CHAPTER FOUR
Contents: Rebuke of worldliness and exhortation to humility before God.
Characters: God, Satan.
Conclusion: Worldly and fleshly lusts are the distemper which will not allow contentment or satisfaction in the mind, and rise up to the exclusion of prayer and the working of our affections toward God. Let the Christian be free from the friendship of the world, and be submitted to God, thus shutting and bolting the door against the devil.
Key Word: Lusts v. 1.
Strong Verses: 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17.
Brooks, K. (2009). Summarized Bible: Complete Summary of the New Testament (p. 79). Logos Bible Software. (Public Domain)
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 1 Pe 5:6, it is, Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, namely, in His dealings of Providence: a distinct thought from that here.
lift you up—in part in this world, fully in the world to come.
Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 492). Logos Research Systems, Inc. (Public Domain)
That is, be willing to take your appropriate place in the dust on account of your transgressions. This is to be ‘in the sight of the Lord,’ or before him. Our sins have been committed against him; and their principal aggravation, whoever may have been wronged by them, and great as is their criminality in other respects, arises from that consideration. Psa. 51:4, ‘Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.’ Luke 15:18, ‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.’ As the Being against whom we have sinned is the only one who can pardon, it is proper that we should humble ourselves before him with penitent confession.
And he shall lift you up. He will exalt you from the condition of a broken-hearted penitent to that of a forgiven child; will wipe away your tears, remove the sadness of your heart, fill you with joy, and clothe you with the garments of salvation. This declaration is in accordance with all the promises in the Bible, and with all the facts which occur on the earth, that God is willing to show mercy to the humble and contrite, and to receive those who are truly penitent into his favor. Comp. Luke 15:22.
Barnes, A. (1884–1885). Notes on the New Testament: James to Jude (R. Frew, Ed.; p. 75). Blackie & Son. (Public Domain)
Humble yourselves before the Lord.—The fundamental idea of the leadings of the Old Testament and the O. T. fundamental rule of piety and of the promises attached to it; it has met its fulfilment in the humiliation and exaltation of Christ and must be realized in the life of believers (Rom. 6:4; Job 5:11; Ezek. 21:26; Matth. 23:12; Luke 14:11; 1 Pet. 5:6; cf. Sir. 2:17). As this humbling must be realized inwardly in the bowing of repentance before God (ἐνώπιον κυρίου), and outwardly in the patient enduring of the humiliating state of servitude and lowliness (ὑπὸ τὴν χεῖρα τοῦ θεοῦ, 1. pet. 5:6) appointed by Him, so the exaltation also should begin with the inward consciousness of the exaltation, liberty and glory of the Divine Sonship [i. e. the state of being the children of God in Christ=Gotteskindschaft; υἱοθεσία, adoption—M.] and come to its outward consummation in the future glory, of which we have however some antepast here on earth. κύριος does not exactly signify Christ (Grotius), nor θεός as opposed to Christ (Huther and al.). James wants to see the living God of revelation recognized in Christ.
Lange, J. P., Schaff, P., van Oosterzee, J. J., & Mombert, J. I. (2008). A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: James (p. 118). Logos Bible Software. (Public Domain)
Comments