James 3:6-12

"6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue-a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening fresh water and brackish? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh."

In the previous section, James indicates that one aspect of the perfection or completeness that God is leading us to is the ability to never err in what we say. God intends to transform us so that what comes out of our mouths is always a reflection of the goodness, the peace, the presence of our living heavenly Father. He tells his readers that how they use their tongues has a huge impact on how they live their lives. One can guide a horse by the bit in its mouth and steer a whole ship by the use of the rudder. James does not want them to be deceived by the power and influence of such a seemingly small thing like the tongue. In verse 5 James states "So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!" In the examples of the horse and the ship, James is pointing out the positive influence the bit and the rudder have over things much larger than they are. In verse 5 however, he speaks more of the tongue's destructive capabilities.

He continues to describe the evil that the tongue is capable of in the beginning of this section. In verse 6 James continues to speak of the tongue in terms of fire. In fact he calls the tongue itself "a fire," giving us a picture of something that is spreading destruction and is out of control. Later he says the tongue sets "on fire the cycle of nature." I looked at various commentaries for help on this term. The point is that this fire spreads through all the cycles of life, it has continuing destructive influence in the circle of our lives. You can couple this picture with the one right before it, that the tongue stains "the whole body." Our speech is like a poison that spreads throughout our lives, and the lives of others. He calls it an "unrighteous world." Righteousness is right relationship, having everything straightened out that was bent, living according to what you were created to be. The tongue though, James says, is often the member of our lives and our relationships that is unrighteous, spreading distrust in God, bending and twisting things to be less in line with their created purpose.

As I said in the previous study, I think that when we are under pressure, when we find ourselves in trials that test our trust in the goodness and presence of God, we are tempted to use our tongue to vent our doubt and frustration through unkind comments, a rash angry word, gossip, grumbling, coldness, manipulation, etc. We try to justify all of this by telling ourselves that words are "no big deal" and that we are under strain and so we need this outlet. Sometimes we try to hide behind the idea that "I was just kidding." I remember being teased for being chubby and then when I was hurt by the comments I was upbraided for taking the person's words so seriously. It seems we want to indulge our tongues but not to carry responsibility for what we say, so we try to convince ourselves that "they were just words" or "I didn't mean anything" so that makes it okay.

James' words are very sobering, aren't they? And we know the truth of them. We have all been deeply hurt or affected by a thoughtless word tossed our way. And we have seen the long-term results of some of our own comments towards others. When we look around, we see a tremendous outpouring of thoughtless, unhelpful, critical, and undermining words. We have had to toughen ourselves up against the deluge and maybe this is partly why we tell ourselves it is no big deal--we're tough so we can take it. But James says it has deep scarring effects and is easily passed on, spread like poison or fire.

So James wants to be clear first of all, that the tongue, small and insignificant as it might seem, is capable of tremendous destruction, the worst of which is the misrepresentation of God as the One who "gives to all men generously and without reproaching." We don't misrepresent God just when we speak directly against Him. We misrepresent Him in our grumbling because that does not reflect our counting on or trusting Him to be our source of real life in the midst of whatever we are dealing with. We misrepresent Him whenever we tear down each other for we are all made in His image and beloved by Him, our Father in heaven. Our words reflect (betray!) our relationship with God.

Secondly, James wants to point out to his readers that the tongue is very hard to tame. James describes the tongue as being "an unrighteous world among our members" and "set on fire by hell." We are very easily tempted to sin with our words to one another. Our lack of trust in God, our frustration with Him over our present circumstances, our jealousy or anger at others, are easily expressed by our tongue. It is so easy to speak without thinking first. Our mouths, it would seem, often bypass our brains! We are usually far quicker to speak than to act so the potential for sinning with our mouths is that much greater. As James said earlier in this chapter, "we all make many mistakes."

James goes on to make the comparison of our ability to tame the animals of the earth, both great and small, and yet "no human being can tame the tongue." It is "a restless evil, full of deadly poison." We are so quickly ready to unleash with our tongues. Is it possible that James is being too harsh? After all, aren't these just words, without substance? Apparently not. Apparently we are not as impervious to the comments we receive as we might hope. Words do have an effect, change the picture, affect the behavior and future of others, for good or ill.

With our mouths we can both bless and curse. It is interesting to note that we can bless. With these little tongues of ours we can be a blessing to another. Our little words can offer praise, comfort, life to another. That is amazing if you stop and think about it. Our words can make a wonderful, real difference in another's life. I have thought of this often when I consider appreciation. It is wondrous to me how much difference it makes when someone stops to appreciate something I have said or done. I am humbled and amazed that God let me have a good impact in the life of another. What a gift that is! I am so glad when I consider this--that they aren't "just words." To claim that what we say "is no big deal" is to rob ourselves of the great good news that we can participate in giving God's life to others by simple things we say.

James last point in this section is that we are double-minded with our mouths. We allow blessing and cursing to come from the same tongue. "My brethren, this ought not to be so." Why? James goes on to give several illustrations. Can a spring, he asks, give forth two kinds of water? Can a fig tree produce olives? A grapevine, figs? Can salt water yield fresh? No, all these things were created with a particular nature and purpose. They cannot go against their created nature. When we use our tongues to curse, we are going against our created nature. We were created to be a blessing, imaging God.

Our double minded tongues reflect our double minded minds. We are not yet fully mature, complete, perfect. We still find ourselves at times in two minds about God and about ourselves and this finds expression through our communication. To mature is to participate with God in His slowly healing and perfecting us so that we are all one thing, one way, one person with one nature--His complete beloved child. We see our need for Him as we consider our battles with our tongues.

The great good news is that God's word to us is all one thing. God is not double minded about us and His word to us is always life, peace, love in Him. It is always Jesus Christ. We never need worry that God will change His loving words to us, that He speaks of us to others differently than He speaks to us. His word truly can be counted on for it is at one with His nature. He can and will make us more and more like Himself. Trusting Him to do this, we can happily and daily hand over our tongues to Him and rejoice when we see our ability to be a blessing grow. Thank goodness it is not His intention to leave us in our double-mindedness or under the poison of twisted words spoken to and heard by us.

James 3:1-5

"1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all make many mistakes, and if any one makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4 Look at the ships also; though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! "

God is taking us to perfection. His clear purpose is that we become His fully mature children, fully able to participate in a relationship of love in and with Him. All that we go through, all of our struggles here in our broken world are to lead to a future so much more glorious than our present. James wants to encourage his struggling readers in the midst of a variety of trials. One of the ways he does this throughout his letter is to flesh out some of what this perfection God is working in us looks like.

James says in 1:4 that the full effect of a steadfast faith is to be "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." So while we may feel or know that we are incomplete now in so many ways, and we may at times sense our deep lack, this is not where we are going to remain. God is taking us to a perfection that is full and complete, where we will have a deep sense of satisfaction in all of our life, we will have no sense of lack, loose ends, incompleteness.

