In this verse James gathers up the sum and substance of all that he has
had to say so far. He has just spoken of peace and of good fruits. He
has been insisting on righteous deeds and not mere words, upon a live
faith, not a dead creed. “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in
peace for them that make peace.” “And the peacemakers who sow in peace
reap righteousness” (Moffatt). The fruit is righteousness (genitive of
apposition). The figure of sowing is common enough. It is the slow
process of soil, seed, plant, blossom, fruit, harvest.
This is the life of piety (wisdom) that James lays before his readers.
The phraseology occurs elsewhere (Psalm 1:3). Thus Proverbs 11:30: “The
fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” So in Amos 6:12 we have
“fruit of righteousness.” In the New Testament note Philippians 1:11,
“filled with the fruits of righteousness,” and Hebrews 12:11, “peaceable
fruit.” There is a difficulty here in the fact that the fruit instead of
the seed is sown. But such a prolepsis of thought is not unknown, as in
Psalm 97:11: “Light is sown for the righteous.” The sower sows in peace,
and the harvest of righteousness is gathered in peace. The peacemaker
has the rainbow promise of his harvest in due time if he does not faint
nor grow weary. “They who make peace show likeness to God, the great
maker of peace” (Hort).
X
The Outer and the Inner Life
Oesterley thinks it inconceivable that 4:1-12 could have been addressed
to Jewish churches at an early date, while they were still in the fresh
glow of the new faith in Christ. He says, “These verses reveal an
appalling state of moral depravity in these _Diaspora_ congregations;
strife, self-indulgence, lust, murder, covetousness, adultery, envy,
pride and slander are rife; the conception of the nature of prayer seems
to have been altogether wrong among these people, and they appear to be
given over wholly to a life of pleasure. It must have been terrible for
the writer to contemplate such a sink of iniquity.”
Yes, but James does not say that _all_ the Christians were guilty of
these sins. It was bad enough without overstating the situation.
Besides, we have the state of affairs in the church at Corinth to guide
us as to the possibility of sins in a young church, and the state of
affairs among the Galatian churches is not much better (cf. “so soon
departing”). Covetousness and strife early appear in the church in
Jerusalem, as we know from Acts 4 and 5. Reaction comes only too
swiftly, as is noted after all great revivals; for instance, the years
following the Welsh revival. Within a year or two after Paul left
Thessalonica discipline was sorely needed in the church there, as we
know from 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
The Gentile world was given over to immorality of all sorts, and Judaism
was deadened with formalism. It was no easy task to make real spiritual
life grow in such an atmosphere. And yet this is precisely what
Christianity undertakes to do. Jesus came that men might have life,
spiritual vitality, and might have it abundantly (John 10:10; 20:31).
James is chiefly concerned that his readers may share in this new life
in Christ and may show the inner reality by the outward expression. He
never gets away from this central conception of Christianity. The
appearance of sin in hideous forms among the followers of Jesus stirs
James to intense indignation. Mayor notes that the severity of tone in
this paragraph is accented by the absence of “brothers.”