Trials and their Purpose 1. _a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ_ The description which the writer gives of himself throws no light on his identity. The term "servant," better SLAVE, as one who had been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Corinthians 7:23), was used of themselves by... [ Continue Reading ]
_count it all joy_ We lose, in the English, the link which connects the wish for "joy" merged in our "greeting," with the thought which indicates how the wish may be realised even under conditions that seem most adverse to it. The transition may be noticed as characteristic of the style of the Epist... [ Continue Reading ]
_that the trying of your faith_ The word for "trying" implies at once a "test," and a "discipline" leading to improvement. The same phrase meets us, in conjunction also with "divers temptations," in 1 Peter 1:7. Each was, perhaps, quoting what had become an axiom of the Church's life. _worketh pati... [ Continue Reading ]
_But let patience have her perfect work_ Better, AND LET ENDURANCE HAVE A PERFECT WORK, there being sequence of thought but not contrast. The word for "perfect" expresses the perfection of that which reaches its end, and so implies, possibly, a reference to our Lord's words in Matthew 10:22. The for... [ Continue Reading ]
Wisdom, and the Prayer that gains it 5. _If any of you lack wisdom_ As before, in James 1:1-2, the prominent word of the preceding clause suggests the opening of the next, the word for "lack" being the same as the "wanting" in the previous verse. The prominence thus given to wisdom is characteristic... [ Continue Reading ]
_let him ask in faith_ The prominence thus given to faith at the very outset of the Epistle must be borne in mind in connection with the subsequent teaching of ch. James 2:14-26. Faith, i.e. trust in God, as distinct from belief in a dogma, is with him, as with St Paul, of the very essence of the sp... [ Continue Reading ]
_let not that man think_ Faith, undoubting faith, is then the condition of the prayer for wisdom, as of all other prayers, being heard and answered. Without it, the _No_excludes the _Yes_, which yet the man will not quite abandon. _of the Lord_ It is a question whether the Divine Title is used in th... [ Continue Reading ]
_A double minded man_ The context shews that the man so described (the Greek word is not found in any earlier writer and may have been coined by St James) is not the fraudulent man but the waverer, trying to serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), halting between two opinions (1 Kings 18:21). It answers t... [ Continue Reading ]
Riches, and their perishableness 9. _Let the brother of low degree_ The Greek joins the sentence on to the preceding with the conjunction which may be either "and," or "but," implying that there is a sequence of ideas of some kind. The train of thought would seem to lie in the fact, as shewn in our... [ Continue Reading ]
_But the rich, in that he is made low_ Better, IN HIS HUMILIATION or LOWLINESS. The context implies that the rich man also is a "brother." Such an one was tempted to exult in his wealth as that which raised him above his fellow-men. The view which Christ had taught him to take was, that it placed hi... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the sun is no sooner risen … but it withereth_ Better, FOR THE SUN AROSE AND WITHERED. The Greek has nothing that answers to "no sooner," and the verbs are throughout in the past tense as in a narrative. It is as though St James were using the form not of a similitude, but of a parable, apparen... [ Continue Reading ]
Temptation, and its history 12. _Blessed is the man that endureth temptation_ The mode of teaching by Beatitudes reminds us at once of the Sermon on the Mount, with which, it will be seen afterwards, the Epistle has so many points of contact. Stress is laid on "enduring" as distinct from simply "su... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let no man say when he is tempted_ The thought of trial as coming from outward circumstances, and forming part of man's spiritual education, leads to a deeper inquiry as to its nature, and so passes on to the wider notion of temptation, which includes the allurements of desire as well as the trials... [ Continue Reading ]
_when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed_ Both the participles are primarily used of the way in which animals are taken, the first of capture by the hook or noose, as with fish or the crocodile (Herod. 11. 70), the second of beasts or birds which are attracted by food set for them as a ba... [ Continue Reading ]
_when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin_ The image suggested in the previous verse is developed with an almost startling boldness. The will that yields to desire in so doing engenders evil. And as from that fatal embrace, there comes first the conception and then the birth of sin. But sin a... [ Continue Reading ]
God and His perfect gifts 16. _Do not err_ The absolute goodness of God had been presented so far on its negative side as excluding all origination of evil. But the writer feels that that is but a partial view. It has a brighter aspect, more full of hope and blessing, and the error against which he... [ Continue Reading ]
_Every good gift and every perfect gift_ The two nouns are different in the Greek, the first expressing the abstract _act of giving_, the second the _gift_as actually bestowed. The perfection of the one flows from the goodness of the other. The "perfect gift" carries our thoughts beyond all temporal... [ Continue Reading ]
_Of his own will begat he us_ The construction of the Greek is participial, WILLING HE BEGAT US, and is parallel to that of Colossians 2:18, which, rightly rendered, runs " LET NO MAN WILLING, i.e. by the exercise of his will, deprive you.…" The word implies the rejection of the thought either of a... [ Continue Reading ]
Man's wrath, and God's righteousness 19. _Wherefore_ The better MSS. give "Ye know this … but let every man." _my beloved brethren_ The formula of address was common to all the four great writers of the Apostolic Church. We find it in St Paul (1 Corinthians 15:58), in St Peter (2 Peter 3:14-15), i... [ Continue Reading ]
_the wrath of man_ Better, A MAN'S WRATH, so as to represent the absence of the article in the original. By "the righteousness of God" the phrase is common to St James and St Paul (Rom 10:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9) is meant the righteousness which God requires and which He also gives. T... [ Continue Reading ]
_lay apart all filthiness_ The cognate adjective is found in its literal sense in ch. James 2:2, and figuratively in Revelation 22:11. A kindred noun appears in a like combination in "the putting away of the _fifth_of the flesh" of 1 Peter 3:21 and in the LXX. of Proverbs 30:12. The word points not... [ Continue Reading ]
Doers and Hearers 22. _But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only_ The thought is the same, though illustrated by a different similitude, as that of the closing verses of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:24-28). The reference to the "hearers of the word" confirms the explanation given abov... [ Continue Reading ]
_he is like unto a man_ The instance is chosen to illustrate the nature of the _paralogism_or fallacy by which the man deceived himself. It lies, as said above, in forgetting the self-knowledge which should form a premiss in his argument, and reasoning as if it did not exist. _beholding his natural... [ Continue Reading ]
_For he beholdeth himself_ The Greek gives a subtle variation in the tenses. "For he BEHELD himself" (the momentary act), and HATH GONE AWAY (the completed departure continuing in the present), and FORGAT (the oblivion coming and being completed in a moment). The mode of stating a similitude in the... [ Continue Reading ]
_But whoso looketh_ The word involves primarily the idea of stooping down and bending over that on which we look, as with a fixed gaze. See for its literal use Mark 16:5; Luke 24:12, and for its spiritual application, "which things the angels desire _to look into_," in 1 Peter 1:12. In Sir 14:23, it... [ Continue Reading ]
True and false Religion 26. _If any man among you seem to be religious_ Better, IF ANY MAN THINKS THAT HE IS RELIGIOUS. The Greek adjective is one which expresses the outward ritual side of religion, answering to "godliness" as the inward. Comp. the cognate word rendered "_worship_of angels" in Colo... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pure religion_ The word still presents the outward aspect of the devout life. Better perhaps, PURE WORSHIP. _undefiled_ The term seems chosen with special reference to the Pharisee's scrupulous care to avoid anything that caused ceremonial defilement. Comp. John 18:28, "lest they should be _defiled... [ Continue Reading ]