James 1

James 1:1

James, the bishop of Jerusalem, employed by God and Christ in the service of that church, sends greeting to the Jewish Christians that are dispersed among the nations out of Judæa in divers cities.

James 1:2

Look upon it as the blessedest condition that can befall you, the joyfullest thing imaginable, that you meet with afflictions here in your Christian course, and those of many sorts and kinds, a succession of many of them.

James 1:3

And this you will do, if you duly consider the gainful effects of these afflictions: for as by them your faith is tried, whether it be sincere or no, so that trial exercises and gives you the habit of that excellent Christian virtue, of patience and courage and constancy; and that being a superiority of mind, and a victory over a man’s self—over his most hurtful and unruly passions, his fears, his sorrow, his rage, his revenge, and over all the world besides, over injuries, rapines, contumelies, death itself—it must needs be a delightful, joyous virtue.

James 1:4

And then let this patience, by consideration of the advantages of our suffering for Christ and piety’s sake, and by the delightfulness of these exercises of it, advance to this pitch of rejoicing in tribulations,

• the apostle; so most of the copies road ἀποστόλου.

James 1:5

To this indeed there is not only fortitude required, but wisdom, and that of the highest nature. And if in such times of pressure as these any man want this true, heavenly, spiritual wisdom, this skill of managing himself at this time, of securing his interest with Christ rather than with the world, of depending on Christ’s care of him, without using other artifices of securing himself, of bearing not only patiently but joyfully the utmost evils, let his recourse be continually to God, whom he need not make scruple or be ashamed to consult upon every occasion; for his liberality is not confined, like ours, nor is he wont to reproach those whom he gives any thing to, and he will certainly shew him this truth, and furnish him with this strength of enduring cheerfully, and give him, when time comes, the experimental knowledge of what I here say, how joyful a thing it is to be thus exercised, and to retain this superiority of mind in all the afflictions than can befall us.

James 1:6

But let him come to God with firm adherence on him; a mind resolved, whatsoever comes, to stick fast to God; to use no means of delivering himself but such as are acceptable to him; never entertaining any doubt whether God’s ways or his own are to be adhered to for the obtaining of his ends; making no question of God’s power or will to answer his requests, and therefore praying and depending on him quietly for an issue out of all; whereas the contrary doubting or wavering keeps men in a perpetual tempest and agitation of mind, always tossed from one hold, one dependence to another: (see note [b] 1 John v.)

[a] in faith] The word πίστις, faith, which is generally thought in this place to belong to believing that the prayers shall be heard, may very well be taken in the ordinary notion for a firm adherence to the doctrine of Christ, a constancy in the Christian profession and practice. Thus is believing used, Ecclus. ii. 13, Woe to him that is fainthearted, for he believeth not; and this, joined with the sinner that goes two ways, ver. 12, as here the double-minded man, opposed to praying in faith, is further explained by doubting, and wavering, and instability. So in Herodotus, l. 1, Χρῇ πίστιν ἐν φιλίῃ τίθεσθαι, κραδίῃ μὴ διπλῇ πεφυρμένους, “Men must preserve faith in friendship, and not be polluted with a double heart;” where, as here, faith and the double heart are opposed in this sense. This notion will very well agree with the context, where comforting the dispersed persecuted Christian Jews, ver. 2, and bidding them rejoice in those sufferings, to which he again returns, ver. 9, (which argues that all which is betwixt doth also belong to the same matter,) he enforces his exhortation, ver. 3, by remembering them that the trial of their faith, meaning that by which their faith or constancy is tried, that is, afflictions, (so δοκίμων signifies, and differs from δοκιμῇ, Rom. v. 4, as κριτήριον from κρίσις, that by which the judgment is made from the judgment itself,) worketh, or perfecteth, patience; that is, that if they had no afflictions to try their constancy of adhering to Christ,

James 1:7

And besides, it is the blasting of our prayers, God being not wont to hear them that do not sincerely and faithfully depend on him.

James 1:8

A wavering, inconstant Christian, that together with the faith of Christ applies himself to unlawful

James 1:9

[b] brother of low degree] What the meaning of this verse is, Καυχᾶσθω δὲ ὁ ἀδελφὸς ὁ ταπεινὸς ἐν τῷ ὕψει αὐτοῦ, But let the brother that is low triumph, or rejoice, in his height, is to me very doubtful, and therefore I have set down two notions of which it is capable. The former hath already been set down from an idiom of the sacred dialect, note [d] on Matt. ix, and need not be again recited here. The latter hath these probabilities for it. First, from the context, which from the beginning of the chapter had been to exhort them to rejoice in tribulations, to count it all joy, ver. 2, and that is all one with καυχᾶσθαι, rejoice, or boast, here; and then that which is matter of all joy, or of boasting, being always some good accession, some dignity, some advancement, it is very reasonable that that which he is bid rejoice in should be looked on as ὕψος αὐτοῦ, his height, his preferment. Secondly, from the word ὕψος, which is here used, and signifies height, not ὕψωσις, exaltation, or being made high, which is it that is opposite to

