14 but if ye have bitter emulation and strife in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
For where emulation and strife [are], there [is] disorder and every evil thing.
[let] nothing [be] in the spirit of strife or vain glory, but, in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves;
Some indeed also for envy and strife, but some also for good will, preach the Christ.
for ye are yet carnal. For whereas [there are] among you emulation and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk according to man?
As in the day, let us walk becomingly; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and lasciviousness, not in strife and emulation.
And the high priest rising up, and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, were filled with wrath,
And *ye* are puffed up, and ye have not rather mourned, in order that he that has done this deed might be taken away out of the midst of you.
but if ye bite and devour one another, see that ye are not consumed one of another.
Let us not become vain-glorious, provoking one another, envying one another.
For neither do they that are circumcised themselves keep the law; but they wish you to be circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.
For we were once ourselves also without intelligence, disobedient, wandering in error, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, [and] hating one another.
Whence [come] wars and whence fightings among you? [Is it] not thence, -- from your pleasures, which war in your members? Ye lust and have not: ye kill and are full of envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war; ye have not because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask evilly, that ye may consume [it] in your pleasures. Adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore is minded to be [the] friend of the world is constituted enemy of God. Think ye that the scripture speaks in vain? Does the Spirit which has taken his abode in us desire enviously?
Laying aside therefore all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation,
They shall put you out of the synagogues; but the hour is coming that every one who kills you will think to render service to God;
and said, Come with me, and see my zeal for Jehovah. So they made him ride in his chariot.
But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of Jehovah the God of Israel with all his heart; he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin.
A sound heart is the life of the flesh; but envy the rottenness of the bones.
Fury is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before jealousy?
Why dost thou cause me to see iniquity, and lookest thou upon grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention riseth up.
For he knew that they had delivered him up through envy.
And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in God's stead, who has withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
And the patriarchs, envying Joseph, sold him away into Egypt. And God was with him,
But the Jews, seeing the crowds, were filled with envy, and contradicted the things said by Paul, [contradicting and] speaking injuriously.
being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil dispositions; whisperers,
But to those that are contentious, and are disobedient to the truth, but obey unrighteousness, [there shall be] wrath and indignation,
thou who boastest in law, dost thou by transgression of the law dishonour God? For the name of God is blasphemed on your account among the nations, according as it is written. For circumcision indeed profits if thou keep [the] law; but if thou be a law-transgressor, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision. If therefore the uncircumcision keep the requirements of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision, and uncircumcision by nature, fulfilling the law, judge thee, who, with letter and circumcision, [art] a law-transgressor? For he is not a Jew who [is] one outwardly, neither that circumcision which is outward in flesh; but he [is] a Jew [who is so] inwardly; and circumcision, of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.
For who makes thee to differ? and what hast thou which thou hast not received? but if also thou hast received, why boastest thou as not receiving? Already ye are filled; already ye have been enriched; ye have reigned without us; and I would that ye reigned, that *we* also might reign with you.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on James 3
Commentary on James 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
The apostle here reproves ambition, and an arrogant magisterial tongue; and shows the duty and advantage of bridling it because of its power to do mischief. Those who profess religion ought especially to govern their tongues (v. 1-12). True wisdom makes men meek, and avoiders of strife and envy: and hereby it may easily be distinguished from a wisdom that is earthly and hypocritical (v. 13-18).
Jam 3:1-12
The foregoing chapter shows how unprofitable and dead faith is without works. It is plainly intimated by what this chapter first goes upon that such a faith is, however, apt to make men conceited and magisterial in their tempers and their talk. Those who set up faith in the manner the former chapter condemns are most apt to run into those sins of the tongue which this chapter condemns. And indeed the best need to be cautioned against a dictating, censorious, mischievous use of their tongues. We are therefore taught,
Jam 3:13-18
As the sins before condemned arise from an affectation of being thought more wise than others, and being endued with more knowledge than they, so the apostle in these verses shows the difference between men's pretending to be wise and their being really so, and between the wisdom which is from beneath (from earth or hell) and that which is from above.