14 and if bitter zeal ye have, and rivalry in your heart, glory not, nor lie against the truth;
for where zeal and rivalry `are', there is insurrection and every evil matter;
nothing in rivalry or vain-glory, but in humility of mind one another counting more excellent than yourselves --
Certain, indeed, even through envy and contention, and certain also through good-will, do preach the Christ;
for yet ye are fleshly, for where `there is' among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not fleshly, and in the manner of men do walk?
as in day-time, let us walk becomingly; not in revellings and drunkennesses, not in chamberings and lasciviousnesses, not in strife and emulation;
And having risen, the chief priest, and all those with him -- being the sect of the Sadducees -- were filled with zeal,
and ye are having been puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he may be removed out of the midst of you who did this work,
and if one another ye do bite and devour, see -- that ye may not by one another be consumed.
let us not become vain-glorious -- one another provoking, one another envying!
for neither do those circumcised themselves keep the law, but they wish you to be circumcised, that in your flesh they may glory.
for we were once -- also we -- thoughtless, disobedient, led astray, serving desires and pleasures manifold, in malice and envy living, odious -- hating one another;
Whence `are' wars and fightings among you? not thence -- out of your passions, that are as soldiers in your members? ye desire, and ye have not; ye murder, and are zealous, and are not able to attain; ye fight and war, and ye have not, because of your not asking; ye ask, and ye receive not, because evilly ye ask, that in your pleasures ye may spend `it'. Adulterers and adulteresses! have ye not known that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whoever, then, may counsel to be a friend of the world, an enemy of God he is set. Do ye think that emptily the Writing saith, `To envy earnestly desireth the spirit that did dwell in us,'
Having put aside, then, all evil, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envyings, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes the word's pure milk desire ye, that in it ye may grow,
out of the synagogues they will put you; but an hour doth come, that every one who hath killed you, may think to offer service unto God;
and saith, `Come with me, and look on my zeal for Jehovah;' and they cause him to ride in his chariot.
And Jehu hath not taken heed to walk in the law of Jehovah, God of Israel, with all his heart, he hath not turned aside from the sins of Jeroboam, that he caused Israel to sin.
A healed heart `is' life to the flesh, And rottenness to the bones `is' envy.
Fury `is' fierce, and anger `is' overflowing, And who standeth before jealousy?
Why dost Thou shew me iniquity, And perversity dost cause to behold? And spoiling and violence `are' before me, And there is strife, and contention doth lift `itself' up,
for he had known that because of envy they had delivered him up.
And Rachel seeth that she hath not borne to Jacob, and Rachel is envious of her sister, and saith unto Jacob, `Give me sons, and if there is none -- I die.' And Jacob's anger burneth against Rachel, and he saith, `Am I in stead of God who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?'
and the patriarchs, having been moved with jealousy, sold Joseph to Egypt, and God was with him,
and the Jews having seen the multitudes, were filled with zeal, and did contradict the things spoken by Paul -- contradicting and speaking evil.
having been filled with all unrighteousness, whoredom, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil dispositions; whisperers,
and to those contentious, and disobedient, indeed, to the truth, and obeying the unrighteousness -- indignation and wrath,
thou who in the law dost boast, through the transgression of the law God dost thou dishonour? for the name of God because of you is evil spoken of among the nations, according as it hath been written. For circumcision, indeed, doth profit, if law thou mayest practise, but if a transgressor of law thou mayest be, thy circumcision hath become uncircumcision. If, therefore the uncircumcision the righteousness of the law may keep, shall not his uncircumcision for circumcision be reckoned? and the uncircumcision, by nature, fulfilling the law, shall judge thee who, through letter and circumcision, `art' a transgressor of law. For he is not a Jew who is `so' outwardly, neither `is' circumcision that which is outward in flesh; but a Jew `is' he who is `so' inwardly, and circumcision `is' of the heart, in spirit, not in letter, of which the praise is not of men, but of God.
for who doth make thee to differ? and what hast thou, that thou didst not receive? and if thou didst also receive, why dost thou glory as not having received? Already ye are having been filled, already ye were rich, apart from us ye did reign, and I would also ye did reign, that we also with you may reign together,
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.