Part 4

The substantive is used of the “perfect soundness” of the man just healed by Peter and John (Acts 3:16). This adjective occurs with “righteousness” (Wisd. 15:13) and “worship” or “religion” (4 Macc. 17). The adjective is used by Paul in his prayer for the Thessalonians, “preserved entire, without blame” (1 Thess. 5:23). This is what Jesus does for his glorious church, which is to be without “spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Eph. 5:27). Jesus, our High Priest, “has perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). Alas, Isaiah (1:6) found Israel wholly wanting in this soundness. James’s ideal is that we shall fall short in nothing. Our destiny is to dwell in the family of God and to be like Jesus, our elder Brother (1 John 3:2). This ultimate divine fulness is not the self-sufficiency of the stoics.

Shortage in Wisdom (1:5)

“Defective in wisdom,” Moffatt puts it. It is the same word that occurs at the end of verse 4. James is fond of catching up a preceding word and going on with it, even if, as here, in a new sense. “If any of you lacketh wisdom,” James gently hints. Who is it that does not feel his shortcoming here, at times with painful intensity?

What does James mean by wisdom? It is more than knowledge. It is more than mere intelligent apprehension of acquired knowledge. Tennyson says: “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.” James shows familiarity with the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach (Ecclus.)[50] and possibly also the so-called Wisdom of Solomon. Certainly he knows the book of Proverbs. But here he does not use wisdom in a philosophical or mystical sense.

With James wisdom is the right use of one’s opportunities in holy living. It is living like Christ in accord with the will of God. In 3:13-17 he gives a formal discussion of the two sorts of wisdom. Bede suggests that we need wisdom to know how to look at trial in the true light. Yes, and we need it to give patience the chance to do its perfect work. Paul uses wisdom in the special sense of God’s wisdom as shown in the gospel as infinitely superior to the wisdom of the world which scouted the cross of Christ. “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect” (the mature, 1 Cor. 2:6, AV).

In the Old Testament wisdom is sometimes the intelligence of God (Prov. 8:22-30). “Ten measures of wisdom came down from heaven, and nine of them fell to the lot of the Holy Land” (_Kiddushim_, 49_b_). With James the source of wisdom is God, not the Jews. So then, when our supply runs short, ask of God. It is like a bank to which we go to get our money. God is the banker whose supply of wisdom never gives out. Unlike other bankers, he asks no security save the name of Jesus.[51] That name gives us full credit at the bank of heaven.

On that basis God “gives to all men without question or reproach” (Moffatt). We have it expressed as “liberally” in the standard versions. It is a rather difficult word to translate into English. It means simple, singlefold, sincere. Compare the “single” eye in Matthew 6:22; Luke 11:34. In Romans 12:8 it is not clear whether singleness or liberality is the idea, but “liberality” is obviously correct in 2 Corinthians 8:2, “the riches of their liberality.” So it is in 9:11, 13, but “singleness of heart” in Ephesians 6:5 and Colossians 3:22.

Oesterley finds the notion of James to be “singleness of aim, the aim being the imparting of benefit without requiring anything in return.” Likewise, Bengel interprets it by _simpliciter_. Either idea makes good sense, for surely God gives to us all with singleness of purpose and also without bargaining on God’s part, for there is no idea of reciprocity. “Without question” (Moffatt) suggests an understanding with God, which is true. It is the normal, natural thing for a child of God to come to God and ask of him, for he “upbraideth not.” A fool upbraids, the Son of Sirach says (Ecclus. 20:15). Instead of upbraiding us for asking, rather we are made to wonder why we did not ask sooner.

God does not chide us for our folly but gives us good measure of wisdom to take its place. This is the literal truth, as many self-confessed fools of the world are glad to testify. They have left the folly of a worldly, selfish, sinful life for the rich joy of the service of God in Christ. The change may come in a moment, for after all, this new view of life and the power to live it may be had for the asking. “And it shall be given him.” It will be given on request, with no other identification than the plea of the sinner who comes in the name of Jesus, the “open sesame” to the treasures of heaven, himself the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:30) in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden (Col. 2:3). God does ask of us that we use this wisdom for his glory and for the blessing of other lives, the enrichment of other hearts.

