apostle so employs it. Compare Jam 1:2, Jam 1:13. But, in fact, the word "temptation"is in itself of so general a character as to cover the whole usage, and to justify the manner in which it is employed. It denotes anything that will try or test the reality of our religion; and it may be applied, therefore, either to afflictions or to direct solicitations to sin - the latter being the sense in which it is now commonly employed. In another respect, also, essentially the same idea enters into both the ways in which the word is employed.

Affliction, persecution, sickness, etc., may be regarded as, in a certain sense, temptations to sin; that is, the question comes before us whether we will adhere to the religion on account of which we are persecuted, or apostatize from it, and escape these sufferings; whether in sickness and losses we will be patient and submissive to that God who lays his hand upon us, or revolt and murmur. In each and every case, whether by affliction, or by direct allurements to do wrong, the question comes before the mind whether we have religion enough to keep us, or whether we will yield to murmuring, to rebellion, and to sin. In these respects, in a general sense, all forms of trial may be regarded as temptation. Yet in the following verse Jam 1:13 the apostle would guard this from abuse. So far as the form of trial involved an allurement or inducement to sin, he says that no man should regard it as from God. That cannot be his design. The trial is what he aims at, not the sin. In the verse before us he says, that whatever may be the form of the trial, a Christian should rejoice in it, for it will furnish an evidence that he is a child of God.

For when he is tried - In any way - if he bears the trial.

He shall receive the crown of life - See the notes at 2Ti 4:8. It is possible that James had that passage in his eye Compare the Introduction, 5.

Which the Lord hath promised - The sacred writers often speak of such a crown as promised, or as in reserve for the children of God. 2Ti 4:8; 1Pe 5:4; Rev 2:10; Rev 3:11; Rev 4:4.

Them that love him - A common expression to denote those who are truly pious, or who are his friends. It is sufficiently distinctive to characterize them, for the great mass of men do not love God. Compare Rom 1:30.

Barnes: Jam 1:13

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God - See the remarks on the previous verse. The apostle here seems to have had his eye on whatever there was in trial of any kind to induce us to commit sin - whether by complaining, by murmuring, by apostacy, or by yielding to sin. So far as that was concerned, he said that no one should charge it on God. He did nothing in any way with a view to induce men to do evil. That was only an incidental thing in the trial, and was no part of the divine purpose or design. The apostle felt evidently that there was great danger, from the general manner in which the word "temptation"was used, and from the perverse tendency of the heart, that it would be charged on God that he so arranged these trials, and so influenced the mind, as to present inducements to sin. Against this, it was proper that an inspired apostle should bear his solemn testimony; so to guard the whole subject as to show that whatever there was in any form of trial that could be regarded as an inducement or allurement to sin, is not the thing which he contemplated in the arrangement, and does not proceed from him. It has its origin in other causes; and if there was nothing in the corrupt human mind itself leading to sin, there would be nothing in the divine arrangement that would produce it.

For God cannot be tempted with evil - Margin, "evils."The sense is the same. The object seems to be to show that, in regard to the whole matter of temptation, it does not pertain to God. Nothing can be presented to his mind as an inducement to do wrong, and as little can he present anything to the mind of man to induce him to sin. Temptation is a subject which does not pertain to him. He stands aloof from it altogether. In regard to the particular statement here, that "God cannot be tempted with evil,"or to do evil, there can be no doubt of its truth, and it furnishes the highest security for the welfare of the universe. There is nothing in him that has a tendency to wrong; there can be nothing presented from without to induce him to do wrong:

(1)    There is no evil passion to be gratified, as there is in men;

(2)    There is no want of power, so that an allurement could be presented to seek what he has not;

(3)    There is no want of wealth, for he has infinite resources, and all that there is or can be is his Psa 50:10-11;

(4)    There is no want of happiness, that he should seek happiness in sources which are not now in his possession. Nothing, therefore, could be presented to the divine mind as an inducement to do evil.

Neither tempteth he any man - That is, he places nothing before any human being with a view to induce him to do wrong. This is one of the most positive and unambiguous of all the declarations in the Bible, and one of the most important. It may be added, that it is one which stands in opposition to as many feelings of the human heart as perhaps any other one. We are perpetually thinking - the heart suggests it constantly - that God does place before us inducements to evil, with a view to lead us to sin. This is done in many ways:

(a)    People take such views of his decrees as if the doctrine implied that he meant that we should sin, and that it could not be otherwise than that we should sin.

(b)    It is felt that all things are under his control, and that he has made his arrangements with a design that men should do as they actually do.

©    It is said that he has created us with just such dispositions as we actually have, and knowing that we would sin.

(d)    It is said that, by the arrangements of his Providence, he actually places inducements before us to sin, knowing that the effect will be that we will fall into sin, when we might easily have prevented it.

(e)    It is said that he suffers some to tempt others, when he might easily prevent it if he chose, and that this is the same as tempting them himself.

Now, in regard to these things, there may be much which we cannot explain, and much which often troubles the heart even of the good; yet the passage before us is explicit on one point, and all these things must be held in consistency with that - that God does not place inducements before us with a view that we should sin, or in order to lead us into sin. None of his decrees, or his arrangements, or his desires, are based on that, but all have some other purpose and end. The real force of temptation is to be traced to some other source - to ourselves, and not to God. See the next verse.

Barnes: Jam 1:14

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust - That is, the fountain or source of all temptation is in man himself. It is true that external inducements to sin may be placed before him, but they would have no force if there was not something in himself to which they corresponded, and over which they might have power. There must be some "lust;"some desire; some inclination; something which is unsatisfied now, which is made the foundation of the temptation, and which gives it all its power. If there were no capacity for receiving food, or desire for it, objects placed before us appealing to the appetite could never be made a source of temptation; if there were nothing in the soul which could be regarded as the love of acquisition or possession, gold would furnish no temptation; if there were no sensual propensities, we should be in that quarter above the power of temptation.

In each case, and in every form, the power of the temptation is laid in some propensity of our nature, some desire of that which we do not now possess. The word rendered "lust"in this place ( ἐπιθυμίας epithumias ), is not employed here in the narrow sense in which it is now commonly used, as denoting libidinousness. It means desire in general; an earnest wish for anything. Notes, Eph 4:22. It seems here to be used with reference to the original propensities of our nature - the desires implanted in us, which are a stimulus to employment - as the desire of knowledge, of food, of power, of sensual gratifications; and the idea is, that a man may be drawn along by these beyond the prescribed limits of indulgence, and in the pursuit of objects that are forbidden. He does not stop at the point at which the law requires him to stop, and is therefore guilty of transgression. This is the source of all sin. The original propensity may not be wrong, but may be perfectly harmless - as in the case of the desire of food, etc. Nay, it may furnish a most desirable stimulus to action; for how could the human powers be called forth, if it were not for this? The error, the fault, the sin, is, not restraining the indulgence where we are commanded to do it, either in regard to the objects sought, or in regard to the degree of indulgence.

And enticed - Entrapped, caught; that is, he is seized by this power, and held fast; or he is led along and beguiled, until he falls into sin, as in a snare that springs suddenly upon him.

Επιθυμια Epithumia in the New Testament, is sometimes employed in a good sense, Luk 22:15; Phi 1:23; 1Th 2:17; often in a bad sense, as in Mar 4:19; Joh 8:44; Rom 1:24; Rom 6:12; Rom 7:7; 1Jo 2:16; but there is no difficulty in making the distinction; the context easily determining the matter. And this passage in James seems at once to fix down on επιθυμιας epithumias the sense of evil or corrupt desire. That it can mean a "harmless propensity;"or that it is a propensity on whose character the apostle does not at all pronounce, is incredible. It is said to "draw away a man and entice him;"to "conceive and bring forth sin:"and a principle from which such fruit springs cannot be very harmless. Without doubt, the apostle traces the whole evil of temptation, which some falsely ascribed to God, to the sinful desires of the human heart; and, as our author remarks, he seems to take the common sense view without entertaining any thought of nice philosophical distinction. We cannot for a moment suppose the apostle to say - "the evil is not to be traced to God, but to a harmless propensity."

The whole passage, with the words and figures which are used, show that the idea in the apostle’ s mind was that of an enticing harlot. The επιθυμια epithumia is personified. She persuades the understanding and will into her impure embrace. The result of this fatal union is the "conception"and ultimate "bringing forth"of actual sin, which again brings forth death. This is the true genealogy of sin (McKnight); and to say that the επιθυμια epithumia , or evil desire, of which the apostle says that it is the "origo mali ,"is harmless, - is to contradict him, and Paul also, who in a parallel passage says that he had not known the επιθυμια epithumia , or inward desire after forbidden objects, to be sinful, unless the law had enlightened him and said "thou shalt not covet."Mr. Scott has spoken in strong terms of the folly of some parties who understand επιθυμια epithumia . Here only of the desire of sensual gross indulgence, to the exclusion of other sinful desires; but the extreme of interpreting it as meaning nothing sinful at all, deserves equal reprehension. The reader, however, will notice that the author does not venture on this assertion. He says "it may be so,"and otherwise modifies his view.)

Barnes: Jam 1:15

Then when lust hath conceived - Compare Job 15:35. The allusion here is obvious. The meaning is, when the desire which we have naturally is quickened, or made to act, the result is that sin is produced. As our desires of good lie in the mind by nature, as our propensities exist as they were created, they cannot be regarded as sin, or treated as such; but when they are indulged, when plans of gratification are formed, when they are developed in actual life, the effect is sin. In the mere desire of good, of happiness, of food, of raiment, there is no sin; it becomes sin when indulged in an improper manner, and when it leads us to seek that which is forbidden - to invade the rights of others, or in any way to violate the laws of God. The Rabbis have a metaphor which strongly expresses the general sense of this passage"- "Evil concupiscence is at the beginning like the thread of a spider’ s web; afterwards it is like a cart rope."Sanhedrin, fol. 99.

It bringeth forth sin - The result is sin - open, actual sin. When that which is conceived in the heart is matured, it is seen to be sin. The design of all this is to show that sin is not to be traced to God, but to man himself; and in order to this, the apostle says that there is enough in the heart of man to account for all actual sin, without supposing that it is caused by God. The solution which he gives is, that there are certain propensities in man which, when they are suffered to act themselves out, will account for all the sin in the world. In regard to those native propensities themselves, he does not say whether he regards them as sinful and blameworthy or not; and the probability is, that he did not design to enter into a formal examination, or to make a formal statement, of the nature of these propensities themselves. He looked at man as he is as a creature of God - as endowed with certain animal propensities - as seen, in fact, to have strong passions by nature; and he showed that there was enough in him to account for the existence of sin, without bringing in the agency of God, or charging it on him.

In reference to those propensities, it may be observed that there are two kinds, either of which may account for the existence of sin, but which are frequently both combined. There are, first, our natural propensities; those which we have as men, as endowed with an animal nature, as having constitutional desires to be gratified, and wants to be supplied. Such Adam had in innocence; such the Saviour had; and such are to be regarded as in no respect in themselves sinful and wrong. Yet they may, in our case, as they did in Adam, lead us to sin, because, under their strong influence, we may be led to desire that which is forbidden, or which belongs to another. But there are, secondly, the propensities and inclinations which we have as the result of the fall, and which are evil in their nature and tendency; which as a matter of course, and especially when combined with the former, lead to open transgression. It is not always easy to separate these, and in fact they are often combined in producing the actual guilt of the world. It often requires a close analysis of a man’ s own mind to detect these different ingredients in his conduct, and the one often gets the credit of the other. The apostle James seems to have looked at it as a simple matter of fact, with a common sense view, by saying that there were "desires"( ἐπιθυμίας epithumias ) in a man’ s own mind which would account for all the actual sin in the world, without charging it on God. Of the truth of this, no one can entertain a doubt. - (See the supplementary note above at Jam 1:14.)

And sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death - The result of sin when it is fully carried out, is death - death in all forms. The idea is, that death, in whatever form it exists, is to be traced to sin, and that sin will naturally and regularly produce it. There is a strong similarity between this declaration and that of the apostle Paul Rom 6:21-23; and it is probable that James had that passage in his mind. See the sentiment illustrated in the notes at that passage, and Rom 5:12 note. Any one who indulges in a sinful thought or corrupt desire, should reflect that it may end in death - death temporal and eternal. Its natural tendency will be to produce such a death. This reflection should induce us to check an evil thought or desire at the beginning. Not for one moment should we indulge in it, for soon it may secure the mastery and be beyond our control; and the end may be seen in the grave, and the awful world of woe.

Barnes: Jam 1:16

Do not err, my beloved brethren - This is said as if there were great danger of error in the point under consideration. The point on which he would guard them, seems to have been in respect to the opinion that God was the author of sin, and that the evils in the world are to be traced to him. There was great danger that they would embrace that opinion, for experience has shown that it is a danger into which men are always prone to fall. Some of the sources of this danger have been already alluded to. Notes, Jam 1:13. To meet the danger he says that, so far is it from being true that God is the source of evil, he is in fact the author of all that is good: every good gift, and every perfect gift Jam 1:17, is from him, Jam 1:18.

Barnes: Jam 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift - The difference between good and perfect here, it is not easy to mark accurately. It may be that the former means that which is benevolent in its character and tendency; the latter that which is entire, where there is nothing even apparently wanting to complete it; where it can be regarded as good as a whole and in all its parts. The general sense is, that God is the author of all good. Every thing that is good on the earth we are to trace to him; evil has another origin. Compare Mat 13:28.

Is from above - From God, who is often represented as dwelling above - in heaven.

And cometh down from the Father of lights - From God, the source and fountain of all light. Light, in the Scriptures, is the emblem ot knowledge, purity, happiness; and God is often represented as light. Compare 1Jo 1:5. Notes, 1Ti 6:16. There is, doubtless, an allusion here to the heavenly bodies, among which the sun is the most brilliant. It appears to us to be the great original fountain of light, diffusing its radiance overall worlds. No cloud, no darkness seems to come from the sun, but it pours its rich effulgence on the farthest part of the universe. So it is with God. There is no darkness in him 1Jo 1:5; and all the moral light and purity which there is in the universe is to be traced to him. The word Father here is used in a sense which is common in Hebrew (Compare the notes at Mat 1:1) as denoting that which is the source of anything, or that from which anything proceeds. Compare the notes at Isa 9:6.

With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning - The design here is clearly to contrast God with the sun in a certain respect. As the source of light, there is a strong resemblance. But in the sun there are certain changes. It does not shine on all parts of the earth at the same time, nor in the same manner all the year. It rises and sets; it crosses the line, and seems to go far to the south, and sends its rays obliquely on the earth; then it ascends to the north, recrosses the line, and sends its rays obliquely on southern regions. By its revolutions it produces the changes of the seasons, and makes a constant variety on the earth in the productions of different climes. In this respect God is not indeed like the sun. With him there is no variableness, not even the appearance of turning. He is always the same, at all seasons of the year, and in all ages; there is no change in his character, his mode of being, his purposes and plans. What he was millions of ages before the worlds were made, he is now; what he is now, he will be countless millions of ages hence. We may be sure that whatever changes there may be in human affairs; whatever reverses we may undergo; whatever oceans we may cross, or whatever mountains we may climb, or in whatever worlds we may hereafter take up our abode, God is the same. The word which is here rendered "variableness"( παραλλαγὴ parallagē ) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means change, alteration, vicissitude, and would properly be applied to the changes observed in astronomy. See the examples quoted in Wetstein. The phrase rendered "shadow of turning"would properly refer to the different shade or shadow cast by the sun from an object, in its various revolutions, in rising and setting, and in its changes at the different seasons of the year. God, on the other hand, is as if the sun stood in the meridian at noon-day, and never cast any shadow.

Barnes: Jam 1:18

Of his own will - Greek "willing." βουληθεὶς boulētheis . The idea is, that the fact that we are "begotten"to be his children is to be traced solely to his will. He purposed it, and it was done. The antecedent in the case on which all depended was the sovereign will of God. See this sentiment explained in the notes at Joh 1:13. Compare the notes at Eph 1:5. When it is said, however, that he has done this by his mere will, it is not to be inferred that there was no reason why it should be done, or that the exercise of his will was arbitrary, but only that his will determined the matter, and that is the cause of our conversion. It is not to be inferred that there are not in all cases good reasons why God wills as he does, though those reasons are not often stated to us, and perhaps we could not comprehend them if they were. The object of the statement here seems to be to direct the mind up to God as the source of good and not evil; and among the most eminent illustrations of his goodness is this, that by his mere will, without any external power to control him, and where there could be nothing but benevolence, he has adopted us into his family, and given us a most exalted condition, as renovated beings, among his creatures.

Begat he us - The Greek word here is the same which in Jam 1:15 is rendered "bringeth forth,"- "sin bringeth forth death."The word is perhaps designedly used here in contrast with that, and the object is to refer to a different kind of production, or bringing forth, under the agency of sin, and the agency of God. The meaning here is, that we owe the beginning of our spiritual life to God.

With the word of truth - By the instrumentality of truth. It was not a mere creative act, but it was by truth as the seed or germ. There is no effect produced in our minds in regeneration which the truth is not fitted to produce, and the agency of God in the case is to secure its fair and full influence on the soul.

That we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures - Compare Eph 1:12. For the meaning of the word rendered "first-fruits,"see the note at Rom 8:23. Compare Rom 11:6; Rom 16:5; 1Co 15:20, 1Co 15:23; 1Co 16:15; Rev 14:4. It does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament It denotes, properly, that which is first taken from anything; the portion which was usually offered to God. The phrase here does not primarily denote eminence in honor or degree, but refers rather to time - the first in time; and in a secondary sense it is then used to denote the honor attached to that circumstance. The meaning here is, either.

(1)\caps1     t\caps0 hat, under the gospel, those who were addressed by the apostles had the honor of being first called into his kingdom as a part of that glorious harvest which it was designed to gather in this world, and that the goodness of God was manifested in thus furnishing the first-fruits of a most glorious harvest; or,

(2)\caps1     t\caps0 he reference may be to the rank and dignity which all who are born again would have among the creatures of God in virtue of the new birth.

Barnes: Jam 1:19

Wherefore, my beloved brethren - The connection is this: "since God is the only source of good; since he tempts no man; and since by his mere sovereign goodness, without any claim on our part, we have had the high honor conferred on us of being made the first-fruits of his creatures, we ought to be ready to hear his voice, to subdue all our evil passions, and to bring our souls to entire practical obedience."The necessity of obedience, or the doctrine that the gospel is not only to be learned but practiced, is pursued at length in this and the following chapter. The particular statement here Jam 1:19-21 is, that religion requires us to be meek and docile; to lay aside all irritability against the truth, and all pride of opinion, and all corruption of heart, and to receive meekly the ingrafted word. See the analysis of the chapter.

Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak - That is, primarily, to hear God; to listen to the instructions of that truth by which we have been begotten, and brought into so near relation to him. At the same time, though this is the primary sense of the phrase here, it may be regarded as inculcating the general doctrine that we are to be more ready to hear than to speak; or that we are to be disposed to learn always, and from any source. Our appropriate condition is rather that of learners than instructors; and the attitude of mind which we should cultivate is that of a readiness to receive information from any quarter. The ancients have some sayings on this subject which are well worthy of our attention. "Men have two ears, and but one tongue, that they should hear more than they speak.""The ears are always open, ever ready to receive instruction; but the tongue is surrounded with a double row of teeth, to hedge it in, and to keep it within proper bounds."See Benson. So Valerius Maximus, vii. 2.

"How noble was the response of Xenocrates! When he met the reproaches of others with a profound silence, someone asked him why he alone was silent. ‘ Because,’ says he, ‘ I have sometimes had occasion to regret that I have spoken, never that I was silent.’ "See Wetstein. So the son of Sirach, "Be swift to hear, and with deep consideration ( ἐν μακροθυμίᾳ en makrothumia ) give answer."So the Rabbis have some similar sentiments. "Talk little and work much."Pirkey Aboth. c. i. 15. "The righteous speak little and do much; the wicked speak much and do nothing."Bava Metsia, fol. 87. A sentiment similar to that before us is found in Ecc 5:2. "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God."So Pro 10:19. "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin."Pro 13:3. "He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life."Pro 15:2. "The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness."

Slow to wrath - That is, we are to govern and restrain our temper; we are not to give indulgence to excited and angry passions. Compare Pro 16:32, "He that is slow to anger is greater than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."See also on this subject, Job 5:2; Pro 11:17; Pro 13:10; Pro 14:16; Pro 15:18; Pro 19:19; Pro 22:24; Pro 25:28; Ecc 7:9; Rom 12:17; 1Th 5:14; 1Pe 3:8. The particular point here is, however, not that we should be slow to wrath as a general habit of mind, which is indeed most true, but in reference particularly to the reception of the truth. We should lay aside all anger and wrath, and should come to the investigation of truth with a calm mind, and an imperturbed spirit. A state of wrath or anger is always unfavorable to the investigation of truth. Such an investigation demands a calm spirit, and he whose mind is excited and enraged is not in a condition to see the value of truth, or to weigh the evidence for it.

Barnes: Jam 1:20

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God - Does not produce in the life that righteousness which God requires. Its tendency is not to incline us to keep the law, but to break it; not to induce us to embrace the truth, but the opposite. The meaning of this passage is not that our wrath will make God either more or less righteous; but that its tendency is not to produce that upright course of life, and love of truth, which God requires. A man is never sure of doing right under the influence of excited feelings; he may do that which is in the highest sense wrong, and which he will regret all his life. The particular meaning of this passage is, that wrath in the mind of man will not have any tendency to make him righteous. It is only that candid state of mind which will lead him to embrace the truth which can be hoped to have such an effect.

Barnes: Jam 1:21

Wherefore - In view of the fact that God has begotten us for his own service; in view of the fact that excited feeling tends only to wrong, let us lay aside all that is evil, and submit ourselves wholly to the influence of truth.

Lay apart all filthiness - The word here rendered filthiness, occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, It means properly filth; and then is applied to evil conduct considered as disgusting or offensive. Sin may be contemplated as a wrong thing; as a violation of law; as evil in its nature and tendency, and therefore to be avoided; or it may be contemplated as disgusting, offensive, loathsome. To a pure mind, this is one of its most odious characteristics; for, to such a mind, sin in any form is more loathsome than the most offensive object can be to any of the senses.

And superfluity of haughtiness - Literally, "abounding of evil."It is rendered by Doddridge, "overflowing of malignity;"by Tindal, "superfluity of maliciousness;"by Benson, "superfluity of malice;"by Bloomfield, "petulance."The phrase "superfluity of haughtiness,"or of evil, does not exactly express the sense, as if we were only to lay aside that which abounded, or which is superfluous, though we might retain that which does not come under this description; but the object of the apostle is to express his deep abhorrence of the thing referred to by strong and emphatic language. He had just spoken of sin in one aspect, as filthy, loathsome, detestable; here he designs to express his abhorrence of it by a still more emphatic description, and he speaks of it not merely as an evil, but as an evil abounding, overflowing; an evil in the highest degree. The thing referred to had the essence of evil in it ( κακία kakia ); but it was not merely evil, it was evil that was aggravated, that was overflowing, that was eminent in degree ( περισσείαν perisseian ). The particular reference in these passages is to the reception of the truth; and the doctrine taught is, that a corrupt mind, a mind full of sensuality and wickedness, is not favorable to the reception of the truth. It is not fitted to see its beauty, to appreciate its value, to understand its just claims, or to welcome it to the soul. Purity of heart is the best preparation always for seeing the force of truth.

And receive with meekness - That is, open the mind and heart to instruction, and to the fair influence of truth. Meekness, gentleness, docility, are everywhere required in receiving the instructions of religion, as they are in obtaining knowledge of any kind. See the notes at Mat 18:2-3.

The engrafted word - The gospel is here represented under the image of that which is implanted or engrafted from another source; by a figure that would be readily understood, for the art of engrafting is everywhere known. Sometimes the gospel is represented under the image of seed sown (Compare Mar 6:14, following); but here it is under the figure of a shoot implanted or engrafted, that produces fruit of its own, whatever may be the original character of the tree into which it is engrafted. Compare the notes at Rom 11:17. The meaning here is, that we should allow the principles of the gospel to be thus engrafted on our nature; that however crabbed or perverse our nature may be, or however bitter and vile the fruits which it might bring forth of its own accord, it might, through the engrafted word, produce the fruits of righteousness.

Which is able to save your souls - It is not, therefore, a weak and powerless thing, merely designed to show its own feebleness, and to give occasion for God to work a miracle; but it has power, and is adapted to save. Compare the notes at Rom 1:16; 1Co 1:18; 2Ti 3:15.

Barnes: Jam 1:22

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only - Obey the gospel, and do not merely listen to it. Compare Mat 7:21.

Deceiving your own selves - It is implied here, that by merely hearing the word but not doing it, they would deceive their own souls. The nature of this deception was this, that they would imagine that that was all which was required, whereas the main thing was that they should be obedient. If a man supposes that by a mere punctual attendance on preaching, or a respectful attention to it, he has done all that is required of him, he is laboring under a most gross self-deception. And yet there are multitudes who seem to imagine that they have done all that is demanded of them when they have heard attentively the word preached. Of its influence on their lives, and its claims to obedience, they are utterly regardless.

Barnes: Jam 1:23-24

For if any be ... - The ground of the comparison in these verses is obvious. The apostle refers to what all persons experience, the fact that we do not retain a distinct impression of ourselves after we have looked in a mirror. While actually looking in the mirror, we see all our features, and can trace them distinctly; when we turn away, the image and the impression both vanish. When looking in the mirror, we can see all the defects and blemishes of our person; if there is a scar, a deformity, a feature of ugliness, it is distinctly before the mind; but when we turn away, that is "out of sight and out of mind."When unseen it gives no uneasiness, and, even if capable of correction, we take no pains to remove it. So when we hear the word of God. It is like a mirror held up before us. In the perfect precepts of the law, and the perfect requirements of the gospel, we see our own short-comings and defects, and perhaps think that we will correct them. But we turn away immediately, and forget it all. If, however, we were doers of the word,"we should endeavor to remove all those defects and blemishes in our moral character, and to bring our whole souls into conformity with what the law and the gospel require. The phrase "natural face"(Greek: face of birth), means, the face or appearance which we have in virtue of our natural birth. The word glass here means mirror. Glass was not commonly used for mirrors among the ancients, but they were made of polished plates of metal. See the Isa 3:24 note, and Job 37:18 note.

Jam 1:24

For he beholdeth himself - While he looks in the mirror he sees his true appearance.

And goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth - As soon as he goes away, he forgets it. The apostle does not refer to any intention on his part, but to what is known to occur as a matter of fact.

What manner of than he was - How he looked; and especially if there was anything in his appearance that required correction.

Barnes: Jam 1:25

But whoso looketh - ( παρακύψας parakupsas ). This word means, to stoop down near by anything; to bend forward near, so as to look at anything more closely. See the word explained in the notes at 1Pe 1:12. The idea here is that of a close and attentive observation. The object is not to contrast the manner of looking in the glass, and in the law of liberty, implying that the former was a "careless beholding,"and the latter an attentive and careful looking, as Doddridge, Rosenmuller, Bloomfield, and others suppose; for the word used in the former case ( κατενόησε katanoēse ) implies intense or accurate observation, as really as the word used here; but the object is to show that if a man would attentively look into, and continue in the law of liberty, and not do as one who went away and forgot how he looked, he would be blessed. The emphasis is not in the manner of looking, it is on the duty of continuing or persevering in the observance of the law.

The perfect law of liberty - Referring to the law of God or his will, however made known, as the correct standard of conduct. It is called the perfect law, as being wholly free from all defects; being just such as a law ought to be. Compare Psa 19:7. It is called the law of liberty, or freedom because it is a law producing freedom from the servitude of sinful passions and lusts. Compare Psa 119:45; Notes, Rom 6:16-18.

And continueth therein - He must not merely look at the law, or see what he is by comparing himself with its requirements, but he must yield steady obedience to it. See the notes at Joh 14:21.

This man shall be blessed in his deed - Margin, doing. The meaning is, that he shall be blessed in the very act of keeping the law. It will produce peace of conscience; it will impart happiness of a high order to his mind; it will exert a good influence over his whole soul. Psa 19:11. "In keeping of them there is great reward."

Barnes: Jam 1:26

If any man among you seem to be religious - Pious, or devout. That is, if he does not restrain his tongue, his other evidences of religion are worthless. A man may undoubtedly have many things in his character which seem to be evidences of the existence of religion in his heart, and yet there may be some one thing that shall show that all those evidences are false. Religion is designed to produce an effect on our whole conduct; and if there is any one thing in reference to which it does not bring us under its control, that one thing may show that all other appearances of piety are worthless.

And bridleth not his tongue - Restrains or curbs it not, as a horse is restrained with a bridle. There may have been some reason why the apostle referred to this particular sin which is now unknown to us; or he may perhaps have intended to select this as a specimen to illustrate this idea, that if there is any one evil propensity which religion does not control, or if there is any one thing in respect to which its influence is not felt, whatever other evidences of piety there may be, this will demonstrate that all those appearances of religion are vain. For religion is designed to bring the whole man under control, and to subdue every faculty of the body and mind to its demands. If the tongue is not restrained, or if there is any unsubdued propensity to sin whatever, it proves that there is no true religion.

But deceiveth his own heart - Implying that he does deceive his heart by supposing that any evidence can prove that he is under the influence of religion if his tongue is unrestrained. Whatever love, or zeal, or orthodoxy, or gift in preaching or in prayer he may have, this one evil propensity will neutralize it all, and show that there is no true religion at heart.

This man’ s religion is vain - As all religion must be which does not control all the faculties of the body and the mind. The truths, then, which are taught in this verse are:

(1) That there may be evidences of piety which seem to be very plausible or clear, but which in themselves do not prove that there is any true religion. There may be much zeal, as in the case of the Pharisees; there may be much apparent love of Christians, or much outward benevolence; there may be an uncommon gift in prayer; there may be much self-denial, as among those who withdraw from the world in monasteries or nunneries; or there may have been deep conviction for sin, and much joy at the time of the supposed conversion, and still there be no true religion. Each and all of these things may exist in the heart where there is no true religion.

\caps1 (2) a\caps0 single unsubdued sinful propensity neutralizes all these things, and shows that there is no true religion. If the tongue is not subdued; if any sin is indulged, it will show that the seat of the evil has not been reached, and that the soul, as such, has never been brought into subjection to the law of God. For the very essence of all the sin that there was in the soul may have been concentrated on that one propensity. Everything else which may be manifested may be accounted for on the supposition that there is no religion; this cannot be accounted for on the supposition that there is any.

Barnes: Jam 1:27

Pure religion - On the word here rendered "religion"( θρησκεία thrēskeia ), see the notes at Col 2:18. It is used here evidently in the sense of piety, or as we commonly employ the word religion. The object of the apostle is to describe what enters essentially into religion; what it will do when it is properly and fairly developed. The phrase "pure religion"means that which is genuine and sincere, or which is free from any improper mixture.

And undefiled before God and the Father - That which God sees to be pure and undefiled. Rosenmuller supposes that there is a metaphor here taken from pearls or gems, which should be pure, or without stain.

Is this - That is, this enters into it; or this is religion such as God approves. The apostle does not say that this is the whole of religion, or that there is nothing else essential to it; but his general design clearly is, to show that religion will lead to a holy life, and he mentions this as a specimen, or an instance of what it will lead us to do. The things which he specifies here are in fact two:

(1)\caps1     t\caps0 hat pure religion will lead to a life of practical benevolence; and,

(2)\caps1     t\caps0 hat it will keep us unspotted from the world. If these things are found, they show that there is true piety. If they are not, there is none.

To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction - To go to see, to look after, to be ready to aid them. This is an instance or specimen of what true religion will do, showing that it will lead to a life of practical benevolence. It may be remarked in respect to this:

(1)\caps1     t\caps0 hat this has always been regarded as an essential thing in true religion; because

\tx720 \tx1080 (a) it is thus an imitation of God, who is "a father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows in his holy habitation,"Psa 68:5; and who has always revealed himself as their friend, Deu 10:18; Deu 14:29; Psa 10:14; Psa 82:3; Isa 1:17; Jer 7:7; Jer 49:11; Hos 14:3.

(b) Religion is represented as leading its friends to do this, or this is required everywhere of those who claim to be religious, Isa 1:17; Deu 24:17; Deu 14:29; Exo 22:22; Job 29:11-13.

(2)\caps1     w\caps0 here this disposition to be the real friend of the widow and the orphan exists, there will also exist other corresponding things which go to make up the religious character. This will not stand alone. It will show what the heart is, and prove that it will ever be ready to do good. If a man, from proper motives, is the real friend of the widow and the fatherless, he will be the friend of every good word and work, and we may rely on him in any and every way in doing good.

And to keep himself unspotted from the world - Compare the Rom 12:2 note; Jam 4:4 note; 1Jo 2:15-17 note. That is, religion will keep us from the maxims, vices, and corruptions which prevail in the world, and make us holy. These two things may, in fact, be said to constitute religion. If a man is truly benevolent, he bears the image of that God who is the fountain of benevolence; if he is pure and uncontaminated in his walk and deportment, he also resembles his Maker, for he is holy. If he has not these things, he cannot have any well-founded evidence that he is a Christian; for it is always the nature and tendency of religion to produce these things. It is, therefore, an easy matter for a man to determine whether he has any religion; and equally easy to see that religion is eminently desirable. Who can doubt that that is good which leads to compassion for the poor and the helpless, and which makes the heart and the life pure?

Poole: Jam 1:11

With a burning heat or, the scorching east wind, which in those countries was wont to rise with the sun, Jon 4:8 .

So also shall the rich man fade away either shall is here put for may, the future tense for the potential mood; and then the apostle doth not so much declare what always certainly stall be, as what easily may be, and frequently is, the prosperity of rich men not being always of so short continuance. Or, shall may be taken properly, as we read it; and then his is a general proposition, showing the mutable nature and short continuance of rich men and their riches, whose longest life is but short, and death, when it comes, strips them of their enjoyments: and though this frailty be common to all, yet he speaks of the rich especially, because they are so apt to hear themselves high upon their wealth, and put confidence in it, 1Ti 6:17 .

In his ways either in his journeyings and travels for his riches, or rather in his counsels, purposes, actions, Psa 146:4 .

Poole: Jam 1:12

Blessed is the man theft endureth holds out against the assaults and impressions of temptations with patience and constancy, Jam 5:11 Heb 12:5,7 .

Temptations afflictions, as Jam 1:2 .

For when he is tried approved, and found upon the trial to be sound in the faith: a metaphor taken from metals tried by fire, and found pure.

He shall receive the crown of life so the heavenly glory is called, Rev 2:10 , either because it is not to be had but in eternal life, or because of its duration and not fading away, 1Pe 5:4 .

Which the Lord hath promised: this shows on what gronnd it is to be expected, viz. on the account of the promise, and how sure we may be of it.

To them that love him i.e. all true believers, whose faith, and thereby title to the crown, is evidenced by love, which is the fulfilling of the law.

Objection. Why not, promised to them that suffer for Christ, of whom he here speaks?

Answer. That is implied, for none have him more, or evidence their love to him more, than they, that suffer for him.

Poole: Jam 1:13

Let no man say neither with his mouth, nor so much as in his heart, blasphemously cast the blame of his sins upon God, to clear himself.

When he is tempted so stirred up to sin as to be drawn to it.

I am tempted of God either solicited by God to sin, or enforced to it.

For God cannot be tempted with evil cannot be drawn aside to any thing that is unrighteous, by any motion from within, or impression from without.

Neither tempteth he any man doth no way seduce or enforce to sin, so as to be justly chargeable as the author of it.

Objection. God is said to be tempted, Exo 17:2,7 De 6:16 Psa 78:41 ; and to tempt, Gen 22:1 Deu 8:2 13:3 .

Answer. Both are to be understood of temptations of exploration, or for the discovery of something that was before hidden. Men tempt God, that they may know what he will do; God tempts men, that they (not he, for he knows it already) may know what themselves will do, which then appears, when the temptation draws it out; but neither is to be understood of the temptation here spoken of, viz. of seduction, or drawing into sin. God tempts by giving hard commands, Gen 22:1 ; by afflicting, as in Job’ s case; by letting loose Satan or other wicked instruments to tempt, 1Ki 22:22 ; by withholding his grace and deserting men, 1Sa 28:15 ; by presenting occasions which corruption within improves unto sin, and by ordering and governing the evil wills of men, as that a thief should steal out of this flock rather than that, that Nebuchadnezzar should come against Jerusalem rather than Rabbah, Eze 21:21,22 . But God doth not tempt by commanding, suggesting, soliciting, or persuading to sin.

Poole: Jam 1:14

He shows the great cause of sin; that lust hath a greater hand in it than either the devil or his instruments, who cannot make us sin without ourselves: they sometimes tempt, and do not prevail; but when lust tempts, it always prevails, either in whole or in part, it being a degree of sin to be our own tempters.

Drawn away either this notes a degree of sin, the heart’ s being drawn off from God; or the way whereby lust brings into sin, viz. the impetuousness and violence of its motions in us.

Of his own lust original corruption in its whole latitude, though chiefly with respect to the appetitive faculties.

And enticed either a further degree of sin, enticed by the pleasantness of the object, as represented by our own corruption; or another way of lust’ s working in us to sin, viz. by the delightfulness and pleasure of its motions: in the former it works by a kind of force, in this by flattery and deceit. It is either a metaphor taken from a fish enticed by a bait, and drawn after it, or rather from a harlot drawing a young man out of the right way, and alluring him with the bait of pleasure to commit folly with her.

Poole: Jam 1:15

Then when lust hath conceived lust (compared to a harlot) may be said to conceive, when the heart is pleased with the motion, and yields some consent to it.

It bringeth forth sin the birth of sin may be the complete consent of the will to it, or the outward act of it.

And sin actual sin, the fruit and product of original.

When it is finished sin is finished, when it is not only committed, but continued in, as the way and course of a man’ s life.

Bringeth forth death not only temporal, but eternal. Or we may thus take the order and progress of sin: the first indeliberate motion of lust, is the temptation or bait, which by its pleasantness enticeth, and by its vehemency draws the heart after it (as the harlot, Pro 7:21 , with the flattering of her lips forced the young man, telling him of the pleasure he should enjoy, Jam 1:14,16-18 , and then he goes after her, Jam 1:22 ); the heart’ s lingering about and being entangled with the delightful motion of lust, is its committing folly with it; when the full consent is joined, lust hath conceived; when the outward act is performed, sin is brought forth; and when sin is finished in a settled course, it brings forth death; which, though every sin do in the merit of it, yet sin only finished doth in the event.

Objection. Doth not this imply lust, and its first motions, not to be sin?

Answer. No: for;

1. The least motions of it are forbidden, Mat 5:28 Rom 7:7 .

2. It is contrary to the law and Spirit of God, Rom 7:23,25 Ga 5:16,17 .

3. It is the fountain of impurity, and therefore is itself impure, Job 14:4 Mat 7:15,16 Jas 3:11 .

4. Evil thoughts defile a man, Mat 15:19 Act 8:22 .

Objection. How is lust said here to bring forth sin, when, Rom 7:8 , sin is said to work lust?

Answer. James calls the corrupt principle itself lust, and the actings of it, sin; whereas Paul calls the same principle sin, and the actings of it lust. And so both are true, lust, as a root, brings forth the acts of sin as its fruits; and sin as a root, brings forth actual lusts, as its fruits.

Poole: Jam 1:16

Viz. in imputing your sins to God, and saying, that when you are tempted you are tempted of him.

Poole: Jam 1:17

Every good gift Greek, giving; and so it may be distinct from gift in the next clause; to show, that whereas men sometimes give good gifts in all evil way, and with an evil mind, God’ s giving, as well as gift, is always good; and therefore when we receive any thing of him, we should look not only to the thing itself, but to his bounty and goodness in giving it. Or, it may be rendered as our translators do, gift, and so the word is sometimes used by profane writer’ s themselves; and then, though it may be implied, that all good gifts, and of all kinds, of nature and of grace, are from God, yet the apostle’ s design in this place being to prove that God is not the author of sin, good gifts may most fairly be understood the best gifts, those of grace, (spiritual blessings, Eph 1:3 ), such being contrary to sin, and destructive of it, in one of which he instanceth, viz. regeneration, Jam 1:18 .

And every perfect gift the highest degree of good gifts, those that perfect us most; to intimate, that all the parts and steps of spiritual life, from the first beginning of grace in regeneration to the consummation of it in glory, are of God.

Is from above i.e. from heaven, Joh 3:27,31 ; and heaven is put for God that dwells there, Luk 15:21 .

And cometh down from the Father the Creator, Author, or First Cause, as Heb 12:9 ; it is spoken after the manner of the Hebrews: see Gen 4:20,21 .

Of lights God is the author of all perfection, and so of corporeal light; but here we are to understand spiritual light, the light of knowledge, faith, holiness, as opposed to the darkness of ignorance, unbelief, sin; of which he cannot be the author.

With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning: he here sets forth God as essentially and immutably good, and the Father of lights, by allusion to the sun, the fountain of corporeal light, and makes use of terms borrowed from astronomy. The sun, though it scattereth its beams every where, yet is not without its changes, parallaxes, and diversities of aspects, not only sometimes clear and sometimes eclipsed, but one while in the east, another in the south, then in the west; nor without its turnings in its annual course from tropic to tropic, (to which the Greek word here used seems to allude), its various accesses and recesses, by reason of which it casts different shadows: but God is always the same, like himself, constant in the emanations of his goodness, without casting any dark shadow of evil, which might infer a change in him.

Poole: Jam 1:18

Of his own will out of his mere good pleasure, as the original cause, and not moved to it by any dignity or merit in us, Eph 1:9 2Ti 1:9 .

Begat he us by a spiritual generation, whereby we are new born, and are made partakers of a Divine nature, Joh 1:13 1Pe 1:3,23 .

With the word of truth i.e. the word of the gospel, as the instrument or means whereby we are regenerated: why it is called

the word of truth see Eph 1:13 .

That we should be a kind of first-fruits i.e. most excellent creatures, being singled out and separated from the rest, and consecrated to God, as under the law the first-fruits were, Rev 14:4 .

Of his creatures viz. reasonable creatures; the word creature being elsewhere restrained to men: see Mar 16:15 Col 1:15 .

Poole: Jam 1:19

Let every man be swift to hear prompt and ready to hear God speaking in

the word of truth before mentioned.

Slow to speak either silently and submissively hear the word, or speak not rashly and precipitately of the things of faith, but be well furnished yourselves with spiritual knowledge, ere you take upon you to teach others.

Slow to wrath either, be not angry at the word, or the dispensers of it, though it come close to your consciences, and discover your secret sins; the word is salt, do not quarrel if it make your sores smart, being it will keep them from festering: or, be not angrily prejudiced against those that dissent from you.

For the wrath of man: that anger which is merely human, and generally sinful, inordinate passion and carnal zeal.

Worketh not the righteousness of God will not accomplish the ends of the word in you, viz. to work that righteousness which in the word God prescribes you. But here is withal a meiosis in the words, less being spoken than is intended; it is implied therefore, that the wrath of man hinders the operation of the word, and disposeth to that unrighteousness which is forbidden by it.

Poole: Jam 1:21

Wherefore lay apart not only restrain it, and keep it in; but put off, and throw it away as a filthy rag, Isa 30:22 : see Eph 4:22 Col 3:8 1Pe 2:1 .

All of every kind.

Filthiness or, sordidness; a metaphor borrowed from the filth of the body, 1Pe 3:21 , and thence transferred to the soul; and it here seems to imply, not only sensuality or covetousness, but all sorts of lusts, whereby men are defiled, 2Co 7:1 2Pe 2:20 .

And superfluity of naughtiness i.e. that naughtiness which is superfluous. That is said to be superfluous or redundant, which is more than should be in a thing; in which respect all sin is superfluous in the soul, as being that which should not be in it: and so this intimates that we are not only to lay apart more gross pollutions, but all the lusts of the flesh, and relics of old Adam, as being all superfluities which may well be spared, or excrements, (as some render the word, agreeably to the former metaphor), which should be cast away.

And receive not only into your heads by knowledge, but into your hearts by faith.

With meekness with humility, modesty, and gentleness, which makes men submissive to the truth of the word, and ready to learn of God even those things which are above their natural capacity, Psa 25:9 Isa 66:2 Mat 11:5,27 : this is opposed to wrath, which makes men unteachable.

The ingrafted word either which is ingrafted or implanted, viz. ministerially, by the preachers of the gospel, 1Co 3:6,7 ; principally by the Spirit of God, who writes it in the heart, Jer 31:33 . And thus it may be taken particularly for the word of the gospel, in opposition to the law, which came to men’ s ears from without, and admonished them of their duty, but was not written in their hearts, or ingrafted thereto from them unto obedience to it. Or, that it may be ingrafted, i.e. intimately united to, or rooted in, the heart by a vital union; or made natural to it, (as some render the word), the heart being transformed by the power of it, and conformed to the precepts of it, 2Co 3:18 Rom 6:17 .

Which viz. when received by faith, is able to save instrumentally, as being the means wherein God puts forth his power in saving them, Rev 1:16 .

Your souls yourselves; the soul, as the noblest part, is by a synecdoche put for the whole person: see 1Pe 1:9 .

Poole: Jam 1:22

But be ye doers of the word the same as doers of the work, Jam 1:25 , namely, which the word prescribes; q.d. Receive the word by faith into your hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in your lives: see Luk 11:28 Joh 13:17 .

And not hearers only not contenting yourselves with a bare hearing the word, though it have no influence upon you.

Deceiving your own selves playing the sophisters with, or putting a fallacy upon, yourselves; particularly, persuading yourselves into a good opinion of your state, merely because of your being hearers of the word, Mat 7:21 .

Poole: Jam 1:23

He is like unto a man: the Greek word here used, properly signifies the sex, not the species, but is indifferently used by this apostle with the other, as Jam 1:12,20 , so that by a man looking at his face in a glass, is meant any man or woman.

Beholding his natural face or, the face of his nativity, by a Hebraism, for natural face, as we translate it; i.e. his own face, that which nature gave him, or he was born with.

In a glass the word is here compared to a looking-glass: as the glass represents to us the features and complexions of our faces, whether beautiful or deformed; so the word shows us the true face of our souls, the beauty of God’ s image when restored to them, and the spots of sin which so greatly disfigure them.

Poole: Jam 1:24

The remembrance of what his face is vanisheth as soon as his eye is off the glass; he remembers not the spots he saw in his face, to wipe them off. So he that sees the blemishes of his soul in the glass of the word, and doth not remember them to do them away, looks in that glass (i.e. hears the word) in vain.

Poole: Jam 1:25

But whose looketh into viz. intently and earnestly, searching diligently into the mind of God. The word signifies a bowing down of the head to look into a thing; and is used of the disciples’ looking into Christ’ s sepulchre, Luk 24:12 Joh 20:5 ; see 1Pe 1:12 ; and seems to be opposed to looking into a glass, which is more slight, and without such prying and inquisitiveness.

The perfect law of liberty the whole doctrine of the Scripture, or especially the gospel, called law, Rom 3:27 , both as it is a rule, and by reason of the power it hath over the heart; and a law of liberty, because it shows the way to the best liberty, freedom from sin, the bondage of the ceremonial law, the rigour of the moral, and from the wrath of God; and likewise the way of serving God freely and ingenuously as children; and because, being received into the heart, it is accompanied with the Spirit of adoption who works this liberty, 2Co 3:17 . It is called a perfect law, not only as being entire and without any defect, but as directing us to the greatest perfection, full conformity to God, and enjoyment of him, 2Ti 3:16,17 .

And continueth therein perseveres in the study, belief, and obedience of this doctrine, Psa 1:2in all conditions, and under all temptations and afflictions. This seems to be opposed to him, who, when he hath looked in a glass, goes away, Jam 1:24 . By which are set forth slight, superficial hearers, who do not continue in Christ’ s word, Joh 8:31 .

He being not a forgetful hearer Greek, hearer of forgetfulness, by a Hebraism, for a forgetful hearer; it answers to him in the former verse, that forgetteth what manner of man he was; and implies, not only not remembering the truths we have heard, but a not practising them, as appears by the next clause.

But a doer of the work viz. which the word directs him to do: the singular number is put for the plural; he means, he that reduceth what he hears into practice, Psa 103:18 .

This man shall be blessed in his deed this is opposed to bare hearing, and the doer of the work is said to be blessed in or by his deed, as the evidence of his present begun blessedness, and the way to his future perfect happiness.

Poole: Jam 1:26

If any man among you seem to be religious seems to others, or rather to himself; thinks himself religious, because cause of his hearing and outward worship: thus the word rendered seems is often taken, 1Co 3:18 8:2 14:37 Gal 6:3 . Here he shows who are not doers of the work, as in the next verse, who are.

And bridleth not his tongue restrains it not from the common vices of the tongue, reviling, railing, censuring, &c.

But deceiveth his own heart either deceiveth his own heart in thinking himself religious, when indulging himself in things so contrary to religion, or deceiveth his own heart, being blinded with self-love, and lifted up with self-conceit, which is the cause of his censuring and speaking evil of others.

This man’ s religion is vain empty, and to no purpose, having no reality in itself, and bringing no benefit to him.

Poole: Jam 1:27

Pure religion true, sincere, genuine, Mat 5:8 Joh 15:3 .

And undefiled this seems to reflect upon the hypocritical Jews, whose religion consisted so much in external observances, and keeping themselves from ceremonial defilements, when yet they were sullied with so many moral ones, Jam 1:14 Mat 23:23 Joh 18:28 ; devoured widows’ houses. They thought their religion pure and undefiled; the apostle shows here which is really so before God; in the sight of God, and according to his judgment.

God and the Father i.e. God who is the Father, and being only explicative, as Eph 1:3 5:20 : yet this title may be given here to God with respect to what follows, and to show that such acts of charity are acceptable to him that is called the the Judge of widows, and the Father of the fatherless, Psa 68:5 .

To visit this includes all other acts of charity to them, comforting, counselling, relieving them, &c.

The fatherless and widows he doth not exclude others from being the objects of our charity and compassion, but instanceth in fatherless and widows, as being usually most miserable, because destitute of those relations which might be most helpful to them; and possibly in those times persecution might increase the number of widows and orphans.

In their affliction when they had most need; lest any should think it sufficient to visit them that were rich, or in a prosperous condition.

And to keep himself unspotted from the world untainted by the evil example of men in the world, and free from the lusts of the world, moral pollutions. The apostle doth not here define religion but only instanceth in these two things, good works and holiness of conversation, as testimonies and arguments of the truth of it.

PBC: Jam 1:18

The Greek word that the word "begat" comes from is only used 2 times in the New Testament.  This is not the same one used in Joh 3:8.  This one always means, not conception, but it always means "birth" - in this case the writer is making a difference between conception and birth.  So what's the analogy here.  Ok, he's making this analogy, he's making this word picture, as far as James is concerned getting regenerated is like getting conceived and getting converted is like being born.  Here's a child in the womb, it's got life but it's not brought to light yet and so what James is saying right here is of His own will "birthed" he you with the word of truth.  You cannot in consciousness, you cannot in the full assurance of faith, you cannot have any evidence that you're one of the Lord's children, you cannot openly embrace the Lord Jesus Christ - that's conversion.

