James 3

James 3:1-12

The apostle cautions them against being too forward in assuming the office and character of teachers; and recommends a strict government of the tongue, as a matter, though of great difficulty, yet of the highest importance. James III. 1—12.

SEC. v. James III. 1. AND now, my brethren, give me leave to M Y brethren, be caution you against another evil which I have seen some reason to apprehend, and to

not be forward to assume the office of teachers;

press you, that ye be not many teachers;ᵃ that none of you rashly undertake the office of teachers, which many are ready to intrude themselves into, without due qualifications, or a regular call: but I would urge you to be cautious against such an assuming disposition, as knowing that we who bear that office, must expect that we shall undergo greater and stricter judgment than others in a more private station of life. The many infirmities, to which the best of us are subject, may indeed teach us to think with awe of that exact trial we are then to undergo; for in many things we all offend;ᵇ we are too ready to trip and stumble in our walk. And it is peculiarly worthy our attention here, that, if any one offend not in word, [he is] a perfect man,ᶜ arrived at so high a pitch and improvement in virtue, that it may be concluded, that he is able also to bridle in the whole body; as it is frequently much more difficult to govern our tongues in a becoming manner, than to avoid enormities in our actions. Behold, we put bridles into the mouths of horses, that they may obey us, according to their direction; and strong, and sometimes furious, as those creatures are, we turn them hither and thither, so as to influence the motion of their whole body. Behold also how the ships, though they be many of them so large, and sometimes agitated by violent winds, are turned by a very small helm,

ᵃ Not many teachers.] Our translators render it masters, as διδασκαλθᶜ is frequently rendered; and it is generally explained of imperious and censorious dictators, as many of the Jewish zealots were. But when he forbids many to be such, he seems to allow that some may; and consequently I think teachers ought to be explained in an innocent and indifferent sense, as in the paraphrase. And though the word κεμια, in the following clause, may usually signify condemnation, yet sometimes it means judgment in the general: particularly Mat. vii. 2; Acts xxiv. 25; Rom. v. 16; (where it is evidently distinguished from καλακεμια,) 1 Cor. vi. 7; Heb. vi. 2; Rev. xx. 4; as on the other hand, κριτιν, which generally signifies

judgment alone, sometimes includes condemnation in it. Mat. xxiii. 33; Mark iii. 29; Heb. x. 27.

ᵇ All offend] The word, σπασμα, properly speaking, signifies, we trip; and Dr. Barrow, (see his Works, Vol. I. p. 129,) has justly observed, that as the general course of life is called, a way, and particular actions, steps; so going on in a regular course of right action, is walking uprightly; and acting amiss, tripping or stumbling.

ᶜ Perfect man.] It is certain a man whose words are inoffensive, may possibly have some imperfections; it shows therefore in how limited a sense the word perfect is to be taken; and the observation may be applied to many other passages.

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And should be careful not to offend with them

whithersoever the steersman pleaseth, and the waving of his hand determines their direction. So also the tongue, though, it is but a little member, yet boasteth great things, pretends, and that not unjustly, to have a great deal of influence upon the world. Behold, and observe, how great a quantity of materials a little fire kindleth into a blaze. And thus the tongue [is] a fire, which often produces a great conflagration: it is a little world of iniquity of itself. The tongue is so set among our members, holds such a rank and place, [that] indeed it defiles the whole body, and inflames the whole course and circle of nature, and is itself also set on fire by hell; the infernal spirit influences the heart, and its wickedness overflows by the tongue, and tends indeed, by its fatal consequences, to produce a very hell upon earth. It is observable, that every species of wild beasts, and of birds, of reptiles and fishes, though some of them take shelter in inaccessible deserts, and others bury themselves in the earth; though some mount the air, and others have their abode deep in the watery element; yet still every sort is subdued, and has in some instances or other been subdued, by men; and many, whose natures are fiercest, are so tamed as to do the human

¹ Whithersoever the steersman pleaseth.] As the word is, which signifies any person that sits at the helm, and not necessarily the pilot, who is called by way of eminence, I thought it best to render it steersman; though I confess the remark and distinction to be a matter of small importance. I know not how well to express in English the force of which admirably represents the impetuosity with which, in a storm, a man at the helm on a critical occasion turns his hand. See Dr. Owen on the Spirit, p 57.

² A world of iniquity is a world that is a world.] Elsner, (Observe Sac. in loc.) gives a very singular translation of this clause, The tongue is the adoring of unrighteousness; referring to those specious colourings by which wicked men endeavour to excuse or conceal their criminal conduct.

³ Circle of nature.] So I thought might be rendered, which most exactly signifies a wheel from the revolution form-

ed. And perhaps it may intimate, how the mischief done by the tongue often comes round about. A consideration, which, were it not intimated by the expression, is well worthy the attention of every wise man. Elsner, Albert, and Bos, by this phrase understand successive generations of men; as if the apostle had said, The tongue inflamed our forefathers, it hath the same bad influence on us, and is likely to have on our posterity.

⁴ Is subdued.] So: I choose to render, rather than tamed, that it may include the conquering great and mighty fishes of the sea, such as sharks and whales, of which it seems less proper to say they are tamed, as that generally imports a kind of harmless familiarity to which some savage beasts are indeed brought, but of which large fishes are in their nature incapable; and it may be questioned whether some other animals are not so likewise; and such it was most to the apostle’s purpose to mention

nd cursing should not proceed from one mouth.

species no harm. But the tongue no man can entirely subdue, neither the tongues of others, nor his own, so that it shall not in some instances be hurtful; for [it is] an insuperable evil, and like a serpent, or an adder, full of mortal venom, by which sometimes death, and even damnation itself is occasioned. By it we sometimes bless God, even the Father; and it is our glory, when we make use of it in that sacred and honourable employment; and yet sometimes this noble instrument is degraded to the vilest purposes, and by it we curse and revile men, our brethren, who are made after the likeness of God, and honoured with his image. Out of the same mouth proceedeth the blessing and the curse, and the same tongue is the instrument of expressing both: and too frequently when the act of devotion is over, the act of slander, or outrage and insult commences. Alas! my brethren, these things ought not so to be; it is a shame to human nature, and it is surely a much fouler reproach to a Christian profession. Does a fountain from the same opening send forth alternately, and at different times, sweet [water] and bitter? It is not known in the natural, and it ought not to be known in the moral world. Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine, figs? No, but every tree has its own proper productions. So no fountain produces brackish water, and sweet. In like manner there ought to be a great deal of care, that we maintain a consistency in our discourses, and that if we profess religion and devotion, we speak at all times, as those who are often employing our speech to these noble purposes. So shall we honour God, and promote the peace of society, and of our own minds; whereas otherwise, we shall injure both; yea, and injure others, and ourselves the more, in consequence of the profession which we make of religion.

IMPROVEMENT.

LET this pathetic discourse of the apostle concerning the difficulty and importance of governing our tongues aright, engage us to the strictest care on this great article of practical religion, of

Reflections on the government of the tongue.

