CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
James 1:9. He is exalted.—Or, “in his exaltation”; “in his high estate.” Low degree does not suggest caste, but poverty involving humiliation.
James 1:10. Made low.—Or, “in his humiliation.” These experiences being especially adapted to each, can be rejoiced in as disciplinary.
James 1:11.—The verbs are in the past tense; therefore translate, “The sun arose with the burning heat, and dried up the grass; and the flower thereof fell away, and the grace of its fashion perished” (Isaiah 40:6-8).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— James 1:9-11
Discipline comes out of Changed Circumstances.—It was a time in which there were frequent sudden changes in social and business circumstances. In a commercial age some rapidly acquire riches; in an age of national unsettledness and religious persecution some as rapidly lose their all. It is often said that “the hardest thing in life is to come down gracefully.” It would show a worthier estimate of human nature if we were to say, “The hardest thing in life is to go up gracefully.” Many more cases of moral ruin attend the sudden increase of riches, and elevation of station, than attend the loss of wealth and place. Nevertheless, men are always willing to stand the moral risk of going up, and never willing to choose the moral blessings that may attend coming down. St. James impresses that both changes are moral testings. The man who is low may look upon his elevation as a testing of his moral character, out of which increased virtue should come. The man who is high should look upon his misfortunes as Divine discipline, having in it a mission of moral blessing for him. So he who goes up may sincerely rejoice in the going up, and he who comes down may rejoice in coming down, since God is so evidently adapting His gracious discipline to each one. It is an advanced Christian thought to which every one cannot hope to attain.
I. The caste principle is found in all society.—It may take exaggerated forms in India, and exclusive trade forms in countries such as China, but it is an essential feature of the aggregating, nationalising, and civilising of men. By various affinities men are drawn together into sets, and find their spheres and pleasures in their sets. Every man is born into a class, and fits to his class. Within his class he gets his own particular level by his ability or his means. The caste principle must never be thought of as only evil. It is mingled good and evil, and may be good in an important sense when the members of the various classes are swayed by altruistic principles, and accept the duty of serving one another. Our Lord said, “Ye have the poor always with you”; and He might also have said, “Ye have the rich also with you.”
II. The caste conditions of society are subject to change.—The rich are brought low, and the poor are exalted. Proof and illustration are abundant in history, and obvious to experience and observation. It may suffice to show
(1) that the accidents of life are constantly changing class conditions;
(2) the rewards of human enterprise are constantly changing class conditions; and
(3) Divinely ordered providences are also constantly changing class conditions. Poor Joseph becomes rich. Rich Job becomes poor. These are types with great followings.
III. The changed caste conditions of society are disciplinary agencies.—And the discipline comes to both those who go up and those who come down, because
(1) in either case new associations have to be made, and to them the new life has to be fitted; and
(2) because the old life may be so seriously out of harmony with the new, that the work of fitting to the new may cost severe strain. It may mean earnest self-culture—“cutting off right hand, plucking out right eye.” But discipline through Divine providences has this consolation in it—it is meant to secure for us the highest good. It can only be our own fault if we miss that highest good.
The Crown of Life.—This is a figure for the results accomplished in character, by the resolute, persistent, and heroic endeavour to live wisely and worthily and well. Such efforts are crowned with
(1) a spirit of firm endurance;
(2) an unshakeable steadfastness;
(3) a great tenacity of purpose; and
(4) a quenchless enthusiasm for the right, the true, the pure, and the good. Established and confirmed principles of character are the “crown of life,”—the crown which God gives, though it seems to come in a natural way; the crown which is His recognition and reward.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
James 1:9. Pride in Disguise.—There is no praise from the plain St. James for the pride which apes humility, nor for the affectation which loves to be despised.
The Anxiety of Riches.—The rich man is in no sense to be envied, i.e. the man who trusts in his riches. He is a heavily burdened man. His anxiety concerns—
1. The retention of his riches. His fear is seen in exaggerated form in the miser. The rich farmer was worried to know “where to bestow all his fruits and his goods.” The rich man is perplexed in these times to know how to put out his money safely, and has to be satisfied with small interest.
2. The use or misuse of his money. He may easily spend it in self-indulgences that bring ruin on himself, body and soul. He may easily neglect to help others with his wealth, and so bring down on himself the curse of the poor and the judgment of God.
3. The future, into which he can neither carry his riches, nor anything that his riches have obtained for him. In view of the worries that riches bring, we may wisely pray the prayer of Agur, “Give me neither poverty nor riches.”
Riches a Natural Acquisition.—Man was born to be rich, or inevitably grows rich by the use of his faculties, by the union of thought with nature. Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right-reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players. Cultivated labour drives out brute labour.—Emerson.
James 1:9-11. Exaltings and Humblings.
I. The reasons for the rejoicing of the poor.—I.e. of the pious poor. They are exalted—
1. Inwardly, by the renewal of their nature.
2. Outwardly, by dominion over self.
3. In rank, by high dignity.
4. By communion with the best intelligences.
5. By the endowment of the best influences.
6. By raising them above the temptations of their condition.
7. By enabling them to adorn all the relationships of life.
8. By raising them to the most sublime felicity.
9. By inspiring them with bright hopes of immortality.
II. The reasons for the rejoicing of the rich.—I.e. of the pious rich. 1. They are delivered from proud self-exaltation.
2. From the fictitiousness of worldly distinctions.
3. They are conformed to the image of Christ.
4. Able to realise heaven’s honours.
5. They have treasures laid up for them for eternity.
6. They are weaned from the world.
7. They are ascending by the cross to eternal bliss.—Dr. J. Burns.
James 1:10. The Emblem of the Grass.—Describe the peculiarities of the grass in hot Eastern lands.
1. It shows well.
2. It fades suddenly—under scorching wind and sun.
3. It is lost utterly—at least for the season, and until God sends the reviving rains.
James 1:11. Rich Commercial Jews.—“In his ways”; R.V. “goings.” There seems, moreover, looking closely at the text, a special fitness in its exact words; for they mean that the rich shall perish in their journeyings for the sake of gain; and to no people could the rebuke apply more sharply than to the Jews, the lenders “unto many nations” (Deuteronomy 15:6), the merchants and bankers of the world.