{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"JAS","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"James","commonName":"James","introduction":"THIS is called by EUSEBIUS ([Ecclesiastical History, 2.23], about the year 330 A.D.) the first of the Catholic Epistles, that is, the Epistles intended for general circulation, as distinguished from Paul's Epistles, which were addressed to particular churches or individuals. In the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament extant, they stand before the Epistles of Paul. Of them, two only are mentioned by EUSEBIUS as universally acknowledged (Homologoumena), namely, the First Epistle of Peter, and the First Epistle of John. All, however, are found in every existing manuscript of the whole New Testament.\n\nIt is not to be wondered at that Epistles not addressed to particular churches (and particularly one like that of James, addressed to the Israelite believers scattered abroad) should be for a time less known. The first mention of James' Epistle by name occurs early in the third century, in ORIGEN [Commentary on John 1:19, 4.306], who was born about 185, and died A.D. 254. CLEMENT OF ROME ([First Epistle to the Corinthians, 10]; compare Jam 2:21, Jam 2:23; [First Epistle to the Corinthians, 11]; compare Jam 2:25; Heb 11:31) quotes it. So also HERMAS [Shepherd] quotes Jam 4:7. IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 4.16.2] is thought to refer to Jam 2:23. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA commented on it, according to CASSIODORUS. EPHREM THE SYRIAN [Against the Greeks, 3.51] quotes Jam 5:1. An especially strong proof of its authenticity is afforded by its forming part of the old Syriac version, which contains no other of the disputed books (Antilegomena, [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 3.25]), except the Epistle to the Hebrews. None of the Latin fathers before the fourth century quote it; but soon after the Council of Nicea it was admitted as canonical both by the East and West churches, and specified as such in the Councils of Hippo and Carthage (397 A.D.). This is just what we might expect; a writing known only partially at first, when subsequently it obtained a wider circulation, and the proofs were better known of its having been recognized in apostolic churches, having in them men endowed with the discernment of spirits, which qualified them for discriminating between inspired and uninspired writings, was universally accepted. Though doubted for a time, at last the disputed books (James, Second Peter, Second and Third John, Jude, and Revelation) were universally and undoubtingly accepted, so that no argument for the Old Testament Apocrypha can be drawn from their case: as to it the Jewish Church had no doubt; it was known not to be inspired.\n\nLUTHER'S objection to it (\"an Epistle of straw, and destitute of an evangelic character\") was due to his mistaken idea that it (Jam 2:14-26) opposes the doctrine of justification by faith, and not by works, taught by Paul. But the two apostles, while looking at justification from distinct standpoints, perfectly harmonize and mutually complement the definitions of one another. Faith precedes love and the works of love; but without them it is dead. Paul regards faith in the justification of the sinner before God; James, in the justification of the believer evidently before men. The error which James meets was the Jewish notion that their possession and knowledge of the law of God would justify them, even though they disobeyed it (compare Jam 1:22 with Rom 2:17-25). Jam 1:3; Jam 4:1, Jam 4:12 seem plainly to allude to Rom 5:3; Rom 6:13; Rom 7:23; Rom 14:4. Also the tenor of Jam 2:14-26 on \"justification,\" seems to allude to Paul's teaching, so as to correct false Jewish notions of a different kind from those which he combatted, though not unnoticed by him also (Rom 2:17, &c.).\n\nPaul (Gal 2:9) arranges the names \"James, Cephas, John,\" in the order in which their Epistles stand. James who wrote this Epistle (according to most ancient writers) is called (Gal 1:19), \"the Lord's brother.