INTRODUCTION TO THE EPISTLE OF JAMES

 

James is a book with which many Christians have struggled.  Its presentation of faith and works seems at first glance to contradict the foundational doctrine of justification by faith.  As a result, some have studied this epistle only with the aim of dispelling any “problem texts.”  A closer examination will show great riches of spiritual teaching within this book.

 

This is a book which is rich in spiritual dynamics.  It will be motivating and sobering in its message.  It is a book of faith, a book of promise and a book of warning.

 

 

AUTHORSHIP OF THE EPISTLE

 

The opening salutation identifies the writer as James.  The Greek text describes him as VIakwboj (Yakobos)-- or as we would say, “Jacob.”  The problem is that there are a number of different men in the New Testament possessing this name.

 

      James the brother of John and son of Zebedee (Matthew 10:2).

      James the son of Alphaeus (Matthew 10:3).

      James the half-brother of Jesus (Galatians 1:19).

      James the son of Mary (Matthew 27:56).

      James the father of Jude (Acts 1:13).

 

Early church tradition points to the writer of this epistle being James, the half-brother of Jesus.  This James is first mentioned as coming with his mother and his other brothers to meet Jesus as He was preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth.

 

                And coming to His home town He began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they became astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom, and these miraculous powers?  55  Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?  56  And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” (Matthew 13:54-56).

 

Mary had been a virgin when she became pregnant with that which was from the Holy Spirit.  She had remained a virgin until she gave birth to Jesus.  But there is no evidence that she remained a virgin after His birth.  To the contrary, the evidence is strong that she and Joseph had four more sons and several daughters.  We do not know much about the half-sisters of Jesus, but we are told that His half-brothers did not believe in Him while He was on earth.

 

For not even His brothers were believing in Him (John 7:5).

 

Imagine this!  These men grew up in the same house with Jesus They were daily witnesses of His holy and righteous character.  Yet they did not believe in Him.  They chose to reject Him.

 

When did James finally come to believe and accept Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah of Israel?  When did his unbelief turn to belief.  I think that the answer is seen in the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.

 

                For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

                After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;  7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:3-7).

 

After Jesus had risen from the dead, He appeared to a number of people.  One of those appearances was to James, His unbelieving half-brother.  James saw the evidence of the resurrection.  He was confronted by the risen Lord.  I think this is what turned James from an unbeliever into a believer.

 

We read in the book of Acts that in the day immediately after Jesus had ascended into heaven all of the brothers of Jesus began to meet with the disciples in the upper room.

 

                And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.  14  These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. (Acts 1:13-14).

 

Over the course of the next several years, James rose to prominence as a leader within the Jerusalem church.

 

      Paul refers to James as one of the leaders of the church with whom he met during his first visit to Jerusalem (Galatians 1:19).

 

      When an angel broke Peter out of prison, he directed that James be told of the news (Acts 12:17).

 

      James stood up at the Council of Jerusalem and hammered out a workable compromise in bringing the Gentile Christians into the church (Acts 15:13-21).  Following that council, James was one of the three leaders in the church who commissioned Paul and Barnabas to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:9).

 

      It was a delegation from James that stirred up the controversy between Paul and Peter concerning whether a Jew ought to eat with Gentile Christians (Galatians 2:12).

 

      When Paul presented himself before the Jerusalem elders after having planted churches in Europe, James is mentioned in a way that suggest his role as leader within the Jerusalem church.  In Acts 21:18 we read that Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.

 

As James writes this epistle to the Israelites who are scattered among the nations, he does so as one of the leaders of the Christian church.  For this reason, there is no need for him to establish his credentials or to defend his position as a leader in the church.  He makes no reference to himself at all, for no such reference is required.

 

 

DATE OF WRITING


 

It is commonly thought that this epistle was written around 45-50 A.D., making it one of the first epistles to be written.  It contains no mention of Gentile believers or the controversy that eventually arose in the church concerning Gentile Christians and the Law.  It was evidently written before this had become a widespread issue in the church.

 

The first of Paul’s missionary journeys had not yet taken place and the church was made up almost entirely of either Jews or Jewish proselytes – Gentiles who had undergone circumcision and who had become Jewish.

 

There are no references in this epistle to church officers such as elders or deacons and no references to a number of established churches.  We can therefore conclude that this was written at a time when the church was still in its infancy.

 

 

STYLE OF WRITING

 

There are some notable similarities between this epistle and the statements of James made at the Jerusalem Council and the letter that was written by that Council.

 

      The phrase “beloved” (James 1:16, 19; 2:5 and Acts 15:25).

      The exhortation, “Listen, my beloved brethren” (James 2:5 and Acts 15:13).

      The use of the infinitive salutation, “Greetings” as the opening of the letter (James 1:1 and Acts 15:23).

      The idea of a man turning back to the truth (James 5:19-20 and Acts 15:19).

      The use of the word “soul” (James 1:21; 5:20 and Acts 15:24).

 

Even greater similarities can be seen when we compare the epistle of James with the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus gave in Matthew 5-7.

 

Epistle of James

Sermon on the Mount

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials (1:2).

Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:12).

And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (1:4).

Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him (1:5).

Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you (Matthew 7:7).

But let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position (1:9).

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).

For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers the grass; and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away (1:11).

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal (Matthew 6:19).

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God” (1:13).

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil (Matthew 7:13).

For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God (1:20).

Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court (Matthew 5:22).

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves (1:22).

Everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock (Matthew 7:24).

If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well (2:8).

Therefore however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12).

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all (2:10).

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets (Matthew 5:17).

For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment (2:13).

But if you do not forgive men, then your heavenly Father will not forgive your transgressions (Matthew 6:15).

But someone may well say, “You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (2:18).

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone (2:24).

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21).

Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?  Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh (3:11-12).

You will know them by their fruits.  Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? (Matthew 7:16).

And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (3:18).

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God (Matthew 5:9).

You lust and do not have; so you commit murder (4:2).

You have heard that the ancients were told, “You shall not commit murder” (Matthew 5:21).

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (4:4).

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other (Matthew 6:24).

Be miserable and mourn and weep (4:9).

Blessed are those who mourn (Matthew 5:4).

He who speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law, and judges the law (4:11).

Do not judge lest you be judged.  For in the way you judge, you will be judged (Matthew 7:1-2).

Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten (5:2).

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy (Matthew 6:19).

But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath (5:12).

But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth (Matthew 7:34-35).

...but let your yes be yes, and your no, no; so that you may not fall under judgment (5:12).

But let your statement be, “Yes, yes” and “No, no”; and anything beyond these is of evil (Matthew 5:37).

Let him pray (5:13).

Pray then in this way (Matthew 6:9).

 

It is interesting that, in all of these instances, James does not once say that he is quoting the words of Jesus.  Perhaps this is because his readers would not yet be familiar with the Sermon on the Mount or with any of the other sayings of Jesus.  It is entirely possible that James is written before any of the other Gospel accounts had been composed.  The stories of Jesus had up to this time been circulated only by word of mouth.

 

Another portion of Scripture that echoes with the same themes as those found in the epistle of James is Psalm 15.  The Psalmist open with the question of what kind of person is permitted into the presence of God.  The answer is given in the form of a description of outward actions that reflect corresponding character traits.

 

O LORD, who may abide in Your tent?

Who may dwell on Your holy hill? 

2 He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness,

And speaks truth in his heart. 

3 He does not slander with his tongue,

Nor does evil to his neighbor,

Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 

4 In whose eyes a reprobate is despised,

But who honors those who fear the LORD;

He swears to his own hurt and does not change; 

5 He does not put out his money at interest,

Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.

He who does these things will never be shaken. (Psalm 15:1_5).

 

This detailed description of the man who dwells in the presence of God is given through his outward actions.  We find out what kind of a man he is by what he does.  To put it another way, his faith is manifested by his works.  Each of these works will be mirrored within the epistle of James.

 

 

DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EPISTLE

 

There are a number of characteristics that set the Epistle of James apart from the other New Testament epistles.

 

1.             A Lack of Personal Notes.

 

James makes no mention of any personal contact between himself and any of his readers.  This is not a personal letter.  Rather it is an official exhortation to the early church that was spreading through the ancient world.

