About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman

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The Royal
Law Of
Love

my commentary
on the New Testament
book of James

Published 2021

Unless otherwise stated, the Biblical text used and quoted for this commentary is the Christian Standard Bible (CSB) as seen in the authorization statement below.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Table Of Contents

PART ONE
Introduction

Preface

Introductory Remarks

Was James A Lead Pastor?

PART TWO
My Verse By Verse Commentary

Chapter 1 - James 1:1 - 18

Chapter 2 -  James 1:19 - 27

Chapter 3 - James 2:1 - 13

Chapter 4 -  James 2:14 - 26

Chapter 5 -  James 3:1 - 12

Chapter 6 -  James 3:13 - 18

Chapter 7 -  James 4:1 - 12

Chapter 8 -  James 4:13 - 17

Chapter 9 - James 5:1 - 6

Chapter 10 - James 5:7 - 12

Chapter 11 - James 5:13 - 20

PART THREE
Related Articles

Chapter 12 - Swift To Hear And Slow To Speak

Chapter 13 - Christians And Free Speech

Chapter 14 - Pitching And Defence

Chapter 15 - Our Heavenly Employment

16 - Double-Souled Believers

17 - Becoming Wise

About The Author

Other Books By The Stephen Sweetman

Contact Information

PART ONE

Introduction

Preface

My inspiration for rewriting my commentary on James' letter to the twelve tribes of Israel that we read in the New Testament stems from my pastor, brother in the Lord, and friend, Trevor Hoskins.  During the spring and summer of 2021 he dedicated his Sunday morning messages to this all-important book of our Bible.  Of course, every book and every verse in the Bible is important.  All parts of God's Word are relevant in every era in which one sits down to read, but parts of James seem extremely relevant to our western-world Christian culture, here in 2021. 

Trevor made many good inspirational and instructional points in his messages, and I certainly won't duplicate them in the following pages.  Each one of us who study and teach the Bible brings observations to the table of theology that can benefit us all.  We all see truth from our individual perspective that doesn't change the truth, but only helps clarify the truth of Scripture.    

What you will read in this book is a product of my Bible study since the year 1970.  Hopefully what you read in this account will be both inspirational and educational.  It is my opinion that much of our twenty-first century, western-world church is more interested in being inspired than being instructed.  Inspiration can be fleeting at best, but instruction, if allowed, should enter your mind and sooner or later sink into your heart and soul where it becomes the conviction by which you live.  This has been my experience in life as a Christian and I hope it is your experience as well. 

I admit that there are many more exhaustive commentaries on the book of James than my commentary.  I have personally benefited from these commentaries.  That being said, I believe what I have to say is worth hearing out, especially for the new-in-the-Lord Christian who may not grasp all of the technicalities of more in-depth commentaries.  I do get involved in some technicalities, such as Greek definitions of words and Greek grammar, but hopefully I do it in an easy to understand format.      

I certainly do not consider myself to be in the same spiritual or theological league as the apostle Paul.  I personally consider him to have been the most important, influential, and productive Christian ever, but laying that aside, I pass on to you what Paul passed on to Timothy, his son in the Lord.  2 Timothy 2:7 in the King James Bible puts Paul's words this way.

"Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things."

So, think seriously and critically about what you are about to read.  I admit that I do not have all of the answers to all of our questions that we ask about what we read in the Bible.  I also admit that others bring much to the table of Biblical learning.  That means, much more could be written and said about James' letter than what I have written.  No one person has all of the information to be studied and learned.  No one person, and that certainly includes me, has the total and relevant truth on an issue, especially a Biblical issue.  All of that being said, hopefully and prayerfully I can add to your Biblical understanding in the pages of my commentary on James' letter to the twelve tribes of Israel . 

When it comes to writing a commentary, one is always in the process of learning, and again, that includes me.  That means in a few years down the road, I will probably have to rewrite parts of this book, but that is an easy task in our technological age of computers and internet. 

Before we endeavor to understand what James has to tell us, I want to say that this book has not been edited by any outside source.  Being legally blind as I have been since birth, and, not being a professional editor, you most likely will see some spelling and grammatical mistakes.  Hopefully there are not many, and also, hopefully they will not distract you from understanding what I have to say.  

I also want to say that I do repeat myself at times in this commentary.  I do so because many people do not read a Bible commentary from cover to cover.  They simply look up a verse to see what the commentator has to say about the verse they are interested in.  That being the reality, it is important for the author to be repetitive because some comments apply to more than one verse.     

May Jesus bless you in whatever way He sees fit as you read through the following pages.     

Introductory Remarks

It is widely recognized that James, the half brother of Jesus, wrote this letter we call the epistle of James.  Of course, there is always differing opinions on such issues, but the general consensus is, and always has been for the most part, that Jesus' half brother penned this letter.

There are three men in the New Testament that we read about who have the name James.  Matthew 4:21 mentions James the son of Zebedee, the brother of John.  Matthew 10:3 mentions James the son of Alphaeus.  Mark 6: tells us about James, the half brother of Jesus.  Mark 6:3 reads:

"'Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren't his sisters here with us? 'So they were offended by him."

In the list of names above, we do not know any of the ages of those listed and we don't know the order of their birth in relation to Jesus.

We do not know exactly when James became a Christian.  We do know that during Jesus' ministry James was not a believer.  This is seen in both Mark 3:21 and John 7:5.  John 7:5 reads as follows:

"For not even his brothers believed in him."

It is presumed by many that James gave his life to Jesus after Jesus rose from the dead when Jesus appeared to him in person.  According to the wording of 1 Corinthians 15:7, one might speculate that the appearing of the risen Lord was a personal appearing for James.  That being the case, it only makes sense that James could have given his life to Jesus at that point in time, assuming he had not already done so.  1 Corinthians 15:7 reads:

"Then he [Jesus] appeared to James, then to all the apostles."

It sure would be nice to have had some kind of record of James meeting Jesus after His resurrection, but we don’t have any such record.  I can't begin to imagine how James must have felt when the risen Jesus, the very half brother he had denied being the Jewish Messiah, met and spoke with him after He died on the cross, and after He rose from the dead.  If James was not a believer before then, I am sure he must have been one after he had a face to face conversation with the risen Jesus. 

In Acts 15 we read that James was one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem .  Many say that he was in fact the main leader, the leader among leaders, the head elder, of the Jerusalem church.  Although there is fairly good circumstantial evidence of this being the case, it is my opinion that it is still somewhat speculative to say that he was the lead elder or senior pastor of that community of believers. 

It is my understanding that the New Testament church as is taught in the New Testament was overseen or cared for by a body of elders, not one elder; by a body of pastors, not one pastor.  I will comment further on this in the next chapter.     

In Acts 21:18 we read this:

"The following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present."

Acts 21:18 states that James was an elder in the church at Jerusalem .  For some, this verse implies that he was the lead, or head, elder of the church in Jerusalem .     

There has been much debate and speculation over just when James penned this letter.  We just do not have an exact date.  There is no external or internal supporting evidence to prove conclusively any particular date.  Some date the letter as early as AD 44, while others date it as late as AD 61, just before James was executed by the Jews because of his faith and association with Jesus in AD 62. 

The reason why some date this letter as early as AD 44 is based on what I would deem to be somewhat speculative.  They say that what James wrote in his letter is very Jewish orientated, which it is.  They say that it must have been written prior to the Acts 15 convention where it was decided that there was one gospel, and that was the gospel of grace, without having to adhere to the Old Testament Law of Moses.  Both Jews and Gentiles could find salvation in Jesus apart from obedience to the Law of Moses, something the Jews would have normally rejected.  After much debate, James agreed with this assessment of the gospel.  Acts 15:13 through 19 records James' agreement on the matter.  In part, that passage reads:

"After they [Peter and Paul] stopped speaking, James responded: 'Brothers and sisters, listen to me. Simeon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name ... Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God,"

Those holding to an earlier dating of this letter say that James sounds way too Jewish in his letter to have written it after the Acts 15 decision.  I understand their point, but it is still speculative. 

If James wrote this letter after the Acts 15 gathering, then some suggest that he must have modified his position to include good works in the process of salvation.  They say that because of some of the things James wrote concerning faith and works, which we will come to later.  They also say this based on how they think James thought when he penned the word law.  This too we will think more about.  All this is speculative in my thinking. 

As I have just said, the word "law" and the word "works" are important words in the attempt to understand this letter.  How, then, you define these words in James' letter will, at least in part, determine when you think James might have penned this letter.  I will comment further on this point.    

As for me, I cannot say for sure when James wrote this letter, and therefore, I do not lean in any particular direction, other than, he wrote it somewhere between AD 44 and AD 61.           
 

Like any book of the Bible, commentators come up with various themes of the book in question.  The same is true with the letter James wrote.  There have been many suggested themes of this letter.  I personally believe that the main point that James is getting at is that if you claim to have real faith or trust in Jesus, your claim will be evident in the way you live.  True faith will, thus, produce valid works, and as I believe James' use of the word "works" means, valid works of sacrificial love.  Without these expressions of faith through works, your faith in Jesus is questionable.  James does not leave us without any expressions of works of love.  He provided many, such as, feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and speaking words of encouragement. 

Genuine works of service for Jesus are a direct result of real faith, or trust, in Jesus.  It is what Jesus Himself pointed out, as seen in Matthew 7:16. 

"You'll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?"

This letter has had its controversy over the years because of what James said concerning the issue of faith, works, and law.  Martin Luther, and other reformers in the fifteen hundreds, had very little respect for this letter because they believed that James was promoting a works of law based salvation.  Although I do not hold to this position, I can see how people could come to such a conclusion.  I will also delve into how I understand what James meant when he used the words faith, works, and law.   

Some, like Luther, have suggested this book should not even be considered canonical.  They claim it is based on a gospel of works and law, instead of grace and Christ.  They quote what Paul wrote in Romans 10:4 in defense of their position.  

"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,"

Those, like Martin Luther said that James contradicted what Paul wrote in the above verse, and other verses like it.  I do not see it that way.  The crux of the matter is how you believe James understood the words "law" and "works."  Again, I will comment on this issue later.   

I believe what James was probably confronting was that many people said they had faith in Christ, but their lives did not match their words.  There were no active works of faith in their lives.  So, how could this be?  How could someone claim to have come to faith in Jesus but act no differently than they have always acted?  James would, thus, say that those people may not have come to true faith in Jesus, if they had, their lives would have proved that to be the case.  We still have this problem today.  Believing, and having faith in Jesus is not a mere mental acknowledgement of the existence of Jesus, God, or the gospel message of salvation.  Faith and believing is not simply mentally accepting the truth of the gospel of Jesus.  I will explain all of this later when the topic comes up in James' letter.    

It is my thinking that the motivation for this letter was that some Christians, or at least those who claimed to be Christians, were not living like Christians.  They might well have believed what the apostle Paul was criticized for, that being, let us sin so grace can abound to us.  Romans 6:1 reads:

"What should we say then?  Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?"
 

Paul was not teaching that we should sin so that we can benefit from more of God's grace, but due to what Paul wrote as seen in Roman 6:1, other people did seem to believe that the more you sin the more God's grace would be given to you.  That would lead James to say that if you have genuine faith in Jesus, your life will prove that.  You will not continue to live in willful sin so grace can abound in your life, and thus, the reason for his discussion on faith and works.  

Although I do not believe that James believed in a gospel of works, I do have to recognize his Jewishness.  It is apparent from the brief appearances we see of James in Acts and Galatians that he did not relinquish his Jewish tradition to the same degree as the apostle Paul.  He continued with Jewish practices, but he did not claim that these practices saved him.  He only continued to live within the boundaries of the traditions of the Jews in which he was raised.  

History tells us that James was found praying in the temple at Jerusalem a lot for the Jews.  He prayed so much so that his knees became abnormally large, or so that is the historic tradition.    

James may have not relinquished His Jewishness as much as others, but to the Jewish leaders of his day, he did.  His acceptance of the gospel of the grace of Christ was an irritating factor to the Jewish religious leaders, who were also the political leaders in Jerusalem .  In and around AD 61 and 62 there was a change in Roman leadership in Jerusalem and during this transitional period the Jewish leaders, with no Roman authorization which was legally required, were able to have James arrested and killed.

The letter of James is not a teaching orientated book as Paul's letters are.  James wrote more to the moral character of those who claimed to follow Jesus.  He did not intend this letter to be a theological document; rather, it set forth some practicalities of what being a Christian was all about.  This letter is best understood, at least in my opinion, to be a pastoral letter to Jewish Christians.

It is very interesting to me that James did not say anything about him being the half brother of Jesus in his letter.  You would think that if he had done that, at least in his introduction, then people throughout the centuries would have given more weight and credit to what he wrote.  It is my opinion, based on what James wrote about humility and what tradition tells us about him, that he was a humble man. For that reason, he might have stayed clear about saying anything about him being the half brother of Jesus.  In chapter 1, verse 1, he simply said that he was a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is how he viewed himself.    

It would have been nice if James would have written a letter explaining what it was like growing up as a half brother of Jesus.  He could have filled us in on many things about Jesus in His childhood and youth, but James didn't write any such thing.  We are left to speculate and speculation more often than not leads to false conclusions.   

Before we get into a verse by verse discussion, I want to explain whether James was actually the senior pastor in the Jerusalem church or one of many pastors, and that I will do now in the next chapter.       

Was James A Lead Pastor?

This chapter has been directly taken from my book entitled "Plurality Of Elders." 

By the end of the first century one man rose up among the team of elders to become the lead elder, or bishop as they came to be known in our English vocabulary.  There is only one hint of this happening in the first generation church.  James appeared to be the one leader among the elders in the Jerusalem church.  Personally speaking, I am not one hundred percent convinced that he was a lead elder because of lack of sufficient evidence.  That being said, I can certainly see the point that some make concerning James being a one man leader.

Acts 12:17 says this:

"Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison.  'Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,' he said, and then he left for another place."

Peter distinguished James from the rest of the brothers as seen in the above verse.  Therefore, some people suggest this distinction means that James was the lead elder in the church at Jerusalem .

We read in Acts 15 that the apostles Paul, Barnabas, and Peter, met with the elders at Jerusalem .  James seems to take charge of the meeting, implying to some that he was a leader among leaders.  Acts 15:13 says this:

"When they [Paul and Barnabas] finished, James spoke up.'Brothers,' he said, 'listen to me.'"

Another passage that might suggest James being the lead elder in Jerusalem is found in Acts 21:18.  It reads as follows:

"The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present."

I can see how one might suggest that James could have been a lead elder because of Paul's distinction between him and the other elders, but still, in my thinking, this is not overwhelming, conclusive evidence that he was in fact the lead elder of the Jerusalem church.  It is somewhat speculative in my opinion. 

There is yet another verse that might, and I say might, suggest James being a lead elder.  Galatians 1:18 and 19 read:

"Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles — only James, the Lord’s brother."

Once again, because of the distinction Paul made between James and the other apostles some understand James to be a leader among leaders in Jerusalem .

I only mention this because those who promote one man leadership will inevitably point this out to those who believe in plurality of elders.  

With these passages in mind, I can certainly understand that some, if not many, people would view James as a lead elder, but to make this the common consensus of the day, and a New Testament teaching, is a step beyond sound hermeneutics.  

I might concede that James could have been a lead elder in the Jerusalem church.  If this was really so, beyond the Jerusalem church, there was no mention of such structure anywhere else.  As far as we can see from the apostle Paul, he would tell men like Timothy and Titus to affirm, or ordain, elders, not an elder, in every city, as seen in Titus 1:5.

"The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders in every town."

As I mentioned before concerning James, the common thinking among Bible teachers is that he did not give up his Jewish heritage to the same degree as Paul, and it is Paul from whom we derive most of our teaching on the structure of the church.  It is quite possible that in the back of James' mind, whether he realized it or not, he viewed himself as a New Testament style high priest, yet obviously, a high priest that did not usurp the place of Jesus being our Great High Priest. 

PART TWO
My Verse By Verse Commentary

Chapter 1

James 1:1- 18

The Text

1 - James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ² Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.  ⁵ Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.  ⁶ But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, 
⁸ being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.  ⁹ Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation,  ¹⁰ but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field. ¹¹ For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes. In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.

¹² Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.  ¹³ No one undergoing a trial should say, 'I am being tempted by God,' since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone. ¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.  ¹⁵ Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. ¹⁶ Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ¹⁸ By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

My Commentary  

Verse 1

"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad."

The first word we read in this letter is the name "James."  The Greek word "aikobos" found in the original text is translated into our English Bibles as James.  Aikobos is pronounced "Jacobus" and is rooted in the Hebrew word "Ya aqob," meaning, "heel-catcher" or "supplanter."  James was, thus, named after one of the most important patriarchs of Israel , that being Jacob.  Jacob, who grabbed hold of his twin brother's heal at birth, and was so named, was the son of Isaac.  This event is recorded in Genesis 25:19 through 26. 

In the early Latin text of the New Testament, aikobos was translated as James, and thus, James became the more predominant translation, but still, the more accurate translation would be Jacob.

While growing up in Judaism, James would have had a very lofty name to live up to.  I just wonder what kind of child and youth he was.  I really wonder what his relationship with Jesus was like, and how close they were in age.  Were they good buddies?  Were they typical brothers who frustrated each other from time to time?  We know nothing about James' childhood and we know almost nothing about Jesus' childhood.  We are left to speculate, and I would be extremely careful about speculating.  Theologically speaking, that gets us into all sorts of trouble, and, has been the source of some bad teaching.            

James' introductory remarks are very brief.  He does not introduce himself as an apostle, as did the apostle Paul in his letters.  He did, however, introduce himself as "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ," and that is vitally important.  A servant of Jesus is a fundamental necessity to being an apostle, pastor, or any other service ministry of the Lord.  It is actually an important concept for anyone who calls himself a Christian.  

The first-generation Christian population viewed themselves as servants, or slaves of their Lord, and I might add, so should we.  It is actually what the New Testament teaches for all Christians in every era and in every culture.  The Greek word "doulos" is translated here as servant.  Doulos means a servant or a slave by choice, and was normally seen as the lowest of the lowest servant.  As Christians, with the help of God's Spirit, we choose to serve Jesus because He is in fact the Lord, the final authority over all things spiritual and all things material.  Being a servant is fundamental to being a Christian.  It means that we hand our lives over to the will of Jesus and not our own will.  It's all about "thy will be done."         

You might wonder why someone would want to be a servant or a slave by choice in James' day.  Many people became servants, or slaves, by choice throughout the Roman Empire because it was one way to pay off debts.  Others had no skills to make a good living, so becoming a servant could have been seen as a credible way to make a living for one's self and family. 

It has been said that anywhere between forty and sixty percent of the population of the first-century Roman Empire were slaves, some of which were lawyers, doctors, educators, among other professional positions.  Slavery was part and parcel of the Greco-Roman economy, and without it, its economy would have suffered severely.  You can read more of my thoughts on the Bible and slavery in my book entitled "What The Bible Says About Slavery."   It is my opinion that even though the Bible does not say, "you shall not own slaves," the Bible does oppose the practice of slavery.        

You could easily translate the Greek word "doulos" as "slave" here in verse 1 and throughout the New Testament but our English word "slave" carries much negative baggage.  For this reason, many of today's English translations of the Bible avoid the word "slave."  They use the word "servant" instead because it seems to be a softer, less harsh, less dictatorial word that does not remind us of the brutal practice of slavery in the American south in times past.      

There is another Greek word that is translated into English as servant in the New Testament and it is "diakonos."  This Greek word is not as strong in meaning as doulos that I mentioned above.  It does not imply ownership of a person.  In modern terms, a waitress or a waiter would be a diakonos.  It is translated as "deacon," a ministry in the church.  See 1 Timothy 3:8.  That verse reads:

"Deacons, [diakonos] likewise, should be worthy of respect, not hypocritical, not drinking a lot of wine, not greedy for money,"

Like Paul, James links God with Jesus, as seen in the words "servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."  This is important in Christianity.  James is giving credence to Jesus' association with God, who we know was God in human form.  James hints here at the doctrine of the Deity of Christ, a doctrine that is foundational to Christian theology.  If you do not believe that Jesus was God in human form while on earth, and is still God in some kind of spiritual human form now, then you do not believe in the Jesus of the Bible.    

Jesus was His earthly name, which means, "God is salvation," "God saves," or something similar.    That too hints at the divinity of Jesus.  The name Jesus is rooted in the Old Testament name Joshua.

The title Christ speaks of Jesus being Saviour.  The word "Christ" is the Greco-Roman title for the Hebrew word that we translate into English as "Messiah."  The title Lord means more than a King or a supreme ruler.  In Old Testament terminology, the title Lord was in reference to God Himself.  That too, is another hint at the divinity of Jesus.  So, both Jesus' name and His two titles, Lord and Christ, tell us that Jesus is in fact God in some kind of visible form, separate and distinct but completely unified with God, the Father.  This is the mystery of God that has been debated and argued over for centuries.  

