{"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":4,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Ye lust--A different Greek word from that in Jam 4:1. \"Ye desire\"; literally, \"ye set your mind (or heart) on\" an object. \n\nhave not--The lust of desire does not ensure the actual possession. Hence \"ye kill\" (not as Margin, without any old authority, \"envy\") to ensure possession. Not probably in the case of professing Christians of that day in a literal sense, but \"kill and envy\" (as the Greek for \"desire to have\" should be translated), that is, harass and oppress through envy [DRUSIUS]. Compare Zac 11:5, \"slay\"; through envy, hate, and desire to get out of your way, and so are \"murderers\" in God's eyes [ESTIUS]. If literal murder [ALFORD] were meant, I do not think it would occur so early in the series; nor had Christians then as yet reached so open criminality. In the Spirit's application of the passage to all ages, literal killing is included, flowing from the desire to possess so David and Ahab. There is a climax: \"Ye desire,\" the individual lust for an object; \"ye kill and envy,\" the feeling and action of individuals against individuals; \"ye fight and war,\" the action of many against many. \n\nye have not, because ye ask not--God promises to those who pray, not to those who fight. The petition of the lustful, murderous, and contentious is not recognized by God as prayer. If ye prayed, there would be no \"wars and fightings.\" Thus this last clause is an answer to the question, Jam 4:1, \"Whence come wars and fightings?\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Some of them are supposed to say in objection, But we do \"ask\" (pray); compare Jam 4:2. James replies, It is not enough to ask for good things, but we must ask with a good spirit and intention. \"Ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it (your object of prayer) upon (literally, 'in') your lusts (literally, 'pleasures')\"; not that ye may have the things you need for the service of God. Contrast Jam 1:5 with Mat 6:31-32. If ye prayed aright, all your proper wants would be supplied; the improper cravings which produce \"wars and fightings\" would then cease. Even believers' prayers are often best answered when their desires are most opposed.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["The oldest manuscripts omit \"adulterers and,\" and read simply, \"Ye adulteresses.\" God is the rightful husband; the men of the world are regarded collectively as one adulteress, and individually as adulteresses. \n\nthe world--in so far as the men of it and their motives and acts are aliens to God, for example, its selfish \"lusts\" (Jam 4:3), and covetous and ambitious \"wars and fightings\" (Jam 4:1). \n\nenmity--not merely \"inimical\"; a state of enmity, and that enmity itself. Compare Jo1 2:15, \"love . . . the world . . . the love of the Father.\" \n\nwhosoever . . . will be--The Greek is emphatic, \"shall be resolved to be.\" Whether he succeed or not, if his wish be to be the friend of the world, he renders himself, becomes (so the Greek for \"is\") by the very fact, \"the enemy of God.\" Contrast \"Abraham the friend of God.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["in vain--No word of Scripture can be so. The quotation here, as in Eph 5:14, seems to be not so much from a particular passage as one gathered by James under inspiration from the general tenor of such passages in both the Old and New Testaments, as Num 14:29; Pro 21:20; Gal 5:17. \n\nspirit that dwelleth in us--Other manuscripts read, \"that God hath made to dwell in us\" (namely, at Pentecost). If so translated, \"Does the (Holy) Spirit that God hath placed in us lust to (towards) envy\" (namely, as ye do in your worldly \"wars and fightings\")? Certainly not; ye are therefore walking in the flesh, not in the Spirit, while ye thus lust towards, that is, with envy against one another. The friendship of the world tends to breed envy; the Spirit produces very different fruit. ALFORD attributes the epithet \"with envy,\" in the unwarrantable sense of jealously, to the Holy Spirit: \"The Spirit jealously desires us for His own.\" In English Version the sense is, \"the (natural) spirit that hath its dwelling in us lusts with (literally, 'to,' or 'towards') envy.\" Ye lust, and because ye have not what ye lust after (Jam 4:1-2), ye envy your neighbor who has, and so the spirit of envy leads you on to \"fight.\" James also here refers to Jam 3:14, Jam 3:16.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["But--\"Nay, rather.