James · Chapter 4

V. 1. From whence come wars and fightings-Quarrels and wars among you, quite opposite to this peace?

Is it not from your pleasures-Your desires of earthly pleasures. Which war-Against your souls.

In your members-Here is the first seat of the war. Hence proceeds the war of man with man, king with king, nation with nation.

Verse 1. From whence come wars and fightings] About the time in which St. James wrote, whether we follow the earlier or the later date of this epistle, we find, according to the accounts given by Josephus, Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 17, &c., that the Jews, under pretence of defending their religion, and procuring that liberty to which they believed themselves entitled, made various insurrections in Judea against the Romans, which occasioned much bloodshed and misery to their nation. The factions also, into which the Jews were split, had violent contentions among themselves, in which they massacred and plundered each other. In the provinces, likewise, the Jews became very turbulent; particularly in Alexandria, and different other parts of Egypt, of Syria, and other places, where they made war against the heathens, killing many, and being massacred in their turn. They were led to these outrages by the opinion that they were bound by their law to extirpate idolatry, and to kill all those who would not become proselytes to Judaism. These are probably the wars and fightings to which St. James alludes; and which they undertook rather from a principle of covetousness than from any sincere desire to convert the heathen. See Macknight.

Come they not hence-of your lusts] This was the principle from which these Jewish contentions and predatory wars proceeded, and the principle from which all the wars that have afflicted and desolated the world have proceeded. One nation or king covets another’s territory or property; and, as conquest is supposed to give right to all the possessions gained by it, they kill, slay, burn, and destroy, till one is overcome or exhausted, and then the other makes his own terms; or, several neighbouring potentates fall upon one that is weak; and, after murdering one half of the people, partition among themselves the fallen king’s territory; just as the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians have done with the kingdom of Poland!-a stain upon their justice and policy which no lapse of time can ever wash out. These wars and fightings could not be attributed to the Christians in that time; for, howsoever fallen or degenerate, they had no power to raise contentions; and no political consequence to enable them to resist their enemies by the edge of the sword, or resistance of any kind.

1-6.

(2,) He directs proud and carnal professors to submit and betake themselves to God, to resist the devil, and abandon and lament their sinful courses in order to their being exalted, 7-10.

(3,) He exhorts them to speak candidly one of another, and to undertake no temporal affairs with out a constant regard to the providence of God, 11-17. NOTES ON CHAPTER 4.

Verse 1. The crimes condemned in this and the following chapter were so atrocious, and of so public a nature, that we can hardly suppose them to have been committed by any who bore the name of Christians. Wherefore, as this letter was directed to the twelve tribes, (James 1:1,) it is reasonable to think that the apostle, in writing these chapters, had the unbelieving Jews, not only in the provinces, but in Judea, chiefly in his eye. From whence come wars and fightings among you — Some time before the breaking out of the war with the Romans, which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish commonwealth, the Jews, as Josephus informs us, on pretence of defending their religion, and of procuring to themselves that freedom from foreign dominion, and that liberty which they thought themselves entitled to as the people of God, made various insurrections in Judea against the Romans, which occasioned much bloodshed and misery to their nation. The factions, likewise, into which the more zealous Jews were now split, had violent contentions among themselves, in which they killed one another, and plundered one another’s goods. In the provinces likewise the Jews were become very turbulent; particularly in Alexandria, Egypt, Syria, and many other places, where they made war against the heathen, and killed numbers of them, and were themselves massacred by them in their turn. This being the state of the Jews in Judea, and in the provinces, about the time the Apostle James wrote his epistle to the twelve tribes, it can hardly be doubted that the wars, fightings, and murders, of which he here speaks, were those above described. For as he composed his letters after the confusions were begun, and as the crimes committed in these confusions, although acted under the colour of zeal for God and for truth, were a scandal to any religion, it certainly became him, who was one of the chief apostles of the circumcision, to condemn such insurrections, and to rebuke, with the greatest sharpness, the Jews who were the prime movers in them. Accordingly, this is what he hath done. And both in this and in the following chapter, using the rhetorical figure called apostrophe, he addresses the Jews as if they were present, whereby he hath given his discourse great strength and vivacity. See Macknight. Come they not hence, even of your lusts — Greek, hdonwn, pleasures; that is, your greedy desire after the pleasures and enjoyments of the world; that war — Against your souls; or raise tumults, as it were, and rebel both against reason and religion; in your members — In your wills and affections. Here is the first seat of war. Hence proceeds the war of man with man, king with king, nation with nation; the ambition of kings and nations to extend their territories; their love of grandeur and riches; their resentments of supposed injuries; all the effect of lust, or of earthly, sensual, and devilish desires, engage them in wars.

Verse 1, 2. From whence come wars and fightings among you? St. James saw in the Spirit the bloody and cruel wars which would rise among christian powers, much the same as among the heathen. He had a clear conviction that the cause of wars is uniformly the same, namely, evil concupiscence, pride, avarice, revenge. The prophet Isaiah assigns the same reason for all wars, the pride of the human heart, Judah envying Ephraim, and Ephraim vexing Judah. Isaiah 11:13. He also adds the promise, that all this envy and contention shall subside in the peaceful reign of righteousness and truth.

The Jews made many insurrections against the Romans, both in Egypt and in Jerusalem, and also in Galilee. Joseph. lib. 20. The Roman governors of Asia were also often engaged in provincial wars: these are contrary to the spirit of the Messiah’s kingdom.

1. Wars and public commotions—Whence come they? What the remedy? 1-10.

1. Whence… wars—Passing beyond the synagogue, Christian or Jewish, our apostle extends his address to the people of the twelve tribes. The great body of modern commentators, such as Stier, Bengel, De Wette, Huther, and Alford have interpreted these wars as strifes in Churches, or even between Christian teachers! This has arisen from their not discriminating the various classes addressed by the epistle. Limiting all the epistle to the Christian body, they are obliged either to impute to the apostolic Church enormities of which it was not supposably guilty, or else very arbitrarily to give a figurative meaning to the terms. The class plainly enough addressed is the Jews who, in those troublous times, acted the part of brigands—robbed, murdered, skirmished in armed bands, and yet held themselves as the people of God, doing him service. The passage is a picture of the times described in our vol. iii, pp. 233-235. Huther thus approvingly quotes Laurentius as saying: “The apostle speaks, not concerning wars and slaughters;” which are precisely what he does speak about; “but concerning mutual dissensions, lawsuits, scoldings, and contentions.” From such an exegesis we are obliged to dissent, and fall back, with Grotius, and recognise a clear view of the Jewish age. First, it seems entirely inadmissible to interpret such a series of terms as wars, battles, kill, fight, cleanse hands, sinners, doubleminded, of the Christian body. These phrases, also, stand in strong contrast with the terms of vers. 11, 12, where brethren are directly addressed, and where the faults corrected are not blood and murder, but censorious speaking. Second, even these interpreters admit that the dread apostrophe to the oppressive rich in first paragraph of next chapter is not addressed to Christians. But the two passages are precisely parallel. One addresses the disturbers of public peace, the other the oppressors of the poor, especially poor Christians. It would be just as easy, by a forced transformation of the strong terms into figures, to make the latter passage an address to the Church as the former.

Third, the two passages are also parallel in the fact that each is followed by a passage in a very different tone addressed to the Church. As the denunciations James 4:1-10 are parallel to the denunciations of James 5:6, so is the gentle address to the Church in James 4:11, 12, parallel to the gentle address to the Church in James 5:7-10, and following. In both cases there is a bold appeal to the wicked world, followed by a fraternal appeal to the holy, yet not faultless, Church. Fightings—Battles, specific acts of war. The preferred reading repeats the whence for vividness; whence come wars? whence battles? Lusts—Not the usual Greek word for lusts, but the word for pleasures, or delights. The term alludes to that bad delight or gratification, existing in the fierceness of strife, prompting to repetition. That war—There is an inward war, prompting to outward. The bloody public contests were deeply based upon the inward depravities, the cupidities, ambitions, revenges, lusts, mingled with the fiery patriotisms and religions kindled to fanaticism. Thence came assassinations, rapines, conflagrations, finally resulting in the dissolution of society, and the desolation of the land swept of its inhabitants.

