James 3:11-18 sits inside this longer paragraph.
1Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment. 2For we all stumble in many things. Anyone who doesn’t stumble in word is a perfect person, able to bridle the whole body also. 3Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body. 4Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. 5So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! 6And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna. 7For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind; 8but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the image of God. 10Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water? 12Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.
13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and don’t lie against the truth. 15This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. 16For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion and every evil deed. 17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 11 Doth a fountain. He adduces these comparisons in…
11 Doth a fountain. He adduces these comparisons in order to shew that a cursing tongue is something monstrous, contrary to all nature, and subverts the order everywhere established by God. For God hath so arranged things which are contrary, that inanimate things ought to deter us from a chaotic mixture, sure as is found in a double tongue.
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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13, 17, 18 The eighth part which hangeth with the former, touching…
The eighth part which hangeth with the former, touching meekness of mind, against which he setteth envy and a contentious mind. And in the beginning he stoppeth the mouth of the chief fountain of all these mischiefs, to wit, a false persuasion of wisdom, whereas notwithstanding there is no true wisdom, but that is heavenly, and frameth our minds to all kinds of true moderation and simplicity.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–18 11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same…
11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
Ver. 11. Doth a fountain send forth] The fountain, or rather the botch, of sensual and sinful pleasures doth. Sin is a bitter sweet, γλυκυπικρον, the poison of asps, which first tickleth, and then killeth. All creature comforts are dulcis acerbitas, saith one. Amarissima volulptas, saith another, (Tertul.)
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" Principium dulce est, at finis amoris amarus;
Laeta venire Venus, tristis abire solet."
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv11–18 Ordinarily and naturally; if any such be, it is…
Ordinarily and naturally; if any such be, it is looked upon as uncouth and prodigious.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 17, 18 As if our apostle had said, "If any among…
As if our apostle had said, "If any among you desire to approve yourselves more knowing than others, wiser and better than others, as you would be thought when you censure and despise others, shew it to the world by a better conversation, by your abounding fruitfulness in good works, and by such meekness of spirit as will be an evidence of true wisdom."
Hence we learn, that the wise man is a meek and patient man; as pride and folly, so wisdom and meekness, are companions; the more wisdom a man has, the more he can check himself, and curb his passion: Moses is renowned in Scripture for his wisdom, and for meekness; we all affect the reputation of wisdom, let us discover it by humility, in being lowly within ourselves: and by our meekness in bearing with and forbearing one another; yet must our meekness be a wise meekness, it must be opposite to fierceness, but not to zeal; Moses was very meek in his own cause, but as hot as fire in the cause of God; meekness and zeal are consistent, let us then shew out of a good conversation our works with meekness of wisdom.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v13 As the sins before condemned arise from an affectation…
As the sins before condemned arise from an affectation of being thought more wise than others, and being endued with more knowledge than they, so the apostle in these verses shows the difference between men's pretending to be wise and their being really so, and between the wisdom which is from beneath (from earth or hell) and that which is from above.
I. We have some account of true wisdom, with the distinguishing marks and fruits of it: Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom, Jam 3:13. A truly wise man is a very knowing man: he will not set up for the reputation of being wise without laying in a good stock of knowledge; and he will not value himself merely upon knowing things, if he has not wisdom to make a right application and use of that knowledge. These two things must be put together to make up the account of true wisdom: who is wise, and endued with knowledge? Now where this is the happy case of any there will be these following things: - 1. A good conversation. If we are wiser than others, this should be evidenced by the goodness of our conversation, not by the roughness or vanity of it. Words that inform, and heal, and do good, are the marks of wisdom; not those that look great, and do mischief, and are the occasions of evil, either in ourselves or others. 2. True wisdom may be known by its works. The conversation here does not refer only to words, but to the whole of men's practice; therefore it is said, Let him show out of a good conversation his works. True wisdom does not lie in good notions or speculations so much as in good and useful actions. Not he who thinks well, or he who talks well, is in the sense of the scripture allowed to be wise, if he do not live and act well. 3. True wisdom may be known by the meekness of the spirit and temper: Let him show with meekness, etc. It is a great instance of wisdom prudently to bridle our own anger, and patiently to bear the anger of others. And as wisdom will evidence itself in meekness, so meekness will be a great friend to wisdom; for nothing hinders the regular apprehension, the solid judgment, and impartiality of thought, necessary to our acting wisely, so much as passion. When we are mild and calm, we are best able to hear reason, and best able to speak it. Wisdom produces meekness, and meekness increases wisdom.
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II. We have the glorying of those taken away who are of a contrary character to that now mentioned, and their wisdom exposed in all its boasts and productions: "If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, etc., Jam 3:14-16. Pretend what you will, and think yourselves ever so wise, yet you have abundance of reason to cease your glorying, if you run down love and peace, and give way to bitter envying and strife. Your zeal for truth or orthodoxy, and your boasts of knowing more than others, if you employ these only to make others hateful, and to show your own spite and heart-burnings against them, are a shame to your profession of Christianity, and a downright contradiction to it. Lie not thus against the truth." Observe, 1. Envying and strife are opposed to the meekness of wisdom. The heart is the seat of both; but envy and wisdom cannot dwell together in the same heart. Holy zeal and bitter envying are as different as the flames of seraphim and the fire of hell. 2. The order of things here laid down. Envying is first and excites strife; strife endeavours to excuse itself by vain-glorying and lying; and then (Jam 3:16) hereupon ensue confusion and every evil work. Those who live in malice, envy, and contention, live in confusion, and are liable to be provoked and hurried to any evil work. Such disorders raise many temptations, strengthen temptations, and involve men in a great deal of guilt. One sin begets another, and it cannot be imagined how much mischief is produced: there is every evil work. And is such wisdom as produces these effects to be gloried in? This cannot be without giving the lie to Christianity, and pretending that this wisdom is what it is not. For observe, 3. Whence such wisdom cometh: It descendeth not from above, but ariseth from beneath; and, to speak plainly, it is earthly, sensual, devilish, Jam 3:15. It springs from earthly principles, acts upon earthly motives, and is intent upon serving earthly purposes. It is sensual indulging the flesh, and making provision to fulfil the lusts and desires of it. Or, according to the original word, psuchikē, it is animal of human - the mere working of natural reason, without any supernatural light. And it is devilish, such wisdom being the wisdom of devils (to create uneasiness and to do hurt), and being inspired by devils, whose condemnation is pride (Ti1 3:6), and who are noted in other places of scripture for their wrath, and their accusing the brethren. And therefore those who are lifted up with such wisdom as this must fall into the condemnation of the devil.
