James 1:2

James 1:2-4 . Count it all joy — That is, matter of the greatest joy; when ye fall into divers temptations — Πειρασμοις , trials; for though rendered temptations, it does not signify here what is commonly meant by temptations, for these we are directed to pray against, but it denotes trials by affliction and persecution. To these God, by whose providence they come, exposes men, not to lead them into sin, but to afford them an opportunity of exercising and improving their graces and virtues. Hence our Lord declared those to be blessed who were persecuted for righteousness’ sake, Matthew 5:10 ; and exhorted such, ( Matthew 5:42 ,) to rejoice and be exceeding glad; sentiments which doubtless the Apostle James had in his eye when he spoke to the Jewish Christians in this manner. Knowing that the trying, or proving, of your faith — By persecution and affliction; worketh patience — Exercises and thereby increases your patience, through the divine blessing, and your resignation to God’s will, from which many other virtues will flow.

But let patience have her perfect work — Let it be duly and fully exercised, that it may rise to the highest degree of perfection: 1st, By composing your minds to a sweet and humble frame under your sufferings. 2d, By acknowledging God’s hand in them, and blessing him for them. 3d, By resisting all inclinations to impatience, fretfulness, and murmuring. 4th, By quietly waiting for deliverance, in the way God hath appointed, till he shall see fit to grant James 2:5 th, By enduring to the end of the time of your trial; that ye may be perfect and entire — Adorned with every Christian grace and virtue; wanting nothing — No kind or degree of grace which God requires to be in you; but may be complete in all the parts of holiness.

All joy (πᾶσαν χαρὰν) Joy follows up the rejoice of the greeting. The all has the sense of wholly. Count it a thing wholly joyful, without admixture of sorrow. Perhaps, as Bengel suggests, the all applies to all kinds of temptations. When (ὅταν) Lit., whenever: better, because it implies that temptation may be expected all along the Christian course. Ye fall into (περιπέσητε) The preposition περί, around, suggests falling into something which surrounds. Thus Thucydides, speaking of the plague at Athens, says, "The Athenians, having fallen into (περιπεσόντες) such affliction, were pressed by it." Divers (ποικίλοις) Rev., manifold. See on 1 Peter 1:6. Temptations (πειρασμοῖς) In the general sense of trials. See on Matthew 6:13; and 1 Peter 1:6.

{1} My brethren, {c} count it all joy {2} when ye fall into divers temptations; (1) The first place or part concerning comfort in afflictions, in which we should not be cast down and be faint hearted, but rather rejoice and be glad. (c) Seeing their condition was miserable because of the scattering abroad, he does well to begin as he does. (2) The first argument, because our faith is tried through afflictions: which ought to be most pure, for so it suits us.

Jam 1:2 . Πᾶσαν χαρὰν , all joy ) The meaning is, Every trial ought to be esteemed a joy . Hence the word “ all ” is transferred from the subject to the predicate, while this meaning is retained. A trial ought not to be esteemed otherwise than a joy.[2] Comp. Hebrews 12:11 . So 1 Peter 5:10 , πάσης χάριτος , of all grace ; Isaiah 60:21 , ὁ λαός σου πᾶς δίκαιος , “ Thy people ( shall be ) all righteous .” So Numbers 13:2-3 ; Daniel 12:1 , compared with the Apocalypse, Revelation 20:15 . The other degrees of patience are contained in joy , which is the highest.— ἀδελφοὶ , brethren ) James frequently uses this address, especially at the beginning of a new section.— πειρασμοῖς ποικίλοις , various temptations ) So Jam 1:12 ; 1 Peter 1:6 ; various of soul and body; for instance, diseases: ch. Jam 5:16 .— περιπέσητε , ye fall into ) The same word is used Luke 10:30 , compared with 36. [2] Thus Luther: eitel Freude ( all joy, nothing but joy); and ch. Jam 3:16 , eitel böse Ding, a completely bad thing . (Thus also omnis is sometimes used for merus . See note on ver. 17.—T.) “Every evil work,” for “every work flowing from thence is evil;” the every being transferred from the subject to the predicate.—E.

2. My brethren—a phrase often found in James, marking community of nation and of faith. all joy—cause for the highest joy [Grotius]. Nothing but joy [Piscator]. Count all "divers temptations" to be each matter of joy [Bengel]. fall into—unexpectedly, so as to be encompassed by them (so the original Greek). temptations—not in the limited sense of allurements to sin, but trials or distresses of any kind which test and purify the Christian character. Compare "tempt," that is, try, Ge 22:1. Some of those to whom James writes were "sick," or otherwise "afflicted" (Jas 5:13). Every possible trial to the child of God is a masterpiece of strategy of the Captain of his salvation for his good.