V. 2. Ye kill-In your heart, for "he that hateth his brother is a murderer." Ye fight and war-That is, furiously strive and contend.

Ye ask not-And no marvel; for a man full of evil desire, of envy or hatred, cannot pray.

Verse 2. Ye lust, and have not] Ye are ever covetous, and ever poor. Ye kill, and, desire to have] Ye are constantly engaged in insurrections and predatory wars, and never gain any advantage.

Ye have not, because ye ask not.] Ye get no especial blessing from God as your fathers did, because ye do not pray. Worldly good is your god; ye leave no stone unturned in order to get it; and as ye ask nothing from God but to consume it upon your evil desires and propensities, your prayers are not heard.

Verses 2, 3. Ye lust — Epiqumeite, ye covet, or eagerly desire; and have not — What you desire; you are, some way or other, hindered from attaining that of which you are so greedy; ye kill — In your heart; for he that hateth his brother is a murderer. Or he speaks of the actual murders which the carnal Jews, called zealots, committed of the heathen, and even those of their own nation who opposed them. Accordingly, he says, ye kill, Kai zhloute, and are zealous, thereby showing, evidently, that the persons to whom he spake were zealots. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not — What ye so eagerly desire; because ye ask not — And no marvel; for a man full of evil desire, of malice, envy, hatred, cannot pray. Since, as appears by this, the persons to whom the apostle is speaking failed of their purpose, because they did not pray to God, it shows, says Macknight, “that some of their purposes, at least, were laudable, and might have been accomplished with the blessing of God. Now this will not apply to the Judaizing teachers in the church, who strongly desired to subject the converted Gentiles to the law of Moses. As little will it apply to those who coveted riches. The apostle’s declaration agrees only to such of the unconverted Jews as endeavoured to bring the heathen to the knowledge and worship of the true God. So far their attempt was commendable, because, by converting the Gentiles to Judaism, they prepared them for receiving the gospel; and if for this they had asked the blessing of God sincerely, they might have been successful in their purpose.” Ye ask, &c. — But if ye do ask, ye receive not, because ye ask amiss — Kakwv aiteisqe, ye ask wickedly, from sinful motives. Some understand this of the Jews praying for the goods of this life: “But though,” says Macknight, “such a prayer had been allowable, the apostle scarcely would have spoken of it here, as it had no connection with his subject. His meaning, in my opinion, is, that they prayed for success in converting the heathen, not from any regard to the glory of God and the salvation of the heathen, but from a desire to draw money from them whom they converted, to spend on their own lusts.”

Verse 1, 2. From whence come wars and fightings among you? St. James saw in the Spirit the bloody and cruel wars which would rise among christian powers, much the same as among the heathen. He had a clear conviction that the cause of wars is uniformly the same, namely, evil concupiscence, pride, avarice, revenge. The prophet Isaiah assigns the same reason for all wars, the pride of the human heart, Judah envying Ephraim, and Ephraim vexing Judah. Isaiah 11:13. He also adds the promise, that all this envy and contention shall subside in the peaceful reign of righteousness and truth.

The Jews made many insurrections against the Romans, both in Egypt and in Jerusalem, and also in Galilee. Joseph. lib. 20. The Roman governors of Asia were also often engaged in provincial wars: these are contrary to the spirit of the Messiah’s kingdom.

2. Ye lust—Ye desire, crave. The objects of most of the verbs in the passage are to be supplied, the apostle leaving our minds to conceive how varied they are. Have not—In spite of your craving and violent efforts to obtain. They desired wealth, but poverty was the order of the day. They desired domination, but were enslaved by the Romans. They desired emancipation, but every bloody effort led to a bloodier destruction. Kill— In predatory assaults and political insurrections. Desire to have—It is a great puzzle with even such commentators as Huther and Alford to tell why St. James should commit such an anticlimax as to place so feeble a term as desire after kill. Alford discusses four solutions of previous commentators, rejecting them all, and gives a fifth little better than the four. The true solution is very simple. The three verbs, kill, desire, cannot obtain, are to be taken in close connexion: Ye kill and desire to have, (namely, the avails of your killing,) and cannot obtain, (those avails;) so that your bloodshed is bootless. You obtain neither wealth, nor emancipation, nor domination. Ask not—They were monotheists, hereditary covenant people of God, went through rituals, and yet their prayer was no prayer. For, as the next verse shows, they were lustful ejaculations.

V. 3. But if ye do ask, ye receive not, because ye ask amiss-That is, from a wrong motive.

Verse 3. Ye ask, and receive not] Some think that this refers to their prayers for the conversion of the heathen; and on the pretence that they were not converted thus; they thought it lawful to extirpate them and possess their goods.

Ye ask amiss] kakwv aiteisqe. Ye ask evilly, wickedly. Ye have not the proper dispositions of prayer, and ye have an improper object. Ye ask for worldly prosperity, that ye may employ it in riotous living. This is properly the meaning of the original, ina en taiv hdonaiv umwn dapanhshte, That ye may expend it upon your pleasures. The rabbins have many good observations on asking amiss or asking improperly, and give examples of different kinds of this sort of prayer; the phrase is Jewish and would naturally occur to St. James in writing on this subject. Whether the lusting of which St. James speaks were their desire to make proselytes, in order that they might increase their power and influence by means of such, or whether it were a desire to cast off the Roman yoke, and become independent; the motive and the object were the same, and the prayers were such as God could not hear.

Verses 2, 3. Ye lust — Epiqumeite, ye covet, or eagerly desire; and have not — What you desire; you are, some way or other, hindered from attaining that of which you are so greedy; ye kill — In your heart; for he that hateth his brother is a murderer. Or he speaks of the actual murders which the carnal Jews, called zealots, committed of the heathen, and even those of their own nation who opposed them. Accordingly, he says, ye kill, Kai zhloute, and are zealous, thereby showing, evidently, that the persons to whom he spake were zealots. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not — What ye so eagerly desire; because ye ask not — And no marvel; for a man full of evil desire, of malice, envy, hatred, cannot pray. Since, as appears by this, the persons to whom the apostle is speaking failed of their purpose, because they did not pray to God, it shows, says Macknight, “that some of their purposes, at least, were laudable, and might have been accomplished with the blessing of God. Now this will not apply to the Judaizing teachers in the church, who strongly desired to subject the converted Gentiles to the law of Moses. As little will it apply to those who coveted riches. The apostle’s declaration agrees only to such of the unconverted Jews as endeavoured to bring the heathen to the knowledge and worship of the true God. So far their attempt was commendable, because, by converting the Gentiles to Judaism, they prepared them for receiving the gospel; and if for this they had asked the blessing of God sincerely, they might have been successful in their purpose.” Ye ask, &c. — But if ye do ask, ye receive not, because ye ask amiss — Kakwv aiteisqe, ye ask wickedly, from sinful motives. Some understand this of the Jews praying for the goods of this life: “But though,” says Macknight, “such a prayer had been allowable, the apostle scarcely would have spoken of it here, as it had no connection with his subject. His meaning, in my opinion, is, that they prayed for success in converting the heathen, not from any regard to the glory of God and the salvation of the heathen, but from a desire to draw money from them whom they converted, to spend on their own lusts.”

