Comments on the Book of James

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (1:1-4) Their situation must have been such that they were suffering from poverty and mistreatment by the peoples whose lands they were living in. If the Dispersion refers to the exiling of Israel over different times throughout history then they must have retained their unique identities as Jews in order to continue to be referred to in this manner. Add to this the acceptance of the Christian faith and these believing Jews would have been not only aliens living among gentiles but also outcasts among their own people. We read of the persecution the Jews suffered in these lands in Pauls letters. I suggest poverty because of the repeated reference to the rich and the poor James makes in this letter. James uses the rich and poor as examples for his teaching and later in the letter blasts the rich as selfish and greedy. James seems to be encouraging the believers of the Dispersion to stand strong in the face of their poverty and to resist the urge to seek after wealth in the way the world does; to do so would only bring the destruction that surely awaits the rest of the world.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (1:5-8) I assume that the wisdom that James suggested they ask for so plainly was the wisdom to withstand the pressures they were facing in their trials of various kinds. We cant know for sure what they faced in these communities and the forms the trials took but as I said above most likely they faced some sort of persecution from both Jews and gentiles and the accompanying poverty that would follow such treatment. The issues surrounding poverty and wealth make more than one appearance in this letter and they seem to be a focal point of James for these churches. He writes of their preferential treatment of the rich and he blasts the rich later in the letter as greedy and selfish. To withstand the trials of poverty and persecution these believers no doubt were tempted to pursue relief through methods that were less than Christ like. They may have wanted to answer with an eye for an eye against their enemies. They may have wanted to use the devices of the wealthy in order to procure wealth for themselves. And they may have tried to combine these worldly measures with their faith in prayer. James reminds them here that to do so would be to be false; he tells them that to ask in such a way is to have false motive- they were asking for relief but only in order to take care of themselves; they were inherently selfish in their prayers. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. (4:3) They were also asking with doubt in their minds- we dont know what they doubted: the power of God, the answer to their prayer, the ability to overcome their obstacles; but they doubted. James tells them that to doubt is to negate the prayer. You will not receive anything if you doubt the one to whom you ask to give it. He compares them to a ship being tossed in the wind. They are without a firm direction; they will go wherever their thinking takes them. They will follow after the world or God, whichever comes first. But this cannot be the relationship we are to have with God. It must be God first and His way as our direction and the focus of our prayers. The problem with suffering is that it often takes our minds off of that focus and onto the situation at hand. We succumb to only seeing the problem before us, our own pain, and the pain of our loved ones. We are tempted to despair and we look to anything for relief. James tells these believers and us to remain focused on God alone who is able to grant that which we desire. And what is it that we desire above all. Is it money and power? Is it position and attention? No, I believe that what we desire above all else is simple security and a place in the world that is safe. If we knew that we would be taken care of then all would be right and weathering the storm that tosses us around would be so much simpler. But we often do not know for certain our place and our security so we doubt and we lose our focus. Praise God that He does not lose sight of us. His word tells us that we are secure. We have a place firmly in His hand that no one can ever remove us from. Our job is to remain sure of that fact- to trust in God, and to let the ship be tossed but to remain surefooted and steadfast throughout.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Fathers hand. I and the Father are one. (John 10:27-30)

