THE EPISTLE is not written to any particular assembly of believers, nor even to the whole church of God. It is addressed rather to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,” and it is this which accounts for its unusual character. Let us attempt to seize the view-point from ‘which James speaks before we consider any of its details.
Although the Gospel began at Jerusalem and there won its earliest triumphs, the Christians of that city were slower than others in entering into the true character of the faith they had embraced. They clung with very great tenacity to the law of Moses and to the whole order of religion which they had received through him, as is evidenced by such passages as
Act 15:1-41, and Act 21:20-25. This is not surprising, for the Lord did not come to destroy the law and the prophets but rather to give their fulness, as He said. This they knew but what they were slow to see was that having now got the substance in Christ, the shadows of the law had lost their value. The enforcing of that fact is the main theme of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which tells us, “Now, that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” Shortly after those words were written the whole Jewish system,-temple, altar, sacrifices, priests,-did vanish away in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.
Up to that point however, they viewed themselves as just a part of the Jewish people, only with new hopes centred in a Messiah who was risen from the dead. The same idea was common among the Jewish converts to Christ, wherever they were found and consequently their tendency was to still remain attached to their synagogues. An exception to this state of things was found where the Apostle Paul laboured and taught “all the counsel of God.” In such cases the real character of Christianity was made manifest and the Jewish disciples were separated from their synagogues, as we see in Act 19:8-9. James, as we have seen, remained in Jerusalem and he wrote his Epistle from this Jerusalem standpoint, which was right as far as it went and at the time of his writing.
We might put the matter in another way by saying that the earliest years of Christianity covered a period of transition. The history of those years, revealing the transition, is given to us in the Acts, which begins with the incorporation of the church in Jerusalem, consisting exclusively of Jews, and ends with the sentence of blindness finally pronounced upon the Jews as a people and the Gospel specially sent to the Gentiles. James writes from the standpoint that was usual amongst Jewish Christians in the middle of that period. It is this which accounts for the peculiar features of his Epistle.
Although the Apostle addresses himself to the whole of his dispersed nation he does not for a moment hide his own position as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was still rejected by the majority of his people. Moreover, as we read on, we soon perceive that the believers amongst his people are really in his mind’s eye and that what he has to say is mainly addressed to them. Here and there we shall find remarks specifically addressed to the unbelieving mass, as also other remarks which have the unbelievers in view, though not addressed directly to them.
Take, for instance, the opening words of verse Jam 1:2. When he says, “My brethren,” he was not thinking of them merely as his brethren according to the flesh, as fellow Jews, but as brethren in the faith of Christ. This is evident if we look at the next verse where their faith is mentioned. It was faith in Christ, and that alone, which at that moment differentiated between them and the unbelieving mass of the nation. To the casual observer all might look alike, for all were waiting on the same temple services in Jerusalem or attending the same synagogues in the many cities of their dispersion, yet this immense line of cleavage existed. The minority believed in Christ, the majority refused Him. This cleavage was manifested in the lifetime of the Lord Jesus for we read, “So there was a division among the people because of Him.” (Joh 7:43). It was perpetuated and enlarged at the time when James wrote, and as ever the Christian minority was suffering persecution at the hands of the majority.
They had at this time “divers” or “various” temptations. From different quarters there came upon them trials and testings which, if they had succumbed to them, would have tempted them to turn aside from the simplicity of their faith in Christ. On the other hand, if instead of succumbing they went through them with God they would be made strong by enduring, and this would be great gain in which they might well rejoice.
Hence when the trials came instead of being depressed by them they were to count it an occasion of joy. What a word this is for us today! A word amply corroborated by the apostles Paul and Peter: see, Rom 5:3-5, and 1Pe 1:7.
These temptations were permitted of God for the testing of their faith and they resulted in the development of endurance. But endurance in its turn became operative in them, and if allowed to have its perfect work it would carry to completion the work of God in their hearts. The language is very strong, “perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” In the light of these words we may safely say that temptation or trial plays a very large part in our spiritual education. It is like a tutor in the school of God, who is well able to instruct us and to develop our minds to the point when we graduate as the finished product of the school. And yet how greatly we shrink from trial! What efforts we make to avoid it! In so doing we are like unto children who scheme with great ingenuity to play truant from school, and end up by becoming dunces. Are we not foolish? And have we not here an explanation of why so many of us make but little progress in the things of God?
Many of us would doubtless rejoin, “Yes, but these trials make such demands upon one. Again and again one is entangled in the most perplexing problems that need superhuman wisdom for their solution.” That is so, and therefore it is that James next instructs as to what should be done in these perplexing situations. Lacking wisdom we are simply to ask it of God, and we may be assured of a liberal answer without a word of reproach; for we are not expected to have in ourselves that wisdom which is in God, and which comes from above. We may assuredly ask God for whatever we lack and expect a liberal answer, though whether we should always get it without a word of reproach is another matter. There were occasions when the disciples asked the Lord Jesus for things which they did not get without a gentle word of reproof: see, for instance, Luk 8:24, Luk 8:25, and Luk 17:5-10. But then these were occasions when what was wanted was faith, and that, being believers, we certainly ought to possess.
How definite and certain is the word- “It shall be given him.” Take note of it, for the more the assurance of it sinks down into our hearts the more ready we shall be to ask wisdom in faith without any “wavering” or “doubting.” This simple unquestioning faith, which takes God absolutely at His word, is most necessary. If we doubt we become double-minded, unsteady in all our ways. We become like sea-waves tossed about by every wind, driven first in this direction and then in that, sometimes up and sometimes down. First our hopes run high and then we are filled with forebodings and fears. If this be our condition we may ask for wisdom but we have no ground for expecting it, or anything else, from the Lord.
We rather think that verse Jam 1:7 is also intended to convey to us this thought; that he who asks of God, and yet asks with a doubting mind, is not likely, whatever he may receive, to take it as from the Lord. Wisdom or guidance or anything else is asked of God. Instead of there being calm reliance upon His word the mind is full of questionings and tossed about between hopes and fears. How can real wisdom and guidance be received? And if any kind of help is granted how can it be received as from God? Does not this go far to explain why so many Christians are troubled over questions concerning guidance? And when God’s merciful providence is exercised towards them and things reach a happy issue, they do not see His hand in it and receive it as from Him. They attribute it to their good fortune: they say, as the world would say, “My luck was in!”
Verses Jam 1:9-12 form a small paragraph by themselves and furnish us with an instructive example of the point of view that James takes. He contrasts “the brother of low degree” with “the rich,” and not, as we might have expected, with “the brother of high degree.” The rich, as James uses the term, mean the unbelieving rich, the leading men of wealth and influence and religious sanctity, who were almost to a man in deadly opposition to Christ, as is shown to us throughout the Acts of the Apostles. God had chosen the poor of this world and the rich played the part of their oppressors, as is stated in chapter 2 of our epistle, verses Jam 1:5-6. How plainly does the Apostle warn the rich oppressors of his nation of what lay ahead of them! Great they might be in the eyes of their fellows but they were like grass in the sight of God. Grass produces flowers and the fashion of them has much grace about it, but under the burning heat of the sun all is speedily withered. So these great Jewish leaders might be most comely in the eyes of their contemporaries, yet soon they would fade away.
And when the rich fade away here is this “brother,” this Christian, emerging from his trials and receiving a crown of life! Exaltation reached him even during his life of toil and testing, inasmuch as God considered him worthy of being tested. Men do not test mud, except it be that kind of blue clay in which diamonds are found. Base metals are not cast into the crucible of the refiner, but gold is. God picks up this poor brother of low degree, who would have been regarded by the rich of his nation as but the mud of the streets (see, Joh 7:47-49) and exalted him by proclaiming him to be an object composed of gold. Consequently He permits him to be refined by trials. If we really understand this we shall be able to say with all our hearts, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.” The testing process itself is not joyous but grievous, as the Apostle Peter tells us, yet by means of it room is made in our hearts for the inshining of the love of God, and we become characterized as those that love the Lord. Consequently the trial issues in a crown of life when the glory appears. The tried saint may have lost his life in this world but he is crowned with life in the world to come.
Though the primary thought of this passage is the testing which God permits to come upon believers, yet we cannot rule out altogether the idea of temptation, since every test brings with it the temptation to succumb, by gratifying ourselves rather than glorifying God. Hence when God tests us we might be so foolish as to charge Him with tempting us. This it is which leads to the next short paragraph, verses Jam 1:13-15.
