An Exposition of the Epistle of James – James Chapter 4 – Thomas Manton

Commentary on Verse 1

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

In the previous chapter James had spoken against fights, since they proceed from envy, and pressed his readers to a holy wisdom. Here he speaks against fights and quarrels as proceeding from other worldly desires, such as ambition, covetousness, etc., which make them annoy one another and break out into unseemly brawlings. He proceeds by way of questions, appealing to their consciences.

What causes fights and quarrels among you? These words, fights and quarrels, are usually applied to private disagreements—either fights and arguments about riches, rank, and outward pomp, or else annoying lawsuits before unbelieving judges. And the reason given for this interpretation is that the Christians of those times did not dare openly attack one another in a hostile way; so they disturbed the peace of the places where they were scattered. However plausible this explanation may seem, to me it seems frivolous.

(1) It is harsh to render fights and quarrels as private differences, partly because these arguments the apostle is speaking about went as far as bloodshed—You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight (verse 2).

(2) Histories speak of wars and civil unrest between Jew and Jew (as in Acts 5:37), and probably many of the pseudo-Christians were engaged in these.

(3) The apostle in this letter is writing not only to the believers but to the whole nation of Israel, as appears from many passages in the letter.

Don’t they come from your desires … ? [From your pleasures, KJV margin]. Desires a n d pleasures are often used interchangeably, and sometimes they are coupled, as in “enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures” (Titus 3:3). “Desire” strictly means the earnest motion of the soul after sin; “pleasure” means the contentment it finds in sin. Sin is a pleasure to the wicked; it takes up their desires or delights: “Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight” (2 Peter 2:13); “delighted in wickedness” (2 Thessalonians 2:12). Pleasure is a sign of a habit that is difficult to give up. Beware of a delight in sin, when acts of uncleanness or thoughts of revenge are sweet to you, or when you take pleasure in proud reflections on your honor and greatness in the world. Lord, if ever sin overcomes me, let it be a burden and not a pleasure. It is sad to rejoice to do evil.

That battle within you. There are several sorts of battles in the human heart. In the heart of the wicked there may be battles:

(1) Between a man and his conscience. Aristotle said, “their soul is in mutiny,” and elsewhere, speaking of a wicked man, “he is not friends with himself.” A wicked man and his conscience are at odds.

(2) Between conviction and corruption. Sin storms at the light that reveals it.

(3) Between corruption and corruption. Worldly desires are contrary to one another and therefore jostle for the throne and usually take it in turn.

In a godly person the war is between sin and grace, between worldly counsel and enlightened reason. These battles are said to be in your members [KJV]. By members are understood both inward and outward faculties, which are employed as instruments of sin. James means the strong inclination of the will and affections against the knowledge of the truth. Similarly, Romans 6:13 reads, “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin”—that is, your faculties, which are exercised in and by the parts of the body, because of the relationship they have to the external parts, such as the eye to the understanding, the will to the hand, etc.

Notes on Verse 1

Note 1. Worldly desire is what causes trouble in a community. Covetousness, pride, and ambition make people overbearing and hurtful.

(1) Covetousness makes us argue with those who have anything that we covet, as Ahab did with Naboth. Hence those injuries and annoying lawsuits between neighbor and neighbor; hence public arguments.

(2) Pride is the viper’s egg that breaks open to reveal the fiery cockatrice: “Pride only breeds quarrels” (Proverbs 13:10). Pride can endure no equals. Haman’s thirst for blood came from his haughtiness; the disciples argued about who would be the greatest.

(3) Ambition. Diotrephes’ love of preeminence disturbed the churches of Asia (see 3 John 9).

(4) Envy. Abraham and Lot’s herdsmen fell out (Genesis 13:7). Two great ones cannot endure one another near them: “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other” (Galatians 5:26).

Note 2. When evils abound in a place, it is good to look at their cause. People engage in an argument and do not know why. Usually worldly desire is at the bottom of it, and we will be ashamed when we see the cause. Is it not because I want to be greater than others? Grammarians talk of finding the root, and philosophers of finding the cause; and many Christians do this too. It is good to sift things to the bottom. Where does this come from? “Since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?” (1 Corinthians 3:3).

Note 3. Worldly desire is a tyrant that battles in the soul and against the soul.

(1) It battles in the soul; it abuses your affections, to carry on the rebellion against heaven: “the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit” (Galatians 5:17). The Spirit no sooner presents a good idea than the flesh rises up in defiance against it; there is pride and passion and earthly-mindedness, envy, sensuality, unbelief, selfseeking, worldly policy. As soon as you decide to repent, believe, pray, these are ready to hinder you, to distract you, so that you cannot do the things you want to do.

(2) It battles against the soul: “abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). You carry an enemy in your own hearts, which defaces the soul’s beauty, disturbs its order, and keeps its liberty in check. Instead of God’s image there is Satan’s likeness.

Question. Do worldly desires battle in the heart of a godly man? The reason for asking is that James is writing to Christians and talks about your desires that battle within you. And Peter, also writing to Christians, says, “abstain from sinful desires” (1 Peter 2:11).

Answer. Yes; the life of a Christian is a wrestling, conflicting state. There is a double nature in the best people—“the sinful nature” and “the Spirit” (Galatians 5:17). We carry an enemy in our hearts; the Canaanite is not wholly cast out. Lord, deliver me from one evil person and it will suffice is a good prayer. The sinful nature and the Spirit, like the twins in Rebekah’s womb, battle a n d struggle. Indeed, worldly desires stir and rage more in a godly heart than in a wicked one. Conviction may sometimes awaken drowsy desires, when without it all is still and quiet. But usually there is more trouble with sin after conversion, especially immediately after conversion. Since the fall it is an evidence of grace to find this opposition; since the admission of sin, grace is more concerned with the combat than with the absolute victory.

Commentary on Verse 2

You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.

In the context the apostle is applying himself to the cure of worldly desires. He has mentioned one effect in verse 1: inward and outward trouble, both in the world and within ourselves. He now comes to another argument: the dissatisfaction of those efforts that come from worldly desires. They distract the head with cares and engage the heart in sins, and all to no purpose.

You want something. Usually this word is taken in a bad sense, to mean inordinate and passionate desires; hence the [KJV] translation lust.

But don’t get it. This may be taken two ways: either “you never obtained,” or “you have now lost.” Trying to get things by wrong ways seldom succeeds; or if it does, possession is soon lost.

You kill. Covetousness is as bad as murder—“Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it” (Proverbs 1:19).

And covet. “You emulate” or “you are given to envy.” This word is sometimes taken in a good sense: “eagerly desire spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1). It is good when we try to imitate those who excel in virtue or to go beyond them. But there is also a worldly emulation, which has chiefly to do with external enjoyment and is a sign of being upset that anyone should enjoy any external goodness equal to or better than ours and a strong covetous desire to appropriate that goodness for ourselves. In the first case there is malice, in the second covetousness; we take the word here to mean chiefly the latter.

But you cannot have what you want. “You cannot arrive at happiness”; that is, either at the happiness of the people you emulate or at the happiness you fancy. The language of desire is give, give, give; it is an appetite without bound or measure. Given one world, we are not happy but want another. Worldly people possess much but have nothing.

You quarrel and fight. You do not have. That is, though their worldly desires had broken out so far as public rioting, still they were at a loss.

Because you do not ask God. That is, you do not use the lawful means of prayer. But how can it be said you do not ask since in the next verse he says, When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives?

(1) Possibly he is taking to task one abuse here, another there— here, that they hoped to help themselves by their own efforts without prayer; and there, that their prayers were conceived for worldly ends.

(2) Because prayers not conceived in a humble way are not prayers; the prayers of worldly desire are not prayers.

Notes on Verse 2

Note 1. Worldly desires are usually disappointed: You want something but don’t get it. God loves to deny desires when they are inordinate. Sometimes this is out of mercy. It is a blessing to be disappointed in the ways of sin; you cannot have a worse judgment than to have your worldly desires fulfilled. How unhappy people are when God leaves them to themselves without restraint! “The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways, and the good man rewarded for his” (Proverbs 14:14). The cursed apostate will have enough honors and pleasures. To check our desires, God in mercy fences our way with thorns (see Hosea 2:6). The blood heated by intemperance and the heart enlarged by desire are both sins that bring with them their own punishment, especially when they are disappointed. Amnon and Ahab were both sick, one with desire, the other with covetousness.

Application 1. When the heart is too much set on anything, it is the sure way to miss it. The fool talked of bigger barns, and that night his soul was taken away. Affections should rise according to the worth of the object: “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). Your hard-working desires would suit a better object. Your strength should be spent on everlasting bread; that is, work without sin and without disappointment.

Application 2. Do not always be troubled when you cannot have what you want; you have reason to bless God. It is a mercy when worldly desires are disappointed. Say, with David, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me” (1 Samuel 25:32). Your hearts have been set on great things, and you thought, like the fool in the Gospel, that you would enlarge your barns and exalt your nest; and suddenly God came in and blasted all those worldly projects. Praise God for such providence. How complacent or sensual or worldly your spirit would have been! It was a mercy that the world was crucified to Paul, as well as Paul crucified to the world (Galatians 6:14).

Application 3. This teaches you what reflections to make upon yourselves in case of disappointment. When you miss any worldly thing that you have desired, say, “Have I not desired this? Did I not covet it too earnestly?” Absalom was the greater curse to David because David loved him too much. Inordinate longings make the affections miscarry. See how things that have too much of self seldom prove happy. We often find that people with much to worry about are unsuccessful; they turn this way and that and remain in the same place like a door on its hinges: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat” (Psalm 127:2). Success in human endeavors lies in God’s blessing; it is a prerogative he has reserved to himself. Providence sometimes weans us from worldly desire and brings us to grace and shows us that a blessing is sooner gained by faith than by worldly care.

Note 2. Where there is covetousness, there is usually fighting, envy, and coveting. As graces go hand in hand, so also there is a link between sins; they seldom go alone. If someone is a drunkard, he will be wanton; if he is covetous, he will be envious. Christ cast seven devils out of Mary Magdalene, and another man was possessed by a legion. When the heart is brought under the power of any sin, it is equally at risk from all sin. Covetousness may be known by its companions—fighting and envy: “filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity” (Romans 1:29). Self-love is the root of all three; it makes us covet and desire what is good and excellent, and it makes us envy others for enjoying it, and then to break all bonds of duty and love so that we may snatch it from them.

Note 3. You kill and covet.… You quarrel and fight. It is desire and covetousness that is most apt to trouble neighborhoods. Solomon says, “A greedy man brings trouble to his family” (Proverbs 15:27); we may add, indeed, to all the homes near him. Covetousness is a base affection that will set you on the most unworthy practices. Those who are given to it trouble their families by exacting all their labors, and they trouble human societies by unjust arguments; they quarrel with those who possess what they covet. Ahab spilt Naboth’s blood for the sake of his vineyard. Such persons work for social change so that they may feather their nests with the common spoils. Besides all this, they bring down God’s judgment on their people; Achan’s covetousness troubled the whole of Israel (Joshua 7). This is especially so if they are in high positions —as when magistrates build their own houses upon the ruins of other people’s and obtain large revenues and estates with the public purse or by making poor people work for them; see Jeremiah 22:13.

Well, then, it is no wonder that covetous people meet with public hatred and detestation. They hurt not only God but human society; they are the sort of people who are moved neither by arguments of nature nor by those of grace. They neither fear God nor men (Luke 18:2). God has laid these two restraints on us—fear of himself to preserve religion, and the shame of the world to preserve human society. Some people are moved by neither. This was what the Jews were like: “They displease God and are hostile to all men” (1 Thessalonians 2:15); they agreed with nobody but themselves. Similarly, 2 Thessalonians 3:2 speaks of “wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith”; nor does everyone have grace, good nature, or reason. Lactantius says of Lucian, “he spared neither God nor man.” Covetousness makes people have this sort of sour disposition. Toward God it is idolatry; it is the bane of human society.

Note 4. Worldly desire will set people not only on dishonest endeavors but on unlawful means to accomplish their ends—killing and fighting and so on. Bad means go with base ends; they resolve to have it, and any means will serve to satisfy their thirst: “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap” (1 Timothy 6:9); “one eager to get rich will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 28:20). If God will not enrich them, Satan will; and what they cannot get by honest labor, they make up by deceit and theft. That shows what a tyrant worldly desire is; if God does not bless us, it makes us go to the devil. And again, desire that makes you use dishonest means is rank desire.

Note 5. Whatever the wicked do, when God is against them their efforts are frustrated; whatever they try, they are disappointed: “he thwarts the purposes of the peoples” (Psalm 33:10). God will not let his creatures be too hard for him in all battles; he will overcome and have the best of it (Romans 3:4). But when does God set himself to frustrate the efforts of the creature? It is when the creature sets himself to frustrate God’s counsels and plans. This may be done in several ways:

(1) When we want to do things in spite of providence. People are disappointed in some evil way once or twice, and yet they insist on trying again, as if they want to beat God. For example, the king of Israel risked the other fifty after two fifties were destroyed (2 Kings 1); Pharaoh hardened his heart after many plagues; Balaam beat his ass three times (Numbers 22:23-27), and after that built altar after altar to curse Israel.

(2) When people seek by worldly policies to avoid God’s threats or promises. God had said, “ I will cut off Ahab’s posterity.” To avoid this Ahab started to father children; he had seventy children, brought up in seventy strong cities, and yet all were beheaded by Jehu. Herod killed all the children of Bethlehem so that he might make sure of killing Christ, and some say he killed his own child who was being nursed there. About this Augustus said, “it is better to be Herod’s swine than his son.” Yet Christ was kept safe: “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD” (Proverbs 21:30). He uses many words to show that the choicest abilities will not be able to win the contest against providence.

(3) When people crossed by providence seek happiness elsewhere by unlawful means, such as violence, extortion, or deceit —as if Satan would make them more prosperous than God would. See if these people’s situation does not deteriorate and their families, whose state they try to improve in this way, become ruined. In ancient times they built a tower, as if there were more security in a tower than a promise (Genesis 11:4). There are many devices in the human heart for bringing about their ends, but they are all marked with the curse of providence.

(4) When you say “I will” without God’s permission: see Exodus 15:9 and 4:3. Confident intentions and presumptions that are not subjected to God’s pleasure seldom prosper.

(5) By repeated efforts against the church: see Isaiah 8:9-10. They are still “shattered,” even though they combine force with ingenuity and get together in most unholy leagues and renew their assaults with united strength; that is why the prophet so often repeats, “and be shattered.”

Note 6. Because you do not ask. That is, you do not ask God’s permission in humble and holy prayer. It is not good to engage in any undertaking without prayer. In prayer you ask God’s permission and show that your action is not a contest with him. The families that do not call on God’s name must be cursed; in their actions they say, in effect, that they will be happy without God. From this we learn that:

(1) It is a false argument against prayer to say that God knows our requests already, and that God’s decrees are immutable and cannot be altered by our prayers. That was the argument of the old heathen philosopher Maximus Tyrus and of many Libertines in more recent times. But prayer is not for God’s information but the creature’s submission; we pray in order that we may have his permission. And again, God’s decrees do not exclude the duty of creatures and the work of secondary causes: “I will yield to the plea of the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 36:37). “‘I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you.… Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you’” (Jeremiah 29:11-12).

(2) No actions must be taken in hand except those we can commend to God in prayer. Any actions that we are ashamed to ask a blessing on must not be pursued; we must not engage in any enterprises that we dare not communicate to God in our supplications: “Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD” (Isaiah 29:15)—that is, who plan their enterprises and never ask what God’s will is or communicate their purpose to him in prayer.

Commentary on Verse 3

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

In this verse he anticipates an objection. They might say, “We do ask and go to God in daily prayers.” The apostle answers, “You ask indeed; but because of your wrong motive, you cannot complain of not being heard. Do you want to make God a servant to your desires?” To convince them, he shows what the aim of their prayers was: the convenience of a worldly life. You ask … that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

There are several points to note in this verse; they may be reduced to the three below:

Notes on Verse 3

Note 1. We pray amiss when our ends and aims are not right in prayer. The purpose is a main element in every action and is the purest offspring of the soul. Practices and affections may be overruled; this is the genuine, immediate birth and issue of the human spirit. We may cite all sorts of actions here; we know their quality not by the matter, but the end. In things that are neutral in themselves, the nature of the action is altered by a wrong motive. To eat out of necessity is a duty we owe to nature; to eat out of wantonness is an effect of worldly desire. So in all things instituted and commanded, the end determines the action. When we make self the purpose of prayer, it is not worship of God but self-seeking. All our actions are to be referred and devoted to God; much more so with the acts that belong especially to the spiritual life, which is described in the words “live for God” (Galatians 2:19). That is the main difference between the worldly life and the spiritual; one is living for ourselves, the other is living for God. Especially, acts of worship are to be for God, for there the soul sets itself to glorify him. And as we address ourselves directly to him, we must not prostitute our addresses to a common use.

