James 1:5

James 1:5-7 . If any of you — In whole or in part; lack wisdom — To understand whence and why temptations come, and how they are to be improved, or for any other purpose. Wisdom, in the common acceptation of the word, denotes a sound practical judgment concerning things to be done or avoided: but here the expression seems to mean wisdom to know how to conduct ourselves under afflictions, or how to make a right use of them. Patience is in every pious man already; let him exercise this, and ask for wisdom. The sum of wisdom, how to conduct ourselves in the trial of poverty, on the one hand, and riches, on the other, is described in the 9th and 10th verses. The connection between the second and following verses of this chapter will be easily discerned by him who reads them while he is suffering wrongfully. He will then readily perceive why the apostle mentions all these various affections of the mind. Let him ask of God — The eternal fountain of wisdom, as well as of grace; that giveth to all — That ask aright; liberally — Freely and richly; and upbraideth not — Either with their past sinfulness or present unworthiness. But let him ask in faith — With a firm confidence in the power, love, and faithfulness of God. St.

James also both begins and ends with faith, James 5:15 ; the hinderances of which he removes in the middle part of his epistle; nothing wavering — Or doubting, as διακρινομενος frequently and properly signifies; or not divided in his mind, between the desires of obtaining and the fears of not obtaining the grace he asks; or not questioning God’s willingness to bestow it. For he that wavereth — Or doubteth, and therefore is divided in his mind, as just observed, and who does not firmly confide in the goodness and faithfulness of God, can have no other solid and substantial support, but is like a wave of the sea — Restless and inconstant; driven with the wind to and fro, and tossed about at its mercy; is unsettled and irresolute. Let not that man — Who thus yields to diffidence and distrust; think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord — While he continues in such an unstable and wavering state of mind, and dares not rely on God for those supplies of grace which he professes to seek. Such unreasonable doubts and suspicions, as they wrong the divine goodness, so they may, in many instances, prevent the communication of those favours which might otherwise be obtained.

James DIVINE WISDOM, AND HOW TO GET IT Jam 1:5 . ‘IF any of you lack.’ James has just used the same word in the previous verse, and it is to be regretted that the principle upon which our authorised translators went of varying the rendering of identical expressions, masks the repetition here. James has just been telling his brethren that their aim should be to be ‘perfect and entire, lacking nothing.’ And that thought naturally suggests the other one of how great the contrast is between that possible completeness and the actual condition of Christians in general. So he gently and courteously puts, as a hypothesis, what is only too certain a fact in those to whom he is speaking; and says, not as he might have done, ‘since you all lack,’ but, with gracious forbearance, ‘if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.’ Now, it seems to me that, in this hypothetical exhortation there are three points to be noted, two of them being somewhat unlike what we should have looked for. One is the great deficiency in the average Christian character - wisdom; another is the great means of supplying it - ask; and the third is the great guarantee of the supply - the giving God, whose gifts are bestowed on all liberally and without upbraiding. I. The great deficiency in the average Christian character - wisdom. Now, that is not exactly what we should have expected to be named as the main thing lacking in the average Christian.

If we had been asked to specify the chief defect we should probably have thought of something else than wisdom. But, if we remember who is speaking, we shall understand better what he means by this word. James is a Jew, steeped through and through in the Old Testament. We have only to recall the Book of Proverbs, and what it has to say about ‘wisdom’ and ‘folly,’ by which it means something a great deal deeper and more living than knowledge and ignorance or intellectual strength and feebleness, or practical sagacity and its opposite. That deeper conception of wisdom which bases it all on ‘the fear of the Lord,’ and regards it as moral and spiritual and not as merely or chiefly intellectual, pervades the whole New Testament. This Epistle is more of an echo of the earlier revelation than any other part of the New Testament, and we may be quite sure that James uses this venerable word with all the associations of its use there, and in all the solemn depth of meaning which he had learned to attach to it, on the lips of psalmists, prophets, and teachers of the true wisdom. If that were at all doubtful, it is made certain by his own subsequent description of ‘wisdom.’ He says that it is ‘from above,’ and then goes on to ascribe all manner of moral and spiritual good to its presence and working on a man.