God Himself is above all evil. It is absolutely foreign to His nature. It is as impossible for Him to be tempted with evil as it is impossible for Him to lie. Equally so it is impossible for Him to tempt anyone with evil though He may permit His people to be tempted with evil, knowing well how to overrule even that for their ultimate good. The real root of all temptation lies within ourselves, in our own lusts. We may blame the enticing thing which from without was presented to us, but the trouble really lies in the desires of the flesh within.
Let us lay hold of this fact and honestly face it. When we sin the tendency is for us to lay a great deal of the blame on our circumstances, or at all events on things without, when if only we are honest before God we have no one and nothing to blame but ourselves. How important it is that we should thus be honest before God and judge ourselves rightly in His presence, for that is the high road to recovery of soul. Moreover it will help us to judge and refuse the lusts of our hearts, and thus sin will be nipped in the bud. Lust is the mother of sin. If it works it brings forth sin, and sin carried to completion brings forth death.
Sin in this 15th verse is clearly sin in the act: for other scriptures, such, for instance as Rom 7:7, show us that lust itself is sin in the nature. Only let sin in the nature conceive, and sin in the act is brought forth.
At this point we shall do well to think of our Lord Jesus and recall what is stated of Him in Heb 4:15. He too was tempted, tempted in like manner to ourselves and not only this but tempted like us “in all things.” And then comes that qualification of all importance, “yet without sin,” or more accurately, “sin apart.” There was no sin, no lust in Him. Things which to us had been most alluring found absolutely no response in Him, and yet He “suffered being tempted” as Heb 2:18 tells us.
It is easy to understand how temptation, if we refuse it, entails suffering for us. It is because we only turn from it at the cost of refusing the natural desires of our own hearts. We may not find it so easy to understand how temptation brought suffering to Him. The explanation lies in the fact that not only was there no sin in Him but He was full of holiness. Being God He was infinitely holy, and having become Man He was anointed by the
Spirit of God, and He met all temptation full of the Spirit. Hence sin was infinitely abhorrent to Him, and the mere presentation of it to Him, as a temptation from without, caused Him acute suffering. We, alas! having sin within us, and having become so accustomed to it, are very little able to feel it as He felt it.
God, then, far from originating temptation is the Source and Giver of every gift that is good and perfect. The Apostle is very emphatic on this point; he would by no means have us err as to it. Verses Jam 1:16-18 are another short paragraph, in which God is presented to us in a very remarkable way. Not only is He the Source of every good and perfect gift but also of all that can be spoken of as light. The light of creation came from Him. Every ray of true light for the heart or conscience or intellect comes from Him. What we really know we know as the result of divine revelation, and He is the “Father” or “Source” of all such light. Man’s lights are very uncertain. The light of “science” so-called is very variable. It burns brightly, it dies down, it re-appears, it flares up, it goes out finally extinguished by an oncoming generation which feels sure it knows more than the outgoing generation. With the Father of lights, and hence with all light that really comes from Him, there is no variableness neither shadow of turning. Blessed be God for that!
There is a third thing in this short paragraph however. Not only is God the Source of gifts that are good and perfect and lights that do not vary but also of His people themselves. We too have sprung from Him as begotten of Him according to His own will. We are what we are according to His sovereign pleasure and not according to our thoughts or our wills, which by nature are fallen and debased, and also according to the “word of truth” by which we have been born of Him.
The devil is the father of lies. The world today is what he has made it, and he started it with the lie of Gen 3:4. In contradistinction to this the Christian is one who has been begotten by the word of truth. By-and-by God is going to have a world of truth, but meanwhile we are to be a kind of firstfruits of that new creation.
Is not this wonderful? A thoughtful reader might have deduced the fact that a Christian must be a wonderful being, inasmuch as he is begotten of God. We might have said, “If God is the Source of gifts and those gifts are good and perfect; if He is the Source of lights and those lights are without variation or turning; then if He becomes the Source of beings those beings are sure to be equally wonderful.” We are not however left to deduce it. We are plainly told; and very important results flow from it as we shall see.
The nineteenth verse begins with the word, “Wherefore” which indicates that we are now to be introduced to the results flowing from the truth of the previous verse. Because we are a kind of firstfruits of God’s creatures, as begotten of Him by the Word of Truth, we are to be “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”
Every intelligent unfallen creature is marked by obedience to the voice of the Creator. Fallen man, alas! shuts his ear to God’s voice and insists upon talking. He would like to legislate for himself and for everybody else, and hence come the anger and strife which fill the earth. We were always creatures, but now, born of God, we are a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. What therefore should mark all creatures should be specially characteristic of us. Hearing God’s word should attract us. We should run eagerly to it as those who delight to listen to God.
We only speak aright as our thoughts are controlled by God. If we think God’s thoughts we shall be able to speak things that are right. But, even if we are swift to hear God’s thoughts, we shall only speak them when first we have assimilated them for ourselves and made them our own. We assimilate them but slowly and hence we should be slow to speak. A wholesome sense of how little we have as yet taken in God’s mind will deliver us from that self-confidence and shallow self-assertiveness which makes men ready to speak at once on any and every matter.
Further we should be slow to wrath. The self-assertive man, who can hardly stop to listen to anything but must at once speak his own opinion is apt to get very angry when he finds that others do not accept his opinion at his own high valuation of it! On the other hand, here may be a believer of godly life who pays great heed to God’s word and only speaks with consideration and prayer, and yet his opinion is equally turned aside! Well, let him be slow to wrath for if it be merely man’s anger it accomplishes nothing that is right in God’s sight. Divine anger will be made to serve His righteous cause, but not man’s anger.
We must remember too that we are a firstfruit of God’s creatures a, born of Him. Hence not only should we be pattern creatures but we should though creatures exhibit the likeness of the One who is our Father. All evil should be laid aside and the word received with meekness. We are in the first place begotten of the Word; then with meekness we continue to receive it. These two things also appear in 1Pe 1:23-25; 1Pe 2:1-2, where we are said to be “born again... by the word of God,” and also exhorted as new born babes to “desire the sincere milk of the Word.”
The Word is spoken of here as “engrafted” or “implanted.” This supposes that it has taken root in us and grown into a part of ourselves. It is the very opposite of “going in at one ear and coming out at the other.” If the Word merely flows through our minds it accomplishes for us little or nothing. If implanted in us it saves our souls. The primary thought here is the saving of our souls from the snares of the world, the flesh and the devil, a salvation which we all need moment by moment.
In verse Jam 1:22 we get a third thing. Not only should we be swift to hear God’s word, not only has it to be implanted in us, but we must become doers of it. First the ear for hearing. Then the heart, in which it is implanted. Then the hand governed by it, so that it comes into outward expression through us. And it is only when this third thing is reached that the Word is vitally operative in us. If our hearing does not result in doing our hearing is in vain.
To enforce this fact the apostle James uses a very graphic illustration. When a man stands before a mirror his image is reflected therein for just so long as there he stands. But there is nothing implanted in the mirror. His face is reflected in it, but without any subjective effect in the mirror, which is absolutely unchanged, even if ten thousand things are reflected in turn upon its face. The man departs, his image vanishes, and all is forgotten. It is just like this if a man merely hears the Word without any thought of rendering obedience to it. He gazes into the Word and then goes away and forgets. If on the other hand we not only look into truth but abide in it, and hence become doers of the work which is in accordance with truth, we shall be blessed in our doing. To this matter James refers more fully in the next chapter when he discusses faith and works.
We must not fail to notice the expression he uses to describe the revelation which had reached them in Christ. The revelation which the Jew had known through Moses was a law and writing to Jews, James uses the same term. Christianity too may be spoken of as law-the law of Christ- though it is much more than this. In contrast with the law of Moses however it is the perfect law of liberty. The law of Moses was imperfect and bondage.
The law of Moses was of course perfect as far as it went. It was imperfect in the sense that it did not go an the way. It set forth the bare minimum of God’s demands so that if man falls short in the smallest degree-offending in but “one point” (Jam 2:10)-he is wholly condemned. If we want the maximum of God’s thoughts for man we have to turn to Christ, who fully displayed it in His matchless life and death, which went far beyond the bare demands of the law of Moses. In His earliest teachings too He plainly showed that the law of Moses was not the full and perfect thing. See Mat 5:17-48.
In Christ we have the perfect law, even that of liberty. We might have imagined that if the setting forth of God’s minimum produced bondage the revelation of His maximum would have meant greater bondage still. But no! The minimum reached us in what we may call the law of demand, and generated bondage. The maximum reached us in connection with the law of supply in Christ, and hence all here is liberty. The highest possible standards are set before us in Christianity but in connection with a power which subdues our hearts and gives us a nature which loves to do that which the revelation enjoins upon us. If a law were imposed upon a dog that it should eat hay it would prove to be to the poor animal a law of bondage. impose the same law upon a horse and it is a law of liberty.
