The Book of James: Part 1

Pt. 1 (Pursuing Sanctification)

The Holy Spirit has revealed to us that our faith and walk shall be a visible manifestation of God’s truth. There are many manifestations of the Holy Spirit, both inward and outward. Manifestations are evidence of God’s Presence on people and can be an indicator of what God is doing in someone. 1 Thessalonians 2:13 says: “And we also thank God continually for this, that when you received the word of God (concerning salvation) which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of (mere) men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe (exercising its inherent, supernatural power in those of faith).

Sanctification is a visible manifestation, holiness is a visible manifestation, and spiritual maturity is a visible manifestation; for the next few weeks, as we begin our new year, we will focus on the book of James. James' letter to the church is rich in exhortation and encouragement. James teaches how believers are to face trials and how we should seek to live out God's Word. He denounces favoritism in the church and an unhealthy view of money. Finally, he calls all believers to pursue their sanctification with an urgency and passion often missing in the lives of believers, including believers today.

James 1:1- James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

You notice James also identifies his audience for this letter: those of the twelve tribes who are living dispersed abroad. The letter of James is likely the earliest written scripture of the New Testament. It was written perhaps as early as AD 45, barely 12 years after Jesus’ crucifixion. It was written before Paul began his missionary journeys or wrote his letters. It was written before any of the gospel accounts had been recorded. It was also written before the temple was destroyed.

James in particular is intensely focused on a believer’s behavior rather than on his belief or knowledge. It is a book concerned with sanctification rather than salvation. As we dive into the content of James’ letter, we see the first theme is summarized in vs.2-4.

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

The first theme of James’ letter is proper Christian attitude and persistence when experiencing trials. The Greek language used in v. 2 is especially important to understanding James’ first purpose in writing. Take a look at the end of the verse…encountering various trials. The word encounter is peripipto, which means to fall into something. It doesn’t mean to yield to something, as in to fall into sin, rather, it means to come upon something.

The same word is used in Luke 10 in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10:30-Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers. The phrase “various trials” is an interesting choice of words. You’ll see many different interpretations of this phrase. Literally it means many colored temptations or varied experiments or tests. The sense is of circumstances that take many forms and are brought about for a divine purpose, as a test or experiment.

He’s talking about the myriad of life circumstances that come upon a believer. Problems we face, urges we must resist, desires we must control, but now because of our faith, we are called to respond differently to these circumstances. When James uses words like “come upon us” and “experiment” or “test,” he’s not just describing the quality of these trials. He’s also indicating their origin, of Who brings these trials. They originate with God. He brings them upon us; they don’t happen as a matter of chance. They are a consequence of His Sovereign purpose to test us.

Note: It’s this understanding that God guides our circumstances and brings these trials upon us that enables us to understand and obey James’ command at the outset of this verse. James commands us to consider or count these circumstances as all joy. Consider or count means to make up your mind concerning something or to judge something. Our attitude is a product of our will, of our judgments and knowledge. We have a choice in how we view our circumstances, especially those that come upon us because of our walk of faith, and the choice we should make is to count trials as joy. In Greek the word joy is chara, which means supreme joy, the highest joy. While we could face trials with fear or anger or sorrow, as Christians we are to choose to be joyful, and we come to this attitude not naturally but rather as a result of our specific knowledge. First, from v.2 we can know that our circumstances were ordained by the Lord Himself as a divine test.

As Spurgeon says, everything we experience in life comes about according to God’s will……

Note: The more we understand about how God uses trials in our life to test us and to assign an eternal grade, the better prepared we will be to face them properly.

James 1:3- knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. James 1:4- And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  James says knowing is the key. The Greek word is ginosko, which means to understand, to perceive properly, to see things in the right way.