Perfection is to know, in every way, our generous, loving, giving Father. We are coming to draw closer with confidence to one who gives without reproaching. In 1:12 James says we will receive "the crown of life"--life, life, and more life--real life from the only source of life!

A perfect relationship with God overflows into perfection in our relationships with one another and with ourselves. Trusting in God for our life and identity frees us from trusting in wealth or in those who are wealthy. We are freed to care for and receive from others, to allow ourselves to be blessed by and be a blessing to those that God brings into our lives.

To trust in God, to participate in our own perfection, we need to recognize and turn from all those things that encumber us, all those idols that we have, and hand more and more of our lives over to Him. It is so easy to be deceived. We can be deceived about God's character and thus wonder if He is the one who tempts us to evil or be slow to turn to Him because we are unsure of His good purposes and presence. We can be deceived into believing that others do not go through trials, or that being wealthy will protect us from pain and struggles. We can be deceived as to the nature of true faith and how our actions, our works, flow from our faith rather than having no connection.

Now James turns to the subject of how we can be deceived about our tongues. From what he writes, it seems that there was a lot of loose talk going on. I would think that because they were under the stress of trials, they were venting some of their feelings and thoughts through their talk. They may have been gossiping about others, complaining, being critical, etc. It seems clear that they were tempted to believe that this loose talk was "no big deal" because it was not significant, it was "just talk." There was some envy of teachers, I guess because they seemed to have either more freedom to talk or more power because they had some influence over others. When we are feeling that we are going through a period of distress, we may look to teachers as having an enviable position because they are noticed and listened to. If we feel powerless, we are tempted to believe that those who have some power, either from wealth or position are better off, more blessed, than we are.

James deals with their envy of teachers by reminding them that "we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness." To teach others is not to have the freedom to say whatever you want or to enjoy using your influence over others. Being a teacher has a price with it. It is precisely because their words have the capacity to have so much influence over others that teachers are more strictly judged by God.

James goes on to give them another picture of this perfection to which God is leading us. A perfect person is the one who makes no mistakes in what he says. And in making no mistakes with his words, he is "able to bridle the whole body also." James wants his readers to understand the true relationship between what we say and the rest of our lives. The words we speak are "a big deal." How we use our tongues has an effect on how we live. We are fooling ourselves if we believe we can say whatever we want and that it doesn't make any real difference. They are never "just words!" James says that it is true that we all make mistakes, but as we grow toward perfection, one of the first places we need to begin to trust God whole heartedly is with our tongues.

To underline his point about the close relationship of our tongues and our behavior James gives two illustrations. The first one is about the bit in a horse's mouth which enables the rider to guide the whole animal where she/he wants it to go. In the second illustration, James emphasizes the contrast between the largeness of the ship and the smallness of the rudder that is needed to steer it. The rudder could seem so insignificant when considered merely by its size. It is "no big deal." But actually it is essential to getting this huge ship to go where you want.

The tongue, James goes on to say, like the bit and the rudder, is a little member. But "it boasts of great things." This can be both positive and negative. The tongue is capable of being involved in great things. The teacher is judged more strictly because his/her words have such influence. Bridling our tongue does help us to better control our lives. The tongue can also be prideful. We can truly "boast" of the great things we do or hope to do to others. However, James warns that the great things our tongues often do are things that are greatly destructive. It only takes a small blaze to set a whole forest on fire.

So James indicates here that we should not discriminate between those who teach and those who don't. We all have tongues, whether we teach or not, and so we all have a great responsibility for this little organ. We all can use it to bless others or to bring damage and destruction. There is great potential either way. The word of God and our words are powerful no matter who we are. If we want to have a great effect upon the world, we all can--when we use our tongues and speak only in a way that flows out of trusting and loving God--even and especially in times of testing. What we say is the simplest and yet the most powerful way to live our lives in line with God's own Word. According to James, this is the place to begin our lives of following Jesus, for that discipline will have a huge impact on the rest of our lives--and those of others as well!

James 2:14-26

"14 What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. 18 But some will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, 23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness"; and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead."

In chapter one, verses 22-25, James encouraged his readers to not be only hearing the word, but to put what they hear into practice. In this long section, James is making the point that a faith that is not lived out is useless. Our faith must translate into action in our lives. We need to live by the faith we say we possess.

At the beginning of his letter, James told his readers that the various trials they were encountering were for the strengthening or purifying of their faith in God. As they handed over their current situations to God and counted on Him for their lives and identities, their faith would grow because they would come to see more and more clearly the true, good, generous nature of the God they trusted.

When we are under stress, we are tempted to hope there is an easy or quick solution to our problems. We hope that there is some program, or information that will clear up all or our external difficulties. We are tempted to believe that merely knowing something is as good as changing our attitudes and behaviors to fit with what we now know. Isn't knowing that, say, I struggle with being willing to admit wrongdoing as good as actually admitting the wrongdoing whenever it occurs?

Sometimes we are tempted to think this way about our faith in God. We hope that, because we say we trust God with our lives, He will now make our present circumstances better. We forget that the growing of our own faith, our maturity, is what God is mainly interested in bringing about, not an alleviation of our difficulties. God will have us be His mature, pure, true children and He is willing to take as long as necessary to bring this about. He is always at work to bring about our complete transformation into the sons and daughters we were created to be. Rather than taking us out of our trials, He works along with them to bring about our perfect trust in Him, our growing ability to know His rest, peace, yes, even His joy in the midst of whatever we are going through.

So if our trust in Him is what God wants to grow, it makes sense that just having an intellectual assent to God's existence is not enough. We are to have works along with our faith, which means we are to live as if God truly is the generous, loving Father He reveals Himself to be.

James begins this section with two questions, "What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?" What benefit is there to say you know you are God's beloved child and that your only source of life is Him, and yet not live in any way as if this were true? How can one experience God's saving, healing work with this kind of faith?

James says that this "faith without works" is like seeing that someone is ill-clad and hungry and saying "'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,'" but not actually giving them anything that they need. Is there any benefit, James asks, in saying those words? Notice that in this illustration, the problem isn't that they were ignoring the poor man. The problem is in believing that the words are somehow enough, are an adequate substitute for actually getting the man food and clothing. This is not really faith, but presumption! We can see how absurd this thinking is when we consider this story. Of course, the words are not the same as actual clothing and food!

James says, though, that this is the same for us when we say we trust God but we do not work to act on the basis of that faith. It is a lovely thought that I no longer need to try and find my worth in money, worldly success, being well-liked, but how can I receive the real peace and joy that comes with this truth, if I continue to live as if my worth really is caught up in these other things?

James now turns to those who try to separate faith and works by saying, "'You have faith, and I have works." James totally opposes this idea. It is not possible to have only one or the other. You cannot have works which glorify God without faith just as you cannot have faith in God without works. You cannot show faith apart from your works because they are integrally related to each other.

