JAMES 1
READ: verses 1, 2
As James opens his letter, he introduces himself as a Servant Of God And The Lord Jesus Christ
Why is that an important term?
– James does this out of humility, but it is not a term peculiar to James
- Paul described himself as such as well –Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1
- As did Peter (2 Peter 1:1) and Jude (Jude 1:1)
– Why did these men refer to themselves as “servants”?
– And why should we think of ourselves as “servants”?
1. BEING A SERVANT IS WHAT A DISCIPLE OF JESUS IS CALLED TO BE
– SPECIFICALLY, WE ARE CALLED TO SERVE…
- God – James 1:1; Hebrews 9:14
- Jesus Christ – James 1:1; 1 Corinthians 4:1
- Righteousness – Romans 6:17-18
- Each other – Galatians 5:13; 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
– Many of the early Christians called themselves “servants”, because that is what most of them were!
2. BEING A SERVANT IS A MARK OF SPIRITUAL MATURITY
- AN IMMATURE PERSON IS USUALLY VERY SELFISH…
- For example, newborn babies are very egocentric
- The only needs they know to focus on are their own
- Normally, as people grow older, they begin to concern themselves with the needs of others
- If they do, they are becoming mature
- If they remain selfish, it is an indication of immaturity
- JAMES’ DESCRIPTION OF HIMSELF FITS IN VERY WELL WITH THE THEME OF HIS EPISTLE…
- Remember, the theme is: Marks Of Spiritual Maturity
- By being a servant, James is demonstrating his own spiritual maturity
QUESTION TO PONDER: Are we trying to be servants of God, and of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, then we are on the road to spiritual maturity!
But we should not be too quick to answer…
Let us consider that…
Being a servant or considering yourself a servant is not an easy pill for most of us to swallow
A. BEING A SERVANT HAS SEVERAL IMPLICATIONS
- IT IMPLIES “ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE”…
- In a slave and master relationship…
- The slave knows no law but his master’s word
- He has no rights of his own
- He is the absolute possession of his master
- He is bound to give his master unquestioning obedience
QUESTION TO PONDER: Does this describe our relationship to Christ?
- We must come to Jesus on HIS terms, not our own – Luke 6:46; Matthew 7:21
B. IT IMPLIES “ABSOLUTE HUMILITY”…
- Otherwise, absolute obedience is not possible
- When we have a humble opinion of ourselves, we can be completely receptive to the idea of complete obedience
QUESTION TO PONDER…again: Does this describe our relationship to Christ and His Will?
- Jesus said it should! – Luke 17:10
- But if we murmur or complain about what
Jesus tells us to do, can we really be considered “servants”?
C. IT IMPLIES “ABSOLUTE LOYALTY”…
- Since we become servants freely, it should be expected that we:
- Are to be loyal to Him first – Galatians 1:10
- And, we should not consider our own profit or preference important, but that of the One we freely serve!
But it is amazing how we can claim to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, while we are:
- Complaining about having to do the will of God, and
- Being negligent or lazy in carrying out His will
And even more amazing, we sometimes act as though they are being forced against their own will!
- We don’t “have to” serve the Lord …
- Of course, the alternative is not very inviting
- If we don’t serve Christ, by default we must be serving Satan, and are destined for hell!
D. BEING A SERVANT IS A GREAT HONOR
- FAR FROM BEING A TITLE OF DISHONOR, IT WAS THE TITLE BY WHICH THE GREATEST MEN OF THE OLD TESTAMENT WERE KNOWN…
- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob – Deuteronomy 9:27 (“Thy servants”)
- Moses – 1 Kings 8:53 (“Thy servant”)
- Joshua – Joshua 24:29 (“Servant of the Lord”)
- Caleb – Numbers 14:24 (“My servant”)
- Job – Job 1:8 (“My servant”)
- Isaiah – Isaiah 20:3 (“My servant”)
- Jeremiah – Jeremiah 7:25 (“My servants”)
– Wouldn’t it be WONDERFUL if GOD LOOKED UPON us AS COMPANIONS OF THESE GREAT MEN…
- We too can find freedom, peace, and glory if we are willing to accept the callto serve Him and His Son, Jesus Christ with…
- Absolute obedience
- Absolute humility
- Absolute loyalty
– When we are serving God, His Son Jesus Christ, and even each other in this manner, we are making great strides towards spiritual maturity!
