3434. Fruitless Faith

A Sermon Published On Thursday, November 26, 1914.

Even so faith, if it does not have works, is dead, being alone. {Jas 2:17}

1. Whatever the statement of James may be, it could never have been his intention to contradict the gospel. It could never be possible that the Holy Spirit would say one thing in one place, and another in another. Statements of Paul and of James must be reconciled, and if they were not, I would be prepared sooner to throw overboard the statement of James than that of Paul. Luther did so, I think, most unjustifiably. If you ask me, then, how I dare to say I would sooner do so, my reply is, I said I would sooner throw overboard James than Paul for this reason, because, at any rate, we must keep to the Master himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought never to raise any questions about differences of inspiration, since they are all equally inspired, but if such questions could be raised and were allowable, it would be wisdom to stick firmly to those who cling closest to Christ. Now the last words of the Lord Jesus, before he was taken up were these, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” and what was this gospel? “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” To that, then, we must always cling, but Jesus Christ has given a promise of salvation to the baptized believer, and he has said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, and whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

2. Here it is clear he promises everlasting life to all who believe in him, to all who trust in him. Now we will not stir from the Master’s words, but we will stand close to his own declaration. Be assured that the gospel of your salvation as a believer, with a simple confidence in Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead, will save your soul, a simple and undiluted reliance on the life and death, and resurrection, and merit, and person of Jesus Christ will ensure to you everlasting life. Let nothing move you from this confidence: it has great reward. Heaven and earth may pass away, but from this grand fundamental truth not one jot or tittle shall ever be moved. “He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Son of God.”

3. The fact is, James and Paul are perfectly reconcilable, and they are viewing truth from different standpoints; but whatever James may mean, I am quite confident about what Paul means, and confident about the truth of the two.

4. A second remark is that James never intended, for a moment, nor do any of his words lead us into such a belief, that there can be any merit whatever in any good works of ours. After we have done everything, if we could do everything, we should only have done what we were bound to do. Surely there is no merit in a man’s paying what he owes; no great merit in a servant who has his wages for doing what he is paid for. The question of merit between the creature and his Creator is not to be raised; he has a right to us; he has the right of creation, the right of preservation, the right of infinite sovereignty, and, whatever he should exact from us, we should require nothing from him in return, and, having sinned as we all have, for us to talk of salvation by merit, by our own works, is worse than vanity; it is an impertinence which God will never endure.

   Talk they of morals, oh! thou bleeding Lamb,

   The best morality is love of thee.

Talk of salvation by works, and Cowper’s reply seems apt:—

   Perish the virtue, as it ought, abhorred,

   And the fool with it, who insults his Lord.

5. What James does mean, however, is this, no doubt, in brief and short, that while faith saves, it is faith of a certain kind. No man is saved by persuading himself that he is saved; no one is saved by believing Jesus Christ died for him. That may be, or may not be, true in the sense in which he understands it. In a certain sense Christ died for all men, but since it is evident that many men are lost, Christ’s dying for all men is not at all a basis on which any man may hope to be saved. Christ died for some men in another sense, in a particular and special sense. No man has a right to believe that Christ particularly and specifically died for him until he has an evidence of it in casting himself on Christ, and trusting in Jesus, and perform suitable works to show the reality of his faith. The faith that saves is not a historical faith, not a faith that simply believes a creed and certain facts; I have no doubt that demons are very orthodox; I do not know which church they belong to, though there are some in all churches; there was one in Christ’s church when he was on earth, for he said one was filled with demons; and there are some in all churches. Demons believe all the facts of revelation. I do not believe they have a doubt; they have suffered too much from the hand of God to doubt his existence! They have felt too much the terror of his wrath to doubt the righteousness of his government. They are stern believers, but they are not saved; and such a faith, if it is in us, will not, cannot, save us, but will remain to all intents and purposes a dead, inoperative faith, it is a faith which produces works which saves us, the works do not save us; but a faith which does not produce works is a faith that will only deceive, and cannot lead us into heaven.