Doubting Prayer (1:6-8)

Jesus (Matt. 7:7 f.) had urged the disciples to ask, with the promise that God would answer.

There is a condition attached to the wide-open invitation in James 1:5. “But let him ask in faith,” James adds. By faith James means not a body of doctrine but trust in God, a working confidence in God that leads one to ask and to expect to receive what he asks. It is certain that God does not answer some prayers, at least in the way expected. Some requests ought not to be granted, in fact ought never to be made. Prayer may be very foolish as well as very wise. God does not offer to grant every whim of a spoiled and petulant child. But assuming that one is asking for wisdom, which surely is a proper prayer for anyone to make, even so he may miss it because he does not exercise wisdom in the asking. He must not chill the ardor of his desire by hesitation and doubt. Let him ask, “nothing doubting.”

To doubt is to have a divided mind that draws him two ways, like the poor donkey that starved because he could not choose between the two stacks of hay. Such a man is like a wave of the sea (“Like a cork floating on the wave, now carried towards the shore, now away from it,” Mayor), one of the most transitory things imaginable, driven by the wind and tossed into sea foam (whitecaps) as if blown by a fan or bellows, a veritable “brain storm” of perplexity and indecision.

God does answer prayer, but not the prayer of a man who insults the Giver of whom he asks a favor. Timid faith is quite another thing. That Jesus honored, as in the case of the father who first said, “But if thou canst do any thing” (Mark 9:22). Jesus rebuked him for his “if thou canst.” Then the anxious father cried out: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

There are many difficulties in the way of trust in God today. Science has left many minds groping in the dark without God, feeling after him if haply they may find him, not knowing that he is nigh to each of us. We do not have an absentee God. He can and does hear the cry of his children for help. If SOS can find a response over the wind and the wave to the call of the sinking ship, surely it is not strange that the Father of our spirits will hear our call to him. So it will be, “if ye have faith and doubt not,” almost the very words used by James.

Jesus had to rebuke his disciples for their lack of faith (Matt. 8:26) when they thought they were perishing from wind and wave. And Simon Peter doubted after he began to walk on the water and started at once to sink. “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” says Jesus to Peter (Matt. 14:31). Peter had a divided mind. “Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” He does not expect anything, and he is not disappointed. What a commentary is this sentence upon the halfhearted praying, the lack of interest, the worldly-minded passive worship of many modern Christians. There is no wrestling with God in prayer for victory.

“Double-minded creature that he is, wavering at every turn” (Moffatt). The double-minded man is like the two-faced man (Mr. Facing Both Ways). Sirach (2:13) speaks of the sinner coming to two paths and being unable to choose. Such a man perishes at the crossroads. Compare James 4:8 for the only other use of the word in the New Testament, though common enough elsewhere. Such indecision goes into duplicity, as Jesus shows about the evil eye and the single eye (Matt. 6:22 f.). It is a miserable life, as anyone knows who leads a double life. The double heart leads to the double life, with its pretended double standard of morals. Clement of Rome says: “Wretched are the double-minded, who doubt in their heart.” No wonder he becomes “unstable in all his ways,” not able to stand in all his goings. He wobbles and finally reels like a drunken man. Such inconstancy winds up in hypocrisy or abandonment to sin.

The Democracy of Faith (1:9-11)

James returns to the keynote of “all joy” (v. 2) and uses the word “glory.” The positive note of exultation is the mark of the true Christian against the double-minded man. The pessimist is not a representative of Christianity. The true optimist is not, however, blind to the facts of life. He can glory in God in the midst of all sorts of trials and conditions, whether in high or low estate. His joy is independent of earthly estate. The “cotter’s Saturday night” may be as happy as the one in the castle nearby. Class distinctions are no cause for pride in a spiritual democracy like the church of Jesus Christ. We need in Christianity no “princes of the church” in the Roman Catholic sense. Pride of rank among the twelve disciples was a source of grief to Jesus. The rich and the poor are one in Christ Jesus, and all are poor, miserable sinners saved by grace.