It is clear then, from verse Jam 1:25, that we are to be doers of the work and not merely hearers of the word. Even our doings however need to be tested, for a man may seem to be religious, zealous in all his works, and yet his religion be proved vain by the fact that he does not bridle his tongue. He has not learned to be “slow to speak” as verse Jam 1:19 enjoined. In giving rein to his tongue he is giving rein to self.
Now pure and undefiled religion, which will stand in the presence of God, is of a sort which shuts self out. He who visits the fatherless and the widows in their affliction will not find much to minister to the importance or the convenience of self. He will have to be continually ministering instead of finding that which will minister to himself, if he moves amongst these afflicted and poor folk. The world might minister to self in him. Yes, but he keeps himself separate from the world so that he may not be spotted by its defilements.
“Unspotted from the world” is a strong way of putting it. The world is like a very miry place in which all too many love to disport themselves. (see 2Pe 2:22). The true Christian does not wallow in the mire. Quite true! But if he practices pure religion he goes further. He walks so apart from the miry place that not even splashes of the mud reach him.
Alas! for the feebleness of our religion. If it consisted in outward observances, in rites, in ceremonies, in sacraments in services, Christendom might yet make a fair show of it. Whereas it really consists in the outflow of divine love which expresses itself in compassion towards and service to those who have no ability to recompense again, and a holy separateness from the defiling world-system that surrounds us.
1. To the twelve tribes. When the ten tribes were banished, the Assyrian king placed them in different parts. Afterwards, as it usually happens in the revolutions of kingdoms (such as then took place,) it is very probable that they moved here and there in all directions. And the Jews had been scattered almost unto all quarters of the world. He then wrote and exhorted all those whom he could not personally address, because they had been scattered far and wide. But that he speaks not of the grace of Christ and of faith in him, the reason seems to be this, because he addressed those who had already been rightly taught by others; so that they had need, not so much of doctrine, as of the goads of exhortations. (98)
(98) The salutation is peculiar; but in the same form with the letter sent to Antioch by the Apostles, (of whom James was one,) and the church at Jerusalem, Act 15:23. It is therefore apostolic, although adopted from a form commonly used by the heathen writers. See Act 23:26. John in Joh 2:10 and Joh 2:11 uses the verb χαίρειν in a similar sense; and it means properly to rejoice. It being an infinitive, the verb λέγω, to say or to bid, is put before it by John, and is evidently understood here. Hence the salutation may thus be rendered, —
“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, bids, (or sends, or wishes) joy to the twelve tribes who are in their dispersion.”
There had been an eastern and a western dispersion, the first at the Assyrian and Babylonian captivity, and the second during the predominancy of the Grecian power, which commenced with Alexander the Great. As this epistle was written in Greek, it was no doubt intended more especially for those of the latter dispersion. But the benefit of the eastern dispersion was soon consulted, as the very first version of the New Testament was made into this language, that is, the Syriac; and this was done at the beginning of the second century.
2. All joy. The first exhortation is, to bear trials with a cheerful mind. And it was especially necessary at that time to comfort the Jews, almost overwhelmed as they were with troubles. For the very name of the nation was so infamous, that they were hated and despised by all people wherever they went; and their condition as Christians rendered them still more miserable, because they held their own nation as their most inveterate enemies. At the same time, this consolation was not so suited to one time, but that it is always useful to believers, whose life is a constant warfare on earth.
But that we may know more fully what he means, we must doubtless take temptations or trials as including all adverse things; and they are so called, because they are the tests of our obedience to God. He bids the faithful, while exercised with these, to rejoice; and that not only when they fall into one temptation, but into many, not only of one kind, but of various kinds. And doubtless, since they serve to mortify our flesh, as the vices of the flesh continually shoot up in us, so they must necessarily be often repeated. Besides, as we labor under diseases, so it is no wonder that different remedies are applied to remove them.
The Lord then afflicts us in various ways, because ambition, avarice, envy, gluttony, intemperance, excessive love of the world, and the innumerable lusts in which we abound, cannot be cured by the same medicine.
When he bids us to count it all joy, it is the same as though he had said, that temptations ought to be so deemed as gain, as to be regarded as occasions of joy. He means, in short, that there is nothing in afflictions which ought to disturb our joy. And thus, he not only commands us to bear adversities calmly, and with an even mind, but shews us that this is a reason why the faithful should rejoice when pressed down by them.
It is, indeed, certain, that all the senses of our nature are so formed, that every trial produces in us grief and sorrow; and no one of us can so far divest himself of his nature as not to grieve and be sorrowful whenever he feels any evil. But this does not prevent the children of God to rise, by the guidance of the Spirit, above the sorrow of the flesh. Hence it is, that in the midst of trouble they cease not to rejoice.
3. Knowing this, that the trying. We now see why he called adversities trials or temptations, even because they serve to try our faith. And there is here a reason given to confirm the last sentence. For it might, on the other hand, be objected, “How comes it, that we judge that sweet which to the sense is bitter?” He then shews by the effect that we ought to rejoice in afflictions, because they produce fruit that ought to be highly valued, even patience. If God then provides for our salvation, he affords us an occasion of rejoicing. Peter uses a similar argument at the beginning of his first Epistle, “That the trial of your faith, more precious than gold, may be,” etc. [1Pe 1:7.] We certainly dread diseases, and want, and exile, and prison, and reproach, and death, because we regard them as evils; but when we understand that they are turned through God’s kindness unto helps and aids to our salvation, it is ingratitude to murmur, and not willingly to submit to be thus paternally dealt with.
Paul says, in Rom 5:3, that we are to glory in tribulations; and James says here, that we are to rejoice. “We glory,” says Paul, “in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience.” What immediately follows seems contrary to the words of James; for he mentions probation in the third place, as the effect of patience, which is here put first as though it were the cause. But the solution is obvious; the word there has an active, but here a passive meaning. Probation or trial is said by James to produce patience; for were not God to try us, but leave us free from trouble, there would be no patience, which is no other thing than fortitude of mind in bearing evils. But Paul means, that while by enduring we conquer evils, we experience how much God’s help avails in necessities; for then the truth of God is as it were in reality manifested to us. Hence it comes that we dare to entertain more hope as to futurity; for the truth of God, known by experience, is more fully believed by us. Hence Paul teaches that by such a probation, that is, by such an experience of divine grace, hope is produced, not that hope then only begins, but that it increases and is confirmed. But both mean, that tribulation is the means by which patience is produced.
Moreover, the minds of men are not so formed by nature, that affliction of itself produces patience in them. But Paul and Peter regard not so much the nature of men as the providence of God through which it comes, that the faithful learn patience from troubles; for the ungodly are thereby more and more provoked to madness, as the example of Pharaoh proves. (99)
(99) The word used by James is δοχίμιον, trial, the act of testing, and by Paul δοχιμὴ, the result of testing, experience. James speaks of probation, and Paul of the experience gained thereby.
4. But let patience have her perfect work. As boldness and courage often appear in us and soon fail, he therefore requires perseverance. “Real patience,” he says, “is that which endures to the end.” For work here means the effort not only to overcome in one contest, but to persevere through life. His perfection may also he referred to the sincerity of the soul, that men ought willingly and not feignedly to submit to God; but as the word work is added, I prefer to explain it of constancy. For there are many, as we have said, who shew at first an heroic greatness, and shortly after grow weary and faint. He therefore bids those who would be perfect and entire, (100) to persevere to the end. But what he means by these two words, he afterwards explains of those who fail not, or become not wearied: for they, who being overcome as to patience, be broken down, must, by degrees, be necessarily weakened, and at length wholly fail.
(100) “Perfect, τέλειοι,” fully grown, mature; “entire, ὁλόχληζοι, ” complete, no part wanting. The first refers to the maturity of grace; and the second to its completeness, no grace being wanting. They were to be like men full grown, and not maimed or mutilated, but having all their members complete.
5. If any of you lack wisdom. As our reason, and all our feelings are averse to the thought that we can be happy in the midst of evils, he bids us to ask of the Lord to give us wisdom. For wisdom here, I confine to the subject of the passage, as though he had said, “If this doctrine is higher than what your minds can reach to, ask of the Lord to illuminate you by his Spirit; for as this consolation alone is sufficient to mitigate all the bitterness of evils, that what is grievous to the flesh is salutary to us; so we must necessarily be overcome with impatience, except we be sustained by this kind of comfort.” Since we see that the Lord does not so require from us what is above our strength, but that he is ready to help us, provided we ask, let us, therefore, learn, whenever he commands anything, to ask from him the power to perform it.