James goes on to say, "'I by my works will show you my faith.'" How we live in the midst of our circumstances, how much we receive God's peace in the midst of our anxieties, shows ourselves and others the real nature of our faith, our trust in God. Are our works based in a counting on God, or in an attempt to win points with God or others? Maybe we could say that our works, that is how we live, relate to others, perform our tasks, are the fruit of either our counting on God, or not counting on Him for our lives.

To merely believe God is or exists is not the kind of faith that leads to our perfection. James points out that even demons have that kind of belief. They believe "God is one" but they don't then count on Him to be their source of life. The only behavior that this belief results in, in them, is that they shudder. Such belief is empty, fruitless, meaningless.

James ends this section with two examples from the Scriptures of true faith that brings about works. First he speaks of Abraham when he offers his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. James makes a couple of points about the nature of faith and works from this story. First he says that "faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works..." In order for Abraham to offer up his son, he was actively trusting God the entire time. He was turning his actions over to God, trusting that God would be true to His character and to the words He had spoken to him about his descendants.

Notice that James says that Abraham's faith was completed by his works. Abraham acts out of faith and it is his faith that is made complete by his actions. Faith is the root of all right or righteous action. That takes us back to the beginning of the letter and the fact that our trials are meant to grow and purify our faith. Our faith is to grow and it grows by being acted on. Faith is not static, it must be lived out. We know this is true in our relationships with one another. I can say I trust a friend, but if I never act on this trust, my trust, and therefore my relationship, with this friend cannot grow.

The second point James makes on the story of Abraham is that the Scripture about Abraham's believing God is only fulfilled when he acts on it. Only when he lives as if God is true, is the comment on his belief in God fulfilled. And it is when Abraham acts on his trust that he is called God's friend. This tells us that trust is dynamic and the central part of a relationship. Now Abraham is God's friend, because now he has lived according to what he has come to believe about God.

James mentions Rahab as his second illustration. She acts on her belief that the true God was at work in these men and so she helps them to escape from her city. This action gave evidence of a true faith in God.

James's last point is to equate the relationship of faith and works with body and spirit. The body cannot live without the spirit; and faith cannot live unless it is acted upon. Can we trust God in the midst of our trials? Can we turn over everything to Him each day, and make room in our lives to receive His peace for us because we believe He has peace He wants to give us? Can we see that when we do not work on living by our faith, we miss out on experiencing the peace and life He wants to give us?

This is the main thing James wants us to see: we are saved by faith alone, but faith never remains alone, it becomes active. But James is aware of the opposite problem too. Works without faith, as their source, are also empty. And this can be just as big a problem. This is what we mean by legalism. We obey, but without faith in God and God's being true to his character and word. We become mere activists, doing things for God in order to win his favor, or avoid his wrath or help God out because somehow he demands our assistance. In this mode, we act as if God were a slavemaster and we are servants who don't really belong to Him, who are not really a part of His family. We miss entirely the kind of relationship God has with us in Jesus. We don't see and count on God as our heavenly Father and Jesus as our brother. We don't trust in the goodness of God to raise us up to be his beloved children and to share in every good thing He freely wants to give us if only we would trustingly receive it.

I have a friend here who is struggling with some deep problems in her marriage and her life. She tells me she trusts God as she is frantically and resentfully going about the tasks before her. As we talked about living by faith, she came to see that she was not really trusting God in the midst of her trials. She viewed her faith as an act of believing, in such a way, that if she believed "hard enough" God would change her present circumstances. She began to see more clearly that she needed to trust Him to be at work in her more than taking away her present distress, and that she needed to do things in her life that came out of an active trusting in Him. Her works were based on panic and desperation. Now she has decided to take the time each day to actively know and rest in God and to have her actions be out of the peace He gives her. Of course, this work to grow her faith will need to be repeated over and over because we are always, moment by moment to be living out of faith.

James 2:8-13

"8 If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well. 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," said also, "Do not kill." If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over judgment."

As you already know, James is writing to a people in exile. They have been forced to leave their homes and settle among strangers. As followers of Jesus, they do not find their lives to be easy and void of struggles. Instead, they find themselves facing a variety of trials and these tempt them to doubt God's faithfulness and ability to continue to bless them. James writes them this letter to remind them of who God is and how He can enable them to rejoice when they encounter these trials because they test their trust in Him. And a trust that has been tested or purified leads in the end to one being "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.(1:2-4)"

In the passage just previous to the one we are looking at today, James encourages his readers not to treat the rich that come to their church better than the poor. It is tempting when we are going through trials to treat others differently. Maybe we envy those who are wealthy and don't seem to be having any trials at all. Or, perhaps we think they may have some power to alleviate our pain so we give them better treatment. Maybe we hope to have a share in the "glory" we think they possess. Whatever the reason, James reminds them that there is only one source or Lord of glory, and that is Jesus Christ, Himself. He shows them how silly they are to honor the rich when they are the very ones who oppress them! Why should they look for glory or help from these people?

James continues this theme about not showing partiality in this section. He begins by summarizing what he was saying in the previous section with this statement: "If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well." James calls this the "royal law." It is not clear why he calls it that. Possibly he is referring to it as the "kingly law," the law belonging to the king, Jesus, or to the kingdom of God. This is the second half of what Jesus quotes when asked what is the greatest commandment. The first half is "'Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'"(Mk 12:29-30)

James encourages them to "fulfill" this law. In other words, don't just love some of your neighbors as yourself. Many in the church had been choosing only the rich neighbors to love well. Maybe they were tempted to believe that a partial observance of the law was enough to satisfy the law. James will not let them continue in this thinking. "But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors." We are to love our neighbors as we ourselves are loved by God. They are also objects of His love. But, we may ask, isn't the fact that some are rich and some are poor one way we see that God is showing partiality, and so we can as well? Certainly if we look around, our lives do not seem to be equally balanced with those around us. We are tempted to believe that it is right to show partiality because our circumstances, and our gifts, and talents are not the same as those around us.

But James dismisses this idea completely. To show partiality is to commit sin, it is as simple as that. James told his readers in v. 5 that God is One who "gives to all men generously and without reproach." God does not show partiality. Since this is not obvious from people's circumstances, then we cannot look at their circumstances to tell us who God is and what He is like. James reminds them of this truth about God to feed their faith in the midst of trials, so that they count on God to be who He has revealed Himself to be, rather than on our own plans and maneuverings.