Verses 2-18. - THE SUBJECT OF TEMPTATION. This section may be subdivided as follows: - (1) The value of temptation (vers. 2-4). (2) Digression suggested by the thought 'of perfection (vers. 5-11). (3) Return to the subject of temptation (vers. 12-18). Verses 2-4. - The value of temptation. Considered as an opportunity , it is a cause for joy. Verse 2. - My brethren . A favorite expression with St. James, occurring no less than fifteen times in the compass of this short Epistle. Count it all joy , etc.; cf. 1 Peter 1:6 , "Wherein ye greatly rejoice , though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold temptations , that the proof of your faith ( τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως )... might be found unto praise," etc. The coincidence is too close to be accidental, although the shade of meaning given to δοκίμιον is slightly different, if indeed it has any right in the text in St. Peter (see Herr, vol. it. p. 102). Here it has its proper force, and signifies that by which the faith is tried , i.e. the instrument of trial rather than the process of trial. Thus the passage in ver. 3 becomes parallel to Romans 5:3 , "tribulation worketh patience." With regard to the sentiments of ver. 2, "Count it all joy," etc., contrast Matthew 6:13 . Experience, however, shows that the two are compatible.

It is quite possible to shrink beforehand from temptation, and pray with intense earnestness, "Lead us not into temptation," and yet, when the temptation comes, to meet it joyfully, Περίπέσητε . The use of this word implies that the temptations of which St. James is thinking are external (see Luke 10:30 , where the same word is used of the man who fell among thieves). 1 Thessalonians 2:14 and Hebrews 10:32, 33 will show the trials to which believing Jews were subject. But the epithet "manifold" would indicate that we should not confine the word here to trials such as those. James 1:2

My brethren; both as being of the same nation and the same religion; so he calls them, that the kindness of his compellation might sweeten his exhortations. Count it; esteem it so by a spiritual judgment, though the flesh judge otherwise. All joy; matter of the chiefest joy, viz. spiritual. So all is taken, 1 Timothy 1:15 . When ye fall into; when ye are so beset and circumvented by them, that there is no escaping them, but they come upon you, though by the directeth of God’s providence, yet not by your own seeking. Divers temptations; so he calls afflictions, from God’s end in them, which is to try and discover what is in men, and whether they will cleave to him or not. The Jews were hated by other nations, and the Christian Jews even by their own, and therefore were exposed to divers afflictions, and of divers kinds, 1 Peter 1:6 .

(2-27) Immediately after the salutation, and with more or less a play upon the word which we translate “greeting” (“rejoice,” James 1:1 ; “count it all joy,” James 1:2 ) there follow appeals on behalf of patience, endurance. and meekness. (2) Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.—Better, Account it all joy whenever ye fall into divers temptations—i.e., trials; but even with this more exact rendering of the text, how can we, poor frail creatures of earth, it may well be asked, feel any joy under such? Do we not pray in our Saviour’s words, “Lead us not into temptation”? (See Matthew 6:13, and Note there.) Yet a little consideration will open out the teaching of Holy Scripture very plainly. The Apostle here is following the same line of thought as that expressed in Hebrews 5:14. By use (or habit, more properly) our senses may be exercised to the discernment of good and evil. The grace of God given to the soul is capable of growth and enlargement, like the powers of body and mind. If either be unemployed, weakness must supervene, and eventually decay and death. And just as the veteran who has proved his armour well, and learned to face habitual danger as a duty, is more trustworthy than a raw recruit, however large of limb and stout of heart, so with the Christian soldier. He must learn to “endure hardness” (2Timothy 2:3), and bear meekly and even gladly all the trials which are to strengthen him for the holy war.

Innocence is a grace indeed, and yet there is a higher stage of the same virtue, viz., the purity which has been won by long and often bitter conflict with the thousand suggestions of evil from without, stirring up the natural impurity within. Temptation is not sin. “You cannot,” says the old German divine, “prevent the birds flying over your head, but you can from making nests in your hair;” and the soul victorious over some such trying onset is by that very triumph stronger and better able to undergo the next assault, The act of virtue has, in truth, helped to build up the habit, from which, when it is perfected, a happy life cannot fail to spring. The interpretation of our Lord’s prayer is rather the cry for help to God our Father in the trial, than for actual escape from it: Lead us not, i.e., where we in our free will may choose the wrong and perish. And there is a strangely sweet joy to be snatched from the most grievous temptation in the remembrance that “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1Corinthians 10:13).

2 . count it all joy …] We lose, in the English, the link which connects the wish for “joy” merged in our “greeting,” with the thought which indicates how the wish may be realised even under conditions that seem most adverse to it. The transition may be noticed as characteristic of the style of the Epistle. Other examples of a like method will meet us as we go on. The Greek formula for “all joy” (literally, every kind of joy ) suggests the thought of the varied elements of joy that were to be found in the manifold forms of trial. into divers temptations ] The word, as commonly in the New Testament, stands for trials that take the form of suffering, rather than for the enticements of pleasure. Comp. Luke 22:28 ; Acts 20:19 ; 1 Corinthians 10:13 ; 1 Peter 1:6 . Its use implies accordingly that those to whom the Epistle was written were passing through a time of adversity. This was true, more or less, of the whole Jewish race, everywhere, but it was specially true of those who being of the Twelve Tribes, also held the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of those most of all who were most within the writer’s view. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:14 ; Hebrews 10:32-33 , for the sufferings of Jewish and specially of Hebrew Christians. The word for “fall into” implies an unlooked-for concurrence of adverse circumstances.