 

2.             Little Mention is made of Christ.

 

Although Christ is mentioned both in James 1:1 and James 2:1, there is no mention of His death or His resurrection.  James gives us the teachings of Jesus rather than teachings about Jesus.

 

3.             Absence of Gentiles in the Church.

 

There is no mention of Gentiles being within the church.  In fact, James does not mention Gentiles at all.  It is likely that this epistle was written before the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 and that Gentiles had not yet been accepted into the church.

 

4.             Christianity and Judaism.

 

Christianity is not presented in contrast with Judaism.  There is no “us versus them” mentality.  Instead Christianity is presented in a distinctly Jewish setting.  The only distinction is that Jesus is recognized as the Messiah, the Lord of glory.

 

 

PURPOSE OF THE EPISTLE

 

The message of the book of James is that faith must include a living reality.  James writes that faith cannot exist without works.  Many people have misunderstood James to say that he contradicts the teachings of Paul -- that he is teaching a gospel of works for salvation.  This is not so.  James does not teach works for salvation.  He teaches works with salvation.

 

When you come to Jesus Christ in faith, trusting Him as your Savior and Lord, a process begins.  The Bible calls it sanctification.  The Holy Spirit begins to do a work within you, producing His fruit in your life and molding you into the character of Jesus Christ.

 

This process is not finished in this life.  It is not complete until Graduation Day.  Perhaps you’ve seen the bumper sticker that announces, “Be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet!”  That is true.  But the message of the book of James is that your life ought to show a certain degree of progress if you really belong to the Lord.

 

 

OUTLINE OF THE EPISTLE

 

The epistles of Paul often give themselves to a relatively simple structure in which they first tell you what to believe and then tell you how to live on the basis of what you believe.  The structure of James is much more involved and there are a number of themes that are presented and which are also repeated throughout the epistle.  Thus we are warned in chapter 1 of how riches are fleeting and this theme comes back in chapter 5 with a woe against the rich.  The reader is instructed to ask God for wisdom in chapter 1 and he is told at length about the wisdom that comes from above in chapter 3.  The following chart helps to outline some of the bigger ideas, but it should not be imagined that the ideas of James can be confined to a simple chiastic structure.

 


Asking God for Wisdom (1:1-18)

 

 

Hearing and Doing the Word (1:19-27)

– Be a doer of the word

 

 

Problem with Partiality (2:1-13)

 

 

Faith and Works (2:14-21

 

Taming the Tongue (3:1-12)

– Be a sayer of the word

 

Wisdom from Above (3:13-18)

 

 

Warnings...

 

 

Over Quarrels and Conflicts (4:1-10)

 

Against Arrogant Boasts (4:11-17)

 

Against the Rich (5:1-11)

 

About the need for Prayer (5:12-20)

 


 


 

 

 

OPENING SALUTATION


James 1:1

 

                James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings (James 1:1).

 

When you write a letter today, there is a normal format that is followed.  If it is a business letter, then you place your name and address at the top, followed by the name and address of the recipient of the letter.  Next follows a salutation such as, “Dear Sir.”  Finally you move into the body of the letter.  The customs of letter writing in the ancient world were only slightly different.

 

              First would come the name of the author.

              Then would come the name of the recipients of the letter.

              Finally would come a formal greeting.

 

These three elements, the name of the author, the name of the recipients and the personal salutation, are found in nearly all formal letters of that day.  An example is seen in a letter written by Julius Caesar to the Phoenicians:

 

                Gaius Julius Caesar Imperator and high priest, and dictator the second time, to the magistrates, senate and peoples of Sidon, greeting.

 

James uses much the same type of format in his epistle.  He begins with his own name and title:

 

 

HIS NAME:   James (1:1).

 

We have already noted that the name James is the Anglicized form of a Hebrew name.  It is the name Yakob.  We know it as “Jacob.”  It was a common name among the Jews of that day.  Many had been named after Jacob, the son of Isaac and the father of the Jews.  There were two men named James among the twelve disciples of Jesus.  He also had a half-brother by the name of James.

 

                And coming to His home town He began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they became astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom, and these miraculous powers? 55 Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” (Matthew 13:54-56).

 

Mary had been a virgin up to the time when she gave birth to Jesus.  But the Scriptures do not teach that she remained a virgin after His birth.  To the contrary, we read that Joseph took her to be his wife and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son (Matthew 1:25).  The implication is that this situation did not continue after that time.  Such a view is supported by the mention of half-brothers of Jesus.

 

For not even His brothers were believing in Him (John 7:5).

 

These brothers grew up in the presence of the holy One of Israel.  They watched His sinless life, but that proximity did not bring them to faith.  It was only when they were confronted with the resurrected Christ that they believed.

 

 

HIS TITLE:    James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ (1:1).

 

James does not begin this letter by claiming an exalted position for himself.  He does not say, “James, the half-brother and good buddy of Jesus...”  Instead he introduces himself as the slave of God and of Jesus.  As we do not live in a slave culture, we miss some of the impact of such a title.  A slave is one who has no rights of his own.  All of his rights are held in the hands of his master.

 

James recognized something vital about Jesus.  He recognized that Jesus was more than just the oldest son of Mary.  He calls Jesus the Lord.  This was the title that the Jews normally reserved for the name of God.  They were afraid of taking God’s name in vain, so instead of pronouncing it, they would substitute the term “Lord.”  That is what James calls Jesus.

 

And that is not all.  He also calls him “Christ.”  This is the Greek version of the Hebrew word “Messiah.”  James says that, inasmuch as he is the slave of God, so he is also the slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Don’t miss this!  James is doing nothing less than attributing deity to Jesus.

 

 

HIS RECIPIENTS:   To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad (1:1).

 

There is a certain “Jewishness” to this epistle.  It is a Jew writing to other Jews.  He refers to their synagogue assemblies in the Greek text of James 2:2.  He refers to Abraham in James 2:21 as “our father.”  He refers to God as the Lord of Sabaoth, a distinctly Hebrew expression referring to the “Lord of hosts” (James 5:4).

 

The Jews had been dispersed abroad.  The Assyrians had carried away the ten northern tribes of Israel into captivity in 721 B.C.  The Babylonians had later carried the southern tribes into captivity.  Over hundreds of years, the Jews had been scattered over the face of the earth.  Everywhere you went in the ancient world, you could find communities of Jews.  In spite of this, many of them had retained their tribal identity.

 

              Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5).

              Anna was of the tribe of Ashur (Luke 2:36).

              John the Baptist was of the tribe of Levi (Luke 1:5; 1:60).

              Mary and Joseph were both from the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1; Luke 3).

 

Many of these Israelites had heard the message of the Gospel – that Jesus had died for sins and had been buried and that He had risen from the dead.  Many of these Israelites had come to believe this message.  The early church was composed almost entirely of Jews.

 

But James does not address his letter to the Jews who live in Jerusalem or in the area of Israel.  He addresses his letter to the diaspora – to those Jews who were living in foreign lands.  These Jews had heard the message of the gospel and had believed.  They had placed their faith in Jesus as their promised Messiah.  They had become the first Christians.

 

Now some problems were arising within the new church.  These problems necessitated the writing of this letter.  What were these problems that occasioned this epistle?

 

1.             Suffering and Persecution.

 

These Jews who had come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah were initially persecuted by the Jewish community.  Because they were Jewish, they were already socially shunned by the Gentile community.  Now they were also cast out of the synagogues and cut off from their families and friends.

 

Acts 7 tells of the first martyr in the infant church in Jerusalem.  It was the deacon Stephen who was stoned to death.  Subsequently a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, but instead of putting an end to the church, it had the effect of spreading the church throughout the world.

 

2.             Partiality to the Wealthy.

 

The Jews held to a “Prosperity Theology” that taught wealth is a sign of God’s favor.  They reasoned that God blesses the good with money and so people who have a lot of money must have a lot of God’s blessings.  They reasoned that a man’s spirituality could be judged by his wealth.  Because of this, partiality was often shown to those who were rich.

 

How different was this from the teachings of Jesus!  He said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20).

 

3.             A Lack of Commitment.

 

It is possible that the teaching of salvation through faith had brought about an “easy believism” theology.  There may have been those who declared their faith in Christ but there was nothing in their life to evidence the reality of such faith.  To this end, James teaches the importance of a faith that produces a corresponding action in the life of the believer.