James 1:11

For as it is with the green grass on the ground, as soon as ever the sun riseth and scorcheth it, it makes it wither, and all the florid part and beauty vanisheth presently, and there is no possible preserving it at such a time; so the rich man, when afflictions and devourers come upon him, doth in a small time wither and fall away; his riches leave him, or he them; if God see fit to send or permit afflictions, he will not by all his dexterities, by any means, (but prayer and fidelity and constancy, vv. 5—7,) be able to avert them.

[c] ways] The word πορείας, ways, here may possibly be a change of the transcriber for ἐμπορίας, tradings or merchandises, as ch. iv. 13, it is the rich man’s speech, Ἐμπορευσόμεθα καὶ κερδήσομεν, We will traffick and gain. But because πορείας, ways, hath no inconvenient sense in it, therefore there is no use of any such alteration.

James 1:12

Whereas, on the other side, for the true, constant, pious Christian, it is a blessed thing for him that he meets with afflictions, which are but means to try and exercise his Christian virtues: which being done, he shall receive approbation from God, and with it a reward, such as in the gospel is promised to all that adhere and cleave fast to God, if not deliverance here, eternity hereafter.

James 1:13

Let no man that by afflictions is brought to any sins say that God is the author of this; for as God cannot himself be brought to sin by any means, so

⁵ But let, Δl. ⁶ in his own height, ἓν τῷ ὕψει αὐτοῦ. ⁷ arose with burning heat, and dried away the grass, and the flower thereof fell away, and the beauty of the look of it perished, Ἀνέτειλε γὰρ — ⁸ be withered in his own ways, μαρανθήσεται ἐν ταῖς — αὐτοῦ. ⁹ being approved, δόκιμος γενόμενος.

James 1:14

But every man’s falling into any sin comes from himself, his own treacherous, sensual appetite, which being impatient of sufferings, suggests and tenders him some sensitive, carnal baits, and so by them draws him out of his course and entices him.

James 1:15

And when his consent is joined to that proposal or invitation of his sensual part against the contrary dictates of his reason and the Spirit of God, then that, and not the affliction and temptation, ver. 13, begetteth sin, every such consent is the engaging the soul in sin; and such sin, when by repetition of acts or indulgence it comes to some perfection, it engageth the soul in eternal death: (see note [f] 1 Thess. v.)

16, 17. Do not permit yourselves to be deceived by the Gnostics that creep in among you, and flatter you with hopes that they by their compliances will be able to preserve you from suffering here. No, certainly, it is God must secure you, or ye are not likely to be secured; the present avoiding of persecutions, by not confessing of Christ, will stand you in small stead, involve you only in the destruction that attends the persecutors: and this will be a sad deceit when it befalls you. How much better and safer will it be to adhere to God, when every good thing that is given to men, whether of the lower or higher sort, the ordinary prizes in their spiritual exercises, and the most illustrious crowns, (see note [d] Phil. iii.) come from heaven, descend to us from God, who is the great spring and fountain of all good things, who, like the sun, sends out light to all that want; but then is not like that in its changeableness, (as in the several appearances of the sun, when it riseth, when it is high noon, and when it sets, whereas God is constant in the same pouring out his rays on us, hath no rising nor setting;) nor again in his yearly removing or going from us, which causes different shadows on the earth. God sends forth his light without mixture of shade, his gifts without all niggardliness or restraint.

James 1:17

[d] variableness] The word παραλλαγή signifieth astronomically the several habitudes and positions wherein the sun appears to us every day at the rising, in the meridian, and when it sets. And so τροπή is also a like word, belonging, not to the daily but yearly course of the sun, which is further from us or nearer to us, after the measure or in the proportion that it moves toward the northern or southern tropic. And from thence it is that it casts several shadows to the several people of the world, and gives geographers occasion to divide them into ἄσκιοι, ἐτερόσκιοι, and περίσκιοι, those that cast no shadows, those that cast shadows on one side, and those that cast shadows round about. And agreeable to this is the word ἀποσκίασμα, casting of shadow, here; and being joined with τροπής, turning, signifies the variations of the shadows, according to the various motions of the sun before mentioned.

James 1:18

He hath now begotten us in a more excellent way and manner than when we were called his child-

¹⁰ to. ¹¹ Be not deceived, Μὴ πλανᾶσθε. nor casting of shadow, caused by his turning from us.