\" He was son of Alpheus or Cleopas (Luk 24:13-18) and Mary, sister of the Virgin Mary. Compare Mar 15:40 with Joh 19:25, which seems to identify the mother of James the Less with the wife of Cleopas, not with the Virgin Mary, Cleopas' wife's sister. Cleopas is the Hebrew, Alpheus the Greek mode of writing the same name. Many, however, as HEGESIPPUS [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 23.1], distinguish the Lord's brother from the son of Alpheus. But the Gospel according to the Hebrews, quoted by JEROME, represents James, the Lord's brother, as present at the institution of the Eucharist, and therefore identical with the apostle James. So the Apocryphal Gospel of James. In Acts, James who is put foremost in Jerusalem after the death of James, the son of Zebedee, is not distinguished from James, the son of Alpheus. He is not mentioned as one of the Lord's brethren in Act 1:14; but as one of the \"apostles\" (Gal 1:19). He is called \"the Less\" (literally, \"the little,\" Mar 15:40), to distinguish him from James, the son of Zebedee. ALFORD considers James, the brother of the Lord, the author of the Epistle, to have been the eldest of the sons of Joseph and Mary, after Jesus (compare Mat 13:55), and that James the son of Alpheus is distinguished from him by the latter being called \"the Less,\" (that is, junior). His arguments against the Lord's brother, the bishop of Jerusalem, being the apostle, are: (1) The Lord's brethren did not believe on Jesus at a time when the apostles had been already called (Joh 7:3, Joh 7:5), therefore none of the Lord's brethren could be among the apostles (but it does not follow from Joh 7:3 that no one of them believed). (2) The apostles' commission was to preach the Gospel everywhere, not to be bishops in a particular locality (but it is unlikely that one not an apostle should be bishop of Jerusalem, to whom even apostles yield deference, Act 15:13, Act 15:19; Gal 1:19; Gal 2:9, Gal 2:12. The Saviour's last command to the apostles collectively to preach the Gospel everywhere, is not inconsistent with each having a particular sphere of labor in which he should be a missionary bishop, as Peter is said to have been at Antioch).\n\nHe was surnamed \"the Just.\" It needed peculiar wisdom so to preach the Gospel as not to disparage the law. As bishop of Jerusalem writing to the twelve tribes, he sets forth the Gospel in its aspect of relation to the law, which the Jews so reverenced. As Paul's Epistles are a commentary on the doctrines flowing from the death and resurrection of Christ, so James's Epistle has a close connection with His teaching during His life on earth, especially His Sermon on the Mount. In both, the law is represented as fulfilled in love: the very language is palpably similar (compare Jam 1:2 with Mat 5:12; Jam 1:4 with Mat 5:48; Jam 1:5; Jam 5:15 with Mat 7:7-11; Jam 2:13 with Mat 5:7; Mat 6:14-15; Jam 2:10 with Mat 5:19; Jam 4:4 with Mat 6:24; Jam 4:11 with Mat 7:1-2; Jam 5:2 with Mat 6:19). The whole spirit of this Epistle breathes the same Gospel-righteousness which the Sermon on the Mount inculcates as the highest realization of the law. James's own character as \"the Just,\" or legally righteous, disposed him to this coincidence (compare Jam 1:20; Jam 2:10; Jam 3:18 with Mat 5:20). It also fitted him for presiding over a Church still zealous for the law (Act 21:18-24; Gal 2:12). If any could win the Jews to the Gospel, he was most likely who presented a pattern of Old Testament righteousness, combined with evangelical faith (compare also Jam 2:8 with Mat 5:44, Mat 5:48). Practice, not profession, is the test of obedience (compare Jam 2:17; Jam 4:17 with Mat. 7:2-23). Sins of the tongue, however lightly regarded by the world, are an offense against the law of love (compare Jam 1:26; Jam. 3:2-18 with Mat 5:22; also any swearing, Jam 5:12; compare Mat 5:33-37).\n\nThe absence of the apostolic benediction in this Epistle is probably due to its being addressed, not merely to the believing, but also indirectly to unbelieving, Israelites. To the former he commends humility, patience, and prayer; to the latter he addresses awful warnings (Jam 5:7-11; Jam 4:9; Jam 5:1-6).\n\nJames was martyred at the Passover. This Epistle was probably written just before it. The destruction of Jerusalem foretold in it (Jam 5:1, &c.), ensued a year after his martyrdom, A.D. 69. HEGESIPPUS (quoted in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 2.23]) narrates that he was set on a pinnacle of the temple by the scribes and Pharisees, who begged him to restrain the people who were in large numbers embracing Christianity. \"Tell us,\" said they in the presence of the people gathered at the feast, \"which is the door of Jesus?\" James replied with a loud voice, \"Why ask ye me concerning Jesus the Son of man? He sitteth at the right hand of power, and will come again on the clouds of heaven.