But wilt thou know, O vain man
These are the words of the apostle reassuming the argument, that
faith without works is dead, useless, and unprofitable; and the
man that boasts of his faith, and has no works to show it, he
calls a "vain man", an empty one, sounding brass, and a tinkling
cymbal; empty vessels make the greatest sound; such are proud
boasters, vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind; but are empty
of the true knowledge of God, and of the faith of Christ, and of
the grace of the Spirit: the Syriac version renders it, "O weak",
or "feeble man", as he must needs be, whose faith is dead, and
boasts of such a lifeless thing; and the Ethiopic version renders
it, "O foolish man", for such an one betrays his ignorance in
spiritual things, whatever conceit he has of his knowledge and
understanding: the character seems levelled against the Gnostics,
who were swelled with a vain opinion of their knowledge, to whom
the apostle addresses himself thus. The phrase, "vain man", is a
proper interpretation of the word (aqyr) , "Raca", or Reka, used in ( Matthew 5:22
) , (See Gill on Matthew
5:22), which though not to be said to a man in an angry
way, yet may be applied to men of such a character as here
described; who were empty of solid good, and yet boasted of their
knowledge. "Wilt thou know?" dost thou require proofs,
that faith, without works, is dead?
as in ( James
2:17 ) and that true faith has always works accompanying it,
and is shown and known by it? then take the following instances.