James 1:19

In this part of the chapter we are required,

I. To restrain the workings of passion. This lesson we should learn under afflictions; and this we shall learn if we are indeed begotten again by the word of truth. For thus the connection stands - An angry and hasty spirit is soon provoked to ill things by afflictions, and errors and ill opinions become prevalent through the workings of our own vile and vain affections; but the renewing grace of God and the word of the gospel teach us to subdue these: Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, Jam 1:19. This may refer, 1. To the word of truth spoken of in the verse foregoing. And so we may observe, It is our duty rather to hear God's word, and apply our minds to understand it, than to speak according to our own fancies or the opinions of men, and to run into heat and passion thereupon. Let not such errors as that of God's being the occasion of men's sin ever be hastily, much less angrily, mentioned by you (and so as to other errors); but be ready to hear and consider what God's word teaches in all such cases. 2. This may be applied to the afflictions and temptations spoken of in the beginning of the chapter. And then we may observe, It is our duty rather to hear how God explains his providences, and what he designs by the, than to say as David did in his haste, I am cut off; or as Jonah did in his passion, I do well to be angry. Instead of censuring God under our trials, let us open our ears and hearts to hear what he will say to us. 3. This may be understood as referring to the disputes and differences that Christians, in those times of trial, were running into among themselves: and so this part of the chapter may be considered without any connection with what goes before. Here we may observe that, whenever matters of difference arise among Christians, each side should be willing to hear the other. People are often stiff in their own opinions because they are not willing to hear what others have to offer against them: whereas we should be swift to hear reason and truth on all sides, and be slow to speak any thing that should prevent this: and, when we do speak, there should be nothing of wrath; for a soft answer turneth away wrath. As this epistle is designed to correct a variety of disorders that existed among Christians, these words, swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, may be very well interpreted according to this last explication. And we may further observe from them that, if men would govern their tongues, they must govern their passions. When Moses's spirit was provoked, he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. If we would be slow to speak, we must be slow to wrath.

II. A very good reason is given for suppressing: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, Jam 1:20. It is as if the apostle had said, "Whereas men often pretend zeal for God and his glory, in their heat and passion, let them know that God needs not the passions of any man; his cause is better served by mildness and meekness than by wrath and fury." Solomon says, The words of the wise are heard in quiet, more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools, Ecc 9:17. Dr. Manton here says of some assemblies, "That if we were as swift to hear as we are ready to speak there would be less of wrath, and more of profit, in our meetings. I remember when a Manichee contested with Augustine, and with importunate clamour cried, Hear me! hear me! the father modestly replied, Nec ego te, nec tu me, sed ambo audiamus apostolum - Neither let me hear thee, nor do thou hear me, but let us both hear the apostle." The worst thing we can bring to a religious controversy is anger. This, however it may pretend to be raised by a concern for what is just and right, is not to be trusted. Wrath is a human thing, and the wrath of man stands opposed to the righteousness of God. Those who pretend to serve the cause of God hereby show that they are acquainted neither with God or his cause. This passion must especially be watched against when we are hearing the word of God. See Pe1 2:1, Pe1 2:2.

III. We are called upon to suppress other corrupt affections, as well as rash anger: Lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, Jam 1:21. The word here translated filthiness signifies those lusts which have the greatest turpitude and sensuality in them; and the words rendered superfluity of naughtiness may be understood of the overflowings of malice or any other spiritual wickednesses. Hereby we are taught, as Christians, to watch against, and lay aside, not only those more gross and fleshly dispositions and affections which denominate a person filthy, but all the disorders of a corrupt heart, which would prejudice it against the word and ways of God. Observe, 1. Sin is a defiling thing; it is called filthiness itself. 2. There is abundance of that which is evil in us, to be watched against; there is superfluity of naughtiness. 3. It is not enough to restrain evil affections, but they must be cast from us, or laid apart. Isa 30:22, Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say, Get you hence. 4. This must extend not only to outward sins, and greater abominations, but to all sin of thought and affection as well as speech and practice; pasan rhuparian - all filthiness, every thing that is corrupt and sinful. 5. Observe, from the foregoing parts of this chapter, the laying aside of all filthiness is what a time of temptation and affliction calls for, and is necessary to the avoiding of error, and the right receiving and improving of the word of truth: for,

IV. We are here fully, though briefly, instructed concerning hearing the word of God.

1. We are required to prepare ourselves for it (Jam 1:21), to get rid of every corrupt affection and of every prejudice and prepossession, and to lay aside those sins which pervert the judgment and blind the mind. All the filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, before explained, must, in an especial manner, be subdued and cast off, by all such as attend on the word of the gospel.

2. We are directed how to hear it: Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. (1.) In hearing the word of God, we are to receive it - assent to the truths of it - consent to the laws of it; receive it as the stock does the graft; so as that the fruit which is produced may be, not according to the nature of the sour stock, but according to the nature of that word of the gospel which is engrafted into our souls. (2.) We must therefore yield ourselves to the word of God, with most submissive, humble, and tractable tempers: this is to receive it with meekness. Being willing to hear of our faults, and taking it not only patiently, but thankfully, desiring also to be molded and formed by the doctrines and precepts of the gospel. (3.) In all our hearing we should aim at the salvation of our souls. It is the design of the word of God to make us wise to salvation; and those who propose any meaner or lower ends to themselves in attending upon it dishonour the gospel and disappoint their souls. We should come to the word of God (both to read it and hear it), as those who know it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, Rom 1:16.

3. We are taught what is to be done after hearing (Jam 1:22): But be you doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Observe here, (1.) Hearing is in order to doing; the most attentive and the most frequent hearing of the word of God will not avail us, unless we be also doers of it. If we were to hear a sermon every day of the week, and an angel from heaven were the preacher, yet, if we rested in bare hearing, it would never bring us to heaven. Therefore the apostle insists much upon it (and, without doubt, it is indispensably necessary) that we practice what we hear. "There must be inward practice by meditation, and outward practice in true obedience." Baxter. It is not enough to remember what we hear, and to be able to repeat it, and to give testimony to it, and commend it, and write it, and preserve what we have written; that which all this is in order to, and which crowns the rest, is that we be doers of the word. Observe, (2.) Bare hearers are self-deceivers; the original word, paralogizomenoi, signifies men's arguing sophistically to themselves; their reasoning is manifestly deceitful and false when they would make one part of their work discharge them from the obligation they lie under to another, or persuade themselves that filling their heads with notions is sufficient, though their hearts be empty of good affections and resolutions, and their lives fruitless of good works. Self-deceit will be found the worst deceit at last.

4. The apostle shows what is the proper use of the word of God, who they are that do not use it as they ought, and who they are that do make a right use of it, Jam 1:23-25. Let us consider each of these distinctly. (1.) The use we are to make of God's word may be learnt from its being compared to a glass, in which a man may behold his natural face. As a looking-glass shows us the spots and defilements upon our faces, that they may be remedied and washed off, so the word of God shows us our sins, that we may repent of them and get them pardoned; it shows us what is amiss, that it may be amended. There are glasses that will flatter people; but that which is truly the word of God is no flattering glass. If you flatter yourselves, it is your own fault; the truth, as it is in Jesus, flatters no man. Let the word of truth be carefully attended to, and it will set before you the corruption of your nature, the disorders of your hearts and lives; it will tell you plainly what you are. Paul describes himself as in sensible of the corruption of his nature till he saw himself in the glass of the law (Rom 7:9): "I was alive without the law; that is, I took all to be right with me, and thought myself not only clean, but, compared with the generality of the world, beautiful too; but when the commandment came, when the glass of the law was set before me, then sin revived, and I died - then I saw my spots and deformities, and discovered that amiss in myself which before I was not aware of; and such was the power of the law, and of sin, that I then perceived myself in a state of death and condemnation." Thus, when we attend to the word of God, so as to see ourselves, our true state and condition, to rectify what is amiss, and to form and dress ourselves anew by the glass of God's word, this is to make a proper use of it. (2.) We have here an account of those who do not use this glass of the word as they ought: He that beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was, Jam 1:24. This is the true description of one who hears the word of God and does it not. How many are there who, when they sit under the word, are affected with their own sinfulness, misery, and danger, acknowledge the evil of sin, and their need of Christ; but, when their hearing is over, all is forgotten, convictions are lost, good affections vanish, and pass away like the waters of a land-flood: he straightway forgets. "The word of God (as Dr. Manton speaks) discovers how we may do away our sins, and deck and attire our souls with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Maculae sunt peccata, quae ostendit lex; aqua est sanguis Christi, quem ostendit evangelium - Our sins are the spots which the law discovers; Christ's blood is the laver which the gospel shows." But in vain do we hear God's word, and look into the gospel glass, if we go away, and forget our spots, instead of washing them off, and forget our remedy, instead of applying to it. This is the case of those who do not hear the word as they ought. (3.) Those also are described, and pronounced blessed, who hear aright, and who use the glass of God's word as they should do (Jam 1:25): Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, etc. Observe here, [1.] The gospel is a law of liberty, or, as Mr. Baxter expresses it, of liberation, giving us deliverance from the Jewish law, and from sin and guilt, and wrath and death. The ceremonial law was a yoke of bondage; the gospel of Christ is a law of liberty. [2.] It is a perfect law; nothing can be added to it. [3.] In hearing the word, we look into this perfect law; we consult it for counsel and direction; we look into it, that we may thence take our measures. [4.] Then only do we look into the law of liberty as we should when we continue therein - "when we dwell in the study of it, till it turn to a spiritual life, engrafted and digested in us" (Baxter) - when we are not forgetful of it, but practice it as our work and business, set it always before our eyes, and make it the constant rule of our conversation and behaviour, and model the temper of our minds by it. [5.] Those who thus do, and continue in the law and word of God, are, and shall be, blessed in their deed; blessed in all their ways, according to the first psalm, to which, some think, James here alludes. He that meditates in the law of God, and walks according to it, the psalmist says, shall prosper in whatsoever he does. And he that is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work which God's word sets him about, James says, shall be blessed. The papists pretend that here we have a clear text to prove we are blessed for our good deeds; but Dr. Manton, in answer to that pretence, puts the reader upon marking the distinctness of scripture-phrase. The apostle does not say, for his deeds, that any man is blessed, but in his deed. This is a way in which we shall certainly find blessedness, but not the cause of it. This blessedness does not lie in knowing, but in doing the will of God. Joh 13:17, If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. It is not talking, but walking, that will bring us to heaven.

V. The apostle next informs us how we may distinguish between a vain religion and that which is pure and approved of God. Great and hot disputes there are in the world about this matter: what religion is false and vain, and what is true and pure. I wish men would agree to let the holy scripture in this place determine the question: and here it is plainly and peremptorily declared,

1. What is a vain religion: If any man among you seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Here are three things to be observed: - (1.) In a vain religion there is much of show, and affecting to seem religious in the eyes of others. This, I think, is mentioned in a manner that should fix our thoughts on the word seemeth. When men are more concerned to seem religious than really to be so, it is a sign that their religion is but vain. Not that religion itself is a vain thing (those do it a great deal of injustice who say, It is in vain to serve the Lord), but it is possible for people to make it a vain thing, if they have only a form of godliness, and not the power. (2.) In a vain religion there is much censuring, reviling, and detracting of others. The not bridling the tongue here is chiefly meant of not abstaining from these evils of the tongue. When we hear people ready to speak of the faults of others, or to censure them as holding scandalous errors, or to lessen the wisdom and piety of those about them, that they themselves may seem the wiser and better, this is a sign that they have but a vain religion. The man who has a detracting tongue cannot have a truly humble gracious heart. He who delights to injure his neighbour in vain pretends to love God; therefore a reviling tongue will prove a man a hypocrite. Censuring is a pleasing sin, extremely complaint with nature, and therefore evinces a man's being in a natural state. These sins of the tongue were the great sins of that age in which James wrote (as other parts of this epistle fully show); and it is a strong sing of a vain religion (says Dr. Manton) to be carried away with the evil of the times. This has ever been a leading sin with hypocrites, that the more ambitious they have been to seem well themselves the more free they have been in censuring and running down others; and there is such quick intercourse between the tongue and the heart that the one may be known by the other. On these accounts it is that the apostle has made an ungoverned tongue an undoubted certain proof of a vain religion. There is no strength nor power in that religion which will not enable a man to bridle his tongue. (3.) In a vain religion a man deceives his own heart; he goes on in such a course of detracting from others, and making himself seem somebody, that at last the vanity of his religion is consummated by the deceiving of his own soul. When once religion comes to be a vain thing, how great is the vanity!

2. It is here plainly and peremptorily declared wherein true religion consists: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, Jam 1:27. Observe, (1.) It is the glory of religion to be pure and undefiled; not mixed with the inventions of men nor with the corruption of the world. False religions may be known by their impurity and uncharitableness; according to that of John, He that doeth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother, Jo1 3:10. But, on the other hand, a holy life and a charitable heart show a true religion. Our religion is not (says Dr. Manton) adorned with ceremonies, but purity and charity. And it is a good observation of his that a religion which is pure should be kept undefiled. (2.) That religion is pure and undefiled which is so before God and the Father. That is right which is so in God's eye, and which chiefly aims at his approbation. True religion teaches us to do every thing as in the presence of God; and to seek his favour, and study to please him in all our actions. (3.) Compassion and charity to the poor and distressed from a very great and necessary part of true religion: Visiting the fatherless and widow in their affliction. Visiting is here put for all manner of relief which we are capable of giving to others; and fatherless and widows are here particularly mentioned, because they are generally most apt to be neglected or oppressed: but by them we are to understand all who are proper objects of charity, all who are in affliction. It is very remarkable that if the sum of religion be drawn up to two articles this is one - to be charitable and relieve the afflicted. Observe, (4.) An unspotted life must accompany an unfeigned love and charity: To keep himself unspotted from the world. The world is apt to spot and blemish the soul, and it is hard to live in it, and have to do with it, and not be defiled; but this must be our constant endeavour. Herein consists pure and undefiled religion. The very things of the world too much taint our spirits, if we are much conversant with them; but the sins and lusts of the world deface and defile them very woefully indeed. John comprises all that is in the world, which we are not to love, under three heads: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; and to keep ourselves unspotted from all these is to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. May God by his grace keep both our hearts and lives clean from the love of the world, and from the temptations of wicked worldly men.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren - The connection is this: “since God is the only source of good; since he tempts no man; and since by his mere sovereign goodness, without any claim on our part, we have had the high honor conferred on us of being made the first-fruits of his creatures, we ought to be ready to hear his voice, to subdue all our evil passions, and to bring our souls to entire practical obedience.” The necessity of obedience, or the doctrine that the gospel is not only to be learned but practiced, is pursued at length in this and the following chapter. The particular statement here Jam 1:19-21 is, that religion requires us to be meek and docile; to lay aside all irritability against the truth, and all pride of opinion, and all corruption of heart, and to receive meekly the ingrafted word. See the analysis of the chapter.

Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak - That is, primarily, to hear God; to listen to the instructions of that truth by which we have been begotten, and brought into so near relation to him. At the same time, though this is the primary sense of the phrase here, it may be regarded as inculcating the general doctrine that we are to be more ready to hear than to speak; or that we are to be disposed to learn always, and from any source. Our appropriate condition is rather that of learners than instructors; and the attitude of mind which we should cultivate is that of a readiness to receive information from any quarter. The ancients have some sayings on this subject which are well worthy of our attention. “Men have two ears, and but one tongue, that they should hear more than they speak.” “The ears are always open, ever ready to receive instruction; but the tongue is surrounded with a double row of teeth, to hedge it in, and to keep it within proper bounds.” See Benson. So Valerius Maximus, vii. 2.

“How noble was the response of Xenocrates! When he met the reproaches of others with a profound silence, someone asked him why he alone was silent. ‘Because,’ says he, ‘I have sometimes had occasion to regret that I have spoken, never that I was silent.’” See Wetstein. So the son of Sirach, “Be swift to hear, and with deep consideration (ἐν μακροθυμίᾳ en makrothumia) give answer.” So the Rabbis have some similar sentiments. “Talk little and work much.” Pirkey Aboth. c. i. 15. “The righteous speak little and do much; the wicked speak much and do nothing.” Bava Metsia, fol. 87. A sentiment similar to that before us is found in Ecc 5:2. “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God.” So Pro 10:19. “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.” Pro 13:3. “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life.” Pro 15:2. “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.”

Slow to wrath - That is, we are to govern and restrain our temper; we are not to give indulgence to excited and angry passions. Compare Pro 16:32, “He that is slow to anger is greater than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” See also on this subject, Job 5:2; Pro 11:17; Pro 13:10; Pro 14:16; Pro 15:18; Pro 19:19; Pro 22:24; Pro 25:28; Ecc 7:9; Rom 12:17; 1Th 5:14; 1Pe 3:8. The particular point here is, however, not that we should be slow to wrath as a general habit of mind, which is indeed most true, but in reference particularly to the reception of the truth. We should lay aside all anger and wrath, and should come to the investigation of truth with a calm mind, and an imperturbed spirit. A state of wrath or anger is always unfavorable to the investigation of truth. Such an investigation demands a calm spirit, and he whose mind is excited and enraged is not in a condition to see the value of truth, or to weigh the evidence for it.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Jam_1:19-21

Swift to hear, slow to speak

Divine legislation for man in a world of evil

I.

LEGISLATION FOR THE EAR. Be swift to hear.

1. The duty here enjoined is a readiness to listen to the pure, the generous, the true.

2. Teachableness is the state of mind required. This includes--

(1) Freedom from prejudice.

(2) Eagerness to learn.

II. LEGISLATION FOR THE TONGUE. Slow to speak.

1. Evidently he does not mean--

(1) Unsocial taciturnity.

(2) A drawling utterance.

2. The slowness of speech he enjoins is that of cautiousness. Because we are in danger of speaking--

(1) The wrong thing.

(2) At the wrong time. Jesus often manifested a Divine reserve.

III. LEGISLATION FOR THE TEMPER. Slow to wrath.

1. Men in this world of evil are in danger of being provoked to wrath.

2. Wrath in no case tends to excellence of character.

IV. LEGISLATION FOR THE LIFE. Lay apart all filthiness, &c. The summing up of all. It insists upon--

1. Renunciation of all evil.

2. Appropriation of good.

(1) The thing received. Ingrafted word.

(a) Essential vitality of gospel.

(b) Its fitness to human nature.

(2) The manner of receiving it.

(3) The reason for receiving it. (U. R. Thomas.)

The judicial temper

This is one of the wisest and most difficult sayings in Holy Scripture. In one line we are bidden to be both swift and slow. It concerns all, and affects the usefulness and happiness of each. We may be helped in our perception of its importance, and also in our power to observe it, if we bear in mind the words which come before. St. James there tells us that all good and perfect gifts come down from the Father of Lights. But, chief among those gifts, he would say, is that new life, which he and his beloved brethren had received by means of the Word of truth. Thus he calls Christians the first-fruits of Gods creatures. This is a very high title. The hearer is addressed as one not merely invested with great responsibility, but as holding a powerful post. The ground on which the apostle pleads with him is that he is in union with the Father of Spirits, the Most High God. Here we have not only an interesting historical notice, but a great encouragement to us in our present efforts to conduct ourselves aright. Some, indeed, might think that a man in close union with God is freed from much that ethers have to consider, that he is an exalted personage, above control, or at least has some of the supposed liberty of high place allowed to him. But it is not so. Because the Christian stands in the front rank of Gods creatures, he is not, therefore, to carry himself confidently as if he were superior to the lessons which others need, and to be excused from showing that respectful reticence or caution which is idly assumed to become such as are in a lower position. As his spirit has been kindled from on high, the Christian, above all men, carries himself circumspectly. In so far as he is brought spiritually nearer to God, he is swift to hear. As he is closest to the throne, he is, above all, slow to speak. He, near of kin to the Spirit of Divine justice, is, above all, slow to wrath. He should know, better than any, that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. This teaching of St. James is grand; towards its better realisation let us look at two or three of the chief ways in which we are called to its observance. One is seen in the formation of opinions, especially in regard to religion and the spiritual condition of our neighbour. The other appears in the regulation or economy of our ordinary life. I suppose it may be admitted that a common fault of religious people is impatience of instruction, and a readiness to pass judgment upon others. We are tempted to reverse the order of the Divine precept, and to become slow to hear and swift to wrath. But, in truth, as we are near to God, so we realise our ignorance and His tolerance. Thus, instead of being eager to deliver our verdicts, and to define His will, we hold back, lest our meddling interference and shortsighted decisions should mar the working of the Divine will, if not in larger ways, yet at least in our small circle and surroundings. We check our indignation in the presence of the great tide or stream of justice which is ever fulfilling itself. Perhaps our course in this respect ought to be most obvious and easy as we contemplate the great matters which concern the conduct and state of the Church at large. These are furthest removed from our personal influence. We might be expected to leave them most readily in the hands of God, content with the discharge of those duties which lie immediately around us. In fact, however, the things of the kingdom of heaven are often the most gaily and hastily disposed of by some. We settle doctrines and define the unseen. We give sentence on eternity. We print and publish the mind of God. Take the most ignorant talker you know, and he is ready to tell you all. Go to the wisest, and he will teach you most just in so far as he induces you to share his sense of ignorance. But there is another side to this. The perception that we deal with large things may not lead us into rash conjectures. The greatness of Gods procedure may not have the effect of making us gaily confident, and ready to give sentence. Being gifted with inquisitive if not inquiring minds, we may be provoked at the largeness of our field of vision, and so provoked as to profess our inability to apprehend it with petulance and contempt of religion. There is, however, too much made in these days of mans intellectual defects, as if they need make him despair, or as if a limited apprehension of Gods will took away the charm and joy of faith. The Christians God tells him but little at a time. If we are beset with perplexities we can often do nothing but put them into the hands of Him with whom we are at one through the Christ. We are content for God to rule His own kingdom, and take the helm of His own ship. We are quick to hear, but slow to speak and slow to wrath, believing that He will justify Himself. Thus may we take the advice of St. James in respect to the greater matters of the kingdom of heaven. There is, however, an application of it in small things about which I would say a few words. The sundry and manifold changes of the world appear to most of us, not in national or cosmopolitan disorder, not in the conflict of religious opinions, but in the little demands, crosses, and accidents of ordinary life. We are often disturbed and upset by what we call trifles. But the grace of God is intended to be used in small things as well as great. So it is in what we call nature. The law of gravitation affects the apple which drops from the tree and the spheres which move on in their courses. The glory of God clothes the lily in the valley and the sun in the sky. Divine force is used equally in the construction of the mountain and the molehill. And so each of us has daily need and opportunity for the application of the great power which rules the world. We are ever called and enabled to exercise Divine grace in the smallest human round of life. Remember that St. James bases his precept upon the fact that we are the first-fruits of Gods creatures. And as we use Divine communion so we are really helped to keep the apostles rule in our discharge of the homeliest duties. So, indeed, we find it to be. There are few, tempted to irritability, who have not sometimes found themselves checked in it by the employment of the highest motives. Many a man is occasionally enabled to rule his spirit by prayer, and by a very sacred resolve to command his temper and his tongue. True Christianity, as it can be practically exercised by most of us, is seen not in spasms of exceptional piety, or vehement strivings after great ends, but in bearing and forbearing amongst those with whom we most intimately live; in being swift to hear when our sympathy is needed, and slow to wrath when the skin of our feelings is pricked. Sometimes provocations become impotent as they are simply and sturdily ignored. They do so most readily as we realise our high place in Gods kingdom, and our union with the Father of lights from whom every good gift descends, including the power to overcome vexation. Our sense of this union, too, is the secret of much success in work. Here is the Divine economy of strength. Accept the Almighty powers. Ally yourselves with them. Be in league with time and growth. Thus, taking the Divine lines of progress, the work will be Gods, not yours. And this reticence, this abiding, this committing of self to Him that judgeth righteously, all the while with a strenuous reserve of force under control, will raise us above the sundry and manifold changes of the world. We shall not be indifferent to them, as a man on the eve of leaving a mean house for a better one glances with an unconcerned eye at the narrowness which once vexed him; but we shall have a mastery over them, a power of looking down on them with a sense that we are in union with the source of change, growth, and power, all working together in orderly sequence. (H. Jones, M. A.)

