JAMES XXX. 1, 2.

"My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."

THE first clause in the second verse, "For in many things we offend all," is affirmed, by some, to be an independent clause, and to teach the great fact, that all men, believers included, do offend in many respects. If this is the right exposition of this clause, then it cannot be true that the grace or blood of Christ ever does or ever will, in this life, "Cleanse any believer from all unrighteousness." A careful examination of the clause will absolutely evince, that it is not an independent but conditional one, and that it sets before us but a single class of individuals as great offenders, and consequently subject to "the greater condemnation," viz., those who become "masters."

Before attempting a direct exposition of this whole passage, we will explain several words and phrases found in it. The original term here rendered "masters," often means not merely teachers, but slanderers, or critics of the manners and morals of others. The Greeks and Romans, as Calvin remarks, "were accustomed to call persons of the class last designated, masters, because they set themselves up as masters in morals," thus through "an unbridled tongue, setting on fire the course of nature," such a tongue "being itself set on fire of hell." This is evidently the sense in which the term under consideration is used in the passage before us. The Apostle, as Calvin also truly observes, employs the term "many masters," because many were tempted and inclined to "rush into this business." The meaning of the clause under consideration may be thus expressed: Do not, a multitude of you, my brethren---that is, any of you---become masters, and thus by the use of the unbridled tongue "bite and devour one another." The meaning of this prohibition is identical with that of our Saviour in the words, "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

The original word rendered "condemnation" is the same as is rendered "damnation "(Matt. xxiii. 14), the words rendered greater in these passages having the same identical meaning. The words "Ye shall receive the greater damnation," and "Ye shall receive the greater condemnation" have undeniably the same meaning. In both cases alike most aggravated sins are referred to as the reason for the "damnation" on the one hand, and the "condemnation" on the other. The meaning of the entire verse is obviously this: My brethren, do not a multitude of you---that is, any of you--- become masters, critics, "judging," and "biting, and devouring one another." This we should avoid, because we know---Christ having told us so---that, if we become such, we shall receive "the greater condemnation," "receiving judgment without mercy, because we show no mercy," being ourselves judged, because we have thus judged others. The apostle, as all agree, is not to be understood as affirming in the absolute and universal sense that we all, saints and sinners included, "shall receive the greater condemnation." The declaration is obviously a conditional one, and affirms that we shall receive this condemnation, provided we become masters.

The term "many things" in Verse 2 is but one word, polla, in the original. This word is often employed adverbially, and is rendered much, greatly, earnestly, as "I wept much," "He besought Him much," and "He straitly (earnestly) charged charged them." In all such passages the word rendered "many things" is employed. The meaning of the phrase "in many things we offend all " is, as all will admit, this: we all offend much, or are aggravated offenders. The original word gar, here rendered "for," has one fixed meaning in the original Greek, and always implies that the clause with which it is connected contains the reason of what has before been affirmed or implied. The words "in many things we offend all," or are all of us aggravated offenders, present the reason why, in case we become "masters," we shall receive "the greater condemnation." The real and undeniable meaning of Verse I, and the first clause of Verse 2, may be thus expressed:---My brethren, do not a multitude---that is, any of you---become masters, we knowing that in that case we shall receive the greater condemnation," for or because we all are then great offenders.

In the two verses under consideration we have two classes of characters set in vivid and impressive contrast over against each other---the individuals possessed of the unbridled tongue, on the one hand, and those who bridle the tongue and do not "offend in word," on the other. The former are all aggravated offenders and will "receive the greater condemnation." The latter are "perfect men, and able also to bridle the whole body." No exposition can be more obviously valid than this.

No exposition, on the other hand, can be more palpably erroneous, and opposed to all laws of sound Biblical criticism, than is that which makes the clause, "for in many things we offend all," an independent one, and consequently inclusive of the writer himself and all other believers. We have the same identical reasons for assuming that the preceding clause is thus independent and universal in its meaning, and hence to conclude that all believers, the apostle included, will be condemned with the wicked, as we have to infer from that under consideration, that all believers are, and to the end of time will be, great offenders. The term "for," etc., connects indissolubly those two clauses and renders each in the same sense, conditional, that the other is. If the latter clause is to be understood as affirming that all believers are great offenders, the former, by all the laws of interpretation, must be understood as affirming, with the same absoluteness, that all will "receive the greater condemnation." The term, "for," we repeat, indissolubly connects these two clauses, and renders the latter explicative of the former. If one is accepted as an independent clause, the other must be. If, on the other hand, both are accepted, as they should be, as in the same sense, and for the same reason, conditional, then the meaning of the whole passage becomes plain, and of the most 1m-portant import.

The reason why those who read the Bible but in the English translation fall into the mistake of regarding the words, "in many things we offend all," as an independent clause, and consequently, as designating all believers to the end of time, is that the clause, by being placed in the second verse, is separated seemingly from its proper connections. Those who read the original, however, evince the greatest carelessness when they fall into such a palpable error.