Ver. 3. Ye ask, and receive not. Ye desire fine harvests, riches and commerce: kakwv. Ye ask for evil purposes, that ye may aggrandize your families; but providence sees it best to keep you poor, and to visit you with afflictions, that you may profit by his visitations.

3. Ask amiss—A sort of correction of his phrase ask not in last verse. The amiss consists in the sensual nature of their prayers. The asking for the gratification of our unholy natures is a prayer which is not a prayer. Consume—Or expend it, not upon, but in, your lusts. In your lusts expresses the moral condition in which they offered their prayerless prayers. A Greek brigand at the present day can unite robbery and murder with the most devout adoration of the virgin.

Thus far in this chapter (1-3) our apostle has pictured the depraved and disturbed state of the world, especially in his own age. Next (4-10) he draws the antithesis between God and the world, between which his readers must make their choice, as the two are incompatible.

V. 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses-Who have broken your faith with God, your rightful spouse.

Know ye not that the friendship or love of the world-The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life, or courting the favour of worldly men, is enmity against God?

Whosoever desireth to be a friend of the world-Whosoever seeks either the happiness or favour of it, does thereby constitute himself an enemy of God; and can he expect to obtain anything of him?

Verse 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses] The Jews, because of their covenant with God, are represented as being espoused to him; and hence their idolatry, and their iniquity in general, are represented under the notion of adultery. And although they had not since the Babylonish captivity been guilty of idolatry; according to the letter; yet what is intended by idolatry, having their hearts estranged from God, and seeking their portion in this life and out of God, is that of which the Jews were then notoriously guilty. And I rather think that it is in this sense especially that St. James uses the words. “Lo! they that are far from thee shall perish; thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.” But perhaps something more than spiritual adultery is intended. See James 4:9.

The friendship of the world] The world was their god; here they committed their spiritual adultery; and they cultivated this friendship in order that they might gain this end.

The word moicalidev, adulteresses, is wanting in the Syriac, Coptic, Æthiopic, Armenian, Vulgate, and one copy of the Itala.

Whosoever-will be a friend of the world] How strange it is that people professing Christianity can suppose that with a worldly spirit, worldly companions, and their lives governed by worldly maxims, they can be in the favour of God, or ever get to the kingdom of heaven! When the world gets into the Church, the Church becomes a painted sepulchre; its spiritual vitality being extinct.

Verse 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses — Who have broken your faith with God, your rightful spouse. Thus many understand these expressions, because God himself represented his relation to the Jews as his people under the idea of a marriage, and because the prophets, in conformity to that idea, represented the idolatry of the Jews as adultery. But inasmuch as gross idolatry was a sin from which the Jews had long been entirely free, and whereas to adultery, and other sins of the flesh, they were exceedingly addicted, it seems more probable that these appellations are to be understood literally. Know ye not that the friendship of the world — The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life, yielded to, to gain the favour of carnal and worldly men; or a conformity to such in their sinful courses, in order to gain their friendship; is enmity with God — Is an evident proof thereof? see Matthew 6:24; 12:30. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world — Makes it his business to comply with and gratify worldly men, thereby constitutes himself an enemy of God — And takes part with his adversaries.

Ver. 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses. This may be understood figuratively to intimate that they boasted of having Jehovah their Maker for their husband, Isaiah 54:5, while living like the heathen in friendship with the world. They reopen the old breach, and incur the ruin which the golden calves brought upon their country.

4. Adulterers is probably a spurious reading prefixed to adulteresses, which is alone genuine. We also prefer Tischendorf’s punctuation, which would read, “that you may expend it in your lusts, ye adulteresses.” Israel is often termed in the Old Testament the spouse of Jehovah, and apostate Israel is pronounced an adulteress. Said Isaiah, (Isaiah 54:5,) “Thy Maker is thine husband:” and Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 2:2,) “I remember… the love of thine espousals.” Said Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 16:32,) “But as a wife that committeth adultery.” Our Lord pronounced the Jews an “adulterous generation.” (Matthew 12:29; 16:4; Mark 8:38.) In all probability the copyist, not perceiving this figurative sense, thought that adulterers should be added in order to include both sexes in the charge of literal adultery. Know ye not—Parallel with think ye, do ye think, in next verse, with an or between the two. These two parallel questions start, first, the antithesis between the friendship of the world and the friendship of God; and, second, the contrast made by God against envy and the proud in favour of the humble. This drift of the thought is important as key to the difficulty found by commentators in the interpretation of verse 5. Friendship (rather, love) of the world—What is meant by world when it is thus condemned in lump? Not merely the secular business of the world, or human society, or the State, or the organic system of human things as such. The existence of such things is right. To say otherwise is to introduce a most disastrous and demoralizing monasticism. And this organic structure of human things is largely at the present age fused over with Christian influences. The living world of our present Christendom is not as bad as the world of the apostolic age. Enmity with God—For he who loves the world as ruled by Satan is at war with God and his kingdom.

V. 5. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain-Without good ground. St. James seems to refer to many, not any one particular scripture. The spirit of love that dwelleth in all believers lusteth against envy-Galatians 5:17; is directly opposite to all those unloving tempers which necessarily flow from the friendship of the world.

Verse 5. Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain — Without good ground, or that it speaks falsely. St. James seems to refer to many, not to one particular passage of Scripture. The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy — That is, as many understand the words, our natural corruption, excited and influenced by Satan, strongly inclines us to unkind and envious dispositions toward our fellow-creatures. Some, however, suppose that the Spirit of God is intended by the apostle in this clause, and that the sense is, The Spirit of love, that dwelleth in all believers, lusteth against envy, (Galatians 5:17,) is directly opposite to all those unloving tempers which necessarily flow from the friendship of the world. Nearly to the same purpose is Doddridge’s paraphrase of the verse: “Do you think the Scripture speaks in vain in all the passages 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.”

Ver. 5, 6. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? Does it charge the world unjustly, in saying that the thoughts and imaginations of their hearts are only evil continually? Genesis 6:5. Or the Spirit that dwelleth in us may refer to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which lusteth and wrestleth against the flesh, and which in a double view discovers his operations, by resisting the proud martial spirit of the world, and by giving grace to the humble. This must be understood of the Holy Spirit, as giving more grace, and all other good gifts to them that ask according to the Father’s will.

5. This second question suggests that (in accordance with all Scripture) the proud human spirit burns with envy, while God in his grace is on the side of the humble. Saith—Quotation of no particular passage, but a sentiment everywhere assumed or expressed by Scripture. The spirit that dwelleth in us—The unholy temper. But a reading preferred by good scholars is, The spirit that he (God) hath caused to dwell in us. Alford adopts this reading, and by it makes the spirit to be the divine spirit bestowed upon the Church. But from that he gets what we think a very perplexed meaning of the verse: “The spirit that he (God) has placed within us jealously desireth us (for its own.”) But he fails to find any Scripture which uses the Greek word for envy to designate the divine jealousy of God for his Church. And the supplying as object for the word lusteth (or, more properly, desireth) “us for his own” is arbitrary. By this new, and doubtless correct, reading, we understand our own spirit, not as a temper, but as the highest part of our nature, as body, soul, and spirit. Note, James 3:15. It is the high human spirit which lusteth, intensely desires, to (in the direction towards) envy; an envy of which pride is the element, desirous of attaining a superiority over all envied rivalry. It is an aggravation that this envy is the sin of the spirit which God has made to dwell within us, in order that we might be truly angel like.

V. 6. But he giveth greater grace-To all who shun those tempers. Therefore it-The scripture.

Saith, God resisteth the proud-And pride is the great root of all unkind affections. Proverbs 3:34

Verse 6. But he giveth more grace] meizona carin, A greater benefit, than all the goods that the world can bestow; for he gives genuine happiness, and this the world cannot confer. May this be St. James’ meaning?

