It is so easy to shut one's eyes and not to see the opportunities for service. It is so easy to let prejudice blind us to the needs of the real neighbor, as the priest and the Levite passed by on the other side and left the poor wounded man to suffer (Luke 10:31 f.). The point that James is anxious to make is that this blindness is sin. The man who has learned how to do the high and noble deed and then falls short has committed a sin. It is a heavy indictment that is here drawn against us. We are charged with not coming up to the standard of our highest knowledge. Plummer comments pertinently on the Roman Catholic doctrine of probabilism, which seeks to excuse the weakness of the flesh and to justify a person in his preference of the lower in the presence of the higher. "So long as it is not certain that the act in question is forbidden it may be permitted." Plummer adds, "The moral law is not so much explained as explained away." Alphonse de Sarasa wrote on "The Art of Perpetual Enjoyment" (_Ars Semper Gaudendi_), a piece of special pleading for the indulgence of the flesh. "The good is the enemy of the best," and the bad is the enemy of the good. Down the steps we go to the bottom of the ladder.
Oesterley finds proof of the "patchwork" character of the epistle in the five paragraphs of the closing chapter. But in a "wisdom" book one does not expect direct connection between the paragraphs. That is not true of the practical portions of the Pauline epistles. In the first eleven verses of this chapter the eschatological standpoint is occupied, possibly that of Jewish eschatology in 1-6 and that of Christian eschatology in 7-11 (Oesterley). Note "in the last days" in verse 3.
James is familiar with the prophetic imagery of the messianic times in apocalyptic style but is very pointed in his courageous indictment of the follies and iniquities of the wicked rich. Johnstone entitles this paragraph "the woes of the wicked rich." Mayor says, "It is not the careless worldliness of the bustling trader which is condemned, but the more deadly worldliness of the unjust capitalist or landlord." In verse 7 James seems to contrast "the brethren" with the rich of verses 1-6. It is worthwhile to quote Isaiah 33:1: "Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee" (AV). And Habakkuk 2:9: "Woe to him that getteth an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!" Note also the book of Enoch: "Woe to those that build their houses with sin" (94:7); "Woe unto you mighty who violently oppress the righteous, for the day of your destruction will come" (96:8).