As James says in v.4, our endurance through trials (i.e., our consistent patient attitude and response to each difficulty) will have a perfect result, but the word for perfect means something else in Greek. The word is telelos, which means complete or mature. James says that endurance leads to the result of complete maturity, perfection in that sense.  Brothers and sisters, do you desire to reach the point of spiritual maturity?  Do you yearn to reflect Christ in your life and become that good and faithful servant that pleases his or her Master? Then James says the road that takes us to maturity is filled with trials and tests, and as each test comes, we count it joy because we know we are learning patience and endurance, which brings maturity. As James says, you will lack nothing in the area of spiritual maturity . You will be greatly blessed as a result of your close walk with the Spirit.

Pt. 2 (Pursuing Sanctification)

We begin part two of the study of the book of James; he calls all believers to pursue their sanctification with urgency and passion.

In the last lesson, we learned that the wisdom James is speaking of below is the knowledge we need to face a trial. James isn’t speaking about wisdom for every circumstance. Not every request for knowledge will gain an answer.

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

Note: The book of James is probably the most misunderstood letter in the New Testament. Martin Luther tried to eliminate the letter from the canon of Scripture because he misunderstood James’ intent in writing on matters of faith. Luther presumed that James was teaching that works were combined with faith to yield our salvation. He even placed the letter in the appendix of the Bible he translated into German. James does not teach that works and faith must be combined for salvation, instead, James presents the importance of faith at work in a Christian’s life.

The promise James gives us is that God will answer our calls for wisdom when facing trials in life. What a wonderful promise that is, that we will receive the answers to God’s tests. Then James puts a stipulation on how we ask for that knowledge. We must ask in faith. Here’s the first connection James proposes between faith and action. When we act to seek God’s wisdom, we must act in accordance with faith.

The NASB translation is unfortunate in the way it renders the Greek word diakrinomenos (doubting). The word literally means to discern or judge between, but when taken with James’ example of a surf, it conveys an entirely different sense. He’s not talking about someone who doubts but a man who has a divided motive or inconsistent approach to facing trials. The King James Bibles gets it right; James 1:6- But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.  There you see the connection between vacillating and the movement of the sea’s surf, in and out, never stable.

James goes on to describe this person as someone driven and tossed by the wind, so what kind of person is James talking about? First, the person is unstable and wavers. In the context of what James teaches, we’re talking about someone who is wavering and unstable in where they seek their understanding of their circumstances. In the midst of trials, the believer who calls out to God for wisdom must remain stable in his reliance on God. That reliance begins with a recognition that God is the One producing the test, the trial, and secondly, the reliance continues in seeking godly wisdom to face the circumstances, rather than growing impatient and running to a worldly solution. That’s the instability that James says results in God withholding the wisdom we desire to face the trials.

Here is a story to illustrate what James is talking about - A Christian man is experiencing a trial in his life. He’s the father of a teenage son, and the son has entered a rebellious period. The son is running in the wrong crowd, is struggling at school and showing disrespect for his dad. The father is a relatively young Christian, so he’s not very mature in his Christian walk, and he feels unprepared to face this trial properly. One day the son has a run in with the police, and he has a court date with the possibility of receiving months of community service and probation. The father wonders how to deal with his son’s situation. Someone tells him to ask God for the wisdom to face the trial. The man prays and reads God’s word, and the father senses God telling him to let his son face the decision of the court, but he’s not sure that’s the right course. While he’s wondering, the father runs into a friend who says he knows the judge and can get the matter settled quietly on the side and save his son from any penalty. The father wavers unsure what to do. He goes back to prayer again and asks God to give him direction. The father hears nothing and decides to take his friend up on the offer. The judge dismisses the charges, and the son escapes the penalty. What do you think happened to the son later?  More importantly, why didn’t the father in this story hear from God when he asked about which option to accept?  Because he wavered.  

Note: As James explains, when we approach God for the wisdom to face a trial, we must approach the throne boldly but also with faith.