6. I. Now this evening we shall first speak a few words on:—WHAT KIND OF WORKS ARE THEY WHICH ARE NECESSARY TO PROVE OUR FAITH IF IT IS A SAVING FAITH?

7. The works which are absolutely necessary are, in brief, these: First, there must be fruits suitable for repentance, works of repentance. It is wrong to tell a man he must repent before he may trust Christ, but it is right to tell him that, having trusted Christ, it is not possible for him to remain impenitent. There never was in this world such a thing as an impenitent believer in Jesus Christ, and there never can be. Faith and repentance are born in a spiritual life together, and they grow up together. The moment a man believes he repents, and while he believes he both believes and repents, and until he shall be finished with faith he will not be finished with repenting. If you have believed, but have never repented of your sins, then beware of your believing. If you pretend now to be a child of God, and if you have never clothed yourself in dust and ashes; if you have never hated the sins which once you loved: if you do not now hate them, and endeavour to be rid of them, if you do not humble yourself before God on account of them, as the Lord lives, you know nothing about saving faith, for faith puts a distance between us and sin; in a moment it leads us away from the distance between us and Christ; nearer to Christ, we are now far off from sin. But he who loves his sin, thinks little of his sin, goes into it with levity, talks of it sportively, speaks of sin as though it were a trifle, has the faith of demons, but he never knew the faith of God’s elect. True faith purges the soul, since the man now hunts after sin so that he might find out the traitor that lurks within his nature; and though a believer is not perfect, yet the intent of faith is to make him perfect; and if it is faith to be perfected, the believer shall be perfected, and then he shall be caught up to dwell before the throne. Judge yourselves, my hearers. Have you produced the fruits of repentance? If not, your faith without them is dead.

8. Works of secret piety are also essential to true faith. Does a man say I believe that Jesus died for me, and that I hope to be saved, and does he live in a constant neglect of private prayer? Is the Word of God never read? Does he never lift up his eyes in secret with “My Father be the guide of my youth”? Has he no secret regard in his heart for the Lord his God, and does he hold no communion with Christ his Saviour, and is there no fellowship with the Holy Spirit? Then how can faith dwell in such a man? As well say that a man is alive when he does not breathe, and in whom the blood does not circulate, as to say that a man is a believer with living faith who does not draw near to God in prayer, that does not live indeed under the awe and fear of the Most High God as ever-present, and seeing him in all places. Judge yourselves, you professors. Are you neglecting prayer, and have no secret spiritual life? If so, away with your notion about saving faith. You are not justified by such a faith as that; there is no life in it; it is not a faith that leads to the Lamb and brings salvation; if it were, it would show itself by driving you to your knees, and making you lift up your heart to the Most High.

9. Another set of works are those which I may call works of obedience. When a man trusts in Jesus, he accepts Jesus as his Master. He says, “Show me what you would have me to do.” The Father shows what Christ would have him to do. He does not set up his own will and judgment, but he is obedient to his Master’s will. I will not tonight speak of those who do not know their Lord’s will, who shall be beaten with few stripes, but I do fear there are some professors who are living in wilful neglect of known Christian duties, and yet suppose themselves to be the partakers of saving faith. Now a duty may be neglected, and yet a man may be saved; but a duty persistently and wilfully neglected, may be the leak that will sink the ship, or the neglect of any one of such duties for the surrender of a true heart to Christ does not go such and such a length and then stop. Christ will save no heart on terms and conditions; it must be an unconditional surrender to his government if you would be saved by him.

10. Now some will draw a line here, and some will draw a line there up to this, and say, “I will be Christ’s servant”; that is to say, sir you will be your own master, for that is the plain English of it; but the true heart that has really believed says, “I will make haste, and not delay to keep your commandments; make straight the path before my feet, for your commandments are not grievous.” “I have delighted in your commandments more than in fine gold.” Now, sons and daughters of sin, professedly, what do you say to this? Have you an eye on the Master, as servants keep their eye on their mistress? Do you ever ask yourselves what would Christ have you to do? or do you live habitually in the neglect of Christ’s law and will? Do you go to places where Christ would not meet you, and where you would not like to meet him? Are some of you in the habit of professing maxims and customs, on which you know your Lord would never set his seal? You say you believe, do you have faith in him? Ah! sirs, if it is a living faith, it will be an obedient faith.