III. We have the lovely picture of that wisdom which is from above more fully drawn, and set in opposition to this which is from beneath: But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, etc., Jam 3:17, Jam 3:18. Observe here, True wisdom is God's gift. It is not gained by conversing with men, nor by the knowledge of the world (as some think and speak), but it comes from above. It consists of these several things: - 1. It is pure, without mixture of maxims or aims that would debase it: and it is free from iniquity and defilements, not allowing of any known sin, but studious of holiness both in heart and life. 2. The wisdom that is from above is peaceable. Peace follows purity, and depends upon it. Those who are truly wise do what they can to preserve peace, that it may not be broken; and to make peace, that where it is lost it may be restored. In kingdoms, in families, in churches, in all societies, and in all interviews and transactions, heavenly wisdom makes men peaceable. 3. It is gentle, not standing upon extreme right in matters of property; not saying nor doing any thing rigorous in points of censure; not being furious about opinions, urging our own beyond their weight nor theirs who oppose us beyond their intention; not being rude and overbearing in conversation, nor harsh and cruel in temper. Gentleness may thus be opposed to all these. 4. Heavenly wisdom is easy to be entreated, eupeithēs; it is very persuadable, either to what is good or from what is evil. There is an easiness that is weak and faulty; but it is not a blamable easiness to yield ourselves to the persuasions of God's word, and to all just and reasonable counsels or requests of our fellow-creatures; no, nor to give up a dispute, where there appears a good reason for it and where a good end may be answered by it. 5. Heavenly wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits, inwardly disposed to every thing that is kind and good, both to relieve those who want and to forgive those who offend, and actually to do this whenever proper occasions offer. 6. Heavenly wisdom is without partiality. The original word, adiakritos, signifies to be without suspicion, or free from judging, making no undue surmises nor differences in our conduct towards one person more than another. The margin reads it, without wrangling, not acting the part of sectaries, and disputing merely for the sake of a party; nor censuring others purely on account of their differing from us. The wisest men are least apt to be censurers. 7. That wisdom which is from above is without hypocrisy. It has no disguises nor deceits. It cannot fall in with those managements which the world counts wise, which are crafty and guileful; but it is sincere and open, steady and uniform, and consistent with itself. O that you and I may always be guided by such wisdom as this! that with Paul we may be able to say, Not with fleshly wisdom, but in simplicity and godly sincerity, by the grace of God, we have our conversation. And then, lastly, true wisdom will go on to sow the fruits of righteousness in peace, and thus, if it may be, to make peace in the world, Jam 3:18. And that which is sown in peace will produce a harvest of joys. Let others reap the fruits of contentions, and all the advantages they can propose to themselves by them; but let us go on peaceably to sow the seeds of righteousness, and we may depend upon it our labour will not be lost. For light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart; and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–18 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place,....…
Doth a fountain send forth at the same place,.... "Or hole"; for at divers places, and at different times, as Pliny (m) observes, it may send forth
sweet water and bitter: and it is reported (n), there is a lake with the Trogloditae, a people in Ethiopia, which becomes thrice a day bitter, and then as often sweet; but then it does not yield sweet water and bitter at the same time: this simile is used to show how unnatural it is that blessing and cursing should proceed out of the same mouth.
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(m) Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 103. (n) Isodor. Hispal. Originum, l. 13. c. 13. p. 115.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 15, 17, 18 Let him show his wisdom as well as his…
Let him show his wisdom as well as his faith by his works; not by words only.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11–18 Verse 11. Doth a fountain send forth - sweet…
Verse 11. Doth a fountain send forth - sweet water and bitter?] In many things nature is a sure guide to man; but no such inconsistency is found in the natural world as this blessing and cursing in man. No fountain, at the same opening, sends forth sweet water and bitter; no fig tree can bear olive berries; no vine can bear figs; nor can the sea produce salt water and fresh from the same place. These are all contradictions, and indeed impossibilities, in nature. And it is depraved man alone that can act the monstrous part already referred to.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 17, 18 Jas 3:11-12. Doth a fountain send forth at the…
Jas 3:11-12. Doth a fountain send forth at the same opening, alternately, and at different times, sweet water and bitter — As if he had said, No such inconsistency is found in the natural world, and nothing of the kind ought to be known in the moral world. Estius observes, “that the apostle’s design was to confirm his doctrine by four similitudes; the first taken from fountains, the second and third from fruit-trees, and the fourth from the sea, which being in its nature salt, does not produce fresh water.” He therefore approves of the reading of the Alexandrian MS., which is, So neither can salt water produce sweet. The Syriac version reads, Salt waters cannot be made sweet; and the Vulgate, So neither can salt water make fresh water. In like manner, we ought to maintain a consistency in our words or discourses; and if we profess religion and devotion, we should speak at all times as persons who are endeavouring to employ our tongues to the noble purposes for which the use of speech was granted to man.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11–18 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place…
Doth a fountain send forth at the same place - Margin, “hole.” The Greek word means “opening, fissure,” such as there is in the earth, or in rocks from which a fountain gushes.
Sweet water and bitter - Fresh water and salt, Jam 3:12. Such things do not occur in the works of nature, and they should not be found in man.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv14, 17 But if you have bitter zeal. He hints at…
But if you have bitter zeal. He hints at that bitter, false zeal, which many teachers among the Jews, even after their conversion, were apt to retain against the converted Gentiles, pretending with lies, and against the truth of the Scriptures, that they are not to be made partakers of the blessings brought to all nations by the Messias. --- Glory not, boast not in this pretended wisdom, which descendeth not from above, from God, but which is earthly, sensual, diabolical, from an evil spirit, which foments these jealousies and divisions; and where there are such emulations and divisions, there is nothing but inconstancy, and all kind of evils. (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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11–18 fountain--an image of the heart: as the aperture (so…
fountain--an image of the heart: as the aperture (so the Greek for "place" is literally) of the fountain is an image of man's mouth. The image here is appropriate to the scene of the Epistle, Palestine, wherein salt and bitter springs are found. Though "sweet" springs are sometimes found near, yet "sweet and bitter" (water) do not flow "at the same place" (aperture). Grace can make the same mouth that "sent forth the bitter" once, send forth the sweet for the time to come: as the wood (typical of Christ's cross) changed Marah's bitter water into sweet.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 11. The moral impossibility of such opposite manifestations of…
11. The moral impossibility of such opposite manifestations of character is illustrated by the products of nature. It is, in moral character, the opposition between incompatible qualities. If a man display one set of qualities he cannot possess the other, so as to be a wicked man and a holy man, an heir of heaven and a child of hell at the same time.
Place—Fissure from which the water jets forth.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–18 11. Doth a fountain] The Greek gives the article,…
11. Doth a fountain] The Greek gives the article, the fountain, as more emphatically generalising the question.
send forth at the same place …] Both verb and noun in the Greek are more vivid. Our word spurt or gush, if it could be used transitively, would answer to the former; our mouth, or “source”, or “orifice”, to the latter. The comparison was a natural one in a country like Palestine, where springs more or less salt or sulphureous are not uncommon. Most of those on the eastern slope of the hill-country of Judah and Benjamin are indeed brackish. Comp. the sweetening of the spring which supplied the college of the Sons of the Prophets in 2 Kings, 2Ki_2:19, and the symbolic healing of the waters in Eze_47:9.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–18 (11) Doth a (or, the) fountain send forth (literally,…
(11) Doth a (or, the) fountain send forth (literally, spurt) at the same place (or, hole, see margin) sweet water and bitter (i.e., fresh water and salt)?—A vivid picture, probably, of the mineral springs abounding in the Jordan valley, near the Dead Sea; with which might be contrasted the clear and sparkling rivulets of the north, fed by the snows of Lebanon. Nature had no confusion in her plans; and thus to pour out curse and blessing from the same lips were unnatural indeed. Or, again—
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 Vers. 11, 12. Illustrations showing the absurdity of the…
Vers. 11, 12. Illustrations showing the absurdity of the conduct reprobated. From one principle opposite things cannot be produced. Nothing can bring forth that which is not corresponding to its nature.
(1) The same fountain cannot give both sweet and bitter water.
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(2) A fig tree cannot yield olives, nor a vine figs.
(3) Salt water cannot yield sweet.
How, then, can the tongue yield both blessing and cursing? It will be seen that the thought in (2) is different from that into Mat_7:16, to which it bears a superficial resemblance. There the thought is that a good tree cannot yield bad fruit. Here it is that a tree must yield that which corresponds to its nature; a fig tree must yield figs and not olives, etc. So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. The Received Text, which the A.V follows, is wrong here. Read, ou) ajlukon gluku poihsai udwr (A, B, C, and a, except that it reads oujde), and translate, neither can salt water yield sweet; Vulgate, sic neque salsa dulcem potest facere aquam ; Syriac, "Thus also salt waters cannot be made sweet." The construction, it will be seen, is suddenly changed in the middle of the verse, and St. James ends as if the previous clause had been oute dunatai sukh ejlaiav, k.t.l. (cf. Winer, p. 619, Grimm"s "Lexicon of N. T. Greek," p. 324).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv12, 13, 14, 15, 17 Jam_3:9; Jam_3:12
Jam_3:9; Jam_3:12
Therewith bless we God
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The moral contradictions in the reckless talker
In these concluding sentences of the paragraph respecting sins of the tongue St.
