^3:1Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters,¹ because you know that we will be judged more strictly.²^3:2For we all stumble³ in many ways. If someone does not stumble⁴ in what he says,⁵ he is a perfect individual,⁶ able to control the entire body as well. ^3:3And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to get them to obey us, then we guide their entire bodies.⁷^3:4Look at ships too: Though they are so large and driven by harsh winds, they are steered by a tiny rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination directs. ^3:5So too the tongue is a small part of the body,⁸ yet it has great pretensions.⁹ Think¹⁰ how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze. ^3:6And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents¹¹ the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It¹² pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence—and is set on fire by hell.¹³

^3:7For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature¹⁴ is subdued and has been subdued by humankind.¹⁵^3:8But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless¹⁶ evil, full of deadly poison. ^3:9With it we bless the Lord¹⁷ and Father, and with it we curse people¹⁸ made in God’s image. ^3:10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters.¹⁹^3:11A spring does not pour out fresh water and bitter water from the same opening, does it? ^3:12Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters,²⁰ or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.

True Wisdom

^3:13Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct he should show his works done in the gentleness that wisdom brings.²¹^3:14But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. ^3:15Such²² wisdom does not come²³ from above but is earthly, natural,²⁴ demonic. ^3:16For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice. ^3:17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, accommodating,²⁵ full of mercy and good fruit,²⁶ impartial, and not hypocritical.²⁷^3:18And the fruit that consists of righteousness²⁸ is planted²⁹ in peace among³⁰ those who make peace.

Passions and Pride

^4:1Where do the conflicts and where¹ do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this,² from your passions that battle inside you?³^4:2You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; ^4:3you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.

^4:4Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God?⁴ So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy. ^4:5Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says,⁵ “The spirit that God⁶ caused⁷ to live within us has an envious yearning”?⁸^4:6But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.”⁹^4:7So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. ^4:8Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded.¹⁰^4:9Grieve, mourn,¹¹ and weep. Turn your laughter¹² into mourning and your joy into despair. ^4:10Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

^4:11Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters.¹³ He who speaks against a fellow believer¹⁴ or judges a fellow believer speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but its judge.¹⁵^4:12But there is only one who is lawgiver and judge—the one who is able to save and destroy. On the other hand, who are you to judge your neighbor?¹⁶

^4:13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town¹⁷ and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” ^4:14You¹⁸ do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like?¹⁹ For you are a puff of smoke²⁰ that appears for a short time and then vanishes. ^4:15You ought to say instead,²¹ “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that.” ^4:16But as it is,²² you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ^4:17So whoever knows what is good to do²³ and does not do it is guilty of sin.²⁴

Warning to the Rich

^5:1Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud¹ over the miseries that are coming on you. ^5:2Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten. ^5:3Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure!²^5:4Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. ^5:5You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.³^5:6You have condemned and murdered the righteous person, although he does not resist you.⁴

Patience in Suffering

^5:7So be patient, brothers and sisters,⁵ until the Lord’s return.⁶ Think of how the farmer waits⁷ for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient⁸ for it until it receives the early and late rains. ^5:8You also be patient and strengthen your hearts, for the Lord’s return is near. ^5:9Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters,⁹ so that you may not be judged. See, the judge stands before the gates!¹⁰^5:10As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters,¹¹ take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name. ^5:11Think of how we regard¹² as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.¹³^5:12And above all, my brothers and sisters,¹⁴ do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. But let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall into judgment.

Prayer for the Sick

^5:13Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises. ^5:14Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint¹⁵ him with oil in the name of the Lord. ^5:15And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up—and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.¹⁶^5:16So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.¹⁷^5:17Elijah was a human being¹⁸ like us, and he prayed earnestly¹⁹ that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months! ^5:18Then²⁰ he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest.

^5:19My brothers and sisters,²¹ if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, ^5:20he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path²² will save that person’s²³ soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