\" Many thereupon cried, Hosanna to the Son of David. But James was cast down headlong by the Pharisees; and praying, \"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,\" he was stoned and beaten to death with a fuller's club. The Jews, we know from Acts, were exasperated at Paul's rescue from their hands, and therefore determined to wreak their vengeance on James. The publication of his Epistle to the dispersed Israelites, to whom it was probably carried by those who came up to the periodical feasts, made him obnoxious to them, especially to the higher classes, because it foretold the woes soon about to fall on them and their country. Their taunting question, \"Which is the door of Jesus?\" (that is, by what door will He come when He returns?), alludes to his prophecy, \"the coming of the Lord draweth nigh . . . behold the Judge standeth before the door\" (Jam 5:8-9). Heb 13:7 probably refers to the martyrdom of James, who had been so long bishop over the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem, \"Remember them which have (rather, 'had') the rule (spiritually) over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.\"\n\nHis inspiration as an apostle is expressly referred to in Act 15:19, Act 15:28, \"My sentence is,\" &c.: \"It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us,\" &c. His episcopal authority is implied in the deference paid to him by Peter and Paul (Act 12:17; Act 21:18; Gal 1:19; Gal 2:9). The Lord had appeared specially to him after the resurrection (Co1 15:7). Peter in his First Epistle (universally from the first received as canonical) tacitly confirms the inspiration of James's Epistle, by incorporating with his own inspired writings no less than ten passages from James. The \"apostle of the circumcision,\" Peter, and the first bishop of Jerusalem, would naturally have much in common. Compare Jam 1:1 with Pe1 1:1; Jam 1:2 with Pe1 1:6; Pe1 4:12-13; Jam 1:11 with Pe1 1:24; Jam 1:18 with Pe1 1:3; Jam 2:7 with Pe1 4:14; Jam 3:13 with Pe1 2:12; Jam 4:1 with Pe1 2:11; Jam 4:6 with Pe1 5:5-6; Jam 4:7 with Pe1 5:6, Pe1 5:9; Jam 4:10 with Pe1 5:6; Jam 5:20 with Pe1 4:6. Its being written in the purest Greek shows it was intended not only for the Jews at Jerusalem, but also for the Hellenistic, that is, Greek-speaking, Jews.\n\nThe style is close, curt, and sententious, gnome following after gnome. A Hebraic character pervades the Epistle, as appears in the occasional poetic parallelisms (Jam 3:1-12). Compare \"assembly\": Greek, \"synagogue,\" Jam 2:2, Margin. The images are analogical arguments, combining at once logic and poetry. Eloquence and persuasiveness are prominent characteristics.\n\nThe similarity to Matthew, the most Hebrew of the Gospels, is just what we might expect from the bishop of Jerusalem writing to Israelites. In it the higher spirit of Christianity is seen putting the Jewish law in its proper place. The law is enforced in its everlasting spirit, not in the letter for which the Jews were so zealous. The doctrines of grace, the distinguishing features of Paul's teaching to the Hellenists and Gentiles, are less prominent as being already taught by that apostle. James complements Paul's teaching, and shows to the Jewish Christians who still kept the legal ordinances down to the fall of Jerusalem, the spiritual principle of the law, namely, love manifested in obedience. To sketch \"the perfect man\" continuing in the Gospel law of liberty, is his theme. \n\n\n\nNext: James Chapter 1\n\n","order":59,"numberOfChapters":5,"sha256":"34587e3961a86585e0747a5186e4093c3ade392354f6f9dc6277cf23df2963cb","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JAS/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JAS","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":5,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JAS/5.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JAS","chapter":5},"totalNumberOfVerses":103},"chapter":{"number":3,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["all--The Greek implies \"all without exception\": even the apostles. \n\noffend not--literally \"stumbleth not\": is void of offence or \"slip\" in word: in which respect one is especially tried who sets up to be a \"teacher.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Behold--The best authorities read, \"but if,\" that is, Now whensoever (in the case) of horses (such is the emphatic position of \"horses\" in the Greek) we put the bits (so literally, \"the customary bits\") into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about also their whole body. This is to illustrate how man turns about his whole body with the little tongue. \"The same applies to the pen, which is the substitute for the tongue among the absent\" [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Not only animals, but even ships. \n\nthe governor listeth--literally, \"the impulse of the steersman pleaseth.\" The feeling which moves the tongue corresponds with this.