Verse 19
19. Thou Addressed to a monotheist, probably a Jew, who held that all Jews would be saved by their Mosaic belief.
One God The prime article in which the Jew differed from the polytheist. It is to be noted here that St. James addresses a Jew as included in the twelve tribes to whom the epistle is written.
Thou doest well So far, good! But it helps very little for salvation, as the next sentence shows.
The devils The demons, or evil spirits, subordinate to the one devil, or Satan. Note on 1 Corinthians 10:20.
Believe They are as orthodox on that point as the Jews. Yet their orthodoxy, their monotheistic faith alone, does not save them. We have defined justifying faith (note on Romans 3:22) to be that unity of intellect, heart, and will, by which a man perfectly surrenders himself to Christ for salvation. It is the will element in this faith from which due works result. Without it faith becomes mere intellective belief, and, like that of the devils, is ineffective and dead.
Tremble Shudder. Their knowledge of God and of his character induces a dread of a future beyond the judgment day.
Be the first to react on this!
