James 1:26

Jam_1:26-27

If any … seem to be religious

A false and a true religious ritual

The word religious, here, does not mean the entire religious life--the inner experience and the outward manifestation of religion--but only the outward expression of it.

It is the branches and fruit of religion; not its root--that without which the root would be useless, but which is itself dependent upon the root for its very existence. It is the body of religion; not the soul--yet the body by which the soul acts. It is--to use a now commonly repeated word--the ritual of religion. To the Christian the whole world is a temple, and all life that religious service of which we speak. This is the ritual we care to preach, and long to revive; the ritual of pure morality; not the morality of worldly maxims, or human standards; but the morality that springs from love to Christ, and is possible only through faith in Him.

I. A FALSE RITUAL. James is here merely citing one example of many false rituals, and he is probably citing that one because it was emphatically the sin of the Church of that age. It is, in a word, the sins of the tongue--the sin of wantonness of speech. Notice that all external manifestation of religion--if you like, all ritual--is faulty, fantastic, and false--that is--

1. Self-deceptive. There are some sins, in the midst of whose blighting influences a man cannot satisfy even his imagination that he is religious; that are too flagrant to let a man deceive his own heart. But there are others that many a man commits, and yet imagines that he is religious. Refined sins, that have a smooth attire and a gentle voice; customary sins, that are easily lost in the crowd of other mens sins, because they are so common in their appearance. Such men are their own dupes.

2. Inconsistent. All wrong expression of religious life is inconsistent. Is not murder? Yes, you say quickly--and so is lying! However, James instances a more common, and, some might have thought, excusable, inconsistency. But he quotes it as an example of all the rest, and sternly condemns it. All garrulousness, all excessive talkativeness, is here condemned--whether it is that of uncharitableness, including the words of hatred, of passion, of detraction, or that of untruthfulness, where there is deceit, false witness; or that of unreality, when in social intercourse, or in worship, unmeant, unfelt things are continually being said, or sung--words that circulate in the home, the drawing-room, or the sanctuary that are base coin.

(1) The gossip bridleth not his tongue. Such is the man who is greatly interested in, and constant conversing about, the concerns of others, who is ever ready to say many things about the commercial concerns, the home, the social life, or the moral character of his neighbour.

(2) The censor bridleth not his tongue. Such is the man who is constantly criticising and condemning his fellow-men, forgetting the Divine command, Judge not, lest ye be judged.

(3) The bigot bridleth not his tongue. Such is the man who has no brotherly words for any beyond his own Church.

(4) The sentimentalist bridleth not his tongue. Such is the man who strongly utters what he weakly feels; who glibly says or sings what is mere matter of superficial feeling rather than of deep spiritual conviction.

3. Valueless. We are as Christians what priests in the sanctuary before the congregations profess to be--we are performing the holy rites, and thus symbolising the faith and uttering the worship of Christ. Our ritual is our life. That life is the performance of religious rites which symbolise our faith to the world, and utter our worship to God. Now, the life of such as we have glanced at, must evidently be a false ritual. It does not symbolise our religion to the world, for when the lynx-eyed world observes the conversation of the gossip, or of the censor, or of the bigot, or of the sentimentalist, it is not awed by it, it is not attracted by it. There is nothing religiously impressive in such conduct. Such a mans religion is vain. Nor does it honour God.

II. A TRUE RITUAL. Coleridge well says that While the outward services of ancient religion, rites, ceremonies, and ceremonial restraints of the old law had morality for their end, were the letter of which morality was the spirit, morality itself is the service and ceremonial of the Christian religion.

1. Beneficence. The charities that lead us in the footsteps of Emmanuel, who went about doing good, are the best authorised rites of our religion.

(1) Care for the afflicted.

(2):Personal intercourse with the afflicted. Charity seems to do too much of her work in these days by proxy. If you would really be of Christian service to the afflicted, be a brother, not a benefactor only.

2. Purity.

(1) The world is a defiling thing.

(2) The Christian is to mingle with the world.

(3) That the Christian must not be defiled with the world. These two, then, charity and holiness--not apart, but together: not in themselves, but as the expression of piety, the simple and sublime ritual of religion--are necessary and possible to every Christian man. Our Pattern exemplified them. (U. R. Thomas.)

Religion

St. James here speaks of religion under one particular aspect, and one only; that of external form, ceremonial, and observance--those outward expressions which are helpful, and needful, to bring into act and substance the inner workings of heart and soul. Such external things are necessary to all religion, to all worship--such as we in this world can offer. It is a good sign of our days, that there is less of that poverty of heart many of us can remember which made men shrink from all outward appearance of religion; when godlessness, immorality, or levity of life was magnified into a meretricious repute; and the vast majority of people would rather be thought votaries of the world than devout followers of the gospel of Christ. But just as one extreme form of evil diminishes, another, under the fine policy of the enemy of souls, comes in danger of gaining ground. It is that which St. James sorrowfully saw in his day, the mere seeming of religion in outward things; the too easy, often too humanly attractive ways which look like the service of Christ, when really they may be but the service of our own wills and desires, of the fancied ideal we substitute for pure and undefiled religion.

1. First I would say be jealously watchful against every kind of simulation in the religious life; against any weak or morbid care for the seeming of your character and ways; for what you may appear to be, rather than for what you really and vitally are. In the depth of our own hearts our effort must be to love and serve our Father which seeth in secret; and commit to Him the care of rewarding us openly.

2. That spirit and temper of religion is vain too in which a man bridleth net his tongue. All experience tells us, as the records of other generations in our own history bear witness too, that it is in the very nature of controversy to quicken our most questionable feelings, to stimulate our least beneficial powers; and happiest are they who are most spared its trial.

3. There remains one other note of danger to real and practical religion which St. James touches, when he speaks of a man deceiving his own heart. This may seem a general form of expression; but we may consider it as enforcing the great lesson that all vital religion has more to do with the heart than the head; and must be judged by its power over those deep-seated affections, to which the most moving appeal of Christs religion is made. (Canon Puckle.)

Vain religion and true

I. A SPECIMEN OF VAIN RELIGION (Jam_1:26). If any man among you--any man, be he who he may, be his standing and authority, his profession and position, what they may, among you Christians. By putting the matter thus, he would lead them to deal with themselves individually and inquire whether the supposition was realised in regard to himself. Seem to be religious. Seem,--that is not so much to others as to himself--if he think that this is his character and condition.

1. The sin specified. It is that of not bridling the tongue. The person who speaks uncharitably, maliciously, slanderously, who gives ready utterance, free circulation to calumnies, suspicions, insinuations--who propagates false charges, or true ones, in a bitter, envious or malignant spirit--he assuredly bridles not his tongue. The reviler, the backbiter, the whisperer, the reckless, abusive partisan, the inventor and publisher of bad names and injurious rumours--all such are clearly involved in this condemnation. And short even of this the sin here specified may exist, may reign. We may not bridle the tongue as regards vain, light, foolish talking. Our speech, if free from the bad feeling of those whose words are spears and arrows, may be trivial, frothy, unprofitable. It may signally want dignity, gravity, purity.

2. The evidence it furnishes. Why does James make so much of the bridling of the tongue? Set any part of the Divine statute-book at nought, and you in effect trample on every part; you strike at the foundation of the entire structure. It indicates a rooted rebelliousness, whatever appearances of submission, and even whatever acts of submission, there may be in certain duties and for certain purposes. The tongue, let it be remembered, is regulated and ruled by the heart; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh (Mat_12:34-35). The one is the index of the other. The stream corresponds to the hidden spring, and tells us what are its qualities. And yet again, the sin which, in a sense, is begun with speech, does not end there, but goes a great deal farther. It spreads in every direction, and involves often the most extensive evil influences and consequences. As it issues from a fountain of impurity, it becomes in turn such a fountain itself, and the bitter waters flowing forth from it carry desolation and death to quarters which had otherwise been fresh and fruitful.

II. THE NATURE OF TRUE RELIGION (verse 27). Pure and undefiled--characterising it both positively and negatively. Pure, that is, genuine, sound, as it were, clean like the region from which it comes, and to which it returns. Undefiled, not contaminated by any corrupt, earthly mixture, not polluted or stained by the introduction of carnal, beggarly elements. Before God and the Father--God, who is the Father, the paternal relation being specially mentioned, it may be, with reference to them as begotten by the Word of Truth, and so His spiritual children. Before Him, meaning in His presence, or in His estimation. Is this, consists in this, not meaning that it is confined to the particulars which follow. It embraces gracious principles and affections which are now left out of sight, the subject treated of by the apostle being definite and limited. And even as regards outward duties, which are those embraced in the peculiar term rendered religion, only such are singled out as bore on the writers present purpose--these, however, being highly significant and representative in their character.

1. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. Observe the parties--the fatherless, orphans, those deprived of parents. In the mention of them there may be an allusion to God, as here presented to view in the character of a father. Such children are in a peculiarly desolate and distressing condition. The duty specified is that of visiting these parties, which includes every kind of friendly office--counsel, aid, defence, soothing their sorrows, supplying their wants, vindicating their rights. We are not to be satisfied with acting through a substitute--a missionary, an agent of some religious or charitable society. We are to come into contact with them--to go to them in person.

2. To keep himself unspotted from the world. Here strict purity is enjoined. The world is corrupt and defiling. And, mark, we are not even to be spotted by it, we are to guard against the slightest stain, avoiding all its vanities as well as its vices. From everything of the kind we are to keep ourselves. Now, mark, these two things go together, and may not be separated. There must be both the generous heart and the circumspect walk, goodness in union with holiness. And when genuine, they spring from, and are pervaded by, godliness. They are rooted in a filial relation to the Father above, in a right standing before Him, and a gracious conformity to Him; with Him they originate, and to Him they have respect in all their actings. (John Adam.)

And bridleth not his tongue

Sins of the tongue

I. NOTICE THE UNBRIDLED TONGUE AS IMPLYING FALSEHOOD.

1. Some men lie maliciously.

(1) They may be actuated by a desire to be revenged for some real or fancied injury.

(2) They may wish to benefit themselves at the expense of others.

(3) They may desire to set two persons at variance, and therefore misrepresent the actions and motives of one to the other.

2. Some men lie indiscreetly. They garnish, modify, or magnify the story, so that it conveys a wrong impression.

3. Some men lie thoughtlessly. Such are tattling gossips, the news vendours of small communities.

4. The unbridled tongue is often the tongue of a hasty, choleric person.

II. THE RELIGION OF THE MAN WHO DOES NOT BRIDLE HIS TONGUE IS VAIN.

1. He deceives his own heart.

2. He only seems to be religious.

3. He proves that one great ruling sin at least remains unsubdued.

III. THE CONSEQUENCES OF AN UNBRIDLED TONGUE ARE SERIOUS.

1. To the person himself.

(1) His mind must be unhappy, filled with jealousy, envy, and hate.

(2) No one will trust him, give him his confidence, or listen to him without misgivings.

(3) He gets irate trouble when his indiscretion or his falsehood is found out.

(4) God knows his character

2. To others.

(1) Misrepresentation, trouble, sorrow, injustice.

(2) Men will hate and avoid the unbridled tongue as much as possible.

(3) Lying is the grand characteristic, if not the root, of all vicious conduct, and of which Satan is an embodiment. (Homilist.)

The government of the tongue

At the Stephens Institute, Hoboken, there is a testing department devoted to the business of testing the quality of oils and other substances; and I am told it is a very lucrative business, since it is a matter of great importance to large numbers of people to have a scientific and impartial test of the quality of the articles alluded to. There is an oil, however, which is not quoted in the markets, though it is of the greatest value, and which is not tested at any of our institutes, though to be sure of the quality is a thing of unspeakable moment. It is that oil which many of us--who, like the virgins in the parable, have gone forth to meet the Bridegroom--are supposed to have taken in our vessels with our lamps. But it is of the last importance that we should know the quality of this our oil, whether it is genuine or no, whether it will burn on through the night of death and trial, or will prove spurious or adulterated oil, so that when the cry is heard, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, and we arise and trim our lamps, we find that they burn low, and go out, and leave us in the darkness. Now the Bible furnishes the tests whereby we may ascertain its genuineness. Here is one of them. Sometimes a single chemical test is sufficient to settle the quality of an article: so it is here. If our oil cannot stand this test, it is not pure. The government of the tongue is the test of the genuineness of a mans religion. But one may ask, Why should the tongue be bridled? And what is there in the bridling of it, which carries such significance that it is alone the sufficient and crucial test of the quality of a mans religion? I give three reasons.

I. BECAUSE THE POWER OF SPEECH, WHICH IS THE USE OF THE TONGUE, INVOLVES A VERY GRAVE RESPONSIBILITY. It may not be exercised lightly or thoughtlessly, but reverently, discreetly, soberly, and in the fear of God. The man of science tells us the vibrations of the air which we produce in speech are transmitted on through the centuries. So is it oftentimes with the influence of an idle, or a sinful, or a hasty word; once spoken, who shall recall it? or who shall put a period to its influence for evil? Not one. In the Alps the traveller is sometimes bidden by his experienced guide to avoid speaking, because under certain conditions the vibrations of the voice may precipitate the terrible avalanche. The hasty or the intemperate word, or even the whispered slander, has often precipitated great crises in history which have involved myriads in misery, and oftener has brought down on men, in their social or domestic life, an avalanche of ills and woes.