266

Haydock: Jam 1:9-12

The brother of low condition. Literally, humble. [3] See Luke i. 48. The sense is, that a Christian, of never so low and poor a condition, may glory, and rejoice even in his poverty, that he is not only the servant, but even the adoptive son of God. But the rich, in his being low. Some word must be here understood to make the sense complete. If we understand, let the rich man glory, it must be expounded by irony, by what follows, of his passing away like a flower. But others rather understand some other word of a different signification; as, let the rich man lament the low condition that he must come to; for he must quickly fade away like grass. ---

The beauty of the shape thereof [4] perished. So the Hebrews say, the face of the heavens, the face of the earth, &c. (Witham)

Haydock: Jam 1:11

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Decor vultus ejus, Greek: euprepeia tou prosopou; the Hebrew says, faciem, cœli, terræ, gladii, &c.

Haydock: Jam 1:13

God is not a tempter [5] of evils, and he tempteth no man. Here to tempt, is to draw and entice another to the evil of sin, which God cannot do. The Greek may also signify, he neither can be tempted, nor tempt any one. But every one is thus tempted by the evil desires of his corrupt nature, which is called concupiscence, and which is not properly called a sin of itself, but only when we yield to it. (Witham)

===============================

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Deus enim intentator, i.e. non tentator; by the Greek, Greek: apeirastos; which may signify intentabilis, qui non potest tentari.

Haydock: Jam 1:15

When concupiscence hath conceived, (man's free will yielding to it) it bringeth [6] forth sin, our perverse inclinations become sinful, and when any grievous sin is completed, or even consented to, it begetteth death, it maketh the soul guilty of eternal death. It may not be amiss here to observe with St. Gregory, &c. that there are three degrees of temptations: the first, by suggestion only; the second, by delectation; the third, by consent. The first, the devil, or our own frail nature, tempts us by a suggestion of evil thoughts in our imagination: to have such thoughts and imaginations may be no sin at all, though the things and objects represented be never so foul and hideous, though they may continue never so long, and return never so often. The reason is, because we cannot hinder them. On the contrary, if our will remains displeased with them, and resist them, such a resistance is meritorious, and by the mercies of God will purchase us a reward. Second, these representations may be followed with a delight or delectation in the senses, or in the body only; and if by an impression made against the will, which we no ways consent to, there is again no sin. There may be also some neglect in the person tempted, by not using sufficient endeavours to resist and repel those thoughts, which if it be only some small neglect, the sin is not great: but if the person tempted hath wilfully, and with full deliberation, taken delight in evil thoughts, either of revenge, or of fornication, or adultery, or about any thing very sinful, such a wilful delight is a grievous and deadly sin, though he hath not had a will or design to perform the action itself. The reason is, because he then wilfully consents in mind and heart to a sinful delight, though not to the execution or action. And the sin may be great, and mortal, though it be but for a short time: for a temptation may continue for a long time and be no sin; and there may be a great sin in a short time. The reason again is, because we are to judge of sin by the dispositions and consent of the will, not by the length of time. Third, when the sinner yields to evil suggestions and temptations, so that his will fully consents to what is proposed, and nothing can be said to be wanting but an opportunity of putting his sinful desires in execution, he has already committed the sin; for example, of murder, of fornication, &c. in his heart, as our blessed Saviour taught us. (Matthew v. 28.) (Witham)

===============================

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Generat mortem, Greek: apokuei thanaton; apokuein is fætum emittere, and generare, as it is also here again used ver. 18.

Haydock: Jam 1:16-17

Do not err, nor deceive yourselves by yielding to temptation; beg God his supporting grace, for every good gift is from him. (Witham)

Haydock: Jam 1:18

By the word of truth. Some, with St. Athanasius, understand the eternal word made man. Others commonly understand the word of the gospel, by which we have been called to the true faith, &c. ---

Some beginning [7] of his creatures, (or as the Greek signifies) such a beginning as are the first-fruits; and perhaps St. James may so call the Jews, as being the first converted to believe in Christ. (Witham)

===============================

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Initium aliquod creaturæ ejus, Greek: aparchen tina. See Romans xi. 16.; 1 Corinthians xv. 20. and xvi. 15. &c.

Haydock: Jam 1:19

You know, or you are sufficiently instructed in these things. ---

Let every man be swift to hear the word of God, but slow, or cautious in speaking, especially slow to anger, or to that rash passion of anger, which is never excusable, unless it be through a zeal for God's honour, and against sin. (Witham) ---

St. James in this epistle does not aim at a regular discourse: he proposes a diversity of moral sentences, which have not much connection with each other. He here instructs the faithful how to behave in conversation. He recommends to them modesty and prudence in their discourses; and rather to be fond of hearing much, than of speaking much; and of practising the truth, than of preaching it to others. "For not those who understand the law, nor those who preach it, are justified before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified before God." (Romans chap. ii. 13.) (Calmet) ---

A wise man is known by the fewness of his words. Sapiens verbis innotescit paucis. (Regl. St. Bernard, chap. vii.) With hearing, the wise man will become wiser. (Sen. [Seneca?] lib. ii. de Ira. chap. 28.) ---

Anger is a short madness. The best cure is to permit it to subside, and to let our reason have time to reflect upon the propriety of doing what we are at first inclined to. The first motives to anger are frequently indeliberate, and consequently not sinful; but we must be careful to resist as soon as we perceive them, lest they should become too violent, and obtain the consent of our will. (Calmet) ---

Learn of me, says our Saviour, because I am meek and humble of heart. (Matthew chap. xii. 29.) If, says St. Francis de Sales, being stung and bit by detraction and enemies, we fly out, swell, and are enraged, it is a great that neither our humility nor meekness are true and sincere, but only apparent and artificial. It is better, says St. Augustine, writing to Profuturus, to deny entrance to just and reasonable anger, than to admit it, be it ever so little; because, being once admitted, it is with difficulty driven out again; for it enters as a little twig, and in a moment becomes a beam: and if it can once but get the night of us, and the sun set upon it, which the apostle forbids, it turns into a hatred, from which we have scarcely any means to rid ourselves; for it nourishes itself under a thousand false pretexts, since there was never an angry man that thought his anger unjust. (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to a devout life, p. 3. chap. viii.)

Haydock: Jam 1:20

The anger of man, &c. Let us not then be angry with each other on the way to eternal life, but rather march on with the troop of our companions and brethren meekly, peaceably, and lovingly; nay, I say to you absolutely and without exception, be not angry at all, if it be possible, and admit no pretext whatsoever to open the gate of your heart to so destructive a passion: for St. James here tells us positively, and without reservation, "the anger of man works not the justice of God." (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to a devout life, p. 3. chap. viii.) ---

The patient man is better than the valiant; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh cities. (Proverbs chap. xvi. 32.) The anger of man is the daughter of pride, the mother of enmities, he enemy of peace and harmony, and the source of stubbornness and blindness of mind and heart. The justice of God is humility, meekness, charity, peace, docility, and forbearance. How great the contrast!

Haydock: Jam 1:21

All uncleanness. [8] The Greek shews that hereby is meant a sordid, filthy uncleanness, infecting and defiling the soul. ---

The engrafted [9] word. The word and doctrine of Christ, by the labours of his preachers, and chiefly by his divine grace engrafted and fixed in your souls. (Witham)

===============================

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Immunditiam, Greek: ruparian, from Greek: rupos, sordes, spurcitia.

===============================

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Insitum verbum, Greek: emphuton logon.

====================

Haydock: Jam 1:23

He shall be compared to a man, &c. The sense is, that it is not enough for a man to examine and look into his interior, and the state of his conscience in a negligent and superficial manner, no more than one that goes to a looking-glass, but does not take care to take away the dirt or spots which he might discover. (Witham)

Haydock: Jam 1:25

The law of Christ, called here the perfect law of liberty, as it is distinguished from the Jewish law of fear and slavery, is as it were a looking-glass, which may make us know ourselves, and discover and correct our failings. (Witham)

Haydock: Jam 1:26

If any man think, &c. He here blames those hot disputes, which seem to have been frequent amongst the converted Jews, concerning the necessity of observing the legal rites. In vain, says he, do you pique yourselves upon the rigorous observance of the law, and your zeal to unite its ceremonial rites with the practice of the gospel. If you be void of the essence of Christianity, which is charity, prudence, and moderation, your religion will avail you nothing. (Calmet) ---

This may also be understood of those devotees who are fond of making a parade of their virtues, and who, as St. Gregory says, (hom. xii. in Mat.) afflict their bodies indeed with fasting, but for this they expect to be esteemed by men. (Haydock) ---

A man must not imagine himself to be religious, and perfect in the way of virtue, unless he governs and bridles his tongue from oaths, curses, calumnies, detractions, lies, of which more in the third chapter. (Witham)

Haydock: Jam 1:27

Religion pure and unspotted, &c. St. James may use the word pure, as a proper admonition to the Jews, who were generally mostly solicitous to avoid legal uncleanness, such as were incurred by eating meats forbidden in their law as unclean, by touching a dead body, &c. He therefore tells them that the Christian religion is known by acts of charity, by visiting and assisting widows, the fatherless, and such as are under afflictions, and in general by keeping our consciences interiorly clean, unspotted, and undefiled from this world, from the corrupt maxims and sinful practices so common in this wicked world. (Witham)

Gill: Jam 1:11

For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat,.... As it is about the middle of the day, when it shines in its full strength, and its heat is very great and scorching, especially in the summer season, and in hot climates:

but it withereth the grass; strikes it with heat, causes it to shrivel, and dries it up;

and the flower thereof falleth; drops off from it to the ground:

and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth; its form and colour, its glory and beauty, which were pleasant to the eye, are lost, and no more to be recovered. This shows, that earthly riches, like the flower of the field, have an outward show and glory in them, which attract the mind, and fix an attention to them for a while; they are gay and glittering, and look lovely, are pleasant to behold, and desirable to enjoy; but when the sun of persecution, or any other outward calamity arises, they are quickly destroyed, and are no more.

So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways; riches are uncertain things now, they often make themselves wings and flee away; they are things that are not, that are not solid and substantial they are a vain show; they sometimes fade away in a man's lifetime, before he dies; and he fades away, and comes to decay, amidst all the ways and means, designs and schemes, he forms and pursues, and all the actions and business he does; and if not, when he fades away, and dies amidst all his riches, his glory does not descend after him, but falls off from him, as the flower of the field before the heat of the sun.

Gill: Jam 1:12

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation,.... Or affliction, which is designed by temptation, as in Jam 1:2 and the man that endures it is he that so bears it, and bears up under it, as not to be offended at it, and stumble in the ways of Christ, and fall away from the truth, and a profession of it, as temporary believers in a time of temptation do; but manfully and bravely stands up under it, and does not sink under the weight of it, or faint on account of it; and endures afflictions in such manner as not to murmur and repine at them, but is quiet and still, and bears them patiently and constantly, and so endures to the end. Such expect afflictions, and when they come, they are not moved by them, but, notwithstanding them, continue in the ways and work of the Lord; and such are happy persons; they are happy now, and shall be hereafter. Saints are happy under afflictions, and even on account of them, for they are tokens of God's love to them, and evidences of their sonship; and especially they are happy under them, when they enjoy the presence of God in them, when they are instructive to them, and are saner, lifted, when they learn from them the useful lessons of faith, patience, humility, and resignation to the will of God, and are made more partakers of his holiness; and they will be happy hereafter, as follows. The Jews have a saying ^h much like this,

""blessed" is the man, שהוא עומד בנסיונו, "who stands in his temptation", for there is no creature whom the holy blessed God does not tempt.''

For when he is tried; by the fire of afflictions, as gold is tried in the fire; when God hereby has tried what is in his heart, and the truth of grace in him, as faith, love, patience, &c. and has purged away his dross and tin, and has refined and purified him, as gold and silver are refined and purified in the furnace, or refining pot: and when being thus tried and proved, and found genuine, and comes forth as gold, after this state of temptation and affliction is over,

he shall receive the crown of life, eternal happiness, called a "crown", because of the glory of it, which will be both upon the bodies and souls of believers to all eternity; and as suitable to their character, they being kings, and having a kingdom and thrones prepared for them; and in allusion to the crown that was given to the conquerors in the Olympic games: and it is called a "crown of life", because it is for life, which an earthly crown is not always; and because it lies in eternal life, and is an everlasting crown; it is a crown of glory that fadeth not away, an incorruptible one; and differs from the corruptible crown given to the victors in the above mentioned games, which were made of fading herbs, and leaves of trees: and now the man that bears up under afflictions, and holds out unto the end, shall have this crown put upon him, and he shall "receive it"; not as merited by him, by his works or sufferings, for neither of them are worthy to be compared or mentioned with this crown of life and glory; but as the free gift of God, as it will be given him by the righteous Judge, as a reward of grace, and not of debt:

which the Lord hath promised to them that love him; either the Lord Jesus Christ, as in Mat 5:10 or else God the Father; the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, read, "God"; and the Alexandrian copy leaves out the word "Lord", which may be supplied by the word God; see Jam 2:5 and this promise he made before the world was, who cannot lie, nor deceive, and who is able to perform, and is faithful, and will never suffer his faithfulness to fail; so that this happiness is certain, and may be depended upon: besides, the promise of this crown of life is in Christ, where all the promises are yea and amen; yea, the crown itself is in his hands, where it lies safe and secure for "them that love him"; either the Lord Jesus Christ, his person, his people, his truths, and ordinances, and his glorious appearing, 2Ti 4:8 or God the Father; not that their love is the cause of this crown of life, or eternal life, for then it would not be the free gift of God, as it is said to be; nor of the promise of it, for that was made before the world was, and when they had no love unto him; but this phrase is descriptive of the persons to whom God manifests his love now, admits to near communion and fellowship with himself, makes all things, even their afflictions, to work for their good, and whom he will cause to inherit substance, and will fill their treasures.

Gill: Jam 1:13

Let no man say when he is tempted,.... Here the apostle uses the word "tempted", in another sense than he did before. Before he speaks of temptations, as matter of joy and boasting, here of temptations, which are criminal, and issue in shame and death; the temptations he before makes mention of, being patiently endured, denominate men happy, but here such are designed, which are to be deprecated, and watched against; before he treats of temptations, which were the means of trying and exercising grace, and of purging away the dross of sin and corruption, but here of temptations to sin, and which are in themselves sinful; before he discourses of temptations in which God was concerned; but here of temptations which he removes from him, and denies of him, as being unworthy of him: wherefore, when any man is tempted to sin, whether when under adversity, or in prosperity, let him not say,

I am tempted of God; for God is holy, and without iniquity, nor does he delight in sin, but hates and abhors it; nor can he commit it, it being contrary to his nature, and the perfections of it; whereas no one can tempt another to sin, unless he is sinful himself, and delights in sin, and in those that commit it, nor without committing it himself; and yet sinful men are apt to charge God with their sins, and temptations to them, in imitation of their first parent, Adam, when fallen, Gen 3:12 who, to excuse himself, lays the blame upon the woman, and ultimately upon God, who gave her to him; and suggests, that if it had not been for the woman, he should not have ate of the forbidden fruit, nor should he have had any temptation to it, had not God given him the woman to be with him, and therefore it was his fault; and in this sad manner do his sons and daughters reason, who, when, through affliction, they murmur against God, distrust his providence, or forsake his ways, say, if he had not laid his hand upon them, or suffered such afflictions to befall them, they had not been guilty of such sin: he himself is the occasion of them; but let no man talk at this wicked rate,

for God cannot be tempted with evil; or "evils", He was tempted by the Israelites at Massah and Meribah, from which those places had their names, who by their murmuring, distrust and unbelief, proved and tried his patience and his power; and so he may be, and has been tempted by others in a like way; he may be tempted by evil men, and with evil things, but he cannot be tempted "to evil", as the Ethiopic version renders it; he is proof against all such temptations: he cannot be tempted by anything in himself, who is pure and holy, or by any creature or thing without him, to do any sinful action:

neither tempteth he any man; that is, to sin; he tempted Abraham, to try his faith, love, and obedience to him; he tempted the Israelites in the wilderness, to try them and humble them, and prove what was in their hearts; and he tempted Job, and tried his faith and patience; and so he tempts and tries all his righteous ones, by afflictions, more or less: but he never tempts or solicits them to sin; temptations to sin come from another quarter, as follows.

Gill: Jam 1:14

But every man is tempted,.... To sin, and he falls in with the temptation, and by it,

when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed; the metaphor is taken either from fishes, who are enticed by the bait, and drawn out by the hook; or from a lascivious woman, who meeting with a young man, entices him, and draws him away after her to commit iniquity with her: by "lust" is meant the principle of corrupt nature, which has its residence in the heart of man; is natural and hereditary to him, and therefore is called his own; he is conceived and shapen in it; he brings it into the world with him, and it continues in him, and is called his own heart's lust, Rom 1:24. Now this meeting with some bait, which entices and draws it out, or with some external object, which promises pleasure or profit, a man is allured, and ensnared, and drawn away by it, and so the temptation begins: thus, for instance, covetousness was the predominant lust in Judas; this meeting with an external object, or objects, which promised him profit, he is at once enticed and drawn away to betray his Lord and master for the sake of it: so sin often promises pleasure, though it is but an imaginary, and a short lived one; which takes with a man's own lust, and corruption within him, and so he is allured and drawn aside; and to this, and not to God, should he attribute temptation to sin.

Gill: Jam 1:15

Then when lust hath conceived,.... A proposal of pleasure or profit being made, agreeable to lust, or the principle of corrupt nature, sinful man is pleased with it; and instead of resisting and rejecting the motion made, he admits of it, and receives it, and cherishes it in his mind; he dallies and plays with it; he dwells upon it in his thoughts, and hides it under his tongue, and in his heart, as a sweet morsel, and forsakes it not, but contrives ways and means how to bring it about; and this is lust's conceiving. The figure is used in Psa 7:14 on which Kimchi, a Jewish commentator, has this note;

"he (the psalmist) compares the thoughts of the heart להריון, "to a conception", and when they go out in word, this is "travail", and in work or act, this is "bringing forth".''

And so it follows here,

it bringeth forth sin; into act, not only by consenting to it, but by performing it:

and sin, when it is finished: being solicited, is agreed to, and actually committed:

bringeth forth death; as the first sin of man brought death into the world, brought a spiritual death, or moral death upon man, subjected him to a corporeal death, and made him liable to an eternal one; so every sin is deserving of death, death is the just wages of it; yea, even the motions of sin work in men to bring forth fruit unto death. Something like these several gradual steps, in which sin proceeds, is observed by the Jews, and expressed in much the like language, in allegorizing the case of Lot, and his two daughters ⁱ;

"the concupiscent soul (or "lust") stirs up the evil figment, and imagines by it, and it cleaves to every evil imagination, שמתעברת, "until it conceives a little", and produces in the heart of man the evil thought, and cleaves to it; and as yet it is in his heart, and is not "finished" to do it, until this desire or lust stirs up the strength of the body, first to cleave to the evil figment, and then תשלום הרעה, "sin is finished"; as it is said, Gen 19:36.''

Gill: Jam 1:16

Do not err, my beloved brethren. For to make God the author of sin, or to charge him with being concerned in temptation to sin, is a very great error, a fundamental one, which strikes at the nature and being of God, and at the perfection of his holiness: it is a denying of him, and is one of those damnable errors and heresies, which bring upon men swift destruction; and therefore to be guarded against, rejected, and abhorred by all that profess any regard unto him, his name and glory.

Gill: Jam 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift,.... Whether of nature, providence, or grace, and especially the latter; spiritual gifts given along with Christ, or spiritual blessings in him; every such gift is; as the Vulgate Latin version reads, the "best" gift; better than those which only relate to the present life: and is "perfect" such as the gifts of righteousness, remission of sins, adoption, regeneration, and eternal life. The Jews say ^k, that the good things of this world are not truly good, in comparison of the good things of the world to come, and are not גמור טוב, "a perfect good." And every such an one is from above; is not from a man's self, from the creature, or from below, but from heaven, and from God who dwells there:

and cometh down from the Father of lights; or author of lights; of all corporeal light; as the sun, moon, and stars; of all natural, rational, and moral light, in angels and men; of all spiritual light, or the light of grace in regenerate persons; and of eternal light, the light of glory in the spirits of just then made perfect:

with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning: as there is in that great luminary, the sun in the firmament, which has its parallaxes, eclipses, and turnings, and casts its shadow; it rises and sets, appears and disappears every day; and it comes out of one tropic, and enters into another at certain seasons of the year: but with God, who is light itself, and in him is no darkness at all, there is no change, nor anything like it; he is changeable in his nature, perfections, purposes, promises, and gifts; wherefore he being holy, cannot turn to that which is evil; nor can he, who is the fountain of light, be the cause of darkness, or admit of any in him; and since every good and perfect gift comes from him, evil cannot proceed from him, nor can he tempt any to it.

Gill: Jam 1:18

Of his own will begat he us,.... The apostle instances in one of those good and perfect gifts, regeneration; and he pitches upon a very proper and pertinent one, since this is the first gift of grace God bestows upon his people openly, and in their own persons; and is what involves other gifts, and prepares and makes meet for the gift of eternal life; and therefore may well be reckoned a "good" one, and it is also a "perfect one"; it is done at once; there are no degrees in it, as in sanctification; a man is born again, at once, and is born a perfect new man in all his parts; no one is more regenerated than another, or the same person more regenerated at one time than at another: and this comes from above; it is called a being born from above, in Joh 3:3 as the words there may be rendered; and it comes from God the Father, even the Father of our Lord Jesus, as well as of all lights, 1Pe 1:3 and who in it produces light, in darkness, and whose gifts of grace bestowed along with it are without repentance. And since this comes from him, he cannot be the author of evil, or tempt unto it. This is a settled and certain point, that all the good that is in men, and is done by them, comes from God; and all the evil that is in them, and done by them, is of themselves. This act of begetting here ascribed to God, is what is elsewhere called a begetting again, that is, regeneration; it is an implantation of new principles of light and life, grace and holiness, in men; a quickening of them, when dead in trespasses and sins; a forming of Christ in their souls; and a making them partakers of the divine nature; and this is God's act, and not man's. Earthly parents cannot beget in this sense; nor ministers of the word, not causally, but only instrumentally, as they are instruments and means, which God makes use of; neither the ministry of the word, nor the ordinance of baptism, can of themselves regenerate any; nor can a man beget himself, as not in nature, so not in grace: the nature of the thing shows it, and the impotent case of men proves it: this is God's act, and his only; see Joh 1:13 and the impulsive or moving cause of it is his own will. God does not regenerate, or beget men by necessity of nature, but of his own free choice; Christ, the Son of God, is begotten of him by necessity of nature, and not as the effect of his will; he is the brightness of his glory necessarily, as the beams and rays of light are necessarily emitted by the sun; but so it is not in regeneration: nor does God regenerate men through any consideration of their will, works, and merits: nor have these any influence at all upon it; but he begets of his own free grace and favour, and of his rich and abundant mercy, and of his sovereign will and pleasure, according to his counsels and purposes of old. And the means he makes use of, or with which he does it, is

with the word of truth; not Christ, who is the Word, and truth itself; though regeneration is sometimes ascribed to him; and this act of begetting is done by the Father, through the resurrection of Christ from the dead; but the Gospel, which is the word of truth, and truth itself, and contains nothing but truth; and by this souls are begotten and born again; see Eph 1:13 and hence ministers of it are accounted spiritual fathers. Faith, and every other grace in regeneration, and even the Spirit himself, the Regenerator, come this way: and the end is,

that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures; either of his new creatures, and so it has respect to such, as James, and others; who received the firstfruits of the Spirit, who first hoped and trusted in Christ, and were openly in him, and converted to him before others; or of his creatures, of mankind in general, who, with the Jews, are usually called creatures; See Gill on Mar 16:15, and designs those who are redeemed from among men, and are the firstfruits to God, and to the Lamb, as their regeneration makes appear: and this shows that such as are begotten again, or regenerated, are separated and distinguished from others, as the firstfruits be; and that they are preferred unto, and are more excellent than the rest of mankind, being made so by the grace of God; and that they are by regenerating grace devoted to the service of God, and are formed for his praise and glory.

Gill: Jam 1:19

Wherefore, my beloved brethren,.... Since the Gospel, the word of truth, is the means and instrument which God makes use of in regeneration, and in forming people for himself:

let every man be swift to hear; not anything; not idle and unprofitable talk, or filthy and corrupt communication; but wholesome advice, good instructions, and the gracious experiences of the saints, and, above all, the word of God; to the hearing of which men should fly, as doves to their windows; should make haste, and be early in their attendance on it, as well, as constant; and receive it with all readiness, and with a sort of greediness of mind, that their souls may be profited, and God may be glorified: the phrase is Jewish; things easy and smooth, a man is מהיר לשמען, "swift to hear them ^l: slow to speak"; against what is heard, without thoroughly weighing and considering what is said; and this may regard silence under hearing the word, and is also a rule to be observed in private conversation: or the sense may be, be content to be hearers of the word, and not forward to be preachers of it; and if called to that work, think before you speak, meditate on the word, and study to be approved to God and men. Silence is not only highly commended by the Pythagoreans, among whom it was enjoined their disciples five years ^m; but also by the Jews: they say, nothing is better for the body than silence; that if a word is worth one shekel, silence is worth two, or worth a precious stone; that it is the spice of speech, and the chief of all spices; that it is the hedge of wisdom; hence it is the advice of Shammai; "say little, and do much" ⁿ: and they cry up, as a very excellent precept, "be silent, and hear"; and as containing more than persons are aware of ^o:

slow to wrath; in hearing; when admonitions and reproofs are given, sin is exposed, and vice corrected, and the distinguishing doctrines of grace, are preached; which are apt to fill natural men with wrath, and which must greatly hinder the usefulness of the word; see Luk 4:28. This is omitted in the Ethiopic version.

Gill: Jam 1:20

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. This is so far from engaging persons to do that which is right and acceptable in the sight of God, that it puts them upon doing that which is evil. The Alexandrian copy reads, "with the wrath of men do not work the righteousness of God"; do not attend upon the word and ordinances of God with a wrathful spirit. Compare, with this, 1Ti 2:8.

Gill: Jam 1:21

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness,.... All manner of filthiness, both of flesh and spirit; all pride, vanity, wrath, malice, and evil speaking, under hearing the word: the allusion seems to be to a boiling pot, which casts up scum and filth, which must be taken off: and such is the spirit of wrathful men; it throws up the filth of haughtiness and pride, of anger, wrath, and wickedness, which must be taken off, and laid aside; or the word will not be heard to any profit, or advantage:

and superfluity of naughtiness, or "malice"; the abundance and overflow of it, which arises from such an evil heart, where wrath prevails, and governs: see 1Pe 2:1. There seems to be an allusion to the removing of the superfluous foreskin of the flesh, in circumcision, typical

of the foreskin of the heart, spoken of in Jer 4:4 which the Targum, in that place, calls רשע לבכון, "the wickedness", or "naughtiness of your hearts" to be removed:

and receive with meekness the ingrafted word; which becomes so when it is received; when it is put into the heart by the Spirit of God, and is mixed with faith by them that hear it; so that it is, as it were, incorporated into them, and becomes natural to them, which before was not; and taking deep root in them, brings forth much fruit: and where it comes with power, it reduces every high thought into the obedience of Christ, and makes men meek and humble; and only such receive the truth in the love of it; and to such is the Gospel preached, Isa 61:1, and none but such hear it with profit and edification:

which is able to save your souls; even your whole persons, both soul and body: but the soul is only mentioned, as being the more excellent part of man: this must not be understood of the word, as if it was the author or cause of salvation, but as an instrument; it being a declaration of salvation by Christ, or what shows unto men the way of salvation by him; and is the power of God unto salvation to them, when it is attended with the energy of the Spirit, and the efficacy of divine grace. See 2Ti 3:15.

Gill: Jam 1:22

But be ye doers of the word,.... And they are such, who spiritually understand it; gladly receive it; and from the heart obey it, and make a sincere and ingenuous profession of it; and who submit to the ordinances it directs to, and keep them as they have been delivered; and live, and walk, becoming their profession of it. The Arabic and Ethiopic versions read, "be ye doers of the law"; and so one of Stephens's copies, as in Rom 2:13

and not hearers only; though the word should be heard swiftly and readily, and received with meekness; yet it should not be barely heard, and assented to; but what is heard should be put in practice; and especially men should not depend upon their hearing, as if that would save them; this is deceiving your own selves; such as rest upon the outward hearing of the word will be sadly deceived, and will find themselves miserably mistaken, another day; see Luk 13:25. Arguments taken from hence are like the sophisms, paralogisms, and false reasonings of sophisters, which carry a fair show, and ensnare and deceive.

Gill: Jam 1:23

But if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer,.... The Arabic version here again reads, "a hearer of the law", and so some copies; not hearing, but practice, is the main thing; not theory, but action: hence, says R. Simeon, not the word, or the searching into it, and the explanation of it, is the root, or principal thing, אלא המעשה, "but the work" ^p: and if a man is only a preacher, or a hearer, and not a doer,

he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; or, "the face of his generation"; the face with which he was born; his true, genuine, native face; in distinction from any counterfeit one, or from the face of his mind: it means his own corporeal face. The Ethiopic version renders it, "the lineaments of his face".

Gill: Jam 1:24

For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way,.... He takes a slight glance of himself, and departs:

and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was; he forgets either his spots, blemishes, and imperfections; or his comeliness and beauty; the features of his face, be they comely or not: so a bare hearer of the word, who is not concerned to practise what he hears, while he is hearing, he observes some things amiss in himself, and some excellencies in Christ; but, when the discourse is over, he goes his way, and thinks no more of either.

Gill: Jam 1:25

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty,.... By which is meant, not the moral law, but the Gospel; for only of that is the apostle speaking in the context: this is no other than the word of truth, with which God begets men of his own will; and is the ingrafted word which is able to save, and of which men should be doers, as well as hearers, Jam 1:18, and this is compared to a glass by the Apostle Paul, 2Co 3:18, and the word here used for looking into it is the same word the Apostle Peter uses of the angels, who desired to look into the mysteries of the Gospel, 1Pe 1:12 all which serve to strengthen this sense; now the Gospel is called a law; not that it is a law, strictly speaking, consisting precepts, and established and enforced by sanctions penalties; for it is a declaration of righteousness and salvation by Christ; a publication of peace and pardon by him; and a free promise of eternal life, through him; but as it is an instruction, or doctrine: the law with the Jews is called תורה, because it is teaching and instructive; and everything that is so is by them called by this name: hence we find the doctrine of the Messiah, which is no other than the Gospel, is in the Old Testament called the law of the Lord, and his law, Isa 2:2 and in the New Testament it is called the law, or doctrine of faith, Rom 3:27 and this doctrine is perfect, as in Psa 19:7, it being a perfect plan of truths, containing in it all truth, as it is in Jesus, even all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and because it is a revelation of things perfect; of the perfect righteousness of Christ, and of perfect justification by it, and of free and full pardon of sins through him, and of complete salvation by him; and because it directs to Christ, in whom perfection is: and it is a law or doctrine of liberty; τον της ελευθηριας, "that which is if liberty"; which has liberty for its subject, which treats of it, even of the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free: the Gospel proclaims this liberty to captive souls; and is the word of truth, which makes them free, or is the means of freeing them from the slavery of sin, from the captivity of Satan, and from the bondage of the law; and is what gives souls freedom and boldness at the throne of grace; and is that which leads them into the liberty of grace here, and gives them a view and hope of the glorious liberty of the children of God hereafter. This doctrine is as a glass to look into; in which is beheld the glory of Christ's person and office, and grace; and though by the law is the knowledge of sin, yet a man never so fully and clearly discovers the sin that dwells in him, and the swarms of corruption which are in his heart, as when the light of the glorious Gospel shines into him, and when in it he beholds the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ; see Isa 6:5 and looking into this glass, or into this doctrine, is by faith, and with the eyes of the understanding, opened and enlightened by the Spirit of God; and the word here used signifies a looking wistly and intently, with great care and thought, and not in a slight and superficial manner; and such a looking is designed, as is attended with effect; such an one as transforms into the same image that is beheld, from glory to glory; and happy is the man that so looks into it.

And continueth therein; is not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, nor carried about with divers and strange doctrines; but is established in the faith, stands fast in it, and abides by it; or continues looking into this glass, and to Christ, the author and finisher of faith, who is beheld in it; and keeps his eye upon it, and the object held forth in it; and constantly attends the ministration of it:

he being not a forgetful hearer; but takes heed to the things he hears and sees, lest he should let them slip; and being conscious of the weakness of his memory, implores the divine Spirit to be his remembrancer, and bring to his mind, with fresh power and light, what he has heard:

but a doer of the work; of the work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope, and of every work and ordinance the Gospel ministry points unto; doing and being subject to all in faith, from a principle of love, and with a view to the glory of God and Christ.

This man shall be blessed in his deed; or "doing", and while he is doing; not that he is blessed for what he does, but "in" what he does; see Psa 19:11 he having, in hearing the word, and looking into it, and in submitting to every ordinance of the Gospel, the presence of God, the discoveries of his love, communion with Christ, and communication of grace from him by the Spirit; so that Wisdom's ways become ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace; see Psa 65:4, moreover, in all such a man does, he is prosperous and successful; in all he does he prospers: and so he is blessed in his deed, by God, whose blessing makes rich, both in spirituals and temporals: there seems to be an allusion to the blessed man in Psa 1:1.

Gill: Jam 1:26

If any man among you seem to be religious,.... By his preaching, or praying, and hearing, and other external duties of religion, he is constant in the observance of; and who, upon the account of these things, "thinks himself to be a religious man", as the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it; or is thought to be so by others:

and bridleth not his tongue; but boasts of his works, and speaks ill of his brethren; backbites them, and hurts their names and characters, by private insinuations, and public charges without any foundation; who takes no care of what he says, but gives his tongue a liberty of speaking anything, to the injury of others, and the dishonour of God, and his ways: there seems to be an allusion to Psa 39:1.

But deceiveth his own heart; with his show of religion, and external performances; on which he builds his hopes of salvation; of which he is confident; and so gives himself to a loose way of talking what he pleases:

this man's religion is vain; useless, and unprofitable to himself and others; all his preaching, praying, hearing, and attendance on the ordinances will be of no avail to him; and he, notwithstanding these, by his evil tongue, brings a scandal and reproach upon the ways of God, and doctrines of Christ.

Gill: Jam 1:27

Pure religion and undefiled,.... That which is sincere and genuine, and free from adulteration and hypocrisy:

before God and the Father; or in the sight of God the Father of Christ, and all his people; that which is approved of by him, who is the searcher of hearts, and the trier of the reins of men, "is this": not that the apostle is giving a full definition of true religion; only he mentions some of the effects of it, by which it is known, and without which it cannot be true and genuine; and they are these:

to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction; and not only to see them, and speak a word of comfort to them, but to communicate to them, and supply their wants, as they may require, and according to the ability God has given: where there is true religion in the heart, there is love to God; and where there is love to God, there is love to the saints; and this will show itself to them, in times of affliction and distress; and where this is wanting, religion itself is not pure and undefiled:

and to keep himself unspotted from the world: from the men of the world, who defile by their evil communications; and "from the vices of the world", as the Arabic version renders it, which are of a defiling nature; and, where religion is in its power and purity, and the Gospel of the grace of God comes with efficacy, it teaches to separate from the rest of the world, and to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jam 1:11

¹ tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”

NET Notes: Jam 1:12

¹ tn The word for “man” or “individual” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” However, as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, here it is “equivalent to τὶς someone, a person.”

² tc Most mss ([C] P 0246 Ï) read ὁ κύριος (Jo kurio", “the Lord”) here, while others have ὁ θεός (Jo qeo", “God”; 4 33^vid 323 945 1739 al). However, several important and early witnesses (̲³ א A B Ψ 81 co) have no explicit subject. In light of the scribal tendency toward clarification, and the fact that both κύριος and θεός are well represented, there can be no doubt that the original text had no explicit subject. The referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity, not because of textual basis.

NET Notes: Jam 1:13

¹ tn Or “God must not be tested by evil people.”

NET Notes: Jam 1:16

¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

NET Notes: Jam 1:17

¹ tn The first phrase refers to the action of giving and the second to what is given.

² tn Or “All generous giving and every perfect gift from above is coming down.”

³ tn Grk “variation or shadow of turning” (referring to the motions of heavenly bodies causing variations of light and darkness).

NET Notes: Jam 1:18

¹ tn Grk “Having willed, he gave us birth.”

NET Notes: Jam 1:19

¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

NET Notes: Jam 1:20

¹ tn The word translated “human” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person” (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 2), and in this context, contrasted with “God’s righteousness,” the point is “human” anger (not exclusively “male” anger).

² sn God’s righteousness could refer to (1) God’s righteous standard, (2) the righteousness God gives, (3) righteousness before God, or (4) God’s eschatological righteousness (see P. H. Davids, James [NIGTC], 93, for discussion).

NET Notes: Jam 1:21

¹ tn Or “with meekness.”

NET Notes: Jam 1:23

¹ tn The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” However, as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, here it is “equivalent to τὶς someone, a person.”

² tn Grk “the face of his beginning [or origin].”

NET Notes: Jam 1:24

¹ tn Grk “and he has gone out and immediately has forgotten.”

NET Notes: Jam 1:25

¹ tn Grk “continues.”

² tn Grk “this one.”

³ tn Grk “in his doing.”

NET Notes: Jam 1:27

¹ tn Or “in the sight of”; Grk “with.”

² tn Grk “the God and Father.”

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:11

For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ^{( k )} ways.

^{( k )} Whatever he purposes in his mind or does.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:12

^{( 10 )} Blessed [is] the man that endureth ^{( l )} temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

^{( 10 )} The conclusion: Therefore we must patiently bear the affliction: and he adds a fourth argument, which comprehends the sum of all the former, that is, we gain the crown of life in this way, yet by grace according to the promise.

^{( l )} Affliction, by which the Lord tries him.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:13

^{( 11 )} Let no man say when he is ^{( m )} tempted, I am tempted of God: ^{( 12 )} for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

^{( 11 )} The third part of this epistle, in which he descends from outward temptations, that is, from afflictions by which God tries us: to inward, that is, to those lusts by which we are stirred up to do evil. The sum is this: Every man is the author of these temptations by himself, and not God: for we carry in our bodies that wicked corruption, which seeks opportunity forever, to stir up evil in us, from which eventually proceeds wicked behaviour, and in conclusion follows death, the just reward of them.

^{( m )} When he is provoked to do evil.

^{( 12 )} Here a reason is shown, why God cannot be the author of evil behaviour in us, since he does not desire evil behaviour.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:15

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth {n) sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

^{( n )} By sin, in this place, he means actual sin.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:16

^{( 13 )} Do not err, my beloved brethren.

^{( 13 )} Another reason taken from opposites: God is the author of all goodness, and so, since he is always like himself; how then can he be thought to be the author of evil?

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the ^{( o )} Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither ^{( p )}shadow of turning.

^{( o )} From him who is the fountain and author of all goodness.

^{( p )} He goes on in the metaphor: for the sun by his many and various kinds of turning, makes hours, days, months, years, light and darkness.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:18

^{( 14 )} Of his own ^{( q )} will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of ^{( r )} firstfruits of his creatures.

^{( 14 )} The fourth part concerning the excellency and fruit of the word of God, The sum is this: we must listen to the word of God most carefully and diligently, seeing it is the seed, through which God by his free favour and love has begotten us to himself, picking us out of the number of his creatures. The apostle condemns two faults, which greatly trouble us in this matter. For we so please ourselves, that we would rather speak ourselves, than hear God speaking. Indeed, we are angry when we are reproached and ignore it. Opposed to these faults, he sets a peaceable and quiet mind, and such as desires purity.

^{( q )} This is what Paul calls gracious favour, an good will, which is the fountain of our salvation.

^{( r )} As it were an holy type of offering, taken out of the remnant of men.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:20

For the wrath of man worketh not the ^{( s )} righteousness of God.

^{( s )} That which God appoints.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:21

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with ^{( t )} meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

^{( t )} By meekness he means modesty, and anything that is contrary to a haughty and proud spirit.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:22

^{( 15 )} But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, ^{( 16 )} deceiving your own selves.

^{( 15 )} Another admonition: therefore God's word is heard, that we may model our lives according to the laws it contains. ^{( 16 )} He adds reasons, and those most weighty: first, because they that do otherwise seriously harm themselves.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:23

^{( 17 )} For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his ^{( u )} natural face in a glass:

^{( 17 )} Secondly: because they lose the most important use of God's word, if they do not use it to correct the faults that they know.

^{( u )} He alludes to that natural stain, which is contrary to the purity that we are born again into, the living image which we see in the law.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:25

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 ^{( x )} deed.

^{( x )} Behaviour: for works show faith.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:26

^{( 18 )} If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his ^{( y )} own heart, this man's religion [is] vain.

^{( 18 )} The third admonition: the word of God lays down a rule to not only do well, but also to speak well.

^{( y )} The fountain of all babbling, cursed speaking, and impudence is this, that men do not know themselves.

Geneva Bible: Jam 1:27

^{( 19 )} Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To ^{( z )} visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world.

^{( 19 )} The fourth: the true service of God exists in charity towards our neighbours, especially those who need the help of others (fatherless and widows), and purity of life.

^{( z )} To care for them and to help them as much as we can.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Jam 1:1-27

1 We are to rejoice under the cross;

5 to ask patience of God;

13 and in our trials not to impute our weakness, or sins, to him,

19 but rather to hearken to the word, to meditate on it, and to do thereafter.

26 Otherwise men may seem, but never be, truly religious.

Maclaren: Jam 1:12

The Crown

The crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.'--James 1:12.

MY purpose is to bring out the elements of the blessed life here, by grouping together those New Testament passages which represent the future reward under the metaphor of the crown,' and so to gain, if not a complete, at all events a comprehensive view of the elements of the blessedness of the perfected life hereafter.

These passages are numerous. Paul speaks of the incorruptible crown,' the reward of the victorious athlete, and of' the crown of righteousness,' the anticipation of which soothed and elevated his last solitary hours. Peter speaks of the crown of glory,' the reward of the faithful elders. James speaks in my text of the crown of life' which the man wins who is proved by trial and stands the proof. The martyr Church at Smyrna is encouraged to faithfulness unto death' by the promise of the crown of life' from the hands of the Lord of life. The angel of the Church at Philadelphia is stimulated to hold fast what thou hast, that no man take thy crown.' The elders cast their crowns before the throne.' If we throw all these passages together, and study their combined effect, we shall, I think, get some helpful and stimulating thoughts.

I. I Ask You, Then, First To Look With Me At The General Idea Conveyed By The Symbol.

Now the word which is employed in the passages to which we have referred is not that which usually denotes a kingly crown, but that which indicates the garland or wreath or chaplet of festivity and victory. A twist of myrtle or parsley or pine was twined, round the brows of the athlete flushed with effort and victory. The laurel is the meed of mighty conquerors.' Roses, with violets or ivy, sat upon the brows of revellers. And it is thoughts of these rather than of the kingly tiara which is in the mind of the New Testament writers; though the latter, as we shall see, has also to be included.

So we get three general ideals on which I touch very lightly, as conveyed by the emblem.

The first is that of victory recognised and publicly honoured. So Paul uses the symbol in this sense in both the instances of its occurrence to which we have already referred, the reward of the racer or athlete in the palaestrum, and the crown of righteousness' which was to follow his having fought the good fight, and finished his course.' That implies that the present is the wrestling ground, and that the issues of the present lie beyond the present. We do not look for flowers on the hard-beaten soil of the arena; and the time of conflict is no time for seeking for delights. If the crown be yonder, then here must be the struggle; and it must be our task to scorn delights and live laborious days' if we are ever to find that blessed result and reward of life here. We have, then, the general idea of victory recognised and publicly honoured by the tumult of acclaim of the surrounding spectators. I will confess His name before the angels of God.'

Then there is the other general idea of festal gladness. That, I suppose, is what was present particularly to Peter's mind when he talked about the wreath that fadeth not away.' I think that there is in his words a probable reference to a striking Old Testament passage, in which the prophet takes the drooping flowers on the foreheads of the drunkards of Samaria at their feast as an emblem of the swift fading of their delights, and of the impending destruction of their polity. But, says Peter, this wreath fades never. The flowers of heaven do not droop. It is an emblem of the calm and permanent delights which come to those behind whom is change with its sadness, and before whom stretches progress with its blessedness. Festal gladness, society, and the satisfaction of all desires are included in the meaning of the wreathed amaranthine flowers that twine round immortal brows.

But the usage in the Book of the Apocalypse stands upon a somewhat different footing. There are no Gentile images there. We hear nothing about Grecian games and heathen wrestlings in that book; but all moves within the circle of Jewish thought. That the word which is employed for the crown,' though it usually meant the victors' and the feasters' chaplet, sometimes also meant the king's crown of sovereignty, is obvious from one or two of its uses in Scripture. For the crown of thorns' was a mockery of royalty, and the golden crowns' which the elders wear in the vision are associated with the thrones upon which they sit, as emblems, not of festal gladness or of triumphant emergence from the struggles and toils of life, but as symbols of royalty and dominion. The characteristic note of the promises of the Revelation is that of Christ's servants' participation in the royalty of their Lord. So to the other two general ideas which I have deduced from the symbol we must add for completeness this third one, that it shadows, in some of the instances of its use at all events, though by no means in all, the royalty so mysterious, by which every one of Christ's brethren is like the children of a king,' and all are so closely united to Him that they participate in His dominion over all creatures and things. Dominion over self, dominion over the universe, a rule mysterious and ineffable which is also service, cheerful and continuous, are contained in the emblem.

So these three general ideas, victory, festal gladness and abundance, royalty and sovereignty, are taught us by this symbol of the crown.

II. Now, Secondly, Note More Particularly The Constituent Parts Of That Chaplet Of Blessedness.

There are two phrases as to these, amongst the passages with which we are now concerned. St. James and the Book of Revelation speak of the crown of life,' and Peter speaks of the crown of glory.' That is to say, the material of which the garland is composed is no perishable pine or myrtle, but it is woven, as it were, of life' on the one hand, of glory on the other. Or, if we do not venture upon such a violent metaphor as that, we can at least say that the crown is life and glory.

Now, as to the first of these--what dim and great thoughts are taught us in it i Life,' in the New Testament, does not mean bare existence, but in its highest sense pure and blessed existence in union with God. And such life--full, perfect, continual--is regarded as being in itself the crown and reward of faithful Christian living here below. In our experience life is often a burden, a weariness, a care. If it be a crown, it is a crown of thorns. But yonder, to live will be blessedness; being will be well-being. The reward of heaven will simply be the fact of living in God. Here life comes painfully trickling, as it were, in single drops through a narrow rift in the rock; yonder it will spread a broad bosom, flashing beneath the sunshine. Here the plant grows strugglingly in some dusty cleft, amidst uncongenial surroundings, and with only occasional gleams of sunlight; its leaves are small, its stem feeble, its blossoms pallid; yonder it will be rooted in rich soil and shone upon by an unclouded sun, and will burst into flowers and forms of beauty that we know nothing of here. Life is the crown.

Then it is a crown of glory. What is glory? The splendour of God's character manifested to His creatures and become the object of their admiration. That is the full meaning of glory in the Old and in the New Testament. And all that is transferred to those who cleave to Him here and are perfected yonder. There will be complete perfection of nature. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' The inmost and deepest beauty of redeemed and perfected souls will then be capable of being manifested fully. Here it struggles for expression, and what we seem to be, though it is often better, is just as often much worse than we really are. But there we shall be able to show ourselves as what in our deepest hearts we are. For the servants who, girt with priestly vestments, do Him sacerdotal service in the highest temple, have His name blazing upon their foreheads, and shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The redeemed souls, transmuted into the likeness of the Lord, and made visible in the flashing splendour of their gentle radiance, shall be beheld with the wonder with which all other creatures gaze on Him who is the Lord and Source of their purity, and if so be that we suffer with Him, we shall be also glorified together.'

But why speak of what we know as little about as the unborn child does of the world, or the caterpillar of its future life when winged and painted and basking in the sunshine? Let us bow before the ignorance which is the prophecy and pledge of the transcendent greatness that lies behind the veil, and say, It is enough for the servant that he be as his Lord.'

III. Now, Thirdly, Note The Conditions Of The Crown.

These are variously put with a rich variety. Paul speaks, as you remember, of the crown of righteousness,' by which he means to imply that on impure brows it can never sit, and that, if it could, it would be there a crown of poisoned thorns. None but the righteous can wear it. That is the first and prime indispensable condition. But then there are others stated in the other passages to which we have referred. The wrestler must strive lawfully,' according to the rules of the arena, if he is to be crowned. The man that is tried must endure his temptation,' and come out of it proved' thereby, as gold is tried by the fire The martyr must be willing to die, if need be. For fidelity to his Master. We must' hold fast that which we have' if we are ever to win that which, as yet, we have not, even the crown that ought to be ours, and so is by anticipation called ours.

But two of the passages to which I have referred add yet another kind of condition and requirement. Paul says,' Not to me only, but to all them also that love His appearing'; and James here says that the man who is tried will receive the crown which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.' So it is not difficult to make out the sequence of these several conditions. Fundamental to all is love to Jesus Christ. That is the beginning of everything. Then, built upon that, for His dear sake, the manful wrestling with temptations and with difficulties, long-breathed running, and continual aspiration after the things that are before, fidelity, if need be, unto death, and a grim tenacity of grasp of the truth and the blessings already bestowed. These things are needed. And then as the result of the love that grasps Christ with hooks of flesh, which are stronger than hooks of steel, and will not let Him go, and as the result of the efforts and struggles and discipline which flow from that love to Him, there must be a righteousness which conforms to His image and is the gift of His indwelling Spirit. These are the conditions on which the crown may be ours.

Such righteousness may be imperfect here upon earth, and when we look upon ourselves we may feel as if there were nothing in us that deserves, or that even can bear, the crown to be laid upon our brows. But if the process have been begun here by love and struggling, and reception of His grace, death will perfect it. But death will not begin it if it have not been commenced in life. We may hope that if we have our faces set towards the Lord, and our poor imperfect steps have been stumbling towards Him through all the confusions and mists of flesh and sense, our course will be wonderfully straightened and accelerated when we shuffle off this mortal coil.' But there is no sanctifying in death for a man who is not a Christian whilst he lives, and the crown will only come to those whose righteousness began with repentance, and was made complete by passing through the dark valley of death.

IV. Lastly, Note The Giver Of The Crown.

Which the Lord hath promised," which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me in that day.' I will give him a crown of life.' So Jesus Christ, as Judge, as Brother, as Distributor of the eternal conditions of men, as indwelling in us and making us sharers of all that is His, bestows upon His servants the crown. Yet, let us remember that He does not give it in such a fashion as that the gift may be taken once for all and worn thereafter, independent of Him. It must be a continual communication, all through eternal ages, and right on into the abysses of celestial glories--a continual communication from His ever-opened hand. She energy of a present Christ bestowing at the moment (if there be moments in that dim future) is the condition of the crown's continued gleaming on brows that have worn it for ages, to which geological periods are but as the beat of a pendulum. Like the rainbow that continues permanently above the cater-act, and yet at each moment is fed by new spray from the stream, so the crown upon our heads will be the consequence of the continual influx into redeemed souls of the very life of Christ Himself.