¹² largess, δόσις. ¹³ no variation

James 1:19

Seeing therefore God hath been so gracious to us, let these advantages be made use of to reform every thing that is amiss; let it engage us to those moral duties oft recommended to us, as to be very ready to hear and learn, and yet very deliberate and wary in our words; so to be very hardly brought to anger or impatience, whatever the wickedness of men, whatsoever our provocations be.

James 1:20

For it is not at all agreeable to the Christian temper, required Matt. v, to be impatient and fall out into sudden wrath or anger; and he that is such, will never be able to do that which is prescribed by God, and acceptable to him under the gospel.

James 1:21

And as the sins of wrath and malice so observable in the Gnostics among you, (which are therefore called dogs, and the concision, by St. Paul,) so likewise of lust also, all those that circumcision noted the casting from us, and are answerable to the suckers that grow from the root of the tree, let them be plucked off and removed, that you may be the more docile and capable of receiving the whole gospel doctrine, which is as it were a graff of a sweet, kindly fruit, graffed into the stock of our sour and corrupt nature, and being received and prospering in our hearts, will fructify unto holiness, and finally will bring men to heaven.

James 1:22

But then it will not be sufficient to receive that doctrine into your ears or brain, but it must be uniformly practised, or else it is but the deceiving of yourselves. 23, 24. For he that hears the directions that are given in the gospel for good life, and the motives and obligations to it; and when he hath done so, sets not with any care to live accordingly a pious Christian life, may be resembled to a man looking in a mirror, to observe what spots or sullages are there in his face;

James 1:23

[e] natural face] Some difficulty there is in understanding this verse, which will be resolved, if, as ordinarily it is thought, πρόσωπον γενίσεως αὐτοῦ, be determined to signify no more than a man’s own face reflected to him in a glass, and ἔσοπτρον be taken for that glass or mirror. For then the meaning of the verse will be, that the word of God is as such a glass, reflecting to him the portraiture of himself, ὁποῖος ἐστι, what a kind of person he is, whether there be any thing amiss in him or no; and he that hears the word of God, and doth it not, is as if a man should look upon and contemplate his face in a looking-glass, and no more; (that will be the meaning of κατανοοῦντι, he that beholdeth, in the present tense.) As for any use or effect of this looking, it follows, he beheld and went away, and presently forgot: when he hath seen what blemishes there are to be wiped off, to be reformed in him, he contents himself with having seen them; and having done so, departs, and never thinks more of them, lays not to heart

James 1:27

[f] Pure religion] That this verse is a defensative particularly against the Gnostics of that time, may appear by these two parts of worship here mentioned: the first, charity to them that want; the second, spotlessness from the pollutions especially of the flesh, but also from other sins of the world. These two branches are styled by two names, the one pure, the other undefiled worship, and both of them taught both by God the Father in the Old Testament, and now by Christ. Contrary to these were the Gnostic practices in the two particulars. For the second, both of uncleanness, even the highest baseness and villainy, and of loving the world, and the pleasures and advantages thereof, more than God, and complying with the persecutors still, rather than they would suffer any thing, there is very often mention made in the Epistles; and for the first, beside the very frequent inculcations of the duties of charity, and the finding fault with (and complaining for) the want of them, there is in Ignatius’s Ep. ad Smyrn. an eminent testimony. For fortifying them against the heresy of the times, μηδεὶς πλανάσθω, let no man deceive you, &c., and having resolved that faith and charity, τὸ ὅλον ἐστίν, ὧν οὐδέν προκέκριται, are betwixt them “the whole or all of a Christian, before which nothing is to be preferred,” (in opposition to the Gnostics, who supposed themselves so perfect that they had no need of either,) he speaks plainly and punctually of them under the name of ἐτεροδοξοῦντες εἰς χάριν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τὴν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐλθοῦσαν, “of false opinions toward the grace of Christ which is come to us,” and bids them observe how contrary they are to the doctrine of God in these particulars following; Περὶ ἀγάπης οὐ μέλει αὐτοῖς, οὐ περὶ χήρας, οὐ περὶ ὀρφανου, οὐ περὶ θλιβομένου, οὐ περὶ δεδεμένου ἢ λελυμένου, οὐ περὶ πεινῶντος ἢ διψῶντος, “They have no care of charity, no care for the widow, nor orphan, nor oppressed, nor imprisoned, nor hungry, nor thirsty.” In which respect it is manifest that this apostle, ch. ii. 14, proceeds to a punctual discourse of the absolute necessity of superadding works of charity to faith, or else it will profit nothing, directly opposite to the doctrine of Simon and his Gnostics, of whom saith c Irenæus, Hos qui in cum et Helenam ejus spem habeant, et ut liberos agere quæ velint, secundum enim ipsius gratiam salvari homines et non secundum operas justas, “They that place their hope on Simon and his Helen, as free men did what they would, deeming that men were saved by his grace, and not according to any good works

b Tom. iii. l. 9. p. 266. c Lib. i. c. 20.