Verse 17
To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
The primary application to what James had just said is evident; but, as frequently in the word of God, the principle here extends to the whole theater of faith and the obligations incumbent upon men. Tasker expressed it thus, "This maxim has wider reference than that which is drawn from it in this particular context."[35]
Oesterley perceptively attributed James' teaching in this verse to the teaching of Jesus (Matthew 23:23), wherein Christ laid down the law that "sins of omission are as sinful as those of commission."[36] It is truly amazing that hardly a line of this entire epistle may be found without this same connection.
The Jesuit fallacy that if one is able to raise some doubt in his mind, regardless of how small, concerning the validity of any commandment, or of its applicability to himself, that under that circumstance, "he may follow his own inclinations,"[37] is rationalized as the doctrine of "probabilism." This error is aided by an inordinate emphasis upon and intensification of the meaning of "knoweth." This is gross wickedness, of course; because the practical application of it means "that as long as one can, on some `father's' say-so, or on some other illusory ground, claim some doubt of what he should do ... he can justify his sins." [38]
Ward identifies the great sin of omission as "the failure to receive and obey the word of God."[39] Phillips' translation of this is, "Well, remember that if a man knows what is right and fails to do it, his failure is a real sin." Gibson saw in this "a remarkable correspondence with the words of Paul (Romans 14:23)."[40] It is this perfect consonance of James with everything else in the New Testament that goes far to establish the interpretation of this chapter as given here, especially with reference to James 4:7-10.
[35] Ibid.
[36] W. E. Oesterley, op. cit., p. 465.
[37] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 643.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ronald A. Ward, op. cit., p. 1233.
[40] E. C. S. Gibson, op. cit., p. 57.
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