Features of Gods family

The ear, the tongue, and the heart have all much to do with the life or practical conduct of the man of God, whose life-business, according to the law of the text, consists in working the righteousness of God. The ear for learning, or acquiring what is to be gathered instruction; the tongue for teaching, or giving forth what we have thus acquired in a testimony of our own; the heart for the ordering of the affections or passions which sway the man, and give their own tone to his character, and all for the advancement of the work of righteousness. In reference to that everything that concerns the man is viewed and weighed. In the light of that, as the consummation to be wished for and attained, is the whole character placed, and every element that enters into its composition assigned its due proportion.

I. Every child of the Father of lights, being swift to hear, is to be one who feels that he is a learner or listener, rather than a teacher, who has not yet attained, neither is already perfect in the knowledge of the truth to which he is begotten--who has more to get than he has to give. This is the pith and point of the contrast and antithesis between swift to hear and slow to speak.

1. They have a revengeful and fervent love of the truth where-ever it is to be found, and freedom from prejudice, prepossession, and narrow foreclosure of any kind. They are the children of light. The Father of lights is their Father, and, as His genuine children, they like and long above all things to come to His light, to walk in His light, to see more and more, and still more, of His light every day, as long as they live in His world. They have a taste for the truth, an appetite for the truth, whose cravings must be satisfied; a hunger and thirst after the truth which makes them long to see it, or with all saints comprehend it in its length and breadth, and depth and height, as men who are in darkness long for the morning light.

2. These children of the light are meek and lowly in heart, like so many babes; they are conscious of their own ignorance, and know that the truth is a well, or flows from a fountain, too deep for them to sound or fathom with their puny line. Its length and breadth and depth and height, who can tell but the Father of lights? From Him, therefore, they ask instruction. To Him, and the means which He has graciously appointed for the purpose, they come for illumination. What a discipline is required to form this babe-like spirit, and prepare the soil of the heart and understanding for the reception of the good seed that is to be sown, our Saviour explains in many parts of His discourses and parables, and the history of Israel testifies Deu_8:2-3).

3. In this babe-like spirit, thirsting after the truth, the children of light are so teachable, so credulous, if you will, and full of holy curiosity, that they have an open ear, an ear to hear, as our Saviour so often expresses it, wherever there is anything to be heard, an eye to see if there be a ray of light visible in the horizon revealing God the Father of lights.

A great man, and a great teacher of the truth, once said that the difference between himself and others to whom he was preferred was but this, that he was willing to learn from every one, and that there was no one from whom he did not learn something. He was indeed, a great man, if this was his character; for there is nothing in which one man is more distinguished from another. A man who knows himself, and is not proud and hard, but swift to hear, makes himself a scholar, a learner, a listener, wherever he goes. Men and things have to him a meaning beyond what they have to others. Poverty and riches, health and sickness, life and death, prosperity and adversity, all come to him charged with a special message. In all, and in each, he hears his Fathers voice (Psa_107:43). Each in its way, and after its kind, is Gods minister for good, for all work together for good.

4. For the truth itself contained in the Word of God they have a special longing and liking, because it is the word and wisdom of God, by which they have been begotten, or made Gods children, and by which they are supported in their spirits, as by their daily bread, and carried forward from the feebleness of babes to the strength and stature of the new Man, the Son of God, who is their Model and the spiritual Sun of their firmament.

II. Every child of the Father of lights who acts in character, as one begotten with the Word of truth and by the will of God to newness of life, is one who does not run to seed, or exhaust himself, by talking all he knows, or has, of religion, or allowing his life and light to expire and spend itself in words. We should have this day far more religion in our land, and a far higher style and standard of religion in the Church, as Gods witness to the truth--

1. If every man were, as here commanded, slow to speak dogmatically and controversially about knotty or disputed points of doctrine or discipline.

2. We should not have less religion, nor a lower form of Christianity, and less perfect testimony for God, if Christians were slow to speak critically, in a way of judgment on others, or slow to speak of evil, and things that do not concern themselves, in any way.

3. Every man should be slow to speak boastfully of himself, or of himself at all, directly or indirectly, who wishes to be a child and witness of the Father of lights.

III. Slowness to wrath is another seal of the children of light begotten of the Fathers own will by the Word of truth to be His witnesses in the new creation.

1. Proneness to wrath is a great and heinous sin, and fertile root of innumerable sins. In itself, in all its varieties of form, it is nothing less than murder, the spirit of murder, if it takes the shape of hatred or ill-will to the party who provokes it, or proceeds, as it most frequently does from offended self-love, i part it is of that carnal mind which is enmity against both God and man, and is not, and refuses to be, subject to the law of God. Its emblem in the Word of God is some wild and furious beast, such as the bear, the wolf, the dog, the lion, the serpent.

2. This proneness to wrath is a besetting sin against which the man of God must be on his guard at every moment, and throughout his entire life. In the family, in the Church, in social and political life, in the transactions of business, and in hours of leisure and pleasure, slowness to wrath is the highest law of eternal life. None is so often forgotten. Of none is the breach followed by surer, or swifter, or more fearful penalties even in the present life, to say nothing of that beyond the grave.

3. It is by ceasing from wrath because it is sin against God, and being slow to wrath because this is the righteousness of God, that we become newborn babes or living men. Every victory that we obtain over the temptations or provocations to wrath is a victory over the devil, who is thus removed from us to a greater distance, and leaves our spirits, from which he is thus dispossessed, more open for Christ to come in and take lull possession. And He does come in whenever by slowness to wrath, and ceasing from wrath, and striving against wrath, in every form of bad temper, and ill humour, peevishness, fretfulness, rage, uncharitableness, we cease to keep Him out.

IV. Every living child of the Father of lights is one whose whole aim in life is to work the righteousness of God, and to promote it in others by every means in his power, as well as to beware of everything to its prejudice.

1. It is not an imputed righteousness, in the sense of the righteousness of another, but real, and actual, and personal righteousness, that is called here the righteousness of God.

2. This righteousness is righteousness not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

3. This righteousness of God is the work of Gods Spirit.

4. This righteousness is the righteousness of faith working by love, and of faith and love united in a life of God. (R. Paisley.)

Simple duties

1. From that wherefore. It is a great encouragement to wait upon the ordinances, when we consider the benefits God doth dispense by them.

2. Again, from the illative particle wherefore. Experience of the success of ordinances engageth us to a further attendance upon them. He hath begotten you by the Word of truth, wherefore, be swift to hear. Who would baulk a way in which he hath found good, and discontinue duty when he hath found the benefit of it?

3. From that let every one. This is a duty that is universal, and bindeth all men. None are exempt from hearing and patient learning. These that know most may learn more. Junius was converted by discourse with a ploughman.

4. From that be swift, that is, ready. The commendation of duties is the ready discharge of them. Swiftness noteth two things--

(1) Freeness of spirit; do it without reluctancy when you do it.

(2) Swiftness noteth diligence in taking the next occasion; they will not decline an opportunity, and say, Another day. Delay is a sign of unwillingness.

5. From that be swift to hear; that is, the Word of God, for otherwise it were good to be slow in hearing. Divers things are implied in this precept. I shall endeavour to draw out the sense of it in these particulars.

(1) It showeth how we should value hearing: be glad of an opportunity; the ear is the sense of learning, and so it is of grace; it is that sense that is consecrated to receive the most spiritual dispensations (Rom_10:14). Reading doth good in its place; but to slight hearing, out of a pretence that you can read better sermons at home, is a sin. Duties mistimed lose their nature; the blood is the continent of life when it is in the proper vessels; but when it is out, it is hurtful, and breedeth diseases.

(2) It showeth how ready we should be to take all occasions to hear the Word. If ministers must preach in season and out of season, a people are bound go hear. Heretofore lectures were frequented when they were more scarce. The wheat of heaven was despised when it fell every day (Amo_8:12).

(3) It noteth readiness to hear the sense and mind of others upon the Word. We should not be so puffed up with our own knowledge, but we should be swift to hear what others can say. You do not know what may be revealed to another; no man is above a condition of being instructed. Divide self from thy opinion, and love things not because they suit with thy prejudices, but truth. Be swift to hear, that is, to consider what may be urged against you.

(4) It noteth what we should do in Christian meetings. If we were as patient and swift to hear as we are ready to speak, there would be less of wrath and more of profit in our meetings. I remember when a Manichee contested with Augustine, and with importunate clamour cried, Hear me, hear me, the father modestly answered, Neither hear me, nor I thee, but let us both hear the apostle.

6. That there are many cases wherein we must be slow to speak. This clause must also be treated of according to the restriction of the context; slow in speaking of the Word of God, and that in several cases.

(1) It teacheth men not to adventure upon the preaching of the Word till they have a good spiritual furniture, or are stored with a sufficiency of gifts. John was thirty years old when he preached first (Luk_3:1). So was our Lord. Hasty births do not fill the house, but the grave.

(2) It showeth that we should not precipitate our judgments concerning doctrines and points of divinity. The sudden conceptions of the mind are not always the best. There should be a due pause ere we receive things, and a serious deliberation ere we defend and profess them.

(3) That we be not more forward to teach others, than to learn ourselves. Many are hasty to speak, but backward to do.

(4) That we do not vainly and emptily talk of things of God, and put forth ourselves above what is meet: it is good to take every occasion, but many times indiscreet speaking doth more hurt than silence.

(5) It teacheth us not to be over-ready to frame objections against the Word. It is good to be dumb at a reproof, though not deaf.

7. Renewed men should be slow to wrath. You must understand this with the same reference that you do the other clauses; and so it implieth that the Word must not be received or delivered with a wrathful heart: it concerneth both hearers and teachers.

(1) The teachers. They must be slow to wrath in delivering the Word.

(a) Let not the Word lacquey upon private anger: spiritual weapons must not be used in your own cause. The Word is not committed to you for the advancing of your esteem and interests, but Christs.

(b) Do not easily deliver yourselves up to the sway of your own passions and anger: people will easily distinguish between this mock thunder and Divine threatenings.

(2) The people. It teacheth them patience under the Word.

8. It is some cure of passion to delay it. Be slow to wrath. Anger groweth not by degrees, like other passions, but at her birth she is in her full growth; the heat and fury of it is at first, and therefore the best cure is deliberation (Pro_19:11). It is a description of God that He is slow to wrath; certainly a hasty spirit is most unlike God. (T. Manton.)

Swift to hear, and slow to speak

The well-known wisdom of swiftness to hear and slowness to speak has been inculcated by teachers in all ages. On his disciples Pythagoras enjoined five years of preliminary silence. It was supposed that such a long probation in which there should be total abstinence from speech would give the disciples the advantage of hearing much and hearing it attentively; because the mind was not preoccupied with preparing and uttering an answer. There was supposed to be also the other advantage of pondering what was heard; so that it should be well marked and thoroughly digested. Some one has called attention to the fact that a man has two ears and but one tongue, and inferred therefrom that a man ought to hear at least twice as much as he speaks. As touching the matter of which James had been writing to his brethren, namely, their troubles, the temptations likely to arise there from, this admonition was most timely. They should be swift to hear. God, who had spoken to Elijah in the still small voice, was now speaking to them in their great trials. God is talking. He may speak slowly. We must wait Gods leisure. We must be attentive to the voice in the darkness, as little Samuel was to the night-voice in the temple. God is His own interpreter; but He never hurries; with Him a thousand years are as a day. And so we must be slow to speak; very slow to make cur own interpretation; and slower in making charges against God. If we speak incontinently, we shall not only be indiscreet, but we shall excite ourselves to anger. The tongue kindles. See what folly it is to be angry against God for His providences. Do we know what God is doing? Does not God know all things? Can He not relieve? And will He not relieve at the proper time and in the proper manner? See what a sin it is: that great, black sin of ingratitude. Has not every good gift enjoyed by us come from Him? What led Him to the bestowment of those gifts? Was not the motive wholly in Him? Does He ever change? Is He not the same? Whatsoever, therefore, comes from Him must be good. It is well to regulate our lives by the great precept, Swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, because of the injurious effect upon others of a failure to be guided thereby. Our circle of relatives and friends know how quick to advance opinions are those who are either ignorant or half-taught. If they discover that we are impatient of the speech of others, are unwilling to hear what may be said upon the other side, they will perceive in us an unchristian lack of charity for others as well as the absence of that modesty which always accompanies wisdom. If they find that we have an offhand opinion upon all the gravest questions which concern God and man, upon the most mysterious problems of the universe, they will lose respect for our utterances, and our influence over them for good will depart. If we are not slow to anger, it will exhibit such a want of self-control as will deprive us of the power of governing others. (C. F. Deems, D. D.)

Advice to talkers

The Rev. Mr. Burridge being visited by a very loquacious young lady, who engrossed all the conversation of the interview with small-talk concerning herself, when she arose to retire, he said, Madam, before you withdraw, I have one piece of advice to give you; and that is, when you go into company again, after you have talked half an hour without intermission, I recommend it to you to stop a while, and see if any other of the company has anything to say.

The hearing of the Word

1. Be swift to hear--swift, that is, ready, eager. To hear--what? Not everything, assuredly. There is much that is profane, impure, erroneous, frivolous, unprofitable. We cannot be too slow to hear, speaking of this description. The reference here is evidently to the Word of truth, mentioned immediately before as that by which God had begotten the believers, who are addressed as a kind of first-fruits of His creatures. That James had it in view throughout is clear from the latter part of the 21st verse. All who would know What is required of them as Gods children, and would be fitted for the doing of their Heavenly Fathers will, must come into close contact with the sacred Scriptures. The secret of getting good from the study of the Word is this swift hearing. But there is a special reference in the expression to the preaching of the gospel by the lips of those entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation. We are to be swift to hear. That implies very obviously that we are to seize all opportunities of hearing. We are to rejoice when it is said unto us, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Not less does it imply fixed attention in hearing. We may be where the gospel is preached, there frequently, systematically, and yet have our ears closed against the entrance of truth, so as to profit no more than if we were absent.

2. Slow to speak. The one is intimately connected with the other. What stands most in the way of many being ready to hear? What but their being so ready to speak. They have little time or taste for receiving instruction--they think themselves so well qualified for giving it. We are not forbidden to speak altogether; indeed, the very opposite is here implied, for what is enjoined is to be slow to do it, not to abstain from doing it entirely. To open our lips is often an imperative duty. We are to reprove evil-doers at fitting seasons, and in a right spirit. We are to instruct the ignorant and the erring as God gives us the opportunity. But even when we are in the path of duty we are to be slow to speak. We are to weigh the matter well, and proceed calmly, thoughtfully, deliberately. We are to guard against all rash, reckless judgments, and to be very sure of our ground before we pronounce on the characters or the conduct of others. When constrained to break silence we should do it, not under some sudden impulse, or in a random way, but from conviction and with deliberation.

3. Slow to wrath. While being swift to hear is a powerful means of sustaining the Christian life, being swift to speak is fitted to inflame corruption and stir up unholy passions. There is a place for wrath, and that is here intimated, for you observe it is not wholly forbidden. We are only to be slow to it, not speedy, not hasty. This last injunction is enforced by a weighty consideration (verse 20), For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. The wrath of man--literally wrath of man, any such wrath, whatever the extent to which it goes, or whatever the circumstances in which it appears. By the righteousness of God we are to understand that which belongs to and is distinctive of His kingdom, that which He requires in all the subjects of it, and calls them to strive after, both in themselves and others. Such a passionate, angry spirit does not further His cause, it promotes not, it works not out, those holy ends for which the Church exists and souls are brought into its fellowship. It kindler the flame of controversy, and divides the friends of truth instead of subduing its enemies. It thus puts obstacles in the way of Gods cause and glory. (J. Adam.)

The pure Word in the foul plot

The synagogue, not the temple, of the Jews was the model on which the primitive Churches were constructed. And in the synagogue the function of teaching was not confined to any one order or caste. Any intelligent and devout man might be called upon, by the ruler of the synagogue, to address an exhortation to the people. And in the primitive Churches any member who had a gift might exercise his gift, whether it were native to him or miraculous, for the benefit of the congregation. St. James wrote to the Jews of the Dispersion, to men who, though they were Christians, were also Jews; to men, therefore, in whom the habits formed in the synagogue would be familiar and dear. Probably many of them were too eager to hear their own voices, and too reluctant to listen to others. Nor are we so docile, so meek, that we can afford to put aside the exhortation as though it had no warning for us. But the exhortation is introduced by the word wherefore--a word which refers us to the previous clause of the letter, or to some phrase in it, for an answer to the question, What is it that every man is to be swift to hear? It is the Word of truth. If we owe, as we do, every access of spiritual energy to a clearer and larger perception of Gods will as revealed in His Word, should we not gladly take some pains to enlarge our knowledge of that Word, to lay hold with a firmer grasp of the truths we already know? But if we would be swift to hear, we must be slow to speak. Those whose tongues run fast have but dull ears, and are apt to lose the benefit of eves the little to which they listen. Of this general fact, that he who would be quick to hear must be in no hurry to speak, St. James makes a particular application which may not at once commend itself to our judgment. For as it is the Word of truth that he would have us eager to hear, so also, I suppose, it is the same Word that he would have us slow to utter. But is it not our duty to speak the truth by which we ourselves have been renewed? Well, yes, if we are strong enough and wise enough to speak it wisely, and without injury to ourselves and others. But a man may speak, and yet not be swift or eager to speak. And a wise man will be very sure that he knows before be speaks, and so knows his theme as to be able to teach others. Nor does it follow that, because you utter no audible words in church, that you therefore say nothing. You may sit composed in an attitude of decent or devout attention while the minister of the Church tries to open up some word of truth, and yet all the while you may be saying in your hearts, How am I to meet that bill? or For whom shall I vote? and how will the election go? or, I wonder whether I shall meet So-and-so after service? or, I wonder how the servants, or the baby, are getting on at home? So far it is easy to trace the meaning and connection of St. Jamess words. But when he goes on to add, , slow to wrath, we naturally ask if quick speech is in any way connected with quick anger. And we have hardly asked the question before we see the answer to it. Hasty speech is a sign of a hasty spirit. And surely he is speaking plain good sense when he warns us that mans wrath worketh not Gods righteousness, that our anger can in no way contribute to the formation or the cultivation of a righteous character, whether in ourselves or in our neighbours. While contending for the righteousness of God, we may become unrighteous by giving way to wrath, and cause our brother to lose his righteousness by provoking him to wrath. We do become unloving, and therefore unrighteous, when we contend with one another, even for a good cause, in these evil heats of passion. Such heats of passion in no way contribute to the culture of the soul. They are bad husbandry. They breed only a foul and rank growth which quickly overruns and impoverishes the soil, and amid which no herb of grace, no plant of righteousness, will thrive. If we are wise husbandmen, if we aim at that perfection of character which the apostle holds to be our chief good, we shall clear the soil of these evil growths; we shall cut them down and burn them up, and so make room for the implantation of that Word of truth which brings forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. (S. Cox, D. D.)

The great talker artificially deaf

The talking man makes himself artificially deaf, being like a man in the steeple when the bells ring. (J. Taylor, D. D.)

Needful to learn silence

A very talkative youth came to Socrates to study oratory. The philosopher charged him double price, stating as a reason that he must teach the youth two sciences; how to hold his tongue, and how to speak.

Swift to hear, slow to speak

Swift accords high praise to Stella (Mrs. Johnson) for the fact that she never interrupted any person who spoke. She listened to all that was said, and had never the least absence or distraction of thought. (On the Death of Mrs. Johnson.)

A good listener

One of Dean Swifts most appreciative correspondents, Lady Betty Brownlowe, begging leave to be present at his proposed meeting at Cashel with the Archbishop, expresses her certainty that you would allow me to be a good listener, for I assure you I have too great a desire to be informed and improved to occasion any interruption in your conversation, except when I find you purposely let yourself down to such capacities as mine, with an intention, as I suppose, to give us the pleasure of babbling. (Letters, May 19, 1735.)

