{"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":5,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["corrupted--about to be destroyed through God's curse on your oppression, whereby your riches are accumulated (Jam 5:4). CALVIN thinks the sense is, Your riches perish without being of any use either to others or even to yourselves, for instance, your garments which are moth-eaten in your chests. \n\ngarments . . . moth-eaten--referring to Mat 6:19-20.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["is cankered--\"rusted through\" [ALFORD]. \n\nrust . . . witness against you--in the day of judgment; namely, that your riches were of no profit to any, lying unemployed and so contracting rust. \n\nshall eat your flesh--The rust which once ate your riches, shall then gnaw your conscience, accompanied with punishment which shall prey upon your bodies for ever. \n\nas . . . fire--not with the slow process of rusting, but with the swiftness of consuming fire. \n\nfor the last days--Ye have heaped together, not treasures as ye suppose (compare Luk 12:19), but wrath against the last days, namely, the coming judgment of the Lord. ALFORD translates more literally, \"In these last days (before the coming judgment) ye laid up (worldly) treasure\" to no profit, instead of repenting and seeking salvation (see on Jam 5:5).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Behold--calling attention to their coming doom as no vain threat. \n\nlabourers--literally \"workmen.\" \n\nof you kept back--So English Version rightly. Not as ALFORD, \"crieth out from you.\" The \"keeping back of the hire\" was, on the part OF the rich, virtually an act of \"fraud,\" because the poor laborers were not immediately paid. The phrase is therefore not, \"kept back by you,\" but \"of you\"; the latter implying virtual, rather than overt, fraud. James refers to Deu 24:14-15, \"At this day . . . give his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it, lest he CRY against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.\" Many sins \"cry\" to heaven for vengeance which men tacitly take no account of, as unchastity and injustice [BENGEL]. Sins peculiarly offensive to God are said to \"cry\" to Him. The rich ought to have given freely to the poor; their not doing so was sin. A still greater sin was their not paying their debts. Their greatest sin was not paying them to the poor, whose wages is their all. \n\ncries of them--a double cry; both that of the hire abstractly, and that of the laborers hired. \n\nthe Lord of sabaoth--here only in the New Testament. In Rom 9:29 it is a quotation. It is suited to the Jewish tone of the Epistle. It reminds the rich who think the poor have no protector, that the Lord of the whole hosts in heaven and earth is the guardian and avenger of the latter. He is identical with the \"coming Lord\" Jesus (Jam 5:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Translate, \"Ye have luxuriated . . . and wantoned.\" The former expresses luxurious effeminacy; the latter, wantonness and prodigality. Their luxury was at the expense of the defrauded poor (Jam 5:4). \n\non the earth--The same earth which has been the scene of your wantonness, shall be the scene of the judgment coming on you: instead of earthly delights ye shall have punishments. \n\nnourished . . . hearts--that is glutted your bodies like beasts to the full extent of your hearts' desire; ye live to eat, not eat to live. \n\nas in a day of slaughter--The oldest authorities omit \"as.\" Ye are like beasts which eat to their hearts' content on the very day of their approaching slaughter, unconscious it is near. The phrase answers to \"the last days,\" Jam 5:3, which favors ALFORD'S translation there, \"in,\" not \"for.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Ye have condemned . . . the just--The Greek aorist expresses, \"Ye are accustomed to condemn . . . the just.\" Their condemnation of Christ, \"the Just,\" is foremost in James' mind. But all the innocent blood shed, and to be shed, is included, the Holy Spirit comprehending James himself, called \"the Just,\" who was slain in a tumult. See my Introduction. This gives a peculiar appropriateness to the expression in this verse, the same \"as the righteous (just) man\" (Jam 5:16). The justice or righteousness of Jesus and His people is what peculiarly provoked the ungodly great men of the world. \n\nhe doth not resist you--The very patience of the Just one is abused by the wicked as an incentive to boldness in violent persecution, as if they may do as they please with impunity. God doth \"resist the proud\" (Jam 4:6); but Jesus as man, \"as a sheep is dumb before the shearers, so He opened not His mouth\": so His people are meek under persecution. The day will come when God will resist (literally, \"set Himself in array against\") His foes and theirs.