II. BECAUSE THE TONGUE BOTH MAKES AND REVEALS THE MAN. If it makes the man, then it ought to be bridled, lest it make him ill. If it reveals him, then the bridling of it, so that it shall not transgress its proper limit, is a fair test of the quality of a mans religion. The tongue, I say, makes the man. Yes, for the influence of speech is reflex as well as direct. No word is spoken but leaves its impress behind it upon the lips that utter it before it can exercise any influence upon the ear that hears it. Your speech goes to form your character. You will grow largely what your words make you--light, unstable and unreliable, fickle and false, peevish and irritable, impure and ungodly, if your talk be such. I say, therefore, again, the tongue makes the man. Then let it be bridled, let it be wisely regulated. It is also the expression of the man. It reveals him, tells what he really is. Yes, though he may train his tongue to deceit, misrepresentation, prevarication, suppression of the truth, even downright falsehood, yet in the end, and on the whole, the tongue will be the expression of the man. No man can be false always. The mask worn in public must commonly be laid aside in private. And not only so: the habit of concealing the truth, and assuming a character which is unreal, will beget a habit of tortuous and indirect expression which by and by will reveal the man.

III. BECAUSE OF ITS WILD AND UNGOVERNABLE NATURE AND ITS GREAT AND PECULIAR POWER FOR MISCHIEF. The twelve labours of Hercules were easier than the task of controlling the tongue at all seasons and under all circumstances. Curbed at one point--profanity, for instance--it will break out at another. Subdued to-day, it will break its fetters to-morrow. Docile under the influence of reason and reflection in the quiet of the chamber, it will suddenly become fierce under some unexpected provocation, at some undeserved slight or rebuke. Then, too, the tongue possesses peculiar powers for mischief. A hunter in the Adirondacks drops a spark from his pipe, and soon that little spark has kindled the whole mountains into flame, and for weeks the fire burns on, filling the land with smoke by day and lighting up all the heavens with its lurid glare by night, until at length it dies for want of fuel to feed on. And the tongue, says St. Jam_3:5), little as it is, is likewise destructive. Often somespark from a hasty or an inconsiderate tongue has set a whole neighbourhood on fire, and the flame of hatred has smouldered on for a generation. Often some spark from an unruly tongue has kindled in a household a spirit of petulancy which has scorched all the sweet, tender grass and fragrant flowers of domestic love and fellowship. And then the tongue possesses this peculiarity, that it draws all the members and all the faculties after it in its transgression. He who bridleth not his tongue need not think to govern his temper or to restrain his hands from evil, or to walk in the paths of peace. As poison quickly permeates the blood, as the fire sweeps on the wings of the wind over the prairie, so the tongue inflames the whole man: it setteth on fire the whole course of nature the whole compass of mans being, the circumference of his corporeal powers. Whence does it derive this fatal power? It is set on fire of hell! Oh, the pity! oh, the shame! that speech--that high prerogative of man, whereby he is in his bodily structure chiefly distinguished from the brutes--should be made the means of bestialising, yea, demonising, this heir of immortality! (R. H. McKim, D. D.)

The regulation of speech

This admonition teacheth that the law of God, being a lantern unto our feet and a light unto our paths, and a thing Divinely inspired from above to make a man perfect in righteousness, doth not only restrain the unbridled actions of man, but also the disordered speeches of their mouths, that both in action and communication they may be holy unto the Lord. The reasons hereof are two.

1. It causeth error in our lives and hurt unto ourselves when we are given to babbling and prating; thereby our hearts are deceived and ourselves endangered. Solomon setting down the inconvenience of not restraining the tongue, affirmeth that life and death are therein. He that keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from trouble. As a city lying open and uncompassed with walls, even so is a man that cannot restrain his tongue.

2. As not moderating our tongues we deceive our own hearts, so we corrupt and defile our religion and make it vain before God.

(1) Vain talk,. idle and frivolous, serving to no profit, prating where there is no need, we shall give account to God for.

(2) Another evil of the tongue to be restrained in men is when we talk of God, of His Word, of His law and religion, not desirous to reform our lives according unto His commandments. This is a great evil and point of halting hypocrisy whereby our religion is vain.

3. As from these evils our tongues must be restrained, so from rash judgment.

4. Another evil is flattery.

5. Dissimulation--when we pretend one thing in our words and speeches and have another thing in our hearts, whether it be to God as hypocrites or to men as counterfeits--maketh also our religion vain.

6. The sixth evil from which we must refrain is lying, which is a false signification of speech or voice with intention to deceive.

7. The next evil which corrupteth our religion and maketh it vain before God is filthy speech, whereby not only our lives are descried to be evil, but our hearts to be wicked and our religion counterfeit.

8. Another is slander, whereof Jam_4:11.

9. Another, cursing and execration (Jam_3:9).

10. A tenth evil is blasphemy and swearing, spoken of Jam_5:12. Of all these may we worthily say with the apostle, If any man among you seem religious, and restraineth not his tongue from these, but deceiveth his own heart, this mans religion is vain. (R. Turnbull.)

Government of the tongue

I. SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS, TO DEMONSTRATE THE NECESSITY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE.

1. Consider what amazing good or awful mischief your tongue may be the instrument of effecting. The tongue of the eloquent Demosthenes roused the Athenians against the boundless ambition of Philip; the bold tongue of the eloquent Cicero delivered his country from the deep-laid plots of the artful Catiline; the wild harangues of a solitary hermit filled all Europe with frenzy, and armed them for the romantic exploits of the Crusade; and there have not been wanting in modern times instances of the power of words, when, at the name of Austerlitz or Marengo, thousands have rushed upon the bayonets point and hurried to the arms of death.

2. Consider the intimate connection of your words with your thoughts and actions.

3. The laws which all civilised nations in every age have found it necessary to enact for the government of the tongue. In the laws of Menu, the great legislator of the Hindoos, the most tremendous judgments are threatened to the slanderer or the perjured witness. These are the remarkable words: Whatever places of torture have been prepared for the slayer of a priest, for the murderer of a woman or a child, for the injurer of a friend, or for an ungrateful man, those places are ordained for a witness who gives false evidence; and again: The fruit of every virtuous action which thou hast done, O good man, since thy birth, shall depart from thee to dogs if thou deviate in speech from the truth. In China excessive talkativeness in a woman is by the law considered a sufficient ground for a divorce. Solon enacted wholesome laws against calumny and slander, and annexed heavy fines to the violation of them. Augustus Caesar declared the authors of all libels, &c., attacking or blackening the reputation of any person whatsoever, guilty of high treason, and punishable with death. Amongst the Egyptians perjury was regarded as a capital crime, and the false accuser was doomed to undergo the punishment which, had the charge been substantiated, would have been inflicted on the accused.

4. Your tongues are the property of God. It should, then, be your constant care that it unite with its kindred organs to advance the Redeemers praise.

II. SOME OF THOSE VICES OF THE TONGUE WHICH THE SCRIPTURES HAVE PARTICULARLY CENSURED, AND THE PREVALENCE OF WHICH MORE ESPECIALLY DEMONSTRATES THE NECESSITY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE.

1. The profane tongue. Under this head maybe classed--

(1) All kinds of blasphemy.

(2) Perjury.

(3) Common swearing.

(4) All jesting with the Scriptures.

(5) All sorts of incantations and enchantments.

(6) All cursing or imprecating the Divine vengeance upon ourselves or others.

(7) The performance of religious services in an irreverent and thoughtless manner.

2. The false tongue.

(1) Lying in the common acceptation of the word.

(2) There is a species of lying, however, for which some writers on moral philosophy have contended as not being injurious to society or unlawful in itself, but which, in my opinion, is highly prejudicial to the simplicity and confidence of social intercourse, and very far from the undisguised and open spirit inculcated by the gospel. I mean the habit of exaggeration and embellish-meat in narratives; the practice of denying ones self to those persons whom it does not suit either our convenience or our inclination to see; the compliments and declarations of friendship which come not from the heart; and the welcomes which are dictated by politeness to persons whom we secretly dislike: in all which cases truth and sincerity would dictate a very different style of address to that which is actually employed.

(3) In addition to this it may be observed that there may be lying, and that of a most aggravated kind, without absolute untruth: as in the case of prevarication, or dissimulation, or when words are used in another sense by the speaker than that in which it was intended the hearer should understand them.

3. Idle tongue.

(1) All vain, foolish, and frivolous conversation.

(2) Hence follows tale-bearing in all its hateful and injurious varieties.

4. The malignant tongue. Under this head I might say much of--

(1) Detraction, a species of calumny and a vice of the malignant tongue far too prevalent, and that where least of all it should be known; I mean among friends and brethren--the tongue which, under the colour of friendship, aims a deadlier blow and inflicts a deeper wound.

III. SOME GENERAL RULES FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF THE DUTY.

1. Look well to the cultivation of the heart, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

2. Look well to the furniture of the head. Some peoples heads, says an old divine, are like a bell, in which there is nothing but tongue and emptiness. If you would have your tongue delivered from stupid silence on the one hand and vain and foolish talking on the other, take care to be well furnished with holy and useful matter for discourse; and that you may be so, accept the following advice

Read much; think much, and upon the best of subjects; hear much, and for this purpose seek the best society; write much if you have leisure, for this will correct the flippancy of speech and habituate you to express your thoughts with sobriety and precision.

3. Learn the art of silence. I say the art, for there is as much wisdom required in knowing when to be silent as when to speak.

4. That your tongue may be well regulated in company, always furnish yourselves for the occasion, according to the nature of the society in which inclination or necessity may place you--as the surgeon, who carries his instruments about him, and the traveller wire is furnished for the necessities of his journey. Go with a chastened spirit into the presence of the haughty, with powerful arguments into the society of the sceptic, with useful information into the company of the ignorant; and thus supplied from those treasuries of wisdom which are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, you will be thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work.

5. Watch against the influence of pride, vanity, and passion. The first will make your speech disgusting, the second contemptible, and the third dangerous.

6. Bear constantly in mind how great a conquest is the government of the tongue. This is more than repulsing armies and subduing kingdoms. It is related of one of the ancients that a man without learning came to him to be taught a psalm. He turned to the thirty-ninth. But when he had heard the first verse of it--I said I would take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue--the man would hear no more, saying this was enough if he could practise it; and when the instructor blamed him that he had not seen him for six months, he replied that he had not done the verse; and forty years after he confessed he had been all that time studying it, but had not learned to fulfil it yet.

7. Make the government of the tongue the subject of your daily prayer.

8. Every evening, ere you retire to rest, let the words you have uttered constitute an important part in the retrospect of the day.

9. Realise the presence of the Eternal God. (T. Raffles, LL. D.)

An unbridled tongue, a sign of a vain religion

I. Then it would seem that there is such a thing as not only being religious, BUT APPEARING TO BE; that rejoicing though we can in the sincerity of some, we are not to be blind to the pretence and hypocrisy of others, Now this sin is one which may consist with an assumed high standing in grace. It may be so managed as to conceal its deformity; it may assume even an air of religiousness. It may, and it does, abound within the most sacred enclosures; and it tells sadly for our fallen nature that in spots the most favoured there not unfrequently it most luxuriates: where the gospel is most faithfully preached there does it most prevail. Not that at the door of the gospel the evil lies, nor that its faithful ministrations have any natural tendency to beget or to strengthen it; but it springs altogether from the native vileness of the heart brought in contact with the gospel. Its own native tendency is to change and purify the heart, but when this its direct object is not attained, it serves but to call forth latent corruption; or, while it puts a check upon a sinful propensity in one direction, it is the innocent and accidental cause of its rushing more violently in another. And it is in this manner that we account for what, at first sight, might seem to cast dishonour on the gospel.

II. Now How DOES HE PROCEED TO DETECT AND EXPOSE THIS SEEMING RELIGIOUSNESS? YOU remark that he makes no appeal to any open or gross violation of the moral law. It is the sin of the tongue, the best member that we have, whose right use most dignifies and exalts, but by reason of our apostasy becomes the very worst. Now, it may seem strange that our apostle should have made this selection by which to test the conscience; but what better test could he apply? Take the connection which subsists between the tongue and the heart. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh; and surely an evil tongue is undeniable demonstration of an evil heart. Besides which, what is religion but a link, a bond, a tie between God and the soul? What God is in His moral nature, that religion binds man to be; and so close is the union cemented that the soul of a truly religious man begins to love what God loves and hate what God hates. Impossible, therefore, whatever he may profess, that the man who bridles not his tongue, but suffers it to sport itself in reviling, censuring, or detraction--impossible this mans religion can be other than vain. Hath not He whose religion bids us love Him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength also commanded us to love our neighbour as ourselves? Can we obey the one command and disobey the other? We stop not to inquire into the thousand ways in which an unbridled tongue, with an open ear, evidences an unsanctified heart. The love of slander, whether it be to tell it or to hear it, argues a disposition as fallen as Satans, and with sad but certain truth may it be said of all who love to indulge in it, Ye are of your father the devil, for his works ye do, whose very name betrays his nature--accuser, slanderer of the brethren. There is one tiling, however, we must not leave unnoticed; it is the effect of this sin upon the individual himself. He deceiveth his own heart. The fabricator of lies, by repeating them, soon begins to believe them; and if at the onset there were some slight misgivings of conscience, they are soon silenced, and a hardened conscience and a deceived heart are the appalling reward of a deceiving, slandering, unbridled tongue.

III. And now we come TO THE JUDGMENT THE APOSTLE DELIVERS ON SUCH A RELIGION: It is vain--unprofitable, injurious, destructive. To the individual himself it is the pathway to endless ruin; to others it is frightfully mischievous; to God most dishonourable. (J. Hazlegrave, M. A.)