Over the centuries Christians have attempted to define God.  We have various versions of the doctrine of the Trinity that is supposed to clarify for us the essence and nature of God.  I would call myself a Trinitarian, but as I do, I must say that God, who He is, cannot be described or defined in human terms.  The Trinitarian doctrine of God, then, is an incomplete doctrine.  It cannot be completed in this life.  All we know of God is in the Bible, and the best way to understand God is through Jesus.  To the degree, then, we know about Jesus is the degree we can know about God.  If you see Jesus, you see God.   

The apostle Peter, in the very first Christian sermon ever preached, proclaimed Jesus to be both Lord and Christ to his Jewish audience.  That would have been a bold, even drastic, statement for him to make to the Jews, who would have consider it to be blasphemous, something for which Peter should have been stoned for.  Acts 2:36 reads:

"Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah [Christ]."

James never mentioned that he was the earthly half brother of Jesus.  It would have solved some of our debates over authorship of this letter if he would have just introduced himself as James, the earthly half brother of Jesus, but I think I understand why James did not introduce himself like that.  Knowing what little we know about James from this letter and other parts of the New Testament, I sincerely doubt if his humility would have allowed him to promote himself as the half brother of Jesus.  He, like the rest of us, was a sinner in desperate need of salvation, a salvation that only Jesus, his Lord and Saviour, could provide for him.  Jesus being James half brother is insignificant when compared to Jesus being James' Lord and Saviour, and I am convinced that was the conviction of this heart. 

For the sake of clarification, I, as well as every other Bible teacher, use the term "half brother" in connection with James because James and Jesus, as we all know, had different fathers.  James' father was Joseph while Jesus' father was God, and again, this suggests the divine nature of Jesus.  

James directed this letter to the twelve tribes, that is, the twelve tribes of Israel .  Jews had been scattered throughout the known world for centuries as a result of ongoing persecution and failed battles with other nations.  One of the most historic battle was with the Babylonians, wherein 586 BC the armies of Babylon overthrew Jerusalem .  It was then that most of the Jews were taken captive and relocated to Babylon .  Even before that, many Jews had been captured by the Assyrians and taken to Assyria .  I would suggest that more than any other ethnic people, the Jews have been greatly discriminated against.   

Many scholars say that it is questionable that James had all Jews who had been scattered throughout the Roman Empire in mind when he penned his letter, which by the way, was written in pretty good first-century Koine Greek.    

If this letter was written in or around AD 44 as many think, the Jews to whom James addressed his letter to were probably located in what we know as Syria and Northern Israel today, because of its relatively close proximity to Jerusalem .  As far as we know, James did not stray far beyond Jerusalem , and thus, would not have known Jewish believers, say, in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey ).     

It has also been debated if James wrote this letter, and it appears to be an open letter, to non-Christian Jews or Christian Jews.  It is my opinion that he wrote the letter to Christian Jews.  I believe the content of the letter would prove this to be the case.  He might well have, then, had the Christian Jews in and around Antioch , Syria in mind as he penned it. 

James 5:14 makes it clear to me that James was writing to Christians in the church.  Look at what James told these Christians.

"Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord."

Sick people were to ask elders "of the church" to pray for them.  These sick people were obviously part of the church, and thus, James would probably have considered these people to have been Christians.

James does make some heavy-duty judgment calls against the rich in his letter.  For this reason some believe these rich people could not have been Christians and part of the church.  I think that conclusion is speculative. 

The problem of just whom James wrote this letter stems from the heavy-duty things James said in this letter about his readers.  We will see that some of the things that James mentioned concerning his readers certainly did not look Christian.  They were pretty bad.  We will address this when we come to it in his letter.   

History tells us that unlike Peter and many others, James did not leave Jerusalem , but stayed there to care for the Christians still residing in the city despite the persecution of Christians that was occurring.  This could have been because of his pastoral calling to care for his brothers and sisters in the Lord, a ministry calling that he obviously took very seriously. 

Verse 2

"Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,"

As I have said earlier, James' letter is not necessarily a document of Christian doctrine and theology, especially when compared to Paul's letter to the Romans.  It is a letter of exhortation, admonishment, instruction, encouragement, and even a warning. 

James began his exhortation right in the second verse when he encouraged his readers to live joyously in the midst of their present troubles.  His Christian readers were going through many trials, both from the Jewish religious establishment and also from the Roman communities in which they lived.  You might well imagine someone becoming a Christian one day and then the next day being mocked and mistreated by family, friends, government, or the community in which they lived.  Then beyond that, many were persecuted in ways that meant imprisonment, torture, and even death.  Becoming a Christian in those days meant a major commitment to Jesus.  You had to count the cost for being associated with Jesus.  One would understand before he or she decided to follow Jesus that there would be a great price paid for his or her choice.  So, James was telling these people to view all of their hardships in a joyous way, and that would also include all of the daily difficulties that we live on a daily basis for just being fallen people living in a fallen world. 

The idea of counting the cost before you hand your life over to Jesus reminds me of what Jesus said, as recorded in Luke 14:28.

"For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?"

Counting the cost of becoming a Christian is seldom heard about these days, and why?  I believe in many respects that we as the Evangelical Church are not preaching the real New Testament gospel.  We preach Jesus as Saviour, meaning, except Jesus into your life and reap all of the benefits.  There is more to the gospel than that.  Jesus is Lord, and so we don't just accept Jesus as our Saviour for His benefits.  We accept Him, or better said, we hand our lives over to Him because He is Lord.  When we do that, there is a cost to be calculated, but if we remove the Lordship of Jesus from the gospel we preach, there is no need to count the cost of becoming a Christian.  

Just imagine yourself as a first-generation Christian wife who so dearly loved her husband that provided for her and their family.  One day the soldiers smashed through the front door of their home and roughly grabbed and hauled off your husband to prison.  They chain him up in a rat-infested prison cell and the next day he is burned alive in the city square for all to see.  Where is the joy in that?  When thinking in terms of being a Christian under these circumstances, counting the cost of becoming a disciple of Jesus was something to be considered.  It will also be something for people to consider as our western-world culture becomes more anti-Christ in nature.     

The Greek verb translated into English as "consider" is a Greek aorist middle imperative verb.  That simply means, right now in present time, you tell yourself, and it's a command, to act joyously in the midst of your trouble.  It's a decision that one must make, and I might add, with the Holy Spirit's help.  Such a joy would be an impossibility in many situations for any of us, and thus, the need for the Spirit of God and His intervention in our lives.    

When James used the word "joy" he is not talking about being happy with a huge smile on your face.  It's only our western-world culture that equates joy with happiness.  No, the joy James would have had in mind would have been a deep-seated, heart-felt, gladness, contentment, or awareness of knowing that the trial had some kind of positive productivity, even eternal productivity, in one's life. 

Despite the situation in which you found yourself in, that would bring maturity to your life as a Christian.  It's an understanding that the trials will produce good things in your life and so you don't run from the trials.  Even non-Christians will acknowledge that life's trials can bring a measure of maturity in a life if you allow them.       

Christians are not expected to be wearing a smile every moment of the day.  Just read the gospel accounts and there you will see that Jesus wasn't always smiling.  He did cry.  He did get angry.  He did get frustrated, but underneath those human emotions was a contentment to serve His Father, no matter the cost, and it was costly.  He had a deep-seated, heart-felt conviction that His trials were to produce much good in the future that He would be very joyous about.      

Look at what Hebrews 12:2 says about Jesus being joyful in the midst of his trials, trials that none of us know anything about. 

"... keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter [or completer] of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

In the midst of Jesus' troubles, including His execution, He possessed an inner gladness or awareness because the trials would produce a joyous result.  Jesus endured the pain of His extraordinary trials. 

The Greek word "hypemano" is translated as endure both in Hebrews 12:2 and in James 1:2.  This word means "to stay under," as in, "stay under the trials without leaving them."  Leaving the trials would result in a loss of their productivity.      

Note that James addressed this admonition to both the brothers and sisters, or at least that is how it reads in the CSB version of the Bible and most newer versions of the Bible.  We should know that the words "and sisters" are not found in the original Greek text.  James addressed his remarks to "the brothers."  Newer versions of the Bible, due to cultural correctness and gender neutrality, realize  that James was surely addressing women as well, and thus the addition of the words "and sisters" in the CSB.    

Note the word "all" in this verse.  It should be understood in terms of pure, that is, "consider it pure joy."  The word "all" is one of those words that needs to always be understood in its context. All does not always mean all.  For example, Acts 2:44 reads:

"Now all the believers were together and held all things in common."

We see the word "all" twice in this verse.  The first "all" might be thought of in terms of the majority, as in, the majority of believers were together.  We need to realize that around three thousand people were saved on the Day of Pentecost, and it is questionable that all of these three thousand brand new believers were together in one specific place in or around Jerusalem .

 The second word "all" should have no debate.  The believers did not share all things in common.  For example, the men did not share their wives with other Christian men.  That should be obvious.  So, our understanding of the word "all" in this particular context is this.  We understand that the believers were more than willing to share what was needed to help and support any Christian brother or sister who had need.  If someone needed food or clothing, both would be provided by the community of believers.  Peter's remarks should not be used to promote some kind of Christian communism or Christian socialism as they have been sometimes used in times past.      

Verse  3

"because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance." 
 

The Greek word "pistis" is translated as "faith" here and elsewhere in the New Testament.  Pistis means trust.  If you have faith in Jesus; you trust Jesus.  Pistis is also translated as believe in the New Testament.  If you say you believe in Jesus, it means that you trust Jesus, as in, you trust Him with your entire life, and that, is what being a Christian is all about.  This is how James and the early church understood the word and concept of "faith."  Simply acknowledging that Jesus exists as He claims, does not make you a real Christian.  It's a matter of trusting your life with Jesus and Him giving you His Spirit that confirms your salvation.  Our twenty-first century has greatly devalued the Biblical meaning of faith, as it has with many other Biblical words and concepts.       

James considered all of our trials to be a test of our faith, and that is the way the rest of the New Testament views our trials.  Trials are a test to prove that the trust we say we have in Jesus is real.  If our faith is real, it will stand the test of trials and will be strengthened as we persevere through our trials.  It is just common sense.  We may not like the process, but this is life.  We mature as a person through hardship.  It is all about counting the cost as a Christian, that I mentioned above.  

James said that his readers knew the trials were a test of faith.  The Greek verb tense suggests and inner knowing based on the fact the these people were indeed true believers, and being valid believers, they just knew that trust is tested through trials.  James, then, was just simply reminding his readers of something they already knew, or at least, were supposed to have known.  An inner knowing, or, a deep-seated conviction of Christian principles is necessary if you want to mature as a Christian.  The word "conviction," in my opinion, is one of those important words that you do not hear as much as you once heard in church.  Nevertheless, Biblical truth that enters our brains must sooner or later sink into our hearts and souls where it becomes the conviction whereby we live each day of our lives.     

Someone who is able to endure is a patient person, or at least learns to be patient, and patience is a good virtue to possess in one's life.  We may all struggle through the trials of life, and we all have trials, but if we can trust Jesus in the midst of the trials, we will be the better for it.  We either trust Jesus in the midst of the rough times or else we cave into our sinful nature and quit on Jesus and do our best to escape the trials without Him.  At that point, the trial is a complete waste in our lives.  There is no productive benefit for us to mature as a Christian and grow in our relationship with Jesus. 

In our fast paced, sound bite, want everything right now world, people are becoming less patient.  We want everything, right now.  We see this in the world of computers.  Every year newer and faster computers come onto the market and most of us would do our best to get the latest and fastest computer.  We struggle being patient when our old computer takes a couple extra seconds to do what we want it to do.              

There are two words I would like to point out in verses 2 and 3 and they are "joy" and "endure."  James told his readers that they were to consider it to be joy when enduring trials.  The word "joy" is translated from the Greek word "chara," and as I have said, this joy has nothing to do with being happy.  Happiness is a fleeting emotion that can be with us and then in a split second leave us.  James is not talking about being happy in times of trials.  As defined by the Greek word "chara," and, as James used this word, "joy is a deep-seeded, heart-felt, awareness of the eternally productive nature of the trials we go through."  This joy, you must say is a restful trust, a contentment that we have in Jesus in the midst of the trial. 

The word "endure" is translated from the Greek word "hypomeno," which is made up of the Greek word "hypo," meaning under, and, the Greek word "meno," meaning "to stay" or "not leave."   So, when James said that we must endure trials, he was saying that we must stay or remain in the trials.  We must not attempt to escape the trials.  We must allow them to have their full intended purpose and results in our lives.  If we escape the trials before they have the intended effect on our lives, we lose out on the benefits of the trials.

It is interesting that James encouraged his readers to endure hardships with joy, with the understanding of the trial's eternal productive implications.  The same is said of Jesus, as recorded in Hebrews 12:2, that reads:

"Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us,"

In Hebrews 12:2 we see the same two words that James used.  They are "joy" and "endure."  Here we see Jesus enduring the cross.  He did not run from the cross.  He actually embraced the cross because it was God's predetermined will for His human life.  That being the case, Jesus was able to stay under this unprecedented trial because of the joy, the eternally productive result of His trial, that lay ahead of Him. 

James could tell his readers to consider it pure joy when they went through trials of all kinds because Jesus, their Lord and Saviour, did the same, and His trials were nothing like the trials James' readers were encountering in their lives. 

Whatever the worst time of trouble you have ever had in your life is nothing in relation to what Jesus went through on the cross.  Remember, He did not just die a simple human death as we all will.  We have no clue what Jesus went through when He hung on that cross and then descended into Hades to free the righteous dead.  As a matter of fact, I would dare say just coming to live on earth, in the presence of sinful humanity would have been a trial for Jesus.                

Verse 4 

^"And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, and lacking nothing."

During our times of trials and testing we feel the pressures.  At that point we have a choice.  Do we run or do we endure?  Running away from the trials of life produces little to nothing positive.  Running or avoiding tough times simply enhances our sinful human nature to run, and that makes it easier to run during the next trial.  Enduring and learning from the trial is more beneficial than running. 

On the other hand, enduring these trials is productive.  It produces such godly character qualities within us as patience, endurance, humility, faith, thoughtfulness, wisdom, and many other such things.  These character qualities bring a maturity to our lives, a maturity that reflects the very character of God, and reflecting the character of God in our lives is just another aspect of being a Christian.  If you think about it, God is extremely patient with us.  If He was not so patient, He would have wiped us all off of the face of the earth long ago, but He hasn't, and why?  He loves us.

As I stated in the last verse, our English words "endure" and "endurance" is translated from the Greek word "hypemeno."  This word means "to stay under," as in, stay under the trials in order for them to accomplish their intended goal in our lives. Patient endurance in the midst of trials will make us complete.  This obviously suggests that by virtue of our human nature, we are not complete mature people.  The fact of the matter is that God uses trials to help us mature.  You might say it is just a natural law, a natural law that God Himself has instituted into His creation.   

Verse 5

"Now if anyone lacks wisdom he should ask of God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly and it will be given him."

James said that if anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God for some wisdom.  I would suggests that we all, to one degree or another, lack wisdom.  That being the case, we should all be asking God for more wisdom than we presently have and exhibit in our lives, but, here is the question.  Does this wisdom just drop down from heaven and into our brains?  Maybe at times it does, but in this context of trials, wisdom might actually come through our persistence in the midst of these trials.  We might, then, want to think twice about asking God for more wisdom, because if we do, we might be inviting some unpleasant situations to come into our lives. 

I mentioned about wisdom just dropping down from heaven and into our minds in the last paragraph.  Wisdom is really more a matter of the heart than the mind, and matters of the heart just don't drop from heaven.  Matters of the heart are worked into our heart and soul through various means and situations of life.  Trials are, indeed, one real way that we can gain more heart felt wisdom that becomes a road map for our lives.  Ask any elderly person about wisdom and I am sure that he or she will agree with me on that point.  As a matter of fact, since I am now one of those elderly people, I think I can, with some, if not much, certainty, make the point I have made. 

The verb "gives" in the phrase "God gives generously" is a present Greek participle which puts the emphasis on God being a generously giving one.  Because, by virtue of Him being a generous one by nature, He would naturally give us wisdom.  That is just who He is.  He is a wisdom giver, and, He gives wisdom freely, without any argument or reluctance. 

At this point I need to define the word "generously" in terms of how the Bible defines the word.  I do not believe that God just lavishes us with everything our hearts, and I might add, sinful hearts, desire.  You might suggest that asking for wisdom is not a sinful request, and, I would agree with you on that.  On the other hand, all that we ask from God, including wisdom, must be in accordance with His will for our lives.  Look at what Jesus said as recorded in John 14:14.  It is one of many similar verses.   

"If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it."

Did Jesus say we could ask for anything our hearts desire and He would give it to us?  No, He did not say that.  He said that what we ask in His name, that will He give us.  What does "in His name" mean?  As Stephen Sweetman, I bare the name of the Sweetman family.  As Christians, we bare the name of the Lord Jesus.  All we do is done in His name, is done as His representatives on earth.  All we do must never discredit His name, that is, the name we bare as our own.  All we do must please Jesus.  All we do, then, must be in accordance with His will as we represent his will and name on earth.  That means that all we ask of Jesus must be in relation to all we do for Him in His name. 

Jesus did not say that He would spoil us by giving us every last request we ask of Him.  It is His prerogative to give us what He wants and when He wants to give it to us.  This might well include wisdom.  On the other hand, wisdom is important, and if we need it, Jesus will give it to us, and if He doesn't right away, He certainly would have His reasons for holding it back from us.   

Another way to put what I am saying is this way.  I am an employee of Williams Construction Company.  I work for this company, and so, when I go out on a job for the company, I do not go out in my own name.  I go out in the name of Williams Construction Company, and therefore, all I do on the job must reflect the will of the company.  I can't just go on my own and do as I wish.  If I did that, I would discredit the company I represent.  If while on the job I need a tool to do the job correctly, I will ask my employer and he will give it to me.  If, however, I ask for a new house, he is not obligated to give me a new house, and surely wouldn't give me a new house because giving me a new house is not needed to do my job.  The same is true with us who bare the name of Jesus.      

 Whenever we see the word "wisdom" in the New Testament we should be reminded of our stance when it comes to God's wisdom.  Psalm 111:10 is one of many passages that tell us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  It reads:

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his instructions have good insight.

His praise endures forever."

Fear should be understood in terms of reverence for God.  The question is sometimes asked; "Should Christians fear God in the sense of being afraid of Him?"  Allow me to suggest that if God appeared to you right now, or, even if an angel appeared to you, fear would grip your heart and soul if not overwhelm you.  You would be afraid because of the awesome presence of the Almighty Creator God.  That being said, I am sure that God would tell you not to fear Him.  That is always the way we see this in the Bible.  Note how the angel calmed Zechariah's fear.  Luke 1:13 reads:

"But the angel said to him: 'Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.'"

The angel saw that Zechariah was afraid in his presence, so the angel told Zechariah that there was no need to fear.  He could relax and hear what he needed to hear without being bogged down with disabling fear that would prevent him from the important message he should hear.    

Reverence for God means that we obey Him because we highly, beyond any doubt, esteem Him above everyone.  He is the final authority over all things material and all things spiritual.  He has no rivals.  He is the absolute universal truth, and for all of the above and more, we must reverence Him.  The fear of the Lord, beyond any argument, is the beginning step in being a wise person.        

Verse 6 

"But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind."

The phrase "let him ask" in my opinion is a little week.  In the Greek text, the verb is a present active imperative, and the imperative suggests that this is a command.  This means that we must, beyond any doubt, act in faith.  We have no other alternative.    

The Greek word "pistis" is translated here as faith, as it is throughout the New Testament.  Pistis means "trust," or "to trust."  James was saying that if anyone lacks wisdom he can ask God for some, but, he must ask in a spirit that trusts God.  Do we, then, trust that God will give us what we ask for?  In this case I believe I can answer with a "yes."  We trust that God will provide the way for us to be wise in a particular matter.  On the other hand, and with other types of requests, our trust should be in that we trust Him no matter how He replies to our request.  We trust Him whether He answers us with a "yes" or a "no," and He does say "no" at times. 

We must not understand faith here as some kind of aggression, as in, I claim that for which I am asking for.  Far too often we think of faith as an aggressive action when faith, or trust, is more passive than active.  If you have faith in Jesus, you trust Him.  You yield to His will.  You do not fight Him.  You do not demand from Him.  You do not assume anything.  You submit to Him and His will.  There is no need to aggressively claim, claim, claim, as many do.  There is no need to do some kind of mental gymnastics and try to trick your mind into believing that you have received your request when in fact you haven't.  For more information on faith, I suggest you read my book entitled "Clarifying Biblical Faith." 

The Greek word "diakrino" in this verse is translated as doubting.  In the Greek text this verb is a present middle participle.  This stresses more of being a doubter than simply doing the act of doubting.  We all have our doubts from time to time, but I do not believe this is what James had in mind.  I believe this verse suggests that when we become a believer, with our new nature in Christ, we no longer are constant doubters.  A little doubt from time to time will not, or so I believe, nullify your request.  The next phrase actually confirms what I just said when James used the word "doubter," as being a doubter, instead of doubting from time to time.

