Commentari biblici

Jam 1:1 The apostle's address to the dispersed Jews.

Jam 1:2-4 He recommendeth patience and joy in afflictions.

Jam 1:5-8 and prayer with faith.

Jam 1:9-11 He giveth advice to the poor and to the rich.

Jam 1:12 The reward of those that are proof under trial.

Jam 1:13-16 Our own lusts, and not God, tempt us to sin.

Jam 1:17,18 God is the unchangeable author of all good to his creatures.

Jam 1:19-25 We must receive the word with purity and meekness, and not

only hear, but do it.

Jam 1:26 The necessity of governing the tongue.

Jam 1:27 The essential duties of true religion.

James, the son of Alpheus and brother of Jude, called likewise the brother of the Lord, Gal 1:19.

A servant; not only by creation, as all the creatures are, Psa 119:91, or by redemption, as all believers are, but by special commission in the office of an apostle; see Gal 1:10 Phi 1:1 2Pe 1:1; compare likewise Rom 1:9.

Of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: the members of this clause may be taken, either jointly, and then the conjunction and hath the power only of an explication, q.d. The servant of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ, as Tit 2:2 and the sense must be, the servant of Jesus Christ, who is God: or, separately, (which our translation seems to favour), to let his countrymen know, that in serving Christ he served the God of his fathers; and by the authority both of God and of Christ wrote this to them.

To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: being one of the apostles of the circumcision, Gal 2:9, he writes to all his believing countrymen wherever dispersed, as they were upon several occasions, and at several times, into divers countries, Act 2:9-11.

Greeting; a salutation usual, not only among the heathen, but the Jews, Mat 26:49 27:29; and used by the Christians, Act 15:23. It seems to answer to the Hebrew salutation, peace, which was comprehensive of all happiness; and so is this here to be understood.

My brethren; both as being of the same nation and the same religion; so he calls them, that the kindness of his compellation might sweeten his exhortations.

Count it; esteem it so by a spiritual judgment, though the flesh judge otherwise.

All joy; matter of the chiefest joy, viz. spiritual. So all is taken, 1 Timothy 1:15.

When ye fall into; when ye are so beset and circumvented by them, that there is no escaping them, but they come upon you, though by the directeth of God’s providence, yet not by your own seeking.

Divers temptations; so he calls afflictions, from God’s end in them, which is to try and discover what is in men, and whether they will cleave to him or not. The Jews were hated by other nations, and the Christian Jews even by their own, and therefore were exposed to divers afflictions, and of divers kinds, 1 Peter 1:6.

Knowing this; considering.

That the trying of your faith; the reason why he called afflictions temptations, as well as why believers should count it all joy to fall into them, viz. because they are trials of their faith, and such trials as tend to approbation, as the word (different from that in the former verse) imports.

Of your faith; both of the truth of the grace itself, and of your constancy in the profession of it.

Worketh patience; not of itself, but as a means in the hand of God, made effectual to that end.

Objection. Romans 5:3, it is said, Tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience, or trial; whereas here it is said, that trial works patience.

Answer. The words used here and Romans 5:3 are different; here it is dokimion, which signifies actively, the trying itself, and this works patience; there it is dokimh, which is taken passively, for the experiment following upon the trial; or, as we read it, the experience, viz. of our sincerity, as well as of God’s consolation, which may well be the effect of patience wrought by and under trials. And so both are true, that tribulation, as Paul speaks, and trial, as James, work patience; and patience, not a further trial, but rather discovery, or experiment, or approbation of what we are, which appears by nothing more than by patience under sufferings.

But let patience have her perfect work; i.e. effect: q.d. Let it have its full efficacy in you, both in making you absolutely subject to God’s will, and constant to the end under all your sufferings.

That ye may be perfect and entire; that you may grow perfect in this grace, as well as in others, and have the image of Christ (to whom ye are to be conformed) completed in you.

Wanting nothing; either not failing, not fainting in trials, or not defective in any thing which is a needful part of Christianity.

If any of you lack wisdom; if, doth not imply a doubt, but supposeth something which they themselves would grant; viz. that they did lack wisdom, either in whole or in part. It is as if he had said, Since, or seeing, ye lack, &c. See the like, Malachi 1:6. Though this hold true of wisdom taken more generally, yet wisdom here is to be restrained, according to the circumstances of the text, and taken for wisdom or skill to bear afflictions so as to rejoice in them.

Let him ask of God; by believing, fervent prayer.

That giveth to all men; either to all sorts of men, Jew or Gentile, bond or free, &c., or to all that so ask, as appears by the next verse.

Liberally; or simply, Romans 12:8, i.e. with an open, free, large heart, in opposition to the contracted, narrow spirits of covetous misers. Our translation renders it well liberally; and so the word is used, 2 Corinthians 8:2 9:13.

And upbraideth not; doth not twit them with their importunity, or frequency in asking, (as men often do), however he may upbraid them with their unthankfulness for, or abuse of, what they have received.

And it shall be given him: see Matthew 7:7,8 Joh 16:23. The promise is here added to encourage faith in asking.

But let him ask in faith; with confidence of God’s hearing, grounded on the Divine attributes and promises, Mark 11:24 1Jo 5:14.

Nothing wavering; either not disputing God’s power or promise; or rather, not doubting, not slandering through unbelief, Romans 4:20, where the same Greek word is used: so Acts 10:20, nothing doubting; and Mark 11:23, where it is opposed to believing.

For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed: this notes either the emptiness and unprofitableness of faithless prayer, when men’s minds are thus at uncertainties, tossed to and fro; the confidence they sometimes seem to have, like waves, falls down and fails, and their prayers come to nothing: or, the disquiet and torment distrust works in the minds of such waverers, which are never settled till faith come and fix them, Isaiah 57:20.

For let not that man; he that wavers, in opposition to him that asks in faith: all doubting doth not hinder the hearing of prayer, but that which excludes faith, Mark 9:23,24.

Think; vainly conceit, or persuade himself.

That he shall receive any thing of the Lord; even the least mercy, much less the wisdom mentioned.

A double minded man; either;

1. A hypocrite, who is said to have a double heart, Psalm 12:2. Or rather;

2. He that is of a doubtful mind, wavering, and fluctuating with contrary motions, sometimes of one mind, sometimes of another; sometimes hoping, sometimes desponding.

Is unstable; either unconstant, without any fixedness or consistency of spirit, as ready to depart from God as to cleave to him; or unquiet, troubled, full of inward tumults.

In all his ways; by a Hebraism, ways, for counsels, purposes, actions, &c.