So then, consider your motives in prayer—not just the manner, not just what you are asking for, but the purpose. It is not enough to look for intensity of feeling; many people make that all their work, to raise themselves into some liveliness of spirit, but they do not consider their aim. It is true that it is good to come with full sails; fervent prayer is like an arrow drawn with all your strength, but it must be godly prayer. A worldly spring may send out high tides of feeling; our worldly desires are usually very earnest. It is not enough to look for fluency; worldly affections and imagination joined together may engage the wit and set it working. It is not enough to make God the object of the prayer—he must be its purpose too. Duty is sometimes called “serving God,”

serving denoting the object, and seeking denoting the end; in serving we must seek.

Note 2. Our ends and aims are wrong when we ask blessings for the use and encouragement of our worldly desires. There are several ways in which people sin with reference to the aim of prayer:

(1) When the end is grossly worldly and sinful. Some people seek God for their sins and want to engage the divine blessing on a revengeful and worldly enterprise, just as the thief lit his torch in order to steal by the lamps of the altar. Solomon says that the wicked offer sacrifice “with evil intent” (Proverbs 21:27).

(2) When people seek to gratify their worldly desires privately, they look on God as some great power who must serve them. They are like the man who came to Christ saying, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me” (Luke 12:13). We want something from God in order to satisfy our desires: health and long life, that we may live pleasantly; wealth, that we may live in luxury every day; estates, so we can improve our name and family; victory and success, to excuse ourselves from glorifying God by suffering, or to wreak our malice on enemies. The divine grace, by a vile submission and diversion, is forced to serve our vainglory.

(3) When we pray for blessings with a selfish aim, and not with serious and actual designs of God’s glory, as when someone prays for spiritual blessings thinking only of his own ease and comfort, such as praying for pardon, heaven, grace, faith, repentance only in order to escape wrath. This is merely a worldly aspect of our own good and welfare. God wants us to think of our own comfort, but not only that. His glory is the pure spiritual aim. Then we seek these things with the same mind that God offers them: “to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:6). Your desires in asking are only right when they suit God’s purposes in giving. God’s glory is a better thing, and beyond our welfare and salvation. So it is too in temporal matters, when people desire outward provision merely in order to live more comfortably, not to serve God more cheerfully.

So how shall I set about getting my motives right in prayer? This is a necessary question. Nothing makes us see the necessity of divine help for our prayers so much as this. To act for a holy purpose requires the presence of the Spirit of grace; supernatural acts need supernatural strength. It is true in these internal things that “flesh gives birth to flesh” (John 3:6). Water cannot rise higher than its fountain; nature by itself aims at its own welfare, ease, and preservation. Therefore, go to God; beg for uprightness—that is his gift as well as other graces. The help that we have from the Spirit is to make requests “in accordance with God’s will” (Romans 8:27), or, as it is in the original, “in accordance with God”—that is, to make godly requests for God’s sake. Besides, there should be much mortification; what lies uppermost will be expressed first: “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

Note 3. Prayers framed out of worldly motives are usually unsuccessful. God’s glory is the end of prayer and the beginning of hope, or else we can look for nothing. God never undertook to satisfy worldly desires. He will own no other voice in prayer but that of his own Spirit: “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit” (Romans 8:27). What is a worldly groan, and what is a spiritual groan? Expressing a worldly aim is merely a request met with a divine refutation; it is the best way to be denied. Spiritual sighs and breathings are heard rather than worldly roarings.

If you cannot ask for mercy well, you will seldom be able to use it well; there is more enjoyment in the temptation. Usually our hearts are more devout when we want a blessing than when we enjoy it; and therefore when our prayers are not directed to God’s glory, there is little hope that when we receive the talent we shall employ it for the Master’s use.

Besides all this, prayers offered with a base motive greatly affront and dishonor God; you would make him a servant of his enemy: “Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins” (Isaiah 43:24, KJV; NIV, “You have burdened me with your sins”—Ed. note). We want to commit sin and want God to bless us in it. It is bad enough that you should be servants of sin, but that you should make God an accessory to your sin and yoke him with yourselves in the same service is not to be endured. So this teaches us what to do when our prayers are not granted. Let us not charge God foolishly but examine ourselves: were not our requests worldly? Suppose you prayed for life, and God left you to your own deadness; did your heart not fancy your own praise? If you prayed for safety, you wanted to live in ease, in pleasure; if you prayed for an estate, you were pleasing yourself in your ideas of greatness and esteem in the world. O brothers, as we care about success, let us not come to God with an evil mind! Holy desires are certainly answered (Psalm 10:17; 145:19).

Commentary on Verse 4

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

Because they were so overcome with worldly lusts that their very prayers and devotions looked that way, James now shows the danger and heinousness of these desires. There are two arguments in this verse: first, such lusts will make you commit adultery; and second, they will make you enemies to God.

You adulterous people. This must be understood spiritually, as appears from the following words and the drift of the context, which is to inveigh against those desires and pleasures that entice the soul and withdraw it from God. These are spiritual adulterers whom the love of the world alienates and estranges from the Lord. This metaphor is also used elsewhere (see Matthew 12:39 and 16:4).

Don’t you know … ? He appeals to their consciences; this is a rousing question. Worldly people do not sin out of ignorance so much as not thinking.

That friendship with the world. By this he understands an emancipation of our affections to the pleasures, profits, and desires of the world. People try to please their friends, and they are friends of the world if they seek to gratify worldly people or worldly desires and if they court external vanities rather than renounce them—a practice that is inappropriate to religion. You may use the world but not seek friendship with it. People who want to be dandled on the world’s knees lose Christ’s friendship. “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10). It is the same with gratifying worldly desires. We may use the comforts of the world but may not serve its desires and pleasures—a description of the worldly state (Titus 3:3).

Is hatred toward God. When you begin to please the world, you wage war against heaven and openly defy the Lord of hosts. The love of God and care to obey him is abated just so much as the world prevails in you. There is a similar expression in Romans 8:7, “the sinful mind is hostile to God.” In this way the world not only withdraws the heart from God but opposes him. It is hard for someone to serve two masters, even if they think alike. But God and the world are opposite masters; they command contrary things: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15); “you cannot serve both God and Money” (Matthew 6:24). People who match covetousness with Christianity seek to reconcile two of the most irreconcilable things in the world.

Anyone. General truths must be enforced by application, and so have a direct impact on the soul: “We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself” (Job 5:27).

Who chooses to be a friend of the world. Not everyone finds that the world favors them. Whatever they do, “the world has been crucified to” them; but they are not as Paul was, “crucified … to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

Therefore, the Scripture takes notice not merely of what is, but of the aim. Besides, a serious purpose and choice reveal the state of the soul; and whoever chooses to be a friend of the world is absolutely a worldly person. Similarly in 1 Timothy 6:9, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation.” In heavenly matters deliberate choice and full purpose reveals grace: “to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts” (Acts 11:23). Therefore Christians should look to their purpose and aim. What is it? What do you give your minds to? When someone sets himself to become rich, to lay up treasures on earth, he is a worldly man; and when he gives his heart and whole mind to do what God requires, whatever comes of it, he is a true servant of the Lord. Solomon says the same thing: “Do not wear yourself out to get rich” (Proverbs 23:4); that is, do not give up your heart and endeavors to discover and follow every way to increase your wealth and situation. “One eager to get rich will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 28:20)—one who has set that up as his purpose. Now this purpose of the soul may be known partly by our resolutely pursuing the end without weighing the means and consequences, and partly by our diligence and earnestness of spirit. When the end is fixed, we put up with the hard work but are impatient with hindrances and disappointments.

Becomes an enemy of God. Actively and passively, worldliness makes a person hate God and be hated by God. Duty will either make us weary of the world, or the world will make us weary of duty. Obedient children of God experience the one, and hypocrites experience the other.

Notes on Verse 4

Note 1. Worldliness in Christians is spiritual adultery. It dissolves the spiritual marriage between God and the soul; of all sins it is the most inappropriate to the marriage covenant, the covenant of grace in which God declares himself to be “all sufficient” (Genesis 17:1 [Geneva Bible; NIV, “Almighty”—Ed. note]). We have enough in God, but we desire to make up our happiness in the creatures; this is plain whoring: “you [God] destroy all who are unfaithful to you” (Psalm 73:27)—that is, those who seek in the world what is only found in God. There are degrees in this whoredom. There may be adultery by desire when the body is not defiled; unclean glances are a degree of lust. The children of God may have some wandering and straggling thoughts; when the devil is at their elbows, the world may be increased in their esteem and imagination. But soon they correct themselves and return to God’s arms: “Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 144:15).

Note 2. Seeking the world’s friendship is the quick way to be God’s enemy. God and the world are contrary; he is all good, and the world lies in wickedness and commands contrary things. The world says, “Do not miss any opportunity for gain and pleasure; if you will be fussy in standing on conscience, you will do nothing but draw trouble on yourselves.” But God says, “Deny yourselves, take up your cross, renounce the world,” etc. The world says, “Why should I take my bread and water … and give it to men coming from who knows where?” (1 Samuel 25:11). But God says, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out” (Luke 12:33).

Commentary on Verse 5

Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us tends toward envy …

This verse has been twisted by the various expositions of the commentators, because it is not obvious which Scripture or what spirit the apostle is speaking about. Two opinions are worth looking at. Some people interpret it as the Spirit of God, others as the corrupt spirit of man. Those who think it refers to the Spirit of God read it as a double question: “Does the Scripture speak in vain? Does the Spirit who lives in us envy intensely?” And they interpret it thus: “Is it in vain that the Scriptures speak in the same way that I have spoken to you?” (meaning the last sentences spoken, which are scattered everywhere throughout the Word); “Does the Spirit who is in us envy intensely?” (that is, does the Spirit of God envy in such a worldly way?). They have three reasons:

(1) The sentence supposed to be in the latter part of the text is not found anywhere in Scripture, and therefore some people are forced to have recourse to some ancient book of piety now lost.

(2) The phrase the spirit he caused to live in us is most properly and usually applied to the Spirit of God, who is given so that he may dwell in us. It is not so appropriate to our corruption, which is not usually called a spirit, or at least not a spirit living in us.

(3) The word “he” in the first clause of the next verse, But he gives us more grace, must refer to the Spirit of God intended here.

The other opinion, that it refers to the wicked spirit of man, expounds the passage like this: “Does the Scripture say in vain?” (that is, it is not for nothing that the Scripture says …)—what does it say? That “the spirit living in us [that is, our corrupt nature; some say Satan, but it is more probably the former] envies intensely”? I incline to this opinion, and my reason is that the sense is straightforward. The other interpretation is more difficult, as is its appropriateness to the apostle’s intention, which is to prove that worldly desires are natural to us but are inappropriate for someone who wants to be God’s friend.

But how shall we answer the contrary arguments?

(1) To the argument that this saying is found nowhere in Scripture, I reply that the sense of it is found in Scripture, though not the exact words; and when Scripture is quoted generally, the sense is sufficient. The author of Hebrews was writing to Jews who were versed in Scripture, and he was always quoting it generally, as also does Peter in many places, and also Paul: “In the Law it is written: ‘Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people’” (1 Corinthians 14:21). And in verse 34: “women … must be in submission, as the Law says.” Now these precise words are to be found nowhere in the Old Testament, but they are the drift of many passages. Similarly, consider Ephesians 5:14, “That is why it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper …’”—where there is a general citation. So here it is the drift of many Scriptures to speak of corrupt human nature and a wicked spirit living in us, though I imagine there is an allusion specifically to one place, as there is in all those other citations mentioned. The passage alluded to here is Genesis 8:21, “every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” Though there is no mention of envy, yet the apostle might very reasonably apply a general passage to his particular purpose.

(2) The second argument is about the meaning of the words spirit and live in us, but this may very appropriately be applied to the corrupt, natural spirit that we now have. I notice that it is common for Scripture to call the soul’s propensity to good or evil its “spirit,” as in 1 Corinthians 2:12, “We have not received the spirit of the world.” And the phrase “living in me” is used by the apostle, and applied to sin, in Romans 7:17. Nor is there any emphasis in the word to cause it to be peculiar to the gift of the Holy Spirit.

(3) To the argument concerning the beginning of the next verse, I reply that if you simply render it “it gives more grace,” it refers to the Scriptures; if you render it “he gives more grace,” it refers to God, who is mentioned in verse 4.

Notes on Verse 5

Note 1. Though sin is natural to us, it is not therefore less evil. It is the apostle’s argument against envy and desire that “the spirit that is in us tends toward envy.” Poison by nature is more than poison by accident. Similarly, David says, “Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). Lord, I have committed adultery, and I have an adulterous heart and nature! We should fight all the more and be humbled with all the more grief over sins that are natural to us.

Note 2. Do you think Scripture says. Note, from the fact that these precise words are found nowhere, that Scripture says whatever may be inferred from the whole of it and from what follows from it. Immediate inferences are as valid as express words. Christ proves the Resurrection not by direct testimony but by argument (Matthew 22:32). What the Scripture implies, therefore, should be received as if it were expressed.

Note 3. Without reason (in vain, KJV). Worldly people make the Scriptures speak in vain to them: “we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain” (2 Corinthians 6:1)—that is, the offers of the Gospel. When God’s Word has no corresponding effect, it is a vain and dead letter to us. Do not let the Scriptures, by way of comfort, counsel, or reproof, speak in vain to you. When you find a passage moving, ask yourselves, why was this spoken in God’s Word? Was it spoken in vain, or shall I make it so?

Note 4. The spirit he caused to live in us. As we mentioned above, some people understand this to be said of Satan, “who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2); but it is more correctly understood of our own spirit, the bent of our worldly hearts. We all by nature have a wicked spirit living in us. We commit sin, just as heavy objects move downward—not from outward forces, but from our own spirit and nature. Be all the more keen to share the divine nature, and be more watchful over yourselves! Your own spirit is the cause of sin; inner concupiscence is your worst enemy (1:14).

Note 5. Tends toward envy. A worldly spirit is strongly carried off in the ways of sin; it desires it. Be suspicious of any desires that are too strong; panting after earthly things comes from worldly desire.

Note 6. Envy. Natural corruption betrays itself most of all by envy. We have it as soon as we come into the world, and it is hard to leave it before we go out of the world again. The devil first envied us God’s favor, and ever since we have envied one another. The children of God are often caught in this. So was Joshua (Numbers 11:28-29). Peter envied John as excelling him in the love of Christ (John 21:20-21). This is a sin that breaks both tablets of the law at once: it begins in discontent with God and ends in harm to man; it is the root of hatred against godliness.

Commentary on Verse 6

… but he gives us more grace? That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

But he gives us more grace. Some read this as “it gives,” applying it to Scripture. It gives grace because it offers it and is a means in God’s hand of bringing it about. But I prefer to apply this to God, for it is said in contrast to the spirit he caused to live in us tends toward envy; and so it suits the context, which is to show that a worldly spirit is contrary to God. This clause, understood in this way, has been expounded in several ways; but the difference is mostly in the form of the expression, and the senses are all pious and subordinate to one another.

(1) You may refer it to the context thus: “Our spirit envies intensely, but he gives us more grace.” That is, we are envious, but God is bountiful. It is common in Scripture to contrast God’s liberality with our envy, his good hand with our evil eye (see Matthew 20:15). John Damascene calls God “one without envy” because he is most liberal or generous. Note that an envious disposition is very contrary to God. God wants sharing, but we want to keep things to ourselves. We want all blessings to be for us. We malign the good in others, but God delights in it. This may make envy odious to us; we all pretend to be like God. We want a cursed self-sufficiency; why can we not want holy conformity?

a. God has no need to give us his blessings; we need one another and the highest monarch. For us to want all good things fenced in, when our happiness is dependent and consists in mutual sharing, must be exceedingly vile.

b. This is not only unlike God but hurtful to him; we want him to be less good, and so we not only question the wisdom of his gifts but want to restrict the goodness of his nature.