Tongue-sins

The text is not solitary in the importance it attaches to the power of controlling our speech. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, says the wise man. What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good, says the Psalmist: keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life, but he that openeth wide his lip shall have destruction. Nay, more, in that awful description of human depravity contained in the third chapter of Romans, it is observable how the chief instruments of human offending are made to consist in the organs of speech. Their throat is an open sepulchre, it is said; the poison of asps is under their lips; their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: all tending to corroborate the position of the text, that the soul has no greater enemy than an unbridled tongue.

1. In proceeding to illustrate the mischiefs arising from this source, our first example may be taken from the use of unbridled speech when we are yielding to the passion of anger. Well, see we a man given to this fierce contention, it is the argument of the text that such a mans religion is vain. The root of the matter is not in him: his religion is a mere outside show, an empty vessel, a thing without life. Be is ignorant of the first article of practical Christianity, he has no rule over his own spirit. Solomon thus describes the course of one of these--The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. For the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. Bold image this of a man swallowing up himself, and what does the wise man mean? Why, that an open mouth on earth may open the mouth of that pit which shall swallow up all who are cast into it. I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Vain then is the religion of a man who against the course of anger bridleth not his tongue, for Satan, knowing his tendencies, will always find some occasions for fanning this flame. Through pride and wounded self-love, that most sensitive of all sensitive plants, the man is in a constant broil; his irritability breaks up all the tranquillities of his religious nature. It wounds his peace, frets his spirit, sours his charity, mars his prayers. He gives place to the devil, says the apostle; that is, invites him into his heart, and at the same time he drives out another guest, the blessed Spirit of God. This Divine Being dwells not in the convulsed region of human strife.

2. But another form of tongue sin comprehended in the sentence of the text, is that of detracting, uncharitableness, and malicious gossiping. Thus whosoever makes not conscience of what he repeats to the prejudice of another, who is not slow to speak out against him, and then only with deep and not affected sorrow--that mans religion is vain. He is wanting in that charity which rejoiceth not in iniquity, even when the report is true, but which hopeth all things, believeth all things--covereth all things, as the original has it--in the possibility that the allegation may be after all false. And the lack of this personal grace of our Christianity stamps his whole religion as hollow and unreal.

3. I pass to a third form of the sins of the tongue, which, though we may hope but of rare occurrence, must not be passed over: I mean that which another apostle censures in the worded Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient. The tongue-sins hitherto commented upon are acknowledged sins; where these are, we shall all admit such a mans religion is vain. But do we judge thus of some other sins to which the tongue chiefly ministers? For instance, the sin of ostentation, and boasting, and vanity, and self-display. Can a man be Diotrephes and Christian? Can the humility, and gentleness, and self-hiding of one who feels that he owes all to free grace consist with the practice of an unbridled tongue? No, says the apostle, such a mans religion is vain; and vain, he adds, for this reason, because he deceiveth his own heart. He has looked so long on the waters that reflect his image, that at length his heart knows not its own bitterness, and is an utter stranger to its own plague. Put the bridle on your tongue, then, whenever you feel it is about to say something which is to attract attention to yourself. It is an offence before God; He will have no flesh glory in His presence. I will touch upon one other form of unguarded speech, very different indeed from any we have yet considered, yet I nothing doubt, designedly comprehended within the range of the apostles censures. I allude to the sin of rash and violent complainings when we are under the chastening hand of God. In all times of tribulation learn the wisdom of keeping a tight reign upon the tongue. There is only one ear into which you can pour your lamentations with safety. Grief delights in the exhibition of its own passion; it is maddened into frenzy by the extravagance of its own recitals. The truth of this is seen in the case of the patriarch Job. We do not find a single word of impatience from him until he has begun to pour out his sorrows into the ear of human listeners. (D. Moore, M. A.)

A sign of a seeming religion

I. A MAN MAY SEEM TO BE RELIGIOUS WHILE THE ROOT OF THE MATTER IS A-WANTING.

1. An unconverted man may do many decent and honourable things. In domestic life, he can, indeed, discharge his duty faithfully. In the transaction of mercantile business, too, a man who has never appropriated Christ by faith, may scorn to utter a falsehood or to do a dishonest deed.

2. Much, in a mans character and conduct is concealed from the eye of others. Besides the insidious efforts of the hypocrite to conceal his vices the true character of man is withdrawn from the public eye. Vice, too, when practised by a man who seeks to preserve a decent reputation, naturally courts the shade.

3. The world does not prescribe any very lofty standard of religion.

II. WITH RESPECT TO HIS CHARACTER AND CONDITION A MAN MAY DECEIVE HIS OWN HEART. Neglecting self-examination altogether, some men give themselves up to the direct influence of the pride and self-conceit which are so natural to the human mind. Others, in examining themselves, resort to false and unscriptural tests--such as, Am I not as good as my neighbours? Am I not better than I once was? And some who employ good tests. Do I love the Lord? Have I been born again?--apply them in so unintelligent, so cursory, or so dishonest a way, that they come to a false conclusion respecting their own character and case.

III. IT IS DARK SIGN OF A MAN WHEN HE BRIDLETH NOT HIS TONGUE. (M. S.Patterson, D. D)

This mans religion is vain

A mistake as to religion

We must not be deceived by our own profession. If any member of our body be an instrument of sin, it shows that our hearts are still unconquered by the grace of God. And no member more quickly shows this than the tongue. And few things are more injurious than an unbridled tongue. A fools tongue wanders everywhere, into fields lawful and unlawful. Men have no right to talk heedlessly. It is no excuse that a speaker did not mean to do wrong, or that he meant nothing by it. We are bound to mean something every time we speak, and we are bound to mean something good; the tongue must have on the bridle of thought, and that must be held by the reason, which is the right hand of religion. It is of those words which were not intended by the speaker to be profitable, words uttered when he meant nothing, that Jesus said Mat_12:36). It may be a question which does most harm, a false tongue, or an unbridled tongue. In the case of the former, it may so soon be discovered that it is the instrument of a liar that all men can guard themselves against it; but the unbridled tongue may belong to a man who has some pleasing qualities, or to a woman who but for her wild tongue would be a charming person, and so people are thrown off their guard, and the secret poison of the bitter and bad word may work disastrously. The man who professes to be a believer, and possesses an unbridled tongue, is utterly useless to the cause of all true religion. He may be very punctual in attendance on all forms of public worship; he may even take part in them, exhibiting great gifts in prayer, and great zeal for religion; he may be a very genial and companionable person, witty and bright; he may seem to take great interest in others, and give of his own income or substance to promote what are considered the interests of religion; all that and much more may he do; with the industry of a gambler striving to cheat from himself the verdict that he is a truly religious man; and yet all the while that mans religion may be as empty as a bubble, vain and unprofitable to others and unhelpful to himself; idle, foolish, useless, trifling, thoughtless, wanton, irreverent, profane, for the word translated idle means all these things. (C. F. Deems, D. D.)

Religion a life

Men will write for religion, fight for It, die for it; anything but live for it. (W. Cotton.)

Christianity a life

A man has no business to call himself a Christian unless the virtues of Christianity are in his life. I do not ask for degree, but I ask that they shall be there. If you have got a plant in a pot that for ten years, through summer and winter, sunshine and cloud, rain and dry, has never put out a leaf, nor shown the least symptom of life, what reason have you to believe that it is alive at all? It looks uncommonly like a bit of dead stick. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

True religion

It were a great mistake to consider this an authoritative, scientific definition of religion. The writer has been pointing out the marks of a useless religion. He now indicates the characteristics of any religion which is pure and spotless. Indeed, it might be written any religion, which God sees to be pure and spotless, will have the characteristics of outward beneficence and inward purity. By a beautiful figure, he likens religion to a gem, a precious stone, the value of which depends upon the two qualities of--

1. Being clear through and through, without any inner malformation, and--

2. Being free from all stain or flaw on the outside. Positively, and as to its interior, it is clear and unclouded; negatively, and as to its exterior, it is spotless and flawless. Any religion which has these qualities is a true religion, and will produce purity and usefulness; and, whatever its pretensions, a religion destitute of these is worthless. (C. F. Deems, D. D.)

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

Jas 1:26-27. If &c. — Here the apostle shows more particularly who are the doers of the word; 1st, Negatively, in this verse: 2d, Positively, in the next verse. If any man among you — Who are professors of Christianity; seem to be religious — Θρησκος, pious, devout, or a worshipper of God: and if his conduct in other respects be irreprehensible, and he be exact in all the outward offices of religion, yet if he bridleth not his tongue — From tale-bearing, backbiting, evil-speaking, slandering; or from vain, foolish, ostentatious talking and jesting; or rash, bitter, passionate, malicious, revengeful expressions: this man only deceiveth his own heart — If he fancy he has any true religion at all; for his religion is vain — Is a mere empty profession, and neither is nor will be of any service to him. Pure religion — The word θρησκεια, here used, properly signifies worship, which branch of religion is put for the whole. In the epithets here given to it, pure and undefiled, Archbishop Tillotson thinks there is an allusion to the excellence of a precious stone, which consists much in its being καθαρα και αμιαντος, clear, and without flaw, or cloud. And surely, says Doddridge, no gem is so precious or ornamental as the lovely temper here described. Here then the apostle describes the religion which Isaiah , 1 st, True and genuine, in opposition to that which is false and mistaken: 2d, Sincere and solid, in opposition to that which is feigned and pretended: 3d, Pure and holy, in opposition to that which is mixed with the inventions and superstitions of men, and defiled by erroneous principles and vicious practices. But what is this religion? In what does it consist? The apostle informs us: it consists not in speculations or notions, however just and orthodox. Not in forms or modes of worship, however Scriptural and necessary to be observed. Not in the warmth of affection, or ardour of zeal, &c., during worship. But, in consequence of repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, of justification by faith, and regeneration by the influence of the Divine Spirit, it consists in the possession and exercise of that love to God and all mankind, which is the source of the various branches of practical religion, of mercy as well as justice toward men, and of holiness toward God. True religion before God — Before his penetrating eyes; even the Father — Whose intelligent and immortal offspring we all are; is this, to visit — With counsel, comfort, and relief; the fatherless and widows — Those who need it most; in their affliction — In their most helpless and hopeless state; and to keep himself unspotted from the world — From the maxims, tempers, habits, and customs of it. But this cannot be done till we have given our hearts to God, and love our neighbour as ourselves. That this is true or pure religion, or the proper effect and evidence thereof, the reader will not question, if he recollects, 1st, That religion consists principally in faith working by love to God and man, Gal 5:6; 1Ti 1:5; 1Co 13:1, &c.; Joh 4:8. 2d, That the most eminent and important fruit of faith, and of the love of our neighbour, is not saying, Be thou warmed, (Jas 2:14; 1Jn 4:17,) but visiting, comforting, and relieving the needy and distressed. 3d, That the most important fruit of faith in, and love to, God, is purity of intention and affection, or the being dead to, and unspotted by, the world.

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

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Jas_1:26. Seem to be.—Imagine himself to be religious; a difficult term, because its meanings have been subject to change. “The Greek adjective is one which expresses the outward, ritual side of religion, answering to ‘godliness’ as the inward.” Seem to be a professor, a worshipper. Bridleth not.—Does not restrain, and wisely rule and direct. It is singular to find this chosen as a test of sincerity in religious profession. But compare Mat_12:37. “If a man think himself a true worshipper because he conforms to outward services, while he lets his tongue loose in untruth or unkindness, or other unseemliness, he deceives himself” (Bishop Moberly).

Jas_1:27. Pure religion.—Better, “Pure worship”; “the outward aspect of the devout life.” Undefiled.—Genuine, sincere. See the scrupulous care of the Pharisee to avoid anything that caused ceremonial defilement (Joh_18:28). Visit.—The Greek word implies more than “go and see”; it means “look after,” “care for.” Compare the teaching of our Lord in Mat_15:20; Mar_7:5-8.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jas_1:26-27

Practical Religion.—The word “religion” is used only by St. James. But St. Paul speaks of “the Jews’ religion”; and we are accustomed to speak of a man’s “religion.” Evidently St. James means religion on its practical side—our religion, not as it is an unseen inner life of thought and feeling, but as it finds expression in conduct and relations, and other people can see it. We may say that he means the religion of the religious—the converted. He is not attempting to describe what the Christian religion as a whole is and demands; he is resisting the tendency of the times to make a sentimental faith everything. St. James is often misunderstood because we separate Jas_1:27 from its connection. In Jas_1:26 the case is presented of the man who makes a show of religion. There is such a thing as an ordering of conduct merely to produce a good impression. In such a case there is no personal discipline of which the ordered conduct is the genuine expression. And the man is a self-deceiver. His outward profession and show of religion are of no moral value to him, or indeed to any one else. Then in Jas_1:27 we are told what sincere religion is, as a contrast to this. It also is ordered conduct; but not merely ordered conduct. It also is careful and elaborate worship; but it is not merely elaborate worship. It is self-discipline, and what comes out of that. It is service of others, and the Christly sphere which that spirit of service can always find. These things are not the whole of religion; they only represent the practical side of religion. St. James does not intend to give any definition. He assumes the fact as fully recognised, and not needing fresh statement, that religion has its devotional side. St. James deals with the Christian in the world, and taking his place and part in the world. He treats of the Christian’s proper relations to the sins and sorrows of the world. And this is what he says—The Christian must come helpfully near to the sorrows, but take care to keep clear of the sins.

I. The practical religion with which a man may satisfy himself.—This is not a proper test of religion, but it is the test which men persist in putting.

1. Some try a practical religion of austerities. Dr. Pusey wrote to a friend to send him a “discipline”—that is, a self-scourging whip with five thongs and five knots. Henry Martyn sought to humble himself by walking about with pebbles in his shoes. It is a mistake to deal with the body, the agency for expressing, instead of with the agent that expresses.