We too can then be called “…a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”
PRINCIPLE #1:
The first Principle to live by is about – Persecutions and Trials
- When faced with various trials, we should ask God to help us look at the painful experiences as opportunities to become more mature in our spiritual walk with Jesus Christ
- James is offering encouragement to stand strong in the midst of persecution
- Many of the people he is addressing were God-fearing Jews
- Who now believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and crucified Savior
- They are subject to hostility and ridicule from their Jewish brethren
- James challenges the believers to “consider it a great joy” when faced with trials [verse 2]
- This joy is not just emotional elation or giddiness or Thorazine or drug-induced haze
- It is a deep-seated sense of confidence and well-being that enabled believers to look beyond the difficulties and see it as an opportunity to become more Christ-like
- Which, after all the goal of all of this…teaching, preaching, Bible study, even the Bible itself is designed to help us become more Christ-like
- When he wrote this, perhaps he was thinking about the Wilderness trials of the “children of Israel”, which were used to reveal:
- Whether their faith in God was sincere, and
- Whether they could handle the blessings that God wanted to give them
QUESTION TO PONDER: How have you observed various trials in your own life, providing opportunities for personal growth? Or in the lives of others?
PRINCIPLE #2: Wisdom from above
In this second principle, James tells us that in order …
- To face trials with a proper perspective, we must seek God’s wisdom, through faith
READvv 5-8
- In verse 8, we see the word in various translations-
- indecisive
- double-minded
- doubting
QUESTION: What does this word mean to you?
A: Unstable and unusable
- Clearly we need divine wisdom (and often divine intervention) to be able to view trials as opportunities to grow spiritually
- The source of the wisdom is God, who is ready and willing to give it to His children
- The means or way of receiving it is prayer and faith
- Let’s look at a couple of scriptures about this:
- Matthew 21:22
- Mark 11:24
- The important words in all of these translations are pretty much the same:
- Ask/ desire
- Pray
- Believe
- Receive
- Doubt is often considered the opposite of faith
QUESTION: Is it? What do you think?
- Other words we might use, from the Thesaurus include:
- Denial
- Disbelief
- Distraction
- Misgiving
- Skepticism
- Suspicion
- Infidelity
- Rejection
- Incredulity
- unbelief
- In the sense that James is using it, doubt means questioning whether God is loving and generous
- It is hard, if not impossible to request a favor or gift from God (or anyone else, for that matter) with integrityand confidence if we question:
- their goodness
- how they feel about us
- whether they have our best interests at heart
- We must decisively determine that we are going to trust God completely, without wavering back and forth from day to day
- There is no middle ground
- Either we trust Him, or we don’t
- As we shall see later in James’ letter, in chapter 3, what he was writing about is inseparably linked to our Christian character and is identified as “wisdom
from above” (James 3:17-18) - Divine wisdom gives the believer a divine perspective on trials
- The Christian can then better comprehend the promised blessing for perseverance, which in turn provides motivation for endurance and spiritual growth
QUESTION: Perseverance- what’s your definition?
A:
- Going through
- Hanging tough
QUESTION TO PONDER: What advantages do we have today as compared with believers’ in A.D. 50, before the Gospels, Acts, the Epistles and Revelation were written?
– The Epistle of James tells us that through faith in God and Christ, we can have victory!
- Whether we are dealing with trials on the outside
- Or temptations on the inside
– James has given us the four key elements to turning trials into triumphs:
- Count – James 1:2
- Know – James 1:3
- Let – James 1:4
- Ask – James 1:5-8
PRINCIPLE #3: James says that we need to have a … Biblical Priority
- Regardless of our earthly possessions, we are to remember that what ultimately matters is our spiritual inheritance
READ: verses 9-12
- Here James focuses on the specific issue that is reflected by “an indecisive or double-minded man” which he described in verse 8…
- who was “driven and tossed by the wind.” [v6]
- The materialistic believers of the time were building “treasures on earth, where the moth and rust destroy, and where robbers break in and steal.” (in Matthew 6:19)
- They were trying to do what many of us do every day…
- They were attempting to serve TWO masters
- Instead, James suggests that poor people should focus on the fact that their inheritance is in heaven (1:9)
- And rich people should know that even though what they have on earth will disappear (vv 10-11), they too have an eternal inheritance that will endure forever (v 12)
- Furthermore, the rich people should be using their wealth to lay up “treasures inheaven” (Matthew 6:20)
QUESTION TO PONDER: What are some examples among modern day Christians that illustrate this same indecisiveness and the intention to serve two masters?