which so many are careless, in which the most are so far deficient, v. as to entitle those to the character of perfect men, who do not verse here offend. Let us entreat the assistance of Divine grace, that 2 we may keep our mouths as with a bridle; (Psal. xxxix. 1;) that 4 we may steer this important helm aright, lest by the mismanagement of it, we shipwreck even our eternal hopes. Let us be 6 cautious of every spark, where there are so many combustible materials; and take heed, lest we, and others, be defiled, and infernal flames kindled and propagated. It is indeed a difficult, but in consequence of this a glorious toil, far more glorious than 7 to subdue the fiercest animals, or the haughtiest enemies: let us therefore resolutely make the attempt, and learn to employ our 9 tongues, as indeed the glory of our frame, to bless God even the Father. And let the remembrance of that similitude of God, in which men are formed, make us tender of all their interests; and especially careful, that we do not injure them by unkind reproaches, or detracting speeches; and so much the rather, that we may maintain a consistency between the words of devotion addressed to God, and those of converse with our fellow creatures. 11 So shall the well spring of wisdom, rising up in our hearts, and streaming forth from our lips, be as a flowing brook. Let those, who are by Providence called to be teachers of others, set a double guard upon their words, not only in public, but in private too, as peculiar notice will be taken of them; and the honour of religion, one way or another, be greatly affected by the tenor of 1 their discourses. And let the awful account which such are to give, the greater judgment they are to expect, prevent any from intruding themselves into such an office, without suitable qualifications, and a regular call. May God enable them to judge 2 rightly concerning that call; and where it is indeed given, may his grace furnish them for their work, and his mercy cover those many imperfections, which the best will see room to acknowledge and lament.

James 3:13

The apostle urges a candid benevolent disposition, guarding them against censoriousness and animosities, and that love of the world which tends to excite them; to restrain which he recommends an humble application to God or Divine influences. James III. 13.—IV. 10.

JAMES III. 13.

MANKIND are naturally desirous of the reputation of an understanding superior to others: consider what is the best display of it. Who [is] wise, and a man of sense among

dom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle :

you? let him shew himself to be possest of the most valuable kind of knowledge, by exhibiting out of a good, holy, and useful conversation, his honourable and beneficent works. And let him do this, not with vain ostentation or rigorous zeal, but with the meekness and gentleness of true wisdom. But if ye have bitter zeal against each other, and uncharitable contention in your hearts, boast not of your improvements in Christianity, and lie not against the truth by such groundless pretensions. This is not the wisdom that cometh down from above, and which that religion that our Divine Master brought from heaven teaches us; but it [is] on the contrary, earthly, sensual, and even diabolical. It takes its rise from considerations relating to the present world, objects which gratify only our senses, the inferior part of our nature, and which are the baits of the devil’s temptations, by which he endeavours to dishonour our profession, and ruin our souls. For it is evident in fact, that were uncharitable zeal and contention [is,] there [is] wild confusion and disorder, and every other evil and pernicious work; all the turbulent passions are in exercise, and a thousand irregular and fatal effects are produced. But the wisdom [which is] from above, of celestial original, is first pure from all unclean and corrupt mixtures, and agreeable to the tenor of Divine and evangelical truth; then in consequence of that, peaceable and pacific, desirous to make and maintain peace; moderate and gentle, easily to be entreated, persuaded and reconciled, where any matters of disgust may have arisen; full of mercy, and good fruits, compassionate to the afflicted, beneficent to all; without partiality to those of our own sentiments and denomination, to the injury of others; and without hypocrisy, meaning all the kindness it expresses, and glad to extend its good offices as universally as possible. And thus the good man recommends and adorns religion, and in this he finds his own truest account; for whereas the wrath of man,

• Earthly, sensual, diabolical.] Dr. Bates is earthly, the second sensual, the third supposes this refers to the three grand diabolical, being the sin by which the devil temptations of the world, avarice, a love of fell. Bates’s Works, p. 339. pleasure and ambition; the first of which

Whereas wars and contentions come from n

as I observed, worketh not the righteousness of God, the blessed fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those that make peace;ᵇ persons of such a spirit promote the spread of the gospel, that great root of righteousness; and while a harvest of goodness by this means springs up in the minds of others, they shall themselves in due time reap joy and blessing in the comforts of the present life, and in the fruits of a glorious immortality.