The wrath of man

Bad temper

It is a common saying that every one has a temper but a fool. Certainly he who sees wrong done without feeling angry must be either a fool or a knave. The capability of anger is one of our most valuable endowments. Anger, to use Lockes words, is an uneasiness or discomposure of the mind which springs up when injury has been done to ourselves or to others; and its purpose is to stimulate us to a remedial course. The protective power of this passion is very great. It is a moral power which tends to repair the inequality of physical power, and to approximate the strong and the weak towards the same level. But, however useful and necessary, the passion of anger becomes very dangerous when it is not criticised and controlled by reason. When we yield without reflection, anger degenerates into bad temper--into what our text calls the wrath of man.

1. Reflection may show us that we have no right to be angry at all. Wrath is only righteous when applied to moral wrong. St. Chrysostom truly says, Anger is a sort of sting implanted in us, that we might therewith attack the devil, and not one another. In this matter, as in all others, Christ should be our example. How often must He have been grieved, disappointed, and vexed at the unsympathetic conduct of His disciples. Yet He was never angry with them. His anger was exhibited only against the mischievous cant of the Pharisees and Scribes.

2. Reflection may show that, though we may have cause for anger, yet our anger is excessive. There are persons who are almost always out of temper, who will get in a rage at anything, or even at nothing. They are more enraged at the thwarting of their smallest whim, than at the most flagrant act of injustice inflicted upon any one else. All such excessive manifestations of anger may be cured by thought. For our anger spontaneously subsides, when we become convinced that there is no real ground for it.

3. Reflection may show that though the feeling of anger is unavoidable, and though its manifestation would be legitimate, it will be better for us, under the circumstances, not to show it. The finest illustration of this will be familiar, no doubt, to many of you. It occurs in Victor Hugos most celebrated novel, and it deserves to be written in letters of gold. You remember how Jean Valjean, who had been known to himself and others for the last nineteen years as No. 5623, and who has at last been dismissed from the galleys on a ticket-of-leave--you remember bow he walks wearily along in the dust and heat, how he is turned out of the various inns, repulsed from every door, and even chased from an empty dog-kennel into which he has crawled for shelter. He wanders on again, saying despairingly to himself, I am not even a dog. By and by he comes to the house of the good old Bishop Myriel. He knocks and enters, and tells his story. The bishop, to the great discomposure of his house-keeper and the utter bewilderment of Valjean, orders a bedroom to be prepared for him, and invites him in the meantime to take a seat at the supper-table. After supper, the bishop conducts him to his room, and the poor man lies down and falls asleep. In the middle of the night he wakes and begins to think; and the result of his thinking is, that he will get up and make elf with the silver dishes which he had seen on the table the previous evening. He does so, but is soon captured by the police and brought back. The bishop dismisses the gendarmes, pretending that he had made the man a present of the silver, and asking him why he had not taken the candlesticks as well. When they were left alone together, he says to the astonished thief, Jean Valjean, my brother, never forget you have promised to employ this silver which I have given you in becoming an honest man. You belong no more to evil, but to good. I have bought your soul. I reclaim it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God. You know the result. From that day Valjean was a changed man. He became one of the noblest characters in the whole range of the worlds fiction. Fiction? Yes; but fiction that is true to fact. Cases will sometimes arise when, by restraining an anger perfectly legitimate and withholding a punishment perfectly merited, we may save a soul from death.

4. Reflection may show us that though the feeling of anger was legitimate, and though it was right and desirable to manifest it, yet the feeling has lasted long enough and may now be dismissed. Anger resteth, says the author of Ecclesiastes, in the bosom of fools. It arises in the bosom of wise men, but it remains only in the bosom of fools. If we treat men according to the first promptings of anger, we shall almost always do them wrong. It is most important that we should pause and reflect, whenever we have it in our power to inflict punishment. Plato on one occasion, being highly incensed against a servant, asked a friend to chastise him, excusing himself from doing it on the ground that he was in anger. Carillus, a Lacedemonian, said to a slave who had been insolent to him, If I were not in a great rage I would cause thee to be put to death. We may then lay it down as a general rule that the more eager we are to inflict immediate punishment, the more necessary it is for us, if we would avoid sin, to pause and reflect. So far I have been endeavouring to show that bad temper--i.e., the thoughtless yielding to the first promptings of anger--is wrong. Now let me point out that it is also impolitic. It is our interest, as a rule, apart altogether from moral considerations, to keep our anger under the control of our reason. An exhibition of bad temper is the very last thing in the world by which to get ones self better treated. Everybody is pleased to meet, and glad to serve, the good tempered man; but as for the bad-tempered man, people are perfectly satisfied if they can only manage to keep out of his way. The bad policy of ill temper was very neatly pointed out by Queen Elizabeth. There was a certain hot-tempered courtier on whom her Majesty had not yet bestowed the promotion which she had promised. Meeting him one day, she asked him, What does a man think of when he thinks of nothing? He thinks, madam, of a womans promise, was the reply. Well, said the queen, walking away, I must not confute you. Anger makes men witty, but it keeps them poor. But once more, bad temper is exceedingly unbecoming. In this respect it may be distinguished from anger. As I pointed out before, legitimate manifestations of anger are impressive and awe inspiring--so much so, that they frequently enable the weak to offer a successful resistance to the injuries with which they are threatened by the strong. But the person who is, as we say, in a temper--that is, in a bad temper--always appears ridiculous. Jeremy Taylorsays--It makes the voice horrid, the eyes cruel, the face pale or fiery, the gait fierce, the speech clamorous and loud, and the whole body monstrous, deformed, and contemptible. I am sure that those who are at all particular about their personal appearance, might be cured for ever of their bad temper, if only they could be induced, during some violent paroxysm, to gaze into a looking-glass. They would receive a shock that would make them changed characters for the rest of their lives. But permit me to add one warning. I have spoken strongly. I believe that there is nothing more contemptible, and few things more mischievous, than bad temper. But though I would have you very strict and inexorable in judging yourselves, I would have you very gentle and lenient in judging others. Take care lest you mistake for bad temper what is only the involuntary manifestation of physical pain. An invalid once told me that her nearest approach to comfort consisted in being only a little uncomfortable. Now this chronic presence of pain should cover a multitude of seeming sins. If, then, you are uncertain whether any ones hastiness of speech and manner be ill temper or not, whether it be the expression of a bad state of the heart or only a bad state of health, give them the benefit of the doubt--deal very gently with them, I beseech you, for Christs sake. (A. W. Momerie, M. A.)

The anger of man

1. From the context. The worst thing that we can bring to a religious controversy is anger. The context speaketh of anger occasioned by differences about the word. Usually no affections are so outrageous aa those which are engaged in the quarrel of religion, for then that which should bridle the passion is made the fuel of it, and that which should restrain undue heats and excesses engageth them. However, this should not be. Christianity, of all religions, is the meekest and most humble.

2. Worketh not the righteousness. Anger is not to be trusted; it is not so just and righteous as it seems to be. Anger, like a cloud, blinds the mind, and then tyrannises over it. When you are under the power of a passion, you have just cause to suspect all your apprehensions; you are apt to mistake others, and to mistake your own spirits. Passion is blind, and cannot judge; it is furious, and hath no leisure to debate and consider.

3. From that anger of man and righteousness of God. Note the opposition, for there is an emphasis in those two words man and God. The point is, that a wrathful spirit is a spirit most unsuitable to God. God being the God of peace, requireth a quiet and composed spirit. Wrathful men are most unfit either to act grace or to receive grace.

4. The last note is more general, from the whole verse: that mans anger is usually evil and unrighteous. I shall therefore endeavour two things briefly--

1. Show you what anger is sinful.

2. How sinful, and how great an evil it is.

First, to state the matter, that it-is necessary, for all anger is not sinful; one sort of it falleth under a concession, another under a command, another under the just reproofs of the Word.

(1) There are some indeliberable motions, which Jerome calleth propassions, sudden and irresistible alterations, which are the infelicities of nature, not the sins; tolerable in themselves, if rightly stinted (Eph_4:26). He alloweth what is natural, forbiddeth what is sinful.

(2) There is a necessary holy anger, which is the whetstone of fortitude and 2Pe_2:7; Mar_3:5; Exo_11:8).

(a) The principle must be right. Gods interests and ours are often twisted, and many times self interposeth the more plausibly because it is varnished with a show of religion; and we are more apt to storm at indignities and affronts offered to ourselves rather than to God.

(b) It must have a right object: the heat of indignation must be against the crime, rather than against the person: good anger is always accompanied with grief; it prompteth us to pity and pray for the party offending.

(c) The manner must be right. See that you be not tempted to any indecency and unhandsomeness of expression.

(3) There is a sinful anger when it is either--

(a) Hasty and indeliberate. Rash and sudden motions are never without sin.

(b) Immoderate, when it exceedeth the merits of the cause, as being too much, or kept too long.

(c) Causeless, without a sufficient ground (Mat_5:22).

(d) Such as is without a good end. The end of all anger must be the correction of offences, not the execration of our own malice.

Secondly, how sinful it is.

1. Nothing more makes room for Satan (Eph_4:26-27).

2. It much wounds your own peace.

3. It disparages Christianity. (T. Manton.)

The secret of calmness

It is said of the Rev. Mr. Clarke, of Chesham Bets, that when one observed to him there was a good deal in a persons natural disposition, he made this answer: Natural disposition! Why, I am naturally as irritable as any; but when I find anger, or passion, or any other evil temper arise in my mind, immediately I go to my Redeemer, and, confessing my sins, I give myself up to be managed by Him. This is the way that I have taken to get the mastery of my passions. (K. Arvine.)

Specifics against wrath

Let us see what alleviations and remedies go to the healing of this Satans vice of anger. The masters in the spiritual life give us recommendations like these: First, do not listen to tale-bearers. Tale-bearers go about with a lighted torch, not to set our houses on fire, but our hearts. Our hearts are weak, and easily misled; and the story of a tale-bearer is like dropping a hot coal on it. Then he goes away to the next door, but he leaves us in gloom; and, if we are wise men, we will say to him the next time he comes, You put me in a passion by your last visit. I have since sprung out at my friend, my minister, my church. I have been a fool, and I have repented of my folly all these days. It is better to throw a firebrand into a mans house than into his heart. If anything makes you angry, truth, and goodness, and love are lost. Another specific for the angry man is this: Have a low opinion of yourself. If you have a true opinion of yourself, you will not easily be made angry at what is said about you. Think how unworthy you are, how few talents you have; and so, when any one tells you, you have no talents, no ability, no wisdom, you will say to him, Man, I have said that on my knees this morning; that is nothing new. It is the proud man, the self-conceited man, who is easily made angry; so cultivate a low opinion of yourself, if you would avoid this sin. Thirdly, have a picture before your minds eye of a meek, and peaceful, and loving soul. Dante made Mary appear as the pattern of some sweet grace in every cornice on the sanctifying mount. Give Mary her place in your panorama of meekness, but have her Son always first. He it was who endured such contradiction of sinners, and it is contradiction that rouses us. Have these sweet, inspiring visions ever before you to raise your hearts. Drink in the sweet visions of peace and the Peacemaker. Lastly, use some means of mortifying your anger daily. So says Jeremy Taylor, from whom I have borrowed nearly all my sermon. If a man does not do this, his heart will every day be a misery, and his house a den of wild beasts. (A. Whyte

D. D.)

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God

Wrath works not the righteousness of God

It must be quite clear to any one who examines into the gospel of Christ as a cause or principle of action, that a meek and quiet spirit should be at once the distinguishing ornament and characteristic of believers. St. James lays down as principles that the unchanging God is the Giver of every good gift; and that it is by an exercise of His omnipotent will that He has begotten His spiritual children with the Word of truth. This appears to me, I say, an irrefutable argument I If we admit the premisses--that we are Gods children, begotten again in Jesus Christ to a lively hope by the Word of His grace; and that, as children partake of the same nature with their parent, so we are made partakers of the Divine nature, which is holiness, then we are bound to admit the conclusion that it is our leading duty to seek to work out the righteousness of God! And, farther, that if the wrath of man worketh not that righteousness, we are bound to eschew it, and then to cultivate that meek and quiet spirit which is according to the mind of Christ. And now consider with me the great object of our vocation propounded in the text. That object is to work out the righteousness of God. How holy a privilege is here held up for the exercise of Christians! How worthy an object for the greatest efforts of the greatest mind! I am desirous now to lead your minds to consider the reverse of the apostles negative assertion, and to point out to you that if wrath does not work out the righteousness of God, what it is that does. Hear what St. John says upon this point, Let no man deceive you: He that doth righteousness is righteous, even as He (i.e., God)

is righteous; Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother; this exactly accords with the doctrine of St. James, Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only. Whence it appears that an identity of will between God and man produces an identity of effect. An identity, that is, not in the perfectness of the righteousness, nor of the amount of it, but in the general tone of mind and action, so that the converted man seeks no longer as his main object the fulfilment of selfishness and carnal desires, but rather the righteousness of God. If you have felt your spirits stirred within you, and yourselves deeply moved--

1. In the reception of Gods revelation;

2. In feeling that revelation as a reality, not merely believing it as a theory; and--

3. In acting upon it as an unfailing rule of life; then I conceive that you may without presumption apply the comforting promises of the gospel to your own souls, and trust in humility that Gods Spirit within you is working Gods righteousness by you. (Bp. Mackenzie.)

The effect of mans wrath in the agitation of religious controversies

I. You ARE ALL AWARE OF THERE BEING MUCH WRATHFUL CONTROVERSY ON THE PART OF MEN RELATIVE TO THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, wherein the righteousness of God is said by the apostle to be revealed from faith to faith. Is there no danger, we ask, amid the acerbities of such a thickening warfare, that men should lose sight of the mildness and the mercy that lay in that embassy of peace by which it had been stirred? Surely the noise that arises from the wars and the wranglings of earth, falls differently upon the hearing to that sweetest music which descended from the canopy that is over our heads, and which accompanied the declaration of good-will to us in heaven. And so, altogether, that theology which shines immediate from his Bible on the heart of the unlettered peasant, may come with altered expression and effect on the mind of the scholastic, after it has been transmuted into the theology of the portly and polemic folio. The Sun of Righteousness may shed a mild and beauteous lustre upon the one, which to the eye of the other is obscured in the turbulence of rolling vapours, in the lurid clouds of an angry and unsettled sky. When God beseeches us to be reconciled to Him in Christ Jesus, there is placed before the mind one object of contemplation. When man steps forward, and, in the pride or intolerance of orthodoxy, denounces the fury of an incensed God on all who put not faith in the merits and the mediation of His Son, there is placed before the mind another and a distinct object of contemplation. And just in proportion to the varieties of dogmatism or debate will the mind shift and fluctuate from one contemplation to another. It is thus that the native character of Heavens embassy may at length be shrouded in subtle but most effectual disguise from the souls of men; and the whole spirit and design of its munificent Sovereign be wholly misconceived by His sinful yet much-loved children. We interpret the Deity by the hard and imperious scowl which sits on the countenance of angry theologians; and in the strife and clamour of their fierce animosities, we forget the aspect of Him who is upon the throne, the bland and benignant aspect of that God who waiteth to be gracious. And, though not strictly under our present head of discourse, there is one observation more which we feel it of importance to make ere we pass on to the next division of our subject. Apart from the transforming effect of human wrath to give another hue as it were to the complexion of the Godhead, and another expression than that of its own native kindness to the message which has proceeded from Him, there is a distinct operation in the mind of an inquirer after religious truth which is altogether worthy of being adverted to. When the controversialist makes an angry demand upon us for our belief in some one of his positions, why, that position may be the offered and the gratuitous mercy of God in heaven, and yet the whole charm of such a proposal may be dissipated, just through that tone and temper of intolerance in which it is expounded to us upon earth. We are aware, all the time, that the truth, as it is in Jesus, must be sustained by argument--that this is one of the offices of the Church militant upon earth, whose part it is to silence gainsayers; and not only to contend, but to contend earnestly, for the faith which was delivered unto the saints. Yet it is not in the clangour of arms, or in the shouts of victory, or in the heat and hurry even of most successful gladiatorship--it is not thus that this overture of peace and pardon from heaven falls with efficacy upon the sinners ear. It is not so much in the act of intellectually proving the truth of the doctrine, as in the act of proceeding upon its truth, when we affectionately urge the sinner to make it the stepping-stone of his return unto God--it is then most generally that it becomes manifest unto his conscience, and that he receives in love that which in the spirit of love and kindness has been offered to him.

II. I shall now consider THE EFFECT OF MANS WRATH, WHEN INTERPOSED BETWEEN A RIGHT AND A WRONG DENOMINATION OF CHRISTIANITY. It can require no very deep insight into our nature to perceive, that when there is proud or angry intolerance on the side of truth, it must call forth the reaction of a sullen and determined obstinacy on the side of error. Men will submit to be reasoned out of an opinion, and more especially when treated with respect and kindness. But they will not submit to be cavalierly driven out of it. There is a revolt in the human spirit against contempt and contumely, insomuch that the soundest cause is sure to suffer from the help of such auxiliaries. Nevertheless, it is the part of man, both to adopt and to advocate the truth, lifting his zealous testimony in its favour. Yet there is surely a way of doing this in the spirit of charity; and while strenuous, while even uncompromising in the argument, it is possible surely to observe all the amenities of gentleness and good-will in these battles of the faith. For example, it is not wrong to feel either the strength or the importance of our cause, when we plead the Godhead of the Saviour. Yet with all these reasons for holding ourselves to be intellectually right upon this question, there is not one reason why the wrath of man should be permitted to mingle in the controversy. This, whenever it is admitted, operates not as an ingredient of strength, but as an ingredient of weakness. Let Truth be shrined in argument--for this is its appropriate glory. And it is a sore disparagement inflicted upon it by the hand of vindictive theologians, when, instead of this, it is shrined in anathema, or brandished as a weapon of dread and of destruction over the heads of all who are compelled to do it homage. Truth will be indebted for her best victories, not to the overthrow of Heresy discomfited on the field of argument, but to the surrender of Heresy disarmed of that in which her strength and her stability lie--of her passionate, because provoked, wilfulness. Charity will do what reason cannot do. It will take that which letteth out of the way--even that wrath of man, which worketh neither the truth nor the righteousness of God. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)

The equable temper

Let not external circumstances regulate your demeanour. But let them be governed by your strong will acting under a sense of what is right. Your temper will then be equable as it should be. Just look at the plants. One of their most mysterious properties is that of regulating their temperature. The twigs of the tree are not frozen through in winter, neither does their temperature mount up in summer in proportion to the external heat. Their vitality protects them equally from both extremes. And when you are yielding too much to mere external influences just think of this. (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 1:19-20. Wherefore — As if he had said, Since you are regenerated, and that by the word of God, therefore let every man be swift to hear — That word; let him be willing and desirous to receive instruction from it, and therefore diligent in embracing all opportunities of hearing it; slow to speak — To deliver his opinion in matters of faith, that he does not yet well understand. Persons half instructed frequently have a high opinion of their own knowledge in religious matters, are very fond of teaching others, and zealous to bring them over to their opinions. That the converted Jews were fond of being teachers, we learn from Jas 3:1; 1Ti 1:7. Slow to wrath — Against those that differ from him. Intemperate religious zeal is often accompanied by a train of bad passions, and particularly with anger against those who differ from us in opinion. The Jews, even the Jewish Christians to whom this letter was chiefly written, were very faulty in this respect. The apostle, however, may be understood as cautioning his readers against easily yielding to provocation in any respect whatever, and especially when injuriously treated by their persecutors. For the wrath of man — Even when it appears in the garb of religious zeal, worketh not — But, on the contrary, greatly obstructs, the righteousness of God — Instead of promoting the cause of true religion in the world, it is a reproach to it, and a means of exciting the prejudices of mankind against it. Persecution, in particular, the effect of the wrath of man, if violent, may make men hypocrites, by forcing them to profess what they do not believe; but it has no influence to produce that genuine faith which God accounts to men for righteousness. Nothing but rational arguments, with the illumination of the Spirit of God, can do this.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

II. WITHIN THE CHRISTIAN SYNAGOGUE: THE PROPER TEMPER, BEHAVIOUR, AND FAITH THERE, Jas_1:19 to Jas_3:18.

1. No loquacity nor irritation, but candid hearing, Jas_1:19-21.

To understand the emphasis laid by St. James in the rest of this chapter on moderation of language and candid listening, we must conceive something of a picture of discussions in the Synagogues, (see note on Jas_2:2,) in which replies of cavillers could interrupt the Christian preacher, 1Co_14:27-33. The epistle, in its address, comprehends not only Christian Jews, but all Jews inclined to read and listen, and hence the importance of impressing the whole with the necessity of decency, candour, and readiness in a spirit of meekness to receive the word of the gospel. Inquirers must calmly listen, they must learn in order to practice; but especially must they bridle the tongue, or else the pretences and attempts at religion are futile.

19. Wherefore—The true reading seems to be, Ye know; that is, of all this you are aware; but (Greek, δε) let every man, etc. Same ye know in Eph_5:5, and Heb_12:17. In view of the fact that it is by the word of truth that we are regenerated into firstfruits, let us give careful heed to that word. And so our attention to that word with candour, (Jas_1:14-21,) practical obedience, (22-25,) and self-control, (26,) is discussed until we arrive at pure religion, Jas_1:27.

Let—An exhortation to a candid, unvociferous, unexcited hearing of the word of truth.

Swift… slow—A frequent antithesis among Greek writers to express readiness and averseness. The importance and brief opportunity of the truth demand quick and earnest listening. It is too valuable to be slighted, and tomorrow may be too late.