Though in this place to be wise is to submit to God in the endurance of evils, under a due conviction that he so orders all things as to promote our salvation; yet the sentence may be generally applied to every branch of right knowledge.
But why does he say If any one, as though all of them did not want wisdom. To this I answer, that all are by nature without it; but that some are gifted with the spirit of wisdom, while others are without it. As, then, all had not made such progress as to rejoice in affliction, but few there were to whom this had been given, James, therefore, referred to such cases; and he reminded those who were not as yet fully convinced that by the cross their salvation was promoted by the Lord, that they were to ask to be endued with wisdom. And yet there is no doubt, but that necessity reminds us all to ask the same thing; for he who has made the greatest progress, is yet far off from the goal. But to ask an increase of wisdom is another thing than to ask for it at first.
When he bids us to ask of the Lord, he intimates, that he alone can heal our diseases and relieve our wants.
That giveth to all men liberally. By all, he means those who ask; for they who seek no remedy for their wants, deserve to pine away in them. However, this universal declaration, by which every one of us is invited to ask, without exception, is very important; hence no man ought to deprive himself of so great a privilege.
To the same purpose is the promise which immediately follows; for as by this command he shews what is the duty of every one, so he affirms that they would not do in vain what he commands; according to what is said by Christ,
“Knock, and it shall be opened.”
(Mat 7:7; Luk 11:9.)
The word liberally, or freely, denotes promptitude in giving. So Paul, in Rom 12:8, requires simplicity in deacons. And in 2Co 8:0 and 2Co 9:0, when speaking of charity or love, he repeats the same word several times. The meaning, then, is, that God is so inclined and ready to give, that he rejects none, or haughtily puts them off, being not like the niggardly and grasping, who either sparingly, as with a closed hand, give but little, or give only a part of what they were about to give, or long debate with themselves whether to give or not. (101)
And upbraideth not. This is added, lest any one should fear to come too often to God. Those who are the most liberal among men, when any one asks often to be helped, mention their formal acts of kindness, and thus excuse themselves for the future. Hence, a mortal man, however open-handed he may be, we are ashamed to weary by asking too often. But James reminds us, that there is nothing like this in God; for he is ready ever to add new blessings to former ones, without any end or limitation.
(101) The literal meaning of ἁπλῶς is simply without any mixture; the noun, ἁπλότης, is used in the sense of sincerity, which has no mixture of hypocrisy or fraud, (2Co 1:12.) and in the sense of liberality, or disposition free from what is sordid or parsimonious, having no mixture of niggardliness, (2Co 8:2.) This latter is evidently the meaning here, so that “liberally,” according to our version, is the best word.
6. But let him ask in faith. He shews here, first the right way of praying; for as we cannot pray without the word, as it were, leading the way, so we must believe before we pray; for we testify by prayer, that we hope to obtain from God the grace which he has promised. Thus every one who has no faith in the promises, prays dissemblingly. Hence, also, we learn what is true faith; for James, after having bidden us to ask in faith, adds this explanation, nothing wavering, or, doubting nothing. Then faith is that which relies on God’s promises, and makes us sure of obtaining what we ask. It hence follows, that it is connected with confidence and certainty as to God’s love towards us. The verb διακρίνεσθαι, which he uses, means properly to inquire into both sides of a question, after the manner of pleaders. He would have us then to be so convinced of what God has once promised, as not to admit a doubt whether he shall be heard or not.
He that wavereth, or doubteth. By this similitude he strikingly expresses how God punishes the unbelief of those who doubt his promises; for, by their own restlessness, they torment themselves inwardly; for there is never any calmness for our souls, except they recumb on the truth of God. He, at length, concludes, that such are unworthy to receive anything from God.
This is a remarkable passage, fitted to disprove that impious dogma which is counted as an oracle under the whole Papacy, that is, that we ought to pray doubtingly, and with uncertainty as to our success. This principle, then, we hold, that our prayers are not heard by the Lord, except when we have a confidence that we shall obtain. It cannot indeed be otherwise, but that through the infirmity of our flesh we must be tossed by various temptations, which are like engines employed to shake our confidence; so that no one is found who does not vacillate and tremble according to the feeling of his flesh; but temptations of this kind are at length to be overcome by faith. The case is the same as with a tree, which has struck firm roots; it shakes, indeed, through the blowing of the wind, but is not rooted up; on the contrary, it remains firm in its own place.
8. A double-minded man, or, a man of a double mind. This sentence may be read by itself, as he speaks generally of hypocrites. It seems, however, to me to be rather the conclusion of the preceding doctrine; and thus there is an implied contrast between the simplicity or liberality of God, mentioned before, and the double-mindedness of man; for as God gives to us with a stretched out hand, so it behooves us in our turn to open the bosom of our heart. He then says that the unbelieving, who have tortuous recesses, are unstable; because they are never firm or fixed, but at one time they swell with the confidence of the flesh, at another they sink into the depth of despair. (102)
(102) “The double-minded,” or the man with two souls, δίψυχος, means here no doubt the man who hesitates between faith and unbelief, because faith is the subject of the passage. When again used, in Jas 4:8, it means a hesitation between God and the world.
9. Let the brother of low degree. As Paul, exhorting servants submissively to bear their lot, sets before them this consolation, that they were the free-men of God, having been set free by his grace from the most miserable bondage of Satan, and reminds them, though free, yet to remember that they were the servants of God; so here James in the same manner bids the lowly to glory in this, that they had been adopted by the Lord as his children; and the rich, because they had been brought down into the same condition, the world’s vanity having been made evident to them. Thus the first thing he would have to do is to be content with their humble and low state; and he forbids the rich to be proud. Since it is incomparably the greatest dignity to be introduced into the company of angels, nay, to be made the associates of Christ, he who estimates this favor of God aright, will regard all other things as worthless. Then neither poverty, nor contempt, nor nakedness, nor famine nor thirst, will make his mind so anxious, but that he will sustain himself with this consolation. “Since the Lord has conferred on me the principal thing, it behooves me patiently to bear the loss of other things, which are inferior.”
Behold, how a lowly brother ought to glory in his elevation or exaltation; for if he be accepted of God, he has sufficient consolation in his adoption alone, so as not to grieve unduly for a less prosperous state of life.
10But the rich, in that he is made low, or, in his lowness. He has mentioned the particular for the general; for this admonition pertains to all those who excel in honor; or in dignity, or in any other external thing. He bids them to glory in their lowness or littleness, in order to repress the haughtiness of those who are usually inflated with prosperity. But he calls it lowness, because the manifested kingdom of God ought to lead us to despise the world, as we know that all the things we previously greatly admired, are either nothing or very little things. For Christ, who is not a teacher except of babes, checks by his doctrine all the haughtiness of the flesh. Lest, then, the vain joy of the world should captivate the rich, they ought to habituate themselves to glory in the casting down of their carnal excellency. (103)
As the flower of the grass. Were any one to say that James alludes to the words of Isaiah, I would not much object; but I cannot allow that he quotes the testimony of the Prophet, who speaks not only of the things of this life and the fading character of the world, but of the whole man, both body and soul; [Isa 40:6;] but here what is spoken of is the pomp of wealth or of riches. And the meaning is, that glorying in riches is foolish and preposterous, because they pass away in a moment. The philosophers teach the same thing; but the song is sung to the deaf, until the ears are opened by the Lord to hear the truth concerning the eternity of the celestial kingdom. Hence he mentions brother; intimating that there is no place for this truth, until we are admitted into the order of God’s children.
(103) The opinion of Macknight and some others, that the reference is to the lowness to which the rich were reduced by persecution, does not comport with the passage, for the Apostle afterwards speaks of the shortness of man’s life and its uncertainty, and not of the fading nature of riches, which would have been most suitable, had he in view to comfort the rich at the loss of property. The Christian state was “lowness” according to the estimation of the world.
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)
(104) The received text is regarded as the best reading; the other is found in very few copies.
12Blessed 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.
13Let 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.
(105) Literally, “untemptable by evils,” that is, not capable of being tempted or seduced by evils, by things wicked and sinful. He is so pure, that he is not influenced by any evil propensities, that he is not subject to any evil suggestions. It hence follows that he tempts or seduces no man to what is sinful. Being himself unassailable by evils, he cannot seduce others to what is evil. As God cannot be tempted to do what is sinful, he cannot possibly tempt others to sin. The words may thus be rendered, —
13. “Let no one, when seduced, say, ‘By God I am seduced;’ for God is not capable of being seduced by evils, and he himself seduceth no one.”
14When 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)
(106) The words are very striking, — “But every one is tempted (or, seduced) when, by his own lust, he is drawn away, (that is, from what is good,) and is caught by a bait (or, ensnared.)”
He is in the first drawn off from the line of duty, and then he is caught by something that is pleasing and plausible, but like the bait, it has in it a deadly hook.
15Then 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.
16Do 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.
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)
(107) This verse must be taken in connection with what as gone before. When he mentions “every good gift,” it is in opposition to the evil of which he says God is not the author. See Mat 7:11. And “every perfect free-gift,” as δώρημα means, has a reference to the correction of the evil which arises from man himself. And he calls free-gift perfect, because it has no mixture of evil, what he throughout denies that God is the author of. Then the latter part of the verse bears a correspondence with the first. He calls God “the Father of Lights.” Light in the language of scripture means especially two things, the light of truth, divine knowledge and holiness. God is the father, the parent, the origin, the source of these lights. Hence from him descends every good, useful, necessary gift, to deliver men from evil, from ignorance and delusion, and every perfect free-gift to free men from their evil lusts, and to render them holy and happy. And to shew that God is ever the same, he adds, “with whom there is no variableness or the shadow (or shade, of the slightest appearance) of a change;” that is, who never varies in his dealings with men, and shews no symptom of any change, being the author and giver of all good, and the author of no evil, that is, of no sin.
18Of 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.
(108) The firstfruits being a part and a pledge of the coming harvest, to retain the metaphor, we must regard “creatures” here as including all the saved in future ages. Hence their opinion is to be preferred, who regard the first converts, who were Jews, as the firstfruits.
19Let 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.
21Wherefore 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.
(109) What renders this passage unsatisfactory is the meaning given to περισσεία, rendered by some “superfluity,” and by others “redundancy.” The verb περισσεύω means not only to abound, but also to be a residue, to remain, to be a remnant. See Mat 14:20; Luk 9:17. And its derivative περίσσευμα is used in the sense of a remnant or a remainder, Mar 8:8; and this very word is used in the Sept., for יתר which means a residue, a remnant, or what remains, Eze 6:8. Let it have this meaning here, and the sense will not only be clear, but very striking. James was addressing those who were Christians; and he exhorted them to throw away every uncleanness and remnant of wickedness, or evil, as the word κακία more properly means. See Act 8:22; 1Pe 2:16
“Every uncleanness,” or filthiness, means every kind of uncleanness arising from lustful and carnal indulgences; and the “remnant of wickedness,” in thought and in deed, most suitably follows.
22Be 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)
(110) Calvin takes no notice of the last sentence, “deceiving yourselves.” The participle means deceiving by false reasoning.; it may be rendered with Doddridge, “sophistically deceiving yourselves.”
23He 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.
25The 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)
(111) It may be rendered thus, — “The same shall be blessed in (or by) the doing of it,” that is, the work. The very doing of the law of liberty, of what the gospel prescribes, makes a man blessed or happy.
26Seem 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.
27Pure 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.
Jam 1:1. To the twelve tribes, &c.- It is well known, that the Jews were dispersed abroad, and to be found in great multitudes in almost all parts of the world, as well at the time of writing this epistle, as at present.It seems to be plainly deducible from this passage, that no entire tribes were lost in the captivity. The number of those who came back was registered by Ezra and Nehemiah; twelve goats were offered for a sin-offering for all Israel, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. See Ezr 6:17; Ezr 8:35.
Jam 1:2. Count it all joy- Under the law, great temporal blessings were promised to the people of God as long as they continued obedient, and terrible afflictions threatened if they were disobedient: but the Jews expected even far better temporal things under the Messiah; there was great occasion therefore to set the Jewish Christians right in this particular; for they were in general deeply tinctured with the national prejudices, and could not easily be reconciled to suffer for righteousness' sake; especially now that the Messiah was come,and they continued to believe in and obey him. Temptations are here put for trials and afflictions. The Jewish Christians about this time seem to have endured many hardships and persecutions through the enmity of the unbelieving Jews.
Jam 1:3. The trying of your faith worketh patience- Produceth patience. Heylin. The word Δοκιμιον signifies proof or evidence, in most other authors: but still, as it denotes a proof given by trial, the meaning will be, "That proof or evidence which you give, (by undergoing trials or afflictions,) of your sincere adherence to the Christian faith, worketh patience."
Jam 1:4. But let patience have her perfect work- "that it may rise to its highest improvements during this little space of time, in which alone you will have the opportunity of preparing for glory and promoting the interests of the church of Christ, that so you may be made perfect and complete, deficient in nothing; for the other graces of Christianity will generally shine brightest where patience is most conspicuous."
Jam 1:5. If any of you lack wisdom- That is, wisdom in general. But if the word be particularly applied to sufferings and trials, as many commentators do apply it, the passage may be paraphrased thus: "But if any of you should be deficient in wisdom, or at a loss what method to take, or how to behave in a time of such general distress and perplexity, let him addresshimself by fervent prayer unto that gracious God, who is so ready to bestow liberally and bountifully on all men, and upbraideth no penitent person with his former abused favours. And whoever seeketh wisdom in that way, may be satisfied that he shall obtain it: for there is no manner of reason to call in question either the wisdom, the goodness, or the power of God."
Jam 1:6. But let him ask in faith, &c.- "But then let him take care that he ask in steadyfaith, nothing wavering, nor divided by the desires of obtaining, and the fears of not obtaining, the grace he asks, or doubting of God's readiness to bestow it; for he that wavers, and has not a firm confidence in the Divine goodness and faithfulness, can have no other solid and substantial support; but is like a billow of the sea, driven on and tossed by the sea, in a restless and unsettled condition (Isa 57:20.) easily discomposed and agitated by every adverse blast, and in the greatest danger of being dashed to pieces." Mr. Saurin paraphrases the passage thus: "He ought not to resemble the waves of the sea, which seem to offer to the spectator who is upon the shore, the treasure with which they are charged; but soon plunge it into the abyss, from which it cannot be recovered." See Saurin's Serm. vol. 9: p. 438. He elsewhere paraphrases it, "Like a wave which moves on, and seems to come to the shore, but immediately returns with impetuosity into the gulph from whence it came." Vol. 5: p. 56, 57.
Jam 1:8. A double-minded man is unstable- "He, whose schemes are divided between God and the world, and who cannot cheerfully and resolutely commit himself, in confidence of divine support, to be led whithersoever Providence shall please, is unsettled in all his ways: he will perpetually be running into inconsistencies of conduct; and these imperfect and undetermined impressions of religion which he feels, will serve rather to perplex and torment, than to guide and secure him." Moreover, he who desires the end, must desire, or at least fully acquiesce in, the necessary means; else he is double-minded. He would, and he would not.
Jam 1:9-10. Let the brother of low degree rejoice, &c.- "In nothing are the generality of men more apt to mistake, than in estimating the value of external circumstances; but let the principles of Christianity instruct you, my brethren, to correct that mistake; and in this respect, let the brother of low degree, of a poor and obscure condition, rejoice in his exaltation; let him think of his dignity as a Christian, and entirely acquiesce in his low sphere of life; for his circumstances do really give him such advantages for religion, by placing him under a shelter from many temptations, that he has a much fairer probability than others, of rising to some eminence in the heavenlyworld. On the other hand, if a true Christian be in worldly prosperity, he will be well aware how transitory that state is; and, far from confiding in it, he will contemplate on the certainty of his approaching humiliation in death, and on all the mortifyingcircumstances that attend it. Accepting these, with a total resignation to the divine will, he glories its the hope, that he shall one day complete his sacrifice
Jam 1:11. For the sun is no sooner risen, &c.- For the sun ariseth with burning heat; it withereth the grass; the flower thereof falleth; and all the beauty of its colour perisheth: Even so shall the rich man fade away in his course;- πορειαις αοτου ; in all the projects and pursuits in which he has been immersed.
Jam 1:12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation- Happy is the man who persevereth under temptation, or trial; for, being approved, he shall receive, &c.
Jam 1:13. St. James had said so much about the benefit of temptations, or trials, that he thought it necessary to guard his readers against so dangerous a mistake, as that of making God the author of sin, or ascribing temptations to him, as they signify "a seducing men to what is evil:" In that sense they proceed not from God, but from the lusts of men, which, if complied with, end in death, instead of bringing men to a crown of life. Though, therefore, trials may be ascribed to God, yet temptation, in the bad sense of the word, cannot by any means be ascribed to him. Sin and death proceed from the lusts and wickedness of men; but God is not the author of evil; on the contrary, He is, like the sun in the firmament, an universal Benefactor, and the author of all that is good: nay, he infinitely excels the sun, as not being subject to any change or variation.-The Jewish converts were by the divine benignity brought first into the Christian church; they therefore had peculiar reason to ascribe goodness unto God, and to obey readily the precepts of the gospel; governing their passions, bridling their tongues, manifesting their meekness and charity, and doing every thing which the Christian religion requires, through Divine grace. Jam 1:13-27.
Let no man say-I am tempted of God- See on Gen 22:1. Exo 15:25; Exo 16:4. Deu 8:2. "There are two senses of the word temptation, says Dr. Heylin, according to the different ends proposed; the one for trial, the other for seduction: this last is here intended. As God, by virtue of his boundless knowledge and almighty power, is incapable of being tempted by evils, so likewise he is of such perfect rectitude and benevolence, that he tempteth not any man; that is, draws him not designedly into sin, nor lays him, in any imaginable circumstances, under a moral necessity of committing it."
Jam 1:14. When he is drawn away of his own lust, &c.- "Drawn out of the water, and taken with the bait;" εξελκομενος και δελεαζομενος : in both these words there is an allusion to the catching a fish with a bait; and lusts, or sensual pleasures, are here represented as the bait with which wicked men are caught. Grotius observes, that the best Greek authors have used this phrase, "To be ensnared by the belly, and by fair words." Plato said, "That pleasure is the bait of evil;" to which Cicero alludes, when he says, "The divine Plato calls pleasure the bait of evil, because men are taken with it, as fishes are taken with a hook."-"Every man is tempted (in this bad sense of the word) by the innate weakness of his own nature, in concurrence with the circumstances of life in which he is placed, being allured by his own lusts; and for want of wisely and resolutely opposing the first rising of them, he is ensnared to the actual commission of sin."
Jam 1:15. Then when lust hath conceived, &c.- "For the gradation is much more swift and fatal than the generality of mankind are aware: lust having conceived, brings forth actual sin by a speedy birth, where perhaps the full indulgence of it was not intended; and sin, when it is finished, or perpetrated, is impregnated with death, and tends in its consequences to the final ruin both of body and soul." According to this fine metaphorical genealogy, Concupiscence is the mother of sin, and sin is the mother of death. Milton seems evidently to have had his eye upon this passage in his famous allegorical description of sin and death: Par. Lost, book 2. 50: 727, &c.
Jam 1:16. Do not err, &c.- Or, Be not deceived.
Jam 1:17. Every good gift, &c.- The first part of this verse is in the Greek an hexameter, and possibly was quoted by St. James from some of the Greek poets. See Act 17:28. 1Co 15:33. Tit 1:12. Father in this verse signifies author, or cause. Com. Gen 4:20. Heb 12:9. The Father of Lights is here used agreeably to the astronomical metaphor which follows;-with whom there is no deviation, or tropical shadow-Light invariable, without any interposing shade, which is lengthened or shortened by the different distance of the sun, according to the common mode of expression. There is in these worlds, says Amory, an allusion to the heavenly bodies, and the benefits which we derive from them. The sun, moon, and stars, are greatly beneficial by their light, warmth, and influences, but not always beneficial: they rise and set to us; are sometimes nearer, at other times more distant; sometimes eclipsed, and often clouded. But the divine benignity is not subject to any such variations; it is always equally near, and equally communicative of its influences to proper objects; nor can any thing interpose between it and them: it is not the flush of good humour, which may be spent: it is not a great but limited treasury, which may be exhausted bylarge and continued communications. As God is ever unerringly wise, and unchangeably happy; as his power is infinite, and he is raised above the possibility of want or suffering; he will certainly always choose to do, what his wisdom determines best to be done; and as he ever deems the happiness of his creatures, who will accept of his mercy, to be the worthiest end, he will certainly be always disposed and delighted to promote that best end. The infinite communications of good, which he hath made already, instead of causing us to fear that his goodness may be exhausted, serve to prove it infinite, and therefore inexhaustible: they give, and they will give his faithful saints, to eternity, the most substantial reasons to expect from their Creator and Redeemer, all that can be expected from a Being infinitely wise, powerful, and benevolent.
Jam 1:18. A kind of first-fruits, &c.- More excellent than others, and in a peculiar manner separated and consecrated to him. By κτισματων, creatures, the apostle here means the new creation; and he seems by the expression to allude to Jer 2:3. See also Rom 11:16; Rom 16:5. As in Jam 1:15 we have the genealogy of sin and death, in this verse is the genealogy of the Christian life and happiness.
Jam 1:19. Swift to hear, slow to speak- Agreeably to this inspired direction of the apostle, and the sentiments of the wisest of the Jews, the ancient philosophers have taken notice, that men have two ears, and but one tongue; that they should hear more than they speak: as also that the ears are continually open, ever ready to receive instruction; while the tongue is surrounded by a double row of teeth, to hedge it in, and keep it within proper bounds. But what the apostle seems peculiarly to refer to, was the temper of the Jews at this time, from which the Jewish Christians were not entirelyfree; that is, many of them were exceedingly impatient in hearing others, even when they were vindicating the ways of God; but very apt to assume authority to themselves, and to set up for doctors, rabbis, and teachers of others. See ch. Jam 3:1. Rom 2:17; Rom 2:29. Whereas it was their duty rather to be swift to hear the apostles, and such as were best acquainted with the nature of God and of Christianity; and slow to speak of such things themselves, especially before they had made themselves thorough masters of them.
Jam 1:20. For the wrath of man worketh not, &c.- Multitudes of Christians, so called, seem either to have disbelieved this, or to have forgottenit; for how often have they attempted to bring others over, to what they have apprehended to be the truth of doctrine, or the right manner of worship, by using them ill, if they were not convinced, or did not readily comply?-whereas the wrath of one man can never enlighten the mind of another; it is reason and argument that must convince men's judgments, and bring them over to our sentiments. If we have power, our wrath may make them atheists and hypocrites, and force them to profess what they do not believe, and so produce sin and unrighteousness, instead of that righteousness which God requires. For religion is under Divine grace a matter of pure choice, and is not, cannot be acceptable to God, unless the heart and the tongue go together. Besides, the usual progress of wrath and ungovernable zeal ought to deter all conscientious persons from the beginnings of it; for he that will be angry at another because he differs from him, will be in great danger of speaking against him, and blasting his character; and, as one step commonly leads on to another, when he cannot overcome by arguments, the next thing will be to crush his adversary's opinion by force, if he either have power to do it himself, or can prevail upon the magistrate or the multitude to aid and assist him. All the persecutions in the Christian church have arisen in this manner; for, when lesser evils were insufficient for the conviction of obstinate heretics, it was necessary, upon the same principles, to have recourse to persecution. The reader will find abundant proof hereof by referring to almost any Century of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History.
Jam 1:21. Superfluity of naughtiness- Vicious superfluity; every vice, and especiallyworldly cares or desires: these, if allowed in the mind, will, as weeds, choke up the good seed; which is the same as the engrafted word, immediately following. The word of God is frequently compared to a seed, or plant; particularly 1Pe 1:23. 1Jn 3:9.-In which sense it is here said to be εμφυτος, engrafted, or implanted in their minds. Ministers are said φυτευειν, to plant this word, 1Co 3:6-8 which bringeth forth fruit: Col 1:6. Mar 4:7-8. Further, as in the Greek writers, the word εμφυτον sometimes denotes what is innate, and sometimes what is thoroughly implanted or fixed in the mind; so here it implies, that the heavenly doctrine not only enters into the ears, but is so implanted in the soul by Divine grace, as to become, as it were, a second nature. Meekness in this verse stands opposed to wrath, condemned in Jam 1:19-20. See Parkhurst on the word Εμφυτος .
Jam 1:22. Hearers only, deceiving, &c.- The Jews did indeed place much of their religion in going up at proper times to the synagogue to hear the law read; and there may possibly be an allusion to that disposition, The exact signification of the word παραλογιζομενοι, rendered deceiving, is, "imposing upon any, by a sophistical show of argument;" and here it is used with peculiar propriety. The Jews have a proverb, "That he who hears the law, and does not practise it, is like a man who ploughs and sows, but never reaps."
Jam 1:23. Like unto a man beholding his natural face, &c.- By way of opposition to the moral temper and disposition of his mind;-which he is to view in the glass of the gospel, and carefully regulate thereby; Jam 1:25. Perhaps some of them pretended, that Abraham believed, and that was counted unto him for righteousness; and therefore there was no occasion that they should be doers of the word, seeing they believed it, and were very ready to hear it: (See ch. Jam 2:14, &c.) as too many professors do in these days, making the holy Jesus a minister of sin.
Jam 1:25. But whoso looketh, &c.- Ο δε παρακυψας : He that hath bowed his head, or stooped down, more curiously to pry into any thing. The word is used concerning the disciples bowing down curiously and intensely to pry into our Lord's sepulchre, Luk 24:12. Joh 20:5; Joh 20:11. But the image which the apostle seems here to have had before his mind, most probably is the same with that expressed 1Pe 1:12. Which things the angels desired to look into; παρακυψαι : In which expression there is a most plain reference to the posture of the two cherubims which stood over the ark of the covenant in the Jewish temple. See Exo 25:20. St. James represents a zealous and sincere Christian as looking into the gospel, and searching curiously into it, that he may understand it, and through grace live accordingly; looking, in the same diligent and careful manner, as the cherubims were represented bowing down and looking into the ark: and this by way of opposition to the careless Christian, who is like a man that takes a transient view of his face in a mirror, and presently forgets what he saw, and turns his thoughts to something else. The happy effects of such a careful looking into the glass or mirror of the gospel, are beautifully represented, 2Co 3:18. By calling the gospel a perfect law, St. James seems to have insinuated to the Jewish Christians, that there was no necessity for them to add the observation of the law of Moses to that of the Christian law; the Christian law being perfect of itself, and without that addition: and by calling it the law of liberty, he seems also to have transiently hinted, thatthe ceremonial law was abolished by the coming of Christ, or that the Christian religion had set them free from any further obligation to that law. But these were ungrateful truths, against which they were so much prejudiced, that he could only insinuate them, unless he had an inclination to defeat the end of his writing to them. There is indeed another reason which may be alleged for the apostle's expression in this place; namely, that as the law was so burdensome a service, and treated men with such rigour, it produced a spirit of bondage; whereas the easy service and mild treatment of the gospel produces a spirit of love and filial freedom. This is a subject which St. Paul has frequently enlarged upon in his epistles.
Jam 1:26. And bridleth not his tongue- Not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart. Bishop Butler. As if the apostle had said, "It is impossible that any man should so much as seem to be religious, if he does not at least think that he bridles his tongue; but if he deceive himself in this important branch of religion, he is deceived in the whole of it." And indeed, to many sins of the tongue are committed without any apprehension of their being evil, that this caution, and this remark for the explication of it, are of great importance; considering how little many professors seem to be aware of the great evil of bitterly reproaching their brethren on account of their religious differences; a sin, which the apostle seems to have had particularly in his view.
Jam 1:27. Pure religion- By the word θρησκεια, religion, is often meant the worship of God; but here it evidently takes in a larger compass; namely, that menvisit the fatherless, &c. "Pure and undefiled religion, that which is clear and without any flaw or blemish before the penetrating eyes of God, even the Father, consists not merelyin speculations or forms, or even in the warmth of affection during the exercise of worship; but it is this-to take the oversight of orphans and widows in their affliction, with a tender regard to their calamitous circumstances, and endeavouring to oversee them, in such a manner as to provide for their relief, performing to others in distress suitable offices of kindness and charity; at the same time taking care to keep himself unspotted inwardlyand outwardly from those bad practices and irregular indulgencies, which so generally prevail in the world about us, where so little either of religion or morality is to be found." Archbishop Tillotson has observed, that the word αμιαντος, rendered undefiled, seems here to be an allusion to the excellence of a precious stone, which consists much in its being clear, and without a flaw or cloud; and surely no gem is so precious or ornamental as the amiable temper hereby described. The word επισκεπτεσθαι, rendered to visit, properly signifies, "to take theoversightof;" and may import, entering into measures for their subsistence, as well as going to them, and converting with them in their distresses. See Matth. xxv
Inferences.-Let us learn from this chapter a holy caution, and guard against those baits of lust under which death is concealed; remembering that God has bestowed upon us a power of determining our own actions, that he tempts none to evil, nor appoints to any such temptations as he knows to be in their own nature irresistible. Be our spiritual enemies ever so powerful, or ever so artful, they cannot do us any hurt, till we betray ourselves into their hands. Yet certain it is, that their artifice and their power, in conjunction with the deceitfulness of the human heart, make it requisite, that conscious to ourselves of our deficiency in wisdom, we should ask wisdom of God. Let the liberality with which he gives it, and the royal freedom with which he has promised it, encourage us to ask it with such constancy, that we may receive daily supplies; and with such firm confidence in his goodness, that we may not waver, and be like a wave of the sea tossed by the wind.
Trusting in that supply of grace which we receive from him, let us go forth calmly and cheerfully to meet such trials as the infinite wisdom of God shall appoint or permit, how various and pressing soever they may be; remembering that they tend to improve our patience, and by patience to perfect every other grace; and that if we be not overcome, we shall be approved, and made meet to receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love him. And O, that the love of this blessed Lord, who has purchased as well as promised it, may always render us superior to every trial, and more than conquerors through him that has loved us, and thereby hath acquired to himself so just a claim to our supreme affection. With hearts faithfully engaged to him, and established in the firmest resolutions for his service, let us look with indifference upon those worldly circumstances, about which they who have no sense of a higher interest are exceedingly solicitous; and let us regulate our value of all the good things of life, by a regard to their aspect upon our religious characters and hopes.-If low circumstances may improve these, let us look upon them as true exaltation; and if wealth, and dignity, and applause, may endanger these, let us rather fear them, than aspire to them. Whatever we have obtained of those things which the men of the world are most ready to covet and admire, is transitory and fading as the grass, or even as the flower of the field; and sometimes, like those beautiful, but tender productions of vegetable nature, is consumed by the excess of those causes to which it owes its existence and its beauty. "Give us, O Lord, durable riches, and righteousness, and that honour which cometh from thee, and is immortal, as its great Original."
And with what gratitude should we direct our eyes and our hearts to the unchangeable Father of lights, and acknowledge every good and every perfect gift, as descending from him; but above all, the invaluable gift of his regenerating grace, for which, if we are of the first-fruits of his creatures, we are certainly indebted to him, and are thereby laid under the strongest engagements to consecrate ourselves continually to his service. Let us therefore listen with a most obedient regard to every intimation of his will, and set a guard upon all our passions, that they may move in sweet and harmonious subjection to it. Especially, let us be slow to wrath, and not imagine that we can be justified in the exorbitances of our angry transports, because they may possibly arise in the cause of religion. The righteousness of God is not to be promoted, but on the contrary, will be disgraced and obstructed, by such outrageous ungovernable sallies. Let every impure and malignant affection be therefore banished from our minds, and let us pray that the word of God may be so ingrafted into our souls, as to become the effectual means of our salvation. Let us not rest in a mere forgetful hearing, or indeed in an ineffectual remembrance; but having looked into the gospel, that perfect law, which by binding the soul gives it the truest liberty, let us by Divine assistance continue therein, and improve, to the immediate purposes of reformation and holiness, whatever knowledge we thereby gain; correcting whatever we observe amiss in ourselves. Particularly, let us study a proper command over our tongues, and cultivate those charitable dispositions and offices, in which true and undefiled religion is here declared to consist; that widows and orphans may give us their blessing, as their guardians and friends; and that an unspotted life, untainted with the vices of a degenerate age, may bear witness, that though in the world, we are not of it, and that we act in consistency with those sublime and holy ends to which we profess as Christians to aspire.
REFLECTIONS.-1st, We have,
1. The inscription of the epistle. James, who counts it his highest honour to subscribe himself a servant of God, and, or even, of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, wherever dispersed throughout the world, sendeth greeting, wishing that all blessings may descend upon them, whether of this world or a better.
2. He exhorts them, under the persecutions and troubles which for Christ's sake they endured, to rejoice. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, and by Divine Providence are permitted to be variously exercised by the malice of the wicked; esteem their reproaches your honour, and your losses your truest gain; knowing this, by divine testimony, and happy experience, that the trying of your faith worketh patience; your faith is proved genuine by this blessed effect and every exercise of it tends to confirm your hearts in meek and humble resignation. But let patience have her perfect work; be the trials never so many, never so grievous, never so long continued, bear up under them with persevering steadfastness, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing, possessing that perfect love which calleth out all fear that hath torment, and pressing forward till you arrive at the highest eminence of grace. Note; (1.) Surrounded as we are with temptations, we have need of patience, that we faint not under our trials. (2.) Philosophy may enjoin submission, but Christianity alone can teach us to rejoice under affliction. (3.) Faith is the root of all graces: as that is vigorous, these will be in exercise. (4.) The sharpest conflicts which we have to sustain, prove in their issue, when rightly improved, the greatest blessings to our souls.
