James Chapter 3

vs 10

Once again, it is hypocrisy as much as lack of love which makes this attitude and action so wrong. Although James is using the lack of love as the purpose of the statement, he uses the hypocritical nature of the situation to bring our sense of disgust to it.

vs 11-12

The answer is no. And don't give me some complicated science mumbo-jumbo, because James says the answer is no at the end of verse 12. If you're wheedling around trying to work out how to make this say yes, then I pity you, because it means you don't understand analogy and therefore you only have half a brain and are quite possibly some sort of poorly programmed robot.

vs 13

Once more, there is a need for something which is often invisible (wisdom and understanding) to be visible for our sakes. In this situation, James suggests that the most important action to come out of wisdom is humility. The greek literally says "a wise meekness". I am told this is using the genitive of quality. So good conduct and a wisely humble character will show your true wisdom and understanding.

vs 14

You shouldn't be proud of being bitterly jealous. I can't imagine someone boasting about that. But I can imagine someone denying the truth because of it. There are some people out there who will just go and do the opposite thing, or not do the good thing, simply because they've been told to do it, so it no longer seems like they chose to do it. James says no!

Then there are people who boast about their selfish ambition. This word in greek, eritheia, particularly denotes those who seek pursuit of political office by unfair means (it's used that way in Aristotle, and isn't really used apart from the NT). So I think selfish ambition is a good translation. It certainly helps me keep in focus that while ambition is good, if it is ambition for purely selfish reasons, then it's not good at all.

vs 15

I like James' picture of the wisdom coming down from on high, only for him to say that it doesn't really. Instead, it almost seeps out of the ground and wets your shoes with a sticky demonic goo. Bitter envy and selfish ambition are two building blocks that western society is absolutely built on. The envy is what makes you want to buy stuff - the old "keeping up with the Jones's" that advertising works so hard to make you think you need - and the selfish ambition is the "it's all about you" culture that tells you it's ok to want all the stuff those other people have.

Look, this isn't new, and I'm not harping on capitalism as if it's the devil. But it is - just no more than any other society. Since time immemorial, what social class has dictated how things get done? The rich? And through what means? Envy and selfish ambition. Why do we all spend so many tens of thousands of dollars on a wedding? Because it's what everyone else does! And do you know why they do it? Because during a time when there was a rich class and a poor class, the rich would have these outlandish weddings, and the poor would say "I wish I was rich (envy), so I want to have as big a wedding as I can so I can be more like them (selfish ambition)".

But James is saying here that these are not wisdom from God. They are of Satan. So we just cannot afford as churches or as individual Christians to get sucked into the capitalist culture.

vs 16

Is the message clear yet? These things, these building blocks of an anti-God society, they lead to disorder and evil. And we might think that western countries with their immense riches are well ordered, but that is an earthly, natural order, a "survival of the fittest" order. That is not God's way! So they are in disorder with respect to God. The word phaulos (translated 'evil') literally means ordinary or worthless, and from there has obviously come to mean ethically bad or wicked. So at the very best, these things lead to worthless practice and disorder amongst the way things are meant to be. And people wonder why they are so unhappy.

vs 17

Can you even imagine a society where these things were the building blocks of society? A society which first and foremost was based on purity? For one thing, that means sex would no longer sell. Peace-loving? It would mean that relationships would be more important that profits. Considerate? It would mean that people and how things affect them would actually be taken into account, and there would no longer be any such thing as "collateral damage". Submissive? It would mean people would be prepared to do the job they are doing at the present, and not backstab people or put them down in order to walk on their bodies to get to the top job. Full of mercy? It would mean that forgiveness and compassion would reign. Good fruit? I think that is the obvious result of such a society - but here we are talking about a building block - so what we mean is a society where the impact something is going to have on someone is measured by how much it will help them grow and how productive it will help them be, as well as how productive it will be, and ensuring that the outcomes will be positive. I prefer the NASB translation of "unwavering" for the next word (adiakritos is the negative form of 'unintelligible', and so the idea is that it is 'without uncertanity') - so it's a society where we make sure people understand and are sure of what they believe. Finally, it is sincere (NIV better than the NASB of 'without hypocrisy"). So it's a society where all this stuff isn't just a veneer covering the true state of horror and vileness (that is what our current society is, by the way), but a society where the power of your conviction is as important to that society as the job you do.

Sounds nice to me.

vs 18

This verse is why I love the NIV. The NASB reads "And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." Yeah, ok, that is probably closer to the order in which the greek words are (the greek reads literally "And [the] fruit of righteousness in peace is sown for the [ones] making peace" but should be read "is sown in peace"). But that is so much more difficult to read than the NIV. The NIV says the exact same thing, but says it in a much prettier way.

Anyway, what does it mean? It means that those people, the peacemakers, who are seeking to plant the seed of peace, will themselves be considered righteous. To break that right down, "pecemaking is the right thing to do". Or if you want to sound hella-spiritual, "peacemaking is the thing to do if you want God to think you're in the right".