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. (1:9-11) This is the reality behind the glitter of gold and the sheen of luxury. In truth all that glitters will one day fade away. The rich man and his possessions will not always share the same address, for the rich man, like every other man, must someday die and with him his hold on his belongings. The truth behind this is stark. James says in the midst of his pursuits the rich man will fade away. He will never complete his task of acquisition for it can never be finished; one reason being that he will die before he is done and the other reason is that that kind of pursuit can never be completed. There is always one more dollar to be made and one more mountain left to climb. Compare that scenario to that of the poor man who cannot achieve great wealth or status. He has little, if any, power. He has nothing of material value on the earth: and yet, James says he has cause for exaltation. No, James says that man will boast in his exaltation. That kind of man will be exalted while the man of wealth will be brought low. It is a truth of scripture that the last will be first (Matthew 19:28-20:16) and the first will be last. Jesus taught his disciples that those who seek after position and wealth in this life will have a more difficult time attaining to the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:16-24). He taught that those who seek the world will lose the kingdom (Luke 9:23-25). Here, James seems to imply the same thing, that wealth on the earth stands in opposition to the kingdom of God. He is telling the believers to resist the temptation to seek after wealth (possibly, as I conjectured, to get out of their difficulties) and instead to remember the teaching. God will provide and God will reward all to whom reward is due. Do not seek that reward while in the body for then what reward is left to give you in heaven? Remember the flowers, they burn gloriously for a season and then are thrown away. Be not a man who lives only for a season- be instead a man that lives for a lifetime.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (1:12-15) This is encouragement to remain standing firm in your trust in God above- even through the trials of life. Whatever they were facing, and I am sure that it is many-fold more than whatever I deal with daily, James wants for them to stand strong. The temptation is to buckle under the weight of the strain of trials and to give in to the temptation to fight back in ones own strength with the weapons we see others using to get out from under, and to enjoy life to the fullest. But it is not to be that way for us because we are called to a higher standard than the wickedness the world attains to. We who call ourselves Christian are to strive to maintain our purity, even in the face of trial and temptation. We havent resisted to the point of shedding blood, have we (Hebrews 12:4)? So we can hold on for a little longer when trouble comes before we fold and give in to our sin, cant we? Once we give in to sin it is always a dead end run into death. There is no redeeming quality for sin. There is no level of it that is acceptable and with each step down the wrong road we enter more and more firmly into its grasp. James gives sin a name here- he calls it our own desire. These are the selfish motives spoken of in chapter 4. These are the desires of the flesh that unless chained and mastered will always lead us into darkness. It occurs to me that my language is so stereotypically Christian here. I wonder if this can be written in a way that would speak even to those who do not know Christ. In language that would explain the sinfulness of their actions and the causes of their pain. But for the Christian, for the man who loves God, words like darkness and flesh and desire ring true. They describe the nothingness of the consequences of chasing that sin. We are to master it as God directed Cain to do after he killed his brother. Who else will do it if it not be us? Who else will control our passions? It is up to us.

And we cannot blame God for our failures either. James makes it clear that it is not from God, the sins that so easily entangle us. These sins arise out of our own sinful hearts. These are our desires and not Gods desires for us. James reminds here that God is entirely good and pure and holy. He is not tempted as we are and HE does not tempt us in this manner. So what do we do? How do we overcome? How do we remain steadfast when the world beats us up, gives us trial and tribulation, regardless of what we try to do to stop it? We can only do one thing- we cant look to the worlds devices like money and power and the machinations that bring those about. We cant look to escaping our pain through self-gratification of the flesh. We can only look to God and try our best to be found doing what He left for us to do which is to love Him with all weve got and to show that by loving all of those He put in our midst.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. (1:12) This crown is referred many times in the New Testament and it seems to draw an analogy to what the victor received after winning in the games. In those days they ran to win the wreath- only one victor wore the wreath as an honor for his victory. James teaches that we too have a chance to win such a crown. We are running a race, as Paul said (1 Corinthians 9:25-27), and we should be running in such a way as to win that crown. It begins here with steadfastness under trial. If we stand to the end and we will make it to the finish line. When we make it to the end we will be honored for our victory- we will be given the crown of life. And if that werent enough, when we make it to our end we are promised that that crown not only symbolizes victory but also ushers in our literal eternal life. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4)

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift 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. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (1:16-18) A reminder to focus on the truth in the face of the lies and temptations of the world. Our end is not to be found in overcoming the world through the worlds means; and any perceived good that we might achieve through wicked means is no good thing. For the only good that will come our way- the only true good, good that is a response to a life lived in the pursuit of holiness, will come from above; it will come from God, for He is the Father of lights and will never change. We are His children, the first to bear His name, and the firstfruits of the redemptive work of His Son Jesus. It is this that we should focus on and respond to- we are to act as children of God are to act: in humility, love, and perseverance.

