James 3
ButlerChrist," wilt thou not know that an empty barren faith is a dead faith?
21-23. James speaks of some special justification that Abraham received upon his offering of Isaac; and you will find that from God he then received a justification of his faith, though thirty years before that he had received a justification of his person. When he was an idolater and ungodly, then God “called him” by his grace and justified him. “He believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15). But now when he offered up Isaac, his faith was justified to be true and right, for that command was for the trial of it. Therefore, upon his obedience, God did two things: renewed the promise of Christ to him (Gen. 22) and gave him a testimony and declaration of his sincerity. “Now I know that thou fearest God,” saith Christ to him, who is there called “the angel of the Lord.” Therefore Paul and James may be thus reconciled. Paul speaks of the justifying of a sinner from the curse of his natural condition and from the accusations of the law; James speaks of the justifying approbation of that faith by which we are thus accepted with God. And to this purpose Diodati remarks, “that justification in Paul is opposite to the condemnation of a sinner in general, and justification in James is opposite to the condemnation of a hypocrite in particular.” In Paul’s sense a sinner is absolved, in James’s sense a believer is approved; and so, without exception, the apostles are agreed.
24. Not justified by a bare, naked profession or a dead, vain faith, such as consists in a mere assent or speculation, which is so far from justifying that it is not properly faith. T. M.—When I write of justification before God from the dreadful curse of the law, then I must speak of nothing but grace, Christ, the promise, and faith; but when I speak of our justification before men, then I must join to these good works: for grace, Christ, and faith are things invisible, and so not to be seen by another, otherwise than through a life that befits so blessed a gospel as has declared unto us the remission of our sins for the sake of Jesus Christ. He, then, that would have forgiveness of sins, and so be delivered from the curse of God, must believe in the righteousness and blood of Christ; but he that would show to his neighbors that he hath truly received this mercy of God must do it by good works, for all things else to them is but talk, as a tree is known to be what it is, whether of this or that kind, by its fruit. Bun.—“We never dream,” says Calvin, “either of a faith destitute of good works, or of a justification unattended by them.” And there is falsehood in neither of these statements, nor any real contradiction between them. Only the truth has a double front. Facing toward formalism, its front is grace; facing toward the conscience of a pardoned sinner, rejoicing in hope, its front is good works. R. D. H.
25. Purposely he hath joined together two persons so very opposite, that he might the more clearly demonstrate that no person, of whatever condition, family, or rank, was ever accounted among the number of the justified and the faithful without good works. Cale.—She was “justified by works”—that is, approved to be sincere and honored by God before all the congregation, there being a special charge to spare and to save her and her household, when all her countrymen were slain; and she being afterward joined in marriage with a prince of Israel.
26. Here is the conclusion of the whole argument, showing how little is to be ascribed to an empty profession of faith without works. The body without the spirit “is dead,” that is, can not perform the functions and offices of life or of a man. So faith without works, or, in other words, dead faith; and dead faith can not be true faith any more than a carcass can be a true man! A true faith can not be without works; so that we must understand the apostle as referring here to an external profession of belief, which, because of some resemblance to what is true, is called faith. T. M.
1. My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
7. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, 8 and hath been tamed of mankind: but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, 9 full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we 10 men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth bless- 11 ing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth 12 at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive ber- 13 ries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise 14 man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his 15 works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, 16 glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is 17 earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil 18 work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
The tongue may be made an instrument of evil. Many is the mind into which the tongue of the vile has introduced some foul image, that has left a serpent’s trail behind it, as it crawled in and coiled itself about the heart’s core, folding it like a guardian demon—not angel—for final doom. But preeminently the tongue should be consecrated. The words that we speak should be words of truth and soberness. Liberty of speech is a noble privilege, but God gives no liberty to speak the teachings of sin. Our freedom is linked with accountability. How much holy work, if the tongue was a consecrated thing, might be done for God by it! Not in the pulpit only, or in the hall of debate, or on the lecturer’s platform, or in the courts of justice, but in the daily walks of life, in humble scenes, by the fireside, in familiar conversation, in confidential intercourse. If the gospel of Christ dwelt in every heart, and the love of Christ on every tongue, all of us would become evangelists. Our words in the ears of a dying world would be as the message of a prophet, rich with the peace and hope of heaven. E. H. G.
It is an argument of a candid, ingenuous mind to delight in the good name and commendation of others; to pass by their defects, and take notice of their virtues; to speak and hear of those willingly, and not endure either to speak or hear of the other; for in this indeed you may be little less guilty than the evil speaker, in taking pleasure in it though you speak it not. He that willingly drinks in tales and calumnies will, from the delight he hath in evil hearing, slide insensibly into the humor of evil speaking. Until a Christian sets himself to an inward watchfulness over his heart, not suffering in it any thought that is uncharitable, or any vain self-esteem upon the sight of others’ frailties, he will be subject to somewhat of this evil humor in the tongue or ear. For the evil of guile in the tongue, a sincere heart, truth in the inward parts, powerfully redresses it; therefore it is expressed (Ps. 15 : 2), That speaketh the truth from his heart. Seek much after this, to speak nothing with God nor men but what is the sense of a single unfeigned heart. Oh, sweet truth! excellent but rare sincerity! he that loves that truth within, and who is himself at once the truth and the life, He alone can work it there! Seek it of him. L.