Faith to accept that the wisdom we receive from God is the right answer. The father was instructed by God to let the son receive his due penalty,  because only by suffering the consequences of his actions could the son be rescued from his destructive pattern. The father wavered, and wavering means going back and forth between godly answers and worldly answers. He was an unstable man, as James calls him; in all his ways; this is a characteristic of his personality or spiritual immaturity. His is double-minded, which means doubled-souled, but the reverse is also true. When we grow in our maturity and reliance on God’s direction, from both study of His word and from prayer life, we become a more stable person with respect to spiritual maturity. We are equipped to face trials big and small in ways that let us roll with the punches. All the while accepting and often understanding God’s purposes through it all, but it’s a mark of spiritual immaturity when we won’t patiently wait on the Lord and then accept His answers when we receive them. Rather than seek better answers elsewhere or simply follow our own opinions, for that person, there will always be a temptation to receive the world’s answers, because the world is always ready with answers to our questions.

Pt. 3 (Pursuing Sanctification)

James moves to a third principle of facing trials, our position in the world.

James 1:9- But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; James 1:10- and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. James 1:11- For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.

Have you ever thought of wealth or status as a form of trial or test in itself?  It certainly is, and it doesn’t matter which end of the financial spectrum we find ourselves. God has placed us where we are in terms of our financial position as another kind of test to develop our spiritual maturity.

Note: James addresses both ends here as he continues to teach on how a Christian lives through adversity. First to the brother of humble circumstances, it’s an inward test. When we say humble or poor, we’re talking about someone who lives on the low end of whatever spectrum exists within a given community. That person will be faced with an inward test of how to understand those circumstances and maintain the proper attitude through them.

What is the right way to face this trial? How do we show spiritual maturity as we contend with needs, we can’t meet in this life?  How does that person show Christ? If you listen to the smiley-faced prosperity teachers of our day, the answer is to seek for that wealth “in faith” and demand God provide it. But what does James teach? Essentially, the opposite. James says take your satisfaction, and “glory in” spiritual riches you will have in the kingdom which you earn with your spiritual maturity. Set your mind on things above, not on the things of earth, as Paul says in Colossians 3:2.

Then to the brother who finds himself with wealth, the test is similar but it’s an outward test. Don’t glory or celebrate your earthly wealth • Find your satisfaction in remaining humble before the Lord. Like David said:

Psa. 51:3- For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

 Our humility should be our chief concern, being “proud” of our humility, and riches and humility are usually in opposition. Money is a means to independence, to living as if there is no God. We can follow our flesh and pride as far as our money will take us, and so when God grants someone wealth, it’s a serious test of spiritual maturity.

How often do you think Christians pass these tests? First, consider how long this test lasts. It’s the test that never ends. It seems that our perspective of money is a chief tool the Lord uses to develop our spiritual maturity.

We are to live with eyes for eternity knowing that nothing in this world lasts into eternity except our degree of spiritual maturity. In verse 11, James compares the world’s wealth to the beauty of flowering grass, which in a desert climate like Palestine, didn’t last very long. Think about Job and how quickly his wealth vanished, or others today.

From the trials of wealth, James moves forward to his next lesson on trials.

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

Note: Now James turns his teaching to what the future holds for the man (or woman) who faces trials and tests successfully Firstly, the person who endures or perseveres through trials has the potential to experience a blessed life.

Through those experiences and the resulting spiritual maturity, we gain the ability through Christ in us to see these circumstances entirely different, and the blessing is the contentedness that comes from having eyes for eternity. Secondly, once that person is approved, they receive a reward. The word approved is dokimos, which is the word for tested. Once they have passed the test, in other words, they are worthy to receive the crown of life. This is a crown the Lord has promised to those Who love Him. The word for crown is stephanos, which was the wreath awarded to the Olympians who won a race. It reflects an award that we can earn through performance, therefore, we understand it’s not a symbol for salvation.

Never does Scripture refer to our salvation as a wreath or crown that we can earn, for it is by grace alone. This is one of five crowns or wreaths mentioned in the New Testament for believers who excel in serving the Lord through trials. Crowns are measures of our faithful service, and they will play some role in defining our authority in the coming Kingdom and these awards are presented when the test is over, at the Judgment Seat of Christ that all believers will face. This is the crown for anyone who perseveres through to the end of a trial brought upon them to test their love for Christ.