\" \n\nhe--God. \n\ngiveth more grace--ever increasing grace; the farther ye depart from \"envy\" [BENGEL]. \n\nhe saith--The same God who causes His spirit to dwell in believers (Jam 4:5), by the Spirit also speaks in Scripture. The quotation here is probably from Pro 3:34; as probably Pro 21:10 was generally referred to in Jam 4:5. In Hebrew it is \"scorneth the scorners,\" namely, those who think \"Scripture speaketh in vain.\" \n\nresisteth--literally, \"setteth Himself in array against\"; even as they, like Pharaoh, set themselves against Him. God repays sinners in their own coin. \"Pride\" is the mother of \"envy\" (Jam 4:5); it is peculiarly satanic, for by it Satan fell. \n\nthe proud--The Greek means in derivation one who shows himself above his fellows, and so lifts himself against God. \n\nthe humble--the unenvious, uncovetous, and unambitious as to the world. Contrast Jam 4:4.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Submit to . . . God--so ye shall be among \"the humble,\" Jam 4:6; also Jam 4:10; Pe1 5:6. \n\nResist . . . devil--Under his banner pride and envy are enlisted in the world; resist his temptations to these. Faith, humble prayers, and heavenly wisdom, are the weapons of resistance. The language is taken from warfare. \"Submit\" as a good soldier puts himself in complete subjection to his captain. \"Resist,\" stand bravely against. \n\nhe will flee--Translate, \"he shall flee.\" For it is a promise of God, not a mere assurance from man to man [ALFORD]. He shall flee worsted as he did from Christ.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Draw nigh to God--So \"cleave unto Him,\" Deu 30:20, namely, by prayerfully (Jam 4:2-3) \"resisting Satan,\" who would oppose our access to God. \n\nhe will draw nigh--propitious. \n\nCleanse . . . hands--the outward instruments of action. None but the clean-handed can ascend into the hill of the Lord (justified through Christ, who alone was perfectly so, and as such \"ascended\" thither). \n\npurify . . . hearts--literally \"make chaste\" of your spiritual adultery (Jam 4:4, that is, worldliness) \"your hearts\": the inward source of all impurity. \n\ndouble-minded--divided between God and the world. The \"double-minded\" is at fault in heart; the sinner in his hands likewise.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Be afflicted--literally, \"Endure misery,\" that is, mourn over your wretchedness through sin. Repent with deep sorrow instead of your present laughter. A blessed mourning. Contrast Isa 22:12-13; Luk 6:25. James does not add here, as in Jam 5:1, \"howl,\" where he foretells the doom of the impenitent at the coming destruction of Jerusalem. \n\nheaviness--literally, \"falling of the countenance,\" casting down of the eyes.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["in the sight of the Lord--as continually in the presence of Him who alone is worthy to be exalted: recognizing His presence in all your ways, the truest incentive to humility. The tree, to grow upwards, must strike its roots deep downwards; so man, to be exalted, must have his mind deep-rooted in humility. In Pe1 5:6, it is, Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, namely, in His dealings of Providence: a distinct thought from that here. \n\nlift you up--in part in this world, fully in the world to come.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Having mentioned sins of the tongue (Jam 3:5-12), he shows here that evil-speaking flows from the same spirit of exalting self at the expense of one's neighbor as caused the \"fightings\" reprobated in this chapter (Jam 4:1). \n\nSpeak not evil--literally, \"Speak not against\" one another. \n\nbrethren--implying the inconsistency of such depreciatory speaking of one another in brethren. \n\nspeaketh evil of the law--for the law in commanding, \"Love thy neighbor as thyself\" (Jam 2:8), virtually condemns evil-speaking and judging [ESTIUS]. Those who superciliously condemn the acts and words of others which do not please themselves, thus aiming at the reputation of sanctity, put their own moroseness in the place of the law, and claim to themselves a power of censuring above the law of God, condemning what the law permits [CALVIN]. Such a one acts as though the law could not perform its own office of judging, but he must fly upon the office [BENGEL]. This is the last mention of the law in the New Testament. ALFORD rightly takes the \"law\" to be the old moral law applied in its comprehensive spiritual fulness by Christ: \"the law of liberty.\" \n\nif thou judge the law, thou art not a doer . . . but a judge--Setting aside the Christian brotherhood as all alike called to be doers of the law, in subjection to it, such a one arrogates the office of a judge.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["There is one lawgiver--The best authorities read in addition, \"and judge.