On the other hand, when we come to consider the effects of a contrary disposition, how melancholy and how dreadful are they! Whence [are] wars and fightings among you?ᶜ Whence all the shocking scenes, which private quarrels, and public wars occasion; even all the carnage of a field of slaughter, and the barbarous attempts which human creatures and brethren make to destroy one another? [Is it] not hence, from your sensual lusts and appetites, which first war in your members; that is, do first, as it were, give battle to your rational powers, and then turn the several members of your bodies into weapons of mischief and destruction? Ye covet this and that pleasure and gratification, and in your present circumstances, ye find that ye have notᵈ the means of procuring it; and

ᵇ The fruit of righteousness, &c.] Possibly it might have been rendered, The fruit of righteousness in peace is sown for them that make peace. As it had been said, They who shew a peaceful temper, (supposing it to proceed from right principles,) may assure themselves, that they shall reap a harvest, in a world where righteousness flourishes in eternal peace. A seed is sown, and it will spring up, and make them ample amends for all the injuries they have sustained in a contentious world.

ᵈ Wars and fightings.] The contentious spirit of the Jews was very apparent, and drew on them speedy destruction; as any writers have justly observed on this text. Plato says, “Nothing but the body, and its lusts and appetites, kindle sedition, quarrels, and wars in the world.” But Mr. Blackwall observes, that the sentiment is here expressed with greater vivacity; and another beautiful metaphor

is added, Your lusts which war in your members; intimating, that there is a state of civil war in the soul, either between sensual inclinations and conscience, or between one lust and another. Blackwall’s Sac. Class. Vol. I. p 212.

ᵉ Ye covet and have not.] Dr. Whitby explains this particularly of the Jews. They lusted after two things, freedom from tribute, and dominion over neighbouring nations; and they continually prayed for these, without considering whether they were indeed agreeable to the will of God; and aiming at nothing more than the gratification of their sensual desires in them. But the apostle seems to imply, they would have had the desirable things here referred to, if they had asked aright; and I think, that a good reason for the more extensive sense, which, according to my usual manner, I have given to the words

They received not, because they asked amiss :

therefore ye are ready to kill one another because you stand in each others way, and one possesses what another would be glad to possess, even though it were at the expense of the owner’s life. Because ye thus earnestly desire for yourselves, and envy each other the possession of what ye cannot obtain, ye quarrel and fight, make one injury beget another, till ye come to wage a confirmed war with each other. Yet after all, ye miss the surest way of obtaining the most desirable blessings, which would be earnestly to seek them of God in prayer; but this is omitted, and so ye have not the blessings ye might otherwise easily obtain, because you ask not. Or if you do pray, it is with little devotion, and so to little purpose: ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, without a becoming faith and fervency, or without that regard to the glory of God, which ought to animate all your desires. Whereas ye seek these things only, that ye may squander them away upon your lusts, and indulge yourselves in the height of luxurious pleasure, while your poor brethren are in the last necessity; and surely the dearer any man is to God, the less likely will he be to succeed in such petitions as these. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, (for I cannot give you a milder name, while guilty of this spiritual whoredom, while you are lavishing away your best affections upon objects so far beneath him to whom you have vowed them,) know ye not, that the friendship of the world, which you so much court and caress, is enmity against God? Whoever therefore will be a friend to the world, and resolves to pursue it as his chief good, is by a necessary consequence declared and adjudged to be an enemy of God, as he will be led into that rebellion against his law, which makes up the grand character of that enmity. Do you think the scripture speaks in vain in all the passages

*Ye kill.] Beza, and Erasmus Schmidius, would read it φθινις, ye envy, though without the authority of a single manuscript. But slaughter is agreeable enough to what was said above of wars and fightings, and to the contentious and sanguinary temper of the Jews.

*Is adjudged to be an enemy.] So Dr. Barrow, (see his Works, Vol. I. p. 228,) justly observes, that the word καθηγησις signifies; and there is a considerable emphasis in the expression: it is now declared and adjudged beyond controversy, that he is an enemy of God.