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (1:19-21) The first thing a believer must be able to do is to control himself. Self-discipline ought to be the priority of every Christian. We are no longer allowed to say and do anything that we desire or that our passions lead us to do. Solomon taught us the end of seeking only pleasure and gain in life- it is meaningless (Ecclesiastes). It always ends the same way, in nothing truly gained. James wrote that seeking to fill desires ends only in sin and ultimately death. But if we truly are brothers as James calls us here then we have a calling to live according to a higher standard, a standard found in the word of God. In order to understand that standard and to hear the word in our hearts we have to first control our thoughts and our actions. It begins by learning to listen. We have to hear more and speak less. Solomon also taught us to do this. In Ecclesiastes he writes Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few (Ecclesiastes 5:2). We must not be too ready to answer back with our own opinions but must learn to consider what has been said and to be open to learning from the experience of others. And we must learn to control our tempers and be slow to anger. A quick flash of anger, a

smart response, will make us feel better in a conflict but it does nothing to show our transformed lives in Christ; and it does nothing to further a relationship with another person. And it demonstrates our own self-interest and arrogance. Instead we must learn to respond with temperance and hold off anger; taming it and making it conform to our Christlike desires and be used for His will instead of our own.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (1:22-25) Man has an uncanny ability to overlook in himself the most glaring of faults. Be they physical, social, emotional, or even spiritual, we are able to look at ourselves daily and brush them aside as unimportant. Its not that we dont know of our faults, we do, because we live with the consequences of them every day. We deal with the difficult relationship with a family member or co-worker or we experience conflict in social settings. We know all about our extra pounds and addictive habits, but we have the ability to overlook them somehow- to justify them, rationalize them, excuse them into the background as unimportant or better yet somebody elses fault or problem. This tendency, that we all share, makes it very difficult to gain any ground spiritually because it is inherently dishonest. We lie when we think that we are okay the way we are. We deceive ourselves when we blame others for our faults and problems. We arent malicious in this or utterly wicked; we are Christians after all. Sometimes we do this simply in order to cope- our problems are too many and too difficult for us to handle so we dont think on them all but merely try to keep our head above water with the biggest of them. And sometimes we do this because we have fallen into our sins and are pursuing the death that James warned of earlier. The remedy for this is of course the word of God. We hear this word in our services and we read it ourselves in our bibles. But James is telling us to make sure we are not simply hearing the words of God and putting them away somewhere like we do with our sins and faults. God would like us to think on His word and to act on it. It is action that marks the Christian life more than anything else. Is that too strong a statement? It is action that is the fruit of the change in a believer. It is the actions based on the implanted word that prove our faith in Christ. So we must listen, we must hear, we must control our base desires (anger), we must refuse to deceive ourselves into complacency at best and willful sin at worst. We must look intently into the word of God and then do what it says. I remember one day feeling completely beat down by my own troubles and thanking God that He didnt show me every one of my faults at one time. What a shock that would be to see my entire sin riddled soul as it might appear to the One who can see me completely. Thank God He does not show us more than we can handle- what He does show the man who is willing to look is enough. And remember, God does not see us as sin riddled anymore, not if we have confessed faith in His Son! Now He sees us only as His beloved, our sin has been forgotten. Amen?!

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this persons religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (1:26-27) James returns to the topic of our speech later in chapter three calling it an instrument of hell. Obviously controlling our speech is important to James. What we say indicates what lies within us. The words that come out of our mouths align with the thoughts in our minds and hearts. We tend to say what we really think and feel even if at times the words seem to ring false. Harsh words, quick words, un-tempered words, coarse speech, vulgarity, lies, deceit, gossip, and slander: these all come out of the mouths of believers and they show the evil that still wages its war inside of our hearts. We must learn to control this if we are to truly set ourselves about the tasks of serving the Lord through practice of our religion. Verse 27 summarizes quite nicely the tenets of our religion. Forget about the doctrine for a moment and focus simply on what it is that a Christian should DO. One word could sum up this summary- charity. We are to take care of others- to love them, feed them, cloth them. Simply said and simply done. Jesus said as much Himself when He took all the complexities of the Law and summed them up in two simple commands: To love God and then to love others. These

verses (19-27) teach us to discipline ourselves to hear more and talk less in order to do what the word of God says which is to Love God by offering charity to His people.

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, You sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, You stand over there, or, Sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, 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? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (2:1-13) Another tendency of these believers seems to have been this issue of distinguishing between those in the congregation when they met together. They would see the poor man and give him little thought except to make sure he was out of the way and accessible if needed to run an errand for somebody. But when they saw the important man enter their congregation they would rise up, gather around and make a place for him in the front, in the place of honor. And yet James asks them, Who is it that bestows honor among you anyway? Is it not the Lord? James gives them another truth about riches; in this case a general truth about those who have money. They are the ones who do the oppressing in a community. They are the ones who use the law to win their gold. And they are generally the ones who do not hold the name of the Most High in the highest regard. Turning that on its head James looks at the poor among the believers and sees another truth, that the poor are usually the ones with the greatest faith. It is the poor who Jesus said would be blessed- not because of their poverty but because of their absolute need for something greater than themselves for salvation. It is the poor who tend to know God and honor Him because they have nothing else that distracts them from Him. It is the poor that God Himself has raised up to a position of honor, who are we to dishonor what God has honored? James points this out to say, Stop sinning! It makes no sense to flock after the rich who may or may not even recognize the Lord. It is a symptom of materialism, this preferring to associate with the highest among us rather than take an interest in the lowest. Materialism is the worlds way off dealing with emptiness and loss but it is not the Lords. We are to refuse the worlds ways in favor of Gods way. We have this same tendency in our churches- we commit the same sin. When we look to the members of standing in the community to be the leading men in our churches, we sin. When we look to the men whose houses are large and their positions hold prominence, we sin. When we overlook the little guy, the guy with the bread and butter job, as a candidate for leadership we sin. When we overlook the poor man to hold a place among us, we sin. James is talking here again about money and its power to corrupt. Money is of the world and although in itself it is not evil it does inspire evil in us. Jesus warned us of this when He said, No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money (Luke 16:13). James reminds us that it is faith that is the marker for attention and distinction in our churches. We ought to be looking at men to see the evidence of faith in their lives to bestow honor upon. We ought to use the same standard that God uses when He judges us. He judged us all transgressors of the Law and therefore damnable to the farthest reaches of hell. But He bestowed upon us mercy in the Name of His Son, Jesus. That mercy saves us and by its confession we are indeed saved. So how can we who have been forgiven so much turn and look with disdain on our brother who has stood at the foot of the very same cross we have? God does not look at the outside when judging worth but looks inside to see what can be made of a man. We too must use His standard and look past the glitter and the tarnish to see the man that God beholdsa beloved son whom He longs to see perfected. And lastly, a warning- another reminder, we will be judged in the end. Jesus also warned us of this; by the measure we use to judge others we too will be judged (Matthew 7). It is mercy we are to extend to all who gather with

