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Andreas of Caesarea

Late Patristic · AD 500–800 · 414 passages across 10 books

Commentary

121–140 of 414
James 1:4

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Why do trials produce patience? It is because patience brings those who experience it to perfection.

CATENA

James 1:13

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

Any testing which comes from God is for good, not for evil.… It is quite otherwise with the devil. He tempts in order to kill those whom he has tempted. Furthermore, the devil does not know what is inside us, but God knows and has given everyone his task to accomplish, according to his sovereign will.

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James 1:16

Do not err, my beloved brethren.

“Do not be deceived” into thinking that temptations come from God.

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James 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

The lights are either the rational powers or else those who have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit.

CATENA

James 1:18

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

The birth here applies in the first instance to the Son and then by extension to the creatures. For to him belong truth and consubstantiality with God, whereas to the creatures belong honor and inheritance. The fact that the same name is used does not mean that the same honor is given, nor should things which are said by extension be taken to mean that they apply in the first instance as well. By “first fruits” James means that we are the first and most highly honored. For by “creatures” he means the visible creation, of which humanity is the most highly honored part.

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James 1:21

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

This refers to the sin which corrupts a man, which dwells in us as the cause of evil. But outside us there is another kind of evil which creeps up on us unawares and is the work of demons who are opposed to us.

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James 1:22

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

In other words, be mindful of your own salvation!

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James 1:23

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

If someone is a hearer of the word only and does not confirm it by his deeds, he will lose the word as well, for it will slip through his fingers and disappear.

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James 1:24

For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

We learn what God has made us like, having given us new birth by the washing of regeneration. But if we do not remember what we have seen and apply it in our deeds, then we shall lose the grace which has been given to us. But the one who remembers that he has been born again from on high, that he has been justified, and sanctified and counted among the children of God, will not give himself over to works which reject that grace.

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James 1:26

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

This rule is the bottom line of true religion.

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James 2:8

If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

Just as you want to be treated justly and properly by your neighbor, so you must behave toward him as you would towards your kinsman and child of God. What our Savior said about this is absolutely right: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. For this is the law and the prophets.”

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James 2:10

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

To fail in one point is to lack perfect love, for this is the source of all good deeds. If something in the head is not right, the rest of the body suffers as a result. The entire purpose and plan of God is designed to lead to perfect love. That is the meaning of the commandments such as “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not kill” and so on.

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James 2:14

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

If someone does not show by his deeds that he believes in God, his profession of faith is worthless. For it is not the one who just says that he is the Lord’s who is a believer, but the one who loves the Lord so much that he is prepared to risk even death because of his faith in him.

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James 2:19

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

James gives us the example of the devils, saying that those who profess faith with their lips only are really no better than they are. For even they believe that Christ is the Son of God, that he is the Holy One of God and that he has authority over them.

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James 2:21

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

Now someone might object to this and say: “Did Paul not use Abraham as an example of someone who was justified by faith, without works? And here James is using the very same Abraham as an example of someone who was justified, not by faith alone, but also by works which confirm that faith.” How can we answer this? And how can Abraham be an example of faith without works, as well as of faith with works, at the same time? But the solution is ready to hand from the Scriptures. For the same Abraham is at different times an example of both kinds of faith. The first is prebaptismal faith, which does not require works but only confession and the word of salvation, by which those who believe in Christ are justified. The second is postbaptismal faith, which is combined with works. Understood in this way, the two apostles do not contradict one another, but one and the same Spirit is speaking through both of them.

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James 3:4

Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.

James says that if we can contain the spirits of a horse by putting a bit into his mouth and control the direction of a ship with a small rudder, how much more ought we to be able to guide the tongue by right words toward doing good.

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James 3:6

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

James did not say that the course of our life ignites the tongue but that the tongue ignites the course of our life. For it causes us to make wrong decisions and leads us into rashness. By it, our life is thrown off course and subjected to many kinds of wickedness.

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James 3:7

For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

James says that it is unnatural that we should be able to domesticate all the creatures but not be able to control our own tongues.

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James 3:10

Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

Nothing bitter should come out of a mouth which has uttered the praise of so great a mystery, nor should the tongue say anything which is unworthy of a holy mouth. Let us keep it pure and not use it to curse. For if those who rail against God will not inherit the kingdom, how much more will this be true of those who curse?

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James 3:12

Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

For being power-hungry and filled with the wisdom of the world, they preached with the force and zeal of orthodox teachers, gathering a crowd with no trouble at all and deceiving them, mixing human things with the divine, so that the hearers might be dazzled by the newness of what was being said. That is how heresy arose. But James forbids that kind of teaching and whatever comes from a wisdom which is not divine but diabolical. He said all this in order to praise good teaching, the wisdom which comes from humility in words and in useful deeds.

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