3. If we would act aright under our trials, we must be upon our knees often, to beg divine direction. If any of you lack wisdom, and know not how to act in any emergence, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men, who apply according to his word, liberally, and upbraideth not; never weary in granting, nor ever reproaching his supplicants with their unworthiness, or the multitude of the favours which he bestows; and it shall be given him; all the counsel and assistance which such a one needs, shall be bestowed in answer to his prayer. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering; not distrusting the faithfulness, power, and grace of God in Christ, however difficult and embarrassed his circumstances may be: for he that wavereth, is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind, and tossed; the sport of every gust of temptation, restless, impatient, fluctuating, unsettled in principle and practice: for let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord, while he dishonours him by his unbelief and fickleness. Such a double-minded man, divided between Christ and the world, halting between both, and willing to reconcile the incompatible services of God and Mammon, is unstable in all his ways, and, having no fixed end in view, can never prosper in his soul, nor expect an answer to his prayers. Note; (1.) We have every encouragement to approach a throne of grace; and every possible assurance of finding relief there, if we draw near in faith. How perverse and foolish then must we be, if we make not use of this invaluable privilege? They who come to God with their requests, must honour him by their confidence in his power, truth, and love; unbelief shuts out the blessing. (2.) When the heart is unstable and wavering, prayer cannot ascend with acceptance before God.
4. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted to the riches of grace, and the transcendent dignity of being an heir of glory; but the rich brother, in that he is made low; taught, amidst all his affluence and grandeur, true poverty of spirit, and lowliness of mind, and ready ever to part with any thing that he possesses for the sake of Christ, because he knows the fleeting and perishing nature of all worldly wealth, and that as a flower of the grass he shall pass away, and leave it all behind. 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 ways. Often in this world riches make themselves wings, and fly away as an eagle towards heaven, and death at farthest will prove their vanity.
5. A blessing is pronounced upon faithful perseverance. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; far from proving his heart, his trials in their issue tend to advance his truest felicity: for when he is tried, as the gold in the furnace, and comes forth brighter from the fires, he shall receive the crown of life and glory, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, hath promised, and will at the great day of his appearing assuredly give to them that perseveringly love him. Note; (1.) We must be tried, before we can be crowned. (2.) The reward of fidelity is still the gift of God, who freely promises it, and by his grace supports the faithful, and of his mercy bestows the crown of life.
2nd, Concerning the cause of all the evil of sin which we fall into, when brought into temptation, we are taught,
1. That it is not to be imputed to God. Let no man say when he is tempted to commit sin, in order to extricate himself from suffering, I am tempted of God; for this is abominably impious, since God, who is in his nature perfectly holy, cannot himself be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man to iniquity, whatever providential afflictions he may lay upon him. Note; We are very apt to cast our sins at God's door, and to blame him for putting us into such temptations; whereas our trials are designed to exercise our graces, and not to draw us into sin.
2. We have only ourselves to blame for all the evil which is in us. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed; foolishly and perversely following the bait which Satan lays, beguiled by his enticements, and led by corrupt affections from the paths of truth and holiness. Then when lust hath conceived, in thought and desire, it bringeth forth sin, gaining the consent of the will to the perpetration of iniquity; and sin when it is finished, in the act, and impenitently persisted in, bringeth forth death of body and soul for ever. Do not err, my beloved brethren, by entertaining false and injurious conceptions of the blessed God in this matter. Note; (1.) The root of all evil is in our own fallen hearts. (2.) Sin enslaves by flattery; it is the deceitfulness of unrighteousness yielded to, which proves our ruin; and false hope supports vain confidence, till it appears that there is a lie in our right hand. (3.) If we do not destroy the power of sin, we may be assured that it will finally destroy us.
3. All the good which is in us, proceeds from God. Every good gift, and every perfect gift, every bounty of Providence, and every spiritual endowment, which tends to the perfection of our nature in knowledge and holiness, is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, the Author of all light, natural, moral, spiritual, or eternal; with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. The sun that gilds the firmament, is obscured often by clouds, rises and sets, is eclipsed, and moves to and fro between the tropics; or changes equivalent are produced among the heavenly bodies; but God knows no change; nothing but good, without the shadow of evil, can proceed from him. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, not for any desert of ours, but of his rich and unmerited grace, sending us his gospel, and making it effectual, through the power of the Spirit, to quicken the souls of believers from the death of sin, and raise them to newness of life; that, as his adopted and regenerate sons, we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures; consecrated to him, and devoted to his immediate service. Note; (1.) All glorying must be excluded, if all good be of grace; for what then have we, which we have not received? (2.) All who are begotten by the word of truth in the gospel, must, from that moment, consider themselves as consecrated to God's service, and bound to live to his glory.
3rdly, The apostle enjoins them,
1. To restrain their passions. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear God's word; slow to speak, not daring to censure the ways of Providence and grace; slow to wrath; not disputing or quarrelling with the truths of God, or treating those who differ in point of controversy with contempt or anger: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God; the cause of God cannot be served by our selfish passions; nor with such a spirit may we hope to speak aright, or to convince others. Note; (1.) We should not be obstinate in our own opinions, but be willing to hear the objections of others. (2.) God's cause is not to be served by noise and anger, but by meekness and the word of truth. Whoever is in the right, they that are angry are sure to be wrong.
2. To put away every other vile and corrupt affection. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness, and superfluity of naughtiness, every defiling lust, and malicious temper; and receive with meekness the ingrafted word, that it may take fast hold of your affections, and be incorporated with your hearts; bowing before it with all humility, and receiving it on God's authority with faith and love; which is able to save your souls, when thus accompanied by the power of the Spirit, and yielded to by the heart unto righteousness. Note; Corrupt affections entertained, disincline and indispose the soul for receiving God's word, turn us away from hearing it, and prejudice us against the truth.
3. We must be not only hearers of the truth, but practise it also, else it can profit us nothing. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves, by fallacious conclusions, to the ruin of your own souls. For if any man be a hearer of the word merely, resting upon that as of any avail, and is not a doer of what he hears, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and, hastily passing by, straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. Such is the careless and cursory hearer of the word: he may discover, whilst under the word, in a transient glance, something of the sinfulness and depravity of his nature, and his need of Christ; but it makes no deep or lasting impression: no sooner is he gone forth into the world, than he forgets his convictions, and continues utterly unchanged in temper and conduct. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, attentively viewing himself in the glass of the gospel, wherein we are called from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; and continue therein, careful to hold fast in principle, and to correspond in practice, with the things therein revealed; he, being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, diligent to obey what God commands, this man shall be blessed in his deed, made happy in God's present service, and, if faithful unto death, his end shall be everlasting life. Note; (1.) True religion consists not in profession merely, but in practice, without which Christianity is but an empty name. (2.) The word of God is as the faithful mirror, that knows not to flatter: if we attentively view ourselves in that glass, we shall see the horrid deformity of our fallen spirits by nature, and learn to entertain the lowest thoughts of ourselves. They only are blessed, who, having discovered their real state, are seriously led to the Fountain open for sin and for uncleanness; and in a Saviour's blood, and by the power of his grace, have their filthiness cleansed, and their nature renewed after his image, so as henceforth to walk with and please God.
4. He marks the difference between true and false religion. If any man among you seem to be religious, making such a profession, and yet bridleth not his tongue, from railing, reproach, slander, profaneness, bitterness, or proud talkativeness to display his own talents; this man's religion is vain: however plausible he may appear, his heart is rotten; and while he would build up his own excellence by detracting from others' worth, his hypocrisy is visible through the mask. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, that religion which he approves, which is dictated by his word, and aims at his glory,-is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction; stretching out the kind hand of charity to relieve them, sympathizing with them, and affording them every assistance which they need, and we can give; and to keep himself unspotted from the world; neither polluted by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, nor the pride of life; but preserved pure for God amid the overflowings of ungodliness. Note; (1.) We have to do with a heart-searching God, who requireth truth in the inward parts. Where the soul is right with God, there purity, and love, and charity, will be manifest in every word and work. (2.) This world is full of defilement; it needs much watchfulness to keep our garments unspotted.