So, dear brethren, all ends as all begins, with cleaving to Him, and drawing from His fulness grace whilst we need grace, and glory when we are fit for glory. Strength for the conflict and the reward of the victory come from the same hand, and are ours on the same conditions. He who covers our heads in the day of battle is He who wreathes the garland on the conqueror's brow and keeps its flowers unfading through eternal ages. On His head are many crowns,' which He bestows upon His followers, and all the heaven of His servants is their share in His heaven. If, then, we love Him, if for His dear sake we manfully strive in the conflict, patiently accept the ministry of trial, discipline ourselves as athletes are willing to do for a poor parsley wreath, hold fast that which we have, and by faith, effort, and prayer, receive of His righteousness here, then the grave will be but as the dressing-room where we shall put off our soiled raiment and on our white robe; and thus apparelled, even we, unworthy, shall hear from Him, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'

Maclaren: Jam 1:18

First-Fruits Of His Creatures'

That we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.'--James 1:18.

ACCORDING to the Levitical ceremonial, the first sheaf of the new crop, accompanied with sacrifice, was presented in the Temple on the day after the Passover Sabbath. No part of the harvest was permitted to be used for food until after this acknowledgment, that all had come from God and belonged to Him. A similar law applied to the first-born of men and of cattle. Both were regarded as in a special sense consecrated to and belonging to God.

Now, in the New Testament, both these ideas of the first-born' and the first-fruits,' which run as you see parallel in some important aspects, are transferred to Jesus Christ. He is' become the first-fruits of them that slept'; and it was no mere accidental coincidence that, in this character, He rose from the dead on the day on which, according to the law, the sheaf was to be presented in the Temple. In His case the ideas attached to the expression are not only that of consecration, but that of being the first of a series, which owes its existence to Him. He makes men the many brethren,' of whom He is the first-born'; and He, by the overflowing power of His life, raises from the dead the whole harvest of which He is the first-fruits.

Then that which Jesus Christ is, primarily and originally, all those who love Him and trust Him are secondarily and by derivation from Himself. Thus, both these phrases are further transferred in the New Testament to Christian people. They are the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb'; or, as my text has it here, with a qualifying word, a kind of first-fruits'; which expresses at once a metaphor and the derivation of the character. They are also the Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven.'

So, then, in this text we have contained some great ideas as to God's purpose in drawing us to Himself. And I want you to look at these for a moment or two.

I. First, Then, God's Purpose For Christians Is That They Should Be Consecrated To Him.

The sheaf was presented before God in the symbolical ceremonial, as an acknowledgment of His ownership of it, and of all the wide-waving harvest. It thereby became His in a special sense. In like manner, the purpose of God in bestowing on us the wondrous gift of a regeneration and new life by the word is that we should be His, yielding to Him the life which He gives, and all that we are, in thankful recognition and joyful consecration.

We hear a great deal about consecration in these days. Let us understand what consecration means. There is an inward and an outward aspect of it. In the inward aspect it means an entire devotion of myself, down to the very roots of my being, to God as Lord and Owner.

Man's natural tendency is to make himself his own centre, to live for self and by self. And the whole purpose of the gospel is to decentralise him and to give him a new centre, even God, for whom, and by whom, and with whom, and in whom the Christian man is destined, by his very calling, to live.

Now, how can an inward devotion and consecration of myself be possible? Only by one way, and that is by the way of love that delights to give. The yielding of the human spirit to the divine is only accomplished through that sweet medium of love. Self-surrender is the giving up of self at the bidding of love to Him to whom my heart cleaves.

The will, will yield itself. There will be no murmuring at hard providences; no regrets darkening a whole life and paralysing duty, and blinding to blessings, by reason of the greatest sorrow which He may have sent. The will, will yield in submission; the will, will yield in obedience. According to the dreadful metaphor of the founder of the Jesuits--dreadful when applied to the relations of a man to a man, but blessed when applied to the relation of a man to God, and of God to man--I shall be in His hands like a staff' in the hand of a man, only to be used as He desires.

Consecration means self-surrender; and the fortress of self is in the will, and the way of self-surrender is the flowery path of love.

To take the other metaphor of Scripture, by which the same idea is expressed--the consecration which we owe to God, and which is His design in all His dealings with us in the gospel, will be like that of a priestly offering of sacrifice, and the sacrifice is ourselves.

So much for the inward; what about the outward? All capacities, opportunities, possessions, are to be yielded up to Him as utterly as Christ has yielded Himself to us. We are to live for Him and work for Him; and set, as our prime object, conspicuously and constantly before us, and to be reached towards through all the trivialities of daily duty, and the common-places of recurring tasks, the one thing, to glorify God and to please Him. Consecration means the utter giving of myself away, in the inmost sanctuary of the spirit. And it means the resolute devotion of all that I have and all that I am in the outgoings of daily life to His service and to His praise.

That is what God meant for you and me when He made us Christians; that was His design when He sent His Son. And we thwart and counter-work Him, just in the measure in which we still make ourselves our own centre, our wills our own law, and our well-being our own aim.

Now, remember, such consecration is salvation. For the opposite thing, the living to self, is damnation and hell and destruction. And whosoever is thus consecrated to God is in process of being saved. The relation between the two ideas is not, as it often is put, that you are to be saved that you may be consecrated; but, you are being saved in being consecrated. And the measure in which we have ceased to be devoted to ourselves, and are devoted to Him, is the accurate measure in which we have received the true salvation that is in Jesus Christ.

That consecration is blessedness. There is no joy of which a human spirit is capable that is as lofty, as rare and exquisite, as sweet and lasting, as the joy of giving itself away to Him who has given Himself for us. And such consecration is the true possession of what we give, and the only way of really owning ourselves or our possessions. He that loveth himself shall lose himself,' and he that gives himself away to God, a weak, sinful man, gets himself back from God, a hero, strong, and a saint.

Such consecration, which is the root of all blessedness, and the true way of entering into the possession of all possessions, is only possible in the degree in which we subject ourselves to the influence of these mighty acts which God has done in order to secure it. Our yielding of ourselves to Him is only possible when we are quite sure that He has given Himself to us. Our love which melts us, and bows us in willing, joyful surrender, can only be the echo of His love. The pattern is set us in the Christ, and set us that we may imitate it, and we imitate it in the measure in which we lie exposed to its mighty power. He gave Himself for us, that He might purchase for Himself a people for His possession.' My surrender is but the echo of the thunder of His; my surrender is but the flash on the polished mirror which gives back the sunbeam that smites it. We yield ourselves to God, when we realise that Christ has given Himself for us.

Christian men and women, behold your destiny! God's purpose concerning you is that you might be not your own, because you are bought with a price. And measure against that mighty purpose the halting obedience, the reluctant wills, the half-and-half surrender which is no surrender at all, which make up the lives of the average Christians among us, and see whether any of us can feel that the divine purpose is accomplished in us, or that we have paid what we owe to our God.

II. Secondly, My Text Suggests That God's Purpose For Christians Is That They Should Be Specimens And Beginnings Of A Great Harvest.

The sheaf that was carried into the Temple showed what sun and rain and the sweet skyey influences had been able to do on a foot or two of ground, and it prophesied of the acres of golden grain that would one day be garnered in the barns. And so, Christian men and women to-day, and even more eminently at that time when this letter was written, are meant to be the first small example of a great harvest that is to follow. The design that God had in view in our being Christianised is that we should stand here as specimens of what He means the world to be, and as witnesses of what He, by the gospel, is able to make men.

If we strip that thought of its metaphor it just comes to this, that if Christianity has been able to take one man, pick him out of the mud and mire of sense and self, and turn him into a partially and increasingly consecrated servant of God, it can do that for anybody.

The little sheaf, though there be but a handful of nodding heads in it, is a sure pledge of the harvest on the great prairie yonder, as yet untilled and unsown, which will yet bear like fruit to His praise and honour.

We have all of us one human heart.' Whatever may be men's idiosyncrasies or diversities of culture, of character, of condition, of climate, of chronology, they have all the same deep primary wants, and the deepest of them all is concord and fellowship with God. And the path to that is by faith in His dear Son, who has given Himself for us. If, then, that faith in one case has given to a man the satisfaction of that which all men are hungering for, whether they know it or not, and are restless and miserable till they find it, then there is document and evidence that this gospel, which can do that for the individual, can do it for the race. And so the first-fruits are the pledge and the prophecy of the harvest.

What a harvest is dimly hinted at in these words of my text; the first-fruits of His creatures!' That goes even wider than humanity, and stretches away out into the dim distances, concerning which we can speak with but bated breath; but at least it seems to suggest to us that, in accordance with other teaching of the New Testament, the whole creation' which groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now,' will, somehow or other, be brought into the liberty and the glory of the children of God, and, as humble waiters and attenders upon the kings who are the priests of the Most High, will participate in the power of the redemption. At all events, there seem to me to gleam dimly through such words as those of my text, the great prospects of a redeemed humanity, of a renewed earth, of a sinless universe, in which God in Christ shall be all in all.

The possibility and the certainty of that issue lie in this comparatively humble fact, that some handful of poor men have found in Jesus Christ that which their finding of it in Him manifests to them, is the elixir vitoe and the hope of the world.

You are meant to be specimens, exhibitions of what God intends for mankind, and of what the gospel can do for the world. Do you think, Christian men and women, that anybody, looking at you, will have a loftier idea of the possibilities of human nature, and of the potentialities of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Because if they will not, then you have thwarted your Father's design when He sent you His Son.

III. Lastly, My Text Suggests That God's Purpose For Christians Is That They Should Help The Harvest.

That does not lie in the Levitical ceremonial of the sheaf of the first-fruits, of course. Though even there, I may remind you, that the thing presented on the altar carried in itself the possibilities of future growth, and that the wheaten ear has not only' bread for the eater but seed for the sower,' and is the parent of another harvest. But the idea that the first-fruits are not merely first in series, but that they originate the series of which they are the first, lies in the transference of the terms and the ideas to Jesus Christ; for, as I pointed out to you in my introductory remarks, when He is called the first-fruits of them that slept,' it is implied that He, by His power, will wake the whole multitude of the sleepers; and when it speaks of Him as' the first-born among many brethren,' it is implied that He, by the communication of His life, will give life, and a fraternal life, to the many brethren who will follow Him.

And so, in like manner, God's purpose in making us a kind of first-fruits of His creatures' is not merely our consecration and the exhibition of a specimen of His power, and the pledge and prophecy of the harvest, but it is that from us there shall come influences which shall realise the harvest of which our own Christianity is the pledge and prophecy. That is to say, all Christian men and women are Christians in order that they may make more Christians.

The capacity, the obligation, the impulse, are all given in the fact of receiving Jesus Christ for ourselves. If we have Him we can preach Him, if we have Him we ought to preach Him, if we have Him in any deep and real possession, we must preach Him, and His words will be like a fire in our bones, if we forbear; and we shall not be able to stay.

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,Not light them for themselves.'

What do you get Christ for? To feed upon Him. Yes! But to carry the bread to all the hungry as well.

Do not say you cannot. You can talk about anything that interests you. You can speak about anything that you know. And are your lips to be always closed about Him who has given Himself for you? Do not say that you need special gifts for it. We do need special gifts for the more public and conspicuous forms of what we call preaching nowadays. But any man and any woman that has Christ in his or her heart can go to another and say, We have found the Messiah,' and that is the best thing to say.

You ought to preach Him. Capacity involves obligation. To have anything, in this world of needy men who are all knit together in the solidarity of one family--to have any anything implies that you impart it. That is the true communism of Christianity, to be applied not only to wealth but to everything, all our possessions, all our knowledge, all our influence. We get them that they may fructify through us to all; and if we keep them, we shall be sure to spoil them. The corn laid up in storehouses is gnawed by rats, and marred by weevils. If you want it to be healthy, and your own possession of it to increase, put it into your seed-basket; and in the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand,' and it will come back to thee, seed for the sower and bread for the eater.'

Now this is a matter of individual responsibility. You cannot get rid of it. Every Christian has the obligation laid upon himself, and every Christian man has some sphere in which he can discharge it, and in which, if he discharge it not, he is a dumb dog lying down and loving to slumber. Oh! I wish I could get into you tongue-tied, cowardly Christian men and women who never open your mouths to a soul for the Master's sake, this conviction, that you are thwarting God's purposes, and that the blood of souls lies at your door by reason of your guilty silence.

If you believe these things which I have been saying to you, the application follows. The field is the world.' And neither criticisms about missionary methods nor allegations of the superior claims of the little bit of the field round about your own doors are a sufficient vindication before God, though they may be an excuse before men, for tepid interest in, or indifference to, or lack of help of, any great missionary enterprise.

We have to sow beside all waters; and if any men in the world were ever debtors both to the Greek and to the barbarian, both to the Englishman and the foreigner, it is the members of this great nation of ours, which, as a nest hath gathered the riches of the nations, and there were none that peeped or muttered or moved the wing.' We are debtors to the heathen world, because whether we will or no we come into contact with heathen lands; and whether we take Bibles or not, our countrymen will take rum and gunpowder, and send men to the devil if we do not try to draw them to God. We are debtors to them in a thousand cases by injuries inflicted. We are debtors by benefits received; and we are debtors most of all because Christ died for them and for us equally.

And so, I beseech you, give us your help, and remember in giving it that God of His own will hath begotten us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.'

Maclaren: Jam 1:25

The Perfect Law And Its Doers

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.'--James 1:25.

AN old tradition tells us that James, who was probably the writer of this letter, continued in the practice of Jewish piety all his life. He was surnamed the Just.' He lived the life of a Nazarite. He was even admitted into the sanctuary of the Temple, and there spent so much of his time in praying for the forgiveness of the people that, in the vivid language of the old writer, his knees were hard and worn like a camel's.' To such a man the Gospel would naturally present itself as a law,' which word expressed the highest form of revelation with which he was familiar; and to him the glory of Christ's message would be that it was the perfecting of an earlier utterance, moving on the same plane as it did, but infinitely greater.

Now that, of course, is somewhat different from the point of view from which, for instance, Paul regards the relation of the Gospel and the Law. To him they are rather antitheses. He conceived mainly of the law as a system of outward observances, incapable of fulfilment, and valuable as impressing upon men the consciousness of sin.

But, though there is diversity, there is no contradiction, any more than there is between the two pictures in a stereoscope, which, united, represent one solid reality. The two men simply regard the subject from slightly different angles. Paul would have said that the gospel was the perfection of the law, as indeed he does say that by faith we do not make void, but establish, the law. And James would have said that the law, in Paul's sense, was a yoke of bondage, as indeed he does say in my text, that the gospel, in contrast with the earlier revelation, is the law of liberty.

And so the two men complement and do not contradict each other. In like manner, the earnest urging of work and insisting upon conduct, which are the keynote of this letter, are no contradiction of Paul. The one writer begins at a later point than the other. Paul is a preacher of faith, but of faith which works by love. James is the preacher of works, hut of works which are the fruit of faith.

There are three things here on which I touch now. First, the perfect law; second, the doers of the perfect law; and third, the blessedness of the doers of the perfect law.

I. First, Then, The Perfect Law.

I need not dwell further upon James's conception of the gospel as being a law; the authoritative standard and rule of human conduct. Let me remind you how, in every part of the revelation of divine truth contained in the gospel, there is a direct moral and practical bearing. No word of the New Testament is given to us only in order that we may know truth, but all in order that we may do it. Every part of it palpitates with life, and is meant to regulate conduct. There are plenty of truths of which it does not matter whether a man believes them or not, in so far as his conduct is concerned. Mathematical truth or scientific truth leaves conduct unaffected. But no man can believe the principles that are laid down in the New Testament, and the truths that are unveiled there, without their laying a masterful grip upon his life, and influencing all that he is.

And let me remind you, too, how in the very central fact of the gospel there lies the most stringent rule of life. Jesus Christ is the Pattern, and from those gentle lips which say, If ye love Me, keep My commandments,' law sounds more imperatively than from all the thunder and trumpets of Sinai.

Let me remind you, too, how in the great act of redemption, which is the central fact of the New Testament revelation, there lies a law for conduct. God's love redeeming us is the revelation of what we ought to be, and the Cross, to which we look as the refuge from sin and condemnation, is also the pattern for the life of every believer. Be ye imitators of God, as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.' A- revelation, therefore, of which every truth, to the minutest fibre of the great web, has in it a directly practical bearing; a revelation which is all centred and focused in the life which is example because it is deliverance; a revelation, of which the vital heart is the redeeming act which sets before us the outlines of our conduct, and the model for our imitation--is a law just because it is a gospel.

Such thoughts as these are needful as a counterpoise to one-sided views which otherwise would be disastrous. God forbid that the thought of the gospel of Jesus Christ as primarily a message of reconciliation and pardon, and providing a means of escape from the frightful consequences of sin, even separation from God, should ever be put in the background! But the very ardour and intensity of man's recognition of that as the first shape which Christianity assumes to sinful men, has sometimes led, and is always in possible danger of leading, to putting all other aspects of the gospel in the background. Some of you, for instance, when a preacher talks to you about plain duties, and insists upon conduct and practical righteousness, are ready to say, He is not preaching the gospel.' Neither is he, if he does not present these duties and this practical righteousness as the fruits of faith, or if he presents them as the means of winning salvation. But if your conception of Christianity has not grasped it as being a stringent rule of life, you need to go to school to James, the servant of God, and do not yet understand the message of his brother Paul. The gospel is a Redemption. Yes! God be thanked; but because a Redemption, it is a Law.

Again, this thought gives the necessary counterpoise to the tendency to substitute the mere intellectual grasp of Christian truth for the practical doing of it. There will be plenty of orthodox Christians and theological professors and students who will find themselves, to their very great surprise, amongst the goats at last. Not what we believe, but what we do, is our Christianity; only the doing must be rooted in belief.

In like manner, take this vivid conception of the gospel as a law; as a counterpoise to the tendency to place religion in mere emotion and feeling. Fire is very good, but its best purpose is to get up steam which will drive the wheels of the engine. There is a vast deal of lazy selfishness masquerading under the guise of sweet and sacred devout emotion. Not what we feel, but what we do, is our Christianity.

Further, notice how this law is a perfect law. James's idea, I suppose, in that epithet, is not so much the completeness of the code, or the loftiness and absoluteness of the ideal which is set forth in the gospel, as the relation between the law and its doer. He is stating the same thought of which the Psalmist of old time had caught a glimpse. The law of the Lord is perfect,' because it converts the soul.' That is to say, the weakness of all commandment--whether it be the law of a nation, or the law of moral textbooks, or the law of conscience, or of public opinion, or the like--the weakness of all positive statute is that it stands there, over against a man, and points a stony finger to the stony tables, Thou shalt!' Thou shalt not!' but stretches out no hand to help us in keeping the commandment. It simply enjoins, and so is weak; like the proclamations of some discrowned king who has no army at his back to enforce them, and which flutter as waste paper on the barn-doors, and do nothing to secure allegiance. But, says James, this law is perfect--because it is more than law, and transcends the simple function of command. It not only tells us what to do, but it gives us power to do it; and that is what men want. The world knows what it ought to do well enough. There is no need for heaven to be rent, and divine voices to come to tell men what is right and wrong; they carry an all but absolutely sufficient guide as to that within their own minds. But there is need to bring them something which shall be more than commandment, which shall be both law and power, both the exhibition of duty and the gift of capacity to discharge it.

The gospel brings power because it brings life. If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness had been by the law.' In the gospel that desideratum is supplied. Here is the law which vitalises and so gives power. The life which the gospel brings will unfold itself after its own nature, and so produce the obedience which the law of the gospel requires.

Therefore, says James further, this perfect law is freedom. Of course liberty is not exemption from commandment, but the harmony of will with commandment. Whosoever finds that what is his duty is his delight is enfranchised. We are set at liberty when we walk within the limits of that gospel; and they who delight to do the law are free in obedience; free from the tyranny of their own lusts, passions, inclinations; free from the domination of men and opinion and common customs and personal habits. All those bonds are burnt in the fiery furnace of love into which they pass; and where they walk transfigured and at liberty, because they keep that law. Freedom comes from the reception into the heart of the life whose motions coincide with the commandments of the gospel. Then the burden that I carry carries me, and the limits within which I am confined are the merciful fences put up on the edge of the cliff to keep the traveller from falling over and being dashed to pieces beneath.

II. Now Notice, Secondly, The Doers Of The Perfect Law.

James has a long prelude before he comes to the doing. Several things are required as preliminary. The first step is, looketh into the law.'

The word employed here is a very picturesque and striking one. Its force may be seen if I quote to you the other instances of its occurrence in the New Testament. It is employed in the accounts of the Resurrection to describe the attitude and action of Peter, John, and Mary as they stooped down and looked into' the empty sepulchre. In all these cases the Revised Version translates the word as I have just done, stooping and looking,' both acts being implied in it. It is also employed by Peter when he tells us that the angels desire to look into' the mysteries of Redemption, in which saying, perhaps, there may be some allusion to the silent, bending figures of the twin cherubim who, with folded wings and fixed eyes, curved themselves above the mercy-seat, and looked down upon that mystery of propitiating love. With such fixed and steadfast gaze we must contemplate the perfect law of liberty if we are ever to be doers of the same.

A second requirement is, and continueth.' The gaze must be, not only concentrated, but constant, if anything is to come of it. Old legends tell that the looker into a magic crystal saw nothing at first, but, as he gazed, there gradually formed themselves in the clear sphere filmy shapes, which grew firmer and more distinct until they stood plain. The raw hide dipped into the vat with tannin in it, and at once pulled out again, will never be turned into leather. Many of you do not give the motives and principles of the gospel, which you say you believe, a chance of influencing you, because so interruptedly, and spasmodically, and at such long intervals, and for so few moments, do you gaze upon them. Steadfast and continued attention is needful if we are to be doers of the work.'

Let me venture on two or three simple practical exhortations. Cultivate the habit, then, of contemplating the central truths of the gospel, as the condition of receiving in vigour and fulness the life which obeys the commandment. There is no mystery about the way by which that new life is given to men. James tells us here, in the immediate context, how it. is. He speaks of God of His own will begetting us with the ward of truth'; and of the engrafted word, which,' being engrafted, is able to save your souls.' Get that word--the principles of the gospel and the truths of revelation, which are all enshrined and incarnated in Jesus Christ--into your minds and hearts by continual, believing contemplation of it, and the new life, which is obedience, will surely spring. But if you look at the gospel of your salvation as seldom and as superficially and with as passing glances as so many of you expend upon it, no wonder that you are such weaklings as so many of you are, and that you find such a gulf between your uncircumcised inclinations and the commandment of the living God.

Cultivate this habit of reflective meditation upon the truths of the gospel as giving you the pattern of duty in a concentrated and available form. It is of no use to carry about a copy of the Statutes at Large' in twenty folio volumes in order to refer to it when difficulties arise and crises come. We must have something a great deal more compendious and easy of reference than that. A man's cabin-trunk must not be as big as a house, and his goods must be in a small compass for his sea voyage. We have in Jesus Christ the Statutes at Large,' codified and put into a form which the poorest and humblest and busiest amongst us can apply directly to the sudden emergencies and surprising contingencies of daily life, which are always sprung upon us when we do not expect them and demand instantaneous decision. We have in Christ the pattern of all conduct. But only those who have been accustomed to meditate upon Him, and on the truths that flow from His life and death, will find that the sword is ready when it is needed, and that the guide is at their side when they are in perplexity.

Cultivate the habit of meditating on the truths of the gospel, in order that the motives of conduct may be reinvigorated and strengthened. And remember that only by long and habitual abiding in the secret place of the Most High, and entertaining the thoughts of His infinite love to us, as the continual attitude of our daily life, shall we be able to respond to His love with the thankfulness which springs to obedience as a delight, and knows no joy like the joy of serving such a Friend.

These requirements being met, next comes the doing. There must precede all true doing of the law this gazing into it, steadfast and continued. We shall not obey the commandment except, first, we have received and welcomed the salvation. There must be, first, faith, and then obedience. Only he who has received the gospel in the love of it will find that the gospel is the law which regulates his conduct. Faith without works is dead'; works without faith are rootless flowers, or bricks hastily and incompletely huddled together without the binding straw.

But, further, the text suggests that the natural crown of all contemplation and knowledge is practical obedience. Make of all your creed deed. Let everything you believe be a principle of action too; your credenda translate into agenda. And, on the other hand, let every deed be informed by your creed, and no schism exist between what you are and what you believe.

III. Lastly, Note The Blessedness Of The Doers Of The Perfect Law.

There is an echo in the words of my text, of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, the form in which the gospel was, perhaps, dearest to this Apostle. He uses the same word--Blessed.'

Notice the in; not after,' not as a reward for,' but blessed in his deed.' It is the saying of the Psalmist over again, whose words we have already seen partly reproduced in the former portion of this text, who, in the same great psalm, says: In keeping Thy commandments there is great reward.' The rewards of this law are not arbitrarily bestowed, separately from the act of obedience, by the will of the Judge, but the deeds of obedience automatically bring the blessedness. This world is not so constituted as that outward rewards certainly follow on inward goodness. Few of its prizes fall to the lot of the saints. But men are so constituted as that obedience is its own reward. There is no delight so deep and true as the delight of doing the will of Him whom we love. There is no blessedness like that of an increasing communion with God, and of the clearer perception of His will and mind which follow obedience as surely as the shadow does the sunshine. There is no blessedness like the glow of approving conscience, the reflection of the smile on Christ's face.

To have the heart in close communion with the very Fountain of all good, and the will in harmony with the will of the best Beloved; to hear the Voice that is dearest of all, ever saying, This is the way, walk ye in it'; to feel a spirit in my feet' impelling me upon that road; to know that all my petty deeds are made great, and my stained offerings hallowed by the altar on which they are honoured to lie; and to be conscious of fellowship with the Friend of my soul increased by obedience; this is to taste the keenest joy and good of life, and he who is thus blessed in his deed' need never fear that that blessedness shall be taken away, nor sorrow though other joys be few and griefs be many.

But, remember, first believe, then work. We must begin where Paul told the Philippian gaoler to begin' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved'--if we are to end where James leads us. Do not begin your building at the roof, but put in the foundations deep in penitence and faith. And then, let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon.

Maclaren: Jam 1:27

Pure Worship

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.'--James 1:27.

THIS is a text which is more often quoted and used than understood. The word religion' has somewhat shifted its meaning from that which it bore at the time of our translation. We understand by it one of two things. For instance, when we speak of the Mohammedan or the Brahminical religion we mean the body of beliefs, principles, and ceremonies which go to make up an objective whole. When we speak of an individual's religion we generally mean, not that which he grasps, but the act, on his part, of grasping the consciousness of dependence, the attitude of reverence and aspiration and love and its consequences within. But when our translation was made the word meant rather worship than religion, or, to use an expression which has been recently naturalised among us, it meant the cult' of a God, and that mainly, though not exclusively, by ceremonials, or by oral and verbal praise and petition. Now, it is obvious that that is the meaning of the expression in my text, because otherwise you would have a patently absurd saying. If James meant by religion' here what we now mean by it, to say that benevolence and personal purity are religion would he just equivalent to and as absurd as saying that a mother's love is washing and feeding her child, or that anger is a flushed face and a loud voice. The feeling is one thing, the expression of it is another. The feeling is religion, the expression of it is worship. And so if you take the true meaning, not only of the original Greek, but also of the word religion' at the beginning of the seventeenth century, then you will understand the passage a little better than some of the people that are so often quoting it do.

For the writer is not talking about religion, but about its expression, worship.' And he says that true worship, pure and undefiled … is to visit the widows and the fatherless in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.' He has been, in the previous verses, striking at various forms of self-deception, such as that a man should conceive himself to be all right, because he listens to the law, and then goes away and forgets it, or that a man should think himself a real worshipper, while he does not bridle his tongue, and then he states the general principle of my text--worship has for its selectest manifestation and form these two things, beneficence and purity. Now I would deal with these words and seek to point out first--

I. The Noble Ideal Of Life That Is Set Before Us Here.

You observe that there are two great departments into which all the forms of individual duty are, as it were, swept. To put these into plain words, the one is beneficence, as the sum and substance of all our duties to our fellows, and the other is keeping ourselves pure, as the sum and substance of all our duties to ourselves. Now I would notice, for it strikes me as being remarkable, that duties to other people are put first, and duties to ourselves second. I do not know that there is any question of practical morality more difficult for us to settle, with full satisfaction to ourselves, than the relative proportion, in our lives, of care for ourselves, for our own culture, for our own rectification, for our own growth in grace and righteousness, and our obligations to our fellows. It is very hard for us to note how much we ought to give to the definite purpose of trying to make ourselves better, and how much we ought to give to the other purpose of forgetting ourselves, and seeking for the good of other people. But James, although he does not enter into the difficulties which clog the solution of that question for us individually, does seem to think that the first thing to be looked after is other people, and that in looking after such other people we shall be most efficiently keeping ourselves unspotted from the world. And it is so, for if we get around us, as it were, an atmosphere of sympathy, of unselfish regard, of unwearied effort for the benefit of other people, it is like the thin film or air that may surround some object, and prevent the fire from reaching it for a moment or two. We shall find that by no means the least powerful detergent to purge from us the spots of the world is an honest and thorough-going flinging of ourselves into the necessities and the sorrows of other people.

But I should like to put in a caution here. I believe that there are a great many good folk in this generation who have their hands so full of Christian work that they have no time at all for the development of their own Christian character in any other way, and that they lack an intelligent grasp of the principles of the gospel, and many things that would make their work upon other people a hundred times better, just because they are so busy helping other folk that they have no time at all to look after themselves. And so the Church as a whole to-day has, as I believe, not too much beneficent and religious machinery, for there never can be too much of that--but too much relatively to the strength of the Church to drive it. Your engine is too big for your boiler, and to this busy generation, in which Christian worker' has all but blotted out the conception of Christian thinker' and Christian scholar,' I believe that it needs to be preached, not so much Look after other people' as Do not forget yourself.' Take heed to thyself, and to thy teaching,' was good counsel for Paul's young representative, and it is good counsel for us all. What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.' Visit the widows and the fatherless in their affliction,' by all means; and Keep yourselves unspotted from the world.'

I suppose that it is scarcely necessary to remark that James does not mean visiting the widows and fatherless to be taken as a complete statement of our duties to others. He singles out that one form which sympathy and hopefulness will take, as a typical example of the whole class of actions in which love will express itself. Nor need I do more than say in passing that visiting' means more than calling on--namely, looking after and caring for. The sum of all Christian duties to others, then, is gathered up in hopeful and sympathetic love, and in regard to ourselves James sums them up in what looks, after all, rather an incomplete ideal: Keep yourselves unspotted from the world.' He does not say with any falsely ascetic twist, Keep yourselves out of the world.' No! He says, Fling yourselves into it, and when you are in the thickest of the muddy ways, see that no spots and splashes of filth come on your white garments.' That implies that it is very likely, unless we take very rigid care, that contact with the external world, and with the aggregate of Godless men which makes the world, in the New Testament sense of the phrase, will infect Christian men and women with evil, even when they are going on with their works of beneficence. And I suppose we all know that that is true.

But here you get a very negative view of the sum of Christian duty. Some people preach culture.' James says, Try to keep yourselves clean.' He realises that there is something more to be done by each of us with ourselves than to develop or draw out and increase that which is in us, that there needs to be another process, and that is to get rid of a great deal that is within us. We must cease to be much of what we are before we can be that which we may be and ought to be. Slay self first that you may live. Cultivate? Yes I and crucify as well.

Nor does James think any the less nobly of the resulting self, because he says that you will form the noblest character mainly by the way of negation. I know, of course, that that is only one-sided; but do we not all know that by reason of the abounding evil around us, and the proclivities more or less dormant, but existing, to much of that evil, which are in our own hearts, we do need that the law of our life should very largely be cast in the form' Do not.' Any man who has honestly set himself to the task of moulding his life into the likeness which God would approve, must know that to walk through the wards of an hospital and catch no infection, to stand in a dung-heap and bring away no stench nor foulness clinging to the robes, is as easy as it is to plunge into the world and catch no contagion and no pollution there.

And yet, says James, you have to do that. He sums up Christian duty in this negative form, that is remarkable, and he flings the whole weight and burden of it on the man himself, that is more remarkable still. And yet we have only to read the rest of the chapter to see that he is not forgetting that there must be a Divine Keeper to keep the keepers, and that we shall never keep ourselves unspotted' unless we trust to Him who has said I will keep thy feet from falling.' So we need not wonder at the emphasis that is placed on the human side of the energy that is to be put forth in order to mould men into this character. But I desire to say here what I think some tendencies of good people's opinions in this day do especially need: that we do not get cleansed, hallowed, sanctified, by faith only, but that the office of faith is to bring into our possession the power which will sanctify us if we use our own efforts. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit,' and not trust to faith alone to make us pure.

II. We Have Here, Secondly, The True And Pure Worship In Such A Life.

I need not repeat what I have already said at the beginning of these remarks as to the true bearing of the principle laid down here. Only let me remind you that the writer is not flouting, or putting away out of court, other forms of action which are more frequently called worship. True religion, which expresses itself, according to James, most nobly in the worship of life, must express itself by all the other means which men have for expressing their inmost selves, by the worship of words, by symbolical deed, by a ceremonial as well as by the visiting of the widows and the fatherless, and the keeping oneself unspotted from the world. But what is insisted upon here is that of these two ways--both of them equally natural and equally indispensable, if there be any religion to express--in some aspects the higher and the nobler is the dumb worship of a pure and beneficent life. Now, of course, we are accustomed as Nonconformists to think that texts of this sort hit the adherents of a more elaborate, sensuous, and ceremonial form of worship than finds favour in our eyes, very hard, and sometimes to forget that they hit us quite as hard. There may be quite as real ritualists amongst Nonconformists as there are amongst Anglicans or Roman Catholics--I was going to say amongst Quakers--as amongst the adherents of any form of Christian worship. For it is not the elaboration of the form, but it is the existence of it, that tempts men to trust too much to it. And the baldest--to use a modern term of opprobrium--Nonconformist worship may be just as productive of immoral reliance upon it, on the part of those who adhere to it, as the most elaborate and sensuous ceremonial that fills a cathedral with clouds of incense, and calls upon men to worship simply by looking on at a priest performing his miracle. Dear brethren, you and I need the warning as much as anybody ever did. There are people, I have no doubt, who leave their religion in their pews, and lock it up there in the box along with their hymn books, and whose notion of religion is very little more than coming to a so-called' place of worship' and offering up verbal prayers. There creep in insincerity, unreality, unconscious hypocrisy; there creeps in mechanical, perfunctory utterance of the words of praise, or listening to the voice of the preacher. How many of you think about the hymns you sing, and make them the expression of your own feelings? How many of you fancy that you have spent the Sunday rightly when you go to church and listen more or less attentively to what your minister may have to say to you, and then go out and live a life in fiat contradiction to the prayers, and the hymns, and the readings, and the preachings in which you have nominally taken part? Oh, brethren! let us get into reality, and learn more and more than ever we have done that worship does not mean the external act, but the bowing of the spirit before God, and that amidst the many temptations to insincerity, unreality, and dead, fossil formalism, which adhere to all forms of oral and ceremonial worship, there is as much need to-day as ever there was that we should listen to him who says, What hath thy God required of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?' Lord! Lord I have we not prophesied in Thy name ?' Depart from Me; I never knew you.'

III. And Now Let Me Say One Last Word As To The Only Possible Foundation For Such A Life.

It is worship, it is the expression of religion, and only when it is the expression of religion will you find beneficence and purity in their highest and noblest forms. There are people that say, I do not understand the Psalms; they are far too rapturous and emotional for me. I do not care about Paul and his metaphysical theology. I cannot make much of John and his mysticism. Give me James. That is plain common-sense; that is good practical morality. No clouds of darkness, no fine-spun theories.' Yes, and James has for his fundamental principle that if you want morality you must begin with religion. He believes that visiting the widows and the fatherless in affliction, and keeping oneself unspotted from the world, or, in other words, the highest form of morality, is the body, of which religion is the soul.

I am not going to enter upon that thorny question of the possibility of having an independent theory of ethics without religion, but my point is this--theory or no theory, where will you get the practical power that will work the theory and bring it out of the region of theory into the region of daily life and fact? I know it is extremely narrow, extremely old-fashioned, extremely illiberal, and I believe it is profoundly true. Begin with Jesus Christ and the wish to please Him, and there is the root out of which all these self-regarding and other's regarding graces and beauties will most surely come. I have no doubt that you can make your model of a life without Christianity, though I fancy that a great deal of the model comes from the Christianity. But after you have got it, then one comes and says, Well! it is all very pretty--a beautiful model; do you think it will work ?' If you want it to work, obtain the fire of the Holy Spirit to get up the steam and then it will work. You must begin with religion if you are to have a vigorous moral life, and your work in the world must be worship if it is to rise to the height of these two great forms of beautiful and noble life, the regard for others and the effort at purity for yourselves.

Do not run away with the perversion of this text which says, I do not frequent churches and chapels; that is not worship. The diffused worship of my life is what God wants.' Yes, that is what God wants. And you will be most likely to render the diffused worship of a life if you have reservoirs in the life--like Sundays, like hours of private devotion and prayer, from which will flow--and without which I doubt there will not deeply and perennially flow the broad streams of devotion all through your days. Work is worship' is a monastic motto that is very frequently quoted nowadays. Well, it depends,' as they say. Work is worship if there is a reference to God in it. It is not worship unless there is. Brethren, begin where the New Testament begins, with faith in Jesus Christ, and you will end with a worship which harmonises the service of the lip and the service of the life. And if you do not begin so, you may flout the prayers of the Church, and look upon our gatherings together as of very little value, but I doubt extremely whether you will ever have in your life the all-present reference to God which will make common deeds worship, and I doubt whether you will ever succeed either in beneficence to others, or in keeping yourselves unspotted from the world.

MHCC: Jam 1:1-11

Christianity teaches men to be joyful under troubles: such exercises are sent from God's love; and trials in the way of duty will brighten our graces now, and our crown at last. Let us take care, in times of trial, that patience, and not passion, is set to work in us: whatever is said or done, let patience have the saying and doing of it. When the work of patience is complete, it will furnish all that is necessary for our Christian race and warfare. We should not pray so much for the removal of affliction, as for wisdom to make a right use of it. And who does not want wisdom to guide him under trials, both in regulating his own spirit, and in managing his affairs? Here is something in answer to every discouraging turn of the mind, when we go to God under a sense of our own weakness and folly. If, after all, any should say, This may be the case with some, but I fear I shall not succeed, the promise is, To any that asketh, it shall be given. A mind that has single and prevailing regard to its spiritual and eternal interest, and that keeps steady in its purposes for God, will grow wise by afflictions, will continue fervent in devotion, and rise above trials and oppositions. When our faith and spirits rise and fall with second causes, there will be unsteadiness in our words and actions. This may not always expose men to contempt in the world, but such ways cannot please God. No condition of life is such as to hinder rejoicing in God. Those of low degree may rejoice, if they are exalted to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom of God; and the rich may rejoice in humbling providences, that lead to a humble and lowly disposition of mind. Worldly wealth is a withering thing. Then, let him that is rich rejoice in the grace of God, which makes and keeps him humble; and in the trials and exercises which teach him to seek happiness in and from God, not from perishing enjoyments.

MHCC: Jam 1:12-18

It is not every man who suffers, that is blessed; but he who with patience and constancy goes through all difficulties in the way of duty. Afflictions cannot make us miserable, if it be not our own fault. The tried Christian shall be a crowned one. The crown of life is promised to all who have the love of God reigning in their hearts. Every soul that truly loves God, shall have its trials in this world fully recompensed in that world above, where love is made perfect. The commands of God, and the dealings of his providence, try men's hearts, and show the dispositions which prevail in them. But nothing sinful in the heart or conduct can be ascribed to God. He is not the author of the dross, though his fiery trial exposes it. Those who lay the blame of sin, either upon their constitution, or upon their condition in the world, or pretend they cannot keep from sinning, wrong God as if he were the author of sin. Afflictions, as sent by God, are designed to draw out our graces, but not our corruptions. The origin of evil and temptation is in our own hearts. Stop the beginnings of sin, or all the evils that follow must be wholly charged upon us. God has no pleasure in the death of men, as he has no hand in their sin; but both sin and misery are owing to themselves. As the sun is the same in nature and influences, though the earth and clouds, often coming between, make it seem to us to vary, so God is unchangeable, and our changes and shadows are not from any changes or alterations in him. What the sun is in nature, God is in grace, providence, and glory; and infinitely more. As every good gift is from God, so particularly our being born again, and all its holy, happy consequences come from him. A true Christian becomes as different a person from what he was before the renewing influences of Divine grace, as if he were formed over again. We should devote all our faculties to God's service, that we may be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.

MHCC: Jam 1:19-21

Instead of blaming God under our trials, let us open our ears and hearts to learn what he teaches by them. And if men would govern their tongues, they must govern their passions. The worst thing we can bring to any dispute, is anger. Here is an exhortation to lay apart, and to cast off as a filthy garment, all sinful practices. This must reach to sins of thought and affection, as well as of speech and practice; to every thing corrupt and sinful. We must yield ourselves to the word of God, with humble and teachable minds. Being willing to hear of our faults, taking it not only patiently, but thankfully. It is the design of the word of God to make us wise to salvation; and those who propose any mean or low ends in attending upon it, dishonour the gospel, and disappoint their own souls.

MHCC: Jam 1:22-25

If we heard a sermon every day of the week, and an angel from heaven were the preacher, yet, if we rested in hearing only, it would never bring us to heaven. Mere hearers are self-deceivers; and self-deceit will be found the worst deceit at last. If we flatter ourselves, it is our own fault; the truth, as it is in Jesus, flatters no man. Let the word of truth be carefully attended to, and it will set before us the corruption of our nature, the disorders of our hearts and lives; and it will tell us plainly what we are. Our sins are the spots the law discovers: Christ's blood is the laver the gospel shows. But in vain do we hear God's word, and look into the gospel glass, if we go away, and forget our spots, instead of washing them off; and forget our remedy, instead of applying to it. This is the case with those who do not hear the word as they ought. In hearing the word, we look into it for counsel and direction, and when we study it, it turns to our spiritual life. Those who keep in the law and word of God, are, and shall be, blessed in all their ways. His gracious recompence hereafter, would be connected with his present peace and comfort. Every part of Divine revelation has its use, in bringing the sinner to Christ for salvation, and in directing and encouraging him to walk at liberty, by the Spirit of adoption, according to the holy commands of God. And mark the distinctness, it is not for his deeds, that any man is blessed, but in his deed. It is not talking, but walking, that will bring us to heaven. Christ will become more precious to the believer's soul, which by his grace will become more fitted for the inheritance of the saints in light.

MHCC: Jam 1:26-27

When men take more pains to seem religious than really to be so, it is a sign their religion is in vain. The not bridling the tongue, readiness to speak of the faults of others, or to lessen their wisdom and piety, are signs of a vain religion. The man who has a slandering tongue, cannot have a truly humble, gracious heart. False religious may be known by their impurity and uncharitableness. True religion teaches us to do every thing as in the presence of God. An unspotted life must go with unfeigned love and charity. Our true religion is equal to the measure in which these things have place in our hearts and conduct. And let us remember, that nothing avails in Christ Jesus, but faith that worketh by love, purifies the heart, subdues carnal lusts, and obeys God's commands.

Matthew Henry: Jam 1:2-12

We now come to consider the matter of this epistle. In this paragraph we have the following things to be observed: -

I. The suffering state of Christians in this world is represented, and that in a very instructive manner, if we attend to what is plainly and necessarily implied, together with what is fully expressed. 1. It is implied that troubles and afflictions may be the lot of the best Christians, even of those who have the most reason to think and hope well of themselves. Such as have a title to the greatest joy may yet endure very grievous afflictions. As good people are liable to be scattered, they must not think it strange if they meet with troubles. 2. These outward afflictions and troubles are temptations to them. The devil endeavours by sufferings and crosses to draw men to sin and to deter them from duty, or unfit them for it; but, as our afflictions are in God's hand, they are intended for the trial and improvement of our graces. The gold is put into the furnace, that it may be purified. 3. These temptations may be numerous and various: Divers temptations, as the apostle speaks. Our trials may be of many and different kinds, and therefore we have need to put on the whole armour of God. We must be armed on every side, because temptations lie on all sides. 4. The trials of a good man are such as he does not create to himself, nor sinfully pull upon himself; but they are such as he is said to fall into. And for this reason they are the better borne by him.

II. The graces and duties of a state of trial and affliction are here pointed out to us. Could we attend to these things, and grow in them as we should do, how good would it be for us to be afflicted!

1. One Christian grace to be exercised is joy: Count it all joy, Jam 1:2. We must not sink into a sad and disconsolate frame of mind, which would make us faint under our trials; but must endeavour to keep our spirits dilated and enlarged, the better to take in a true sense of our case, and with greater advantage to set ourselves to make the best of it. Philosophy may instruct men to be calm under their troubles; but Christianity teaches them to be joyful, because such exercises proceed from love and not fury in God. In them we are conformable to Christ our head, and they become marks of our adoption. By suffering in the ways of righteousness, we are serving the interests of our Lord's kingdom among men, and edifying the body of Christ; and our trials will brighten our graces now and our crown at last. Therefore there is reason to count it all joy when trials and difficulties become our lot in the way of our duty. And this is not purely a New Testament paradox, but even in Job's time it was said, Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. There is the more reason for joy in afflictions if we consider the other graces that are promoted by them.

2. Faith is a grace that one expression supposes and another expressly requires: Knowing this, that the trial of your faith, Jam 1:3; and then in Jam 1:6, Let him ask in faith. There must be a sound believing of the great truths of Christianity, and a resolute cleaving to them, in times of trial. That faith which is spoken of here as tried by afflictions consists in a belief of the power, and word, and promise of God, and in fidelity and constancy to the Lord Jesus.

3. There must be patience: The trial of faith worketh patience. The trying of one grace produces another; and the more the suffering graces of a Christian are exercised the stronger they grow. Tribulation worketh patience, Rom 5:3. Now, to exercise Christian patience aright, we must, (1.) Let it work. It is not a stupid, but an active thing. Stoical apathy and Christian patience are very different: by the one men become, in some measure, insensible of their afflictions; but by the other they become triumphant in and over them. Let us take care, in times of trial, that patience and not passion, be set at work in us; whatever is said or done, let patience have the saying and doing of it: let us not allow the indulging of our passions to hinder the operation and noble effects of patience; let us give it leave to work, and it will work wonders in a time of trouble. (2.) We must let it have its perfect work. Do nothing to limit it nor to weaken it; but let it have its full scope: if one affliction come upon the heels of another, and a train of them are drawn upon us, yet let patience go on till its work is perfected. When we bear all that God appoints, and as long as he appoints, and with a humble obedient eye to him, and when we not only bear troubles, but rejoice in them, then patience hath its perfect work. (3.) When the work of patience is complete, then the Christian is entire, and nothing will be wanting: it will furnish us with all that is necessary for our Christian race and warfare, and will enable us to persevere to the end, and then its work will be ended, and crowned with glory. After we have abounded in other graces, we have need of patience, Heb 10:36. But let patience have its perfect work, and we shall be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

4. Prayer is a duty recommended also to suffering Christians; and here the apostle shows, (1.) What we ought more especially to pray for - wisdom: If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God. We should not pray so much for the removal of an affliction as for wisdom to make a right use of it. And who is there that does not want wisdom under any great trials or exercises to guide him in his judging of things, in the government of his own spirit and temper, and in the management of his affairs? To be wise in trying times is a special gift of God, and to him we must seek for it. (2.) In what way this is to be obtained - upon our petitioning or asking for it. Let the foolish become beggars at the throne of grace, and they are in a fair way to be wise. It is not said, "Let such ask of man,"no, not of any man, but, "Let him ask of God,"who made him, and gave him his understanding and reasonable powers at first, of him in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Let us confess our want of wisdom to God and daily ask it of him. (3.) We have the greatest encouragement to do this: he giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. Yea, it is expressly promised that it shall be given, Jam 1:5. Here is something in answer to every discouraging turn of the mind, when we go to God, under a sense of our own weakness and folly, to ask for wisdom. He to whom we are sent, we are sure, has it to give: and he is of a giving disposition, inclined to bestow this upon those who ask. Nor is there any fear of his favours being limited to some in this case, so as to exclude others, or any humble petitioning soul; for he gives to all men. If you should say you want a great deal of wisdom, a small portion will not serve your turn, the apostle affirms, he gives liberally; and lest you should be afraid of going to him unseasonably, or being put to shame for your folly, it is added, he upbraideth not. Ask when you will, and as often as you will, you will meet with no upbraidings. And if, after all, any should say, "This may be the case with some, but I fear I shall not succeed so well in my seeking for wisdom as some others may,"let such consider how particular and express the promise is: It shall be given him. Justly then must fools perish in their foolishness, if wisdom may be had for asking, and they will not pray to God for it. But, (4.) There is one thing necessary to be observed in our asking, namely, that we do it with a believing, steady mind: Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, Jam 1:6. The promise above is very sure, taking this proviso along with us; wisdom shall be given to those who ask it of God, provided they believe that God is able to make the simple wise, and is faithful to make good his word to those who apply to him. This was the condition Christ insisted on, in treating with those who came to him for healing: Believest thou that I am able to do this? There must be no wavering, no staggering at the promise of God through unbelief, or through a sense of any disadvantages that lie on our own part. Here therefore we see,

5. That oneness, and sincerity of intention, and a steadiness of mind, constitute another duty required under affliction: He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind, and tossed. To be sometimes lifted up by faith, and then thrown down again by distrust - to mount sometimes towards the heavens, with an intention to secure glory, and honour, and immortality, and then to sink again in seeking the ease of the body, or the enjoyments of this world - this is very fitly and elegantly compared to a wave of the sea, that rises and falls, swells and sinks, just as the wind tosses it higher or lower, that way or this. A mind that has but one single and prevailing regard to its spiritual and eternal interest, and that keeps steady in its purposes for God, will grow wise by afflictions, will continue fervent in its devotions, and will be superior to all trials and oppositions. Now, for the cure of a wavering spirit and a weak faith, the apostle shows the ill effects of these, (1.) In that the success of prayer is spoiled hereby: Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord, Jam 1:7. Such a distrustful, shifting, unsettled person is not likely to value a favour from God as he should do, and therefore cannot expect to receive it. In asking for divine and heavenly wisdom we are never likely to prevail if we have not a heart to prize it above rubies, and the greatest things in this world. (2.) A wavering faith and spirit has a bad influence upon our conversations. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, Jam 1:8. When our faith and spirits rise and fall with second causes, there will be great unsteadiness in all our conversation and actions. This may sometimes expose men to contempt in the world; but it is certain that such ways cannot please God nor procure any good for us in the end. While we have but one God to trust to, we have but one God to be governed by, and this should keep us even and steady. He that is unstable as water shall not excel. Hereupon,

III. The holy humble temper of a Christian, both in advancement and debasement, is described: and both poor and rich are directed on what grounds to build their joy and comfort, Jam 1:9-11. Here we may observe, 1. Those of low degree are to be looked upon as brethren: Let the brother of low degree, etc. Poverty does not destroy the relation among Christians. 2. Good Christians may be rich in the world, Jam 1:10. Grace and wealth are not wholly inconsistent. Abraham, the father of the faithful, was rich in silver and gold. 3. Both these are allowed to rejoice. No condition of lie puts us out of a capacity of rejoicing in God. If we do not rejoice in him always, it is our own fault. Those of low degree may rejoice, if they are exalted to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom of God (as Dr. Whitby explains this place); and the rich may rejoice in humbling providences, as they produce a lowly and humble disposition of mind, which is highly valuable in the sight of God. Where any are made poor for righteousness' sake, their very poverty is their exaltation. It is an honour to be dishonoured for the sake of Christ. To you it is given to suffer, Phi 1:29. All who are brought low, and made lowly by grace, may rejoice in the prospect of their exaltation at the last in heaven. 4. Observe what reason rich people have, notwithstanding their riches, to be humble and low in their own eyes, because both they and their riches are passing away: As the flower of the grass he shall pass away. He, and his wealth with him, Jam 1:11. For the sun has no sooner risen with a burning heat than it withereth the grass. Note hence, Worldly wealth is a withering thing. Riches are too uncertain (says Mr. Baxter on this place), too inconsiderable things to make any great or just alteration in our minds. As a flower fades before the heat of the scorching sun, so shall the rich man fade away in his ways. His projects, counsels, and managements for this world, are called his ways; in these he shall fade away. For this reason let him that is rich rejoice, not so much in the providence of God, that makes him rich, as in the grace of God, that makes and keeps him humble; and in those trials and exercises that teach him to seek his felicity in and from God, and not from these perishing enjoyments.