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["boasteth great things--There is great moment in what the careless think \"little\" things [BENGEL]. Compare \"a world,\" \"the course of nature,\" \"hell,\" Jam 3:6, which illustrate how the little tongue's great words produce great mischief. \n\nhow great a matter a little fire kindleth--The best manuscripts read, \"how little a fire kindleth how great a,\" &c. ALFORD, for \"matter,\" translates, \"forest.\" But GROTIUS translates as English Version, \"material for burning\": a pile of fuel.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Translate, \"The tongue, that world of iniquity, is a fire.\" As man's little world is an image of the greater world, the universe, so the tongue is an image of the former [BENGEL]. \n\nso--omitted in the oldest authorities. \n\nis--literally, \"is constituted.\" \"The tongue is (constituted), among the members, the one which defileth,\" &c. (namely, as fire defiles with its smoke). \n\ncourse of nature--\"the orb (cycle) of creation.\" \n\nsetteth on fire . . . is set on fire--habitually and continually. While a man inflames others, he passes out of his own power, being consumed in the flame himself. \n\nof hell--that is, of the devil. Greek, \"Gehenna\"; found here only and in Mat 5:22. James has much in common with the Sermon on the Mount (Pro 16:27).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["every kind--rather, \"every nature\" (that is, natural disposition and characteristic power). \n\nof beasts--that is, quadrupeds of every disposition; as distinguished from the three other classes of creation, \"birds, creeping things (the Greek includes not merely 'serpents,' as English Version), and things in the sea.\" \n\nis tamed, and hath been--is continually being tamed, and hath been so long ago. \n\nof mankind--rather, \"by the nature of man\": man's characteristic power taming that of the inferior animals. The dative in the Greek may imply, \"Hath suffered itself to be brought into tame subjection TO the nature of men.\" So it shall be in the millennial world; even now man, by gentle firmness, may tame the inferior animal, and even elevate its nature.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["no man--literally, \"no one of men\": neither can a man control his neighbor's, nor even his own tongue. Hence the truth of Jam 3:2 appears. \n\nunruly evil--The Greek, implies that it is at once restless and incapable of restraint. Nay, though nature has hedged it in with a double barrier of the lips and teeth, it bursts from its barriers to assail and ruin men [ESTIUS]. \n\ndeadly--literally, \"death-bearing.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["God--The oldest authorities read, \"Lord.\" \"Him who is Lord and Father.\" The uncommonness of the application of \"Lord\" to the Father, doubtless caused the change in modern texts to \"God\" (Jam 1:27). But as Messiah is called \"Father,\" Isa 9:6, so God the Father is called by the Son's title, \"Lord\": showing the unity of the Godhead. \"Father\" implies His paternal love; \"Lord,\" His dominion. \n\nmen, which--not \"men who\"; for what is meant is not particular men, but men genetically [ALFORD]. \n\nare made after . . . similitude of God--Though in a great measure man has lost the likeness of God in which he was originally made, yet enough of it still remains to show what once it was, and what in regenerated and restored man it shall be. We ought to reverence this remnant and earnest of what man shall be in ourselves and in others. \"Absalom has fallen from his father's favor, but the people still recognize him to be the king's son\" [BENGEL]. Man resembles in humanity the Son of man, \"the express image of His person\" (Heb 1:3), compare Gen 1:26; Jo1 4:20. In the passage, Gen 1:26, \"image\" and \"likeness\" are distinct: \"image,\" according to the Alexandrians, was something in which men were created, being common to all, and continuing to man after the fall, while the \"likeness\" was something toward which man was created, to strive after and attain it: the former marks man's physical and intellectual, the latter his moral pre-eminence.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["The tongue, says ÆSOP, is at once the best and the worst of things. So in a fable, a man with the same breath blows hot and cold. \"Life and death are in the power of the tongue\" (compare Psa 62:4). \n\nbrethren--an appeal to their consciences by their brotherhood in Christ. \n\nought not so to be--a mild appeal, leaving it to themselves to understand that such conduct deserves the most severe reprobation.