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Be patient therefore--as judgment is so near (Jam 5:1, Jam 5:3), ye may well afford to be \"patient\" after the example of the unresisting Just one (Jam 5:6). \n\nbrethren--contrasted with the \"rich\" oppressors, Jam 5:1-6. \n\nunto the coming of the Lord--Christ, when the trial of your patience shall cease. \n\nhusbandman waiteth for--that is, patiently bears toils and delays through hope of the harvest at last. Its \"preciousness\" (compare Psa 126:6, \"precious seed\") will more than compensate for all the past. Compare the same image, Gal 6:3, Gal 6:9. \n\nhath long patience for it--\"over it,\" in respect to it. \n\nuntil he receive--\"until it receive\" [ALFORD]. Even if English Version be retained, the receiving of the early and latter rains is not to be understood as the object of his hope, but the harvest for which those rains are the necessary preliminary. The early rain fell at sowing time, about November or December; the latter rain, about March or April, to mature the grain for harvest. The latter rain that shall precede the coming spiritual harvest, will probably be another Pentecost-like effusion of the Holy Ghost.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["coming . . . draweth nigh--The Greek expresses present time and a settled state. Pe1 4:7, \"is at hand.\" We are to live in a continued state of expectancy of the Lord's coming, as an event always nigh. Nothing can more \"stablish the heart\" amidst present troubles than the realized expectation of His speedy coming.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Grudge not--rather \"Murmur not\"; \"grumble not.\" The Greek is literally, \"groan\": a half-suppressed murmur of impatience and harsh judgment, not uttered aloud or freely. Having exhorted them to patience in bearing wrongs from the wicked, he now exhorts them to a forbearing spirit as to the offenses given by brethren. Christians, who bear the former patiently, sometimes are impatient at the latter, though much less grievous. \n\nlest . . . condemned--The best manuscript authorities read, \"judged.\" James refers to Mat 7:1, \"Judge not lest ye be judged.\" To \"murmur against one another\" is virtually to judge, and so to become liable to be judged. \n\njudge . . . before the door--referring to Mat 24:33. The Greek is the same in both passages, and so ought to be translated here as there, \"doors,\" plural. The phrase means \"near at hand\" (Gen 4:7), which in the oldest interpretations [Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem] is explained, \"thy sin is reserved unto the judgment of the world to come.\" Compare \"the everlasting doors\" (Psa 24:7, whence He shall come forth). The Lord's coming to destroy Jerusalem is primarily referred to; and ultimately, His coming again visibly to judgment.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["the prophets--who were especially persecuted, and therefore were especially \"blessed.\" \n\nexample of suffering affliction--rather, simply, \"of affliction,\" literally, \"evil treatment.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["count them happy-- (Mat 5:10). \n\nwhich endure--The oldest authorities read, \"which have endured,\" which suits the sense better than English Version: \"Those who in past days, like the prophets and Job, have endured trials.\" Such, not those who \"have lived in pleasure and been wanton on the earth\" (Jam 5:5), are \"happy.\" \n\npatience--rather, \"endurance,\" answering to \"endure\": the Greek words similarly corresponding. Distinct from the Greek word for \"patience\" Jam 5:10. The same word ought to be translated, \"endurance,\" Jam 1:3. He here reverts to the subject which he began with. \n\nJob--This passage shows the history of him is concerning a real, not an imaginary person; otherwise his case could not be quoted as an example at all. Though he showed much of impatience, yet he always returned to this, that he committed himself wholly to God, and at last showed a perfect spirit of enduring submission. \n\nand have seen--(with the eyes of your mind). ALFORD translates from the old and genuine reading, \"see also,\" &c. The old reading is, however, capable of being translated as English Version. \n\nthe end of the Lord--the end which the Lord gave. If Job had much to \"endure,\" remember also Job's happy \"end.\" Hence, learn, though much tried, to \"endure to the end.\" \n\nthat--ALFORD and others translate, \"inasmuch as,\" \"for.