2. Some try a practical religion of ritual. Distinguish worship, as natural expression for the soul, from ritual as man-made moulds into which to force the expression. Ritual commands no Divine authority, and can have no inspiration in it. Its centre is man himself. Its genius is good works, done for the sake of doing them.

3. Some try a religion of pietism that is not often practical. They are interested in excited feelings. They think they serve when they only feel; or only put themselves in the way of getting excited feelings. But how self-centred emotional religion is! How enslaving also it is! Hot-house religion; and the plants drawn up long and thin, with no robustness in them. It is very doubtful whether a pietistic religion ever satisfies the man himself for long. There is perhaps nothing that tires and sickens a man so soon.

II. The practical religion with which the Father-God is well pleased.—“Pure religion and undefiled.” Genuine, sincere religion, with no secret self-pleasing at the heart of it. Pure; clear through; that does not fear to be judged under the sunlight. Undefiled, unstained with self-seeking. It includes:

1. Kindly interest in, and care for, others. What you do in society. Religion must get beyond the circle of personal interests. Specific cases of possible service as given by St. James are types of all kinds of call to brotherly service. The condition of widows and orphans in Eastern countries is inexpressibly sad. If we would see the model religion in its practical aspect, we can find it in the human life of the Lord Jesus. With Him worship and self-culture were always kept in their proper place and relations. The days were spent in going about doing good. Earnest Christians are often troubled because their busy lives give them such little opportunity for soul-culture; but that life of service is the very best soul-culture, a culture that advances all the more healthily because it is not watched. Religion is “life for others.”

2. Wise dealing with self. What you are in society. It is singular that visiting the needy should be put first, and self-keeping second. We should have reversed the order. But there is a reason for the order St. James prefers. It is in ministering to the spotted that we best keep ourselves from the spots. Christ touched the leper with a healing touch; therefore He contracted no leprosy. Nurses and doctors are remarkably safe from contagion. Activity against evil is the best preservative from evil, as is illustrated in the case of the slum sisters of the Salvation Army. Be ministering angels, and you will be sure to keep pure as the angels. Here, too, in Christ may be seen the model religion. Activity of service kept him from taking stains. The fungus flourishes in the sopped and decayed branches of the tree. Idle folk are always bodily or morally diseased folk, and they ought to be. Stain comes on things that are laid by. Church grumblers are never Church workers. Keep unspotted by keeping on serving.

III. The two things, service of others and self-keeping, fit together, and make up together the practical religion which the Father-God approves.—They seem to be two distinct departments; they really are one. Religion on its practical side is doing something for somebody, and that proves to be the secret of keeping ourselves clean. We must keep clean as nurses must who tend fevered patients. Experience tells that unlovely things which get stored in the mind have a way of coming up to view, depressing and degrading us, when we have no special interests occupying thought and heart. When the soul is full of interests there is no chance whatever for the evil; it is, most happily, crowded out. Religion then is just this—when seen on its practical side—keeping ourselves free from contamination by finding spheres of Christly service outside ourselves.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Jas_1:26. Men’s Inconsistencies.—Men in the same period of their lives, in the same day, sometimes in the very same action, are utterly inconsistent and irreconcilable with themselves. Look at a man in one light, and he shall seem wise, penetrating, discreet, and brave; behold him in another point of view, and you see a creature all over folly and indiscretion, weak and timorous as cowardice and indiscretion can make him. A man shall appear gentle, courteous, and benevolent to all mankind; follow him into his own house, maybe you see a tyrant, morose and savage to all whose happiness depends upon his kindness. A third in his general behaviour is found to be generous, disinterested, humane, and friendly; hear but the sad story of the friendless orphans too credulously trusting all their little substance into his hands, and he shall appear more sordid, more pitiless, and unjust, than the injured themselves have bitterness to paint him. Another shall be charitable to the poor, uncharitable in his censures and opinions of all the rest of the world besides; temperate in his appetites, intemperate in his tongue; shall have too much conscience and religion to cheat the man who trusts him, and, perhaps, as far as the business of debtor and creditor extends, shall be just and scrupulous to the utmost mite; yet, in matters of full as great concern, where he is to have the handling of the party’s reputation and good name—the dearest, the tenderest property the man has—he will do him irreparable damage, and rob him there without measure or pity. And this seems to be that particular piece of inconsistency and contradiction which the text is levelled at, in which the words seem so pointed as if St. James had known more flagrant instances of this kind of delusion than what had fallen under the observation of any of the rest of the apostles.—Laurence Sterne.

Detraction of Others.—They who are free from the grosser sins, and even bear the outward show of sanctity, will often exalt themselves by detracting others under the pretence of zeal, whilst their real motive is love of evil-speaking.—Calvin.

Vain Religion.—

1. In a vain religion there is much of show, and affecting to seem religious in the eyes of others.

2. There is much censuring, reviling, and detracting of others.

3. A man, in a vain religion, deceives his own heart.

Evil-speaking.—Of the many duties owing both to God and our neighbour, there are scarce any men so bad as not to acquit themselves of some; and few so good, I fear, as to practise all. Every man seems willing to compound the matter, and adopt so much of the system as will least interfere with his principle and ruling passion. Very possibly St. James had grievously suffered, through being cruelly reviled and evil spoken of. All his labours in the gospel, his unaffected and perpetual solicitude for the preservation of his flock, his watchings and fastings, his poverty, his natural simplicity and innocence of life—all perhaps were not enough to defend him from this unruly weapon, so full of deadly poison; and what, in all likelihood, might move his sorrow and indignation more, some who seemed the most devout and zealous of all his converts were the most merciless and uncharitable in that respect, having a form of godliness, but full of bitter envyings and strife. With such he expostulates in the third chapter. In our text St. James seems to have set the two characters of a saint and a slanderer at such variance that one would have thought they could never have had the heart to have met together again. But there are no alliances too strange for this world. There is nothing so bad which will not admit of something to be said in its defence. Are not the inconveniences and ill-effects which the world feels from the licentiousness of this practice, of slandering and evil-speaking, sufficiently counterbalanced by the real influence it has upon men’s lives and conduct? If there was no evil-speaking in the world, thousands would be encouraged to do ill, and would rush into many indecorums, like a horse into a battle, were they sure to escape the tongues of men. If we take a general view of the world, we shall find that a great deal of virtue, at least of the outward appearance of it, arises from the terror of what the world will say, and the liberty it will take upon the occasions we shall give. Numbers of people are every day taking more pains to be well spoken of than what would actually enable them to live so as to deserve it.—Laurence Sterne.

The Sin of Unguarded Speech.—“Bridleth not”; so as to have it in full control, and restrain all its impetuosities, and guide it in right and wise and worthy directions. A classification of Christian sins would have to include some unsuspected ones, and some imperfectly considered ones. Unguarded speech is too often regarded as a weakness or frailty; it is not usually estimated to bear all the characteristics of a sin. It is a sin to which persons of a certain particular disposition are especially exposed; but every Christian is in peril of being taken at unawares, and saying what had much better have been left unsaid. By “unguarded speech” we may mean:

1. The worthless and often mischievous utterances of a talkative disposition.

2. Speech before thought, of which thought disapproves.

3. Speech in too high a tone of voice. A man so speaking is like a runaway horse.

4. Speech of cherished wrong feeling, which is sure to make our words unkind or unjust.

5. Speech forgetful of Christian principles and the Christian spirit. How may speech be wisely guarded (bridled)?

1. Form the habit of speaking seldom, and only after thought.

2. Accustom yourself to learn by reviewing the effects of speech. 3. Cultivate a quiet tone of voice.

4. Remember what is due to others.

5. Avoid speaking under excitement.

6. Season speech with the salt of Christian wisdom and charity.

Scripture References to the Tongue and Speech.—Psa_17:3; Psa_34:1; Psa_35:28; Psa_39:1; Psa_51:14; Psa_52:2; Psa_57:4; Psa_64:3; Psa_71:24; Psa_120:3; Psa_140:3; Psa_141:3; Pro_6:17; Pro_10:20; Pro_12:18; Pro_18:21; Pro_21:23; Mat_12:34; 1Ti_3:8; and others.

Jas_1:27. An Evidence of the Value of Christianity.—There are many religions in the world. Each makes a great claim in its particular district. Which may we say is the best of the world’s religions? Which of them can we fully satisfy ourselves with. It is easy to say that we prefer Christianity. But then we were born into it. And the devotees of other religions prefer theirs for precisely the same reason. We ought to have some better ground than this for our decision, that Christianity stands altogether first among the world-religions. How shall we proceed to judge the worth of the different religions?

1. Compare their sacred books. Take the Persian Zend-Avesta, the books of Confucius, the Shastras of India, the Koran of Mahomet, and the Bible of Jews and Christians; and there is no test, literary, moral, artistic, or religious, that does not give the first place to the Christian Bible.

2. Consider the antiquity of the religions. Reformed Parseeism belongs to the time of Daniel; Confucius dates 551 B.C., and Mahomet 570 A.D.; legends give early dates to the Hindoo and Egyptian: but the primary principles which have unfolded into Judaism and Christianity belong to the very origin of man as a moral and responsible being.

3. Take the relative numbers of the adherents of the religions; and then Christianity must take a low place, for the great human religions outnumber its adherents by millions, though Christianity has associated itself with the most advanced and civilised races.

4. Or estimate the religions by the elaborateness of their ceremonial; then Christianity, in its most ritualistic forms, can offer no rivalry to Hindooism. If these were sufficient bases of judgment, it would have to be admitted that Christianity does not offer unquestionable advantages. The text suggests a better term of judgment—the only safe one. Pure religion is practical. The test question, by which every religion should submit to be tried, is this—Does it practically work out into purity and charity? That test is fully in harmony with the spirit of our age. Since Bacon’s day (1561) observation and experience have taken the place of speculation and theory. Now we ask for verification by experiment. The new method was at first applied in natural science; it is now applied in social, moral, and religious science. We have no reason to fear the application of the new method to Christianity. Let men judge it by its fruits. Appeal may be made without hesitation—

1. To the experience of the world. The history of the race tells of no such help towards righteousness and charity as Christianity and its antecedent, Judaism, have given. The world has never reached without it such high ideals of righteousness and charity as Christianity has helped man to reach. Even the refined and intellectual Greeks exposed deformed infants on Mount Taygetus.

2. To the experience of the nation. Wherever there has been a fine edge on the national conscience, and a stern loyalty to principle, and a pathetic sympathy with suffering, there we find the culturing of Christianity.

3. To the experience of the family. Which owes its existence and its preservation almost entirely to Christianity. It may be most positively affirmed that the highest ideal of family life has never been attained anywhere except under the inspiration of Christianity.

4. To the experience of the individual. Multiplied personal testimony can be given that Christianity is, consciously, an inspiration to righteousness and charity. If men will not listen to us when we argue that Christianity is true doctrinally, they cannot fail to listen when we show that it is, and has been, the living force in humanity, ever working towards righteousness and charity. It has been urged as an objection to Christianity, that some of the world’s worst tyrannies have been supported by its name. It is easy to recall crusades, religious wars, persecutions, dragonnades, and inquisitions. But the reply has been effectively made over and over again—These things are not Christianity, but bigots or bad men using Christianity for their ends. They are not the expression of Christianity; they are caricatures. They are the outcome of a temporal Christianity worked in the interest of hierarchies; they are not kin with the spiritual Christianity of its Founder. They often have followed upon man’s attempts to blend together religion and politics, or rather to make religion serve political ends. Mohammedanism consecrates the sword and the battle. Christianity says, “Put up thy sword into his place.” What a testimony to the value of Christianity England makes on her Hospital Sundays! Why, for sustaining her national charities, does our nation appeal so directly to her professing Christians? Why does not the appeal go to the clubs, the theatre-goers, the attendants on places of amusement, the visitors at public libraries, the great companies, the business men, or the excursionists? Why is the appeal made to those who distinctly bear the Christian name? The fact is that everybody knows, even the scoffer knows, that Christianity ought to, and actually does, work out into purity and charity. That is its evidence. That makes it the unquestionable first of religions.

Uniting Christian Doing with Christian Being.—And how high a contempt and provocation is it of the great God, so totally to pervert the whole design of that revelation He hath made to us, to know the great things contained therein only for knowing sake, which He hath made that we might live by them! And oh! what holy and pleasant lives should we lead in this world if the temper and complexion of our souls did answer and correspond to the things we know! The design of preaching has been greatly mistaken, when it has been thought it must still acquaint them who live under it with some new thing. Its much greater and more important design is, the impressing of known things (but too little considered) upon the hearts of hearers, that they may be delivered up into the mould and form of the doctrine taught them, and may so learn Christ as more and more to be renewed in the spirit of their minds, and put off the old man, and put on the new. The digesting our food is what God now eminently calls for.—John Howe.

The Adornment of Religion.—Our religion is not adorned with ceremonies, but with purity and charity.—Manton.

Pure and Undefiled Religion.—Errors of the most fatal kind were early found in the Christian Church. Even in the apostle’s days a mere form and profession of religion was deemed sufficient. The value of good works was depreciated and the necessity of performing them denied. Against such errors the apostle James lifted up his voice like a trumpet. The pure religion which God alone acknowledges leads to the most self-denying exercises of love, and to a freedom from all the world’s corruptions.

I. His description of true religion.—He takes a practical view. He speaks not of principles, although he believes in the necessity of faith; but it must be a living and operative faith only, which will save the soul. He does not advert to the exercise of our affections towards God, but only to our actions towards men.

