OceanSide church of Christ

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JAMES 1:17

Victor M. Eskew

 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

 

1.    Good

A.   Strong (18):  good

B.    Thayer:  good, useful, pleasant, agreeable, excellent, upright

C.   Vine:  being good in its character or constitution, is beneficial in it effect

 

2.    Gift

A.   Strong (1394):  a giving; by implication (concretely) a gift

B.    Thayer:  a giving, a gift

C.   Vine:  …objectively, a gift

 

3.    Perfect

A.   Strong (5046):  complete

B.    Thayer:  wanting nothing necessary to completeness

C.   Vine:  complete, conveying the idea of goodness

 

4.    Gift

A.   Strong (1434):  a bestowment

B.    Thayer:  a gift, bounty, benefactor

C.   Vine:  translated “boon” in James 1:17, R.V., thus distinguished, as the things given, from the preceding word in the verse, dosis, the act of giving

 

5.    From above

A.   Strong (509): 

1.     Comes from a word meaning upward or on the top

2.     From above

B.    Thayer:  from above, from a higher place, of things which come from heaven or God

C.   Vine:  from above, of things which come from heaven, or from God in heaven

 

6.    Cometh down

A.   Strong (2597):  to descend (literally or figuratively)

B.    Thayer:  to go down, come down, descend

C.   Vine:  na

 

7.   Father

A.   Strong (3962):  father

B.    Thayer:  God is called Father of the stars, the heavenly luminaries, because he is their creator, upholder, ruler

C.   Vine:  as the Father of lights, i.e., the Source or Giver of whatsoever provides illumination, physical and spiritual

 

 

8.   Lights

A.   Strong (5457):  (to shine or make manifest, especially by rays…); luminous

B.    Thayer:  light…anything emitting light

C.   Vine:  to give light

 

9.   Variableness

A.   Strong (3883):  transmutation (of phase or orbit)…fickleness

B.    Thayer:  variation, change

C.   Vine:  change, variation

 

10. Shadow

A.   Strong (6440):  a shading off, that is, obscuration

B.    Thayer:  a shade cast by one object on another

C.   Vine:

1.     A shadow, is rendered “shadow that is cast in James 1:17, R.V.

2.     Mayor:  “…no changes in this lower world can cast a shadow on the unchanging Fount of light…God is alike incapable of change and incapable of being changed by the actions of others.”

 

11.  Turning

A.   Strong (5157):  a turn, that is a revolution

B.    Thayer:  a turning

C.   Vine:  used especially of the revolution of the heavenly orbs…(neither shadow) that is cast by turning