Fathers

James 1

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James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

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What the Fathers say

James 1:8

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

The double-minded person is one who is in confusion, disordered, imperfect, divided in thought, a hypocrite; and by "ways" the apostle means the movements of the soul, by which hopes are elevated, whether good or bad, as David also said: "You have foreseen my ways" ("my ways are known to You") (Ps. 139:3). Otherwise: by "double-minded man" the apostle means one who is unsettled, who does not strive firmly toward either the future or the present, but is carried here and there and clings now to the future, now to the present. …

Commentary on James ↗

Oecumenius

A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. "A man of double mind." James calls a man of double mind unstable and not firm, who is never firmly established for the future, nor securely for the present: but is led here and there and carried about: always moving to the future, but never enduring the present. But he also compared such a thing to a wave of the sea, which has neither firmness nor stability: and to a flower of grass, which likewise does not persist, but fades away at the same time as the sun rises. …

Commentary on James ↗

Western Saints

Bede

A man of double mind is unstable in all his ways. In all his ways, in adversity and prosperity, he says. A man, however, is double-minded, who both kneels to pray to the Lord and utters prayerful words, yet inwardly doubts, due to his accusing conscience, that he can obtain. A man is double-minded who wants to rejoice here with the world and reign there with God. Likewise, a man is double-minded who seeks not inward reward in the good things he does but outward favor. …

Commentary on the Catholic Epistles ↗

Bonaventure

Of such a one it is said: 'A man double in mind is inconstant in all his ways.' A man ought to follow the counsels of Saints Benedict and the others. He ought not to bring in new counselors, but follow the counsel of Christ, whose life is the certain form of living. If a religious says: 'There is no salvation except with us,' he speaks badly. He ought not to praise his own holy order in such a way that he condemns others. …

Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 7 ↗