It's not difficult to understand.  One who is a doubter by nature becomes stagnated.  He is disabled by doubt.  He does not know what to do because he is always questioning, not just God but himself.  He is, truly, like the waves of the sea, being tossed here and there by the wind.  Part of the process of Christian maturity, then, is to become more of a believer than a doubter.

The majority opinion seems to be that the doubter James was writing about here was not doubting a positive answer to his request of God.  He was doubting the very generous nature of God, and that, is a more serious matter than just doubting if you would get what you have requested of God.  

Verse 7

"That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord,"       

The words "that person" refers back to the previous verse where James referenced the "doubting one," that is, the one by virtue of who he is consistently doubts.  This means that the doubting one just does not trust Jesus.  Again, we are not talking about one who doubts from time to time.  The constant doubter should not expect anything from the Lord.  You might wonder, then, how this doubter can actually be a truly born-again-of-the-Spirit Christian.   

Some might suggest that since James addressed this letter to the twelve tribes of Israel , and did not specify the recipients to be Christians, the doubter might well not be a Christian.  The majority opinion among Bible teachers, though, is the James was writing to Christian Jews from the twelve tribes of Israel , and the context of the rest of the book would confirm that to be true.  That being said, James might well be comparing the trusting-Jesus Christian to the not-trusting-in-Jesus non-Christian who claim to have faith but have no works of love that would validate their claim to faith.  He will come back to this issue later in his letter.  He might simply be saying, "Don't be like the non-Christian by your much doubting."  

Verse 8

"... being double-minded and unstable in all his ways."

Verse 8 also suggests that the person in question does not doubt from time to time.  He is a constant doubter, and that would make his whole life somewhat unstable.  The Greek word "dysychos" is translated here as double-minded.  This Greek word consists of two other Greek words, which mean; "twice" and "soul."  In one since of the word this consistent doubter is a double-souled person.  Anyone who is such a double-souled person can only be unstable.  I am sure that you know those who are so unstable. 

It seems to me that James was attempting to encourage his Jewish Christian readers to grow in faith, to mature in their trust in Jesus.  Part of the maturing process would be having fewer doubts today than you had yesterday.  The temptation to doubt is just part of our human nature and is something we always fight against.  To suggest that the real Christian is a constant doubter, a double-souled believer, doesn't sit right with me.  A true Christian is a single-souled believer.  Again James might well have been comparing the single-souled believer who has doubts from time to time with the double-souled non-believer who claims to have faith in Jesus but their claim is false.  

Verse 9

"Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation," 

James said that those of "humble circumstances," that is, the poor, the unsuccessful, the forgotten, and others like them, should be thankful and proud of being elevated into their new highly exalted life in Christ.  This suggests that there is indeed a righteous, a good, type of boasting and pride.  You might call it a godly humble pride, based not on anything you have done, but on what Jesus has done for you.  You can be the most despised person in the world, but if you are a truly born-again-of-the-Spirit Christian, you are greatly loved by the Lord.  If you are that low-positioned person as seen in the eyes of the world; be joyful.  You are far from that in the mind of our Lord, and He, in the long run, is the only one who counts.    

Verse 10

"but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field."

The materially poor should boast in the things of the Lord, who Jesus has made him, as seen in the last verse.  The materially rich, however, should boast in his humiliation, that is, his destruction.  James might have been a bit sarcastic here because no one boasts in his destruction, but that is the reality for all who have not become spiritually rich through what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for them.  As a matter of fact, as you read Revelation, chapters 17 and 18, you will note that all material wealth of all people and all nations will be destroyed by Jesus as a divine act of judgment as this present age comes to a dramatic end.  Those chapters paint a devastating picture of how this age ends, especially in respect to the material wealth humans have created for their hedonistic way of life.  
  

When thinking in these terms, the debate over material prosperity of Christians is always raised.  The so-called Prosperity Movement to which many Christians adhere states that Christians can, and even should, expect material wealth from God.  We are His kids, that is, "kids of the King," as they say.  It is just natural, then, for us to think we can have it all.  If you are poor, those in this movement say you have a lack of faith or are outside of God's will.  If this was truly Biblical thinking, then most of the first-generation Christians, including men like Paul and Peter, had little to no faith and were outside of God's will, and that makes no logical sense.  Paul and Peter were not materially wealthy, but they were two of the most productive Christians ever. 

The Prosperity Movement is a product of an unhealthy, unbiblical, influence from our secular culture into our Christian belief system.  As far as I am concerned, it is the most destructive, most devastating influence that has bombarded the western-world church over the last fifty to seventy years.  The Prosperity Movement actually finds its roots in the "Positive Thinking Movement" of the 1950's.  There is nothing inherently wrong with positive thinking, but taken to a humanistic extreme, it becomes unbiblical.                 

If God wants to lavish material wealth on you, that is His prerogative, but nowhere in the Bible does it say that we should expect material wealth from God.  The Christian life is much more than the collection of material abundance in this life.  It's about storing up treasures in heaven, not on earth.  Treasures in heaven are a product of our good works of service for Jesus here in this life; good deeds performed from good motives.  It is what Jesus talked about, as seen in Matthew 6:20.

"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."

Just in case you quote John 10:10 to me, the abundance Jesus was talking about in that verse was spiritual abundance, not material wealth.  The text reads:

"A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance."

If Jesus had material abundance or wealth in mind when He spoke the above words, men like Peter, who heard those words, would have been severely let down by Jesus, because once again, those hearing these words, including Peter, never became wealthy.  As a matter of fact, Peter gave up his fishing business that could have made him wealthy and secure for life.  We don't know, but Peter might have been materially wealthy when Jesus called him to give up his fishing business to follow Him.

Verse 11   

"For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes. In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities." 

James continued on his point of the rich person and his wealth.  All that we possess, that is, our material wealth will be meaningless when we are in the grave.  You cannot take anything into the next life.  All of your possessions here on earth, stay here on earth.  They are left to rot and rust.  Then, even before we end up in the grave, sometimes, for various reasons, we lose any wealth we may have.  It could be through a great depression, stock market losses, theft, or whatever.  We can't put our trust in these things because when they let us down, we will certainly feel the discouragement. 

We should note that James was writing about rich people who do not have faith in Jesus, who have not put their trust in Him, but instead, put their trust in themselves and their wealth.  That being said, we should realize that there is nothing inherently wrong with wealth and material abundance.  It is what we do with wealth that is the issue. There is nothing wrong with working hard with all honesty to acquire wealth.  Wealth itself is not the problem.  We, as in everything in life, are the problem.  Our love of money and wealth is the problem.  It is what the apostle Paul was getting at, as seen in 1 Timothy 6:10. 

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."   

On the other hand, if James was talking about Christians with material wealth and abundance, even that Christian should realize that his wealth will be meaningless to him when he dies.  He, and his earthly existence will certainly pass away, but in the end, he will find a new existence with Jesus, and that, without all of his material abundance.        

For a detailed discussion of the Christian and money, I suggest you read my book entitled "Should I Tithe?"  In that book I address how the Bible deals with many financial issues, not just the issue of tithing.  For example, as a Christian, we are to give generously, according to our ability to give, with the understanding that even poverty is not a valid excuse not to give in financial terms.  The Bible has much to say about money and how we as Christians are to use our money.  What is clearly left out of the New Testament, however, is the word "tithing."  The only reference to tithing in the New Testament is in reference to Old Testament tithing, and that is significant to the New Testament Christian and how he or she should view their financial matters.   

Verse 12

"Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him." 

Verse 12 returns to the place of trials in the life of a Christian.  James said that the man who perseveres through all of the trials of life, which would include being persecuted for your association with Jesus, will receive an eternal reward that far outweighs any material blessing on earth.  With an eye towards these eternal rewards given to us by God Himself, we should be able to persevere through tough days in this present life.  The very nature of this sentence suggests that not all will persevere.  Some will fall by the wayside and not benefit from the trials.
 

The fact that these trials will produce an eternal reward might suggest that they are trials specifically relating to being a Christian, like being persecuted for your faith, which some of these Christians to whom James was writing were experiencing.  

Colossians 3:24 clearly tells us that our rewards in the next life are just part of the inheritance we will receive from God, as Paul stated in this verse.

"... knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ."

The Greek word "makarios" in James 1:12 is translated in this verse as blessed.  If you are blessed in these terms, you are one who is being highly esteemed, or spoken well of by others.  This blessedness has nothing to do with being happy as some might think.  Our English word "happy" has little to do with the Christian life.  Happiness is a fleeting emotion that may overwhelm you one moment but flee from you the next moment.  The blessedness that James is talking about here is that God really highly esteems the true believer who endures difficulties.  In modern vernacular, God might well be clapping His hands for you when He sees you endure hardships in His name.   

I believe our English word "crown" should be understood in symbolic or metamorphic terms in verse 12.  I realize some believe that Christians will receive a literal crown to ware on their heads, but I am not so sure of that.  I think the "crown of life" refers to every aspect of our eternal life that we will inherit in the presence of our Lord, a life that we know nothing about at this moment in time. 

This crown of life, whatever it really is, will be given to those who love the Lord Jesus. 

The Greek verb "agapeo" that is translated as love in this verse, and most all New Testament verses where we read our English word "love", means sacrificial love.  The one, therefore, who sacrifices himself, his very life, for Jesus will surely be rewarded for his life of sacrificial service. 

Our English word love is one of the most used words in our vocabulary.  It shows up in pop songs more than any other word, but in all practicalities is meaningless.  Our western-world's concept of love has no resemblance to Biblical love.  If there is no sacrifice in your expression of love, it is not Biblical, agape love.  The Greek word "agape" expresses the action of sacrifice.  There are other Greek words that are translated as love in our English New Testament, for example, philos (brotherly, reciprocal love) and eros (sexual love), but when it comes to God's love, its agape that is commonly used in the New Testament.    

The crown of life is an eternal crown.  James is not speaking about a present-day crown, a present-day reward.  I am not saying that Jesus cannot, or never will, reward us in this life.  If that is His will and desire, He certainly can, and will, reward us in this life.  The point to be made here is simple.  Endure, and I might add, endure in the name of Jesus, in all aspects of this life and you will be rewarded in the next life.

Verse 13

"No one undergoing a trial should say, 'I am being tempted by God,' since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone."

We should be careful how we interpret verse 13.  It specifically states that when going through our trials of life, we must not say that God is tempting us to do evil with these trials.  In context, the precise temptation that we are not to blame God for is any evil on our part that arises in us due to the trials.  James did not say that the trials themselves are not from God, or, not God allowed.  He did not say that the trials themselves are the temptations.  I believe, at least sometimes, that trials can originate from God to strengthen our faith.  The point to be made from this verse is that if you are tempted to do something evil because of trials bombarding your life, that temptation to do evil did not originate from God.  It originates from you.

Look at what 1 Peter 1:6 and 7 says about trials in our lives.  It corresponds to what James was saying in his letter.

"You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith ​— ​more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire ​— ​may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

The simple Biblical fact is that if you can endure the trials of life by trusting Jesus throughout your trials, your trust, or your faith in Him, will be strengthened.  Your claim to faith in Jesus will be proven to be genuine.  You, then, will trust your life with Jesus more after the trials than you did before the trials, and trusting Jesus with whatever life brings you is part of what being a Christian is all about. 

Verse 14

"But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire."

Verse 14 confirms what I have just written.  James said that we can't blame anyone, especially God, for being tempted to do evil during our trials of life.  We can't even blame the devil, or so I believe.  The devil can only tempt us to commit a specific sin because there is something sinful within us that wants to commit that sin.  Our own sinful desires entice us to sin, and when we sin, the devil gets a foothold into our lives. 

It is not God that causes us to be tempted to do evil in the midst of life's difficulties.  It's our sinful human nature, and that alone, that causes us to do acts of evil.       

Verse 15

"Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death."

James explains the chain reaction once we give into our sinful lusts.  Our sinful nature temps us to commit sinful acts.  At that point we have a choice to either say "yes" to the temptation or say "no." If we say "yes," we give into the temptation and we will commit the sin.  That sin leads to death.  It is what the apostle Paul said in Romans 6:23.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

We always need to be reminded of Jeremiah 17:9.  It reads:

"The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable ​— ​who can understand it?"

We can never forget that in the eyes of God, the human condition is much more wicked and sinful than anyone of us can ever know.  In other words, we can't see the forest, that is our sinful nature, because of the trees, that is our acts of sin.  That should be how we view ourselves and the rest of humanity.  The blessed side of this depressing thought is that if you are a born-again-of-the-Spirit Christian, and that is the only kind of Christian there is, God views you as being just as righteous and holy as He Himself is righteous and holy, and that, despite the fact that you are still as sinful as Jeremiah 17:9 claims you and I to be.

Our sinful nature tempts us to give into these sinful desires.  Although the sinful desires are a product of our sinful nature, a sinful desire is not an act of sin.  It is just a desire, but, when we give into that sinful desire and commit the act it wants us to commit, we sin.  If we persist in that sin and it becomes habitual, that sin will lead to death.

At this point I need to expand on the word "death" in this verse, because to make it clear, no one particular sin causes us to die and lose our salvation.  That sin has been stricken from the heavenly record where our names have been written into the Lambs Book of Life.  There is no sin associated with our names in that book.  When, however, a sin becomes habitual, that hurts and hinders the fellowship we have with Jesus.  Any kind of sin hurts a relationship, and our relationship with Jesus is no different in this respect.  I don't believe Scripture teaches that our relationship with Jesus is severed because of sin that has been erased from the heavenly record.  It is our fellowship that is disrupted until, with the help of Jesus, we can be free from the sinful habit.  That being said, disruption in our relationship with Jesus must be rectified if we are ever to mature as Christians. So, I am not downplaying sin in our lives as Christians because it does disrupt the fellowship we are to have with Jesus.      

I have used the word "habitual" in reference to continually giving into sin because the Greek verb tense, being a participle, in my opinion, seems to suggest this to be the case.          

Verses 16 and 17

"Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

The words "don't be deceived" in the above verse are a Greek present middle indicative verb.  The middle aspect of this verb suggests that the deception comes from both without us and from within us.  The source of the deception without us sees something within us that it can deceive, and thus, tries to deceive us, and often succeeds.  The source without us could be demonic or it could be human influence by others or by our surrounding culture.  Whatever the case, outside influence on us can only be effective if there is a corresponding tendency within us.  If, for example, you have a lustful greed lingering within your soul, our lustful greedy culture has a place in you that it can grab onto and run with as fast as it can.        

The present and indicative part of the verb "don't be deceived" suggest the ever-present possibility to be deceived, and thus, we need to pay attention to all kinds of possible deceptions.  In today's social media internet culture, it is apparent that deception is running wild and having its way with many.  Deceivers have become experts at using various techniques to deceive, and they are working in both the Christian and non-Christian world.   

Deception is one of the characteristics that define the end of this age.  In the context of the anti-Christ's appearance onto the world scene, Paul wrote this in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 and10.

"The coming of the lawless one [anti-Christ] is based on Satan's working, with all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders, and with every wicked deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved." 

According to what Paul wrote in the above passage, one way to avoid deception is to love the truth, and in this context, it's Biblical truth, the truth of God.  Our problem today is that many of who live in the West, and that includes Christians, have become dumbed-down when it comes to thinking issues through.  We have become lazy in our thinking.  We just want the quick sound-bite, and that produces a lack of knowledge that can easily lead to being deceived.      

One thing I should note about the words "brother and sister" in this verse is this.  The words "and sister" have been added in our newer versions of our English Bible to better reflect our thinking here in the twenty-first century.  There is no Greek equivalent for the words "and sister" in the original Greek text.  It is just a matter of attempting to make the Biblical text understandable to our day, and, I am sure we would agree, what James wrote to men would also apply to women. 

Bible translating is not an easy task.  In every version of our Bible, great care has been taken to make it relevant and understandable to those who will read it.  This means that certain words or thoughts need to be added to the original text to make any given passage understandable to any given culture.  Translating the Bible also includes certain theological perspectives, something you may not particularly like.  Translating text from a different language that has been lost centuries ago in a different era and time is more difficult than you think.            

James said that every good and perfect gift comes from God.  The word "gift" can also be translated as "thing."  This seems to suggest that any and every good thing in the life of the Christian originates from God.  Could the reverse be true as well?  That might be debatable.  Some bad things that happen to us are a result of us making wrong choices.  We can't blame that on God.  On the other hand, I do believe God does allow, maybe even institutes, bad things in our lives to test our faith.  That being said, we must be extremely careful in attributing bad things in our lives to God.         

I would think that the concept of goodness originates with God.  Only He is good.  When, in the Genesis account He said all that He created is good, He could say that because He Himself is the originator and source of goodness.      

The word "down" in this verse, that is, "down from heaven" is somewhat metaphoric in nature.  We think that God is in heaven, that is, somewhere above us, but, thinking God is up or above is somewhat speculative.  It is my thinking, and maybe I am wrong, but I tend to see the spiritual world in which God exists as not being above but in a different dimension that exists around us.  Over the centuries we have believed that there are three dimensions of existence but science now detects at least eleven dimensions of existence, and, I believe the spiritual world in which God and angels exist, might well be one of these newly-discovered dimensions.

The Bible often uses terminology in ways that we can best understand what is written in the text.  Thinking that God is above us, might well just be one of those ways to tell us that God is not of this world. 

James called God "the Father of lights where there is no shifting shadows" with Him.  Again, the terminology of lights and shadows suggests that God is not one who constantly changes His mind.  God is not like a moving shadow that depends on the angle of the light that produces the shadow. God is not like many of us who think one thing one day and another thing another day.  He, unlike humanity, is constant in who He is, and thus, is constant in what He thinks and what He does.  He is not double-minded.     

Verse 18

"By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."

James wrote, “He (God) chose to give us birth through the word of truth.”  We who have entrusted Jesus with our lives, which includes our salvation, have been chosen by God.  Every person, or so I believe, has been called by God unto salvation, yet,  only those of us who have responded positively to His call have been chosen to become a kind of firstfruit of a new creation of people.  This means that we are the first of a brand new creation of people.  We are a new type of person.  We are sons of God, something we have never been before.

Notice James' use of the words, "word of truth."  We have been saved by the word of truth.  I have always said that I am a Christian, not merely for the benefits that I derive from being a Christian, but, I am a Christian because I have come to know, understand, and believe that Jesus is the ultimate, absolute universal truth.  If indeed Jesus is the absolute universal truth, then I have no other logical choice to make than to follow His ways and give myself to Him.  I, and Christians, follow Jesus because He is truth, not because He gives us things, including our salvation.  If we follow Him for any other reason other than Him being the universal truth, when things get tough, we will most likely stop following Him.  I have seen that many times throughout my life.  We will stop following Him because we are not getting what we think we should get from Him.  If we follow Him and His ways because He is the central truth of the universe, it doesn't really matter what befalls us, what happens in our lives, whether good or bad.  Jesus is still who He is, and we will not deny Him.

The word "birth" is important here.  This word should remind you of when Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again of the Spirit of God, as recorded in John 3, verses 1 through 6.  The very reason why we are the firstfruit of this new creation that James talked about is because of this new birth.  Just think about it.  If indeed the Spirit of the Almighty Creator God has come to live within your very being, that must make you into something you have never been.  That must make you a brand new creation as Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 5:17.  That verse reads:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!"

After Jesus rose from the dead and returned into heaven, His earthy body was transformed into some kind of heavenly, eternal body.  Paul told his readers that Jesus was in fact the firstborn of a new creation of people, and that is us, who have been born again of the Spirit in this present age.  This means that in the next life, we will be as Jesus presently is.  We will be that new creation in all of its fullness.   Romans 8:29 reads:

"For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters."

Summery

Trials of life, even real bad ones, come from at least three directions.  They can be a result of our own fallen nature and our own stupidity.  They can come from the devil to deceive us, and I believe, they can come from God as a means of discipline that helps us mature. The maturing process comes in our lives when we don't complain or run from the tough times.  We should submit, or yield, to Jesus as we trust Him in the tough times.  Trusting Jesus and allowing Him to work what needs to be worked in our lives will produce what is needed for us to mature in our relationship with Him.     

During the tough times of life temptation will rise within us to do things we should not do.  We must know that this temptation does not come from God.  It comes from us as being sinful people.  Both the demonic world and our secular, anti-Christ culture will take advantage of our sinful nature.  Both will see our sinful nature and tempt us to sin.  James specifically made it clear that these temptations do not come from God.  There is no way that He would cause us to sin.   

Chapter 2

James 1:19 - 27

The Text

19 - My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, ²⁰ for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.  ²¹ Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. ²² But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  ²³ Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. ²⁵ But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does. ²⁶ If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. ²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 


My Commentary

Verse 19

"My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,"

As I have said earlier in this commentary, the words "and sisters" cannot be found in the original Koine Greek text.  They have been added in our newer versions of the New Testament in order to be culturally relative in our day and time.  Only the words "dear brothers" are found in the original Greek text, and once again, that was due to the culture the day in which James lived.  We can be sure that James was writing to women just as much as he was writing to men.  Unless otherwise stated by its context and specific topic, any Biblical truth applies to both men and women.    

If you are not quick to hear, or quick to listen, and if you are quick to speak, the temptation is to become defensive, self-promoting, and even angry.  The conversation will be all about you and good communication will be lost.  Listening is a skill we all can develop.  To the degree, then, that we carefully listen will be the degree to which we can involve ourselves in effective communication.    

Our anger will not be godly anger, and there is such a thing as godly anger.  God Himself does get angry, but His anger is not like our sinful human anger that is self-promoting and self-defending.  God is, by His very nature, just, and any injustice naturally causes a righteous anger to arise within Him. 

I maintain that all of our human emotions that we exhibit can be found in God.  They are found in God because He has created mankind in His shadowy likeness and image, as Genesis 1:26 states.  That verse reads:

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.'"

I use the term "shadowy likeness and image" because it reflects the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:26.  God did not duplicate Himself in us.  We are not little Gods, as many New Age philosophers claim we are.  We were created like Him, a shadowy likeness of Him, and thus, our emotions stem from God.  The problem arose when mankind became corrupt, as seen in Genesis 3.  Since then, our emotions have been tainted with sin, and thus, our anger is not always righteous anger.  This is clearly evident in all of our lives, and that certainly includes the lives of Christians.

In preparing for a wedding I was asked what advice I might give the soon-to-be-married couple.  I quoted James 1:19.  If both the new husband and new wife could be quick to hear his or her spouse, and in the process, be slow to speak or respond, then many unnecessary and destructive arguments might be avoided.  The simple fact is that if you don't take this verse to heart, and if you don't practice what it says, you will have relational problems.  You will have it with your family, with those in church, and with your friends.   

There is nothing complicated about this verse.  If you are a good communicator, you will be swift to hear because you want, and need, to hear another person out before you reply.  If you don't understand what the other person is saying, and you reply with this improper understanding, the whole conversation gets sidetracked and disjointed, and that often leads to confusion, frustration, misunderstanding, that can negatively affect a relationship, and that can lead to angry arguments.  James said that should not be.  .       

At this point, I refer you to the end of this book where you can read an article I wrote entitled "Swift To Hear And Slow To Speak."  I also refer you to another article entitled "Christians And Free Speech."  Both of these articles can be read in light of James 1:19.  In short, as Christians living in a western nation, you may have the right of free speech, within certain legal guidelines, but as citizens of the Kingdom of God , our speech has limitations, and that is what verse 19 is all about.  We must, then, decide what Kingdom we are going to adhere to, the Kingdom of God or the nation in which you reside.               

Verse 20

"... for human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness."

There is a major difference between "human anger," as James puts it here, and God's anger.  Our anger is often expressed because of wrong and sinful motivations, like defensiveness and selfishness.  God's anger, and He does get angry, is motivated from Him being just and all injustice produces a righteous anger within Him.  I do not discount the notion that Christians cannot be overwhelmed with righteous anger.  We can be, and I would say at times should, exhibit righteous anger.  That being said, let us be sure we are exhibiting real righteous anger and not our own sinful anger.   

There is nothing difficult to understand in this verse.  There is no redemptive purpose for the expression of unrighteous, selfish, human sinful anger.

Verse 21

"Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."

In verse 21 James concluded his latest point by saying that we are to get rid of all moral filth and evil that is so prevalent in the surrounding culture. James' culture is no different than our culture.  Human nature, whether back then, or today remains the same.  We are sinful at the core of who we are.  Evil, moral filth was just as prevalent back then as it is today, and in some cases even more prevalent. 

In and around many pagan temples in the first-century, Greco-Roman world you would find both male and female prostitutes ready and available to provide their specialized sexual services.  It was just a part of pagan worship.  If a man went to a temple to worship a particular god, having sex with one of these mail or female prostitutes was just part of the experience of worship.  I would suggest that the newly converted man who was used to this type of pagan worship would have found it very difficult to forsake the practice of prostitutional worship.         

James now makes the circle of sin that he is talking about bigger.  Not only is he talking about unreasonable anger, but he is speaking about all kinds of evil and moral sin, anger included.  This is what I believe was James' frustrated motivation that caused him to write this letter in the first place.  The evil he saw in the world around him should not be seen in the one claiming faith in Jesus, but apparently it was.  Church is no different today than it was back then.  

Note that it is our responsibility to rid ourselves of evil and sin, obviously, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot do this on our own.  The middle voice of this verb suggests we need outside help in this matter, as we rid ourselves of sin.  That outside help has to come from the Holy Spirit.  The aorist tense suggests that James' readers and us to, must right now, decide once and for all time, to make the decision to co-operate with Jesus and rid evil and sin from our lives.

James told his readers, and that includes us, to humbly receive the word that is able to save us.  There has been much debate over just how James was using the word "word."  Some say that the word is the Bible.  Some say it is Jesus.  We know that Jesus is called the Word of God, as seen in John 1:1.  That verse reads:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

There is no real debate among Christians that the word "Word" in John 1:1 refers to Jesus.  The Greek word "logos" is translated as "Word" in John 1:1, and here in James 1:21 as well.  Our English word "word" is a good translation of logos because logos in its simplest form means some kind of utterance.  You could thus say, then, that the incarnation of Jesus into a human form was the incarnation of God's thoughts and utterances into the human form known as Jesus.  As a matter of fact, the Greek word "logos" was also used in the world of Greek polytheistic paganism in reference to the gods.  In this sense of the word, when John's readers read, or hear read, John 1:1, they would have naturally understood logos, "the Word." to be in reference to Jesus as being God.  It is this Word, this Jesus, that James said must be humbly implanted into our hearts and souls.  Only Jesus can save our souls.

One point to consider here is that many of us today consider the word "Word" in this verse to refer to the Bible, which for us, would include the New Testament.  The fact of the matter is that there was no New Testament when James penned his letter, especially if he wrote it around AD 44.  The first known book or letter of the New Testament, that is, Galatians was written around AD 49.  So, to say that the word James had in mind is our Bible, cannot really be what he had in mind.  That being said, I strongly do believe that all we read in the Bible must enter our minds and then sink into our hearts where it becomes the conviction whereby we live.  This conviction only comes when we spend much time, effort, and study of the Bible.      

The word "humbly" is important because Jesus will not be implanted into our very being without us humbling ourselves and submitting to Him.  This is the process of Biblical repentance and faith.  That is to say, we recognize our need for Jesus in our sinful lives and for that reason we hand all of who we are over to Him.   

I like the word "implanted" that the CSB version used in this verse.  It clearly suggests that Jesus has been planted within the being of the believer, and how is He so planted?  The Holy Spirit, also known as the Spirit of Christ, comes into our lives when we become a born-again-of-the-Spirit Christian.  Only when the Holy Spirit enters your being will you be saved.  Receiving the Holy Spirit into your life is the heavenly seal that proves you are in fact a real Christian.  It's what Paul meant, as recorded in Ephesians 1:13, that reads:

"In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed."    

The word "sealed" in Ephesians 1:13 should not be understood as the process of gluing your salvation into place.  It should be understood in terms of a lawyer's seal, a seal that validates the legitimacy of something.  The Holy Spirit in our lives validates, or is the proof, that we are in fact really saved and a true Christian.  

Verse 22

"But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

The word "hearers" in this verse suggests God's Word being spoken to our ears, whether that is by someone else, like a preacher, or by the Holy Spirit.  The true Word of God spoken to us, thus, originates with the Word of God, that is, Jesus Himself.

It is not difficult to figure out.  Hearing something is one thing but doing what you hear is something altogether different.  Merely hearing, or being educated, is a futile endeavor unless what you hear becomes part of your life and put into actions.  Doing what you hear will be expounded upon later in James' letter.

In our day we emphasize the importance of education, and education is important, but it is not all we need.  We have been well educated that drinking alcohol and driving a car is not a good idea, but people still drink and drive a car and as a result get into dreadful accidents.  Without a change of heart, education becomes ineffective.        

The Greek word "paralogizomai" is translated as "deceiving" in verse 22.  This Greek word suggests a "wrong reasoning."  One who here's God's words spoken to him and then decides to do nothing about what he has heard, is considered to be one without being reasonable in his thinking.  He, or she, is illogical. 

Western-world Christians have heard so many sermons over their life time, but how many of these messages have taken root in their lives?  How many of what was heard is put into action?  I would suggest that much of what we hear goes into one ear and out the other ear, and thus, the Word has no effect in a life.  The spoken word, is thus, spoken in vain. 

It is interesting to me that the Sunday morning meeting of Christians is the weekly highlight of the church.  It is the most attended meeting, but the least effective way to teach God's word.  It is the least effective because those hearing the word are just listening.  There is no interaction between the preacher and the audience.  In this kind of situation, it is easy to hear, and then once you leave the meeting, forget what you hear, and thus, don't put what you hear into action. 

On the other hand, a midweek Bible study where discussion is readily available, where questions can be asked, answers provided, and comments made, is the least attended meeting.  Such a meeting provides better understanding because of the dialogue that those attending the meeting are engaged in. 

Better still, is one on one discipleship, but such one on one discipleship is the least practiced form of education in the church today.  I think that today's church has it backwards, especially in light of the fact that the Great Commission of Matthew 28 tells us to go into all the world and make disciples of Jesus.      

I usually explain what I have just written this way.  I have been a father.  There are three ways in which I can teach and train my children.  I can sit them down and teach them, with the hope, they are listening, and there's a good chance they're not listening.  Better still, I can show them an example of what I want them to learn in my life.  I can be a living example. If they can see me doing what I teach, it will sink into their lives more than just listening to my sermon.  Better still, is when I can bring them into a real life situation, where they and me, can participate in the learning process. For example, if my two boys end up in a fight, all three of us can sit down, and, if we can work out the problem as I would teach in a sermon, well, they would have really learned something.  In Biblical terms, that is called discipleship.              

Verses 23 and 24

"Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.  For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was."

James used an analogy here to help us understand what he is talking about.  The hearer and not doer of the Word of God is like one who looks at himself in a mirror.  One of the main reasons why we look into a mirror is to improve our appearance.  Think of yourself when you first get up in the morning.  Many of us look into the mirror and decide to immediately improve our appearance.  We comb our hair; wash our faces, among other things.  We don't like what we see, so we do something about it. 

There is no use looking in a mirror if you are not going to make any improvements to what you see.  In like manner, one who hears God's Word and does nothing about it; does not allow it to make any improvement in his life is like such a person looking in a mirror and simply walking away.  That person is not being reasonable.  He is not being logical in his thought processes.  He does not even know or understand the necessities of life as a Christian.  

Verse 25        

"But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works ​— ​this person will be blessed in what he does."

Notice the phrase "the perfect law of freedom" that James wrote in this verse.  The word "perfect," as is often used in the New Testament, should be understood as complete.  It's a completed law, whatever that law may be.

What law could James have been thinking about?  Could it be the Old Testament Law of Moses, as has been debated over the centuries?  This little word "law" has produced an ongoing debate between what many understand to be a difference of opinion between James and Paul.  I don't believe that James and Paul had a difference of opinion on this issue.  I will come back to this debate later because the whole issue of law, faith, and works becomes a major point of discussion in this letter of James.   

I do not believe that James had the Law of Moses in mind when he penned the words "perfect law of freedom."  Paul actually called the Law of Moses a law of bondage, not a law of freedom.  Galatians 5:1 reads:

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

In context, the yoke of bondage in Galatians 5:1 is in reference to the Law of Moses while the word "liberty" refers to what I would call the "Law of Christ."  Jesus Himself, and what He has said, is actually the Law of Freedom that James had in mind, or, so I believe.   

The one who not only hears and knows the Law of Freedom, that is, Jesus' teaching, but lives out the life of Jesus is a blessed one.  Jesus' teaching does indeed produce freedom in a life.  One freedom is the freedom from sin. 

One of the most popular sayings of Jesus is found in John 5:32, which reads as follows. 

"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Jesus was talking about freedom of sin and He was also talking about the freedom from the consequences of sin, which includes the judgment of God due to our sins. 

Hearing must be lived out in doing.  This is what James will expound upon throughout this book. 

Verse 26

"If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself."

What James said here in verse 26 is pretty dramatic.  The Greek word translated here as religious does not necessarily imply the Christian religion, although it could and probably does here.  The Greek word "threskos" implies the work or service that one carries out in the name of the deity to which he adheres.  So, if one claims to be a Christian, and claims to serve Jesus, his service is worthless if he cannot control or bridle his tongue.  In fact, he deceives himself into thinking he is religious and serving Jesus when in fact he is not serving Jesus.

In our present-day, social media culture, many people, including Christians, do not control their tongue, or in the social media terminology, do not control what they type and post.  Like an unruly tongue, and unruly post discredits the one who posts as being a real Christian.  Such posts does nothing for your credibility as a Christian, and worst still, it does damage to the name of Jesus, the one you claim to serve. 

Of course, what the mouth speaks comes from the heart.  Your words, then, whether spoken or written, reveal what is in your heart.  They show the world the real you and in this situation, the real you does not look very nice.  The real you needs to be transformed by God's Word implanted in your heart as we have already noted earlier in James' letter.

James does not necessarily say that the one who can't bridle his tongue is not a Christian.  What he was saying is that the work for Jesus that one does is worthless if he can't control his tongue.  It's the service that is useless, not the person.

If you read 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, you will note that all of the works of service that we do as Christians will be judged by Jesus.  Those works of service that are performed from wrong motives will be burned in the fire of His judgment.  They are meaningless to Jesus.  On the other hand, those works of service done from proper motives, will be rewarded at that time of judgment.  What we do for Jesus in this life, then, has eternal significance.  We should think very seriously about this.           

I am sure that James could have provided other human sinful tendencies that destroy the service that one does for Jesus.  It might well have been the one on his mind because an uncontrolled tongue might have been one of the major problems in the lives of the believers to whom James was writing on this occasion. 

Verse 27

"Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

James just provided an example of something that would lead to one's service for Jesus to be useless.  Here in verse 27 he stated what real service for Jesus looked like, and again, I believe the examples he lists could include many other examples.  Those that are listed show a selfless service for others who find themselves in some kind of need.  It is what agape, selfless, style love is all about.  True service for Jesus is performed out of sacrifice.  It is how Jesus lived while on earth, and it is how He still lives today in heaven.  It is the way He wants us to live.  As Jesus humbled Himself from the life of glory and honour in heaven tin order to die as a common criminal, so we are to humble ourselves as we serve those Jesus places before us at any given time.

The Greek word translated as "look after" in this verse means "to seek out."  That is to say, go out of your way to serve others from a pure selfless heart of love.  Seeking out suggests a well thought out process in your attempt to serve.  The words "well thought out" are important because what appears to be a need in someone's life on the surface may not be the real need that needs to be served.  For example, when helping a financially poor person, we must attempt to understand why he is poor in the first place.  Solving this fundamental need, although may take more time and effort on our part, is more important than offering him some lose change from your pocket.         

One last phrase that James used here that is common among all New Testament apostles is the words "unstained by the world."  New Testament Christians did not have much good to say about the world around them.  They felt that they needed to be rescued from their present generation.  They felt the world and its way of thinking and doing things was something to flee from.  Look at what Peter said on the Day of Pentecost, as seen in Acts 2:40.

"With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, 'Be saved from this corrupt generation!'"

Other versions of this verse say something like "rescue yourselves from this corrupt generation."  The world around us is all about self, self promotion, and in the end self is destructive, because serving self is the basis of all sin.  The wages of sin is death, and the final death is experienced in the Lake of Fire .  We, with the help of the Holy Spirit, must remove our self-serving sinful tendency from our service for Jesus.  Serving self in ministry is a prevalent sin these days.  When a preacher gets famous, he gets proud, and most all he does is to maintain his fame.  James would say that is false religion, and we need to run from that as fast as possible.        

Summery

To sum things up for this section, I would say that James was encouraging his readers to avoid the works of the flesh, one of which is our lack of ability to consistently control our tongues.  With the same tongue we bless and we curse.  This should never be. 

Our tongues do speak lots of good things, but merely saying good things is useless if we don't have the actions to prove what our tongues say to be the intent of our hearts.  Beyond that, we can say lots of good things, but one bad thing we say can pretty much wipe out the effectiveness of all of the good things we say.   

The bottom line to all of this is that if we say we are Christians, then we must live as Christians.  We must serve those to whom Jesus places before us at any given time, and, we do so from a spirit of sacrifice.  Without sacrifice in your act of service, your service is not based on agape style of love, and, agape style love is the only kind of love the Bible knows and teaches.    

Our problem as Christians, and the church, over the centuries is that we have failed in many respects to demonstrate this sacrificial love to one another.  Instead, we have separated ourselves and divided into various fractions that have discredited our witness for Jesus.    

Chapter 3

James 2:1 - 13

The Text

1 - My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ² For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, ³ if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, "Stand over there," or "Sit here on the floor by my footstool," ⁴ haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court? ⁷ Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?

⁸ Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. ⁹ If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. ¹¹ For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker. ¹² Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

My Commentary

Verse 1

"My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ."

Once again, I remind you that the words "and sisters" are not found in the original Koine Greek text.  They have been added in newer versions of our English New Testament because of our culture's gender neutralism.  Throughout history, Bible translators have struggled over making the words of the Bible relevant to the reader, and this is just one present-day way of doing that in our twenty-first century western culture.  I think that we would all agree that all that James said in this letter would have been directed to both men and women, so the edition of the words "and sister" should not present us with a problem.  I admit, that I questioned gender neutral Bibles when they first came out, but I have softened my thinking since those days.  As long as we don't change the meaning of the original text, gender neutral translations are fine.      

James continued here in chapter 2 with the notion that if you are a real Christian, as you claim to be, then the way in which you conduct your life will prove your claim to be a valid claim.  If your life doesn't match your claim, then James would question the validity of your faith, and so would I.

One with genuine faith in Jesus will produce genuine active works of faith in his life. 

In verse 1 James does seem to recognize that his readers had genuine faith.  I say this because of the phrase "as you hold on to the faith."  These people seemed to be holding on to their faith, or as the Greek word "pistis" translated as faith means; they were holding on to their trust in Jesus.  They did trust Jesus with their lives, but to prove their faith, their trust in Jesus, they could not show any kind of favouritism.  They were to be impartial, and why?  God does not show partiality, so neither should they, and neither should we.  It, thus, appears to me then, that some of these believers were in fact showing partiality to certain people in their gatherings.  

Paul, in Romans 2:12 clearly told his readers, and us too, that God does not show favouritism.

"For God does not show favoritism."

The Greek word "echo" that is translated as "hold" in verse 1 means "to have," as in, "to have a certain ability." These Christians seemingly appeared to have been exercising the ability to trust Jesus with their lives, but in the process seemed to be struggling with the sinful human tendency to play favourites, as we would say in today's vernacular.   

The Greek word "doxa"is translated as glory in this verse and throughout the New Testament.  Doxa means "to have or hold a high estimation of someone or something."   Christians, and really, the heavenly host of angels, have a most high estimation of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus.  We derive our English word "doxology" from this Greek word.   

Verses 2, 3 and 4

"For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, 'Sit here in a good place,' and yet you say to the poor person, 'Stand over there,' or "Sit here on the floor by my footstool," haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"

Note the word "meeting" in this verse.  Some translations use the word "assembly."  The Greek word "synagoge" is translated here in the CSB as "meeting."  This word is actually a Hebrew word that has been inserted into the Greek text by James.  We see this word throughout the New Testament in reference to the church.  It finds its roots in Old Testament Hebrew culture and language.  When taking the Hebrew Old Testament culture and the language into consideration, synagoge is a community of people belonging to God and to each other, where, all of the needs of those in the community are met by their God and their brothers and sisters in the community.  Church is all about this kind of community.  More than an organization, church is an organism, a living body of people belonging to Jesus who have been knitted together in community to support each other as they function in what Paul called the Body of Christ.  Far too often we view church in a well oiled organization, and organization is important for church, but church without its communal relational aspect, is not church.  For an exhaustive study on how the New Testament understands church, you can read my book entitled "The Community We Call Church." 

As chapter 2 begins, James is giving us an example of what bad religion looks like.  Remember, chapter 1 ended with what true and false religion is all about.  Showing partiality to rich people over poor people in a gathering of the saints is bad religion.  God does not show such partiality, so neither should we.  Peter finally came to acknowledge this truth, as seen in Acts 10:34, which reads:

"Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, 'Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.'"

I was once a member of a church where its pastor encouraged us to dress up really nice when we attended a Sunday morning meeting.  That in itself is not a problem, but the reason why he kept encouraging us to dress as best we could was a problem in my opinion.  He wanted to attract professional wealthy people to our church, and why?  It was all about more money for the church and poorly dressed people in the meeting that wealthy people would see, might turn them away.  I do not think that James would have appreciated this pastor's reasoning for how people should dress in a meeting of the saints.    

By making the distinction between rich and poor, James said that we become judges with evil thoughts.  Such distinctions are evil according to James, just as evil, I would suggest, as sins of murder or adultery.  Obviously, murder and adultery have more severe consequences than showing favouritism, but still, all three are still sin and need to end.   

The concept of judging is often misunderstood in our modern, western-world church.  I constantly hear people saying that we must not judge people.  What I believe they are really saying is this: "If you do not judge me, then I will not judge you in return.  So, let me do as I please and I will let you do as you please."  They base their thinking on a misunderstanding of Matthew 7:1 that reads:

"Judge not, that ye be not judged."

Without getting too involved in the concept of judging, if you read Matthew 7:1 in its full context, you should note that Jesus did not tell us not to judge people.  What He did tell us is that in the way in which you judge others, they will judge you in like fashion.  Jesus was saying, then, make sure your judgment is based on proper motives that are not hypocritical.  It's simple common sense.  The way in which you judge others, in that same way, they will judge you in return. 

As a matter of fact, as seen in John 7:24, Jesus told us how we are to judge.  That verse reads:

"Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment."    

So, there you go.  We are allowed to make judgment calls, but we do so in a righteous manner.  For a more detailed study on how the Bible views judging others, you can read my book entitled "Clarifying Biblical Judging."  It is one misunderstood issue among Christians today, and that due, in part, to our secular culture's unbiblical influence on today's western-world church.    

James made the distinction between rich people and poor people, and that in itself was a judgment call.  He also distinguished between those with true faith and those with false faith, and that is a judgment call.  Even a quick reading of James' letter will show you that James does make judgments.  Does one really know how rich a person is by the way they dress and look?  I suggest that if you look at many, if not most rock singing stars, you would think they are poor by the way they are dressed, but they are not.  They are probably very rich. 

James distinguished between rich and poor here probably because favouritism was beginning to be a problem in the community of believers to which he was writing.  These communities were probably located in present-day northern Israel and Syria , where it was populated mostly by Gentiles, and many of these Gentiles, would have been well off financially, while the Jews would have been less well off financially. 

We don't know if these rich people were Christians or non-Christians, but in the end, that does not matter.  Favouritism is wrong.

Verse 5   

"Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?"

In the Greek text the verb "listen" is an aorist active imperative verb.  This means that James was telling his readers to stop what they were doing, and in the present moment, decide once and for all time to stop being partial to the rich.  It was a command and not a suggestion.

Note the word "dear" in this verse.  James was in the process of being somewhat hard on his readers.  That being said, he loved them as seen in the word "dear."  Genuine love for others often demands we tell them the truth, no matter how difficult that is. 

It may be a bit debatable to know if James was talking about poor Jews in Old Testament times or poor Christians in New Testament times, or so some think.  I suggest, due to the nature and the content of his letter, that he was talking about poor Christians in New Testament times.  From which James said in his letter and from what Paul wrote in his letters, the general understanding seems to be that poorer and less predominant people populated the Christian community more than richer and predominant people back then.  In 1 Corinthians 1::26 Paul implied that those of high esteem were few and far between in the church at Corinth .

"Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth."

Jesus Himself told us that not many rich people would enter the Kingdom of God , something Jesus could well have told James, even before James became a Christian.  Matthew 19:23 reads:

"Jesus said to his disciples, 'Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.'"

It seems to me that the way in which God does things is so very different than the way we do things.  For example, James said that God chose the poor.  We would choose the rich because they have the money and the ability to spread the good news far and wide, whereas the poor did not have that same ability.  Another example is the death of Jesus.  In human terms, that makes no sense.  If God wanted to make His point and save people, He could have taken a much easier route. 

Verse 6

"Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court?"

The word "dishonoured" is important here.  The world in which James and his readers lived in their day, like eastern cultures today, was a world of honour and shame.  Honouring one's parents, one's authority figure, one's family, and one's culture was primary in life, as it is today in much of the eastern-world cultures.  Children must honour their parents or be shamed.  People must honour authority or be shamed.  People must honour their tradition or be shamed.  We see this today in many conservative Islamic cultures, and it can be taken to a very bad and unloving extreme.  Children have been known to be kicked out of their family, even killed, for dishonouring their father, their heritage, or their authority figure. 

Here in Canada a Muslim teenager did not honour her father when she chose a non-Muslim boyfriend.  She ended up being drowned in a river and her father and mother were charged, arrested, and convicted of her murder.  This is an extreme example, but many people who have become Christians in Muslim nations have been completely alienated from their families.  Teenage girls have been left on the streets to survive on their own, often being raped in the process. 

Honour is vitally important, but like any good virtue, it can be taken to a bad extreme.  In western culture, we have gone to the opposite extreme where honouring, parents, authority, and tradition have been pretty much laid by the wayside.  Honour has become a lost virtue in the West, but James said it was important.

Christians are to honour everyone without partiality.  Just because someone does not meet your personal expectations, does not mean he or she should be dishonoured.

James mentioned about the rich taking the Christians, most likely poorer Christians, to court.  These rich people may not have been Christians or else they probably would not have taken poor Christians to court.  On the other hand, we know from 1 Corinthians 6 that Christians did take Christians to court, something Paul said should never be.  The same would apply today, but as sad as it is, individual Christians and Christian organizations consistently take each other to court.  Part of the church's downfall in this matter is that church is not presently set up to handle disputes among its members.  1 Corinthians 6:1 and 2 read:

" If any of you has a dispute against another, how dare you take it to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?   Or don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the trivial cases?"          

One reason why the rich would have taken the poor to court was because the poor owed them money and could not pay up.  Court procedures could have ended up with the poor becoming slaves until the debt was paid. 

Verse 7

"Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?"

Verse 7 might lead us to believe that the rich who take the poor to court are not Christians because they blaspheme the good name.  That may or may not be the case.  Part of what James is getting at here is that Christians can do wrong or bad things, and taking a fellow believer to court is a bad thing.  Obviously, the words "good name" clearly refers to Jesus. 

Our English word "blaspheme" that you read here and elsewhere in the New Testament is taken directly from the Greek verb "blasphemeo."  Many of our English words are a direct translation, called a transliteration, from the Greek language.

The Greek word "epikaleo" is translated into English as invoked in the CSB.  I prefer not to translate epikaleo as invoke because epikaleo basically means "to call."  I would suggest that this verse would be better translated and understood as; "don't they blaspheme the good name by which you have been called."  The word "call" is an important New Testament word.  God has called us to Himself, to salvation, to a community of believers, to Christian ministry, and many other such things.  To learn more of my thoughts on God's call on our lives you can read my book entitled "Confirm Your Call To Lead," subtitled, church leadership is not a career but a calling.  

Verse 8

"Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well."

We see the word "law" in this verse as we have seen it before, and we will see it later on in this letter.  In this verse the word "law" cannot totally refer to the Old Testament's Law of Moses, although it does in part.  James specifies what law he is thinking about when he used the word "law."  It was the "royal law," the law that is found in Scripture.  He even quotes the law to be "love your neighbour as yourself."     

The word "Scripture" is both interesting and important here.  First of all, the Scripture James would have had in mind had to have been the books of the Old Testament. For the Jews, and really, for the New Testament Christians, Scripture was the books of the Old Testament.  This would especially be the case if James wrote his letter around AD 44 because it is generally accepted that the first book of our New Testament was not written until about AD 49, and that was Paul's letter to the Galatians.    

Look at what Leviticus 19:18 says.  It reads:

"Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD."

Now read Deuteronomy 6:5

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

Jesus quoted Leviticus 19:18 and Deuteronomy 6:5 in reference to how New Testament believers should understand these two laws, and the Law of Moses itself.  After being asked by a Pharisee what law of the Law of Moses was the greatest (Matthew 22:36) Jesus replied by saying this, as seen in Matthew 22:38 through 40.

"He [Jesus] said to him, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.'"

By answering the religious leaders question, Jesus, although didn't say the exact words, turned this Old Testament law into the "royal law," as James put it in this verse.    

I would think, then, that James had heard, or at least known of, what Jesus said about the most important law found in the Law of Moses.  Loving God and your neighbour, then, is the "royal law" James mentioned here, that if obeyed, fulfills all of the obligations of the Law of Moses in its totality.

Returning to the word "Scripture," depending on just when James penned this letter, the words of Jesus could have been understood as Scripture, and thus, James might have well included the saying of Jesus in mind when he wrote the word Scripture.    

James said that if his readers, and us too, would obey this royal law, they, and us, would do well.  He does not seem to go as far, at least not in this verse, as Jesus did, and especially as Paul did, when understanding the Law of Moses in New Testament terms.  James did not say that if you obey the royal law you actually obey all of the Law, all of its six hundred and thirteen rules, implying there were more laws to obey.  He only said that his readers would do well if they obeyed the royal law.   

For an in-depth study on how we as New Testament Christians should understand the Old Testament, especially the Law of Moses, you can read my book entitled "Clarifying Biblical Interpretation."  You can also read my book entitled "Understanding The Old Testament As New Testament Christians." 

Verse 9

"If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors."

   
James gets right to the point here.  If anyone shows favouritism, he is certainly, as the Greek verb puts it, committing sin.  This is one sin that we as Christians seem to overlook a lot, because, showing partiality is common place in the church these days as it has always been.    

In the Greek text, the verb "are convicted" is a present passive participle.  This means that when you are showing favouritism, at that very moment, you are being convicted by an outside source, which in this context is the law, and thus, the law views you as a law breaker.  You are not just committing the sin; you are being viewed as a "committer of sin."  Who you are is a law breaker.     

Again, the law James is referencing here has been debated for years.  Some believe it is the Old Testament Law of Moses.  The precise law is seen in Leviticus 19:18 and Deuteronomy 6:5 as I quoted above, that is also renewed in New Testament times by Jesus, as seen in Matthew 22:38 through 40, also as quoted above.  Others, on the other hand, say the law James had in mind was the royal law or the law of freedom that he also wrote about, and that law, was the law Jesus mandated.  We are to love God and each other, and any sign of partiality disregards that law.

It is interesting that James called favouritism a sin.  While being raised in Evangelical Christianity in the 1950's and the 1960's, it seemed to me that sin was simply disobeying the Ten Commandments, but I believe we must define sin with a much broader definition.  I like how Paul defined sin in Romans 14:23.

"But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin."

Anything we do outside our relationship with Jesus, especially in our service with Him, is sin.  Even Jesus' definition of sin went beyond the Ten Commandments when he addressed sin as being matters of the heart and not just matters of the body.  For example, He said that if one lusts after someone of the opposite sex, he or she has committed sin in his or her heart.  Matthew 5:28 reads:

"But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

All sin originates in our hearts, and in our hearts is who we are.  We sin, because we are sinners.  Acts of sin are a secondary problem.  The primary problem is us, our sinful nature, and part of being a Christian is allowing Jesus to assist us in overcoming our sinful nature.   

For a detailed study on how we as Christians should view our sinful nature, you should study your way through Romans, chapter 7.  There, Paul tells it like it is when it comes to how sinful we are, and that, even as Christians. You might think that the great apostle Paul did not consider himself to be a sinner, but a saint.  That is far from the case and what he wrote in Romans 7 makes this clear.  Romans, chapter 7, is the main New Testament chapter that deals with our sinful nature.  It is a must to read.       

Verse 10

"For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all."

James tells his readers, and us as well, that it is all or nothing when it comes to obedience to law, and really, to God Himself.  You cannot say you keep the law, whatever law you think it is, if you break one of its laws.  In this context, the law that James was writing about might well be the Old Testament Law of Moses.  Remember, he was writing to Christian Jews about issues concerning faith, works, and law.  Many of these Jews were probably somewhat confused when it came to issues of faith, works, and law.  This was enhanced by many who misinterpreted Paul's theology concerning faith, works, and law.

Due to the fact that by His very nature, God is just.  He does not just act justly.  He Himself, at the core of who He is, is just.  It is for this reason that if you break just one law, you break them all, whether that law is the Old Testament's Law of Moses or the mandates of Jesus.  God being perfectly just in who He is cannot accept a person who breaks one law as being in obedience to the whole law, but, because of the cross of Christ, there has been a remedy for this problem.  If you are indeed a true born-of-the-Spirit believer, you will be extremely thankful for that. 

Verse 11

"For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker."    

With my comments that I have just made concerning verse 10, verse 11 makes perfect sense.  With the understanding that the Law of Moses as being a complete volume of six hundred and thirteen laws, if you break one law, you then, break the whole law.  On the other hand, if you understand law here to mean the mandates of Jesus, the same would apply.  You break one mandate, you break them all.  

There is another point I would like to interject at this point in my commentary and that concerns the two sins that James wrote about in this verse, that being, the sin of adultery and the sin of murder.  The Ten Commandments clearly state that both committing adultery and murder are sins, but Jesus redefined both of those two commands in these New Testament days.  He told us that sin is really a matter of the heart and not simply a matter of outward actions.  One commits sins because he is a sinner.  One commits murder because he has already committed murder in his heart when he gets angry with someone without due cause.  Here is how Jesus redefined the law forbidding the sin of murder.  Matthew 5:21 and 22 read as follows.

"You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister, will be subject to the court. Whoever says, 'You fool!' will be subject to hellfire."

Jesus clearly redefined the command to not murder to include not getting angry in your heart without due cause.  Jesus, and thus, the intent of the New Testament, told us that it is our hearts that need to be changed, and when our hearts are changed, our outward actions will change.  If we do not get angry without due cause in our hearts, we will not murder anyone. 

Jesus said the same thing about the sin of adultery.  Like murder, he redefined adultery to be a matter of the heart.  All of us, both men and women, have lusted sexually to one degree or another in our hearts. So, if we can stop lusting in our hearts, we will not commit the outward sin of sexual adultery.  Matthew 5:27 and 28 read:

"You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Verse 12

"Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom."

The Greek verbs translated as "speak" and "act" in this verse are imperative verbs, meaning, this is a command and not a suggestion.

I totally understand the confusion over how James used the word "law" in his letter.  In the past few verses he might have used the word law in reference to the Law of Moses, but here again, it is debatable what law he had in mind, and that due to the word "freedom."  This might suggest that the word law in this verse is not in reference to the Law of Moses because we can't view that law to be a law of freedom.  It is more of a law of bondage, or at least that is how Paul viewed the Law of Moses throughout his letter to the Galatians.

We saw the term "law of freedom" back in chapter 1, verse 25.  There, I suggested, as many do, that the law of freedom is in reference to the two particular commands of the Old Testament Law of Moses that stated that the Jews were to love both God and their neighbours with our whole hearts.  Then, Jesus said that if you obey that law, you obey all of the law.  So, the law James wrote about here might well be the law that states we are to love God and our neighbours with all of our hearts.  I would suggest that there is freedom in the way Jesus taught about the Law of Moses.   James could well be telling us to speak and live the law of love.  In Jesus' mind, the law of love is liberating.  It causes one not to commit murder, not to commit adultery, and not to commit many sins.  Love covers a multitude of sins, meaning, if you love, then, you will receive love in return.  The circle of reciprocal love, will thus, nullify many sins that might well have been committed.             

Verse 13

"For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy.  Mercy triumphs over judgment."

First of all, the Greek word "eleos" that is translated as mercy here means to show pity on another and then to act accordingly" to the person to whom you have pity.  Just as faith without works is dead, so pity without appropriate action is dead.    

This is a difficult verse to understand.  James is writing to Christians who have been shown mercy by God.  They are saved.  Their names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life where there is no sin associated with their names.  Not showing mercy, being one such sin, is not associated with their names in the Lambs Book of Life.  That does not mean that this sin has not been forgiven.  It simply needs to end.       

One thing we know for sure about this verse is that mercy will triumph over judgment in the long run for the Christian.  The White Throne Judgment that we read about in Revelation 20 does not apply to Christians.  Christians will not be found at that judgment.

All of the above being said, James did say that those who do not show mercy will experience the full measure of God's judgment. Many Bible teachers suggest that James is thinking about non-Christians with this statement.  They, by nature, do not show mercy, which in my thinking is not really true.  Non-Christians can show mercy.   On the other hand, Christians, by virtue of their new nature in Christ, do show mercy, even though at times they fail in this respect.  Both views are certainly debatable, but to get into the mind of James on this matter is a very difficult task. 

What this statement does tell us is that God, who is just by His very nature, must demonstrate judgment to its fullest based on His concept of justice in all matters of injustice.  The injustice of showing no mercy is no exception.  Once again, the true Christian is free from the final expression of God's justice as seen in the White Throne Judgment.  That also being said, we must understand that our good works will be judged as Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 3.  They will be judged based on the motivation for us doing these good works.  We should also know that it is our works that will be judged, not us.  Showing mercy is a good work.     

The point that James ends this section with is that for the Christian, God's mercy triumphs over His justice, and that, due to Jesus receiving the full brunt of God's justice and judgment on our behalf.

Summery

James wrote in this section of our faith being worked out in practical ways.  If we claim to have faith in Jesus, or, if we claim to trust our lives with Him, then our lives should prove that to really be the case.  The example James gave, and I do believe it is a valid example, was Christians showing favouritism.  The Bible clearly states that God does not show any hint of favouritism.  He can't because it is not in Him to do so.  He, by His very nature, His very essence, is just.  He not only performs acts of justice; He is just, and being just must condemn all of mankind for its injustice.  God does not show any hint of partiality in this judgment.  On the other hand, and due to the cross of Christ, He has provided us a way to escape God's judgment.  Jesus received the full brunt of God's wrath and judgment for all of mankind, not just for some.  His act of love was meant to satisfy God's justice, and it did. 

If we repent, trust our lives with Him, and receive His Spirit into our very beings, we are freed from God's final judgment, as seen in the White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20:11 and following.  God does not show any partiality in this matter.  It does not matter what you have done, who you are, the colour of your skin, your wealth or lack thereof, or any other such thing.  Without partiality, God will save you from judgment if and when you comply with His provision.

Chapter 4

James 2:14 - 26

The Text

14 - What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.  ¹⁸ But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works " Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder. ²⁰ Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? ²¹ Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? ²² You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete, ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴ You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route? ²⁶ For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

My Commentary

Verse 14

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?"

The words "what good is it" tell us that the claim of faith that some profess, that James is about to address, is problematic, even useless. 

Note the word "claim" in this verse because it is important to what James was saying.  Just because someone claims to have faith, or really, claims to have anything, does not mean he actually has what he is claiming to have.  Claims alone are worth nothing.  James is saying that those who claim to have faith, or, claim to have trusted their lives with Jesus, actually do not have the faith or trust they claim to have, because their lives don't prove their claim to faith.   

When James used the word "save" in this verse, he was talking about what we call salvation.  He, then asked, "Can such faith save him?"  The word "such" should tell us right away that he has doubts about the validity of faith in question.  My version of this question, with the emphasis on the word "claim" is, "can such a claim of faith save him?"   We don't even need to know how James would answer this question.  His answer is an obvious "No!"  Claims of faith alone saves no one, especially when, as in this situation, there is no works, or no proof, of genuine faith that is claimed.

Note the word "works" in this verse.  This one little word has caused many problems over the centuries.  Disputes have arisen because many people believe that James and Paul had a different opinion when it came to faith and works.  I do not hold to that opinion.  I do not believe James and Paul had any difference of opinion, only seeing the truth of faith and works from a different perspective.   

It is my thinking that Paul and James used the word "works" in different ways.  Paul consistently associated works with the works of the Law, that is, the Law of Moses.  No works of the Law of Moses could save anyone, according to Paul.  Besides, the Law of Moses was never meant to be a means of salvation, especially salvation as understood in New Testament terms.  The Law of Moses was Israel 's constitution by which it was to exist.  In fact it was a covenant that the Jews entered into with their God.    

 I do not believe that James' use of the word "works" was the same as Paul's usage.  In context, and noting James' example of works, James was writing about works of love, not works of the Law.  James, as we will see in the following verses, was saying that if you have genuine faith as you claim to have, or, genuine trust in Jesus, you will live as Jesus lived, and Jesus spent His entire earthly life going about doing good works of sacrificial love that culminated in His death on the cross. 

Here are three examples of how Paul used the terms "works of the law" in reference to the Law of Moses.

Galatians 3:2 reads:

"I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard?"

Galatians 3:5 reads:

"So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law? Or is it by believing what you heard ​— "​

Galatians 3:10 reads:

"For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed."

Verses 15 and 16      

"If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,' but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?"

Here is yet another question that James asked his readers.  The answer, once again, would have been obvious to all who read this letter or had it read to them.  Just saying "go in peace" when someone is in desperate need of food and clothing helps no poor person.  The words "go in peace" are useless and worthless.  They mean nothing because there is no action associated with the words.  It goes to show you that the one who has the ability to feed and clothes the poor person does not care for that poor person.  Even if the one with the ability to help says he has a heart of love, his actions defy his words.  In Biblical terms, if you have the where-with-all to help someone in need, it is your responsibility to help that someone.    

Verse 17  

"In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself."

In verses 15 and 16 James used an analogy to help his Jewish readers understand what he was telling them.  Here, in verse 17, he tells them straight up, without beating around the bush, so to speak.   One who claims to have faith, or trust in Jesus, and does not demonstrate his claim in actual works of love, has no real faith.  His so-called faith is dead.  It is not genuine faith.  That is not difficult to understand.

What James said here is similar to what the apostle John said in his first letter.  1 John 3:18 reads:

"Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth."

John, in similar fashion to James, implied that if your love is only in words and not in action based on truth, then your words of love are empty and useless.  In fact, you do not love as you claim.  You do not prove your claim to love.

I am sure you have heard what I am about to say.  I often hear, and I never heard it while growing up, people say "love ya" as they leave someone.  It seems to be another way of saying good-bye.  I often wonder if the one say "love ya" really understands what he or she is saying.  Real love demands sacrifice and unless "love ya" is demonstrated in sacrificial love, "love ya" is meaningless and worthless.  You might as well say a simple good-bye. 

Then there are all of the pop songs that have been sung and purchased over the last number of decades.  The word "love" is probably the most over-used word in those songs, but the love in the songs seldom had anything to do with sacrificial love, the only love the Bible knows and teaches. 

Larry Norman, a Christian singer/song writer in the late 1960's and 1970's put it this way.  "The Beatles sang all you need is love, and then they broke up."  The song, Reader's Digest," can be heard on his "Only Visiting This Planet,' album, released in 1972.           

Verse 18

"But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works." 

It is a ridiculous thing to say that I have the faith and you have the works.  That makes no sense at all, but, it appears that some people were actually saying this.  If this was not the case, James would probably not have inserted this into his letter.  Someone else cannot prove a claim that you make.  If you make the claim, no matter what the claim is, you are responsible to prove your claim. 

James responded to the above ridiculous statement by saying, "I will show you faith by my works."  In other words, my good works, my works of love, will prove to you that I do have genuine faith, or trust in Jesus.  In this sense of the word, genuine faith will produce genuine works.  The works that James was writing about here is a product of real faith.  People without faith can do good things, but, if you claim to have faith in Jesus, then that faith should generate good deeds that prove you have faith and that also will glorify Jesus, the one in which you have trusted your life.

Real faith, as defined in Biblical terms, is productive.  If there is no visible productive result of one's faith, I believe you can question that person's claim to faith. 

Again, I do not believe the apostle Paul would disagree with James on this matter.  He would say that, yes, faith alone saves us, but, we are called to do good works.  Here is what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8 through 10. 

"For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift ​— not from works, so that no one can boast. ​ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do."  

So there you have it.  Paul wrote that salvation is by faith in God's grace alone, but beyond that, Christians have been called by their Saviour to do good works that are a direct result of their faith in Jesus.  James and Paul are in total agreement on this issue.  

Verse 19

"You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe ​— ​and they shudder."

I maintain that as Christians we should understand the word "faith" to mean "trust" because that is the simplest meaning of the Greek word "pistis" that is translated as faith in the New Testament.  It's verb form "pisteuo" is translated here as "believe."  I also maintain that when it comes to our salvation faith or belief cannot be mere mental assent to the reality of Jesus and the gospel message.  Mere mental acknowledgment saves no one.  Mental acknowledgement is just the act that precedes trust, and of course, that is important.  That is to say, you can't trust someone, including Jesus, without first mentally acknowledging the reality of that person.  That is pure common sense.  All that being said, the verb "believe" in this verse is an exception to what I have just said.  James used the Greek word "pisteuo," believe in English, in terms of pure mental acknowledgment.    

James said that the one who claims to have faith in Jesus, claims to believe in His existence, claims to have trusted Him with his life, doesn't really trust Jesus.  He doesn't because the word believe here means mere mental assent.  We know that because James said that demons believe in God.  Demons believe in the existence of God, but their belief is just mental assent.  They do not trust their lives with God for the purpose of salvation.  They have not built a trusting relationship with Jesus or God, as the Greek word "pistis" means when thought of in terms of trust. 

All of this is just another way that James was telling his readers that claims of faith are meaningless.  Those who claim faith in Jesus without any valid proof, merely believe in the existence of Jesus, and that is not genuine faith that saves us.  If it was, then, the devil and all of the demons would be saved and we know they are not saved.   

Note that demons, with their mental acknowledgment of the existence of God shudder.  The Greek word translated here as shudder suggests a very violent shuddering or shaking.  Demons are, thus, very much afraid of God.  They know their end, and it isn't nice.  So, before the end comes, they will attempt to do as much damage as possible to the Kingdom of God .  It seems that each day that passes, the harder they work at doing this damage, and we know, that as this age comes to an end, both Satan and his demonic host, will be working overtime in their failing cause.       

Verse 20

"Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?"

James gets quite bold here by calling those who claim to have faith without proof of works senseless.  Senseless is a good word, because such claims without proof are illogical.  They are without any common sense.  At this point in his letter, you can tell that James is very much frustrated with those who claim to believe but have no works of love to demonstrate their claim of belief.  In fact their claim of belief is a false claim, and thus, their faith is a false faith.  In fact, they are not true Christians.       

The Greek word "kenos" is translated here as senseless.  This word means "hollow and empty."  James was saying that those claiming faith without works are hollow, empty thinkers.  Their claims of faith are hollow, empty, and useless. 

In our western-world Christianity today there are many who fall into this hollow and empty Christianity.  More often than not, or so I believe, many who call themselves Christians are not Christians, and it is obvious by the way they live.  As I said earlier, the fruit of their lives will show everyone who they really are.  We will, indeed, know them by their fruit as Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 7:16 that reads:

"You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?"

It is a sad fact, but here in the year 2021, Christians are seen more of a political social movement than the Jesus Movement they are meant to be.  This is the case because they have laid aside the gospel to promote their views on political and social reform, and in the process, at least to me, show that they have no real faith in Jesus, or at least, have set aside their faith in Jesus for something that they feel is more important.  But what can be more important than Jesus?  

Verse 21     

"Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar?"

What James said in this verse has caused much debate and arguments, even divisions between Christians over the years.  It has split many Christians into two different camps.  It made Martin Luther question the canonicity of James' letter.  It caused a great divide between two of the Christian Reformation's influential men, that is, Martin Luther and John Calvin.  This divide has split the Protestant Church in half.        

The Greek word "dikaloo" is translated here as "justified."  This word simply means "to be deemed right."  If you are justified in the sight of God, He deems you, or views you, to be right.  You are, thus, righteous, meaning, you are in right standing with God.

In this verse James said that Abraham was justified, or deemed to be right by God, by his work of obedience to God, which was, placing his only son Isaac on a sacrificial altar.  Paul, on the other hand, seemed to say just the opposite in Romans 4:2 and 3.  Those verses read as follows:             

"If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about ​— ​but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness."

So, is James and Paul at odds with each other over the issue of faith and works?  I don't think so.  James and Paul appear to be using the word "justified" in two distinctly different, yet permissible ways.  Paul was saying that faith, our trust in Jesus, and nothing else we can do, saves us.  Jesus did all of the work that is necessary for our salvation, or justification.  James, on the other hand, was saying that our works of love justify, or proves, that our faith is real, and not just an unfounded claim.  With that in mind, I see a major difference between the way in which Paul used the word "justified" and the way James used the word "justified."

Abraham did trust God, and, that trust, or faith, justified Him, caused him to be viewed as right, in God's sight.  There is no doubt about that, but Abraham's faith was tested and found to be genuine when he placed his son on the sacrificial altar.  That very act proved his faith to have been real which justified him in the sight of God.  If he had disobeyed God on that count, it would have proved that his faith was not real.  Faith and works, with Abraham, Paul, James, and us as well, go hand in hand.  They cannot be separated.    

I am convinced that both Paul and James believed that only genuine faith in Jesus justifies a person in the sight of God.  Also, both Paul and James would have believed that genuine faith will produce genuine works of love.  These works of love prove, or justify, one's claim of faith to be true and valid.  Once again, you cannot separate faith from works or works from faith. 

Verse 22

"You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete,"

The words "faith was active together" makes James' point, and my point too, clear.  You cannot separate faith from works or works from faith.  They go hand in hand.  They are married.

James said that genuine faith is made complete by works.  That makes total sense to me.  One who has genuine faith, or genuine trust in Jesus, will perform genuine acts of love, acts that Jesus requires from us to prove the validity of our faith.  Then, once successfully performing works of love, his faith, or trust in Jesus, is proven to be real.  Beyond that, his faith deepens.  He trusts Jesus with his life more after the work of love has been completed than he did before the work of love was begun.  This is what it means when James said that works complete faith.  Think of it this way.  You are baking a cake.  Your cake is not complete until you put the icing on top of the cake.  The icing completes the cake.    

Verses 23 and 24

"and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."

Verses 23 and 24 are the crux of the perceived controversy between James and Paul.  Both men use the same Old Testament passage to make their point, that many but not me, say are distinctly opposite.  James is quoting Genesis 15:6, that reads:

"Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness."

It is my opinion that Abraham had genuine, but not complete or perfect faith.  No one has perfect faith.  We are human.  That being said, Abraham did trust in His God, and therefore, he could follow through on his faith in God's promise of a son, by climbing the mountain to sacrifice his son, the son that God promised him.  If you think about it, that defies all human logic.  God promises you a son and then He wants you to kill that promised son. 

 It was Abraham's genuine faith that produced his act of obedience, and, his act of obedience proved his genuine faith.  In this instance faith and works were inseparable.  Abraham's act of faith, completed the process of trusting God.  I am convinced that both James and Paul would be in agreement with this.

God promised Abraham that he would have a biological son.  It took years for this promise to be realized.  So, when God told Abraham to sacrifice that promised son, in our eyes, that would make no sense.  Abraham saw things differently.  Beyond any doubt, he believed that God did not want his promised son to die, so in faith, he could put his son on the altar, knowing God would save his son from death.  For Abraham, faith and works went hand and hand.  They were a package.  Faith meant trust while works meant obedience.       

In verse 24 James makes what many believe is the irreconcilable statement.  "You see then that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."  This is the only place in the Bible where we see the famous Reformation phrase, "by faith alone," but many would say that James is not using this phrase in the way the Reformers did.  The Reformers would say that James was saying by faith and works alone.   

Once again, I believe that James believed that works of love justify that your faith is genuine.  Works and faith cannot be separated from each other, and therefore, works justifies faith that leads one to salvation.

Verse 25

"In the same way, wasn’t Rehab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route?" 

If you accept my point that James was saying that valid works of love justifies one's faith, then you would understand that Rehab, despite being a Gentile prostitute, had her faith justified by what she did, that is, a work of love on behalf of the Jews. 

There is one point to be made here, and that is, there is no hint in the Old Testament text that anyone thought that Rehab was saved as understood in New Testament terms.  That is a completely different issue. 

Verse 26

"For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead."

In verse 26 James makes his closing remarks on this issue of faith and works.  It is easy to understand.  Just as a body is dead if it has no spirit or soul, so faith is dead, not genuine, if there is no works of love that justifies, or proves, the faith that is claimed.

It's my opinion that theologians over the centuries have made too big of a deal over what they perceived to be a difference between the apostle Paul and James on the issue of faith and works.  I see no difference.  All of the debates and arguments have only confused the issue for Christians.     

Summery  

Biblical faith means to trust.  As faith or trust applies to Jesus and salvation, genuine faith will produce genuine works of love.  A false claim to faith will never produce productive works of love as God views such works.  We may view them as works of love, but we are not the judge of the matter.  This being the case, you cannot separate faith from works of love, or, works of love from faith.  The two go hand in hand.  One is not valid without the other.   

When one first trusts his life with Jesus, like Abraham, his trust is shaky and needs to mature.  For this reason, when one successfully performs a work of love, a work expected us by Jesus; his trust in Jesus is deepened.  As a matter of fact, with every successful work of love completed, one's faith becomes strengthened. 

The whole concept of faith and works of love in much of our western-world Christianity is not well understood, and thus, not put into practice.  Far too many who call themselves Christians simply give mental assent to Jesus' existence and the gospel they think they believe, but mere mental assent saves no one.  Such people are not real Christians as they claim to be. 

A Christian is one who has come to understand that he is depraved far beyond his capability to comprehend.  With heart-felt conviction, he admits, repents, or confesses, his depravity to Jesus, and with Jesus' help, trusts his life with Him.  In response, Jesus gives His Spirit to the new believer in order that he can mature into the life Jesus wants him to live.  One who does not have the Spirit of God within Him, is not a Christian.  It is that simple.  Paul, in Romans 8:9 makes that clear.

"You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him." 

Paul added to this thought in Ephesians 1:13, that reads:

"In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed."

The presence of the Holy Spirit in one's being is like a lawyer's seal that validates the legitimacy of a document.  The Holy Spirit in one's life validates that one to be a truly born-again-of-the Spirit Christian, and that is the only kind of Christian there is.

Chapter 5

James 3:1 - 12

The Text

1 - Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment. ² For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body. ³ Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. ⁴ And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. ⁵ So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. ⁶ And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. ⁷ Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by humankind, ⁸ but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. ¹¹ Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening. ¹² Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.

My Commentary

Verse 1

"Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment."

Note the pronoun "we" in this verse.  This means that James considered himself a valid teacher of the Lord and New Testament thinking and practice. 

In this verse James tells his readers that not many people should become teachers of God's Word.  Why would he say such a thing?  I would suggest the reason is obvious.  He has just finished attempting to teach the proper way to understand the issue of law, faith, and works, which was being taught the wrong way by certain teachers.  The issue of how New Testament Christians should view the Law of Moses was the first big controversy that infected the first-generation church.  This divisive problem was supposed to have been resolved in the convention of church leaders, as seen in Acts 15, but the problem persisted.  The issue of law, faith, and works continued to be a problem, and really, has been a problem throughout the history of the church to this very day. 

False teaching crept into the church soon after the birth of the church.  False teaching was either being performed by false teachers intentionally or by uneducated teachers unintentionally.  Whatever the case, teaching is a valid Christian ministry, as seen in Ephesians 4:11, that reads:

"And he [Jesus] himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,"

Note from Paul's statement in Ephesians 4:11 that it is Jesus who gives the above ministry gifts to the church, and being a teacher of God's Word is one such ministry gift.  If Jesus hasn't called you to be a teacher of God's Word, you should not be a publically ordained Bible teacher.  Self-promoting Bible teachers aren't Bible teachers. 

Note that the CSB directs verse 1 to just the brothers, and not the sisters, as it does in other verses in James.  As I have said earlier, throughout the New Testament, newer versions of the Bible address the text in question to the "brothers and sisters," even though there is no corresponding Greek words for the words "and sisters" in the Greek text.  It is natural for us to think that most, but not all, of what we read in the New Testament applies to both men and women, but not necessarily so in this verse.  There were very few publically ordained women Bible teachers in the first-generation church when James wrote this letter.

However you view women Bible teachers, James said that the teacher will be judged by God accordingly.  A teacher must practice what he preaches, and not be hypocritical, as many are in our day.  Another word you might be able to use in place of the word "judge" in this verse is evaluate, as in, the day will come when not just the good works of teachers will be judged or evaluated, but all of our works as Christians will be evaluated and rewarded, or not rewarded.  Our works of service for Jesus performed out of improper motives will be burned up in the fire of Jesus' judgment, but after the flames die down, Paul states that the believer himself will be saved.  It is the believer's works, not the believer himself, that will be judged.  Works of service performed from good motives will be rewarded.

1 Corinthians 3:12 through 15 reads:    

"If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one's work. If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved ​— ​but only as through fire."

Christians will not be seen in the White Throne Judgment as seen in Revelation 20, but they will stand before Jesus and give account of what they have done or not done for Him, as Paul wrote in the above passage.

Back in the day and culture in which James wrote his letter, a teacher was more than just a dispenser of facts and information as is often the case today.  He was a mentor, a man who people would follow or be discipled by.  This is not necessarily the way it is today when the student only knows the teacher by which he or she sees and hears in the classroom.  The teachers James most likely had in mind were mentors, and mentoring was much more than dispensing information.  Mentors would have their disciples live their lives in accordance with the mentor's teaching and his way of living.   

The concept of a teacher being a mentor is easily seen in Ephesians 4:11.  I will quote that verse again. 

"And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,"   

You may think as you read Ephesians 4:11 that there are five ministries listed, but that is not so.  There are only four ministry gifts that Paul mentioned.  Due to the Greek grammatical construction of this verse, pastors and teachers are one ministry gift to the church.  That means a recognized teacher is a pastor, or in other words, a teacher is a mentor.  A pastor/teacher in the church does not just dispense information.  He leads and cares for those to whom God has called him.  Such mentoring responsibilities are not often seen in today's western-world church leaders.  Today's pastor is often a teacher who merely disperses information from the pulpit, without any personal care for those he teaches.  Today's pastor is often an administrator of a church that looks more like a Fortune Five Hundred Corporation than the Body of Christ church is meant to be. 

Note that Paul puts pastors and teachers in the plural form.  One man cannot perform the responsibilities required of mentoring God's people.  For that reason, I believe as taught in the New Testament, the local church is cared for by a body of men called elders, not just one elder.  A local church is directed by a body of pastors, not just one pastor.  For more about church leaders, you can read my book entitled "Plurality Of Elders."                 

Verse 2     

"For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body."

James said that we all stumble in many ways.  How true.  Every Christian should have Jeremiah 17:9 memorized and burned into his heart and soul because it portrays exactly who they are as human beings.  It reads:

"The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable ​— ​who can understand it?"

It does not matter how righteous you think you are, when you compare yourself with God, you are far from righteous.  At the core of who you are, you are corrupt.  Compared to other people, you may be good, but God does not compare you with others.  He compares you with Himself, and in that comparison, there is no real comparison to be made.  You are at the opposite end of the moral spectrum than Him.     

James said that if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature and has control over his tongue.  Simply put, the more mature you are, the more you will have control over your sinful tongue, and having control over your tongue will be clearly evident in the way you speak, write, and live.  Of course, our tongues are part of our sinful personalities, and thus, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to get our tongues in submission to the will of God.     

Upon a quick reading of verse 2, you might think that James has moved onto a new subject, that being, the nature of our sinful tongues.  That might well be the case, but I don't think we should leave the context that includes verse 1 too quickly.  The words "we all stumble" might well be in reference, at least in part, to the one who stumbles by believing he is a teacher of God's Word, when in fact he is not.  The false teacher, and really, many of us, stumble by teaching, by passing along to others false doctrine, and in James' day, most of this stumbling came through the tongue.  In today's day, much of false teaching and stumbling comes through one's keyboard and what he posts on social media sites.        

Verse 3

"Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies."

Part of the process of being a teacher is teaching through speech, or in today's world, teaching through typing on a keyboard.  If a teacher, or really, any Christian, is speaking or typing on behalf of God, he must control his tongue.  He must teach God's Word, not his own word.  He must control what he teaches, and beyond that, his daily life must demonstrate a person who has control over what he says and how he says it. 

The analogy of putting a bit into the horse's mouth to steer him is a good analogy.  We are to bridle our tongue, because how our tongues go, what it speaks, is how we go.  This is the case because what we speak comes from who we are and who we are determines how we live.  Jesus made that clear, as seen in Matthew 12:34.

"Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart."

What people hear from your mouth will determine much of your future direction in life.  People hear what you say and judge you appropriately.  If you want to be well respected, you must be careful what people hear from your tongue.  If you want a successful ministry that people will follow, your words must give them ample reason to adhere to you and follow you.  In this sense of the word, your future is determined by your tongue.  

Verse 4

"And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs."

Like the horse and bit analogy, James repeats himself in verse 4 with the analogy of a ship and its rudder.  Our tongues are a small part of our body but have great influence on us and the direction of our lives.  If James still has teaching in mind, words of instruction guide people, either in the right way or the wrong way.  Your tongue, then, not only guides you and your future, it can guide others and their future.  Your tongue, although being small, has great influence.  We must use this influence in the godliest way possible.  

Verse 5

"So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest."

Our tongue can speak words of humility or words of arrogance and pride.  It can speak of truth or of falsehood.  It can boast of small things or great things.  Our tongues can do much damage.  It can lead people in the wrong direction and it can destroy relationships.  It can divide a church.  Such a small thing can do much damage, just as James said, a small fire can destroy a whole forest and its surrounding towns and villages.  On the other hand, it can do much good.  It can encourage.  It can build confidence.  It can inspire and instruct.  It can preach the good news of Jesus.  It all boils down to our choice and what we want to do with our tongue.    

As I write this commentary in 2021, it has been a hot dry summer in much of western North America .  At the moment, there are more than  three hundred forest fires in the Canadian province of British Columbia , some of which have destroyed whole towns and villages.  These destructive fires were started by one very small, probably unseen, spark.  This kind of destruction is exactly what James is getting at in his letter, and sad to say, our uncontrolled tongues are a present-day spark in the church of Jesus today.   

Verse 6

"And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell."