James does two things--he shows the moral chaos to which the Christian who fails to control his tongue is reduced, and he thereby shows such a man how vain it is for him to hope that the worship which he offers to Almighty God can be pure and acceptable. He has made himself the channel of hellish influences. He cannot at pleasure make himself the channel of heavenly influences, or become the offerer of holy sacrifices. A man who curses his fellow-men, and then blesses God, is like one who professes the profoundest respect for his sovereign, while he insults the royal family, throws mud at the royal portraits, and ostentatiously disregards the royal wishes. It is further proof of the evil character of the tongue that it is capable of lending itself to such chaotic activity. Therewith bless we the Lord and Father, i.e., God in His might and in His love; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the likeness of God. The heathen fable tells us the apparent contradiction of being able to blow both hot and cold with the same breath; and the son of Sirach points out that if thou blow the spark, it shall burn; if thou Spit upon it, it shall be quenched; and both these come out of thy mouth (Sir_28:12). St. James, who may have had this passage in his mind, shows us that there is a real and a moral contradiction which goes far beyond either of these: Out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. Well may he add, with affectionate earnestness, My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Assuredly they ought not; and yet how common the contradiction has been, and still is, among those who seem to be, and who think themselves to be, religious people! There is perhaps no particular in which persons professing to have a desire to serve God are more ready to invade His prerogatives than in venturing to denounce those who differ from themselves, and are supposed to be therefore under the ban of Heaven. There are many questions which have to be carefully considered and answered before a Christian mouth, which has been consecrated to the praise of our Lord and Father, ought to venture to utter denunciations against others who worship the same God and are also His offspring and His image. Is it quite certain that the supposed evil is something which God abhors; that those whom we would denounce are responsible for it; that denunciation of them will do any good; that this is the proper time for such denunciation; that we are the proper persons to utter it? The illustrations of the fountain and the fig-tree are among the touches which, if they do not indicate one who is familiar with Palestine, at any rate agree well with the fact that the writer of this Epistle was such. Springs tainted with salt or with sulphur are not rare, and it is stated that most of those on the eastern slope of the hill-country of Judaea are brackish. The fig-tree, the vine, and the olive were abundant throughout the whole country; and St. James, if he looked out of the window as he was writing, would be likely enough to see all three. It is not improbable that in one or more of the illustrations he is following some ancient saying or proverb. Thus, Arrian, the pupil of Epictetus, writing less than a century later, asks, How can a vine grow, not vinewise, but olivewise, or an olive, on the other hand, not olivewise, but vinewise? It is impossible, inconceivable. It is possible that our Lord Himself, when He used a similar illustration in connection with the worst of all sins of the tongue, was adapting a proverb already in use (Mat_12:33-36). And previously, in the Sermon on the Mount, where He is speaking of deeds rather than of Mat_7:16-18). Can it be the case that while physical contradictions are not permitted in the lower classes of unconscious objects, moral contradictions of a very monstrous kind are allowed in the highest of all earthly creatures? Just as the double-minded man is judged by his doubts, and not by his forms of prayer, so the double-tongued man is judged by his curses, and not by his forms of praise. In each case one or the other of the two contradictories is not real. If there is prayer, there are no doubts; and if there are doubts, there is no prayer--no prayer that will avail with God. So also in the other case: if God is sincerely and heartily blessed, there will be no cursing of His children; and if there is such cursing, God cannot acceptably be blessed; the very words of praise, coming from such lips, will be an offence to Him. But it may be urged, our Lord Himself has set us an example of strong denunciation in the woes which He pronounced upon the scribes and Pharisees; and again, St. Paul cursed Hymensaeus and Alexander (1Ti_1:20), the incestuous person at Corinth (1Co_5:5), and Elymas the sorcerer Act_13:10). Most true. But firstly, these curses were uttered by those who could not err in such things. Christ knew what was in man, and could read the hearts of all; and the fact that St. Pauls curses were supernaturally fulfilled proves that he was acting under Divine guidance in what he said. And secondly, these stern utterances had their source in love; not, as human curses commonly have, in hate. And let us remember the proportion which such things bear to the rest of Christs words and of St. Pauls words, so far as they have been preserved for us. All this applies with much force to those who believe themselves to be called upon to denounce and curse all such as seem to them to be enemies of God and His truth: but with how much more force to those who in moments of anger and irritation deal in execrations on their own account, and curse a fellow-Christian, not because he seems to them to have offended God, but because he has offended themselves! That such persons should suppose that their polluted mouths can offer acceptable praises to the Lord and Father, is indeed a moral contradiction of the most startling kind. The writer of this Epistle has been accused of exaggeration. It has been urged that in this strongly worded paragraph he himself is guilty of that unchastened language which he is so eager to condemn; that the case is over-stated, and that the highly-coloured picture is a caricature. Is there any thoughtful person of large experience that can honestly assent to this verdict? Who has not seen what mischief may be done by a single utterance of mockery, or enmity, or bravado; what confusion is wrought by exaggeration, innuendo, and falsehood; what suffering is inflicted by slanderous suggestions and statements; what careers of sin have been begun by impure stories and filthy jests? All these effects may follow, be it remembered, from a single utterance in each case, may spread to multitudes, may last for years. One reckless word may blight whole life. And there are persons who habitually pour forth such things, who never pass a day without uttering what is unkind, or false, or impure. (A. Plummer, D. D.)
The tongue--its blessing and cursing
I. THE INCONSISTENCY OF THE TONGUE.
1. Its blessing of God. This is the great end for which the human tongue exists--this the highest employment in which it can be engaged. We do this in various ways. We thus bless Him in our praises. These are sung either more privately in our own dwellings or more publicly in the sanctuary. He requires, above everything, the soul, but He will have the body also; the members and organs of the one, not less than the faculties and affections of the other. We thus bless God also in our prayers, whether these be secret, domestic, or public. In them adoring and thankful praises constitute no small or subordinate element. We extol the Lord for His infinite perfections, we give Him the glory due unto His great and holy name. We testify our obligations to Him for His mercies without number, and lay offerings of grateful homage on His altar.
2. Its cursing of men. Even the most orthodox and charitable Christians are not wholly exempt from this tendency. We are far too ready to pass sentence on our brethren, and in effect, if not in form, to curse such as do not happen to agree with us in some respects, and these, it may be, of quite secondary importance. Everything of this sort is of the nature of cursing--it partakes in one degree or another of that character. And mark the aggravating circumstance, that which involves the frightful inconsistency charged against the tongue--men, which are made after the similitude of God. We were at first created in His image, stamped with His moral lineaments in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. And in a sense too, as the, language here obviously implies, we still bear that likeness. Such cursing is in reality a cursing of God Himself whom we yet bless--a cursing of Him in man, who is not only His workmanship, but His reflection, His image--not merely a being formed by His hand, but formed after His likeness. We cannot keep the first table of the law, and at the same time set at nought the second. The strangely, outrageously inconsistent nature of the whole proceeding is still more forcibly exhibited by bringing the two contrary things together, placing them side by side, presenting them in sharpest contrast (Jam_3:10). There it is that the flagrant, shocking contradiction appears.