11. Living faith produces what I shall call separating works. When a man believes in Jesus, he is not what he was, nor will he consort with those who were once his friends. Our Lord has said, “You are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Now Christ was not an ascetic; he ate and drank as other men do so that they even said of him that he was a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, because he mingled with the rest of mankind; but was there ever a more unearthly life than the life of Christ? He seems to go through all the world a complete man in all that is necessary to manliness, but his presence is like the presence of a seraph among sinners. You can discover at once that he is not of their mould, nor of their spirit, only harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. Now such will the believer be if his faith is genuine, but this is a sharp cut for some professors, but not a bit more sharp than the Scripture warrants. If we are of the world, what can we expect but the world’s doom in the day of the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ? If you find your pleasure with the world, you shall meet your condemnation with the world; if you live with the world, with the world you shall die, and you shall live with the world again for ever, lost. Where there is no separation there is no grace. If we are conformed to this world, how dare we talk about grace being in our souls; and if there is no distinguishing difference between us and worldlings, what vanity it is, what trifling, what hypocrisy, what a delusion for us to come to the Lord’s table, talking about being the Lord’s sons, when we are not his? Faith without the works which denote the difference between a believer and a worldling is a dead, unsaving faith.

12. Now I have not said that any believer is perfect. I have never thought so, but I have said that if a believer could be a believer altogether, and faith could have her perfect work, he would be perfect, and that in proportion as he is truly a believer, in that proportion he will produce fruit that shall magnify God and prove the sincerity of his faith.

13. One other set of works will be necessary to prove the vitality of his faith, namely, works of love. He who loves Christ feels that the love of Christ constrains him; he endeavours to spread abroad the knowledge of Christ; he longs to win jewels for Christ’s crown; he endeavours to extend the boundaries of Christ’s and Messiah’s kingdom, and I will not give a farthing for the loftiest profession coupled with the most flowing words, that never shows itself in direct deeds of Christian service. If you love Christ, you cannot help serving him. If you believe in him, there is such potency in what you believe, such power in the grace which comes with believing, that you must serve Christ; and if you do not serve him, you are not his.

14. This proof, before we leave it, might be illustrated in various ways. We will just give one. A tree has been planted out into the ground. Now the source of life for that tree is at the root, whether it has apples on it or not; the apples would not give it life, but all the life of the tree will come from its root. But if that tree stands in the orchard, and when the spring-time comes there is no bud, and when the summer comes there is no leafing, and no fruit-bearing, but the next year, and the next, it stands there without bud or blossom, or leaf or fruit, you would say it is dead, and you are correct; it is dead. It is not that the leaves could have made it live, but that the absence of the leaves is a proof that it is dead. So, too, it is with the professor. If he has life, that life must give fruits; if not fruits, works; if his faith has a root, but if there are no works, then depend on it the inference that he is spiritually dead is certainly a correct one. When the telegraph cable flashed no message across to America, when they tried to telegraph again and again, but the only result following was dead earth, they felt persuaded that there was a break in the cable, and well they might; and when there is nothing produced in the life by the supposed grace which we have, and nothing is telegraphed to the world but “dead earth,” we may rest assured that the link of connection between the soul and Christ does not exist

15. I need not enlarge. We should just put it into that one sentence: “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Produce, therefore, works suitable for repentance.”

16. II. And now we turn to the second point with more brevity:—SOME FACTS THAT BACK UP THE DOCTRINE THAT “FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD.”