Johnstone[52] calls this section “Rich Poor and Poor Rich.” That is true and is the probable interpretation here. The humble[53] brother may, after all, be the richest man in the church—rich in grace, in love, in joy, in peace, in righteousness, in fellowship. This is “his high estate,” which rises sheer above hovel or palace. Thank God that this infinite wealth of the spirit is still open to the poor all over the world who find the door of competency closed in their faces. The pious poor is more than a phrase. It is often literal fact.

The papyri discoveries[54] bear eloquent testimony to the words of Paul about the membership of the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:26-29). The papyri letters and other documents are chiefly from the middle and lower classes and reflect the actual life of the very people from whom the gospel made most of its converts (fishermen, carpenters, publicans, tentmakers, etc.). There were already some wealthy members of the early churches, men like Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Barnabas of Cyprus. There were “not many mighty,” but there were some. There soon came to be large numbers of slaves in the churches when the gospel spread among the Gentiles. But already social problems of an acute nature were on hand when James wrote. In fact, we see such problems in the early chapters of Acts, when Ananias and Sapphira wished to get credit for a generosity that they were not willing to show and when high feeling arose in the distribution of the funds for the Aramean (Palestinian) and Hellenistic widows among the Jewish Christians. At no point are people more sensitive than about money.

So the rich brother is to be reminded of his humiliation, “in that he is made low,” placed on a level with the “lowly brother.” They meet on the level in Christ. Each is as high and as low as the other—no more, no less. The rich man is not to glory over the poor man, nor is the poor brother to cringe in the presence of the rich brother. This is the democracy of faith, the universality of Christ.

The rich brother is in constant peril of pride of possession, and so James reminds him of the fate of the beautiful flower of the grass which springs up quickly and withers before the burning heat and falls off. It is a striking adaptation of the language of Isaiah (40:6-8), using the imagery for another purpose. 1 Peter 1:24 says: “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass.” Christ brings all men to their true level, the common humanity in us all, the sonship in him that makes us heirs of heaven. Moffatt changes “his high estate” to “when he is raised,” and “in that he is made low” to “in being lowered.” He seems to understand that James refers to the possible ups and downs of life. It will be easy for the lowly brother in that case to rejoice when he becomes rich; but how about the rich brother when he becomes poor?

Plummer (_in loco_) refuses to see a “brother” at all in the rich man, but only one of the rich Jews who oppressed the early Christians, as in James 5:1-6. But that gives an Ebionitic tone to the epistle. James does indulge in irony, but he is apparently sincere in his picture here. The rich brother will fade away in his goings, as if James has in mind a salesman whose business dries up like a flower. Riches truly have wings and fly away. They are sweet like the rose but soon vanish from us forever.

IV The Way of Temptation

James powerfully sketches the natural history of temptation if yielded to and the glory of victory if overcome. The other sense (temptation) of the word used for trial in 1:2 occurs here. Moffatt indeed takes trial as the idea in 1:12 also (so does Hort _in loco_), but certainly in verse 13 we have to say “temptation.” It is most likely that the idea of temptation is present in 1:12. Here James returns to the discussion of the other side of the blessing of trials, namely, the blessing of temptation endured. As a matter of fact, he has not really digressed from the subject. He merely discusses one aspect.