The root of sin is not trusting in or counting on God to give us His life and presence, and to make us more able to receive that life. We turn and trust ourselves or others, the creature rather than the Creator. When we show partiality, we are not trusting at that moment that God is a generous giver, giving to all and without reproach. We fear He may not come through or we simply don't want what He is offering if it means having to go through these trials. The cure for this is not to just try harder to be impartial and to trust God. We need to gaze again and again and more deeply on God's heart, purposes, and work, and to have the wonder and trust drawn out of us. And as we see His steadfastness, goodness, and utter commitment to us and our perfection, we can also see more clearly the utter foolishness of counting on ourselves or others around us--like the rich "who oppress you."(2:6)

The reason that showing partiality makes you a transgressor of the law, James goes on to say, is because that to break the law in any part, is to be "guilty of all of it."(2:10) He uses the examples of committing adultery and killing to make his point that they cannot show partiality toward the law as well. They are not to believe that obeying the law is a matter of picking and choosing which to follow and which to ignore. Why is this? Because "he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' said also, 'Do not kill.'" They were behaving as if they had a relationship with the law rather than with the lawgiver. They were not seeing that the God who is the generous giver and able to bring them to completion in Him is the One behind these laws. To transgress on any of these laws is really to transgress the one Lawgiver and the disobedience of any one of the laws comes from the same source--not counting on God (the one Lawgiver) for their lives and identities. They fail to see the goodness of God and so the goodness of each and every one of his laws given to us for our benefit, our blessing.

This next sentence is very interesting to me. "So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty." In the end, he sums up these laws as "the law of liberty." Wow! How often do we hear law and liberty put together like that? Isn't law, by definition, the hampering of our liberty? Not according to James! God's law is our liberty, our freedom to become "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."(1:4) To count on Him for our life, to grow to know Him as the God who gives generously in the midst of whatever difficult and painful trials we go through in this fallen and twisted world, to trust Him to heal us of all our sin and the results of others' sinning against us--this is to live under the law of liberty. James encourages his readers to speak and act out of this trust in the triune God alone for the whole of our lives. We are to obey his law out of trust that since it comes from the Lord it is for our true liberty.

To count on God is to receive His mercy, to count on His grace to heal us and destroy the sin that entangles us. James concludes this section by stating, "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over judgment."(2:13) You cannot show mercy without first receiving mercy from God. If you receive God's mercy you will certainly want all others to receive the same--showing no partiality! The one who lives refusing God's mercy will be the one who judges others without mercy. That is, he will judge with the intent of having his judgment be the final word which brings nothing but final condemnation with no hope of redemption. When we judge others without mercy, we are at that moment not receiving, not living on the great mercy of God whose judgment is meant to bring us to repentance and redemption. Here James speaks too, of God's judgment upon "one who has shown no mercy." That one will experience judgment from God without mercy as well. Why? If we refuse to show mercy in one's judgment of another, then that person has no grasp at all of his or her own dependence on God's mercy and really has placed themselves in a position of refusing God's mercy as well. You cannot receive God's mercy and not want to extend it to others. Their need is the same as yours.

But James does not end there. In the end, he says, it is not judgment that will triumph, but "mercy triumphs over judgment." It is God's mercy that will be triumphant. Even our false judgments cannot stop the fact that in God's judgment the greater end is mercy. God's judgment serves his mercy. We can hand over to Him all of our petty judgments and condemnations of others or ourselves because we have counted on and been ultimately betrayed by them rather than trusted in God alone. He is and will continue to be the God who gives to all generously, without reproaching. When we find ourselves treating others with partiality we can turn back to the only one who can give each and every one of us true liberty! A liberty to receive every good thing (especially His mercy) from God and to pass it on to each and every one who crosses our path.

James 2:1-7

"1 My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "Have a seat here, please," while you say to the poor man, "Stand there," or "Sit at my feet," 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the honorable name which was invoked over you?"

When we are in the midst of trials we often feel tempted to believe we are powerless and without hope. We do not want to stay where we are, in the midst of the difficulty. We want to find a way out if we can, and we want to associate ourselves with those that we think can help. We look for people whom we think have some glory, some prestige that will rub off when we are with them. Or maybe we are hoping that they will share some of their prestige with us and that we will be lifted out of our difficulties because of our association with them. Our lives, in the middle of these trials seem without glory, without anything good in them.

It is tempting to deal with difficult circumstances by comparing ourselves with others and by using the world's standards to decide who is worth giving honor to and who is not. I might even feel some shame associated with my struggles in life. I may look at someone who seems to have it all together and to be blessed and wonder what is wrong with me. What did I do to deserve this? Am I not as good as these people who are so well off in their lives? Why does my life have to be so hard?

Or I may look at those who don't have much in the world and are obviously struggling and think, well at least I am not as bad as them? What is their problem? Why did they allow themselves to get into such a mess?

It is interesting how easy it is to judge others and size up their worth compared to us. We are tempted to do it all the time and when life is hard, the temptation is even stronger. James is warning his readers against doing just this. You could almost title this section, "Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places." The people in this congregation are honoring the rich who come to their worship services. The rich have power and authority in our world. In Biblical times people often thought that riches was a special sign of God's blessings. James' readers hope in their preferential treatment of these rich people that they will receive some blessing as well. It seems that they believe these people have to some important degree the ability to tell them who they are and to provide them with real life.

But James reminds them of the sad truth about these very people they are so eager to please. They are the ones who, in general, oppress them, drag them into court, and even "blaspheme the honorable name which was invoked over (them)." These are not people primarily interested in what is best for those James is writing to. They are not attempting to reflect to others the good truth about our heavenly Father and our real identities as His beloved children. In fact they view others in terms only of what benefits themselves. They are unable to see the truth about others because they do not know the truth about God and themselves. Why, James is asking his readers, are you seeking to honor these rich and so receive some glory or blessing from them for yourselves?

There are some among you, James tells them, that can bless you, can remind you of the wonderful reality that we know only by faith. These are the poor among you! Unfortunately, they have not yet seen the richness of these people. They are missing the blessings these people have to offer because they see them only as the world sees them. They are assuming because the poor have no earthy prestige, power, or authority, that they have nothing helpful to offer. Notice the irony: James' congregation is treating the poor in a similar way to how the rich treat them, with contempt.

How did it happen that in this congregation people were seeking for blessing from those least interested in blessing them and missing the blessing that others could give them because they didn't see any good in them? Because they forgot in their troubles that Jesus is "the Lord of glory." We struggle and so we wonder, where is the glory in this? What blessing can be had here? And then we look around us at those who seem to be blessed compared to us, who seem to "have it all together" or just have it better than we do and we are tempted to look to them to tell us who we are, to give us a share in the more glorious life they seem to have.

But Jesus is the one and only "Lord of glory." Why does James give Jesus this title here, in this passage? Because his readers need to be brought back to the right place to look for help in their times of trouble. Jesus is the one who is truly glorious, honorable, all-powerful and prestigious. And He is intimately interested in sharing His glory with us. He is making us His very own sisters and brothers. He is the God who "gives to all generously and without reproach,"(1:5) and He is the One who gives "every good endowment and every perfect gift."(1:17)

Before Jesus, we are all the same. We at best share in and reflect His glory. There is no need for distinctions when we see He is our one true source of glorious life. We can stop running after others for affirmation, stop honoring only those we think might be able to benefit us, and be open to receive blessings from God from the surprising places He desires to give them. What a freedom and a joy when we truly allow God to tell us who we are, when we allow Him to show us His presence and work in our lives right now. We often miss out on receiving fully and enjoying what He is doing in our lives, how He is sharing His glory with us, because we are looking for it--in all the wrong places, that is, any place outside of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

James 1:26-27

"26 If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

How do we deal with the trials that come to us in life? Do we view ourselves as victims and speak and act out of self-pity? Do we compare ourselves to others either to beat ourselves up or justify ourselves? Trials challenge our deepest habits of mind, our deepest beliefs about who we are and what a good life is. I took a class on Ministry to the Dying and Bereaved at Fuller Seminary and I remember the professor saying that many people think that a serious illness or a death in the family bring the family closer together. But he said this is usually a mistaken hope. What usually occurs is the deeper dysfunctions of the family surface at that time.