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["fountain--an image of the heart: as the aperture (so the Greek for \"place\" is literally) of the fountain is an image of man's mouth. The image here is appropriate to the scene of the Epistle, Palestine, wherein salt and bitter springs are found. Though \"sweet\" springs are sometimes found near, yet \"sweet and bitter\" (water) do not flow \"at the same place\" (aperture). Grace can make the same mouth that \"sent forth the bitter\" once, send forth the sweet for the time to come: as the wood (typical of Christ's cross) changed Marah's bitter water into sweet.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Transition from the mouth to the heart. \n\nCan the fig tree, &c.--implying that it is an impossibility: as before in Jam 3:10 he had said it \"ought not so to be.\" James does not, as Matthew (Mat 7:16-17), make the question, \"Do men gather figs of thistles?\" His argument is, No tree \"can\" bring forth fruit inconsistent with its nature, as for example, the fig tree, olive berries: so if a man speaks bitterly, and afterwards speaks good words, the latter must be so only seemingly, and in hypocrisy, they cannot be real. \n\nso can no fountain . . . salt . . . and fresh--The oldest authorities read, \"Neither can a salt (water spring) yield fresh.\" So the mouth that emits cursing, cannot really emit also blessing.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Who--(Compare Psa 34:12-13). All wish to appear \"wise\": few are so. \n\nshow--\"by works,\" and not merely by profession, referring to Jam 2:18. \n\nout of a good conversation his works--by general \"good conduct\" manifested in particular \"works.\" \"Wisdom\" and \"knowledge,\" without these being \"shown,\" are as dead as faith would be without works [ALFORD]. \n\nwith meekness of wisdom--with the meekness inseparable from true \"wisdom.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["if ye have--as is the case (this is implied in the Greek indicative). \n\nbitter-- Eph 4:31, \"bitterness.\" \n\nenvying--rather, \"emulation,\" or literally, \"zeal\": kindly, generous emulation, or zeal, is not condemned, but that which is \"bitter\" [BENGEL]. \n\nstrife--rather, \"rivalry.\" \n\nin your hearts--from which flow your words and deeds, as from a fountain. \n\nglory not, and lie not against the truth--To boast of your wisdom is virtually a lying against the truth (the gospel), while your lives belie your glorying. Jam 3:15; Jam 1:18, \"The word of truth.\" Rom 2:17, Rom 2:23, speaks similarly of the same contentious Jewish Christians.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["This wisdom--in which ye \"glory,\" as if ye were \"wise\" (Jam 3:13-14). \n\ndescendeth not from above--literally, \"is not one descending,\" &c.: \"from the Father of lights\" (true illumination and wisdom), Jam 1:17; through \"the Spirit of truth,\" Joh 15:26. \n\nearthly--opposed to heavenly. Distinct from \"earthy,\" Co1 15:47. Earthly is what is IN the earth; earthy, what is of the earth. \n\nsensual--literally, \"animal-like\": the wisdom of the \"natural\" (the same Greek) man, not born again of God; \"not having the Spirit\" (Jde 1:19). \n\ndevilish--in its origin (from \"hell,\" Jam 3:6; not from God, the Giver of true wisdom, Jam 1:5), and also in its character, which accords with its origin. Earthly, sensual, and devilish, answer to the three spiritual foes of man, the world, the flesh, and the devil.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["envying--So English Version translates the Greek, which usually means \"zeal\"; \"emulation,\" in Rom 13:13. \"The envious man stands in his own light. He thinks his candle cannot shine in the presence of another's sun. He aims directly at men, obliquely at God, who makes men to differ.\" \n\nstrife--rivalry [ALFORD]. \n\nconfusion--literally, \"tumultuous anarchy\": both in society (translated \"commotions,\" Luk 21:9; \"tumults,\" Co2 6:5), and in the individual mind; in contrast to the \"peaceable\" composure of true \"wisdom,\" Jam 3:17. James does not honor such effects of this earthly wisdom with the name \"fruit,\" as he does in the case of the wisdom from above. Jam 3:18; compare Gal 5:19-22, \"works of the flesh . . . fruit of the Spirit.