SOME TOUGH STUFF

James 4

When I first began to fly commercially, I had trouble adjusting to the not-as-smooth-as-I-had-anticipated flight. In fact, the plane felt a whole lot like a bus! And then the pilot announced, “Please put on your seatbelts. There’s some turbulence ahead.” If you got a seat belt, handy, you might want to put it on before diving into Chapter 4 of James. This will be a rough

ride, I guarantee!

We have a lot of trouble with the idea of God as a jealous lover, but the Bible is pretty clear on it. One of my seminary profs often commented that God’s wrath is the flip side of His love! Reject His love, and He reacts with anger. Reject all that Christ offers us through the Cross and resurrection and wrath is all that remains.  The Bible portrays this situation as God’s being jealous over an adulterous people. The OT prophets repeatedly have the LORD saying things like “all day long I have held out my hands to an adulterous and rebellious people.” Unfaithfulness to God is compared to unfaithfulness to a spouse. Thus, someone rebelling against God is called prostituting themselves or committing adultery.

 To kick off the chapter, James raises the question why they were fighting all the time. It sounds to me like he’s talking about the Christians who receive his letter! Perhaps there were various groups like Paul described in 1 Corinthians. “I’m Peter’s disciple. No, I follow Paul. I prefer James. I’m holier than the rest of you, I just follow Jesus!” There were indeed several strands of Christianity trying to pull away from the disciples’ message focused on Jesus. James says the reason they fought was their unwillingness to submit to Christ and follow Him. Many were trying to ride two horses at once: God’s way and the world’s way. James says you can’t do that.

If you’re trying to be a friend of the world, you are an enemy of God.

You can’t serve God AND Satan.

You can’t run with the crowd and follow Jesus.

You can’t give in to peer pressure and stand for Christ.

AND YOU’RE TRYING BY YOUR OWN STRENGTH TO GET WHAT ONLY GOD CAN GIVE YOU!

And all you have to do is ask.

Oh, but you say I asked, but He didn’t answer.

NO is an answer.

WAIT is another answer.

We want yes and we want it now. So, we turn our backs on God and try to get it another way. If the God of the Bible won’t give it to me, maybe the gods of this world will.

FAT CHANCE!

James says your prayer life is selfish. You’re not praying to find God’s will, you are praying to get stuff to satisfy your cravings. That’s backwards!

WE ARE CALLED TO FIND AND DO HIS WILL. HE IS NOT HERE TO DO OUR WILL!

NOTE ON PRAYER: Verse 3 -  you are wrong in asking God for something you intend to spend on your “passions,” fleeting desires.  But whatever happened to the promises about “whatever you ask, I will do it?” Context, people, CONTEXT! Interpretation of any kind of Bible verse begins with the context. Even the promises. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” All things? In context (Philippians 4) Paul just said he had learned how to live life by accepting whatever life threw at him, all the ups and downs. This was Paul, who was on mission for Christ. He was convinced God would get him through whatever it took.

The context of all of God’s promises is that He will grant them to us first of all if we are on mission to do his will. “I am with you always” as you go into the ends of the world with the gospel. God’s will is like a mighty river that carries you downstream under its power. Try to swim upstream against the current, and you will find yourself working against the Lord.

Verse 7 – God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Somewhere along the way the church created the idea of The Seven Deadly Sins. The first one is pride, placing yourself first. Many theologians and ethicists teach that pride is the root of all sin. After all, doesn’t all sin begin with the idea that we know better than God? He thinks I would be better off by avoiding this behavior, but I think I would enjoy it, so guess what? I’m going to do it anyway!

One of the constant battles of the Christian life, my friend. “I’m better than you, and God should show me favoritism.” Yes, that’s blasphemy. So tell me you’ve never thought that way.

The path to true religion and knowing God! Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you!

How do you draw close to God?

            Cleanse your hands.

            Purify your hearts

            Repent – big time! – to the point of crying and mourning. Get serious…very serious.

            Humble yourself – I’m not sure how to do that. Neither was Ben Franklin. He decided to

cthe appearance of humility instead. He determined to ask questions rather than make assertions. I suspect a truly humble person doesn’t know it.

Don’t speak evil or judge your fellow Christians. He means a fault-finding attitude. Pharisees still          walk among us. Don’t be one!

James cautions against pride in another way. We’re always predicting what we’re going to do, and how that’s going to be tremendously successful. James cautions, “Not so fast! Only if THE LORD WILLS, will you do such and so. Islam has built this concept into their daily language. If I remember right, they like  to say “Insh’allah,” meaning if God wills, and they say it often.

Otherwise, you are boasting, and boasting is arrogance, which is pride! Don’t!

THE TONGUE IS A FIRE

James 3

“Is Jack and Jill’s marriage in trouble?” she asked me.

