James 1:8

James 1:8. In this verse it is to be observed that the word ‘is' is in italics, and therefore is not in the original. The verse ought to be translated: ‘He,' that is, the doubter, ‘is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.'

a double-minded man literally, a two-souled man. Double-mindedness is here used not in the sense of duplicity, but of dubiousness and indecision a man whose affections are divided between God and the world, Or between faith and unbelief, who has, as it were, two minds the one directed to God, and the other to the world. The man is not a hypocrite; he is a waverer in his religion.

is unstable in all his ways. This necessarily arises from his double-mindedness. Where there is a want of unity in the internal life, it is also wanting in the external life (Huther). The man is actuated sometimes by one impulse, and sometimes by another; and thus will be perpetually running into inconsistencies of conduct. He wants decision of character. On such a man there is no dependence; he has no fixedness of purpose, and is destitute of that holy earnestness that adds dignity to the character.