4.             Pride.

 

The Jews had a rich spiritual heritage in the possession and the knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures.  This gave them a great advantage over Gentile proselytes.  This knowledge, when not balanced with love and humility, led to pride.  Such pride was manifested in the desire of many to be teachers and so to lord their exalted position over others.

 

5.             Strife within the Church.

 

Have you ever seen a church in which strife was completely absent?  I haven’t either.  The early church was no exception.  In this case, the root of the strife within the church was covetousness.  These people were guilty of lusting after the possessions of one another.  James will speak of pleasures that “war against the soul.”  This brings us to the final problem, that of materialism.

 

6.             Materialism.

 

The Roman Empire was at the peak of its wealth.  There had been a period of relative peace and prosperity for the past seventy five years.  Many of the early Christians were failing the prosperity test.  They were becoming entangled in the details that accompany wealth.  Their attention was being drawn away from the Lord.

 

Each of these problems can be found in the church today.  It is important for you to see this.  Our study of the Epistle of James will be designed to accomplish more than merely an appraisal of the situation in the early church.  It will be extremely relevant to the church today.  The commands that James gives are directed to you.  They are to be read and studied and understood.  They are to be lived.


 


 

 

 

WHEN BAD TIMES COME


James 1:2-8

 

                Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. 12 Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12).

 

What do you do when bad times come?  How do you handle it?  What is your attitude when your well-laid plans crumble into disaster?

 

Problems.  Some are big problems and some are only little problems pretending to be big problems.  It has been said that within every little problem is a bigger problem trying to get out.  If you live on planet earth for any length of time, something bad is going to come into your life.  You’ve heard of Murphy’s Law that states, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”  Nowadays we have Petrov’s Law.  It says that Murphy was an optimist.

 

 

WHEN YOU ENCOUNTER TRIALS

 

                Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials (James 1:2).

 

Notice that James does not say that you might encounter trials someday.  He does not say, “Consider it all joy if you happen to encounter some trials.”  Instead he assumes that you will have hard times.  Everything that follows is based on that assumption.  Let there be no mistake about it; you will encounter various trials.  You can bank on it.  Jesus promised that in the world you have tribulation (John 16:33).

 

How many times have you heard some well-meaning preacher say that once you become a Christian all of your troubles will end and life will become wonderful and peaceful?  All too often, such a message is presented in the church.  The church becomes full of people who are smiling on the outside but who are hurting on the inside.  “How are you doing?” we pleasantly ask.  “Fine,” comes back the answer.  And meanwhile, each one is hiding behind his own smiling mask, thinking that he is the only one who doesn’t have it all together, each one afraid that the others might find out that he alone isn’t experiencing total victory.

 

It is because of this that I want to make an official announcement.  You are in for hard times.  You are going to encounter various trials.  Bad times are coming.  Perhaps you are in the midst of them right now.

 

I haven’t said this to discourage you.  I’m not trying to turn you into a pessimist or to fill your day with gloom and doom.  The reason I want you to be aware that bad times are coming is so that you can get ready to meet them.

 

I spent nearly thirty years as a fire fighter.  In the fire service we used to put together preplans of hazardous areas so that we would know how to handle any emergencies that might arise in those areas.  In the same manner, James provides a preplan for Christians.  It gives us instructions on how to get past the hazardous conditions ahead.

 

What are you to do when hard times come?  How do you meet problem situations?  What do you do when disaster strikes?  James gives the answer.  He says to consider it all joy (1:2).

 

At this point, you might be ready to tune out and mentally discard James as another sweetness and light preacher who has left his head buried in a hole in the ground.  Don’t do that.  James isn’t looking at the world through rose-colored glasses.  He is not denying that there are real problems or that they really hurt.

 

He is not saying that bad times are fun.  He does not say that suffering is joyful.  He does not tell us to enjoy our suffering.  He does not say to grin and bear it or to try to ignore the pain or to praise the Lord anyway.

 

Instead he says, “Consider it all joy.”  Note the word “consider.”  It refers to a mental evaluation.  We are to evaluate our adverse circumstances and to consider them to have an end result of joy.  How can we do this?  How can we look at all of the problems that besiege us and consider them “all joy”?  It is only by looking past the immediate problem to see its end result.

Jesus provides the perfect example.  If anyone was ever faced with an adverse situation, it was Jesus as He was facing the cross.  He went so far as to pray that He might be released from this suffering which was to come -- that the cup of His death might pass from Him.  But when it was evident that it was the Father’s will that He go to the cross, what was the attitude off Jesus?  Did He grumble about the raw deal that had been handed to Him?  Did He resign Himself to misery.  No.

 

                Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).

 

Jesus despised the shame of the cross and all that it implied, but at the same time He focused on the future joy that it would bring.  He considered the cross to be “all joy” because of the future results that it would bring.  He could approach His time of trial with joy because of those results.  If we are to consider our trials to be “all joy,” then we must do the same thing.  We must look beyond the present trials to see that God has planned the future results of those trials.  This brings us to the next point.

 

 

THE REASON FOR YOUR TESTING

 

Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance (James 1:3).

 

Trials come for a reason.  Bad times are not an end to themselves.  They are designed to produce something in your life.  The testing of your faith produces endurance.  What is endurance?  It is the quality of continuance.

 

Endurance is a quality of the mature.  Children are noted as early quitters.  Give a child a present and he may spend fifteen minutes playing with it, but after that he is off doing something else.  His attention span has no endurance.  Have you watched your child do his homework?  The least little distraction will capture his attention.  He has no endurance.

 

Endurance cannot be taught in a classroom.  I cannot preach a sermon on endurance and thereby impart that quality to you.  You cannot even get endurance through prayer.  Endurance comes only through trials.

When I was in high school, I went out for the track team.  I figured that I was reasonably fast on my feet and that I would run in some races and win some prizes and that everyone would say how wonderful I was.  I learned very quickly that I had no endurance for long distance running.  And I also learned that you cannot build up that kind of endurance in a single day.  Endurance only comes through daily practice.  The same is true of life.

 

At this point you might be asking yourself, “Why would I want to go through all of that in the first place?  Why not just bail out now?  After all, if at first you don’t succeed, quite before it gets to be a habit.  What’s the sense of keeping on keeping on?”  Jesus gives the answer in the next verse.

 

 

THE NEED FOR ENDURANCE

 

                And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:4).

 

Endurance is a necessary quality of growth.  Like it or not, you are growing.  If you are a child of God, if you have entered God’s forever family through faith in Christ, then you are in the midst of a growing process.  James says that the end result of that process is that you one day be “perfect and complete.”

 

One day you will be completely like Jesus Christ.  You will be perfect.  You will be complete.  But you aren’t there yet.  Today you are in transition.  You are like a caterpillar who is becoming a butterfly.  You are growing.

 

Unfortunately many believers seem to have a “Peter Pan” syndrome.  Remember the story of Peter Pan?  He was the little boy who decided that he never wanted to grow up – that he wanted to be a little boy forever.  Some Christians seem to have the same desire.  The result is tragic.  They become retarded Christians.

 

This is a painful way to go.  It is painful because you keep having to go back and take the same trials and tests over and over again without any lasting benefit.  Instead of considering it all joy, you will find yourself considering it all drudgery.

Are you free from the Peter Pan syndrome?  Are you ready to start benefitting from your troubles?  Do you want to be able to count it all joy?  If you do, there is one thing you will need.  It is wisdom.

 

 

IN SEARCH OF WISDOM

 

                But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  6 But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:5-8).

 

James does not say to ask God for release from the suffering that we experience.  He does not tell us to ask God for the strength to endure.  He says to ask for wisdom.

 

What is wisdom?   Wisdom involves seeing things from God’s perspective.  This is important.  It is only as you are able to see your trials from God’s perspective that you will be able to “consider it all joy.”

 

When we see things from God’s perspective, we get the bigger picture.  It is like looking at a Persian rug. If you examine the threads with a magnifying glass, they appear as an ugly jumble of tangled threads with no visible pattern.  It is only when you stand back to get a better perspective and when you are able to look at the rug as a whole that the beautiful pattern can be appreciated.