II. Here we see how religion will influence us in reference to—

1. The world at large. It is not required of us to renounce the world entirely, to abandon society altogether; but, from its corruptions, pleasures, riches, and honours to keep ourselves free even as Jesus did. We are not to be conformed to its sentiments and habits, nor court nor desire its friendship.

2. That part of it which is destitute and afflicted. Love is the life and soul of religion; and as it will extend to all in general, so will it manifest itself particularly towards those who are afflicted. Visiting the afflicted is an office which the true Christian will delight to execute. Love and charity are enjoined by Christ. Men will applaud this religion; but consider—

III. The use we are to make of it.—

1. As a criterion whereby to judge of our state. “Victory over the world” is one of those marks which are universally found in the Lord’s people, and in no other. A delight in all the offices of love to men for Christ’s sake distinguishes Christians from all other persons. Here is the touchstone.

2. As a directory whereby to regulate our conduct. “Come out from the world, and be separate.” “Bear ye one another’s burdens.” Not to the peculiarities of a sect are we urged, but to “pure and undefiled religion.” This command is equally obligatory on all. The various modes of our obedience will be judged of by God Himself, who alone knows what our respective states and circumstances require. See the compassionate visitor opening the sources of consolation which the gospel affords, till the unhappy sufferers are brought to kiss the rod that smites them; see him administering present relief, and devising means for the future support of the family; how is he received as an angel from heaven! How the widow’s heart rejoices! “Go and do thou likewise.” “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”—Charles Simeon, M.A.

Religion a Social Concern.—By religion we understand the service which is due to the supreme Being, and this service must of course correspond to His nature; so that our views of religion will be true or false in proportion as we understand or mistake His Divine character. Religion, corresponding to His nature, consists chiefly of two parts:

(1) cherishing those sentiments of love and gratitude which are due to infinite goodness; and

(2) actively promoting the purposes of this goodness—that is, promoting our own and others’ present and future welfare. St. James only describes the methods of its manifestation. They consist in doing good to others, and in doing good to ourselves. We infer that religion is a social principle, intimately united with social duty, belonging to us as social beings.

1. It is founded in our social nature, and springs from our social relations.

2. Religion is a social concern, for it is a subject on which men have a strong tendency to feel and act together, and thus it is a strong bond of union.

3. Religion is a social and public as well as a private concern, because the common relation of God to all men is not merely a ground of sympathy and attachment, but makes it a duty to offer Him public, and the most public, acknowledgments.

4. Religion is a social concern, for it operates powerfully on society, contributing in various ways to its stability and prosperity. Few men suspect, perhaps no man comprehends, the extent of the support given by religion to every virtue.

1. It is a right and duty in men to influence one another on the subject of religion.

2. If individuals are authorised and bound to promote religion, then the same right and obligation appertain to the community. A community is bound to incorporate religion into its public institutions, and to secure, if possible, to all its citizens the benefits of Christian worship and instruction.—W. E. Channing, D.D.

Kindness and Character the True Worship of the Father.—A definition is that which traces the boundary of a thing, so as to separate it from all other things. A definition must include the thing—the whole thing, and nothing but the thing defined. If this verse is to be regarded as a definition of religion, then it is both defective and misleading. Defective, because it does not include the whole of religion—it shuts out the whole spiritual life of man. Misleading, for it includes things which, though invariably accompanying religion, are not peculiar to religion. Kindness and purity of life are not plants that bloom only on religious soil. But the verse is not a definition. With us the word “religion” means “godliness,” the grand sum-total of duties and relations to God and man. To the translators of the Bible it meant the outward form of piety, the external service of God. St. James presupposes conversion, presupposes all that Christ and Paul say of the inner spiritual life. The matter discussed in the text is—How shall the Divine life in the soul show itself? What shall its ritual be—its worship? It will not dispense with old forms of worship; but it will not content itself with these. The true Christian ritual is kindness and character. Christianity has love to God for its substance, and morality for its ritual. St. James says here that the religious man worships God truly every time he does a kindness to men, and that his unspotted character, like the holy fire that burnt unceasingly, is itself a perpetual pure and undefiled act of the truest worship. We need to have our ideas of religious service enlarged.

I. Some have thought that God was pleased with bloodshed and pain; and therefore they have offered up their prisoners of war, and even their own children, to the gods.

II. Others have thought that He would be pleased if men were very cruel to their own bodies.

III. Others insist that God is pleased with gorgeous ceremony.

IV. Yet others think to please Him with pietism.—Sentiment, emotion, and all other things that we present in public worship must be translated into some practical form—incarnated in some act, and “go about doing good.” Then is God truly served, and helped, and pleased. Kindness and character: God loves these, and as His will more and more permeates humanity, ceremony, persecution, and sectarianism will die, and love to God, with earth for its temple, the homes of men for its shrines, words of kindness for its psalmody, deeds of kindness for its offering, a pure heart for its holy of holies, the smile of God and the redemption of the world for its reward, will take their place.—J. Morgan Gibbon.

Religion in the Details of Life.—The difficulty of religion is the taking up of the cross daily, rather than the taking it up on some set occasion, and under extraordinary circumstances—the serving God in little things, the carrying of religious principles into all the minutiæ of life, the discipline of our tempers, the regulation of our speech, the momentary sacrifices, the secret and unobserved self-denials. Who that knows anything of the difficulty of piety does not know that there is greater danger of his failing in these than in trials of apparently far greater cost and sterner endurance? It is not comparatively hard to put the armour on when the trumpet sounds, but it is to keep the armour on when there is no alarm of battle. The warfare with our spiritual enemies is not a series of pitched battles, with intervals of resting and recruiting; it is rather daily, hourly, momentary fighting. This is the “driving out little by little” to which the Almighty promises “the reward of inheritance.”—H. Melvill.

Unspotted from the World.—As men and women grow older they change. Of all the changes that they undergo those of their moral natures are the most painful to watch. The boy changes into the man, and there is something lost which never seems to come back again. Presently his life no longer sounds with a perfectly clear ring, or shines with a perfectly white lustre. He is no longer unspotted. When a grown man sees this, he is sure that the change has come somehow from the boy having grown up to manhood in the midst of his fellow-men. The manhood has had to grow here in this great universal mass of things, this total of many various influences which we call “the world.” Home, school, business, society, politics, human life in general in all its various activities—out of this have come the evil forces that have changed and soiled this life. He has walked through mire, and the filth has gathered on his skirts. We have all been “spotted by the world.” The worst thing about all this staining power of the world is the way in which we come to think of it as inevitable. We practically believe that no man can keep himself unspotted. There is a worse thing than this. When a man comes not merely to tolerate but to boast of the stains that the world has flung upon him. In view of all this we come to our religion. See how intolerant religion is. She starts with what men have declared to be impossible. She refuses to bring down her standards. She insists that men must come up to her. No man is thoroughly religious, she declares, unless he goes through this world untainted, as the sunbeam goes through the mist. Christianity could not sustain itself in its great claim to be from God unless it took this high and God-like ground—that whoever named the name of Christ must depart from all iniquity, We go for our assurance to the first assertion of the real Christianity in the life of Jesus. That life was meant to be the pattern of the lives of all of those who called themselves His followers. If He walked through the same muddy streets of sordid care, and penetrated the same murky atmosphere of passion that we have to go through, and thence came out pure and unspotted from the world, then He is really God manifest in the flesh. Filling ourselves, then, with this idea, that the spotlessness of the Saviour’s life is the pattern of the spotless life to which we must aspire, study that life.

1. The first thing that strikes us about it is its positiveness. Jesus was never guarding Himself, but always invading the lives of others with His holiness. He did not spend His life in trying not to do wrong. He was too full of the earnest love and longing to do right—to do His Father’s will. Many of our attempts at purity fail by their negativeness. All merely negative purity has something of the taint of the impurity that it resists. Morality is apt to be conceived as negative. Religion is by its very nature positive. Religion is higher than morality, as manly virtue is nobler than childlike innocence. But is any such purity as Christ’s, so positive, so strong, possible for us? Christianity is a religion of the supernatural, and, to any one who is thoroughly in its power, it must bring the presence of a live super-naturalism, and make that the atmosphere of his life. Make the Incarnation the one pervading power of a man’s life. A deep, living sense of God is the true vitality of a human soul which quenches the poisonous fires of corruption. This, however, is not enough; Christ must come nearer to the soul than this before it can really by Him “escape the corruption that is in the world.” There must be the personal relation between the soul and its Saviour. We must grasp the bewildering thought of a personal love for our single souls. The soul gives itself to Christ, and is its own no longer. He feels now with Christ’s feeling, and corruption drops away from him as it drops away from Christ. He walks unharmed, because he walks in this new sense of consecration. That is the perfect ransom of a soul. “When I am so thankful to Christ for all He suffered in my behalf that I give up my life to Him to show Him how I love Him, and by my dedication to Him am saved from the world’s low slaveries and stains—then, it seems to me, my heaven is begun, its security and peace I have already entered. I am already safe within its sheltering walls, and all my happy, restful life takes up already its eternal psalm. Already I have ‘washed my robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ ” It is by a Christ-like dedication to the world that Christ really saves us from the world. They say the doctors and the nurses are the least likely to catch the epidemic. If you have a friend who is dishonest or impure, the surest way to save yourself from him is to try to save him. What was it that saved Jesus from the infection of the world? Was it not the same divinity which made Him the Saviour of the world? It is the ineffable union of Christ with the sinner that most bears witness to Christ’s sinlessness. We may be saved from the wickedness of the world by our pity for it. We shall be far from its contagion the closer that we come to its needs. We shall be as pure as the angels the more completely we give ourselves up to the ministering angel’s work. This is the true positiveness of the Christian’s purity, the real safety of the loving and labouring life.—Phillips Brooks.

Sincere Religion will stand Testing.—Vain religion is contrasted with pure and undefiled religion. Pure, or clear through. Undefiled, or unstained with self-seeking. Our supreme danger in the religious life is willingly cherishing mixed motives. “Their heart is divided.” There is praise of God and praise of self. “They feared the Lord, and served other gods.” Illustrate by the architect who built a temple, and put the king’s name on the plaster that would weather off, and carved his own name deep in the stone underneath. If our religion is sincere and simple, it will stand testing. Who puts the test? God, even the Father. God, the heart-searcher. God, the Father, who is the severest of heart-searchers. Nothing searches like love.

I. God, testing our religion, expects to find us “unspotted from the world.”—Illustrate from the early Church. Christians were then set in close daily contact with heathenism, which tended to degrade and corrupt all social life. But the distinction between the Church and the world can never be safely obliterated. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” But what is the distinction between these two? The world is the self-pleasing sphere; the Church is the God-pleasing sphere. But here is our practical difficulty—We all come into personal religion as men and women already “world-spotted” by our experiences. Nay, it is worse than that—with a strange tendency to take world-spots. But provision is made for keeping us. Christ is our hedge. The Holy Spirit is a gracious defensive power within us. But God’s grace in us must be responded to by all due keeping of ourselves. We need not willingly go where there is dirt. We can keep our clothes tight about us, and high up, if we must be where there is dirt. So many of the stains on our garments need not have been there. The mystery we have to find out is—How was it that Christ’s garments would not take stains?

II. God, even the Father, testing our religion, expects to find us visiting the fatherless and the widow.—The specific cases are put as types of practical religion. They are valuable and important as signs in themselves. They are more so regarded as types. Illustrate—We keep the household crockery clean, not for show, but for use. We must keep ourselves clean for service. Learn what Christian service is from Christ. Where did He find spheres? He was always doing something for somebody. That is practical religion. Not profession, not feeling, not ritual, though these are good enough in their places; but the inward goodness of the pure heart, and the outward goodness of a life of charity.

Morality the Ceremonial of Christianity.—The outwardservice of ancient religion, the rites, ceremonies, and ceremonial, vestments of the old law, had morality for their end. 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.—Coleridge.

The Double Sphere of Practical Religion.—Doing in two spheres properly follows upon religious instruction.

1. Doing in the sphere of personal culture.

2. Doing in the sphere of kindly and self-denying service to others.

Undefiled Religion.—

1. That in which is no trace of insincerity.

2. That in which there is no strand of self-seeking. God in our religion keeps it sweet. Self in our religion tends to make it foul.

Three Interests of Religion.—Religion in its rise interests us about ourselves; in its progress, about our fellow-creatures; in its highest stage, about the honour of God.—Fausset.

Personal Purity and Active Charity.—These two things here mentioned (visiting the fatherless, etc.) are not the sum-total of true religion. They are but samples of the stock. Here, as elsewhere in the Scriptures, a part or parts is put for the whole. It is as if I described a living man by saying that he breathes. But he does many things else. He sees and hears, he walks and talks, he thirsts and hungers, and a thousand things besides. Still, unless he breathes, he is not alive, but dead; and dead is the religion which does not aim at these two things—personal purity and active charity; in other words, doing good and being good.—Guthrie.

Religion in its Visible Form.—Not piety, but the externals of religion. Θρησκεία only means religion in that sense in which we apply the word to any form or system of worship. Thus we might speak of the whole Mosaic ritual and ceremonial as the Jewish religion. It refers to the outward and visible forms in which religion embodies itself, not to the inner life of religion as it exists in the soul. What the apostle here means then is—The outward form and ritual in which your Christian life is to be manifested purely and acceptably to God does not consist in any liturgical system, but in visiting the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and in keeping yourselves unspotted from the world. This is a lesson of as much importance to the ritualists of this day as for those of old, whilst attention to the precise, I might almost say “technical,” meaning of the word translated “religion” guards it from the perversion of the legalist and the Pharisee. A holy and charitable life has taken the place under the new dispensation which, under the old, was held by sacrifices, ablutions, etc. Precisely the same idea is conveyed in Rom_12:1 and Heb_13:15.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1

Jas_1:26. Bridling the Tongue.