Slow to speak—Without hasty and captious interruptions; such as the Christian preacher, as St. Paul, often encountered from unbelieving auditors. The old philosophers said, that men have but one tongue and two ears, and so should speak little and hear much. Wrath is the disputant’s angry excitement against the truth. He first is rash to speak, and then warms as he talks into wrath. The wrath here spoken of is that not of promulgators of the truth, but of cavilling hearers, to whom it is offered. Hence they are, next verse, exhorted to receive the word. For this epistle is addressed to the twelve tribes—not only those who are Christians, but those who should be so.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Jas_1:19. Wrath.—ὀργήν; an abiding, settled habit of mind with the purpose of revenge.

Jas_1:21. Filthiness.—Not limited to sensualities, but including everything that defiles the soul. Superfluity of naughtiness.—“Overflow of mental wickedness,” or of malice. Or, “the remains of your perversity.” See 1Pe_3:21. Plumptre renders, “excess characterised by malice.” “The Greek word had come to be associated mainly with the sins that have their root in wrath and anger, rather than with those that originate in love of pleasure.” Engrafted word.—Implanted. See above the reference to the “word of truth” as the instrument by which the new and better life was engendered.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jas_1:19-21

Hindrances to Spiritual Receptiveness.—In His parable of the sower our Lord presented to view some of the more usual hindrances, such as come from preoccupation, shallow-mindedness, and worldly cares. St. James presents to view those which in a special manner affected the Jews of the Dispersion. Loquacity, quarrelsomeness, self-assertion, love of mastery, were characteristic of them; and all of these spoil receptiveness, and tend to destroy it. Good influences can only enter in at the doors which meekness, and quietness, and anxiety to learn and serve, can open. Men’s character-conditions usually suffice to explain the limitations of Divine blessing to them. They have not, because they are not able to receive. Power to receive depends on resolute dealing with our personal evils in character.

I. One great hindrance is hasty talk.—“Slow to speak.” Much talk is perilous; but hasty talk is more perilous. Much talk usually goes with little thought. Hasty talk goes before thought, and often utters what the thought would neither approve nor support. Hasty talk is no less a hindrance when it is pious talk, or talk about religious things. There are no persons more difficult to influence for good than those who have “too much to say.” Hasty talk expresses and nourishes self-conceit and self-satisfaction. Mere fluency is the gravest peril of the Christian teacher.

II. Another great hindrance is hasty temper.—“Slow to wrath.” It is difficult for us to realise the suddenness, unreasonableness, and intensity of anger in Eastern countries, and, perhaps we may say, even specially among the Jews. One writer says: “I have never met with a people so much disposed to violent anger, especially from slight causes, as in the case of the inhabitants of the East. Men get angry with each other, with their wives or children or animals, or even with inanimate things, with surprising frequency. The noticeable points are, want of control, and want of anything like ordinary proportion between the cause and degree of the emotion. These fits of anger, to any save a superior, are marked by most expressive demonstration.” Evidently St. James feared that among the Jewish Christians the new Christian spirit was not recognised as a force bearing on the restraint of this national characteristic. Still appeal is often made, in excuse of failure, to “human nature.” A man will explain his wrong-doing by his disposition, as if the first sphere of the Christian sanctifying were not that very disposition. The power of wrath in man is a necessary and noble element of character. The expression of wrath is often a sign of lack of self-restraint. Lack of restraint is a condition in which evil can work effectively, but good cannot. Good takes a man who is in restraint. Temper spoils the work that good would do. The Christian religion is a distinct force unto self-restraint. It helps to the possession of every “vessel of the body in sanctification and honour.” And that represents a condition of full receptivity to gracious influences.

III. Another great hindrance is found in the relics of old corruptions left in us.—“Putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness.” John Bunyan, in his Holy War, represents some Diabolians as left lurking and hiding in “Mansoul,” and ever hatching and plotting mischief. St. Paul speaks of the “old man with his corruptions”; evil habits, unregulated and unsubdued desires and passions; injurious friendships; all that is involved in the term “the flesh,” as used by the apostle.

“The flesh and sense must be denied,

Passion and envy, lust and pride.”

IV. A last hindrance is our failure duly to cultivate some sides of the Christian character.—“Receive with meekness the engrafted word.” Meekness is one of the neglected sides, partly because we do not see how that can be cultivated. And it cannot be directly. It can be indirectly. Active graces can be nourished by direct dealing with them; passive graces can only be cultured by attention to the things which form for them good soil and atmosphere. There are specialities of character in male and female; the Christian character is inclusive of both, and the Christian never can gain his full receptivity unless both the characteristic male and female graces are duly nourished into fulness of strength and beauty.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Jas_1:19. Swift to Hear rather than to Speak.—If we were as swift to hear as we are ready to speak, there would be less of wrath and more of profit in our meetings. I remember when a Manichee contested with Augustine, and with importunate clamour cried, “Hear me! Hear me!” The father modestly replied, “Nec ego te, nec tu me, sed ambo audiamus apostolum” (“Neither let me hear thee, nor do thou hear me, but let us both hear the apostle”).—Manton.

Talkativeness.—We are overhasty to speak—as if God did not manifest Himself by our silent feeling, and make His love felt through ours. The disciples of Pythagoras, especially if they were addicted to talkativeness, were not permitted to speak in the presence of their master, before they had been his auditors five years.—M. Evans.

Jas_1:20. The Besetting Sin of the Jews.—The besetting sin of the Jews was to identify their own anger against what seemed sin and heresy with the will of God; to think that they did God service by deeds of violence, and that they were thus working out His righteousness. The teaching of St. James here is after the pattern of the purely ethical books of the Old Testament.

Jas_1:21. Engrafted, and so within us.—The gospel word, whose proper attribute is to be engrafted by the Holy Spirit, so as to be livingly incorporated with the believer, as the fruitful shoot is with the wild natural stock on which it is engrafted. The law came to man only from without, and admonished him of his duty. The gospel is engrafted inwardly, and so fulfils the ultimate design of the law.—Fausset.

The Engrafted Word.—“Engrafted,” or “implanted,” here has special reference, as the Greek shows, to the object in view. The word is designed to fructify, and it is something not akin to the recipient. An agency is implied, and in this connection the apostle is thinking of ministers as the planters; and the heavenly doctrine so enters the soul and pervades it as to become a second nature, thoroughly identified with the life, even as the graft which has taken well becomes after its insertion into the stock completely one with it. And yet it is from the stock it draws sustenance and strength, and becomes a fruit-bearer.

Truth received with Meekness.—The truth is not to be received with a passive meekness merely. Unless it be received with an active meekness, the engrafted word, that might have grown and converted the whole tree, dies. To get the full illustration of this, we must suppose a wilful crab stock, not merely passive, but endued with a power of self-determining perverseness, to say to the gardener, “You may cut me and apply your graft to the cutting, but not one particle of my sap shall ever enter into its vessels.” The consequence would be, inevitably, that the crab tree would remain a crab tree, and the fruit-bearing graft, for want of co-operation on the part of the crab tree, unsustained by the sap, would die; it could not grow unless received with active energy by the crab tree.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1

Jas_1:19. Slow to speak, slow to wrath.—In a cavalry squadron of the great German army which fought so bravely at Gravelotte, the youngest officer was from Westphalia. He was an impetuous, hasty young man. Among his men there was one who often excited his anger, for he was, as every one agreed, a very stupid recruit, and as the lieutenant was hot-headed and quick, so was the recruit slow and awkward in everything. Constantly was it said to the poor recruit, “You can do nothing right!” But, however men may speak and judge, they cannot see into the inmost heart, and God, who knows everything, judges differently from them, and knows what such despised ones can and will accomplish. In the terrible battle of Gravelotte the Westphalian squadron, after a hitherto victorious struggle, was at last, by fresh attacks of superior forces, so hardly pressed that the men were separated from each other. Then it happened that our lieutenant, too, parted from the rest of his troop, was fallen upon by two powerful troopers, but by putting forth all his strength he defended himself against these, till his arm became weary and his eye grew dim. He had already looked death in the face, and in his heart said farewell to his loved ones at home. But now suddenly, in furious gallop, a horseman rushes up. He had been halting some hundred yards off behind a wall, and in a few moments could safely have rejoined his company, for he heard the French signal given to retreat, and the trumpets of his own company coming nearer. But when he saw his lieutenant in danger of death, with a firm hand he grasped his sword, jumped over the wall and dealt first to one and then to the other of the hostile troopers blows which stretched them both upon the ground. When, after a few moments, the lieutenant succeeded in bringing his foaming horse to a standstill, and the soldier, who was no other than the so-called stupid recruit, was again firmly in the saddle, the latter gazed at his officer with beaming eyes and said, “Have I done right now?” But before the lieutenant could reply and say, “Yes, yes, you have indeed done right,” a bullet whizzes from out of the bushes and pierces the soldier through the forehead, so that he drops down dying from his horse. The lieutenant throws himself weeping upon the man, and calls into his ear, “Yes, comrade, you have done right.” He hears no more. He has received his sentence from another Judge.

Anger.—As Plato, having taken his man in a great fault, was of a sudden exceedingly moved, and having gotten a cudgel as though he would have beaten him, notwithstanding desisted, and used no further punishment, one of his friends standing by him and seeing this thing, demanded of him why he had gotten such a cudgel; to whom he answered, that he had provided it to correct and chastise his own anger, which seemed to rebel against him and would no longer be ruled by reason; in like manner should we do when we are troubled with this passion of anger, and get either a knife or a sword to cut the throat of it when it beginneth, and is as it were in its infancy; for we may easily at the first oppose ourselves against it, as against a tyrant, and not permit it to have rule over us; but if we suffer it to increase and to fortify itself, it will, by little and little, overrule us, and at length become invincible.

Anger in the East.—I have never met with a people so much disposed to violent anger, especially from such slight causes, as in the case of the inhabitants of the East. I scarcely met with a native, during some months, who was not subject, upon even slight provocation, to what would be called with us unreasonable anger. It is common with men and women, old and young, rich and poor. It scarcely seems possible, in many cases at least, to heighten or deepen the expression of bad temper by any new gesture, or look, or word, or tone of voice that is not employed. One can hardly imagine the almost frightful energy with which they give vent to their fiery and ungovernable passion in many cases. Two men will stand facing each other for minutes, often rising to the highest pitch of violence in gesture and look and language; yet they seldom strike one another. I have watched, for example, a large Turk face to face with an equally large Nubian, black and glossy as polished ebony, who acted towards each other, for minutes, as if nothing could satisfy them save the annihilation of one or both parties, and yet the only personal damage done was that the Nubian spat in the face of the Turk, and then walked away as if he had finished his adversary—who looked, in his turn, as if he had been beaten. They seldom proceed to personal violence. Your dragoman must quarrel with his servants, and these with one another. Every village you pass you hear the sound of quarrelling—generally, so far as you can observe, without any adequate cause. I can well understand why the expression “angry without cause” should have been used.—National Sunday-school Teacher.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

IV. SECOND ADMONITION WITH REFERENCE TO THE SECOND FROM OF TEMPTATION—FANATICISM

CAUTION AGAINST YIELDING TO THE WARTH OF MAN (SEXUAL), WHICH THANKS ITSELF COMPETENT TO ADMINSTER THE JUSTICE OF GOD BUT IS INCOMPETENT TO DO IT. THE INSTRUMENT OF DELIVERANCE AND PRESERVATION FROM THIS ZEAL.: THE CULTURE OF INNER LIFE IN FAITH AND THE VERITABLE RELIGIOUS PROOF OF THIS FAITH IN ACTS OF MERCY.

Jam_1:19-27

(Jam_1:22-27. Epistle for 5th Sunday after Easter)

19 Wherefore,38 my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow 20, 21to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh39 not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,40 deceiving your own selves. 23For 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: 24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work41, this man shall be blessed in 26his deed. If42 any man among you43 seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27Pure religion and undefiled before God44 and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from, the world.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Analysis. Caution against the second form of temptation—fanatical, angry zeal. The clemency of the man who is called to be the child of God or who is already begotten, should be in comformity to the clemency of God Jam_1:19.—The wrath of man [sexual] is not adapted So the ministering of the righteousness of God, Jam_1:20.—They were to purify themselves from this temptation, by acknowledging said sin as a pollution (not peradventure as zeal for Judaistic purity) and as natural maliciousness and putting it off, and on the other hand, by thoroughly appropriating with meekness the word of Christian truth unto the furthering of their salvation, Jam_1:21.—Such an appropriation of the word will be most readily accomplished by their becoming doers of the word and by ceasing to be mere hearers, Jam_1:22-24.—The real doer of the word has two distinguishing marks: he is absorbed with the eye of faith in the contemplation of the perfect law, the free law of Christian truth and proves his perseverance in this contemplation by the full consistency of Christian activity (as described more particularly). By such full energy of life he attains the enjoyment of blissful life Jam_1:25.—Whoever imagines that he is a real worshipper of God and a zealot for the honour of God and corrupts his heart in giving the reins (in fanatical zeal) to his tongue, his religious service is vain. But the counterpart, true worship of God corresponding to the true image-of-God-the-Father, is Christian care of the helpless members of the Church accompanied by a decided shunning of polluting worldly-mindedness. Jam_1:26-27.

The clemency which shuns fanaticism and conforms to the clemency of the Father in heaven.

Jam_1:19. Know however, my beloved brethren.—The connection indicated by the reading ὥστε (see App. Crit.) deduces from the clemency of God the exhortation that the Christian also should exhibit corresponding clemency. But that reading makes this verse dependent on what precedes, as if it were simply an application, which is not correct. On the contrary we have here the beginning of a new leading thought, viz.: the guarding of Christians against the temptation of fanatical zeal by fully yielding to the spirit of meekness and liberty in Christianity. Hence the reading ἴστε is also preferable on internal grounds. Huther’s observation is correct: “Jam_1:18, connects primarily with the exhortation to hear—and then with the further exhortation in Jam_1:22 to be not only hearers but doers of the word.” “But the hearing here insisted upon must evidence itself as decided, (according to Mat_13:23) as a full and unreserved yielding to the word of truth and consequently as the foundation and not as the contrast of doing. Semler takes ἴστε as an Indicative; non ignoratis istud carmen Sir. Jam_1:11, but apart from the difference in expression there and here, the indicative sense weakens without reason the energetical tone of the exhortation. Huther remarks that ἴστε answers to the μὴ πλανᾶσθε Jam_1:16, which view is further confirmed by the use of the same address: ὰδελφοὶ μου ἀγαπητοί here and there; of also Jam_2:5. [But it is not necessary to connect the ἴστε taken indicatively with the exhortation at all: it therefore cannot weaken its energetical tone, on the contrary it strengthens it by its very abruptness. Adopting the indicative sense of ἴστε I connect it therefore with the preceding, as follows: Ye know it, my beloved brethren, but let every man, etc.; or paraphrasing: Ye know that these things are so, but possessed of this very knowledge let every man, etc. ἴστε is used in this sense in Eph_5:5; Heb_12:17.—M.].

Also let every man.—καί (see App. Crit.) indicates that the conduct of man should be in conformity to the conduct of God. It remains to be ascertained in what sense we are to take this sentence. Laurentius and al. make it a general direction; Gebser, Wiesinger and al. give it a distinct reference to “the word of truth;” Huther, Theile and al., say that the general direction had primarily the specific aim of inculcating upon Christians the right conduct also in respect of the word of truth. But all this hardly does full justice to the double antithesis in the words: slow to speak, slow to wrath. The Apostle indicates the point in which Christ and Christian religiousness should evidence itself as humanity, but true humanity also as piety—even the centre of faith and humanity as contrasted with inhuman and impious conduct. Hence the express declaration: πᾶς ἄνθρωπος. It is a fundamental law of humanity, which is here described by the antithesis ταχύς and βραδύς (found in Philo, but in no other place of the New Testament, and expressed by Rückert thus: “thou hast two ears and one mouth.”)—Being swift to hear denotes entire readiness, constancy and thoughtfulness of hearing (Mat_13:23) and shows that such real hearing contains the germ of obedience to the truth, just as real “tasting and seeing” involves the experience “that the Lord is good.” Being slow to speak of course does not exclude all speaking but rash, immature, thoughtless and immoderate talking (λαλεῖν), especially dogmatical speaking Jam_3:1, although the expression is not confined to it (Pott and al.). The Apostle demands cautious, thoughtful speaking, a speaking flowing from an inward calling and therefore a weighty speaking. Being slow to wrath applies in like manner to anger, which is consequently not absolutely disallowed (as Hornejus has truly remarked). Eagerness in speaking by warmth leads one easily to eagerness of passion [Alford: The quick speaker is the quick kindler.—M.]. Huther justly rejects the reference of this wrath to God (Calvin, Bengel, Gebser: “impatience towards God on account of persecution”). For in that case James ought not to have allowed any slowness to wrath. Huther capitally explains this wrath of “carnal zeal aiming at the mastering of our neighbour, the fruit of which is not εἰρήνη but ἀκαταστασία Jam_3:16; the caution is directed against Christians, who—as did the Pharisees in respect to the law—instead of using the Gospel for their own sanctification, were abusing it in gratifying their love of condemnation and quarrelsomeness.” Thus our exhortation in its particular direction is addressed not only to the Jewish Christians but to all the twelve tribes, whose ancestors in fanaticism, Simeon and Levi (Genesis 34), disapproved by their father (Gen 34:49), were afterwards mentioned as patterns worthy of imitation (Judith 9).

The wrath of man not a suitable organ of the righteousness of God.

Jam_1:20. For the wrath of man worketh not.—Our verse gives the reason of the preceding one, but contrasts the two modes of conduct, the right one there and the wrong one here. We attach importance to the distinction that in the former verse reference is made to the wrath of man in general and here to the wrath of man sexually. Thomas perceives in the expression an antithesis between the man and the child, Bengel one between man and woman but neither does conform to or satisfy the historical significance of our expression. We agree with Huther that this sentence must not be referred to the state of being righteous before God (Gebser, Grashof), and with Wiesinger that it must not be to the personal doing of men which is well-pleasing to God (so Huther following Luther—δικαιοσύνη=τὸ δίκαιον a meaning of frequent occurrence in both Testaments); but we cannot stop with Wiesinger at the interpretation of Hofmann that “the wrath (zeal) of man is unable to effect in others (i.e., as a zeal of conversion) the righteousness of God, i.e., that “state of being righteous” [Rechtsbeschaffenheit45], which God begets by this word of truth. For James evidently has respect to the fanatical delusion of wrath, which imagines to administer and work out in the world the righteousness of God especially with reference to unbelievers by passionate words and deeds, in that it only gives reality to its unamiable ebullitions. Such was specifically the Judaistic delusion, which begot Ebionism and the Jewish war and which also found afterwards its expression in Mohammedanism and even in the Christian crusades, in the ecclesiastical persecutions of heretics and also in several fanatical heretics (Eudo de Stella, Thomas Münzer, etc.). But that the subjects of this delusion at the same time believe that their wrath (zeal) is the true way of converting men, that thus they are doing a work well-pleasing to God and that thus they will become righteous before God are features which, although we cannot set them aside, must remain subordinate to the leading idea of passionate ebullitions in majorem gloriam Dei, i.e., here justitiæ Dei. Our translation would be more strongly expressed by the reading κατεργάζεται than by the better authenticated ἐργάζεται; but the latter taken in a pregnant sense, does also give the force of the former.

Shunning the temptation to unholy and hypocritical wrath (zeal) by means of true sanctification, negatively and positively.

Jam_1:21. Wherefore removing etc.—James bidding his readers purify themselves from the false zeal for their imaginary Jewish purity sounds like an oxymoron; for it is just their kind of zeal for purity which he characterizes as impurity and their imaginary piety as inhuman maliciousness. But true purifying is to him sanctification, that is, it is on the one hand the result of a negation (putting off impurity, etc.), and on the other, the result of a positive act, viz., the full receiving of the word of truth. However the two acts do not absolutely succeed one another (remove and receive), but with the removing of impurity (take note of the Participle) the real appropriating of the evangelical word of God is to take place. The negative element, however, has here a conditional precedence, repentance before faith (Mar_1:15); hence it is here subordinated by the Participle to the positive element on which it depends (cf. Rom_13:12; Eph_4:22-23). But the Participle must also be noted as enforcing constancy in purifying.—ἀποθέμενοι we cannot translate “putting off,” for the reference is not figuratively to the putting off of filthy garments and to the opposite putting on of clean ones. The antithesis is: to remove, do away with; and to acquire, appropriate (see Eph_4:25 and other passages).

All filthiness (impurity).—ῥυπαρία (in the New Testament only here) is doubtless a stronger expression than ἀκαθαρσία (Rom_6:19). It denotes filth in a religious, theocratical sense like the filthy garment Jam_2:2, like ῥύπος 1Pe_3:21, and ῥυπαρός and ῥυπαρεύειν Rev_22:11. To take the word in a general sense of moral uncleanness (Calvin and al.), is inadequate; still less apposite are the specific renderings “avarice” (Storr), “whoring” (Laurentius), “intemperance” (Heisen); but least of all its reduction to an attribute of the following κακία (Huther: putting off all uncleanness and abundance of malice; similarly. Theile, Wiesinger and al.). It is sufficiently manifest that James sees in the carnal wrath (zeal) exerted in the interest of piety an antithesis, viz., impurity towards God (on the Atheistical in the heart of fanaticism see Nitzsch System, p. 39), and malice towards man.