II. THE UNNATURALNESS OF THIS INCONSISTENCY (Jam_3:11-12). Doth a fountain send forth at the same place--the same hole, chink, or fissure, as in the rock whence it issues--sweet water and bitter? No--nothing of this kind is ever witnessed. The water which flows from the spring may have either, but it cannot have both of these qualities. It may indeed afterwards undergo a change, it may lose its original properties, and be turned into the opposite of what it was, by reason of the soil through which it runs, or the purposes to which it is applied. What was sweet may by certain mixtures become bitter. But at first, in its own nature, and apart from all foreign ingredients, it is wholly the one or the other. There is no inconsistency in the material region. He passes to a higher department, the vegetable kingdom, and shows that there too plants and trees bring forth a single kind of fruit, and that which is suited to the order, the species to which they belong. Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive-berries, either a vine figs? Of course it cannot. Any such thing would be a monstrosity. Titan, returning to the spring, not without reference to the internal, hidden source from which all our words proceed, be adds, So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. He wishes to fix attention on the inconsistency manifested in the use of the tongue, and lead them to the right explanation of its origin. This anomaly does seem to be exhibited in the moral world, if not in the material. But it is so more in appearance than in reality. That water is often the same which looks different. What to some tastes and tests is fresh, when thoroughly examined, is found to be salt as the ocean. Much that to our earthly senses is sweet, to the spiritually-discerning is bitter indeed. Thus the blessing of many is formal, if not even false, having nothing gracious in it, no love or homage of the heart, no element or quality fitted to render it acceptable to the great object of worship. In its origin and essence it is not opposed to, nor, indeed, different from the cursing of man, with which it is associated. The latter reveals the true nature of the common source, or there may be two fountains where only one is perceptible. The former supposition applies to nominal and hypocritical Christians--this latter to living, genuine believers. They have an old man and a new, corruption and grace both existing and working within them; and as the one or the other gains the ascendancy, and, for the time, governs the tongue, the stream of discourse that issues from it is wholesome or deleterious--fresh as that of the bubbling spring, or salt as that of the briny deep. (John Adam.)
The evil tongue
St. James uses three special arguments to restrain Christians from the unruly use of the tongue: the first is the inconsistency of the thing--that the heart touched by the Holy Spirit should do the works of the flesh--that the fountain which hath been purified should again flow with bitter waters and the servants of Christ should serve Belial We have promised to study the strains of angels, and become familiar with and adopt them as our own; so that instead of being now a Babel of confusion, the Church may utter but one language in the presence of the Lamb; and how very inconsistent that from such lips cursing should proceed--how very inconsistent if any of you who have been now repeating Davids psalms, the notes of heaven, should to-morrow be found uttering an oath, or even using a passionate expression. It is bad enough for one who only professes Christianity to use the language of the devil, but it is a greater inconsistency when out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing--when you, the same person, bless God, yet curse His image. Let the wicked do it; the heathen who is without God, and without Christ, if it must be. He that is unjust, &c. But a Christian man--a man who has been baptized into the Holy Trinity; a man who readsthe Bible, and comes into Gods house and worships there: a man who joins himself to the company of the saints, dead and living, and takes into his mouth the same words, the same prayers, the same Scripture passages with them;--nay, the man who perhaps approaches the awful mystery of the Body and Blood of His Lord;-that from such a mouth should proceed the gibes and imprecations of lost spirits, is it not shockingly inconsistent? Next, St. James reminds us of the consequences both to others and ourselves. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth, awed the tongue is a fire. How far may a single spark dropped among stubble reach! Bow does it steal along the floor, creep up the wall, envelop the roof, spread from house to house, and seize churches and noble buildings, till it wrap a whole city in conflagration! So does a single word dropped unadvisedly. If a soft answer turneth away wrath, on the other hand grievous words stir up anger. If you reply quietly to a provocation, or refuse to answer, the quarrel dies; but one word draws on another, and wrath kindleth wrath; and that is made eternal which might have been extinguished if only one had been a Christian. You see, then, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. Is it surprising if of every idle word we shall give an account at the judgment? But again, you say something injurious of your neighbour. There is a little truth in it, but much more falsehood. It has been added to, and enlarged, and swollen into a crime. But you repeat it. The story spreads. It is told everywhere, and though it wounds your neighbour to death, and from the calumny he loses all acquaintances and friends, yet you cannot recall it now. See how great a matter a little fire kindleth. Again, you utter impure words before a child, the child treasures them up all through his life; though he lives sixty or seventy years, unhappy being, his thoughts and language take their complexion from your words; but besides, to how many has lie communicated what he first heard from you! Mark again, how great a little fire kindleth. Surely the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, and setteth on fire the course of nature. To conclude: if we will not restrain our members by the aid of Gods Spirit, and especially that member which St. Peter calls an unruly evil, full of deadly poison; if we will, in the indulgence of a wilful spirit, scatter firebrands about, unkind, malicious, polluting, or injurious words, wide-spread as the evil may be, will it stop short with others? No, it will return upon ourselves; which setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. The fire which hath gone forth spreading and consuming, at the judgment hour is stopped in its course, and rolling back again is concentrated on the tongue which gave it existence. You who uttered the word, which has done such mischief to thousands, and ruined so many souls, now feel its burning effects in your own person. Ought not this to make you careful of your words, those winged words, which once launched forth take a flight you know not whither? (J. M. Chaunter, M. A.)
Made after the similitude of God
Man made after Gods image
This image of God consisteth in three things--
1. In His nature, which was intellectual. God gave him a rational soul, spiritual, simple, immortal, free in its choice; yea, in the body there were some rays and strictures of the Divine glory and majesty.
2. In those qualities of knowledge (Col_3:10); righteousness Ecc_7:29); and true holiness (Eph_4:24).
3. In his state, in a happy confluence of all inward and outward blessings, as the enjoyment of God, power over the creatures, &c. But now this image is in a great part defaced and lost, and can only be restored in Christ. Well, then, this was the g, eat privilege of our creation, to be made like God: the more we resemble Him the more happy. Oh! remember the height of your original. We press men to walk worthy of their extraction. Those potters that were of a servile spirit disgraced the kingly family and line of which they came (1Ch_4:22). Plutarch saith of Alexander, that he was wont to heighten his courage by remembering he came of the gods. Remember you were made after the image of God; do not deface it in yourselves, or render it liable to contempt, by giving others occasion to revile you. (T. Manton.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv13, 17 Chapter 16
Chapter 16
THE WISDOM THAT IS FROM BELOW.
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Jam_3:13-16
THIS section, which again looks at first sight like an abrupt transition to another subject, is found, upon closer examination, to grow quite naturally out of the preceding one. St. James has just been warning his readers against the lust of teaching and talking. Not many of them are to become teachers, for the danger of transgressing with the tongue, which is great in all of us, is in them at a maximum, because teachers must talk. Moreover, those who teach have greater responsibilities than those who do not; for by professing to instruct others they deprive themselves of the plea of ignorance, and they are bound to instruct by example of good deeds, as well as by precept of good words. From this subject he quite naturally passes on to speak of the difference between the wisdom from above and the wisdom from below; and the connection is twofold. It is those who possess only the latter wisdom, and are proud of their miserable possession, who are so eager to make themselves of importance by giving instruction; and it is the fatal love of talk, about which he has just been speaking so severely, that is one of the chief symptoms of the wisdom that is from below.
This paragraph is, in fact, simply a continuation of the uncompromising attack upon sham religion which is the main theme throughout a large portion of the Epistle. St. James first shows how useless it is to be an eager hearer of the word, without also being a doer of it. Next he exposes the inconsistency of loving ones neighbor as oneself if he chances to be rich, and neglecting or even insulting him if he is poor. From that he passes on to prove the barrenness of an orthodoxy which is not manifested in good deeds, and the peril of trying to make words a substitute for works. And thus the present section is reached. Throughout the different sections is the empty religiousness which endeavors to avoid the practice of Christian virtue, on the plea of possessing zeal, or faith, or knowledge, that is mercilessly exposed and condemned. "Deeds, deeds, deeds," is the cry of St. James; "these ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone." Without Christian practice, all the other good things which they possessed or professed were savor-less salt.