IV. A blessing is pronounced on those who endure their exercises and trials, as here directed: Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, Jam 1:12. Observe, 1. It is not the man who suffers only that is blessed, but he who endures, who with patience and constancy goes through all difficulties in the way of his duty. 2. Afflictions cannot make us miserable, if it be not our own fault. A blessing may arise from them, and we may be blessed in them. They are so far from taking away a good man's felicity that they really increase it. 3. Sufferings and temptations are the way to eternal blessedness: When he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, dokimos genomenos - when he is approved, when his graces are found to be true and of the highest worth (so metals are tried as to their excellency by the fire), and when his integrity is manifested, and all is approved of the great Judge. Note hence, To be approved of God is the great aim of a Christian in all his trials; and it will be his blessedness at last, when he shall receive the crown of life. The tried Christian shall be a crowned one: and the crown he shall wear will be a crown of life. It will be life and bliss to him, and will last for ever. We only bear the cross for a while, but we shall wear the crown to eternity. 4. This blessedness, involved in a crown of life, is a promised thing to the righteous sufferer. It is therefore what we may most surely depend upon: for, when heaven and earth shall pass away, this word of God shall not fail of being fulfilled. But withal let us take notice that our future reward comes, not as a debt, but by a gracious promise. 5. Our enduring temptations must be from a principle of love to God and to our Lord Jesus Christ, otherwise we are not interested in this promise: The Lord hath promised to those that love him. Paul supposes that a man may for some point of religion even give his body to be burnt, and yet not be pleasing to God, nor regarded by him, because of his want of charity, or a prevailing sincere love to God and man, 1Co 13:3. 6. The crown of life is promised not only to great and eminent saints, but to all those who have the love of God reigning in their hearts. Every soul that truly loves God shall have its trials in this world fully recompensed in that world above where love is made perfect.

Matthew Henry: Jam 1:13-18

I. We are here taught that God is not the author of any man's sin. Whoever they are who raise persecutions against men, and whatever injustice and sin they may be guilty of in proceeding against them, God is not to be charged with it. And, whatever sins good men may themselves be provoked to by their exercises and afflictions, God is not the cause of them. It seems to be here supposed that some professors might fall in the hour of temptation, that the rod resting upon them might carry some into ill courses, and make them put forth their hands unto iniquity. But though this should be the case, and though such delinquents should attempt to lay their fault on God, yet the blame of their misconduct must lie entirely upon themselves. For, 1. There is nothing in the nature of God that they can lay the blame upon: Let no man say, when he is tempted to take any evil course, or do any evil thing, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil. All moral evil is owing to some disorder in the being that is chargeable with it, to a want of wisdom, or of power, or of decorum and purity in the will. But who can impeach the holy God with the want of these, which are his very essence? No exigence of affairs can ever tempt him to dishonour or deny himself, and therefore he cannot be tempted with evil. 2. There is nothing in the providential dispensations of God that the blame of any man's sin can be laid upon (Jam 1:13): Neither tempteth he any man. As God cannot be tempted with evil himself, so neither can he be a tempter of others. He cannot be a promoter of what is repugnant to his nature. The carnal mind is willing to charge its own sins on God. There is something hereditary in this. Our first father Adam tells God, The woman thou gavest me tempted me, thereby, in effect, throwing the blame upon God, for giving him the tempter. Let no man speak thus. It is very bad to sin; but is much worse, when we have done amiss, to charge it upon God, and say it was owing to him. Those who lay the blame of their sins either upon their constitution or upon their condition in the world, or who pretend they are under a fatal necessity of sinning, wrong God, as if he were the author of sin. Afflictions, as sent by God, are designed to draw out our graces, but not our corruptions.

II. We are taught where the true cause of evil lies, and where the blame ought to be laid (Jam 1:14): Every man is tempted (in an ill sense) when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. In other scriptures the devil is called the tempter, and other things may sometimes concur to tempt us; but neither the devil nor any other person or thing is to be blamed so as to excuse ourselves; for the true original of evil and temptation is in our own hearts. The combustible matter is in us, though the flame may be blown up by some outward causes. And therefore, if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it, Pro 9:12. Observe here, 1. The method of sin in its proceeding. First it draws away, then entices. As holiness consists of two parts - forsaking that which is evil and cleaving to that which is good, so these two things, reversed, are the two parts of sin. The heart is carried from that which is good, and enticed to cleave to that which is evil. It is first by corrupt inclinations, or by lusting after and coveting some sensual or worldly thing, estranged from the life of God, and then by degrees fixed in a course of sin. 2. We may observe hence the power and policy of sin. The word here rendered drawn away signifies a being forcibly haled or compelled. The word translated enticed signifies being wheedled and beguiled by allurements and deceitful representations of things, exelkominos kai deleazomenos . There is a great deal of violence done to conscience and to the mind by the power of corruption: and there is a great deal of cunning and deceit and flattery in sin to gain us to its interests. The force and power of sin could never prevail, were it not for its cunning and guile. Sinners who perish are wheedled and flattered to their own destruction. And this will justify God for ever in their damnation, that they destroyed themselves. Their sin lies at their own door, and therefore their blood will lie upon their own heads. 3. The success of corruption in the heart (Jam 1:15): Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; that is, sin being allowed to excite desires in us, it will son ripen those desires into consent, and then it is said to have conceived. The sin truly exists, though it be but in embryo. And, when it has grown it its full size in the mind, it is then brought forth in actual execution. Stop the beginnings of sin therefore, or else all the evils it produces must be wholly charged upon us. 4. The final issue of sin, and how it ends: Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. After sin is brought forth in actual commissions, the finishing of it (as Dr. Manton observes) is its being strengthened by frequent acts and settled into a habit. And, when the iniquities of men are thus filled up, death is brought forth. There is a death upon the soul, and death comes upon the body. And, besides death spiritual and temporal, the wages of sin is eternal death too. Let sin therefore be repented of and forsaken, before it be finished. Why will you die, O house of Israel! Eze 33:11. God has no pleasure in your death, as he has no hand in your sin; but both sin and misery are owing to yourselves. Your own hearts' lusts and corruptions are your tempters; and when by degrees they have carried you off from God, and finished the power and dominion of sin in you, then they will prove your destroyers.

III. We are taught yet further that, while we are the authors and procurers of all sin and misery to ourselves, God is the Father and fountain of all good, Jam 1:16, Jam 1:17. We should take particular care not to err in our conceptions of God: " Do not err, my beloved brethren, mē lanasthe - do not wander, that is, from the word of God, and the accounts of him you have there. Do not stray into erroneous opinions, and go off from the standard of truth, the things which you have received from the Lord Jesus and by the direction of his Spirit."The loose opinions of Sinon, and the Nicolaitans (from whom the Gnostics, a most sensual corrupt set of people, arose afterwards), may perhaps, by the apostle here, be more especially cautioned against. Those who are disposed to look into these may consult the first book of Irenaeus against heresies. Let corrupt men run into what notions they will, the truth, as it is in Jesus, stands thus: That God is not, cannot be, the author and patronizer of any thing that is evil; but must be acknowledged as the cause and spring of every thing that is good: Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, Jam 1:17. Here observe, 1. God is the Father of lights. The visible light of the sun and the heavenly bodies is from him. He said, Let there be light, and there was light. Thus God is at once represented as the Creator of the sun and in some respects compared to it. "As the sun is the same in its nature and influences, though the earth and clouds, oft interposing, make it seem to us as varying, by its rising and setting, and by its different appearances, or entire withdrawment, when the change is not in it; so God is unchangeable, and our changes and shadows are not from any mutability or shadowy alterations in him, but from ourselves."- Baxter. The Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. What the sun is in nature, God is in grace, providence, and glory; aye, and infinitely more. For, 2. Every good gift is from him. As the Father of lights, he gives the light of reason. The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding, Job 32:8. He gives also the light of learning: Solomon's wisdom in the knowledge of nature, in the arts of government, and in all his improvements, is ascribed to God. The light of divine revelation is more immediately from above. The light of faith, purity, and all manner of consolation is from him. So that we have nothing good but what we receive from God, as there is no evil or sin in us, or done by us, but what is owing to ourselves. We must own God as the author of all the powers and perfections that are in the creature, and the giver of all the benefits which we have in and by those powers and perfections: but none of their darknesses, their imperfections, or their ill actions are to be charged on the Father of lights; from him proceeds every good and perfect gift, both pertaining to this life and that which is to come. 3. As every good gift is from God, so particularly the renovation of our natures, our regeneration, and all the holy happy consequences of it, must be ascribed to him (Jam 1:18): Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. Here let us take notice, (1.) A true Christian is a creature begotten anew. He becomes as different a person from what he was before the renewing influences of divine grace as if he were formed over again, and born afresh. (2.) The original of this good work is here declared: it is of God's own will; not by our skill or power; not from any good foreseen in us, or done by us, but purely from the good-will and grace of God. (3.) The means whereby this is affected are pointed out: the word of truth, that is, the gospel, as Paul expresses it more plainly, 1Co 4:15, I have begotten you in Jesus Christ through the gospel. This gospel in indeed a word of truth, or else it could never produce such real, such lasting, such great and noble effects. We may rely upon it, and venture our immortal souls upon it. And we shall find it a means of our sanctification as it is a word of truth, Joh 17:17. (4.) The end and design of God's giving renewing grace is here laid down: That we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures - that we should be God's portion and treasure, and a more peculiar property to him, as the first-fruits were; and that we should become holy to the Lord, as the first-fruits were consecrated to him. Christ is the first-fruits of Christians, Christians are the first-fruits of creatures.

Matthew Henry: Jam 1:19-27

In this part of the chapter we are required,

I. To restrain the workings of passion. This lesson we should learn under afflictions; and this we shall learn if we are indeed begotten again by the word of truth. For thus the connection stands - An angry and hasty spirit is soon provoked to ill things by afflictions, and errors and ill opinions become prevalent through the workings of our own vile and vain affections; but the renewing grace of God and the word of the gospel teach us to subdue these: Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, Jam 1:19. This may refer, 1. To the word of truth spoken of in the verse foregoing. And so we may observe, It is our duty rather to hear God's word, and apply our minds to understand it, than to speak according to our own fancies or the opinions of men, and to run into heat and passion thereupon. Let not such errors as that of God's being the occasion of men's sin ever be hastily, much less angrily, mentioned by you (and so as to other errors); but be ready to hear and consider what God's word teaches in all such cases. 2. This may be applied to the afflictions and temptations spoken of in the beginning of the chapter. And then we may observe, It is our duty rather to hear how God explains his providences, and what he designs by the, than to say as David did in his haste, I am cut off; or as Jonah did in his passion, I do well to be angry. Instead of censuring God under our trials, let us open our ears and hearts to hear what he will say to us. 3. This may be understood as referring to the disputes and differences that Christians, in those times of trial, were running into among themselves: and so this part of the chapter may be considered without any connection with what goes before. Here we may observe that, whenever matters of difference arise among Christians, each side should be willing to hear the other. People are often stiff in their own opinions because they are not willing to hear what others have to offer against them: whereas we should be swift to hear reason and truth on all sides, and be slow to speak any thing that should prevent this: and, when we do speak, there should be nothing of wrath; for a soft answer turneth away wrath. As this epistle is designed to correct a variety of disorders that existed among Christians, these words, swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, may be very well interpreted according to this last explication. And we may further observe from them that, if men would govern their tongues, they must govern their passions. When Moses's spirit was provoked, he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. If we would be slow to speak, we must be slow to wrath.

II. A very good reason is given for suppressing: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, Jam 1:20. It is as if the apostle had said, "Whereas men often pretend zeal for God and his glory, in their heat and passion, let them know that God needs not the passions of any man; his cause is better served by mildness and meekness than by wrath and fury."Solomon says, The words of the wise are heard in quiet, more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools, Ecc 9:17. Dr. Manton here says of some assemblies, "That if we were as swift to hear as we are ready to speak there would be less of wrath, and more of profit, in our meetings. I remember when a Manichee contested with Augustine, and with importunate clamour cried, Hear me! hear me! the father modestly replied, Nec ego te, nec tu me, sed ambo audiamus apostolum - Neither let me hear thee, nor do thou hear me, but let us both hear the apostle. "The worst thing we can bring to a religious controversy is anger. This, however it may pretend to be raised by a concern for what is just and right, is not to be trusted. Wrath is a human thing, and the wrath of man stands opposed to the righteousness of God. Those who pretend to serve the cause of God hereby show that they are acquainted neither with God or his cause. This passion must especially be watched against when we are hearing the word of God. See 1Pe 2:1, 1Pe 2:2.

III. We are called upon to suppress other corrupt affections, as well as rash anger: Lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, Jam 1:21. The word here translated filthiness signifies those lusts which have the greatest turpitude and sensuality in them; and the words rendered superfluity of naughtiness may be understood of the overflowings of malice or any other spiritual wickednesses. Hereby we are taught, as Christians, to watch against, and lay aside, not only those more gross and fleshly dispositions and affections which denominate a person filthy, but all the disorders of a corrupt heart, which would prejudice it against the word and ways of God. Observe, 1. Sin is a defiling thing; it is called filthiness itself. 2. There is abundance of that which is evil in us, to be watched against; there is superfluity of naughtiness. 3. It is not enough to restrain evil affections, but they must be cast from us, or laid apart. Isa 30:22, Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say, Get you hence. 4. This must extend not only to outward sins, and greater abominations, but to all sin of thought and affection as well as speech and practice; pasan rhuparian - all filthiness, every thing that is corrupt and sinful. 5. Observe, from the foregoing parts of this chapter, the laying aside of all filthiness is what a time of temptation and affliction calls for, and is necessary to the avoiding of error, and the right receiving and improving of the word of truth: for,

IV. We are here fully, though briefly, instructed concerning hearing the word of God.

1. We are required to prepare ourselves for it (Jam 1:21), to get rid of every corrupt affection and of every prejudice and prepossession, and to lay aside those sins which pervert the judgment and blind the mind. All the filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, before explained, must, in an especial manner, be subdued and cast off, by all such as attend on the word of the gospel.

2. We are directed how to hear it: Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. (1.) In hearing the word of God, we are to receive it - assent to the truths of it - consent to the laws of it; receive it as the stock does the graft; so as that the fruit which is produced may be, not according to the nature of the sour stock, but according to the nature of that word of the gospel which is engrafted into our souls. (2.) We must therefore yield ourselves to the word of God, with most submissive, humble, and tractable tempers: this is to receive it with meekness. Being willing to hear of our faults, and taking it not only patiently, but thankfully, desiring also to be molded and formed by the doctrines and precepts of the gospel. (3.) In all our hearing we should aim at the salvation of our souls. It is the design of the word of God to make us wise to salvation; and those who propose any meaner or lower ends to themselves in attending upon it dishonour the gospel and disappoint their souls. We should come to the word of God (both to read it and hear it), as those who know it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, Rom 1:16.

3. We are taught what is to be done after hearing (Jam 1:22): But be you doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Observe here, (1.) Hearing is in order to doing; the most attentive and the most frequent hearing of the word of God will not avail us, unless we be also doers of it. If we were to hear a sermon every day of the week, and an angel from heaven were the preacher, yet, if we rested in bare hearing, it would never bring us to heaven. Therefore the apostle insists much upon it (and, without doubt, it is indispensably necessary) that we practice what we hear. "There must be inward practice by meditation, and outward practice in true obedience." Baxter. It is not enough to remember what we hear, and to be able to repeat it, and to give testimony to it, and commend it, and write it, and preserve what we have written; that which all this is in order to, and which crowns the rest, is that we be doers of the word. Observe, (2.) Bare hearers are self-deceivers; the original word, paralogizomenoi , signifies men's arguing sophistically to themselves; their reasoning is manifestly deceitful and false when they would make one part of their work discharge them from the obligation they lie under to another, or persuade themselves that filling their heads with notions is sufficient, though their hearts be empty of good affections and resolutions, and their lives fruitless of good works. Self-deceit will be found the worst deceit at last.

4. The apostle shows what is the proper use of the word of God, who they are that do not use it as they ought, and who they are that do make a right use of it, Jam 1:23-25. Let us consider each of these distinctly. (1.) The use we are to make of God's word may be learnt from its being compared to a glass, in which a man may behold his natural face. As a looking-glass shows us the spots and defilements upon our faces, that they may be remedied and washed off, so the word of God shows us our sins, that we may repent of them and get them pardoned; it shows us what is amiss, that it may be amended. There are glasses that will flatter people; but that which is truly the word of God is no flattering glass. If you flatter yourselves, it is your own fault; the truth, as it is in Jesus, flatters no man. Let the word of truth be carefully attended to, and it will set before you the corruption of your nature, the disorders of your hearts and lives; it will tell you plainly what you are. Paul describes himself as in sensible of the corruption of his nature till he saw himself in the glass of the law (Rom 7:9): " I was alive without the law; that is, I took all to be right with me, and thought myself not only clean, but, compared with the generality of the world, beautiful too; but when the commandment came, when the glass of the law was set before me, then sin revived, and I died - then I saw my spots and deformities, and discovered that amiss in myself which before I was not aware of; and such was the power of the law, and of sin, that I then perceived myself in a state of death and condemnation."Thus, when we attend to the word of God, so as to see ourselves, our true state and condition, to rectify what is amiss, and to form and dress ourselves anew by the glass of God's word, this is to make a proper use of it. (2.) We have here an account of those who do not use this glass of the word as they ought: He that beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was, Jam 1:24. This is the true description of one who hears the word of God and does it not. How many are there who, when they sit under the word, are affected with their own sinfulness, misery, and danger, acknowledge the evil of sin, and their need of Christ; but, when their hearing is over, all is forgotten, convictions are lost, good affections vanish, and pass away like the waters of a land-flood: he straightway forgets. "The word of God (as Dr. Manton speaks) discovers how we may do away our sins, and deck and attire our souls with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Maculae sunt peccata, quae ostendit lex; aqua est sanguis Christi, quem ostendit evangelium - Our sins are the spots which the law discovers; Christ's blood is the laver which the gospel shows. "But in vain do we hear God's word, and look into the gospel glass, if we go away, and forget our spots, instead of washing them off, and forget our remedy, instead of applying to it. This is the case of those who do not hear the word as they ought. (3.) Those also are described, and pronounced blessed, who hear aright, and who use the glass of God's word as they should do (Jam 1:25): Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, etc. Observe here, [1.] The gospel is a law of liberty, or, as Mr. Baxter expresses it, of liberation, giving us deliverance from the Jewish law, and from sin and guilt, and wrath and death. The ceremonial law was a yoke of bondage; the gospel of Christ is a law of liberty. [2.] It is a perfect law; nothing can be added to it. [3.] In hearing the word, we look into this perfect law; we consult it for counsel and direction; we look into it, that we may thence take our measures. [4.] Then only do we look into the law of liberty as we should when we continue therein - "when we dwell in the study of it, till it turn to a spiritual life, engrafted and digested in us"( Baxter ) - when we are not forgetful of it, but practice it as our work and business, set it always before our eyes, and make it the constant rule of our conversation and behaviour, and model the temper of our minds by it. [5.] Those who thus do, and continue in the law and word of God, are, and shall be, blessed in their deed; blessed in all their ways, according to the first psalm, to which, some think, James here alludes. He that meditates in the law of God, and walks according to it, the psalmist says, shall prosper in whatsoever he does. And he that is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work which God's word sets him about, James says, shall be blessed. The papists pretend that here we have a clear text to prove we are blessed for our good deeds; but Dr. Manton, in answer to that pretence, puts the reader upon marking the distinctness of scripture-phrase. The apostle does not say, for his deeds, that any man is blessed, but in his deed. This is a way in which we shall certainly find blessedness, but not the cause of it. This blessedness does not lie in knowing, but in doing the will of God. Joh 13:17, If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. It is not talking, but walking, that will bring us to heaven.

V. The apostle next informs us how we may distinguish between a vain religion and that which is pure and approved of God. Great and hot disputes there are in the world about this matter: what religion is false and vain, and what is true and pure. I wish men would agree to let the holy scripture in this place determine the question: and here it is plainly and peremptorily declared,

1. What is a vain religion: If any man among you seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Here are three things to be observed: - (1.) In a vain religion there is much of show, and affecting to seem religious in the eyes of others. This, I think, is mentioned in a manner that should fix our thoughts on the word seemeth. When men are more concerned to seem religious than really to be so, it is a sign that their religion is but vain. Not that religion itself is a vain thing (those do it a great deal of injustice who say, It is in vain to serve the Lord ), but it is possible for people to make it a vain thing, if they have only a form of godliness, and not the power. (2.) In a vain religion there is much censuring, reviling, and detracting of others. The not bridling the tongue here is chiefly meant of not abstaining from these evils of the tongue. When we hear people ready to speak of the faults of others, or to censure them as holding scandalous errors, or to lessen the wisdom and piety of those about them, that they themselves may seem the wiser and better, this is a sign that they have but a vain religion. The man who has a detracting tongue cannot have a truly humble gracious heart. He who delights to injure his neighbour in vain pretends to love God; therefore a reviling tongue will prove a man a hypocrite. Censuring is a pleasing sin, extremely complaint with nature, and therefore evinces a man's being in a natural state. These sins of the tongue were the great sins of that age in which James wrote (as other parts of this epistle fully show); and it is a strong sing of a vain religion (says Dr. Manton) to be carried away with the evil of the times. This has ever been a leading sin with hypocrites, that the more ambitious they have been to seem well themselves the more free they have been in censuring and running down others; and there is such quick intercourse between the tongue and the heart that the one may be known by the other. On these accounts it is that the apostle has made an ungoverned tongue an undoubted certain proof of a vain religion. There is no strength nor power in that religion which will not enable a man to bridle his tongue. (3.) In a vain religion a man deceives his own heart; he goes on in such a course of detracting from others, and making himself seem somebody, that at last the vanity of his religion is consummated by the deceiving of his own soul. When once religion comes to be a vain thing, how great is the vanity!

2. It is here plainly and peremptorily declared wherein true religion consists: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, Jam 1:27. Observe, (1.) It is the glory of religion to be pure and undefiled; not mixed with the inventions of men nor with the corruption of the world. False religions may be known by their impurity and uncharitableness; according to that of John, He that doeth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother, 1Jo 3:10. But, on the other hand, a holy life and a charitable heart show a true religion. Our religion is not (says Dr. Manton) adorned with ceremonies, but purity and charity. And it is a good observation of his that a religion which is pure should be kept undefiled. (2.) That religion is pure and undefiled which is so before God and the Father. That is right which is so in God's eye, and which chiefly aims at his approbation. True religion teaches us to do every thing as in the presence of God; and to seek his favour, and study to please him in all our actions. (3.) Compassion and charity to the poor and distressed from a very great and necessary part of true religion: Visiting the fatherless and widow in their affliction. Visiting is here put for all manner of relief which we are capable of giving to others; and fatherless and widows are here particularly mentioned, because they are generally most apt to be neglected or oppressed: but by them we are to understand all who are proper objects of charity, all who are in affliction. It is very remarkable that if the sum of religion be drawn up to two articles this is one - to be charitable and relieve the afflicted. Observe, (4.) An unspotted life must accompany an unfeigned love and charity: To keep himself unspotted from the world. The world is apt to spot and blemish the soul, and it is hard to live in it, and have to do with it, and not be defiled; but this must be our constant endeavour. Herein consists pure and undefiled religion. The very things of the world too much taint our spirits, if we are much conversant with them; but the sins and lusts of the world deface and defile them very woefully indeed. John comprises all that is in the world, which we are not to love, under three heads: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; and to keep ourselves unspotted from all these is to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. May God by his grace keep both our hearts and lives clean from the love of the world, and from the temptations of wicked worldly men.

Barclay: Jam 1:9-11

As James saw it, Christianity brings to every man what he needs. As Mayor put it "As the despised poor learns self-respect, so the proud rich learns self-abasement."

(i) Christianity brings to the poor man a new sense of his own value. (a) He learns that he matters in the Church. In the early church there were not class distinctions. It could happen that the slave was the minister of the congregation, preaching and dispensing the sacrament, while the master was no more than a humble member. In the Church the social distinctions of the world are obliterated and none matters more than any other. (b) He learns that he matters in the world. It is the teaching of Christianity that every man in this world has a task to do. Every man is of use to God and even if he be confined to a bed of pain, the power of his prayers can still act on the world of men. (e) He learns that he matters to God As Muretus said long ago, "Call no man worthless for whom Christ died."

(ii) Christianity brings to the rich man a new sense of self-abasement. The great peril of riches is that they tend to give a man a false sense of security. He feels that he is safe; he feels that he has the resources to cope with anything and to buy himself out of any situation he may wish to avoid.

James draws a vivid picture, very familiar to the people of Palestine. In the desert places, if there is a shower of rain, the thin green shoots of grass will sprout; but one day's burning sunshine will make them vanish as if they had never been. The scorching heat is the kauson (2742). The kauson was the south-east wind, the Simoon. It came straight from the deserts and burst on Palestine like a blast of hot air when an oven door is opened. In an hour it could wipe out all vegetation.

This is a picture of what a life dependent on riches can be like. A man who puts his trust in riches is trusting in things which the chances and changes of life can take from him at any moment. Life itself is uncertain. At the back of James' mind there is Isaiah's picture: "All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass" (Isa 40:6-7; compare Psa 103:15).

James' point is this. If life is so uncertain and man so vulnerable, calamity and disaster may come at any moment. Since that is so, a man is a fool to put all his trust in things--like wealth--which he may lose at any moment. He is only wise if he puts his trust in things which he cannot lose.

So, then, James urges the rich to cease to put their trust in that which their own power can amass. He urges them to admit their essential human helplessness and humbly to put their trust in God, who alone can give the things which abide for ever.

Barclay: Jam 1:12

To the man who meets trials in the right way there is joy here and hereafter.

(i) In this life he becomes a man of sterling worth. He is dokimos (1384); he is like metal which is cleansed of all alloy. The weaknesses of his character are eradicated; and he emerges strong and pure.

(ii) In the life to come he receives the crown of life. There is far more than one thought here. In the ancient world the crown (stephanos, 4735) had at least four great associations.

(a) The crown of flowers was worn at times of joy, at weddings and at feasts (compare Isa 28:1-2; SS 3:11). The crown was the sign of festive joy.

(b) The crown was the mark of royalty. It was worn by kings and by those in authority. Sometimes this was the crown of gold; sometimes it was the linen band, or fillet, worn around the brows (compare Psa 21:3; Jer 13:18).

© The crown of laurel leaves was the victor's crown in the games, the prize which the athlete coveted above all (compare 2Ti 4:8).

(d) The crown was the mark of honour and of dignity. The instructions of parents can bring a crown of grace to those who listen to them (Pro 1:9); Wisdom provides a man with a crown of glory (Pro 4:9); in a time of disaster and dishonour it can be said, "The crown has fallen from our head" (Lam 5:16).

We do not need to choose between these meanings. They are all included. The Christian has a joy that no other man can ever have. Life for him is like being for ever at a feast. He has a royalty that other men have never realized for, however humble his earthly circumstances, he is the child of God. He has a victory which others cannot win, for he meets life and all its demands in the conquering power of the presence of Jesus Christ. He has a new dignity for he is ever conscious that God thought him worth the life and death of Jesus Christ.

What is the crown? It is the crown of life; and that phrase means that it is the crown which consists of life. The crown of the Christian is a new kind of living which is life indeed; through Jesus Christ he has entered into life more abundant.

James says that if the Christian meets the testings of life in the steadfast constancy which Christ can give, life becomes infinitely more splendid than ever it was before. The struggle is the way to glory, and the very struggle itself is a glory.

Barclay: Jam 1:13-15

At the back of this passage lies a Jewish way of belief to which all of us are to some extent prone. James is here rebuking the man who puts the blame for temptation on God.

Jewish thought was haunted by the inner division that is in every man. It was the problem which haunted Paul: "I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members" (Rom 7:22-23). Every man was pulled in two directions. Purely as an interpretation of experience the Jews arrived at the doctrine that in every man there were two tendencies. They called them the Yetser (03336) Hatob (02896), the good tendency, and the Yetser (03336) Hara' (07451), the evil tendency. This simply stated the problem; it did not explain it. In particular, it did not say where the evil tendency came from. So Jewish thought set out to try to explain that.

The writer of Ecclesiasticus was deeply impressed with the havoc that the evil tendency causes. "O Yetser (03336) Hara' (07451), why wast thou made to fill the earth with thy deceit?" (Sir 37:3). In his view the evil tendency came from Satan, and man's defence against it was his own will. "God made man from the beginning and he delivered him into the hand of him who took him for a prey. He left him in the power of his will. If thou willest, thou wilt observe the commandments, and faithfulness is a matter of thy good pleasure" (Sir 15:14-15).

There were Jewish writers who traced this evil tendency right back to the Garden of Eden. In the apocryphal work, The Life of Adam and Eve, the story is told. Satan took the form of an angel and, speaking through the serpent, put into Eve the desire for the forbidden fruit and made her swear that she would give the fruit to Adam as well. "When he had made me swear," says Eve, "he ascended up into the tree. But in the fruit he gave me to eat he placed the poison of his malice, that is, of his lust. For lust is the beginning of all sin. And he bent down the bough to the earth, and I took of the fruit and ate it." In this conception it was Satan himself who succeeded in inserting the evil tendency into man; and that evil tendency is identified with the lust of the flesh. A later development of this story was that the beginning of all sin was in fact Satan's lust for Eve.

The Book of Enoch has two theories. One is that the fallen angels are responsible for sin (85). The other is that man himself is responsible for it. "Sin has not been sent upon the earth, but man himself created it" (98: 4).

But every one of these theories simply pushes the problem one step further back. Satan may have put the evil tendency into man; the fallen angels may have put it into man; man may have put it into himself. But where did it ultimately come from?

To meet this problem, certain of the Rabbis took a bold and dangerous step. They argued that, since God has created everything, he must have created the evil tendency also. So we get Rabbinic sayings such as the following. "God said, It repents me that I created the evil tendency in man; for had I not done so, he would not have rebelled against me. I created the evil tendency; I created the law as a means of healing. If you occupy yourself with the law, you will not fall into the power of it. God placed the good tendency on a man's right hand, and the evil on his left." The danger is obvious. It means that in the last analysis a man can blame God for his own sin. He can say, as Paul said, "It is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells in me" (Rom 7:15-24). Of all strange doctrines surely the strangest is that God is ultimately responsible for sin.

Barclay: Jam 1:13-15

From the beginning of time it has been man's first instinct to blame others for his own sin. The ancient writer who wrote the story of the first sin in the Garden of Eden was a first-rate psychologist with a deep knowledge of the human heart. When God challenged Adam with his sin, Adam's reply was, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." And when God challenged Eve with her action, her answer was, "The serpent beguiled me, and I ate." Adam said, "Don't blame me; blame Eve." Eve said, "Don't blame me; blame the serpent" (Gen 3:12-13).

Man has always been an expert in evasion.

Robert Burns wrote:

Thou know'st that Thou hast formed me

With passions wild and strong;

And list'ning to their witching voice

Has often led me wrong.

In effect, he is saying that his conduct was as it was because God made him as he was. The blame is laid on God. So men blame their fellows, they blame their circumstances, they blame the way in which they are made, for the sin of which they are guilty.

James sternly rebukes that view. To him what is responsible for sin is man's own evil desire. Sin would be helpless if there was nothing in man to which it could appeal. Desire is something which can be nourished or stifled. A man can control and even, by the grace of God, eliminate it if he deals with it at once. But he can allow his thoughts to follow certain tracks, and his steps to take him into certain places and his eyes to linger on certain things; and so foment desire. He can so hand himself over to Christ and be so engaged on good things that there is no time or place left for evil desire. It is idle hands for which Satan finds mischief to do; it is the unexercised mind and the uncommitted heart which are vulnerable.

If a man encourages desire long enough, there is an inevitable consequence. Desire becomes action.

Further, it was the Jewish teaching that sin produced death. The life of Adam and Eve says that the moment Eve ate of the fruit she caught a glimpse of death. The word which James uses in Jam 1:15, and which the King James and the Revised Standard Versions translate brings forth death, is an animal word for birth; and it means that sin spawns death. Mastered by desire, man becomes less than a man and sinks to the level of the brute creation.

The great value of this passage is that it urges upon man his personal responsibility for sin. No man was ever born without desire for some wrong thing. And, if a man deliberately encourages and nourishes that desire until it becomes full-grown and monstrously strong, it will inevitably issue in the action which is sin--and that is the way to death. Such a thought--and all human experience admits it to be true--must drive us to that grace of God which alone can make and keep us clean, and which is available to all.

Barclay: Jam 1:16-18

Once again James stresses the great truth that every gift that God sends is good. Jam 1:17might well be translated: "All giving is good." That is to say, there is nothing which comes from God which is not good. There is a strange phenomenon here in the Greek. The phrase which we have translated, "Every good gift and every perfect boon," is, in fact, a perfect hexametre line of poetry. Either James had a rhythmic ear for a fine cadence or he is quoting from some work which we do not know.

What he is stressing is the unchangeableness of God. To do so he uses two astronomical terms. The word he uses for changeableness is parallage (3883), and the word for the turn of the shadow is trope (5157). Both these words have to do with the variation which the heavenly bodies show, the variation in the length of the day and of the night, the apparent variation in the course of the sun, the phases of waxing and waning, the different brilliance at different times of the stars and the planets. Variability is characteristic of all created things. God is the creator of the lights of heaven--the sun, the moon, the stars. The Jewish morning prayer says, "Blessed be the Lord God who hath formed the lights." The lights change but he who created them never changes.

Further, his purpose is altogether gracious. The word of truth is the gospel; and by the sending of that gospel it is God's purpose that man should be reborn into a new life. The shadows are ended and the certain word of truth has come.

That rebirth is a rebirth into the family and the possession of God. In the ancient world it was the law that all first-fruits were sacred to God. They were offered in grateful sacrifice to God because they belonged to him. So, when we are reborn by the true word of the gospel, we become the property of God, even as the first-fruits of the harvest did.

James insists that, so far from ever tempting man, God's gifts are invariably good. In all the chances and changes of a changing world they never vary. And God's supreme object is to re-create life through the truth of the gospel, so that men should know that they belong by right to him.

Barclay: Jam 1:19-20

There are few wise men who have not been impressed by the dangers of being too quick to speak and too unwilling to listen. A most interesting list could be compiled of the things in which it is well to be quick and the things in which it is well to be slow. In the Sayings of the Jewish Fathers we read: "There are four characters in scholars. Quick to hear and quick to forget; his gain is cancelled by his loss. Slow to hear and slow to forget; his loss is cancelled by his gain. Quick to hear and. slow to forget; he is wise. Slow to hear and quick to forget; this is an evil lot." Ovid bids men to be slow to punish, but swift to reward. Philo bids a man to be swift to benefit others, and slow to harm them.

In particular the wise men were impressed by the necessity of being slow to speak. Rabbi Simeon said, "All my days I have grown up among the wise, and have not found aught good for a man but silence...Whoso multiplies words occasions sin." Jesus, the son of Sirach, writes, "Be swift to hear the word that thou mayest understand...If thou hast understanding, answer thy neighbour; if not, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, lest thou be surprised in an unskilful word, and be confounded" (Sir 5:11-12). Proverbs is full of the perils of too hasty speech. "When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is prudent" (Pro 10:19). "He who guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin" (Pro 13:3). "Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise" (Pro 17:28). "Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him" (Pro 29:20).

Hort says that the really good man will be much more anxious to listen to God than arrogantly, garrulously and stridently to shout his own opinions. The classical writers had the same idea. Zeno said, "We have two ears but only one mouth, that we may hear more and speak less." When Demonax was asked how a man might rule best, he answered, "Without anger, speaking little, and listening much." Bias said, "If you hate quick speaking, you will not fall into error." The tribute was once paid to a great linguist that he could be silent in seven different languages. Many of us would do well to listen more and to speak less.

It is James' advice that we should also be slow to anger. He is probably meeting the arguments of some that there is a place for the blazing anger of rebuke. That is undoubtedly true; the world would be a poorer place without those who blazed against the abuses and the tyrannies of sin. But too often this is made an excuse for petulant and self-centred irritation.

The teacher will be tempted to be angry with the slow and backward and still more with the lazy scholar. But, except on the rarest occasions, he will achieve more by encouragement than by the lash of the tongue. The preacher will be tempted to anger. But "don't scold" is always good advice to him; he loses his power whenever he does not make it clear by every word and gesture that he loves his people. When anger gives the impression in the pulpit of dislike or contempt it will not convert the souls of men. The parent will be tempted to anger. But a parent's anger is much more likely to produce a still more stubborn resistance than it is to control and direct. The accent of love always has more power than the accent of anger; and when anger becomes constant irritability, petulant annoyance, carping nagging, it always does more harm than good.

To be slow to speak, slow to anger, quick to listen is always good policy for life.

Barclay: Jam 1:21

James uses a series of vivid words and pictures.

He tells his readers to strip themselves of all vice and filthiness. The word he uses for strip is the word used for stripping off one's clothes. He bids his hearers get rid of all defilement as a man strips off soiled garments or as a snake sloughs off its skin.

Both the words he uses for defilement are vivid. The word we have translated filthiness is ruparia (4507); and it can be used for the filth which soils clothes or soils the body. But it has one very interesting connection. It is a derivative of rupos (4509) and, when rupos is used in a medical sense, it means wax in the ear. It is just possible that it still retains that meaning here; and that James is telling his readers to get rid of everything which would stop their ears to the true word of God. When wax gathers in the ear, it can make a man deaf; and a man's sins can make him deaf to God. Further, James talks of the excrescence (perisseia, 4050) of vice. He thinks of vice as tangled undergrowth or a cancerous growth which must be cut away.

He bids them receive the inborn word in gentleness. The word for inborn is emphutos (1721), and is capable of two general meanings.

(i) It can mean inborn in the sense of innate as opposed to acquired. If James uses it in that way he is thinking of much the same thing as Paul was thinking of when he spoke of the Gentiles doing the works of the law by nature because they have a kind of law in their hearts (Rom 2:14-15); it is the same picture as the Old Testament picture of the law "very near you; it is in your mouth, and in your heart" (Deu 30:14). It is practically equal to our word conscience. If this is its meaning here, James is saying that there is an instinctive knowledge of good and evil in a man's heart whose guidance we should at all times obey.

(ii) It can mean inborn in the sense of implanted, as a seed is planted in the ground. In 4Ezra 9:31 we read of God saying: "Behold, I sow my law in you, and you shall be glorified in it for ever." If James is using the word in this sense, the idea may well go back to the Parable of the Sower (Mat 13:1-8), which tells how the seed of the word is sown into the hearts of men. Through his prophets and his preachers, and above all through Jesus Christ, God sows his truth into the hearts of men and the man who is wise will receive it and welcome it.

It may well be that we are not required to make a choice between these two meanings. It may well be that James is implying that knowledge of the true word of God comes to us from two sources, from the depths of our own being, and from the Spirit of God and the teaching of Christ and the preaching of men. From inside and from outside come voices telling us the right way; and the wise man will listen and obey.

He will receive the word with gentleness. Gentleness is an attempt to translate the untranslatable word prautes (4240). This is a great Greek word which has no precise English equivalent. Aristotle defined it as the mean between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness; it is the quality of the man whose feelings and emotions are under perfect control. Andronicus Rhodius, commenting on Aristotle, writes, "Prautes (4240) is moderation in regard to anger...You might define prautes (4240) as serenity and the power, not to be lead away by emotion, but to control emotion as right reason dictates." The Platonic definitions say that prautes (4240) is the regulation of the movement of the soul caused by anger. It is the temperament (krasis) of a soul in which everything is mixed in the right proportions.

No one can ever find one English word to translate what is a one word summary of the truly teachable spirit. The teachable spirit is docile and tractable, and therefore humble enough to learn. The teachable spirit is without resentment and without anger and is, therefore, able to face the truth, even when it hurts and condemns. The teachable spirit is not blinded by its own overmastering prejudices but is clear-eyed to the truth. The teachable spirit is not seduced by laziness but is so self-controlled that it can willingly and faithfully accept the discipline of learning. Prautes (4240) describes the perfect conquest and control of everything in a man's nature which would be a hindrance to his seeing, learning and obeying the truth.

Barclay: Jam 1:22-24

Again James presents us with two of the vivid pictures of which he is such a master. First of all, he speaks of the man who goes to the church meeting and listens to the reading and expounding of the word, and who thinks that that listening has made him a Christian. He has shut his eyes to the fact that what is read and heard in Church must then be lived out. It is still possible to identify Church attendance and Bible reading with Christianity but this is to take ourselves less than half the way; the really important thing is to turn that to which we have listened into action.

Second, James says such a man is like one who looks in a mirror--ancient mirrors were made, not of glass, but of highly polished metal--sees the smuts which disfigure his face and the dishevelment of his hair, and goes away and forgets what he looks like, and so omits to do anything about it. In his listening to the true word a man has revealed to him that which he is and that which he ought to be. He sees what is wrong and what must be done to put it right; but, if he is only a hearer, he remains just as he is, and all his hearing has gone for nothing.

James does well to remind us that what is heard in the holy place must be lived in the market place--or there is no point in hearing at all.

Barclay: Jam 1:25

This is the kind of passage in James which Luther so much disliked. He disliked the idea of law altogether, for with Paul he would have said, "Christ is the end of the law" (Rom 10:4). "James," said Luther, "drives us to law and works." And yet beyond all doubt there is a sense in which James is right. There is an ethical law which the Christian must seek to put into action. That law is to be found first in the Ten Commandments and then in the teaching of Jesus.

James calls that law two things.

(i) He calls it the perfect law. There are three reasons why the law is perfect. (a) It is God's law, given and revealed by him. The way of life which Jesus laid down for his followers is in accordance with the will of God. (b) It is perfect in that it cannot be bettered. The Christian law is the law of love; and the demand of love can never be satisfied. We know well, when we love some one, that even though we gave them all the world and served them for a lifetime, we still could not satisfy or deserve their love. © But there is still another sense in which the Christian law is perfect. The Greek word is teleios (5046) which nearly always describes perfection towards some given end. Now, if a man obeys the law of Christ, he will fulfil the purpose for which God sent him into the world; he will be the person he ought to be and will make the contribution to the world he ought to make. He will be perfect in the sense that he will, by obeying the law of God, realize his God-given destiny.

(ii) He calls it the law of liberty; that is, the law in the keeping of which a man finds his true liberty. All the great men have agreed that it is only in obeying the law of God that a man becomes truly free. "To obey God," said Seneca, "is liberty." "The wise man alone is free," said the Stoics, "and every foolish man is a slave." Philo said "All who are under the tyranny of anger or desire or any other passion are altogether slaves; all who live with the law are free." So long as a man has to obey his own passions and emotions and desires, he is nothing less than a slave. It is when he accepts the will of God that he becomes really free--for then he is free to be what he ought to be. His service is perfect freedom and in doing his will is our peace.

Barclay: Jam 1:26-27

We must be careful to understand what James is saying here. The Revised Standard Version translates the phrases at the beginning of Jam 1:27: "Religion that is pure and undefiled is....." The word translated religion is threskeia (2356), and its meaning is not so much religion as worship in the sense of the outward expression of religion in ritual and liturgy and ceremony. What James is saying is, "The finest ritual and the finest liturgy you can offer to God is service of the poor and personal purity." To him real worship did not lie in elaborate vestments or in magnificent music or in a carefully wrought service; it lay in the practical service of mankind and in the purity of one's own personal life. It is perfectly possible for a Church to be so taken up with the beauty of its buildings and the splendour of its liturgy that it has neither the time nor the money for practical Christian service; and that is what James is condemning.

In fact James is condemning only what the prophets had condemned long ago. "God," said the Psalmist, "is a father of the fatherless, and protector of widows" (Psa 68:5). It was Zechariah's complaint that the people pulled away their shoulders and made their hearts as adamant as stone at the demand to execute true justice, to show mercy and compassion every man to his brother, to oppress not the widow, the fatherless, the stranger and the poor, and not to entertain evil thoughts against another within the heart (Zec 7:6-10). It was Micah's complaint that all ritual sacrifices were useless, if a man did not do justice and love kindness and walk humbly before God (Mic 6:6-8).

All through history men have tried to make ritual and liturgy a substitute for sacrifice and service. They have made religion splendid within the Church at the expense of neglecting it outside the Church. This is by no means to say that it is wrong to seek to offer the noblest and the most splendid worship within God's house; but it is to say that all such worship is empty and idle unless it sends a man out to love God by loving his fellow-men and to walk more purely in the tempting ways of the world.

Constable: Jam 1:2-11

A. The Value of Trials 1:2-11

James began his letter, which is in many ways a lecture, by dealing with the problem of trials that all believers encounter. He pointed out the value of trials to encourage his readers to adopt a positive attitude toward these experiences, to endure them, and to view them as God's tools. God uses trials to shape believers into people that will glorify Himself.

Constable: Jam 1:9-11

4. The larger view of circumstances 1:9-11

James had been urging his readers to adopt God's view of their trials. Now he broadened their perspective and encouraged them to adopt His viewpoint on all their present circumstances.

1:9 Materially poor believers should derive joy from focusing their thinking on their spiritual riches.

1:10 Likewise the materially rich should remember that riches are temporary and that one's real condition before God is a very humble one. Grass everywhere is not very hardy, but in some parts of Palestine it only stays green a few weeks. The term "flowering grass" evidently goes back to Isaiah 40:6-8. It is a combination of two thoughts, namely, that the grass withers and the flower fades. In Hebrew, mixing metaphors was a way of enriching the thought.³⁶

The commentators differ in their understanding of who the rich people were to whom James referred. Many believe they were believers in view of James' parallel statement in verse 9. They take the verb kauchaomai ("glory" or "take pride in") in verse 9 as the verb for verse 10 also. Likewise the subject "brother" in verse 9 seems to be the subject of verse 10.³⁷ Other interpreters believe that the context points to the rich being unsaved.³⁸ I think the evidence favors the view that they were Christians, probably Jewish Christians (cf. 5:1-6). In either case the meaning is clear: riches are worthless in the face of death and judgment (cf. 1 Tim. 6:9-10, 17-19).

"There is no higher honor than to be the object of God's gracious and loving concern."³⁹

1:11 The flower of the grass refers to its stage of green, lush growth when it is at the peak of its vitality. Soon it withers and turns brown in the Middle East (cf. Matt. 6:30). Likewise the rich man may fade quickly (cf. 4:13).

"Speaking of his friend, a poor Christian, a wealthy unbeliever remarked, When I die, I shall leave my riches. When he dies he will go to his.'"⁴⁰

Our trials as well as our triumphs on the earth are only temporary. This fact should help us endure our trials and not become self-confident in our triumphs.

"James seems to be indicating that trials erase any superficial distinctions that may be thought to separate the rich brother from the poor one."⁴¹

This introduction to the book (vv. 2-11) is in balance with the conclusion (5:7-20). Both sections talk about the need for patience (1:2-4; 5:7-12) and prayer (1:5-8; 5:13-18), and both end with an emphasis on all the contrasting circumstances of life (1:9-11; 5:19-20).⁴²

Constable: Jam 1:12-18

B. The Options in Trials 1:12-18

Thus far James revealed the value of trials, how God uses them to perfect the Christian, and how to obtain God's perspective on one's trials when this is difficult to see. Next he proceeded to explain the consequences of obedience and disobedience and the source of temptations so his readers could manage their trials effectively.

Constable: Jam 1:12

1. The ultimate end of trials 1:12

In view of how God uses trials in our lives we should persevere in the will of God joyfully. The Christian who perseveres under trials, who does not yield to temptations to depart from the will of God, demonstrates his or her love for God.⁴³ It is those who persevere under trials out of love for God that He will reward with the crown of life. Only the person who endures will receive the blessing.⁴⁴

". . . James has begun the sentence with blessed' makarios, like a new beatitude recalling Matthew 5:3-10 and especially 5:11-12, where Jesus encouraged perseverance in trials because great is your reward in heaven.' . . . the crown of life would be the ultimate reward, the fulfillment of eternal life and the exaltation with Christ which will be enjoyed by those who, because of faith in Christ, have loved God enough to live faithfully, obeying him even through trials."⁴⁵

"It is evident that this life that God has promised' is more than the eternal life given to every believer at the time of his salvation (John 5:24). Since it is a reward for an accomplishment subsequent to initial faith, it must refer to a still higher quality of life."⁴⁶

"Many Christians are presently following the same path which Esau took (considering the birthright to be of little value), and such Christians will one day come to the end of the matter in the same position as Esau. They, although presently in line to be blessed as the firstborn (every Christian is a firstborn child of God), will have forfeited this right; and they will be rejected for the blessing."⁴⁷

"The idea that all Christians do love God is a fiction. Even our Lord felt it necessary to exhort His inner circle of eleven disciples on this point (cf. John 14:21-24). . . . In no circumstances more than in trials does the presence or absence of love for God in a Christian become more apparent."⁴⁸

The other "crowns" to which the New Testament writers referred are probably also references to the fullness of the qualities mentioned in their contexts. They are probably not material crowns (cf. 1 Thess. 2:19; 2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 2:10). In other words, we should probably interpret them as metaphors rather than as literal crowns. Those who demonstrate their love for the Lord by persevering under trials will receive life to its fullest potential in the present and in the future.

