James 4:1-7. God's giving and the World's getting 1. _whence come wars and fightings among you?_ One source of discord had been touched in the "Be not many masters" of Chap. James 3:1. Sectarianism and all its kindred evils were destructive of peace, and therefore of all true wisdom. Another besett... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye lust and have not_ The _genesis_of evil is traced somewhat in the same way as in ch. James 1:15. The germ is found in desire for what we have not, as e. g. in the sins of David (2 Samuel 11:1) and Ahab (1 Kings 21:2-4). That desire becomes the master-passion of a man's soul, and hurries him on t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye ask, and receive not_ The words are obviously written as in answer to an implied objection: "Not ask," a man might say; "come and listen to our prayers; no one can accuse us of neglecting our devotions." Incredible as it might seem that men plundering and murdering, as the previous verses repres... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye adulterers and adulteresses_ The better MSS. give YE ADULTERESSES only. The use of the feminine alone in this connexion, where the persons referred to are primarily men, is at first startling. It has a partial parallel in our Lord's words "_an evil and adulterous generation_" (Matthew 12:39), bu... [ Continue Reading ]
_the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?_ The words present a two-fold difficulty: (1) They are quoted as Scripture, and yet no such words are found either in the Canonical or even in the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament. (2) It is by no means clear what they mean in themselves, or what... [ Continue Reading ]
_But he giveth more grace_ Following the explanation already given, the sequence of thought seems to run thus: God loves us with a feeling analogous to the strongest form of jealousy, or even envy, but that jealousy does not lead Him, as it leads men, to be grudging in His gifts; rather does He best... [ Continue Reading ]
_Submit yourselves therefore to God_ The forms of the Greek verbs express a somewhat sharper antithesis than the English. God SETTETH HIMSELF against the proud, therefore, SET YOURSELVES AS UNDER God. _Resist the devil, and he will flee from you_ The rule seems to point to the true field for the ex... [ Continue Reading ]
The Call to Repentance 8. _Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you_ The "nearness to God," to which the promise is attached, is primarily that which is involved in all true and earnest prayer, but it should not be forgotten that it includes also the approximation of character and life. We are... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep_ The words are nearly synonymous, the first pointing to the sense of misery (as in "O _wretched_man that I am" in Romans 7:24), the second to its general effect on demeanour, the last to its special outflow in tears. The two last verbs are frequently joined togethe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up_ Better, HE SHALL EXALT, so as to preserve the manifest allusion to our Lord's words as recorded in Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:12; Luke 18:14. Here again we have another striking parallel with St Peter's language (1 Peter 5:6). There... [ Continue Reading ]
Rebuke of Evil-speaking 11. _Speak not evil one of another, brethren_ The last word indicates the commencement of a new section. It scarcely, however, introduces a new topic. The writer dwells with an iteration, needful for others, and not grievous to himself, (Philippians 3:1) on the ever-besettin... [ Continue Reading ]
_There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy_ Here again we have to trace a latent sequence of thought. The Giver of the Law is, St James implies, the only true and ultimate Judge (comp. 1 Corinthians 4:4-5), able to award in perfect equity the sentence of salvation or destruction. Men... [ Continue Reading ]
Man proposing, God disposing 13. _Go to now, ye that say_ The warnings pass on to another form of the worldliness of the double-minded; the far-reaching plans for the future such as our Lord had condemned in the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16). It is significant that that parable follows in cl... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow_ Literally, _the thing_, or THE EVENT OF TO-MORROW, the phrase, being parallel to "the things of the morrow" in Matthew 6:34. St James partly reproduces that teaching, partly that of Proverbs 27:1. _what is your life?_ Literally, OF WHAT NATURE _your... [ Continue Reading ]
_For that ye ought to say_ Literally, INSTEAD OF SAYING, but the English may be admitted as a fair paraphrase. _If the Lord will, we shall live_ This is the reading of the better MSS. The Received Text gives "If the Lord will, and we live, we will do this or that." The sense is substantially the sam... [ Continue Reading ]
_But now ye rejoice in your boastings_ Better, YE EXULT IN YOUR VAIN GLORIES. If the words were not too familiar, YE GLORY IN YOUR BRAGGINGS would, perhaps, be a still nearer equivalent. The noun is found in 1 John 2:16 ("the _pride_of life"), and not elsewhere in the New Testament. It is defined by... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore to him that knoweth to do good_ The law of conscience is here enforced in its utmost width. To leave undone what we know we ought to do, is sin, even though there be no outward act of what men call crime or vice. The bearing of the general axiom on the immediate context is obviously that... [ Continue Reading ]