James 3:13-18

James 3:13-Job : . “ Who is enlightened among you, and a man of knowledge? Let him exhibit the fruits of it by a noble life, with the humility that true enlightenment brings.” We must be careful to remember that “ meekness” in popular use has lost its nobility: the Gr. word describes a strong man’ s self-discipline and a wise man’ s humility. One who is strong, and knows it, is not jealous of rivals, or frenzied with partisanship for a cause that God will prosper. Such a spirit means only scorning truth and heaping up lies. “ Sensual,” “ natural,” and “ animal” are all imperfect representations of the adjective psychic from psyché , “ soul” or “ life.” As contrasted with “ spirit,” it means the immaterial parts of man as untouched by the Divine: the climactic adjective following shows that what does not touch God is touched by hell. Note in James 3:16 the stress on unproductiveness as the characteristic of sin. “ Confusion” or “ restlessness” ( cf. James 3:8) and “ worthless deeds” follow; jealous partisans can never get any good thing done, and are condemned for this more than the mischief they actually achieve. The characterisation of “ heavenly enlightenment” has close affinities with the Beatitudes; we may fit Matthew 5:8-1 Samuel :; Matthew 5:5; Matthew 5:7 respectively to “ pure, peace-loving, gentle . . . full of compassion.” For “ gentle” (Matthew Arnold’ s “ sweet reasonableness” ) compare especially 2 Corinthians 10:1, also Php_4:5 . It and the next adjective describe that freedom from pride and obstinacy which produces perfect openmindedness. “ Without variance” has the word of James 1:6 and James 2:4; we may render it “ impartial” here. “ A harvest of right is being sown in the field of peace for those who work for peace” ; cf. Psalms 97:11, Galatians 6:7 f. , Hebrews 12:11.