Constable: Jam 1:13-14

2. The source of temptation 1:13-14

James did not want us to draw the conclusion that because God permits us to experience trials He is the source of temptation. That deduction might encourage us to give in to sin.

1:13 God is never the source of temptation. He does not try to get us to sin. He Himself is not even subject to temptation because He is totally separate from sin and not susceptible to evil.⁴⁹ The only sense in which God is responsible for sin is that He permits other things to tempt us, namely, the world, the flesh, and the devil (cf. Job 1-2). James did not mention this here.

Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Lead us not into temptation" (Matt. 6:13; Luke 11:4). Jesus used a figure of speech (i.e., litotes) in which He expressed a positive idea by negating the contrary.⁵⁰ He did not imply that God does lead us into temptation. His point was that He can help us stay away from it. Essentially Jesus meant we should ask God to allow us to experience as little temptation as possible. James was not contradicting Jesus' teaching.

"We all know only too many people who have ceased to walk with God under the pressure of trouble or tragedy . . ."⁵¹

1:14 Rather than blaming God we need to recognize that we are responsible when we yield to temptation, not God. There is nothing in God that responds positively to sin, but there is much in us that does.

"Desire (epithymia) does not always have a negative meaning (cf. Lk. 22:15; Phil. 1:23), but here, as most often in the New Testament, it refers to fleshly, selfish, illicit desire. While the word often describes specifically sexual passions, the use of the singular here suggests a broader conception."⁵²

What practical difference does it make if God tempts us or if He allows us to experience temptation? Perhaps we can appreciate the difference if we think of God as our Father. No good earthly father would deliberately seduce his child into sin trying to make him or her fall. However every good father will deliberately allow his child to enter situations in life in which the child must make moral choices. We realize that sending a child to school or into the community, at the proper age, is good for a child because it matures him or her. Likewise God grows us up by allowing certain experiences to assail us, though He Himself only gives good gifts to His children (Luke 11:13).

Constable: Jam 1:15

3. The progress of temptation 1:15

Lust in this context is the desire to do, have, or be something apart from the will of God. Lust is covert, but sometimes it manifests itself overtly. If we do not check lust, it will lead to sin, and if we do not confess and forsake sin, it will lead to death (Rom. 6:23).

"Sin is the result of the surrender of the will to the soliciting of epithymia [lust] instead of the guidance of reason."⁵³

Lust can lead to physical death in a believer (1 John 5:16), and it can lead to physical and spiritual death in a non-believer. James' vivid illustration of the childbearing process graphically describes the cause and effect relationship of lust, sin, and death. God desires to lead us into the fullness of life (v. 12), but if we respond improperly and give in to temptations we will not obtain the crown of life but death. "Death" in verse 15 is the opposite of "life" in verse 12. The ultimate outcome of capitulating to temptation is death, but the ultimate outcome of resisting it is the fullness of life (cf. John 10:10).

"This attention-getting imagery is designed to stop sinners in their tracks, seeing that death is the natural and terrible end of a life of sin, not just an occasional result for some sinners."⁵⁴

Constable: Jam 1:16-18

4. The goodness of God 1:16-18

James now defended God before those who doubted His goodness or reliability or who had given up hope in a time of testing and had concluded that this was their "fate."⁵⁵

1:16 James wanted his readers to have no doubt about God's purposes and methods in dealing with His children. The same "Do not be deceived" expression occurs in 1 Corinthians 6:9; 15:33; Galatians 6:7; and 1 John 3:7. God definitely is not the author of temptation.⁵⁶

James clarified God's purposes and methods in the following two verses (cf. Gal. 4:7). Verse 15 warns against yielding to temptation by reminding us of the judgment of God, and verse 17 warns us by reminding us of the goodness of God.

1:17 Every act of giving (better than "good thing bestowed") and every gift given has its source in God. This does not include temptations. God created the sun and moon by which we see variation in light. However there is no variation in God's dealings with His creatures. He always does everything for His own glory and His creatures' good.

"From above" is the translation of the same Greek word (anothen) Jesus used in John 3:7 when He told Nicodemus that he must be born "again." There the new birth is the good gift from God that is in view.

1:18 The greatest of God's gifts for believers is the gift of new life in Christ. God's initiative provided this gift for us, and His special revelation communicated it to us. This verse along with the preceding one shows clearly that James believed that eternal life was a gift of God's grace. We need to keep this in mind when we read James' discussion of faith and works that follows in chapter 2. James also agreed with Paul that our salvation springs from the sovereign volition of God (cf. Rom. 4:21-22; 2 Cor. 4:6). He initiated it.

The "first fruits" probably refer to all Christians who persevere in spite of trials. All believers will bring glory to God's name, but believers who remain faithful to Christ will please Him greatly, as the first fruits in Israel were a special offering to God. The Greek word translated "first fruits" (aparche) refers to what is first in honor as well as to what is first in order. The biblical writers used it "of persons superior in excellence to others of the same class."⁵⁷

The point of these verses (17-18) seems to be that God's intention for all people, and believers in particular, is invariably their blessing. Rather than viewing temptations to depart from the will of God as heaven-sent, we must see them as the potential enemies of spiritual growth. Instead of caving in under their weight we must brace ourselves against them. We can do so knowing that the effort will make us better this side of the grave and it will yield a wonderful reward the other side of the grave.

Constable: Jam 1:19-27

C. The Proper Response to Trials 1:19-27

Having explained the value of trials and our options in trials, James next exhorted his readers to respond properly to their trials. In this section he stressed the Word of God because it is the key to resisting temptations and responding to trials correctly (cf. Matt. 4:1-11).

Constable: Jam 1:19-20

1. The improper response 1:19-20

1:19 James' readers already knew what he had just reminded them of in the preceding verses (vv. 17-18; cf. Prov. 10:19; 13:3; 14:29; 15:1; 17:27-28; 29:11, 20; Eccles. 7:9). Nevertheless they needed to act in harmony with this knowledge.

"He [James] drives home the teaching about our death-bound, sinful nature with the cry Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren (16); he drives home the teaching about the new birth with the cry Know this, my beloved brethren (19a)."⁵⁸

We may respond to trials by complaining about them and becoming angry over them. James advised his readers to remain silent and calm and to listen submissively to the Word of God (v. 23).

"It is possible to be unfailingly regular in Bible reading, but to achieve no more than to have moved the book-mark forward: this is reading unrelated to an attentive spirit."⁵⁹

Many people have observed that we have two ears and one mouth, which ought to remind us to listen twice as much as we speak (cf. Prov. 10:19; 17:27).⁶⁰

"Ceaseless talkers may easily degenerate into fierce controversialists."⁶¹

"The great talker is rarely a great listener, and never is the ear more firmly closed than when anger takes over."⁶²

1:20 An angry response to temptations does not advance the righteousness in character and conduct that God is seeking to produce in the believer.

"The policy James condemns is one of seeking to promote the cause of freedom by politically motivated and engineered violence (an endeavor to be brought into the discussion at 4:1-3)."⁶³

Constable: Jam 1:21

2. The essential response 1:21

The filthiness in view seems to be all kinds of unclean behavior that lies outside the will of God including anger and wrath. The "remains of wickedness" are those evil habits of life we carry over from the unredeemed world (cf. Ps. 17:4; Luke 6:45). The believer should accept submissively what God has revealed and should respond cooperatively to what He commands. The Word of God will then have good soil in which to grow, and it will yield an abundant harvest of righteousness in the believer.

"We pray for safety instead of purity because we do not see impurity as dangerous."⁶⁴

Some interpreters have understood the phrase "which is able to save your souls" to imply that the souls of James' readers still needed to experience salvation from eternal damnation. Since his readers were Christians (vv. 1-2) some interpreters believe that when a believer sins he loses his salvation and needs saving again. However the words James used and the context make clear that this is not what he meant. "Save your lives" or "save your selves" (Gr. psychas) is a better translation (cf. Matt. 16:24-27; Mark 3:4; Luke 6:9; 9:56; James 5:20; 1 Pet. 1:9).⁶⁵ "Soul" does not describe a part of the individual that is different from some other part of him or her such as the body; it describes the whole person.

". . . the expression is never found in any New Testament text which describes the conversion experience!"⁶⁶

By obeying God's Word the believer can save his life from the consequences of sin. The ultimate consequence for a believer is premature physical (not eternal) death (cf. 1:15; 5:19-20; Prov. 10:27; 11:19; 12:28; 13:14; 19:16; Rom. 8:13; 1 Cor. 11:30; 1 John 5:16).⁶⁷ James was still talking about the consequences of obeying and disobeying God: the crown of life (v. 12) and death (v. 15).

"It has often been observed that the Epistle of James is, of all the New Testament writings, the one which most clearly reflects the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. The theme of death as the consequence of sin is an extremely frequent one in the book of Proverbs. . . . It should be evident that this is the Old Testament concept which furnishes the background for James' thought. A recognition of this fact clarifies a great deal."⁶⁸

Constable: Jam 1:22-25

3. The complete response 1:22-25

Whereas verses 19-21 stress the importance of listening to the Word, verses 22-25 emphasize the necessity of putting the Word into practice, applying it.

1:22 Doing the Word of God in this context means persevering in God's will when we experience temptation. Hearing God's will is good as far as it goes, but obedience should follow. Some Christian disciples delude themselves by thinking that knowing God's will is enough, but it is only foundational to doing God's will.

"The blessing does not come in studying the Word, but in doing the Word."⁶⁹

"The call to do what it says' lies at the center of all that James teaches. It sums up the message of the whole book: Put into practice what you profess to believe. Indeed, 1:22 may well be the key verse of James's epistle."⁷⁰

1:23-24 This illustration is so clear and so common that it needs little comment. The Greek verb katanoeo refers to careful observation. It does not mean to cast a hasty superficial glance, as some have suggested.

1:25 The law to which James referred is the revelation of God's will contained in Scripture (cf. Matt. 5:17). It is perfect because it is the perfect will of a perfect God.

"Unlike the imperfect metal mirror in the previous illustration, this law is able to give the beholder a true and undistorted revelation of himself."⁷¹

"The law of God is perfect, first, because it perfectly expresses his nature and, secondly, because it perfectly matches ours."⁷²

It is a law of liberty because by obeying it we find true liberty from sin and its consequences (i.e., real life).

"True freedom is the opportunity and the ability to give expression to what we truly are."⁷³

Note James' agreement with Paul that Christians live in comparative liberty under the "law of Christ" (Gal. 5:1; 6:2; cf. Matt. 11:30). Obedient adherence to the Word of God is the key to experiencing God's blessing in life now as well as in the eschatological future.

". . . the letter . . . is a law book' in a deeper and more pervasive sense than any other single writing in the New Testament."⁷⁴

"Thus the passage falls into three sections, each with a distinct response to the word God speaks: hearing (19b-20), receiving (21) and obeying (22-25)."⁷⁵

Constable: Jam 1:26-27

4. The external behavior 1:26-27

James proceeded to explain in 1:26-2:13 what a doer of works (1:25) does.

1:26 "Religious" (Gr. threskos, used here only in the New Testament) describes someone who fears or worships God. In particular, it refers to the outward consequences of what one believes (i.e., piety) rather than to what he believes or the fact that he believes deeply. The Jews who were James' original readers typically regarded personal prayer and fasting, regular attendance at worship services, and the observance of holy days and feasts as signs of true spirituality (cf. Matt. 6:1-18). However, James said a better test of spirituality was God's control of one's tongue (cf. 3:1-12).

1:27 Taking care of orphans and widows is a duty that lies close to the heart of God (cf. Exod. 22:21; Deut. 10:18; Isa. 1:17; Jer. 5:28; Ezek. 22:7; Zech. 8:10). Yet many who professed to love Him neglected it (Ps. 68:5; Eccles. 4:10; Mark 12:40).⁷⁶ Likewise personal moral purity is an excellent external indicator of godliness (cf. Acts 15:20; 1 Tim. 5:22). James argued for reality. He did not want us to deceive ourselves into thinking that we are spiritual if our obedience to God is only superficial.

"Like Jesus, James sees worship not in terms of external law but as an expression of inner active goodness."⁷⁷

"To summarize, vv. 22-27 insist that a person's religion must consist of more than superficial acts. It is not enough to listen to the statement of spiritual truth (vv. 22-25), nor is it sufficient to engage in formal religious activity (v. 26). The person whose religious experience is genuine will put spiritual truth into practice, and his life will be marked by love for others and holiness before God."⁷⁸

In this chapter James dealt with the practical problem of trials and temptations. He used this subject to remind his readers of some very basic truths that have implications in many other areas of practical Christian living. Some of these areas are consistent commitment to God and obedience to His Word. We will demonstrate behavior that is as genuinely religious as anything anyone can do when we respond to temptations to depart from God's will appropriately. The appropriate response involves rejecting them and rejoicing in them because we believe God is using them to perfect us for His glory.

College: Jam 1:1-27

JAMES 1

I. GREETING (1:1)

¹ James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:

Greetings.

James opens his letter in the usual way by identifying the author and the readers and by giving a word of greeting. His opening, however, is quite brief. He does not identify himself as the brother of Christ but simply as the servant (dou'lo" , doulos , "slave") of God and Christ. This use of "slave" to describe one's relationship to God is found in pagan literature, in the Old Testament (Joshua 14:7; 24:29; 2 Samuel 7:8; Psalm 135:1; Isaiah 42:19; Amos 3:7), and in the New Testament (Acts 2:18; 4:29; Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1). Even Jesus himself took on the form of a slave (Philippians 2:7). The widespread use of the term should not blind one to its significance. To be a slave of God and Christ is to do their bidding without fail. No greater title can be sought by the Christian than slave. James writes to teach his readers how to be good slaves of the Lord Jesus.

James addresses "the twelve tribes scattered among the nations" (literally "in the Diaspora"). The Diaspora was the name for Jews living outside Palestine, perhaps implying he writes from within Palestine. Does James write to all Jews outside Palestine? No, for the content of James is clearly Christian. He therefore writes to Jewish Christians, to those Jews who have accepted Jesus as the Christ or Messiah (cf. 1 Peter 1:1; Revelation 7:4-9). His greeting may even include Gentile Christians who also believe in Jesus as Messiah. Those believers are the true Israel, the twelve tribes God has promised to save (Romans 9:24-26; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Revelation 7:3-8).

If the letter of James is dated quite early, then Diaspora could refer to those who "were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria" (Acts 8:1) as a result of persecution from Saul. If so, James is writing to Jewish Christians who had been part of the church he led in Jerusalem.

By calling his readers "the Diaspora" or those "scattered among the nations," James may also be giving a hint to one of the major thrusts of his letter. Those who accept Jesus as the Messiah are scattered among the nations and belong only to redeemed Israel, the twelve tribes. They are in the world but do not belong to it (John 15:18-19). They live as aliens and exiles who look for a better home (1 Peter 1:17; 2:11; Hebrews 11:8-16; 13:14). James writes to show what it means morally to live as a scattered people who owe allegiance to Christ, not to the standards of the world.

"Greetings" is the typical address of a Greek letter. However, such a brief greeting is unusual in the New Testament. It is found only here, in the greeting of the Roman commander Claudius Lysias to Governor Felix (Acts 23:26), and in the letter of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem to Gentile Christians (Acts 15:23). If the letter from Jerusalem in Acts 15 was composed by James, the Lord's brother, then this would be his usual way of greeting fellow Christians in letters.

Section Summary and Application:

Just as James calls himself the slave of God and Christ, so Christians today should remember that the greatest in the kingdom is the one who serves (Mark 10:42-45). We also, like James's original readers, are scattered throughout the nations. We live in whatever country God has placed us in, but our ultimate citizenship is in heaven. James reminds us not to be too comfortable in the world.

II. ENDURING TRIALS (1:2-4)

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴ Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers,

Fourteen times in this letter, James addresses his readers as "brothers." This language is found throughout the New Testament, implying both the closeness and the responsibility of being family. James's frequent use of "brother" gives his letter a pastoral tone; he is writing to encourage them in the faith as a brother who is a fellow servant of Christ. "Brothers," of course, includes sisters as well; James specifically mentions sisters as readers in 2:15. Throughout this commentary we will also use James's language of "brothers" to include sisters in Christ.

Stress and pressure are not purely modern experiences. The readers of James also faced trials. The brothers are to consider these trials to be pure (in Greek, pa'san , pasan , "all") joy. All or pure joy indicates sincerity. Christians are not merely to put the best face on trouble and try to look on the bright side but should sincerely rejoice when trouble comes. The joy the brothers have in trials is not pleasure (they do not enjoy pain) but rather "eschatological anticipated joy." In other words, the brothers rejoice not because they suffer now, but because they know suffering is preparing them for the anticipated return of Christ.

whenever you face trials of many kinds,

"Trials" (peirasmov" , peirasmos) is an ambiguous word that may refer to the ordinary troubles of life, to persecution for the faith, or to temptation to do evil (see 1:12-13). "Many kinds" (literally "multicolored") implies James includes all these meanings in verses 2-4. Christians should not intentionally choose suffering. Literally in Greek, James says the brothers fall into trials. They do not seek them, but they come. To be human is to suffer. These trials are not chosen but fall upon the believers unexpectedly. The New Testament does not clearly answer the questions of the origin of evil or why bad things happen to good people. James does show that God is so great that he can use what is evil for his children's ultimate good. Believers do not want trials to come. Jesus taught his disciples to pray for deliverance from evil (Matthew 6:13), but when faced with trials of all kinds and colors, the Christian should consider them pure joy.

1:3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

This joy comes because the Christian knows that trials are also tests of faith (cf. 1 Peter 1:7). One is reminded of those Old Testament heroes like Abraham (Genesis 22:1-18) and Job who passed the tests of faith. They are tests of faith because they teach the brothers to trust in God alone. Passing these tests leads to perseverance (uJpomonhv , hypomone, cf. Romans 5:3). This is a rich word in Greek implying steadfastness, fortitude, constancy, persistent determination, strong consistency, and staying power. The best translation might be "heroic endurance." Standing the trials of life produces more than a passive patience or a cynical resignation; it gives (in the words of the hymn by William H. Bathurst) "a faith that will not shrink, tho' pressed by every foe."

1:4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

But even this heroic endurance is not an end within itself. It must be allowed to finish its work, to grow into "perfection" (tevleio" , teleios , a word James uses more often than any other New Testament writer). Perfection in the New Testament does not mean without flaw or error but indicates (as translated here in the NIV) maturity and completeness. The perfect person has reached his intended end.

Enduring trials thus produces joy because such tests shape believers into the image of Christ. In that image one lacks nothing. Perfection in James is not just the result of our own efforts; it does not come from a "works righteousness." Instead, it is brought by God and is the end of steadfast obedience. Here James echoes Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount, who urged his hearers, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

Section Summary and Application:

In his opening lines, James challenges the standards of the world. Worldly wisdom can see no value in suffering. It says pain is to be avoided at all costs, and only pleasure brings happiness. By contrast, to Christians even trials are a joy because they lead us to maturity in Christ. Christians judge value quite differently than the world does. To us the highest value is not freedom from pain but a faith that perseveres. The suffering that life brings, although bad in itself, can be turned by God into pure joy.

III. ASK FOR WISDOM (1:5-8)

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom,

The heroic endurance that comes from facing trials is to make one complete, "not lacking anything." Yet all believers lack one thing: wisdom. No matter how much wisdom they have, the brothers can always use more. It particularly requires wisdom to see trials as a blessing. James encourages them to ask God for it.

Wisdom is an important biblical word. It means more than intellectual knowledge. Wisdom is less "knowing that" than "knowing how." It implies a skill in living that is passed down from parent to child and has its ultimate source in God. One is reminded of the Wisdom books in the Old Testament - Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job - that say, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 1:7). On the one hand, Proverbs urges one to be always "turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding" (Proverbs 2:2); on the other, it reminds, "For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding" (Proverbs 2:6).

he should ask God,

Asking for wisdom reminds one of the most famous wise man of all, Solomon. God appeared to him in a dream and offered to give him anything he asked. Solomon asked for wisdom, not riches and honor. God is so pleased with this choice, that he grants Solomon all three gifts. James agrees that wisdom is not from our own efforts but is a gift from God (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:26-2:16; Philippians 3:15).

who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

God gives wisdom generously (aJplw'" , haplos , a word found only here in the New Testament). The word means he gives "straightforwardly," that is, with no strings attached. Unlike the "double-minded man" (v.8), God is not in doubt about his giving. God has no ulterior motives. He gives without hesitation and without regard to our worthiness. He gives "to all." Unlike humans (James 2:1-4), God has no favorites. He also gives "without finding fault." God is no reluctant, critical giver but a generous Father (cf. Matthew 7:7-11). He is eager to give wisdom to those who ask.

1:6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt,

As God has no doubt about his giving, one must ask in faith, not doubt. Since God is a generous Father, Christians must be willing to receive as children. Faith is connected with the granting of prayer requests in many New Testament passages (Matthew 8:10; 9:28; Mark 2:5; 4:40; 5:34-36; 9:23-24; 11:23-24; Romans 4:20-21). Faith here is not a general term for Christian belief but refers to the certainty that the request will be fulfilled. Although Christians are always to pray that God's will be done, they can be confident that it is always God's will to give them more wisdom.

because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

To doubt that God will hear their requests for wisdom is to doubt his generosity and character. Such a doubter is like a wave blown by the wind, a common metaphor in ancient literature for indecision.

1:7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 1:8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

He is double-minded (divyuco" , dipsychos , literally "double-souled"), an interesting word found only in James in the New Testament. He has enough faith to ask for wisdom but not enough to be confident he will receive. He puts his hand to the plow and then looks back (Luke 9:62). Ironically, it is this very doubt that keeps him from receiving. Such an indecisive and fickle person cannot be trusted to be consistent in anything he does. His instability is in stark contrast to the perseverance or strong consistency produced by enduring trial (v. 4).

Section Summary and Application:

Wisdom is one gift needed by Christians throughout the ages. It is particularly needed in our time, when the forces of secularization and worldliness threaten the church. We need wisdom to view the trials of this age as pure joy. Such wisdom does not come naturally from our own abilities and efforts. It is God's gift alone. We should pray regularly for this wisdom, trusting that God will freely give it to guide his people. All our prayers should go to God with confidence, not doubt.

IV. RICHES TEMPORARY (1:9-11)

⁹ The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. ¹⁰ But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. ¹¹ For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.

1:9 The brother in humble circumstances

In these verses, James introduces a theme he will return to often in his letter: the relation of rich and poor. He speaks of "the brother in humble circumstances." The word here means "humble" or "lowly" in most contexts; in this one it refers primarily to the economically lowly, the poor in contrast to the rich (v.10).

ought to take pride in his high position.

A poor Christian ("brother") should boast or take pride in his high position. Boasting is condemned elsewhere in the New Testament and in James (Romans 2:17,23; 3:27; 1 Corinthians 1:29; 4:7; 5:6; 2 Corinthians 5:12; 11:18; Galatians 6:13; Ephesians 2:9; James 4:16). However, rejoicing in what God has done in Christ, "boasting in the Lord," is approved (Romans 5:2-3, 11; 1 Corinthians 1:31; 2 Corinthians 10:13-17; Philippians 3:3). Here the poor are urged to boast not in their own ability, but in what God has done for them. Although they are humble and poor from an earthly standpoint, God has "chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him" (James 2:5). True wealth is measured not in money but in faith.

1:10 But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position,

By contrast, the rich are brought low. James does not call the rich person "brother" as he does the humble. He is likely contrasting not rich and poor in the church, but the rich of the world with the lowly Christians. The concept of boasting or taking pride in being humbled is interesting. By contemplating the temporary nature of wealth, the rich may learn humility before God and turn to him for salvation. Yet this humiliation is not just an inner attitude but a reversal in status; the poor are exalted and the rich brought low (Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14).

because he will pass away like a wild flower.

The great reversal of rich and poor is a theme found throughout both Testaments and is particularly important in the Gospel of Luke. One thinks of the switch in positions between the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:25). God will turn the shame of the poor into pride and will humble the boastful rich. Again, one hears echoes of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are you who are poor" (Luke 6:20), and "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). Christians should not pursue wealth because it is transitory and because they are already rich toward God. It is that spiritual wealth that makes them boast.

1:11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed.

The brief nature of earthly wealth is illustrated by the well-known Jewish image of plants scorched by the heat. In the climate of Palestine, the hot sun and wind can kill fragile flowers in less than a day (cf. Ezekiel 17:10). No wonder this was a favorite image of Old Testament writers for the transitory nature not just of riches but of life itself (Psalm 103:15-16; Isaiah 40:6-8). The beauty of the flower is destroyed just as the outward beauty of the rich - gold rings and fine clothes (James 2:2) - fades away. One remembers Jesus' words about riches being stolen or destroyed while heavenly treasure lasts (Matthew 6:19-21). Money promises security and permanence but cannot deliver them.

In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.

The rich will fade, literally "in the middle of his travels." James has in mind not just those born to wealth but those traveling merchants who pursue it. Those who obtain wealth through their own hard work are particularly prone to pride: "I work hard for my money; I deserve to enjoy it." James thinks this attitude foolish. The mad dash for success only causes one to fade away as in the parable of the rich man whose life is required of him the very night of his greatest financial triumph (Luke 12:13-21).

Section Summary and Application:

Jesus was always hard on the rich (cf. Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 12:41-44; Luke 6:24; 12:16-21; 14:12; 16:19-31; 18:25). As will be seen, James also always portrays the poor as righteous (cf. Amos 2:6; 5:12) and the rich as evil (Isaiah 53:9). As with all generalizations, there will certainly be exceptions. There are wealthy persons who are faithful Christians, and there are poor people who reject Christ. However, we should resist the temptation to spiritualize these passages by making "poor" merely a term for the community of the faithful. James's warning is clear; riches are to be viewed not as a sign of grace or a benign blessing but at best as a snare and a temptation and at worst a sign of judgment.

It is particularly difficult for the average American to realize that compared to most of the world we are rich, and so the warning of James is to us. We will be exalted if we are rich, but only if we understand the low value of our wealth and the true value of faith. Only by humble reception of the gift of God can the impossible happen; even the rich can be saved (Matthew 19:26).

V. TEMPTATION NOT FROM GOD (1:12-18)

¹² Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

¹³ When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

¹⁶ Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. ¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ¹⁸ He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

1:12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial,

James returns to the topic of enduring trials (see vv. 2-4). The word for trial (peirasmov" , peirasmos ) is the same here as above in verses 2-4 and below in verses 13-14. Here in verse 12, it implies persecution and trouble, not temptation, for temptation should be resisted, not just endured.

The one who endures trials is blessed, a word used frequently in Psalms and Proverbs (e.g., "Blessed is the man . . . ," Psalm 1:1) and in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12). "Blessed" (makavrio" , makarios ) is a deeper word than "happy," implying that deep and lasting joy that comes only as a gift from God.

because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

The one who endures the test will be blessed by God with the crown of life, probably not a royal crown but the garland of flowers given to victors in ancient athletic contests. Unlike the rich who fade like a flower (v. 10), those who endure trials and finish the race will receive the garland of life that never fades (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 4:8; 1 Peter 5:4; Revelation 2:10). God (or perhaps Jesus, the Greek merely says, "he") promises this crown to those who love him. All Christians, not just a particularly favored few, are called to be heroes, to stand the test and receive the crown of life.

1:13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me."

James then turns to another type of trial, temptation. Although the word in Greek is the same here as in verse 12, the context clearly implies temptation, not just any test. James counters the charge that it is God who tempts. Why would anyone make such a charge? Perhaps it stems from a misunderstanding of the sovereignty of God; if this is truly God's world, then evil as well as good must come from him. Perhaps blaming God is just the human way to escape blame: "A man's folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord" (Proverbs 19:3). Adam blamed, "the woman you put here with me" (Genesis 3:12) for the first sin and so indirectly blamed God. Human beings have tried to shift blame from themselves ever since.

The specific occasion for this charge against God might be a misunderstanding of the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. From other passages in James, it is clear that he and his readers knew the sermon. They, therefore, remembered that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13; cf. Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38; Luke 22:46). If tempted, one might erroneously conclude that God had led one there or at least he had failed to protect from temptation.

For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;

James battles this misunderstanding by stating emphatically that God does not tempt. Before that statement, he has another that is hard to interpret: God is "untemptable" (ajpeivrasto" , apeirastos , a word used only here in the New Testament). Some have suggested this means, "God's goodness ought not to be questioned or tested." Thus, to blame God for sin is to test him, yet he does not test or tempt. More likely, the word should be translated as in the NIV: "God cannot be tempted." Although it is not immediately clear how this leads to the conclusion that he does not tempt, there is a connection. God has no acquaintance with evil at all. It cannot touch him. Therefore, he cannot lead others to do evil.

God tests his people, but he does not tempt them. In the Old Testament, God tested Abraham (Genesis 22:1), the people of Israel (Judges 2:22), and Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:31). God's testing of Israel in the wilderness was actually a sign of his love. He showed they were his children by disciplining them as a father does his son (Deuteronomy 8:2-5). The difference between God's testing and temptation is that he wants his people to pass the test and to win the crown. He even provides a way of escape from temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13). When the evil one tempts, he wants them to fail. Therefore, temptation never comes from God.

1:14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

Where does temptation come from? James might have said, "From Satan, the evil one," but he does not. Instead he places the responsibility for temptation on the individual: "his own (the Greek word i[dio" , idios , is emphatic here) desire leads him astray." Desire can be either positive or negative in the New Testament, depending on the context. Here it is evil desire that drags away and entices. The Greek words (ejxevlkw , exelkô , and deleavzw , deleazô ) here are fishing terms. Desire baits us and reels us in.

1:15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

This evil desire (ejpiqumiva , epithymia ), if left unchecked, has severe consequences. The process is compared to human growth. Desire conceives, gives birth to sin, which matures into death. This is a stark contrast to the process of maturity outlined in verses 2-4, where trials develop perseverance that matures into perfection. James implies his readers must head in one of two directions, either down the path of trial to perfection or the path of desire to death.

1:16 Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Thus, the individual, not God, is responsible for temptation. The idea that God leads one to sin is deception. God's nature prohibits him from doing evil toward humanity. He is consistent in giving only good and perfect gifts. James uses the metaphor of "lights" for the consistent goodness of God. He is the Father of lights because he created the heavenly lights - sun, moon, and stars - in the beginning (Genesis 1:14-19; Psalm 136:7). These lights are the first of his good and perfect gifts. However, the light from these heavenly bodies changes from an earthly point of view. The moon has its phases. Sometimes the planets and stars cannot be seen. Even the sun is sometimes eclipsed. By contrast, the Giver of light is not changeable like the gift. God's goodness always shines on his people. "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).

This reference to heavenly bodies may also be James's version of the later Shakespearean quote: "The fault . . . is not in our stars, but in ourselves . . . ." It is not fate or astrology that guides human lives; it is a God whose nature is unchangeably good. If we are tempted, the fault is not his, but ours.

1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth,

God does not leave our destiny to chance. He intentionally planned to give us new birth. Just as he created the stars in the beginning and so is "the Father of lights," so now he has chosen to begin a new creation by "giving us birth through the word of truth." "Word of truth" may refer to the creative word that made humans in the beginning ("Let us make man in our image," Genesis 1:26), to the truth of the gospel that gives new birth (1 Corinthians 4:15), or, most likely, to Jesus the Word (John 1:1) and the truth (John 14:6) who brings new life.

that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Those who have been born anew are "firstfruits" (ajparchv , aparchç ) of a new creation (cf. the note on 2 Thessalonians 2:13 in the NIV). In the Old Testament, the first crops were dedicated to God in sacrifice (Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 2:12). Those who are born through the word of truth also present themselves as sacrifices to God (cf. Romans 12:1). "Firstfruits" might also imply that those born anew are a preview of the new creation (cf. Romans 8:22-23). This birth to life contrasts with the birth of sin to death (v. 15).

Section Summary and Application:

When struggling with temptation, particularly with one that has often overpowered us, it is easy to try to shift the blame to others, to our social environment, to the devil, or even to God. One form this has recently taken is to root our behavior, even our sins, in our genetic code. We are not to blame, because "God made us this way." James will not allow this shift in responsibility. There is no one to blame for temptation and sin but ourselves.

God does not tempt. He gives only good gifts. His consistent goodness shines for all to see. The greatest gift of all is the new birth we experienced through his Son. Although we are subject to temptation and sin, by God's help we can overcome every trial and temptation that comes our way and receive the promised crown of life.

VI. SPEAKING, LISTENING, DOING (1:19-27)

¹⁹ My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does.

²⁶ If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

1:19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

Warnings about hasty speech are found throughout the wisdom books of the Old Testament (Proverbs 10:14; 15:1; 17:27-28; 29:20; Ecclesiastes 7:9) as well as in writings of the Greek and Roman moral philosophers. The Stoic philosopher Seneca, for example, sees brevity of speech as a sign of character. To control speech is to control self. Elaborate speech is immodest. Silence, on the other hand, prevents one from error. The modern proverb, "Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt," may be part of what James has in mind here.

James ties his warning against hasty speech with hearing (a preview of vv. 22-25) and to anger. Some suggest this is a warning against setting oneself up as a teacher (thus quick to listen to and slow to speak the "word of truth," v. 18), a theme James returns to in 3:1-12. More likely it is a caution against rash and angry words in general.

1:20 for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

There is a place for righteous anger, but Jesus taught that those quick to speak angry words are in danger of judgment from God (Matthew 5:21-26). "Righteous indignation" is rarely completely righteous. This may be what James means by anger not bringing about "the righteousness life that God desires." In other words, anger is not the right thing, the thing God approves.

However, these words may mean that anger does not hasten the judgment of God against evil. Christians see injustice in the world and even suffer unjustly themselves. However, if they lash out with angry words against evil, it may make them feel better but does not in itself bring justice. They should not resign themselves to evil, nor merely complain at it, but should wait patiently for the Lord to return and execute justice (James 5:7).

1:21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent

Instead of being angry, Christians should rid their lives of evil. "Get rid" is actually a metaphor of taking off one set of clothes and putting on another. Thus, Christians are to put off the filthy clothes of hasty speech, anger, and all kinds of evil and to put on Christ. This metaphor of "take off" and "put on" occurs in many places in the New Testament and may refer to the change of life that takes place in baptism (Romans 13:12; Ephesians 4:22-25; Colossians 3:8; Hebrews 12:1; 1 Peter 2:1). It is another way of speaking of that new birth and creation that God gives (see v. 18).

and humbly accept the word planted in you,

James mixes his metaphors by changing from putting off evil like clothing to receiving the implanted word. The term "implanted" (e[mquton , emphyton ), can mean "innate" in other contexts. Here the word is obviously not innately natural in the Christian but must be received or accepted from God. In the parable of the sower (Mark 4:3-20), Jesus speaks of the word as planted seed (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:6). James urges his readers to be good soil, that is, to have good hearts that receive the word with humility (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:13). To accept the word means one allows it to govern all of life.

which can save you.

James says the word is powerful enough to save (cf. Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:18). That word saves by continuing to transform their lives, making them truly the firstfruits of a new creation (v. 18). Clearly James is not just a moralist who urges his readers to be better through their own power. It is God through his word who empowers them to control their speech and anger. It is he who gives them birth through the word.

1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

They must be quick to listen to the word, but listening is not enough. Action is required (cf. Romans 2:13). James has an extended comparison between the mere listener (literally, listener "alone," movnon , monon, the same word used in 2:24 of faith alone) and the doer.

1:23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror

The heart of the comparison is the mirror analogy. The mere hearer, who is self-deceived, sees his natural face in a mirror and goes away and forgets what he looks like. The doer gazes into the law of liberty, remains there, does not forget, and so is blessed.

Mirrors in the ancient world were of polished metal and thus did not give as clear a reflection as modern mirrors. However, as with mirrors today, their main function was to inspect and improve personal appearance. A mirror allows a person to know his physical appearance and improve it. Ancient moral philosophers, such as Plutarch, used the cosmetic function of mirrors as an analogy for moral improvement. As one gazes in a mirror to see and correct physical imperfections, so one gazes into moral examples to see ethical faults and correct them.

1:24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

James uses the mirror as an example in a similar way. If you look in a mirror, see a smudge on your face or your hair out of place, and do nothing to improve your appearance, then you have forgotten what you should look like or are self-deceived, believing you are attractive as you are with no room for improvement. In the same way, one who hears the word but does not do it has forgotten the ethical demands of the word and has deceived himself into thinking he is already perfect.

1:25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom,

One the other hand, the doer looks into "the perfect law that gives freedom." Here clearly James is talking about more than a physical mirror. It is the law one gazes into. "Law" is an important word for James. He uses it here for the first time. To understand his use of "law" requires avoiding the misconceptions many Christians have concerning the word. James is no legalist. He does not believe Christians are saved by law rather than grace. However, his witness is consistent with that of all biblical writers, including Paul: "the law is good" (Romans 7:16). James even says it is perfect, one of the perfect gifts that the Father of lights gives (James 1:17). James reflects the praise for the law in Psalm 119 and other Old Testament passages as well as the teaching of Jesus who came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).

Even more startling to many contemporary Christians, James calls it the law of freedom (see also James 2:12). Law and freedom seem completely antithetical to some. To James, doing the law brings true freedom. But what does James mean by "the law?" In context it is synonymous with "the word of truth" that gives new birth (v. 18) and the implanted word that saves (v. 21). That word is ultimately Jesus himself (John 1:1) and, in a secondary sense, the saving word about Jesus, the gospel. So, while Paul sometimes contrasts law and gospel, to James the law that brings freedom is the gospel.

and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does.

The gospel not only saves, but it teaches how one should behave as a saved person. Or as James would say, the law brings freedom from sin but also serves as a mirror of the soul, showing areas where improvement is needed. The one who does the word (that is, obeys the gospel), gazes into the law, does not forget what he sees, but changes his life accordingly. Such a doer is blessed by God, as Jesus himself said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it" (Luke 11:28; see also Matthew 7:24-27).

It is interesting to compare the mirror analogy in James with a similar analogy from Paul. "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18). Although the word "mirror" is not used in this passage, the idea of reflection implies it (see NRSV "as though reflected in a mirror"). To Paul, the mirror is the Lord's glory or the Lord himself who, through the Spirit, morally transforms Christians into his likeness. In Paul, the Christian is passive; he is transformed by the mirror. In James, the Christian is active; he must do what he sees in the law of freedom. This is not a contradiction between Paul and James but a difference in emphasis between them. Paul also calls for an active faith, and James believes in salvation by grace.

1:26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

That active response of faith is given concrete meaning in self-control and compassion for those in need. The mere hearer may deceive himself into thinking he is religious. "Religious" (qrhskov" , thrçskos ) has the same connotation in Greek as in English. It can refer to one who has a genuine walk with God or to one who merely keeps outward rituals. Such religion is worthless if one does not control his speech. Reining in the tongue is a common metaphor in the ancient world for self-control (James returns to it in 3:3-8). As discussed above (vs. 19), to be slow to speak is a sign of character. Self-proclaimed religion is no good unless followed by action. One should be slow to talk the talk but quick to walk the walk.

1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:

That walk is to follow the steps of Jesus in helping the downtrodden. Such religion is pure (kaqarov" , katharos ) and faultless (ajmivanto" , amiantos ), words associated with ceremonial cleanness in the Old Testament (Genesis 7:2; 8:20; Leviticus 4:12; 7:19; 11:32; 15:13; Numbers 8:7; Deuteronomy 12:15). Jesus takes that concern for ceremonial cleanness and ties it to a concern for those in need: "But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you" (Luke 11:41). That is the genuine religion that God approves, a religion that is more than outward ritual and ceremony (cf. Micah 6:7-8). True religion to James (as well as to Jesus) is not found in religious language or ritual alone but in selfless acts of service.

to look after orphans and widows in their distress

Those singled out for help are orphans and widows. In the ancient world, unwanted children were often abandoned to die. Orphans were rarely cared for by the state or by private foundations. Without family, on their own, they were certainly in distress. Women in the ancient world seldom worked outside the home. An unmarried woman depended solely on her parents for support; a married woman, solely on her husband. A widow without children or with children who would not support her was doomed to poverty. Thus, orphans and widows are singled out by the Old Testament as protected by God and as proper objects for compassion and assistance (Deuteronomy 10:18; 14:28-29; 16:11; 24:17; 26:12; Jeremiah 22:3; Zechariah 7:8-10; Malachi 3:5; cf. Acts 6:1; 1 Timothy 5:16). Of course, James does not intend to limit compassion to only widows and orphans. All in need are our neighbors.

and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

True religion is shown by care for those in distress but also by keeping oneself unstained (a[spilo" , aspilos ) by the world. This is such an abrupt shift from compassion that some scholars suggest the reading from a Greek papyrus is the correct one: ". . . to look after widows and orphans and to protect them from the world." However, the majority of manuscripts have "keep oneself from being polluted by the world" as in the NIV. This is not such an abrupt shift after all, since worldliness to James includes greed, pride, and an arrogance toward the poor (James 2:1-13; 4:1-12). Giving generously to those in need is a challenge to worldly standards of worth and success.

Section Summary and Application:

This discussion of hearing and doing serves as a corrective to the cheap grace practiced by many in the church today. Salvation by grace does not mean that moral standards are lower for Christians. Indeed, it is Jesus who calls his disciples to a higher righteousness (Matthew 5:20). In James's day, as well as ours, there were those who deceived themselves into thinking they were saved because they had heard the gracious words of salvation. James reminds them that grace requires an active response. Such a response includes control of our speech, care for those in need, and rejection of the standards of the world.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

Commentary -- Other

Critics Ask: Jam 1:15

JAMES 1:15 —If God doesn’t tempt anyone, then why did He tempt Abraham?

PROBLEM: The Bible says “God tempted Abraham” ( Gen. 22:1 , KJV ), and Jesus taught His disciples to pray to God, “do not lead us into temptation” ( Matt. 6:13 ). How then can James say of God, “nor does He Himself tempt anyone” ( James 1:13 ).

SOLUTION: God did not tempt Abraham (nor anyone) to sin. Rather, He tested Abraham to see if he would sin or be faithful to Him. God allows Satan to tempt us (cf. Matt 4:1-10 ; James 4:7 ; 1 Peter 5:8-9 ), but James is correct in saying, never does God “Himself tempt anyone.” God cannot be tempted by sin, since He is absolutely and unchangeably perfect ( Matt 5:48 ; Heb. 6:18 ), nor can He tempt anyone else to sin ( James 1:13 ). When we sinful human beings are tempted, it is because we allow ourselves to be drawn away by our own lustful desires ( James 1:14-15 ). The source of temptation comes from within, not from without. It comes from sinful man, not from a sinless God.

While God does not and cannot actually tempt anyone to sin, He can and does allow us to be tempted by Satan and our own lustful desires. Of course, His purpose in permitting (but not producing or promoting) evil is to make us more perfect. God allowed Satan to tempt Job so that Job could say “When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” ( Job 23:10 ). God allowed evil to befall Joseph at the hands of his brothers. But in the end Joseph was able to say to them, “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” ( Gen. 50:20 ).   

Evidence: Jam 1:15

The ungodly hold firmly onto the lighted stick of dynamite called " sin." They relish its flickering flame. Lust may delight the human heart, but its terrible consequences are sin, death, and hell.

" Human nature rises against restraint: ‘I had not known lust except the Law had said, ‘Thou shall not covet.’ The depravity of man is excited to rebellion by the promulgation of laws. So evil are we, that we conceive at once the desire to commit an act, simply because it is forbidden." Charles Spurgeon

Evidence: Jam 1:22

This is particularly applicable to the many commands to evangelize this world.

Evidence: Jam 1:23

The only way you and I can see ourselves in truth is to look into a mirror. Yet a mirror can only do its job and reflect truth if there is bright light. In Scripture, the Law of God is called both a mirror ( Jam 1:23-25 ; Jam 2:11-12 ) and light (Proverbs 6:23). Many of today’s " converts" aren’t shown the mirror of the Law. We think that a long look at what they are in truth will be too painful for them, so " All have sinned" is all we tell them. Without the conviction of their own sin, they are stillborn with no life in them.

Evidence: Jam 1:25

THE FUNCTION OF THE LAW

" God, being a perfect God, had to give a perfect Law, and the Law was given not to save men, but to measure them. I want you to understand this clearly, because I believe hundreds and thousands stumble at this point. They try to save themselves by trying to keep the Law; but it was never meant for men to save themselves by." D. L. Moody

Introduction / Outline

Robertson: James (Book Introduction)

THE EPISTLE OF JAMES

BEFORE a.d. 50

By Way of Introduction

The Author

He claims to be James, and so the book is not anonymous. It is either genuine or pseudonymous. He does not claim to be the brother of the Lord Jesus, as one might expect. James the brother of John was put to death by Herod Agrippa I about a.d. 44 (Act_12:2). But James the brother of Jesus (Gal_1:19) was still alive and became a leader of the church in Jerusalem (Act_12:17), presiding over the Conference in Jerusalem (Act_15:13-21) and apparently writing the message from the Conference to the Gentile churches (Act_15:22-29), and was still the leading elder in Jerusalem on Paul’s last visit (Act_21:18-25). James does not claim here to be an apostle and he was not one of the twelve apostles, and the dispute about accepting it of which Eusebius spoke was about its apostolicity since James was only an apostle by implication (Gal_1:19) in the general sense of that term like Barnabas (Act_14:14), perhaps Silas and Timothy (1Th_2:7), certainly not on a par with Paul, who claimed equality with the twelve. James, like the other brothers of Jesus, had once disbelieved his claims to be the Messiah (Joh_7:6.), but he was won by a special vision of the Risen Christ (1Co_15:7) and was in the upper room before the great pentecost (Act_1:14). It is plain that he had much to overcome as a zealous Jew to become a Christian, though he was not a mere cousin of Jesus or a son of Joseph by a former marriage. He was strictly the half-brother of Jesus, since Joseph was not the actual father of Jesus. There is no reason to believe that he was a Nazirite. We know that he was married (1Co_9:5). He came to be called James the Just and was considered very devout. The Judaizers had counted on him to agree with them against Paul and Barnabas, but he boldly stood for Gentile freedom from the ceremonial law. The Judaizers still claimed him at Antioch and used his name wrongly to frighten Peter thereby (Gal_2:12). But to the end he remained the loyal friend to Paul and his gospel rightly understood (Act_21:18-25). Clement of Alexandria ( Hypot . vii) says that, when he bore strong testimony to Jesus as the Son of man, they flung him down from the gable of the temple, stoned him, and beat him to death with a club. But Josephus ( Ant . XX. ix. I) says that the Sadducees about a.d. 62 had James and some others brought before the Sanhedrin (Ananus presiding) and had them stoned as transgressors of the law. At any rate he won a martyr’s crown like Stephen and James the brother of John.

The Date

If the Epistle is genuine and James was put to death about a.d. 62, it was clearly written before that date. There are two theories about it, one placing it about a.d. 48, the other about a.d. 58. To my mind the arguments of Mayor for the early date are conclusive. There is no allusion to Gentile Christians, as would be natural after a.d. 50. If written after a.d. 70, the tone would likely be different, with some allusion to that dreadful calamity. The sins condemned are those characteristic of early Jewish Christians. The book itself is more like the Sermon on the Mount than the Epistles. The discussion of faith and works in chapter James 2 reveals an absence of the issues faced by Paul in Rom 4; Gal 3 after the Jerusalem Conference (a.d. 49). Hence the date before that Conference has decidedly the better of the argument. Ropes in his Commentary denies the genuineness of the Epistle and locates it between a.d. 75 and 125, but Hort holds that the evidence for a late date rests " on very slight and intangible grounds." So we place the book before a.d. 49. It may indeed be the earliest New Testament book.

The Readers

The author addresses himself " to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion" (Jam_1:1). Clearly, then, he is not writing to Gentiles, unless he includes the spiritual children of Abraham in the term Diaspora as Paul does for believers (Gal_3:29; Rom_9:6.). The word diaspora occurs elsewhere in the N.T. only in Joh_7:35; 1Pe_1:1. It apparently has the spiritual significance in 1Pe_1:1, but in Joh_7:35 the usual meaning of Jews scattered over the world. The use here of " the twelve tribes" makes the literal sense probable here. Clearly also James knew nothing of any " lost" tribes, for the Jews of the Dispersion were a blend of all the twelve tribes. It is probable also that James is addressing chiefly the Eastern Dispersion in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia as Peter writes to five provinces in the Western Dispersion in Asia Minor. It is possible that James has in mind Christian and non-Christian Jews, not wholly non-Christian Jews as some hold. He may have in mind merely Christian Jews outside of Palestine, of whom there were already many scattered since the great pentecost. The use of synagogue as a place of worship (Jam_2:2) like church (Jam_5:14) argues somewhat for this view. He presents the Mosaic law as still binding (Jam_2:9-11; Jam_4:11). As the leading elder of the great church in Jerusalem and as a devout Jew and half-brother of Jesus, the message of James had a special appeal to these widely scattered Jewish Christians.

The Purpose

If James is writing solely to non-Christian Jews, the purpose is to win them to Christ, and so he puts the gospel message in a way to get a hearing from the Jews. That is true, whether he has them in mind or not, though he does not do it by the suppression of the deity of Jesus Christ. In the very first verse he places him on a par with God as " the Lord Jesus Christ." In Jam_2:1 he presents Jesus as the object of faith: " as you believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Glory" (Moffatt’s Translation), where Jesus is termed the Shekinah Glory of God. It is true that there is no discussion in the Epistle of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus, but there is an allusion to the murder of Jesus in Jam_5:6 and the second coming in Jam_5:8. The chief aim of the Epistle is to strengthen the faith and loyalty of the Jewish Christians in the face of persecution from rich and overbearing Jews who were defrauding and oppressing them. It is a picture of early Christian life in the midst of difficult social conditions between capital and labor which also exist today. So then it is a very modern message even if it is the earliest New Testament book. The glory of the New Testament lies precisely at this point in that the revelation of God in Christ meets our problems today because it did meet those of the first century a.d. Christian principles stand out clearly for our present-day living.

