For where envying and contention is: there is inconstancy and every evil work.
οπου γαρ ζηλος και εριθεια εκει ακαταστασια και παν φαυλον πραγμα
8 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Let us cleanse the ears of the soul from impurity. As mud and dust affect the bodily ears, so worldly and immodest conversations, and calculations of profit and interest, hinder the hearing of understanding more than any filth. They not only hinder it, but also make it unclean.
Since zeal can be applied both to good and to evil, for zeal is a fiery striving of the soul toward something, with a certain likeness to the object of its zeal, the Apostle added “bitter,” to show what kind of zeal he means. Contentiousness is a blameworthy passion for disputes. The same name is also given to accusation joined with slander.
The heart is like a root containing within itself all the fruits of the actions that proceed from it. If someone acts from zeal or strife through negligence of heart, his good works are unstable and changeable, however righteous they may appear before men. They are not founded upon the one heavenly anchor.
Since the divine James, as Saint Metrophanes explains, has already given many examples and likenesses to persuade Christians to bridle their tongue and not allow it to speak what is improper, he then notices that they remain insensible.
Therefore he continues in perplexity: Who is wise and understanding among you Christians? If there is such a man among you, let him show the works of a good life with wise meekness.
The prophet Hosea did the same at the beginning, and at the end of his prophecy said this: "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? And prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous shall walk in them, but the ungodly shall stumble in them" (Hos 14:10).
This saying of the brother of the Lord has the following meaning. I have given you, Christians, many and various examples to persuade you to cease from anger and bitter words against your brethren.
I have done this so that you may love and begin to practice meekness and soul-profiting conversations.
If anyone among you confesses that he has understood my foregoing discourse, has wisdom from above and divine understanding, and has profited from it by changing for the better, let him furnish his confession with good works.
Let him show the fruit of the benefit he received from my words by living a Christian life in meekness and longsuffering. Let him not boast in lofty and empty words that he has profited from my teaching.
For if such a man has bitter envy in his heart, according to Theophylact, this is a movement of a zealous and troubled soul. Likewise, if he produces rivalry, that is, vain disputes and accusation, let him not boast that he profited from my words.
Such a man is a liar and does not speak the truth. Therefore, if someone does not show virtuous works, longsuffering, and meekness toward his brethren, but speaks only plausible and rhetorical words in order to appear blameless, he is plainly convicted.
He does not have in his soul the indwelling of divine wisdom from above, of which the author of Proverbs said: "The Lord gives wisdom, and from His face come knowledge and understanding" (Prov 2:6).
The same one says in Wisdom: "Wisdom will not enter a soul that devises evil, nor dwell in a body subject to sin" (Wis 1:4).
For this reason the brother of the Lord says in order that this is not the wisdom from above, descending from God, of which I have already said to you: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives to all without partiality and without reproach."
Rather, this is earthly wisdom, psychic wisdom, that is, fleshly wisdom, and demonic wisdom. He rightly called this wisdom by evil names, in order to separate it from the wisdom given from above by the Father of lights.
That wisdom does not have the fruits and signs of true and divine wisdom. It is falsely named, fleshly, and foolish before God, being composed of plausible words.
Concerning it blessed Paul wrote: "Not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we conducted ourselves in the world" (2 Cor 1:12). Again: "My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom" (1 Cor 2:4).
And elsewhere: "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (1 Cor 3:19).
The holy brother of God truly constructs and shows this whole meaning by consecutive phrases, saying that envy and disputes are disorder and every evil thing. Disorder and evil are the result of earthly, fleshly, and demonic wisdom, not of divine wisdom from above.
Since there are rivalries and disputes among you, you are possessors of earthly, fleshly, and demonic wisdom, not of divine wisdom from above.
Paul wrote almost the same thing to the Corinthians: "For you are still carnal. For where there are envy, rivalries, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and walking according to man?" (1 Cor 3:3).
Theophylact and Oecumenius say that certain Christians of that time loved to rule and were proud of worldly wisdom. Out of envy toward virtuous and true teachers, they preached to others.
Therefore they mixed much that was human with what was divine, so that by novel words they might draw their listeners to their own opinion. From this came heresies.
Therefore the divine James, having finished his teaching about the unbridled tongue and evil speech, here teaches against envy and vain disputes. He says that this teaching, which comes from envy, is not from divine wisdom, but from demonic wisdom.
Since the word "zeal" or "envy" has a neutral meaning, as it signifies both good zeal and evil zeal, he calls it bitter in order to distinguish it from good zeal. Zeal is a fiery movement of the soul toward something. Rivalry is vicious contentiousness.
As clear proof that true wisdom is lacking in some community, the Apostle points to the envy, quarrels, and disorders existing in it. God cannot send His Spirit where disorder reigns, “for God is not a God of disorder, but of peace” (1 Cor 14:33).
The apostle indicates the basis for such a judgment about this wisdom in the fruits produced by bitter envy and contentiousness. These fruits are disorder and every evil thing, strictly, every evil work.
Disorder, or disarray, is a violent disturbance of order, both in moral life and in social life. The expression "every evil work" strengthens the notion of this disarray still further.
It expresses the corruption of the whole moral life.
Of wisdom that produces such fruits, it is wholly just to say what was said above: that it does not descend from God above. For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace (1 Cor 14:33).
It is also just to say that such wisdom is demonic, for the author of every evil work is the devil (1 Jn 3:8).
The inclination to excessive use of the tongue is especially found in people striving to display their intelligence and skill in speaking reasonably.
The apostle James does not attach special value to these qualities by themselves. He knows that with an impure heart, hatred, and contentiousness, neither intelligence nor eloquence has high value.
They can even lead to every kind of disorder, falsehood, cunning, and evil in general. Therefore, instead of imaginary wisdom, that is, empty eloquence, he counsels distinction by a good life and wise silence.
Subtle reasoning and flattering speeches of evil people are not only far from true wisdom. They are often a clear sign of the action of an alien evil power (see 1 Jn 3:10).
Especially the wisdom that proceeds from contentiousness is earthly, that is, hostile to God. It is sensual, that is, grounded in the sinful region of human nature (cf. 1 Cor 2:14; Jude 1:19).
Finally, it is demonic, that is, proceeding from the devil as the chief author of all divisions (cf. Jas 3:6; Jas 4:7). True wisdom is not like this.
In view of the double-edged significance of human speech in life, only he has the right to teach others who has tamed in himself the sinful tendency toward looseness in speech.
Such a man thereby possesses true wisdom, manifesting it "in deed by good conduct."
The essence of Christian wisdom is precisely that it is not only knowledge, nor only the mind's acknowledgment of certain truths. It is life itself, in accordance with these truths.
The one who possesses Christian wisdom is meek, pure in motives and intentions, modest in desires, obedient to elders and authority, full of mercy and good fruits, and free from bitter envy and contentiousness.
This is because the source of this "heavenly" wisdom is God.
In contrast to heavenly wisdom, there is "earthly, sensual, demonic" wisdom, whose source is the father of lies, the devil. Its characteristic manifestations are envy and contentiousness, and the result of its influence is disorder and every evil thing.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 11 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS