21 For this reason, putting away all dirty behaviour and the overweight of evil, take into your souls without pride the word which, being planted there, is able to give you salvation.
That you are to put away, in relation to your earlier way of life, the old man, which has become evil by love of deceit;
In whom you, having been given the true word, the good news of your salvation, and through your faith in him, were given the sign of the Holy Spirit of hope,
Then put to death your bodies which are of the earth; wrong use of the flesh, unclean things, passion, evil desires and envy, which is the worship of strange gods; Because of which the wrath of God comes on those who go against his orders; Among whom you were living in the past, when you did such things. But now it is right for you to put away all these things; wrath, passion, bad feeling, curses, unclean talk;
The spirit is the life giver; the flesh is of no value: the words which I have said to you are spirit and they are life.
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Make your hands clean, you evil-doers; put away deceit from your hearts, you false in mind.
By which you have salvation; that is to say, the form in which it was given to you, if it is fixed in your minds, and if your faith in it is not without effect.
My loved ones, I make this request with all my heart, that, as those for whom this world is a strange country, you will keep yourselves from the desires of the flesh which make war against the soul;
And that from the time when you were a child, you have had knowledge of the holy Writings, which are able to make you wise to salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. Every holy Writing which comes from God is of profit for teaching, for training, for guiding, for education in righteousness: So that the man of God may be complete, trained and made ready for every good work.
Because our good news came to you, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, so that you were completely certain of it; even as you saw what our behaviour to you was like from our love to you.
For so you have the true end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
For the grace of God has come, giving salvation to all men,
And for this cause we still give praise to God, that, when the word came to your ears through us, you took it, not as the word of man, but, as it truly is, the word of God, which has living power in you who have faith.
In that day men will put their images of silver and of gold, which they made for worship, in the keeping of the beasts of the dark places;
And you will make unclean what is covering your pictured images of silver, and the plating of your images of gold: you will send them away as an unclean thing, saying, Be gone!
Put away all your evil-doing in which you have done sin; and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit: why are you desiring death, O children of Israel?
And I will put clean water on you so that you may be clean: from all your unclean ways and from all your images I will make you clean.
Happy are the gentle: for the earth will be their heritage.
Then Simon Peter gave this answer: Lord, to whom are we to go? you have the words of eternal life;
For I have no feeling of shame about the good news, because it is the power of God giving salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first, and then to the Greek.
But praise be to God that though you were the servants of sin, you have now given yourselves freely to that form of teaching under which you were placed;
The night is far gone, and the day is near: so let us put off the works of the dark, arming ourselves with light, With right behaviour as in the day; not in pleasure-making and drinking, not in bad company and unclean behaviour, not in fighting and envy.
Because God, then, will give us such rewards, dear brothers, let us make ourselves clean from all evil of flesh and spirit, and become completely holy in the fear of God.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on James 1
Commentary on James 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
The General Epistle of James
Chapter 1
After the inscription and salutation (v. 1) Christians are taught how to conduct themselves when under the cross. Several graces and duties are recommended; and those who endure their trials and afflictions as the apostle here directs are pronounced blessed and are assured of a glorious reward (v. 2-12). But those sins which bring sufferings, or the weakness and faults men are chargeable with under them, are by no means to be imputed to God, who cannot be the author of sin, but is the author of all good (v. 13-18). All passion, and rash anger, and vile affections, ought to be suppressed. The word of God should be made our chief study: and what we hear and know of it we must take care to practise, otherwise our religion will prove but a vain thing. To this is added an account wherein pure religion consists (v. 19-27).
Jam 1:1
We have here the inscription of this epistle, which consists of three principal parts.
Jam 1:2-12
We now come to consider the matter of this epistle. In this paragraph we have the following things to be observed:-
Jam 1:13-18
Jam 1:19-27
In this part of the chapter we are required,