Certainly, then, there is little of the Spirit of God where there is such an envious spirit. Grace lies in conformity to God; that is why it is described as participating in “the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Grace is nothing but introducing the virtues of God into our soul. Now, God delights in giving us more grace, and so those who do not share their good with others or are all for keeping their blessings to themselves or cannot rejoice in the excellencies of other people have nothing at all, or very little, of the nature of God in them.

(2) Our spirit is strongly given to envy, but God gives us more grace. That is, there is enough in him to check the strongest sins; there is enough in God to help the creature in its sorest conflicts. “For a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven … is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:23, 26). Usually we judge God by our own standard, as if what is impossible to our own efforts is also impossible for divine grace: “‘It may seem marvelous to the remnant of this people at that time, but will it seem marvelous to me?’ declares the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 8:6). There is more in God than there can be in nature, and Satan is not so able to destroy as Christ is to save. So then, when desires are strong, think of a strong God, a mighty Christ, upon whom help is laid. You cannot cure your spirits of envy, pride, self-confidence, or vainglory; but God gives us more grace. A sense of weakness should not be a discouragement but an advantage. So it was to Paul; when he was weak in himself, he was always most strong in Christ (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). The chief thing that God requires of the creature is choice and will. All of God’s aim is to bring us to our knees and for us to receive power from the hands of his mercy.

(3) Another consideration is this: though we are wicked and sinful, God will make his grace abound all the more; our spirit envies intensely, and he gives us more grace. Note that God often makes our sinfulness an occasion to reveal more grace. “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20). What a wise God we serve, who can make our sins abound to his glory! And what a good God, who will make our wickedness the occasion of more grace! If Christ died for sinners, I am sure I can plead that “I am the worst” of them (1 Timothy 1:15). If you have no other plea, offer yourselves in this way to God and take hold of the promises.

(4) It is like this with us by nature, but he gives us more grace. When you are renewed and converted to faith in Christ, you have another manner of spirit; you are not carried by the old envious spirit that lives in you, but by a more gracious spirit that God has given you. Note that the old spirit and the new spirit are quite different. Through grace you will be different from what you were by nature. Conversion is revealed by a change. Oh, what a sad thing it is when Christians are what they always were! You should have more grace.

(5) But he gives us more grace; here more means better, as so often in the Scriptures. If you want to seek God in a humble manner, you want to be acquainted with richer things; you do not want to envy and contend with one another about external pleasures. What the world gives is not comparable with what God gives— more grace. “I do not give to you as the world gives” (John 14:27). More excellent blessings! Here we encumber ourselves with much serving, but God gives more grace. Faith will show us greater things than these. The main reason why people dote on the world is because they are not acquainted with a higher glory. People ate acorns until they were acquainted with the use of corn; a candle is very helpful until the sun rises. We do not have a right apprehension of grace until we can see that it yields us more than the world can. Created things give us temporary refreshment, and the world serves its time; but grace brings full and everlasting joy.

That is why Scripture says. What is the effect of this sentence? James applies it to his argument, which is to dissuade them from worldly pursuits and to urge them to address God humbly. Therefore it is no good leaving it out, as some people do—such as Erasmus, who thinks it started as a marginal note and was put into the text by some scribe.

Where does Scripture say this? There is some disagreement about the passage to which this refers. Some people think it was a holy proverb among the Jews. But this cannot be. The phrase seems to allude to some passage of Scripture. Some people think it is Psalm 18:27, “You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.” But humility here does not imply a low and abject condition, but a grace and disposition of mind; and the place cited speaks only of saving the afflicted people of God. Many people refer it to other general passages, but most probably it refers to Proverbs 3:34, “He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.” Some people think James is alluding to 1 Peter 5:5-8, for this is simply a summary of that passage and was written after it, and so he may be asserting the divine authority of that letter. But I prefer to stay with the previous opinion.

“God opposes the proud.” That is, he stands in battle-array or in direct defiance and opposition against them. The proud man has his tactics, and God has his anti-tactics. The Word shows that there is a mutual opposition between God and the proud. And I note this particularly because in Proverbs it says, “He mocks proud mockers.” They mock God, and God mocks them. God still counteracts the proud, as he did Pharaoh.

Mocking is a great sign of pride; disdain of others comes from overvaluing ourselves. God has made everyone an object of respect or pity; it is pride that makes them objects of contempt, and in them their Maker (Proverbs 17:5). Wicked men “sit in the seat of mockers” (Psalm 1:1). This is a sin so hateful to God that he takes notice of disdainful gestures—“the pointing finger and malicious talk” (Isaiah 58:9).

But gives grace. This is meant spiritually of the help and grace by which they may overcome their worldly desires; worldly desires cannot be overcome without the assistance of grace. To the humble. This does not mean a vile and abject condition, but a holy brokenness and contrition, just as by “proud,” in a spiritual sense, is meant stiff-necked and unhumbled sinners.

Notes on Verse 6

Note 1. God not only offers grace but reveals the way in which we may share it and defines the way in which we may give ourselves to him. God is in good earnest in the offers of grace; he not only offers but teaches and indeed draws us (see John 6:44-45). He is as willing to give faith as to give salvation.

Note 2. Those who want to have grace must go the right way to obtain it. They must not only consider what God gives but what he says. God, who has decreed the end, has decreed the means. That is why we not only have promises in Scripture but directions; it calls to account those who want to have the blessing but do not want to use the means. Most people content themselves with lazy wishes; they want to have grace but lie on their beds of ease and expect to be snatched up to heaven in a fiery chariot, or for grace to drop on them out of the clouds. God, who says he will give grace, says something else—that you must be humble in order to receive it.

Note 3. It is excellent to rank Scriptures in their order and know why everything is spoken in the Word, so that we may match absolute promises with conditional ones and put every truth in its proper place. James links the general offers of grace with another promise: God gives grace to the humble. It is good to know truth in its framework, in which all truths are joined in natural links and connections, just as the curtains of the tabernacle were looped to one another. Vague understanding only disposes us to error or looseness. Truths awe us most when we are aware of the relationship between them. “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). The word translated “pondered” means “compared them with one another.” A hint here and a hint there makes people loose and careless, as when absolute promises are not considered in the context of faith. Absolute promises may be our first encouragement, but conditional promises must be our direction; the former are a plank thrown out to save a sinking soul, but the latter show us the way to get into the ark. So then, do not be content with sermon hints until you have gotten a pattern of sound words and can discern God’s intention in the various passages of Scripture, so that you may rank them in their order. The apostle here shows the reason why God said he gives grace to the humble.

Note 4. God opposes the proud. Of all sins God sets himself to punish the sin of pride. He abhors other sinners but professes open defiance and hostility against the proud. Someone asked a philosopher what God was doing; he answered that his whole work was to lift up the humble and cast down the proud. This is the very business of providence; the Bible is full of examples. This was the sin that turned angels into devils; they wanted to be above everyone, not under anyone, and therefore God tumbled them down to hell. As someone says, “God could not endure to have pride so near him.” Then pride wrecked all mankind when it crept out of heaven into paradise on earth. You may trace the story of it all along by the ruins and falls of those who entertained it. Pharaoh, Herod, Haman, and Nebuchadnezzar are sad instances and loudly proclaim that all the world cannot keep up the person who does not keep his own spirit down. Herod merely endured the flatteries of others. He had on a suit of silver cloth, according to Josephus, and the sunbeams beat upon it, and the people cried, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man” because the angels used to appear in shining garments. Because he did not rebuke them, he was eaten up by worms (see Acts 12:21-23).

I notice too that God has punished this in his own people; there are terrible instances of his displeasure against their pride. Uzziah’s pride led to his downfall (2 Chronicles 26:16); he was smitten with leprosy and died “out of grief and sorrow,” says Josephus. David’s numbering of the people and glorying in his own greatness cost the lives of seventy thousand. Under Hezekiah, “the anger of the LORD” fell “on Judah and Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 29:8). These judgments on pride are sure and resolved. A man’s pride will surely bring him down (Proverbs 29:23). If they do not visibly light upon the first person, they overtake their posterity: “The LORD tears down the proud man’s house” (Proverbs 15:25). All their aim is to advance their house and family, but within two or three ages they are utterly wasted and ruined. And judgments on pride are very shameful, that God may pour the more contempt on them: “When pride comes, then comes disgrace” (Proverbs 11:2)— not only ruin, but “disgrace.”

Why should God so expressly set himself against pride? Because of all sins, he hates this sin (Proverbs 16:5). Other sins are more hateful to men, because they bring disgrace and have more baseness in them, whereas pride seems to have a kind of bravery in it. But the Lord hates it because it is a sin that sets itself most against him. Other sins are against God’s laws; this is against his being and sovereignty. Pride not only withdraws the heart from God but lifts it up against God. It is a direct contention as to who shall be acknowledged as the author of blessing and excellence: “Because you think you are wise, as wise as a god …” (Ezekiel 28:6). Babylon speaks in the name and style of God, and so does Nineveh: “I am, and there is none besides me” (Zephaniah 2:15). And as pride rises against his being, so it rises against his providence.

It is also the greatest enemy to God’s law; there is pride in every sin. Sinning is a confronting of God and a despising of the Word of the Lord (2 Samuel 12:9). The will of the creature is set up against the Creator. But the sin of pride is much more against the law of God; it cannot endure the word that reproves it. Other sins disturb reason; this humors it. Drunkenness is more patient with reproof, the conscience consenting to the checks of the Word. But pride first blinds the mind, then arms the affections; it puts the judgment to sleep, and then awakens anger. Besides, pride is the cause of all other sins. Covetousness is the root of evil, and pride is the soul of it. Covetousness is just pride’s purveyor. We pursue worldly pleasures so that we may puff ourselves up in the possession of them; and usually what is pursued in desire is enjoyed in pride. It is only the soul’s complacency in an earthly excellence. “He is arrogant,” and therefore “he is as greedy as the grave” (Habakkuk 2:5).

Application 1. The use of all this is, first, to caution us against pride. There are two sorts of pride, one in the mind and the other in the affections—self-conceit and an aspiring after worldly greatness. Both are natural to us, especially the former.

(1) We are amazingly apt to be puffed up with an idea of our own excellence, be it regarding riches, beauty, abilities, or grace. The apostle calls this “boasting of what he has and does” (1 John 2:16), because it spreads throughout all the activities and comforts of life. Other desires are limited either by their end (such as lusts of the flesh, to content the body) or by their instruments (such as lusts of the eyes); but pride has a universal and unlimited influence. Only the whole of life is enough scope for pride. Those who have nothing excellent cannot excuse themselves from fearing it; we often find that people who have nothing to be proud of are the most conceited. We see this in our natures: man was never more proud than since he was wretched and miserable. Pride came in by the fall, and what should bring the spirit down has raised it. But those who excel have much more reason to be suspicious of themselves. Rich men, for example, are told, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant” (1 Timothy 6:17).

Think about God’s judgment on pride in abilities. Staupicius was proud of his memory, and God struck it. We find nothing causes madness so much as pride. Nebuchadnezzar lost his reason and turned into an animal when he grew proud. Many young men who were proud of their gifts have, by the just judgment of God, lost all their quickness and smartness and quenched their vigor in bodily and worldly delights. Remember, whatever we have was given by grace; and if we grow proud of it, it will soon be taken away by justice. Not only able men, but those of much grace and mortification may be tripped by pride; it once crept into heaven, then into paradise on earth. The best heart can have no security. Christians are not so much in danger of intemperance and sensual lusts as of pride; as other sins decrease, it grows. That is why pride is put last in 1 John 2:16, as being Satan’s last device. Those who are set on the pinnacles of the temple are in danger of being thrown down in this way. Paul was apt to grow proud of his revelations (2 Corinthians 12:7). In heaven alone we are most high and most humble. A worm may breed in manna; strong comforts, raised affections, and strange euphoria may much puff up, and by gracious enjoyments we sometimes grow proud, secure, self-sufficient, and disdainful of other people (Romans 14:10). But this will cost you sharp decay.

(2) The other sort of pride is aspiring to worldly greatness. By such foolish pursuits you simply make God oppose you. Many people mistake ambition and think that desire for position is only unlawful when it is sought by unlawful means; but to feign greatness is contrary to the rules of the Gospel. We should leave our advancement to the sweet invitation of providence and stay where we are until the master of the feast asks us to sit higher. In our private choice we should be content with a reasonable supply of necessities: “everyone who exalts himself …” (Luke 14:11), not everyone who is exalted. In the Olympic games the wrestler never put on his own crown and garland; “Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest” but was “called by God, just as Aaron was” (Hebrews 5:4-5). When we do not wait for the call of providence, it is only an untimely desire for promotion, and either God prevents it or else it proves a curse and snare to us.

Application 2. We should not envy a proud person any more than we would someone on a gallows; they are only lifted up in order to be cast down forever. Chrysostom notes that we are apt to pity the drunkard but envy the proud. We need to pity them too, for they are near a fall: “Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud” (Proverbs 16:19); that is, it is better to be of the beaten party than to form a confederacy with those who grow proud of their success.

Application 3. Note the instances of God’s displeasure against pride on yourselves or those who are near you. Paul took notice of the thorn that was in his flesh, “to keep me from becoming conceited,” he says (2 Corinthians 12:7). So you may often say, “This was an affliction to correct and abate my pride.”

Note 5. God’s grace is given to the humble. We lay up the richest wine in the lowest cellars; in the same way God’s choicest mercies are laid in humble and lowly hearts. Christ did most for those who were most humble. There is enough excellence in God; he only requires a sense of emptiness in us. God loves to make all his works creations; and grace works most freely when it works upon nothing. It is not to God’s honor that the creatures should receive nothing from mercy until they are brought to their knees; the condition that he lays down is, “Only acknowledge your guilt” (Jeremiah 3:13). The humble are vessels of a larger size, fit to receive what grace gives. From this you may learn why humble people are most gracious, and gracious people most humble. God delights to fill up such people.

Commentary and Notes on Verse 7

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Here James applies the promise and by inference emphasizes the duty specified in it: Submit yourselves, then, to God. But you will say, “What is the connection?”

(1) The reason may be inferred from the latter part of the sentence, thus: “God gives grace to the humble; therefore, submit yourselves.” That is, come humbly, and seek the grace of God.

Note that general hints of duty must be faithfully applied to particulars in our own souls. Doctrine is like the drawing of a bow; application is hitting the mark. Many people are wise in generalities but vain when it comes to practicalities. Whenever you hear the Word, let the light of every truth be reflected on your own soul.

a. A sense of duty: “apply it to yourself” (Job 5:27). If God has required humility, I must submit to God; if the happiness and quiet of the creature consists in nearness to God, then “as for me, it is good to be near God” (Psalm 73:28). So you must take your share out of every truth; I must live by this rule. When sinners are invited to believe in Christ, they are to say, “I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15).

b. A resolution for duty, that your souls may conclude not only “I must,” but “I will.” “To you, O my heart, he has said, ‘Seek my face!’ Your face, LORD, I will seek” (Psalm 27:8, NIV footnote). The command is plural: “Seek”; and the answer is singular: “I will.” This is the way the heart must respond to divine teachings.

(2) It may be inferred from the previous clause thus: “He opposes the proud; therefore submit yourselves.” That is, let the Lord have a willing and spontaneous subjection from you. Note, in this case, that the creature must be humbled either actively or passively. If you do not have a humble heart, God has a mighty hand: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand” (1 Peter 5:6). He will either break the heart or break the bones. You must judge yourselves, or else God will judge you (1 Corinthians 11:32). God has made a righteous law: sin must be judged in one court or another, that the law may not seem to be made in vain. If at the last day, when the judgment is set and the books are opened and sinners stand trembling before the white throne of the Lamb and you are conscious of the whole process, Christ should then make you such an offer—“Judge yourselves, and you will not be judged”— with what thankfulness you would accept the suggestion!

And the next thing would be to inquire into your own hearts. Think: that is how it must be; we must judge or be judged, be humble or humbled. It would be better to anticipate acts of vengeance by acts of duty. Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar were humbled (Daniel 4:34), but to their cost. Passive humiliation is sore and deadly. It would be better for us to humble a proud heart than for God, in the threatening of Scripture, to humble our proud looks and make us feel what we would not otherwise. You will not judge yourselves? Ah, but how terrible it will be when the Lord comes to judge us for all our harsh words and ungodly acts (Jude 15)! When justice takes up the quarrel of despised mercy, it will be sad for us; and then we shall know the difference between God’s inviting and God’s inflicting.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Note that anyone who wants to seek God’s friendship must submit to him. James speaks about getting in with God, which must be in a humble way. There is an infinite distance between God and his creatures; we must come with reverence. But we are not only creatures, but guilty creatures; and therefore we must come with a holy awe and trembling.

