2 

2:11 The saving grace of God - So it is in its nature, tendency, and design. Hath appeared to all men - High and low.

2:12 Instructing us - All who do not reject it. That, having renounced ungodliness - Whatever is contrary to the fear and love of God. And worldly desires - Which are opposite to sobriety and righteousness. We should live soberly - In all purity and holiness. Sobriety, in the scripture sense, is rather the whole temper of a man, than a single virtue in him.It comprehends all that is opposite to the drowsiness of sin, the folly of ignorance, the unholiness of disorderly passions.Sobriety is no less than all the powers of the soul being consistently and constantly awake, duly governed by heavenly prudence, and entirely conformable to holy affections. And righteously - Doing to all as we would they should do to us.And godly - As those who are consecrated to God both in heart and life.

2:13 Looking - With eager desire. For that glorious appearing - Which we hope for. Of the great God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ - So that, if there be (according to the Arian scheme) a great God and a little God, Christ is not the little God, but the great one.

2:14 Who gave himself for us - To die in our stead. That he might redeem us - Miserable bondslaves, as well from the power and the very being, as from the guilt, of all our sins.

3 

3:4 When the love of God appeared - By the light of his Spirit to our inmost soul.

3:5 Not by works - In this important passage the apostle presents us with a delightful view of our redemption. Herein we have,

1. The cause of it; not our works or righteousness, but "the kindness and love of God our Saviour."
2. The effects; which are,
   1. Justification; "being justified," pardoned and acceptedthrough the alone merits of Christ, not from any desert in us, but according to his own mercy, "by his grace," his free, unmerited goodness.
   2. Sanctification, expressed by the laver of regeneration, (that is, baptism, the thing signified, as well as theoutward sign,) and the renewal of the Holy Ghost; which purifies the soul, as water cleanses the body, and renews it in the whole image of God.
3. The consummation of all; - that we might become heirs ofeternal life, and live now in the joyful hope of it.

3 

3:13  Mar 1:9; Luk 3:21

3:15 It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness - It becometh every messenger of God to observe all his righteous ordinances.But the particular meaning of our Lord seems to be, that it becometh us to do (me to receive baptism, and you to administer it) in order to fulfil, that is, that I may fully perform every part of the righteous law of God, and the commission he hath given me.

3:16 And Jesus being baptized - Let our Lord's submitting to baptism teach us a holy exactness in the observance of those institutions which owe their obligation merely to a Divine command. Surely thus it becometh all his followers to fulfil all righteousness. Jesus had no sin to wash away. And yet he was baptized. AndGod owned his ordinance, so as to make it the season of pouring forth the Holy Spirit upon him. And where can we expect this sacred effusion, but in an humble attendance on Divine appointments? Lo, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God - St. Luke adds, in a bodily form - Probably in a glorious appearance of fire, perhaps in the shape of a dove, descending with a hovering motion, till it rested upon him. This was a visible token of those secret operations of the blessed Spirit, by which he was anointed in a peculiar manner; and abundantly fitted for his public work.

3:17 And lo, a voice - We have here a glorious manifestation of the ever - blessed Trinity: the Father speaking from heaven, the Son spoken to, the Holy Ghost descending upon him. In whom I delight - What an encomium is this! How poor to this are all other kindsof praise! To he the pleasure, the delight of God, this is praise indeed: this is true glory: this is the highest, the brightest light, that virtue can appear in.

1 

1:19 Let every man be swift to hear - This is treated of from Jam 1:21 to the end of the next chapter. Slow to speak - Which is treated of in he third chapter.Slow to wrath - Neither murmuring at God, nor angry at his neighbour. This is treated of in the third, and throughout the fourth and fifth chapters.

1:20 The righteousness of God here includes all duties prescribed by him, and pleasing to him.

1:21 Therefore laying aside - As a dirty garment. All the filthiness and superfluity of wickedness - For however specious or necessary it may appear to worldly wisdom, all wickedness is both vile, hateful, contemptible, and really superfluous.Every reasonable end may be effectually answered without any kind or degree of it. Lay this, every known sin, aside, or all your hearing is vain. With meekness - Constant evenness and serenity of mind. Receive - Into your ears, your heart, your life. The word - Of the gospel. Ingrafted - In believers, by regeneration, Jam 1:18 and by habit, Heb 5:14.Which is able to save your souls - The hope of salvation nourishes meekness.

1:23 Beholding his face in a glass - How exactly does the scripture glass show a man the face of his soul!

1:24 He beheld himself, and went away - To other business.And forgot - But such forgetting does not excuse.

1:25 But he that looketh diligently - Not with a transient glance, but bending down, fixing his eyes, and searching all to the bottom. Into the perfect law - Of love as established by faith. St. James here guards us against misunderstanding what St. Paul says concerning the "yoke and bondage of the law." He who keeps the law of love is free, Joh 8:31, etc He that does not, is not free, but a slave to sin, and a criminal before God, Jam 2:10.And continueth therein - Not like him who forgot it, and went away. This man - There is a peculiar force in the repetition of the word. Shall be happy - Not barely in hearing, but doing the will of God.

1:26 If any one be ever so religious - Exact in the outward offices of religion. And bridleth not his tongue - From backbiting, talebearing, evilspeaking, he only deceiveth his own heart, if he fancies he has any true religion at all.

1:27 The only true religion in the sight of God, is this, to visit - With counsel, comfort, and relief. The fatherless and widows - Those who need it most. In their affliction - In their most helpless and hopeless state. And to keep himself unspotted from the world - From the maxims, tempers, and customs of it. But this cannot be done, till we have given our hearts to God, and love our neighbour as ourselves.

10 

10:17  Mat 19:16; Luk 18:18.

10:20 He answering, said to him, Master - He stands reproved now, and drops the epithet good.

10:21 Jesus looking upon him - And looking into his heart, loved him - Doubtless for the dawnings of good which he saw in him: and said to him - Out of tender love, One thing thou lackest - The love of God, without which all religion is a dead carcass.In order to this, throw away what is to thee the grand hinderance of it. Give up thy great idol, riches.Go, sell whatsoever thou hast.

10:24 Jesus saith to them, Children - See how he softens the harsh truth, by the manner of delivering it! And yet without retracting or abating one tittle: How hard is it for them that trust in riches - Either for defence, or happiness, or deliverance from the thousand dangers that life is continually exposed to. That these cannot enter into God's glorious kingdom, is clear and undeniable: but it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a man to have riches, and not trust in them. Therefore, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom.