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Selected Verse: James 3:14 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Jas 3:14 |
King James |
But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
if ye have--as is the case (this is implied in the Greek indicative).
bitter-- Eph 4:31, "bitterness."
envying--rather, "emulation," or literally, "zeal": kindly, generous emulation, or zeal, is not condemned, but that which is "bitter" [BENGEL].
strife--rather, "rivalry."
in your hearts--from which flow your words and deeds, as from a fountain.
glory not, and lie not against the truth--To boast of your wisdom is virtually a lying against the truth (the gospel), while your lives belie your glorying. Jam 3:15; Jam 1:18, "The word of truth." Rom 2:17, Rom 2:23, speaks similarly of the same contentious Jewish Christians. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts - If that is your characteristic. There is reference here to a fierce and unholy zeal against each other; a spirit of ambition and contention.
Glory not - Do not boast, in such a case, of your qualifications to be public teachers. Nothing would render you more unfit for such an office than such a spirit.
And lie not against the truth - You would lie against what is true by setting up a claim to the requisite qualifications for such an office, if this is your spirit. Men should seek no office or station which they could not properly seek if the whole truth about them were known. |
| Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886] |
Envying (ζῆλον)
The word is used in the New Testament both in a bad and a good sense. For the latter, see Joh 2:17; Rom 10:2; Co2 9:2. From it is our word zeal, which may be either good or bad, wise or foolish. The bad sense is predominant in the New Testament. See Act 5:17; Rom 13:13; Gal 5:20, and here, where the bad sense is defined and emphasized by the epithet bitter. It is often joined with ἔρις strife, as here with ἐρίθεια, intriguing or faction. The rendering envying, as A. V., more properly belongs to φθόνος, which is never used in a good sense. Emulation is the better general rendering, which does not necessarily include envy, but may be full of the spirit of self-devotion. Rev. renders jealousy.
Strife (ἐριθείαν)
A wrong rendering, founded on the mistaken derivation from ἔρις, strife. It is derived from ἔριθος, a hired servant, and means, primarily, labor for hire. Compare Tobit 2:11: My wife did take women's work to do (ἠριθεύετο). Thus it comes to be applied to those who serve in official positions for their own selfish interest, and who, to that end, promote party spirit and faction. So Rom 2:8 : them that are contentious (ἐξ ἐριθείας), lit., of faction. Rev., factious. Also, Co2 12:20. Rev., here, rightly, faction. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| If ye have bitter zeal - True Christian zeal is only the flame of love. Even in your hearts - Though it went no farther. Do not lie against the truth - As if such zeal could consist with heavenly wisdom. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
If ye have bitter envying and strife - If ye be under the influence of an unkind, fierce, and contemptuous spirit, even while attempting or pretending to defend true religion, do not boast either of your exertions or success in silencing an adversary; ye have no religion, and no true wisdom, and to profess either is to lie against the truth. Let all writers on what is called polemic (fighting, warring) divinity lay this to heart. The pious Mr. Herbert gives excellent advice on this subject: -
"Be calm in arguing, for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy;
Why should I feel another man's mistakes
More than his sickness or his poverty?
In love I should; but anger is not love,
Nor wisdom neither; therefore g-e-n-t-l-y m-o-v-e." |
23 Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
20 For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
17 Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,
2 For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.