Each part of our body has its importance.  We would not be alive if not for our heart.  We would not be able to walk if not for our legs.  Our tongue is one of the ways in which we communicate and communication is fundamental in building healthy and productive relationships.  Our tongue instructs, informs, directs, among many other important aspects of our lives.  Our problem is that our tongues speak what is in our hearts, and many of us will not admit it, but our hearts, at their core, are evil.  Speaking evil, thus, is natural to us.  It is for this reason we must take control over our tongue.  We must allow our tongues to go through the process of sanctification if we are ever to live a life of godliness.

Note the word "hell" at the end of this verse.  It is translated from the Greek word "geenna" that stems from the Hebrew word "Ge-Himmon, that was in reference to the Valley of Hinnom , a garbage dump just south of Jerusalem in James' day.  This garbage dump, where dead animals were burned, was consistently on fire, and thus, our concept of the fire of hell. 

It is noteworthy that most other places in the New Testament translate the word "hell" from the Greek word "Hades," which was the place of the unsaved departed dead in New Testament theology.  Hades, in the Old Testament Hebrew culture was known as "Sheol," the place of both the righteous and unrighteous departed dead.

New Testament Christian theology teaches that after Jesus died on the cross He descended into Hades, and there, He released the Old Testament righteous saints so they would be in paradise with Him.  You can read Ephesians 4:7 through 10 to learn about that.  That passage reads:

"Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.  For it says: When he ascended on high,

he took the captives captive; he gave

gifts to people. But what does 'he ascended' mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, to fill all things."

The lower parts of the earth in the above passage are in reference to Hades.
       

What we should know about hell is that in New Testament terms it is not that eternal place of fire where evil people will spend eternity.  It is not the Lake of Fire as seen in the Book of Revelation.  Hell, or Hades, is the place of the unsaved dead right now, and Hades, or hell, will be thrown into the Lake of Fire at the final judgment of all things.  Revelation 20:14 in the King James Bible reads as follows:

"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."

Only after hell, as the KJV puts it, is thrown into the Lake of Fire does it become on fire.  Until then, hell is Hades, the place of the departed dead.  The KJV makes no sense.  If hell is the Lake of Fire , how then, can hell be thrown into itself?   

Note how the CSB version of the Bible and other newer versions of the New Testament translate Revelation 20:14.  These versions translate the Greek word "hades" properly as "Hades" and not "hell."   Here is the CSB's translation of Revelation 20:14.

"Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire."

My point here is that the King James Bible has done us a disservice by translating the Greek word "hades" as hell and not "Hades" as it should have.  This has led us to a wrong concept of hell as being a place of fire, or, the Lake of Fire .  Hell is not the Lake of Fire .     

Verses 7 and 8

"Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison."

James may be using some poetic licence here.  Not all animals, birds, reptiles and fish have been tamed by man.  Yes, we have tamed many animals, but obviously, we have not tamed all or most of them. 

Note that the CSB translates the Greek text "has been tamed" in the past tense.  The actual Greek text is a present tense verb, as in, "is taming."  With this in mind, James might not have been using poetic licence in this verse.  Man has not tamed all animals, but you might say that man is in the process of taming all animals.  This might well fit James' thinking than our past tense verb.    

Again, I think the point that James was making is that we can do much in the way of taming animals, but taming ourselves is a much different story all together.  When you think of this in modern terms, man has done unbelievable things in the world of technology, medicine, science, and other such things.  With all that we have done, we have the most difficult time of transforming who we are.  Just look at our social media sites today.  They are filled with nasty, angry, self-promoting, arrogant, and disgusting things that do more harm than good.  We have invented computers and the world of the internet, much of which is used for good, but on the other hand, much is used for evil, and the evil is often seen in the use of our words. 

I would say that all James said about the evil that comes from man's tongue can be seen in the evil that is typed on a keyboard.  I think James said it correctly.  Our words are a "restless evil, full of deadly poison."  As Christians, should we really be spewing poison across the internet.  I don't think so.      

Verses 9 and 10

"With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness.  Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way."

Verses 9 and 10 are pretty self-explanatory.  I once had a friend that I hung around with a lot in the 1970's.  We drove far and wide in the service of the Lord.  He used to sing to the Lord, sing Christian songs, and even sing in tongues as he drove the streets and highways.  With his mouth he gave thanks to Jesus, but, when another driver did something he did not like, immediately his tongue would lash out at the other driver.  I mean, instantly the praises would cease and the curses would begin.  This should not be, said James. 

James puts a little jab into his remark in this verse.  That is to say, the person my friend would curse, and that in the middle of his praise, was born in the likeness of God.  In a round about way, then, James was saying that my friend was cursing God, and that in the midst of praise and worship.     

The "likeness of God" is in reference to God creating man in His likeness and image as seen in Genesis 1:26 and 27, which reads:

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.' So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female."

As a side note, and because of the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:26 and 27, we should understand that being created in God's likeness and image means that we were created in a shadowy likeness and image of God.  We were not created in an exact likeness and image of Him, and that, even before the fall, as seen in Genesis 3.  In other words, we were not created as little gods as some New Age philosophers teach.   

Certain New Age teachers have been telling us that humans are in fact little gods.  They suggest that we have inherent power to do next to everything, just like God Himself, but this teaching is not Biblical.  Man was not created to be like God, as if he was a duplicate of him.  We were created in a shadowy likeness and image of God.  That suggests, for example, that we have creative abilities because God is the master of creativity.  We laugh because God laughs.  We cry because God cries.  All we do, including all of our emotions, can be seen in God, except for the fact that all of our emotions and creative motives have been tainted with sin.  The only One who has been created in the exact likeness and image of God, is Jesus Himself.  That being said, the word "created" is not the best word to be used here because Jesus existed, albeit in another form, prior to being incarnated into a human body.  You might say it this way.  When Jesus entered a human form, He was the exact likeness and image of God.  Here is how Hebrews 1:3 puts it.

"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

Verses 11 and 12

"Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening?  Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water."

James gives three analogies from nature to make his point here.  In short, who you are in your heart, which is the real you, will produce the fruit in your life for all to see.  Again, it is what Jesus told us in Matthew 7:16.

"You'll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles"

We will recognize a person by his fruit, that is, the way he lives.  Others, will recognize the real you, not by what you say, but how you live.  It is for this reason that Jesus said that His followers must demonstrate fruit of repentance.  Our lives must show that we have, indeed, repented of our sinful humanity.  Matthew 3:8 reads:

"Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance."

What Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 3:8 and 7:16, is what James was telling his readers here in chapter 3 of his letter.  It makes me wonder how much James would have heard of Jesus' teaching before he became a Christian.  We have no clue to how old James actually was, but even at a young age, you might think that James heard Jesus teach.  Was James in the synagogue in Nazareth when Jesus gave his inauguration speech in His home town of Nazareth , as recorded in Luke 4:16 and following?  If he was, what would have went through his mind?  I would think that James heard some of what Jesus taught and would have recalled much of it.  When it comes to James, he was a man who knew Jesus from a child, and therefore, we should appreciate all that he teaches us.  

Summery

In today's social media culture, many claim to be teachers of God's Word, but are those who claim to be teachers actually called by God to have a teaching ministry?  The answer to this question is, "probably not all."  Beyond this, we should understand the teaching ministry, as understood in the first generation church, to be pastoral.  A teacher was a mentor for God's people to follow.  With that in mind, a teacher must live appropriately for two reasons.  He must lead God's people in the right path, and, he will be judged by Jesus in how he performed his mentoring ministry, as seen in 1 Corinthians, chapter 3. 

It's not just the pastor/teacher who will be judged, or evaluated by Jesus when this age comes to an end.  We all, as Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 3, will be judged for the works of service we did or did not do in this life.  It is our works of service, not us, that will be judged and rewarded.  For that reason, we must live our lives according to the will of the God we claim to serve.  Sitting back and doing nothing is not what a Christian is all about.  This is what James is getting at in his letter.  We all, as Paul pointed out in Ephesians 2:10, have been called by God to do works of loving service.     

Living life in accordance to God's will is often steered by our tongue.  Our tongues speak what is in our hearts.  We know a person for who he or she is by what he or she says.  One who speaks arrogantly is an arrogant person.  A successful Christian is one who has allowed the Spirit of the Almighty God living within him to transform his heart.  A transformed heart, that is moving away from sinfulness, will be clearly seen in what the tongues speaks. 

Our tongues can do good or do damage.  When we refuse to control our tongue, it will divide people and it will divide the church. A divided church is a bad witness to the world around us, a world we are to help save for Jesus.  Jesus said that a house divided against itself cannot stand.  Luke 11:17 reads:

"Knowing their thoughts, he told them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and a house divided against itself falls.'"

Whether it is the church, a family, a marriage, a culture, or a nation, division destroys.   

An uncontrolled tongue of an individual believer destroys his witness for Jesus.  It is also a disruptive force among God's people.  We must control our tongues at all cost, and that, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.    

You can go to anyone's Face Book site.  See what he or she posts and you will see who he or she is as a person.  Many who call themselves Christians can't be recognized as Christians by what they post.  For example, many are recognized as being a social or political activist, whether on either the left or right of the social political spectrum.  For me, I want to be recognized as a Christian, and this is what James was getting at in this section of his letter.

Chapter 6

James 3:13 - 18

The Text

13 - Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. ¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.

My Commentary

Verse 13

"Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom."

James asked his readers who was wise among them.  By asking this question, he was hoping to make them seriously think about the answer.  He could have put this question in the form of a statement, but if his readers take to heart this letter, they should answer his question and not just pass over a statement about one being wise.

I am sure there were some, if not many, wise believers within the group James was addressing.  If everyone would look at their lives, they would see that their lives demonstrated godly behaviour, with works of service exhibited with gentleness and wisdom, but it is clear to me that not all were wise, or else James would not have asked this question.    

We see the words "wise" and "wisdom" in this verse.  These words are translated from the Greek word "sophia," suggesting one possessing sufficient understanding, and then, being able to use that understanding when needed in a most productive, efficient, and beneficial way.   

Some people might inherently possess some limited amount of wisdom, but for the most part, wisdom comes through life's many experiences.  We did see earlier in James' letter that wisdom can be considered a gift from God that we can ask for when needed.  Although wisdom is not listed as one of the nine listed gifts of the Holy Spirit found in 1 Corinthians 12, you might be able to view it as a gift of the Spirit.  On the other hand, and to be specific, in James 1:5 we see that wisdom could be considered a gift from God and not the Spirit. James 1:5 reads:

"Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God ​— ​who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly ​— ​and it will be given to him."

In our lives as Christians, wisdom is needed to maneuver our way through a non-Christian world.  Simply jumping to conclusions and reacting without thinking with no understanding will do more harm than good.  Such reactions, though, is common to our sinful human nature and are clearly seen in the lives of many of us.    

Again, to be specific, 1 Corinthians 12:4 through 6 tells us that there are gifts, ministries and abilities   from the Holy Spirit, from Jesus, and from God.  Those verses read:

"Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are different activities, but the same God produces each gift in each person."

In the above passage you see that the Spirit gives gifts, the Lord (Jesus) provides ministries, and God enables certain activities (talents or abilities).   

Again, as I have been saying, the word "works" in this verse should be understood in terms of works of love and not works of the law.  I believe the context of how James used the word "works" throughout his letter shows this to be true.  Paul wrote about and commented on the works of the law, but I believe James wrote about the works of love, that is, the good things we do in the service of the Lord for those who cross our paths at any given time.

Verse 14

"But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth."

James picks out two sinful motivations that people can exhibit.  They are envy and selfishness.  Both promote one's self interest, and the promoting of self is not the Christian way.  Here is what Paul wrote in Philippians 2:5 and 6 about such attitudes.   

"Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited."

Jesus lived a selfless life of sacrificial love and humility, and therefore, James encouraged his readers, and us as well, to live the same kind of life.  That is the Christian way.  The sad fact of the matter is that many western-world Christians in today's world do not come close to living a life of sacrificial love and selfless humility, and once again, if you read the social media posts of these Christians, you will soon see how true that is.  In many cases you cannot tell a Christian from a non-Christian.   

It is clear to me that those to whom James was writing must have been demonstrating some of these sinful character traits in their lives, or else James would not have been teaching on these issues.  It does not matter the era or the culture in which a Christian lives, promoting self is always and ever-present tendency that we need to guard against.

Verse 15

"Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic."

James says that such wisdom, if in fact you can actually call it wisdom, does not come down from above from God.  James may well be using a play on words here when he used the words "such wisdom" because such wisdom does not seem to be wisdom at all.  That being said, you might be able to say that there is a worldly wisdom, but in Biblical terms, as you see it here, worldly wisdom is false wisdom.

The worldly wisdom that James referenced here is actually demonic.  There is a man-centered wisdom, but in James' mind, the way of the world is devilish.  He would say this because he might recall Jesus saying such things as the devil is the ruler of this world.  John 14:30 reads:

"I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me."

In context, "the ruler of this world" is in reference to Satan.  See also John 12:31 and 16:11.  According to Jesus, right now in this age, Satan has free rule over the world, that is, until the day he is cast into the Lake of Fire , as seen in the Book of Revelation.  Revelation 20:10 reads:

"The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."

Whenever we see the word "wisdom" in the New Testament we should be reminded of our stance when it comes to God's wisdom.  Psalm 111:10 is one of many passages that tell us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  That verse reads:

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his instructions have good insight.

His praise endures forever."

Fear, for the Christian, should be understood in terms of reverence for God.  The question is sometimes asked; "Should Christians fear God in the sense of being afraid of Him?"  Allow me to suggest that if God appeared to you right now, or, even if an angel appeared to you, fear would grip you, if not overwhelm you.  That being said, I am sure that Jesus would tell you not to fear.  That is always the way we see this in the Bible.  Note how the angel calmed Zechariah's fear.  Jesus would say the same. Luke 1:13 reads:

"But the angel said to him: 'Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.'"

The John mentioned in the above verse is John the Baptist.

Reverence for God means to obey Him because you highly, beyond any doubt, esteem Him above everyone.  He is in fact the final authority over all things material and all things spiritual.  

Verse 16

"For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice."

James continued to be quite practical here.  Envy and self-ambition does create disorder within any group of people, and the church is no exception to this sad reality.  We have seen factions in church from the beginning days of the church.  In Acts 6 we note the first recorded faction when certain Christians felt that their ethnic community was not having their needs met like others. 

Look at what the apostle Paul said about factions in 1 Corinthians 1:12 concerning the church at Corinth .

"What I am saying is this: One of you says, 'I belong to Paul,' or 'I belong to Apollos,' or 'I belong to Cephas' or I belong to Christ.'"

The church at Corinth was divided.  Some even had the audacity to say "I belong to Christ," which they did, but in this context, the thought of belonging to Christ was arrogant and divisive.  Divisiveness creates confusion and disorder.  Paul did not like this kind of divisiveness.  As he said in 1 Corinthians 14:33, God is not the author of confusion.  That text reads:

"... since God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,"

It is not God that causes disorder in the church.  He, as seen in the creation account in Genesis, is the God of order.  Genesis 1 and 2 are all about God instituting order into creation.  It is us Christians, with our jealousy and self-promotion that cause divisive problems in church.  Such divisiveness disrupts the unity of believers that Jesus prayed for, as seen in John 17.  John 17:11 reads:

"I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one."

May the Holy Spirit remind us of Jesus' prayer when we choose to enter a divisive situation that will damage the unity of the community of believers who belong to Jesus.  Jesus' prayer of unity among His people, just as He and His Father are unified, is a pretty lofty desire.  I do not believe we will reach the unity as seen between Jesus and His Father in this life, but in the next life, this unity will certainly be realized.   

The Greek word "zelos" is translated here as envy.  This is where we derive our English word "jealous," and therefore, you could easily insert the word "jealous" in this verse instead of the word "envy."  There can be a lot of jealousy in church, one person getting to do something while another can't.   I've certainly seen that and I'm sure you have as well.

Verse 17

"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense."

Again, I remind you that if you want the wisdom that is from above, from our Lord Jesus Himself, then you must fear Him; that is reverence Him.  I will quote Psalm 111:10 again.  It reads:

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his instructions have good insight.

His praise endures forever."

We should not be afraid of Jesus, but we are to reverence Him because He is our Lord, our Master.  We are His servants.  That being said, Jesus does view us as friends as well.  John 15:14 reads:

"You are my friends if you do what I command you."

We are servants of the Lord, but if we obey Him, as we are commanded, we are His friends.  See also John 15:15.

According to James, if you are a loving, gentle, peace-loving, full of mercy person, you must be a wise person.  So, wisdom should not be associated with how much you know about anything.  Wisdom is all about how you put what you know into action, as in, how you treat others.  That is the kind of wisdom that James was talking about that comes down from heaven.   

Verse 18

"And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace."

We read the word "righteousness" in this verse.  The basic meaning of righteousness as it pertains to a Christian's relationship with God is that the Christian is in right standing with God.  He or she is in right standing with God because he or she has embraced what Jesus did on the cross to provide this right standing.  Beyond this basic meaning of the word "righteous" or "righteousness," is the moral sense of the word.  One who is righteous, meaning that he is in right standing with God, should live as if he is in fact in right standing with God.  That means that he lives as God would want him to live.

James said that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace.  In Biblical terms, peace has two meanings.  As Christians, we have peace with God and we have peace in God.  Peace with God means that we are on His side.  We are no longer His enemy.  We are in right standing with Him.  Peace in God means that because we are in right standing with God, He has instilled a measure of peace in our hearts that can get us through the tough times of life. 

The cross of Christ is all about both of these aspects of peace.  Jesus' death provided us with the ability to live in peace with God, and from that peace, we live in relative peace.  Our peace, then, was sown by Jesus, the author of peace and the one that implants peace into our hearts and lives.  We, therefore, plant the seed of peace into the lives of others.  We take the peace we have received from Jesus and share it with all who cross our path.  That is part of our duty as Christians.  We are to be peace makers, as Jesus said in Matthew 5:9.

"Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called sons of God."

To add to what Jesus said about peace, Paul told his readers that they must do their best to live in peace with everyone, that, with the understanding that not everyone wants to live in peace with you.  Romans 12:18 reads:

"If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."

In this day in age when so many people rant away on various social media sites, the art of maintaining peace seems to have been long since lost.  Nevertheless, and especially in the church, keeping the peace is more than important.  It is necessary for the health, growth, and witness for Jesus the church is supposed to be. 

Summery

James equates wisdom with such character traits as humility, peace-loving, and gentleness.  More often than not, it seems that the world around us equates wisdom with knowledge, as in, the more you know, the wiser you will be.  Knowledge is definitely important.  Hosea 4:6 actually tells us that God's people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge, and as I believe, it's the knowledge of God that Hosea is referencing.  Hosea 4:6 reads:

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you from serving as my priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your sons."

As important as knowledge is, knowledge is not wisdom.  Knowledge is not the end of the matter in life.  Unless knowledge sinks down into your heart, your soul, and becomes the conviction by which you live, knowledge will get you know where.  We see this all of the time.  Knowledge tells us that drinking and driving is not wise, but people still drink and drive. 

Don Henley, of the Eagles pop group fame, makes a statement in his song entitled, "Praying For Rain" found on his Cass County album. He said, "We don't lack knowledge, we lack humility."  How true.  I am sure James would agree with Don Henley on that point.  Without humility, and humility is not weakness, knowledge only enhances one self-promoting pride. 

Chapter 7

James 4:1 - 12

The Text

1 - What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you. ² You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. ⁴ You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?   But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: but gives grace to the humble.

⁷ Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.  ¹¹ Don't criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹² There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? 

My Commentary

Verse 1

"What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?"

Chapter 4 begins with two more questions.  The questions are probably meant for James' readers to think seriously about how they should answer these questions, because, obviously they had to have been appropriate questions to be asked.    

Note the word "wars" in verse 1.  This is a pretty strong word for James to have used.  The Greek text is properly translated with our English word "wars."  The word "fights," although not as strong as the word "wars," is a pretty strong word as well.  Obviously, James' readers were caught up in some pretty heavy-duty conflicts.  You might find it difficult to believe, especially in such an early stage in church history, that there would be such problems, but, there clearly were such problems. 

The history of the church over the centuries is a pretty sad history.  Sometimes we as Christians tend to sugar-coat our history, but we should tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may.  The legalization of the Christian religion in the fourth century was a disaster for the Christian witness and for the church.  When Christianity became the one and only legal religion in the Roman Empire , the church became pagan. 

The fact of the matter is that to accommodate pagans into church, the church adopted many pagan practices.  For example, what we call a church steeple finds its roots in the pagan religions of the past.  Church buildings were constructed to look like pagan buildings of worship.  Christian holidays corresponded with pagan holidays.  Prior to the fourth century, the church never celebrated Christmas.  Easter was its big day, and why?  Christians celebrated death days, not birth days.  

I would highly recommend you reading the book entitled "Pagan Christianity," written by Frank Viola and George Barna, written in 2012.  It goes into great detail how the church was paganized when Christianity became the state religion.  The sad fact, as is seen in the book, that remnants of this paganism is still seen in the church to this very day.      