God resisteth the proud] antitassetai. Sets himself in battle array against him.

Giveth grace unto the humble.] The sure way to please God is to submit to the dispensation of his grace and providence; and when a man acknowledges him in all his ways, he will direct all his steps. The covetous man grasps at the shadow, and loses the substance.

Verses 6-10. But he — God, giveth more grace — To all those who, while they shun those tempers, sincerely and earnestly pray for it. Wherefore he saith, [see the margins] God, resisteth the proud — The unhumbled; those that think highly of themselves, and put confidence in their own wisdom, power, or holiness, and who seek the praise of men rather than the praise of God; against these God sets himself in battle array, as it is expressed, Proverbs 3:24. He rejects them, and will not allow them access to, or communion with himself. He thwarts their undertakings, and renders their schemes abortive. But giveth grace unto the humble — Unto those that are humbled under a sense of their ignorance and weakness, their guilt and depravity, and therefore have no confidence in any thing they are or have. Submit yourselves — Or be subject, as upotaghte signifies, therefore to God — Pursue your lusts no longer, but yield an humble obedience to God in all things. Resist — With faith and steadfastness; the devil — The father of pride and envy; and he will flee from you — And your progress in religion will become greater, and your victory over your spiritual enemies more easy and evident day by day. Draw nigh to God — In faith and prayer; and he will draw nigh unto you — By his grace and blessing; which that nothing may hinder, cleanse your hands — From doing evil; and purify your hearts — From all spiritual idolatry, from all vile affections and corrupt inclinations, from the love of the world in all its branches; be no more double-minded — Vainly endeavouring to serve both God and mammon. Be afflicted — On account of your past sins, especially your ingratitude to God, your abuse of his blessings, and unfaithfulness to his grace; and mourn and weep — For the miseries to which you have exposed yourselves. Let your laughter be turned into mourning — Because of the heavy judgments that hang over you; humble yourselves in the sight and presence of the Lord, and he shall lift you up — Comfort you with a sense of his pardoning mercy.

Ver. 5, 6. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? Does it charge the world unjustly, in saying that the thoughts and imaginations of their hearts are only evil continually? Genesis 6:5. Or the Spirit that dwelleth in us may refer to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which lusteth and wrestleth against the flesh, and which in a double view discovers his operations, by resisting the proud martial spirit of the world, and by giving grace to the humble. This must be understood of the Holy Spirit, as giving more grace, and all other good gifts to them that ask according to the Father’s will.

6. More grace—Literally, But a greater grace he bestows; namely, as the next sentence shows, the grace of God to the humble. Greater than what is this grace? It is given greater to the humble (next verse) than it otherwise would be given in view of the antithesis of the humble against the proud, that is, the high spirit of envy. The question then amounts to this: Say not rightly the Scriptures that man’s proud yet God-bestowed spirit tends to envy, and to overcome the superiority of rivals? But a greater grace, therefore, does He give, namely, to the humble, and he resists the overriding attempts of the proud. He saith—Quoted freely from Psalms 138:6

Psalm 138:6, or Proverbs 3:34. The proud—Whose spirit lusteth to envy.

V. 7. Therefore by humbly submitting yourselves to God, resist the devil-The father of pride and envy.

Verse 7. Submit-to God] Continue to bow to all his decisions, and to all his dispensations.

Resist the devil] He cannot conquer you if you continue to resist. Strong as he is, God never permits him to conquer the man who continues to resist him; he cannot force the human will. He who, in the terrible name of JESUS, opposes even the devil himself, is sure to have a speedy and glorious conquest. He flees from that name, and from his conquering blood.

Verses 6-10. But he — God, giveth more grace — To all those who, while they shun those tempers, sincerely and earnestly pray for it. Wherefore he saith, [see the margins] God, resisteth the proud — The unhumbled; those that think highly of themselves, and put confidence in their own wisdom, power, or holiness, and who seek the praise of men rather than the praise of God; against these God sets himself in battle array, as it is expressed, Proverbs 3:24. He rejects them, and will not allow them access to, or communion with himself. He thwarts their undertakings, and renders their schemes abortive. But giveth grace unto the humble — Unto those that are humbled under a sense of their ignorance and weakness, their guilt and depravity, and therefore have no confidence in any thing they are or have. Submit yourselves — Or be subject, as upotaghte signifies, therefore to God — Pursue your lusts no longer, but yield an humble obedience to God in all things. Resist — With faith and steadfastness; the devil — The father of pride and envy; and he will flee from you — And your progress in religion will become greater, and your victory over your spiritual enemies more easy and evident day by day. Draw nigh to God — In faith and prayer; and he will draw nigh unto you — By his grace and blessing; which that nothing may hinder, cleanse your hands — From doing evil; and purify your hearts — From all spiritual idolatry, from all vile affections and corrupt inclinations, from the love of the world in all its branches; be no more double-minded — Vainly endeavouring to serve both God and mammon. Be afflicted — On account of your past sins, especially your ingratitude to God, your abuse of his blessings, and unfaithfulness to his grace; and mourn and weep — For the miseries to which you have exposed yourselves. Let your laughter be turned into mourning — Because of the heavy judgments that hang over you; humble yourselves in the sight and presence of the Lord, and he shall lift you up — Comfort you with a sense of his pardoning mercy.

7. The same antithesis as that mentioned in verse 4 is carried through the paragraph. It is between the proud and the humble, between God, to be submitted and approached, and the devil, to be resisted; between cleanse and sinners, between purify and doubleminded, between laughter and mourning, and, finally, between penitent humiliation and a divine exaltation. Therefore—In view of the fact that the proud spirit is resisted by Jehovah. But while there is One to whom we must submit, there is one whom we should resist—the devil. Will flee—Temptations repelled disappear, and when habitually kept at a distance, cease to exist. The firmly formed habit of virtue comparatively places the soul out of the normal reach of temptation. The apostolic father, Hermas, said, “The devil is able to wrestle, but not to wrestle us down; for if we struggle firmly he is conquered, and slinks away in shame.”

V. 8. Then draw nigh to God in prayer, and he will draw nigh unto you, will hear you; which that nothing may hinder, Cleanse your hands-Cease from doing evil.

And purify your hearts-From all spiritual adultery. Be no more double minded, vainly endeavouring to serve both God and mammon.

Verse 8. Draw nigh to God] Approach HIM, in the name of Jesus, by faith and prayer, and he will draw nigh to you-he will meet you at your coming. When a soul sets out to seek God, God sets out to meet that soul; so that while we are drawing near to him, he is drawing near to us. The delicacy and beauty of these expressions are, I think, but seldom noted. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners] This I think to be the beginning of a new address, and to different persons; and should have formed the commencement of a new verse. Let your whole conduct be changed; cease to do evil learn to do well. Washing or cleansing the hands was a token of innocence and purity.

Purify your hearts] Separate yourselves from the world, and consecrate yourselves to God: this is the true notion of sanctification. We have often seen that to sanctify signifies to separate a thing or person from profane or common use, and consecrate it or him to God. This is the true notion of vdq kadash, in Hebrew, and agiazw in Greek. The person or thing thus consecrated or separated is considered to be holy, and to be God’s property; and then God hallows it to himself. There are, therefore, two things implied in a man’s sanctification: 1. That he separates himself from evil ways and evil companions, and devotes himself to God. 2. That God separates guilt from his conscience, and sin from his soul, and thus makes him internally and externally holy.

This double sanctification is well expressed in Sohar, Levit. fol. 33, col. 132, on the words, be ye holy, for I the Lord am holy: מלמעלה אותו ˆyvyqm hcmlm wmx[ vdqm sra, a man sanctifies himself on the earth, and then he is sanctified from heaven. As a man is a sinner, he must have his hands cleansed from wicked works; as he is double-minded, he must have his heart sanctified. Sanctification belongs to the heart, because of pollution of mind; cleansing belongs to the hands, because of sinful acts. See Clarke’s note on “James 1:8”, for the signification of double-minded.