us; grace offered freely to all men in recognition of their individual struggles, hurts and pain. This is the measure that God uses with us; anything else from us is sin and a breaking of the law. If we seek to love God it begins with how we love others.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believeand shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousnessand he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (2:14-26) This is the passage that has given so many theologians so much difficulty over the five hundred years since the reformation. The question they struggle(d) with is if salvation is by faith alone (sola fide), a reformation construct built to guard against the many and varied Catholic works-based means of attaining salvation, then how do we interpret this passage? For in this passage James makes the exact opposite argument; he says in verse 17 that it is NOT by faith alone, he says that faith alone is useless, it is dead, unless it be accompanied by works. Thank God we have all of those years of teaching on this topic to clear this up. I have entered the church at a time when I think this is understood correctly and when we dont have the full weight of the Catholic Church bearing down on us, and when our protests against their abuses of religion are not so forefront in our minds that we struggle mightily to understand a better way of religion. I get to read this passage in my own language, in my own home, from my own bible and I think that it makes pretty good sense. This particular passage does not give me a whole lot of trouble because it seems plain and to the point. James sets up his argument by illustrating a scenario where faith is offered to a hurting brother but is not backed up with anything concrete. The religious offer comfort in words alone (Sola Worde? : ) but they leave the poor man cold and shivering on the bench. James asks the obvious question- what good is that? They might as well have left him alone for all the good they gave him. The argument continues with the statement that it is good to have faith, to believe in God, but even the demons do that! God is real and all in creation recognize and bow down to Him; or at least they will in the end. Even the fallen angels, those demons who have turned their back on God, recognize Him as Lord and master. The difference is that they do not act on their knowledge of Him for good, but instead actively work against Him. So what would distinguish our belief in God from theirs unless it is that our action on our faith in him show the fruit of our salvation? The demons are not saved, not because they dont believe in God but because they dont confess Him as Lord and submit all of their activity to Him. James teaches that it is through faith we are saved but through our works that we demonstrate that salvation. Two examples from scripture are used to make this point: Abraham and Rahab. Abraham believed in God and acted on his belief by obeying mightily the command to offer Isaac up as a sacrifice to Him. Such an act of faith, of believing that somehow God would make the incomprehensible comprehensible was rewarded with great words of encouragement- Abraham was justified by his faith. James goes to the other extreme in his next example. True to his teaching to not honor the great among us but also the low, James gives Rahab as his next example. She was a prostitute but James uses her here next to Abraham, the father of us all, to conclude his argument for faith and works. She believed in the God of Israel and when the men came to spy out her city for invasion she acted on her belief, even in the face of great danger, by helping the men to hide and escape. She too was rewarded for her faith demonstrated by her works. She has been memorialized in scripture along with those who were, by the worlds standards, greater than she. The formula is simple: Faith + Works = Justification. James insists that each addend be present. You cannot have only one but claim to have the other also. It is like the body without a spirit or the idea of a spirit without its body; it cannot be. They have to exist together in time and in space. And so must our faith and our works. We who believe must act on that belief. Faith is a verb. Last thought- this is the great command to love others as ourselves. Love is a verb- Faith is a verb. If we truly love God then we will work to love others.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. (3:1-12) James implies that because teachers must speak, and speak a lot, by nature of their vocation, and because we all stumble in many ways, particularly through our words, we should take great care in presuming to teach. He warns that most of the brethren should not become teachers. I assume teaching here to refer to the word of God and to the spiritual development of the church primarily because of the company I find this letter in. In the church men ought to take great care not only to discipline themselves in their humility and charity for others but also in their own self-regard. Sometimes we have the tendency to puff ourselves up in our own minds, even sincerely out of a desire to serve the Lord, and to speak our minds to others under the guise of teaching. If our minds are wrong, our opinions false, we run the risk of being false teachers and spreading or creating doctrine in the church that will harm our brothers and sisters. After forty plus years walking the earth, often in self-created delusions of grandeur, I am beginning to see the wisdom in simply remaining silent and listening to others. In this way I can ponder the wisdom of others words, just as Mary did (Luke 2:9, 51), and formulate a better and more informed viewpoint. I have begun to realize that a lot of my words are spoken out of a desire to be heard and to be validated as wise, or clever, or humorous. That is an inherently selfish desire and therefore a sinful one. James teaches here to presume to be silent and to learn something new and then you will have gain. Begin with a recognition of your own inclination to sin and humble yourself before it; then you will gain wisdom. I am also learning to ask questions before making statements. All too often we presume to know the reasons behind anothers actions and we respond in kind. However, what if we are wrong and a simple question asked in sincerity would bring greater understanding? Often we assume we know; out of our arrogance we paint pictures of reality that are too simple. Life is much more complex than the explanations we presume to understand. People are much more complex than the simple formulas we apply to them. Asking and seeking to understand others is a form that love will take if we let it. Other people basically want the same thing as we do, they want to be understood, heard, validated and thought well of. If we take the time to talk to them before judgment we might be surprised at how much deeper our own understanding of the world will become. James analogies of a bridle and a rudder to the tongue are very effective illustrations. Jesus said that what goes into a man cannot make him unclean but that it is what comes out of the heart that will make a man unclean (Mark 7:14-23). With our mouths we present to the world what is contained in our hearts. It is a startling picture but one that should be reflected upon if we are to call ourselves Christians. Our religion is built around the concept of love; for God first through the loving of others. Yet we continue to war and fight amongst ourselves in the church and those in the world. James says that this is not how it should be. We are Christians and our primary objective is to express that love to the world. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness(3:6) James declares the tongue the one untamable creation. Man has been able to conquer the world and yet he fails miserably with a member of his own body. Out of our hearts and minds flow our desires, pain, suffering, selfishness, and sorrow. Often they flow with little regulation and we cause others much pain. James refers to the tongues boasting in this passage; boasting was also referred to in 1:9 referring to the lowly man who boasts in his exaltation; it is again used in 3:14 in the conclusion of this passage to describe actions based on jealousy and selfishness; it is used in 4:16 to describe actions based on arrogant presumption. To boast is to make claims that may or may not be false but which are always designed to put self forward and to present a show of place to the