The nationalization of Christianity through political means is a major mistake.  It has never worked and it will never work.  Besides, we are to Christianize people within the nation.  Jesus died on the cross for people in the nation.  He did not die on the cross to save a nation.  All nations will eventually fall in the end.  When you trade the preaching of the gospel for the preaching of a political stance, you leave the world of true Christianity.  You choose not to follow Jesus' command to make disciples for Him through the preaching of the gospel. 

Legislative and judicial efforts are external means that are designed to change people's behaviour, or at least to prevent them from doing certain things. Such external laws cannot change the internals, that is, the corrupt hearts of people.  Romans 1:16 says it correctly.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek."

The wars and fights are just a product of our sinful nature that is so clearly stated in Jeremiah 17:9.  That text reads:

"The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable ​— ​who can understand it?"

Jeremiah 17:9 answers James' second question concerning the wars and fights stemming from our sinful passions that exist from deep within us.  We as individuals, then, are our own worst enemy.  We as the church, are our own worst enemy.  We can't really blame the wars and the fights on Satan.  Yes, the devil will take advantage of our sinful wars, fights and divisiveness.  There is no doubt about that, but without our sinfulness, he is restricted in what he can do.   

Verse 2  

"You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask." 

Historically speaking, there were more poor people in the first-century Roman Empire than rich people.  The desire to have more of everything is just a human tendency, but for the poor, the desire to have more is often a desire to just survive.  For those, however, who already have, it is often just the lust for more that drives them.  It's just part of our hedonistic culture that puts self first.  The enjoyment of self-gratifying pleasure is the definition of hedonism.       

James said that at least some of these people to whom he was writing were not just coveting, they were murdering.  There has been a debate over the word "murder" here.  Was James thinking in metamorphic or symbolic terms, or were some of his readers actually committing murder?  I can't end this debate, and really, I don't even know how to enter the debate.  I cannot picture the Christians to whom James was writing as murderers.  On the other hand, we do know that James was writing to Jews, and we do know that there were Jewish zealots spread throughout the Roman Empire, and especially in the Middle East, in what we would call Palestine .  It might just be that some of these zealots who wanted to overthrow the Roman Empire through violence and restore Israel to its homeland were committing murder, if not in the name of Jesus, in the name of Israel .  Whatever was the case, that is pure speculation.  On the other hand, some might argue that these acts of murder, if real, were between those in the church.  If that indeed was the case, and I do find that difficult to believe, that is simply ungodly, not Christian, and sadly horrible.  

The Greek word "phoneuo" is translated her as murder and it is rightly translated into English as murder.

The people to whom James was writing probably had real need, but their unhealthy lust for more motivated them to obtain what they wanted in the wrong way.  They fought each other in the hope of fulfilling their lusts, even if their lusts were trying to obtain things they really needed.  The simple truth comes down to this.  You, and especially you as a Christian, don't rob a grocery store to solve your hunger problem.  You, and especially you as a Christian, don't rob a bank to solve your money problem. 

James said that these people didn't get because they didn't ask.  The implication here is that they were too busy lusting and so they did not ask, and even if they did ask, they would not receive because the way of life and their motivation to ask was corrupt, as seen in the next verse.    

Verse 3

"You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures."

Another question has been debated over the years because of this verse.  Who are James' readers asking for something?  Are they asking of God for something or are they asking of each other for something, or, are they asking of God and each other for something?  From my perspective, I think many Bible teachers say that James was writing about his readers asking of God for certain things.  These people were asking things from God and they were not getting what they were asking for because their lives were not matching their beliefs.  As the old saying puts it; "they were asking amiss." 

On the other hand, I am sure that a needy person, or a person who just wanted more, might happen to ask something from another Christian.  Of course, the asking person might not get what he asked for because of all the relational problems in the church.  You won't get something from someone who you are fighting with. 

When thinking of these people asking God for something, relational problems in the church, in my opinion, are one main factor for our unanswered prayers.     

Note the word "pleasures" in this verse.  It is translated from the Greek word "hedon."  We derive our English word "hedonism" from this Greek word.  Our definition of hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure for the purpose of self-gratification.  Our English definition of hedonism fits the definition of the Greek word "hedon" perfectly.    

Our western world fits into the picture James is painting for us in this chapter.  Our culture is hedonistic.  We are consumed with self-promotion, self-interest, and self-gratification.  We want everything, and we want everything immediately.  Sadly, this mindset has crept into the church over the last fifty to seventy years, especially in what has been called the Prosperity Movement within the western-world church.  This movement in the church claims that because we are "kids of the King," we should expect to get all we want in this life.  As a matter of fact, one world-wide popular promoter in the Prosperity Movement says that a poor person cannot be an effective witness for Jesus.  "Why would anyone embrace Jesus when the one promoting Jesus is poor?" or so he asks.  Of course, that is not Biblical.  Many of the most influential and effective people in church history were poor.  James himself was poor.  Paul was poor.  Most of the early church was poor, but that didn't matter.  They were effective witnesses for Jesus. 

Verse 4

"You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God."          

James addressed his readers as an "adulterous people" in this verse.  Again, the debate is whether James was using this terminology in metamorphic terms or in real terms.  Were his readers really that far removed from the God they claim to serve?  It is a difficult question to answer, but I lean towards these people being as bad as these verses state. 

The words "adulterous people" would be clearly understood by the Jews who were the recipients of this letter.  Throughout the Old Testament God spoke to the Jews through the prophets.  He often called the Jews, His wife.  That being the case, when the Jews left Him to follow pagan gods, as they often did, God viewed that as spiritual adultery.  It is this spiritual adultery that James most likely had in mind when he wrote that the Jewish Christians he was addressing were an adulterous people. 

This verse clearly states that these Jewish Christians had become way too friendly with their surrounding non-Christian culture, something that is a common tendency among Christians today.  The context of this verse suggests that this friendliness was due to the believers wanting more material and financial success in their lives.  They were not satisfied with what they had.  They were lusting for more, and that more, came from the non-Christian world in which they lived.  When that takes place, Christians actually become enemies of God in James' thinking. 

Being content is important as a Christian.  There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting more, but without a foundation of contentment in your heart, your desire for more will lead you to frustration.  Paul said it right.  1 Timothy 6:6 reads:

"But godliness with contentment is great gain."

What Paul told Timothy, his son in the Lord, is well worth us in the western-world church paying attention to these days.  Let me repeat what Paul wrote so you can think seriously about it.    "Godliness with contentment is great gain."  Living a life the way God would have us live with a foundation of being content with Him and what we have, is worth more than all of the material gain we could have in this life.  We all should type this verse out and place it on our refrigerators so we will see it every time we open the refrigerator door for a snack.          

Once again, James is being very bold in the wording in his letter, so bold, that it is difficult for many to believe that he was actually talking about his Christian readers.  Some suggest he had non-Christians in mind, but the wording and the context denies that possibility, or so I understand that to be the case. 

The word "friends" in this verse is translated from the Greek word "philia."  Philia expresses a mutual and reciprocal love.  It is the type of love that once exhibited to another is returned in like fashion.  It's often called "brotherly love."  The implication here is that these Christians had entered a reciprocal loving relationship with the world, a reciprocal relationship they were to have with their God.  In other words, as the saying goes; "You scratch my back and I'll scratch your back in return."  It comes down to serving two masters, and we know from the lips of Jesus that you cannot effectively serve two masters at the same time.  Matthew 6:24 reads:

"No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."      

Verse 5

"Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?" 

Just what Scripture James is referencing here has always been a mystery to Bible scholars over the years.  There does not appear to be a passage in either the Hebrew Old Testament or the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) that makes this exact quote.  There are some, or a combination of some, verses that do give some hint of what James quoted here, but it is just a hint, not a direct quote.

Our English word "spirit" in verse 5 presents us with yet another problem of interpretation for us to think through.  There is no such thing as capital letters in first-century Koine Greek.  So, should we translate the Greek word "pneuma" into English as "Spirit" with a capital letter "S," as some translations do?   That would make the Greek word "pneuma" in reference to the Holy Spirit.  If not, should we translate the Greek word "pnuema" into English with a small letter "s" as the CSB and other translations do?  That would make the Greek word "pneuma" to be in reference to our human spirit.  This issue, and others like it, force translators to think through the translating process based on certain doctrinal presuppositions.  It would also mean that the translator's understanding of the context in which the Greek word "pneuma" is used will determine the final translation, and that can be a debatable process.        

If you believe that James was thinking of the human spirit that God places in every person, then you will think that James was telling his readers that their human spirit lusts after many things that they should not be lusting after.  That does seem to fit the context of this verse. 

On the other hand, if you think that James had the Holy Spirit in mind, then, you will think that James was telling his readers that the Holy Spirit, that God placed within them when they were born again of the Spirit, jealously seeks to have His relationship with these people restored to Him as it once was.  Some might suggest that this too fits the context. 

In Old Testament terms, that these Jewish readers would have understood, God would be righteously jealous and want his wife back.  As I mentioned earlier, the Old Testament often shows us that God viewed the Jews as His wife.  You can read Hosea, chapter 2 to see that.  You can decide for yourself what you believe James had in his mind when he penned these words. 

Verse 6

"But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

The word "greater" in this verse is translated from the Greek word "megas," where we derive our English word "mega," and mega, as in huge, defines this Greek word well.  God is quite capable of extending mega amounts of grace to us, that is, if we come to God in all humility.  This implies that if this adulterous people to whom James directed this letter would humble themselves in true repentance, God's grace, His unmerited favour, would come to them in a most mega fashion. 

When James said that God said that He resists the proud, that could easily be one of many quotes from the Old Testament book of Proverbs.  One of the main themes of Proverbs is the futility, the ungodly practice of prideful arrogance.  Such pride and arrogance certainly does go before a disaster as Proverbs 16:18 says.

"Pride comes before destruction,

and an arrogant spirit before a fall."

Prideful arrogance has fast become commonplace in our western-world culture, and that includes Christian culture.  We should take the warning of Proverbs 16:18 seriously.  Pride and arrogance, both in individuals and a nation, can easily precede a disastrous fall, also in both individuals and the nations.  I would suggest that much of the West is on the verge of such a fall.  I would take this proverb very seriously.   

Verse 7

"Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

"Therefore," James said, meaning in light of what he has just said, you must submit to God.  The Greek verb tense here means that this is a command, and not a suggestion.   If these people want to live within God's mega grace, they must submit to Him in all humbleness. 

The Greek word "hypotasso" is translated as "submit" here and elsewhere in the New Testament.  This Greek word means to "rank under" and was often used in military terms in the first-century, Greco-Roman world.  A soldier would rank under his commanding officer.  Hypotasso was a harsh, cold-hearted, even dictatorial word in its general usage, in the Greco-Roman world in James' day.  As is sometimes the case, the New Testament often offers a slightly different meaning to certain Greek words as it applies to specific circumstances.  

If you study all of the places in the New Testament where the Greek word "hypotasso" is used in reference to a Christian's relationship with God or his brother and sister in Jesus, or his or her spouse, you will note that the New Testament softens this cold-hearted, harsh word.  This means, then, that Christians submit to God and to each other not because God or others dictate submission.  It is because the submission stems from a loving relationship with the one to whom you submit.  Christian submission is based on a reciprocal loving relationship, and thus, the Greek word "hypotasso" as it applies to Christian relationships is greatly softened from its general Greek usage. 

A New Testament example of what I am saying is seen in Ephesians 5:22, which reads:

"Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord,"

This verse is often misused by overly-authoritative and dictatorial husbands.  Paul was not saying that a wife should rank under a husband that dictates his will to his wife without any mutual consultation.  The New Testament's usage of the word "hypotasso" in this instance means that Paul was saying that the husband and wife should have a loving and mutually submissive relationship, and thus, the wife, out of love and respect for her husband, who loves her as Jesus loves her, submits to her husband. 

As we submit to God, and, as we flee from the devil's temptations, the devil will flee from us.  There is nothing difficult here to understand.  Satan is no different than you and I in this respect.  If he is not wanted, he does not hang around.  It is as simple as that.  Also, if there is nothing within you that he is interested in and can temp you with, there is no need for him to hang around you.  If, however, there is something within you that he can trip you up on, be warned.  He will try his best to trip you.    

The Greek word "anthistemi" is translated as "resist" in James 4:7.  This Greek word is made up of "anti," meaning "against," and, "histemi," meaning "cause to stand."  We derive our English word "antihistamine" from this Greek word.  Anthistemi or resist, thus, means "to rise up and stand against, and in this case, rise up and stand against Satan.  Standing is not an offensive action.  It is a defensive stance, as in, "defense wins." 

The apostle Paul, in Ephesians 6:10 and following, agreed with James.  There, Paul wrote about the armour of God that is able to cause us to stand against satanic attack.  If you read that passage carefully you will note that all the armour Paul lists is defensive in nature.  Even the sword, which you might think is offensive, is most likely a Roman defensive sword, and that due to the Greek word translated as sword in this context.  You will also note the word "stand" is used four times in this passage.  Nowhere does Paul say that we have the capacity to kill off Satan with any offensive measures.  Only Jesus will do that, as seen in Revelation 20:10.  Until then, our defensive stance will cause the devil to flee from us, just as James said.   

At the end of this commentary I have written a separate article on the defensive nature of our fight with the devil.         

Verse 8

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."

The English verb "draw near" is a Greek aorist active imperative verb.  That means, right now in real time, make the decision to get close to God.  It is a command, not a suggestion.  The Greek verb tense of "he will draw near" suggests that once you get close to Him, He will, beyond any doubt and will all certainty, get close to you.  In other words, James is telling his readers how they can remove themselves from the world around them and lose this designation of "an adulterous people." 

As with the Greek verb tens in "draw near" to God, so the same Greek verb tense is used when James told his readers to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts.  James was encouraging, even commanding these people, to decide, once and for all time, to clean up their hearts and their lives.  It would be the only way back into fellowship with their God.  By saying that these people had lost fellowship with God, I am not saying they had lost their relationship with Him.  Fellowship and relationship are two different issues.  Relationship suggests that we are children of God, while fellowship suggests that we commune with the God who we are in relationship with.  Just because you have some kind of relationship with someone does not mean you have fellowship with that someone.           

Note that James called his readers sinners, and that despite the fact they were Christians.  In once sense of the word, even though our sins, past, present, and future, have been forgiven, we still have a sinful human nature that causes us to sin.  It is this point the Paul clearly made in Romans 7.  For this reason, some people call Christians "saved sinners."

Verse 9

"Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom."

These words tell me that James is really upset with these Christians, so upset that some Bible teachers suggest he is not actually talking about his Christian readers.  I think the context denies that claim.  These are believers who have married themselves to the world, and that needs to change and change immediately.  If his readers are not going to repent in humble submission, James is telling them to just be miserable then.  Just weep, mourn, and be gloomy, because that is where friendship of the world will lead you anyway.  This sounds to me, like what my parent's generation of Christians called a backslidden Christian.    

It is my opinion, if James were alive today and living in North America , he would say the same thing to much of North American Christians, because much of North American Christianity is married to its surrounding secular culture.  We have adopted cultural positions on many issues.  We live and act like our surrounding non-Christian culture. We fight and argue among ourselves.  We get overly involved in political and social issues that cannot change the hearts of men and women.  We have become prideful and arrogant in our conversation.  In many respects, then, people do not see us as the Christians we claim to be. 

Verse 10

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you."

Once again, James wrote these words as a command, when he wrote "humble yourselves."  This is an aorist passive Greek verb.  That means James was saying, right now in real time, you make the decision to take charge of your sinful situation.  You humble yourself.  You repent. 

Once this act of humble submission is demonstrated, then, with no uncertainty, as the Greek verb tense states, your God will indeed exalt you. 

James' readers were seeking to be exalted apart from their God.  They were seeking exaltation in a worldly, a material, a financial sense.  They wanted to be popular in the eyes of the world, but that is not how Christians are to live.  God has a better exaltation for the Christian.  It is a spiritual exaltation.  It is what Paul often talked about when he said that once being born again of the Holy Spirit, we have been translated into a heavenly kingdom.  We now exist in a spiritual kingdom where godly principles rule the day.  We live far above all earthly principalities and powers. Read Ephesians 1:20 and 21 and see where Jesus is presently situated,         

"He [God] exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens ​— ​ far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come."

Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God as supreme ruler over all things spiritual and all things material.  He is situated in His heavenly kingdom that at some future date, will come to earth in material form.  Now look at where we as Christians find ourselves. Ephesians 2:6 reads:   

"He [God] also raised us up with him [Jesus] and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,"

If you are a real born-again-of-the-Spirit Christian, and that is the only kind of Christian there is, you should know where you live and act accordingly.  In a spiritual sense, which is just as real as a material sense, you live in the heavenly world with Jesus.  For this reason, you must seek the things of the Kingdom of God , as Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1, that James would have surely been in agreement with.    

"So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

As a matter of Biblical fact, Jesus gave us the same command, as is recorded in Matthew 6:33

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you."

There is no doubt about it.  Seeking Jesus and the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God is the number one priority in the life of a Christian.  I am not talking about withdrawing ourselves from the world around us and living in some kind of commune in the country where we live as self-sufficient believers.  No, I am talking about living in the midst of the world as a representative of a heavenly nation, a spiritual culture that exists in another dimension beyond this material universe.  Christians, and thus the church, are to be a counter-cultural community of believers that is in stark contrast to the secular community of the world in which it exists.

Verse 11

"Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge."

It seems, at least to many, that James is inserting a brand new thought here.  That may be the case or it may not be the case.  I suggest that if many of James' Christian readers are as bad as he states, there would sure have been relational problems in the church.  There would be a need for these people to stop criticizing, defaming, and judging each other.  When people get their eyes off of Jesus and onto the world, little irritations become huge divisive problems. 

We see the word "law" here again, as we have seen it many times in James letter.  As before, we ask what law did James have in mind?  I know this has been a debatable issue throughout this letter, but I have been viewing the word "law" as James was using it in terms of the royal law of love.  By that I mean we are to love God, love our neighbours, and love our brothers and sisters in the Lord.  If we do that, as Jesus said, we fulfill the law, that is, the Law of Moses.  

In James 1:25 we noted that James used the term the "law of freedom."  I do not see the law of freedom as being the Law of Moses because the New Testament seems to suggest that the Law of Moses is a law of bondage, not freedom.  James 2:8 speaks of the "royal law."  In my thinking, the command to love God and our neighbour is more of a royal law than the six hundred and thirteen rules of the Law of Moses.  In chapter 2, verse 12 we see the law as the law of freedom again.  By criticizing your brother or sister in the Lord you are to love, would defy the law of love, the law to love God and you neighbour. 

The word judge is important here.  There is a place to judge, even judge your brother.  Jesus, in John 7:24 actually tells us to judge, as long as we judge righteously.  That verse reads:

"Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment."

The judging that James would have been talking about is judging others, and in context, your brothers and sisters in Jesus, in unrighteous ways.  One's motivations for judging another is vitally important.  If judging is meant to damage and not restore, then judging is wrong.  If you judge in anger, then judging is wrong, and you can expect to be judged in like fashion in return.  This is what Jesus was talking about as seen in Matthew 7:1 through 8.  His point in that passage was that if you judge with wrong motives, with wrong motives you will be judged in return.  Jesus was not saying that we should never judge.  We know that because of what He said in John 7:24 as quoted above.  He was just saying that in the way you judge another person, in that very same way that person will judge you in return.  That is just human nature.          

Verse 12

"There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?"

The one lawgiver and judge that James mentioned in this verse is obviously God Himself.  It is God who is able to save or destroy.  It is God, not us, who is able to save or destroy the brother or sister in Jesus that James' readers were defaming.  That being said, we are called to care for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and at times, that means we must make a judgment call in the process of helping them in any given situation.  We are often the tool in God's hands in the restorative process.   

The word "neighbour" might well be important in this verse.  We see the same word in the royal law of love and freedom, when it says, "love the Lord your God and your neighbour as yourself."  This might well be another reason why the word "law" in this letter is in reference to the law of love and not the Law of Moses. 

This fact remains.  When we judge a brother or sister in Jesus for wrong reasons and not for right reasons, which are to help him or her, we do wrong.  We take God's place.  If, however, we make a judgment call in the process of love and restoring a brother back to a godly life, well, that is something different altogether.  I believe in that situation, judging in love is important.      

Summery

James was extremely bold in this part of his letter.  It makes you wonder how those who received this letter actually took it.  Did they follow through on James' admonition or did they reject it?  We don't know the answer to this question, but one thing is sure.  There are times when the Word of the Lord needs to be spoken in such serious warnings to both individual Christians and to the church as a whole. 

If you read Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, you will see the letters that Jesus had penned for Him by John.  Those letters are even bolder than what James wrote in his letter.  Both the Christian and the church belong to Jesus.  We are His property and He will deal with us in whatever way He thinks is appropriate.