"Who is wise and understanding among you?" The same two words meet us in the questionings of Job {Job_28:12} "Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?" Of all the words which signify some kind of intellectual endowment, e. g., "prudence," "knowledge," and "understanding," "wisdom" always ranks as highest. It indicates, as Clement of Alexandria defines it ("Strom.," 1. 5.), "the understanding of things human and Divine, and their causes." It is the word which expresses the typical wisdom of Solomon, {Mat_12:42; Luk_11:30} the inspiration of St. Stephen, {Act_6:10} and the Divine wisdom of Jesus Christ. {Mat_13:54; Mar_6:2; and comp. Luk_11:49 with Mat_23:34} It is also employed in the heavenly doxologies which ascribe wisdom to the Lamb and to God. {Rev_5:12; Rev_7:12} St. James, therefore, quite naturally employs it to denote that excellent gift for which Christians are to pray with full confidence that it will be granted to them, {Jam_1:5-6} and which manifests its heavenly character by a variety of good fruits. {Jam_3:17}
Whether we are to understand any very marked difference between the two adjectives ("wise" and "understanding") used in the opening question, is a matter of little moment. The question taken as a whole amounts to this: Who among you professes to have superior knowledge, spiritual or practical? The main thing is not the precise scope of the question, but of the answer. Let every one who claims to have a superiority which entitles him to teach others prove his superiority by his good life. Once more it is a call for deeds, and not words-for conduct, and not professions. And St. James expresses this in a specially strong way. He might have said simply, "Let him by his conduct show his wisdom," just as he said above, "I by my worlds will show thee my faith." But he says, "Let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom." Thus the necessity for practice and conduct, as distinct from mere knowledge, is enforced twice over; and besides that, the particular character of the conduct, the atmosphere in which it is to be exhibited, is also indicated. It is to be done "in meekness of wisdom." There are two characteristics here specified which we shall find are given as the infallible signs of the heavenly wisdom; and their opposites as signs of the other. The heavenly wisdom is fruitful of good deeds, and inspires those who possess it with gentleness. The other wisdom is productive of nothing really valuable, and inspires those who possess it with contentiousness. The spirit of strife, and the spirit of meekness; those are the two properties which chiefly distinguish the wisdom that comes from heaven from the wisdom that comes from hell.
This test is a very practical one, and we can apply it to ourselves as well as to others. How do we bear ourselves in argument and in controversy? Are we serene about the result, in full confidence that truth and right should prevail? Are we desirous that truth should prevail, even if that should involve our being proved to be in the wrong? Are we meek and gentle towards those who differ from us? or are we apt to lose our tempers, and become heated against our opponents? If the last is the case we have reason to doubt whether our wisdom is of the best sort. He who loses his temper in argument has begun to care more about himself, and less about the truth. He has become, like the many would-be teachers rebuked by St. James; slow to hear, and swift to speak; unwilling to learn, and eager to dogmatism; much less ready to know the truth than to be able to say something, whether true or false.
The words "by his good life" are a change made by the Revisers for other reasons than the two which commonly weighed with them. As already stated, their most valuable corrections are those which have been produced by the correction of the corrupt Greek text used by previous translators. Many more are corrections of mistranslations of the correct Greek text. The present change of "good conversation" into "good life" comes under neither of these two heads. It has been necessitated by a change which has taken place in the English language during the last two or three centuries. Words are constantly changing their meaning. "Conversation" is one of the many English words which have drifted from their old signification; and it is one of several which have undergone change since the Authorized Version was published, and in spite of the enormous influence exercised by that version. For there can be no doubt that our Bible has retained words in use which would otherwise have been dropped, and has kept words to their old meaning which would otherwise have undergone a change. This latter influence, however, fails to make itself felt where the changed meaning still makes sense; and that is the case with the passage in which "conversation" (as a rendering of αναστροφη) occurs in the New Testament. "Conversation" was formerly a word of much wider meaning, and its gradual restriction to intercourse by word of mouth is unfortunate. Formerly it covered the whole of a mans walk in life (Lebenswandel), his going out and coming in, his behavior or conduct. Wherever he "turned himself about" and lived, there he had his "conversation" (conversatio, from conversari, the exact equivalent of αναστροφη, from αναστρεφεσθαι). It was exactly the word that was required by the translators of the Greek Testament. In the Septuagint it does not appear until the Apocrypha. {/RAPC Tob 4:14} But it causes serious misunderstanding to restrict the meaning of all the passages in which the word occurs to "conversation" in the modern sense, as if speaking were the only thing included; and the Revisers have done very rightly in removing this source of misunderstanding; but they have been unable to find any one expression which would serve the purpose, and hence have been compelled to vary the translation. Sometimes they give "manner of life"; {Eph_4:22; 1Ti_4:12; 1Pe_1:18; 1Pe_3:16} once "manner of living"; {1Pe_1:15} three times "behavior"; {1Pe_2:12-13} three times "life"; {Heb_13:7; 2Pe_2:7; and here} and once "living." {2Pe_3:9}
These different translations are worth collecting together, inasmuch as the give a good idea of the scope of "conversation" in the old sense, which really represents the word used by St. James. That "conversation," with the modern associations which inevitably cling to it now, should be used in the passage before us, is singularly unfortunate. It not only misrepresents, but it almost reverses the meaning of the writer. So far from telling a man to show his wisdom by what he says, in his intercourse with others, St. James rather exhorts him to show it by saying as little as possible, and doing a great deal. Let him show out of a noble life the conduct of a wise man in the gentle spirit which befits such.
In modern language, let him in the fullest sense be a Christian gentlemen.
"In meekness of wisdom." On this St. James lays great stress. He has already told his readers to "receive with meekness the implanted word," {Jam_1:21} and what implies the same thing, although the word is not used, to "be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath". {Jam_1:19} And in the passage before us he insists with urgent repetition upon the peaceable and gentle disposition of those who possess the wisdom from above (Jam_1:17-18). The Christian grace of meekness is a good deal more than the rather second-rate virtue which Aristotle makes to be the mean between passionateness and impassionateness, and to consist in a due regulation of ones angry feelings ("Eth. Nic." 4. 5.). It includes submissiveness towards God as well as gentleness towards men; and exhibits itself in a special way in giving and receiving instruction, and in administering and accepting rebuke. It was; therefore, just the grace which the many would-be teachers, with their loud professions of correct faith and superior knowledge, specially needed to acquire. The Jew, with his national contempt for all who were not of the stock of Israel, was always prone to self-assertion, and these Christian Jews of the Dispersion had still to learn the spirit of their own psalms. "The meek will He guide in judgment; and the meek will He teach His way". {Psa_25:9} "The meek shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace". {Psa_37:11} "The Lord up-holdeth the meek". {Psa_147:6} "He shall beautify the meek with salvation". {Psa_149:4} In all these passages the Septuagint has the adjective (πραεις) of the substantive used by St. James (πραυτης). "But if," instead of this meekness, "ye have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not, and lie not against the truth." With a gentle severity St. James states as a mere supposition what he probably knew to be a fact. There was plenty of bitter zealousness and party spirit among them; and from this fact they could draw their own conclusions. It was an evil from which the Jews greatly suffered; and a few years later it hastened, if it did not cause, the overthrow of Jerusalem. This "jealousy" or zeal (ζηλος) itself became a party name in the fanatical sect of the Zealots. It was an evil from which the primitive Church greatly suffered, as passages in the New Testament and in the sub-Apostolic writers prove; and can we say that it has ever become extinct? The same conclusion must be drawn now as then.
Jealousy or zeal may be a good or a bad thing, according to the motive which inspires it. God Himself is called "a jealous God," and is said to be "clad with zeal as a cloak," {Isa_59:17} and to "take to Him jealousy for complete armor". {/RAPC Wis 5:17} To Christ His disciples applied the words, "The zeal of Thine house shall eat me up". {Joh_2:17} But more often the word has a bad signification. It indicates "zeal not according to knowledge," {Rom_10:2} as when the high-priest and Sadducees arrested the Apostles, {Act_5:17} or when Saul persecuted the Church. {Php_3:6} It is coupled with strife, {Rom_13:13} and is counted among the works of the flesh. {Gal_5:20} To make it quite plain that it is to be understood in a bad sense here, St. James adds the epithet "bitter" to it, and perhaps thereby recalls what he has just said about a mouth that utters both curses and blessings being as monstrous as a fountain spouting forth both bitter water and sweet. Moreover, he couples it with "faction" (εριθεια), a word which originally meant "working for hire," and especially "weaving for hire," {Isa_38:12} and thence any ignoble pursuit, especially political canvassing, intrigue, or factiousness (Arist., "Pol.," 5 2:6 3:9 Rom_2:8; Php_1:16; Php_2:3). This also St. Paul classes among the works of the flesh. {Gal_5:20} What St. James seems to refer to in these two words is bitter religious animosity; a hatred of error (or what is supposed to be such), manifesting itself, not in loving attempts to win over those who are at fault, but in bitter thoughts, and words, and party combinations.