 

The same is true of life.  When we are in the midst of our circumstances, they often appear to be tangled and without meaning.  God sees the bigger picture.  He has patterned your life into a beautiful mosaic.  You may not be able to see that bigger picture right now.  You are too close.  Like the Persian rug, you see only the threads.  You cannot see the bigger picture.  But you can believe that it is there.  You can accept it by faith.  In believing, you can count it all joy.

 

This brings us to our next question.  If wisdom is the key to obtaining the bigger picture, then how can I obtain this wisdom of God?  James gives the answer.

 

1.             I must ask for it:    If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him (1:5).

 

God is the source of all true wisdom.  If I am to obtain such wisdom, it must come through Him.  At the heart of such wisdom is the knowledge of God.  A proper concept of God is the foundation of all wisdom.  He tells us that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10).

 

God wants us to be wise.  He wants us to see things through His perspective.  He wants us to share in His wisdom.  This is why He gave us the Bible.  As we read the Scriptures, asking for His enlightenment, we will be given the wisdom of God.

 

2.             There is a second requirement to gaining God’s wisdom.  It is the requirement of endurance.

 

                But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  7 For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8  being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:6-8).

 

This passage has often been taken to mean that if your faith is not strong enough that you prayers will not be answered.  I believe that such an interpretation ignores the context.  James is not speaking of the strength of one’s faith. He has been speaking of the quality of endurance.  There are several different kinds of doubt.

 

      There is the doubt of the ability of God.  This is the doubt expressed by the man who had brought his demon-possessed son to the disciples.  He turns to Jesus and says, “If You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” (Mark 9:22).

 

      There is the doubt of the goodness of God.  The leper who prayed to Jesus saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean” (Mark 1:40).  Such a prayer assumes that God is able, but that He might not necessarily be willing.  This is the doubt that says, “God loves the world, but does He love me?”

 

      There is a doubt of personal commitment.  This is the doubt of the one who is uncertain whether he really wishes to commit his life to the Lord.  It is the doubt that was seen in the rich, young ruler who came to Jesus and who saw the truth, but who wanted to hold to his possessions rather than to the Lord.  Such a person might come for a time, but when things get very bad or when things get very good, he will be tempted by either the hardship or by the cares of this world to depart.

 

The last of these can give rise to the others.  If you have not staked everything you have and everything you are, then doubt acts as a cancer of unreality on faith.  I believe it is primarily the last of these that is in view here.

 

James says that, if you want to gain the wisdom of God, you must ask for it and then you must endure in your desire to have it.   You cannot decide that you want to follow God only on alternate Tuesdays and Thursdays and expect to be granted the wisdom of God.   Instead you must be single-minded and enduring in that desire.

 

The Double-Minded Man

The Single-minded Man

Double-minded in his desire to have God’s wisdom.

Single-minded in his desire to have God’s wisdom.

Unstable in all his ways.

Seeks the firm foundation of God’s wisdom.

Does not receive anything from the Lord.

Receives wisdom from God.

Doubt hangs back.

Faith steps forward.

 

Many people want to play games with God.  They want to come to church on Sunday and to do their bit for religion and then go back and put God on the shelf for the rest of the week.  You cannot love God that way.  He will not allow such divided loyalty.  He will not reward that kind of relationship.

Do you know someone like that?  He is like a man standing in two rowboats with a foot in each and trying to make up his mind which way he wants to go.  Sooner or later he is going to fall.

 

Am I describing you?  Have you been trying to hold onto God with one hand and to the world with the other?  Look again.  You’re grasping at the wind.  You’re being tossed by the waves.  You may be in the midst of trouble, but you are not benefitting from it.  You can’t consider it all joy because your trials are not being used as an opportunity for growth.  You need to let go of the world and get off that spiritual roller coaster.

 

Ask God for wisdom.  Ask Him to show you the bigger picture.  Then in light of that bigger picture, begin to grow and mature into the kind of person God wants you to be.  When bad times come, you will be able to consider it all joy.

 


 


 

 

 

THE POOR AND THE RICH


James 1:9-11

 

                But let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position; 10 and let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.

                For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers the grass; and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. (James 1:9-11).

 

James has been dealing with the question of how a Christian is to act under trials.  He said that we should “count it all joy” when we encounter such trials as we realize that they are able to bring about a positive quality in our lives.

 

Saying that is one thing.  Putting it into practice is quite another.  And so, he moves to a practical illustration of an area where Christians come under trial.  It is in the area of finances.  Are you rich?  Are you poor?  Are you somewhere in between?  Then this passage is written for you.

 

 

DEALING WITH POVERTY

 

James begins with the man who is in the midst of poverty.  This is a common condition.  It is a fact of history that there have always been more people who are poor than who are rich.  How can you deal with poverty?  How can you count it all joy when you are struggling financially?  James has the answer:

 

                But let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position (James 1:9).

 

The believer who is poor has something in which to glory.  He has a high position.  It is higher than any earthly consulship or kingdom.  It is his position in Christ.

If you have taken hold of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you entered into a union with Him.  You were united with Christ.  This means you share certain things in common with Christ.

 

              Because He is righteous, you have also been declared to be righteous.

              Because He is the Son of God, you have been adopted into His forever family and have become a child of God.

              Because He is the heir to the kingdom, you have become a co-heir with Christ.

              Because He has eternal life, you also have eternal life.

 

This is your new identity.  It is what James calls “your high position.”  You have become a member of God’s chosen race.  You are a part of His royal priesthood.  You are a citizen of God’s holy nation.  You are God’s own personal possession.

 

What are your present circumstances?  Are they of such that might be called “humble circumstances?”  Are you lacking in some needed finances?  Or are you poor in some other area of life?  Is there something that you are lacking?  If so, then this passage is for you.  It contains a charge.  You are called to glory in your high position.  It is a call for you to go so far as to boast and to glory in that position.

 

You have a high and lofty calling.  It is to serve the Lord in the circumstances in which you find yourself.  How can you do such a thing?  By recognizing that God has designed those circumstances and called you to serve Him in the midst of such circumstances.

 

 

DEALING WITH RICHES

 

Perhaps the previous verse did not especially apply to you.  It did not apply because you are relatively comfortable in the area of finances.  Your circumstances could hardly be classified as “humble.”  Jesus has something to say to you.

 

                And let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.

                For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers the grass; and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. (James 1:10-11).

 

James is writing to Jewish Christians.  One of the problems that was prevalent among the Jews was their concept of wealth.  They believed that material wealth was a sign of God’s favor.  In practical terms, they considered that the more money you have, the more God must love you.  They had a proverb that said, “God loves the poor, but He helps the rich.

 

This same line of thinking had begun to filter into the early church.  The rich were often shown preferential treatment in the church.  The best seat was set aside for him.  He might stand to be elected as an officer in the church.  When he spoke, the others in the church would give ear.  He was a VIP.

 

James is going to address such attitudes in chapter 2, but right now he issues a warning to those who are rich.  He warns them not to focus upon their riches for their self-esteem or for their self-worth.  Instead they need to focus upon their poverty.

 

Why?  What is so bad about being rich?  They say money can’t buy happiness, but what is wrong with being miserable in comfort?  It is because when you are rich and when you are financially comfortable you don’t have any real needs and when you get to that point it isn’t too long until you don’t need God.  Thus when you do come to God, it is no longer out of your sense of need but only because you are “doing God a favor.”

 

God will not give a man anything unless he comes empty handed.  He has nothing to say to the proud.  He is opposed to the proud (James 4:6).  He resists the one who has no need.

 

Just as He does not give His wisdom to the one who doesn’t really want it (James 1:6-8), so also He does not give spiritual riches to the one who is satisfied with the riches of this world.  He does not fill cups that are already full.  But when you go to His with an empty cup, He fills it so that you cup runs over (Psalm 23:5).

 

This is not a call to be financially irresponsible.  Rather it is a call to make some secure long-term investments.  It is a call to invest for eternity.

 

Paula and I once sat down with a couple of investors.  They were telling us how we should plan for our financial future and make certain investments.  When they were done, I asked them if I could share with them some better investments; some investments with a guaranteed return that were not dependent upon the random fluctuations of the stock market.  I told them how they could have true security -- the kind that goes beyond this life.  It is the security that is found only in Christ.  After all, what good is it if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?

 

The best of this world’s wealth is only temporary.  James illustrates this temporary quality of riches by comparing it to grass.