(1) I shall inquire first what this subjection is. The word means placing ourselves under God, and so it denotes the whole duty of an inferior state.

a. There must be subjection to God’s will—the whole man to the whole law of God. To submit to God is to give ourselves up to be governed by his will and pleasure; our thoughts, our counsels, our affections, our actions must be guided according to the strict rules of the Word. Usually the work of conversion stops here; we are loath to resign ourselves to God’s will. Some of God’s commands, such as those which are inward, are contrary to our affections; others, such as those which enforce external duties, are contrary to our interests. But we must “take [Christ’s] yoke” (Matthew 11:29). A main thing to be looked at in our first supplication to God is this: are we willing to give ourselves up to his will without reservation? Can I subject everything, without any hesitation or reluctance, to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5)?

b. It implies a humble approach to God. Submit yourselves, then, to God; that is, lay aside your pride and stubbornness, humbly acknowledging your sins. Come as lost, undone creatures lying at the feet of mercy. How long it takes before our faces are buried in the dust (Lamentations 3:29), before we can come and say in truth of heart, “If we are damned, it is just; if we are saved, it is through much mercy.”

c. It is handing ourselves over to the disposal of God’s providence. “The Lord’s will be done” (Acts 21:14) is a truly Christian way of speaking. Discontent is clearly rebellion; we want our will done, and not God’s. When we complain, God and we contend; his will must be done to us as well as by us. Thus you see there is a threefold submission: our worldly hearts to his holiness, our proud hearts to his mercy, our stormy minds to his sovereignty, that we may be obedient, humble, patient.

(2) Secondly, I shall inquire how this submission must be performed.

a. Sincerely. We must do his will because it is his will. God’s will is both the rule and the reason of duty. So 1 Thessalonians 4:3 urges us, “It is God’s will that you should be holy”; see also 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and 1 Peter 2:13. This is warrant enough and motive enough; God wants it to be so. Hypocrites do what they have to, but they have other motives. To do it sincerely is indeed to do a duty as duty, to do what is commanded because it is commanded.

b. Freely. Subjection is best when it is willing. If the beast came to the altar struggling and unwilling, men never offered it to their gods but counted it unlucky. Certainly the true God looks most of all for a ready mind: “I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands” (Psalm 119:60)—without doubting, disputing, or consulting with flesh and blood. To offer Isaac was a hard duty, and yet that morning Abraham was up early (see Genesis 22:3).

c. Faithfully. To the Lord’s glory, not our own ends. The Christian life must be for God (Galatians 2:19), according to God’s will, for God’s glory. The creatures’ hardest task is to subject our ends to God’s ends, as well as our ways to God’s will.

(3) Thirdly, I shall inquire what considerations are necessary to urge this duty upon the soul. Man is a stout creature, and we are apt to break all cords and restraints. Our language is, “Who is lord over us?”

a. The necessity of the question. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand” (1 Peter 5:6). It a madness to contend with One who can command legions. What are we to God? “Are we stronger than he?” (1 Corinthians 10:22). Who is so foolish as to stand against the Almighty? Men fawn upon those who have power; God can ruin us with a breath: “At the breath of God they are destroyed; at the blast of his anger they perish” (Job 4:9). We shall feel this power if we do not stoop to it. People who are not drawn by the power of God’s Spirit are broken by the power of his providence. God has sworn: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me’” (Romans 14:11); that is, in effect, “do not regard me as a living God if I do not make the creature stoop.” Listen to this, you who stand against the power of the Word: can you stand against the power of Christ when he comes in glory? “Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you?” (Ezekiel 22:14).

b. The nobleness of surrender. Submission seems base, but to God it is noble. All other subjection is slavery, but this is the truest freedom. Vain men think it is a freedom to live at large, to gratify every worldly desire; this is the basest bondage that may be (2 Peter 2:18). Wicked men have as many lords as lusts. If conscience is awakened just a little, they are aware of the tyranny. They see they are in a bad way, and they cannot help it; they are drunkards, unclean people, worldly and do not know how to be anything else.

c. The utility and benefit of surrender. This will make almighty power the ground of your hope, not your fear: “Let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me” (Isaiah 27:5). This submission is the high way to exaltation (1 Peter 5:6). How men crouch for worldly ends and admire every base person for secular advantage, as Otho in Tacitus did: “kiss the people, even adore the basest, and all to make way for his own greatness.” Should we not rather stoop and submit to the Lord? There is no baseness in the act, and there is much glory in the reward.

Resist the devil. What connection has this precept with the previous one? It may thought of in several ways:

(1) If you will humbly submit to God, you must expect to resist Satan.

In this case, note that true obedience finds much opposition from the devil. Since the fall, a godly life is not known by perfection of grace so much as by conflicts with sin. Satan is still busiest wherever he has least to do. Pirates do not set upon empty vessels, and beggars do not need to fear the thief. Those who have most grace feel most trouble from Satan. He envies them for enjoying the situation and interest in God that he himself has lost. The devil is loath to wake up those who are in his power: “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe” (Luke 11:21). But regarding the godly, he asks to sift them as wheat (Luke 22:31). Sometimes he buffets them with dreadful suggestions, at other times with worldly temptations. We cannot set upon a duty without Satan suggesting lazy thoughts and worldly advice. So then, you cannot judge yourselves forsaken by God because you are tempted by Satan; no brother in the flesh has not had his share (1 Peter 5:9). Such conflicts are not inconsistent with faith and piety. The devil tried this even with Christ himself after he had a testimony from heaven (Matthew 4). Paul was troubled with one of Satan’s messengers (2 Corinthians 12:7). The best are exercised with the sorest conflicts. When the thief breaks into the house, it is not to take away coal but jewels.

(2) You may think of the connection like this: if you want to submit to God, you must beware of those proud suggestions with which Satan tries to puff up your spirits.

In this case, note that one of Satan’s chief temptations is pride. Therefore, when the apostle speaks of submission, he immediately adds, Resist the devil. By pride Satan himself fell (1 Timothy 3:6). That is why the devil was cast out of heaven. He would like to have more company and draw us into his own snare. This is a bait soon swallowed; it is natural to us. He tried to tempt Christ himself to a vainglorious action. Certainly we all desire to be set on high pinnacles, though we run the hazard of a fall. We need, then, to be all the more watchful against such thoughts and insinuations. Places liable to assault usually have the strongest guard. And we may admire the wisdom of God, who can overcome Satan by Satan; Satan’s messenger who buffeted Paul was meant to cure his pride (2 Corinthians 12:7).

(3) Having told them what submission is required, James also wants to tell them what resistance is lawful. You must submit to God, but not to Satan. The Scriptures, in order to speak distinctly and clearly, make contrasts of necessary duties like this. So in 1 Corinthians 14:20 we read, “In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” Similarly in Romans 16:19, “I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.” These sayings match this one of the apostle: you must submit and yet resist.

Note that instead of worldly desires James mentions Satan. The apostle does not say, “resist sin,” but “resist Satan.” Note that Satan has a great hand in all sins. Survey the pedigree of sin, and you will see it may all call the devil father. Worldly desires are called his desires (John 8:44), and it is said that “anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37)—that is, from the devil. Giving way to anger is, in the apostle’s language, giving the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:26-27). Survey the iniquities of every age, and is not Satan’s hand in it all? It is said of Judas’ treason against Christ that the devil prompted him (John 13:2). So too with Ananias: “How is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied?” (Acts 5:3). And in 1 Chronicles 21:1 we read, “Satan … incited David to take a census of Israel.” And in Matthew 16:23, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” (KJV). The heathen, who did not understand the operations of the devil, thought all our conflicts were against internal passions. Now the apostle is clear that we fight not only against worldly desires, but “against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12), which makes the fight all the fiercer.

Sometimes the devil begins the temptation, sometimes we do. He began with Judas; he prompted him by putting evil thoughts in his mind. At other times our own corruption works freely, but the devil may join in. So then, all sin involving the devil, let us defy him and his works and desires too. As followers of divine justice we defy Satan, though sadly we also honor him as head of the worldly state. We love his desires and so call him “father” and keep the crown on his head. Many people rail against him and yet honor him. As a proud spirit, all he aims for is homage and obedience; if he can get our spiritual respect, other things do not move him. As Christ does not love being flattered by us when we violate his laws, so Satan is not provoked by our speaking ill of him. His policy is to blind the mind and carry on his kingdom covertly in the darkness of this world. Every sinner is really the devil’s drudge.

Note, too, from the nature of the duty urged, that it is the duty of Christians to resist Satan. This point is very useful in the Christian life, and a subject on which many eminent people in the church of God have taught. I shall try and explain four things:

(1) Satan has almost as great a power over wicked people as the Spirit of God has over holy people. The same words are used to describe the efficacy of Satan and the influence of the Spirit. God “works in” us (Philippians 2:13), and Satan “is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:3). The Spirit of God gives “a new heart” (Ezekiel 36:26), but Satan operates strongly on people’s will and understanding by their consent. Indeed, he works by way of imperious suggestion, but without any violation or forcing of people’s will; on the godly he works by way of imposture and deceit, on the wicked by way of imperious command and sovereignty. Not only does he put into the heart fancies and ideas that stir up sensual and worldly desires, but also those that will blind the spirit and understanding. Satan, who stirs some people to uncleanness, stirs others to error and blasphemy. That is why 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 says, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in … every sort of evil that deceives.” We are not aware of the things spirits tell us. It is true we are most aware of Satan’s force when we are tempted to bodily lusts, because they frighten conscience most of all, disturb reason, and oppress the body, and because between every temptation and sin there is an intervening explicit thought, of which the soul is conscious. But insinuations of error are more silent and plausible.

Scripture everywhere suggests the great understanding and craftiness of the devil. Hence we read of the devil’s “trap” (2 Timothy 2:26) and “schemes” (Ephesians 6:11; 2 Corinthians 2:11)—words indicating great cunning and skill, which is much increased by experience and observation; he “considered” Job (Job 2:3). He observes and considers us and knows how to choose the right bait, partly by imagining by what corrupt aims most people live, partly by observing our prayers, talk, passions, etc. He can interpret the silent language of a blush, a smile, a frown, a look, the glance of a lustful eye, the gait and carriage of the body. To work upon us he sometimes uses men, including our nearest friends (in this way he used Peter to Christ, Matthew 16:22-23) or cursed deceivers (2 Corinthians 11:15). Sometimes he uses our own bodies; by upsetting our equilibrium he stirs us up to revenge, uncleanness, passion, and all sensual lusts. And therefore you need to keep the body in good shape, so that its moods are not armed against your souls. Sometimes he shows us the object, as he did with Christ, representing the world’s glory to him in a map or landscape; in this way he stirs up desire through the eye: “With eyes full of adultery” (2 Peter 2:14; in the original it is, “of the adulteress”). First he shows us the objects, and then he makes us dwell on the idea until our heart is ensnared. Sometimes he puts thoughts in our minds through the help of our imagination; this must be one way, or how could he tempt us to despair or to spiritual sins, or how could he blind the mind by worldly imagination and ideas and by obstinate prejudices against the truth? And these thoughts, once they are put in our minds, may be continued in a conversation or argument, and the devil, guessing at the answer, may carry on with a reply. So we find that he attacks Christ with new temptations because he had received so full an answer.

(2) The next thing is to show what it is to resist him.

a. Negatively. We must not fear him; the devil has no power to force us, but only the skill to persuade us. Distrustful fear gives him the advantage. We are to “resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Peter 5:9). And again, we must not “give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:27). Anger may make way for malice; and when the first thoughts of sin do not grieve us, the actual practice of them is not far off.

b. Positively. We must demonstrate our resistance, partly by refusing to commune with him. Sometimes he must be checked simply by a rebuke and abomination. When the temptation tends to a direct withdrawal from obedience, for example, it is enough to say, “Get behind me, Satan” and to chide the thought before it settles. Sometimes we must counter him with reasons and thoughts of grace. For example, when the temptation has taken any hold on the thoughts, and corruption rises up in defense of the suggestion, this is called “standing your ground” when the day of evil comes and extinguishing the flaming arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:13-18).

(3) The next thing is the way and means of maintaining this war by the graces of God’s Holy Spirit. I will mention the chief ways:

a. Faith (1 Peter 5:9-10). You need faith, so that you may overcome mystically, by taking hold of the victory of Christ, and morally, so that you may reflect on the glorious rewards appointed for those who stand out in the course of trial and on the spiritual help that is at hand to encourage you in the fight. Faith is necessary in every way; it is called “the shield” (Ephesians 6:13). The shield covers the other parts of the armor; thus faith supports the other graces when they are assaulted—by getting help, by encouraging them, etc.

b. Prayer. Never cope with a temptation alone, but try to bring God into the combat: “pray in the Spirit on all occasions” (Ephesians 6:18). I believe “Spirit” [NIV] here means not the Holy Spirit, but the heart or soul; when you are assaulted, lift up your spirit in holy groans to God.

c. Self-control (1 Peter 5:8). We need to be watchful, to take heed of every worldly desire; and we need to be self-controlled too in the use of every support, every created thing, every activity. I think that by “self-controlled” the apostle means moderating our affections in worldly things, which is necessary for this purpose since all temptations are insinuated into our minds under the guise of pleasure, honor, profit, etc.; and so a heart drowned in the world is soon overcome.

d. Watchfulness. Those with gunpowder natures need to take care not only of burning arrows but of the least sparks. God is soon offended; therefore we must go about “with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). Our hearts are soon overcome; so we need to watch what comes in, lest it proves itself a temptation, and what goes out, lest it proves itself corrupt. We should keep looking for victory in the fight and for the fight in the victory.

e. Sincerity. The apostle speaks of “the belt of truth” (Ephesians 6:14). A double-minded man is his own tempter, and unsettled souls simply invite Satan to make an alliance with their own doubts and anxieties. Such a mixture, like civil wars in a country, makes us prey.

(4) I shall only touch on the most persuasive arguments to engage us in the fight and warfare. Consider the necessity: either you must resist him or be taken captive by him; there is no middle course. If you make peace with him, it will only be to your own harm; to enter into league with Satan is to be overcome. Now he tempts; hereafter he will accuse (Matthew 4:1; Revelation 12:10). Satan flatters the creatures; but the snares of sin will at length prove chains of darkness. We look at the trouble of resisting him, but the sweetness of victory will abundantly compensate for it. Usually we make the mistake of seeing how delightful sin is and what a nuisance it is to resist it, and so we create a trap for ourselves. The right comparison is between the fruit of sin and the fruit of victory. We have often experienced what it is to be overcome; let us now see how delightful victory will be. Nothing reveals the power and support of Christianity so much as the spiritual conflict. If people give in to temptations and commit sins without remorse, it is no wonder they are so cold and dead in religion or that they have such dim and doubtful evidence of heaven; they never tried the truth and power of grace. The spiritual combat and the victories of Christ are riddles and dreams to them.

Besides all this, consider the hopes of prevailing. Satan is a foiled adversary; Christ has overcome him already. All that is required for victory is a strong “No.” Do not give him any further reply. To resist him, not to yield to him, is the only way to be rid of him. You have a promise: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Christ has foiled the enemy, and he has put weapons into your hands so that you may foil him. He trod on this old serpent when his heel was struck on the cross (see Genesis 3:15). Now he wants you to set your feet on his neck; “the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). You need not doubt his help; though Satan is an “accuser,” Christ is an “advocate.” The Spirit of God strengthens us against the suggestions of the evil spirit, and the good angels wait on us (Hebrew 1:14), just as much as the bad angels molest us. Do not fear being deserted; when you are in Satan’s hands, Satan is in God’s hands.

Jesus Christ himself was tempted, and he knows what it is to be exposed to the rage of a cruel fiend; therefore “he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18; see also Hebrews 4:15). Those who have suffered with gallstones will sympathize with others who are wracked with pain and torture; Israel was a foreigner, so had to be kind to foreigners. Christ’s heart is made more tender by his own experience; since he grappled with Satan, he is full of compassion for all who are attacked by him.

And he will flee from you. Here is the promise annexed to the duty as an encouragement. But you will ask how it is to be understood. Does Satan always flee when he is resisted? God’s children find in painful experience that the devil renews the battle and sometimes prevails at a second or third attempt.

(1) Every denial is a great discouragement to Satan; sin gives him a foothold (Ephesians 4:27). He is like a dog that stands looking and waving his tail ready to receive something from those who sit at the table; but if nothing is thrown to him, he goes away. Satan looks for an angry word, an unclean glance, gestures of wrath and discontent; but if he finds none of these, he is discouraged.