I. What is the general vice or fault here referred to, or what disposition in man is supposed in moral reflections and precepts concerning bridling the tongue? The fault referred to is not malice, but talkativeness, a disposition to be talking. This disposition is a grave matter, because it is so difficult to hold in restraint. It does not necessarily involve slander, perjury, or even ambitious vanity; but it is the occasion of numberless ills and evils and vexations of life.

II. When may it be said of any one, that he has a due government over himself in this respect?—The due and proper use of any natural faculty or power is to be judged of by the end or design for which it was given us. What then is the design of the gift of speech? Not only was it to meet necessary occasions, but also to minister enjoyment and satisfaction. A secondary use of speech is to please, and to be entertaining to each other in conversation. As the end and use, so likewise the abuse of speech, relates to the one or other of these, either to business or to conversation. Three things may be given as cautions against mistakes in conversation:

1. Silence;

2. Talking of indifferent things;

3. Speaking good or evil of others. If people would observe the obvious occasions of silence; if they would subdue the inclination to tale-bearing, and 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.

Jas_1:27. Blight on Sickly Plants.—When blight or mildew comes to a garden, the plants that suffer first and most are those which have been badly cared for, and are, in consequence, weak and sickly. It is not often that hardy and vigorous plants are attacked and injured. If we fail to use the means which are needful for sustaining our souls in spiritual health and soundness, we shall be very liable to the blighting influence of evil. It is only by being careful to maintain a vigorous spiritual life, that we can hope to keep ourselves “unspotted from the world.”—B. Wilkinson.

Sympathy with Widows.—One of the late Dr. Spencer’s parishioners, in Brooklyn, New York, met him hurriedly urging his way down the street, one day; his lip was set, and there was something strange in that grey eye. “How are you to-day, doctor?” he said pleasantly. He waked as from a dream, and replied, soberly, “I am mad!” It was a new word for a mild, true-hearted Christian; but he waited, and with a deep earnest voice went on: “I found a widow standing by her goods thrown in the street; she could not pay the month’s rent; the landlord turned her out, and one of her children is going to die; and that man is a member of the Church! I told her to take her things back again. I am on my way to see him.”

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.

1:26-27 control (literally bridle) your tongue: James uses the graphic image of the bridle in a horse’s mouth to say that people’s ability to control their tongue indicates the condition of their heart and the whole direction of their life (cp. 3:1-13). • Orphans and widows were the most helpless members of ancient society. They were dependent upon the care of others, since the husband and father was the means of economic support and social contact (Exod 22:22-24; Deut 10:18). Christians are called to take care of the helpless (cp. 1 Tim 5:3-16). • In James, the world stands in opposition to God (cp. Jas 3:15; 4:4; Rom 12:2; 1 Jn 2:15-17).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jas 1:26. Εἴ τις, if any man) He now adds examples of doing the work.—θρῆσκος, religious) A worshipper of God, in private and in public. Hesychius, θρῆσκος, ἑτερόδοξος, εὐγενής: that is, one who has more knowledge than others, and is endued with a nobler mind. The commentary of Œcumenius agrees with this; for with him θρῆσκος is one who knows the secret things of the law, and diligently observes them.[16]—ΜῊ ΧΑΛΙΝΑΓΩΓῶΝ, not bridling) A most appropriate metaphor. Comp. ch. Jas 3:2-3.—γλῶσσαν, his tongue) and heart also.—καρδίαν, his heart) and tongue also. The one leads and follows the other. The tongue has its faculty of speech, and the heart its affections;[17] Jas 1:19.

[16] γνώστης τῶν ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ἀποῤῥήτων καὶ ἀκριβὴς φύλαξ.

[17] These two things are joined together in a similar way, Ecc 5:1-2 : “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God.” And that Book of Solomon agrees with this Epistle of James in this respect especially, that they both urge moderation in all things. Compare Mat 12:34, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” The tongue sins in reproaches, perjuries, lying, jesting, false promises, murmuring, etc.—V. g.

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

Jam_1:26. Whilst Jamesin contrast to the hearers who fail in proof by workswill describe the true θρησκεία (Jam_1:27), he first refers to the false θρησκεία of those whoslothful in actionare ταχεῖς εἰς τὸ λαλήσαι (Jam_1:19). If any one thinks to serve God, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, his worship is vain.

εἴ τις δοκεῖ] δοκεῖ here denotes (as in Mat_6:7; Mat_24:44; 1Co_3:18; otherwise in 1Co_7:40) the false opinion which one has of something; it is not = videtur (Calvin, Gataker, Theile, and others); Luther correctly translates: if any one imagines.

θρῆσκος εἶναι] θρῆσκος, which elsewhere occurs neither in the N. T. nor in the classics (the substantive besides here and in Jam_1:27, in the N. T. in Col_2:18 and Act_26:5), is not equivalent to εὐσέβεια, inasmuch as it refers to external worship, the manifestation of εὐσέβεια, without, however, having in itself the secondary idea of mere externality. Incorrectly Theile = religiosus singulatim cujus nimia, nimis externa est religio, superstitiosus. In an arbitrary manner, Schneckenburger infers from the adjectives καθαρὰ καὶ ἀμίαντος (Jam_1:27) that it is here said of θρησκεία, quam in accurata lustrationum observatione constantem putabant Judaei ac Judaeochristiani,[106] of which there is no trace in the whole Epistle. The following words: μὴ χαλιναγωγῶν τὴν γλῶσσαν αὑτοῦ, indicate in what the θρησκεία of the readers consisted. It is incorrect, with Rosenmüller, Theile, and others, to supply exempli causa, and, as most interpreters do, to resolve the participle by although; James will blame those who reckon zeal in speaking as a sign of θρησκεία.[107] The verb χαλιναγωγεῖν, in the N. T. only in James, is also found in classical language only in the later classics; comp. the expression in Plato, de legg. ii.: ἀχάλινον κεκτημένοι τὸ στόμα.

By the second participial sentence: ἀλλὰ ἀπατῶν καρδίαν αὑτοῦ, James expresses his judgmentalready indicated by the expression μὴ χαλιναγωγῶνon the opinion of serving God by λαλεῖν ἐν ὀργῇ. Pott correctly: sc. eo quod nimian docendi licentiam et linguae extemperantiam pro vera θρησκείᾳ habet. The clause belongs not to the apodosis (Schneckenburger), but, as in form so in meaning, is closely connected with the preceding participle. The expression ἀπατᾷν καρδίαν αὑτοῦ corresponds to παραλογίζεσθαι ἑαυτόν (Jam_1:22), but is a stronger form, although it does not indicate only the consequence resulting from zeal (Lange); comp. Test. Napht. III. p. 665: μὴ σπουδάζετε … ἐν λόγοις κενοῖς ἀπατᾷν τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμῶν. Erasmus incorrectly explains ἀπατᾷν by sinere aberrare. The apodosis, which emphatically begins with τούτου, declares that such a θρησκεία is not only without fruit (Baumgarten), but without actual contents, is thus foolish and vain, corresponding to the thought: ὀργὴ δικαιοσύνην Θεοῦ οὐ (κατ)εργάζεται (Jam_1:20).

[106] Some Catholic interpreters, Salmero, Paes, and others, refer the expression to the observance of the so-called consilia Christi, particularly to voluntary circumcision for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

[107] Rauch also thinks that the participles must certainly be resolved by although; but by this explanation all indication is wanting of that on which those blamed by James rest θρησκεία; also what follows (ver. 27), where the nature of true θρησκεία is given, forms no appropriate antithesis to this verse. Brückner explains it: whosoever seeks worship in striving by teaching to work on others; here the participle is correctly resolved, but the full meaning is not given to the verb. Correctly Lange: those who by their fanatical zeal wanted to make good their pretensions of being the true soldiers of God.

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 1:26-27 . Although these verses are organically connected with the preceding section, they are self-contained, and deal with another aspect of religion. While the earlier verses, 19 b 25, emphasise the need of doing as well as hearing, these speak of self-control in the matter of the tongue. At the same time it must be confessed that these verses would stand at least equally as well before Jas 3:1 ff. δοκεῖ : the danger of regarding the appearance of religion as sufficient was the greater inasmuch as it was characteristic of a certain type of “religious” Jew, cf. Mat 6:1-2 ; Mat 6:5 ; Mat 6:16 ; it must not, however, be supposed that this represented the normal type; the fact that the need of reality in religion is so frequently insisted upon by the early Rabbis shows that their teaching in this respect was the same as that of this writer. θρησκός : Hatch, as quoted by Mayor, describes θρησκεία as “religion in its external aspect, as worship or as one mode of worship contrasted with another”; this agrees exactly with what has just been said. θρησκός does not occur elsewhere in the N.T. nor in the Septuagint. χαλιναγωγῶν : (B reads χαλινων ). Not found elsewhere in the N.T. or in the Septuagint; χαλινός is used in Psa 31 (Heb. 32):9 in the Septuagint, as well as in the versions of Aquila and Quinta; for the thought cf. Psa 38 (Heb. 39):2, 140 (Heb. 141):3, though the word is not used in either of these last two passages. Mayor quotes the interesting passage from Hermas, Mand. , xii. 1. ἐνδεδυμένος τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τὴν ἀγαθὴν μισήσεις τὴν πονηρὰν ἐπιθυμίαν καὶ χαλιναγωγήσεις αὐτήν . γλῶσσαν ἑαυτοῦ ; the reference is to the threefold misuse of the tongue, slander, swearing and impure speaking; see Eph 5:3-6 .

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

Seem to be [δοκει] . Rev., correctly, thinketh himself to be. A man can scarcely seem to be religious, when, as Trench observes, "his religious pretensions are belied and refuted by the allowance of an unbridled tongue."

Religious [θρησκος] . Only here in New Testament, and nowhere in classical Greek. The kindred noun qrhskeia, religion, occurs Act 26:5; Col 2:18; Jas 1:26, 27; and means the ceremonial service of religion. Herodotus (ii., 37) uses it of various observances practiced by the Egyptian priests such as wearing linen, circumcision, shaving, etc. The derivation is uncertain. Qreomai, to mutter forms of prayer, has been suggested, as the followers of Wycliffe were called Lollards, from the old Dutch lullen or lollen, to sing. Hence the adjective here refers to a zealous and diligent performance of religious services.

Bridleth [χαλιναγωγων] . Used by James only. See ch. Jas 3:2. Lit., to guide with a bridle. So Plato, "Laws," 701 : "I think that the argument ought to be pulled up from time to time, and not to be allowed to run away, but held with bit and bridle."

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

The fountain of all brabbling, and cursed speaking, and sauciness, is this, that men know not themselves.

The third admonition: The word of God prescribeth a rule not only to do well, but also to speak well.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

An example of doing work.

religious . . . religion--The Greek expresses the external service or exercise of religion, "godliness" being the internal soul of it. "If any man think himself to be (so the Greek) religious, that is, observant of the offices of religion, let him know these consist not so much in outward observances, as in such acts of mercy and humble piety (Mic 6:7-8) as visiting the fatherless, &c., and keeping one's self unspotted from the world" (Mat 23:23). James does not mean that these offices are the great essentials, or sum total of religion; but that, whereas the law service was merely ceremonial, the very services of the Gospel consist in acts of mercy and holiness, and it has light for its garment, its very robe being righteousness [TRENCH]. The Greek word is only found in Act 26:5, "after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee." Col 2:18, "worshipping of angels."

bridleth not . . . tongue--Discretion in speech is better than fluency of speech (compare Jam 3:2-3). Compare Psa 39:1. God alone can enable us to do so. James, in treating of the law, naturally notices this sin. For they who are free from grosser sins, and even bear the outward show of sanctity, will often exalt themselves by detracting others under the pretense of zeal, while their real motive is love of evil-speaking [CALVIN].

heart--It and the tongue act and react on one another.

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 26. Seem to be religious] The words θρησκος and θρησκεια, which we translate religious and religion, (see the next verse,) are of very uncertain etymology. Suidas, under the word θρησκευει, which he translates θεοσεβειυπηρετειτοιςθεοις, he worships or serves the gods, accounts for the derivation thus: "It is said that Orpheus, a Thracian, instituted the mysteries (or religious rites) of the Greeks, and called the worshipping of God θρησκευειν threskeuein, as being a Thracian invention." Whatever its derivation may be, the word is used both to signify true religion, and superstition or heterodoxy. See Hesychius, and See Clarke on Jas 1:27.

Bridleth not his tongue] He who speaks not according to the oracles of God, whatever pretences he makes to religion, only shows, by his want of scriptural knowledge, that his religion is false, ματαιος, or empty of solid truth, profit to others, and good to himself. Such a person should bridle his tongue, put the bit in his mouth; and particularly if he be a professed teacher of religion; ho matter where he has studied, or what else he has learned, if he have not learned religion, he can never teach it. And religion is of such a nature that no man can learn it but by experience; he who does not feel the doctrine of God to be the power of God to the salvation of his soul, can neither teach religion, nor act according to its dictates, because he is an unconverted, unrenewed man. If he be old, let him retire to the desert, and pray to God for light; if he be in the prime of life, let him turn his attention to some honest calling; if he be young, let him tarry at Jericho till his beard grows.

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

26 Seem to be religious. He now reproves even in those who boasted that they were doers of the law, a vice under which hypocrites commonly labor, that is, the wantonness of the tongue in detraction. He has before touched on the duty of restraining the tongue, but for a different end; for he then bade silence before God, that we might be more fitted to learn. He speaks now of another thing, that the faithful should not employ their tongue in evil speaking.