 Remember, we’re not talking about a test of whether we believe in the gospel or whether we are saved. We’re talking about a test of spiritual maturity that demonstrates or proves our love for Christ, and the purpose of the testing is to develop us and create a witness for Christ that brings Him glory in the world.

Pt. 4 (Pursuing Sanctification)

In the last study, you learned the third principle of facing trials, our position in the world. This week we will see chapter 1 of James move forward into the fourth point on facing trials: how to face inward trials, which he calls temptations.

Let’s consider James’ words beginning in vs.13-15.

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

Up to this point, James had been focused on how a man or woman of faith should address trials or tests and James attributed the source of these trials to the Lord, in the sense that we know He is in control of our life circumstances. He brings tests as a way to reveal or expose our degree of spiritual maturity. As we are taught of the Lord by His Spirit living and working in us. Similarly, we are tested by the Lord at times to help us show that work to ourselves and others, so that God may be glorified. A glory that is revealed when Christ’s work is revealed in us

Gal. 2:20- “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Note: James needs to make an important distinction between these external tests brought by God for our benefit, and inward tests or temptations that are not the result of God’s design. They are natural products of our sinful nature, yet they are still a reality, and we must face them. Like external tests, we face them best when we understand them with godly wisdom and respond to them according to that wisdom. In v.13, James begins with the simple conditional statement, let no one say when he is tempted.  James doesn’t say “if” he is tempted, by using “when”, James emphasizes the simple reality of temptations.

They are a universal experience; we all have temptations. This isn’t some academic discussion, or a theoretical possibility. This is a certainty, we all face temptations, and the way we respond to them has eternal consequences, just like any test or trial.  Now when we experience temptations, we could be confused about their source.  Earlier James taught that trials are tests brought by God, so now we might think incorrectly that temptations to sin are also God ordained tests as well, James corrects us in v.13, when we face a temptation, we cannot say God is placing this temptation before us as a test. Temptations do not originate with God, and James gives us an important principle or pattern to understand why we can know this. First, God Himself is not tempted by evil. The Greek word is apeiratos, which is untemptable. Another way to say it is God has no experience with evil, no relationship with it.  Evil is a foreign, unknown thing to God. When he says God is not tempted by evil, James means in the sense of succumbing to it. God does not give in to evil and participate in it. This is an important distinction because we know Hebrews teaches that Jesus was tempted, and we need to appreciate the distinction.

Heb. 4:15- For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. In James, the issue is whether God has ever come to know and experience evil by succumbing to temptation, He hasn’t!

You may wonder about the prayer Jesus taught His disciples, when it says “Father, lead us not into temptation”. In Luke, we learn that the phrase in Greek is a figure of speech, a litotes.  It means expressing a positive idea by negating the contrary. The proper way to translate it into English would be, Father help us stay away from temptation. God doesn’t tempt because He’s not experienced in sin, which leads us to an important principle. We must have experienced something for ourselves before we share it with others, and when it comes to sin, we will share what we know. Sin moves from person to person, flesh to flesh. After woman was deceived by Satan and disobeyed God in the Garden, what was the very next thing she chose to do? She shared her sin with her husband. Having been tempted by sin, she now became a source of temptation for another. If we give in to evil temptations, making it a part of who we are, we may become an instrument for the enemy to pass it on to others. If we are prone to deception, we may give rise to deception in others. If we gossip, others may follow, if we judge others, others will judge us, if we are undisciplined, unrestrained, uncontrolled, we become the seed for similar behavior in others. If we refrain from giving in to temptations, by the Spirit’s power working in us, we move away from that familiarity and become less likely to share it.

Take note- 1 John 3:8- The one who practices sin (separating himself from God, and offending Him by acts of disobedience, indifference, or rebellion) is of the devil (and takes his inner character and moral values from him, not God); for the devil has sinned and violated God’s law from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. V.9- No one who is born of God (deliberately, knowingly, and habitually) practices sin, because God’s seed (His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character) remains (permanently) in him (who is born again—who is reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose); and he who is born again) cannot habitually (live a life characterized by) sin, because he is born of God and longs to please Him.