Verses 6-10. But he — God, giveth more grace — To all those who, while they shun those tempers, sincerely and earnestly pray for it. Wherefore he saith, [see the margins] God, resisteth the proud — The unhumbled; those that think highly of themselves, and put confidence in their own wisdom, power, or holiness, and who seek the praise of men rather than the praise of God; against these God sets himself in battle array, as it is expressed, Proverbs 3:24. He rejects them, and will not allow them access to, or communion with himself. He thwarts their undertakings, and renders their schemes abortive. But giveth grace unto the humble — Unto those that are humbled under a sense of their ignorance and weakness, their guilt and depravity, and therefore have no confidence in any thing they are or have. Submit yourselves — Or be subject, as upotaghte signifies, therefore to God — Pursue your lusts no longer, but yield an humble obedience to God in all things. Resist — With faith and steadfastness; the devil — The father of pride and envy; and he will flee from you — And your progress in religion will become greater, and your victory over your spiritual enemies more easy and evident day by day. Draw nigh to God — In faith and prayer; and he will draw nigh unto you — By his grace and blessing; which that nothing may hinder, cleanse your hands — From doing evil; and purify your hearts — From all spiritual idolatry, from all vile affections and corrupt inclinations, from the love of the world in all its branches; be no more double-minded — Vainly endeavouring to serve both God and mammon. Be afflicted — On account of your past sins, especially your ingratitude to God, your abuse of his blessings, and unfaithfulness to his grace; and mourn and weep — For the miseries to which you have exposed yourselves. Let your laughter be turned into mourning — Because of the heavy judgments that hang over you; humble yourselves in the sight and presence of the Lord, and he shall lift you up — Comfort you with a sense of his pardoning mercy.

Ver. 8. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Though James dedicates his epistle to the twelve tribes scattered abroad by persecution, he found among them some who believed not, or whose religion was at least doubtful; and these therefore he admonishes with great earnestness in several parts of his address. Those who are here admonished are considered, notwithstanding their religious profession, as being far from God, having no real communion with him in their religious duties, possessing the form of godliness but not the power. Their hands and their hearts are also supposed to be defiled, full of oppression, deceit, and fraud; and while they professed to be the people of God, the apostle calls them “sinners.” When conscience is awakened under the word, or by some alarming providence, or when they are in company with good people, they appear to be well-affected towards religion, and to be on the Lord’s side; but when they are in the world and amongst worldly men, they appear to be on the other side. “Double-minded” men, now this, and now that, having no decided character or principle of action.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners. There is no other way of drawing nigh to God: the prayer of the wicked is to him an abomination, so long as the love of sin has its seat in the heart. A sinner under the power of conscience may indeed cast away some of his sins, and thus think to appease the divine auger; but this will not suffice. Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Without this there is no entering into the kingdom of heaven, and no fellowship with God on earth. Nothing but true repentance and faith in Jesus can effect this salutary change: other considerations may produce a decent exterior, but this alone can renovate the heart, and give us access to God. Then he will indeed draw nigh to us, as a father and a friend, and will neither leave us nor forsake us. He will be near to us in life, and near in death, when no other arm can help or save us.

8. Draw nigh—The reverse of resist. The former should be done to God, the latter to the devil—the two sides of the great battle for possession of the human soul. The drawing nigh to God was ritually symbolized by the approach of the people, and especially the priests, to Jehovah in the holy of holies. But under the new dispensation, the holy of holies is wherever God’s omnipresence is, and the penitent heart is its own priest, able to offer an acceptable incense. Cleanse… hands… sinners—The sinner is the actual transgressor; his hands are stained with blood or other blot of sin; he must cleanse by reformation that he may spread clean hands in prayer to God. In vain does the wild guerilla imagine that his sanguinary deeds are done in the divine behalf and winning the divine favour. Hearts—Imply a deeper change, that the doubleminded, no longer serving the world, may have a single heart for God.

V. 9. Be afflicted-For your past unfaithfulness to God.

Verse 9. Be afflicted, and mourn] Without true and deep repentance ye cannot expect the mercy of God.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning] It appears most evidently that many of those to whom St. James addressed this epistle had lived a very irregular and dissolute life. He had already spoken of their lust, and pleasures, and he had called them adulterers and adulteresses; and perhaps they were so in the grossest sense of the words. He speaks here of their laughter and their joy; and all the terms taken together show that a dissolute life is intended. What a strange view must he have of the nature of primitive Christianity, who can suppose that these words can possibly have been addressed to people professing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who were few in number, without wealth or consequence, and were persecuted and oppressed both by their brethren the Jews and by the Romans!

Verses 6-10. But he — God, giveth more grace — To all those who, while they shun those tempers, sincerely and earnestly pray for it. Wherefore he saith, [see the margins] God, resisteth the proud — The unhumbled; those that think highly of themselves, and put confidence in their own wisdom, power, or holiness, and who seek the praise of men rather than the praise of God; against these God sets himself in battle array, as it is expressed, Proverbs 3:24. He rejects them, and will not allow them access to, or communion with himself. He thwarts their undertakings, and renders their schemes abortive. But giveth grace unto the humble — Unto those that are humbled under a sense of their ignorance and weakness, their guilt and depravity, and therefore have no confidence in any thing they are or have. Submit yourselves — Or be subject, as upotaghte signifies, therefore to God — Pursue your lusts no longer, but yield an humble obedience to God in all things. Resist — With faith and steadfastness; the devil — The father of pride and envy; and he will flee from you — And your progress in religion will become greater, and your victory over your spiritual enemies more easy and evident day by day. Draw nigh to God — In faith and prayer; and he will draw nigh unto you — By his grace and blessing; which that nothing may hinder, cleanse your hands — From doing evil; and purify your hearts — From all spiritual idolatry, from all vile affections and corrupt inclinations, from the love of the world in all its branches; be no more double-minded — Vainly endeavouring to serve both God and mammon. Be afflicted — On account of your past sins, especially your ingratitude to God, your abuse of his blessings, and unfaithfulness to his grace; and mourn and weep — For the miseries to which you have exposed yourselves. Let your laughter be turned into mourning — Because of the heavy judgments that hang over you; humble yourselves in the sight and presence of the Lord, and he shall lift you up — Comfort you with a sense of his pardoning mercy.

9. Be afflicted—Penitence is the way to repentance and reformation; penitence in view of past sin and future judgment. The ring of revelry and laughter should give way to the voice of mourning.

Verse 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord] In James 4:7 they were exhorted to submit to God; here they are exhorted to humble themselves in his sight. Submission to God’s authority will precede humiliation of soul, and genuine repentance is performed as in the sight of God; for when a sinner is truly awakened to a sense of his guilt and danger, he seems to see, whithersoever he turns, the face of a justly incensed God turned against him.

He shall lift you up.] Mourners and penitents lay on the ground, and rolled themselves in the dust. When comforted and pardoned, they arose from the earth, shook themselves from the dust, and clothed themselves in their better garments. God promises to raise these from the dust, when sufficiently humbled.