\" \n\npitiful . . . of tender mercy--The former refers to the \"feeling\"; the latter, to the act. His pity is shown in not laying on the patient endurer more trials than he is able to bear; His mercy, in His giving a happy \"end\" to the trials [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["But above all--as swearing is utterly alien to the Christian meek \"endurance\" just recommended. \n\nswear not--through impatience, to which trials may tempt you (Jam 5:10-11). In contrast to this stands the proper use of the tongue, Jam 5:13. James here refers to Mat 5:34, &c. \n\nlet your yea be yea--Do not use oaths in your everyday conversation, but let a simple affirmative or denial be deemed enough to establish your word. \n\ncondemnation--literally, \"judgment,\" namely, of \"the Judge\" who \"standeth before the doors\" (Jam 5:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["afflicted--referring to the \"suffering affliction\" (Jam 5:10). \n\nlet him pray--not \"swear\" in rash impatience. \n\nmerry--joyous in mind. \n\nsing psalms--of praise. Paul and Silas sang psalms even in affliction.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["let him call for the elders--not some one of the elders, as Roman Catholics interpret it, to justify their usage in extreme unction. The prayers of the elders over the sick would be much the same as though the whole Church which they represent should pray [BENGEL]. \n\nanointing him with oil--The usage which Christ committed to His apostles was afterwards continued with laying on of hands, as a token of the highest faculty of medicine in the Church, just as we find in Co1 6:2 the Church's highest judicial function. Now that the miraculous gift of healing has been withdrawn for the most part, to use the sign where the reality is wanting would be unmeaning superstition. Compare other apostolic usages now discontinued rightly, Co1 11:4-15; Co1 16:20. \"Let them use oil who can by their prayers obtain recovery for the sick: let those who cannot do this, abstain from using the empty sign\" [WHITAKER]. Romish extreme unction is administered to those whose life is despaired of, to heal the soul, whereas James' unction was to heal the body. CARDINAL CAJETAN [Commentary] admits that James cannot refer to extreme unction. Oil in the East, and especially among the Jews (see the Talmud, Jerusalem and Babylon), was much used as a curative agent. It was also a sign of the divine grace. Hence it was an appropriate sign in performing miraculous cures. \n\nin the name of the Lord--by whom alone the miracle was performed: men were but the instruments.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["prayer--He does not say the oil shall save: it is but the symbol. \n\nsave--plainly not as Rome says, \"save\" the soul. but heal \"the sick\": as the words, \"the Lord shall raise him up,\" prove. So the same Greek is translated, \"made (thee) whole,\" Mat 9:21-22. \n\nand if . . . sins--for not all who are sick are so because of some special sins. Here a case is supposed of one visited with sickness for special sins. \n\nhave committed--literally, \"be in a state of having committed sins,\" that is, be under the consequences of sins committed. \n\nthey--rather, \"it\": his having committed sins shall be forgiven him. The connection of sin and sickness is implied in Isa 33:24; Mat 9:2-5; Joh 5:14. The absolution of the sick, retained in the Church of England, refers to the sins which the sick man confesses (Jam 5:16) and repents of, whereby outward scandal has been given to the Church and the cause of religion; not to sins in their relation to God, the only Judge.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["The oldest authorities read, \"Confess, THEREFORE,\" &c. Not only in the particular case of sickness, but universally confess. \n\nfaults--your falls and offenses, in relation to one another. The word is not the same as sins. Mat 5:23-24; Luk 17:4, illustrate the precept here. \n\none to another--not to the priest, as Rome insists. The Church of England recommends in certain cases. Rome compels confession in all cases. Confession is desirable in the case of (1) wrong done to a neighbor; (2) when under a troubled conscience we ask counsel of a godly minister or friend as to how we may obtain God's forgiveness and strength to sin no more, or when we desire their intercessory prayers for us (\"Pray for one another\"): \"Confession may be made to anyone who can pray\" [BENGEL]; (3) open confession of sin before the Church and the world, in token of penitence. Not auricular confession. \n\nthat ye may be healed--of your bodily sicknesses. Also that, if your sickness be the punishment of sin, the latter being forgiven on intercessory prayer, \"ye may be healed\" of the former. Also, that ye may be healed spiritually. \n\neffectual--intense and fervent, not \"wavering\" (Jam 1:6), [BEZA]. \"When energized\" by the Spirit, as those were who performed miracles [HAMMOND]. This suits the collocation of the Greek words and the sense well. A righteous man's prayer is always heard generally, but his particular request for the healing of another was then likely to be granted when he was one possessing a special charism of the Spirit. ALFORD translates, \"Availeth much in its working.