We hold certain beliefs about God's character and activity and our worth and identity but the faith we really operate on is made clear in the times of stress. This is why James speaks of trials as testing our faith. When we face difficult circumstances, we have the opportunity to "test" the depth and security of our faith. We can more fully live by the truth, see more clearly how true and wonderful God really is. And we can see the deeper doubts, anxieties, and idols that need to be handed over to our heavenly Father.

James speaks in the previous passage and in this one about how easy it is to deceive ourselves. We are deceived about the truth of God and ourselves when we say we trust in the goodness and graciousness of God but don't actually live by that trust. We are deceived--which means we are the ones who are the losers when we don't act on what we believe. We are not able to receive the comfort and peace of His presence and activity when we live as if He is not really present and active in our lives.

In this passage, James warns his readers against deceiving their hearts. We deceive our hearts, according to James, when we believe we are "religious" but we won't bridle our tongues. He says that the person who does this has a religion that is vain, or useless. Again, we are the losers. Our religion becomes useless, we enjoy no comfort or empowering from our trust in God.

What might James mean by bridling one's tongue? Why is this so important that to not do so is to deceive one's very heart? First, to bridle one's tongue is to discipline yourself to be careful what you say. You do not allow whatever comes to mind to come out of your mouth. You have put a watch over yourself so that nothing escapes your lips unexamined. You have a restraint on yourself.

When we are under trials, we sometimes feel our situation is an exception or a special circumstance which allows us to be less restrained in what we say. After all, we think to ourselves, this is a very hard time and so being more lax is perfectly understandable, if not justifiable. We may be tempted to indulge ourselves a bit in self-pity or in some manipulating of our situation to make things better for ourselves. What might we be tempted to say that shows we are not bridling our tongue? I think we can get a hint of this by looking at verse 27. James says there are two things that show a "religion that is pure and undefiled before God." The first is to visit "orphans and widows in their affliction" and the second is "to keep oneself unstained from the world."

Orphans and widows were the powerless of their society. They had lost all connection to those who were responsible to take care of them. They have no status, no influence. James tells his readers that they should visit these people in the midst of their affliction--in their very place of pain. They are not to wait until these children and women are in a better, more respectable place. They are not to wait until the orphans and widows are in a position to give them something back. To visit them in their affliction offers no advantage to the one doing the visiting. This is true religion. When we trust God to be our only and real source of life, peace, rest, and worth, then we can enjoy the wonderful freedom of serving others with no need for a direct return from them. That is why it is true religion. It reflects the very heart of our extravagant God who so lavishly loves us, who are unable to give Him any advantage for His gracious love to us. Here we can see deeper into His great heart and can truly receive His overpowering love because we are not distracted by looking for a way to put ourselves into advantageous positions.

The second part of true religion is to "keep oneself unstained from the world." This goes back to James' comments about the one who is double-minded. When we seek to receive and know God's presence and love, we need to turn from looking to the world for honor or life. We come to see more and more the truth that the world cannot tell us who we are and what is true life, so we stop seeking for it to do so. Of course this is a process--part of the testing of our faith to make it steadfast (vv. 3-4)

James contrasts true religion with religion that is vain. So it would seem that when he speaks of bridling one's tongue, he is encouraging his readers to restrain themselves from using their tongues to bring about their own advantage or to get others in the world to give them recognition, status, power, or worth. When we use our tongues for these things, we deceive ourselves because we are using them to gain what can only be gotten from God.

When exercising true religion we no longer regard ourselves as hapless victims nor tragic heroes. Rather we are choosing to live as if we are the beloved sons and daughters of our gracious heavenly Father who is with us in the most intimate way whatever our circumstances. He is transforming us to be in every way His mature children, able more and more fully to live in the love with which He loves us completely.

James 1:22-25

"22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing.."

James is writing to people who are facing a variety of trials. Through these trials, their trust in God is being tested, stretched. James wants to help his readers to go through these difficult times in such a way that their relationship with God deepens and grows. James has spent a lot of his time so far reminding his readers of the character of God. He knows that in the midst of struggles our view of God can quickly become cloudy. We wonder if God is still present with us and if He is totally good. We wonder how much He really cares for us, what our purpose is here on earth, even who we are.

James reminds them of the unchanging, generous, and completely good character of God. He reminds them that God created them because He desired to and that He did so in order that they (and we) could be "a kind of first fruits of his creatures."(1:18) This is all true and stays true no matter what our circumstances.

In the paragraph preceding the one we are studying here, James encourages his readers to be quick to hear these words of truth. Listening and receiving again and again the truth of God's amazing love and grace for us will help us to be more deliberate and faithful in our words and with our anger.

Now James wants to expand on what true hearing is. Hearing involves action that is an appropriate response to what you just heard. If I am really hearing a warning of an oncoming car, then I would respond appropriately by getting out of the way. I make the adjustments in my life that fit with the truth I have been given. We often wonder if our children or others in our care are truly hearing us when we see no outward response.

James tells his readers that when they hear, but do not integrate what they hear into their lives that they are deceiving themselves. He compares these people to those who look into a mirror and then forget what they see. How does this become deceiving? A mirror gives me a fair assessment of what is my physical appearance. But as soon as I walk away from the mirror, I no longer have the image in front of me. I can't "hold on to it" so to speak. If I never go back and look in the mirror, I cannot be sure of what I look like. I begin to forget. And if I choose to dismiss immediately what I saw (I am not really that fat, thin, bushy-haired, etc.) then I forget even more quickly the truth the mirror revealed to me.

If I do not act on the truth I hear of my good heavenly Father, then I am deceived because the truth I heard does not stay before me, and I soon forget it and so forget myself. We are tempted when we are in trouble to believe that just hearing the truth, or "knowing" the truth is enough. We listen, hoping that our listening itself with solve our problems. Isn't it enough to know that complaining and grumbling are harmful to my peace in Christ? Do I really have to stop doing these things? Isn't it enough to hear God made me out of His own free choice and love and that He is good and generous? No. James says that when we do this we are deceiving ourselves, lying to ourselves. We believe that we are living in the truth when in fact we are not. We are not enjoying any of the benefits of trusting in God because we are not in fact trusting Him. We are like someone who goes to a specialist for a health disorder, listens to his or her recommendations, but then do none of them. But we are deceived because we want to believe that somehow just going and hearing what the doctor had to say was enough.

But then after several weeks with no change in our health, we may start to wonder why we are not feeling better. In my early 20s I went through a period in my Christian life where I wondered why God seemed so distant or even absent in my life. I spent time with a Christian counselor who took seriously many commands in the New Testament that up until then didn't seem that important. One of them was about grumbling and complaining. She actually believed I was to attempt to obey that command! Over the time I met with her, she helped me take some difficult steps to change what I thought and said. And what I discovered is that God became much more present to me in my everyday life. Not that there are not still times when I can't see what He is doing and that I trust Him only by choice and not by much else. But overall as I took God more seriously in all areas of my life, I began to see the truth of His love and care for me in new ways.

To act on the truth we hear is to live as if God is truly our gracious heavenly Father and that He alone gives us our worth, our identity. But this is to allow very deep habits of mind, words, and actions to be transformed. The way we relate to ourselves and others, how we spend our time and money, our general outlook on life all need to come under the light of God's gracious work. The reason we are to turn from grumbling for instance is because when we are complaining we do not trust that God is good, present, and active. We are attempting to live in two minds--to say we trust God but act as if we do not. Jesus often encouraged people to not be afraid, but to trust Him. He knew that when they acted out of their fear, they were unable to act out of trust in His goodness.

To act on what we hear though, is not simply to try harder not to, say, not complain or be anxious. James is not encouraging his readers to simply try harder to live right. He is encouraging them to do whatever they need to do in order to feed their faith in their heavenly Father. So we turn our anxiety over to Jesus Himself and our desire to grumble. We hand over each day, relationship, thought, and question to God moment by moment, thus allowing our faith in Him to become a living thing.

James says this is looking into "the perfect law of liberty." Trusting in, resting in our Father is true freedom. This is where we become who we are meant to be. Only by placing our hand in the Father's who has grabbed hold of us will we come to know ourselves. We look into this perfect law when we see that we are indeed children of our heavenly Father and not gods ourselves. It is when we stop trying to trust in our money, looks, family or friends, jobs, etc., to give us life and tell us who we are. And of course, this involves actively pursuing being reminded of the great news of our Triune God.

James says this will involve persevering. It is a continual choice we make to trust in God. It is a truly ongoing relationship. James has already spoken of persevering when he spoke of steadfast faith(v.4) and endurance(v.12). Clearly then James sees this as key to getting through the trials we face. We need to keep on choosing to know the truth about God and to trust in His character and work in our lives. James reminds them of who God is, not because they haven't heard it before, but because part of acting on what we hear is to hear it again and again. We so easily forget the truth about ourselves and our lives. We need to keep going back to the mirror of God's Word.

Again James reminds them of the results of continually choosing to hand our lives over to God. The one who perseveres in looking into the perfect law will be "blessed in his doing." God will bless us in the midst of our acting in faith. He will meet us richly as we choose to live as if He is who He reveals Himself to be. The truth will become more manifest in our lives, we will enjoy the true freedom He is calling us to, we will know and enjoy His great love for us more and more. It is our hope in these things that can enable us again today, to count on Him to be our true Father.

James 1:19-21

" 19 Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man [one] be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, 20 for the anger of man [someone] does not work the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."

In the preceding passage James encourages his readers not to be deceived as they go through trials. They are to remember that all good gifts come from their heavenly Father who can be counted on to be true to Himself. There is "no variation or shadow due to change" in God. As we wrestle with the various temptations and difficulties in our lives, we can trust in the character of our good and giving Father to enable us to grow more and more able to receive and be complete in His love for us.

Now James tells his readers that to "count it all joy"(1:2) when they face their various trials they must be "quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger." Let's look at these in reverse order. James says that in trials we are to be slow to anger. Certainly it is in the pressure of difficulty that we are most tempted to be angry. And I have noticed that it is when I am in the midst of a trial that I am tempted to believe I have a "right" to be angry. I may speak and act out of this anger and rationalize to myself that it is okay because of the difficult circumstances I am currently in. I allow the heat of my anger to spur me forward and it is only later when I have cooled down that I see the damage my thoughtless words and deeds have wrought.

The reason for being slow to anger is given in the following verse: "for the anger of man [human beings] does not work the righteousness of God." He is saying that God is the One who is truly "up to" righteousness--setting all things right, such as our relationships with Him and each other. At the beginning of the letter, James tells us that God's intention for us is that we become "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing". This is what God's righteousness means. God chose to create us to be able to have a perfect love relationship with Him and this is what He is working to bring about. And amazingly even his anger has no other aim or end in view! All God’s actions and reactions push towards the same good end for us.

However we can never count on our anger to perfectly contribute to this process. Why not? Well, I think the answer in most situations is obvious. My anger tempts me to think and so act only for myself and my immediate situation. For the most part, I do not act out of a trust in my heavenly Father when I am angry and so, at least in part, it seems to always involve negative, sinful consequences, ones that lead people away from God and a true picture of God and his ultimate purposes.

But, are there times when our anger is in some sense "righteous"--when we see injustice or sin and we are angry about it? Yes, in fact we may find we are growing more angry at the sin around us. But when we go and act out of our anger, let the anger itself--especially in the moment--move and motivate us to respond, we cannot count on it to work the righteousness of God because, especially in a cloud of anger, we cannot see and know all that God is doing in each situation and so contribute to what God is doing even about things that do indeed anger God. God actions, even those which express His anger, are always perfectly aimed at bringing about righteousness and stopping unrighteousness because it is perfectly coordinated with God’s love and wisdom. But when our actions are based on our anger they will be out of synch with God’s action even if God is righteously angry about the same things that are making us angry. For ours will not be moved and informed by the perfect righteousness and wisdom and goodness of God.

This doesn't mean we should never be angry or that anger in and of itself is bad. James is not saying do not be angry, but be slow to anger. Acting in anger should not be our first response. If we do become angry then we need to choose to be "quick to hear, slow to speak" and this then will enable us to be slow to respond and act even if we are somehow provoked to anger. We are to work through our anger in “slow motion,” as it were, and let it be seasoned and purified by trust in God and God’s wisdom, patience and long-suffering.

We are to be slow to speak. The only way I can see doing this is to be occupied with something else that enables us to wait before we say anything. That is where the phrase "quick to hear" comes in. The reason we are slow to speak is that we are busy listening. But listening to what? There are plenty of voices to listen to as we journey through life. Is James just suggesting how to be a good conversationalist? No. He is telling his readers that what will help them go through trials is counting on God, in trust, rather than trusting in themselves of something or someone around them. This trust is what should inform and motivate any action subsequent to our anger.

We are to be quick to hear the word of truth that James spoke of in the preceding verse. We are to be quick to hear all the wonderful news of the triune God--all the things James has been talking about already. Be quick to hear that God is a generous Giver, who gives to all generously and without reproach (v.5), who gives the crown of life (v.12), who gives all the good and perfect gifts and has no variation or shadow in Him due to change (v. 7). Turn to hear that God made you of His own will to be the crown of His creation (v. 18).

Hearing, remembering, trusting in our heavenly Father is what will enable us to know what to say or how to act. When we are struggling we want answers, or maybe even more we want the struggles to go away. We get frustrated, angry and sometimes desperate for a way to get back in control of the situation. But listening to and remembering the word of God before we react is the only faithful way forward.

Yesterday I was at the hospital with a friend from my Bible study. Her husband is in critical condition because of falling when he was drunk over the weekend. He is an alcoholic. Her son, meanwhile, was recently in a tubing accident. His arm was caught in the tow-rope rope as he fell off the tube. and was dragged through the water. He will be having skin graft surgery next week. Plus this friend had sold her house last week and so needs to move out in a month. I thought of this passage as we went to the hospital to see and pray with her. I wanted so much to have something to say that would make it all right or make it all make sense. I wanted to offer her the perfect plan that would guarantee that the suffering would stop and never return. I was struggling with feeling useless.

As we sat down to pray together, I asked God to give me something to say. And what He gave me was reminders of who He is. We thanked Him that He is the REDEEMER, and that all He does is to bring about true righteousness, peace, and joy. We praised Him that He is infinitely good and generous--not necessarily because we saw this in her circumstances, but because we saw that in Him, and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We see God can bring life out of hopeless circumstances because we see Him bring life out of death in His Son. As we listened again to who God is, we were all able to let go of the need to be in control. We felt that we could trust Him again and that we didn't need to know how this would all work out. God gave me again the freedom and joy to walk with my friend in Christ and that this was indeed enough.

Of course, she and I and others involved will continually need to be quick to hear. This is a continuous, even daily, action that isn't taken care of by one "mountaintop" moment. Over and over we need to look deeply into the heart of God so that we can again rest there. James is loving his flock by reminding them of these truths so their trust in God can grow. It is only after we again know and trust in the goodness of God that we can make plans or interact with one another.

When we are talking to another then, we should listen to them and also to God at the same time. Then we can hear the truth from Him and about Him in the midst of whatever truth or falsehood we are hearing from another. And we can hear from Him what we are to say next to the one with whom we are interacting based on the truth of what we know of the God revealed in Jesus Christ. That’s what we are to do in a positive direction. But there is a negative action as well.

"Therefore", James goes on to say," put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." There are 2 actions in this sentence, "put away" and "receive". Both are active words, they happen only by the active choosing of the person. "Filthiness and rank growth of wickedness" are anything that we are tempted to hold on to instead of trust in the triune God. Notice the word "growth" here. It takes us back up to v. 15, where James talks about the development of sin towards death.

We have all noticed, I am sure, how easy it is to have a resentment or a misperception grow until our perception of a situation is very distorted and we have added fresh pain to the trial by words or actions that have come out of that resentment or misperception. We are to put all of that away and to receive God's word. Then out of that will come things that bear witness to who God is and what God intends and perhaps even to what God is doing in each situation. It will show forth God’s righteousness.

Notice that we are receiving "the implanted word". This word has already been planted in us, we are "pregnant" with it so to speak. But we are to receive it, make room for it, welcome it in our lives. We do not have to plant this word in us. That is God's work. But we do need to receive it--which means, live as if it is true. We are to live now out of trust in God, as His children. God has already grabbed hold of us. Now we grab a hold of Him. We affirm the truth that we are His beloved children, created because He wanted us, and that He is the giver of all good and perfect gifts, who gives generously and without reproach. To receive this implanted word is to be quick to hear the great good news of our Heavenly Father. This word, James says, "is able to save your souls." This living word of God is able to make us healed and whole, perfect and complete. What a wonderful, amazing truth! And our trials do not thwart God's work. As we hand over each question and struggle, we can be confident that God is bringing about His righteousness.

Sometimes it seems when I am struggling or attempting to help another person who is experiencing trials I wonder how hearing or speaking again of our gracious heavenly Father will help. But it always does because Jesus Himself, the Living Word, is the One implanted in us and by His Spirit our little words become living words in our hearts to refresh us and enable us more fully to find our true home in Him.

James 1:16-18

"16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures."

James is writing to people who are struggling. In small and large ways, their lives are not going the way they would like and they are wrestling with what it means to be believing people in the midst of difficulties. James has reminded them that these difficulties, or trials, test our faith. They are challenged to trust God to be present, loving, and active in the midst of circumstances where this fact is not obvious. He encourages them to seek wisdom from God on how to proceed. He knows that when we are in trials we are tempted to be double-minded about God--to forget His true character. James encourages them to ask for wisdom by reminding them that God is a generous giver, ready to give to all and to give even without reproaching.

In vv. 13 and 14 James deals again with the temptation to think wrongly about God. Apparently there were some who felt that if their trials led them into temptation then that was God's fault, that God Himself was the one who tempted them. But then that is to be double-minded about God. How could we truly trust a God who may be tempting us to do evil, to stop counting on Him? To believe God tempts us to evil is to believe that God is ambivalent towards us and within himself. Then He is not really the One who "gives to all generously and without reproaching."(v.5) God allows us to go through trials so that we can see more and more how good and trustworthy He is. The testing of our faith is to enable us to grow in our ability to live in the true freedom of Christ, to more completely find our life and peace in Him. How horrible to think that God allows a trial in order to tempt us not to count on Him to be our heavenly Father!

In this section James continues to unfold God's good character for his readers. He begins by warning them, as those who are his beloved brothers and sisters, not to be deceived. When we are in the midst of difficulties, it is easy to be deceived. This is because the truth of God's character and purposes are not as obvious in those circumstances. Our circumstances will not by themselves tell us the truth about God or about ourselves and he does not want them to be deceived about that limitation.

"Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." There is a lot to look at in this one verse. I want to begin by looking at the second half of it. James again tells his readers something about the heart of God to feed their faith. He calls Him the Father of lights which is a phrase that is difficult to understand except to say that as the Father of all lights, God begets that which is like him (so light, as opposed to darkness).

His use of lights makes more sense as we look at he rest of the phrase. God has no variation or shadow in Him. If we could fully look on God there would be no shadow, no dark side, or even hidden part to God. This is because God does not change. He is not fickle. He remains the same and we need not fear a shadow in God. When I read this, I thought of looking out over a landscape on a sunny day and seeing that there is one place that is hidden in shadow. Shadows distort or hide the reality from us.

So James tells his readers that the God who gives good and perfect gifts is a God who is not hidden from us because of change. He is truly who He says He is--the generous giving Father who is enabling us to be His perfect and complete children. And this is always the truth of who He is. He will always act according to this character--no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in.

