Authorship
The authorship of James is one of my favorite stories in the New
Testament. Church tradition, which I
find no reason to dispute, argues that James is written not by James the
apostle (the brother of John, who was the first of the apostles to be martyred)
but by Jesus’ own brother. It is taught
that after Jesus rose from the dead that Jesus appeared to many people. One of those people was His brother
James. {See 1 Corinthians 15:17}
What is so cool about this is when we remember that as Jesus was
doing public ministry His mother and brothers more than once came to Jesus to
try to bring Him back home to shake some sense into Him. While Jesus is doing ministry, they think He
is out of His mind. But after His death
and resurrection they become believers.
I love the fact that Jesus’ own family are prime examples of the change
that God’s Messiah can make in our life.
I love the fact that one of Jesus’ own brothers is an author of a book
of the Bible because he’s a changed man.
Furthermore, what’s important there is that James doesn’t feel the
need to talk about Jesus’ childhood and fill in a whole bunch of the stories we
want to hear. He had access to all of
those stories but instead chose to write the book upon which we are
embarking. I think one of the subtle
points to the book of James is that a life of faithful obedience to God and
teaching it to others is far more significant than all of the other stuff we
wonder about Jesus’ life but around told.
Joy
Consider it joy, brothers and sisters, when your life turns to
trials, persecutions, stress, judgments, and all sorts of other fun things that
we normally love to hate.
What a way to start a letter!
How many of us would lead off with that kind of advice? In fact, how many of us actually receive that
advice well today? Do we really agree
with James in reality? Sure, in truth we
agree because we know the end result of trials.
We know that God does cause us to grow through them. But when we are in the very real midst of the
trial, how quick are we to rejoice?
It is human nature is to complain about our trials, James knows
that he needs to remind his readers to rejoice.
None of us like to be under trial.
But that doesn’t mean that God isn’t with us. In fact, some people like
to think that God is with us even more when we are undergoing a trial! Have you ever read the poem Footprints in the Sand? Consider it pure
joy, readers, when you face trials of any kind.
For God is at work in you through those trials.
Wisdom in Faith
If any of you lacks wisdom, they should ask in faith. Again, I think James knows his audience. As a human culture, I think one of the
attributes we typically lack more than any other is wisdom. I know that is certainly true for me. So often I find myself doing things that I
really wish I hadn’t done. If only I’d
had wisdom before making the mistake! We
can all use a little more wisdom in our life.
So we are to ask. But we
aren’t to ask with a question in our mind.
We are to ask knowing that God will fulfill that request. How many of us can say that as we have lived
we have become less wise? No, through
God’s hand in our life we gain wisdom.
That doesn’t mean we stop making mistakes. It just means that we don’t make the same
mistakes again and again. We will gain
wisdom as we live. God will use the
circumstances of our life to teach us and bring us wisdom.
The Heart of Sin
In many respects, James’ teaching about sin in James 1:14-15
reminds me of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 7:20-23.
Sin is something that we cannot blame externally. Sure, we might learn how to sin from an
external source. But ultimately every
sin for which we will be held accountable is rooted in our heart. When we sin we are guilty for harboring the
thought, emotion, rationale, etc for the sin.
When we sin we have allowed the root of that sin to have a place in our
life.
Of course, this means that such behavior is not from God. God doesn’t tempt us. God doesn’t lead us into sin. God doesn’t dangle the carrot in front of us
just to see if we’ll bite on it. No, God
brings the good things in our life. God
brings the righteous things in our life.
God brings the things of truth into our life. Our sin comes from within us; our
righteousness comes from God.
Doers of the Word
As we close the end of this chapter, we make a significant
transition to one of the great themes of this book: action. James makes the case that we need to be
doers, not just hearers. And in this one
expression a huge debate engulfs Christianity.
You see, most people who object to the message of James object to
it because they hear these words in terms of works-based-salvation. They hear James saying, “In order to be
saved, you must do something.” They
believe James is opening the door for people to add a requirement for salvation
other than Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
But the reality is that this isn’t what James is saying at
all. James isn’t talking about doing
works in order to be saved. Rather,
James is telling us that one does good things because we are saved. After all, look at the analogy that is used
here. One looks at himself and then goes
out and acts. We look at ourselves and
understand just how condemned we should be under the Law. Then we look at ourselves and recognize what
Jesus Christ has done for us. Our
response is to go out into the world and be the change that Christ has brought
about in us.
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