(2) After being denied, he may continue to trouble you. Jesus was assaulted again and again after a full answer. Indeed, in the end “he left him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). That is why Peter tells us we must always be alert (1 Peter 5:8).

(3) If we continue to resist, Satan will surely lose. A Christian has the best of it. Though Satan repeats his assaults a thousand times, he can never overcome you without your consent; and though the conflict may put you to some trouble, it brings you much spiritual gain, more obvious experiences of Christ’s power, and a more earnest trust—just as dangers make children cling to their parent more firmly. Besides, it is honor enough to foil him in each individual attack, though usually a Christian not only comes off with the victory but with triumph, and Satan not only does not prevail but flees from us.

Commentary and Notes on Verse 8

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James returns to the main thing in question—the success of humbly addressing God, showing we shall not lack divine help if we will just make way for it. God never lets us down until we first let ourselves down. We withdraw our hearts from God, and so it is no wonder if we do not feel the effects of his grace. All the world may judge whether God or sinners bear the blame for our wants and miseries. If “a man’s own folly ruins his life,” there is no reason why we should “rage against the LORD” (Proverbs 19:3).

Come near to God. You may look upon these words as spoken to sinners or to converts.

(1) If they are spoken to sinners, or people who have not been called, then the sense is, “Come near to God, seek him by faith and repentance, and he will come near to you”—that is, with his grace and blessing. In that case, note that everyone by nature needs to come near to God. Coming near implies we have left; “even from birth the wicked go astray” (Psalm 58:3). As soon as we were able to go, we went astray. In Adam we lost three things—the image of God, the favor of God, and fellowship with God. All sins divide between God and the soul; “your iniquities have separated you from your God” (Isaiah 59:2). Sin makes us shy of his presence; guilt cannot endure the thought of the Judge, and it makes God offended with us. How can his holy nature delight in an impure creature?

And as sin in general does this, so there are some special sins that separate between God and the soul, such as pride (see Psalm 138:6). God stands at a distance and will have no communion with a proud spirit. So creature-confidence and self-satisfaction keep us from God; we stand at a distance, as if we had enough merit of our own: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5). The closest union is brought about by faith, which makes the soul stay in him; and the greatest separation is when we go to other sources of confidence, for then we are simply leaving God. So then, consider your natural condition—aliens from God. So that you may resent it all the more, consider the cause and effects of this natural condition:

a. Its cause. The heart is set on sin and therefore estranged from God: “alienated from God” and “enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior” (Colossians 1:21)—that is, because the mind is set on sin. With such a distance between us and God, we do not delight in him. “Leave us alone!” Why? “We have no desire to know your ways” (Job 21:14). We do not love holiness, and therefore we do not love God. What madness this is, to part with God for sin!

b. Its effects. If you depart from God as a friend, you cannot escape him as an enemy. How beautifully Augustine puts it: “You that cannot endure the presence of God, or a thought of him, where will you go from him?” Or this: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there” (Psalm 139:7-8). Where will you go? “Am I only a God nearby, … and not a God far away?” (Jeremiah 23:23). God is here, there, and everywhere; you will find him wherever you go. Surely, then, it is better to draw near to him as a friend than to run from him as an enemy.

Note also that a great duty of the fallen creature is to come near to God. I do not mean to deal with this duty at length but will just look at three things:

First, how God and the creature may be said to be near one another, or to come near. Gods’ special presence is in heaven, and we are on earth; and his general presence is with all the creatures, and so “he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). But James’s statement is to be understood spiritually: we come near to him not by our physical feet, but by the soul. God’s children are with him in their thoughts, in the affections and dispositions of their souls. Their heart and their treasure is there (see Matthew 6:20-21). Their desires are there; the world is only a large prison. But more especially it means their communion with God in duties in which their souls and prayers “come up” to him (Acts 10:4); and he is said to come down to meet them (Isaiah 64:5). This also indicates the continual relationship between God and them in all their ways. John’s first letter was written so that his readers might have fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3).

Second, how is this brought about, since we cannot endure the thought of God? The question is necessary. This was heaven’s great purpose, to find a way of bringing us back into fellowship with our Maker. God has discovered a new and living way through Christ, which is why he is said to be “the way … to the Father” (John 14:6). And the main purpose of his incarnation and death was to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). To bring strangers and enemies together is a mighty work. But how does Christ effect it?

a. Partly by doing something for us—satisfying God’s justice and bearing our sins in his body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24); otherwise guilt would have been able to have no dealings with wrath. Now Christ is a screen put between us; the divine glory would swallow us up, but Christ’s flesh is a veil that takes off its edge and brightness (Hebrews 10:19-20).

b. Partly by doing something in us. Christ’s work in bringing a soul to God has not ended with the cross; he gives us the graces of his Holy Spirit, which make us fit for communion with God. The principal ones are these:

Faith, which is nothing other than coming to God by Christ for grace, mercy, and salvation (Hebrews 10:22). Unbelief means going away from God (Hebrews 3:12; Zephaniah 3:2).

Then love, the grace of union. It makes us go out to God in desire; it keeps us there by delight. The one is the soul’s thirst; the other is its satisfaction. Love runs out with the feet of desire and rests in the arms of delight.

Then holiness. God will show himself holy “among those who approach him” (Leviticus 10:3). Holy hearts are the fittest to deal with a holy God; otherwise, we would not endure God, nor he us.

Then fear, by which the soul walks with God and is near him. Where our thoughts are is where we are spiritually. It is said of the wicked that “in all his thoughts there is no room for God” (Psalm 10:4); but the godly always keep God in view: “I saw the Lord always before me” (Acts 2:25). Fear keeps them in his company.

Then humility. Because of our distance and guilt we cannot come to God unless we come humbly and on our knees: “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker” (Psalm 95:6). That is the most appropriate posture when we approach God; God will live with the lowly in spirit (Isaiah 57:15).

All these graces, exercised in our behavior with other people or in our religious duties (where we address God more directly), make the soul to be near him.

Thirdly, what special acts does the soul perform when it comes near to God? The answer may be given you from what we said before. There must be an act of faith in our needs; by faith we must see in God what we feel we need. Fear must be acted in all our ways, keeping us in God’s eye; loose and careless people are far from God (Genesis 17:1). Then love and humility must b e acted in religious duties. Coming near chiefly implies humbly and fervently addressing God—when you come to God naked, like coming to a rich man who will clothe you—when you come to God hungry, like coming to a generous man who will feed you—when you come to God sick, like coming to a physician who will cure you—when you come as servants of the Lord, as disciples to your master, as the blind to the light, as cold to the fire, etc. The best way for the creatures to approach is to begin and end in hope, when there is a rare mixture of humility and confidence; and there must be love in every act of devotion, for God must be sought as well as served.

So then, let us remember all this. Sin is departing from God; grace is returning. Come near to him, aim for the support of his presence; Christ is the way, but you must resolve upon it: I must and I will. “Your face, LORD , I will seek” (Psalm 27:8); there must be a concern to bring the soul to this resolve. Note what it says in Jeremiah 30:21, “‘I will bring him near and he will come close to me, for who is he who will devote himself to be close to me?’ declares the LORD.” But will you devote yourselves? A practical commandment arises from conviction of the necessity and excellence of the duty; as David says, “It is good to be near God” (Psalm 73:28).

Objection. There is one doubtful point in the text that must be cleared up before we go any further, arising from the use of the phrase come near to God, as if it were in our own power. The old Pelagians misused this passage, and the Rhemists in their notes say that free will and human endeavor are necessary in coming to God and that man is a cause of making himself clean, though God’s grace is the principal cause. Usually two things have been based on this passage: first, that the beginning of conversion is in man’s power; and second, that this beginning merits or increases God’s grace; for, they say, God will not come near to us unless we first come near to him a n d therefore, before special grace, the beginning of conversion must be in man, and upon this beginning God will come in.

Solution. First, this passage and similar ones show not what man wants to do but what he ought to do. We left God before he left us; we should be the first to return, as we were the first to leave. The wronged party may in justice wait for us to submit. Yet such is the Lord’s kindness that he loves us first (1 John 4:19).

Second, commandments are not measures of our strength; it is not valid to argue from what ought to be done that it can or will be done. These things are expressed in this way for another purpose: to show God’s right, to convince the creature of weakness, to show us our duty, to show us that we should do our utmost, and to convince us of the things we have failed to do.

Third, these precepts are not useless; they convey grace to those who are chosen. God fulfills what he commands, for, by means of the Spirit working with them, they are stirred up and made to come near to God. To other people the precepts are convincing, showing us our obstinacy; we will not come to God and lie at the foot of his sovereignty, saying, “O Lord, you have said, ‘Restore me, and I will return’” (Jeremiah 31:18). People pretend they cannot come, but the truth is they will not come hungry to the table, thirsty to the fountain; they will not lie at God’s feet for grace. So these precepts convince reprobates and leave them without excuse. I shall conclude with Bernard’s wonderful saying: “We cannot seek God until we have found him; he wants to be sought in order that he may be found, and found in order that he may be sought: it is grace that must bring us to grace.” The stray sheep cannot be brought home unless it is on Christ’s shoulders.

(2) The other interpretation of these words is that they apply to Christians already converted and called; and in this case the sense is: “Come nearer to God every day in a holy communion, and you will have more grace from him.”

In this case, note that gracious hearts should always be renewing their access to God through Christ—coming to Christ “like living stones” (1 Peter 2:5), always coming to him in everything we do and in every need. This maintains and increases grace and makes our life wonderful and strong. Coming near to God is not something we must do for an hour, it is not something appropriate merely when we are converted, but it is the work of our whole lives.

And he will come near to you. That is, he will make us find that he is near to us by his favor and blessing. We have a similar promise in Zechariah 1:3, “‘Return to me,’ declares the LO R D Almighty, ‘and I will return to you.’” It is the same in Malachi 3:7.

The way to have God turn to us in mercy is to turn to him in duty. This is the standing law of heaven, and God will not vary from it; it is the best way for God’s glory and for the creatures’ good. Mercies are most delightful and good to us when we are prepared for them by duty. Do not, then, separate mercy from duty. Expectations in God’s way cannot be disappointed. Ephraim wanted blessings but could not endure the yoke of obedience. We are apt to lie upon the bed of ease and complacently look to see what God will do, but will not stir ourselves to do what we should do.

God will be near those who are careful to hold communion with him. “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). Near to bless, to comfort, to give life, to guide, to support them. Let this encourage us to come to God— indeed, to run to him. The father ran to meet the returning prodigal (Luke 15:20). God will be first with loving-kindness: “You will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I” (Isaiah 58:9). God says, in effect, “What have you to say to me? What do you want from me? Here am I to satisfy all your desires.” Elsewhere it says, “Before they call I will answer” (Isaiah 65:24). When we apply ourselves to seeking God, he is near to counsel, to give life, to defend—ready with blessing before our imperfect desires can be formed into requests.

Wash your hands, you sinners. From the connection of this precept with the previous one, note that unclean people can have nothing to do with God. You must be holy before you can come near to him; conformity to his will is the ground of communion: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God” (Joshua 24:19). God cannot endure our presence if we are not holy; he “does not … strengthen the hands of evildoers” (Job 8:20). And we cannot endure his presence: “The sinners in Zion are terrified” (Isaiah 33:14). So then, if you want to be free with God, come with a holy heart; there is special purgation required before worship. The Israelites were to wash themselves when they heard the law (Exodus 19). And David says, “I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, O LORD” (Psalm 26:6). He is referring to the solemn washing that God had appointed for those who came to the altar (Exodus 40). Again, if you want to be delightfully at ease with God in your ways, walk holily; the Spirit of God loves to live cleanly (see Psalm 24:3-4). Generally it was the custom of the eastern countries to wash before worship. Even the heathen gods would be served in white, the emblem of purity.

Wash your hands. This indicates good works—just as pureness of heart implies faith and holy affections. This is what it often means in Scripture, for example in Job 17:9—“The righteous who hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.” Therefore, washing the hands was a sign of innocence, just as Pilate washed his hands in connection with Christ. The apostle Paul tells us to “lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing” (1 Timothy 2:8). Similarly, God tells the Israelites, “Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean” (Isaiah 1:15-16). When we come empty to the fountain of goodness, we must not do it with impure hands. In all these passages “hands” mean the whole body and all the external organs of the soul, because they are principally used for accomplishing many sins such as bribes, lusts, and fights.

The Lord has required not only holy hearts but holy hands. The goodness of your hearts must appear in the integrity of your behavior. When people’s actions are no good, they pretend their hearts are good. The heart must be pure and the way undefiled, so that we may neither incur blame from within nor shame from without; and once sin is committed, the hand must be cleansed as well as the heart. It is in vain to pretend repentance and washing the heart when the hand is full of bribes or ill-gotten goods and no restitution is made.

You sinners. In this first clause he is speaking to people who were openly sinful, tainted with the guilt of outward and manifest sins. “God does not listen to sinners” (John 9:31)—that is, to people living corrupt lives. Thus Mary Magdalene is called “a woman who had lived a sinful life” (Luke 7:37)—that is, openly profane; see also Luke 15:2. Now the chief thing open sinners must do is to cleanse their hands, or reform their live, so that by such acts they may avoid the foolish idea that the heart may be good while the life is scandalous.

Purify your hearts. James says this partly because in this clause he is dealing with hypocrites, whose life is plausible enough, but their main care should be about their hearts, and partly because everything comes from the heart.

If you want to have a holy life, you must get a clean heart. True conversion begins there; spiritual life, as well as natural life, is in the heart first. “Abstain from sinful desires … live … good lives” (1 Peter 2:11-12). First mortify the sinful desires, then the deeds of the body of sin. If you want to cure the disease, purge away the sick matter; otherwise sin may return and put salt in the spring: “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts” (Isaiah 55:7). Notice that it is not only his “way,” or course of life, but his “thoughts,” the frame of his heart; the heart is the womb of thoughts, and thoughts are the first things that come from corruption (see Matthew 15:19). What God looks for and loves is “truth in the inner parts” (Psalm 51:6). Do not be concerned only for honor before people, but for your hearts before God; and let conscience be dearer to you than reputation. Many people are aware of failings in their behavior because they expose them to shame; we should be as aware of things that are not right in the heart. Sinful desires must not be digested without regret and remorse any more than acts of sin.

You double-minded. The word means “of two hearts” or “of two souls.” A hypocrite has “a heart and a heart,” which is odious to God; they dither between God and Baal and deny the religion that they profess. Their thoughts are divided, and their affections are always hovering in a doubtful suspense between God and the world. See the notes on 1:8.

Commentary and Notes on Verse 9

Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

He now prescribes another remedy against their worldly affections and practices; it is proposed with all the more earnestness because of the calamity then ready to fall on the Jewish nation.

Grieve [Be afflicted, KJV]. What is the meaning? Must we draw affliction and unnecessary troubles on ourselves? I answer:

(1) It must be understood to refer to afflicting ourselves in some commendable way. It may, therefore, imply that our bodily distresses ought to be borne patiently; that is, if God brings affliction on you, bear it, be content to be afflicted, for it is our duty to be what God would have us be; let your will be done when the Lord’s is. Or else,

(2) Know your misery, be aware of it; it is some happiness to know our misery. Man, in proud obstinacy, chokes his grief and stifles conviction. Or else,

(3) It indicates compassion and fellow-feeling for other people’s sorrows. A part of our body is capable of feeling pain as long as it is part of the body (see Hebrews 13:3). A wound in the arm affects the whole body; parts of the body must care for one another. Or else,

(4) Humbling and afflicting the soul for sin. This is most appropriate to the context. Sorrow seems to be made for that purpose.

If we do not want to be afflicted by God, we should afflict ourselves for sin. Voluntary humiliations are always the best; they please God the most, and they do us the most good. God is most pleased then. The angels rejoice at the creatures’ repentance (Luke 15:7). Holy tears are the sponge of sin; a hard heart must be soaked, and a filthy heart must be washed in this water. We are most considerate when we are most pensive. Besides all this, the final outcome of it is very sweet. God will “revive the spirit of the lowly” and “revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15). S o then, be afflicted; it is a hard duty but of great profit. Make your sorrow draw water for the sanctuary; affections, like the Gibeonites, must not be abolished but kept for temple use.

Mourn and wail. Why so many words to one purpose? The whole verse and the next say much the same. I answer: it is a hard duty and needs to be reinforced.