The Style

James assumes the doctrinal features of Christianity, but he is concerned mainly with the ethical and social aspects of the gospel that Jewish followers of Christ may square their lives with the gospel which they believe and profess. But this fact does not justify Luther in calling the Epistle of James " a veritable Epistle of straw." Luther imagined that James contradicted Paul’s teaching of justification by faith. That is not true and the criticism of Luther is unjust. We shall see that, though James and Paul use the same words (faith, works, justify), they mean different things by them. It is possible that both Paul and Peter had read the Epistle of James, though by no means certain. M. Jones ( New Testament in the Twentieth Century , p. 316) thinks that the author was familiar with Stoic philosophy. This is also possible, though he may have learned it only indirectly through the Wisdom of Solomon and Philo. What is true is that the author writes in the easy and accurate Koiné Greek of a cultivated Jew (the literary Koiné , not the vernacular), though not the artificial or stilted language of a professional stylist. Principal Patrick ( James the Lord’s Brother , p. 298) holds that he " had a wide knowledge of Classical Greek." This does not follow, though he does use the manner " of the Hellenistic diatribe" (Ropes, Int. and Crit. Comm ., p. 19) so common at that time. Ropes (pp. 10-22) points out numerous parallels between James and the popular moral addresses of the period, familiar since the days of Socrates and at its height in Seneca and Epictetus. The use of an imaginary interlocutor is one instance (Jam_2:18.; Jam_5:13.) as is the presence of paradox (Jam_1:2, Jam_1:10; Jam_2:5; etc.). But the style of James is even more kin to that seen in the Jewish wisdom literature like Proverbs, the Wisdom of Solomon, etc. It is thus both tract and Epistle, a brief Christian sermon on a high plane for a noble purpose. But it is all natural and not artificial. The metaphors are many, but brief and remind one constantly of the Master’s use of them in the Sermon on the Mount. Did not Mary the mother of Jesus and James make frequent use of such homely parables? The author shows acquaintance with the lxx, but there are few Hebraisms in the language, though the style is Hebraic, as is the whole tone of the book (Hebraic and Christian). " The style is especially remarkable for constant hidden allusions to our Lord’s sayings, such as we find in the first three Gospels" (Hort).

JFB: James (Book Introduction)

THIS is called by EUSEBIUS ([Ecclesiastical History, 2.23], about the year 330 A.D.) the first of the Catholic Epistles, that is, the Epistles intended for general circulation, as distinguished from Paul's Epistles, which were addressed to particular churches or individuals. In the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament extant, they stand before the Epistles of Paul. Of them, two only are mentioned by EUSEBIUS as universally acknowledged (Homologoumena), namely, the First Epistle of Peter, and the First Epistle of John. All, however, are found in every existing manuscript of the whole New Testament.

It is not to be wondered at that Epistles not addressed to particular churches (and particularly one like that of James, addressed to the Israelite believers scattered abroad) should be for a time less known. The first mention of James' Epistle by name occurs early in the third century, in ORIGEN [Commentary on John 1:19, 4.306], who was born about 185, and died A.D. 254. CLEMENT OF ROME ([First Epistle to the Corinthians, 10]; compare Jam 2:21, Jam 2:23; [First Epistle to the Corinthians, 11]; compare Jam 2:25; Heb 11:31) quotes it. So also HERMAS [Shepherd] quotes Jam 4:7. IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 4.16.2] is thought to refer to Jam 2:23. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA commented on it, according to CASSIODORUS. EPHREM THE SYRIAN [Against the Greeks, 3.51] quotes Jam 5:1. An especially strong proof of its authenticity is afforded by its forming part of the old Syriac version, which contains no other of the disputed books (Antilegomena, [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 3.25]), except the Epistle to the Hebrews. None of the Latin fathers before the fourth century quote it; but soon after the Council of Nicea it was admitted as canonical both by the East and West churches, and specified as such in the Councils of Hippo and Carthage (397 A.D.). This is just what we might expect; a writing known only partially at first, when subsequently it obtained a wider circulation, and the proofs were better known of its having been recognized in apostolic churches, having in them men endowed with the discernment of spirits, which qualified them for discriminating between inspired and uninspired writings, was universally accepted. Though doubted for a time, at last the disputed books (James, Second Peter, Second and Third John, Jude, and Revelation) were universally and undoubtingly accepted, so that no argument for the Old Testament Apocrypha can be drawn from their case: as to it the Jewish Church had no doubt; it was known not to be inspired.

LUTHER'S objection to it ("an Epistle of straw, and destitute of an evangelic character") was due to his mistaken idea that it (Jam 2:14-26) opposes the doctrine of justification by faith, and not by works, taught by Paul. But the two apostles, while looking at justification from distinct standpoints, perfectly harmonize and mutually complement the definitions of one another. Faith precedes love and the works of love; but without them it is dead. Paul regards faith in the justification of the sinner before God; James, in the justification of the believer evidently before men. The error which James meets was the Jewish notion that their possession and knowledge of the law of God would justify them, even though they disobeyed it (compare Jam 1:22 with Rom 2:17-25). Jam 1:3; Jam 4:1, Jam 4:12 seem plainly to allude to Rom 5:3; Rom 6:13; Rom 7:23; Rom 14:4. Also the tenor of Jam 2:14-26 on "justification," seems to allude to Paul's teaching, so as to correct false Jewish notions of a different kind from those which he combatted, though not unnoticed by him also (Rom 2:17, &c.).

Paul (Gal 2:9) arranges the names "James, Cephas, John," in the order in which their Epistles stand. James who wrote this Epistle (according to most ancient writers) is called (Gal 1:19), "the Lord's brother." He was son of Alpheus or Cleopas (Luk 24:13-18) and Mary, sister of the Virgin Mary. Compare Mar 15:40 with Joh 19:25, which seems to identify the mother of James the Less with the wife of Cleopas, not with the Virgin Mary, Cleopas' wife's sister. Cleopas is the Hebrew, Alpheus the Greek mode of writing the same name. Many, however, as HEGESIPPUS [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 23.1], distinguish the Lord's brother from the son of Alpheus. But the Gospel according to the Hebrews, quoted by JEROME, represents James, the Lord's brother, as present at the institution of the Eucharist, and therefore identical with the apostle James. So the Apocryphal Gospel of James. In Acts, James who is put foremost in Jerusalem after the death of James, the son of Zebedee, is not distinguished from James, the son of Alpheus. He is not mentioned as one of the Lord's brethren in Act 1:14; but as one of the "apostles" (Gal 1:19). He is called "the Less" (literally, "the little," Mar 15:40), to distinguish him from James, the son of Zebedee. ALFORD considers James, the brother of the Lord, the author of the Epistle, to have been the eldest of the sons of Joseph and Mary, after Jesus (compare Mat 13:55), and that James the son of Alpheus is distinguished from him by the latter being called "the Less," (that is, junior). His arguments against the Lord's brother, the bishop of Jerusalem, being the apostle, are: (1) The Lord's brethren did not believe on Jesus at a time when the apostles had been already called (Joh 7:3, Joh 7:5), therefore none of the Lord's brethren could be among the apostles (but it does not follow from Joh 7:3 that no one of them believed). (2) The apostles' commission was to preach the Gospel everywhere, not to be bishops in a particular locality (but it is unlikely that one not an apostle should be bishop of Jerusalem, to whom even apostles yield deference, Act 15:13, Act 15:19; Gal 1:19; Gal 2:9, Gal 2:12. The Saviour's last command to the apostles collectively to preach the Gospel everywhere, is not inconsistent with each having a particular sphere of labor in which he should be a missionary bishop, as Peter is said to have been at Antioch).

He was surnamed "the Just." It needed peculiar wisdom so to preach the Gospel as not to disparage the law. As bishop of Jerusalem writing to the twelve tribes, he sets forth the Gospel in its aspect of relation to the law, which the Jews so reverenced. As Paul's Epistles are a commentary on the doctrines flowing from the death and resurrection of Christ, so James's Epistle has a close connection with His teaching during His life on earth, especially His Sermon on the Mount. In both, the law is represented as fulfilled in love: the very language is palpably similar (compare Jam 1:2 with Mat 5:12; Jam 1:4 with Mat 5:48; Jam 1:5; Jam 5:15 with Mat 7:7-11; Jam 2:13 with Mat 5:7; Mat 6:14-15; Jam 2:10 with Mat 5:19; Jam 4:4 with Mat 6:24; Jam 4:11 with Mat 7:1-2; Jam 5:2 with Mat 6:19). The whole spirit of this Epistle breathes the same Gospel-righteousness which the Sermon on the Mount inculcates as the highest realization of the law. James's own character as "the Just," or legally righteous, disposed him to this coincidence (compare Jam 1:20; Jam 2:10; Jam 3:18 with Mat 5:20). It also fitted him for presiding over a Church still zealous for the law (Act 21:18-24; Gal 2:12). If any could win the Jews to the Gospel, he was most likely who presented a pattern of Old Testament righteousness, combined with evangelical faith (compare also Jam 2:8 with Mat 5:44, Mat 5:48). Practice, not profession, is the test of obedience (compare Jam 2:17; Jam 4:17 with Mat. 7:2-23). Sins of the tongue, however lightly regarded by the world, are an offense against the law of love (compare Jam 1:26; Jam. 3:2-18 with Mat 5:22; also any swearing, Jam 5:12; compare Mat 5:33-37).

The absence of the apostolic benediction in this Epistle is probably due to its being addressed, not merely to the believing, but also indirectly to unbelieving, Israelites. To the former he commends humility, patience, and prayer; to the latter he addresses awful warnings (Jam 5:7-11; Jam 4:9; Jam 5:1-6).

James was martyred at the Passover. This Epistle was probably written just before it. The destruction of Jerusalem foretold in it (Jam 5:1, &c.), ensued a year after his martyrdom, A.D. 69. HEGESIPPUS (quoted in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 2.23]) narrates that he was set on a pinnacle of the temple by the scribes and Pharisees, who begged him to restrain the people who were in large numbers embracing Christianity. "Tell us," said they in the presence of the people gathered at the feast, "which is the door of Jesus?" James replied with a loud voice, "Why ask ye me concerning Jesus the Son of man? He sitteth at the right hand of power, and will come again on the clouds of heaven." Many thereupon cried, Hosanna to the Son of David. But James was cast down headlong by the Pharisees; and praying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," he was stoned and beaten to death with a fuller's club. The Jews, we know from Acts, were exasperated at Paul's rescue from their hands, and therefore determined to wreak their vengeance on James. The publication of his Epistle to the dispersed Israelites, to whom it was probably carried by those who came up to the periodical feasts, made him obnoxious to them, especially to the higher classes, because it foretold the woes soon about to fall on them and their country. Their taunting question, "Which is the door of Jesus?" (that is, by what door will He come when He returns?), alludes to his prophecy, "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh . . . behold the Judge standeth before the door" (Jam 5:8-9). Heb 13:7 probably refers to the martyrdom of James, who had been so long bishop over the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem, "Remember them which have (rather, 'had') the rule (spiritually) over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation."

His inspiration as an apostle is expressly referred to in Act 15:19, Act 15:28, "My sentence is," &c.: "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us," &c. His episcopal authority is implied in the deference paid to him by Peter and Paul (Act 12:17; Act 21:18; Gal 1:19; Gal 2:9). The Lord had appeared specially to him after the resurrection (1Co 15:7). Peter in his First Epistle (universally from the first received as canonical) tacitly confirms the inspiration of James's Epistle, by incorporating with his own inspired writings no less than ten passages from James. The "apostle of the circumcision," Peter, and the first bishop of Jerusalem, would naturally have much in common. Compare Jam 1:1 with 1Pe 1:1; Jam 1:2 with 1Pe 1:6; 1Pe 4:12-13; Jam 1:11 with 1Pe 1:24; Jam 1:18 with 1Pe 1:3; Jam 2:7 with 1Pe 4:14; Jam 3:13 with 1Pe 2:12; Jam 4:1 with 1Pe 2:11; Jam 4:6 with 1Pe 5:5-6; Jam 4:7 with 1Pe 5:6, 1Pe 5:9; Jam 4:10 with 1Pe 5:6; Jam 5:20 with 1Pe 4:6. Its being written in the purest Greek shows it was intended not only for the Jews at Jerusalem, but also for the Hellenistic, that is, Greek-speaking, Jews.

The style is close, curt, and sententious, gnome following after gnome. A Hebraic character pervades the Epistle, as appears in the occasional poetic parallelisms (Jam 3:1-12). Compare "assembly": Greek, "synagogue," Jam 2:2, Margin. The images are analogical arguments, combining at once logic and poetry. Eloquence and persuasiveness are prominent characteristics.

The similarity to Matthew, the most Hebrew of the Gospels, is just what we might expect from the bishop of Jerusalem writing to Israelites. In it the higher spirit of Christianity is seen putting the Jewish law in its proper place. The law is enforced in its everlasting spirit, not in the letter for which the Jews were so zealous. The doctrines of grace, the distinguishing features of Paul's teaching to the Hellenists and Gentiles, are less prominent as being already taught by that apostle. James complements Paul's teaching, and shows to the Jewish Christians who still kept the legal ordinances down to the fall of Jerusalem, the spiritual principle of the law, namely, love manifested in obedience. To sketch "the perfect man" continuing in the Gospel law of liberty, is his theme.

JFB: James (Outline)

• INSCRIPTION: EXHORTATION ON HEARING, SPEAKING, AND WRATH. (Jam. 1:1-27)
• THE SIN OF RESPECT OF PERSONS: DEAD, UNWORKING FAITH SAVES NO MAN. (Jam. 2:1-26)
• DANGER OF EAGERNESS TO TEACH, AND OF AN UNBRIDLED TONGUE: TRUE WISDOM SHOWN BY UNCONTENTIOUS MEEKNESS. (Jam. 3:1-18)
• AGAINST FIGHTINGS AND THEIR SOURCE; WORLDLY LUSTS; UNCHARITABLE JUDGMENTS, AND PRESUMPTUOUS RECKONING ON THE FUTURE. (Jam. 4:1-17)
• WOES COMING ON THE WICKED RICH: BELIEVERS SHOULD BE PATIENT UNTO THE LORD'S COMING: VARIOUS EXHORTATIONS. (Jam. 5:1-20)

TSK: James (Book Introduction)

James, the son of Alphaeus, the brother of Jacob, and the near relation of our Lord, called also James the Less, probably because he was of lower stature, or younger, than the other James, the son of Zebedee, is generally allowed to be the writer of this Epistle; and the few that have doubted this have assigned very slight reasons for their dissent, and advanced very weak arguments on the other side. It is recorded in ecclesiastical history, and the book of the Acts of the Apostles confirms the fact, that he generally resided at Jerusalem, superintending the churches in that city, and in the neighbouring places, to the end of his life, which was terminated by martyrdom about ad 62. This epistle appears to have been written but a short time before his death; and it is probable that the sharp rebukes and awful warnings given in it to his countrymen excited that persecuting rage which terminated his life. It is styled Catholic, or General, because it was not addressed to any particular church, but to the Jewish nation throughout their dispersions. Though its genuineness was doubted for a considerable time, yet its insertion in the ancient Syriac version, which was executed at the close of the first, or the beginning of the second century, and the citation of, or allusion to it, by Clement of Rome, Hermas, and Ignatious, and its being quoted by Origen, Jerome, Athanasius, and most of the subsequent ecclesiastical writers, as well as its internal evidence, are amply sufficient to prove the point.

TSK: James 1 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Jam 1:1, We are to rejoice under the cross; Jam 1:5, to ask patience of God; Jam 1:13, and in our trials not to impute our weakness, or sins, to him, Jam 1:19. but rather to hearken to the word, to meditate on it, and to do thereafter; Jam 1:26, Otherwise men may seem, but never be, truly religious.

Poole: James 1 (Chapter Introduction)

ARGUMENT

That the authority of this Epistle hath been questioned by some anciently, appears plainly by Eusebius and Jerome, who speak suspiciously of it; and that it hath been denied by some more lately, is no less clear (to say nothing of Cajetan and Erasmus) in Luther, who (though in his after-writings he was more modest) at first spoke slightly of it; and some of his more early followers were of his mind. But as for the ancients, (admitting the two forementioned authors wrote their own sense, and not, as some think, and their words cited by Brochmand and others may well import, the opinion of other men), why should not this Epistle, being unquestionably received by most of the fathers and primitive Christians before Eusebius or Jerome were born, and many councils, be more effectual to prove its being canonical, than the doubts of a few to persuade us to the contrary? What do we find in it disagreeable to the doctrine of the gospel, unbecoming the style of an apostle, or the Holy Ghost’ s inditing? Hath it not the same majesty, purity, spirituality, efficacy, and power on men’ s consciences, that other Scriptures have? To Cajetan and Erasmus we oppose the universality, not only of protestants, but of papists themselves; and to Luther all the modern Lutherans, who now generally receive it. That which drew Luther himself to reject it (to speak a little of that as being of weight) was, partly the seeming difference between James and Paul in the point of justification, which will be spoken to in Jam 2:1-26 ; and partly his speaking nothing (though he wrote to Christians) of the death, or merits, or resurrection of Christ, &c. Whereas, indeed, though he is more sparing in handling evangelical doctrines, yet several he toucheth upon: what doth he mean but the gospel of Christ by the ingrafted word, Jam 1:21 , and law of liberty, Jam 1:25 ? And who doth he understand by the judge, Jam 5:9 , but Christ? And whose coming doth he speak of, Jam 1:7 , but Christ’ s? And how expressly doth he mention the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ! Jam 2:1 . But the truth is, the persons for whom this Epistle seems designed, and the scope of the writer, call for such a way of writing, as here we have. He bends himself mainly against a licentious, sensual sort of professors, who boasted of the name of faith, but wanted the thing, and (being rather libertines than saints) blemished the Christian profession with unsuitable practice. These he takes upon him to correct, and evinceth their faith and religion (being barren of good works) to be vain. It was not therefore necessary he should so largely insist upon the doctrine of faith, when his chief design was to reform manners. Paul having many times to do with men of Pharisaical spirits, or such as were difficultly weaned from Judaism, and an opinion of self-righteousness, makes it his business to settle the doctrine of grace, and justification by faith; and why may not James, having to do with those who (probably, and as Austin thinks, misunderstanding Paul) abused the doctrine of grace, and turned it into an occasion of licentiousness, be allowed to tax that abuse, and insist the more fully on matters of practice, and press them to live up to their faith, and bring forth fruits answerable to that holy truth they had received? Remedies must be suited to diseases: there is as little need to urge a Solifidian to rely on grace of which he already presumes, as to persuade a Pharisee of the necessity of good works, upon which of himself he lays but too much stress.

But as the authority of this Epistle hath been questioned formerly, though with little reason, so the penman of it is still doubted of, perhaps with more. However, this question is less material; we need not be over solicitous to know what amanuensis the Spirit of God made use of in penning it, so long as we find the impress of God upon it. It is certain that this James was not the son of Zebedee, whom Herod had beheaded (if chronology fail not) before the writing of this Epistle, Act 12:1 . It is not certain that there were three Jameses, two of them apostles, and the third (called Oblias, and James the Just) one of the seventy disciples; the Scripture mentioning but two, one the son of Zebedee, the other of Alpheus, called the brother of the Lord, Gal 1:19 , as being of kin to his family; and said to be a pillar, Gal 2:9 , and joined with Peter and John. And though some have thought the James there mentioned to have been the third James, called Oblias, and one of the seventy; yet it is more probable that he was indeed no other than the son of Alpheus, and one of the twelve: nor is it likely, that one of the disciples should be numbered as one of the three pillars, and therein preferred above so many apostles. This James, therefore, upon the whole, I take to be the penman of this Epistle; and his not calling himself an apostle, need not be objected against his being so, when he doth no more in omitting it than Paul doth in four of his Epistles, viz. to the Philippians, both to the Thessalonians, and that to Philemon.

Why this Epistle is called general is much questioned, and a satisfactory reason not easily given. Some think, because it is not inscribed to any particular church or person, as Paul’ s are. But then why are the two latter Epistles of John reckoned among the catholic or general ones, though directed to particular persons, and that to the Hebrews not counted among them, though it have no such particular inscription? Others think, that this and the six other were called catholic, upon their catholic or general reception and approbation among the churches, in opposition to the Epistles of Barnabas, Ignatius, Clemens, &c., which never were received as any part of the canon. These are the best reasons of this title I meet with; which is the more probable, let the reader judge.

The matter of this Epistle is, in a manner, wholly practical, but very various; though chiefly, either corrective of the vices and abuses which had crept into the conversations of professors; or monitory and hortatory, partly to awaken the drowsy among them out of their stupidness and security, and stir them up to the practice of their neglected duty, (to which he points them particularly, by minding them of approaching judgment), and partly to persuade sincere and humble believers to patience under tribulations and oppressions, by propounding unto them suitable encouragements for their support and consolation in such a condition. Many excellent and useful truths are promiscuously laid down throughout the whole, which cannot easily be reduced to any certain method, but will be severally spoken to in the respective places where they occur.

JAMES CHAPTER 1

Jam 1:1 The apostle’ s address to the dispersed Jews.

Jam 1:2-4 He recommendeth patience and joy in afflictions.

Jam 1:5-8 and prayer with faith.

Jam 1:9-11 He giveth advice to the poor and to the rich.

Jam 1:12 The reward of those that are proof under trial.

Jam 1:13-16 Our own lusts, and not God, tempt us to sin.

Jam 1:17,18 God is the unchangeable author of all good to his creatures.

Jam 1:19-25 We must receive the word with purity and meekness, and not

only hear, but do it.

Jam 1:26 The necessity of governing the tongue.

Jam 1:27 The essential duties of true religion.

James the son of Alpheus and brother of Jude, called likewise the brother of the Lord, Gal 1:19 .

A servant not only by creation, as all the creatures are, Psa 119:91 , or by redemption, as all believers are, but by special commission in the office of an apostle; see Gal 1:10 Phi 1:1 2Pe 1:1 ; compare likewise Rom 1:9 .

Of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: the members of this clause may be taken, either jointly, and then the conjunction and hath the power only of an explication, q.d. The servant of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ, as Tit 2:2 and the sense must be, the servant of Jesus Christ, who is God: or, separately, (which our translation seems to favour), to let his countrymen know, that in serving Christ he served the God of his fathers; and by the authority both of God and of Christ wrote this to them.

To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: being one of the apostles of the circumcision, Gal 2:9 , he writes to all his believing countrymen wherever dispersed, as they were upon several occasions, and at several times, into divers countries, Act 2:9-11 .

Greeting a salutation usual, not only among the heathen, but the Jews, Mat 26:49 27:29 ; and used by the Christians, Act 15:23 . It seems to answer to the Hebrew salutation, peace, which was comprehensive of all happiness; and so is this here to be understood.

MHCC: James (Book Introduction)

This epistle of James is one of the most instructive writings in the New Testament. Being chiefly directed against particular errors at that time brought in among the Jewish Christians, it does not contain the same full doctrinal statements as the other epistles, but it presents an admirable summary of the practical duties of all believers. The leading truths of Christianity are set forth throughout; and on attentive consideration, it will be found entirely to agree with St. Paul's statements concerning grace and justification, while it abounds with earnest exhortations to the patience of hope and obedience of faith and love, interspersed with warnings, reproofs, and encouragements, according to the characters addressed. The truths laid down are very serious, and necessary to be maintained; and the rules for practice ought to be observed in all times. In Christ there are no dead and sapless branches, faith is not an idle grace; wherever it is, it brings forth fruit in works.

MHCC: James 1 (Chapter Introduction)

(Jam 1:1-11) How to apply to God under troubles, and how to behave in prosperous and in adverse circumstances.

(Jam 1:12-18) To look upon all evil as proceeding from ourselves, and all good from God.

(Jam 1:19-21) The duty of watching against a rash temper, and of receiving the word of God with meekness.

(Jam 1:22-25) And of living according thereto.

(Jam 1:26, Jam 1:27) The difference between vain pretences and real religion.

Matthew Henry: James (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The General Epistle of James

The writer of this epistle was not James the son of Zebedee; for he was put to death by Herod (Acts 12) before Christianity had gained so much ground among the Jews of the dispersion as is here implied. But it was the other James, the son of Alpheus, who was cousin-german to Christ, and one of the twelve apostles, Mat 10:3. He is called a pillar (Gal 2:9), and this epistle of his cannot be disputed, without loosening a foundation-stone. It is called a general epistle, because (as some think) not directed to any particular person or church, but such a one as we call a circular letter. Others think it is called general, or catholic, to distinguish it from the epistles of Ignatius, Barnabas, Polycarp, and others who were noted in the primitive times, but not generally received in the church, and on that account not canonical, as this is. Eusebius tells us that this epistle was " generally read in the churches with the other catholic epistles." His. Eccles. page 53. Ed. Val. Anno 1678. James, our author, was called the just, for his great piety. He was an eminent example of those graces which he presses upon others. He was so exceedingly revered for his justice, temperance, and devotion, that Josephus the Jewish historian records it as one of the causes of the destruction of Jerusalem, " That St. James was martyred in it." This is mentioned in hopes of procuring the greater regard to what is penned by so holy and excellent a man. The time when this epistle was written is uncertain. The design of it is to reprove Christians for their great degeneracy both in faith and manners, and to prevent the spreading of those libertine doctrines which threatened the destruction of all practical godliness. It was also a special intention of the author of this epistle to awaken the Jewish nation to a sense of the greatness and nearness of those judgments which were coming upon them; and to support all true Christians in the way of their duty, under the calamities and persecutions they might meet with. The truths laid down are very momentous, and necessary to be maintained; and the rules for practice, as here stated, are such as ought to be observed in our times as well as in preceding ages.

Matthew Henry: James 1 (Chapter Introduction)

After the inscription and salutation (Jam 1:1) Christians are taught how to conduct themselves when under the cross. Several graces and duties are recommended; and those who endure their trials and afflictions as the apostle here directs are pronounced blessed and are assured of a glorious reward (Jam 1:2-12). But those sins which bring sufferings, or the weakness and faults men are chargeable with under them, are by no means to be imputed to God, who cannot be the author of sin, but is the author of all good (Jam 1:13-18). All passion, and rash anger, and vile affections, ought to be suppressed. The word of God should be made our chief study: and what we hear and know of it we must take care to practise, otherwise our religion will prove but a vain thing. To this is added an account wherein pure religion consists (Jam 1:19-27).

Barclay: James (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTER OF JAMES

James is one of the books which bad a very hard fight to get into the New Testament. Even when it did come to be regarded as Scripture, it was spoken of with a certain reserve and suspicion, and even as late as the sixteenth century Luther would gladly have banished it from the New Testament altogether.

The Doubts Of The Fathers

In the Latin-speaking part of the Church it is not until the middle of the fourth century that James emerges in the writings of the fathers. The first list of New Testament books ever to be compiled is the Muratorian Canon, which dates to about A.D. 170, and James is absent from it. Tertullian, writing in the middle of the third century, is an immense quoter of Scripture; he has 7,258 quotations from the New Testament, but never one from James. The first appearance of James in Latin is in a Latin manuscript called the Codex Corbeiensis, which dates to about A.D. 350. This manuscript attributes the authorship of the book to James the son of Zebedee; and includes it, not with the universally acknowledged New Testament books, but with a collection of religious tracts written by the early fathers. James has now emerged, but it is accepted with a certain reservation. The first Latin writer to quote James verbatim is Hilary of Poitiers in a work On the Trinity, written about A.D. 357.

If, then, James was so late in emerging in the Latin Church and if, when it did emerge, it was still regarded with some uncertainty, how did it become integrated into the New Testament? The moving influence was that of Jerome, for he unhesitatingly included James in his Vulgate version of the New Testament. But even then there is an accent of doubt. In his book On Famous Men, Jerome writes, "James, who is called the brother of the Lord...wrote only one epistle, which is one of the seven catholic epistles, and which, some people say, was issued by someone else under Jamesame." Jerome fully accepted the letter as Scripture, but he felt that there was some doubt as to who the writer was. The doubt was finally set at rest by the fact that Augustine fully accepted James, and was not in doubt that the James in question was the brother of our Lord.

James was late in emerging in the Latin Church; for long there was a kind of question mark against it; but Jeromeinclusion of it in the Vulgate and Augustinefull acceptance of it, brought it in the end, albeit after a struggle, full recognition.

The Syrian Church

One would have thought that the Syrian Church would have been the first to accept James, if it was really written in Palestine and was really the work of the brother of our Lord; but in the Syrian Church there was the same oscillation. The official New Testament of the Syrian Church is called the Peshitto. This was to the Syrian Church what the Vulgate was to the Latin Church. It was made by Rabbula, the Bishop of Edessa, about A.D. 412 and in it for the first time James was translated into Syriac. Up to that time there was no Syriac version of the book, and up to A.D. 451 there is no trace of James in Syriac religious literature. After that James was widely enough accepted, but as late as A.D. 545 Paul of Nisibis was still questioning its right to be in the New Testament. It was not, in fact, until midway through the eighth century that the great authority of John of Damascus did for James in the Syrian Church what Augustine had done for it in the Latin.

The Greek Church

Although James emerged sooner in the Greek-speaking Church than it did in the Latin and Syrian, it was none the less late in making a definite appearance. The first writer to quote it by name is Origen, head of the school of Alexandria. Writing almost midway through the third century, he says, "If faith is called faith, but exists apart from works, such a faith is dead, as we read in the letter which is currently reported to be by James." It is true that in other works he quotes it as being without doubt by James and shows that he believes James to be the brother of our Lord; but once again there is the accent of doubt. Eusebius, the great scholar of Caesarea, investigated the position of the various books in the New Testament or on its fringe midway through the fourth century. He classes James amongst the books which are "disputed"; and he writes of it: "The first of the epistles called Catholic is said to be his (James but it must be noted that some regard it as spurious; and it is certainly true that very few of the ancient writers mention it." Here again is the accent of doubt. Eusebius himself accepted James but he was well aware that there were those who did not. The turning-point in the Greek-speaking Church came in A.D. 367. In that year Athanasius issued his famous Easter Letter in Egypt. Its purpose was to inform his people what books were Scripture and what were not, because apparently their reading had become too wide, or at least, too many books were being regarded as Holy Writ. In that Letter James was included without qualification; and its position was thenceforth safe.

So, then, in the early church no one really questioned the value of James; but in every branch of it it was late in emerging and had to go through a period when its right to be considered a New Testament book was under dispute.

In fact the history of James is still to be seen in its position in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1546 the Council of Trent once and for all laid down the Roman Catholic Bible. A list of books was given to which none could be added and from which none could be subtracted, and which had to be read in the Vulgate Version and in no other. The books were divided into two classes; those which were proto-canonical, that is to say, those which had been unquestioningly accepted from the beginning; and those which were deutero-canonical, that is to say, those which only gradually won their way into the New Testament. Although the Roman Catholic Church never had any doubts about James, it is none the less in the second class that it is included.

Luther And James

In our own day it is true to say that James, at least for most people, does not occupy a position in the forefront of the New Testament. Few would mention it in the same breath as John or Romans, or Luke or Galatians. There is still for many a kind of reservation about it. Why should that be? It cannot have to do with the doubt about James in the early church, for the history of the New Testament books in these distant days is not known to many people in the modern Church. The reason lies in this. In the Roman Catholic Church the position of James was finally settled by the Edict of the Council of Trent; but in the Protestant Church its history continued to be troubled, and indeed, became even more troubled, because Luther attacked it and would have ejected it from the New Testament altogether. In his printing of the German New Testament Luther had a contents page with the books set out and numbered. At the end of the list there was a little group, separate from the others and with no numbers assigned to them. That group comprised James, Jude, Hebrews and Revelation. These were books which he held to be secondary.

Luther was specially severe on James, and the adverse judgment of a great man on any book can be a millstone round its neck for ever. It is in the concluding paragraph of his Preface to the New Testament that there stands Lutherfamous verdict on James:

In sum: the gospel and the first epistle of St. John, St. Paul/p>

epistles, especially those to the Romans, Galatians and Ephesians;

and St. Peterfirst epistle, are the books which show Christ to

you. They teach everything you need to know for your salvation,

even if you were never to see or hear any other book or hear any

other teaching. In comparison with these the epistle of James is

an epistle full of straw, because it contains nothing evangelical.

But more about this in other prefaces.

As he promised, Luther developed this verdict in the Preface to the Epistles of St. James and St. Jude. He begins: "I think highly of the epistle of James, and regard it as valuable although it was rejected in early days. It does not expound human doctrines, but lays much emphasis on Godlaw. Yet to give my own opinion, without prejudice to that of anyone else, I do not hold it to be of apostolic authorship." He then goes on to give his reasons for this rejection.

First, in direct opposition to Paul and the rest of the Bible, it ascribes justification to works, quoting Abraham wrongly as one who was justified by his works. This in itself proves that the epistle cannot be of apostolic origin.

Second, not once does it give to Christians any instruction or reminder of the Passion, Resurrection, or Spirit of Christ. It mentions Christ only twice. Then Luther goes on to state his own principle for testing any book: "The true touchstone for testing any book is to discover whether it emphasises the prominence of Christ or not.... What does not teach Christ is not apostolic, not even if taught by Peter or Paul. On the other hand what does preach Christ is apostolic, even if Judas, Annas, Pilate, or Herod does it." On that test James fails. So Luther goes on: "The epistle of James however only drives you to the law and its works. He mixes one thing to another to such an extent that I suspect some good and pious man assembled a few things said by disciples of the apostles, and put them down in black and white; or perhaps the epistle was written by someone else who made notes of a sermon of his. He calls the law a law of freedom (Jam_1:25 ; Jam_2:12 ), although St. Paul calls it a law of slavery, wrath, death, and sin" (Gal_3:23 .; Rom_4:15 ; Rom_7:10 .).

So Luther comes to his conclusion: "In sum: he wishes to guard against those who depended on faith without going on to works, but he had neither the spirit, nor the thought, nor the eloquence equal to the task. He does violence to Scripture, and so contradicts Paul and all Scripture. He tries to accomplish by emphasising law what the apostles bring about by attracting man to love. I therefore refuse him a place among the writers of the true canon of my Bible; but I would not prevent anyone else placing him or raising him where he likes, for the epistle contains many excellent passages. One man does not count as a man even in the eyes of the world; how then shall this single and isolated writer count against Paul and all the rest of the Bible?"

Luther does not spare James; and it may be that once we have studied the book we may think that for once he allowed personal prejudice to injure sound judgment.

Such, then, is the troubled history of James. Now we must try to answer the questions it poses regarding authorship and date.

The Identity Of James

The author of this letter gives us practically no information about himself He calls himself simply: "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Jam_1:1 ). Who then is he? In the New Testament there are apparently at least five people who bear that name.

(i) There is the James who was the father of the member of the Twelve called Judas, not Iscariot (Luk_6:16 ). He is no more than a name and cannot have had any connection with this letter.

(ii) There is James, the son of Alphaeus, who was a member of the Twelve (Mat_10:3 ; Mar_3:18 ; Luk_6:15 ; Act_1:13 ). A comparison of Mat_9:9 with Mar_2:14 makes it certain that Matthew and Levi were one and the same person. Levi was also a son of Alphaeus, and therefore Matthew and this James must have been brothers. But of James, the son of Alphaeus, nothing else is known; and he also can have had no connection with this letter.

(iii) There is the James who is called James the Younger and is mentioned in Mar_15:40 (compare Mat_27:56 ; Joh_19:25 ). Again nothing is known of him, and he cannot have had any connection with this letter.

(iv) There is James, the brother of John, and the son of Zebedee, a member of the twelve (Mat_10:2 ; Mar_3:17 ; Luk_6:14 ; Act_1:13 ). In the gospel story James never appears independently of his brother John (Mat_4:21 ; Mat_17:1 ; Mar_1:19 ; Mar_1:29 ; Mar_5:37 ; Mar_9:2 ; Mar_10:35 , Mar_10:41 ; Mar_13:3 ; Mar_14:33 ; Luk_5:10 ; Luk_8:51 ; Luk_9:28 ; Luk_9:54 ). He was the first of the apostolic band to be martyred, for he was beheaded on the orders of Herod Agrippa the First in the year A.D. 44. He has been connected with the letter. The fourth century Latin Codex Corbeiensis at the end of the epistle, has a note quite definitely ascribing it to James the son of Zebedee. The only place where this ascription of authorship was taken seriously was in the Spanish Church, in which, down to the end of the seventeenth century, he was often hold to be the author. This was due to the fact that St. James of Compostella, the patron saint of Spain, is identified with James the son of Zebedee; and it was natural that the Spanish Church should be predisposed to wish that their countrypatron saint should be the author of a New Testament letter. But the martyrdom of James came too early for him to have written the letter, and in any event there is nothing beyond the Codex Corbeiensis to connect him with it.

(v) Finally, there is James, who is called the brother of Jesus. Although the first definite connection of him with this letter does not emerge until Origen in the first half of the third century, it is to him that it has always been traditionally ascribed. The Roman Catholic Church agrees with this ascription, for in 1546 the Council of Trent laid it down that James is canonical and is written by an apostle.

Let us then collect the evidence about this James. From the New Testament we learn that he was one of the brothers of Jesus (Mar_6:3 ; Mat_13:55 ). We shall later discuss in what sense the word brother is to be taken. During Jesusinistry it is clear that his family did not understand or sympathize with him and would have wished to restrain him (Mat_12:46-50 ; Mar_3:21 ; Mar_3:31-35 ; Joh_7:3-9 ). John says bluntly, "For even his brothers did not believe in him" (Joh_7:5 ). So, then, during Jesusarthly ministry James was numbered amongst his opponents.

With Acts there comes a sudden and unexplained change. When Acts opens, Jesusother and his brothers are there with the little group of Christians (Act_1:14 ). From there onwards it becomes clear that James has become the leader of the Jerusalem Church although how that came about is never explained. It is to James that Peter sends the news of his escape from prison (Act_12:17 ). James presides over the Council of Jerusalem which agreed to the entry of the Gentiles into the Christian Church (Ac 15 ). It is James and Peter whom Paul meets when he first goes to Jerusalem; and it is with Peter, James and John, the pillars of the Church, that he discusses and settles his sphere of work (Gal_1:19 ; Gal_2:9 ). It is to James that Paul comes with his collection from the Gentile Churches on the visit to Jerusalem which is destined to be his last and which leads to his imprisonment (Act_21:18-25 ). This last episode is important, for it shows James very sympathetic to the Jews who still observe the Jewish law, and so eager that their scruples should not be offended, that he actually persuades Paul to demonstrate his loyalty to the law by assuming responsibility for the expenses of certain Jews who are fulfilling a Nazirite vow.

Plainly, then, James was the leader of the Jerusalem Church. As might be expected, this was something which tradition greatly developed. Hegesippus, the early historian, says that James was the first bishop of the Church at Jerusalem. Clement of Alexandria goes further and says that he was chosen for that office by Peter and John. Jerome in his book, On Famous Men, says, "After the Passion of the Lord, James was immediately ordained bishop of Jerusalem by the apostles.... He ruled the Church of Jerusalem for thirty years, that is, until the seventh year of the reign of Nero." The Clementine Recognitions take the final step in the development of the legend, for they say that James was ordained Bishop of Jerusalem by none other than Jesus himself. Clement of Alexandria relates a strange tradition: "To James the Just, and John and Peter, after the Resurrection, the Lord committed knowledge; they committed it to the other apostles; and the other apostles to the seventy." The later developments arc not to be accepted but the basic fact remains that James was the undisputed head of the Church at Jerusalem.

James And Jesus

Such a change must have some explanation. It may well be that we have it in a brief sentence in the New Testament itself. In 1Cor 15 Paul gives us a list of the Resurrection appearances of Jesus and includes the words: "Then he appeared to James" (1Co_15:7 ). It so happens that there is a strange reference to James in the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which was one of the early gospels which did not gain admittance to the New Testament but which, to judge from its surviving fragments, had much of value in it. The following passage from it is handed down by Jerome:

Now the Lord, when he had given the linen cloth unto the servant

of the High Priest, went unto James and appeared to him (for James

had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour, wherein he

had drunk the Lordcup, until he should see him risen again from

among them that sleep). And again after a little, "Bring ye," saith

the Lord, "a table and bread," and immediately it is added: "He

took bread and blessed and brake it and gave it unto James the Just

and said unto him, brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of Man

is risen from among them that sleep./p>

That passage is not without its difficulties. The beginning seems to mean that Jesus, when he rose from the dead and emerged from the tomb, handed the linen shroud, which he had been wearing in death, to the servant of the High Priest and went to meet his brother James. It also seems to imply that James was present at the Last Supper. But although the passage has its obscurities, one thing is clear. Something about Jesus in the last days and hours had fastened on Jameseart and he had vowed that he would not eat until Jesus had risen again; and so Jesus came to him and gave him the assurance for which he waited. That there was a meeting of James and the Risen Christ is certain. What passed at that moment we shall never know. But we do know this, that after it the James who had been hostile and unsympathetic to Jesus became his servant for life and his martyr in death.

James The Martyr Of Christ

That James died a martyrdeath is the consistent statement of early tradition. The accounts of the circumstances vary, but the fact that he was martyred remains constant. Josephus ccount is very brief (Antiquities 20: 9.1):

So Ananus, being that kind of man, and thinking that he had got

a good opportunity because Festus was dead and Albinus not yet

arrived, holds a judicial council; and he brought before it the

brother of Jesus, who was called Christ--James was his name--and

some others, and on the charge of violating the Law he gave them

over to be stoned.

Ananus was a Jewish High Priest; Festus and Albinus were procurators of Palestine, holding the same position as Pilate had held. The point of the story is that Ananus took advantage of the interregnum between the death of one procurator and the arrival of his successor to eliminate James and other leaders of the Christian Church. This, in fact, well fits the character of Ananus as it is known to us and would mean that James was martyred in A.D. 62.

A much longer account is given in the history of Hegesippus. Hegesippusistory is itself lost, but his account of the death of James has been preserved in full by Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 2: 23). It is lengthy, but it is of such interest that it must be quoted in its entirety.

To the government of the Church in conjunction with the apostles

succeeded the Lordbrother, James, he whom all from the time

of the Lord to our own day call the Just, as there were many

named James. And he was holy from his motherwomb; wine and

strong drink he drank not, nor did he eat flesh; no razor touched

his head, he anointed himself not with oil, and used not the bath.

To him alone was it permitted to enter the Holy Place, for neither

did he wear wool, but linen clothes. And alone he would enter the

Temple, and be found prostrate on his knees beseeching pardon

for the people, so that his knees were callous like a camelin

consequence of his continual kneeling in prayer to God and

beseeching pardon for the people. Because of his exceeding

righteousness he was called the Just, and Oblias, which is in

Greek Bulwark of the People, and Righteousness, as the prophets

declare concerning him.

Therefore, certain of the seven sects among the people, already mentioned by me in the Memoirs, asked him: "What is the door of Jesus?" and he said that He was the Saviour--of whom some accepted the faith that Jesus is the Christ. Now the aforesaid sects were not believers either in a Resurrection or in One who should come to render to every man according to his deeds; but as many as believed did so because of James. So, since many of the rulers, too, were believers, there was a tumult of the Jews and Scribes and Pharisees, for they said there was danger that all the people would expect Jesus the Christ. Accordingly they said, when they had met together with James: "We entreat thee restrain the people since it has gone astray unto Jesus, holding him to be the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade concerning Jesus all those who come to the day of the Passover, for we all listen to thee. For we and all the people testify to thee that thou art just and that thou respectest not persons. So thou, therefore, persuade the people concerning Jesus, not to go astray, for all the people and all of us listen to thee. Take thy stand, therefore, on the pinnacle of the Temple, that up there thou mayest be well seen, and thy words audible to all the people. For because of the Passover all the tribes have come together and the gentiles also."

So the aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees set James on the pinnacle of the Temple and called to him: "O thou, the Just, to whom we all ought to listen, since the people is going astray after Jesus the crucified, tell us what is the door of Jesus?" And with a loud voice he answered: "Why do you ask me concerning the Son of Man? He sitteth himself in heaven on the right hand of the great Power, and shall come on the clouds of heaven." And when many were convinced and gave glory for the witness of James, and said, "Hosanna to the Son of David," then again the same Scribes and Pharisees said to one another, "We were wrong to permit such a testimony to Jesus; but let us go up and cast him (James) down, that through fear they may not believe him." And they cried out saying, "Ho, Ho! even the Just has gone astray," and they fulfilled the Scriptures written in Isaiah: "Let us away with the Just, because he is troublesome to us; therefore they shall eat the fruits of their doings."

Accordingly they went up and cast the Just down. And they said to one another, "Let us stone James the Just," and they began to stone him, since he was not killed by the fall, but he turned and knelt down saying, "I beseech thee, Lord God Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And so, as they were stoning him, one of the Priests of the sons of Rechab, the son of Rechabim. mentioned by Jeremiah the prophet, cried out saying, "Stop! what are ye doing? The Just prays for you." And a certain one of them, one of the fullers, taking the club with which he pounds clothes, brought it down on the head of the Just; and so he suffered martyrdom.

And they buried him there on the spot, near the Temple. A true witness has he become both to Jews and Greeks that Jesus is Christ. And immediately Vespasian besieges them.

The last sentence shows that Hegesippus had a different date for the death of James. Josephus makes it A.D. 62; but, if this happened just before the siege of Vespasian, the date is perhaps about A.D. 66.

Much in the story of Hegesippus may well be legendary but from it two things emerge. First, it is again evidence that James died a martyrdeath. Second, it is evidence that, even after James became a Christian, he remained in complete loyalty to the orthodox Jewish Law. So loyal that the Jews regarded him as one of themselves. This would fit well with what we have already noted of James ttitude to Paul when he came to Jerusalem with the collection for the Jerusalem Church (Act_21:18-25 ).

The Brother Of Our Lord

There is one other question about the person of James which we must try to solve. In Gal_1:19 Paul speaks of him as the Lordbrother. In Mat_13:55 and in Mar_6:3 he is named among the brothers of Jesus; and in Act_1:14 , although no names are given, the brothers of Jesus are said to be amongst his followers in the earliest Church. The question of the meaning of brother is one which must be faced, for the Roman Catholic Church attaches a great deal of importance to the answer, as does the Anglo-Catholic section of the Anglican Church. Ever since the time of Jerome there has been continuous argument in the Church on this question. There are three theories of the relationship of these "brothers" to Jesus; and we shall consider them one by one.

The Hieronymian Theory

The Hieronymian Theory takes its name from Jerome, who in Greek is Hieronymos (G0). It was he who worked out the theory which declares that the "brothers" of Jesus were in fact his cousins; and this is the settled belief of the Roman Catholic Church, for which it is an article of faith. It was put forward by Jerome in A.D. 383 and we shall best grasp his complicated argument by setting it out in a series of steps.

(i) James the brother of our Lord is included among the apostles. Paul writes: "But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lordbrother" (Gal_1:19 ).

(ii) Jerome insists that the word apostle can be used only of the Twelve. If that be so, we must look for James among them. He cannot be identified with James, brother of John and son of Zebedee, who apart from anything else was martyred by the time of Gal_1:19 , as Act_12:2 plainly tells us. Therefore he must be identified with the only other James among the Twelve, James the son of Alphaeus.

(iii) Jerome proceeds to make another identification. In Mar_6:3 we read: "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, brother of James and Joses?"; and in Mar_15:40 we find beside the Cross Mary the mother of James the Younger and of Joses. Since James the Younger is the brother of Joses and the son of Mary, he must therefore be the same person as the James of Mar_6:3 , who is the brother of our Lord. Therefore, according to Jerome, James the brother of the Lord, James the son of Alphaeus and James the Younger are the same person under different descriptions.

(iv) Jerome bases the next and final step of his argument on a deduction made from the lists of the women who were there when Jesus was crucified. Let us set down that list as given by the three gospel writers.

In Mar_15:40 it is:

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome.

In Mat_27:56 it is:

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Younger and of Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

In Joh_19:25 it is:

Jesusother, his mothersister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene.

Now let us analyse these lists. In each of them Mary Magdalene appears by name. It is safe to identify Salome and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. But the real problem is how many women are there in Johnlist? Is the list to be read like this:

(i) Jesusother;

(ii) Jesusothersister;

(iii) Mary the wife of Cleopas;

(iv) Mary Magdalene.

Or is the list to be read like this:

(i) Jesusother;

(ii) Jesusothersister, Mary the wife of Cleopas;

(iii) Mary Magdalene.

Jerome insists that the second way is correct and that Jesusp>

Jerome insists that the second way is correct and that Jesusp>

mothersister and Mary, the wife of Cleopas, are one and the

mothersister and Mary, the wife of Cleopas, are one and the

same person. If that be so, she must also be the Mary who in the

same person. If that be so, she must also be the Mary who in the

other lists is the mother of James and Joses. This James who is

other lists is the mother of James and Joses. This James who is

her son is the man who is variously known as James the Younger

her son is the man who is variously known as James the Younger

and as James the son of Alphaeus and as James the apostle who is

and as James the son of Alphaeus and as James the apostle who is

known as the brother of our Lord. This means that James is the

known as the brother of our Lord. This means that James is the

son of Marysister and therefore is Jesusousin.

son of Marysister and therefore is Jesusousin.

There, then, is Jeromeargument. Against it at least four criticisms can be levelled.

(i) Again and again James is called the brother of Jesus or is numbered amongst the brothers of Jesus. The word used in each case is adelphos (G0), the normal word for brother. True, it can describe people who belong to a common fellowship, just as the Christians called each other brother. True, it can be used as a term of endearment and we may call someone with whom we enjoy personal intimacy a brother. But when it is used of those who are kin, it is, to say the least of it, very doubtful that it can mean cousin. If James was the cousin of Jesus, it is extremely unlikely--perhaps impossible--that he would be called the adelphos (G0) of Jesus.

(ii) Jerome was quite wrong in assuming that the term apostle could be used only of the Twelve. Paul was an apostle (Rom_1:1 ; 1Co_1:1 ; 2Co_1:1 ; Gal_1:1 ). Barnabas was an apostle (Act_14:14 ; 1Co_9:6 ). Silas was an apostle (Act_15:22 ). Andronicus and Junia were apostles (Rom_16:7 ). It is impossible to limit the word apostle to the Twelve; since, therefore, it is not necessary to look for James the Lordbrother among the Twelve, the whole argument of Jerome collapses.

(iii) It is on the face of it much more likely that Joh_19:25 is a list of four women, not three, for, if Mary the wife of Cleopas were the sister of Mary, Jesusother, it would mean that there were two sisters in the same family both called Mary, which is extremely unlikely.

(iv) It must be remembered that the Church knew nothing of this theory until A.D. 383 when Jerome produced it; and it is quite certain that it was produced for no other reason than to conserve the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary.

The theory that those called Jesusrothers were, in fact, his cousins must be dismissed as rendered quite untenable by the facts of the case.

The Epiphanian Theory

The second of the great theories concerning the relationship of Jesus and his "brothers" holds that these "brothers" were, in fact, his half-brothers, sons of Joseph by a previous marriage. This is called the Epiphanian Theory after Epiphanius who strongly affirmed it about A.D. 370. He did not construct it. It existed long before this and may indeed be said to be the most usual opinion in the early church.

The substance of it already appears in an apocryphal book called the Book of James or the Protevangelium which dates back to the middle of the second century. That book tells how there was a devout husband and wife called Joachim and Anna. Their great grief was that they had no child. To their great joy in their old age a child was born to them, and this too, apparently, was regarded as a virgin birth. The child, a girl, was called Mary and was to be the mother of Jesus. Joachim and Anna vowed their child to the Lord; and when she reached the age of three they took her to the Temple and left her there in the charge of the priests. She grew up in the Temple; and when she reached the age of twelve the priests took thought for her marriage. They called together the widowers of the people, telling each man to bring his rod with him. Among them came Joseph the carpenter. The High Priest took the rods, and Josephwas last. To the other rods nothing happened; but from the rod of Joseph there flew a dove which came and settled on Josephhead. In this way it was revealed that Joseph was to take Mary to wife. Joseph at first was very unwilling. "I have sons," he said, "and I am an old man, but she is a girl: lest I become a laughing-stock to the children of Israel" (Prolevangelium 9: 1). But in the end he took her in obedience to the will of God, and in due time Jesus was born. The material of the Protevangelium is, of course, legendary; but it shows that by the middle of the second century the theory which was one day to bear the name of Epiphanius was widely held.