 

                For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers the grass; and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. (James 1:11).

 

This is not a new illustration.  It was a familiar one to these Jewish readers.  James draws if from the pages of the Old Testament.

 

6              A voice says, “Call out.”

Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”

All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

7              The grass withers, the flower fades,

When the breath of the LORD blows upon it;

Surely the people are grass.

8              The grass withers, the flower fades,

But the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:6-8).

 

If you have lived in the suburbs all your life, then this illustration might lose something in translation.  In the suburbs we have automatic sprinkler systems to keep our grass looking good year round.

 

This is written to people who were familiar with an agricultural economy.  They knew what happened in the various seasons.  In the spring the grass would begin to grow.  And in the summer in would come to maturity.  And in the fall it would die.  Grass does not last.  And neither does the wealth of this world.  Diamonds aren’t forever.  If you have money it will eventually be lost or stolen or spent because you can’t possibly take it with you.

If you measure your wealth in other worldly ways it will be equally fleeting.  Your good looks will one day be masked in wrinkles.  Social status and popularity are fleeting.  If you actually win the rat race, you find that you are still a rat.

 

                No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

                For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?

                Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?  27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?  28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. 30  But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?

                Do not be anxious then, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “With what shall we clothe ourselves?”  32  For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. 34  Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:24-34).

 

Sometimes people say, “That is well and good, but you still have to live in the real world.”  But what is the real world?  That is the question that we must faith.  For what world are you living?  And in which world do you believe?

 

This is not a call to laziness.  Rather it is a call to make the Kingdom first and to allow everything else in your life to flow from that.  You seek heaven and God will take care of everything else.

You need to focus on that which is eternal.  You need to plan for permanence.  You need to see that your worldly riches are really poverty in disguise.  It is only then that you can begin to have true wisdom and to see your situation from God’s perspective and to align your priorities for those things that really count in life.

 

Isaiah’s passage concludes that it is the Word of our God that stands forever.  This is the conclusion of James, too.

 

      In verse 18 he will describe how God brought us forth by the word of truth.

 

      In verse 21 he will call men to receive the word which is able to save souls.

 

      In verses 22-25 he will warn of the dangers of being only a hearer of the word instead of a doer of the word.

 

What is it about the Word of God that brings salvation?  The Word of God is the message of the gospel.  It is the message of the cross.  It is the message of the sacrifice that was made on our behalf.  It is the message of how God sent His Son to die for those who were spiritually bankrupt, so that they could inherit all of the blessings of heaven in Him.


 


 

 

 

TRIALS AND TEMPTATION

James 1:12-18


 

To Him who made the great lights,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting (Psalm 136:7).

 

One of the forgotten themes that we see throughout the Bible is the goodness of God.  The reason I call it a forgotten theme is because it seems so often to be overlooked.  God is a good God.  His goodness is not merely that which is held in reserve up in heaven.  His goodness is seen in the world every day.

 

A number of years ago, a Jewish rabbi by the name of Harold Kushner wrote a book entitled, Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People?  He felt that since there is pain and suffering in the world, then either God is not good or else God is not all-powerful.  He concluded that God is good and would like to stop bad things from happening, but He is overworked and underpaid and is simply not up to the task.

 

James deals with the same question regarding the presence of evil in the world, but his final conclusion will be completely different from that of Rabbi Kushner.

 

 

THE BLESSING OF PERSEVERANCE

 

                Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (James 1:12).

 

James opened his epistle with a call to count it all joy when you encountered various trials.  He now returns to that topic.  He has never really left it.

 

1:1-4

We are to consider our trials to have an end result of joy because endurance is being produced in our lives.

1:5

We are to ask God for wisdom so we can see and understand the benefits of those trials.

1:6-8

There is a condition to the reception of God’s wisdom.  It is that we be single-minded in our desire to know God.

1:9-11

We are given a practical application in dealing with those trials.  It is in the area of our finances.

 

As we come to verse 12, James concludes this initial section on the handling of trials.  He now approaches a new question.  It is the question of why we should try to endure in the face of trials.  He has already alluded to this earlier when he pointed out that endurance produces a positive quality in our lives.  Now he looks beyond that to show the promise of a future reward.  The reason we can face hard times today is because of the promise of good times tomorrow.

 

This verse is given in the form of a beatitude.  Do you remember the Beatitudes?  They were given by Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.

 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

 

Here is still another beatitude.  Like those that were given by Jesus, it also begins with a blessing.  Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial.  Like the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, the verb (“is”) is not expressed in the Greek text.  This is not a wish or a hopeful benediction.  It is not a command.  Rather, it is a simple statement of fact.  The man who endures under trial is blessed – literally, he is “happy.”

 

Why is this the case?  It is because there is a reward at the end of the struggle.  It is because once he is approved, he will receive the crown of life.  This brings us to a question.  What is it that obtains for you the crown of life?  Perseverance?  Good hard work?  No.  It is true that you do not receive it apart from perseverance, but the next clause of this verse tells you the source of this crown and it is not based upon how good you are or in what you are able to earn or deserve.  It is a crown that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.  Do you see it?  It is a gift.  It is given to those who trust in the Lord and who love Him.

 

      God is the source of that gift.

      God has allowed the trials through which that gift came to you.

      But God is not the source of temptation.

 

 

THE SOURCE OF TEMPTATION

 

                Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. (James 1:13-15).

 

Notice that the subject has shifted from trials to temptations.  There is really not that much of a shift.  The Greek word for “trial” in verse 12 and the Greek word for “tempt” here in verse 13 come from the same root.  Trials often involve a corresponding temptation.  What is the difference between a trial versus a temptation?

 

Trials

Temptations

A trial comes from the outside and moves into your life.

A temptation comes from the inside out.

Trials bring life.

Temptations bring death.

Trials lead to maturity.

Temptations lead to a maturing of sin.

God brings the outward trials into your life.

He does not bring the inner temptations; those come from within you.

 

This is why we can say that Jesus was tempted by the devil while, at the same time, He cannot be tempted.  His temptation was from the outside, but there was no sin within Him to correspond to that temptation.  That is not the case with us.  Our temptations come from within.

 

There is a game we often play.  It is called “blame shifting.”  It is a very old game, going back all the way to the Garden of Eden.  You remember the story.  Adam was in the Garden with his wife.  They were still in the midst of their honeymoon.  They had everything they could possibly desire.  They had dream jobs, a marriage made in heaven, and no in-laws.

 

Then Eve went for a walk and met a smooth-talking serpent who focused her attention on the one prohibition that God had made.  She was swayed by the serpent’s seductive speech and she ate of the forbidden fruit.  She took it to Adam and offered it to him.  I don’t know whether or not Adam heard Satan’s line and I doubt that Eve had the serpent’s subtlety.  As a result, Adam knew what he was doing.  He knew this was forbidden fruit, and even though he knew that eating of it was against God’s command, he ate it.

 

The next thing to happen was a familiar sound in the garden.  It was the Lord.  No longer was the presence of God a thing to be desired; it was now something to be feared.  In their panic, Adam and Eve tried to hide from the presence of the Lord.

 

                And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

                9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 And he said, "I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself." 11 And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" (Genesis 3:8-11).

 

As God enters the scene, the man and his wife attempt to hide themselves.  While the presence of God had previously been a blessing, it is now a reason for fear and shame.  They run and hide.  The very thought of it seems quite childish.  I am reminded of the times I used to play hide and seek with my three year old granddaughter.  The places she chose to hide were usually in plain sight and, even when they were not, she would be unaware that sound travels.  I would hear a little girl giggle coming from under the dining room table and I would ask, “Where is my granddaughter?  Where could she be?”

 

God does the same thing.  He calls out, “Where are you?”  It wasn’t that God couldn’t find Adam.  His question is meant to bring Adam to see the reality of his situation.  As Adam answers, he finds himself becoming more and more entangled in his sin.  Finally he is asked point blank, “Have your eaten from that tree?”

 

                And the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate." (Genesis 3:12).

 

Do you see what Adam is doing?  He is trying to shift the blame.  He does not know about Satan, so he cannot say, “The devil made me do it.”  He does the next best thing.  He blames his wife.  But that is not all.  He calls her, “the woman whom You gave to be with me.”  He is also blaming God.  He is saying, “Lord, if you had not gone and created that woman, then I would still be back in the garden eating strawberries.”

