James 4:5

James 4:5 . Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain — Without good ground, or that it speaks falsely. St. James seems to refer to many, not to one particular passage of Scripture. The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy — That is, as many understand the words, our natural corruption, excited and influenced by Satan, strongly inclines us to unkind and envious dispositions toward our fellow-creatures. Some, however, suppose that the Spirit of God is intended by the apostle in this clause, and that the sense is, The Spirit of love, that dwelleth in all believers, lusteth against envy, ( Galatians 5:17 ,) is directly opposite to all those unloving tempers which necessarily flow from the friendship of the world. Nearly to the same purpose is Doddridge’s paraphrase of the verse: “Do you think the Scripture speaks in vain in all the passages in which it guards us against such a temper as this, and leads the mind directly to God as the supreme good, teaching us to abandon every thing for him? Or does the Holy Spirit, that dwells in us Christians, lust to envy? Does it encourage these worldly affections, this strife and envying which we have reproved? Or can it be imagined that we, who appear to have so much of the Spirit, have any interested views in the cautions we give, and would persuade you from the pursuit of the world, because we should envy you the enjoyment of it? No.”

{4} Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? (4) The taking away of an objection: in deed our minds run headlong into these vices, but we ought so much the more diligently take heed of them: whose care and study shall not be in vain, seeing that God resists the stubborn and gives the grace to the modest and humble that surmounts all those vices.

Jam 4:5 . Κενῶς ) in vain, without effect , so that it matters nothing to guilt or to salvation. Whatever things the Scripture says are serious. We ought to reverence every word.— λέγει , saith ) not λαλεῖ , speaks, saith the things which follow.— πρὸς φθόνον ) against envy . This noun ( φθόνος ) does not occur in the Septuagint, and it does not seem probable that James should have wished to make so great a change in this verse, and yet, in Jam 4:6 , have made an exact quotation from another passage. We may infer from this, that the quotation here is from the Scriptures of the New Testament: for the writings of the New Testament, as well as the Old, are reckoned in the Scriptures ; 2 Peter 3:16 . Some refer it to Genesis 6:5 ; Genesis 6:3 ; or to Numbers 11:29 ; or to Proverbs 21:10 ; or to some lost book. But the words of James are near enough to Galatians 5:17 , and following verses; where φθόνοι , envyings , are placed among the works of the flesh, and the spirit is said to have desires contrary to the flesh, and they who are led by this spirit are not under the law, but under grace . But this passage agrees especially with 1 Peter 2:1-2 ; 1 Peter 2:5 . Laying aside —ENVYINGS, DESIRE the milk of the word—a SPIRITUAL HOUSE. And that which here follows. But He giveth more grace , agrees with that, the Lord is gracious , Jam 4:3 . He who has this passage of St Peter well impressed upon his mind, will altogether recognise the reference of St James to it.

Nor does the chronological order of the epistles stand in the way. Thus James not only concurs with St Peter, but also with St Paul.— φθόνον ) The friendship of the world necessarily produces envy: the Spirit, which has taken up His dwelling in us, does not bear envy .— τὸ πνεῦμα ) The Spirit of grace and love.— κατῴκησεν ) takes up His dwelling .— ἐν ἥμῖν , in us ) Sons, of the New Testament.

5. in vain—No word of Scripture can be so. The quotation here, as in Eph 5:14, seems to be not so much from a particular passage as one gathered by James under inspiration from the general tenor of such passages in both the Old and New Testaments, as Nu 14:29; Pr 21:20; Ga 5:17. spirit that dwelleth in us—Other manuscripts read, "that God hath made to dwell in us" (namely, at Pentecost). If so translated, "Does the (Holy) Spirit that God hath placed in us lust to (towards) envy" (namely, as ye do in your worldly "wars and fightings")? Certainly not; ye are therefore walking in the flesh, not in the Spirit, while ye thus lust towards, that is, with envy against one another. The friendship of the world tends to breed envy; the Spirit produces very different fruit. Alford attributes the epithet "with envy," in the unwarrantable sense of jealously, to the Holy Spirit: "The Spirit jealously desires us for His own." In English Version the sense is, "the (natural) spirit that hath its dwelling in us lusts with (literally, 'to,' or 'towards') envy." Ye lust, and because ye have not what ye lust after (Jas 4:1, 2), ye envy your neighbor who has, and so the spirit of envy leads you on to "fight." James also here refers to Jas 3:14, 16.

Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain? Greek, emptily, or vainly, i.e. to no purpose. This question hath the force of a negation, q.d. It doth not speak in vain. Question. What is it which the Scripture doth not speak in vain? Answer. Either those truths he had been speaking of before, particularly in the former verse, that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; or, that which follows in this verse, the spirit that dwelleth in us, & c. The spirit that dwelleth in us; either the Spirit of God, who is said to dwell in believers, 1 Corinthians 3:16,17 ; or the spirit of men, viz. as defiled by sin, and acted by the devil, who works in men while children of disobedience; and then it is the same as corrupt nature. Lusteth to envy; either is vehemently carried out to envy, or makes us lust, and carrieth us out to it; or lusteth against envy: so the Greek preposition is often used, as Luke 20:19 Ephesians 6:11 Hebrews 12:4 . Under envy he comprehends all other fleshly lusts, but instanceth in this particularly, as having been speaking of it before, Jam 3:14,16 ; and because it hath so near a connection with other lusts, whereof it is the cause, or concomitant, and so is a principal member of the old man. This latter clause may either be read interrogatively or affirmatively; and then according as we take spirit, either for the Spirit of God, or the human spirit, the sense of the words may be either: 1.

Doth the Spirit of God, that dwelleth in us, lust unto envy, i.e. incline and dispose us to so base an affection? The answer is understood: No, and confirmed by the next words, he giveth more grace, gives freely, liberally, and therefore doth not make us envy others any good they have. Nothing is more contrary to the Spirit of God, who abounds in his gifts to us, than to make us envy others theirs. Or: 2. We may understand it without any interrogation, taking the preposition to signify, against; and then the sense is: That good Spirit which is in us teacheth us better things than strife and envy, &c., for it lusteth against envy, i.e. makes us lust against it, carries out our hearts to hate and resist it. And this well agrees with what follows; The Spirit, &c., lusts against envy, but he gives more grace, viz. than to envy the good f others. Or: 3. If spirit here be understood of the spirit of man, corrupt nature, the sense is plain, as the words lie; man’s spirit (especially by the instigation of the devil) lusts, or strongly inclines, to envy, and consequently to other wickednesses, but he (that is, God, Jam 4:4 ) gives more grace. Question. Where is any such sentence to be found in the Scripture? Answer. No where in so many words; but which soever of these ways we take the words, we find the sense in the Scripture.

Verses 5, 6. - The difficulty of the passage is well shown by the hesitation of the Revisers. The first clause is rendered, " Or think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain?" but as an alternative there is suggested in the margin, "Or think ye that the Scripture saith in vain?" as if the following clause were a quotation from Scripture. And of this following clause three possible renderings are suggested. (1) In the text : "Doth the Spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore the Scripture saith," etc. (2) Margin 1: "The Spirit which he made to dwell in us he yearneth for even unto jealous envy. But he giveth," etc. (3) Margin 2: "That Spirit which he made to dwell in us yearneth for us even unto jealous envy. But he giveth," etc. Further, it is noted in the margin that some ancient authorities read "dwelleth in us," i.e. κατώκησεν , which is the reading of the Received Text, and so of the A.V. resting upon K, L; א and B being the primary authorities for κατώκισεν . With regard to the first clause, the rendering of the R.V., "speaketh," may be justified by Hebrews 9:5 . It is possible that St. James was intending to quote Proverbs 3:34 immediately, but after the introductory formula, η} δοκεῖτε ὅτι κενῶς ἡ γραφὴ λέγει , he interposes with the emphatic question, "Is it to envy ," etc.?

and does not arrive at the quotation till ver. 6, when he introduces it with a fresh formula of quotation, διὸ λέγει , a looseness of construction which is quite natural in a Hebrew. Other views, for which it is believed there is less to be urged, are the following: (1) that the words, πρὸς φθονόν , κ.τ.λ ., are a quotation from some (now lost) early Christian writing. On this view the passage is parallel to Ephesians 5:14 , where a portion of a Christian hymn is introduced by the words, διὸ λέγει . (2) That St. James is referring to the general drift rather than to the exact words of several passages of the Old Testament; e.g. Genesis 6:3-5 ; Deuteronomy 32:10, 19 , etc. (3) That the allusion is to some passage of the New Testament, either Galatians 5:17 or 1 Peter 2:1 , etc. Passing on to the translation of the second clause, πρὸς φθονόν κ.τ.λ ., it must be noted that φθονός is never used elsewhere in the New Testament or in the LXX. (Wisd. 6:25; 1 Macc. 8:16) or in the apostolic Fathers except in a bad sense. True that Exodus 20:5 teaches us that God is a " jealous God ," but there the LXX. renders קנא by the far nobler word ζηλωτής : cf.