ACC ~ James 1 v27

WHICH FIELDS ARE TO BE BOUGHT. HERMAS: Instead of fields, buy souls that are in trouble, according to your ability. Look after widows and orphans. Do not neglect them. Spend your riches on these kinds of fields and houses. PARABLES 1.8.

BECOME MORE LIKE GOD. CHRYSOSTOM: We can become more like God if we are merciful and compassionate. If we do not do these things, we have nothing at all to our credit. God does not say that if we fast we shall be like him. Rather he wants us to be merciful, as he himself is. “I desire mercy,” he says, “and not sacrifice.” CATENA.

THE VULNERABILITY OF WIDOWS. HILARY OF ARLES: James calls God the Father because as far as he is concerned there is no other god who made the world (as the Marcionites and other heretics claim). What he says about widows has to be understood in the light of the fact that there were many who tried to rob them of their possessions, as it says in the Gospel.INTRODUCTORY TRACTATE ON THE LETTER OF JAMES.

THE PRETENSE OF RELIGIOSITY. BEDE: It is good to see that James has added the words “before God, the Father,” because there are plenty of people who appear to be religious in the sight of men but who are wicked as far as God is concerned. CONCERNING THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES.

A GRADUAL WEANING FROM THE LAW. OECUMENIUS: Here someone might say: If James is a teacher of the covenant established by Christ, why does he not just abolish everything connected with the law, instead of exalting it by supporting those who are experienced in keeping it? Why does he not rebuke them and turn them away from it? To this we answer that James accommodates himself to them and starts where they are. Rather than attack the law head on, he draws them away from it gradually, aware that they are suspicious of new ideas and inclined toward skepticism about them. By doing this he increasingly prepares them to hear what he has to say and then weans them away from observance of the law little by little. COMMENTARY ON JAMES.

THE UNGODLY LED ASTRAY. THEOPHYLACT: In this verse the “world” refers to the common and ungodly people who are led astray by their lusts and errors. COMMENTARY ON JAMES.