James 1:8

1:1-11 Christianity teaches men to be joyful under troubles: such exercises are sent from God's love; and trials in the way of duty will brighten our graces now, and our crown at last. Let us take care, in times of trial, that patience, and not passion, is set to work in us: whatever is said or done, let patience have the saying and doing of it. When the work of patience is complete, it will furnish all that is necessary for our Christian race and warfare. We should not pray so much for the removal of affliction, as for wisdom to make a right use of it. And who does not want wisdom to guide him under trials, both in regulating his own spirit, and in managing his affairs? Here is something in answer to every discouraging turn of the mind, when we go to God under a sense of our own weakness and folly. If, after all, any should say, This may be the case with some, but I fear I shall not succeed, the promise is, To any that asketh, it shall be given. A mind that has single and prevailing regard to its spiritual and eternal interest, and that keeps steady in its purposes for God, will grow wise by afflictions, will continue fervent in devotion, and rise above trials and oppositions. When our faith and spirits rise and fall with second causes, there will be unsteadiness in our words and actions. This may not always expose men to contempt in the world, but such ways cannot please God. No condition of life is such as to hinder rejoicing in God.

Those of low degree may rejoice, if they are exalted to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom of God; and the rich may rejoice in humbling providences, that lead to a humble and lowly disposition of mind. Worldly wealth is a withering thing. Then, let him that is rich rejoice in the grace of God, which makes and keeps him humble; and in the trials and exercises which teach him to seek happiness in and from God, not from perishing enjoyments.

James 1:8 . A double-minded man — Ανηρ διψυχος , a man who has, as it were, two souls; whose heart is divided between God and the world, and is not simply given up to him, nor entirely confides in him for the direction, aid, and support which he stands in need of; is unstable in all his ways — Being without the true wisdom, he perpetually disagrees both with himself and others; and will be perpetually running into inconsistencies of conduct, while those imperfect impressions of religion which he feels will serve rather to perplex and torment than to guide and confirm him in the right way.

A double-minded man is unstable, etc The A. V. puts this as an independent apophthegm, which is wrong. The sentence is a comment and enlargement upon that man. "Let not that man think," etc., "a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." So Rev. Double-minded (δίψυχος) Peculiar to James, here and James 4:8. Not deceitful, but dubious and undecided. Unstable (ἀκατάστατος) Only here in New Testament. The kindred ἀκαταστασία, confusion, is found James 3:16, and elsewhere.

Jam 1:8 . Ἀνὴρ δίψυχος , a double-minded man ) The same word ( δίψυχος ) is applied, ch. Jam 4:8 , to those who have not a heart pure and simply given up to God. The word does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, or in the Septuagint. It may be translated “ having two souls ,” as we speak of “a double-tongued ”[7] man. Hesychius, διψυχία ἀπορία , “ a state of doubt or perplexity . It is therefore connected in meaning with the word οιακρινόμενος , “the wavering.” Such a man has, as it were, two souls, of which the one holds one opinion, the other holds another. Sir 2:12 , ΟὐΑῚ ΚΑΡΔΊΑΙς ΔΕΙΛΑῖς, ΚΑῚ ΧΕΡΣῚ ΠΑΡΕΙΜΈΝΑΙς, ΚΑῚ ἉΜΑΡΤΩΛῷ ἘΠΙΒΑΊΝΟΝΤΙ ἘΠῚ ΔΎΟ ΤΡΊΒΟΥς : “ Woe be to fearful hearts, and faint hands, and the sinner that goeth two ways! ”— ἀκατάστατος , unstable ) For he does not obtain Divine direction by prayer: and being destitute of wisdom , he is at variance with himself and with others. Comp. ch. Jam 3:16 . [7] Both these meanings are contained in the German falsch . James 1:8

8. double-minded—literally, "double-souled," the one soul directed towards God, the other to something else. The Greek favors Alford's translation, "He (the waverer, Jas 1:6) is a man double-minded, unstable," &c.; or better, Beza's. The words in this Jas 1:8 are in apposition with "that man," Jas 1:7; thus the "us," which is not in the original, will not need to be supplied, "A man double-minded, unstable in all his ways!" The word for "double-minded" is found here and in Jas 4:8, for the first time in Greek literature. It is not a hypocrite that is meant, but a fickle, "wavering" man, as the context shows. It is opposed to the single eye (Mt 6:22).

A double minded man; either; 1. A hypocrite, who is said to have a double heart, Psalm 12:2 . Or rather; 2. He that is of a doubtful mind, wavering, and fluctuating with contrary motions, sometimes of one mind, sometimes of another; sometimes hoping, sometimes desponding. Is unstable; either unconstant, without any fixedness or consistency of spirit, as ready to depart from God as to cleave to him; or unquiet, troubled, full of inward tumults. In all his ways; by a Hebraism, ways, for counsels, purposes, actions, &c.

(8) The eighth verse had better be joined with the seventh, and punctuated thus:— Let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord: — double minded, unstable in all his ways. The reason why he can obtain nothing is because he is a man of two minds, and by consequence uncertain in his ways. The words, apparently are those of a proverb. It is useless to have, as it were, two hearts, one lifted up to God, the other turned away. “Come not unto Him with a double heart” ( Ecclesiasticus 1:28 ; and comp. Matthew 6:24 ).

8 . A double minded man …] The context shews that the man so described (the Greek word is not found in any earlier writer and may have been coined by St James) is not the fraudulent man but the waverer, trying to serve two masters ( Matthew 6:24 ), halting between two opinions ( 1 Kings 18:21 ). It answers to the “ double heart ” (Heb. “ a heart and a heart ”) of Psalm 12:2 . In Sir 1:28 we find the same thought, though not the same word, “Come not unto the Lord with a double heart ,” and again in Sir 2:12 , where a woe is uttered against the “sinner that goeth two ways ,” in company with “the fearful and faint-hearted.” Clement of Rome (i. 11) reproduces St James’s word. The construction of the sentence is doubtful, and may be taken either as in the English text, or, with “he that doubteth” as the subject and “double-minded, unstable” as predicates. unstable ] The Greek word is found in the LXX. of Isaiah 54:11 , where the English version has “tossed with tempest.” It is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, except as a various reading in ch. James 3:8 , but the corresponding noun is often used both literally and figuratively ( Luke 21:9 ; 1 Corinthians 14:33 ; 2 Corinthians 6:5 ; 2 Corinthians 12:20 ; James 3:16 and the LXX. of Proverbs 26:28 ). There is a slight change of imagery, and the picture brought before us is that of a man who does not walk straight onward, but in “all his ways” goes to and fro, now on this side, now on that, staggering, like a drunken man.

Jam 1:8 . δίψυχος : Although this word is not found in either the Septuagint or elsewhere in the N.T. (excepting in Jam 4:8 ) its occurrence is not rare otherwise; Clement of Rome, quoting what he calls ὁ προφητικὸς λόγος , says: ταλαίπωροί εἰσιν οἱ δίψυχοι , οἱ διστάζοντες τῇ καρδίᾳ … (Resch., Agrapha , p. 325 [2nd ed.]); the word occurs a number of times in Hermas, e.g., Mand. , ix. 1, 5, 6, 7; xi. 13; so too in Barn., xix. 5, and in Did., iv. 4, as well as in other ancient Christian writings and in Philo. The frame of mind of the ἀνὴρ δίψυχος is equivalent to a “double heart,” see Sir 1:25 , μὴ προσέλθῃς αὐτῷ ( i.e. , the fear of the Lord) ἐν καρδίᾳ δισσῇ ; this is precisely the equivalent of the Hebrew לֵב וָלֵב in Psalm 12:3 , which the Septuagint unfortunately translates literally, ἐν καρδίᾳ καὶ ἐν καρδίᾳ . In Enoch xci. 4 we have: “Draw not nigh to uprightness with a double heart, and associate not with those of a double heart”; as the Greek version of this work is not extant it is impossible to say for certain how “double heart” was rendered. On the construction here see Mayor.— ἀκατάστατος ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτοῦ : this is severe, and reads as if the writer had some particular person in mind.

The double-hearted man is certainly one who is quite unreliable. Ἀκατάστατος , which occurs only here and in Jam 3:8 (but see critical note) in the N.T., is found in the Septuagint, though very rarely; in Isaiah 54:11 we have Ταπεινὴ καὶ ἀκατάστατος οὐ παρεκλήθης , where the Hebrew for ἀκατάστ . ( סֹעֲרָה ) means “storm-tossed”. In the verse before us the word seems to mean unreliability, the man who does not trust God cannot be trusted by men; this probably is what must have been in the mind of the writer.— ἐν πάσαις , etc.: a Hebrew expression for the course of a man’s life in the sense of his “manner of life” ( ἀναστροφή , see Jam 3:13 ) see Proverbs 3:1 , ἐν πάσαις ὁδοῖς σου γνώριζε αὐτήν (Hebrew αὐτόν ), ἵνα ὀρθοτομῇ τὰς ὁδούς σου . The sense of the expression is certainly different from ἐν ταῖς πορείαις αὐτοῦ in Jam 1:11 which refers to the days of a man’s life.