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, it’s all over the church. You were talking to another counselor down at the counseling center, and he told you they were going to split, and the whole church would be shocked.”

“Nonsense,” I replied. “As far as I know their marriage is fine, and I have no clue that they are going for counseling anywhere. Besides, counselors don’t talk to each other like that, and if they did, neither would have disclosed the confidence to anyone else.”

THE TONGUE IS A FIRE!

Somebody made that story up out of whole cloth. The only possible way I could think of

That it arose was from a divorce recovery class I had been leading the last few weeks. At one class I pointed out that when a couple separated, they often felt everyone was staring at them,  and it just wasn’t so. It might remind a lot of people of the problems in their marriage, and that a lot of unions that looked solid were privately falling apart. I suspect a world-class gossip in that group took that material and wove a full-blown tale out of it. Why they picked Jack and Jill, I have no clue.

I hate gossip and have seen it tear up friendships and churches and all sorts of clubs. Apparently, James did too, for a great deal of his book is about various sins of the tongue.

DON’T TEACH! – This may be a bad time of year to present this lesson, because churches are often stretching their resources to complete their Bible teaching staff. Nevertheless, the warning is there. Often as a pastor, I have been frustrated at getting the best teachers in the right place. For example, a common problem was an adult who wanted to teach youth so he could “straighten them out.” That’s exactly the kind of person you DON’T want teaching youth, because they close down if you try to lecture to them. If you teach, the Lord holds you accountable for what you teach, whatever the age group.

Remember if you are a teacher, you are called to teach both the Bible and the people. I’ve had a number of people become Baptist because we are teaching the Bible specifically. They tell me their lessons might be good morality, but they are not coming directly from the Bible.

>One of our biggest weaknesses, however, is the misconception that we are teaching only Biblical content and we have to “get through” the quarterly lesson every week. We are teaching the Bible, not the quarterly. And if the Holy Spirit leads the class to focus on one part of the lesson, and you never get to the rest of it, celebrate that the class was involved and truly learning.

>Another necessity is that we teach to change lives. If the class has a perfect grasp of Paul’s itinerary on all four missionary journeys, but has no faith that the Lord can lead them every bit as much as He did Paul, the teacher has not done very much.

>Some years ago, a school teacher brought me an article on “giving invitations” in teaching. This caught my attention, of course, because at the end of every sermon I gave an invitation. But this writer expanded the idea to the classroom. Challenge the kids to do a little more, to take another step in learning. And we can certainly do that in our Bible studies. A popular idea currently floating around in the self-help scene is seeking to improve any of your skills by just 1% a day or a week, or a month. Just 1% a month would total over 10% better for a year – not bad. If you told one more person a month what God is doing for you, how would that impact your witness over a year? In keeping with today’s lesson, if you sought to encourage your spouse, children, or friends once more each week, how would the extra 50 you have boosted make a difference?

And that’s just scratching the surface of verse 1!

Verse 2 – We all stumble in many ways. I often hear people say, “I have many faults.” Sometimes a wag will pop up, “Name one.” That’s correct, actually, though meant as a joke. Don’t be among the people who publicly pray, “Lord, bless all those whose duty it is we pray for.” Instead, name two or three. James goes on to point out the tongue as among the most significant.

In fact, James believes you have control over your entire life if you can control your tongue. He says one who is never at fault in what they say is perfect! Perfect? This can mean one of three things or some combination.

            >The Greek word can also be translated “mature.” A perfect fruit is one that is ripe and ready for eating. Or perhaps in maturity it can produce seeds to reproduce. As a Christian grows to maturity, our ability to control our speech is a major area of growth. How does the 1% principle apply to you here?

            >The word can also imply fulfillment of purpose. Something that is perfect or mature in this way fulfills its reason for being. How often have you “blown” an opportunity by saying the wrong thing or failing to say the right thing? 1%, remember.

            >In this context, James could mean perfect the way we do – without a flaw. He specifically says, control your tongue, you control your life. By that standard, how’re you doing, Christian?

                                                 WHERE THE ACTION IS
                                                        James 2:14-26

At last! We see why Galatians and James are put together to study in the same quarterly. In answer to your first question:
  Yes, Paul and James use the same Greek words: pistes and erga meaning faith and works.
  But NO, they are still not talking about the same thing. The biggest difference is in the meaning of “works.” The Judaizers were pushing the fake news that for God to accept Christians, they must be Christian Jews, circumcised and observing Jewish rituals such as kosher diets. That’s what Paul means by works – the works that are built into a Jewish life style.

  James means good works, doing good deeds, behaving yourself, keeping yourself “unspotted from the world.”

  BOTH look at faith as transformative, a new birth, a new creation. When we are saved, we are new people, headed in a new direction. You can see this very quickly in Paul by glancing at Galatians 5:22, “the fruits of the Spirit,” and just before it, “the works of the flesh.” Paul expects Christians to do good works, just as James does.