 

Times have not changed much.  We still continue to try to find others to blame for our sins.  We try to pass the buck.  We usually try to shift the blame to three areas.

 

              Environment.

 

People seem to think that if we just clean up the environment and make the world a better place in which to live, then all of our problems will be solved.  This is like taking a pig out of a pig pen, cleaning him off, and bringing him into the house.  It will not be long before the house starts to look like the pig pen.  The problem is not in the pig pen.  The problem is in the pig.  He has a pig nature and it causes him to act in a piggy way.  Changing his environment will not change who he is on the inside.

 

              Evil Companions.

 

Others would have us believe that sin is just a matter of peer pressure.  Keep a person away from evil influences and you will keep them away from evil.  While I do not want to deny the reality of peer pressure, this does not explain the times when you sin in secret.

 

              Heredity.

 

If you cannot blame your shortcomings on your environment or on evil companions, then blame them on your genetic disposition.  “I engage in this kind of lifestyle because I was born that way.”

 

It is true that certain people have a disposition toward certain actions and certain sins.  But that does not excuse such behavior.  It has become popular to insist that sexuality in inherited via genetics and that a person is born with a disposition toward various types of sexual behavior.  It may be true that physical makeup makes one more or less susceptible, but the Bible teaches that the actions of sexual deviation are the result of sin and rebellion against God (Romans 1:20-23).

 

There is the temptation to blame all three of these aspects upon God.  But James is quick to point out that God is not in the tempting business.

 

1.             A Wrong View of Temptation:  Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God” (James 1:13).

 

James has been speaking of trials.  He has been speaking of our reaction when bad things take place.  This is covered in the first few verses of his epistle.  Now he moves to the area of temptation.  They are related.  When you face trials, there is always a temptation to try to take a shortcut to get you out of the circumstances that led to that temptation.  The shortcut often involves sin.

 

That is the temptation Eve faced in the garden.  It was a temptation to eat the fruit and become like God.  Being like God is not a bad thing.  We are supposed to try to be like God.  That is called sanctification.  But Eve sought to do it by way of a shortcut.

 

That is the temptation Abram faced when his wife was barren and he had been promised a son.  He took his wife’s handmaiden and had a child by her.  It was to lead to four thousand years of unrest.

 

That is the temptation Moses faced when he saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating an Israelite.  He took a shortcut and murdered the Egyptian.

 

That is the temptation Satan tried to use with Jesus when he tempted Him in the wilderness.  “Turn these stones into bread and satisfy your hunger; jump from the pinnacle of the temple and let everyone see God’s power as you are rescued; worship me and I will give you the kingdom.”

 

These shortcuts are not from God.  They are from Satan.  God is not in the tempting business.  He does not entice people to sin.  What He does do is to provide a way of escape.

 

                No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13).

 

It is important for you to know that all temptations have a built-in escape hatch.  There is a way of escape for every temptation.  All you need to do is take it.

 

2.             A Right View of God:  God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone (James 1:13).

 

Have you ever tried to mix oil and water?  They do not mix.  You can take a beaker full of water and drop some oil into it and the oil will float on top of the water.  We say that oil is not miscible with water.  What is true of oil and water is also true of God and temptation.  Temptation and God do not mix.

 


      God does not tempt others to evil.

      God cannot be tempted by evil.

 

The Greek phrase that James uses is, o` ga.r qeo.j avpei,rasto,j evstin kakw/n.  We could translate is very literally to say, “For God is non-temptable by evil.”[1]  Why is it that God cannot be tempted by evil?  It is because there is nothing within Him that responds in a positive manner toward evil.  That is the difference between the righteous God and fallen, sinful man.

 

3.             A Source of Temptation:  But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust (James 1:14).

 

Our actions are nothing more than belated statements of that which we have been thinking.  This is why your thought life is so important.  Sin always starts on the inside and works its way out.

 

Notice that James does not blame Satan.  He does not say, “The devil made me do it.”  Why not?  Because in our case, Satan cannot succeed on the outside unless there is something that corresponds to that temptation on the inside.  The corresponding principle is “lust.”  It is describing a strong desire.  Strong desire can be good and it can be bad.  Desire, in and of itself, is not necessarily bad.  Desire is not necessarily sinful.  But it can give birth to sin.  The question is what you are going to do with that strong desire.  Will you trust in the Lord?  Or will you seek to fulfill that desire without Him?

 

4.             The Process of Temptation:  Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. (James 1:15).

 

It almost seems as though lust is being personified in terms of a prostitute with whom a man has relations, not intending to bring forth any lasting fruit.  They are not engaged in their activities in order to bear children.  They only do it for the moment.  But it results in unwanted fruit.  It gives birth to an unwanted child.  The name of that child is sin.

 

There is a movement traced here from the desire in the heart to the outward manifestation of sin and then to resulting death.  It begins with a need.  It can be a real need or it can be a perceived need.  This need leads to a desire.

 


At this point, you have one of two choices.  Either you can depend upon God to meet that desire, or else you can seek to fulfill the desire in your own way.  One road leads to faith while the other leads to sin.

There is no abortion that can prevent the birth of death once sin has been conceived.  This death existence is the same existence in which we formerly lived before coming to Christ.  Sin takes us back to the way we used to be.

 

However, there is good news.  It is that God has performed a work in Christ that has resulted in a resurrection into a new life.  James describes this in the next three verses.

 

 

THE SOURCE OF GOOD

 

                Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. 18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures. (James 1:16-18).

 

Somewhere along the line we got the idea that the message of James was antithetical to the grace of God.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  James is going to have quite a lot to say about works, but the basis of those works will be seen here on what God has first done for us.

 

1.             The Danger of Deception:  Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren (James 1:16).

 

This command is given in the present imperative.  In the Greek language, when a negative command is given in the present imperative, it carries the idea, “Stop doing that!”  James is not speaking of a theoretical danger.  He is speaking of a real life situation that was actually taking place.  He is saying, “You are being deceived and I want you to stop it right now!”  Over what were they being deceived?   They were being deceived about the goodness of God.

 

You face the same danger.  Every time you are tempted to sin, at the heart of that temptation is a deeper temptation to deny the goodness of God.

 

Man tends to look at all of the bad things in the world and blame God.  James takes exactly the opposite approach.  He tells us that we are to look at all of the good things in the world and thank God.

 

This is how Satan deceived Eve in the garden.  He pointed to the forbidden fruit and how good it was and how it was to be desired and then he implied that God was doing a bad thing by keeping it from her.  Instead of focusing on the one tree that was forbidden, Eve should have been looking at all the other trees that God had given to them.

 

If you believe that God is really good and that He cares for your needs and that He is able to supply them, then you will not be tempted into seeking to fulfill your needs in your own way.  That means every time you are being tempted to sin, there is an underlying temptation that would have you to distrust God.  The answer to that temptation is to see that God is the source of every good gift.

 

2.             The Source of Every Good Gift:  Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow (James 1:17).

 

God is the source of all good.  God gives gifts and His gifts are good.  Not only does God give good gifts, but all good gifts that are given are from God.  That means you cannot get a gift that is good without it being from God.

 

Not only has God given good gifts in the past, but also God continues to give good gifts.  James points this out by his use of the present tense.  God did not give and then stop giving.  He does not say, “I already gave at the office.”  He gives everyday.  He is the giving God.

 

Furthermore, God does not change.  There is no variation in God.  He never wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.  He is never in a bad mood.  He does not change.  He gave in the past and He continues to give in the present and, because He is unchanging, you can be assured that He will always be the giving God.

 

3.             The Source Illustration in Salvation:  In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth (James 1:18).

 

In verse 15, we saw that sin brings forth death.  It was the image of a pregnancy bringing forth a child.  The offspring of that pregnancy was death.  Now we read that God brought forth us.  The same Greek word is used for each of these “bringing forths.”

 

Our Will

God’s Will

We exercise our own will independently of God when we sin.

God exercised His own will in order to save us.

Exercising our own will brings forth death.

Exercising His will led to bringing us forth by the word of truth

 

James has been speaking of the gifts that God gives.  Now he focuses on a particular gift that God gives.  It is the gift of life.  This is a reference to the spiritual life that we have in Christ.