17. These facts show that it is evident to all observers that many professors of faith without works are not saved. It would be very ludicrous, if it were not very miserable, to think of some who wrap themselves in the conceit that they are saved about whose salvation no one but themselves can have any question. I remember a professor who used to talk about being justified by faith who was most assured about it, when he was drunk. Such professors are not at all uncommon, it is sad to say so. They seem at the moment when their condemnation seems written on their very brow to all who know them, to be most confident that they themselves are saved. Now, brethren, if such cases are convincing and you entertain no doubt, but decide in their case, to apply the same rule to yourselves, for although you may not plunge into the grosser vices, yet if you make your homes wretched by your selfishness, if you fall into constant habits of vicious temper, if you never strive against these sins, and the grace of God never leads you out of them; if you can live in private sin, and yet pacify your conscience, and remain just as you were before your pretended conversion; when you sit in judgment and pronounce the verdict on others, feel that you pronounce it on yourself, for surely for one sin that is openly indulged in, which is visible to you in the dissipation of your fellow creatures, it is not hard for you to believe that any other sin, if it is constantly indulged and is loved, will do the same to you as it does to him. You know men who do not have faith, but have a kind of faith, are not saved. It must be true, or else why did the Saviour say, “Straight is the gate and narrow the way, and few there are who find it”? For this is no straight gate and no narrow way, merely to be orthodox and hold a creed, and say, “I believe Jesus died for me”; but it is a very narrow gate to believe so as to become practically Christ’s servants, to trust so as to give up what Christ hates.

18. Truths which Jesus tells us to believe are all truths, which, if believed, must have an effect on the daily life. A man cannot really believe that Jesus Christ has taken away his sin by such sufferings as those of the cross, and still trifle with sin. A man is a liar who says, “I believe that that bleeding Saviour suffered on account of my sins,” and yet holds good fellowship with the very sins that put Christ to death. Oh! sirs, a faith in the bleeding Saviour is a faith that craves for vengeance on every form of sin. The Christian religion makes us believe that we are the sons of God when we trust in Christ. Will a man believe that he is really the son of God, and then daily and wilfully go and live like a child of the devil? Do you expect to see members of the royal court playing with beggars in the street? When a man believes himself to possess a certain position of life, that belief leads him to a certain bearing and behaviour, and when I am led to believe I am elected by God, that I am redeemed by blood, that heaven is secured for me by the covenant of grace, that I am God’s priest, made a king in Christ Jesus, I cannot, if I believe, unless I am more monstrous than human nature itself seems capable of being, go back to live in just the same way, to run in the same course as others, and live as the sons of Belial live. We constantly see in Scripture, and all the saints affirm it, that faith is linked with grace, and that where faith is the grace of God is; but how can there be the gift of God reigning in the soul, and yet a love of sin and a neglect of holiness? I cannot understand grace reigning and vice ruling over the living and incorruptible seed which endures for ever for the inner man; and for this man to give himself up to be a slave of Satan is an impossible thing.

19. Faith, again, is always in connection with regeneration. Now regeneration is making the old thing new; it is infusing a new nature into a man. The new birth is not a mere reformation, but an entire renovation and revolution: it is making the man a new creation in Christ Jesus. But for a new creature, if he has no repentance, if he has no good works, no private prayer, no love, no holiness of any kind, regeneration will be a football for scorn. The new birth would be a thing to be ridiculed, if it did not really produce a hatred of sin, and a love for holiness. That kind of new birth which is dispensed by the Church of Rome, and also by some in the Church of England, is a kind of new birth which ought to arouse the derision of all mankind, for children are said to be born again, certified to be born again, made members of Christ and children of God, and afterwards they grow up, in many cases, in most cases, let me say, to forget their baptismal vows, and live in sin as others do. Evidently it has had no effect on them, but regeneration such as we read of in the Bible changes the nature of man, makes him hate the things he loved, and love the things he hated. This is regeneration: this is regeneration which is worth seeking: it always comes with faith, and consequently good works must go with faith too.

20. III. But we pass on to the last matter, which is this:—WHAT ABOUT THOSE MEN WHO HAVE FAITH, AND THAT HAVE NO GOOD WORKS?