All out-flowing (communication of life) of malice.—Huther: περισσεία, foreign to classical Greek, denotes in the New Testament “abundance,” really superabundance. The substantive and the corresponding verb περισσεύειν signify in the New Testament the overflowing of a fulness of life, on the one hand as a development of life (a passing over into the life which continues to procreate itself Mat_5:20; Rom_15:13, etc.), on the other hand as a communication of life (a passing over upon others, Rom_5:15; Rom_5:17; 2Co_8:2; Jam_5:15, etc.). Here the word is evidently used in the latter sense. This follows also from the proper definition of the term κακία, which here is not synonymous with πονηρία (1Co_5:8)=vitiositas (Semler, Theile and al.), but according to the connection as the opposite of ἐν πραΰτητι, as Eph_4:31; Col_3:8; Tit_3:3; 1Pe_2:1. A more specific idea, namely the inimical disposition towards one’s neighbour, which we express by “animosity” (Pott)! Huther.—(Wiesinger: ὀργή, Rosenmüller: morositas; Meyer: malice). The overflowing of maliciousness is therefore the malicious, hateful communication which passes from the fanatical wrath (zeal) of the propagandists on those whom they influence, according to Mat_23:15; Rom_2:24 and according to ecclesiastical history, especially the history of the persecution of the Donatists, the Paulicians and the Camisards, etc. The definition of περισσεία = περίσσωμα (Bede); outgrowth, efflorescence (Schneckenburger, de Wette);=the remnant surviving from former times (Gebser and al.=περίσσευμα), are thus set aside. [Alford joins ῥυπαρίαν with περισσείαν, as belonging to the Genitive κακίας and remarks that “it seems better for the context, which concerns not the putting away of moral pollution of all kinds, but only of that kind, which belongs to κακία. And thus taken it will mean that κακία pollutes the soul and renders it unfit to receive the ἔμφυτος λόγος. It is very possible that the agricultural similitude in ἔμφυτος may have influenced the choice of both these words, ῥυπαρία and περισσεία. The ground must be rid of all that pollutes and chokes it, before the seed can sink in and come to maturity; must be cleaned and cleared. περισσεία, if the above figures be allowed, is the rank growth, the abundant crop.”—M.].

Receive (acquire, appropriate) in meekness.—In meekness, in virtue of a meek disposition, and not only with meekness. Meekness stands first in a pregnant sense. In meekness acquire, i.e. a meek demeanour, the opposite of wrathfulness, exhibited towards their brethren of different opinions is not only the condition, the vital element of the reception of the Gospel on the part of the Jews but also of the right appropriation of the same on the part of the Jewish Christians. Although the word denotes not directly the docilis animus (Grotius, similarly Calvin and al.), yet the first condition and proof of the same. The reference, to be sure, is not to meekness as the fruit of the reception of the word (Schneckenburger), although the morally calm and gentle spirit engendered under the influence of Christianity must be manifested in its highest perfection as its fruit. Want of meekness destroys the power of the Gospel (Mat_18:23, etc.); the fourth and the seventeenth centuries prove this in a remarkable manner Receive. δέξασθε is emphatic and denotes the right attitude under right hearing with right doing. The rooting and growing of Paul is here strikingly described as a fuller making one’s own [appropriation], because the Jewish-Christians were in great danger of again losing their own (property) and the Jews were on the point of losing their ancient title to it (cf. 1Th_1:6).

The word implanted in [and among] you.—This word is the objective Gospel (Huther: neither “innate or connate reason” [Oecumenius], nor the inner light of the mystics, for δέχεσθαι forbids that) as in Jam_1:18, but in its subjective form of life, as the spiritual and vital principle in believers or as the seed of regeneration (1Pe_1:23). In this form it is implanted in believers but likewise implanted as a principle of conversion in the Jews as a whole; the latter meaning must not be not passed over. Hence the δέξασθε is relevant both with reference to the first reception and the further appropriation of it. In consequence of the difficulty arising from the idea of receiving a word already implanted, Calvin made ἔμφυτος proleptic and explained it “ita suscipite, ut vere inseratur;” and others similarly. But the word received subjectively does not thereby cease to be objective and to be received. [It is doubtful whether Lange’s solution of the difficulty will stand the ordeal of logical analysis. There is no such double sense in ἔμφυτος. Nor is the more clearly expressed exposition of Alford more satisfactory. He sees in ἔμφυτος an allusion to the parable of the sower and makes “the λόγος ἔμφυτος=the word which has been sown, the word whose attribute and ἀρετή it is to be ἔμφυτος, and which is ἔμφυτος, awaiting your reception of it to spring up and take up your being into it and make you new plants.” His exposition is open to the same objection that something which is already sown in another soil can be implanted in us, if he understands by λόγος ἔμφυτος the word written or preached. Adhering however to the real meaning ἔμφυτος=innate, τὸ ἐν φύσει (Hesych.) we may remove all difficulty. Then the λόγος ἔμφυτος is=the innate Word, that is, the Word which has been born in our nature, i.e. Christ. So Wordsworth who produces much illustrative matter of the use of ἔμφυτος and thus sums up the whole: While it is true, that Christ by his Incarnation is properly said to be ἔμφυτος innate, born in us, and to be indeed Emmanuel, God with us, God manifest in our flesh, God dwelling forever in the nature of us all; or, if we adopt the other sense of ἔμφυτος, while it is true, that Christ is indeed grafted in us as our Netzer or Branch (see Mat_2:23), yet will not this avail for our salvation, unless we receive Him by faith. We must be planted in Him and He in us by Baptism (Gal_3:27), we must dwell in Him and He in us, by actual and habitual communion with Him in the Holy Eucharist, we must, abide and bring forth fruit in Him, by fervent love and hearty obedience. Christ, who is the Branch (Zec_6:12), is engrafted on the stock of our nature; but a scion grafted on a tree will not grow unless it is received and take root in the stock; so His Incarnation will profit us nothing, unless we receive Him in our hearts and drink in the sap of His grace and transfuse the life-blood of our wills into Him, and grow and coalesce with Him and bring forth fruit in Him.”—M.].

Which is able to save your souls.—The idea of individual salvation is allied here with that of the national deliverance of the Israelites as in Joh_10:28. Hence stress is here laid not only on the salvation of the soul but also on the salvation of the life and τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμων is stronger than simply ὑμᾶς. [Alford says: “It is the ψυχή which carries the personality of the man; which is between the πνεῦμα drawing it upwards and the σάρξ drawing it downwards; and is saved or lost, passes into life or death, according to the choice between these two. And the λόγος ἔμφυτος, working through the πνεῦμα and by the Divine πνεῦμα, is a spiritual agency, able to save the ψυχή”—M.]. It is able (cf. Rom_1:16, δύναμις θεοῦ), but you are unable, incompetent for the carrying out of your judaistic plans of salvation. [Calvin: “Magnificum cœlestis doctrinæ encomium, quod certam ex ea salutem consequimur. Est autem additum, ut sermonem illum instar thesauri incomparabilis et expetere et amare et magnificare discamus. Est ergo acris ad castigandam nostram ignaviam stimulus, sermonem cui solemus tam negligenter aures præbere, salutis nostræ esse causam. Tametsi non in hunc finem servandi vis sermoni adscribitur quasi aut salus in externo vocis sonitu inclusa foret, aut servandi munus Deo ablatum alio transferretur. Nam de sermone tractat Jacobus qui fide in corda hominum penetravit: et tantum indicat, Deum salutis auctorem evangelio suo earn peragere.”—M.].

But you will really appropriate the word by becoming doers of the word and by ceasing to remain hearers only, Jam_1:22-24.

Jam_1:22. But become ye doers of the word.—γίνεσθε=be ye (Huther against Wiesinger, Theile and al.) who render=became ye. Huther refers to Mat_6:16; Mat_10:16 and other passages. We take it with Wiesinger, of course not in the sense of Semler, as if the word indicated perpetuam successionem horum exercitiorum, but in the sense of a perfect development of their Christian life. This demand on the Jewish Christians and the Jews was the cause of the martyrdom of Simon, the brother of James under the reign of Trajan; it was also the cause of the early martyrdom of James, not long after he wrote this Epistle, and this is just his idea of the deed, the doing and the work, as it here for the first time takes a distinct shape: you must become wholly consistent Christians, if Christianity is to effect your salvation. As the warning against apostasy forms the negative side of his Epistle, so this exhortation to consistency constitutes its positive side. For the word is more clearly defined in Jam_1:18; Jam_1:21 as the Gospel. They must become doers of the same in respect of its organic unity: this cannot be done by isolated acts, but only by one general act of practical life. Cf. Jam_4:11; Rom_2:13. The ποιητής, who as such is the real ἀκροατής, is contrasted with the μόνον ἀκροατής. To the theocracy in its practical direction the ἀκροατής as such is insufficient, while the Greek school understood by ἀκροατής per se a praiseworthy hearer. Cf. Mat_7:21; Luk_11:28; Joh_13:17.

As those who ensnare themselves.—See James 5:26; Col_2:4; Gal_4:3; 1Jn_1:8; παραλογίζεσθαι—to reckon beyond the mark, to reason falsely, to use fallacies,—in its practical tendency becomes deceiving, cheating and ensnaring by fallacies. Thus the “hearer only” deceives and ensnares himself. Huther refers παραλογιζομένοι to γίνεσθε in opposition to Gebser and Schneckenburger who connect it with ἀκροαται; but the latter are right, because the imaginary merit of hearing is the fallacy whereby they deceive themselves and thus properly ensnare themselves.

Jam_1:23. For [because] if any is a hearer.—Demonstration of the preceding by means of a simile, which is not, however, a mere figure.

Is like to.—The οὖτος emphatically repeated.

A man.—There must be some good reason for the recurrence of the specific man (sexual) and not only of man in general. Huther ought not to have despatched as curious the exposition [of Paes—M. ] “viri obiter tantum solent specula intueri” [muliebri autem est curiose se ad speculum componere.—M.]. The exposition of the word ἀνήρ is connected with that of κατανοεῖν which according to Rosenmüller, Pott and al. is here used in the secondary sense of hasty observation, but is disputed by Wiesinger and Huther. Now it is correct that in Luk_12:24; Luk_12:27; Act_7:31-32; Act_11:6, the word denotes attentive contemplation or consideration. Primarily it signifies simply, to observe, perceive, contemplate, understand, and if the expression is opposed, as is the case here, by the more important contemplation παρακύτειν, and we have in narrative form the statement, that the man observed himself, went away and forthwith forgot etc., the reference is only to a somewhat imperfect, momentarily-sufficient self-contemplating, such as before the mirror is rather peculiar to man than to woman. It is moreover to be borne in mind that the ideas “to hear the word,” and “to contemplate oneself in a mirror” do not exactly coincide; it is only in the moment of a knowledge of oneself, of an incipient repentance that the word, which per se however is a mirror throughout, becomes efficient as a mirror. The countenance or πρόσωπον, although it need not denote the whole figure (so Pott and Sckneckenburger), is not necessarily confined to the face (so Huther); the addition τῆν γενέσεως renders the word more expressive. Τένεσις denotes according to Wiesinger and Huther only the sphere of sensuous perception as distinguished from the ethical sphere, the face, such as a man has by natural birth. That is, James is again made to remind his readers that he only refers to a figure. We consider such an interposed explanation of the figure here also not only superfluous but inappropriate to symbolical diction, for what is the real meaning of τροχὸς τῆς γενέσεως Jam_3:6? According to Wiesinger, to be sure, “the wheel revolving from a man’s birth;” but that would be an unintelligible expression and the exposition of Grotius and al. “cursus naturæ” has more in its favour. For life is also a genesis in a higher degree, and the fluctuating πρόσωπον is just the signature of the stages and states through which this genesis runs. This would also enable us to fix the reference of αὐτοῦ here to γένεσις (Huther), as opposed to its reference to the general idea (Wiesinger). The Jews, as Jewish-Christians, for a while attained self-knowledge, in that they saw [knew, recognized—M.] themselves in the mirror of the Gospel according to their national and individual course of development, and thus they saw also the maculas of this development and appearance, hence the allusion to this circumstance (Wolf) must not be rejected with Huther. In a more general sense, πρόσωπον etc., can neither denote the natural corruption of man per se (Pott), nor the ideal form of the new man (Wiesinger). To stop at the figure itself (with Huther) would be tantamount to making the figure unmeaning. But it simply signifies the image of the inner man’s appearance as to his sinful condition modified now this way, now that way by his actual conduct. On the mirrors of the ancients see the respective article in Winer.

Jam_1:24. For he observed himself.—The narrative form represents as in Jam_1:11, an incident quickly accomplished in the rapid succession of the fleeting stages of its brief duration. The εὐθέως ἐπελάθετο is the most important point, as Huther remarks, but each separate stage has a meaning of its own. The stage of self-knowledge in the mirror of the word, believing hearing, is followed by speedy departing, the averting of the mind from the objective fulness and depth of the word (not only from what had been heard subjectively, as Huther explains); the departing is attended by the forgetting of the mirror-image, i.e., the loss of self-knowledge conscious of the necessity of salvation which would have impelled the man to the consequence of Christian renovation of life. The loss accruing from such a course, is referred to by James in James 5:26, but especially in James 5. [The Perfect ἀπελήλυθεν standing between the Aorists κατενόησεν and ἐπελάθετο is striking and imports that the departing denotes a permanent neglect and disuse of the mirror.—M.].

The real doer of the word according to his marks of distinction: his being absorbed in the contemplation of the free-making word, his constancy, the blessedness.

Jam_1:25. But he who became absorbed.—The pure antithesis of the former figure. Huther: “παρακύψας corresponds with κατενόησεν, παραμείνας with ἀπελήλυθεν, and οὐκ ἀκροατὴς ἐπιλησμονῆς with ἐπελάθετο.” The Participles have the effect of strengthening the already strong expressions, especially in the Aorist, while taken together they indicate: γενόμενος, that it is only by constancy that a man becomes a real doer of the word. This passage must not be construed as if James wanted to distinguish the doing of the word as something separate from the looking into and abiding in it. The παρακύψας and παραμείνας, as such, is ποιητὴς ἔργου γενόμενος. This has an important bearing on the right understanding of the passage and is also very—Pauline. Constant looking into the word of salvation by faith is preëminently the doing which is followed by outward proof. This construction therefore must not be altered by resolving γενόμενος into γίνεται (Pott), or by saying with Wiesinger that right hearing and appropriating leads to doing and (thereby) to the blessedness of doing. Even Huther, who rejects Wiesinger’s exposition, does not strictly adhere to the full energy of the idea, for he says that the doing of the law is the necessary consequence of persevering looking into the same; although prominence must be given to the fact that he characterizes the consequence as necessary.—Παρακύπτειν to stoop aside, to stoop over a thing in order to examine it closely (Luk_24:12; Joh_20:5; Joh_20:11; 1Pe_1:12); to sink into it, to be absorbed in its contemplation. Schneckenburger thinks: perhaps ad imaginem speculi humi aut mensæ impositi adaptatum. But this is not the most fitting way to look into a mirror. The remaining, persevering in it, Wiesinger explains as appropriating. But it is just the remaining in the yielding oneself to the object by contemplating it, whereby the appropriating of it is effected. [One of the best illustrations of the force of παρακύψας is given by Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, p. 15, note: “It signifies the incurvation or bending of the body in the act of looking down into; as, for instance, in the endeavour to see the reflected image of a star in the water at the bottom of a well. A more happy and forcible word could not have been chosen to express the nature and ultimate object of reflection and to enforce the necessity of it, in order to discover the living fountain and springhead of the evidence of the Christian faith in the believer himself, and at the same time to point out the seat and region where alone it is to be found. Quantum sumus scimus. That which we find within ourselves, which is more than ourselves, and yet the ground of whatever is good and permanent therein, is the substance and life of all other knowledge.”—M.].

Into the completed law.—We translate completed because of the weighty adjective τέλειος, which here again makes prominent the N. T. completion of the O. T. (cf. the τέλειοι and the ἔργον τέλειον Jam_5:4, and the ἁμαρτία ἀποτελεσθεῖσα Jam_5:7; the Sermon on the Mount, the πληροῦν Matthew 2, etc.). It is not therefore the lex naturalis (Schulthess), or in general the λόγος ἀληθείας, inasmuch as it is the means of regeneration and the norm of the new life (Wiesinger, Huther: the norm of the new life), or on the one hand the O. T. law as simply perfect, or on the other the Gospel in a general sense; but it is the Gospel conceived as that completion of the law which transforms the outward, enslaving law into a new principle of life communicating itself to the inner man and absolutely liberating him. And just as the expressions of Paul: the law of the Spirit (Rom_8:2), the law of faith (Rom_3:27), always contain an oxymoron alluding to the higher unity of the antithesis: law and spirit, etc., so likewise in the expressions of James: the perfect law, the law of liberty, although an imitation of Pauline modes of expression is out of the question (Kern). The law as law made men servants (slaves); in its N. T. completion it makes them free. In the same sense it is also called the νόμος βασιλικός which is fulfilled by love (Jam_2:8), and again the law of liberty (Jam_1:12). The passages of the Old Testament, which speak of the glory of the law (Deu_33:2-3), or of its sweetness (Psa_19:8), denote the prophetical transition from the Sinaitical standpoint to the Evangelical, which was decidedly foretold by the prophets (Jer_31:33). Those who attribute to James an Ebionite glorification of the law, put him back behind Jeremiah or rather remove him even out of the Old Testament. But James had special reasons for calling the Gospel a law of (liberating) liberty inasmuch as his people were tempted to seek in their O. T. zeal for the law the means of chiliastico-revolutionary liberation (cf. Joh_8:32, etc.). The Gospel is moreover a law of liberty in that it asserts, along with the Christian’s liberty of faith, the liberty of conscience of those of a different mind and in this form also breaks the fetters of fanaticism.

Not a hearer unto forgetting.—Properly a hearer of forgetfulness (ἐπιλησμονῆς, ἄπαξ λεγ. in the N. T.), stronger than a forgetful hearer. The antithesis ποιητὴς ἔργου brings out the idea that forgetfulness was, as it were, the object of hearing (“in futuram oblivionem”). The expression “doer of the work” (as follows from the construction as stated above) cannot signify here a work-activity separated from, or only clearly distinguished from faith, but it denotes the perseverance of the life of faith, which owing to its oneness of energy leads of its own accord to a consistent exhibition of corresponding outward deeds.

The same shall be blessed.—See the beatitude Jam_5:12.

In his doing,—(ποίησις in the N. T. ἄπαξ λεγόμ., occurs only, besides here, in Sir_19:20), not in his deed. In the ever diligent (efficient) energy which is the soul of his deeds. Schneckenburger: “ut ipsa actio sit beatitudo.”—The striving spiritual life-motion or the doing becomes a, festive spiritual life-motion, perfect joy. This factual becoming blessed lies according to circumstances in confession, and Rom_10:9-10 exhibits a near affinity with this passage. It is noteworthy that Paul also in that passage was particularly referring to Jewish Christians and that James above all things felt anxious that the Jews should confess Christ and that the Jewish Christians should make full and common cause with their Gentile brethren.

False and true religious service or zeal for religion and the glory of God. Jam_1:26-27.

Jam_1:26. If any man fancieth himself.—Δοκεῖν denotes primarily to suppose with reference to appearance and without any higher ground of certainty (Mat_24:44; hence 1Co_7:40, an expression of modesty), hence according to the connection also to imagine erroneously (Mat_6:7) or as here to be spiritually conceited, [ i.e., the man thinks, fancies that he is religious.—M.].

To be a religious man.—Θρῆσκος is peculiar to James. The sense of the adjective is clear from Act_26:5 and Col_2:18. James has formed the adjective in a masterly manner: one who plumes himself (seeks his being in) on his pretended serving of God. The word certainly implies the exhibition of a presumed εὐσέβεια in external acts of religious worship (Huther), not exclusively however in the outward observance of religion, but in the permanent soldier or knight-service for glory of god. so the Jews supposed that they the servants of God among the nations (Rom_2:17), so did the Mohammedans and Crusaders at a later period and so the Jesuits suppose now. But at that time the Jewish Christians, conceited of their God-serving, in various ways separated themselves from intercourse with Gentile Christians and in preparing for the Jewish war, the Jews supposed they were making ready for “the glory of God.” [There is no one word in English which gives the exact meaning of θρῆσκος and θρησκεία. The words religious and religion at one time were used in the sense of outward ceremonial worship. An example from Milton and another from the Homilies may prove serviceable. Some of the heathen idolatries Milton characterizes as being

——“adorned

With gay religions full of pomp and gold.”

Par. Lost. 61.

“Images used for no religion, or superstition rather, we mean of none worshipped, nor in danger to be worshipped of any, may be suffered.” Homily against Peril of Idolatry. See Trench, Synonymns of the N. T., p. 233. A propos of this θρησκεία, Coleridge (Aids to Reflection, p. 14) has these beautiful remarks: “The outward service of ancient religion, the rites, ceremonies and ceremonial vestments of the old law, had morality for their substance. They were the letter, of which morality was the spirit: the enigma, of which morality was the meaning. But morality itself is the service and ceremonial ( cultus exterior, θρησκεία) of the Christian religion. The scheme of truth and grace that became (ἐγένετο) through Jesus Christ, the faith that looks down into the perfect law of liberty, has light for its garment: its very robe is righteousness.”—M.].

Not bridling his tongue.—Not exempli causa (Rosenmüller); nor must we with the majority of commentators resolve the Participle into “although,” as Huther rightly remarks, adding: “James wants to censure those to whom zeal in talking was a sign of θρησκεία.” That is: those who by their fanatical zeal wanted to make good their pretensions of being the true soldiers of God. Χαλιναγωγεῖν, an expression found only in profane authors’ of the later period has been added by James to the fund of N. T. language (cf. Act_3:2).

But deceiving his heart.—̓Απατᾷν καρδίαν αὐτοῦ is not exactly synonymous with παραλογίζεσθαι ἑαυτόν (Huther), but denotes the same act of self-deception in a much higher degree. From the inward self-deceit of the thoughts protrudes false zeal and this has the effect that the zealot completely deceives his heart by false self-excitement [échauffement and bad consequences). The fanatic, by false exaggerations outwardly, at last makes himself inwardly a false and bad character.

His religion (in the sense as defined above, his zeal for the imaginary cause of God) is vain.—The blinding effects of his blinding passion yield no fruit of blessing to himself and others and pass as follies (Quixotisms in a higher style) from history into the judgment.