 

I hear some people say they don’t like the book of James because it does not clearly present the gospel of grace.  They are wrong.  You cannot get any more clear than the way grace is pictured in this verse.  God brought us forth.  He delivered us.  He provided the new birth, not on the basis of our actions, but in the exercise of His will. 

 

Do you see the sovereignty of God and the grace of God pictured in this verse?  They are joined together in the very strongest sense.  It was through God’s gracious will that He brought us forth.  We were saved by God’s plan.  We were saved by God’s power.  We were saved for God’s purpose.  That purpose is seen in the next phrase.

 

4.             The Reason for God’s Good Gift of Salvation:  In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures (James 1:18).

 

There was a reason for God’s plan.  It was so that we might be at the head of creation.  This is seen in the concept of the first fruits.  When James speaks of the first fruits, he is using a phrase that is distinctly Jewish.  It speaks of a Jewish feast that was observed in the first month of the Jewish year.  There were three feasts celebrated that month.

 

The first was Passover.  The Passover took place on the 14th day of the month.  It was designed to be a reminder of how God had delivered the firstborn and brought them up out of their slavery in Egypt.

 

The second feast was Unleavened Bread.  This feast was a week-long observance.  During this week, the Jews removed all of the leaven from the bread they ate.  This was a reminder of their separation from the culture of Egypt.  God had taken them and made them a people who were to be set apart from the rest of the world.

 

The third feast was Firstfruits.  This took place during the week of Unleavened Bread.  Whereas the Feast of Unleavened Bread always began on the Sabbath Day, the Feast of Firstfruits always took place on the first day of the week following the Passover.  On this day, each Israelite was to bring the first sheaf of grain that he had harvested.  Bringing the sheaf of grain before the Lord, he was to have the priest wave it before the door of the tabernacle.  By doing so, he would be pledging the entire harvest that was to follow.   Just as the people were God’s people, so also they were demonstrating that the harvest was God’s harvest.

 

Here is the significance.  God has moved through Christ to save the world.  He has started with us.  We are the first part of God’s creation to be redeemed from the bondage of sin.  There is coming a day when all the rest of creation will follow suit.  It will be a day when every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.


 

 


 

 

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD


James 1:19-27

 

One of the distinctives of Christianity is that we have a God who has spoken.  Christianity is not merely a system of philosophy in which men have sat down and pondered what God is like.  We believe that we could not know God except that He first made Himself known to us.

 

We saw this in James 1:18 where we read that God “brought us forth by the word of truth.”  That is a reference to our salvation.  In a very real sense, we are children of the Word.  You did not come to Christ apart from the Word of God.  You might be thinking, “I didn’t read a verse from the Bible when I was saved.  Someone explained the gospel and I believed.”  But they used words to explain the gospel and the content of those words were taken from the Word of God.

 

The ministry of the Word in our lives does not stop when we come to Christ.  It only begins there.  James 1:18 says that in the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth – that is the message of salvation.  But the passage continue to say that He brought us forth so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures – that is the promise of sanctification; the promise of present and future growth.

 

God calls us just the way we are, but He does not leave us the way we are.  He has called us in order to change us.  Just as the calling comes through the Word, so also the changing comes through the Word.  That means the study of God’s Word is not an end in itself.  It is a means to a greater end.  It is that the Word my be received and applied in your life.

 

 

RECEIVING THE WORD

 

                This you know, my beloved brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.  21  Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:19-21).

 

When I was a lot younger, I attended Florida Bible College.  It was an exciting time of learning and studying and, in those early days, I had visions of becoming something of a scholar.  I found a lot of people whose heads were much further along than their hearts and it was not long before I became one of those people.  It took me six years to get through Bible College and another six years to get over it.

 

I am not saying that Bible College or Seminary is bad or that it is necessarily bad to learn so much of the Bible before you have had time to spiritually digest it.  But it is wrong if those spiritual truths that you learn are never translated into physical actions in your life.

 

James cuts to the heart of this matter.  He will not be satisfied with a faith that sits in your notebook or up on your shelf and is only dusted off on Sunday mornings.  He will demand a faith that works.

 

1.             Receiving the Word means that you must first Know the Word:   This you know, my beloved brethren (1:19).

 

The King James and the New King James Versions give us a slightly different reading when they say, “Therefore my beloved brethren...”  The difference between these versions with the New American Standard is not one of translation, but rather a case of two different Greek texts.  The difference is between the spelling of a single word: :Iste (“You know”) versus {Wste (“Therefore”).

 

In either case, James is forming a conclusion based on what he has just said regarding our new birth via the Word of God.  Because we have been born again through the Word, we should now live our lives according to that word.

 

Sin

God

Verses 15-16

Verses 17-18

What we are able to accomplish

What God is able to accomplish

Brought forth sin

Brought us forth by the Word of truth

The result is death

The result is life

You know this, therefore...

                 (

Because anger does not bring forth the righteousness of God...

!

Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

 

If you are a Christian, then you know some things about God.  But that knowledge is not to remain dormant.  It is to have a practical outworking.         

 

2.             Receiving the Word is an ongoing Process:  But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger (1:19).

 

James is not giving a new teaching.  He is telling them things that they already know.  How did they know these things?  They are taught in the Old Testament.

 

Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise;

When he closes his lips, he is counted prudent (Proverbs 17:28).

 

He who is slow to anger has great understanding,

But he who is quick-tempered exalts folly. (Proverbs 14:29).

 

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,

And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city. (Proverbs 16:32).

 

James calls for a “speed adjustment” in three areas: What we hear, what we say, and in how we feel.

Be Quick...

To hear

Be Slow...

To speak

To anger

 

All three of these are given in the present tense.  This gives the force of continual action:   “Let each man continue to be...”  This is to be an on-going process.  You do not do this as a one-time action.  You are to continue to be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.

 

3.             Receiving the Word brings a New Governing Principle:   For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God (1:20).

 

It is noteworthy that James uses the Greek word avndro.j (andros) to speak of the anger of man.  He is not merely speaking of the anger of mankind in general.  He uses the word that specifically denotes the male gender.

 

Why is this?  Perhaps it is because men seem to think that it is manly and masculine and macho to become angry.  God, the One who made men and women, says that there is nothing masculine in anger.  God’s righteousness is achieved quite apart from man’s anger.  It is not anger that is to be our governing principle.  Our governing principle is to be humility.  This is seen in the next verse.

 

4.             Receiving the Word is a Grace Process:   Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls (1:21).

 

James does not merely say, “Receive the Word.”  You must receive it with a certain type of attitude or else you will find that you have not received it at all.  What attitude is required?  It is the attitude of humility.  This was not written just for your wife or for your husband or for your children.  It was written for you.

 

Humility is the response of grace.  Humility recognizes its own undeservedness.  Humility recognizes that every gift comes from above, from the Father of lights within whom there is no turning or change.  Humility recognizes that you are undeserving and that everything you have is a gift of grace.  It is only when the Word is approached with humility that the Word can be implanted.

 

5.             Receiving the Word is an Organic Process:   Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted (1:21).

 

Elsewhere we read of the Word being preached and of the Word being heard and even of the Word being the subject of diligent study.  James speaks instead of the Word being implanted.  This refers to more than merely the hearing or preaching or reading of the Word.  This is what causes the Word to take root and to grow.

 

Do you recall the parable of the sower?  There were four different types of hearers.

 

      There was the hard ground where the person heard, but there was no penetration and the word had no effect.

 

      There was the rocky ground where the word could obtain no deep roots.

 

      There was the ground in the midst of thorns where the word was choked by the cares of this world.

 

      It was only in the fourth ground where there was permanent growth.  This was the good ground where the word was implanted and grew up to bear fruit.

 

How do you receive the implanted word?  You do it by repenting of all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness.  You do it by coming in humility to the cross.  You do it by accepting the gracious gift of God, trusting in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

 

6.             Receiving the Word Results in Salvation:   Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls (1:21).

 

When you come to Christ in faith, a process begins within you.  It is a process of salvation.  On the one hand, it is appropriate to speak of salvation in completed terms -- you have been justified and declared righteous.  You received something that is enduring because you are kept by His power and His strength.

 

And yet, your salvation isn’t completed.  You are still being saved.  You are being transformed into something that you never were before.  You are becoming like Christ.