"Glory not and lie not against the truth." To glory with their tongues of their superior wisdom, while they cherished jealousy and faction in their hearts, was a manifest lie, a contradiction of what they must know to be the truth. In. their fanatical zeal for the truth they were really lying against the truth, and ruining the cause which they professed to serve. Of how many a controversialist would that be true; and not only of those who have entered the lists against heresy and infidelity, but of those who are preaching a crusade against vice! "The whole Christianity of many a devotee consists only, we may say, in a bitter contempt for the sins of sinners, in a proud and loveless contention with what it calls the wicked world" (Stier).
"This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish." The wisdom which is exhibited in such a thoroughly unchristian disposition is of no heavenly origin. It may be proof of intellectual advantages of some kind, but it is not such as those who lack it need pray for, {Jam_1:5} nor such as God bestows liberally on all who ask in faith. And then, having stated what it is not, St. James tells in three words, which form a climax, what the wisdom on which they plume themselves, in its nature, and sphere, and origin, really is. It belongs to this world, and has no connection with heavenly things. Its activity is in the lower part of mans nature, his passions and his human intelligence, but it never touches his spirit. And in its origin and manner of working it is demoniacal. Not the gentleness of Gods Holy Spirit, but the fierce recklessness of Satans emissaries, inspires it. Just as there is a faith which a man may share with demons, {Jam_2:19} and a tongue which is set on fire by hell, {Jam_3:6} so there is a wisdom which is demoniacal in its source and in its activity.
The second of the three terms of condemnation used by St. James (ψυχικος) cannot be adequately rendered in English, for "psychic" or "psychical" would convey either no meaning or a wrong one. It does not occur in the Septuagint, but is found six times in the New Testament-four times in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, {1Co_2:14; 1Co_15:44; 1Co_15:46} where most English versions have "natural"; once in Jude, {Jud_1:19} where Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan have "fleshly," the Rhemish, the Authorized, and the Revised "sensual"; and once here, where Genevan, Rhemish, Authorized, and Revised all give "sensual," the last placing "natural or animal" in the margin. When mans nature is divided into body and soul, or flesh and spirit, every one understands that the body or flesh indicates the lower and material part, the soul or spirit the higher and immaterial part. But when a threefold division is made, into body, soul, and spirit, we are apt to allow the more simple and more familiar division to disturb our ideas. "Soul" is allowed to keep its old meaning, and to be understood as much more allied with "spirit" than with "body" or "flesh." This causes serious misunderstanding. When the soul is distinguished, not only from the flesh, but from the spirit, it represents a part of our nature which is much more closely connected with the former than with the latter. The "natural" or "sensual" man, though higher than the carnal man, who is the slave of his animal passions, is far below the spiritual man, who is ruled by the highest portion of his nature, which is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The natural man does not soar above the things of this world. His inspirations are not heavenly. "Of the earth he is, and of the earth he speaketh." The wisdom from above is heavenly, spiritual, Divine; the wisdom from below is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Does this seem to be an exaggeration? St. James is ready to justify his strong language. "For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed." And who are the authors of confusion and vile deeds? Are they to be found in heaven, or in hell? Is confusion, or order, the mark of Gods work? If one wished to sum up succinctly the manner in which the activity of demons specially exhibits itself, could one do so better than by saying "confusion and every vile deed"? "God is not a God of confusion, but of peace," says St. Paul, using the very word that we have; {1Co_14:33} and every one heartily assents to the doctrine. The reason and conscience of every man tell him that disorder cannot in origin be. Divine; it is part of that ruin which Satanic influences have been allowed to make in a universe which was created "very good." Jealousy and faction mean anarchy; and anarchy means a moral chaos in which every vile deed finds an opportunity. We know, therefore, what to think of the superior wisdom which is claimed by those in whose hearts jealousy and faction reign supreme. It may have a right to the name of wisdom, just as a correct belief about the nature of God may have a right to the name of faith, even when it remains barren, and therefore powerless to save. But an inspiration which prompts men to envy and intrigue, because, when many are rushing to occupy the post of teacher, others find a hearing more readily than themselves, is the inspiration of Cain and of Korah, rather than of Moses or of Daniel. The professed desire to offer service to God is really only a craving to obtain advancement for self. Selfseeking of this kind is always ruinous. It both betrays and aggravates the rottenness that lurks within. It was immediately after there had been a contention among the Apostles, "which of them was accounted to be greatest," {Luk_22:24} that they "all forsook Him and fled."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv11–18 11. Doth a fountain. In nature such incongruity is…
11. Doth a fountain. In nature such incongruity is not shown. A fountain does not give out two kinds of waters.
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.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v13 Jas_3:13. Good conversation.—Or, his “good life”; “good conduct.” The…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Jas_3:13. Good conversation.—Or, his “good life”; “good conduct.” The usual New Testament idea of “conversation.”
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Jas_3:14. Strife.—Prefer “rivalry.”
Jas_3:15. Sensual.—Or, “animal.”
Jas_3:17. Gentle.—Lit. “forbearing.” Intreated.—Persuaded. Partiality.—Chap. Jas_2:4; R.V. “variance”; without doubtfulness, vacillation, which leads to wrangling.
Jas_3:18. Sown in peace.—So as to consist in peace. “Every good deed is a fruit produced by the good seed sown in good soil; and every such deed is in its turn the seed of a future fruit like in kind.” “True wisdom will go on to sow the fruits of righteousness in peace, and thus, if it may be, to make peace in the world. And that which is sown in peace will produce a harvest of joys. Let others reap the fruits of contentions, and all the advantages they can propose to themselves by them; but let us go on peaceably to sow the seeds of righteousness, and we may depend upon it our labour will not be lost” (Matthew Henry).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jas_3:13-18
Practical Wisdom seen in the Spirit of a Life.—Two things need to be kept in mind if the point of teaching in this passage is to be apprehended.
1. St. James began his epistle by dwelling on the importance of wisdom. He meant that sort of practical wisdom for the ordering and guiding of life and relations which comes to a man through
(1) waiting upon God in believing prayer, and
(2) through sanctified personal observations and experiences.
2. St. James recognises that these would-be teachers, who set up for themselves in the Jewish Christian Churches, claimed a superiority of wisdom and knowledge, and based their claim to teach on this claim to superior wisdom. The claim was founded on self-assurance; there was no characteristic Christian humility in it. And self-assertive work was doing the practical mischief in the Churches which it always does. It could be known by the bad fruits that it was bringing forth. There is something very like satire in the contrast between the false wisdom and the true in this passage. The man truly wise never is found pushing himself into the place of teacher—he has to be found out; and he will be known by the character of his ordinary conversation, and by the skill with which he orders all his conduct, and tones all his relationships.
I. What will indicate the wise man?—How may we recognise him? What tests shall we apply to him? Here is a man who claims to be wise for the practical management of life, and possessed with altogether superior intellectual knowledge. How shall we satisfy ourselves concerning his claim?
1. It is a ground of suspicion if he pushes himself forward as a teacher. True wisdom always has humility for its companion. The man who thinks himself to be something, generally is nothing. Men find out the true teachers; very seldom do they find themselves out. The true teacher teaches because he cannot help it, and often does not know that he can teach. The man who pushes himself into the teaching-place will usually be found more interested in self-aggrandisement than in teaching.