Jam_1:27. Religion pure and unprofaned.—The two adjectives are not strictly synonymous (Theile, Huther), nor do they simply denote the contrast of the outward and the inward (Wiesinger and al.). The expression “pure” requires the Christian realization of the symbolical, theocratical purity; the sequel shows that it is to exhibit itself in the pious life of merciful love. The expression “unprofaned” (we supply this rendering in order to give more marked force to its literal meaning; the difference between ἀμίαντος and ἄσπιλος also must be brought out in the translation) requires in the same sense real preservation of purity and purifying. The legal Jew became unclean by natural and pagan uncleannesses, the Christian must keep himself clean and cleanse himself from worldly-mindedness and vain worldly doings. Such a Divine service, therefore, denotes here the true life and work for the glory of God.—

Before the God and Father.—This again lays stress on the Christian conception of God, as in Jam_1:5; Jam_1:17 and παρὰ τῷ θεῷ refers not only to the Divine judgment (Huther) but more especially to the attitude of the servant before the face and mouth of the commanding Lord. (Huther rightly observes concerning καὶ πατρί “God in virtue of His love can only consider pure that religious service which is the expression of love.” [Chrysostom in Catena says: οὐκ εἶπεν ἐὰν νηστεύητε, ὅμοιοι ἐστὲ τῷ πατρὶ ὑμῶν, οὐδὲν γὰρ τούτων παρὰ θεὸν οὐδὲ ἐργάζεταί τι τούτων ὁ θεός ̇ ἀλλᾶ τί; γίνεσθε οἰκτιρμονες ὡς ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ̇ τοῦτο θεοῦ ἔργον ἐᾶν οὖν τοῦτο μὴ ἔχῃς, τί ἔχεις; ἔλεον θέλω, φησί, καὶ οὐ θυσίαν.—M.].

To be careful of the orphans and widows.—We translate thus because it brings out the antithesis to be careful of worldly affairs, which James has doubtless before his mind’s eye, like Peter in his ἀλλοτριοεπίσκοπος 1Pe_4:15. Although the verb is frequently applied to visiting the distressed (Huther: Mat_25:36; Mat_25:43; Jer_23:2 etc.), it has also in this form a wider meaning (Theile: the species pro genere). The wider sense: to be careful of, to care for, to protect one, is directly brought out in Act_15:14; Heb_2:6 and elsewhere; Philo calls ἐπίσκεψις providentia. “The ὀρφανοί are named first as those in want of help, as in Deu_10:18; Job_29:12-13 etc.” Huther. This Divine service answers to the fatherhood of God; those who engage in it do His work in love and compassion, because He is a Father of the orphans and a Judge (a Protector of the rights of) the widows, Psa_68:6 and other passages. Now according to the book of Tobit it was the ideal of a true Israelite to protect the distressed among the captives of his people and Tob_1:6-7 we read that it was an integral part of the religious service of Tobit that every third year he gave the tithe to the strangers, the widows and the fatherless. In this manner the Israelite of the New Testament was called upon to help his poor people especially the distressed in their affliction. The state of affliction in its concrete form is most frequently and most touchingly exhibited in the distress of widows and orphans. In this direction we may have to seek the sense of keeping oneself unspotted from the world; and this probably explains the asyndeton of the two sentences (cf. Huther). They are not strictly coördinate, but the second is the reverse or the sequence of the first, its pure antithesis. Hence ἄσπιλον comes emphatically first. Cf. 1Pe_1:19; 2Pe_3:14. The expression ought really to be resolved into two ideas, firstly, to keep oneself from the world, secondly to keep oneself unspotted from the world, that is, from the world is connected with the two elements of the sentence: to keep oneself unspotted. The ethical idea of κόσμος is everywhere the personal totality of life converted into the Impersonal, i.e. mankind as to its ungodly bias. The peculiarity of this idea in James comes out more clearly in Jam_4:4. What heathenism was to the Jew, the antithesis of the holy people, to which it might apostatize by spiritual idolatry, such was to the apostolical mind, the ungodly doing of the world, whether manifested in Judaistic visionariness or in a heathen form. Oecumenius’s idea of the δημώδης καὶ συρφετὸς ὄχλος, ὁ κατὰ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας τῆς ἀπάτης αὑτοῦ φθειρόμενος was consequently not far from the image of the excited condition of the world, which was floating before the Apostle’s imagination; but the Judaistic ὄχλος assumed a prouder and more spiritual shape. This specific reference, of course does not exclude the more general. [Alford: “The whole earthly creation, separated from God and lying in the sin, which, whether considered as consisting in the men who serve it, or the enticements which it holds out to evil lust (ἐπιθυμία) is to Christians a source of continual defilement.”—M.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The purity of the moral teaching of James also is conclusive from what he says concerning wrath. James is far from holding a quietistic or ascetico-rigoristic view which did approve of all anger absolutely, as unworthy of man or the Christian. He recognizes with Christ (Mat_5:22; Mar_3:5) and Paul (Eph_4:26) lawful anger as opposed to unlawful. As in the case of the Master, so also in that of the disciple anger should be the extreme point of the flame, with which love strikes. But although anger is permitted up to a certain degree, it is nevertheless restricted within fixed limits by the limiting direction βραδὺς εἰς ὀργήν. One has only to look at the deplorable mischief that may be produced by excessive anger in order fully to justify the necessity and wisdom of this precept. Peculiarly Christian is the triplex officium, which in Jam_5:19 is commanded in so brief and pithy a manner. The exhibition of such a frame of mind affords proof that the regeneration spoken of in Jam_5:18 is a reality. The natural man is the very opposite: he is slow to hear, swift to speak and swift to wrath. It is also note worthy that Jam_5:19 contains properly the text, the exposition and development of which are treated of in the remainder of the Epistle. The exhortation to be swift to hear is expounded from Jam_1:21—ch. Jam_2:26 with simultaneous reference to a fruitful hearing; the admonition to be slow to speak is emphatically urged in James 3 and that to be slow to wrath in James 4, 5.

2. Because on the Israelite standpoint no justification before God was possible without the fulfilling of the law, the chief demand of which is love, while wrath is the very expression of the most unbridled selfishness, there are no ideas more decidedly opposed to one another than ὀργὴ ἀνδρός and δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ.

3. Slowness of hearing was, it would seem, an evil not peculiar to the first readers of this Epistle, but also common to others, and particularly to Jewish Christians. Cf. Heb_5:11; Heb_10:25. The emphatic urging of the opposite quality is therefore not superfluous. Here also the words of James echo the words of Christ. Luk_11:28; Mat_7:24-27; Mat_13:23.

4. Real inward hearing is ever to receive anew the word, implanted and already extant within us as the seed of regeneration, which in an inexhaustible richness of forms is ever brought home to us as a new word of life. What would the preached word avail unless it had hidden points of contact in the hearts and consciences of Christians? cf. 1Th_1:6. The forgetful hearer, whom James describes in Jam_1:22-24 fully corresponds with the second class of men depicted by our Lord in the parable of the sower (Mat_13:20-21).

5. James’ view of the connection of faith and hearing is identical with that of Paul. Rom_10:14-17.

6. The representation of the Gospel as the perfect law of liberty is as correct as it is important. Paul, who contrasts generally the law and the Gospel, acknowledges a law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, Rom_8:2. This law is perfect because it presents at once the most perfect and most judicious directory of the life of belivers; it is the law of liberty because the faithful practice of it leads men to true, moral liberty. Here the saying is fully valid legum servi sumus est liberi esse possimus. Cf. Joh_8:36; Mat_5:17-20.

7. Care must be had that James be not misunderstood in the description of the pure and unspotted religious service (Jam_1:23), as if these words contained an exact definition of the inner side of true religious service in general. Any one somewhat philanthropically inclined and at the same time keeping himself outwardly free from worldly contamination is on that account far from being entitled to say that in so doing he is practising the pure and unspotted religious service in the sense of James. In order to prevent any possible misapprehension of his language we have to notice that he refers not indefinitely to the Divine service, but to a pure and unspotted service (θρηκεία without the Article) and states merely in a general way what is above all things essential to the being and efficacy of a practical religiousness in its outward manifestation. “As if one addicted to drink were to boast of his morality and were to be told in reply that a moral man does not get drunk, it would not be the latter’s purpose to represent thereby the sum-total of a Christian conversation.” Chrysostom. The great and principal condition is taken for granted, viz.: repentance and faith; besides, this exhortation is also addressed to Christians already regenerate, Jam_1:18. James insists upon the duty we owe to our neighbour, who is here represented by widows and orphans as those most in want of help, and upon the duties we owe to ourselves by the practice of self-denial and vigilance. These two points reveal at the same time the true disposition toward God. Besides James does not say that the man who applies himself to the discharge of these duties shall be blessed by this his doing but that he shall have even here a taste of bliss in this his doing (ἐν τῇ ποιήσει) so that this doing as such is to him the highest bliss. 5. Gerlach: “In this doing of the law he will feel himself truly blessed, as he must be esteemed blessed. To fulfil the commandments of God, to progress in holiness, is an ever-growing enjoyment of blessedness, granted more and more to the believer and the faithful already here on earth.”

8. Widows and orphans so highly favoured even by the Mosaic law (Exo_22:22-24 and elsewhere), are also emphatically protected by Christian morality. The difference between the philanthropy of the Church and that of a mere humanism.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Christians are called constantly to adopt the prayer of David, Psa_141:3.—It is impossible that the bitter root of wrath can produce the sweet fruit of righteousness.—Difference between holy and unholy anger.—Ira furor brevis.—The causes and excuses of the frequent dulness of hearing.—The development of spiritual life ever conditioned by the use of the means of grace.—The preaching of the Gospel a constant watering of the seed of regeneration already planted in us.—What we have to lay aside and what we have to bring with us in order to serve God in public (i.e., make a public profession of religion).—Many hearers put rigorous demands on the preacher but hardly any on themselves; it ought to be the reverse.—True meekness in the hearing of the word.—The Gospel a power of God unto salvation etc. Rom_1:16.—The self-deception of the hearer of the word who becomes not a doer, cf. Pro_16:25; 1Co_3:18.—Three classes of men: 1, those who neither hear nor do the word; 2, those who hear it but do it not; 3, those who both hear and do it.—Even Herod heard John the Baptist gladly and for his sake did many things, but not the one thing needful, Mar_6:20.—The word of God a bright mirror which must be attentively looked into, would we attain true self-knowledge. The true hearer of the Gospel looks as carefully into the mirror as do the angels into the plan of salvation, 1Pe_1:12.—The Gospel 1, a law; 2, a perfect law; 3, a perfect law of liberty.—The blessedness of the doer of the word, Psa_119:1 etc.—The absolute incompatibility of the service of sins of the tongue with a truly religious life.—The Christian life a service of love.—Only that Divine service is the true, which is a Divine service before “God and the Father,” 1Sa_16:7.—The practice of the duties of love must be joined with conscientious watchfulness of ourselves.—The Christian’s relation to the world: 1, to its distressed ones; 2, to its temptations.—The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life, Pro_11:30.—How eloquently James has recommended his instruction concerning active fear of God by his own example.—(Jam_1:19-27). A direction for and eulogy of the right hearing of the Gospel. James urges us 1, to devout hearing (Jam_1:19-20), 2, to meek receiving (Jam_1:21), 3, to active practice (Jam_1:22-24), and 4, to constant searching of the word (Jam_1:25-27).—(Jam_1:25-27) 1, What one enjoys (Jam_1:25), 2, avoids (Jam_1:26), and 3, practises in the way of active piety.—True Christianity the most practical matter in the world.

Starke:—Believers are more eager to learn than to teach, for the cause of regeneration makes us real hearers of the word. Joh_8:47.

Luther:—Blessed is the man whose mouth is in his heart and whose heart is not in his mouth; the one is wisdom, the other folly.

Starke:—He who along with other sins does not overcome his carnal anger, cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, Gal_5:20-21.—Sins are also in believers, who must more and more cleanse themselves from them, Heb_12:1.

Quesnel:—He only loves the word of God in truth, who performs it by love, 1Jn_5:3.

Langh Op:—To deceive others is bad, to deceive oneself worse, and the latter is more common than the first, Pro_24:8.

Starke:—The word of God is here compares with a mirror not only on account of its intrinsic brightness and purity, but chiefly because of its use and benefit. For it not only shows us (according to the law) the detestable and sinful form of our souls which we derive from the first Adam and wherein alas, we resemble Satan, but it shows us also (according to the Gospel) the beauteous, glorious and lovely form which we may receive from Christ, the second Adam, and His Spirit by means of the new birth and wherein we resemble Him.

Quesnel:—He that doeth not what he heareth, forgetteth more than he heareth and his latter end will be worse than the beginning, 2Pe_2:20; 2Pe_2:22.—Blessed is the man who receives his own testimony against himself. 1Co_11:31.

Starke:—Fear not, believers, if you hear the Gospel called a law and that it enters as much and more into hearts of poor sinners with lightning and thunder than the old law of Sinai; for it is a law of liberty. Such a liberty which is more valuable than all treasures, more pleasant than life itself and more precious than all the goods of the world; none know what it is worth but those who have lost it and those who have it, although they esteem it most highly, yet do they not esteem it according to its value, Gal_5:1-13.—Whoso truly serves God in the spirit, his tongue also is governed by the Spirit of God, Psa_39:2.—Many whose mouth is full of the praise of the truth and who are proud of their Divine service are their own worst deceivers and seducers, Rom_2:23.—Many a service is well-pleasing to God which is despised and even rejected by men, Act_24:14.

Cramer:—Widows and orphans are privileged individuals before God.—He that keeps himself unspotted before the world, does the will of God and is greatly blessed, 2Co_6:17-18.

Jam_1:16-21. Epistle for the 4th Sunday after Easter (Cantate).

Luther:—Because the Epistle of James James 1 has been read from of old on this Sunday, being also good for instruction and exhortation, we will also retain it for those who would have it continued and say something concerning it, lest it be thought we wanted to reject it, although the Epistle has not been written by an Apostle nor does set forth everywhere the manner and stamp of apostolical teaching nor quite conformable to pure doctrine. Therefore James concludes: “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” That is: be taught, admonished by God’s word, reproved and comforted, be swift in these things; but be not fluent in speech, in murmuring, cursing and railing against God and man. Hereby he does not forbid us all speaking, reproving and being angry, if the commandment of God or necessity require us so to do, but that we for ourselves shall not rashly and vehemently engage in it, although we be irritated thereto—and the rather hearken to and suffer us to be taught by the word; which is the true and real word, which we should ever let govern and lead us, and from which should flow whatsoever we say, blame and rebuke. Hence it is said soon afterwards to receive the word with meekness, that we may not be angry if it reprove us, or murmur if we have to suffer somewhat for it.

Heubner:—Talkativeness the mark of a weak mind.—The word of God the best bridle for the government of the tongue and the affections.—Never act while thou art angry.—(Jam_1:16-21.) The Christian’s belief in the presiding control of an all-good God. 1. Nature and reason, 2. Effects of this belief.—Self-deceit in the service of God.

Porubszky:—Of ungodly anger. 1. What is anger? 2. What does anger? 3. How is anger conquered?

Couard:—Contemplations on the precious gift of the Gospel.

Kapff:—Whereto we are impelled by the absolute perfection of God.

Palmer:—Good works: 1, their inward origin (Jam_1:16-18), 2, their outward form (Jam_1:19-21).

Souchon:—Receive the word daily.

Standt:—What we may expect from God: 1, what He gives (Jam_1:16-18), 2, what He removes (Jam_1:19-21).

Von Harless:—Who walks in the right way to the end of life?

Arndt:—The sins of the tongue.

Herberger:—Like as a wagon runs in two ruts, like as a man stands on two legs unless he be a cripple, like as he consists of two parts, body and soul, so Christianity also runs in two parts, in faith and works. 1. God the good gives good gifts, 2, and expects good to be returned to Him.

Lisco:—The fountain and the vessel of all good gifts.—Spring’s threefold address to us the children of God.—The holiness of God in its incompatibility with human sin.

Fuchs:—The word of truth as the perfect gift of God.

Jam_1:22-27. Epistle for 5th Sunday after Easter (Rogate).

Heubner:—Other laws bind and are often burdensome to us: the law of God delivers us from the bands of sin.—Those, otherwise free from gross sins, yet sin with the tongue.—Sefishness turns even religion into an instrument of self-sufficiency.—All religion must be moral.—We should take to the necessitous not only our gifts but ourselves.—Comparison of the true and false religious service as to 1, their nature, 2, their influence and 3, their relation to God.—Caution against the abuse of the doctrine of justifying faith.

Porubszky:—Be doers of the word and not hearers only !—Our Divine service is a surrender to God.

Löhe:—There is no doer but is also a true hearer. First a hearer, then a doer; true hearers, true doers.

Lange:—If the word seizes not thyself, it will be a burden to thy head.

Stier: James 5:27.—He refers less to the work itself than to the disposition and impulse of heart which impels us to the distressed in their affliction. Hence he says nothing of our feeding, clothing and providing for widows and orphans, but he specifies our visiting them in their affliction, protecting them, assisting them and carrying to them the best of our possessions, true consolation. We understand, it is to be hoped, how much this requires, how the duty of love drives us constantly into the world and among men, and how it is incompatible with pharisaic or pietistic separateness and monkish solitariness.—How the hearing of the word is to become saving work.

Von Kapff:—Who is blessed in his doing?

Florey:—How differently Christians use the mirror of the Divine Word!

Schmid:—The apothegm of wisdom concerning self-vigilance: 1. Mirror aright and see thyself; 2. See aright and know thyself; 3. Know (thyself) aright and think thee small; 4. Who thinks him (self) small is wise in all.

Herberger:—The keeping of God’s word makes it ours unto salvation.

Couard:—Caution against self-deceit in Christianity.

Souchon:—Be doers of the word.

Westermaier:—The same.

J. Saurin:—An excellent sermon on James 5:25, entitled: Sur la manière d’étudier la Religion, Serm. Tom. 4. p. 1–48.

Lisco:—Of true religion.—Be doers of the word and not hearers only. 1. When we shall be it? and 2, Whereby is it seen that we are it.—Of the nature of true religion.

Ledderhose:—The right hearing of the word.

Neiling:—Ye shall be not only hearers of the word, but doers also [in a rhyme which hardly deserves reproduction.—M.].

[This section is already so full of homiletical matter that instead of supplying additional ones, I refer the reader to the new matter given under “Exegetical and Critical” and to the following standard works which will furnish him with much that is excellent and full of thought.

On Jam_1:22. The Sermon of Bp. Andrews, V. p. 195; also Bp. Sanderson, III. p. 366.

On Jam_1:26. Bp. Butler’s Sermon IV.; Dr. Barrow, Serm. XIII., Vol. I. p. 283.—M.].

Footnotes:

[38] Jam_1:19. ἴστε is the most authentic reading. A. B. C. Vulg. al. ὥστε found in G. K. [Rec. L. Sin.] is evidently a correction designed to establish a clearer connections, which has however obscured the peculiar import of this section. De Wette and Wiesinger, indeed advocate the retention of ὥστε on internal grounds against Lachmann, Huther and al., but the internal grounds are also in favour of ἴστε and even Tischendorf’s reädoption of the reading of the Text. Rec. cannot affect the question. We also read with A. δὲ after ἴστε and καί before ἔστω. Tischendorf now decidedly favours ὥστε; so does Bouman p. 84 sqq.

Lange: Know however … also let every man etc. [ye know it … but let etc.—M.]

[39] Jam_1:20. ἐργεάζεται A. B. [C.3] Sin., Lachmann; κατεργάζεται C.* G. K. al. Tisch. The former seems to preponderate, but ἐργάζεται has here surely a peculiarly emphatic meaning.

Lange: For the man’s [vir] wrath doth not accomplish [execute] etc.

Jam_1:21. Lange: Wherefore, removing all filthiness and all out-flowing [communication of life] of malice [malignity] acquire in gentleness the word implanted in [and among] you, which etc.

Wherefore putting off all filthiness and superabundance of maliciousness, receive in meekness the innate Word, which etc.—M.]

[40] Jam_1:22. μόνον before ἀκροαταί Rec. A. C. K. L. Theile; after B. Vulg. Alford.—M.]

Lange: But become ye doers … as those who ensnare themselves. [But become ye … deceiving etc.—M.]

Jam_1:23. Lange: For if … this man is like to a man who observes the countenance [image of appearance] of his birth [of his development-image, of his life-form, the momentary formation of his continual development] in a mirror.

Because (ὅτι)… this man is like to a man considering the face of his birth in a mirror—M.].

Jam_1:24. Lange: For he observed himself and went away and forthwith forgot of what manner he was. For he considered himself and is gone away … what he was like (ὁποῖος ἧν’ i. e. how he looked in the mirror)—M.].

[41] Jam_1:25. A. B. C. Sin. and al. omit οὗτος before ἀκροατής, so Lachmann; Tischendorf following G. K. [and Rec.—M.] inserts it. The omission may have arisen from the supposition that the word was superfluous, its pregnant force having been misapprehended.

Lange: But he, who became absorbed in the completed law, that of liberty, and remained thus, who became not a hearer unto forgetting, but a doer of the work, the same shall be blessed in his doing.

But he who looked into the perfect law, that (τὸν) of liberty, and perseveres doing so, being … in his doing—M.].

[42] Jam_1:26, δὲ after εἰ, inserted by Lachmann following C, has the most important Codd. against it. It weakens also the recapitulatory character of the sentence.

[43] Jam_1:26. A. B. C. omit ἐν ὑμῖν.

Lange: If any man [among you] fancieth himself to be a religious man [one theocratically zealous of the honour of God] etc.

German for religious man, “Gottesdiener”=a servant of God, one observant of God’s outward service s religion “Gottesdienst”=outward service of God.—M.]

[44] Jam_1:27. τῷ before θεῷ recommended by A. B. C. * Sin. al. and Lachmann. This reading is also in consonance with the thought, the reference being to the God of the Christian revelation.

Lange: A pure and unprofaned religion [outward service—M.] before the God and Father is this: to be careful of the orphans and widows in their tribulation [to have the oversight of them, and not to be engrossed with politics], to preserve himself unspotted from the world.

… before our God and Father (τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρὶ) etc.; παρά=with, in the estimation of Alford,—M.]

[45]We consider this term, which through Hofmann has crept into theology, as an abortive improvement on the term “righteousness” (German: Rechtschaffenheit or Gerechtigkeit).

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 1:19. Ὥστε, wherefore) The Summing up[15] or Conclusion, and also a Statement of those things which follow, in three divisions. Excess in words and the affections of the tongue and the heart, Jas 1:26, is unfavourable to hearing with profit.—πᾶς, every man) This is opposed to no man, Jas 1:13; for this 19th verse has reference to that, and not merely to the preceding verse.—ταχὺς εἰς τὸ ἀκοῦσαι, swift to hear) The true method of hearing (receive ye), together with the obedience and right disposition of the hearers, is treated of in verses 21–27, and the whole of ch. 2—βραδὺς εἰς τὸ λαλῆσαι, slow to speak) This is treated of in Jas 1:26, and in ch. 3. Slow to speak; so that he speaks nothing against God, ch. Jas 1:13; nor anything improperly concerning God, ch. Jas 3:1-13.—βραδὺς εἰς ὀργὴν, slow to wrath) This is treated of, ch. Jas 3:13 and following verse, ch. Jas 4:5. Slow to wrath, or impatience, towards God, and proneness to anger as it respects his neighbour. He who is slow to anger will readily forbear all anger, and assuredly all evil anger. Hastiness drives to sin.

[15] See on SYMPERASMA, Append.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jam_1:19. To Jam_1:18 is annexed at first the exhortation to hear, and then in Jam_1:22 the more extended exhortation, not only to be hearers, but also doers of the word. By the reading ὥστε, the connection with the preceding is evidently expressed, ὥστε being with the following imperative, as in 1Co_3:21, Php_2:12 = itaque, therefore. This reading is, however, suspicious, as not only predominant authorities declare for the reading ἴστε, but also ἴστε might be easily changed into ὥστε, in order to mark the thoughts in this verse as an inference from Jam_1:18. It is true the δέ after ἔστω, conjoined with this reading (in B and C), appears to be harsh; but it may be explained from this, that the sentence ἔστω … ταχὺς εἰς τὸ ἀκοῦσαι κ.τ.λ. is introduced as being almost a proverbial expression. The reading of A: ἔστε δὲ … καὶ ἔστω, appears to be a correction, in order to unite this verse more closely with the preceding. ἴστε may be either indicative (comp. Heb_12:17; usually οἴδατε) or imperative; it is at all events to be referred, not to what goes before,[87] but to what follows, as otherwise τοῦτο, or something similar, by which it would be referred back to Jam_1:18, would require to be added. Semler explains it as an indicative, paraphrasing it: non ignoratis istud carmen; Sir_5:11 : γίνου ταχὺς ἐν ἀκροάσει σου κ.τ.λ. As, however, the sentence in question is here expressed in different words, so it is not to be assumed that James would here refer to that passage in Ecclesiasticus. It is thus better to consider ἴστε as an imperative, as it then corresponds to μὴ πλανᾶσθε (Jam_1:16), and serves strongly to impress the following sentence on the readers, in favour of which also is the address ἀδελφοί μου ἀγαπητοί, added here as well as there; see also chap. Jam_2:5 : ἀκούσατε, ἀδ. μ. ἀγ.

The sentence is entirely general: let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Whilst Laurentius and others consider this as a sententia generalis, which stands in no internal connection with the preceding, but is pressed upon the readers in its entire generality, most interpreters supply to ἀκοῦσαι directly taken from the preceding τὸν λόγον ἀληθείας; thus Estius, Gataker, Gomar, Piscator, Hornejus, Baumgarten, Rosenmüller, Pott, Hottinger, Gebser, de Wette, Wiesinger, and others; but this is arbitrary, particularly as πᾶς ἄνθρωπος points to the universality of the sentence. However, the intention of James is not to inculcate it on his readers in its general sense, but he wishes rather that they, as Christians, should apply it to their Christian conduct; so that for them ἁκοῦσαι certainly refers to λόγος τῆς ἀληθείας (Heisen, Schneckenburger,[88] Theile). ὑμῶν is therefore not to be supplied to πᾶς ἄνθρωπος, still we may say with Semler: pertinet ad Christianos, quatenus sunt Christiani; but the expression is, as part of the general sentence, likewise to be retained in its general meaning; but what holds good of all men, in a peculiar manner holds good of Christians.

The ideas ταχύς and βραδύς, in the N. T. only here (in Luk_24:25, βραδύς has a different meaning), form a direct contrast; as in Philo, de conf. ling. p. 327 B: βραδὺς ὠφελῆσαι, ταχὺς βλάψαι (see Dio O. 32). By βραδὺς εἰς ὀργήν added to the second clause, James announces what kind of speaking he means, namely, speaking ἐξ ὀργῆς.[89] But from Jam_1:20 it is evident that by ὀργήwhich, as Cremer correctly remarks, denotes not the passive affection, but active displeasure directed toward any oneis to be understood sinful and passionate zeal. βραδύς is to be taken in both clauses in the same sense, whichas is often the case with expressions in figurative languagegoes beyond the literal and direct idea of the word, as Hornejus correctly explains it in reference to the second clause: ita jubet tardos ad iram esse, ut ab eo nos prorsus retrahat. Several expositors refer both clauses, others at least the second chiefly or alone, to the conduct toward God, with or without an express reference to Jam_1:13.[90] But this is incorrect; the ὈΡΓΉ to which James alludes is rather carnal zeal, which will censure its neighbour, whose fruit is not ΕἸΡΉΝΗ, but ἈΚΑΤΑΣΤΑΣΊΑ (chap. Jam_3:16). The warning is addressed to those Christians who misuse the gospel (the ΛΌΓΟς ἈΛΗΘΕΊΑς) as the Pharisees did the law, not for their own sanctification, but for the gratification of their censoriousness and quarrelsome temper; see chap. 3. Although James with this exhortation has specially in view the conduct of Christians in their assemblies, yet ΛΑΛῆΣΑΙ must not be restricted to the idea of mere teaching (Bede, Hornejus, Hottinger, de Wette, Brückner, and others). λαλῆσαι is a more comprehensive term than ΔΙΔΆΣΚΕΙΝ, which is included in it.

[87] De Wette explains it: Ye know this, namely, that He has regenerated us; but this, as he himself confesses, gives a wholly unsatisfactory sense.

[88] Schneckenburger: quamvis de sensu dubitari nequeat, nempe de addiscendo λόγῳ ἀληθείας caveas tamen vocem hanc λόγον putes grammatice subaudiendam; sed Jacobus regulam istam generalem … ita hic subnectit, ut eam ad rem christianam imprimis valere moneat.

[89] The circumstance is in favour of this close connection of these two last clauses, that if λαλῆσαι is here taken in a wider sense (as Gunkel thinks), then a different signification must be given to βραδύς in the two clauses, as ὀργή here, as the following verse shows, must be taken in a bad sense. Lange thinks that James does not absolutely reject ὀργή; but whilst he understands by ὀργή eagerness of passion to which one is led from eagerness in speaking by warmth, he evidently understands this as something to be entirely rejected. According to Bouman, the anger here is meant to which one is inflamed by the λαλεῖν of another.

[90] On βραδ. εἰς τὸ λαλ. Bengel remarks: ut nil loquatur contra Deum, nec sinistre de Deo; and on ὀργή: ira sive impatientia erga Deum, iracundia erga proximum. Gebser explains ὀργή = anger, displeasure at God on account of the persecutions. Calvin also has this reference in view when he says: certe nemo unquam bonus erit Dei discipulus nisi qui silendo eum audiat; … non enim Deus nisi sedato animo audiri potest, as is evident from the note: (Jacobus) vult proterviam nostram corripere, ne … intempestive obstrepamus Deo.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 1:19-20 . Another isolated saying, strongly reminiscent of the Wisdom literature; the frequent recurrence (see below) of words of this import suggests that here again the writer is recalling to the minds of his hearers familiar sayings.

Jas 1:19 . ταχὺς εἰς τὸ ἀκοῦσαι βραδὺς εἰς τὸ λαλῆσαι : Cf. Sir 5:11 , γίνου ταχὺς ἐν ἀκροάσει σου , καὶ ἐν μακροθυμίᾳ φθέγγου ἀπόκρισιν ; see Sir 4:29 , Sir 20:7 . A similar precept is quoted in Qoheleth Rabba , Jas 1:5 (Wünsche): “Speech for a shekel, silence for two; it it is like a precious stone”; cf. Taylor’s ed. of Pirqe Aboth , p. 25. βραδὺς εἰς ὀργήν : Cf. Ecc 7:10 (R.V. 9), μὴ σπεύσῃς ἐν πνεύματί σου τοῦ θυμοῦσθαι , ὅτι θυμὸς ἐν κόλπῳ ἀφρόνων ἀναπαύσεται ; see, too, Pro 16:32 . Margoliouth ( Expos. Times , Dec. 1893) quotes a saying which, according to Mohammedan writers, was spoken by Christ: “Asked by some how to win Paradise, He said: ‘Speak not at all’. They said: ‘We cannot do this’. He said then: ‘Only say what is good’.” It must be remembered that the Arabs are the most foul-mouthed people on earth.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19-27. Let your aim be not speech, but attentive hearing; not hearing only, but doing; not empty worship, but good deeds.

The thought here turns to the need of reality and sincerity in religious instruction and public worship (1:19-2:26).

19-21. To hear is better than to speak; listen to the Word

19. ἴστε] BאcAC minn ff vg boh syrhcl.mg.

ἴστω] א*.

ἴστε δέ] A bohmss.

ὥστε] KLP minnpler syrpesh hcl.txt.

om] minn.

ἔστω δέ] BאCP* minn ff vg boh.

καὶ ἔστω] A 33.

ἔστω] KLP2 minnpler syrpesh. hcl.

The Antiochian reading (ὥστε … ἔστω) is a characteristic emendation.

ἴστε, “know this.” The address ἀδελφοί μου shows that this belongs in the paragraph with the following. The sense alone would perhaps suggest that ἴστε is probably indicative (so R.V.), not imperative (A.V.); but the analogy of ὁρᾶτε, μέμνησο, and similar rhetorical appeals in the Greek diatribes (Bultmann, Stil der paulin. Predigt, p. 32) leads to the opposite conclusion.

For this view it may also be urged that Jas 4:4 has οἴδατε as the indicative. ἴστε is the sole form of the imperative, and the more literary form of the indicative. Note ἴσασι in Act 26:4; Heb 12:17 has ἴστε (probably indicative), 10:30 οἴδαμεν; Eph 5:5 ἴστε is probably indicative.

πᾶς ἄνθρωπος, not limited to teachers, but cf. 3:13.

ταχὺς εἰς τὸ ἀκοῦσαι.

In view of the reference to the Word in vv. 21-22 (note διό), it is likely that ταχὺς εἰς τὸ ἀκοῦσαι relates primarily to the hearing of the Word, and not merely to social intercourse generally. The same phrase is found in Pirke Aboth, v, 18, of the trait of the good pupil, who is “quick to hear and slow to forget.” Cf. Gal 4:21.

εἰς τό. This can be justified in Greek as a development of the meaning “with reference to,” cf. Luk 12:21, Rom 16:19, Dio Chrys. Or. 32, p. 361 Α ἐγὼ δὲ μᾶλλον ἂν ὐμᾶς ἐπῄνουν βραδὺ μὲν φθεγγομένους ἐγκρατῶς δὲ σιγῶντας· γίνου πρὸς ὀργὴν μὴ ταχὺς ἀλλὰ βραδύς, but it is not attested as common in ordinary secular Greek. Cf. e. g. Pirke Aboth, v, 18, לשׁמוע ממהרה, “quick to hear,” קשׁה לשׁמוע, “slow to hear,” Aboth R. Nathan, 1, “be slow to judge.”

ἀκοῦσαι, λαλῆσαι, ὀργήν.

Ecclus. 5:11 γίνου ταχὺς ἐν ἀκροάσει σου καὶ ἐν μακροθυμίᾳ φθέγγου ἀπόκρισιν is the closest parallel to this verse among the many precepts of the Wisdom-literature which relate to control of speech and restraint of anger. Cf. Ecclus. 12:5, 10:19 (and Toy’s note) 13:3, 15:1, 16:32, 17:28, 29:20, Ecc 7:9, Ecc 9:18. See below on 3:1-10. Cf. Pirke Aboth, ii, 14, “Be not easily provoked,” also v, 17, and note Mat 5:22.

The interpretation of ὀργή given by Bengel (ut nil loquatur contra deum nec sinistre de deo), followed by Gebser, Calvin, Spitta, who take the anger as impatience against God, has little to commend it. On the other hand, Beyschlag’s interpretation of ὀργή as “passionate disposition (leidenschaftliche Gemüthsverfassung)” of every kind, showing itself in murmurings against God and in fanaticism, as well as in quarrels, goes too far. The writer is thinking of what men ordinarily know as anger, against whomsoever directed. Its opposite is good temper and self-restraint.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherefore--as your evil is of yourselves, but your good from God. However, the oldest manuscripts and versions read thus: "YE KNOW IT (so Eph 5:5; Heb 12:17), my beloved brethren; BUT (consequently) let every man be swift to hear," that is, docile in receiving "the word of truth" (Jam 1:18, Jam 1:21). The true method of hearing is treated in Jam 1:21-27, and Jam. 2:1-26.

slow to speak-- (Pro 10:19; Pro 17:27-28; Ecc 5:2). A good way of escaping one kind of temptation arising from ourselves (Jam 1:13). Slow to speak authoritatively as a master or teacher of others (compare Jam 3:1): a common Jewish fault: slow also to speak such hasty things of God, as in Jam 1:13. Two ears are given to us, the rabbis observe, but only one tongue: the ears are open and exposed, whereas the tongue is walled in behind the teeth.

slow to wrath-- (Jam 3:13-14; Jam 4:5). Slow in becoming heated by debate: another Jewish fault (Rom 2:8), to which much speaking tends. TITTMANN thinks not so much "wrath" is meant, as an indignant feeling of fretfulness under the calamities to which the whole of human life is exposed; this accords with the "divers temptations" in Jam 1:2. Hastiness of temper hinders hearing God's word; so Naaman, Kg2 5:11; Luk 4:28.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 19. Swift to hear] Talk little and work much, is a rabbinical adage.-Pirkey Aboth, cap. i. 15.

The righteous speak little, and do much; the wicked speak much, and do nothing.-Bava Metzia, fol. 87.

The son of Sirach says, cap. v. 11: Γινου ταχυς εν τῃ ακροασει σου, και εν μακροθυμιᾳ φθεγγου αποκρισιν. "Be swift to hear, and with deep consideration give answer."

Slow to wrath] "There are four kinds of dispositions," says the Midrash hanaalam, cap. v. 11: "First, Those who are easily incensed, and easily pacified; these gain on one hand, and lose on the other. Secondly, Those who are not easily incensed, but are difficult to be appeased; these lose on the one hand, and gain on the other. Thirdly, Those who are difficult to be incensed, and are easily appeased; these are the good. Fourthly, Those who are easily angered, and difficult to be appeased; these are the wicked."

Those who are hasty in speech are generally of a peevish or angry disposition. A person who is careful to consider what he says, is not likely to be soon angry.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19 Let every man. Were this a general sentence, the inference would be farfetched; but as he immediately adds a sentence respecting the word of truth suitable to the last verse, I doubt not but that he accommodates this exhortation peculiarly to the subject in hand. Having then set before us the goodness of God, he shews how it becomes us to be prepared to receive the blessing which he exhibits towards us. And this doctrine is very useful, for spiritual generation is not a work of one moment. Since some remnants of the old man ever abide in us, we must necessarily be through life renewed, until the flesh be abolished; for either our perverseness, or arrogance, or sloth, is a great impediment to God in perfecting in us his work. Hence, when James would have us to be swift to hear, he commends promptitude, as though he had said, “When God so freely and kindly presents himself to you, you also ought to render yourselves teachable, lest your slowness should cause him to desist from speaking.”

But inasmuch as we do not calmly hear God speaking to us, when we seem to ourselves to be very wise, but by our haste interrupt him when addressing us, the Apostle requires us to be silent, to be slow to speak. And, doubtless, no one can be a true disciple of God, except he hears him in silence. He does not, however, require the silence of the Pythagorean school, so that it should not be right to inquire whenever we desire to learn what is necessary to be known; but he would only have us to correct and restrain our forwardness, that we may not, as it commonly happens, unseasonably interrupt God, and that as long as he opens his sacred mouth, we may open to him our hearts and our ears, and not prevent him to speak.

Slow to wrath. Wrath also, I think, is condemned with regard to the hearing which God demands to be given to him, as though making a tumult it disturbed and impeded him, for God cannot be heard except when the mind is calm and sedate. Hence, he adds, that as long as wrath bears rule there is no place for the righteousness of God. In short, except the heat of contention be banished, we shall never observe towards God that calm silence of which he has just spoken.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(19) We come now to the third subdivision of the chapter. By reason of the Divine benevolence, the Apostle urges his readers—(1) to meekness, (2) self-knowledge, (3) practical religion.

Wherefore, my beloved brethen.—There appears to be some small error in the MSS. here, but the alteration is only just worth mentioning: ye know my brethren beloved, seems the correct version, the very abruptness of which may serve to arrest attention. Yea, “have ye not known?” might well be asked further in the indignant language of Isaiah (Isa_40:21; comp. Rom_5:19).

Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.—For all these cautions are required in the building up of the new life. “The quick speaker is the quick kindler;” and we are told later on “how great a matter a little fire kindleth” (Jas_3:5). And what have we at all to do with wrath, much less that our whole life—as unhappily it often is—should be wasted with such bitterness? Anger, no doubt, is a wholesome tonic for some minds, and certain weaknesses; but “he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” (Pro_16:32).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19–21. Man’s wrath, and God’s righteousness

19. Wherefore] The better MSS. give “Ye know this … but let every man.”

my beloved brethren] The formula of address was common to all the four great writers of the Apostolic Church. We find it in St Paul (1Co_15:58), in St Peter (2Pe_3:14-15), in St John (1Jn_2:7; 1Jn_3:2). In the last two instances, however, the word “brethren” is wanting.

let every man be swift to hear] From the general thought of the high ideal of life implied in the new birth from God, St James passes to the special aspect of that ideal which was most in contrast with the besetting sin of his countrymen. To him speech was of silver, and silence of gold. In this as in many other passages of his Epistle, he echoed the teaching of the sapiential books of the Old Testament (Pro_13:3; Pro_14:29; Pro_17:27; Ecc_5:2) yet more, perhaps, of those of the Apocrypha. So we find “Be swift to hear” in Sir_5:11, and maxims of a like nature in Sir_20:7. The “slow to wrath” follows on “slow to speak” as pointing to the crucial test of character. If it were hard at all times to be “slow to speak,” it was harder than ever when men were roused to anger.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren,.... Since the Gospel, the word of truth, is the means and instrument which God makes use of in regeneration, and in forming people for himself:

let every man be swift to hear; not anything; not idle and unprofitable talk, or filthy and corrupt communication; but wholesome advice, good instructions, and the gracious experiences of the saints, and, above all, the word of God; to the hearing of which men should fly, as doves to their windows; should make haste, and be early in their attendance on it, as well, as constant; and receive it with all readiness, and with a sort of greediness of mind, that their souls may be profited, and God may be glorified: the phrase is Jewish; things easy and smooth, a man is , "swift to hear them (l): slow to speak"; against what is heard, without thoroughly weighing and considering what is said; and this may regard silence under hearing the word, and is also a rule to be observed in private conversation: or the sense may be, be content to be hearers of the word, and not forward to be preachers of it; and if called to that work, think before you speak, meditate on the word, and study to be approved to God and men. Silence is not only highly commended by the Pythagoreans, among whom it was enjoined their disciples five years (m); but also by the Jews: they say, nothing is better for the body than silence; that if a word is worth one shekel, silence is worth two, or worth a precious stone; that it is the spice of speech, and the chief of all spices; that it is the hedge of wisdom; hence it is the advice of Shammai; "say little, and do much" (n): and they cry up, as a very excellent precept, "be silent, and hear"; and as containing more than persons are aware of (o):

slow to wrath; in hearing; when admonitions and reproofs are given, sin is exposed, and vice corrected, and the distinguishing doctrines of grace, are preached; which are apt to fill natural men with wrath, and which must greatly hinder the usefulness of the word; see Luk 4:28. This is omitted in the Ethiopic version.

(l) Gloss. in T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 21. 1. (m) Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 2. c. 25. (n) Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 15. 17. & 3. 13. T. Bab. Megilla. fol. 18. 1. Vajikra Rabba, sect. 16. fol. 158. 3. Midrash Kohelet, fol. 71. 1. (o) Philo Zuis Rer. Divin. Haeres. p. 482. Vid. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 7. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

Ver. 19. Swift to hear] Reaching after that word of truth, the gospel, Jas 1:18, and drinking it in as the dry earth doth the dew of heaven. Life doth now enter into the soul at the ear, as at first death did, Gen 3:19

Slow to speak] We read often, "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear;" but never, he that hath a tongue to speak, let him speak; for this we can do fast enough, without bidding. But hath not Nature taught us the same that the apostle here doth, by giving us two ears, and those open; and but one tongue, and that hedged in with teeth and lips? It is also tied and bound fast by the root, and hath for guides and counsellors the brain above and the heart beneath it. Hence your wisest men are most silent; for they know that as some gravel and mud passeth away with much water, so in many words there lacketh not sin.