 

                For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

 

I like the bumper sticker that says, “Have patience, God isn’t finished with me yet.”  That is true.  You are not finished.  You are only half-baked.  You are in the process of salvation.  It is a process that takes place as you continue putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness and as you come to the cross in humility to have the ingrafted Word do its work in your heart.

 

 

RESPONSE TO THE WORD

 

                But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.  23  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.  25  But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25).

 

As we saw in the previous paragraph, so now also the Greek text uses the present tense, indicating the demand for a continued action.  You are to continue to prove yourself a doer of the word and not merely a hearer only.

 

A hearer was a technical term among the Greeks for people who attended lectures but who were not committed disciples of the teacher.  They were under no obligation or accountability to obey the teachings that they heard.  In colleges today it is similarly possible to audit a class.  James uses this same image of an auditor.

 

This brings up an important aspect of the church.  It is accountability.  Every so often I hear of someone who has dropped out of the church and who merely wants to fellowship with Christians in an informal setting and attend home Bible studies.  There is nothing wrong with home Bible studies.  A great deal can be learned in that sort of informal setting where questions can be answered and where discussion is encouraged.  But Bible studies cannot take the place of the church because they lack any system of accountability.  Unfortunately, there are also many churches that have also failed in this important area of ministry.

 

1.             A Dangerous Delusion:   But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves (1:22).

 

One of the most dangerous things about being a hearer of the word and not a doer of it is that you can easily delude yourself into thinking that hearing is enough.  You think, “I did my part for God by getting up on Sunday morning and coming and hearing the word.  I put my money in the offering plate.  I sang the hymns.  I read the confession.  I shook the preacher’s hand.  I have fulfilled my Christian responsibilities.”  If that has ever gone though your mind, you need to know that you have been deluded.

 

2.             Doers Versus Hearers:  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer (1:23).

 

There are two kinds of people described here.  There is the hearer and then there is the hearer who is also a doer.

 

Hearer Only

Hearer and Doer

He contemplates the word (Greek).  There is no fault in the way he looks, but he then goes and forgets.

He looks intently at the word.  He bends over it and studies it.

He immediately forgets.

He becomes an effectual doer.

He deludes himself.

He is blessed in what he does.

He does not bridle his tongue.

He is slow to speak.

He is quick to anger and has not put aside all filthiness and wickedness.

He visits orphans and widows and keeps himself unstained from the world.

His religion is worthless.

His religion is pure and undefiled.

 

The contrast is the same that we see throughout the Bible.  It is the contrast between the believer and the unbeliever.

 

3.             Illustration of a Hearer:   For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was (1:23-24).

 

The man who only hears the word and who does not obey it is like a man who has been out working.  He comes in and he looks into a mirror.  The mirror tells him that his face is dirty.  It needs to be washed.  He has a big grease smudge across his nose.

 

But instead of washing his face or otherwise utilizing the information that the mirror has given to him, our hero gets dressed and goes out for the evening and spends the rest of the night wondering why people are laughing at him.  It is not that he didn’t see the problem.  The issue is that he failed to do anything about it.  The sight in the mirror did not motivate him to go and wash his face.  The result was the same as if he had not looked into the mirror in the first place.

 

4.             Looking at the Law of Liberty:  But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does (1:25).

 

By contrast, we see another type of man.  This is the man who not only looks, but he looks carefully.  The Greek word used here (paraku,ptw) is the same word that John used to describe the disciple stooping over and peering into the tomb of the resurrected Jesus (John 20:5,11).

He looks carefully.  And then he abides by what he does.  But notice what it is at which he looks.  It is the perfect law, the law of liberty.  To what does this refer?

 

James is writing to those who were well familiar with the Law.  They knew all about the requirements of the Law, both its moral code as well as its various rituals for worship and sacrifice.  The Law is good and it is holy and it is perfect.  But one thing the Law was never called in the Old Testament era was “the Law of Liberty.”

 

      The Law was the manifestation of God’s righteousness.

      Those who are under the Law are under a curse, for the one who does not keep the Law is accursed (Galatians 3:10,13).

      The Law served as our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24-25).

 

The Law could not free anyone.  The Law did not free you from your sins.  It was like a mirror.  It only pointed out your sins.

 

                Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses (Acts 13:38-39).

 

Jesus did that which the Law could not do.  The Law could only declare you to be guilty.  Jesus declared you to be righteous -- He justified you.  He fulfilled the just demands of the Law upon the cross.  Where the Law condemned our sins, He paid the penalty that the Law demanded for those sins.  When the Law called for death of the guilty, He bore our guilt upon the cross and gave His own life.

 

                For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4).

There is a new Law in effect today.  It is the Law of Liberty.  It is not like the old law that was written on tablets of stone.  This new law is written in the hearts of men.

 

This is not a new concept.  The law was never meant to remain only upon tablets of stone.  God promised that He would do something special.  He promised that He would manifest the Law from the inside out.  Throughout the Old Testament, there was a continuing emphasis upon taking the Law of God and allowing it to sink within the hearts of men.

 

                Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 32:46).

 

God promised that there would come a day when this would be reversed.  There would come a day when He would write His Law within the hearts of men.

 

                “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  34  And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34).

 

There is a great freedom when you realize that the penalty of the Law has been paid -- when you realize that instead of the Law being a hindrance to coming to God, it is now the operating principle that manifests your liberty.  You now have that within you that causes you to be a doer of the word and not just a hearer of it.

 

You are like the man who went to look at his face in a mirror and was transformed by what he saw because it wasn’t his face that looked back at him.

                Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18  But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

 

When you look at your face in a mirror, what do you see?  If you only see your face, then you are missing something.  You need to realize that, as a Christian, you have the very Spirit of the Lord within you.  Realizing that will change your life.

 

 

RELIGION OF THE WORD

 

                If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27  This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:26-27).

 

We often think of religion in terms of what we say.  We proclaim a message that we believe.  We hold to a doctrine with which we verbally agree as we confess a creed together.  But that is only one aspect of Christianity.  Our religion is not merely made up of beliefs.  It is also seen in action.  Our truth should match our tongue.

 

James sets forth the example of the man who thinks himself to be religious.  He is very sincere.  He is not a hypocrite.  He is not pretending.  He really does think that he is religious.  But he is wrong.  He has deceived himself.

 

How then are we to understand true religion?  James gives the answer in terms of our actions:    This is pure and undefiled religion  ...to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world (1:27).

 

When you spoke of purity to a Jewish person, he thought in terms of ceremonial purity.  He had a whole list of rituals that he went through to keep himself ceremonially pure.  They were all outward things.

James has some outward things in mind, too.  He says that our love of God is to be manifested in our treatment of others and in our pure life.

 

              How do you treat others?  There was no more down-and-out class of people in the ancient world than orphans and widows.  This was before the age of orphanages and social security.  These were the people who had nothing.  They had nowhere to turn.

 

It is easy to minister to those who have no needs.  It is easy to keep our religion confined to the socially acceptable – to those who dress the way we dress and who talk the way we talk and who smell the way we smell.  But that is not true religion.  That is worthless religion.

 

We are called to reach out to the helpless and to meet the needs of the needy.  This is not a new thing; it was proclaimed by the prophets and witnessed in the Old Testament.

 

He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker,

But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him. (Proverbs 14:31).

 

              How do you keep yourself?  Christians have been made pure through the work of Christ on the cross.  We have been declared to be righteous.  And then we have been told to go out and live in accordance with our calling.  We are called to be clean in a dirty world.  We are called to live in a manner that reflects our new purity.

 



[1]  The Douay_Rheims Version translates this to say, God is not a tempter of evils: and he tempteth no man.  While this version is smoother, the question is whether pei,rasto,j describes that which is a “tempter” versus that which is “temptable.”  This is made slightly more difficult in that this particular term is not found anywhere else in the New Testament or in the Septuagint.  Moffatt suggests the word was coined by James himself (1947:18).  Edmond Hiebert points out that such verbal adjectives can be either active or passive in meaning.  The active would mean “not tempting to evil” while the passive means “not tempted of evil.”  The context here calls for the passive meaning; the active would make the following statement sheer repetition.  On the other hand, when the New Testament wishes to describe a “tempter,” it uses peira,zwn, the present participle of peira,zw.