2. It is suspicious if the supposed wise man is more anxious about putting other people’s lives straight than about putting his own. Let a man be really wise, and the responsibility of the trust of his own life is sure to weigh heavily upon him; and he will be anxious about his own “conversation,” his own turning about in the relations of life, his own good conduct. Let a man assume wisdom for self-seeking ends, and he will usually be found indifferent to his own conduct and relations; attention to these things will in no way serve his purpose.
3. It is more than suspicious if there is to be seen no sign of “meekness.” Meekness, in the Scriptures, is not precisely the same thing as “humility.” It is the opposite of “self-assertiveness.” The meek man never pushes himself to the front. He trusts to value, not to show; to what he is, not to what he can make himself out to be. But precisely what these would-be teachers in the Churches, whom St. James reproves, lacked, was this meekness in their so-called wisdom. From this Jas_3:13 the importance of personal character and holy example in all Christian teachers may be earnestly presented. Holy living must ensure confidence in him who teaches, and wing the arrows of his good words.
II. What will indicate the unwise man?—The results of his personal influence and of his teaching. His pushing will create envying. The places into which he gets other people will be sure to think that they ought to have. Hence will come strife, contentions, disputes, rivalries, schemes for injuring one another, and every evil work. James and John wanted to push into the chief places in the coming kingdom, and they upset the kindly relations of the apostolic company, introducing envying and strife. And that which is true of the unwise man’s personal influence will also be true of his teaching. It will upset the kindly relations of the people. It will be inconsiderate. It will be peculiar. It will exaggerate the teacher’s own ideas. It will fail to keep the harmony and proportion of Christian truth; and so it will cause heart-burnings, jealousies, envyings, hatred, strife. It is the secret of sectarianism. One is for Paul, and separates himself to Paul. One is for Apollos, and separates himself to Apollos. One is for Cephas, and separates himself to Cephas. And so sectarianism creeps in, and in Christ’s Church there is confusion and every evil work.
III. What will indicate the Christianly wise man? (Jas_3:17).—This verse seems distinctly to lift us into a higher plane. St. James appears now to be thinking of the true Christian teacher, in whom is both the spirit and the wisdom of the “great Teacher”; the man who is not inspired to teach by a self-seeking, self-satisfied, and self-reliant spirit, but by the wisdom and the grace that come down from above; the man who is wise through the gifts and teachings of the Holy Spirit; the man who is an “epistle of Christ.” St. James does not describe the true Christian teacher; he says that you can always know him by the tone which is on all the results of his personal influence and Christian work. The terms he uses express two things: righteousness, peaceableness. The Christian teacher stands firm to that which is right, just, pure. He shows no partiality, favours no one to serve his own end, is “without hypocrisy”; he always is what he seems to be, and so can be fully trusted. And he is peaceable; never makes difficulties, always smoothes them; is accessible to all, pitiful to the erring, gentle to the weak, and inventive in forms of service to others. The atmosphere in which alone the Christian can work is the atmosphere of peace. Spiritual life can never be cultured by any Christian teaching where self-assertive men are creating envying and strife, confusion and every evil work. Three go together—wisdom, humility, and peaceableness.
IV. What will be the moral power of the Christianly wise man? (Jas_3:18).—He who makes peace wherever he goes, sows peace; and when the seeds of peace come to their fruitage, that fruitage is found to be “righteousness.” And that is the supreme end of Christ’s work; and the supreme end of all the work which Christ’s servants do for Him. Heaven is come when of humanity it can be said, “The people are all righteous.” Out of the seeds of the wise Christian teaching, that makes for peace, that universal righteousness alone can come.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Jas_3:12. Wisdom seen in Wise Speech.—“Let him show out of a good conversation his works.” While it may be admitted that St. James uses the term “conversation” in the general sense of “conduct,” it may also be recognised that he had in mind the sins of the tongue, and the mischievous talking and teaching of those who pushed themselves into places of authority in the Christian Churches. We may therefore take St. James to suggest that a man can always be known by his talk. Illustrate from different kinds of men: the unclean-minded man; the vain man; the hypocrite; the shallow-minded man; the foreigner; the learned man; the humorous man; the depressed man; etc. The same must be true of the Christian man.
1. What should be the characteristic conversation of a Christian man?
2. How can he secure that the right character shall always rest upon his conversation? To answer with St. James we may say—It depends upon his keeping the “meekness of wisdom.” Several shades of meaning attach to the term “meekness,” and in each of them we may notice a close connection with wisdom, that is, with the practical wisdom which enables a man to order his life aright, gaining a restraint over himself, and over his circumstances, which is at once represented and illustrated by the control he gains over his speech. 1. Meekness may mean humility, the spirit of the man who has come to estimate himself aright. But that right estimate is the work of wisdom, which guides judgment and presents the Divine standard. A man is never humble until he is wise enough to look at himself in the light of God and God’s claims.
2. Meekness may mean modesty, the spirit that does not push, that will not assert itself. And this never comes to a man save out of the practical wisdom that reads life aright, and knows that in the long-run God always proves to be on the side of the man who is good, not on the side of the man who asserts that he is.
3. Meekness may mean receptiveness, the disposition which keeps a man open to ever fresh supplies of Divine grace and strength. And only practical wisdom brings home to a man that sense of insufficiency which prepares him to receive ever fresh Divine help.
Jas_3:14-16. The Secret Source of Strife.—Self is pushing to the front somewhere. That will always be found the source of strife in families, churches, society, nations. Somebody wants something for himself. His getting it is against the interests of others. Nevertheless, he is determined to get it.
Jas_3:15. A Threefold Description of False Wisdom: “Earthly, Sensual [Animal], Devilish [Demoniacal].”—Each word is full of meaning.
1. The counterfeit wisdom is “earthly” in its nature and origin, as contrasted with that which cometh from above (Php_3:19).
2. It is “sensual.” The word is used by classical writers for that which belongs to the “soul,” as contrasted with the “body.” This rested on the twofold division of man’s nature. The psychology of the New Testament, however, assumes generally the threefold division of body, soul, and spirit, the second element answering to the animal, emotional life, and the third being that which includes reason and will, the capacity for immortality and for knowing God. Hence the adjective formed from “soul” acquired a lower meaning, almost the very opposite of that which it once had, and expresses man’s state as left to lower impulses without the control of the spirit. What St. James says of the false wisdom is, that it belongs to the lower, not the higher, element in man’s nature. It does not come from the Spirit of God, and therefore is not spiritual.
3. In “devilish” we have a yet darker condemnation. Our English use of the same word “devil,” for two Greek words, διάβολος and δαιμόνιον, tends, however, to obscure St. James’s meaning. The epithet does not state that the false wisdom which he condemns came from the devil, or was like his nature, but that it was demon-like, as partaking of the nature of “demons” or “unclean spirits,” who, as in the gospels, are represented as possessing the souls of men and reducing them to the level of madness. Such, St. James says, is the character of the spurious wisdom of the “many masters” of Jas_3:1. Met together in debate, wrangling, cursing, swearing, one would take them for an assembly of demoniacs. Their disputes were marked by the ferocity, the egotism, the boasting, the malignant cunning of the insane.—Dean Plumptre.
Jas_3:17. Practical Christian Wisdom.—If a man has it, no doubt it will find its first sphere in the management of his own body, mind, temper, passions, etc. But it will be sure also to find its sphere in the relationships and associations of life. It will direct all his dealings with others, and give them a peculiarly gracious character. What will be the leading features of that character? Will they, as St. James gives them, go into the word “sensitiveness” (not touchiness, nor the mere weakness of a nervous disposition)?—sensitive to the clean, to the very beginnings of strife, to the needs of others, to insincerity, to everything unsympathetic, and to a proper response, in good fruits, to the grace of which the Christian feels himself to be the monument. “Confound not wisdom with erudition. They may be connected, and should accompany one another; but they are not always so, and perhaps only in a few instances. Confound not wisdom with a sullen, morose character, with a gravity frightful to all mirth and pleasure, with a life consisting entirely in rigid abstinence and perpetual mortification. Confound not wisdom with singularity in the bad sense of the term, according to which it is an endeavour to attract notice, and to distinguish oneself from others, not so much in important and essential matters, as in insignificant trifles relative to externals. Confound not wisdom with understanding and sagacity. They come, indeed, the nearest to it, are more or less implied in it, and belong in some measure to it; however, they are not wisdom itself.”—Zollikofer.