Note 1. Flesh and blood must be urged to acts of sorrow, for they are painful to the body and burdensome to the mind. Frothy spirits love their pleasure and ease. How many of the poor ministers of the Gospel go to God and say, as Moses did, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me?” (Exodus 6:12). Lord, the people who claim to be Christians will not put up with this sort of teaching; so how shall we hope to prevail with the poor, blind world? Certainly it is very sad that people adopt into their religion something that used to be a badge of profanity—namely, scoffing at doctrines of repentance and humiliation.

Note 2. It is a necessary duty; those who want to be Christians must expect to mourn. The Spirit descended in the form of a dove, to indicate both meekness and mourning. Christian affections will be tender. God’s glory cannot be violated without your heart bleeding if it is right: “Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed” (Psalm 119:136). When sins are common, your souls will “weep in secret” (Jeremiah 13:17). If God’s heirs are afflicted, you will have a fellow-feeling (Romans 12:15). Indeed, there will not only be occasions externally but internally—your own sins, your own lack. Your sins: “Woe to us, for we have sinned!” (Lamentations 5:16). Times will come when you will have occasion to mourn like the doves of the valleys. Oh, woe the time that ever I sinned against God! Your lack and your need: all supplies of grace are to be obtained this way. The disciple is not above his Lord. “He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears” (Hebrews 5:7). His requests were uttered with deep sighs. Christ, who shed his blood, also shed tears; and if he was “a man of sorrows,” certainly we must not be men and women of pleasures.

Note 3. The next reason for this multiplicity of words is to show that we must continue and persevere in it. We would soon abandon our hard lesson, and we love to not dwell on sad thoughts; therefore the apostle brings us back again and again to our duty: Grieve, and then mourn and wail. Sorrow does not work until it is deep and constant, and the arrows stick fast in the soul. David says, “my sin is always before me” (Psalm 51:3). We must be held to it; slight sorrows are soon cured. Mourning is a holy exercise by which the soul is weaned from sin more and more every day and drawn out to reach for God. So it checks those who content themselves with a hasty sigh, dismissing the matter. Do you really think this is grieving and mourning and wailing? Call to account the heart that is so shallow it wants to run out into the house of mirth again straightaway. But you will say, “Would you have us to be weeping all the time?” I answer:

(1) It is true that sorrow befits this life rather than joy. Now we are “away from the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6), under the burden of “lowly bodies” (Philippians 3:21) and vicious affections. This is our pilgrimage; we have only a few songs, God’s “decrees” (Psalm 119:54). The communion we have with God in ordinances is only a little. Grace is mixed with sin, faith with doubts, knowledge with ignorance, and peace with troubles. Now we “groan” (Romans 8:23); we are waiting and groaning for a full and final deliverance.

(2) There are some special times for mourning—chiefly, for example, in times of God’s absence: “when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast” (Matthew 9:15)—when we have not the support and refreshing of God’s presence or the quickenings of his Spirit. The absence of the sun makes the earth languish; when you have lost the shine of his face, you should cry for him. The people to whom the apostle is speaking were envious, proud, covetous, ambitious, and he tells them to mourn and wail. Saltwater and bitter potions kill worms. In the same way weeping kills worldly desires; the exercises of repentance are the best way to mortify worldly desires. It is the same in times when judgments are threatened. Thunder usually causes rain; and threats should draw tears from us. So it should be, too, in times of calamity, when judgments are actually inflicted: “The Lord … called on you that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth” (Isaiah 22:12). So also times of great mercies are appropriate times to remember our unkindness. The warm sun melts things; she wept much who was pardoned much (see Luke 7:38, 47). When Christ had washed her soul with his blood, she washed his feet with her tears.

Change your laughter to mourning. He means their worldly rejoicing in their external comforts and possessions, which they had gotten by rapine and violence, as seen in the context.

Note 4. It is good to exchange fleshly joy for godly sorrow. In sorrow God will give us what the world cannot find in pleasure: serenity and contentment of mind. While worldly people repent of their joy, you will never repent of your sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10). Worldly comforts grow burdensome in the end; but who was ever the sadder for the hours of repentance? Job cursed the day of his birth, but who ever cursed the day of his new birth? When we turn our laughter into mourning, God will turn our mourning into laughter: “You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy” (John 16:20). Out of these saltwaters God brews the wine of spiritual consolation. So then, do not be prejudiced against godly sorrow. The saddest duties are sweeter than the greatest triumphs, and the worst and most afflicted part of godliness is better than all the joys and comforts of the world. It is better to have good things to come than to have them here. The man in Luke 16:23 had lived in jollity, but his good days were past. Do not measure things by the present sweetness but by the future profit. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25).

Note 5. An excellent way to moderate the excess of joy is to mix it with some weeping. He is speaking to men drunk with their present happiness, and his drift is to awaken them out of their senseless stupor. The way to lessen one passion is to let in the contrary one. There is danger in abundance; therefore in your jollity think of some mournful subjects. Nazianzen reports of himself that when his mind was likely to be corrupted with happiness it was his practice to read the Lamentations of Jeremiah and to inure his soul to the consideration of sad matters. It was God’s own medicine for Belshazzar, in the midst of his cups, to bring him to think of his ruin by some handwriting on the wall. So then, when your mountain stands firmly, think of changes; evils come upon us unawares when we give up our hearts to joy.

And your joy to gloom. In this context he describes them as being worldly and as glorying in oppressing one another; he means here the sort of joy and laughter by which complacent sinners please themselves in their present success, putting off all thoughts of imminent judgment.

Note 6. Prosperous oppression is rather a matter of sorrow than joy to us. You laugh now, but God will laugh hereafter when your calamities and fears come (Proverbs 1:26; Psalm 37:12-13). Wicked people have never so much cause to be humbled as when they are prosperous; it is a sure pledge of their speedy ruin. Now you despise others and scoff at God’s servants and ways; how you will hang your head when the scene is changed and you become objects of public scorn and contempt! Oh, that people would awaken their conscience and say, “I am laughing and triumphing; have I not cause to howl and mourn?”

Commentary and Notes on Verse 10

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

The apostle goes on inculcating and pressing the same duty upon them; and lest they should rest content with externals, he uses a word that particularly implies the internal acts of the soul.

Note from the context that it is not the outward expressions that God looks for in mourning, but the humble heart. God, who is a spirit, does not count bodily actions so much. Tears and wailing and beating the body may all be counterfeit, or else done without a principle of grace; and there may often be inward humiliation though an unemotional person does not yield tears. Godly sorrow does not always vent itself through the eyes. Roman Catholics place much importance on tears and afflicting the body. The spirit-work is the more difficult. Duties require much spirit, and soul-acts are too strong for weak people. I allude to Christ’s expression concerning spiritual fasting in Matthew 9:15-16. Old worldly hearts cannot endure the rigor of such spiritual duties.

So then, in your first duties see that you not only mourn and weep but humble your souls. When you confess sins, it is not words and tears that God looks for, but a deep shame of the evil of your nature, your iniquities of life, and your defects in obedience. When you pray, look not so much at the outward heat and strength—agitated spirits and earnestness of speech; but see that the soul reaches for God by holy ardor and desires. In confessing public sins, it is not the exact enumeration but zeal for God’s glory, compassion for others’ good, and holy desires of promoting righteousness that the Lord looks for. Ashes and sackcloth are nothing to the work of the soul: “Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?” (Isaiah 58:5).

Before the Lord. There is a similar passage in 1 Peter 5:6; but there it is, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand.” That expression implies a motive or consideration to enforce the duty, but James’s words imply the sincerity of it.

Note 1. Duties are truly done when they are done as in God’s sight. Fear and reverence of God make the heart more sincere (see 1:27 and 1 Peter 3:21). “I obey your precepts and your statutes, for all my ways are known to you” (Psalm 119:168); that was David’s motive. So then, in all duties of worship remember that you are before God; there is a broad and pure eye of glory fixed on you. You are dealing with God, who tells people his thoughts and who discerns your spirits better than you do yourselves. The right way to speak of this is described in Acts 10:33, “We are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” We come to pray, to hear, to humble ourselves before God. The soul will have a double advantage from such thoughts: the work will be more spiritual, and more pure and upright. It will be more spiritual in that I am not to be humbled before man but before God. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Will this satisfy God? Is it the kind of fast he has chosen (Isaiah 58:5)? It will be more pure and upright in that whatever a person does to God, he will do it for God’s sake; religious duties will be performed for reasons of religion, not because they are customary or to join in what other people are doing, but for God and to God.

Note 2. The sight of God is a special help to humiliation. The soul becomes humble by the true knowledge of God and ourselves: “my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). When Job had a glorious vision of God, he vanished into nothing in his own thoughts. The stars vanish when the sun rises, and our poor candle is so slight that it disappears when the glory of God rises in our thoughts. We see our lack in God’s fullness; the ocean makes us ashamed of our own little drop. We see our vileness in God’s majesty. What is the dust on the scales compared to a mountain, and our wickedness in comparison with God’s holiness? Elijah pulled his cloak over his face when God’s glory passed by him (1 Kings 19:13). Similarly, Isaiah cried out, “Woe to me! … I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips” when God showed him his glory (Isaiah 6:5). Whenever God appeared to the faithful, men were filled with fear because of their own weakness and corruption.

So then, this tells us how to be humble in our addresses to God: get as large and comprehensive an idea of him as you can; see his glory if you want to know your own baseness. People are feeble in duties because they have low thoughts of God. They offered the Lord a blemished animal because they did not consider he was a great King (Malachi 1:14). The elders who saw God in his glory “fell on their faces” (Revelation 11:16).

And he will lift you up. What does this promise imply? It means any kind of happiness, including deliverance out of trouble (“You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted,” Psalm 10:17) or promotion to worldly honor or dignity (“A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor,” Proverbs 29:23). Though promotion brings us to slippery places, the humble will be sustained and upheld. It is the same with advancement in grace or glory: “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4); that is, he will have the most grace and glory.

Learn from this that submission and humility are the true way to exaltation. This is often repeated in the Gospel: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11; see also Matthew 23:12). We are all by nature proud and want to be exalted; but the way to rise is to fall. God gave us a pattern in Jesus Christ: first, he “made himself nothing … he humbled himself and became obedient to death … on a cross! Therefore God exalted him … and gave him the name that is above every name” (see Philippians 2:5-11). So then, do you want deliverance? Humble yourself! Omnipotence will not be your terror but protection. Do you want grace? See more of God.

Lastly, we may be encouraged from all this to wait upon God with a holy humility and confidence in our lowly state: “When men are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then he will save the downcast” (Job 22:29). When all your affairs go to decay, you may rely on these hopes. Peter says, “that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). Wait for God, and the promise will surely be fulfilled; only be humble. Gracious humiliation is a deep sense of our misery and vileness, with a desire to be reconciled to God on any terms.

Commentary and Notes on Verse 11

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it.

Here the apostle comes to dissuade them from another sin, of which he had previously accused them, and that is detraction and speaking evil of one another.

Brothers, do not slander one another. This word implies any speaking that is prejudicial to someone else, whether it is true or false. Scripture requires our words to be appropriate to love as well as truth.

Speaking evil of one another is not appropriate for brothers and Christians. A citizen of Zion is described as one who “has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellow man” (Psalm 15:3). And there is an express law in Leviticus 19:16—“Do not go about spreading slander among your people.” There are several kinds of evil-speaking. They may all be ranked under two heads—whispering and backbiting. Whispering is a private defamation of our brother among those who think well of him; backbiting is more public, in view of everyone without discrimination. Both may be done in many ways, not only by false accusations, but also by divulging others’ secret evils, by extenuating their graces, by increasing or aggravating their faults, and by defrauding them of their necessary excuse and mitigation, by depraving their good actions by supposing they have sinister aims, by mentioning what is culpable, and by enviously suppressing their worth. So then, if all this is inappropriate for brothers, do not give way to it in yourselves or listen to it in other people.

(1) Do not give way to it yourselves. Nature is marvelously prone to offend in this way, and so you must restrain it all the more, especially when the people you seek to blemish are Christians: “Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:8). You should be afraid to speak against anyone, and much more against those whom God wants to honor. This is the devil’s own sin; he is “the accuser of our brothers” (Revelation 12:10). He does not commit adultery or break the Sabbath—these are not laws to him; but he can bear false witness and accuse the brothers. And yet, what is more common among us? John the Baptist’s head on a platter is a usual dish at our meals. When people’s hearts are warm with food and good cheer, then God’s children are brought in, like Samson among the Philistines, to amuse them. God will surely reward this in our hearts, either in this life (“Do not judge, or you too will be judged,” Matthew 7:1) or else in the life to come, apart from repentance. It is said of the wicked that “He will turn their own tongues against them” (Psalm 64:8). How insupportable is the weight of the sins of this one part of the body!

(2) Do not give way to it in others. Your ears may be as guilty as their tongues; therefore such whisperings should never be heard without some expression of dislike. Solomon commends a frown and a severe expression: “As a north wind brings rain, so a sly tongue brings angry looks” (Proverbs 25:23). Such persons are discouraged when they do not meet with acceptance. David would not have such people living in his house (Psalm 101:5). Certainly our countenancing them draws us into the guilty fellowship. Now if we must not receive these whispers against an ordinary brother, much less may we do so against a minister; there is express provision for the safety of their reputation (see 1 Timothy 5:19), partly because people are apt to hate anyone who reproves publicly, and partly because people in office are most closely watched (see Jeremiah 20:12 and Ezekiel 33:30), and partly because their reputation most concerns the honor of the Gospel.

Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him. In that word judges the apostle shows what their criticism amounted to— usurping God’s function and passing sentence on their brothers; and also what kind of evil-speaking he principally means—i.e., things that do not matter one way or the other, such as observing festivals, avoiding certain food, and so on (see Romans 14:3-4).

Censuring is judging; you arrogate to yourself an act of power that does not belong to you. When you are promoted to the chair of arrogance and censure, check yourself by this thought: “Who gave me this superiority?” The question put to Moses may well be asked of our souls, on behalf of our wronged brothers: “Who made you ruler and judge over us?” (Exodus 2:14). Paul uses the same sort of question: “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?” (Romans 14:4).

Speaks against the law and judges it. How can this be? There are several ways of making sense of this sentence. I will name the principal ones.

Firstly, every sin is a kind of affront to the law that forbids it; for by doing quite the contrary we in effect judge the law to be not fit or worthy of being obeyed. For instance, in the present case the law forbids rash judgment and speaking evil of one another; but the person who detracts from someone else approves what the law condemns, and so in effect judges that law to be not good.

Sin is judging the law. David was asked, “Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes?” (2 Samuel 12:9). In the heat of his desire, David looked on it as a slight law. Wherever you see it, you will find that in sinning there are some implicit evil thoughts by which the law of God is devalued and disapproved; we think it unworthy, hard, or unfair. And it is still Satan’s great policy to represent God as a hard taskmaster and to make us think evil of the law. That is why Paul sought to prevent such thoughts when the law checked his lusts and brought him to a sense of misery: “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good” (Romans 7:12). But was it good even though it caused death to him? Yes, he says, I still look upon it as a rule of right; it is I who am worldly, my heart that is wicked, etc. So you see how to make sin odious. Sin is despising the law, speaking evil of the law; it slights the rule that it violates.

Secondly, they used at that time to condemn one another for things that did not matter, merely on their own will and sense, without any warrant from the Word (as you can see in Romans 14). Now this was a kind of condemning of the law, as if it were not full and exact enough but needed to be completed by human rules.

To make more sins than God has made is to judge the law. You imply that it is an imperfect rule; people want to be wiser than God and bind others in chains of their own making. It is true there is an “obedience of faith,” by which the understanding must be captive to God but not to men; to the Word, not to every fancy. There is a double superstition, positive and negative: one is when people count holy something that God never made holy; the other is when they condemn what God never condemned. Both are equally faulty. We are not in the place of God; it is not in our power to make sins or duties. “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” were the regulations of false teachers (Colossians 2:21). Three things are exempted from human jurisdiction: God’s counsels, the holy Scripture, and the human heart. We should not dogmatize and subject people to ordinances of our own making, pressing our own austerities and rigorous observances as duties. Justice and wisdom are good, but to be “overrighteous” or “overwise” is quite wrong (Ecclesiastes 7:15-16). Man is a proud creature and would like to make his moroseness a law for other people and put forward his own private ideas as doctrine. It is usual to condemn everything that does not please us, as if our magisterial dictates were articles of faith. We must not come in our own name and judge as the world judges, or else we judge the Word. Lord, grant that we will consider this in this dogmatizing age when everyone declares that his own ideas are law, and people make sins rather than find them!

