Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - James 1:27 - 1:27
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Jam_1:27. To θρησκεία μάταιος is opposed θρησκεία καθαρὰ καὶ ἀμίαντος παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ ]. Καθαρός and ἀμίαντος are synonymous expressions (Pott, Theile, and others); the second word does not add any new idea to the first. Some expositors (Baumgarten, Bengel, Knapp, Wiesinger) arbitrarily refer the first word to what is internal, and the second to what is external. The second word ἀμίαντος (which occurs only here and in Heb_7:20; Heb_13:4; 1Pe_1:4), corresponding to its connection with μιαίνω , μιάσμα , brings more vividly forward purity as a being free from that by which the holy is defiled. The purity of true θρησκεία is, by the words παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ κ . τ . λ ., marked as absolute. παρά , in the judgment of, equivalent to ἐνώπιον , as in 1Pe_2:20; comp. Winer, p. 352 [E. T. 493]; Schirlitz, p. 340. That by this “the attitude of a servant before the face of the commanding lord” (Lange) is indicated, is a pure fiction. To τῷ Θεῷ is emphatically added καὶ πατρί , by which the relation of God, which the author has chiefly in view, is expressed: that of love. God, by reason of His love, can only esteem that worship as pure which is the expression of love. The contents of pure worship is given in the following infinitive clauses, according to its positive and negative side; still James evidently does not intend to give an exhaustive definition, but he merely brings forward—in reference to the wants of his readers—two chief points. Hermas, I. 2, mand. 8, gives a description of these two sides of worship, comprehending as much as possible all particulars. The first point is: the visiting of the widows and the fatherless in their affliction, as a manifestation of compassionate love. If it is said that the particular here stands for the universal (the species pro genere, Hottinger, Theile, and others); yet it is to be observed that elsewhere in the Holy Scriptures compassion is adduced as the most direct proof of love. The verb ἐπισκέπτεσθαι here, as in Mat_25:36; Mat_25:43, Jer_23:2, Zec_11:16, Sir_7:35, refers to the visiting of the suffering, in order to help them. By the explanation: “to be careful of them” (Lange), the view of a concrete instance is introduced; ὀρφανοί are placed first, in close connection with πατρί ,[108] as God in Psa_68:6 is expressly called Ὁ ΠΑΤῊΡ ΤῶΝ ὈΡΦΑΝῶΝ ; see also Sir_4:10 : ΓΊΝΟΥ ὈΡΦΑΝΟῖς Ὡς ΠΑΤΉΡ .
The words ἘΝ Τῇ ΘΛΊΨΕΙ ΑὐΤῶΝ are not an idle addition, but mark the condition in which the orphans and widows are found, to show the necessity and object of ἘΠΙΣΚΈΠΤΕΣΘΑΙ .
In the second infinitive clause, which is added with rhetorical emphasis, ἈΣΥΝΔΕΤῶς ,[109] to the first, ἌΣΠΙΛΟΝ stands first as the chief idea. The same expression is in 1Ti_6:14; 2Pe_3:14 (in its proper sense, 1Pe_1:19). The addition ἈΠῸ ΤΟῦ ΚΌΣΜΟΥ , more exactly defining ἌΣΠΙΛΟΝ ΤΗΡΕῖΝ , is neither dependent merely on ΤΗΡΕῖΝ (Psa_12:8; Psa_141:9) nor merely on ἌΣΠΙΛΟΝ , but on the combined idea. The sense is: to preserve himself from the world ( ἈΠΌ = ἘΚ , Joh_17:15; comp. also the form ΠΡΟΣΈΧΕΙΝ ἈΠΌ , Mat_16:12), so that he is not polluted by it (so also Lange). By ΚΌΣΜΟς not merely earthly things, so far as they tempt to sin (Schneckenburger), nor merely sinful lusts (Hottinger), nor δημώδης καὶ συρφετὸς ὄχλος , ὁ κατὰ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας τῆς ἀπάτης αὑτοῦ φθειρόμενος (Oecumenius; according to Laurentius and others, the homines mundani atque impii), are to be understood; but the idea ΚΌΣΜΟς comprehends all these together; it denotes the whole earthly creation, so far as it is cut off from fellowship with God and stands under the dominion of ἌΡΧΩΝ ΤΟῦ ΚΌΣΜΟΥ (1Jn_5:19); thus especially the men who serve it in and with their sinful lusts—but also all earthly possessions by which sinful lust is excited, and to which it not only conforms itself, but converts them into the instruments of its activity.
Christians by means of their divine birth, effected by the word of truth (Jam_1:18), are indeed taken out of the ΚΌΣΜΟς , they are no longer members of it; but, on the other hand, both by the sin which is still in them (chap. Jam_3:2) and by their external intercourse, they stand in connection with the world, on which account they have to preserve themselves from its contaminating influence. This preservation, as it is a work of God (Joh_17:15), so it is likewise a work of man (1Ti_5:22), and therefore a task which believers must continually strive to perform.
[108] The combination ὀρφανοὶ καὶ χῆραι is found only here in the N. T.; it often occurs in the O. T. and Apocrypha, where sometimes ὀρφανοί and sometimes χῆραι are named first.
[109] The asyndeton is thus explained, that James considered the visiting of the orphans, etc., as keeping oneself unspotted from the world, being in contradiction with the peculiar charms of the world. Lange observes: “the two clauses are not simply co-ordinate, but the second is the reverse side or sequence of the first, its pure antithesis.”