world. James calls such activity evil without apology (4:16). When we allow our tongue, here the personification of our own selfishness, to run loose we are allowing evil to reign in our lives. James calls our tongues a world of unrighteousness, evil, and full of deadly poison. It is not our tongues that are these things, it is our hearts. Residing in us is the baseness of our sin; left unchecked it will escape and infect our world. But we who are Christian also have residing in us the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9, 2 Timothy 1:14) and if we discipline ourselves to His leading through the practice of self-control and restraint we can overcome the evil within us. We can learn to remain steadfast in our trials, to resist sin and the devil, who will flee our power; and express to the world the love of God much more abundantly than we do now. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (3:13-18) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above (1:17) so let us not be deceived into thinking that our ambitions, desires, and jealousies have any place in the Kingdom of God. It is their opposites that James calls the brothers to. It is to humility before God and men, and charity to our brothers and sisters that we are to put our efforts into. It is through the exercise of love that our faith is proven and expressed. The polar opposites of selfishness and selflessness are extreme. It is the difference between love and hate, sin and holiness, and pride and humility. It is boasting versus listening, giving versus taking, holding versus pushing away. The Christian religion should be marked by the meekness of wisdom that James writes of here. The Christian should be marked by this wisdom. The promise is that when it is and when we do we will receive back what we have sown (3:18). What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? (4:1-5) James calls the behavior he sees in these believers adultery! He describes God as yearning over them as a lover might, jealous to keep them for himself; but they will not have only Him. They keep looking to these other things that James lists: their desires and passions and the material things that they covet. They ask for these things but do not get them because their motives are impure. They seek only to pleasure themselves and not to spend their gain on others in love, as God would have them do. Enough about them- what about us? Do we act in a similar way? Are we secretly craving that which we cannot have and getting frustrated when it is not granted us? We fight in our churches and communities about our ministries and programs; the object of our covetousness does not even have to be wicked in nature for our actions to be evil. As stated before man has the incredible ability to overlook wickedness in himself but he has no problem seeing it very clearly in others. Again, the solution is relatively simple, but one that might take some of us a lot longer to master than others. James teaches us to resist these temptations and to submit ourselves to God in humility (verses 6-7). But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (4:6-10) God gives men the grace to be and act in the way James is commanding here. With men it will be impossible (Matthew 19:26) but with God it can be done, we can change. Grace here is the power of God working in our lives, through the Spirit, to turn us away from these sinful inclinations of selfishness and toward the loving acts of charity and humility that he so desires for us.

If we would only submit ourselves to this ideal, to God in humility, we would find victory over our base natures. We have to actively turn from the devil and his whisperings, and our own flesh and its cravings and learn a new way. We have to replace the old habits with new ones, and train our desires to be instead for healthy and holy things instead of wicked things. Reflecting on our behavior and our thoughts will lead us to quit taking things so cavalierly and will break our habits of justifying our actions and relativizing our behaviors. If we take this seriously, enough so to make us weep before the Lord, He will respond with grace and love and help us to overcome. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? (4:11-12) In contrast to the good deeds we ought to be doing is the backstabbing and vindictive behavior of men of the world. James reminds the brothers of the golden rule, to love others as yourself and of Jesus teaching to first focus on your own sin so that you will be in a position to help a brother take care of his (Luke 6:42). God alone will make the final judgments about people and it is He who will provide what is needed for the changes to take place to bring a man to perfection. Our job is not to position ourselves as judges over our brothers behavior, our job is to get our own house in order so we can then reach out in love to help others to do the same. Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (4:13-17) Boasting again, this time referring to making plans for oneself that do not take into account the Lords plans for us; James calls this arrogance. We are reminded of the proverbs of Solomon that teach us to take into account our limited number of days on the earth; it is vanity to plan for tomorrow and to seek after wealth without asking God first or seeking His will in the matter. We know how we ought to be thinking and behaving; it is up to us to work to make ourselves that way. Anything else is sin. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. (5:1-6) This passage speaks against those who think more about their money than they did about their people. Those who used the poor for their own gain, and were willing to be dishonest in order to turn a profit; who made a habit of spending their wealth on themselves and not in charity to others. It is unclear whether James is addressing this to the believers in which case this would be a decisive judgment and warning against them, or whether this is an editorial of sorts against the rich in the community that the believers lived in. If the latter then James is offering encouragement to the believers that these sinners will not escape judgment, for God is aware of their sin and their judgment will come. Money will not survive in the coming kingdom. Wealth will not transfer into eternity because position and power hold no sway in Gods economy. So those who have built their lives around the amassing of money and status will be decisively stripped of their idols and placed among the least in the new kingdom, if they arrive at all. As we read over and over again, it is for the humble and the charitable that heaven is built. In response to the humility displayed by Jesus in His work for us and His generosity in freely bestowing salvation upon us we simply must turn the cheek to our brothers and do the same. What we have freely been given we also can freely give (Matthew 10:8), completing the circle and proving the genuineness of our faith.