There is no direct evidence for this theory whatsoever and all the support adduced in its favour is of an indirect character.

(i) It is asked: would Jesus have committed his mother to the care of John, if she had other sons besides himself? (Joh_19:26-27 ). The answer is that, so far as we know, Jesusamily were quite out of sympathy with him and it would hardly have been possible to commit his mother to their care.

(ii) It is argued that the behaviour of Jesusbrothers" to him is that of elder brothers to a younger brother. They questioned his sanity and wished to take him home (Mar_3:21 ; Mar_3:31-35 ); they were actively hostile to him (Joh_7:1-5 ). But it could just as well be argued that their conduct was due to the simple fact that they found him an embarrassment to the family in a way that had nothing to do with age.

(iii) It is argued that Joseph must have been older than Mary because he vanishes completely from the gospel story and, therefore, probably had died before Jesusublic ministry began. The mother of Jesus was at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee, but there is no mention of Joseph (Joh_2:1 ). Jesus is called, at least sometimes, the son of Mary, and the implication is that Joseph was dead and Mary was a widow (Mar_6:3 ; but compare Mat_13:55 ). Further, Jesusong stay in Nazareth until he was thirty years of age (Luk_3:23 ), is most easily explained by the assumption that Joseph had died and that Jesus had become responsible for the support of the household. But the fact that Joseph was older than Mary does not by any means prove that he had no other children by her; and the fact that Jesus stayed in Nazareth as the village carpenter in order to support the family would much more naturally indicate that he was the eldest, and not the youngest, son.

To these arguments Lightfoot would add two more of a general nature.

First, he says that this is the theory of Christian tradition; and, second, he claims that anything else is "abhorrent to Christian sentiment."

But basically this theory springs from the same origin as the Hieronymian theory. Its aim is to conserve the perpetual virginity of Mary. There is no direct evidence whatsoever for it; and no one would ever have thought of it had it not been for the desire to think that Mary never ceased to be a virgin.

The Helvidian Theory

The third theory is called the Helvidian Theory. It states quite simply that the brothers and sisters of Jesus were in the full sense of the term his brothers and sisters, that, to use the technical term, they were his uterine brothers and sisters. Nothing whatever is known of the Helvidius with whose name this theory is connected except that he wrote a treatise to support it which Jerome strongly opposed. What then may be said in favour of it?

(i) No one reading the New Testament story without theological presuppositions would ever think of anything else. On the face of it that story does not think of Jesusrothers and sisters as anything else but his brothers and sisters in the full sense of the term.

(ii) The birth narratives both in Matthew and Luke presuppose that Mary had other children. Matthew writes: "When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not till she had borne a son" (Mat_1:24-25 ). The clear implication is that Joseph entered into normal married relationships with Mary after the birth of Jesus. Tertullian, in fact, uses this passage to prove that both virginity and the married state are consecrated in Christ by the fact that Mary was first a virgin and then a wife in the full sense of the term. Luke in writing of the birth of Jesus says: "She gave birth to her first-born son" (Luk_2:7 ). To call Jesus a first-born son is plainly to indicate that other children followed.

(iii) As we have already said, the fact that Jesus remained in Nazareth as the village carpenter until the age of thirty is at least an indication that he was the eldest son and had to take upon himself the responsibility of the support of the family after the death of Joseph.

We believe that the brothers and sisters of Jesus were in truth his brothers and sisters. Any other theory ultimately springs from the glorification of asceticism and from a wish to regard Mary as for ever a virgin. It is surely a far more lovely thing to believe in the sanctity of the home than to insist that celibacy is a higher thing than married love.

So, then, we believe that James, called the Lordbrother, was in every sense the brother of Jesus.

James As The Author

Can we then say that this James was also the author of this letter? Let us collect the evidence in favour of that view.

(i) If James wrote a letter at all, it would most naturally be a general epistle, as this is. James was not, like Paul, a traveller and a man of many congregations. He was the leader of the Jewish section of the Church; and the kind of letter we would expect him to write would be a general epistle directed to all Jewish Christians.

(ii) There is scarcely anything in the letter that a good Jew could not accept. So much so that there are those who think that it is actually a Jewish ethical tract which has found its way into the New Testament. A. H. McNeile has pointed out that in instance after instance there are phrases in James which can be read equally well in a Christian or a Jewish sense. The Twelve Tribes of the Dispersion (Jam_1:1 ) could be taken either of the exiled Jews scattered all over the world or of the Christian Church, the new Israel of God. "The Lord" can again and again in this letter be understood equally well of Jesus or of God (Jam_1:7 ; Jam_4:10 , Jam_4:15 ; Jam_5:7-8 ; Jam_5:10-11 ; Jam_5:14-15 ). Our bringing forth by God by the word of his truth to be the first fruits of his creation (Jam_1:18 ) can equally well be understood of Godfirst act of creation or of his re-creation of men in Jesus Christ. The perfect law and the royal law (Jam_1:25 ; Jam_2:8 ), can equally well be understood of the ethical law of the Ten Commandments or of the new law of Christ. The elders of the Church, the ekklesia (G0) (Jam_5:14 ), can equally well be understood as meaning the elders of the Christian Church or the Jewish elders, for in the Septuagint ekklesia (G0) is the title of the chosen nation of God. In Jam_2:2 "your assembly" is spoken of. The word there used for assembly is sunagoge (G0), which can mean the synagogue even more readily than it can mean the Christian congregation. The habit of addressing its readers as brothers is thoroughly Christian, but it is equally thoroughly Jewish. The coming of the Lord and the picture of the Judge standing at the door (Jam_5:7 , Jam_5:9 ) are just as common in Jewish thought as in Christian thought. The accusation that they have murdered the righteous man (Jam_5:6 ) is a phrase which occurs again and again in the prophets, but a Christian could read it as a statement of the Crucifixion of Christ. There is nothing in this letter which an orthodox Jew could not heartily accept, if he read it in his own terms.

It could be argued that all this perfectly suits James. He was the leader of what might be called Jewish Christianity; he was the head of that part of the Church which remained centred in Jerusalem. There must have been a time when the Church was very close to Judaism and it was more a reformed Judaism than anything else. There was a kind of Christianity which had not the width or the universality which the mind of Paul put into it. Paul himself said that the sphere of the Gentiles had been allocated to him and the sphere of the Jews to Peter, James and John (Gal_2:9 ). The letter of James may well represent a kind of Christianity which had remained in its earliest form. This would explain two things.

First, it would explain the frequency with which James repeats the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. We may, out of many instances, compare Jam_2:12-13 and Mat_6:14-15 ; Jam_3:11-13 and Mat_7:16-20 ; Jam_5:12 and Mat_5:34-37 . Any Jewish Christian would be supremely interested in the ethical teaching of the Christian faith.

Second, it would help to explain the relationship of this letter to the teaching of Paul. At a first reading Jam_2:14-26 reads like a direct attack on Paulinism. "A man is justified by works and not by faith alone" (Jam_2:24 ) seems a flat contradiction of the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith. But what James is attacking is a so-called faith which has no ethical results and one thing is quite clear--anyone who charges Paul with preaching such a faith cannot possibly have read his letters. They are full of ethical demands, as, for instance, a chapter like Rom 12 illustrates. Now James died in A.D. 62 and, therefore, could not have read Paulletters which did not become the common property of the Church until at least A.D. 90. Therefore what James is attacking is either a misunderstanding of what Paul said or a perversion of it; and nowhere was such a misunderstanding or perversion more likely to arise than in Jerusalem, where Paulstress on faith and grace and his attack on the law were likely to be regarded with more suspicion than anywhere else.

(iii) It has been pointed out that James and the letter of the Council of Jerusalem to the Gentile Churches have at least two rather curious resemblances. Both begin with the word Greeting (Jam_1:1 ; Act_15:23 ). The Greek is chairein (G0). This was the normal Greek beginning to a letter, but nowhere else in all the New Testament is it found other than in the letter of Claudius Lysias, the military officer, to the governor of the province quoted in Act_23:26-30 . Second, Act_15:17 has a phrase in the letter of the Council of Jerusalem in which it speaks of the Gentiles who are called by my name. This phrase occurs nowhere else in the New Testament other than in Jam_2:7 where it is translated the name by which you are called. Although the Revised Standard Version translations differ slightly, the Greek is exactly the same. It is curious that the letter of the Council of Jerusalem presents us with two unusual phrases which recur only in James, when we remember that the letter of the Council of Jerusalem must have been drafted by James.

There is then evidence which lends colour to the belief that James was the work of James, the Lordbrother and head of the Jerusalem Church.

On the other hand there are facts which make us a little doubtful if he was, after all, the author.

(i) If the writer was the brother of our Lord, we would have expected him to make some reference to that fact. All he calls himself is "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Jam_1:1 ). Such a reference would not have been in any sense for his own personal glory, but simply to lend authority to his letter. And such authority would have been specially useful outside Palestine, in countries where James could hardly have been known. If the author was indeed the Lordbrother, it is surprising that he makes no reference, direct or indirect, to that fact.

(ii) Failing a reference to his relationship to Jesus, we would have expected a reference to the fact that he was an apostle. It was Paulregular custom to begin his letters with a reference to his apostleship. Again it is not a question of personal prestige but simply a guarantee of the authority by which he writes. If this James was indeed the Lordbrother and the head of the Jerusalem Church, we should have expected some reference at the beginning of the letter to his apostolic status.

(iii) The most surprising fact of all is that which made Luther question the right of this letter to a place in the New Testament--the almost complete absence of any references to Jesus Christ. Only twice in the whole letter is his name mentioned and these mentions are almost incidental (Jam_1:1 ; Jam_2:1 ).

There is no reference at all to his Resurrection. We know well that the early church was built on faith in the Risen Christ. If this letter is the work of James, it is contemporary, with the events of Acts in which the Resurrection is mentioned no fewer than twenty-five times. What makes it still more surprising is that James had a personal reason for writing about the appearance of Jesus which may well have been what changed the direction of his life. It is surprising that anyone writing at such a time in the Churchhistory should write without reference to the Resurrection of Jesus; and it is doubly surprising if the writer should be James the brother of our Lord.

Further, there is no reference to Jesus as Messiah. If James, the leader of the Jewish Church, was writing to Jewish Christians in these very early days, one would have thought his main aim would have been to present Jesus as Messiah or that at least he would have made his belief in that fact plain; but the letter does not mention it.

(iv) It is plain that the writer of this letter is steeped in the Old Testament; it is also plain that he is intimately acquainted with the Wisdom Literature; and that in James is only to be expected. There are in his letter twenty-three apparent quotations from the Sermon on the Mount; that too is easy to understand, because from the very beginning, long before the gospels were written, compendiums of Jesuseaching must have circulated. It is argued by some that he must have known Paulletters to the Romans and to the Galatians in order to write as he does about faith and works, and it is argued rightly that a Jew who had never been outside Palestine and who died in A.D. 62 could not have known these letters. As we have seen, this argument will not stand, because the criticism of Pauldoctrine in James is criticism which could have been offered only by someone who had not read the letters of Paul at first hand and who is dealing with a misunderstanding or a perversion of Pauline doctrine. But the phrase in Jam_1:17 : "Every good endowment and every perfect gift," is an hexametre line and clearly a quotation from some Greek poet; and the phrase in Jam_3:6 : "the cycle of nature" may be an Orphic phrase from the mystery religions. How could James of Palestine pick up quotations like these?

There are things which are difficult to account for on the assumption that James, the brother of our Lord, was the author of this letter.

The evidence for and against James uthorship of this letter is extraordinarily evenly balanced. For the moment we must leave the matter in suspense and turn to certain other questions.

The Date Of The Letter

When we turn to the evidence for the date of the letter we find this same even balance. It is possible to argue that it is very early, and equally possible to argue that it is rather late.

(i) When James was writing, it is clear that the hope of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ was still very real (Jam_5:7-9 ). Now the expectation of the Second Coming never left the Christian Church, but it did to some extent fade from the foreground of its thought as it was unexpectedly long delayed. This would suggest an early date.

(ii) In the early chapters of Acts and in the letters of Paul, there is a continuous background of Jewish controversy against the accepting of the Gentiles into the Church on the basis of faith alone. Wherever Paul went the Judaizers followed him, and the acceptance of the Gentiles was not a battle which was readily won. In James there is not even a hint of this Jewish-Gentile controversy, a fact which is doubly surprising when we remember that James, the Lordbrother, took a leading part in settling it at the Council of Jerusalem. That being so, this letter could be either very early and written before that controversy emerged; or, it could be late and written after the last echo of the controversy had died away. The fact that there is no mention of the Jewish-Gentile controversy can be used as an argument either way.

(iii) The evidence from the Church order reflected in the letter is equally conflicting. The meeting place of the Church is still called the sunagoge (G0) (Jam_2:2 ). That points to an early date; later an assembly of Christians would definitely be called the ekklesia (G0), for the Jewish term was soon dropped. The elders of the Church are mentioned (Jam_5:14 ), but there is no mention of either deacons or bishops. This again indicates an early date, and possibly a Jewish connection, for the eldership was a Jewish institution before it was a Christian one. James is worried about the existence of many teachers (Jam_3:1 ). This could well indicate a very early situation, before the Church had systematized its ministry and introduced some kind of order; or, it could indicate a late date, when many false teachers had arisen to plague the Church.

There are two general facts which seem on the whole to indicate that James is late. First, as we have seen there is hardly any mention of Jesus at all. The subject of the letter is, in fact, the inadequacies and the imperfections, the sins and the mistakes of the members of the Church. This seems to point to a fairly late date. The early preaching was ablaze with the grace and the glory of the Risen Christ; later preaching became, as it so often is today, a tirade against the imperfections of the members of the Church. The second general fact is the condemnation of the rich (Jam_2:1-3 ; Jam_5:1-6 ). The flattery of the rich and the arrogance of the rich seem to have been real problems when this letter was written. Now in the very early church there were few, if any, rich men (1Co_1:26-27 ). James seems to indicate a later time when the once poor Church was being threatened with a spirit of worldliness in its members.

The Preachers Of The Ancient World

It will help us to date this so-called letter of James and may also help us to identify its author, if we place it in its context in the ancient world.

The sermon is identified with the Christian Church, but it was by no means its invention. It had roots in both the Hellenistic and the Jewish world; and when we set James beside the Hellenistic and the Jewish sermons we cannot fail to be struck by the resemblances.

1. Let us look first at the Greek preachers and their sermons. The wandering philosopher was a common figure in the ancient world. Sometimes he was a Stoic; far more often he was a Cynic. Wherever men were gathered together you would find him there calling them to virtue. You would find him at the street comer and in the city squares; you would find him at the vast concourses which gathered for the games: you would even find him at the gladiatorial games, sometimes, even directly addressing the emperor, rebuking him for luxury and tyranny, and calling him to virtue and justice. The ancient preacher, the philosopher-missionary, was a regular figure in the ancient world. There was a time when philosophy had been the business of the schools, but now its voice and its ethical demands were to be heard daily in the public places.

These ancient sermons had certain characteristics. The method was always the same; and that method had deeply influenced Paulpresentation of the gospel, and James was in the same line of descent. We list some of the tricks of the trade of these ancient preachers, noting bow they occur in James and bearing in mind the way in which Paul writes to his Churches. The main aim of these ancient preachers, it must be remembered, was not to investigate new truth; it was to awaken sinners to the error of their ways and compel them to look at truths, which they knew but were deliberately neglecting or had forgotten. Their aim was to confront men with the good life in the midst of the looseness of their living and their forgetfulness of the gods.

(i) They frequently carried on imaginary conversations with imaginary opponents, speaking in what has been called a kind of "truncated dialogue." James also uses that method in Jam_2:18 . and Jam_5:13 .

(ii) They habitually effected their transition from one part of the sermon to another, by way of a question which introduced the new subject. Again James does that in Jam_2:14 and Jam_4:1 .

(iii) They were very fond of imperatives in which they commanded their hearers to right action and to the abandoning of their errors. In James
08 verses there are almost 60 imperatives.

(iv) They were very fond of the rhetorical question flung out at their audience. James frequently employs such questions (compare Jam_2:4-5 ; Jam_2:14-16 ; Jam_3:11-12 ; Jam_4:4 ).

(v) They frequently dealt in apostrophes, vivid direct addresses to particular sections of the audience. So James apostrophizes the merchants out for gain and the arrogant rich (Jam_4:13 ; Jam_5:6 ).

(vi) They were fond of personifying virtues and vices, sins and graces. So James personifies sin (Jam_1:15 ); mercy (Jam_2:13 ); rust (Jam_5:3 ).

(vii) They sought to awaken the interest of their audience by pictures and figures from everyday life. The figure of the bridle, the rudder and the forest fire are standard figures in the ancient sermons (compare Jam_3:3-6 ). Amongst many others James vividly uses the picture of the farmer and his patience (Jam_5:7 ).

(viii) They frequently used the example of famous men and women to point their moral. So James uses the examples of Abraham (Jam_2:21-23 ); Rahab (Jam_2:25 ); Job (Jam_5:11 ); Elijah (Jam_5:17 ).

(ix) It was the custom of the ancient preachers to begin their sermon with a paradox which would arrest the attention of their hearers. James does that by telling a man to think it all joy when he is involved in trials (Jam_1:2 ). In the same way the ancient preachers often pointed out how true goodness meant the reversal of all popular verdicts on life. So James insists that the happiness of the rich lies in their being brought low (Jam_1:10 ). They used the weapon of irony as James does (Jam_2:14-19 ; Jam_5:1-6 ).

(x) The ancient preachers could speak with harshness and with sternness. So James addresses his reader as: "Foolish fellow!" and calls those who listen to him unfaithful creatures (Jam_2:20 ; Jam_4:4 ). The ancient preachers used the lash and so does James.

(xi) The ancient preachers had certain standard ways of constructing their sermons.

(a) They often concluded a section with a vivid antithesis, setting the right beside the wrong way. James follows the same custom (compare Jam_2:13 ; Jam_2:26 ).

(b) They often made their point by means of a searching question fired at the hearer; and so does James (Jam_4:12 ).

(c) They often used quotations in their preaching. This also James does (Jam_5:20 ; Jam_1:11 , Jam_1:17 ; Jam_4:6 ; Jam_5:11 ).

It is true that we do not find in James the bitterness, the scolding, the frivolous and often broad humour that the Greek preachers used; but it is plain to see that he uses all the other methods which the wandering Hellenistic preachers used to win their way into the minds and hearts of men.

2. The Jewish world also had its tradition of preaching. That preaching was done mainly by the Rabbis at the services of the synagogue. It had many of the characteristics of the preaching of the Greek wandering philosophers. It had its rhetorical questions and its imperatives and its pictures taken from life, and its quotations and its citations of the heroes of the faith. But Jewish preaching had one curious characteristic. It was deliberately disconnected. The Jewish masters instructed their pupils never to linger for any length of time on any one subject, but to move quickly from one subject to another in order to maintain the interest of the listener. Hence one of the names for preaching was charaz (G0), which literally means stringing beads. The Jewish sermon was frequently a string of moral truths and exhortations coming one after another. This is exactly what James is. It is difficult, if not impossible, to extract from it a continuous and coherent plan. Its sections follow each other with a certain disconnectedness. Goodspeed writes: "The work has been compared to a chain, each link related to the one before and the one after it. Others have compared its contents to beads on a string.... And, perhaps, James is not so much a chain of thoughts or beads as it is a handful of pearls dropped one by one into the hearermind."

James, whether looked at from the Hellenistic or from the Jewish point of view, is a good example of an ancient sermon. And here is, perhaps, the clue we need to its authorship. With all this in mind, let us now turn to ask who the author is.

The Author Of James

There are five possibilities.

(i) We begin with a theory worked out in detail by Meyer more than half a century ago and revived by Easton in the new InterpreterBible. One of the commonest things in the ancient world was for books to be published in the name of some great figure of the past. Jewish literature between the Testaments is full of writings like that, ascribed to Moses, the Twelve Patriarchs, Baruch, Enoch, Isaiah, and people of like standing in order that the added authority might give greater encouragement to their readers. This was an accepted practice. One of the best-known books in the Apocrypha is the Wisdom of Solomon, in which the later Sage attributes new wisdom to the wisest of the kings.

Let us remember three things about James. (a) There is nothing in it which an orthodox Jew could not accept, if the two references to Jesus in Jam_1:1 and Jam_2:1 are removed, as they easily may be. (b) The Greek for James is in fact Iakobos (G0) which of course is the Old Testament Jacob. (c) The book is addressed to "the twelve tribes who are scattered abroad." This theory holds that James is nothing other than a Jewish writing, written under the name of Jacob and meant for the Jews who were scattered throughout the world to encourage them in faith and belief amidst the trials through which they might be passing in Gentile lands.

This theory is further elaborated in this way. In Gen 49 we have Jacoblast address to his sons. The address consists of a series of short descriptions in which each son is in turn characterized. Meyer professed to be able to find in James allusions to the descriptions of each of the patriarchs and, therefore, of each of the twelve tribes, in Jacobaddress. Here are some of his identifications.

Asher is the worldly rich man; Jam_1:9-11 ; Gen_49:20 .

Issachar is the doer of good deeds; Jam_1:12 ; Gen_49:14-15 .

Reuben is the first fruits; Jam_1:18 ; Gen_49:3 .

Simeon stands for anger; Jam_1:19-20 ; Gen_49:5-7 .

Levi is the tribe which is specially connected with religion and is alluded to in Jam_1:26-27 .

Naphtali is characterized by peace; Jam_3:18 ; Gen_49:21 .

Gad stands for wars and fightings; Jam_4:1-2 ; Gen_49:19 .

Dan represents waiting for salvation; Jam_5:7 ; Gen_49:18 .

Jo

Barclay: James 1 (Chapter Introduction)

Greetings (Jam_1:1)

The Jews Throughout The World (Jam_1:1 Continued)

The Recipients Of The Letter (Jam_1:1 Continued)

Tested And Triumphant (Jam_1:2-4)

The Result Of Testing (Jam_1:2-4 Continued)

God's Giving And Man's Asking (Jam_1:5-8)

As Each Man Needs (Jam_1:9-11)

The Crown Of Life (Jam_1:12)

Putting The Blame On God (Jam_1:13-15)

The Evasion Of Responsibility (Jam_1:13-15 Continued)

God's Constancy For Good (Jam_1:16-18)

When To Be Quick And When To Be Slow (Jam_1:19-20)

The Teachable Spirit (Jam_1:21)

Hearing And Doing (Jam_1:22-24)

The True Law (Jam_1:25)

True Worship (Jam_1:26-27)

Constable: James (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Historical background

The writer of this epistle was evidently the half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:19) and the brother of Jude, the writer of the epistle that bears his name (cf. Matt. 13:55). This was the opinion of many of the early church fathers and writers.¹ This James was not the brother of the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee, who suffered martyrdom early in the history of the church (Mark 1:19; Acts 12:2). Neither was he the son of Alphaeus (Mark 3:18) or the father of Judas (Luke 6:16). He was the leading man in the Jerusalem church who spoke at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:13-21; cf. 12:17; 21:18; 1 Cor. 15:7). Some commentators believed that the similarities in the Greek of this epistle and James' speech in Acts 15 support his identification as the writer.² The fact that the writer wrote this epistle in very good Greek should not rule this James out. He would have been fluent in both Aramaic and Greek as a gifted Galilean.

The recipients of this letter were the Jewish Christians of the Diaspora, Jews who had scattered from Palestine and had come to faith in Christ (1:1). Several Jewish references in the book support the claim that a Jew wrote it to other Jews (e.g., 1:18; 2:2, 21; 3:6; 5:4, 7).

Josephus said that James died in A.D. 62³ so he wrote the letter before that date. Many commentators believed that James' lack of reference to the Jerusalem Council (A.D. 49) suggests he wrote before that meeting. This is a very tenuous argument, however, since the issues James dealt with in this epistle are different from those the Jerusalem Council discussed. Reference to the Jerusalem Council in this letter would have been unnecessary. Traditionally James wrote early, however. It seems that his epistle was probably the first divinely inspired one and that James composed it in the middle or late 40s, perhaps A.D. 45-48. Many scholars have taken James' lack of references or allusions to other inspired New Testament epistles as additional support for this position. I believe there is no substantial reason to doubt the traditional early date.⁴

Since James lived in Jerusalem most if not all of his Christian life, that city seems to be the most likely place of writing.

Special Features

There are several unique features of this epistle. It contains no references to specific individuals who were the original recipients. There is no concluding benediction. There is a large number of imperatives in the letter, about one for every two verses. There are many figures of speech and analogies. James also alluded to over 20 Old Testament books. He referred to many Old Testament characters including Abraham, Rahab, Job, and Elijah as well as the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses. One commentator observed that this book "has a more Jewish cast than any other writing of the New Testament."⁵ There are many references to nature. This was characteristic of the Jewish rabbis' teaching in James' day and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are also many allusions to Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.⁶ Leading themes in James include perfection, wisdom, and the piety of the poor.⁷

"As soon as we read through the letter of James we say to ourselves, This man was a preacher before he was a writer.'"⁸

"In style it reminds one now of the Proverbs, now of the stern denunciations of the prophets, now of the parables in the Gospels."⁹

"The Epistle of James is without doubt the least theological of all NT books, with the exception of Philemon. . . .

"Three doctrines come to the surface more often than any others, and of these the most prominent is the doctrine of God. In keeping with the ethical nature of the epistle is the repeated stress on the doctrine of sin. And, surprisingly, the third most prominent theological theme is eschatology."¹⁰

"The epistle of James is no more anti-Pauline than is the Sermon on the Mount."¹¹

"The design of the Epistle is on the one hand to encourage those to whom it is addressed to bear their trials patiently, and on the other hand to warn them against certain errors of doctrine and practice."¹²

Message¹³

The Book of James teaches us that faith in God should result in behavior that is in harmony with God's will. The theme of the book is "living by faith" or "spiritual maturity."

James' concern was Christian behavior (ethics) as expressive of Christian belief (doctrine). James hardly mentioned most of the fundamental Christian doctrines in this book. His preeminent concern was the practice of Christianity, the manifestation of salvation in shoe leather.

The teaching of this epistle has its roots in Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. That was, of course, His great ethical discourse. James made no fewer than 15 references or allusions to Matthew 5-7 in his epistle. James is an exposition of the main ideas in this passage.

Jesus presented three great revelations in the Sermon on the Mount that James expounded in this book.

First, Jesus spoke of the behavior of believers. Matt. 5:20: "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." Jesus was speaking of how righteous behavior manifests itself. James commented on five behaviors in which his readers needed to demonstrate their righteousness. (I'll explain what these were in a minute.)

Second, Jesus clarified the believer's goal. Matt. 5:48: "You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." This maturity into the image of Christ is God's goal for every Christian (cf. Eph. 4:13: "Until we all come . . ."). In dealing with each of the five behaviors he selected, James clarified the goal the believer should bear in mind and to which he or she should press. (I'll identify these too.)

Third, Jesus illuminated the method by which the believer can realize maturity (perfection) as he or she behaves. Matt. 6:1: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them." Jesus taught that believers should live to obtain God's approval, not the approval of their fellowmen. James explained what that means in the case of the five behaviors he dealt with in this epistle. He showed how to live for God's approval rather than for man's.

These three great revelations in the Sermon on the Mount contribute the hidden framework on which James hung his challenges to his readers. All of these challenges deal with spiritual immaturity. (See the chart on the next page.)

In chapter one the behavior dealt with is trials, the difficult experiences that every believer encounters in life.

James revealed that God's goal for believers in allowing us to experience trials is personal maturity. He also explained that the method by which we attain this goal is by patiently accepting our trials from God.

In chapter two the behavior in view is prejudice.

God's goal for believers that prejudice tends to thwart is love for all people. The method by which we can reach this goal in God's plan is by exercising genuine faith in God. James explained the relationship of prejudice and faith in this chapter.

In chapter three the behavior is our speech.

God's goal is our blessing of others: God and all other people. The method is to receive and use wisdom from God.

In chapter four the behavior is interpersonal and inner personal relationships.

God's goal is peace. His method is submission to God.

In chapter five the behavior is using money.

The goal is that we use money to serve others rather than ourselves. The method of attaining this goal is two-fold: patience with God and prayer to God.

James' Emphases
	Ch. 1	Ch. 2	Ch. 3	Ch. 4	Ch. 5
Area of Behavior	Trials	Prejudice	Speech	Conflicts	Money
God's Goal	Personal Maturity	Love for Others	Blessing of Others	Peace with Others	Service of Others
God'sMethod	Acceptancefrom God	Faith in God	Wisdomfrom God	Submissionto God	Patience with & Prayer to God

I could state the application of this epistle in the following two affirmations.

First, the life of faith is a life of peril. If we would achieve God's goal of righteous behavior we must overcome the obstacles that stand in our way. Our opposition comes from three sources each of which James dealt with in his exposition of each behavior. (See the chart on the next page.)

We must challenge the spirit (popular philosophy) of our world.

The world system says avoid trials (ch. 1). Give preference to those who can help you (ch. 2). Promote yourself by what you say (ch. 3). Demand your rights (ch. 4). Grab all the money you can (ch. 5).

James said we must also deny the lusts of our flesh. The flesh is the second source of peril we face.

The flesh says indulge yourself and give in to the temptations that often accompany trials (ch. 1). Love yourself rather than others (ch. 2). Glorify yourself rather than promoting others and God (ch. 3). Assert yourself rather than submitting to God (ch. 4). Serve yourself rather than serving others (ch. 5).

James also cautioned us to resist the devil, the third source of opposition to God's work of producing righteousness in our conduct.

Satan says God hates you and your trials are an evidence of that (ch. 1). He says God is withholding what is good from you that you could get if you show favoritism to those who are able to favor you (ch. 2). He says God has abandoned you so you need to speak up for yourself (ch. 3). He says God will not defend you so you must be more self-assertive (ch. 4). He also says God will not provide for you so you must hoard your money rather than distributing it as a good steward (ch. 5).

Perils to the Life of Faith
Concerning...	The World says...	The Flesh says...	The Devil says...
Trials (ch. 1)	Avoid them.	Indulge yourself.	God hates you.
Prejudice (ch. 2)	Favor those who can help you.	Love yourself.	God is withholding something from you.
Speech (ch. 3)	Promote yourself.	Glorify yourself.	God has abandoned you.
Conflicts (ch. 4)	Demand your rights.	Assert yourself.	God will not defend you.
Money (ch. 5)	Grab all you can get.	Serve yourself.	God will not provide for you.

The second affirmation that summarizes the application of the teaching of this epistle is this. The life of faith is a life of power as well as a life of peril. In each of the five major problems James dealt with we can see that the life of faith is more powerful than the life of unbelief.

It is superior to the spirit (philosophy) of our world. It is stronger than the lusts of our flesh. It is stubborn against the attacks of the devil. Therefore we should continue to live by faith. Keep trusting and obeying God.

Constable: James (Outline)

Outline

I. Introduction 1:1

II. Trials and true religion 1:2-27

A. The value of trials 1:2-11

1. The proper attitude toward trials 1:2

2. The end product of trials 1:3-4

3. Help in adopting this attitude 1:5-8

4. The larger view of circumstances 1:9-11

B. The options in trials 1:12-18

1. The ultimate end of trials 1:12

2. The source of temptation 1:13-14

3. The progress of temptation 1:15

4. The goodness of God 1:16-18

C. The proper response to trials 1:19-27

1. The improper response 1:19-20

2. The essential response 1:21

3. The complete response 1:22-25

4. The external behavior 1:26-27

III. Partiality and vital faith 2:1-26

A. The problem of favoritism 2:1-13

1. The negative command 2:1

2. The present improper practice 2:2-4

3. The inconsistency of favoritism 2:5-7

4. The Christian's duty 2:8-9

5. The importance of partiality 2:10-11

6. The implication of our own judgment 2:12-13

B. The importance of vital faith 2:14-26

1. James' assertion 2:14

2. James' illustration 2:15-16

3. James' restatement of his point 2:17

4. An objection 2:18

5. James' rebuttal 2:19-23

6. James' final argument 2:24-26

IV. Speech and divine wisdom 3:1-18

A. Controlling the tongue 3:1-12

1. The negative warning 3:1

2. The reason for the warning 3:2

3. Examples of the danger 3:3-8

4. The uncontrollable nature of the tongue 3:7-8

5. The inconsistency of the tongue 3:9-12

B. Controlling the mind 3:13-18

1. The importance of humility 3:13

2. The importance of graciousness 3:14-16

3. The importance of loving peace 3:17-18

V. Conflicts and humble submission 4:1-17

A. Interpersonal and inner personal tensions 4:1-10

1. The source of conflict 4:1

2. The explanation of the conflict 4:2-3

3. The nature of the choice 4:4-5

4. The resources to choose right 4:6-10

B. Self-exaltation 4:11-12

C. Self-reliance 4:13-17

1. The self-centered person 4:13-16

2. The concluding exhortation 4:17

VI. Money and patient endurance 5:1-20

A. Warnings for the rich 5:1-6

1. The introduction of the problem 5:1

2. The corrosive effect of wealth 5:2-3

3. The misuse of wealth 5:4-6

B. The proper attitude 5:7-12

1. The exhortation to be patient 5:7-9

2. Examples of endurance 5:10-11

3. The evidence of patience 5:12

C. The proper action 5:13-18

1. The way of release 5:13

2. The prescription for help 5:14-16

3. The power of prayer 5:17-18

VII. The way back to living by faith 5:19-20

Constable: James

James

Bibliography

Adamson, James B. The Epistle of James. New International Commentary on the New Testament series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976; reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984.

Bailey, Mark L., and Thomas L. Constable. The New Testament Explorer. Nashville: Word Publishing Co., 1999.

Barclay, William. The Letters of James and Peter. Daily Study Bible series. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1964.

_____. New Testament Words. London: SCM, 1964.

Baxter, J. Sidlow. Explore the Book. 6 vols. London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1965.

Bell, M. Charles. Calvin and Scottish Theology: The Doctrine of Assurance. Edinburgh: Handsel Press, 1985.

Bjork, William G. "A Critique of Zane Hodges' The Gospel Under Siege: A Review Article." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 30:4 (December 1987):457-67.

Blackman, E. C. The Epistle of James. Naperville, Ill.: Allenson, 1957.

Blue, J. Ronald. "James." In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1983.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. Translated by J. W. Doberstein. New York: Harper, 1954.

Bratcher, Robert G. A Translator's Guide to the Letters from James, Peter, and Jude. New York: United Bible Societies, 1984.

Brooks, Keith L. James--Belief in Action. Teach Yourself the Bible series. Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1962.

Bryson, Harold T. How Faith Works. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1985.

Burdick, Donald W. "James." In Hebrews-Revelation. Vol. 12 of The Expositor's Bible Commentary. 12 vols. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein and J. D. Douglas. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981.

Chitwood, Arlen L. Judgment Seat of Christ. Norman, Okla.: The Lamp Broadcast, Inc., 1986.

_____. Salvation of the Soul. Norman, Okla: The Lamp Broadcast, Inc., 1983.

Coder, J. Maxwell. Faith That Works. Moody Manna series. Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1966.

Constable, Thomas L. "Analysis of Bible Books--New Testament." Paper submitted for course 686 Analysis of Bible Books--New Testament. Dallas Theological Seminary, January 1968.

_____. "The Doctrine of Prayer." Th.D. Dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1969.

_____. Talking to God: What the Bible Teaches about Prayer. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1995.

_____. "What Prayer Will and Will Not Change." In Eassys in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, pp. 99-113. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody Press, 1986.

Darby, John Nelson. Synopsis of the Books of the Bible. 5 vols. Revised ed. New York: Loizeaux Brothers Publishers, 1942.

Davids, Peter H. The Epistle of James. New International Greek Testament Commentary series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982.

_____. James. New International Bible Commentary series. Peabody, Mass.: Hendriksen, 1989.

Dibelius, Martin. James. Revised by Heinrich Greeven. Translated by Michael A. Williams. Edited by Helmut Koester. English ed., Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976.

Dictionary of the Apostolic Church. Edited by James Hastings. 1915 ed. S.v. "James, Epistle of," by W. Montgomery.

Dictionary of the Bible. Edited by James Hastings. 1910 ed. S.v. "James, The General Epistle of," by J. B. Mayor.

Dillow, Joseph C. The Reign of the Servant Kings. Miami Springs, Fla.: Schoettle Publishing Co., 1992.

Doerksen, Vernon D. James. Chicago: Moody Press, 1983.

The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus. Twin Brooks series. Popular ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1974.

Family Life Conference. Little Rock, Ark.: Family Ministry, 1990.

Fanning, Buist M. "A Theology of James." In A Biblical Theology of the New Testament, pp. 417-35. Edited by Roy B. Zuck. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.

Gaebelein, Arno C. The Annotated Bible. 4 vols. Reprint ed. Chicago: Moody Press, and New York: Loizeaux Brothers, 1970.

Gaebelein, Frank E. Faith That Lives. Doniger and Raughley, 1955; reprint ed. Chicago: Moody Press, 1969.

_____. The Practical Epistle of James. Great Neck, N.Y.: Doniger & Raughley, Inc., 1955.

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. By C. G. Wilke. Revised by C. L. Wilibald Grimm. Translated, revised and enlarged by Joseph Henry Thayer, 1889.

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. By Walter Bauer. Translated by William F. Arndt and Wilbur Gingrich, 4th rev. ed.

Guthrie, Donald. New Testament Introduction. 3 vols. 2nd ed. London: Tyndale Press, 1966.

Hamilton, Victor P. The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1-17. New International Commentary on the Old Testament series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990.

Hayden, Daniel R. "Calling the Elders to Pray." Bibliotheca Sacra

138:551 (July-September 1981):258-66.

Hiebert, D. Edmond. The Epistle of James: Tests of a Living Faith. Chicago: Moody Press, 1979.

_____. James. Chicago: Moody Press, 1992.

_____. "The Unifying Theme of the Epistle of James." Bibliotheca Sacra 135:539 (July-September 1978):221-31.

_____. Working With God: Scriptural Studies in Intercession. New York: Carlton Press, 1987.

Hodges, Zane C. Dead Faith: What Is It? Dallas, Redencion Viva, 1987.

_____. The Gospel Under Siege. Dallas: Redencion Viva, 1981.

_____. The Epistle of James: Proven Character through Testing. Grace New Testament Commentary series. Irving, Tex.: Grace Evangelical Society, 1994.

______. "Light on James Two from Textual Criticism." Bibliotheca Sacra 120:480 (October-December 1963):341-50.

Ice, Thomas D. "Dispensational Hermeneutics." In Issues in Dispensationalism, pp. 29-49. Edited by Wesley R. Willis and John R. Master. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Edited by James Orr. 1957 ed. S.v. "James, Epistle of," by Doremus Almy Hayes.

Jenkins, C. Ryan. "Faith and Works in Paul and James." Bibliotheca Sacra 159:633 (January-March 2002):62-78.

Johnson, John E. "The Old Testament Offices as Paradigm for Pastoral Identity." Bibliotheca Sacra 152:606 (April-June 1995):182-200.

Johnston, Wendell G. "Does James Give Believers a Pattern for Dealing with Sickness and Healing?" In Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands, pp. 168-74. Edited by Charles H. Dyer and Roy B. Zuck. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1994.

Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by William Whiston. Antiquities of the Jews and The Wars of the Jews. London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1866.

Kendall, R. T. Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.

_____. Once Saved, Always Saved. Chicago: Moody Press, 1983.

Kent, Homer A., Jr. Faith that Works. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1986.

Kidner, Derek. Psalms 1-72. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series. Leicester, England, and Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1973.

King, Guy H. A Belief That Behaves: An Expositional Study of the Epistle of James. 1941. Reprint ed. London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1945.

Kirk, J. A. "The Meaning of Wisdom in James: Examination of a Hypothesis." New Testament Studies 16 (1969):24-38.

Kistemaker, Simon J. Exposition of the Epistle of James and the Epistles of John. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1986.

_____. "The Theological Message of James." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 29:1 (March 1986):55-61.

Lange, John Peter, ed. Commentary on the Holy Scriptures. 12 vols. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1960. Vol. 12: James-Revelation, by J. P. Lange, J. J. Van Oosterzee, G. T. C. Fronmuller, and Karl Braune. Enlarged and edited by E. R. Craven. Translated by J. Isidor Mombert and Evelina Moore.

Laws, Sophie S. "Does Scripture Speak in Vain? A Reconsideration of James IV. 5." New Testament Studies 20 (1973-74):210-15.

Lenski, Richard C. H. The Interpretation of The Epistle to the Hebrews and The Epistle of James. Reprint ed. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1963.

Lightfoot, J. B. Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon. Reprint ed. London: Macmillan and Co., 1892.

MacArthur, John F., Jr. Faith Works: The Gospel According to the Apostles. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1993.

Martin, Ralph P. James. Word Biblical Commentary series. Waco: Word Books, 1988.

Mayor, Joseph B. The Epistle of St. James. Limited Classical Reprint Library series. 1892; reprint ed. Minneapolis: Klock and Klock Christian Publishers, 1977.

McNeile, A. H. An Introduction to the Study of the New Testament. 2nd ed. Revised by C. S. C. Williams. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965.

Mercer, Larry A. "A Biblical and Cultural Study of the Problem of Racism." Bibliotheca Sacra 153:609 (January-March 1996):87-103.

Mitchell, John G. "Does God Heal Today?" Bibliotheca Sacra 122:485 (January-March 1965):41-53.

Mitton, C. Leslie. The Epistle of James. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1966.

Moo, Douglas J. The Letter of James. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985.

Morgan, G. Campbell. Living Messages of the Books of the Bible. 2 vols. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1912.

Motyer, J. Alec. The Message of James. The Bible Speaks Today series. Leicester, England, and Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1985.

_____. The Tests of Faith. London: InterVarsity Press, 1970.

Nicol, W. "Faith and Works in the Letter of James." Neotestamentica 9 (1975):7-24.

Patterson, Richard D. "The Widow, the Orphan, and the Poor in the Old Testament and the Extra-Biblical Literature." Bibliotheca Sacra 130:519 (July-September 1973):223-34.

Peterson, Eugene H. The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary English. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1993.

Pentecost, J. Dwight. "The Purpose of the Law." Bibliotheca Sacra 128:511 (July-September 1971):227-33.

Plummer, Alfred. The General Epistles of St. James and St. Jude. New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1905.

Rendall, G. H. The Epistle of James and Judaic Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1927.

Robertson, Archibald Thomas. Studies in the Epistle of James. 3rd ed. Revised and edited by Heber F. Peacock. Nashville: Broadman Press, n.d.

_____. Word Pictures in the New Testament. 6 vols. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1931.

Ropes, James H. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of St. James. International Critical Commentary series. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1916.

Ross, Alexander. The Epistles of James and John. New International Commentary on the New Testament series. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1954.

Ryrie, Charles C. "The End of the Law." Bibliotheca Sacra 124:495 (July-September 1967):239-47.

Sadler, M. F. The General Epistles of SS. James, Peter, John and Jude. London: George Bell and Sons, 1895.

Scaer, David P. James the Apostle of Faith. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1983.

Shogren, Gary S. "Will God Heal Us--A Re-examination of James 5:14-16a." Evangelical Quarterly 61 (1989):99-108.

Showers, Renald E. Maranatha Our Lord, Come: A Definitive Study of the Rapture of the Church. Bellmawr, Pa.: Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, 1995.

Sidebottom, E. M. James, Jude, 2 Peter. New Century Bible Commentary series. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1967; reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., and London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1982.

Songer, Harold S. "Anointing with Oil: What Does It Mean?" Biblical Illustrator 12:4 (Summer 1986):32-34.

Stanton, Gerald B. Kept from the Hour. Fourth ed. Miami Springs, Fla.: Schoettle Publishing Co., 1991.

Storms, C. Samuel. Reaching God's Ear. Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1988.

Stott, John R. W. Confess your Sins. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1964.

Stulac, George M. James. Downers Grove, Ill. and Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

Tamez, Elsa. The Scandalous Message of James: Faith Without Works is Dead. New York: Crossroad, 1990.

Trench, Richard Chenevix. Synonyms of the New Testament. London: James Clarke & Co., 1961.

Tasker, R. V. G. The General Epistle of James. Tyndale New Testament Commentary series. Reprint ed. London: Tyndale Press, 1967.

Thiessen, Henry Clarence. Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962.

Turner, Nigel. Christian Words. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1980.

Unger, Merrill F. "Divine Healing." Bibliotheca Sacra 128:511 (July-September 1971):234-44.

Wall, Joe L. Going for the Gold. Chicago: Moody Press, 1991.

Waltke, Bruce K. "The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom Literature." Bibliotheca Sacra 136:543 (July-September 1979):221-38.

Warden, Duane. "The Rich and Poor in James: Implications for Institutionalized Partiality." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 43:2 (June 2000):247-57.

Wells, C. Richard. "The Theology of Prayer in James." Criswell Theological Review 1:1 (Fall 1986):85-112.

Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Mature. BE Books series. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1978.

Wilkin, Robert N. "Can Faith Without Works Save? James 2:14." Grace Evangelical Society News 9:5 (September-October 1994):2-3.

_____. "Repentance and Salvation, Part 2: The Doctrine of Repentance in the Old Testament." Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 2 (Spring 1989):13-26.

_____. "Soul Salvation,' Part 2; Saving the Soul of a Fellow Christian; James 5:19-20, " Grace Evangelical Society News 7:1 (January 1992):2.

_____. "Soul Talk, Soul Food, and Soul Salvation.'" Grace Evangelical Society News 6:12 (December 1991)2.

Wilkinson, John. "Healing in the Epistle of James." Scottish Journal of Theology 24 (1971):338-40.

Winkler, Edwin T. "Commentary on the Epistle of James." In An American Commentary on the New Testament. Edited by Alvah Hovey. 1888. Reprint ed. Philadelphia: American Baptist Press, n.d.

Zodhiates, Spiros. The Patience of Hope. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1960.

Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: James (Book Introduction)

THE

CATHOLIC EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES,

THE APOSTLE.

__________

ON THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES.

INTRODUCTION.

The seven following Epistles have been called Catholic or general, not being addressed to any particular Church or person, if we except the Second and Third of St. John. They are called also Canonical, having been received by the Church as part of the canon of the New Testament, and as writings of divine authority. It is a matter of fact allowed by every one, that five of these epistles, to wit, this of St. James, the Second of St. Peter, the Second and Third of St. John, that of St. Jude, as also the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, and the Apocalypse or Revelation of St. John, were doubted of , and not received always and every where in the three first ages [centuries], till the canon and catalogue of Scripture books was examined by tradition, and determined by the authority of the Catholic Church, the supreme judge of all controversies in matters of faith and religion, according to the appointment of our Saviour, Christ, expressed in many places in the holy Scriptures. But I could never learn upon what grounds they who deny the Catholic Church and General Councils to be of an infallible authority, and who deny Christ's promises to guide his Church in all truth to the end of the world, can be certain which Scriptures or writings are canonical, and which are not. I could never understand what construction to put on the sixth of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion of the Church of England. We there meet with this declaration: In, or by the name of the holy Scripture we understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church. These I have mentioned were certainly for some time doubted of; they are still doubted of by some of the late reformers: Luther, the great doctor of the reformation, is not ashamed to say that this epistle of St. James is no better than straw, and unworthy of an apostle. These writings therefore, according to the said declaration, ought not to be accounted and received as canonical; and yet before the end of the said sixth article, it is again declared, that all the books of the Old and New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive and account canonical. And in all New Testaments of the Church of England, all these are received for canonical in the same manner as the four gospels, without any remark or advertisement to the contrary. --- The first of the seven epistles was written by St. James, surnamed the lesser, and James of Alpheus, (Matthew x. 3.) one of the twelve apostles, called the brother of our Lord, (Galatians i. 19.) who was made bishop of Jerusalem. His mother is thought to have been Mary, sister to the blessed Virgin Mary, and to have been married first to Alpheus, and afterwards to Cleophas; to have had four sons, James, Joseph, Simon, (or Simeon) and Jude, the author of the last of these epistles. All these four being cousins-german, are called brothers of our Lord, Matthew xiii. 55. How great a veneration the Jews themselves had for this apostle and bishop of Jerusalem, see not only Hegisippus apud Eusebius, lib. ii. hist. chap. 23. and St. Jerome de viris illustribus, also the same St. Jerome in Galatians i. 19. (tom. iv, p. 237, lib. 1. cont. Jovin. tom. iv, part 2, p. 182.) but even Josephus, (lib. xxviii. Jewish Antiquities, chap. 8.) where he calls him the brother of Jesus, surnamed the Christ. This epistle was written about the year 62. The chief contents are: 1. To shew that faith without good works will not save a man, as St. Augustine observed, lib. de fid. et oper. chap. iv.; 2. He exhorts them to patience, to beg true wisdom, and the divine grace; 3. He condemns the vices of the tongue; 4. He gives admonitions against pride, vanity, ambition, &c.; 5. To resist their disorderly lusts and desires, which are the occasions and causes of sin, and not Almighty God; 6. He publisheth the sacrament of anointing the sick with oil; 7. He recommends prayer, &c. St. Jerome, in a letter to Paulinus, (t. iv. part 2, p. 574.) recommends all these seven epistles in these words: James, Peter, John, and Jude, published seven epistles....both short and long, short in words, long as to the content; Jacobus, Petrus, Joannes, Judas, septem epistolas ediderunt....breves pariter et longas, breves in verbis, longas in sententiis. (Witham) --- St. Gregory of Nazianzus remarks, that the faithful were not agreed as to the number of these epistles; some admitted seven and some only three, viz. this of St. James, the first of St. John, and the first of St. Peter:

Greek: Katholikon Epistolon

Tines men epta phasin, oi de treis monas

Chrenai dechesthai ten Iakobou mian,

Mian de Petrou, tente Ioannou mian. --- Naz. Carm. de Script. Canon.

