Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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James 4

1Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

2You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.

3You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

7Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

12Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

14Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

15For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

16But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

17To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

Early Christian commentary

Late 1st century AD (traditionally c. 95–100) | Clement of Rome

Seeing, therefore, that we are the portion of the Holy One, let us do all those things which pertain to holiness, avoiding all evil-speaking, all abominable and impure embraces, together with all drunkenness, seeking after change, all abominable lusts, detestable adultery, and execrable pride. “For God,” saith [the Scripture], “resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” Let us cleave, then, to those to whom grace has been given by God. Let us clothe ourselves with concord and humility, ever exercising self-control, standing far off from all whispering and evil-speaking, being justified by our works, and not our words. For [the Scripture] saith, “He that speaketh much, shall also hear much in answer. And does he that is ready in speech deem himself righteous? Blessed is he that is born of woman, who liveth but a short time: be not given to much speaking.” Let our praise be in God, and not of ourselves; for God hateth those that commend themselves. Let testimony to our good deeds be borne by others, as it was in the case of our righteous forefathers. Boldness, and arrogance, and audacity belong to those that are accursed of God; but moderation, humility, and meekness to such as are blessed by Him.

Commentary · First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter XXX · Original source · The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers (T. & T. Clark, 1870), edited and translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; independent electronic transcription: David King and the Online Proofreading Team, Project Gutenberg ebook 77576. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.

Early 2nd century AD (date debated) | Ignatius of Antioch

For if I in this brief space of time, have enjoyed such fellowship with your bishop —I mean not of a mere human, but of a spiritual nature—how much more do I reckon you happy who are so joined to him as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is to the Father, that so all things may agree in unity! Let no man deceive himself: if any one be not within the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two possesses such power, how much more that of the bishop and the whole Church! He, therefore, that does not assemble with the Church, has even by this manifested his pride, and condemned himself. For it is written, “God resisteth the proud.” Let us be careful, then, not to set ourselves in opposition to the bishop, in order that we may be subject to God.

Commentary · Epistle to the Ephesians (shorter recension), Chapter V, shorter recension · Original source · Wikisource contributors; Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume I. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0; source revision linked. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.

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