The Letters · New Testament
James 1
James 1: trials, asking for wisdom, and doing rather than only hearing
General context
The letter opens with a name and an address and no more: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, writing to the twelve tribes scattered abroad. The first instruction is to count trials joy, because trying faith works patience, and patience worked out to the end leaves a person wanting nothing. Anyone lacking wisdom is told to ask God, who gives liberally and does not upbraid, but to ask without wavering, since a wavering man is like a sea wave driven by wind and should expect nothing. The low brother is to rejoice in being exalted and the rich in being made low, because the rich man fades like a flower burned off by the sun. Blessing is promised to the man who endures temptation. No one is to say he is tempted of God, since God tempts no one; a man is drawn away by his own lust, which conceives sin, and sin when finished brings forth death. Every good gift comes from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness, and he begat them by the word of truth as a kind of firstfruits. Swiftness to hear and slowness to speak and to wrath follow, since man's wrath does not work God's righteousness. The word is to be received with meekness and acted on: a hearer who does not do is like a man who looks at his face in a glass and forgets what he looked like, while the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it is blessed in his deed. The chapter ends by defining religion, first by a man who does not bridle his tongue and deceives his heart, then by visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping unspotted from the world.
Cited passages: James 1:1, James 1:2, James 1:3, James 1:4, James 1:5, James 1:6, James 1:9, James 1:10, James 1:12, James 1:13, James 1:14, James 1:15, James 1:17, James 1:18, James 1:19, James 1:20, James 1:22, James 1:24, James 1:25, James 1:26, James 1:27
James 1 (KJV)
1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
2My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
9Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
10But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
11For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
12Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
13Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
18Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
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Historical context
The writer gives his name and one description of himself: "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ". He claims no office, names no family, and says nothing about where he is or when he writes. The address is to "the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad", which is the only description the letter gives of its readers here, with no city, congregation or person named. He calls them "My brethren" and "my beloved brethren", and gives no further description of them. The chapter mentions rich and poor within the same company, but gives no account of who they are. Nothing in it is presented as a report of events; the whole is instruction. No older scripture is quoted in this chapter, though verse 25 refers to "the perfect law of liberty" without saying which law is meant.
Cited passages: James 1:1, James 1:2, James 1:19, James 1:9, James 1:10, James 1:25
Literary context
The chapter moves by linked words rather than by paragraphs. Trial leads to patience, patience to perfection, and the mention of wanting nothing leads straight to the man who lacks wisdom. Each idea is then given a picture: the waverer is "like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed", the rich man is grass burned off by the sun, and the hearer who does nothing is a man who checks his face in a glass and walks away. The pairs run in opposite directions: low against rich, hearing against doing, being tempted of God against being drawn away by a man's own lust. Two sentences about the tongue at verses 19 and 26 bracket the section and set up chapter 3. The last verse ends not with a definition of belief but with a list of actions, visiting the fatherless and widows and keeping "unspotted from the world", which states the letter's method at the outset.
Cited passages: James 1:3, James 1:4, James 1:5, James 1:6, James 1:11, James 1:23, James 1:19, James 1:26, James 1:27
Key moments
- Name and address (James 1:1). The writer names himself and the scattered tribes he writes to.
- Ask for wisdom (James 1:5). Anyone lacking wisdom is told to ask God, who does not upbraid.
- The rich as grass (James 1:10). Wealth is compared to a flower that the sun burns away.
- God tempts no one (James 1:13). The letter refuses to let temptation be traced back to God.
- Lust conceives, sin kills (James 1:15). A sequence runs from desire to sin to death.
- Doers, not hearers (James 1:22). Hearing without doing is called self-deception.
- Religion defined by action (James 1:27). Visiting the fatherless and widows is named as pure religion.
For reflection
The chapter says a hearer who does nothing forgets what he looked like as soon as he turns away. What makes that kind of forgetting so easy to do with something just read?