Thirdly, you may think of it like this: they might censure other people for things the Word allowed and approved, and in this way they condemned not private individuals so much as the law itself. If you think about it in this way, then:

To plead for sins, or to cast aspersions on grace, is to judge the Word itself. Thus you set the pride of corrupted wit against the wisdom of God in the Scriptures: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). Usually it is like this in the world; grace meets with calumny and sin with flattery. Open and gross sins are all the more gently rebuked because they happen to go under a good name: drunkenness is good fellowship, censure is discussion, error is new light, rebellion is zeal for public welfare; but grace suffers because it looks bad. Just as in the early days they used to put Christians in bearskins and then bait them, so graces are called by other names and are misrepresented and then hooted at. The law says we are to be zealous, peace-loving, etc.; but in the world’s reckoning zeal is fury, peace-loving and holy moderation is time-serving and servility, teaching humbling doctrine is legalism, etc. Many people deceive themselves with names like these, but do they not judge the law in all this? The law says that sitting drinking all day is drunkenness, but men call it good fellowship, and so on.

When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. That is, when you exercise such a rash superiority over the law, you clearly exempt yourself from obedience and subjection to it.

It is no wonder if those who judge the Word are given over to disobedience. This is done grossly by those who either deny the divine authority of the Scriptures or accuse it of being an uncertain rule or examine all its teaching by their own private reason or by the writings and teachings of men, etc. And this is done less obviously by those who come to judge the Word rather than to be judged by it. It is true that we have liberty to examine, but we should not come intending to cavil and criticize. The pulpit, which in a sense is God’s tribunal, should not be our bar. What we say must be examined by Scripture modestly and humbly; but we must not despise and slight God’s ordinance and come merely to sit as judges of people’s abilities or weaknesses. This is the best way to beget an irreverent and fearless spirit. And then when people lose their awe and reverence, their restraint is gone, and they become loose or desperately in error. God will punish their pride with some sudden fall.

Look to your ends, Christians; you will find a great deal of difference between coming to hear and coming to criticize. If you come with such a vain aim, see if you get anything by a sermon but something to carp at, and see if that does not bring you to looseness, and that to atheism. Usually this is the sad progress of proud spirits. First, preaching is criticized, not examined;, then the manners are tainted; then the Word itself is questioned; and then people lose all fear of God and man.

Commentary and Notes on Verse 12

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

James persists in the same argument. God the Lawgiver is the only Judge; and who are you to invade or usurp his role?

There is only one Lawgiver. But you will say you can name many others—Lycurgus, Zaleucus, Solon, etc.—many who also had power of life and death, and many now who make and dispense laws. How can this sentence be true? I answer: Grotius thinks the apostle means Christ by this expression, in contrast to Moses, arguing against those who want to continue the ceremonial law and make distinctions between days and foods, etc. Now, James says, we in the Christian church have only one Lawgiver, Christ and not Moses. These two must not be yoked and coupled together. But this is too contentious and makes the text mean more than the context permits. More probably James means:

(1) There is only one absolute and supreme Lawgiver, whose will is the rule of justice. Others are directed by an external rule and prudent considerations of equity and safety, and in this they are simply God’s deputies and substitutes, either in the church or in government: “You are not judging for man but for the LORD, who is with you whenever you give a verdict” (2 Chronicles 19:6).

(2) In spiritual things no one else can give laws to the conscience. In external policy human laws and edicts are to be observed. But he is speaking about the interior governing of the conscience, where God alone judges by the Word; for he is speaking against those who want to set up their own will as a rule of sin or duty in things that do not matter one way or the other.

God alone can give laws to the conscience. “The LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king, it is he who will save us” (Isaiah 33:22). Take them in a spiritual sense, and the words are exclusive: God, and no other, is our exclusive Judge, our only Lawgiver, etc. God knows the conscience, and therefore God only must judge it and give laws to it. God only can punish the conscience for sin, and therefore only he can declare an act to be a sin. It is the privilege of his Word to be “perfect, reviving the soul” (see Psalm 19:7).

Objection. An objection may be framed against this doctrine out of Romans 13:5, where it says, “Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.” So human commands seem to oblige the conscience.

Solution. I answer that they do so in a way, but not in the order and manner that God’s do.

(1) Not directly and immediately, but by the intervention of God’s command. As a Christian is bound to perform all civil duties for religious reasons, we are bound in conscience even though human laws do not bind conscience. “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men” (1 Peter 2:13). It is God’s command that binds my conscience to obey man’s. “Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God” (Ecclesiastes 8:2)—that is, not only for fear of men, but chiefly to not wrong your conscience toward God.

(2) Not universally and unlimitedly. I must obey God on the mere sight of his will. But I must examine human laws to see if they are just and in accordance with love and public safety; and in many cases active obedience must be withheld. Peter and the apostles said, “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29). There are many such cases. Conscience is bound toward God, even if we can see no reason for it, no good from it.

(3) Not absolutely. Whatever God commands, I am bound to do even in secret, even if it is contrary to my own thinking. But the principle of submission to man may be fulfilled by suffering a penalty because we forbear from obeying as required; and in some cases a person may do the opposite in private, where the thing does not matter and there is no danger of scandal or contempt for authority. So then, listen to no voice but God’s in your conscience, no doctrines in the church but Christ’s. When men brought in strange doctrines, they “lost connection with the Head” (Colossians 2:19). No offices, institutions, and worship must be allowed other than those he has appointed. Antiquity without Scripture is no sure rule to walk by. We must not look to what others did before us, but to what Christ did before them all. The authority of the church is not like this. She is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15); that is, she is to display Christ’s mind, as a post displays a king’s proclamation.

The church has some power in rites of decency and expediency and order, by virtue of the general canon in 1 Corinthians 14:40 (though that text appears to be a restraint rather than an allowance and does not so much enlarge as moderate church power). But in the most important matters the church can only declare laws, not make them; and though she can indicate what is appropriate to order and decency in things that do not ultimately matter, those directions should still be managed so that they do not detract from the nature of the thing. And though Christian liberty may be restrained, it must not be infringed.

It is antichrist’s harmful intent to usurp authority over the church of God, and this is the very spirit of antichristianism—to give laws to the conscience. Calvin says, “Men would have us more modest than to call the Pope Antichrist; but as long as he exercises a tyranny over the conscience, we shall never give up that term; indeed, we shall go further and call people members of Antichrist if they take such snares on their consciences.” Setting up another lawgiver is truly antichristian, for then there is one head set against another, and human authority against the divine. Paul describes Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:4: he “sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to b e God”—that is, making himself absolute lord of consciences, bringing them to his obedience, working them to his advantage.

The one who is able to save and destroy. This indicates God’s absolute power to do what he pleases with man either temporally or spiritually. This power is given to God everywhere: “See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver from my hand” (Deuteronomy 32:39; see also 1 Samuel 2:6 and Isaiah 43:13).

Note 1. Absolute supremacy is only appropriate to one who has absolute power. The power of magistrates is limited by the will of God, because they depend on him and can do nothing except as they are enabled and authorized by him (John 19:11).

Note 2. God has absolute and supreme power over men and can do with them whatever he wants. And therefore we must:

(1) Keep close to his laws with fear and trembling; there is no escaping from this Judge (1 Corinthians 10:22). Eternal life and eternal death are at his disposal (Matthew 10:28).

(2) Observe his laws with encouragement; live according to Christ’s laws, and he is able to protect you: “Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death” (Psalm 68:20). He can save his people, and he has many ways to bring his enemies to ruin. Your friend is the most dreadful enemy of those who oppose him; he “holds the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18).

(3) Be all the more humbled if you break his laws. Oh, what will you do with this Lawgiver who rebukes you by a glance, turning you into hell? Have you enough courage and strength to withstand God? (See Ezekiel 22:14.) What will you do with him who is able to save and destroy? Wool overcomes the blows of iron by yielding to them. There is no way left but submission and humble prayers. God may be overcome by faith but not by power: “let them make peace with m e ” (Isaiah 27:5). By humble supplications you may struggle with God and “overcome” (Genesis 32:28).

But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? That is, what a distance there is between you and God! What a sorry judge you are compared with him! The same question comes in Romans 14:4.

It is good to shame pride with the consideration of God’s glory and our own baseness. He is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you… ?

Commentary and Notes on Verse 13

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”

Having spoken about people who held the law in contempt, he now speaks against those who hold providence in contempt, promising themselves a long time in the world and a happy ending to their worldly projects, without any sense or thought of frailty or the sudden strokes of God. In this verse he gives a most accurate representation of their thoughts.

Now listen. This is a phrase that provokes them to think, like awakening conscience or citing them before the presence and tribunal of God. The same words are used in 5:1.

If we want to know how evil our actions are, it is good to review and reflect. We sin and go on in sin because we do not stop to think. There should be wise consideration beforehand to prevent sin, and faithful recollection to prevent going on in sin. God complains, “No one repents of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’” (Jeremiah 8:6). This recollection cites the soul before three bars: conscience, God’s eye, and God’s throne or tribunal. It rouses the light of conscience by comparing the action or speech with a principle of reason or the Word, as in the present case. Thus: Am I Lord of future events, that I determine them so confidently? Do things depend on my will? Are my life or actions in my own power? It draws the soul into God’s presence, thus: do I want the jealous God, who disposes of human events and successes, to take notice of such speeches? And before God’s judgment seat thus: would I defend such actions or speeches before God’s tribunal? Will these worldly deliberations endure the severe search and trial of the great day?

You who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city…” He imitates the way of speaking, or the thoughts, of the Jewish merchants. “Now we will go to Alexandria, or to Damascus, or to Antioch” (their usual trading places).

Note 1. Worldly hearts are all for worldly projects. Thoughts are the purest offspring of the soul and reveal its temper. People are what their desires are. “The noble man makes noble plans” (Isaiah 32:8). Worldly people are projecting how to spend their days and months buying and selling and making a profit. The fool in the Gospel is thinking of enlarging his barns and pulling down his houses and building bigger ones (Luke 12:17-18); this engrosses all his thoughts. One apostle describes such people in these words: “Their mind is on earthly things” (Philippians 3:19). Another says they are “experts in greed” (2 Peter 2:14); that is, they earnestly work out how to promote their gain and earthly aims. Gracious hearts are occupied with gracious projects and how they can be more thankful (Psalm 116:12)—how they can be more holy, more useful for God, more fruitful in every good work—what they must to do inherit eternal life. Think how much better this is, how much more appropriate to the purpose of our creation and the nature of our spirits. We were sent into the world not to grow great and pompous, but to enrich our souls with spiritual excellence.

Note 2. Worldly people think to enjoy their pleasures before they obtain them. People usually feed themselves with the pleasure of their hopes. Sisera’s mother’s ladies looked through the lattice, taking pleasure in the thought of a triumphant return (Judges 5:28- 30). Thoughts are the spies and messengers of the soul; hope sends them out after the thing expected, and love after the thing beloved. When we look forward to something keenly, the thoughts spend themselves in creating images and suppositions of the happiness of enjoyment. If a poor man were adopted into the succession of a crown, he would take pleasure in thinking about the future honor and pleasure of the kingly state. Godly people, who are called to be “heirs together with Christ,” are wont to preoccupy the bliss of their future state, and so in a way they only feel that to which they are looking forward.

Similarly, worldly people charm their souls with whispers of vanity and feed on the pleasant anticipation of that worldly delight to which they look forward. For example, young heirs spend on their hopes and riot away their estate before they possess it. So then, be careful—it is a sure sign of worldliness when the world is in your thoughts so often that you are always deflowering worldly pleasures by anticipating worldly desires and sin, and you have nothing to live on or to entertain your spirit with but these ideas of gain and pomp and the reversion of some external pleasure.

Note 3. Again, you may see their confidence in future events: “We will go … spend a year there …” Note that worldly affections are usually accompanied by worldly confidence and are certainly much encouraged by it. They are doubly confident: confident of the success of their efforts (“We will … make money”), and confident of their lives continuing (“We will … spend a year there”). Desire cannot be nourished without assuming success. When people multiply their efforts, they little think of God or of the changes of providence; it is enough to undo their desire if they think it could be disappointed. Besides, when the means exist, there is not much we ascribe to the highest cause. First the world steals away our affections, and then it intercepts our trust; there is not only adultery in this (4:4) but idolatry (Ephesians 5:5).

The world is not only our darling but our god; and that is the reason why worldly people are always represented as people who confidently assume things will happen. For example, in Luke 12:19, “I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’” Or Job 29:18—“I will die in my own house, my days as numerous as the grains of sand.” They think now they have enough to secure them against all chances. So then, be careful about your confidence and trust; when you are getting an estate, is your expectation founded on faith or desire? When you have gotten an estate, on what is your assurance of contentment based—the promises or your external welfare?

Note 4. Worldly people are confident not only of the present but of their future welfare, which shows that the heart is stupidly complacent and utterly unaware of the changes of providence. “Tomorrow will be like today, or even far better” (Isaiah 56:12). “In their thoughts their houses will remain forever” (Psalm 49:11 [see NIV footnote]). People love to enjoy their worldly comforts without interruption, thoughts of death, or change. Every day is like a new life and brings sufficient care with it; we need not look at such a long time. But worldly people, in their cares, provide not only for the next day but for the next year, being confident they have a next year; they do not want even to think about things changing.

“Spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” He gives the chief example of carrying on business because too often these worldly thoughts and hopes and confidence are found in businessmen. But he means it of all sorts of people who undertake anything confident of their own wisdom and hard work, without the permission and blessing of providence.

Note 5. Businessmen are very liable to thinking and speaking that savors of worldly presumption and confidence. At the stock exchange and markets they are always talking about commodities and profit and trading, without any thought of God. “The merchant uses dishonest scales; he loves to defraud” (Hosea 12:7). Your ordinary business takes you from place to place; take God along with you wherever you go. Of all people you should be most astute; in your business be mindful of God and of yourselves—of God’s providence and your own frailty—so that you are neither too much in the world, nor too confident in your own hard work.

Note 6. From the whole verse, note that it is a vain thing to promise ourselves great things without the permission of providence. To say, “We will go” or “we will do such and such” is vain, for we are not lords of our lives, nor lords of our own actions: “My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:15). “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1). Today we are, and tomorrow we are gone; we cannot tell what may be in the womb of the next morning. It is the same with our actions: “what [the righteous and the wise] do” is “in God’s hands” (Ecclesiastes 9:1). To get things done, and to do them successfully, we need counsel and a blessing. The prophet speaks of this: “I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).

But when do people promise themselves great things without the leave of providence? In many ways. The main ones are these:

(1) When they undertake things without prayer. You may speak of success only when you have asked God’s permission: “Submit to God and … what you decide on will be done” (Job 22:21, 28).

(2) When they are too confident of future contingencies and events without any submission to the will of God and boast merely on human likelihood (see Exodus 15:11 and Judges 5:28-30). “‘May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful.’ The king of Israel answered, ‘Tell him: “One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off”’” (1 Kings 20:10-11). Ben-Hadad wanted to strip Samaria so bare that he would not leave any dust there, but God disappointed him.

(3) When people’s efforts are set up in the place of God, we think everything depends on mundane causes, and so we neglect God.

(4) When people promise themselves a time to repent later on. Many think to themselves, “I will pursue pleasure and profit, and then spend my old age devoutly and quietly; first build and trade and bustle in the world, and adjourn God to the aches and dull phlegm of old age.” Foolish man decrees all future events as if they were all in his own control. So then, remember God all the time; this is a good idea for princes and for people who advise about public affairs. How often they prove unhappy because they do not seek God! The natural exercise of your faculties and the help of God’s grace all depend upon God’s good pleasure.

Commentary on Verse 14

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Having revealed their worldly presumption, he now disproves it by two arguments: first, the events of the next day; and second, the uncertainty of their own lives. Both give a notable check to such foolish confidence.

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. This is like saying, “You talk of a long time, and you do not even know what will happen the next day. Every day brings new providences and events with it.” But you will say, “Is it unlawful to provide for the next day or for a time to come?” I answer: No. Solomon tells us to learn from the ant: “consider its ways and be wise! … it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest” (Proverbs 6:6- 8; see also Proverbs 30:25). It is simply wise foresight to prepare ourselves for foreseeable inconveniences. Joseph is commended for laying up food in the cities against the years of famine (Genesis 41:35). And it was the apostles’ practice to provide stores for the brothers at Jerusalem ready for the famine foretold by Agabus (Acts 11:29). Just remember that this must be done with caution; such provision must not arise from distrust or from thought prejudicial to the care of providence (Matthew 6:30). It must not hinder us from the great care of our lives: provision for heaven (Matthew 6:33). It must be with submission to God.