It was indeed needful that this vice should be condemned, when the subject was the keeping of the law; for they who have put off the grosser vices, are especially subject to this disease. He who is neither an adulterer, nor a thief, nor a drunkard, but, on the contrary, seems brilliant with some outward shew of sanctity will set himself off by defaming others, and this under the pretense of zeal, but really through the lust of slandering.

The object here, then, was to distinguish between the true worshippers of God and hypocrites, who are so swollen with Pharisaic pride, that they seek praise from the defects of others. If any one, he says, seems to be religious, that is, who has a show of sanctity, and the meantime flatters himself by speaking evil of others, it is hence evident that he does not truly serve God. For by saying that his religion is vain, he not only intimates that other virtues are marred by the stain of evil-speaking, but that the conclusion is, that the zeal for religion which appears is not sincere.

But deceiveth his own heart. I do not approve of the version of Erasmus — “But suffers his heart to err;” for he points out the fountain of that arrogance to which hypocrites are addicted, through which, being blinded by an immoderate love of themselves, they believe themselves to be far better than they really are; and hence, no doubt, is the disease of slandering, because the wallet, as Aesop says in his Apologue, hanging behind, is not seen. Rightly, then, has James, wishing to remove the effect, that is, the lust of evil-speaking, added the cause, even that hypocrites flatter themselves immoderately. For they would be ready to forgive were they in their turn to acknowledge themselves to be in need of forgiveness. Hence the flatteries by which they deceive themselves as to their own vices, make them such supercilious censors of others.

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.

(26) But St. James has thus far dilated only on the first part of his advice in Jas_1:19, “Let every man be swift to hear”; now he must enforce the remaining clause, “slow to speak.”

If any man among you seem to be religious . . .—Better, If any one imagine himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. The sense of the Greek is slightly obscured by the English version. “If any man . . . seem”—i.e., to himself, and not to others merely; the warning is not to the hypocrite, but the self-deceived. A Christian may have, or rather cannot help having, the feeling that he is a religious man; and so far well. But if such a one deceive his own heart, as confessedly he may, and give to those around him the proof of his self-delusion in not curbing his tongue, vain and useless is all his religious service. Just as some mistakenly suppose there can be a religion of hearing without acting, so others rest satisfied “in outward acts of worship, or exactness of ritual.” “But,” remarks Bishop Moberly on this passage, and his voice may win an audience where another’s would not, “if a man think himself a true worshipper because he conforms to outward services, while he lets his tongue loose in untruth or unkindness or other unseemliness, he deceives himself.” The first mark of true religion is gentleness of tongue, just as the contrary, blasphemy, is the most damning fault of all. Our Lord directly says, “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Mat_12:37). The text, however, is more a guide for self-examination than a stone to be cast at a neighbour; and “well is” it indeed for “him that hath not slipped with his tongue” (Sir_25:8).

The Apostle returns to this subject, though from a different point of view, in James 3, which compare with the above. The best commentary on the whole is Bishop Butler’s Sermon, No. IV., “Upon the Government of the Tongue.”

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

26, 27. True and false Religion

26. If any man among you seem to be religious] Better, If any man thinks that he is religious. The Greek adjective is one which expresses the outward ritual side of religion, answering to “godliness” as the inward. Comp. the cognate word rendered “worship of angels” in Col_2:18. It is not easy to find an appropriate English adjective for it. “Religious” in its modern sense is too wide, in its old pre-Reformation sense, as meaning one who belonged to a monastic order, too narrow. That sense can hardly be said to have attached to it at the time of the Authorised Version, as the term is used both in the Homilies (e. g. “Christ and his religion,” Hom. on Holy Scripture) and Bacon’s Essays (Of Unity in Religion) quite in its modern sense for a whole system of faith and practice. “Devout,” “pious,” “reverent,” suggest themselves, but all fail to express what the Greek beyond question expresses. “Worshipper” would perhaps be the nearest equivalent. “Ritualist,” which answers most closely to the strict meaning, has unfortunately acquired a conventional and party meaning.

and bridleth not his tongue] The image was a sufficiently common one in the Greek poets and philosophers. St James returns to it in Jas_3:2-3. See note there.

deceiveth his own heart] Here the word is the more common one, as distinguished from that which had been used in Jas_1:22.

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.

If any man among you seem to be religious,.... By his preaching, or praying, and hearing, and other external duties of religion, he is constant in the observance of; and who, upon the account of these things, "thinks himself to be a religious man", as the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it; or is thought to be so by others:

and bridleth not his tongue; but boasts of his works, and speaks ill of his brethren; backbites them, and hurts their names and characters, by private insinuations, and public charges without any foundation; who takes no care of what he says, but gives his tongue a liberty of speaking anything, to the injury of others, and the dishonour of God, and his ways: there seems to be an allusion to Psa 39:1.

But deceiveth his own heart; with his show of religion, and external performances; on which he builds his hopes of salvation; of which he is confident; and so gives himself to a loose way of talking what he pleases:

this man's religion is vain; useless, and unprofitable to himself and others; all his preaching, praying, hearing, and attendance on the ordinances will be of no avail to him; and he, notwithstanding these, by his evil tongue, brings a scandal and reproach upon the ways of God, and doctrines of Christ.

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

26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

Ver. 26. Seem to be religious] There is a great deal of this seemingness now abroad: Aliud in titulo, aliud in pyxide. Verba tua Dei plane sunt, facta veto Diaboli, as one told Pope Innocent III: You speak like a God, but do like a devil; a fair professor, but a foul sinner. The form of religion is honos; the power onus. Many do but act it, play it: they do no more than assume it, as the angels did the dead bodies without a soul to animate them, or as Jeroboam’s wife put on her demure apparel when she was to go to the prophet. The mere seemer is a fraud, Job 13:16, imposturam facit et patitur: fumum vendidit, fumo peribit. He is like the painted grapes that deceived the living birds, saith one, or the golden apples with this motto, "No further than colour;" touch them and they vanish.

But deceiveth] The heart first deceiveth us with colours, and when we are once doting after sin, then we join and deceive our hearts by fallacious reasonings.

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.

If any man among you seem to be religious - Pious, or devout. That is, if he does not restrain his tongue, his other evidences of religion are worthless. A man may undoubtedly have many things in his character which seem to be evidences of the existence of religion in his heart, and yet there may be some one thing that shall show that all those evidences are false. Religion is designed to produce an effect on our whole conduct; and if there is any one thing in reference to which it does not bring us under its control, that one thing may show that all other appearances of piety are worthless.

And bridleth not his tongue - Restrains or curbs it not, as a horse is restrained with a bridle. There may have been some reason why the apostle referred to this particular sin which is now unknown to us; or he may perhaps have intended to select this as a specimen to illustrate this idea, that if there is any one evil propensity which religion does not control, or if there is any one thing in respect to which its influence is not felt, whatever other evidences of piety there may be, this will demonstrate that all those appearances of religion are vain. For religion is designed to bring the whole man under control, and to subdue every faculty of the body and mind to its demands. If the tongue is not restrained, or if there is any unsubdued propensity to sin whatever, it proves that there is no true religion.

But deceiveth his own heart - Implying that he does deceive his heart by supposing that any evidence can prove that he is under the influence of religion if his tongue is unrestrained. Whatever love, or zeal, or orthodoxy, or gift in preaching or in prayer he may have, this one evil propensity will neutralize it all, and show that there is no true religion at heart.

This man’s religion is vain - As all religion must be which does not control all the faculties of the body and the mind. The truths, then, which are taught in this verse are:

(1) That there may be evidences of piety which seem to be very plausible or clear, but which in themselves do not prove that there is any true religion. There may be much zeal, as in the case of the Pharisees; there may be much apparent love of Christians, or much outward benevolence; there may be an uncommon gift in prayer; there may be much self-denial, as among those who withdraw from the world in monasteries or nunneries; or there may have been deep conviction for sin, and much joy at the time of the supposed conversion, and still there be no true religion. Each and all of these things may exist in the heart where there is no true religion.

(2) A single unsubdued sinful propensity neutralizes all these things, and shows that there is no true religion. If the tongue is not subdued; if any sin is indulged, it will show that the seat of the evil has not been reached, and that the soul, as such, has never been brought into subjection to the law of God. For the very essence of all the sin that there was in the soul may have been concentrated on that one propensity. Everything else which may be manifested may be accounted for on the supposition that there is no religion; this cannot be accounted for on the supposition that there is any.

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

If any man think, &c. He here blames those hot disputes, which seem to have been frequent amongst the converted Jews, concerning the necessity of observing the legal rites. In vain, says he, do you pique yourselves upon the rigorous observance of the law, and your zeal to unite its ceremonial rites with the practice of the gospel. If you be void of the essence of Christianity, which is charity, prudence, and moderation, your religion will avail you nothing. (Calmet) --- This may also be understood of those devotees who are fond of making a parade of their virtues, and who, as St. Gregory says, (hom. xii. in Mat.) afflict their bodies indeed with fasting, but for this they expect to be esteemed by men. (Haydock) --- A man must not imagine himself to be religious, and perfect in the way of virtue, unless he governs and bridles his tongue from oaths, curses, calumnies, detractions, lies, of which more in the third chapter. (Witham)

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).

If any man among you seem to be religious; seems to others, or rather to himself; thinks himself religious, because cause of his hearing and outward worship: thus the word rendered seems is often taken, 1Co 3:18; 8:2; 14:37; Gal 6:3. Here he shows who are not doers of the work, as in the next verse, who are.

And bridleth not his tongue; restrains it not from the common vices of the tongue, reviling, railing, censuring, &c.

But deceiveth his own heart; either deceiveth his own heart in thinking himself religious, when indulging himself in things so contrary to religion, or deceiveth his own heart, being blinded with self-love, and lifted up with self-conceit, which is the cause of his censuring and speaking evil of others.

This man’s religion is vain; empty, and to no purpose, having no reality in itself, and bringing no benefit to him.

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

26. Among you—Our apostle is still in the synagogue where disputants are brandishing their sharp tongues.

Religious—Rather, as the Greek signifies, worshipful; strict and regular in formal worship, a due performer of synagogue service. The word emphasizes the external rite without excluding the internal devotion. Ritualism, in a good sense, nearly expresses it.

Bridleth not his tongue—Which is a steed that needs the bridle, especially in the heat of emulous debate, religious or otherwise. For the tongue is the vocal organ of the heart, giving expression to the outcome of the true character. Our doings and our speakings tell what we are. Our apostle, in 22-25, has discussed our doings; he now deals with our speakings.

Deceiveth his own heart—By making himself believe that he is religious when he is only ritualistic.

Vain—Emphatical Greek inversion: of that man vain is the ritualism. His worshipful doings are all undone by his wicked sayings. Our words in their full import decide our true moral state.

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

Seem (dokei); seems to himself rather than to others; translate, with R.V, thinketh himself to be. Vulgate, Si quis Putat se esse. Religious (qrhskov). It is difficult to find an English word which exactly answers to the Greek. The noun qrhskeia refers properly to the external rites of religion, and so gets to signify an over-scrupulous devotion to external forms; (Lightfoot on Col_2:18) almost "ritualism." It is the ceremonial service of religion, the external forms, a body of which eujsebeia is the informing soul. Thus the qrhskov (the word apparently only occurs here in the whole range of Greek literature) is the diligent performer of Divine offices, of the outward service of God, but not necessarily anything more. This depreciatory sense of qrhskeia is well seen in a passage of Philo ("Quod Det. Pot. "Jus.," 7), where, after speaking of some who would fain be counted among the eujlabeiv on the score of diverse washings or costly offerings to the temple, he proceeds:

Peplanhtai gar kai ou+tov thv proan oJdou qrhskeian ajntithtov hJgoumenov (see Trench on "Synonyms," from whom the reference is here taken). "How delicate and fine, then, St. James"s choice of qrhskov and qrhskeia! "If any man," he would say, "seem to himself to be qrhskov, a diligent observer of the offices of religion, if any man would render a pure and undefiled qrhskeia to God, let him know that this consists, not in outward lustrations or ceremonial observances; nay, that there is a better qrhskeia than thousands of rams and rivers of oil, namely, to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God; (Mic_6:7, Mic_6:8) or, according to his own words, "to visit the widows and orphans in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world (Trench on "Synonyms," p. 170: the whole passage will well repay study. Reference should also be made to Coleridge, "Aids to Reflection," p. 15). Bridleth not (mh calinagwgwn). The thought is developed more fully afterwards. (see Jam_3:2, etc., and for the word, cf. Polyc., "Ad Philippians," c.v.)

Vers. 26, 27.

The true ritualism.

These two verses enforce by an example what those immediately preceding illustrate by a simile. The words "religious" and "religion" denote external religious service the body, or outward attire of godliness, rather than its inward spirit. The apostle indicates in these two sentences the "work" of which every one who truly "receives" the gospel is a "doer.