Jas_3:18. Righteousness and Peace always go together.—“The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.” “Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” “Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” Righteousness always works towards peace. Peace provides a seed-bed in which righteousness can be sown. Find either one of these anywhere, and you will find the other close by. If everybody simply wanted the right, and worked for the right, there could be no wars of nations, no contentions of society, no ruptures in families. The absolute right may sometimes seem to be unattainable; but the Christian right is always within our reach, and that is the interest of my brother and my neighbour rather than my own. In the triumph of the Christian right comes the world’s eternal peace.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Jas_3:13. The Power of Temptation lessens as Life advances.—The precious sago-palm, when young and tender, is covered with strong sharp thorns, which effectually guard it from injury by wild animals. As soon, however, as the tree, shooting on high, grows strong, and is no longer a tempting morsel to wild hogs and other animals, the thorns fall off. It is very often thus with young Christians. They frequently display an asperity and sharpness in their treatment of the ungodly that answers something in their case to the thorns of the sago-palm. There is a use in this. They are inexperienced in the Christian life, and especially are liable by reason of their youth to be snared and enticed by the world’s blandishments. This very roughness and angularity is a great preservative in erecting around them, as it were, a bristling fence, and cutting them off from contact with dangerous foes. But as faith and love grow, as experience is gained, and they become established in grace, their life, though not a whit less faithful, becomes less severe and forbidding. The power of many temptations which especially beset the young as the pilgrim’s path is further pursued becomes necessarily lessened with the lessening heat of the calmer pulse of age. The head that once may have been turned by pride with advancing years has been tutored to “wise meekness” by long and invaluable discipline. Now that they are not in so much danger from the world as formerly the thorns fall off. There is a similar train of thought to be met with in the poet Southey’s verses on the “Holly.” This tree somewhat resembles the sago-palm in that its lower leaves only are armed with thorns, while those which rise out of reach are quite smooth. Unlike our palm, however, these thorns on the leaves near the ground never fall off with age, but continue to the last.—James Neil, M.A.
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.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v18 (See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
righteousness
(See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v13 Warning against strife:
Warning against strife:
v. 13. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
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v. 14. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
v. 15. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
v. 16. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
v. 17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
v. 18. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
The apostle now makes a direct application of the lessons contained in the first part of the chapter: Who is wise and intelligent among you? Let him show his works out of an excellent conduct in the meekness of wisdom. Christians should make use of proper wisdom, prudence, and common sense; they should show that their intelligence, controlled by their obedience to the Word of God, is well able to direct their actions in life. Such wisdom is not boastful and proud, vaunting itself at the expense of others, hut it is modest, humble, meek. It does the right thing, it behaves itself in a conduct which agrees with the will of God, not with the purpose of seeking its own glory, but only that of serving the Lord, this in itself being a sufficient reward for the believer. In this spirit he performs the works which the Word of God teaches him as pleasing the heavenly Father.
The opposite conduct may be expected in the case of a man that is full of carnal pride: But if you have bitter zeal and quarrelsomeness in your hearts, do not boast-and thus lie against the truth. If people calling themselves Christians cherish emulation and party-strife, jealousy and rivalry, if they are so puffed up with pride and self-satisfaction that they insist always upon being in the right and ever claim that the one disagreeing with them is wrong, they are doing so at the expense of love. Should they under such circumstances gain an advantage over the other and boast in triumphant glee of their having been proved in the right, this will almost invariably be a lying against the truth, since most victories gained under such circumstances are gained at the expense of truth and love, and will not aid in furthering the harmony which should be found in a Christian community.
Of such an exhibition of pride the apostle says: This wisdom is not that which is coming down from above, but earthly, sensual, devilish; for wherever jealousy and rivalry exist, there is disorder and every evil deed. People that make use of such schemes in overcoming their opponents, that always insist upon being right and want their ideas carried out, may think themselves exceptionally wise, as, indeed, their self-sufficient air would cause the uninitiated to believe. But the wisdom which they boast has nothing in common with true wisdom, such as is given by God, whenever the Church is in need of intelligent management. It is a wisdom, rather, which is of this earth only; it is sensual, in the domain of the senses, which is as far as human beings will ever proceed; it is devilish, it succeeds only in bringing about such conditions as are particularly pleasing to the devil, who is a liar and a murderer from the beginning. This, in fact, is the only fruit that can be expected where emulation and party-strife, jealousy and rivalry, exist, where everyone insists upon having his own ideas accepted, regardless of the views of others. Naturally, there will be disturbances, disorders, everything will be upset in such a congregation, a condition will result which will give rise to every evil deed, the passions finally having free and full sway.
Altogether different is the situation where true meekness and kindness are ever in evidence: But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, lenient, yielding, full of mercy and good fruits, not critically inclined, not hypocritical. This wisdom is from above, it is given by God and should be required of Him in prayer, chap. 1:5. If any man thinks that he is not in need of it, he will surely find himself in a position where he will make one mistake after the other. The wisdom which God gives, and which should at all times rule in the Church, is pure, chaste, holy, it guards against sin in every form; it is peaceable, wherever this can be done without denial of the truth, it maintains peaceful relations; it is lenient, forbearing, even under severe provocation; it is yielding, conciliatory, ready to enter upon a compromise or accept the opponent’s views if this can be done without harm to the work of the Lord; it is full of mercy, compassion, and good, wholesome fruits, eager to be of service to the cause; not critically inclined, but generous, even when the discussion tends to become bitter; not hypocritical, but genuine, the Christian does not make use of tricks and devices to trap his opponent.
If this condition of affairs obtains in a Christian congregation, in a Christian community, then it will follow: But the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to them that are peacemakers. Wherever the virtues are practiced as outlined by the apostle in the previous verse, there the people that practice them are sure to reap the fruit of their work. Where the peace of God rules the heart, there all the virtues that make for true righteousness of life will grow and flourish abundantly. Peace and righteousness are thus the result of the wisdom which is given from above, truly a splendid harvest to those that have shown the disposition which should always characterize the professed followers of Jesus.
Summary
In cautioning the Christians against false activity in teaching and the use of the tongue, the apostle shows them the dangers which attend much speaking, especially when the tongue is fanatically excited; he warns against the abuse of the tongue and against the disposition of mind which engenders strife.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 13, 15 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
After James stresses that the words of believers should not both bless and curse, he gives examples from nature to teach his readers that people who honor God by worshiping him should also live in right ways.
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Does a spring pour out from its opening both sweet and bitter water?
James uses a rhetorical question to remind believers about what happens in nature. This can be expressed as a sentence. AT: "You know that a spring does not pour out both sweet water and bitter water." (See: Rhetorical Question)
Does a fig tree, my brothers, make olives?
James uses another rhetorical question to remind the believers about what happens in nature. AT: "Brothers, you know that a fig tree cannot grow olives." (See: Rhetorical Question)
my brothers
"my fellow believers"
Or a grapevine, figs?
The word "make" is understood from the previous phrase. James uses another rhetorical question to remind the believers about what happens in nature. AT: "Or does a grapevine make figs?" or "And a grapevine cannot grow figs." (See: Ellipsis)
translationWords
fountain
fig
olive
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 13, 14, 15, 18 3:11 Some springs, especially in the upper sources of…
3:11 Some springs, especially in the upper sources of the Jordan River, did produce fresh water and bitter water; such brackish springs could not support a town. Similarly, if a person’s speech mixes foul with sweet, it will not build up the community.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.