St. James warns us against worldliness, writing, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (Jas 4:4)
James sets before us a fundamental question: Is the chief goal of our life the fulfillment of God’s will or the pursuit of earthly pleasures?
A fourth-century theologian wrote, “Whoever loves the world by committing sin is revealed as an enemy of God, just as, on the other hand, one who affirms friendship with God by not sinning is a constant enemy of the world. Therefore, just as it is impossible to serve both God and mammon, so it is also impossible to be a friend of the world and of God at the same time.”
St. James wrote, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” and “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
St. Bede commented: “God punishes robbers, perjurers, gluttons, and other sinners because they are in contempt of his commandments, but it is said that he resists the proud in a special way. This is because those who trust in their own strength, who neglect to submit themselves to God’s power, who really think that they can almost save themselves and therefore have no time to seek help from above – these are all deserving of greater punishment. On the other hand, God gives grace to the humble because they recognize their need and ask him for help to overcome the plague of their sins, and for this reason they deserve to be healed.”
Father John Hardon said that humility is “that virtue without which you cannot acquire any other virtue.” St. Vincent de Paul said, “Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.”
The English word “humility” is derived from the word “humus” which means “soil.” On Ash Wednesday, during the distribution of ashes, the priest says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This statement reminds us of our creaturehood. Our soul is created by God out of nothing, and our spiritual fruitfulness is the result of grace.
St. Faustina Kowalska wrote, “O humility, lovely flower, I see how few souls possess you ... Now I understand why there are so few saints; it is because so few souls are deeply humble.” The saint also wrote, “O humility, the most precious of virtues, how few souls possess you! I see only a semblance of this virtue everywhere, but not the virtue itself. Lord, reduce me to nothingness in my own eyes that I may find grace in Yours.”
St. James warns against double-mindedness twice (in James 1:8 and 4:8). Jesus said that we cannot serve God and wealth (Mt 6:24) and St. James said that “friendship with the world is enmity with God” (Jas 4:4).
One of the authors of the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture wrote, “I once had a professor of morality who lamented that most of his students compared mortal sin to a cliff. They wanted to know how near the edge they could walk without falling off, how much they could sin without losing their soul for eternity. Doubtless James would consider these students as sinners with two minds. There are only two roads, the way of the world and that of God, and we can choose only one. To attempt to sidle up to the edge of the cliff is to still love the world and, to that degree, to have rejected God. God desires to be loved completely and unreservedly, and anything short of that is spiritual ‘adultery.’”
In our prayer, we should not be double-minded by asking God for gifts in order to “spend it on our passions.” (Jas 4:3). We should seek the glory of God and the fulfillment of his will.
As St. Augustine said, “If someone intends to misuse what he receives, he will not receive it. Instead, God will pity him.”
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天主舉揚謙卑的人
在雅各伯書4：1-10中，聖雅各伯警告我們離開世俗。他寫道：『你們不知道：與世俗友好，就是與天主為仇嗎？』(4:4) 雅各伯向我們提出了一個基本問題：我們生活的主要目標是實現天主的旨意還是追求地上的快樂？
一位4世紀的神學家寫道：『凡因愛世俗而犯罪的人被揭示為天主的敵人，就像另一方面，通過不犯罪來確認與天主友誼的人是世俗一貫的敵人。因此，正如不可能同時侍奉天主和金錢一樣，也不可能同時成為世俗和天主的朋友。』
聖雅各伯寫道：『天主拒絕驕傲人，卻賞賜恩寵於謙遜人。』(4:6)和『你們務要在上主面前自謙自卑，他必要舉揚你們。 』(4:10)聖伯達評論說：『天主懲罰強盜、偽證者、暴食者和其他罪人，因為他們蔑視祂的誡命，但據說祂以一種特殊的方式抵制驕傲的人。這是因為那些相信自己的力量，那些忽視順服天主大能的人，那些真的認為他們幾乎可以拯救自己，因此沒有時間從上尋求幫助的人——這些都是應該受到更大的懲罰。另一方面，天主賜給謙卑的人恩典，因為他們認識到自己的需要，並請求祂幫助克服他們罪孽的瘟疫，因此他們應該得到醫治。』
John Hardon神父說：『沒有這種德行，你就無法獲得任何其他德行。』聖雲仙說：『謙卑只不過是真理，驕傲只不過是撒謊。』英文單詞『humility』源自『humus』一詞，意思是『泥土』。在聖灰星期三，在分發聖灰時，神父說：『人啊! 你要記住，你原是塵土，將來還要歸於塵土。』這句話讓我們想起了我們是受造物。我們的靈魂是天主從虛無創造的，我們的屬靈成果是恩寵的結果。
聖女傅天娜寫道：『哦，謙卑，可愛的花朵，我看到很少有靈魂擁有你...... 現在我明白為什麼聖人這麼少了;這是因為很少有靈魂是深深謙卑的。』這聖人也寫道：『謙卑啊，最寶貴的美德，有很少靈魂擁有你！我到處只看到這種美德的表像，而不是美德本身。主啊，求祢把我在自己眼中降為虛無，好叫我在祢裡面得恩典。』
聖雅各伯兩次警告不要三心兩意(1:8和4:8)。耶穌說沒有人能事奉兩個主人（馬竇6：24），聖雅各伯說『所以誰若願意作世俗的朋友，就成了天主的仇敵』（雅各伯書4：4）。
Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture 的作者之一寫道：『我曾經有一位倫理教授，他感歎他的大多數學生把大罪比作懸崖。他們想知道他們可以走多近的邊緣而不會掉下來，他們可以在不永遠失去靈魂的情況下犯罪多少。毫無疑問，雅各伯會認為這些學生是三心兩意的罪人。只有兩條路，世俗的道路和天主的道路，我們只能選擇一條。試圖爬到懸崖邊上，就是仍然愛世俗，並且，在這種程度上，拒絕了天主。天主渴望被完全和毫無保留地愛，任何缺乏這一點的事情都是屬靈的「奸淫」。』
在我們的禱告中，我們不應該三心兩意地向天主求恩賜，以便「想要浪費在你們的淫樂中」（雅各伯4：3）。我們應該尋求天主的榮耀和他旨意的實現。聖奧斯定說：「如果有人打算濫用他所得到的東西，他將不會得到它。相反，天主會可憐他。