James' First Letter to the Church
James 1:1, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”
James is named as the author of this letter. There were a number of men named James in the New Testament, but the most likely candidate is James the brother of Jesus, (Mark 6:3; Acts 1:14; 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; 1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 2:9, 12).
James is identified as the brother of Jesus in Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3; and Galatians 1:19. Though there is no evidence he was a follower of Christ during Jesus’ earthly ministry (John 7:3-5), a post-resurrection appearance convinced James that Jesus is indeed the Christ (Acts 1:14; 1 Corinthians 15:7). James later led the Jerusalem church (Galatians 2:9), exercising great influence there (Mark 6:3; Acts 1:14; 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; 1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 2:9, 12). Although James was Jesus’ half-brother, he never refers to himself as such, instead he calls himself a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The use of “servant” indicates James’ humility and total surrender to his Lord.
James greets the church in his letter to “all twelve tribes scattered abroad”. Because of this salutation, biblical scholars believe that James is likely to be the earliest written of all of the New Testament books. At that time, the church would have been primarily Jewish converts from the region of Judea and surrounding areas.
(But one should not assume that James was speaking to just the Jewish Christians, his letter can be applied to all Christians, whether they be Jew or Gentile. In Paul’s epistles he goes into great detail that in Christ there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile.)
James asserts from the very first chapter that God’s desire for us is to trust Him more, and more deeply, as we learn more of Him. This is so important to God, that He calls on us to find joy, even in hard times, because hardship helps us trust God more. Those who really trust God will ask for wisdom, will be excited about their status in eternity, will recognize Him as the source of all good in their lives and will work to act on what they find in His Word. A person’s actions are a good indicator of what kind of “faith” they really have.
Trials makes patience
James 1:2, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations;”
Brothers and sisters, consider it all joy when you are faced with all kinds of trials or temptations.
The natural human response to trials is not to rejoice. Therefore, I must make a conscious commitment to face them with joy. Every trial becomes a test of faith designed to strengthen. If I fail the test by wrongly responding, that test can become a temptation. Joy is not the absence of trials, joy is knowing God!
James 1:3-4, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But, let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
Know that the trying of your faith will work patience, and let patience have its perfect workso that you will become perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
People always say, “don’t pray for patience”, because all kinds of trials will come your way! But patience is good, because trials produce patience, and patience is the ability to persevere through increasing levels of testing and suffering. Patience indicates that further work must be done for the purpose of making a Christian perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Faith can change the way we see or perceive the problem.
James 1:5-8, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and up-braideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
If you lack wisdom then ask God for wisdom, He will not criticize you for it, but will give it liberally. When you ask, ask in faith, not doubting. A person that constantly doubts is like a wave driven by the wind and tossed about. That man will not receive anything of the Lord.
Ask for wisdom: Wisdom is a gift from God (Proverbs 2:6). Knowledge is accumulated learning. The best way to grow in the Lord, would be to pray that God will give us the gift of wisdom and understanding. Then we are to study the Word of God and grow in the Word.
Ask in faith: God is very willing to give us wisdom when we ask. When we ask, we must believe that we will receive, and we shall have what we ask (Mark 11:24; 1 John 5:15). God is not one that will criticize us for asking for more wisdom, God attaches no strings to the things he gives us. He gives them to us because He loves us!
Ask without doubting: Doubting refers to having one’s thinking divided within themselves, not merely because of mental indecision but an inner moral conflict of distrust in God. It is useless to pray for wisdom, if we do not believe that God will give it. The basis for confidence is not just the fact that we exercise faith, but the person in whom we place our faith - GOD.
Ask without wavering: This man’s faith is not constant. His faith is like the tree that falls over when the slightest wind comes. He says he believes, but he does not believe in his heart.
A double-minded man: A double-minded man is one that has a heart divided between God and the world. This person wants God and the world. This person wants God but his wisdom comes from the world. This man is unstable in his belief and all his ways. His heart is not right with God. He occasionally believes in God but fails to trust Him when trials come, thus he receives nothing. One’s allegiance must be to God and to God alone.
James 1:9-11, “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low; because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so shall the rich man fade away in his ways.”
In these verses, James offered two illustrations of people facing trials: the poor and the rich. In relation to eternity, neither has anything to boast about, they are equals before God.
This picture from nature illustrates how divinely brought death and judgement can quickly end the wealthy person’s dependence on material possessions. It is best not to put your trust in earthly possessions that pass away. Our earthly body is not made for eternity, it is like the grass, here today and gone tomorrow.
James is teaching us to adopt a non-materialistic view. Wealth is meaningless in the face of certain death. Rather, we must focus on God’s view of exaltation and lowliness. Both can be true of all - the lowly (poor) need to be encouraged that they are exalted before God, whereas the exalted (the rich) need to hear a message of humiliation.
Trials make all Christians equally dependent on God and bring them to the same level with one another by keeping them from becoming preoccupied with earthly things. Poor Christians and wealthy ones can rejoice that God is no respecter of persons and that they both have the privilege of being identified with Christ.
James 1:12-16, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.”
Blessed reflects the understanding a person has who walks in the paths set by the Lord and sees his plight in terms of the crown of life that awaits him. Not only does it bring a crown of life, but we are made stronger with each temptation we overcome. Set within this mind-set our current troubles seem fleeting.
God’s relationship to temptation is made clear by two kinds of statements. The scriptures clarify what God is not or does not do. He is not tempted and He does not tempt anyone. The source of temptation is one’s own lust. Lust focuses on the immediate results that carnal desire creates, spurring a person to act, to be drawn away and enticed. And once that lust has taken control, that person sins. And sin, when it is finished brings forth death.