1 Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in .
2 Grk “will receive a greater judgment.”
3 Or “fail.”
4 Or “fail.”
5 Grk “in speech.”
6 The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anēr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person,” as here (cf. 2).
7 Grk “their entire body.”
8 Grk “a small member.”
9 Grk “boasts of great things.”
10 Grk “Behold.”
11 Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”
12 Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
13 The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5–6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).
14 Grk (plurals), “every kind of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures.”
15 Grk “the human species.”
16 Most (C Ψ 1739c 𝔐 as well as a few versions and fathers) read “uncontrollable” (ἀκατασχετόν, akatascheton), while the most important witnesses (א A B K P 1739* latt) have “restless” (ἀκατάστατον, akatastaton). Externally, the latter reading should be preferred. Internally, however, things get a bit more complex. The notion of being uncontrollable is well suited to the context, especially as a counterbalance to v. 8a, though for this very reason scribes may have been tempted to replace ἀκατάστατον with ἀκατασχετόν. However, in a semantically parallel early Christian text, ἀκατάστατος (akatastatos) was considered strong enough of a term to denounce slander as “a restless demon” ( 27:3). On the other hand, ἀκατάστατον may have been substituted for ἀκατασχετόν by way of assimilation to 1:8 (especially since both words were relatively rare, scribes may have replaced the less familiar with one that was already used in this letter). On internal evidence, it is difficult to decide, though ἀκατασχετόν is slightly preferred. However, in light of the strong support for ἀκατάστατον, and the less-than-decisive internal evidence, ἀκατάστατον is preferred instead.
17 Most later (𝔐), along with several versional witnesses, have θεόν (theon, “God”) here instead of κύριον (kurion, “Lord”). Such is a predictable variant since nowhere else in the NT is God described as “Lord and Father,” but he is called “God and Father” on several occasions. Further, the reading κύριον is well supported by early and diversified witnesses (𝔓20 א A B C P Ψ 33 81 945 1241 1739), rendering it as the overwhelmingly preferred reading.
18 Grk “men”; but here ἀνθρώπους (anthrōpous) has generic force, referring to both men and women.
19 Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in .
20 Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in .
21 Grk “works in the gentleness of wisdom.”
22 Grk “This.”
23 Grk “come down”; “descend.”
24 Grk “soulish,” which describes life apart from God, characteristic of earthly human life as opposed to what is spiritual. Cf. 1 Cor 2:14; 15:44–46; Jude 19.
25 Or “willing to yield,” “open to persuasion.”
26 Grk “fruits.” The plural Greek term καρπούς has been translated with the collective singular “fruit.”
27 Or “sincere.”
28 Grk “the fruit of righteousness,” meaning righteous living as a fruit, as the thing produced.
29 Grk “is sown.”
30 Or “for,” or possibly “by.”
1 The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.
2 Grk “from here.”
3 Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”
4 Grk “is hostility toward God.”
5 Grk “vainly says.”
6 Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 The Byzantine text and a few other (P 33 𝔐) have the intransitive κατῴκησεν (katōkēsen) here, which turns τὸ πνεῦμα (to pneuma) into the subject of the verb: “The spirit which lives within us.” But the more reliable and older witnesses (𝔓74 א B Ψ 049 1241 1739 ) have the causative verb, κατῴκισεν (katōkisen), which implies a different subject and τὸ πνεῦμα as the object: “The spirit that he causes to live within us.” Both because of the absence of an explicit subject and the relative scarcity of the causative κατοικίζω (katoikizō, “cause to dwell”) compared to the intransitive κατοικέω (katoikeō, “live, dwell”) in biblical Greek (κατοικίζω does not occur in the NT at all, and occurs one twelfth as frequently as κατοικέω in the ), it is easy to see why scribes would replace κατῴκισεν with κατῴκησεν. Thus, on internal and external grounds, κατῴκισεν is the preferred reading.
8 Interpreters debate the referent of the word “spirit” in this verse: (1) The translation takes “spirit” to be the lustful capacity within people that produces a divided mind (1:8, 14) and inward conflicts regarding God (4:1–4). God has allowed it to be in man since the fall, and he provides his grace (v. 6) and the new birth through the gospel message (1:18–25) to counteract its evil effects. (2) On the other hand the word “spirit” may be taken positively as the Holy Spirit and the sense would be, “God yearns jealously for the Spirit he caused to live within us.” But the word for “envious” or “jealous” is generally negative in biblical usage and the context before and after seems to favor the negative interpretation. No OT verse is worded exactly this way. This is either a statement about the general teaching of scripture or a quotation from an ancient translation of the Hebrew text that no longer exists today.
9 A quotation from Prov 3:34.
10 Or “two-minded” (the same description used in 1:8).
11 This term and the following one are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.
12 Grk “let your laughter be turned.”
13 Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in .
14 See note on the word “believer” in .
15 Grk “a judge.”
16 Grk “who judges your neighbor.”
17 Or “city.”
18 Grk “who” (continuing the description of the people of v. 13). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
19 Or “you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”
20 Or “a vapor.” The Greek word ἀτμίς (atmis) denotes a swirl of smoke arising from a fire (cf. Gen 19:28; Lev 16:13; Joel 2:30 [Acts 2:19]; Ezek 8:11).
21 Grk “instead of your saying.”
22 Grk “but now.”
23 Or “knows how to do what is good.”
24 Grk “to him it is sin.”
1 Or “wail”; Grk “crying aloud.”
2 Or “hoarded up treasure for the last days”; Grk “in the last days.”
3 James’ point seems to be that instead of seeking deliverance from condemnation, they have defied God’s law (fattened your hearts) and made themselves more likely objects of his judgment (in a day of slaughter).
4 Literally a series of verbs without connectives, “you have condemned, you have murdered … he does not resist.”
5 Grk “brothers”; this phrase occurs again three times in the paragraph. See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in .
6 Or “advent”; or “coming” (also in v. 8).
7 Grk “Behold! The farmer waits.”
8 Grk “being patient.”
9 Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in .
10 The term gates is used metaphorically here. The physical referent would be the entrances to the city, but the author uses the term to emphasize the imminence of the judge’s approach.
11 Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in .
12 Grk “Behold! We regard …”
13 An allusion to Exod 34:6; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 102:13; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2.
14 Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in .
15 Grk “anointing.”
16 Grk “it will be forgiven him.”
17 Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”
18 Although it is certainly true that Elijah was a “man,” here ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos) has been translated as “human being” because the emphasis in context is not on Elijah’s masculine gender, but on the common humanity he shared with the author and the readers.
19 Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).
20 Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events.
21 Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in .
22 Grk “from the error of his way” (using the same root as the verb “to wander, to err” in the first part of the verse).
23 Grk “his soul”; the referent (the sinner mentioned at the beginning of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.