  Why the apparent difference? Any Baptist preacher can tell you that many laymen and many preachers of other denominations tell them if they believed in “once saved, always saved,” they would be able to sin all they wanted to and get away with it. Martin Luther is reported to have said, “Trust Christ, and do what you will!” The joker in that deck, however, is that if you belong to Jesus, you won’t WANT to take up sin as a lifestyle.

In 1974 I wrote a book which Broadman (predecessor to Lifeway) published in paperback for 14 years entitled Once Saved, Always Saved. I spent the entire first chapter talking about the nature of salvation and conversion. Briefly, I said salvation was not a one-shot insurance policy, where we walked down the aisle, got dunked, and went on our way as before. Rather genuine salvation happens when one encounters the Living Christ, turns the direction of his life toward God, and surrenders to the embrace of the Spirit. The change is so radical, one becomes a new person, with a new purpose and a new lifestyle. If that didn’t happen, you didn’t find Christ. Jesus said, “Why do you call me Lord and do not do what I say?”

I believe in James acquaintance there were people who made the same argument we hear today. James addresses the problem and denies that saving faith has come to someone whose lifestyle has not changed.

So let’s translate 2:14 something like this: How much good do you think, my friend, it’s going to do you if you only SAY you have faith, but there’s no evidence of it from good works? As an example, consider some guy shows up in ragged clothing and having nothing to eat. Suppose you say to him, “Man, I hurt for you. I’ll be praying for you that you find some warm clothing and some kind of food – but you – you don’t give him anything. How is that going to help anybody?

Verse 18 – James imagines someone challenging a believer, “You claim to believe, and I claim to have good works. Okay, you demonstrate your faith however you can without deeds/works/actions, and I will demonstrate MY faith by the actions I take, the works/deeds I actually do!

He then attacks intellectual belief: You claim to believe in the existence of God, and only one God at that. Great! But remember, Satan and his demons also believe intellectually, but their knowledge leaves them trembling in fear!  Think about that for a minute.

Satan knows without a doubt that God exists. He knows without a doubt that Jesus lived, died, and rose again.  But that intellectual knowledge does him exactly NO good. He also knows he’s headed toward severe punishment in the lake of fire, yet he lives in eternal rebellion against God. Salvation definitely requires more than intellectual belief. The longer I live the more I conclude that following is the best term to describe saving faith. You are saved and are being saved when you find yourself following Jesus.

James then offers an example from the Hebrew Bible we call the Old Testament. Abraham was the grand patriarch, the father of the Hebrew race. In one very mysterious story, Yahweh asked Abraham to offer his only son Isaac on an altar to Him. That would mean as an old man, Abraham would almost certainly die without an heir, no one to carry on his name and family into the future. There would be NO future generations. But the Lord had one day come to Abraham and challenged him to pull up stakes with his whole family and travel wherever the LORD led him. In return God would bless his family forever, building a great people from his descendants. And Abraham did. But time passed, and he and his wife Sarah had no children. They passed the age of child-bearing and still Sarah did not become pregnant. So they ran ahead of God. Sarah seems to have brought it up first, but she proposed Abraham father a son through her handmaid. Then that son would become Abraham’s heir and God could fulfil His promise. He did have sex with the maid, Hagar, and she did have a son she named Ishmael, but this was not God’s way of doing things.

Bible scholars have proposed all sorts of reasons for God’s asking for the sacrifice of Isaac. One popular reason given is so that Israel would not practice child sacrifice as many nations did. Another is to discover whether Abraham’s faith was as strong as the pagan people around him who routinely sacrificed their firstborn sons. Both of these ideas have merit, but the actual reason stands clear against the background of the overall story.

Abraham and Sarah had disobeyed God through their lack of faith. They did not believe that God was going to fulfil His promise to build a strong nation of descendants of Abraham. Now if he gave up Isaac, he and Sarah were back in the condition they were before, with no heir. Would they trust God to provide a way. When it became obvious his faith was great enough, The Lord made the last-minute swap for a ram caught in nearby bushes. Over and over the Bible makes clear that God does things His way in His time. He calls on us to trust. It was Isaac’s son Jacob, who in time became the 12 patriarchs or fathers of Israel’s 12 tribes.

James pointed out the obedience of Abraham proved he had the faith God was looking for. Saying he had faith wasn’t enough. In the past he had even been obedient – up to a point. But when it came to the basic idea of conceiving a son, he didn’t trust the Lord. Until finally he did. And proved it.

James gives a final example, perhaps for the women in the audience. He told of Rahab the prostitute. Her action and quick thinking saved Israel’s spies and proved her statement that she feared the Lord. In return Israel spared her life and her family’s life.

James final comment is a blunt warning. If you can’t tell you are a believer by your actions, your so called faith ain’t worth a flip!