Do not err, James is lovingly warning. Do not let lust or carnal desires lead you to sin and death. It is not God, nor anyone else, that can lead you into temptation. If you are led there, you are led there by your own lust.
James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
God is the giver of anything that is good and perfect. James has been discussing trials, and even these are good and perfect gifts. Everything that we have is a gift from God. After salvation and adoption, every gift from God is a bonus.
Every situation, no matter how difficult, is a gift designed to bring us good in both this life and the next. Those who do not understand this will run the risk of seeing God as one who changes. But this is a deception. The Father of the heavenly lights does not change. He has been good and perfect from the past. He is good and perfect today. He will be good and perfect tomorrow, along with everything that he does, and everything that he gives.
Malachi 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I change not;”
Hebrews 13:8-9, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace;”
God does not change (Numbers 23:19; Isaiah 40:8, 28; Psalm 102:25-27; Matthew 24:35;Hebrews 1:10-12).
This is meant to be a great encouragement and will lead to a growing faith that can handle the trials of life. God never changes. He is good all the time, and all the time He is good!
James 1:18, “Of His own will begat he us with the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”
Of His own will God offers salvation by the Word of Truth. Word of Truth refers to the gospel, by which new birth comes (Colossians 1:5). Firstfruits refers to the best that the harvest produces. Being called “firstfruits” sounds strange to our ears, but to the original readers of James’ epistle, the Jewish believers, it was quite meaningful. James’ audience was familiar with the Feast of Firstfruits (see Leviticus 23:9–14).
The first-century believers were the firstfruits of a spiritual harvest, they were the first to be saved and be part of the New Testament church. Of course, in calling these early believers the “firstfruits,” James implies that there would many, many more to come! Indeed, through the centuries, the gospel has circled the globe, and people have continued to be saved by regeneration, by new birth.
The harvest continues to grow.
Hearers and Doers of the Word
James 1:19-20, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”
This is a key verse because it expresses three topics that James teaches in his letters to the church: hearing (1:19-27), speaking (3:1-12), and wrath (4:1-12).
James cautions us to listen carefully before speaking. Be quick to hear and slow to speak. When we talk continually, we cannot hear God or others. We are being called to restrain our speech. This means we have to shut our mouths before we can engage our ears and open our hearts; if not, we cannot hear God, understand His way, or apply His precepts. Usually if we listen carefully to what someone is saying, before we speak, we will not get angry (Proverbs 15:1). A person’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God.
Trials require silence and patience because talk inflames anger, and anger inflames talk. We can study to be quiet, meaning we can practice to be quiet (1 Thessalonians 4:11). Scripture tells us that silence can help us avoid sinning (Proverbs 10:19), gain respect (Proverbs 11:12), and is deemed wise and intelligent (Proverbs 17:28). In other words, you may be blessed by holding your tongue. Ultimately, refraining from speaking in certain situations means we are practicing self-control.
James 1:21, “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”
We are to put away anything foul or dirty that can pollute or defile our moral character with God, and not be guilty of disobedience or misbehavior. The engrafted word refers to the gospel that has become an essential part of one that has been reborn. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psalm 119:11).
True worship leads to putting gospel exhortations into action, and will save our souls. We are to humbly accept the word God has planted in our heart, to keep from sinning. The engrafted Word of God can eradicate sin from our lives.
James 1:22-25, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
The distinction between the hearer who forgets and the doer who continues is whether he allows the perfect law of liberty to shape his life’s course. The person who puts faith into action is blessed: his worship influences his life.
Just having knowledge about the Bible, even memorizing it to the point of having a ready quote for every situation, but does not do what it says is a kind of self-deception, a religious exercise that will give no value.
The main point of James’ illustration about the man and the mirror is that he quickly forgets what he saw in the mirror. The mirror is not at fault. It shows us what we really look like. But the man who takes this quick look quickly forgets what he saw. And so, he does nothing about the problems he saw in the mirror. He forgets what God’s word says about his sins because, really, it just isn’t all that important compared to other priorities in his life. I think that James is not describing a man with a poor memory, but rather a man with poor priorities. He doesn’t remember what he saw in the mirror because he doesn’t regard it as very important.
The Word must find its way into the heart of a man or woman to be of eternal value. A Christian must consider what the scriptures truly say and apply it with all honesty to his or her life. When you read and study God’s Word, let it change you.
The man that looks in the mirror, sees what manner of man he is, and applies the Word of God to his life, that man is blessed in his works, his worship influences his life.
James 1:26-27, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, ‘To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
What is religion? The Greek word threskeia, according to Strong’s Concordance, means a ceremonial observance related to worship. It implies an external display. External worship is good, but it means nothing to God if it doesn't come from the heart. The Bible clearly states, “God looks at what lies within a man” (1 Samuel 16:7).
Another way of phrasing verse 26 then might be: If any man thinks their outward behavior demonstrates worship of God and does not keep a tight rein on his tongue they deceive themselves, their religion is devoid of truth, worthless. What a man does, apart from God, has no value. When a man is united with God spiritually there will necessarily be good fruit brought about by the inner working of the Holy Ghost through the outward flesh.
The implied contrast in the “pure and undefiled” religion that pleases God is that the worshiper keeps his tongue under control. But James goes beyond just tongue control and gives examples of the religious acts God is looking for. One is outward-focused: “Look after orphans and widows in their distress.” The other is inward-focused: “Keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
James is not trying to create an exhaustive description of what religious practice must include. He is most likely highlighting some areas of concern among the believers to whom he was writing. But the result—pure and undefiled worship—is what believers of all eras should have as their goal.
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