Standing the Test (1:12)

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.” We must never forget that Jesus warned us against rushing into temptation, not merely in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:13; Luke 11:4) but also in the agony of Gethsemane, when Satan had come upon him with renewed energy in spite of repeated defeats by Jesus since the wilderness temptations (Matt. 26:41; Luke 22:40). Jesus urged the disciples to pray to be spared temptation. No one knew so well as he the power of the evil one. He had wrestled with him to the end and had conquered where others failed. Temptation is not to be courted, not even for the sake of the experience and the possible victory. Too many go down in the struggle for any to rush into it lightly. “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

But if temptation is thrust upon one, then he must fight and win as Jesus did. There is always a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13). We must find the way out. Compare Job 5:17: “Behold, happy is the man whom the Lord correcteth.” He only is happy (the same word used in the Beatitudes in Matt. 5:3-11) who endures. That is true patience. It is only “when he hath been approved” after standing the test that “he shall receive the crown of life,” the victor’s crown. The word for approved suggests the furnace that removes the dross and leaves the pure metal. The refiner of silver watches, we are told, till he sees his own image in the metal. Then it is pure. The metal is tested and approved.

“The crown of life” (cf. Rev. 2:10) is probably the wreath of victory in the games (cf. 1 Cor. 9:25; 2 Tim. 2:5), for Greek games were common in Palestine in the days of Herod the Great and were practiced even in Jerusalem itself (Josephus, _Ant._ 15, 8, 1 f.). It is a crown of kingly glory, but it is bestowed as reward of merit to those who love the Lord Jesus. We may have a reference to a Logion of Jesus not preserved in which he makes this promise: “Blessed is he who hath his raiment white, for he it is who receiveth the crown of joy upon his head.”[55] In Proverbs 1:9 we read that the instruction of father and mother “shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head.” In Sirach 15:6 we read of “a crown of gladness,” and in the _Testimony of the Twelve Patriarchs_ (Levi iv. 1) we find “crowns of glory.” Love is the way to win this crown—love and the proof of it in enduring temptation and leading “the white life.”

Blaming God (1:13)

Whatever doubt exists in verse 12 about trial or temptation vanishes in verse 13. Here it is clearly temptation to evil. Hort (_in loco_) suggests “tempted by trial,” and Moffatt puts it “tried by temptation.” Certainly trial becomes a temptation to some men who use it as the excuse for doing wrong. “Though trial in itself is ordered by God for our good, yet the inner solicitation to evil which is aroused by the outer trial is from ourselves” (Mayor). Any trial wrongly used may become a temptation, whereas it was meant for our development and perfection. Temptation is merely one aspect of trial and not a necessary one. But the word is used of the great tempter (1 Thess. 3:5). So Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness (Mark 1:13). Satan desired to sift the apostles as wheat, to ruin them if possible (Luke 22:31). The Pharisees and the Sadducees sought to tempt Jesus (Matt. 15:1). It is the devil’s business to seek to lure another into wrong.

When a man is tempted and yields to the temptation, he is eager to blame someone else for his sin. If he cannot do otherwise, he will blame God for having made him as he is, with evil possibilities. In particular is this true of sexual sin, which Oesterley (_in loco_) thinks James has specifically in mind here. Compare Matthew 5:28; 1 Peter 2:11. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve the serpent. And even Adam blamed God, for he said: “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me” (Gen. 3:12).

Some dare to say in so many words: “I am tempted of God.” They hold God responsible for their appetites and passions and seek to quiet the conscience thus while they give way to sin. Others hide behind heredity, environment, or evil companions. Even Agamemnon excused himself for his wrong to Achilles by holding Zeus and fate responsible. Sirach (15:11 f.) says: “Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away.” The origin of sin is a dark problem, but it is a lazy philosophy or a blind one that shirks human responsibility, or tries to do it. It matters not whether sin is the remnant of the beast in us (surely some men act at times like the tiger) or the response to evil environment or both, we are merely cowardly when we blame God for our own wrongdoing.

