James 1:1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
The apostle James evidently believed in no lost ten tribes, as some nowadays do. They never were lost; the Israelites whom we see nearly every day belong to venue of all the twelve tribes, so James addressed his Epistle «To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.»
James 1:2. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Or, trials.
James 1:3-5. 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. If any of you lack wisdom,-
That is just what most of us do lack: «If any of you lack wisdom,»
James 1:5. Let him ask of God,
That is the short road to true knowledge, to pray. Study is good, no doubt, for the acquisition of knowledge; but praying is the best way to obtain true wisdom.
James 1:5-6. That giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing unwaivering.
For the very essence of prayer lies in believing that God can and will give us the things which we seek at his hands.
James 1:6. For he that wavereth-
The man who does not know whether prayer will succeed or not
James 1:6. Is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
You can never tell what will become of the wave it goes just where it is driven; and there are many men who can be good, after a certain fashion, if they are in good company; but they can be just as bad if the wind blows from another quarter. But if we have true faith in God, and true faith in prayer, we shall not be «like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.»
James 1:7. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
What the wild waves are saying, we know not, so is it with a man who is «like a wave of the sea.» He utters words without meaning, and his prayer dies away like the roar of the billows upon the shore when the fury of the storm has abated. «Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.»
James 1:8. A double minded man-
A man with two minds, a mind to the religious and another mind to enjoy the pleasures of the world, such a man
James 1:8. Is unstable in all his ways.
There is nothing solid or substantial about him, nothing enduring; you cannot reckon upon him, for he is blown hither and thither, as chaff flies before the wind.
James 1:9. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
For the gospel lifts him up out of his poverty, and makes him a child of God, who is spiritually rich even though he is poor in temporal things.
James 1:10. But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
Let him not therefore reckon upon his wealth as though it were anything but a trust and a burden laid upon him, for he will have to leave it, and he himself, «as the flower of the grass, shall pass away» Let him rejoice to get down to the Rock of ages, let him lay hold of eternal things as if he had nothing else in which he could trust.
James 1:11-12. 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. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation:-
Or, trial: the man that holds on and holds out under it, and does not give way under it; blessed is the man that is tried:
James 1:12-13. For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God:
Here we must take the word «tempted» in its dark meaning; for the scriptural word «temptation» means two very different things. When we are drawn towards evil, that is the black meaning of the word temptation; but when we are tested or tried in order that it may seen that the good in us is real, that is the bright meaning of the word temptation. In that sense, God did tempt (try or test) Abraham, but not in the other sense.
James 1:13-15. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
There is the parentage, and the progeny of sin. Sin comes of unbridled desire. A man feels that he must have a certain thing; right or wrong, he is determined to have it. Then there comes of that determination the overt act of sin; and what comes of that? Why, death, for every sin in its measure helps to kill us, to destroy that which is the real life of our manhood. Every sin is a drop of poison. There are sweets that are poisonous, and the pleasures of sin are of this kind; and let the poison of sin alone, let it work in its natural way, and it will bring forth death. That man, therefore, who lives in sin, and loves it, has nothing before him but everlasting death; he may well tremble.
James 1:16-17. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
It never comes from within our own hearts; it does not even come by imitation of better men; it must come from God.
James 1:17. And cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
As every sunbeam comes from the sun, so all grace and virtue must come from God, with whom there is neither parallax nor tropic, as there is with the natural sun. He never declines, he never varies; but he is ever the same. Now, in proof that every thing in us comes from God, James says that our very spiritual life comes from God:-
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.
True believers have been twice created, and the second time we were begotten again by the Word of God that became the living seed within our spirits, out of which the new life grew, and now we are «a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.» Just as the first ears of ripe corn were brought into the sanctuary, and dedicated to God, so are all true believers consecrated persons, the «firstfruits of his creatures.»
James 1:19-20. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
We never do much for truth or goodness by getting angry about it. Whenever a man debates about the truth, and loses his temper, he has also lost his cause. I have heard of one who knew little of true religion, who watched a missionary and a Brahmin disputing, and he decided that the missionary was in the right; when he was asked why he thought so, he said, «Because he kept cool, and the other man flew into a passion.» Although that may not always be a good test of the truth of the matter in question, it certainly is a good test of how the dispute is going.
James 1:21. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
That evil branch is cut away, now be ready to have a branch of a better kind inserted into you, even «the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls,» that you may bring forth better fruit than the old crabbed stock of nature can possibly yield.
James 1:22-26. 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: 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.
That which is in the well will come up in the bucket, and that which is in the heart will come up on the tongue. An unbridled tongue denotes an unrenewed heart. Oh, that God would ever give us grace in our heart to move our tongue aright! Then, as the water guides the whole ship, our tongue will guide our whole body, and the whole of our manhood will be under holy government and control.
James 1:27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Oh, how much this means, tenderness to others, and tenderness of conscience in ourselves! How much grace we need in order that these two virtues may shine brightly within us!