Verses 6-10. But he — God, giveth more grace — To all those who, while they shun those tempers, sincerely and earnestly pray for it. Wherefore he saith, [see the margins] God, resisteth the proud — The unhumbled; those that think highly of themselves, and put confidence in their own wisdom, power, or holiness, and who seek the praise of men rather than the praise of God; against these God sets himself in battle array, as it is expressed, Proverbs 3:24. He rejects them, and will not allow them access to, or communion with himself. He thwarts their undertakings, and renders their schemes abortive. But giveth grace unto the humble — Unto those that are humbled under a sense of their ignorance and weakness, their guilt and depravity, and therefore have no confidence in any thing they are or have. Submit yourselves — Or be subject, as upotaghte signifies, therefore to God — Pursue your lusts no longer, but yield an humble obedience to God in all things. Resist — With faith and steadfastness; the devil — The father of pride and envy; and he will flee from you — And your progress in religion will become greater, and your victory over your spiritual enemies more easy and evident day by day. Draw nigh to God — In faith and prayer; and he will draw nigh unto you — By his grace and blessing; which that nothing may hinder, cleanse your hands — From doing evil; and purify your hearts — From all spiritual idolatry, from all vile affections and corrupt inclinations, from the love of the world in all its branches; be no more double-minded — Vainly endeavouring to serve both God and mammon. Be afflicted — On account of your past sins, especially your ingratitude to God, your abuse of his blessings, and unfaithfulness to his grace; and mourn and weep — For the miseries to which you have exposed yourselves. Let your laughter be turned into mourning — Because of the heavy judgments that hang over you; humble yourselves in the sight and presence of the Lord, and he shall lift you up — Comfort you with a sense of his pardoning mercy.

10. Humble yourselves… lift you up—To pardon, holiness, and heaven.

2. Christian avoidance of even bitter and hostile speech, 11, 12.

V. 11. Speak not evil one of another-This is a grand hinderance of peace. O who is sufficiently aware of it!

He that speaketh evil of another does in effect speak evil of the law, which so strongly prohibits it.

Thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge-Of it; thou settest thyself above, and as it were condemnest, it.

Verse 11. Speak not evil one of another] Perhaps this exhortation refers to evil speaking, slander, and backbiting in general, the writer having no particular persons in view. It may, however, refer to the contentions among the zealots, and different factions then prevailing among this wretched people, or to their calumnies against those of their brethren who had embraced the Christian faith.

He that speaketh evil of his brother] It was an avowed and very general maxim among the rabbins, that “no one could speak evil of his brother without denying God, and becoming an atheist.” They consider detraction as the devil’s crime originally: he calumniated God Almighty in the words, “He doth know that in the day in which ye eat of it, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be like God, knowing good and evil;” and therefore insinuated that it was through envy God had prohibited the tree of knowledge.

Speaketh evil of the law] The law condemns all evil speaking and detraction. He who is guilty of these, and allows himself in these vices, in effect judges and condemns the law; i.e. he considers it unworthy to be kept, and that it is no sin to break it.

Thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.] Thou rejectest the law of God, and settest up thy own mischievous conduct as a rule of life; or, by allowing this evil speaking and detraction, dost intimate that the law that condemns them is improper, imperfect, or unjust.

Verses 11, 12. Speak not evil one of another — See on Titus 3:2. Evil-speaking is a grand hinderance of peace and comfort; yea, and of holiness. O who is sufficiently aware of the evil of that sin? He that speaketh evil of his brother — Of his fellow-Christian or fellow-creature; and judgeth his brother — For such things as the word of God allows, or does not condemn, does, in effect, speak evil of the law — Both of Moses and of Christ, which forbids that kind of speaking; and judgeth the law — Condemns it, as if it were an imperfect rule. In doing which, thou art not a doer of the law — Dost not yield due obedience to it; but a judge of it — Settest thyself above it, and showest, if thou wert able, thou wouldest abrogate it. There is one lawgiver — By whose judgment and final sentence thou must stand or fall hereafter; for he is able to execute the sentence he denounces, and save with a perfect and everlasting salvation, and to destroy with an utter and endless destruction; who art thou — A poor, weak, dying worm; that judgest another — And thereby assumest the prerogative of Christ?

Ver. 11. Speak not evil one of another. See the reflections on chap. 3., translated from Bourdaloue.

11. Brethren—It did not need this tender word to show us that a different class is now addressed from the sinners of the last terrible paragraph. If they were the same, we do not well see how the brethren could speak evil of each other any more keenly than he speaks of them. Of his brother— One who, it may be assumed, tries to be, and believes he is, right. Judgeth his brother—Arraigns him and pronounces sentence upon him, like an authoritative superior. Judge the law—Decides upon the exact nature and force of the law, and its absolute bearing on the particular case of the brother. We may have our opinion, and the brother may have his; what is condemned is our overriding his judgment, as if he were a culprit who had no right to an opinion. Not a doer… but a judge—You leave your proper position on the common level with your brother, of obedience to the law, and mount a tribunal in which you pronounce upon both the law and the brother. This does not forbid just criticism, but does forbid a reckless overbearing towards one whom we have reason to believe conscientious, in which our own pride of decision is involved.

V. 12. There is one lawgiver that is able-To execute the sentence he denounces.

But who art thou-A poor, weak, dying worm.

Verse 12. There is one lawgiver] kai krithv, And judge, is added here by AB, about thirty others, with both the Syriac, Erpen’s Arabic, the Coptic, Armenian, Æthiopic, Slavonic, Vulgate, two copies of the Itala, Cyril of Antioch, Euthalius, Theophylact, and Cassiodorus. On this evidence Griesbach has received it into the text.

The man who breaks the law, and teaches others so to do, thus in effect set himself up as a lawgiver and judge. But there is only one such lawgiver and judge-God Almighty, who is able to save all those who obey him, and able to destroy all those who trample under feet his testimonies. Who art thou that judgest another?] Who art thou who darest to usurp the office and prerogative of the supreme Judge? But what is that law of which St. James speaks? and who is this lawgiver and judge? Most critics think that the law mentioned here is the same as that which he elsewhere calls the royal law and the law of liberty, thereby meaning the Gospel; and that Christ is the person who is called the lawgiver and judge. This, however, is not clear to me. I believe James means the Jewish law; and by the lawgiver and judge, God Almighty, as acknowledged by the Jewish people. I find, or think I find, from the closest examination of this epistle, but few references to Jesus Christ or his Gospel. His Jewish creed, forms, and maxims, this writer keeps constantly in view; and it is proper he should, considering the persons to whom he wrote. Some of them were, doubtless, Christians; some of them certainly no Christians; and some of them half Christians and half Jews. The two latter descriptions are those most frequently addressed.

Verses 11, 12. Speak not evil one of another — See on Titus 3:2. Evil-speaking is a grand hinderance of peace and comfort; yea, and of holiness. O who is sufficiently aware of the evil of that sin? He that speaketh evil of his brother — Of his fellow-Christian or fellow-creature; and judgeth his brother — For such things as the word of God allows, or does not condemn, does, in effect, speak evil of the law — Both of Moses and of Christ, which forbids that kind of speaking; and judgeth the law — Condemns it, as if it were an imperfect rule. In doing which, thou art not a doer of the law — Dost not yield due obedience to it; but a judge of it — Settest thyself above it, and showest, if thou wert able, thou wouldest abrogate it. There is one lawgiver — By whose judgment and final sentence thou must stand or fall hereafter; for he is able to execute the sentence he denounces, and save with a perfect and everlasting salvation, and to destroy with an utter and endless destruction; who art thou — A poor, weak, dying worm; that judgest another — And thereby assumest the prerogative of Christ?

12. Who art thou—A usurper of the right of the supreme One.

3. And of arrogant conversational ignoring of God, 13-17.

V. 13. Come now, ye that say-As peremptorily as if your life were in your own hands.

Verse 13. Go to now] age nun. Come now, the same in meaning as the Hebrew hbh habah, come, Genesis 11:3, 4, 7. Come, and hear what I have to say, ye that say, &c.