What is your life? You are a mist. Many passages in Scripture show how brief our life is. It is compared to “the flowers of the field” (Isaiah 40:6-7), the “wind” (Job 7:7, KJV), a leaf before the wind (Job 13:25), and a “shadow” (Job 14:2). There is a heap of similes in Job 9:25-26—“My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy. They skim past like boats of papyrus, like eagles swooping down on their prey.” The Word uses all these similes so that we might be reminded of our own mortality by every fleeing and decaying object, and also to check those proud human desires for a place in eternity and lasting happiness in this life. In that passage of Job there is a monument of human frailty displayed in all the elements: on land, a runner; on water, papyrus boats; in the air, an eagle. The heathen poets are much given to deciphering the frail state of humanity. Aeschylus says that man’s life is “the shadow of smoke”; Pindar calls it “the dream of a shadow.” The simile used here is that of a mist. Showing how it resembles other things is not unimportant; it is done simply to show how quickly life passes, and because human life is just a little warm air breathed in and out by the nostrils—a narrow passage that is soon stopped up (Isaiah 2:22).

Notes on Verse 14

Note 1. We have no assurance of our lives and comforts or the events of the next day. This is a common argument; the heathen used it a lot. So then, let every day’s care be enough for itself; live every day as the last day. Petrarch tells of someone who, when invited to dinner the next day, answered, “I have not had a tomorrow for many years.” And Ludovicus Capellus tells us of one Rabbi Eleazer who advised people to repent only the day before their death—that is, right now (for it may be the last day before we die). It is a sad thing to promise ourselves many years and to have our souls taken away that night. Wicked people want to live longer in the body; their worldly projects are never at an end, but suddenly God comes and snatches away their souls.

Note 2. Human life is very short; it is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Though they toss to and fro, the whole of men’s lives is just a fleeting shadow, a little spot of time between two eternities. Augustine is not sure whether to call it a dying life or a living death (Confessions, Book 1).

(1) This checks people who pass their time rather than make the best use of it; they are prodigal of their precious time, as if they had too much of it. Our time is short, and we make it shorter. It is time for all of us to say, “you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do” (1 Peter 4:3); or, as Romans 13:11 puts it, “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber” (this was the verse that converted Augustine).

(2) If life is short, then moderate your worldly care and projects; do not encumber yourselves with too much provision for a short voyage. A ship goes more swiftly if it is less burdened; people take in too much lading for a mere passage.

(3) Devote yourselves more to spiritual projects, so that you may lay up a foundation for a longer life than you have to live here; do a lot of work in a little time. Do we want to lose any part of what is so short? Do we want our short life to make way for a long misery? The apostle says, “I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body” (2 Peter 1:13). We are all shortly to take off the outer garment of the body; let us do all the good that we can. Christ lived only thirty-two years or thereabouts; therefore he “went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil” (Acts 10:38). Ministers pack a lot into their sermons when they only have a short time, and you should do the same; you have only a short time, so be all the more diligent.

Commentary on Verse 15

Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

Having shown how wrong their confidence is, James proceeds to put things right by urging them to remember with reverence God’s providence and their own frailty.

Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will.” Here a doubt arises. Must we always of necessity use this form of speech, this explicit caveat?

(1) It is good to get in the habit of using holy forms of speech; this is a great help. The heart is best when such conditions are made explicit—“If the Lord please,” “If the Lord wants,” etc. Pure lips are appropriate for a Christian, who should be distinguished by holy forms of words just as other people are distinguished by their oaths and rotten speech. Besides, this is useful for stirring up reverence in ourselves and for others’ instruction. Such forms are confessions of divine providence and the uncertainty of human life.

(2) The children of God use these frequently: “I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing” (1 Corinthians 4:19); “I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits” (1 Corinthians 16:7); “I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you” (Romans 1:10); “I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon” (Philippians 2:19). The children of God know that all their goings are ordered by the Lord; therefore they often use these reservations of his will and power. See also Genesis 28:20 and Hebrews 6:3.

(3) Even the pagans, by the light of nature, would use these forms with some religion and would seldom speak of any purpose of theirs without this holy parenthesis. Plato in the Timaeo brings in Alcibiades’ asking Socrates how he should speak, and he answers: “Before every work you must say, ‘If God will.’”

(4) When we use these forms, the heart must go along with the tongue; common forms of words in which God’s name is used are mere profanities if the heart is not reverent. Augustine cautions, “Do not learn to have in your hearts what everyone has in his tongue.” The words are common, but the meaning is useful.

(5) It is not always necessary to be explicit, but there must always be submission to God’s will whether implicit or explicit. The holy men of God have often expressed the intention to do things and yet not formally expressed such conditions—for example, in Romans 15:24, “I plan to do so when I go to Spain.”

Notes on Verse 15

Note 1. All our undertakings must be referred to the will of God —not only religious ones, but secular actions. Our journeys must not be undertaken without asking his leave: “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today” (Genesis 24:12; see also Genesis 28:20). If this is neglected, it is no wonder you meet with so many setbacks; they do not come from your hard luck but your profane neglect. But what does is it mean to submit all our actions to the will of God?

(1) It is measuring all our actions by his revealed will; that is the rule of duty. We can look for no blessing except on actions that are consistent with it. We must submit to his secret will and conform to his revealed will. Worldly desire has its own will (see Ephesians 2:2), but we are to serve the will of God until we fall asleep (Acts 13:36).

(2) We must undertake any action with greater peace of mind when we see God in it—as in Acts 16:10, where Paul gathered that God had called him to Macedonia. When we see God guiding and leading us by means of his providence or by inward instinct, we may walk in the way he has opened to us with all the more encouragement.

(3) In our desires and requests we must seek God’s advice: “not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). In temporal things we must submit to God’s will—for his mercy, for the means, and for time to achieve things. Creatures, who cannot ascribe anything to themselves, must not prescribe to God and give laws to providence, but must be content to want or have as the Lord pleases. If anything does not work out well, the Lord does not wish it; that is enough to silence all discontent.

(4) We must constantly ask his leave in prayer.

(5) We must still reserve the power of God’s providence, saying, “If the Lord will,” “If the Lord permit.” God does not want us to be too confident in a worldly way; it is good to get the soul used to things changing. There are two things we should often consider in this connection, both of them in this text:

a. The sovereignty and dominion of providence. However wise and skillful you are in your enterprise, the Lord can nip it in the bud or stop it when it is actually happening. I have noticed that God is usually very sensitive about his honor in this point and usually frustrates proud people who boast of what they will do and have unlimited plans without any thought of the constraint they may receive in providence. It is a flower of the imperial crown of heaven, and the bridle that God puts on the rational creature, to arrange what will happen to human affairs. Therefore, God wants to be acknowledged in this: “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). We make plans, but their execution depends wholly on God’s will and providence. If we demand things, there is a contest between us and heaven about will and power; therefore, in such cases the answer of providence is more clearly and decisive to our loss, so that God may be acknowledged as Lord of the things that happen and the first mover in all causes and effects, without whom they have no efficacy.

b. Consider the frailty and uncertainty of your own lives; our being is as uncertain as the events of providence. In the passage, If it is the Lord’s will implies that there must be an awareness of our own frailty as well as of the sovereignty of providence, so that the heart may submit to God the better. Psalm 146:4 says, “When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.” Certainly we will never be wise until we are able to number our days and sufficiently understand the uncertainty of our life in the world (Psalm 90:12).

Note 2. “We will live and do this or that.” Notice that it is not enough if God allows us to live; he must also by the same will allow us to act. We may live and yet not be able to do anything to carry out our plans; for if God stops agreeing, the creatures cannot act, at least not with any success. This quite contradicts the teaching of the heathen philosophers. Seneca said, “It is by the gift of the gods that we live; that we live well is our own doing.” And Cicero said: “It is the judgment of all mortals that prosperity is to be sought from God, but wisdom to be gotten by ourselves.” But in the Scriptures we are taught otherwise—to seek from God not only success but also guidance; he gives us the ability to do things and a blessing when the action is finished. His will is both efficacious and permissive, and without both aspects we can do nothing; he must give us life and all things necessary to action. We must not only look up to him as the author of the success but as the director of the action. It is by his direction and blessing that everything happens. Even our will and wisdom are subject to divine control, and he can turn them as he pleases (Proverbs 21:1). Therefore, we must not only commit our ways to his providence but commend our hearts to the instruction of his Spirit. In short, all things are done by his will and must be ascribed to his praise.

Commentary on Verse 16

As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.

Here the apostle comes to charge their consciences more particularly with arrogantly presuming on outward success, especially as we aggravate it by acknowledging it quite openly despite the threatenings of the Word.

As it is, you boast and brag. It is not easy to define what boasts the apostle means. The people he was writing to are charged in chapter 2 with glorying in their riches and afterwards with glorying in a mere profession of godliness; after that he charges them with glorying in their presumed wisdom, manifested in their crowing over other people’s failings (chapter 3); now, last of all, he charges them with glorying in their worldly hopes or foolish predictions of their own successful efforts, as if their lives and actions were in their own power and exempted them from the rule of providence.

All such boasting is evil. That is, you think this is brave confidence, but actually it is worldly complacency. He says that it is evil because they defended it as good; it is evil because it comes from an evil cause—pride and wretched complacency; it is evil in its own nature, being a defiance of the world; it is evil in its effects, hindering you from good and setting you on ambitious projects when you should be attending to humbling duties and grieving, mourning, and wailing (as he said in verse 9). I see this as the apostle’s thinking in this verse, which commentators usually pass over lightly without the necessary concern for the meaning of the context.

Notes on Verse 16

Note 1. Such is the degeneration of human nature that it not only practices sins but glories in them. Fallen man is inverted man, man turned upside-down. His love is where his hatred should be, and his hatred is where his love should be; his glory is where his shame should be, and his shame is where his glory should be. Many people count strictness a disgrace, and sin admirable. The apostle says, “their glory is in their shame” (Philippians 3:19). This sometimes happens through ignorance; people mistake evil for good, and so call revenge valor or resolution, and prosperity in an evil way the blessing of providence on their zealous efforts, and presumptuous carelessness a well-founded confidence. God charged his people with making great feasts of rejoicing when they had more cause to mourn: “Can consecrated meat avert your punishment? When you engage in your wickedness, then you rejoice” (Jeremiah 11:15). Usually by our foolish mistakes we bless and praise God like this when we have more reason to humble and afflict our souls. Sometimes this is because our conscience is numbed; when people have worn out all honest restraints, then they rejoice in evil and delight in their perversities (Proverbs 2:14). The drunkards think it is clever to drink so much wine and boast of how many cups they can drink; the confirmed adulterer boasts of so many acts of uncleanness; the swearer thinks it the beauty of his speech that he mixes it with oaths; and proud people think conceited clothing is their best ornament. O good God, how man has fallen! First we practice sin, then defend it, then boast of it. Sin is first our burden, then our custom, then our delight, then our excellence.

Note 2. We have no cause to rejoice or glory in our worldly confidence. It seems to come from a noble bravery, but actually it comes from lowness and baseness of spirit. It is just running away from evil, not mastering it. People dare not lay it to heart because they do not know how to fortify themselves against it. Faith (true confidence) always supposes and prepares for the worst but hopes for the best; it meets the adversary in the open and vanquishes it. The fool in the Gospel dared not think about his death that night (Luke 12:16-20). This is the baseness of worldly confidence, to put off trouble when it cannot put it away; and however it scorns the threat, it fears the judgment. Such people are so ill equipped to bear it that they dare not think about it.

Commentary on Verse 17

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

In this verse the apostle deals with the prejudice by which people might evade his warning. People might reply, “We have no need to be taught such a plain lesson; we know that life is short and that God’s providence rules everything.” The apostle says, do you know all this? Then you are all the more obliged to subject your desires to his will and pleasure. James proves this by this general rule. There is nothing difficult in the words except for sins [KJV to him it is sin] —that is, “sin indeed.” There is more revealed here of the nature of sin and the effects of sin, which one will find in his own conscience and in hell’s torments and in God’s sentences. You have similar sayings elsewhere; see John 9:41 and 15:22.

But you will say then, “Are people who sin out of ignorance wholly free from sin?” I answer no, for:

(1) Sins of ignorance are sins, though more forgivable (1 Timothy 1:13) and not punished so hard (Luke 12:47). God’s law was once impressed on our natures, and we are bound to do all that was written on Adam’s heart.

(2) Affected ignorance renders us highly culpable (2 Peter 3:5) —that is, when people shut the windows and resist the light, for then they could know but choose not to.

Notes on Verse 17

Note 1. It is not enough to know good; we must do it also. Often we find that people who know a lot are apt to be enslaved by their appetites, the lower and more brutish faculties; though they are orthodox, they are unmortified. They are keen against errors but indulgent to vices. Remember that you are to add to knowledge “self-control” (2 Peter 1:6); otherwise, what good will it do you? Others are ignorant of God in their minds and deny him in their lives. Others question the truth of religion and deny the power of it. We are apt to say, “I know this well enough already.” Ah, but do I practice it? Is this not a new hint from God to convince me of my negligence? Surely God sees that I do not live up to this new knowledge, and therefore the same truth, this common truth, is brought back to my mind.

Note 2. Sins of knowledge are the most dangerous. They are more sins than other things are, because they have more malice and contempt in them. There is more contempt both of the law of God and of God’s kindness; see Matthew 11:20. This is a sign that you love sin as sin, for when you know what it is you embark on it. Besides, sins against knowledge have more of the marks of God’s vengeance on them. In the reprobate they are punished with great despair and horror of conscience (see Proverbs 5:11-14) or with hardness of heart. Iron that is frequently heated and cooled grows harder. It is fair of God to punish contempt for light with obduracy or with madness against the truth. The most moral heathens were the harshest persecutors, such as Severus, Antoninus, etc. This is clearly seen in apostates who carried on with most willful malice against the truths they once professed. People who were once the keenest believers turn into violent persecutors. They want to quench the light shining in their own hearts.

Alexander was once a disciple but “shipwrecked” his faith (1 Timothy 1:19-20); the same man is intended in Acts 19:33, for he lived at Ephesus, as we learn from both the letters to Timothy. The Jews set him up as the best accuser of Paul. He knew his doctrine and had to appear to turn all the blame for the uproar on the Christians. Once more we read of Alexander as a desperate enemy of the truth (2 Timothy 4:14). Certainly the rage and malice of such men is all the greater because of the abundance of the light they have renounced. No vinegar is so tart as that which is made from the sweetest wine. “Those who forsake the law praise the wicked” (Proverbs 28:4); that is, they not only commit sin but approve it in other people. Still, they are the most violent and forward men.

Sometimes God gives them up to sottishness; see Romans 1:21-32. It is very remarkable, and very much underlines the apostle’s observation, that the most refined and civil heathens (who are presumed to have the most light) were given up to the most beastly errors about the nature of God. The Romans and Greeks worshiped fevers and human passions—every paltry thing instead of God; whereas the Scythians and more barbarous nations worshiped the thunder and the sun, things terrible in themselves, which plainly shows the justice of God’s judgment in darkening their foolish heart because they were not thankful for the improvement of the light they had received. But God’s greatest displeasure against sins of knowledge is declared hereafter in the torments of hell, where the proportions of everlasting horrors rise higher and higher, according to the various aggravations of sin (Luke 12:48). Thus God punishes sins of knowledge in the reprobate; but his own children also perceive the difference between these and other sins. Nothing breaks the bones and scourges the soul with such a sad remorse as sins against light. This broke David’s heart: “you taught me wisdom in the inmost place” (Psalm 51:6, NIV footnote). He had committed adultery against the checks of conscience and the watchful light of the inmost place. I could say much more about this argument, if I did not want just to give hints.

Note 3. Sins of omission are aggravated by knowledge, as are sins of commission. The apostle says, Anyone then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it. Usually in sins of commission natural light is working more, because there is an actual disturbance by which the free contemplation of the mind is hindered, and because foul acts bring more shame and horror than mere neglect. Yet to omit a duty against knowledge may be as bad as to tell a lie against knowledge. The rule is positive, enforcing duty as well as forbidding sin; and because we know it, we are obligated by it. Oh, that we might be more conscientious in this matter and be as sensitive about omitting prayer in defiance of the light and neglecting to meditate and examine our conscience in defiance of the light as we are of committing adultery in defiance of the light!