Now let's look at the first part of v. 17--"every good endowment and every perfect gift comes from above." There are a couple of points to be made from this statement. When we are struggling we may be tempted to believe that there are various alternative sources to receive the good gifts or endowments we desire. We may be more tempted to seek those alternatives or ideas around us to receive good things. But James reminds his readers of the only source of these things--God Himself. All the good things in our lives ultimately come from God--we have not received them as gifts from ourselves or others. If it's good it's from God. Other sources can at best only be channels of God's own good. If we rely on them for anything more than that, as an alternative to receiving from God, we are deceived.

Friends of ours here were recently laid off from work. It has been encouraging to see how they have realized that in a very real way that nothing has changed because they receive every good thing from God Himself. Their dependence was always on God and not on the job. So now they are looking for another way for God to provide for them.

Secondly, James is making the point that all that God gives us is good and perfect. When we are tempted to manipulate our circumstances to get what we want or think we need, we are settling for something that is not perfect and may not even be good! God gives us good and perfect things--and we can count on Him to do that in the midst of our struggles. It is not always clear what those good things will be, or how anything good could come out of the trial we are in. But we can't look directly at our situation to give us what is good. Rather, we look to "the Father of lights" who never changes.

James now assures his readers of God's purposes for them. When we are in difficulties we are tempted to wonder why in the world God made us. James tells them "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures." First of all, God created us because He wanted to. He did not have to do this, He was under no obligation. We are here because God desired to make us. Let that sink in for a minute. Did you ever tell you mother or father when they tried to assure you of your worth that they were just saying that because they had to? We were tempted to believe that they were under an obligation and so their love did not, in some way, really "count." But here James tells us we cannot think this of God. God made you because He wanted to!

He brought us forth by "the word of truth." James is echoing Genesis here. God created everything by His word. But here James describes it as the word of truth. We were not created by a deceiving word, or a false word. It was the word of truth. Because of sin, we do not always or perfectly reflect the truth of our creation in our lives, but it is still the truth.

And why did God want to create us? To be "a kind of first fruits of his creatures." This also reflects the Old Testament. The first fruits were the best of your crop and what you were to offer to God. God wanted to make us to be the crown of His creation, the best of what He did. Is this obvious to us now? No, not usually. But, as James says, do not be deceived. Don't listen to the other voices around or in you. In the midst of our trials we can turn to our Father of lights, the Lover, the Giver, who is bringing us to completion and who never changes, to receive the good and perfect gifts He has to give us.

James 1:12-15

"12 Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; 14 but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death."

James is writing to people who are struggling. Although they are united now to Christ and learning to trust Him, their lives are full of difficulties. How then should they go through their trials as Christians? This is the question James seeks to answer for them, and for us as well.

In the preceding section, James deals with the rich and the poor. Our perception is that the rich, by definition, are immune from trials. James indicates, however, that riches will fade away, they offer no real healing or solution to our trials. We cannot look to wealth as the answer to the trials that we face, though we are tempted to.

Now James returns to the thought with which he began his letter. "Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him." This is parallel to vv.2-4 "Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials..."

We certainly do not feel blessed in the midst of trials. In fact, we may wonder if we are cursed. We may wonder in the midst of a trial if it is ever going to end, if there is any real hope that it is going to turn out okay. In v. 12, as earlier, James reminds his readers that there is an end to this time that will be far more glorious than we can imagine in our present circumstances. To endure, like counting it joy, is not something that we do by sheer will power. To endure is to continue to turn to God as our only source of life. It is to count on Him to give us His presence and His peace in the midst of whatever we are facing. And it is to live as if He is working His transforming and redeeming will through this current suffering. It is to wait on Him to give us wisdom and light when all we seem to have to offer Him is our darkness.

Yes, James assures his readers--there is an endpoint. We endure not for the sake of the current chaos, but for the promised resolution. God will bring good out of this, and we count on Him to do this. We await the crown of life which is the same as being "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."(v.4)

Sometimes when we are in a trial, we are ambiguous about God. In fact when James speaks of being "double-minded" in vv. 7-8, he could mean our being in two minds about the character of God. We may be tempted to say that since God got me into this mess, it is His fault if I sin. In fact He is tempting me to do evil by leaving me in this difficult circumstance. We are tempted to think that God is double-minded about us! God both promises to help us and tempts us in our difficulties.

James deals with our temptation to see two sides to God here in this passage. "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one..."(v.13) When we are in a trial, we are tempted to doubt God's word and to take matters into our hands. We are tempted to find our meaning, purpose, identity and life elsewhere than in our heavenly Father. But, James assures us, God is never the one tempting us. His purpose in allowing us to walk through the trials of living in the broken world is never to tempt us to not trust Him. Rather, He plans, in spite of it, to enable us to more and more receive the transforming grace He is pouring on us, to make us truly His children.

James leads his readers to see that to say that it is God tempting them in their trials is to misunderstand or misrepresent the very nature and character of God. God is not the tempter just because He chooses at certain times not to be. No. God has no relationship with evil at all. God is never tempted with evil Himself. There is not a "dark side" to God. And "he himself tempts no one." We can be assured that God is consistent, He is not "double-minded" about us. Whatever we are going through and whatever temptations we face, it is wonderful to remember that God is never the one tempting us to see if we will step away from Him. He always and only intends our ultimate good.

So then where does the temptation come from? Who is to blame? James goes on to say that it is our own desire. We are "lured and enticed" by our own desires--our desire to be secure, or free of pain, or well-liked, etc. These desires can lure us to be tempted to find a "quicker" or "more efficient" way to meet those needs and wants that does not come from God or lead to God’s best for us. My desire to be well-liked can tempt me to be deceiving. My desire for security can tempt me to ill-advised moves financially. God of course, wants to meet our desires in the deepest ways, but we are tempted to look elsewhere when we don't want to wait for God’s best and right solution.

But merely going ahead and acting on a particular temptation presented by our desire is not the end of the story. James wants to show his readers that just as trusting God with our trials leads to perfection, so our succumbing to temptation has an endpoint as well: "desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death."

James is warning his readers not to be deceived. Going ahead and succumbing to a temptation now has consequences that go on and that we cannot control. It is interesting that James uses the picture of birth and growth here. There is a development to whatever we do. There are ongoing effects. We do not just live a series of isolated incidents. Our actions have consequences. And the direction that our temptation will take us is eventually death. Now that’s something to ponder. It’s so easy to take lightly our little sins. We fail to see where they will lead us.

James wants to emphatically point out that no one and no other way can give us our identity or our lives. Only God can. The other options out there are not just other forms of slightly lesser lives—no, they all lead to death, non-life.

I have certainly seen the wisdom of James's words in my own life many times. When I have not taken the time to wait on God and be reminded of His character so that I can respond in faith, the end results are never good and often horrible.

As in previous passages, James points us to the truth of God's good and gracious character. He is enabling us to focus again on Him so that we can hand our present circumstances back to Him. He is never toying with us when we are struggling. It is great to remember that God has only one mind about us--He is, as Paul says, totally and completely with his whole Triune being "for us." (Ro. 8:31)