James 1:1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was an apostle, and he was the Lord's brother, yet he mentions not these greater things, but he takes the lowly title, in which, no doubt, he felt the highest honour, and calls himself «a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.» Happy is that man who serves the Lord, whose whole life is not that of an independent master of himself, but of one who is fully submissive to the divine command. Where is the fiction of the ten lost tribes? He writes to the twelve tribes that were scattered abroad, and gives them greeting, so that this Epistle is first directed to the seed of Israel, and then, as in all things, to all the Church of God, seeing all the saints of God are the true seed of believing Abraham, the father of believers.
James 1:2. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Do not sorrow over your trials, do not look upon them as misfortunes and calamities, they are black vessels, but they are loaded with gold. Your choicest mercies come to you disguised as your sharpest trials. Welcome them; do not sorrow over them, but rejoice in them.
James 1:3-4. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Endure everything; suffer everything that God sends you. Bathe yourself in this rough sea, till, by God's blessing, it hath strengthened you and cleansed you, for to that end he sends it, and that it may perfect you by discipline, educating all your spiritual faculties, and bringing out all your powers for his glory. Shrink not then, seek not to escape by any wrong means from trial, but go through with it, have perfect endurance of it, that ye may be perfect and whole, wanting nothing. «If any of you lack wisdom,» and that is the point where you are most likely not to be perfect and entire.
James 1:5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
We are so apt, when we give anything, to diminish the value of it by some unkind remarks, but God doeth not so; he giveth, as he bids us give, with simplicity. There is the gift, and he will not detract from it by upbraiding us. Why, some will upbraid the poor while they help them: «How came you to be in such a condition?» But God saith not so to us; the gift is given in pure liberality, without any upbraiding. Wisdom is a gift. The best wisdom is not that which we acquire by study, but that which is the distinct gift of God in answer to prayer.
James 1:6. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
Now on the shore, now sinking back, now driving fearlessly ahead, then sinking down. This is not the kind of man that prevails with God in prayer, it is not the kind of faith we ought to have in God a faith that is very brilliant on the Sunday, and very dull on the Monday: a faith that is triumphant after a sermon, but which seems to be defeated when we get into actual trouble.
James 1:7-8. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Unstable in everything. Till you get a single heart, till your whole soul is bound up in confidence in God, you cannot expect to be stable in your ways. «Unite my heart to fear thy name,» and then I shall not be a double-minded man.
James 1:9. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
The lowness of his estate is an exaltation. He shall find in his troubles a double blessing; he shall be made greater by being so little. «But let the rich rejoice in that he is made low,» so that what would have been foolish pomp and pride is taken away from him, and, by the grace of God, he is kept low. «Because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away.»
James 1:10-11. But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
Oh! to be delivered from all glorying in such uncertain riches. Whatever God gives you, he may soon take away from you; if he takes it not away, he may take away your power to enjoy it: it is poor, slippery stuff at the very best. Rejoice that you have something better, something lasting.
James 1:12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
It is promised to love, but it is given to endurance. It is the love of God which spies out our love and rewards it, but rewards it partly by trying it, and then ultimately by bringing forth the stephanos, the crown. Men ran for a crown in the Greek games, and could not win the crown without the running. So doth God give to them that run a crown, but not without the running. He giveth to them, first, the privilege of suffering for his name's sake, and then of being rewarded for it.
James 1:13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
God tries men, but the motive of a trial is that which differences it from a temptation. In a temptation we try a man with a view of inducing him to do wrong; but God tries men to best them, that they may, by finding out their weakness, be saved from doing wrong. He never inclines a heart to evil. While he doeth all things, and is in all things, yet not so that he himself doeth evil, or can be charged therewith.
James 1:14. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
This is the wanton harlot that deceives the heart of man: his own desire grown strong and hot till it cometh to be a lusting: this draws a man away; it baits the hook, and man swallows it and is thus entrapped and enticed.
James 1:15. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
There is the history and pedigree of sin. God save us from having any connection with the desire to sin, lest from that we be led into sin, and then from sin descend into death.
James 1:16-17. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
All good from God, all evil from ourselves.
James 1:17. And cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
There is variableness and there is the shadow of turning in the sun, but in that greater Father of lights there is neither parallax nor tropic; he is evermore the same, and we may go to him with unwavering confidence because he is the same. Oh! what a blessing to such changing creatures as we are to have an unchanging God! «Of his own will.» If you want to know the power of God's will, it never goes towards evil.
James 1:18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
The best and noblest part of his creation, the twice begotten, the immortals that shall be the bodyguard of his Son, that shall stand about his bed, which is Solomon's, each man with his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night. What a privilege it is to be begotten of God, to be the «firstfruits» of his creatures!
James 1:19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,
Because it is by the Word that we are begotten: let us be swift to hear it. «Slow to speak,» because there is so much sin in us that the less we speak the better. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin. Great talkativeness is seldom dissociated from great sinfulness. «Slow to wrath.»
James 1:20. Slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
There is a tendency to grow angry with those who do not see the truth; but is it not a foolish thing to be angry with blind men because they do not see? What if you see yourself? Who opened your eyes? Give God the promise for what you see, and never think that your anger, your indignation, your hot temper, can ever work the righteousness of God. It is contrary thereto, and cannot work towards it.
James 1:21-23. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
It is a good thing for him to do that, to see himself as others see him. «Beholding his natural face,» even as men in looking into the Word of God, behold the face of their nature; they see what they are like as they look into the glass.
James 1:24-26. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.