To-day, or to-morrow, we will go] This presumption on a precarious life is here well reproved; and the ancient Jewish rabbins have some things on the subject which probably St. James had in view. In Debarim Rabba, sec. 9, fol. 261, 1, we have the following little story; “Our rabbins tell us a story which happened in the days of Rabbi Simeon, the son of Chelpatha. He was present at the circumcision of a child, and stayed with its father to the entertainment. The father brought out wine for his guests that was seven years old, saying, With this wine will I continue for a long time to celebrate the birth of my new-born son. They continued supper till midnight. At that time Rabbi Simeon arose and went out, that he might return to the city in which he dwelt. On the way he saw the angel of death walking up and down. He said to him, Who art thou? He answered, I am the messenger of God. The rabbin said, Why wanderest thou about thus? He answered, I slay those persons who say, We will do this, or that, and think not how soon death may overpower them: that man with whom thou hast supped, and who said to his guests, With this wine will I continue for a long time to celebrate the birth of my new-born son, behold the end of his life is at hand, for he shall die within thirty days.” By this parable they teach the necessity of considering the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and that God is particularly displeased with those

“Who, counting on long years of pleasure here,

Are quite unfurnished for a world to come.”

And continue there a year, and buy and sell] This was the custom of those ancient times; they traded from city to city, carrying their goods on the backs of camels. The Jews traded thus to Tyre, Sidon, Cæsarea, Crete, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome, &c. And it is to this kind of itinerant mercantile life that St. James alludes. See at the end of this chapter.

Verses 13-15. Go to now — Age nun, come now, an interjection, calculated to excite attention; ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go, &c. — As if future events were in your own power, and your health and lives were ensured to you for a certain time; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow — Whether your spirits before then shall not have passed into eternity; for what is your life? It is even a vapour — An unsubstantial, uncertain, and fleeting vapour; that appeareth for a little time — In this visible world; and then suddenly vanisheth away — And is seen here no more. Thus Isaiah, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as a flower of the field; a similitude used also by David, Psalm 103:15, 16, As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. And still more striking is the metaphor used by Asaph, Psalm 78:39, where he terms men, even a generation of them, A wind that passeth away and cometh not again. But in no author, sacred or profane, is there a finer image of the brevity and uncertainty of human life than this given by St. James, who likens it to a vapour, which, after continuing and engaging men’s attention for a few moments, unexpectedly disappears while they are looking at it. For that ye ought, &c. — That is, whereas ye ought to say — In consideration of this your great frailty; If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that — Intimating, even by your manner of speaking, the sense that you have of his being able, at pleasure, to cut you short in all your schemes and appointments. The apostle does not mean that these very words should always be used by us, when we speak of our purposes respecting futurity; but that, on such occasions, the sentiment which these words express should always be present to our minds.

Ver. 13. To-morrow we will go into such a city, for the purposes of trade and speculation, to realize a fortune, as though future good things were at their command. Men are so engaged in bustle, that they forget God; they forget themselves, and the life to come. They forget that every movement of speculation is dependent on a supreme Cause, who mortifies the pride of vain designs. They forget that human life is but a vapour, and vanishes away as a shadow.

13. Go to now—An interjection to excite attention. The modern phrase would be, Come now. The old phrase is, perhaps, the more accurate, as it aims to incite to right procedure. The number of precise particulars, to-morrow, such a city, a year, buy, sell, get gain, presumes upon many contingent points in which there is probability of failure, especially the closing one, which is the real aim of all the rest. It is—A preferred reading is, ye are. It is not our life, but even ourselves, that is an appearing and then vanishing vapour or mist.

Verse 14. Whereas ye know not] This verse should be read in a parenthesis. It is not only impious, but grossly absurd, to speak thus concerning futurity, when ye know not what a day may bring forth. Life is utterly precarious; and God has not put it within the power of all the creatures he has made to command one moment of what is future. It is even a vapour] atmiv gar estin. It is a smoke, always fleeting, uncertain, evanescent, and obscured with various trials and afflictions. This is a frequent metaphor with the Hebrews; see Psalm 102:11; My days are like a shadow: Job 8:9; Our days upon earth are a shadow: 1 Chronicles 29:15; Our days on the earth are a shadow, and there is no abiding. Quid tam circumcisum, tam breve, quam hominis vita longissima? Plin. l. iii., Ep. 7. “What is so circumscribed, or so short, as the longest life of man?” “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is like grass.” St. James had produced the same figure, James 1:10, 11. But there is a very remarkable saying in the book of Ecclesiasticus, which should be quoted: “As of the green leaves of a thick tree, some fall and some grow; so is the generation of flesh and blood: one cometh to an end, and another is born.” Ecclus. xiv. 18.

We find precisely the same image in Homer as that quoted above. Did the apocryphal writer borrow it from the Greek poet?

oih per fullwn geneh, toihde kai andrwn.

fulla ta men taJnemov camadiv ceei, alla de quJlh

thleqowsa fuei, esrov deJpigignetai wrh.

wJv andrwn geneh, men fuei, h daJpolhgei.

Il. l. vi., ver. 146.

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,

Now green in youth, now withering on the ground

Another race the following spring supplies;

They fall successive, and successive rise.

So generations in their course decay;

So flourish these, when those are pass’d away.

POPE.

Verses 13-15. Go to now — Age nun, come now, an interjection, calculated to excite attention; ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go, &c. — As if future events were in your own power, and your health and lives were ensured to you for a certain time; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow — Whether your spirits before then shall not have passed into eternity; for what is your life? It is even a vapour — An unsubstantial, uncertain, and fleeting vapour; that appeareth for a little time — In this visible world; and then suddenly vanisheth away — And is seen here no more. Thus Isaiah, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as a flower of the field; a similitude used also by David, Psalm 103:15, 16, As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. And still more striking is the metaphor used by Asaph, Psalm 78:39, where he terms men, even a generation of them, A wind that passeth away and cometh not again. But in no author, sacred or profane, is there a finer image of the brevity and uncertainty of human life than this given by St. James, who likens it to a vapour, which, after continuing and engaging men’s attention for a few moments, unexpectedly disappears while they are looking at it. For that ye ought, &c. — That is, whereas ye ought to say — In consideration of this your great frailty; If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that — Intimating, even by your manner of speaking, the sense that you have of his being able, at pleasure, to cut you short in all your schemes and appointments. The apostle does not mean that these very words should always be used by us, when we speak of our purposes respecting futurity; but that, on such occasions, the sentiment which these words express should always be present to our minds.

V. 15. Instead of your saying-That is, whereas ye ought to say.

Verse 15. For that ye ought to say] anti toi legein umav. Instead of saying, or instead of which ye should say,

If the Lord will, we shall live] I think St. James had another example from the rabbins in view, which is produced by Drusius, Gregory, Cartwright, and Schoettgen, on this clause: “The bride went up to her chamber, not knowing what was to befall her there.” On which there is this comment: “No man should ever say that he will do this or that, without the condition IF GOD WILL. A certain man said, ‘To-morrow shall I sit with my bride in my chamber, and there shall rejoice with her.’ To which some standing by said, השם rzwg אם im gozer hashshem, ‘If the Lord will.’ To which he answered, ‘Whether the Lord will or not, to-morrow will I sit with my bride in my chamber.’ He did so; he went with his bride into his chamber, and at night they lay down; but they both died, antequam illam cognosceret.” It is not improbable that St. James refers to this case, as he uses the same phraseology.

On this subject I shall quote another passage which I read when a schoolboy, and which even then taught me a lesson of caution and of respect for the providence of God. It may be found in Lucian, in the piece entitled, carwn, h episkopountev, c. 6: epi deipnon, oimai, klhqeiv upo tinov twn filwn ev thn usteraian, malista hxw, efh. kai metaxu legontov, apo tou tegouv keramiv epipesousa, ouk oidoJtou kinhsantov, apekteinen auton. egelasa oun, ouk epitelesantov thn uposcesin. “A man was invited by one of his friends to come the next day to supper. I will certainly come, said he. In the mean time a tile fell from a house, I knew not who threw it, and killed him. I therefore laughed at him for not fulfilling his engagement.” It is often said Fas est et ab hoste doceri, “ we should learn even from our enemies.” Take heed, Christian, that this heathen buffoon laugh thee not out of countenance.

