James 4 - Introduction

ANALYSIS.

Crimes are mentioned in this chapter that surely none claiming to be members of Christ's body (the Church) ever indulged in. They are possibly enumerated for the purpose of showing that every species of strife, and even wars, were the result of unbridled passions. James insists that success could not follow attempts to convert the heathen by violence, neither could they destroy their idol worship in that way. Their methods were not proper. Such could not ask God's help, because they would therein ask amiss, knowing their motives were wicked. The course they pursued was that of the world, and was at war with the course God proposed. If any of the Jewish brethren so acted, they were not only acting contrary to the teachings of the prophets whom they profess to venerate, but also contrary to the teachings of Christ and his apostles. They are then exhorted to be submissive to God, to resist the influences of the devil, who alone incited them to pursue the course they did. He assures them that if they heed his exhortation, God will accept their service and bless them therein.

Such as were exhibiting zeal without knowledge he counsels to cleanse their hands from all wrong-doing, and to cast out all impure thoughts and passions from within before they even presumed to offer worship to God. As a strong incentive to bring about the proper penitence, he foretells the miseries that will assail them. The apostle in great plainness forbade the joining in riots and insurrections which some had engaged in under the false assumption that it was to aid their religion. Then he seemingly addresses all sorts, whether Jew or Gentile, not to speak ill of one another on account of their differences, claiming that this was God's prerogative alone. Lastly, the apostle calls attention to the uncertainty of our stay here on earth, and warns against the dependence upon self and self-intentions; shows God's supreme right to govern future events, and rebukes all for their vain speeches as to what they will do, and where they will go, and how long they will stay, and directs them how they ought to express themselves in relation to these matters, so as to exhibit their knowledge of, and dependence upon, the will of God therein.

A bird's-eye glance of the situation and surroundings of the Christians to whom this letter is written by the apostle James will greatly aid us in our exposition of this chapter. Now, these brethren were in dispersion among the many nations composing the Roman Empire, and were more or less surrounded by, and came in contact with, that class of Jews who, if they did not directly deny the doctrine that the Messiah had already come, were at least unbelievers therein, and yet looked for this coming as foretold by the prophets, which were by them accepted and regarded as God's messengers. As they interpreted these prophecies, these Jews looked for him as a great and mighty monarch, and one who was to be all-powerful and their certain deliverer from all their oppressors. They further entertained the belief, as Jehovah had permitted them to drive out the Canaanites for their idolatry, they were still authorized to persecute idolaters, and this they continued to do whenever an opportunity presented itself. They carried their actions in this direction to the extent of violence, in order to suppress idol worship, and force the devotees thereof to embrace Judaism. The history of the Jews after the return from Babylonish captivity plainly discovers this inclination. During our Lord's sojourn on earth, during the persecution headed by Paul before his conversion, and the persecution of Paul himself by the Jews, subsequent to his conversion, is shown unmistakably the zeal of the Jews for their Mosaic belief. It carried them, in their devotion to their religion, or their pretended zeal for the cause of God, even to the extreme of murder. We further discover their zeal without knowledge in the strifes they fomented, in the seditions in which they were engaged and the numerous petty wars their conduct originated. Allusions to these seditions and wars are made in the New Testament history, and are fully described in the works of Josephus. The unbelieving Jew was enabled, by virtue of relationship to Abraham, to exercise more or less influence over the believing Jew in connection with these disturbances. The believing Jew was inclined to sympathize with, and offer encouragement to, the unbelieving Jew in his struggles with others, without pausing to reflect upon the question of right in the premises.

So that, in seeking to correct this conduct in the one as contrary to the doctrine of Christ, the apostle would be exposing the impiety and unreasonableness and positive sin therein on the part of the other. Now, keeping these thoughts in mind, we may, with more certainty of understanding, approach the exposition of the chapter.