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["first pure--literally, \"chaste,\" \"sanctified\": pure from all that is \"earthly, sensual (animal), devilish\" (Jam 3:15). This is put, \"first of all,\" before \"peaceable\" because there is an unholy peace with the world which makes no distinction between clean and unclean. Compare \"undefiled\" and \"unspotted from the world,\" Jam 1:27; Jam 4:4, Jam 4:8, \"purify . . . hearts\"; Pe1 1:22, \"purified . . . souls\" (the same Greek). Ministers must not preach before a purifying change of heart, \"Peace,\" where there is no peace. Seven (the perfect number) characteristic peculiarities of true wisdom are enumerated. Purity or sanctity is put first because it has respect both to God and to ourselves; the six that follow regard our fellow men. Our first concern is to have in ourselves sanctity; our second, to be at peace with men. \n\ngentle--\"forbearing\"; making allowances for others; lenient towards neighbors, as to the DUTIES they owe us. \n\neasy to be entreated--literally, \"easily persuaded,\" tractable; not harsh as to a neighbor's FAULTS. \n\nfull of mercy--as to a neighbor's MISERIES. \n\ngood fruits--contrasted with \"every evil work,\" Jam 3:16. \n\nwithout partiality--recurring to the warning against partial \"respect to persons,\" Jam 2:1, Jam 2:4, Jam 2:9. ALFORD translates as the Greek is translated, Jam 1:6, \"wavering,\" \"without doubting.\" But thus there would be an epithet referring to one's self inserted amidst those referring to one's conduct towards others. English Version is therefore better. \n\nwithout hypocrisy--Not as ALFORD explains from Jam 1:22, Jam 1:26, \"Without deceiving yourselves\" with the name without the reality of religion. For it must refer, like the rest of the six epithets, to our relations to others; our peaceableness and mercy towards others must be \"without dissimulation.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["\"The peaceable fruit of righteousness.\" He says \"righteousness\"; because it is itself the true wisdom. As in the case of the earthly wisdom, after the characteristic description came its results; so in this verse, in the case of the heavenly wisdom. There the results were present; here, future. \n\nfruit . . . sown--Compare Psa 97:11; Isa 61:3, \"trees of righteousness.\" Anticipatory, that is, the seed whose \"fruit,\" namely, \"righteousness,\" shall be ultimately reaped, is now \"sown in peace.\" \"Righteousness,\" now in germ, when fully developed as \"fruit\" shall be itself the everlasting reward of the righteous. As \"sowing in peace\" (compare \"sown in dishonor,\" Co1 15:43) produces the \"fruit of righteousness,\" so conversely \"the work\" and \"effect of righteousness\" is \"peace.\" \n\nof them that make peace--\"by (implying also that it is for them, and to their good) them that work peace.\" They, and they alone, are \"blessed.\" \"Peacemakers,\" not merely they who reconcile others, but who work peace. \"Cultivate peace\" [ESTIUS]. Those truly wise towards God, while peaceable and tolerant towards their neighbors, yet make it their chief concern to sow righteousness, not cloaking men's sins, but reproving them with such peaceable moderation as to be the physicians, rather than the executioners, of sinners [CALVIN].\n\n\n\n\nNext: James Chapter 4\n\n"]}],"introduction":"DANGER OF EAGERNESS TO TEACH, AND OF AN UNBRIDLED TONGUE: TRUE WISDOM SHOWN BY UNCONTENTIOUS MEEKNESS. (Jam. 3:1-18)\n\nbe not--literally, \"become not\": taking the office too hastily, and of your own accord. \n\nmany--The office is a noble one; but few are fit for it. Few govern the tongue well (Jam 3:2), and only such as can govern it are fit for the office; therefore, \"teachers\" ought not to be many. \n\nmasters--rather, \"teachers.\" The Jews were especially prone to this presumption. The idea that faith (so called) without works (Jam 2:14-26) was all that is required, prompted \"many\" to set up as \"teachers,\" as has been the case in all ages of the Church. At first all were allowed to teach in turns. Even their inspired gifts did not prevent liability to abuse, as James here implies: much more is this so when self-constituted teachers have no such miraculous gifts. \n\nknowing--as all might know. \n\nwe . . . greater condemnation--James in a humble, conciliatory spirit, includes himself: if we teachers abuse the office, we shall receive greater condemnation than those who are mere hearers (compare Luk 12:42-46). CALVIN, like English Version, translates, \"masters\" that is, self-constituted censors and reprovers of others Jam 4:12 accords with this view.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JAS/3.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JAS","chapter":3},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JAS/4.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JAS","chapter":4},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JAS/2.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JAS","chapter":2},"numberOfVerses":17}