1. James is not here dissuading from brotherly admonitions, which the Spirit so often and so much recommends to us; but he is condemning that immoderate desire, which arises from pride and ambition, of exalting ourselves above our neighbor, of reviling, censuring, backbiting, and maliciously inquiring out everything which they can turn to his disadvantage. Calv.—Those persons who by uncharitable words and censures condemn others, and yet are the servants of sin themselves, add malice to their hypocrisy, and thus are liable to a double condemnation.
2. When the apostle Paul gives us the anatomy of wickedness in all the members of the body, he stays longest on the organs of speech, and goes over them all (Rom. 3 : 13-15). The sin of the tongue is one into which we easily fall, partly by reason of that quick intercourse that there is between the tongue and the heart, partly because speech is an act which is performed without labor, and partly because the evils of the tongue are pleasing to many—pleasing to utter, and pleasing to hear, and marvelously in accordance with unregenerated nature! T. M.
“A perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” He is entire, powerful, because he has not spent his strength. Few men suspect how much mere talk fritters away spiritual energy—that which should be spent in action spends itself in words. The fluent boaster is not the man who is steadiest before the enemy. Loud utterance of virtuous indignation against evil from the platform, or in the drawing-room, is wasted, taken away from the work of coping with evil; the man has so much less left. And hence he who restrains that love of talk lays up a fund of spiritual strength. F. W. R.
3,4. The drift is to show that little things are able to guide great bodies, as a bridle and a rudder; and so the guiding of the tongue, “a little member,” may be of as great use and consequence in moral matters. By the bridle the horse is checked and guided; by the rudder the ship is steered and preserved from danger; and to this effect Solomon says, “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles.” T. M.
5. For “how great a matter a little fire kindleth,” read, “how great a forest is kindled by how small a fire.” A.—You can not stop the consequences of a slander; you may publicly prove its falsehood, you may sift every atom, explain and annihilate it, and yet years after you had thought that all had been disposed of for ever, the mention of a name wakes up associations in the mind of some one who heard the calumny, but never heard or never attended to the refutation, or who has only a vague and confused recollection of the whole. F. W. R.
6. If vain words, the signs and immediate effects of a vain mind, shall sadly increase our accounts, how much more all the contentious, fierce, and revengeful words; the detracting, false, contumelious, and injurious words; the impure, filthy, and contagious words; the profane, blasphemous, and impious words that “flow from the evil treasure of the heart”? Oh, their dreadful number and oppressing weight! Bates.
Defileth the whole body. When a man speaks evil, he will commit it. When the tongue has the boldness to talk of sin, the rest of the members have the boldness to act. First we think, then speak, then do! Men will say it is but talk; be not deceived, a pestilent tongue will infect other members! Nay, it sets on fire the “whole course” or circle of nature, diffusing its evils into all conditions and states of life. There is no faculty that the tongue does not poison; from the understanding to the locomotive; it violently stirs up the will and affections, and makes the hands and feet “swift to shed blood.” There is no action that it does not reach. T. M.
Set on fire of hell. The apostle means literally what he says—slander is diabolical. The first illustration we give of this is contained in the very meaning of the word devil. “Devil,” in the original, means traducer or slanderer. The first introduction of a demon spirit is found connected with a slanderous insinuation against the Almighty, implying that his command had been given in envy of his creature. And in the magnificent imagery of the book of Job, the accuser is introduced with a demoniacal and malignant sneer, attributing the excellence of a good man to interested motives. F. W. R.
7,8. Our own art and skill and courage are able to tame the fiercest beasts and make them serviceable. But there is more rebellion and untamableness in our own affections than in the fiercest beast or reptile. The apostle does not say none can tame the tongue, but “no man”; no human art or power can find a sufficient remedy or curb for it! The horse, the camel, the elephant do not tame themselves; nor man himself. Man tames the beast, but God tames man. T. M.
Full of deadly poison. Formed to be the messenger of peace and love, knitting hearts together in a mutual bond of amity, it has become the fomenter of jealousy, distrust, and ill-will, the lash of uncharitableness, and the weapon of hatred. Intended to be the interpreter of sincerity and the propagator of truth, it has been made the ready instrument of falsehood and deceit. Created to speak the praises of God, and to give utterance to the feelings of thankfulness, it is wasted on the follies of worldliness and self, and profaned by the awful accents of impurity, impiety, and blasphemy. It has become the index of the corruption of our moral nature, the test by which we may, in a great degree, gauge and measure the spiritual unsoundness and sinfulness of our souls; “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” J. J.
9. Here he exhibits the good and bad use of the tongue: the good use, to bless God; the bad use, to curse men. T. M.—Man, he says, was made in the image of God; to slander man is to slander God; to love what is good in man is to love it in God. Love is the only remedy for slander; no set of rules or restrictions can stop it; we may denounce, but we shall denounce in vain. The radical cure of it is charity—“out of a pure heart and faith unfeigned” to feel what is great in the human character, to recognize with delight all high and generous and beautiful actions, to find a joy even in seeing the good qualities of your bitterest opponents, and to admire those qualities even in those with whom you have the least sympathy—this is the only spirit which can heal the love of slander and of calumny. F. W. R.
10. It is obvious that blessing and cursing do not become the same mouth. A good man should be uniform and constant. The same heart can not be occupied by God and the devil, nor the same tongue be employed to such different uses. T. M.
13. The term here rendered “conversation” signifies the whole action of life, the development of character, the way a man works, turns, or behaves himself in the world. The use of knowledge
is to guide and elevate the life. Wise men, or well-educated men, are those that make what they know illuminate and enrich what they do. If you would find out who among you is endued with knowledge, and who is not, you can apply this proof. Inquire who puts his knowledge into a “good conversation”—a noble or beautiful manner of living. F. D. H.