There is no response to evil in God. He is not “man’s giant shadow skyward thrown.” The absolute holiness and ethical purity of God should at least protect him from the charge of leading us into sin. The worst of men, in their darkest moments of loneliness, sometimes come face to face with God. Then they do not flippantly blame God but confess their sins with broken heart. Two things are true about evil and God. One is that God himself tempts no man to sin. He does send trial but not temptation. We may not understand all the ways of God’s providence, but we may rest secure in this: The devil does tempt us. That is his business. And yet James does not refer to Satan by name here, for after all, we ourselves are responsible, as he proceeds to show. It does not help matters with us any more than it did with Eve to lay our sin upon the devil. The other thing that is true is that God cannot be tempted with evil. He cannot be tempted to do evil himself or be led to tempt others with evil. The phrase does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament or in the Septuagint, but it is a paraphrase of a common proverb in the early Christian writings.[56] God does chastise us (Heb. 12:4 f.), but he does not tempt us.

All this is in strong contrast to the Greek and Roman notions of duty, for the heathen gods were credited with all human and even inhuman vices. The gods upon Olympus revel in lust and cruelty, jealousy and hate. They furnish fit ideals for the philosophy of Nietzsche but do not accord with the God of the New Testament, the God of consolation and of peace, of purity and love.

Snared by One’s Own Bait (1:14)

The man himself is responsible for his sin, and he need not seek to place the blame elsewhere. The temptation is not a temptation to him if he refuses to listen to the siren’s voice. The man is not responsible for the efforts of others to allure him to sin but only in case he listens and yields. Then he is really tempted “when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.”

The figure is very bold and impressive. The word for “drawn away” is used in Oppian for drawing the fish out from its original retreat, beguiling it from under the rock. Then the fish is ready to be snared by the bait. The fish bites at the bait and is caught on the hook. So with a man. He is drawn out by his own lust for the sin placed before him. In the case of sexual sin the impulse is not in itself sinful any more than the fish’s hunger for food. The sexual nature is from God and is meant only for blessing for high and holy ends. But the misuse of this impulse is very easy and very dreadful in its results. Satan sets many kinds of bait for unwary boys and girls, men and women, who at first are taken off their guard and then are drawn away by desire stirred within them toward evil. The evil suggestion is entertained, and sin is the outcome.

This very word “entice” is used of hunting (trapping with bait), and then it is used of the harlot who entices to sin. “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not” (Prov. 1:10). Philo speaks of our being “driven by passion or enticed by pleasure.” The pitfalls are many in modern life—in the country, in the village, and in the city. The modern demons of drink, drug, and the brothel are busy in finding victims. But the point made by James is that the one who yields does so because of the sin within his own heart.

A person’s own evil desire plays the part of temptress (Plummer), and he is drawn away by it and enticed. “If thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door” (Gen. 4:7) like a panther ready to spring upon the intended victim caught for the moment off guard. One is reminded afresh of the opening chapters of Proverbs, which cannot be excelled by any of the modern books on sex instruction, some of which stimulate more immorality than they prevent. Wise warning is needed and plain talk is demanded, but not pruriency any more than prudery. Alas, that the paw of the modern Moloch draws into the fire so many thousands of young men and women from the homes of our land. The best capital of America is the children, and we lose too much of it in the worst of gambles—the traffic in souls.

The Abortion (1:15)

The natural history of sin as the result of temptation to which one yields is given with scientific accuracy and graphic power: “Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death.” Moffatt renders it thus: “Then Desire conceives and breeds Sin, while Sin matures and gives birth to Death.” It is a gruesome picture surely. But who can say that it is overdrawn?

The positivist tries to shut God out of the world and so to banish human responsibility; but alas, he cannot banish human woe and anguish of heart. The agnostic flings up his hands in despair and says he does not know and has nothing to say in the presence of nature, “red in tooth and claw.” The brutal militarist adopts the rule of physical might wrongly claimed by Nietzsche to be the mark of the superman. Spiritual and moral prowess should dominate brute force in man, else he becomes only a brute himself. He drops back to the law of the jungle and rejects the law of love in the kingdom of heaven. The Christian Scientist blandly shuts his eyes to such errors of mortal mind as sin and sickness and sorrow and, ostrich-like, cheerfully denies their reality and seeks to blow them away with a puff. But sin is not to be brushed aside in this way.