Verses 13-15. Go to now — Age nun, come now, an interjection, calculated to excite attention; ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go, &c. — As if future events were in your own power, and your health and lives were ensured to you for a certain time; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow — Whether your spirits before then shall not have passed into eternity; for what is your life? It is even a vapour — An unsubstantial, uncertain, and fleeting vapour; that appeareth for a little time — In this visible world; and then suddenly vanisheth away — And is seen here no more. Thus Isaiah, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as a flower of the field; a similitude used also by David, Psalm 103:15, 16, As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. And still more striking is the metaphor used by Asaph, Psalm 78:39, where he terms men, even a generation of them, A wind that passeth away and cometh not again. But in no author, sacred or profane, is there a finer image of the brevity and uncertainty of human life than this given by St. James, who likens it to a vapour, which, after continuing and engaging men’s attention for a few moments, unexpectedly disappears while they are looking at it. For that ye ought, &c. — That is, whereas ye ought to say — In consideration of this your great frailty; If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that — Intimating, even by your manner of speaking, the sense that you have of his being able, at pleasure, to cut you short in all your schemes and appointments. The apostle does not mean that these very words should always be used by us, when we speak of our purposes respecting futurity; but that, on such occasions, the sentiment which these words express should always be present to our minds.

15. To say—In word or in heart. The precise and perfunctory utterance of the formula is of far less value than the deep consciousness of our own evanescent nature, and our deep dependence on God, consummated in a complete committal, ever renewed daily and hourly, of ourselves into his hand.

Verse 16. But now ye rejoice in your boastings] Ye glory in your proud and self-sufficient conduct, exulting that ye are free from the trammels of superstition, and that ye can live independently of God Almighty. All such boasting is wicked, ponhra estin, is impious. In an old English work, entitled, The godly man’s picture drawn by a Scripture pencil, there are these words: “Some of those who despise religion say, Thank God we are not of this holy number! They who thank God for their unholiness had best go ring the bells for joy that they shall never see God.”

Verses 16, 17. Now ye rejoice — Kaucasqe, ye glory, in your boastings — Ye please yourselves in the vain thoughts which you entertain of these worldly projects and successes, and you boast of them. All such rejoicing — Or glorying, is evil — The delight you take in these expectations argues either a strange want of consideration, or gross stupidity. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not — That knows what is right and is his duty, and does not practise it; to him it is sin — His knowledge does not prevent but increase his condemnation. As if he had said, Since you cannot but know better, as you have the oracles of God, and profess to believe them, if you do not act answerably thereto, you are guilty of the greater sin. “Because this is true with respect to all who act contrary to knowledge and conscience. Beza and Estius consider it as a general conclusion, enforcing the whole of the reproofs given to the Jews for acting contrary to the divine revelation, of which they were the keepers.” — Macknight.

16. Now—As your present habit is. Rejoice—Rather, glory—are proud of. Your boastings—Your presumptuous proclaiming what you will do to be cut off, perhaps, by failure and by death.

V. 17. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not-That knows what is right, and does not practise it.

To him it is sin-This knowledge does not prevent, but increase, his condemnation.

Verse 17. To him that knoweth to do good] As if he had said: After this warning none of you can plead ignorance; if, therefore, any of you shall be found to act their ungodly part, not acknowledging the Divine providence, the uncertainty of life, and the necessity of standing every moment prepared to meet God-as you will have the greater sin, you will infallibly get the greater punishment. This may be applied to all who know better than they act. He who does not the Master’s will because he does not know it, will be beaten with few stripes; but he who knows it and does not do it, shall be beaten with many; Luke 12:47, 48. St. James may have the Christians in view who were converted from Judaism to Christianity. They had much more light and religious knowledge than the Jews had; and God would require a proportionable improvement from them.

1. SAADY, a celebrated Persian poet, in his Gulistan, gives us a remarkable example of this going from city to city to buy and sell, and get gain. “I knew,” says he, “a merchant who used to travel with a hundred camels laden with merchandise, and who had forty slaves in his employ. This person took me one day to his warehouse, and entertained me a long time with conversation good for nothing. ‘I have,’ said he, ‘such a partner in Turquestan; such and such property in India; a bond for so much cash in such a province; a security for such another sum.’ Then, changing the subject, he said, ‘I purpose to go and settle at Alexandria, because the air of that city is salubrious.’ Correcting himself, he said, ‘No, I will not go to Alexandria; the African sea (the Mediterranean) is too dangerous. But I will make another voyage; and after that I will retire into some quiet corner of the world, and give up a mercantile life.’ I asked him (says Saady) what voyage he intended to make. He answered, ‘I intend to take brimstone to Persia and China, where I am informed it brings a good price; from China I shall take porcelain to Greece; from Greece I shall take gold tissue to India; from India I shall carry steel to Haleb (Aleppo;) from Haleb I shall carry glass to Yemen (Arabia Felix;) and from Yemen I shall carry printed goods to Persia. When this is accomplished I shall bid farewell to the mercantile life, which requires so many troublesome journeys, and spend the rest of my life in a shop.’ He said so much on this subject, till at last he wearied himself with talking; then turning to me he said, ‘I entreat thee, Saady, to relate to me something of what thou hast seen and heard in thy travels.’ I answered, Hast thou never heard what a traveller said, who fell from his camel in the desert of Joor? Two things only can fill the eye of a covetous man-contentment, or the earth that is cast on him when laid in his grave.”

This is an instructive story, and is taken from real life. In this very way, to those same places and with the above specified goods, trade is carried on to this day in the Levant. And often the same person takes all these journeys, and even more. We learn also from it that a covetous man is restless and unhappy, and that to avarice there are no bounds. This account properly illustrates that to which St. James refers: To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain.

2. Providence is God’s government of the world; he who properly trusts in Divine providence trusts in God; and he who expects God’s direction and help must walk uprightly before him; for it is absurd to expect God to be our friend if we continue to be his enemy.

3. That man walks most safely who has the least confidence in himself. True magnanimity keeps God continually in view. He appoints it its work, and furnishes discretion and power; and its chief excellence consists in being a resolute worker together with him. Pride ever sinks where humility swims; for that man who abases himself God will exalt. To know that we are dependent creatures is well; to feel it, and to act suitably, is still better. JAMES

Verses 16, 17. Now ye rejoice — Kaucasqe, ye glory, in your boastings — Ye please yourselves in the vain thoughts which you entertain of these worldly projects and successes, and you boast of them. All such rejoicing — Or glorying, is evil — The delight you take in these expectations argues either a strange want of consideration, or gross stupidity. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not — That knows what is right and is his duty, and does not practise it; to him it is sin — His knowledge does not prevent but increase his condemnation. As if he had said, Since you cannot but know better, as you have the oracles of God, and profess to believe them, if you do not act answerably thereto, you are guilty of the greater sin. “Because this is true with respect to all who act contrary to knowledge and conscience. Beza and Estius consider it as a general conclusion, enforcing the whole of the reproofs given to the Jews for acting contrary to the divine revelation, of which they were the keepers.” — Macknight.

Ver. 17. To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. God may overlook faults in the world that cannot be overlooked in the church. An opportunity to do good being once lost, may never return. The sowing time occurs but once in the season.

17. Therefore—As a summing up. To do good—Rather, to do well, in opposition to the evil of the last verse. The doing well is the ceasing from such boasting, and the trusting ourselves to the divine hand. It is not the purpose of the text to condemn sins of omission.