PRINCIPLE #4: Temptation and Rationalization
- We must take full responsibility for our own sinful attitudes and actions
READ: vv 13-18
- Illustration:
- Flip Wilson show
- “The devil made me do it”
- Flip Wilson show
- Many people will often say something like, “Satan is really working on me today!”
- The point that most of us miss is that we give him the stuff to work with
- We supply it.
- For example–
- When our bills get screwed up, it’s not because Satan has gone to the bank and taken money from our accounts
- We have budgeted poorly
- We have overspent what we didn’t have to begin with
- When we don’t really want to get up for church on Sunday, it’s not Satan
- We really just don’t want to go, or
- We have stayed up too late, or
- Stayed out too late, or
- Drank too much, or
- Drank too much and didn’t eat enough, or
- We danced all night and we can’t bear the thought of putting those tight shoes on again and sitting for two hours of “Oh My Lord kill me
please”, Sundaymorning service- Let’s be honest with ourselves J
- When our bills get screwed up, it’s not because Satan has gone to the bank and taken money from our accounts
- When we fail God by yielding to temptation, want to place the blame on others, including God
- Illustration:
- Let’s look at Adam and Eve (which we did on the blog a couple of weeks ago)
- Here’s the scenario
- There are only two people…right?
- God has made them to have fellowship with Him.
- God comes to the Garden to visit them every day
- When He shows up after they have eaten the fruit,
- they act surprised that He is there and they hide
- When he finds them, and asks what happened…
-
- Adam blames Eve, and God!
- And, Eve blames the serpent
- Important point to remember: even though Satan is at the root of our evil desires, we are ultimately responsible
- Apart from our “new birth” (v 18), we are always vulnerable to yielding to temptation
- And, we cannot avoid the ultimate results of yielding to temptation:
- “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)
- However, if we receive God’s gift of eternal life, through the Lord Jesus Christ, God will provide a way to face temptations victoriously
READ: 1 Corinthians 10:13
QUESTION TO PONDER: In what ways can we use the word of God to overcome temptations?
A: when we are tempted to violate God’s will, we are to follow Jesus’ example and use scripture to thwart Satan’s efforts
Read: Temptation of Christ Matthew 4:1-11
PRINCIPLE #5: Applying God’s Word
READ: vv 19-26
- To please God, we must not only listen to His word, but also put it into practice
- James uses “dearly loved brothers” once again, indicating that he is addressing… who?
- He is talking to believers (v 16,19)
- He exhorted them to be “doers” of the word and not just hearers
- When we listen and do not act on what we hear, this means that we have not received the “implanted word” (v 22)
- What does this mean?
- It means we have not allowed the truth to penetrate deeply enough into our hearts
- READ: Hebrews 4:12-13
- We should always measure our spiritual experiences by the truth of the scripture
- Perhaps the writer of Hebrews ( who is probably Paul), is pondering a lesson from 2 Kings (22:8-23:25):
- How the King, Josiah was deeply convicted by the word of God
- Josiah allowed the scripture to penetratehis own heart and soul
- He then exposed all of the other leaders to God’s truth
- This moved the people to forsake their idolatrous activities (at least temporarily)
- And led to renewal in the land
- Perhaps the writer of Hebrews ( who is probably Paul), is pondering a lesson from 2 Kings (22:8-23:25):
Back to James…
- James succinctly addresses three areas of sin, which he explains more fully in the letter.
- They are:
- Sinful anger (vv 20, 26)
- Immorality (vv 21, 27)
- Indifference to needy people (v 27)
- But, regardless of the specific activities, what James is concerned about is the same sinful practices that have plagued the “children of Israel” from the time they left Egypt, until they went into captivity
- And they still plague us today..
- Perhaps James is recollecting what the Lord revealed to Ezekiel in Babylon
- READ Ezekiel 33: 31-33
- SEE!
- Thousands of years later, and we are still talking about hearing and not doing!
QUESTION TO PONDER: If James were writing to Christians in our particular culture today, what 3 sins might he address?
A: the same ones
End of Chapter One