For God resisteth the proud, but favoureth it.

in which it guards us against such a temper as this, and leads the mind directly to God, as the supreme good; teaching us to abandon every thing for him? Or does the Holy Spirit that dwells in us Christians, lust to envy? does it encourage these worldly affections, this strife and envying which we have reproved? or can it be imagined, that we who appear to have so much of the Spirit, have any interested views in the cautions we give, and would persuade you from the pursuit of the world, because we should envy you the enjoyment of it? No: But we rather pity such fond and wretched attachments; for he gives us greater degrees of grace, than to leave us the slaves of so wretched a disposition; as it is said in those ever memorable words, (Prov. iii. 34,) God sets himself in battle array against the proud, but to the lowly he giveth grace and favour. Subject yourselves therefore to God; and being listed in his army, keep the rank which he has assigned you; resist the devil steadily and courageously, as the great enemy of your eternal salvation; and though he may for a while combat you with his varied temptations, he will at length flee from you, and your progress in religion, and your victory over your spiritual adversaries, will grow daily more easy. Draw near to God with humble submission and earnest prayer, and he will draw near to you with mercy. Cleanse [your] hands, O ye sinners, from all the pollutions with which they are stained; and rest not merely in a freedom from evil actions, but labour to purify [your] hearts as much as possible, from all irregularities of affection. O ye double minded, who continue thus wavering between God and the world, and have as yet learned to exert so little resolution in religion, that it is matter of doubt, whether you have any principles of it at all. And when you reflect upon the former part of life, so unprofitably and so unworthily spent, lament

Does the Spirit—[not, &c.] This But I think it would be doing great violence to our own, which intimates the latter cause to be a quotation. Bishop Patrick [Keep the rank.] So the expression: supposes it is borrowed from Numb. xi. 29. [7:37] pro erly and exactly signifies.

Reflections on our obligations to peace, humility, &c.

mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

the guilt of such a conduct; and mourn and weep for the miseries which you have exposed yourselves to by it. And instead of these vain indulgences, let your laughter be turned into mourning, and [your] ill timed joy, into expressions of the deepest sorrow. On the whole, humble yourselves in the very dust before the Lord, whom by your sins you have offended; and you may hope he will return to you in the methods of his mercy, and raise you up again from that prostrate condition.

IMPROVEMENT.

If we desire the character of wisdom, let us learn from the char. oracles of eternal truth, how it is to be obtained, by meekness iii. 13 and a good conversation. Let us avoid that infernal wisdom, 15 here so severely and justly branded, which consists in knowing the most effectual methods to distress others. On the contrary, let us pray, and study, and labour for that which is from above, and of which so amiable a character is here given. And so far 17 as it can be obtained without injuring conscience, let us cultivate universal peace; and let a gentle and placable temper, an impartial and sincere disposition, be ever inviolably preserved, even when we are obliged to contend with others, about matters of the highest importance; remembering, that the more sacred the cause is, the more solicitous we should be that we do not injure it by a passionate or iniquitous management of it. Thus let us sow the fruits of righteousness in peace, and wait the promised harvest; leaving wars and contentions to others, lamenting them, chap. and praying that God would cause them entirely to cease. And iv. 1 that we may be less obnoxious to those temptations, whereby others are betrayed into them, let us endeavour to guard against those lusts and passions, which give a disproportionate value to 2 the objects about which those contentions arise. Does God brand them with this character of adultery? Let us preserve our 4 souls pure from such affections, as ever we desire that our prayers 5 should be acceptable to God. May his grace subdue all the workings of pride, of luxury, and of envy; and produce in our hearts more and more of that humility, to which he will give 6 more grace; engaging us, when thus invited, to draw near to him, to ask aright what we need from him, trusting his promise that he will draw nigh to us, and that when we humble ourselves before him, he will raise us up. Cleansing our hands, let us endeavour to purify our hearts too. So may those who have hitherto been double minded, hope to attain an establishment in religion, in conjunction with that established peace, which no carnal affection, even when most fully gratified, can either afford or admit.

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They should not speak evil o one another;