21. Then what about them? Why, this about them, that their supposed faith generally makes them very careless and indifferent, and ultimately hardened and depraved men. I dread beyond measure that any one of us should have a name to live when we are dead; for an ordinary sinner who makes no profession may be converted, but it is extremely rare that a sinner who makes a profession of being what he is not is ever converted. It is a miserable thing to find a person discovering that his profession has been a lie. A man sits down, and he says, “Why, I believe,” and as he walks he is careful, because he is afraid of what others might say. Eventually, he begins to indulge a little. He says, “This is not by works; I may do this, and yet get forgiveness.” Then he goes a little further away. I do not say that perhaps at first he goes to the theatre, but he goes next door to it. He does not get drunk, but he likes jovial company. A little further and he gets confirmed in the belief that he is a saved one, and he gets so much confirmed in that idea that he thinks he can do just as he likes. Having sported on the brink without falling over, he thinks he will try again, and he goes a little further and further until I may venture to say, if Satan wants raw material of which to make the worst of men, he generally takes those who profess to be the best, and I have questioned whether such a valuable servant of Satan as Judas was could ever have been made of any other material than an apostate apostle. If he had not lived near to Christ, he never could have become such a traitor as he was. You must have a good knowledge of religion to be a thorough faced hypocrite, and you must become high in Christ’s Church before you can become fit tools for Satan’s worst works. Oh! but why do men do this? Oh! what is the use of maintaining such a faith? I think if we do not care to get the vitality of religion, I would never burden myself with the husks of it, for such people get the chains of godliness without getting the comforts of godliness. They dare not do this, they dare not do that; if they do they feel hampered. Why do they not give up professing? and they would be at least free; they would have the sin without the millstone around their neck. Surely there can be no excuse for men who intend to perish coming to cover themselves with a mask of godliness! Why can they not perish as they are? Why add sin to sin by insulting the Church through the cross of Christ?

22. When men make a profession of religion, and yet their works do not follow their faith, what about them? Why, this about them. They have dishonoured the Church, and, of all others, these are the people who make the world point to the Church and say, “Where is your religion? That is your religion, is it?” So it happens when they find a man who professes to be in Christ, and yet does not walk as Christ walked. These give the Church her wounds; she receives them in the house of her friends; these make the true ministers of God go to their prayer closets with a broken heart, crying out, “Oh! Lord, why have you sent us to this people to speak and minister among them, so that they should play the hypocrite before you?” These are those who prevent the coming in of others, for others see them, since they think religion is hypocrisy, and they are hindered, and, if not seriously, they get, at any rate, comfort in their sin from the iniquity of these professors. What their judgment will be when Christ appears it is not for my tongue to tell; in that day when, with tongue of fire, Christ shall search every heart, and call on all men to receive their judgment, what must be the lot of the base-born professor, who prostituted his profession for his own honour and gain? He did not seek the glory of God. What shall be the thunderbolt that shall pursue his guilty soul in its timorous flight to hell, and what shall be the chains that are reserved in blackness and darkness for ever for those who are wells without water and clouds without rain? I cannot tell, and may God grant that you may never know. Oh! may we all tonight go to Christ Jesus, humbly and freely confessing our sins, and take Christ to be our complete Saviour in very deed and truth. Then we shall be saved, and then, being saved, we shall seek to serve Christ with heart, and soul, and strength.