Slow to wrath] Slow to snuff at those that reprove you. {See Trapp on "Heb 13:22"} Rage not when touched, though to the quick.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

You know, or you are sufficiently instructed in these things. --- Let every man be swift to hear the word of God, but slow, or cautious in speaking, especially slow to anger, or to that rash passion of anger, which is never excusable, unless it be through a zeal for God’s honour, and against sin. (Witham) --- St. James in this epistle does not aim at a regular discourse: he proposes a diversity of moral sentences, which have not much connection with each other. He here instructs the faithful how to behave in conversation. He recommends to them modesty and prudence in their discourses; and rather to be fond of hearing much, than of speaking much; and of practising the truth, than of preaching it to others. "For not those who understand the law, nor those who preach it, are justified before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified before God." (Romans chap. ii. 13.) (Calmet) --- A wise man is known by the fewness of his words. Sapiens verbis innotescit paucis. (Regl. St. Bernard, chap. vii.) With hearing, the wise man will become wiser. (Sen. [Seneca?] lib. ii. de Ira. chap. 28.) --- Anger is a short madness. The best cure is to permit it to subside, and to let our reason have time to reflect upon the propriety of doing what we are at first inclined to. The first motives to anger are frequently indeliberate, and consequently not sinful; but we must be careful to resist as soon as we perceive them, lest they should become too violent, and obtain the consent of our will. (Calmet) --- Learn of me, says our Saviour, because I am meek and humble of heart. (Matthew chap. xii. 29.) If, says St. Francis de Sales, being stung and bit by detraction and enemies, we fly out, swell, and are enraged, it is a great that neither our humility nor meekness are true and sincere, but only apparent and artificial. It is better, says St. Augustine, writing to Profuturus, to deny entrance to just and reasonable anger, than to admit it, be it ever so little; because, being once admitted, it is with difficulty driven out again; for it enters as a little twig, and in a moment becomes a beam: and if it can once but get the night of us, and the sun set upon it, which the apostle forbids, it turns into a hatred, from which we have scarcely any means to rid ourselves; for it nourishes itself under a thousand false pretexts, since there was never an angry man that thought his anger unjust. (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to a devout life, p. 3. chap. viii.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Let every man be swift to hear; prompt and ready to hear God speaking in

the word of truth, before mentioned.

Slow to speak; either silently and submissively hear the word, or speak not rashly and precipitately of the things of faith, but be well furnished yourselves with spiritual knowledge, ere you take upon you to teach others.

Slow to wrath; either, be not angry at the word, or the dispensers of it, though it come close to your consciences, and discover your secret sins; the word is salt, do not quarrel if it make your sores smart, being it will keep them from festering: or, be not angrily prejudiced against those that dissent from you.

For the wrath of man: that anger which is merely human, and generally sinful, inordinate passion and carnal zeal.

Worketh not the righteousness of God; will not accomplish the ends of the word in you, viz. to work that righteousness which in the word God prescribes you. But here is withal a meiosis in the words, less being spoken than is intended; it is implied therefore, that the wrath of man hinders the operation of the word, and disposeth to that unrighteousness which is forbidden by it.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 19-27. EXHORTATION

(1) TO HEAR RATHER THAN TO SPEAK,

(2) NOT ONLY TO HEAR, BUT ALSO TO DO.

Ver. 19. The text requires correction. For wste estw pav of the Textus Receptus, read, Iste ajdelfoi moi ajgaphtoi estw de pav, a, A, B, C, Latt.

Iste is probably indicative, and refers to what has gone before. Ye know this, my beloved brethren. But let every man," etc. The verse gives us St. James"s version of the proverb, "Speech is silver. Silence is golden." Similar maxims were not infrequent among the Jews. So in Ecc_5:11, Be swift to hear; and let thy life be sincere; and with patience give answer;" cf. 4:29, "Be not hasty in thy tongue, and in thy deeds slack and remiss." In the rabbinical work, "Pirqe Aboth," 1. 12., we have the following saying of Rabbi Simeon, the son of Gamaliel (who must, therefore, have been a contemporary of St. James): "All my days I have grown up amongst the wise, and have not found ought good for a man but silence; not learning but doing is the groundwork; and whoso multiplies words occasions sin." This passage is curiously like the one before us, both in the thoughts and in the expressions used.

Vers. 19-27.

Deeds, not words.

1. The right spirit for the Christian is the receptive; ready to hear, and to receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is to be as the seed falling on the good ground. (comp. Mat_13:3, etc.) A heathen philosopher has noted that man has two ears and only one mouth; showing that he should be more ready to hear than to speak.

2. A receptive spirit is not alone sufficient. Action must follow. Holy Scripture is a mirror, in which a man may see his own image reflected. The man who merely listens to it sees his own likeness, perhaps, but "goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." Without doing, what is the good of hearing sermons? Knowledge without obedience only increases condemnation. So our Lord"s severest denunciations were for those cities which had known most of his mighty works; and "many stripes" were reserved for that servant who knew his Lord"s will and did it not. (Luk_12:47) (On the subject of ver. 22, see a good sermon of Bishop Andrews, "Sermons," vol. 5. Serm. 9.)

3. Government of tongue may serve as a test of a man"s religion, it being "a most material restraint which religion lays us under; without it no man can be truly religious." Sins of the tongue include not only such flagrant ones as lying, swearing, filthy conversation, etc., but what Bishop Butler calls "unrestrained volubility and wantonness of speech," which is the sin more particularly alluded to by St. James, and which is the occasion of numberless evils and vexations in life." "If people would

(1) observe the obvious occasions of silence; if they would subdue

(2) the inclination to tale-bearing, and

(3) that eager desire to engage attention which is an original disease in some minds, they would be in little danger of offending with their tongue, and would, in a moral and religious sense, have due government over it" (Bishop Butler. See the whole sermon "On the Government of the Tongue:" "Sermons," No. 4.). It has been well said that the talkative often do more harm than the willfully false and malicious. They betray secrets, part friends, embitter foes, wound hearts, blight characters, hinder truth. Is not this true of many a man who seems to himself to be religions?

4. If the external service, the ritual of Christianity, is a life of purity and self-devotion in the service of others, what must its inmost spirit be?

Vers. 19-21.

The reception of the Word.

Word of truth" being within our reach, as the means of conveying to us the great gift of regeneration, it is most important that we cultivate those dispositions which are most favorable to the realization of its saving power. These three verses accordingly contain four counsels, each of which touches a deeper part of our nature than the one preceding. If we would rightly "receive" the Word, we must have

I A QUICK EAR. "Swift to hear." This precept refers to the acquisition of religious knowledge, whether in connection with reading or hearing. We should be careful as to the entire matter of our reading, making the staple of it not fugitive literature, far less frivolous books, but such as are solid and improving. For directly spiritual instruction we should go seldomer to books about the Bible, and oftener straight to the Word of God itself, that we may hear him speaking in it. We should also be "swift to hear" the oral proclamation of the gospel. "Belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ". (Rom_10:17) His word appeals to the heart more powerfully when spoken by a living earnest man, than when it is read even from the written page of Scripture. We should, therefore, embrace every opportunity of hearing in the sanctuary, and be attentive and teachable, and follow up our hearing with reflection and obedience.

II A CAUTIOUS TONGUE. "Slow to speak." This exhortation naturally follows the preceding, for the man who is exceedingly fond of hearing himself speak will never be a ready listener. The precept is good for common use in the conduct of our life; but its specific reference in this passage is to caution in the declaration of "the Word of truth." While we are under a sacred obligation to "exhort one another day by day", (Heb_3:13) and to "speak often one to another", (Mal_3:16) we are to be "slow to speak" in the sense of weighing well our words, and of realizing the responsibility which attaches to them. Ministers should preach only what they have carefully thought out; and they should beware of publishing crude speculations on theological subjects. It is right, too, that candidates for the ministry should be required to undergo a lengthened curriculum of training before they are entrusted with the continuous instruction of a congregation (Jam_3:1, Jam_3:2; 1Ti_3:6)

III A CALM TEMPER. "Slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God" (vers. 19, 20). Much speaking tempts to passionate speaking; every one knows what is meant by "the heat of debate." At all times we ought to be slow to wrath:" to cultivate such a spirit is an important part of the imitation of God. But we should particularly guard against irritation of temper at Church-meetings, and in conversation or conference upon religious subjects. The clergyman must labor to avoid the odium theologicum. The preacher must threaten and warn only in love and tenderness. The hearer must not listen in a captious spirit, or quarrel with the truth when it comes to him in practical form. For an angry heart will destroy edification (ver. 20). Scolding from the pulpit will not "work the righteousness of God" in the hearts of the hearers; and, on the other hand, resentful feelings against the preacher can only hinder regeneration and sanctification.

IV A PURE HEART. (Ver. 21.) If "the Word of truth" is to sanctify and save, it must be received in a docile, humble, tractable spirit; and this involves the "putting away" of all malice and impurity. Hasty and passionate speech is just a foul overflow from the deep depravity of the heart; and, if we would prevent the overflow, we must cleanse out the dark pool of corruption itself. If we put away the "filthiness" of the heart by a gracious process of earnest renunciation, that filthiness will no longer soil the tongue or spoil the temper. Those who cultivate the quick ear and the cautious tongue and the calm temper, in connection with the purifying of the heart, prepare themselves as good soil for "the implanted Word". (Luk_8:15) The grandest joy of life is to have the scion of the Word so "implanted" that it shall prove itself to be the power of God to the soul"s salvation, by working out visibly in the life "the righteousness of God." And the teaching of this passage, is that if a man would attain that blessing, his own will must co-operate with the grace of God and the power of "the Word of truth. C.J.

Vers. 19-27.

The law of the new life.

know this, my beloved brethren;" viz. that ye have been begotten again by God. But now, from this vantage-ground, he presses the necessity of a consistent life. They have espoused, by God"s grace, a new ideal of character and conduct; let their whole life show forth its power. This is the topic of the whole passage, and it divides itself very naturally into the related subjects of meekness, self-knowledge, and practical religion (see Punchard, in Bishop Ellicott"s "Commentary").

I MEEKNESS. There is evidently a reference, in vers. 19-21, to the deportment of the Jews in their religious gatherings, to which we have more direct reference in ver. 23 and in Jam_2:1-13. And the words of warning are aimed at one of their most besetting sins; they were clamorous, accusing, wrathful. What examples we have of this spirit, as manifested at their public gatherings for worship, in the accounts of our Lord"s first proclamation of his mission in the synagogue of Nazareth, (Luk_4:28, Luk_4:29) and of the first setting-forth of the gospel by Paul in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia! (Act_13:45) So perhaps it was also at the Jewish-Christian gatherings; they would contradict, and accuse. Yes; they were impatient of hearing, eager to speak, wrathful in speech; rebutting what seemed the blow of the truth against themselves, turning that blow against others, perhaps against the speaker. What a Babel of confusion! And all this in the thought that they were doing God service! As opposed to this spirit of censorious anger, James urges a quiet, gentle humility in the hearing of the Word.

1. For what was this Word? It was God"s Word, his message to the heart. Yes, with whatever of human alloy it might sometimes be mixed, through the infirmity of the speaker, there it was, a thing Divine! There should be, then, in its presence, a certain awe of silence: "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak." And as this Word was the searching Word of the living God, (Heb_4:12) there should be the meekness which hears for one"s self, not for others Is there any wrong in me? For this Word was "able to save:" with what solemn gladness should they welcome its healing, cleansing power!

2. Oh, how opposed to all the intended influence of the Word of God was the spirit of passionate assertion and accusation! How it defiled the nature, as with filthiness, making it an utterly unfit receptacle for God"s holy truth! And how the overflowing of wickedness" bore back the living germ of the truth, which being implanted in the heart would save unto the uttermost! Yes, man"s wrath, so far from working God"s righteousness, utterly hindered that working. The truth was "able to save," but only if the conditions of true humility in the hearer were fulfilled.

II SELF-KNOWLEDGE. But the very hearing may become a snare: we hear the Word, we "feel" its power, and delude ourselves with the notion that therefore the Word is ours.

1. What is this, but a mere transient sentiment? Like the man with the mirror, beholding a while, then going away and forgetting; so we may gaze into the marvelous mirror of the Word, which shows us so wondrously the fair ideal of truth, the beauty of holiness, and, in contrast, the deformity, the unholiness of our real self. But so likewise, being charmed with the ideal beauty, and equally loathing our sin, we yet may go away and forget what manner of men we are.

2. What is required of us is an abiding practice of the perfect law, that can only result from a continued gazing into its excellence of beauty and consequent knowledge of our own distance kern its perfectness. So Psa_1:2, which sets forth the Law of God as the very element of the good man"s life. For it is a Law which is a living power, evermore working its perfection into our imperfect life. A Law, therefore, of liberty, making us free from sin, as being a law of holiness; and free from servile fear, as being a law of perfect love. Well may the man who abides in the doing of such a Law be designated blest! For while merely to hear the Word and feel its power, and then to go away and forget, is to be drugged as with an opiate that makes us insensible to our danger; on the other hand, to hear and to do, and to abide in the doing, is to realize the bounding gladness of the full flow of living health (see also the beatitude of Ps 1).

III PRACTICAL RELIGION. There is an easy transition, in vers. 26 and 27, kern the hearing of the Word to all the cult of worship. For just as some of these Christian Jews might be satisfied with the mere hearing of the truth as distinct from its practical realization in the daily life, so many of them might rest satisfied at least with the ceremonial cleanness and service" on which their old training had led them to set such exaggerated value. They were "very religious" because of their multiplied religious observances, their qrhskeia, their ritual of service; and this "religion" was pure, undefiled, no taint of ceremonial pollution attaching to its performance. And yet the filthy wickedness (ver. 21) of the unbridled tongue? Vain, indeed, is the religiousness of such a one! Nay; the cult of Christianity is the religion of the life, and the ceremonial cleanness is cleanness of conduct and heart.

1. The ritual. Doing good. So Rom_12:1; Heb_13:16. A concrete instance is given here, viz. the visiting of the fatherless and widows in their affliction, but only as an instance of the ritual of the law of love. And notice the immense significance of the words," before our God and Father." Such as he is we must be, viz. "pitiful, and of very tender mercy". (see Jam_5:11)

2. The cleanness. "Unspotted from the world." An evil world, the evil of which was so exhibited by these clean" men in their clamorous evil-speaking. Would they be really clean? There are no works like works of love to hush the anger of the heart. We learn for ourselves, in this age, that no ritual of religion is of any worth as such. Collective worship" truly is good, as a means to an end, viz. the replenishment of our life-power, and maintenance of loving relationship with the Father. But as for any cult, as such, Christianity knows none, save that of a holy and loving life. Your ritualism, as Christians? Doing good!

In conclusion, the faith that humbly receives God"s saving Word, the faith that abides in the knowledge of that Word day and night., the faith that works itself out in the religiousness of a holy love this is the sum of the whole matter, this is the very essence of the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, evermore give us this faith! T.F.L.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Let every man be swift to hear - This is treated of from ver. 21 to the end of the next chapter. Slow to speak - Which is treated of in the third chapter. Slow to wrath - Neither murmuring at God, nor angry at his neighbour. This is treated of in the third, and throughout the fourth and fifth chapters.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

As if the apostle had said, "Seeing God has put such an honour upon his word, the word of truth, as by it to beget us to himself; therefore be swift to hear it, prize it highly, and wait upon the means of grace readily and diligently; but be slow to speak, that is, to utter your judgments of it, much more slow in undertaking to be a teacher and dispenser of it; also slow to wrath, or to contentions about the words and points of divinity: wrath and passion hinders all profit by the word, either preached, read, or discoursed about; and a forcible reason is rendered why all wrath should be suppressed, because the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God; that is, man’s sinful anger will never put him upon doing those things that are just and righteous in God’s account: or there is a figure in the words; more is intended than expressed; the meaning is, that the wrath of man is so far from working the righteousness of God, that it worketh all manner of evil."

Learn hence, that man’s anger is usually evil, and very unrighteous: anger justly moderated, is a duty, but such a duty as is very difficultly managed without sin; rash, causeless, and immoderate anger, gratifies the devil, dishonours God, discredits religion, wounds our own peace.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19–25. Wherefore … be swift to hear. Let each saint hear and learn, but be careful not to speak rashly, and especially in anger.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

You know this

Possible meanings are 1) "Know this" as a command, to pay attention to what I am about to write or 2) "You know this" as a statement, that I am about to remind you of something that you already know.

Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak

These sayings are idioms that mean people should first listen intently, and then consider carefully what they say. Here "slow to speak" does not mean speaking slowly. (See: Idiom)

slow to anger

"not get angry quickly"

the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God

When a person is always angry, he cannot do God's work, which is righteous.

take off all sinful filth and abundant amounts of evil

Sin and evil are spoken of here as if they were clothing that could be taken off. AT: "stop doing all filthy sins and stop doing abundant amounts of evil" (See: Metaphor)

take off all sinful filth and abundant amounts of evil

Here the expressions "sinful filth" and "evil" share similar meanings. James uses them to emphasize how bad sin is. AT: "stop doing every kind of sinful behavior" (See: Doublet)

sinful filth

Here "filth," that is, dirt, stands for sin and evil. (See: Metaphor)

In humility

"Without pride" or "Without arrogance"

receive the implanted word

The expression "implant" means to place one thing inside of another. Here God's word is spoken of as if it were a plant made to grow inside believers. AT: "obey the message God has spoken to you" (See: Metaphor)

save your souls

What a person is saved from can be made explicit. AT: "save you from God's judgment" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

your souls

Here the word "souls" refers to persons.AT: "yourselves" (See: Synecdoche)

translationWords

beloved

brother

righteous

God

sin

evil

humble

word

save

soul

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

19–27. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, CHARACTER AND WORSHIP

This theme incidentally arises from the thought of temptation, as moral or religious error, and is immediately connected with the expression ἀπαρχήν τινα τῶν αὐτοῦ κτισμάτων, Jas 1:18.

It is a description of the life in union with Christ on the practical side. In view of prevailing pagan immorality and even of the ethics of philosophic paganism, the importance of moral teaching in the early Christian Church can hardly be over-estimated. The contrast between the Christian ideal and the pagan Society from which it was separated accounts for the repeated warnings even against gross forms of sin.

19. ἴστε. So אcABC and old Latin (scitote) and Vulgate (scitis). KLP have ὤστε. The change from ἴστε to ὤστε was probably the correction of an expert who inferred some error from the occurrence of the Attic syncopated form ἴστε (from ἴσημι), a form not elsewhere found in the N.T.

19. ἴστε. For the reading see above. The classical form ἴστε for the Hellenistic οἴδατε is found here only in N.T. ‘Ye know it’ refers to what precedes, emphasizing that, and leading on to its consequence—a new life.

ταχὺς εἰς τὸ ἀκοῦσαι. εἰς signifies aim or tendency; ταχὺς is constructed also with the infinitive alone: ὡς θέλοντα μέν μʼ ἔχεις | σοὶ συμπονῆσαι καὶ ταχὺν προσαρκέσαι | βραδὺν δʼ Ἀχαιοῖς εἰ διαβληθήσομαι, Eur. Hec. 861–3: ταχὺς ἐν τῇ ἀκροάσει σου, Sir 5:11. One of the sayings attributed by Mahommedan writers to Christ is, ‘Asked by some how to win Paradise, He said, “Speak not at all.” They said, “We cannot do this.” He said then, “Only say what is good” ’ (Margoliouth, Expository Times, Dec. 1893). Comp. γλῶσσα ἀνθρώπου πτῶσις αὐτῷ, Sir 5:13.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19-27.] Exhortation to receive rightly this word of truth. (See the general connexion in the Prolegomena.)

19.] First, as to the reading. For the external evidence, see the digest. It is of a kind which can hardly be rejected. And all internal considerations make the same way. It is hardly possible that the simple and obvious ὥστε should have been altered into the difficult ἴστε. Whether the connexion with the last verse was plain, is not a consideration which usually entered into the minds of transcribers. They were much more likely to attempt to establish some connexion, plain or not, especially when so unusual a word as ἴστε admitted of change to so obvious an one as ὥστε. Next, comes the question how ἵστε is to be taken, whether imperatively or indicatively. If the former, the sense will be, ‘Know, my beloved brethren’ (either what has preceded or what follows: if the latter, then the introduction of ἔστω κ.τ.λ. with a δέ gives it as a generally received saying, possibly as a reference to ref. Sir., γίνου ταχὺς ἐν ἀκροάσει σου, καὶ ἐν μακροθυμίᾳ φθέγγου ἀπόκρισιν: if the former, the imperative sense seems hardly applicable). On the whole I much prefer the indicative sense, for which we have a precedent in reff. Heb. and Eph., the only other places where the form occurs in the N. T. And taking this indicative sense, I refer the word not to what follows, but to what precedes, making it an appeal to their knowledge of the momentous facts which he has just stated: You are well aware of this: but (i. e. and having this knowledge &c.). Thus we bring ἴστε here into strict accord with its meaning in those two other places, where it is, “Ye are aware;” appealing to a well-known fact. Ye know it, my beloved brethren: but (consequently) let every man he swift to hear (the word of truth which has so great power for good and for life: we need not actually supply τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας as Est., al., De W., Wiesinger do: the verb is absolute and general, having only reference to the word of truth), slow to speak (λαλῆσαι need not refer only to the caution μὴ πολλοὶ διδάσκαλοι γίνεσθε, ch. 3:1, though it includes that, being general. The meaning is, be eager to listen, not eager to discourse: the former may lead to implanting or strengthening the new life, the latter to wrath and suddenness of temper, so often found in the wake of swift rejoinder and ready chattering. Œc. reminds us that τὶς ἀνὴρ θεῖος φησίν, ὁ λαλήσας μετέγνω πολλάκις, ὁ δὲ σιωπήσας οὐδέποτε), slow to wrath (Bengel and others interpret ὀργή, “ira sive impatientia erga Deum,” and so nearly Calvin: but the reference is more general, as the precept is. The quick speaker is the quick kindler. See below. We have in Philo de Confus. Ling. § 12, vol. i. p. 412, βραδὺς ὠφελῆσαι, ταχὺς βλάψαι: but the words occur in contrast only here in the N. T.):

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherefore. The A. V. follows the reading wste. But the correct reading is iste, ye know, and so Rev. Others render it as imperative, know ye, as calling attention to what follows.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.