James 5:6

Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. YE HAVE CONDEMNED ... THE JUST. The aorist [ katedikasate (G2613)], 'Ye are wont to condemn, etc., the just.' Their condemnation of Christ, "the Just" (Acts 3:14; Acts 7:52; Acts 22:14), is the prominent thought. All the innocent blood shed is included, the Holy Spirit comprehending James himself, called "the just," slain in a tumult. See 'Introduction.' Compare the "righteous (just) man," James 5:16. The righteousness of Jesus and His people peculiarly provokes the ungod...

6_Ye have condemned_. Here follows another kind of inhumanity, that the rich by their power oppressed and destroyed the poor and weak. He says by a metaphor that the just were condemned and killed; for when they did not kill them by their own hand, or condemn them as judges, they yet employed the authority which they had to do wrong, they corrupted judgments, and contrived various arts to destroy the innocent, that is, really to condemn and kill them. (139) By adding that _the just did not resist them_, he intimates that the audacity of the rich was greater; because those whom they oppressed were without any protection. He, however, reminds them that the more ready and prompt would be the vengeance of God, when the poor have no protection from men. But though the just did not resist, because he ought to have patiently endured wrongs, I yet think that their weakness is at the same time re...

1-6 Public troubles are most grievous to those who live in pleasure, and are secure and sensual, though all ranks suffer deeply at such times. All idolized treasures will soon perish, except as they will rise up in judgment against their possessors. Take heed of defrauding and oppressing; and avoid the very appearance of it. God does not forbid us to use lawful pleasures; but to live in pleasure, especially sinful pleasure, is a provoking sin. Is it no harm for people to unfit themselves for minding the concerns of their souls, by indulging bodily appetites? The just may be condemned and killed; but when such suffer by oppressors, this is marked by God. Above all their other crimes, the Jews had condemned and crucified that Just One who had come among them, even Jesus Christ the righteous....

Verse 6. _YE HAVE CONDEMNED_ AND _KILLED THE JUST;_ AND _HE DOTH_ _NOT RESIST YOU__._] Several by τονδικαιον, _the just one_, understand Jesus Christ, who is so called, Acts 3:14; Acts 7:52; Acts 22:14; but the structure of the sentence, and the connection in which it stands, seem to require that we should consider this as applying to the _just_ or _righteous in general_, who were persecuted and murdered by those oppressive rich men; and their death was the consequence of their _dragging them before the judgment seats_, James 2:6, where, having no influence, and none to plead...

YE HAVE CONDEMNED AND KILLED THE JUST - τὸν δίκαιον ton dikaion - “the just one,” or “the just man” - for the word used is in the singular number. This may either refer to the condemnation and crucifixion of Christ - meaning that their conduct towards his people had been similar to the treatment of the Saviour, and was in fact a condemnation and crucifixion of him afresh; or, that by their rejection of him in order to live in sin, they in fact condemned him and his religion; or, that they had condemned and killed the just man - meaning that they had persecuted those who were Christians; or, that by their harsh treatment of others in withholding what was due to them, they had deprived them of the means of subsistence, and had, as it were, killed the righteous. Probably the true meaning is, that it was one of their characteristics that they had been guilty of wrong towards good men. Whet...

EXPOSITION JAMES 5:1 DENUNCIATION OF THE RICH FOR (1) GRINDING DOWN THE POOR AND KEEPING BACK THEIR WAGES; (2) LUXURY; (3) MURDER. The whole section resembles nothing so much as an utterance of one of the old Jewish prophets. It might almost be a leaf torn out of the Old Testament. JAMES 5:1 GO TO NOW (see on James 4

YE HAVE CONDEMNED AND KILLED THE JUST,.... Meaning not Christ, the Just One, as some have thought; whom the Jewish sanhedrim condemned as guilty of death, and got the sentence passed upon him, and him to be crucified by Pontius Pilate, on the day of slaughter, at the time of the passover, as some connect the last clause of the preceding verse with this; since the apostle is not writing to the Jerusalem Jews, nor to unbelievers, but to professors of religion; though he might say they did it, because their nation did it: but rather this is to be understood of the poor saints, who were just, through the imputation of Christ's righteousness to them, and lived soberly, righteously, and godly, and were harmless and inoffensive in their conversation: who were evil spoken of, censured, and judged, and condemned in a rash and uncharitable manner by their brethren; or were drawn to the judgment se...

V. THE COMING OF THE LORD AND THE LIFE OF FAITH CHAPTER 5 _ 1. The oppression by the rich and their coming doom (James 5:1)_ 2. Be patient unto the coming of the Lord (James 5:7) 3. The prayers of faith and the life of faith (James 5:13) James 5:1 The two classes whom James addresses stand out very prominently in this final chapter of his Epistle. The rich oppressors certainly are not believers but the unbelieving rich; they are not addressed as “brethren”; but others are in verse 7 and exhorted to patience. Both classes, the unbelieving rich and the believing remnant are confronted by the coming of the Lord. “Go to

From the merely careless rich James turns to the actively oppressive, the fellows of those whom he lashes in James 2:6 f. For him, of course, the prophetic Day of the Lord was more assured and more definite _than_ to the Jews he addressed; he had in thought the apocalypse of Mark 13, which was to receive a first fulfilment in the fall of Jerusalem. Even Jews of the Dispersion would feel many reflex effects of that catastrophe. James 5:2 recalls Matthew 6:19. There was a kind of fuliginous vapour arising from the Dead Sea which rusted even gold, and this may have suggested the figure. For a testimony _unto you_ is the figure of Mark 6:11. The dust

THE WORTHLESSNESS OF RICHES (James 5:1-3)...