23. Lest I have missed my mark, this one illustration shall suffice, and I am finished. There is a vessel drifting. She will soon be on the shore, but a pilot is come on board; he is standing on the deck, and he says to the captain and crew, “I promise and undertake that, if you will only and completely trust me, I will save your vessel. Do you promise it; do you believe in me?” They believe in him; they say they believe the pilot can save the vessel, and they trust the vessel implicitly into his care. Now listen to him. “Now,” he says, “you at that helm there!” He does not stir. “At the helm there! Can you not hear?” He does not stir! He does not stir! “Well but, Jack, have you no confidence in the pilot?” “Oh! yes. Oh! yes, I have faith in him,” he says; “he will save the vessel if I have faith in him.” “Do you not hear the pilot, as he says have faith in him, and you will not touch the helm?” “Now, you aloft there! Reef that sail.” He does not stir, but lets the wind still blow into the sail and drift the vessel onto the coast. “Now then, some of you, look alive, and reef that sail!” But he does not stir! “Why, captain, what shall I do? These fellows will not stir or move a peg.” But “Oh!” says the captain; “I have every confidence in you, pilot. I believe you will save the vessel.” “Then why do you not attend to the tiller, and all that?” “Oh! no,” he says; “I have great confidence in you. I do not intend to do anything.” Now when that ship goes down amid the boiling surges, and each man sinks to his doom, I will ask you, did they have faith in the pilot? Did they not have a mimicking, mocking kind of faith, and only that? For if they had been really anxious to have the vessel rescued, and have trusted in the pilot, it would be the pilot who would have saved them, and they could never have been saved without him. They would have proved their faith by their works. Their faith would have been made perfect, and the vessel would have been secured.

24. I call on every man here to do what Christ tells him to. I call on you, first of all, to prove that you believe in Christ by being baptized. “He who believes in Christ and is baptized shall be saved.” The first proof that you believe in Christ is to be given by yielding to the much-despised ordinance of believers’ baptism, and then, having done that, going on to the other means of which I have spoken. Oh! I charge you by your soul’s salvation neglect nothing Christ commands, however trivial it may seem to your reason. Whatever he says to you, do it, for only by a childlike obedience to every command of Christ can you expect to have the promise fulfilled, “Those who trust in him shall be saved.” May the Lord bless these words, for his name’s sake. Amen.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Jas 1:1-26}

1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was an apostle, and he was the Lord’s brother, yet he does not mention these greater things, but he takes the lowly title, in which, no doubt, he felt the highest honour, and calls himself “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Happy is that man who serves the Lord, whose whole life is not that of an independent master of himself, but of one who is fully submissive to the divine command.

Where is the fiction of the ten lost tribes? He writes to the twelve tribes that were scattered abroad, and gives them greeting, so that this Epistle is first directed to the seed of Israel, and then, as in all things, to all the Church of God, since all the saints of God are the true seed of believing Abraham, the father of believers.

2. My brethren, consider it all joy when you fall into manifold temptations:

Do not sorrow over your trials; do not look at them as misfortunes and calamities; they are black vessels, but they are loaded with gold. Your choicest mercies come to you disguised as your sharpest trials. Welcome them; do not sorrow over them, but rejoice in them.

3, 4. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, so that you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

Endure everything; suffer everything that God sends you. Bathe yourself in this rough sea, until, by God’s blessing, it has strengthened and cleansed you, for he sends it for that purpose, and so that it may perfect you by discipline, educating all your spiritual faculties, and bringing out all your powers for his glory. Do not shrink then, do not seek to escape by any wrong means from trial, but go through with it; have perfect endurance of it, so that you may be perfect and whole, lacking nothing. “If any of you lack wisdom,” and that is the point where you are most likely not to be perfect and entire.

5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously, and does not upbraid; and it shall be given to him.

We are so apt, when we give anything, to diminish its value by some unkind remarks, but God does not do that; he gives, as he tells us to give, with sincerity. There is the gift, and he will not detract from it by upbraiding us. Why, some will upbraid the poor while they help them: “How did you come to be in such a condition?” But God does not say so to us; the gift is given in pure generosities, without any upbraiding. Wisdom is a gift. The best wisdom is not what we acquire by study, but what is the distinct gift of God in answer to prayer.

6. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he who wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

Now on the shore, now sinking back, now driving fearlessly ahead, then sinking down. This is not the kind of man who prevails with God in prayer, it is not the kind of faith we ought to have in God—a faith that is very brilliant on the Lord’s day, and very dull on the Monday: a faith that is triumphant after a sermon, but which seems to be defeated when we get into actual trouble.