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. (5:7-11) A final reminder to steadfastness, to be rock solid and unwavering in faith and actions, to prove ones faith, to not look to the rich for help or the means of the world for overcoming difficulty. The Lord God is near at hand and will come. Establishing our hearts means to firm up our resolve to remain standing until that day comes. It is the day of trouble now and we count the days as they pass, numbering them one by one as we wait for our deliverance. While we wait we can busy ourselves with the things of God, which are to take care of the poor, the orphan and the widow, to build each other up with encouragement, and to remind ourselves of our ultimate salvation in God, and not man. We are not alone in this, we have the prophets to look back upon to see their example. They stood and delivered the word of the Lord against unbeatable opposition. They were sawn and quartered, dropped into wells, outcast and ridiculed, and hunted like wild animals all for the sake of doing that which God gave them to do. We have the example of Job, the poster child for steadfastness, who endured a day of misery as he received word after word of his familys demise. He did not waver in his resolve to remain true to God and he withstood the temptation to complain or compromise before his friends. He did what James is telling us to do in our day of trouble; to remind ourselves of our place in the kingdom, work to make the lives of others better, and to remain humble as we wait for our reward. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. (5:12) This verse probably goes with the passage above but I pulled it out in order to isolate it for its simplicity. It is a wonderful expression that sticks in the mind and reminds me to keep my word simple and true. Along with our habit of justifying our actions and our temptation to seek the world over the kingdom, we also have this wicked ability to elaborate our speech with conditions and exceptions. James teaches us to keep our words to a simple yes and no; that is, we either will do a thing or we will not do a thing, we either meant what we said or we did not. Anything other than this leads us into a gray area of rhetoric and minutia of the law. Anything other than this leads us into the condemnation reserved for deal breakers, liars, and cheats. Anything other than this is not the religion of God. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (5:13-20) Faith. Faith that in the time of trouble God will hear you when you call out to Him. Faith that your prayers will be heard and will be powerful to bring healing. Faith that there is a heaven beyond this life and that our place is destined to be there with God forever. I read this passage and I immediately question the truth of the words written because I know that prayers often do not bring about the kind of healing that we desire. Our loved ones do leave us and our sick do not get healed of their illnesses. So I question whether what James wrote is true. But if it is not true then what does that say about the rest of scripture? No, it has to be true because the entire Word must be true or our faith is built on a foundation of sand, take away one piece and the rest surely crumbles. So if it is true, that our prayers heal and that they are imbued with power to save and restore then how is it that experience tells us something other? It could be that we misunderstand- that we take literally James words heal and raise him up. In the last verse of this chapter, and the book, James writes of saving a soul from death- that sounds to me like a salvation or damnation

scenario and not a living body or dead body scenario. James is writing of saving souls here, not the temporal seed that our flesh is. The flesh merely houses the soul until such time as we are called to go to our future and permanent home with God. The prayer of a righteous man does indeed have great power, possibly meaning here to help a sinner repent and turn back to God where he will indeed find life. I still have reservations though- verses 14 and 15 speak of a physically sick person being anointed with oil and prayed over by the elders of the church and it sounds to me as if this sort of prayer will heal the body. Sins will certainly be forgiven through this prayer but will the body? I guess in the end it comes back to my original statement: Faith. We must have faith in God who does not change (1:17), does not lie (Hebrews 6:18), has promised to provide us with all we need to survive (Matthew 6:25-32), only gifts us with things that are good for us (1:17), and who in His own time and for His own purposes is working for all things to come together for the good that He has planned (Romans 8:28). Prayer is our part in that- we must learn to pray and to keep offering our prayers for ourselves, for others, for the orphan and the widow, through the rain and in times of drought.