\" The \"righteous\" is one himself careful to avoid \"faults,\" and showing his faith by works (Jam 2:24).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["Elias . . . like passions as we--therefore it cannot be said that he was so raised above us as to afford no example applicable to common mortals like ourselves. \n\nprayed earnestly--literally, \"prayed with prayer\": Hebraism for prayed intensely. Compare Luk 22:15, \"With desire I have desired,\" that is, earnestly desired. ALFORD is wrong in saying, Elias' prayer that it might not rain \"is not even hinted at in the Old Testament history.\" In Kg1 17:1 it is plainly implied, \"As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.\" His prophecy of the fact was according to a divine intimation given to him in answer to prayer. In jealousy for God's honor (Kg1 19:10), and being of one mind with God in his abhorrence of apostasy, he prayed that the national idolatry should be punished with a national judgment, drought; and on Israel's profession of repentance he prayed for the removal of the visitation, as is implied in Kg1 18:39-42; compare Luk 4:25. \n\nthree years, &c.--Compare Kg1 18:1, \"The third year,\" namely, from Elijah's going to Zarephath; the prophecy (Jam 5:1) was probably about five or six months previously.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["prayed . . . and--that is, \"and so.\" Mark the connection between the prayer and its accomplishment. \n\nher fruit--her usual and due fruit, heretofore withheld on account of sin. Three and a half years is the time also that the two witnesses prophesy who \"have power to shut and open heaven that it rain not.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["The blessing of reclaiming an erring sinner by the mutual consent and intercessory prayer just recommended. \n\ndo err--more literally, \"be led astray.\" \n\nthe truth--the Gospel doctrine and precepts. \n\none--literally, \"any\"; as \"any\" before. Everyone ought to seek the salvation of everyone [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["Let him--the converted. \n\nknow--for his comfort, and the encouragement of others to do likewise. \n\nshall save--future. The salvation of the one so converted shall be manifested hereafter. \n\nshall hide a multitude of sins--not his own, but the sins of the converted. The Greek verb in the middle voice requires this. Pro 10:12 refers to charity \"covering\" the sins of others before men; James to one's effecting by the conversion of another that that other's sins be covered before God, namely, with Christ's atonement. He effects this by making the convert partaker in the Christian covenant for the remission of all sins. Though this hiding of sins was included in the previous \"shall save,\" James expresses it to mark in detail the greatness of the blessing conferred on the penitent through the converter's instrumentality, and to incite others to the same good deed.\n\n\n\n\n\nNext: 1 Peter Introduction\n\n"]}],"introduction":"WOES COMING ON THE WICKED RICH: BELIEVERS SHOULD BE PATIENT UNTO THE LORD'S COMING: VARIOUS EXHORTATIONS. (Jam. 5:1-20)\n\nGo to now--Come now. A phrase to call solemn attention. \n\nye rich--who have neglected the true enjoyment of riches, which consists in doing good. James intends this address to rich Jewish unbelievers, not so much for themselves, as for the saints, that they may bear with patience the violence of the rich (Jam 5:7), knowing that God will speedily avenge them on their oppressors [BENGEL]. \n\nmiseries that shall come--literally, \"that are coming upon you\" unexpectedly and swiftly, namely, at the coming of the Lord (Jam 5:7); primarily, at the destruction of Jerusalem; finally, at His visible coming to judge the world.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JAS/5.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JAS","chapter":5},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/1PE/1.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"1PE","chapter":1},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JAS/4.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JAS","chapter":4},"numberOfVerses":19}