I AN EXAMPLE OF VAIN RELIGIOUS SERVICE. (Ver. 26.) This statement points back to the exhortation of ver. 19. The tongue is an unruly member; it requires to be "held in with the bit and bridle" of Christian principle. A man"s words are a true index or evidence of his character; and they also react upon that character, and tend to confirm it for good or evil. Should, therefore, a person who has been for many years a member of a Christian Church indulge always, without restraint, in evil-speaking; should he be in the habit of soiling his tongue with impure, or malicious, or false, or foolish words; what other conclusion can be drawn about his character than just that he is not a true Christian? Such a man is a "hearer only," and therefore either a self-deceiver or a hypocrite. He may cherish some of the sentiments and instincts of religion; but the most sublimated sentiment is quite worthless, if it cannot be translated into everyday life. Where there is no government of the tongue, what avails love for the Church and its services? "This man"s religion is vain;" it is an idle, empty, useless, unreal thing a counterfeit of genuine worship. The apostle"s language here is exceedingly strong; but it is the language of inspiration, and it runs parallel with what we read in other parts of Scripture. (Mat_12:36, Mat_12:37) Many professing Christians may well tremble when they read this verse. How prone we all are to sin with our lips! How constantly we are tempted to idle speaking! Let us guard against the sin of slander, of depreciating goodness, of imputing selfish motives; and against every other form of uncharitable speech. If we do not "keep our mouth with a bridle", (Psa_39:1) we "deceive our hearts" as to our spiritual state before God; in which case there is danger that all our psalm-singing and sermon-hearing may only help to drag us down to a deeper perdition.

II AN EXHIBITION OF TRUE RELIGIOUS SERVICE. (Ver. 27) James here submits a rubric for the ritual of the Church. It is to this effect, that the services which God loves are not ceremonial observances, but habits of purity and charity. The moral in our Church life is infinitely more important than the liturgic. Indeed, the moral and spiritual are the great end which our fellowship contemplates, and to that end rites and ceremonies are but the means.

1. The true ritual consists in the maintenance of personal purity in a world of sin. The Christian is a man who, having been once washed all over in the blood of atonement, must labor in the strength of God"s Spirit to keep himself from fresh defilement, tie is to guard himself against the contaminations of the world, its pursuits, ambitions, counsels, and its grosser pleasures. He must not become an ascetic or a hermit; rather, he is to show to his fellow-men that he can live in the world an unworldly life. It is hard to do so, doubtless; it requires rare moral courage to resist evil, and. to brave the contempt and persecution which such resistance entails. Yet this is the worship to which God calls us. He will not accept our "devotions" if we refuse him our devotion. A holy life is the most beautiful of psalms. It is the blossom and fruit of all other praise. It is grander than the finest cathedral service, for it is the perfect realization of the Divine ideal of worship.

2. The true ritual consists in the exercise of active benevolence in a world of suffering. Christ, when on earth, "went about doing good;" and every Christian is an imitator of Christ. "A doer that worketh" (ver. 25) finds his chief sphere of social activity in kindness to the poor and suffering. We are joined together in the fellowship of the gospel that we may be helpful to our fellow-Christians and our fellow-men who are in affliction and poverty. All our public worship is "vain" if no hearts are made happier, and no firesides warmer, because of it. The Church exists that its members may be inspired to become a fountain of spiritual sympathy to the widow, and a ministry of moral help to the orphan. A congregation can offer no comelier praise than the music of constant acts of loving-kindness and tenderness and self-sacrifice. Where this worship is not rendered, the grandest sanctuary, so called, will be rather only a sepulcher of souls, and the most aesthetic church-service a "vain oblation." The true gospel cultus lies in personal acts of sympathy and kindness, done to the poor out of love to Jesus, and because the poor are his brethren". (Mat_25:34-40) Every professing Christian should therefore try the reality and strength of his piety by this test: Does he give himself to the celebration of the true full ritual of Christ"s house that which lies in a life of purity and charity? C.J.

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

If any one be ever so religious - Exact in the outward offices of religion. And bridleth not his tongue - From backbiting, talebearing, evilspeaking, he only deceiveth his own heart, if he fancies he has any true religion at all.

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

religious

(Greek - θρη̑σκος = outwardly religious).

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. That there have been, are, and ever will be, many professors of religion, who seem, and only seem to be religious.

Observe, 2. That an unbridled and ungoverned tongue, is a certain sign and evidence of a man’s being only seemingly religious; it seems there were many unbridled tongues in the apostle’s days, amongst the professors of Christianity, which put the apostle upon spending the whole third chapter about the government of the tongue; the grace and word of God are bridles, which we are to put on, to restrain us from sinful and excessive speaking.

Observe, 3. That such a man as pretends to religion, and seems to be religious, without bridling and governing of his tongue, all his religion is but vain and self-deceiving: Vain, that is, empty; in shew and appearance only, nothing in truth, and in reality: or vain, that is ineffectual; it doth not perform its office, it does not answer its end, their religion will do them no good, stand them in no stead; that faith, that hope, those prayers which will consist with the reigning evils of the tongue, are vain and self-deceiving; that religion, which cannot tame the tongue, will never save the soul; though some evils of the tongue may consist with grace, yet an unbridled tongue cannot consist with it: deceit in our lips is as bad as falsehood in our dealings, and virulence in our tongue as bad as violence in our hands; and if thy religion be vain, all is vain to thee; thy hopes are vain, thy comforts are vain. The sum is, that an unbridled tongue, in a religious professor, is enough to prove his religion is vain.

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

ARGUMENT 6

RELIGION DENIED

26. The tongue is the exponent of the soul. Hence it is always homogeneous with it, and a true exponent of it. We bridle horses not only to keep them, but especially to work them. So God bridles our tongues in sanctification, so that we speak no more for Satan, but for God only.

27. “This is pure and undefiled religion with God even the Father, to relieve the orphans and widows in their afflictions, and to keep yourselves unspotted from the world.” Hence you see the beautiful globe of our religion contains two hemispheres, i.e., philanthropy and purity. The world has much philanthropy, but it is all more or less contaminated with selfishness and utterly destitute of salvation. Philanthropy is the human and purity the divine side. Hagiazo, sanctify, means to take the world out of you. Hence, to “keep yourself unspotted from the world” simply means to get sanctified and keep sanctified. The Bible is a plain book when unobscured by the fogs of creedism. Holiness always superinduces philanthropy, while true and disinterested philanthropy only exists with genuine holiness. O, how simple is the whole problem of religion when you let the Bible speak! There is nothing in it but philanthropy and purity.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26, 27. If any … seemeth to be religious. He who professes religion and yet does not control his tongue is deceived. Unless he has grace enough to rule the unruly member, he has not enough for salvation.

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.

thinks himself to be religious

"thinks he worships God correctly"

his tongue

Controlling one's tongue stands for controlling one's speech. AT: "what he says" (See: Metonymy)

deceives

gets someone to believe something that is not true

his heart

Here "heart" refers to his belief or thoughts. AT: "himself" (See: Metonymy)

his religion is worthless

"he worships God uselessly"

pure and unspoiled

James speaks of religion, the way one worships God, as if it could be physically pure and unspoiled. These are traditional ways for Jews to say that something is acceptable to God. AT: "Completely acceptable" (See: Doublet and Metaphor)

before our God and Father

directed to God (See: Metaphor)

the fatherless

"the orphans"

in their affliction

The fatherless and widows are suffering because their fathers or husbands have died.

to keep oneself unstained by the world

Sin in the world is spoken of as something dirty that can stain a person. AT: "to not allow the evil in the world to cause oneself to sin" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

heart

clean

God the Father

afflicted

world

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

26. εἴ τις δοκεῖ, is thought to be, has the reputation (δόξα) of being.

μὴ χαλιναγωγῶν. μή not οὐ, because the sentence is hypothetical, ‘if he does not bridle &c.’ It may be noticed however that in Modern Greek μή is invariably used with participles, and that there is a tendency to this use in the N.T. It is the grammatical expression of a more subjective method of stating facts. See Winer, P. III. § Leviticus 5. Among instances where the explanation on classical principles is difficult are: μὴ ἔχοντος αὐτοῦ ἀποδοῦναι ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὸν ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ πραθῆναι κ.τ.λ., Mat 18:26; ὅταν γὰρ ἔθνη τὰ μὴ νόμον ἔχοντα φύσει τὰ τοῦ νόμου ποιῶσιν, Rom 2:14; καὶ ἦν ἡμέρας τρεῖς μὴ βλέπων, καὶ οὐκ ἔφαγεν οὐδὲ ἔπιεν, Act 9:9.

χαλιναγωγεῖν. Only here and Jas 3:2 in N.T., and elsewhere only in late Greek authors. Comp. ἀχάλινον κεκτημένοι τὸ στόμα, Plato de Legg. 701 c; ἀχαλίνων στομάτων │ ἀνόμου τʼ ἀφροσύνας │ τὸ τέλος δυστυχία, Eur. Bacch. 385–387.

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.

26.] If any man imagines that he is (reff.: not “videtur,” as Calv.: our E. V. “seem” is ambiguous: it may mean ‘to others,’ whereas δοκεῖ means only, ‘to himself:’ ‘thinks that he is’) religious (in the sense of ‘observant of God’s outward service,’ not = εὐσεβής, but marking the external manifestation of εὐσέβεια. We have no word at all adequately expressing θρῆσκος. See reff.), not bridling (reff. Plato, Legg. iii. 701 c, has ἀχάλινον κεκτημέυος τὸ στόμα) his tongue but deceiving his heart (see above on παραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς, ver. 22: “Scil. eo quod nimiam dicendi licentiam et linguæ intemperantiam pro vera θρησκείᾳ habet,” Pott. Calvin adds, “Hoc vitium nominatim oportuit taxari, quum de legis observatione sermo esset. Nam qui crassiora vitia exuerunt, huic morbo sunt ut plurimum obnoxii. Qui neque adulter erit, neque fur, neque ebriosus, quin potius externa sanctimoniæ specie fulgebit, aliorum famam lacerando se jactabit, zeli quidem prætextu, sed obtrectandi libidine”), of this man (cf. on οὗτος above, ver. 23) the religious service is vain (idle and fruitless).

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

26-27. Careful attention to worship is no substitute for self-restraint, purity of life, and good works.

The connection with the preceding is here made in two ways: (1) by the advance from the more general precept of reality, “not hearing but doing,” to the more specific, “not mere worship but doing good”; (2) by the reference in v. 26 to the sin of uncontrolled speech (cf. v. 19).

26. δοκεῖ, “thinketh”, i.e. “seemeth to himself.” Cf. v. 13 μηδεὶς λεγέτω; and, for the same use of δοκεῖν, Gal 6:3, 1Co 10:12, Joh 5:39.

θρησκός.

This adjective is not found elsewhere excepting in lexicons, but derivatives are common, notably θρησκεία (vv. 26, 27), which means “religious worship, especially, but not exclusively, external, that which consists in ceremonies” (Lex.). θρησκός means “given to religious observances.” The Greek words have somewhat the same considerable range of meaning as the English word “worship,” with reference to the inner and the external aspects of religious worship. Mayor quotes a useful series of passages from Christian writers; see Trench, Synonyms, § xlviii; E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek, pp. 55-57; and Lex. In the present verse θρησκός doubtless refers to attendance on the exercises of public worship, but also to other observances of religion, such as almsgiving, prayer, fasting (cf. Mat 6:1-18, Mat 6:2 Clem. Rom 16:4). The passage implies that a large and recognised field of religious observance was naturally and obviously open to the persons whom James has in mind.

For both thought and language, cf. Philo, Quod det. pot. insid. 7: “Nor if anyone in his abundant wealth builds a temple with splendid contributions and expenditures, or offers hecatombs and never ceases sacrificing oxen, or adorns the temple with costly offerings, bringing timber without stint and workmanship more precious than any silver and gold, shall he be reckoned with the pious (μετʼ εὐσεβῶν ἀναγεγράφθω); for he also has erred from the path of piety, accounting worship a substitute for sanctity (θρησκείαν ἀντὶ ὁσιότητος ἠγούμενος).”

The English words “religion,” “religious,” used here and in v. 27, for θρησκεία, θρησκός, are to be understood in the external sense of “worship,” “religious rite,” etc., in which formerly they were more used than at present. Cf. Milton: “With gay religions full of pomps and gold” (Paradise Lost, i, 372); Shakespeare: “Old religious man,” i.e. religieux, “belonging to a religious order” (As You Like It, v, 4, 166).

As used at the present day, “religion” conveys the meaning of θρηοκεία well enough in v. 26, but is inadequate in v. 27, where the Greek word means specifically “worship.” See HDB, “Religion.”

μὴ χαλιναγωγῶν γλῶσσαν, cf. v. 19 and 3:1-18. For the metaphor, cf. Lucian, Tyrannicida, 4 τὰς τῶν ἡδονῶν ὀρέξεις χαλιναγωγούσης; De saltat. 70; Philo, De mut. nom. 41, De agric. 15 f., Quod det. pot. insid. 8; Plut. De sol. anim. 10, p. 967; Hermas, Mand. 12, 1; and the phrase ἀχάλινον στόμα in Aristoph. Ran. 862; Eurip. Bacchae, 386; Philo, De vita Mosis, iii, 25.

There is no good reason for limiting either the unbridled speech here referred to or the ὀργή of vv. 19 f. to extravagant and intemperate utterance in preaching and teaching (cf. 3:2); the precepts are of general applicability.

ἀπατῶν καρδίαν ἐαυτοῦ. Cf. Test. XII Patr. Nephth. 3 μὴ οὖν σπουδάζετε … ἐν λόγοις κενοῖς ἀπατᾶν τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμῶν ὅτι σιωπῶντες (v. l. σκοπῶντες) ἐν καθαρότητι καρδίας συνήσετε τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ κρατεῖν; and on the use of καρδία, cf. 5:5, Act 14:17.

μάταιος, from μάτην, “in vain,” “failing of its essential purpose.” His very θρησκεία, in itself good, becomes useless, because spoiled by this fault of character. Cf. v. 20, and νεκρά, 2:17, 26.

The fact that μάταιος in the O. T. is specially used of idols and idol-worship (e. g. Jer 2:5; Jer 10:3, cf. Act 14:15, 1Pe 1:18) adds point to this sentence. Cf. Spitta, p. 57, notes 2 and 3.

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