\" Translate, \"There is One (alone) who is (at once) Lawgiver and Judge, (namely) He who is able to save and destroy.\" Implying, God alone is Lawgiver and therefore Judge, since it is He alone who can execute His judgments; our inability in this respect shows our presumption in trying to act as judges, as though we were God. \n\nwho art thou, &c.--The order in the Greek is emphatic, \"But (inserted in oldest manuscripts) thou, who art thou that judgest another?\" How rashly arrogant in judging thy fellows, and wresting from God the office which belongs to Him over thee and THEM alike! \n\nanother--The oldest authorities read, \"thy neighbor.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Go to now--\"Come now\"; said to excite attention. \n\nye that say--boasting of the morrow. \n\nTo-day or to-morrow--as if ye had the free choice of either day as a certainty. Others read, \"To-day and to-morrow.\" \n\nsuch a city--literally, \"this the city\" (namely, the one present to the mind of the speaker). This city here. \n\ncontinue . . . a year--rather, \"spend one year.\" Their language implies that when this one year is out, they purpose similarly settling plans for to come [BENGEL]. \n\nbuy and sell--Their plans for the future are all worldly.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["what--literally, \"of what nature\" is your life? that is, how evanescent it is. \n\nIt is even--Some oldest authorities read, \"For ye are.\" BENGEL, with other old authorities, reads, \"For it shall be,\" the future referring to the \"morrow\" (Jam 4:13-15). The former expresses, \"Ye yourselves are transitory\"; so everything of yours, even your life, must partake of the same transitoriness. Received text has no old authority. \n\nand then vanisheth away--\"afterwards vanishing as it came\"; literally, \"afterwards (as it appeared), so vanishing\" [ALFORD].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["Literally, \"instead of your saying,\" &c. This refers to \"ye that say\" (Jam 4:13). \n\nwe shall live--The best manuscripts read, \"We shall both live and do,\" &c. The boasters spoke as if life, action, and the particular kind of action were in their power, whereas all three depend entirely on the will of the Lord.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["now--as it is. \n\nrejoice in . . . boastings--\"ye boast in arrogant presumptions,\" namely, vain confident fancies that the future is certain to you (Jam 4:13). \n\nrejoicing--boasting [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["The general principle illustrated by the particular example just discussed is here stated: knowledge without practice is imputed to a man as great and presumptuous sin. James reverts to the principle with which he started. Nothing more injures the soul than wasted impressions. Feelings exhaust themselves and evaporate, if not embodied in practice. As we will not act except we feel, so if we will not act out our feelings, we shall soon cease to feel.\n\n\n\n\nNext: James Chapter 5\n\n"]}],"introduction":"AGAINST FIGHTINGS AND THEIR SOURCE; WORLDLY LUSTS; UNCHARITABLE JUDGMENTS, AND PRESUMPTUOUS RECKONING ON THE FUTURE. (Jam. 4:1-17)\n\nwhence--The cause of quarrels is often sought in external circumstances, whereas internal lusts are the true origin. \n\nwars, &c.--contrasted with the \"peace\" of heavenly wisdom. \"Fightings\" are the active carrying on of \"wars.\" The best authorities have a second \"whence\" before \"fightings.\" Tumults marked the era before the destruction of Jerusalem when James wrote. He indirectly alludes to these. The members are the first seat of war; thence it passes to conflict between man and man, nation and nation. \n\ncome they not, &c.--an appeal to their consciences. \n\nlusts--literally, \"pleasures,\" that is, the lusts which prompt you to \"desire\" (see on Jam 4:2) pleasures; whence you seek self at the cost of your neighbor, and hence flow \"fightings.\" \n\nthat war--\"campaign, as an army of soldiers encamped within\" [ALFORD] the soul; tumultuously war against the interests of your fellow men, while lusting to advance self. But while warring thus against others they (without his knowledge) war against the soul of the man himself, and against the Spirit; therefore they must be \"mortified\" by the Christian.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JAS/4.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JAS","chapter":4},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JAS/5.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JAS","chapter":5},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JAS/3.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JAS","chapter":3},"numberOfVerses":16}