7, 8. For do not let that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Unstable in everything. Until you get a single heart, until your whole soul is bound up in confidence in God, you cannot expect to be stable in your ways. “Unite my heart to fear your name,” and then I shall not be a double-minded man.

9. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

The lowness of his state is an exaltation. He shall find in his troubles a double blessing; he shall be made greater by being so little. “But let the rich rejoice in that he is made low,” so that what would have been foolish pomp and pride is taken away from him, and, by the grace of God, he is kept low. “Because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away.”

10, 11. But the rich, in that he is made low: because like the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but its withers the grass, and its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

Oh! to be delivered from all boasting in such uncertain riches. Whatever God gives you, he may soon take away from you; if he does not take it away, he may take away your power to enjoy it: it is poor, slippery stuff at the very best. Rejoice that you have something better, something lasting.

12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

It is promised to love, but it is given to endurance. It is the love of God which finds our love and rewards it, but rewards it partly by trying it, and then ultimately by bringing out the stephanos, the crown. Men ran for a crown in the Greek games, and could not win the crown without the running. So God gives a crown to those who run, but not without the running. He gives to them, first, the privilege of suffering for his name’s sake, and then of being rewarded for it.

13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does he tempt any man:

God tries men, but the motive of a trial is what differentiates it from a temptation. In a temptation we try a man with a view of inducing him to do wrong; but God tries men to test them, so that they may, by finding out their weakness, be saved from doing wrong. He never inclines a heart to evil. While he does all things, and is in all things, yet not so that he himself does evil, or can be charged with it.

14. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.

This is the lewd prostitute who deceives the heart of man: his own desire grown strong and hot until it comes to be a lusting: this draws a man away; it baits the hook, and man swallows it and so is entrapped and enticed.

15. Then when lust has conceived, it produces sin: and sin, when it is finished, produces death.

There is the history and pedigree of sin. May God save us from having any connection with the desire to sin, lest from that we be led into sin, and then from sin descend into death.

16, 17. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,

All good from God, all evil from ourselves.

17. And comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

There is variableness and there is the shadow of turning in the sun, but in that greater Father of lights there is neither parallax {a} nor tropic; {b} he is always the same, and we may go to him with unwavering confidence because he is the same. Oh! what a blessing to such changing creatures as we are to have an unchanging God! “Of his own will.” If you want to know the power of God’s will, it never goes towards evil.

18. By his own will he has begotten us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.

The best and noblest part of his creation, the twice begotten, the immortals who shall be the body-guard of his Son, who shall stand around his bed, which is Solomon’s, each man with his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night. What a privilege it is to be begotten of God, to be the “first-fruits” of his creatures!

19. Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,

Because it is by the Word that we are begotten: let us be swift to hear it. “Slow to speak,” because there is so much sin in us that the less we speak the better. In the multitude of words there is an abundance of sin. Great talkativeness is seldom dissociated from great sinfulness. “Slow to wrath.”

20. Slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

There is a tendency to grow angry with those who do not see the truth; but is it not a foolish thing to be angry with blind men because they do not see? What if you see yourself? Who opened your eyes? Give God the praise for what you see, and never think that your anger, your indignation, your hot temper, can ever produce the righteousness of God. It is contrary to it, and cannot work towards it.

21-23. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror.

It is a good thing for him to do that, to see himself as others see him. “Beholding his natural face,” even as men in looking into the Word of God, behold the face of their nature; they see what they are like as they look into the mirror.

24-26. For he sees himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seems to be religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

{a} Parallax: (Astron.) Apparent displacement, or difference in the apparent position, of an object, caused by actual change (or difference) of position of the point of observation. OED.
{b} Tropic: (Astron.) Each of the two solstitial points, the most northerly and southerly points of the ecliptic, at which the sun reaches its greatest distance north or south of the equator, and “turns” or begins to move towards it again. OED.