James 1:21

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Wherefore strip off all filthiness and prodigality of vice, and with meekness accept the implanted Word (implanted by those who have preached the gospel to you), which is able to save your souls.(James 1:21)

No Soul Can be Called Saved or Lost Until the Final Judgment

In this commentary on James 1:21, there is quote which I think is especially relevant to our time. I say this because we’ve heard some despair of going to heaven, as if it’s all been decided. Adamson refutes this sentiment:

No soul can be called saved, or lost, until the Final Judgment; hence James’s gospel of faith continuing at work in hope of that final approbation, 1:3.

The Convert to Christ is Called to Cleanse Himself (or Herself)

When the convert to Christ is taught that he must cleanse himself, this does not only refer to cleansing his words, or the malice that appears in one’s speech. A Christian must cleanse himself of all sin referred to in James 1:12-15. Ropes ¹ calls this ‘the abounding of evil…which we find in our hearts‘.

On the other hand, Adamson disagrees with some of Ropes’s interpretations. The disagreement has to do with the nature of human wickedness, and it centers on the word, prodigality. Adamson tells us this word has presented difficulties for many translators.

We cannot find any merit in Ropes’s theory that the word for prodigality ‘calls attention to the fact that wickedness is really an excrescence on character, not a normal part of it.’ Ropes rightly rejects ‘malice’ and malitia and rightly points out that meekness is in contrast with ‘wrath’; but he fails to see that the exhortation to meekness in 1:21b harks back to 1:19, 20, while the conversion from sin enjoined in 1:21a catches up the earlier verses, 12ff. Translators have had difficulty with this phrase…(Adamson p. 80)

Adamson gives several examples of the attempt to translate prodigality: Bauer, s.v., interprets it as ‘all the evil prevailing around you’; Beza, says it means ‘excrement’; Spitta, says, ‘all the finery of sin’; R. A. Knox, following Hofmann, says residuum; NEB says ‘reckless dissipation’; and KJV says ‘superfluity of naughtiness’ …

Adamson concludes that the word prodigality is the best choice in this case, although some might prefer ‘enormity of vice‘.

The Difference Between Verse 21 a, and 21 b

To be clear, the exhortation to meekness in 1:21 b refers to 1:19, 20. But the conversion from sin in 1:21a refers to verse 12 and the verses following it (Verses 12 to 15 are linked above in the paragraph introducing Ropes).

James is Similar to Peter Regarding the Moral and Spiritual Qualities of Christians

Like Peter, James urges the moral and spiritual qualities of Christians. For this comparison, Adamson cites Moffatt, page 24:².

he (James) passes from the idea of the regenerating Word to the conception of the Word as seed which has to be cared for, if it is to thrive; indeed he develops the metaphor more definitely than Peter. Give the divine seed a clean soil.

But How Can we Accept the Seed of the Word if it is Already Implanted (emphytos)?

Adamson provides a long clarification of this question using Hort, Herodotus, and the Torah.

Hort (page 37) believes emphytos means ‘innate’, not implanted. However, he is aware that for Herodotus, emphytos implies something received after birth. (ix.94)

Emphytos can mean congenital, like the instinct for self-preservation, or wickedness (Wisdom 12:10), but Hort admits it can mean something added later to our nature. The example is a divine gift of prophecy long after birth, as in the Herodotus reference above. However, he prefers to call it a ‘secondary ingrowth’, or a ‘second nature’ rather than implanted.

For both Herodotus and James the ‘Divine gift’ happened first. The postnatal ingrowth was added in addition to that gift. Therefore, Adamson agrees with Hort that we can say ‘sown’ or ‘implanted’, (but not ‘ingrafted’ as in the KJV).

Torah was said to be implanted in God From the Very Beginning

Torah was said to be implanted in God from the very beginning, like Wisdom. It was then rooted in every Jew from the earliest years³.

The seed must be implanted, but the implanting has already been done since the gospel has been preached. However the soil of the heart must be hospitable if the seed is to grow. We must give up impure living and fully accept the ‘Word of truth,’ showing by meekness (acceptance and obedience), that self-subduing gentleness which is among the fruits of the Spirit (v.19). (Adamson p. 81)

Conclusion

The end of the logic is the reward: Accept the implanted Word: for that is able to save your souls. The Jewish Torah was held to be redemptive, the medicine of life and a ‘spice’ against the yetser.⁴ ‘Torah is the only way that leadeth to life.⁵ Like the Torah, the implanted Word was redemptive, uniquely so since this was the ‘Torah of the Messiah.’ James may not mention Christ by name, but Christ’s Saviorhood, if not explicitly elaborated here or elsewhere, is everywhere implied. The reference to salvation is to be interpreted in the light of the rapidly approaching Day of Judgment (see Acts 17:30). It is charged with the eschatological urgency of the NT, including (conspicuously) the Epistle of James.

1. J. H. Ropes, The Epistle of St. James. ICC (1916)
2. J. Moffatt, The General Epistles. Moffatt New Testament Commentary (1945)
3. Num. R. xiv.4; Oesterley, p. 433.
4. b. Qid. 30b; b. Baha Bathra 16a.
5. Wayyiqra Rabba 29; see Oesterley, p. 432.