THE SPIRIT

The Epistle of James, directed against a nominal Christianity, or dead faith which had begun to prevail in his time, draws a line between nature and grace through all life. James contrasts spiritual religion with that forgetful hearing which, under the empty form, neither keeps itself unspotted from the world, nor exhibits the honour, the love, the benevolence which the law written on the heart prompts. He described that hollow profession by the licence given to the tongue, and by the vain boast of wisdom on which it plumed itself. Though he only once mentions the Spirit, the entire Epistle takes for granted the necessity of the Spirit’s renewing grace. He bids those who lack wisdom ask it of God by believing prayer (Jas. i. 5). He implies the Spirit’s agency when he says that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above (i. 17). He assumes the Spirit’s work of regeneration by the word of truth as the foundation of all (i. 18). The tenor of the Epistle implies that the Holy Spirit, the author of faith, first enters the Christian heart as His habitation, and then makes it a temple worthy of Himself. In the only passage where he definitely names the Spirit, he emphatically expresses this, viz.: “Do ye think that the Spirit saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?” This confessedly difficult passage is better translated: “Do you think that the Spirit speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit that dwelleth in us lust to envy?”¹ If we compare these words with the common style of the apostles, who speak of the Spirit as the great Inhabitant of the Christian heart, no doubt can exist that the allusion is to the Holy Spirit (Rom. viii. 9; 2 Tim. i. 14; 1 John iii. 34), who dwells in believers, and instructs, comforts, and sanctifies them. One of the most comprehensive descriptions of a Christian is that he is a man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. The pointed inquiry of the Apostle James to the envious and contentious men to whom he addressed himself is: Can the Holy Spirit have His habitation in a heart replete with envy? And the emphatic answer, tacitly implied, is: No. But (that is, on the contrary, de) He giveth more grace. The meaning is: the Holy Spirit makes the man in whom He dwells to cherish no envy at another’s welfare, but rather to wish their blessings augmented; and the same Spirit gives more grace to him who is thus minded, or makes him the recipient of more grace. On that man he confers richer communications of grace. As to the interpretation of the passage, it is not without its difficulties, as the quotation is not found in so many words in Scripture. Some refer it to the antediluvians (Gen. vi. 3), others to the Book of Proverbs (Prov. iii. 34). Not to mention far-fetched interpretations, it seems rather to refer to Moses’ conduct in the matter of Eldad and Medad, when Joshua, from a desire for the honour of Moses, would have forbidden them to prophesy. But Moses said: “Enviest thou for my sake?” (Num. xi. 29).