We shall state at the beginning of each epistle, the reason why they have been adopted into the canon of Scripture. (Calmet) --- The object of these epistles was, according to the remark of St. Augustine, to refute the rising errors of Simon Magus, the Nicolaites, and other such heretics, who abusing the liberty of the gospel, and perverting the meaning of St. Paul's words in his epistle to the Romans, pretended that faith alone, without good works, was sufficient for salvation; although St. Paul expressly requires Christians, a faith working by charity, Galatians v. 6. and 1 Corinthians xiii. where he uses these emphatic words: "If I should have all faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." (St. Augustine, lib. de fide et operibus, chap. xiv. (Calmet) --- As to what regards the authenticity of St. James' epistle, although Luther with his usual boldness asserts that many with good reason denied this epistle to be canonical, and affirmed that it was unworthy the pen of an apostle, yet, admitting that some individuals in the first ages [centuries] of the Church doubted of its authority, we are nevertheless assured from certain monuments that it was always considered as sacred and inspired both by the Latin and Greek Churches. This is evident from the sixtieth canon of the council of Laodicea; from the forty-seventh of the council of Carthage, in 397; from Origen, hom. vii. in Josue; from St. Athanasius in synopsi, Epiphanius hæresi 76; from St. Jerome, ad Paulinum Epis.; from St. Augustine, lib. ii. de Doc. Chris. chap. viii; from St. Gregory of Nazianzus, tom. iii, p. 98; from Amphilochus, apud St. Gregory of Nazainzus, tom. ii. p. 194; from Innocent I. Epis. ad Decentium; from Rufinus, Exposit. Symboli; and from Gelasius I. who in the fifth age [century], in a council of seventy bishops, at Rome, settled the canon of the genuine books of the holy Scripture, and distinguished them from what are spurious. (Cal. et Habert de Sacr. Ext. Un.) --- St. Jerome and St. Augustine quote frequently this epistle as the undoubted work of this apostle; and since their time, its authenticity has never been called in question by Catholics. It is believed St. James wrote this epistle in Greek, as he quotes the Scripture according to the version of the Septuagint, as Chap. iv. 6; and as this language was commonly spoken in the East by the dispersed Jews, to whom he wrote. his style is concise and sententious, like that of Solomon in his proverbs, and like the maxims of the Orientals even to the present day. (Calmet)

====================

Gill: James (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES

This epistle is called "general", because not written to any particular person, as the epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon are; nor to any particular churches, as the epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, &c. but to the believing Jews in general, wherever they were. The author of it is James; and whereas there were two of this name, who were the apostles of Christ; some have thought it was written by one, and some by another: some think it was written by James the son of Zebedee, and brother of John, which is favoured by the Syriac version, which to this epistle, and the following, premises these words;

"the three epistles of the three apostles, before whose eyes our Lord transfigured himself, that is, James, and Peter, and John.''

Now, that James, who was present at the transfiguration of Christ, was James the son of Zebedee: but neither the time, nor occasion, nor matter of this epistle, seem to agree with him, for he was put to death by Herod, about the year 44, Act 12:1, whereas this epistle was written, as some think, about the year 60, or as others, 63; and it seems pretty manifest that it must be written after the Gospel had been spread in the Gentile world, and was received by the Jews, who were scattered abroad in it; and after many hypocrites had crept into the churches, and many false teachers, and vain boasters, and wicked men, had arisen among them: it seems therefore more agreeable to ascribe this epistle to James, the son of Alphaeus, sometimes called the brother of our Lord, and who was present at the assembly at Jerusalem, when the necessity of the Gentiles' circumcision was debated, Act 15:1 and is the same whom Eusebius ^a calls James the just, and Oblias; and who seems to have resided at Jerusalem, and to have been the bishop, or overseer of the church there; and therefore in character writes this epistle to the Jews, in the several parts of the world: nor need there be any doubt of the authenticity of it. Eusebius indeed says ^b, that it had been accounted spurious by some, and that not many of the ancient writers had made mention of it: but he himself says, that it was publicly read in most churches; and certain it is, that some very early writers have respect unto it. Irenaeus ^c manifestly refers to it, and so does Tertullian ^d; and it is expressly mentioned by Origen ^e among the canonical books of Scripture. The objections against it are of no weight, which are taken from the seeming disagreement between the Apostle Paul, and the writer of this epistle, concerning the doctrine of justification; and from his calling the law the perfect law of liberty, and insisting so much on the doctrine of works; all which will be seen to be agreeable to the other parts of Scripture, and easily reconciled with them; nor is there anything in it unworthy of an apostle and an inspired writer. The occasion of it seems to be partly the troubles and persecutions which attended the saints for the sake of Christ and the Gospel; and the design of it is to encourage them to patience under them, and to wait and hope for the speedy coming of Christ; and partly the evil practices of some that boasted of their faith and knowledge, though they lived very dissolute lives: and the view of the apostle is to show, that faith, without the fruits of righteousness, is not genuine; and he very largely in it exhorts to several duties very becoming Christians, and inveighs against several vices, which were scandalous to them.

Gill: James 1 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES 1

In this chapter, after the inscription and salutation, the apostle instructs the saints he writes to, how to behave under afflictions, and in every state of life; teaches them not to impute their sins to God, but to themselves; directs them in hearing the word, and cautions against self-deception in religion. The inscription and salutation are in Jam 1:1 in which the author of the epistle is described by his name and office; and the persons it is written to, by the tribes of Israel they belonged to, and by the condition in which they were scattered about in the world, to whom the apostle wishes all grace. And as they were in an afflicted state, he begins with an exhortation to rejoice in their afflictions; because hereby faith was tried, and that produced patience, and patience being perfect, is the way to be complete, and want nothing, Jam 1:2, but if any wanted wisdom, how to behave under such exercises, he advises to apply to God for it, from whom it may be expected, since he is the giver of it, and gives it to all, and that liberally, and does not upbraid with the former conduct, Jam 1:5 but then such should ask in faith, or otherwise it cannot be thought they should receive, and besides would justly deserve the characters of fluctuating and unstable persons, Jam 1:6. And the exhortations the apostle had given, he observes, suited all sorts of persons, poor and rich; the one who is exalted amidst his poverty, and the other who is mean, and frail, and mortal, amidst all his riches; which is illustrated by the flower of the grass falling off and perishing, Jam 1:9. And upon the whole, he concludes the blessedness of the man that endures affliction patiently, since a crown of life is promised him, and he will receive it, Jam 1:12 and from external temptations or afflictions, the apostle proceeds to internal ones, temptations to sin; and denies them to be of God, and imputes them to the lusts of men, and gives a very accurate account of the beginning, progress, and finishing of sin by man; and observes, that to place sin to the account of God, and not man, is a very great error, Jam 1:13, which he proves from the pure and holy nature of God; and from the good and perfect gifts, which all, and only, come from him; and instances in regeneration, which is of his will, and by his word, and is the beginning and spring of all good in man, Jam 1:17. And having mentioned the word, as a means of that grace, he gives some rules about hearing it; that it should be heard with eagerness, and received with meekness; and whatsoever is contrary thereunto should be avoided; as a forwardness to be teachers of it: wrath and anger at the doctrines of it, which do not work the righteousness of God; and all impurity and naughtiness of the mind, which must render it inattentive to it; and the rather all this should be regarded, since the word is the ingrafted word, and able to save the souls of men, Jam 1:19 and particular care should be had, that what is heard is put in practice, or otherwise it will be a self-deception; and such will be like a man that beholds his face in a glass goes away, and forgets what sort of a man he is; whereas, if a man looks into the glass of the Gospel hears the word attentively, remembers what he hears, and continues in it, he finds many blessed advantages in so doing, Jam 1:22 and then the apostle distinguishes between a vain religion, and a pure one; a vain religion is only a seeming one, and may be known to be so by a man's having no guard upon his tongue; wherefore if he thinks himself religious, he is mistaken and his heart deceived, Jam 1:26 but pure and undefiled religion, which is so in the sight of God, shows itself in a holy life and conversation in general, and particularly in visiting and assisting widows and orphans in distress, Jam 1:27.

College: James (Book Introduction)

FOREWORD

I owe a debt of gratitude to many for assistance with this volume. John York and John Hunter are responsible for making me a part of the College Press NIV Commentary project. The Institute for Christian Studies, Austin, Texas, allowed me a sabbatical to complete this project. St. Deiniol's Library, Hawarden, Wales, afforded me a generous scholarship to use their considerable resources during my sabbatical. I particularly appreciate the advice and encouragement of my colleague, Jeff Peterson. Most of all, I thank my wife, Deb, for her helpful comments on the manuscript and her constant good humor.

My prayer is that this volume will guide you to a fuller understanding of James and Jude and through them to a closer walk with Jesus, their brother and ours.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

INTRODUCTION

My first introduction to the book of James was in a Bible class at a Christian school my sophomore year of high school. For much of the school year we studied James. The next year, the Bible curriculum was changed, new teachers were hired, and somehow we ended up studying James again. It is a compliment to the power of the book of James that I was not discouraged by that double introduction. Instead, I found the book interesting and challenging both years. Since then James has profoundly shaped my preaching, teaching, and my Christian walk. The book of James is maligned by some and neglected by many. My prayer is that this commentary will help others discover the call to radical discipleship, to rejection of the values of the world, and to friendship with God made by this faithful leader in the apostolic age.

AUTHORSHIP

The writer identifies himself as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (James 1:1). The name "James" (Greek Iakobos ) comes from the Hebrew name "Jacob." It was a popular name for Hebrew men, recalling the rich heritage of Jacob, the founder of Israel. There are five persons named James in the New Testament who could have written this letter.

1. James the brother of Jesus. Some think this is the same James as the son of Alphaeus or "the less" (see below), but that is unlikely.

2. James the apostle, the son of Zebedee. Not only was he an apostle but (along with Peter and John) was part of the inner circle of Jesus who witnessed the Transfiguration and the agony in Gethsemane. However, this James was beheaded by Herod Agrippa I around A.D. 44 (Acts 12:2), making it unlikely he wrote the letter (unless it is by far the earliest New Testament book). Also, if this James wrote the letter, it is strange he did not call himself "an apostle" but only "a servant."

3. James the apostle, the son of Alphaeus (Matthew 10:3; Acts 1:13). The same objection, the author does not call himself an apostle, applies here. Although this James was an apostle, little is known about him.

4. James "the less" (or "the younger," Mark 15:40). Little is known of this James also, making it unlikely that he would write a letter accepted as authoritative. This may be the same James as #3.

5. James, the father of Judas (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13). He too is obscure.

There are two other possibilities for authorship.

6. It is written by another unknown James.

7. It is written by someone who uses the name James to increase the authority of his letter. This practice of pseudonymous authorship, that is, of writing in the name of a famous teacher, was known in the ancient world. The central argument for this position is that the Greek of the letter of James is too elegant to have been written by a Palestinian peasant such as the brother of Jesus. It must, therefore, have been written by a more literate writer who used his name. However, recent scholarship has shown that Palestine was quite cosmopolitan in the first century. So, it is impossible to say how fluent a Palestinian Jew might be in Greek.

Others claim that James 2:14-26 is reacting to the teaching of Paul's epistles on faith and works. Thus, it must be written after Paul's letters and so after the lifetime of James the Lord's brother. If this is the case, some argue, then the letter is pseudonymous. However, it is not clear that James reacts to Paul (see the commentary on James 2:14-26 below). Even if he is, he could be responding to Paul before Romans and Galatians are penned.

It is likely then that the letter was written by a well-known James. The son of Zebedee and the brother of Jesus were the two most famous persons with this name in the early church. James the son of Zebedee was martyred too early to have written this letter. Therefore, James, the brother of Jesus and Jude, is most likely the author. This has been the traditional consensus of the church through the ages.

The content of the letter is consistent with the view that James the brother of the Lord is its author. The writer is well-known and speaks authoritatively. He knows the teachings of Jesus. He knows the climate, vegetation, and social setting of Palestine. Specifically he mentions the scorching wind (1:11), good and bad water (3:11), figs, olives and grapes (3:12) and the need for early and late rain (5:7). Such knowledge does not prove that the book was written by someone from Palestine but does make it plausible.

THE BROTHERS OF JESUS

The brothers of Jesus, including James and Jude, were prominent leaders in the early church. There is some disagreement over the meaning of "brothers." Some scholars, particularly Roman Catholics who believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary, think the word refers to cousins or other relatives of Jesus. However, the Greek word rarely permits this meaning but is used just as our English word "brother." It is possible that these are Joseph's sons by a previous marriage but more likely that these are the younger children of Joseph and Mary.

These brothers are named in Matthew 13:55 (also Mark 6:3): "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us?" Since Matthew and Mark were written several years later than the events they portray, it is likely they mention the brothers of Jesus by name because they were well-known in the early church. James is the first name on this list in both Matthew and Mark, so we assume he is the oldest brother next to Jesus. Judas (or Jude) is last in Matthew but next to last in Mark; thus, he is one of the youngest brothers.

John plainly says the brothers of Jesus did not believe in him during his ministry (John 7:5). On one occasion they actively opposed him: "When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, 'He is out of his mind'" (Mark 3:21). Thinking Jesus was crazy, they sought to have him committed. No wonder Jesus later disclaims his mother and brothers when they come to see him. "'Who are my mother and my brothers?' he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother" (Mark 3:32b-35). His brothers' lack of faith may explain why Jesus on the cross committed his mother to John's care, not to theirs (John 19:26-27). The memory of their unbelief may also be behind the refusal of James and Jude to call themselves brothers of Jesus in their letters, preferring the title "slave of Jesus Christ" (James 1:1; Jude 1).

However after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, his brothers were with the apostles and others at prayer in the upper room (Acts 1:14). What changed them into believers? They had seen the risen Lord. Paul tells us Jesus appeared to James after the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7), and although we are not specifically told, it seems likely he appeared to his other brothers, perhaps as part of the five hundred who saw him at the same time (1 Corinthians 15:6).

James was the best known of the brothers and a leader of the Jerusalem church. When Peter is miraculously released from prison, he wants it reported to "James and the brothers" (Acts 12:17). The judgment given by James wins the day at the Jerusalem council of Acts 15. As leader of the Jewish believers in Jerusalem, James persuades Paul to perform a purification rite in the temple to prove his loyalty to the law (Acts 21:17-26).

The unity between Paul and James in Acts is less evident in Galatians, where Paul calls James one of those in Jerusalem "who seemed to be important" and "reputed to be pillars" (Galatians 2:6,9), perhaps implying that James was not as important as he thought himself to be. Later, men come from James and lead Peter and Barnabas into hypocrisy over refusing to eat with Gentiles (Galatians 2:12). However, the differences between James and Paul should not be overstated. James is concerned that Jewish believers continue to obey the Law as they should. Paul does not want the Law to be forced on Gentiles. In both Acts and Galatians, James and Paul agree that God has called one to minister to the Jews, the other to the Gentiles (Acts 15; Galatians 2:9).

Although James was the best known, the other brothers of Jesus were also Christian leaders. Paul claims the right to take a believing wife along on his journeys as do "the Lord's brothers" (1 Corinthians 9:5). Thus, the brothers of Jesus, including James and Jude, were traveling missionaries in the early church, and so were known and respected by many. Because of their childhood memories of growing up with Jesus and their later experiences of serving the risen Lord, James and Jude are uniquely qualified to speak to Christians in the letters that bear their names.

DATE AND OCCASION

The question of the date of James is connected with the discussion of its authorship. Some who think it is pseudonymous would date it quite late in the first century. However, if it is by James the brother of the Lord, then it must date somewhere between the time he became a leader of the Jerusalem church (about A.D. 40) and his death (about A.D. 62). If it is before the Jerusalem meeting of A.D. 50 (Acts 15), then the dispersion he refers to in v.1 might be the scattering of the church during the persecution by Saul (Acts 8:1). If it is dated that early, it is chronologically the first book of the New Testament. However, James refers often to quotations from the Sermon on the Mount in his letter. He most likely is quoting from an oral tradition of the Sermon but possibly is familiar with Matthew's account. If he indeed knew Matthew's Gospel, then James wrote his letter toward the end of his life.

There are few hints in James of its setting or destination. James the Lord's brother was a leader of the church in Jerusalem. Many scholars thus find a Palestinian setting for the letter. As shown above, the content of the letter is consistent with a Palestinian setting. It is addressed to "the twelve tribes scattered among the nations" ( v. 1). This broad address makes it impossible to define the situation of the recipients of the letter. James is truly a general or catholic (that is, universal) epistle. Since we do not know the specific circumstances of the original readers, this commentary will not speculate on that subject but will focus on the universal application of James' teaching for the church throughout the ages.

STRUCTURE, THEMES, AND STYLE

James is a letter in form; it has a greeting, refers to its readers often as "brothers," and identifies its author by name. However, it is a letter in form only; there are no greetings to persons by name and no mention of the circumstances of author or readers.

James is thus a letter in form, but in essence it is another type of literature, paraenesis or ethical instruction. The Greek philosophers gave such moral instruction in the ancient world. Proverbs is an Old Testament book of morals. Even earlier, Leviticus gives moral instruction to Israel, especially in the "Holiness Code" of Leviticus 19. James often refers to that chapter in his book:

James Quotation from Leviticus James 2:1 Lev 19:15 James 2:8 Lev 19:18 James 2:9 Lev 19:15 James 4:11 Lev 19:16 James 5:4 Lev 19:13 James 5:9 Lev 19:18 James 5:12 Lev 19:12 James 5:20 Lev 19:17 James was also influenced by certain Apocryphal books that taught similar moral maxims. The Apocrypha refers to those books found in certain Greek and Latin translations of the Old Testament that are not accepted as Scripture by Jews or by Protestants. As is seen in the following chart, two of those books, Ecclesiasticus (also known as Sirach, written c. 180 B.C.) and the Wisdom of Solomon (written c. 30 B.C.), have passages that are strikingly similar to certain verses in James:

Topic James Ecclesiasticus Wisdom Patience James 1:2-4 Sirach 1:23 Wisdom James 1:5 Sirach 1:26 Doubt James 1:6-8 Sirach 1:28 Trials James 1:12 Sirach 2:1-5 Temptation James 1:13 Sirach 15:11-12 Hearing James 1:19 Sirach 5:11 Rich and Poor James 2:6 Sirach 13:19 Wis 2:10 Mercy James 2:13 Wis 6:6 Brevity of life James 4:13-16 Wis 5:8-14 Money Rusts James 5:3 Sirach 29:10 Righteous Killed James 5:6 Wis 2:12, 20 Pray for Sick James 5:14 Sirach 38:9 Comparing these passages, it is obvious that James knew and used these books. However, he does not quote them as inspired Scripture. He is following in the same tradition of passing on moral wisdom. Thus, like these and other books of moral teaching, James is loosely organized, tying together related ethical teachings by use of repeated terms. It is difficult to find an overarching theme to the book or divide it into major sections. Instead, James continues to come back to a few important subjects. Although this commentary will proceed verse-by-verse through James, another profitable way of studying the book is to look at it topically. James addresses six major themes in the book:

1. Waiting for the Lord (James 1:2-4, 12-18; 5:7-12).

2. Wisdom (James 1:5-8; 3:13-18).

3. Rich and Poor (James 1:9-11; 2:1-13; 4:13-16; 5:1-6).

4. The Tongue (James 1:19-21,26; 3:1-12; 4:11-12).

5. Prayer (James 1:6-8; 4:1-10; 5:13-20).

6. Faith and Action (James 1:22-27; 2:14-26).

James has a vigorous and fresh writing style. He generally uses short and vivid sentences. He is fond of making comparisons to nature-waves, sun, flowers, planets, animals-to give his teaching concrete expression. He asks his readers short, penetrating questions to cause them to reflect. Sometimes he uses the form of the diatribe, a scathing denunciation of immoral behavior. All these literary uses are common in moral literature.

JAMES AND THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

There are so many parallels between James and the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5-7 and Luke 6 and 11 that James can best be thought of as a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount. There are more parallels between James and Matthew, but the language of the allusions is more similar to Luke. This could mean that James knew the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. However, it is more likely that James knew the sermon through oral tradition, since the early church would be sure to preserve the ethical teaching of Jesus. The following chart shows that every section of James has an echo of the Sermon:

Topic in James Sermon on the Mount Trials (1:2-4) Matthew 5:10-12, 48; Luke 6:23 Asking (1:5-8) Matthew 7:7-8; Luke 11:9-10 Riches (1:9-11) Matthew 6:19-21 God's Gifts (1:12-18) Matthew 7:11; Luke 11:13 Listening (1:19-27) Matthew 5:22; 7:21-27; Luke 6:46-49 Judging (2:1-13) Matthew 5:3,5,7,19-22; 7:1-5; Luke 6:20 Faith and Works (2:14-26) Matthew 7:21-23 The Tongue (3:1-12) Matthew 7:16; Luke 6:44-45 Wisdom (3:13-18) Matthew 5:5-9 The World or God (4:1-10) Matthew 5:4, 8; 6:7-8, 24; 7:7-8; Luke 6:25 Slander (4:11-12) Matthew 5:21-22; 7:1; Luke 6:37 Tomorrow (4:13-17) Matthew 6:25-34 The Rich (5:1-6) Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 6:24-25; 12:33 Patience (5:7-11) Matthew 5:11-12; 7:1; Luke 6:22-23 Swearing (5:12) Matthew 5:33-37 Prayer (5:13-18) Matthew 6:12-15; 7:7-11 These parallels are discussed in the commentary. Some are near verbatim quotations from the Sermon on the Mount; some are clear references; some are only vague allusions. However, the recognition that James is intentionally relating the teachings of Jesus to the situation of his readers increases one's appreciation for the book. As we will see below, James is no legalist but one who serves the church by calling it back to what Jesus intended it to be, a community that practices a higher righteousness (Matthew 5:20).

THE VALUE OF JAMES

There are two widespread misunderstandings of James that must be avoided to appreciate its value. One is that James is a legalistic book. Martin Luther (1483-1546) called it "an epistle of straw," meaning it had little value because he could not find the gospel there. Luther and many after him misunderstood the teaching of James on faith and works. As we will show below in the commentary, James did not believe in works righteousness but, like Paul, taught that Christians are saved by an active faith.

A more recent version of "James the legalist" is held by scholars who say James only repeats Jewish moral instruction, so there is nothing specifically Christian in his teaching. It is true that much of James is Jewish moral teaching. So is most of the moral teaching of Jesus. Since Jesus came to fulfill the Law and Prophets (Matthew 5:17), how can it be otherwise? James repeats the moral teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. However, James (like Jesus) takes conventional moral wisdom (both Jewish and Greek) and redefines it in light of the incarnation and the sure return of Christ. James's ethic is thus eschatological (from the Greek word e[scato", eschatos, "last," that is the last days). He tells Christians how to live as they wait for Christ's return. Thus, James is a thoroughly Christian book.

The second misunderstanding is that James is a practical book; it deals with people where they are and gives concrete steps on how they can improve. Of course, James is practical if one means he is concerned with Christian living. His words are certainly relevant to contemporary Christians. To show that relevance, every section of the commentary will end with a summary and application of James's teaching to Christian living today.

However, by calling James "practical" some mean it simply enforces our own cultural values. Such could not be farther from the truth. James is a thoroughly impractical book in that he challenges our assumptions at every turn. He condemns human wisdom and is pessimistic of the ability of humans to reform themselves. He is hopeful, however, of God's transcendent power in the believer. By calling on his readers to receive "wisdom from above" (James 3:17), he fights worldliness in the church by calling Christians to wait patiently for the Lord's return. If we feel comfortable with the teaching of James (or rather, with the teaching of Jesus, since he is the original source of James's teaching), then we have probably misunderstood it. It is a radical, counter-cultural message that the church today needs to hear and do.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

APPENDIX

PREACHING AND TEACHING FROM JAMES

This material is adapted from presentations given at the Minister's Sermon Seminar at the Institute for Christian Studies, Austin, Texas, and at the Biblical Preaching Seminar at Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee. Although intended primarily as guides for preaching from James, these suggestions have also been used as source material for topical classes in Bible school settings.

The following repeats in outline form much of what is found in the Introduction to James in the Commentary. The exegetical considerations also reflect the Commentary, but the sermon suggestions are designed to aid application in preaching and teaching.

CONSIDERATIONS ON PREACHING JAMES.

I. What kind of literature is James?

1. A Letter?

In form only: Begins as a letter, but no specific audience, setting, or greetings.

2. Paraenesis.

Ethical exhortation.

Similar to Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom of Solomon, 1 Peter, Hermas, and traditional Hellenistic moral instruction.

3. Challenge of preaching paraenetic material.

Dangers of moralism and of baptizing conventional wisdom.

4. Lack of central organization. Repeated topics. Lends itself to topical preaching from different passages.

II. Misunderstandings of James.

1. Too Jewish. Emphasizes a works righteousness. Legalistic. No distinctive Christian teaching. "Epistle of Straw" (Luther). Answer: James' ethic is eschatological. He takes conventional moral wisdom (both Jewish and Greek) and redefines it in light of the incarnation and return of Christ, the end (limit and goal) of time. 2. A Practical Book. Deals with people where they are and answers their questions. Gives concrete steps on how people can improve. Answer: James is a thoroughly impractical book. He condemns human wisdom. He is pessimistic of human ability, but hopeful of God's transcendent power in the believer. He challenges worldliness in the church with his eschatological perspective. Exegetical Considerations: James 1:2-4, 12-18; 5:7-12.

Theme: Waiting.

James 1:2-4.

1. "Brothers" (v. 2) used 14 times in James. Pastoral tone. Family implies closeness and responsibility.

2. All joy. "All" implies sincerity, not putting best face on trouble. Joy here is not pleasure, but "eschatological anticipated joy" [Davids].

3. "Trials" (v. 2) is an ambiguous word that may refer to trouble, persecution, or temptation (1:12-13). Many kinds ("multicolored") may refer to all three.

4. Trials are also tests (v. 3, see 1 Peter 1:7). Reminds one of Abraham, Job, and others. The effects of trials, not the trials themselves, are described.

5. Tests produce "heroic endurance" (v. 4), steadfastness, fortitude, constancy, strong consistency, staying power.

6. Heroic endurance is not an end in itself, but should be allowed to grow into perfection (a word James uses more often than any N.T. writer). The concern here is for maturity and completeness, not just a static lack of error. Perfection in James is eschatological, that is, brought by God and the end of steadfast obedience (Matthew 5:48).

James 1:12-16.

1. "Blessed" (v. 12) like the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) with their theme of reversal.

2. "Trial" (v. 12) is the same word as in vv. 3 and 4, and here implies persecution, since temptation should be resisted, not just endured.

3. The crown of life (see Revelation 2:10) refers to eschatological blessedness.

4. "Tempted" (v. 13) is the same word as in v. 12, but the context here implies temptation, not testing. God may test, but he does not tempt. We are to blame for our temptations and sins.

5. Desire births sin that grows into death. Contrast with trials that produce endurance that grows into perfection (v. 4). Death vs. the crown of life.

James 5:7-12.

1. Patience (vv. 7,8,10) in this passage is synonymous with endurance (v. 11).

2. "Until the coming" = as you wait for the coming or in light of the coming.

3. Early and late rain (v. 7) perhaps implies waiting for the Lord's current and future coming.

4. Do not grumble (v. 9). Patience is not just waiting for the Lord, but also bearing with others.

5. "Blessed" (v. 11) ties this passage with James 1:12-18.

6. Job may seem a strange example of patience, since he was bold enough to blame God for his troubles. However, he did show heroic endurance (better than "patience") by maintaining his relation to God and calling on God to appear.

Preaching Challenge: Preaching to an age of activity.

Homiletic Suggestion: "Those Who Stand and Wait": Preaching Text: James 1:12-18.

Introduction: We live in an age where activity is prized. We feel ashamed if we are not overworked. In the church, activity is usually given as the solution to our problems: "We need to be excited, on fire, out doing for the Lord." To stand by and wait for something to happen is thought to show a lack of devotion. But at times of illness when we cannot work, or times of reflection when we are thinking straight, we realize that God does not need our efforts.

In reflecting on his own inability to serve, John Milton in his sonnet "On His Blindness" reminds us:

"God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,

And post o'er land and ocean without rest;

They also serve who only stand and wait."

I. Stand the Test of Pain and Persecution. (James 1:2-4; 5:10-11).

We may not be persecuted, but we still face "multicolored trials": pain, sickness, grief, and doubt. What should we do in the face of trials? Not look for easy solutions, but grit our teeth and stand the pain. Like Job, we face trials not with a false, accepting "patience," but with heroic endurance, refusing to break relation with God.

II. Wait For Endurance to Produce Character. (James 1:2-4). Heroic endurance is not an end in itself; by standing the pain of trials, we are being transformed, even perfected by God. Standing the test produces a character of maturity.

III. Stand Against Temptation. (James 1:12-16). Temptation comes not from God, but from our own desires. We cannot get off the hook for temptation and sin. Instead of rationalizing our behavior by blaming others (God, Satan, family, society), we should fight temptation with the help of God. Here standing is not heroic endurance, but an active war against sin.

IV. Wait for the Coming of the Lord. (James 5:7-8). This is more than "pie in the sky," or "farther along we'll know more about it." The Lord comes in the present as well as the future. As the farmer stands and waits for rain, so we wait for Christ to act. But Christ's timetable may not be ours. We need patience. Waiting for Christ to act is a long process; it may take our whole life. But our whole existence as Christians is based on our confidence that he will come, that he will act on our behalf. Our task is to stand and wait.

Exegetical Considerations: James 1:5-8; 3:13-18.

Theme: Wisdom.

James 1:5-8.

1. Setting: after section on trial and endurance.

2. To lack nothing (v. 4) is the goal of endurance, but if one lacks wisdom, one should ask God for it.

3. Wisdom reminds one of O.T. parallels, particularly the Wisdom books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.

4. God gives "generously" (the word is found only here in the N.T.), which is better translated "straightforwardly" (with no strings attached) or without hesitation (contrast with "double-minded").

5. He also gives ungrudgingly or "without insult." Thus God is no reluctant, critical Giver.

6. So wisdom here is a gift of grace, unlike O.T. wisdom which can to some extent be "searched out."

7. James 1:6-8 will be discussed in a later sermon on prayer.

James 3:13-18.

1. Wisdom is displayed by good deeds and meekness.

2. True wisdom is contrasted with jealousy or rivalry and with a party spirit or selfish ambition or greedy politics or self-promotion. This second wisdom is not heavenly, but progresses from earthly to sensual (unspiritual) to demonic. It leads to all kinds of wickedness. James' readers ". . . have not traded in worldly views of power for God's viewpoint" (Perkins).

3. Verse 17 is a list of virtues, called "the fruit of righteousness," similar to other N.T. passages. Particularly "fruit" reminds one of Galatians 5:22-23. J.A. Kirk ( NT Studies 16 [1969], 24-38), suggests that in James wisdom functions as the Holy Spirit does in the rest of the N.T.

Preaching challenge: Preaching against "what everyone knows" to be true.

Homiletic Suggestion: Uncommon Sense.

Preaching Text: James 1:5-8; 3:13-18.

Introduction:

What does it take to be a winner, achieve excellence, or find happiness in the world? What passes for common sense today (as shaped by entertainment, self-help books, and success seminars) tells us that positive thinking, self-promotion, and tapping into hidden internal resources ("the inner child") will bring us happiness. Is this true or is there a better way?

I. James talks of an earthly wisdom or "common sense" that is based in ambition and self-promotion (3:14). Such wisdom is not only earthly, but unspiritual and even demonic. It promises much, but leads to all sorts of evil (3:16).

II. In contrast, there is a wisdom from above that produces good behavior and true happiness and success. This wisdom expresses itself in purity, peace, gentleness, mercy, and a willingness to yield to others (a sharp contrast to self-promotion, 3:17).

III. Great courage is called for to reject the first type of common sense. To even question the value of ambition and self-promotion marks one as strange and perhaps even irrational in the eyes of most. Some may call us lazy, critical, or even unAmerican. Still we must stand firm against such a view.

IV. But how in the world can one achieve the second kind of wisdom, if it is so foreign to natural common sense? How can we, on our own, catch the vision of happiness and success this vision promises? We cannot. Not on our own. This wisdom is from above (3:15, 17). It is a gift of God that comes only through faithful prayer (1:5-8).

V. Do you lack wisdom? Are you caught in the "common sense" of this age? Then ask God and he will generously and gladly give.

Exegetical Considerations: James 1:9-11; 2:1-13; 5:1-6.

Theme: Rich and poor.

James 1:9-11.

1. The great reversal of rich and poor is a theme found in the O.T. and the N.T. (particularly Luke). There are also echoes here of the Beatitudes. The "humiliation" of the rich is not an inner feeling, but a transformation (reversal) in status.

2. "Grass" is a popular Jewish image of the transitoriness of life (See Isaiah 40:6-8).

3. "In the midst of pursuits" may be translated "in the middle of his travels." James may have traveling merchants in mind.

James 2:1-13.

1. 2:1-4 is a diatribe against partiality, literally "judging by the face."

2. Verses 2-4 provide a hypothetical example (diatribes have theoretical sparring partners) with a sharp, stylized contrast between rich and poor.

3. Two asides: Does the use of the term "synagogue" for a Christian assembly imply a Jewish context for James? Is the setting here worship or a legal assembly?

4. Verse 4 is difficult to translate, but probably means "Have you not made distinctions among yourselves?"

5. Verses 5-13 is a homily against partiality. The move is from the specific to the general: generally the rich have oppressed the poor and opposed Christ. By contrast, the poor have a special place in God's heart: they are chosen to inherit his riches (a prominent O.T. theme, particularly in the Psalms).

6. Partiality or prejudice may seem a minor sin, a mere human foible, but it is a sin against love of neighbor (the royal law) and as such is as bad as adultery or murder (compare Matthew 5:21-26).

7. This entire section is parallel to Matthew 7:1-14.

James 5:1-6.

1. Again the rich are generally unrighteous. Their riches will not last ("rust" in Matthew 6:19-21) and will even testify against them (cf. "treasure" in Matthew 6:19).

2. The poor cry to the Lord of Hosts (a term of power and vengeance) for vindication (compare Abel's blood and Deuteronomy 24:14ff.) "Fattened for slaughter," see Jeremiah 12:13.

SUMMARY: In James the poor are always righteous and the rich are always evil. This is a generalization and is not always true. However, we should resist the temptation to spiritualize these passages by making "poor" merely a term for the community of the faithful. James's warning is clear: riches are to be viewed not as a sign of grace or a benign blessing, but as at best a snare and a temptation and at worst a sign of judgment.

Preaching challenge: Preaching to people who see themselves as neither rich, nor poor.

Homiletic Suggestion: Face Value.

Preaching Text: James 2:1-13.

Introduction:

What kind of people does it take to build a stable church? At face value, it would seem a church of affluent professional people would provide the kind of social and financial stability a church needs. Given a choice, would we not prefer to have well-off church members, instead of those on the brink of poverty?

Wouldn't such a church be more successful?

I. James calls this preference for the rich "favoritism" or "partiality" and he condemns it in no uncertain terms. To prefer the rich makes us ungodly judges who violate the royal law, a sin as bad as adultery or murder (James 2:1-13).

II. Is not James himself partial to the poor? In a sense, yes. He does not say "never judge between rich and poor," but rather gives new standards for judgment. The gospel turns our values upside down.

The rich will lose their riches (1:9-11). Their wealth will count against them in judgment, because they have lived in luxury, cheated the workers, blasphemed Christ (2:7), and even murdered the righteous (5:1-6).

The poor by contrast have been chosen to be rich in faith and inherit the kingdom.

III. As we saw in the last sermon, "common sense" will not always work as a biblical standard for church building. James calls for conversion, for reversing our standards. If the church should target anyone, it should reach out with good news to the poor. Perhaps one reason our churches have failed to grow is that we try to build churches on those who are self-sufficient, instead of on those in need.

Exegetical Considerations: James 1:19,26; 3:1-12.

Theme: The Tongue.

James 1:19-20.

This passage may be against hasty utterances generally, or against setting oneself up as a teacher (thus "slow to speak" the word of God, vv. 18,22).

James 1:26-27.

"Claims to be religious" may again refer to religious teachers. If the teacher does not bridle the tongue (a phrase used only in James in the N.T.), he deceives himself. Religious talk is no good without action to back it up.

James 3:1-12.

1. Teachers were important leaders in the early church (1 Corinthians 12:28; Acts 13:1; Romans 12:7; Ephesians 4:11). One desiring the authority and prestige of a teacher should also beware of the strict judgment (or harsher penalties) they face, stricter because of their influence and understanding. Those who teach are accountable for those who are taught (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).

2. Verses 2-12 is a traditional diatribe against the tongue. James draws from Jewish sources (Proverbs) and from Hellenistic moral thought and literature. Examples: "bridle" - Sophocles; "rudder" - Aristotle, Plutarch, Philo; "fire" - Proverbs 16:27, Sirach 28:22, Greek moralists; "fig" - Epictetus.

3. Verse 6, "stains the whole body," contrast with pure "unstained" religion (1:27).

4. Verses 9-12, the tongue's "doubleness" is one of James' pet peeves. Compare the double-minded man (1:7-8), and the one who says, but does not do (2:14-17).

Preaching challenge: Avoiding a legalistic morality on one hand and "cheap grace" on the other by calling for a change of heart.

Homiletic Suggestion: We Need Fewer Teachers.

Preaching Text: James 3:1-12.

Introduction.

We need fewer teachers! Such an announcement has probably never been made in our churches. Usually we must beat the bushes for teachers. If you've ever been in charge of recruiting teachers for Bible school, you know how difficult it can be.

I. Yet James says clearly, "Not many of you should become teachers." Why would one not want to be a teacher? There is authority, prestige, and honor in the role. We all like to be experts. But a great responsibility is on the shoulder of a teacher. He can influence for good or evil. Thus he faces stricter judgment and harsher penalties. Why is the teacher in such a dangerous position? Because he uses the uncontrollable tongue.

II. But what if you're not a teacher and don't plan to be? Can you relax and let this sermon pass you by? No. Because even if you do not teach, you have a tongue. Your small tongue rules your body as a bridle rules a horse or a rudder rules a ship. It is an out-of-control fire that cannot be tamed.

III. What sins are committed by the tongue? Anger (1:19), slander (4:11), swearing (5:12), and inconsistency (3:9-12). To James, the last is the worst. One must not praise God and then curse his brother or sister.

IV. So what do we do with our tongues? At one level, the answer is clear: "be slow to speak," watch what you say, think before you speak, work on controlling your tongue. But if the tongue is untamable, why try? Because God can tame it and us. What is at stake here is not just watching your words, but being controlled by God. It's not so much about self-improvement, but about character.

V. So, whether we teach or not, the real question is "Who controls our speech?" or rather "Who controls our life?" The answer to this question is seen not in our intention, but in our speech and actions.

Exegetical Considerations: James 5:13-19.

Theme: Prayer.

1. Verses 13-16 is a saying dealing with various life situations; these are introduced not by conditional clauses (If . . . Then), but as independent sentences (One is . . . Let him), perhaps implying the universality of suffering, cheerfulness, and sickness. Sickness is particularly singled out.

2. Oil here has been understood as medicinal, ceremonial (as in an exorcism), or symbolic of prayer. The reference here is to healing through the miraculous power of Jesus ("in the name of the Lord"), however, v. 15 ascribes this power not to the elders themselves, but to the prayer of faith.

3. The prayer of faith will "save" the sick and the Lord will "raise them up." These terms refer to both cure and resurrection.

4. Verse 15b introduces forgiveness of sins. Here sin is associated with illness. Verse 16 continues the themes of sin, confession, and intercession, and introduces Elijah as an example of one who prays righteously and effectively.

5. Verses 19-20 are a commentary on the admonition in v. 16 to "pray for one another."

Sermon challenge: Preaching to people who believe in "providence," not the power of God through prayer.

Homiletic Suggestion: Pain, Pleasure, Sickness, Sin.

Preaching Text: James 5:13-19.

I. Some of us are hurting. It may be the pain of grief, the agony of defeat and failure, the ache of depression, the strain of worry, or the frustration of life in general. Our pain is real and must not be denied. What do we do when we are in pain? We pray.

II. Some of us are happy. Ecstatic. All goes well with us. We had a week of triumph and accomplishment. We feel good. How do we express our joy? We sing. We sing praise to the God who gives us blessings.

III. Some of us are sick. Some have minor, but nagging illnesses. Some face life-threatening disease. What do we do? We ask for prayer. We ask spiritual leaders to pray for us. Yet it is not the elders or the oil that heals; it is God who hears the prayer of faith and who saves and raises us.

We are not here promised healing from all disease, but we should be bold enough to ask. God is a good and generous God. He can and he will heal. Yet his will is greater than ours. If he does not save us now and raise us from the sick bed, he will save and raise us from the grave.

IV. Some of us are sinful. Some? Don't you mean all? Well, yes and no. All sin. No one has perfect spiritual health, just as no one has perfect physical health. Yet just as some are sick enough to need special help, so too some of us are spiritually sick, caught in a sin and unable to get out. What should we do? Confess our sins to one another. Pray for one another. God will forgive, and heal, and save our soul from death.

Conclusion:

Prayer is for all situations of life: joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, health and sickness, righteousness and sin. Prayer is effective when nothing else is. It can stop or bring the rain. It can heal, and save, and raise up. Faithful prayer is effective, not because of the way it makes us feel, but because of the God to whom we pray.

Exegetical Considerations: James 1:6-8; 4:1-10.

Theme: Prayer.

James 1:6-8.

1. Faith is connected with the granting of prayer requests in many N.T. passages (Mark 2:5; 4:40; 5:34, 36; 9:23f.; 11:23f.; Matthew 8:10; 9:28; Romans 4:20-21). In v. 6, faith is not a general term, but refers to the certainty that the request will be fulfilled.

2. The sea metaphor (v. 6) is common in ancient literature.

3. Double-minded is a term for indecision, doubt, and unbelief. Specifically here it is doubt that God will grant wisdom. Such a person is unsettled and unstable in faith. Double-minded may be contrasted with loving God with all your heart.

James 4:1-10.

1. "Wars and conflicts" refers to church fights. These spring not from defense of truth, but from desires or cravings ( hedonai, a different word than in 1:14-15) that fight in our members (probably referring to our individual bodies, not church members).

2. Murder (v. 2) does not seem to fit the context. Some (beginning with Erasmus) have suggested the text was originally "you are jealous," but there is no textual evidence for this reading. Desire leading to murder is not an unbelievable concept (Cain and Abel, Matthew 5:21ff., 1 John 3:15).

3. Unmade prayers will not be answered, but selfish prayer will also not be answered.

4. Verses 4-6 condemn such prayers as examples of double-mindedness, pride and hypocrisy (the attempt to befriend God and the world). Such selfishness is apostasy ("Adulterers!").

5. Verses 7-10 call for repentance. Note the descriptions of repentance: submit, draw near, cleanse, purify, lament, mourn, weep, humble. Only such repentance can allow God to restore relationship ("he will exalt you"), including prayer.

Challenge: Preaching to those who separate prayer and life.

Homiletic Suggestion: How Not to Pray.

Preaching Text: James 4:1-10.

Introduction.

How often do we pray? Most will answer "not often enough." When do you pray? Regularly, only when we think of it, only when you're in trouble? Many of us neglect our prayer life and feel guilty for doing so. But if we fail to pray, we are not only guilty, but foolish. God wants to give and we will not ask! But God is not just concerned with how often we pray; he also cares how we pray. This is why James warns us how not to pray.

I. Don't forget to pray! (4:2). "You do not have because you do not ask." How often do we rely on our own power instead of God's? We do not pray because we think we can handle things ourselves, or conversely, because we think our request is too great even for God. We don't pray for headaches (we take aspirin), but we don't pray for the terminally ill (there's no hope for him).

II. Don't pray with selfish desires! (4:1-3). First, don't pray against a brother (4:1-2). Church fights are usually based on personalities, not principles. We insist on our own way, but we dare not ask God to give us our will, but his. Secondly, don't ask for gifts that are purely selfish, that will not benefit others.

III. Don't pray with worldly motives! (4:4-10). "Worldly" conjures up pictures of "don't dance, drink, smoke" sermons. What James condemns is "trying to have it all." We cannot have it all. We cannot be a friend of the world, enjoy its wealth, status and power, and also be a friend of God. We cannot pray for success and faithfulness. Repentance and humility are needed to restore relation to God.

IV. Don't doubt God's goodness in prayer! (1:6-8). Do we sometimes pray thinking, "I hope God does this for me," but deep down we think he won't? James calls this being "double-minded." We believe, but we don't. Like a storm-tossed ship, we go back and forth in our faith. True, at times we do not know God's will for us. But we know he wants to give us wisdom and other spiritual gifts. For those we can (and must) pray with no doubts, believing in the goodness and power of our God.

Conclusion:

How to pray: Continually, with concern for others, humbly, in a relationship with God, with full assurance of faith.

Exegetical Considerations: James 1:22-27; 2:14-26.

Theme: Faith as active obedience.

James 1:22-27.

1. The heart of this passage is the mirror analogy: one who looks in a mirror, sees the need for improvement, but doesn't change is like the one who hears, but doesn't act. One who looks into the law of liberty (a significant term for James's understanding of morality) is called to a new character, one requiring perseverance in action. "Mirror" may also refer to an ideal image of moral exempla [Plutarch].

2. "Doing" is given concrete meaning in self-control and compassion for those in need. Widows and orphans, see Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalm 68:5; Isaiah 1:10-17; Jeremiah 5:8.

3. Mere hearers practice self-deception. They are convinced they have true religion because they have heard the words of salvation.

James 2:14-26.

1. Note that James says "you say you have faith" (v. 14). Such "faith" can only be claimed, not shown.

2. Good intentions and warm feelings do no practical good, and so are not true faith (2:15-16).

3. Examples:

"Faith" without works: demons (who can recite the Shema , Deuteronomy 6:4) v. 19; a dead body, v. 26.

Faith shown by works: Abraham, vv. 21-24; Rahab, v. 25. Both show faith by works of hospitality.

4. James would agree with Paul that Abraham was justified by faith, but not by merely a spoken or claimed faith, but by a tested faith. Paul also uses the language of "working faith" (see 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:11).

5. James may be fighting the idea that salvation by faith is purely personal and does not require obligation to others. He too, like us, may have known uninvolved church members.

Preaching Challenge: Preaching to people who have left legalism for an easy "faith" that does not demand obedience.

Homiletic Suggestion: Preaching What You Practice.

Preaching Text: James 2:14-26.

Introduction: What makes one a Christian? What gives true religion?

I. Going to church? (James 1:22-25). If you're 50 years old, have gone to church all your life, four services per week, then you've heard over 10,000 sermons and Bible lessons in your life. 10,000!

So, are you truly religious? Most would say, "You bet." Most would call you a religious nut (10,000 lessons!). But Christianity is not a spectator sport. Hearing and knowing are no good unless acted upon.

If you look in a mirror and see a smudge on your face, it does you no good if you walk away and forget. So too, if you go to church and see yourself in the perfect law of freedom and do nothing to change, it does you no good.

II. Do good intentions make one religious? (James 1:27; 2:14-17). We are all nice people here who wouldn't hurt a fly and who feel strongly for those in need. But if I'm hungry, it does me no good to know you have warm feelings for me. I need food. Intending to do right and even feeling compassion do no good unless they result in action.

III. Faith makes one a Christian. Surely that is true; we have many Scriptures that prove that's true. But what is faith? Believing in the one God? Demons do that. Is it talking the right talk? Confessing Christ? Claiming faith? No, faith is an active verb, it's something you do.

But wasn't Abraham made right by faith (Romans 4:3)? Surely all we have to do to be like him is to confess, "Yes, I believe." But Abraham did his faith; he put it into action by offering Isaac. His faith was not faith until tested.

Faith includes caring for those in need. It implies obligation.

Conclusion:

We often talk of practicing what we preach, as if Christianity was a verbal message that must be acted upon. But Christian faith is first of all something that is done. The gospel is the message of what God has done. Faith is our response to his action in Christ. Christianity is a life, not a recitation of doctrine. Teaching follows the life of faith. We preach what we practice.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

BIBLIOGRAPHY

JAMES

Adamson, James. The Epistle of James. New International Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976.

. James: The Man and His Message . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989.

Davids, Peter H. The Epistle of James. New International Greek Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982.

Dibelius, Martin. James. Hermeneia. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976.

Hort, F.J.A. The Epistle of St. James. London: Macmillan, 1909.

Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Letter of James. Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1995.

Kistemaker, Simon J. James and I-III John. New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986.

Knowling, R.J. The Epistle of St. James. Westminster Commentaries. London: Methuen and Co., 1904.

Kugelman, Richard. James & Jude . New Testament Message. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1980.

Laws, Sophie. A Commentary on the Epistle of James. Harper New Testament Commentary. New York: Harper, 1980.

Martin, R.A. James . Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1982.

Martin, Ralph P. James. Word Biblical Commentary. Waco: Word, 1988.

Mayor, Joseph B. The Epistle of St. James . London: Macmillan, 1897.

McDonnell, Rea. The Catholic Epistles and Hebrews. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1986.

Mitton, C. Leslie. The Epistle of James. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966.

Moo, Douglas J. James. Tyndale New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985.

Motyer, Alec. The Message of James. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove: IVP, 1988.

Perkins, Pheme. 1,2 Peter, James, Jude. Interpretation. Louisville: John Knox, 1995.

Plummer, Alfred. The General Epistles of St. James and St. Jude. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891.

Reicke, Bo. The Epistles of James, Peter, and Jude. Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1964.

Roberts, J.W. The Letter of James. Living Word Commentary. Abilene: ACU Press, 1963.

Ropes, James Hardy. James. International Critical Commentary. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1916.

Ross, Alexander. The Epistles of James and Jude. New International Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954.

Sidebottom, E.M. James, Jude, 2 Peter. New Century Bible. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967.

Stulac, George M. James. IVP New Testament Commentary. Downers Grove: IVP, 1993.

Tasker, R.V.G. The General Epistle of James. Tyndale New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

ABBREVIATIONS

BAGD Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker Greek Lexicon (2nd. ed.)

DSB Daily Study Bible

ICC International Critical Commentary

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament

KJV King James Version

LWC Living Word Commentary

LXX Septuagint

MNTC Moffatt New Testament Commentary

NAC New American Commentary

NCB New Clarendon Bible

NCBC New Century Bible Commentary

NEB New English Bible

NIBC New International Bible Commentary

NIGTC New International Greek Testament Commentary

NRSV New Revised Standard Version

NTC New Testament Commentary

NTS New Testament Studies

PNTC Pelican New Testament Commentary

REB Revised English Bible

RSV Revised Standard Version

TBC Torch Bible Commentaries

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. by

Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich

TEV Today's English Version

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

College: James (Outline)

OUTLINE

I. GREETING - 1:1

II. ENDURING TRIALS - 1:2-4

III. ASK FOR WISDOM - 1:5-8

IV. RICHES TEMPORARY - 1:9-11

V. TEMPTATION NOT FROM GOD - 1:12-18

VI. SPEAKING, LISTENING, DOING - 1:19-27

VII. JUDGING BY APPEARANCE - 2:1-13

A. Favoritism - 2:1-7

B. The Royal Law - 2:8-13

VIII. FAITH THAT WORKS - 2:14-26

A. Faith Without Works - 2:14-17

B. Faith With Works - 2:18-26

IX. TAMING THE TONGUE - 3:1-12

X. WISDOM, EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY - 3:13-18

XI. FRIENDS OF THE WORLD OR OF GOD - 4:1-10

XII. DON'T SPEAK AGAINST A BROTHER - 4:11-12

XIII. DON'T COUNT ON TOMORROW - 4:13-17

XIV. WARNING TO THE RICH - 5:1-6

XV. WAITING FOR THE LORD - 5:7-11

XVI. DON'T SWEAR - 5:12

XVII. PRAYER, CONFESSION, AND SAVING THE SINNER - 5:13-20

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV