Sunday School: James 1:1-11
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Highs/Lows of the week
Have someone pray for the time!
Introduction: The last four weeks we have been working through key elements of the Christian life. Do you remember what we talked through?
Church membership, Prayer, Bible reading, then Corporate worship.
Now, for the next few weeks we will be working through the book of James together. This week we will talk through the first 11 verses of chapter 1, so if you would turn with me there.
The book of James is such a helpful book in considering how our faith is worked out. Many have claimed that James and the Apostle Paul contradict each other because Paul focuses on faith and all James cares about is works. We will soon come to find out that James is not contradicting Paul but rather is complementing his writing. He argues all throughout the book that someone with true faith, the faith in which Paul describes, shows itself in the spiritual fruit that James talks about all through his book. So, the “works” that we do as Christians are a result of our faith.
When you sat down in the chair you are sitting in, why did you do it?
You sat down because you had faith that it would not break on you. As a result of your faith in the chair, you sat down. So too is James going to show us that as a result of our faith we ought to act certain ways.
So our first week we will focus on the first result of our faith…
BIG IDEA: As Christians, we should view life from an eternal perspective
Transition: Now, lets read all of James 1:1-11 together, then walk through the different sections together.
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 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. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 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.
Transition: The first section that we have for today is James 1:1-4, let’s read that again together.
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:1-4: We ought to rejoice, not give up, when trials come for they bring maturity
Explanation: James opens his book by identifying himself as a servant or slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and is writing to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. When he says this he is simply meaning that he is writing to a group of Christians who live in dispersion in the world. He uses the idea of the twelve tribes here as imagery rather than in an attempt to only speak to Jewish Christians.
Ultimately, He is making the case to every Christian that although this fallen earth is not our eternal home, we are still called to live in it with an eternal perspective.
look with me to verses 2 and 3, James gives us our first command. Count or consider it all joy, when you meet trials of various kinds.
There are a few things we need to work out in these two verses. The first is… when James refers to various trials in our life what does he mean when he says “consider/count it all joy”?
Is he saying that no matter the circumstance we need to keep a smile on our face and press on? Does he mean that we must be happy all of the time no matter what happens? Does he mean that we should belittle what we are going through and just say “Count it all joy” to ourselves until we actually do it?
What do you think?
Joy speaks of a state of being rather than emotion. That means that joy is not the same thing as happiness. One author puts it this way..
Joy may be defined as a settled contentment in every situation, however for our cicumstances I think another definition fits better, joy “an unnatural reaction of deep, steady and unswayed thankful trust in God”.
James tells us to have a deep and unswayed thankful trust in God despite what we are going through. That’s what it means to count/consider it all joy.
How do you typically view trials in your life? Whether it be small ones like having to having to study for a class that you do not enjoy or having to do chores around the house even though your favorite TV show is on or having to run a lot in preparation for the upcoming game? Or larger ones like the death of a family member or a illness or physical ailment that now affects many aspects of your life or the mocking of your friends at school because you told them about Jesus or want to talk about the Bible? How do you respond to trials like these?
How often do we try to forget about the hard season of life by escaping into TV or video game consumption, to just going and taking another nap, to just trying not to think about it, to complaining about the trial, sometimes doubting God, or sometimes we think the trial is purposeless. Oftentimes in trials we turn from God, rather than to Him.
These responses to our trials are the opposite counting it all joy. Remember joy is a “an unnatural reaction of deep, steady and unadulterated thankful trust in God”.
During our trials, as we escape, complain, and doubt we are not expressing joy in the situation at hand. We are essentially believing that God is out to get us, or that he does not love us, or that he is really not good, but rather is this tyrant in the sky lavishing wrath on everyone.
This is not true though Christian. God does love you and he is good, and he is not out to get you. In fact, he wants you to consider these trials joy because he promises to use even your trials to grow your faith in Him.
Transition: We are called to have this joy because we know that it tests our faith and ultimately produces steadfastness or endurance.
Romans 5:3 says
“3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,”
Our trials, ou sufferings produce endurance.
We can describe endurance as “faith stretched out”. The trials that will come and go are meant to grow you in your dependence upon our Almighty and good God. As you turn to God in faith knowing that he works out all things for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28), your faith in Him will grow.
As we look to verse four and read that steadfastness produces perfection and completion we ought to be careful to understand what’s going on. He is not saying that we can attain perfection now.
What James is trying to show us here is a mature/complete Christian is someone who, in faith counts all of their trials as joy knowing that God is using his trials to give him a Greater dependence upon him. So too we ought to aspire to see our trials from this perspective.
Illustration: Consider how the Apostle Paul did this. In 2 Cor. 11 he tells the Corinthians what he has gone through. He says…
24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Yet, despite all of these trials he says this in 2 Cor. 4:16-18
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
He calls all of his suffering light momentary afflictions. What courage. The only way that he can do this is first through the power of the Spirit within him, and through not just looking at his trial but looking past it, recognizing that he is being renewed inwardly through the outward trial. However… this is not easy is it. we are not called to do this alone..
Transition: This leads us to our next section of text. Let’s read James 1:5-8
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 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. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Here we can see, that
James 1:5-8: We ought to ask God for help in faith, and not rely on ourselves
Verse five opens with the acknowledgement that we will all lac k wisdom when trials come. James does not just expect us to be able to understand exactly how to handle every trial that comes our way with joy. Rather, he tells us to ask God for the wisdom to deal with the situation the trial that has been placed in front of us. So first, James tells us to have joy in our trials knowing that God will use them to grow our faith, and now he tells us that in our trials, we need to come to God in faith and ask for wisdom in how we are to live in the present circumstances.
James does caveat here and makes sure to point out that we ought to be asking in faith, not with doubt. When he mentions faith here, he is referring to a “continuing confidence in the identity and nature of God”. James is telling us that we should not doubt the character and nature of God who gives generously to his people. James then goes on to say that those who doubt are like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
What do you think he means by this?
It seems that he mans that the person is unwilling to fully trust God and thus kinda trusts God and kinda believes what the world is telling him.
One author describes the illustration of the waves this way..
“the picture here is not of a wave mounting in height and crashing to shore, but of the swell of the sea, never having the same texture and shape from moment to moment, but always changing with the variations in wind direction and strength”
This illustration is to describe the person who goes back and forth between faith and skepticism. This is what it means to be a double-minded man, who is unstable in all of his ways. This kind of person ought not to expect to get anything from God because they do not actually wholeheartedly trust Him, they do not have a continued confidence in the identity and nature of God.
A further illustration of this would be in Matthew 6:24 where Jesus says
24 “No one 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.
Application: So for us let us not look to money or friends or entertainment or food to help us in our time of need. Let us turn to God in faith not with skepticism knowing that he will provide for us in one way or another.
Hebrews 4:16 tells us this..
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Let us confidently draw near to God asking him for help knowing that he will give generously to us.
One helpful way we can do this is in journaling. I would encourage each of us to have a journal where we write down the prayers that we ask God to be encouraged as to how he chooses to answer those prayers. I would also say that as we go through the good seasons and hard seasons of life we will be able to look back and see how God has carried us along through it all, and in future challenging seasons we can look back to this journal and remember the faithfulness of God to us, which will once again turn our hearts back to him in faith rather than running from him.
Do you guys have any questions so far about what James is saying?
Transition: James transitions from telling us to come to God asking for wisdom into his last section where he mentions we are talking about the rich and the poor. Read again with me James 1:9-11
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 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.
James 1:9-11: We ought to recognize that our hope is fixed in heaven, and not on this earth
Most of our translations say “lowly” or “poor” brother boast in his exaltation. James is addressing the believing poor, socially and economically, within the church he is writing to. The reason we can tell this is because when the word “brother” is used it is almost always used in the Bible for fellow believers. This is not for all poor people in general, but for the poor believer to boast in his exaltation. This exaltation, is the future hope in which believers have where they will be exalted with Christ and will dwell with God forever.
James is calling the poor believer to not boast in their coming future that will be eternal and far better than anything this fallen world could offer for they will behold God face to face. Then, James addresses the rich in v. 10. It seems here that he is addressing the rich Christians who are in potentially the same community as the poor Christians. When James tells the rich to boast in their humiliation he is telling them to acknowledge their dependence on Christ rather than on their riches. Jeremiah 9:23-24 sums up nicely what James is saying...
23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
Both the poor and the rich must look at their lives from a heavenly and not an earthly perspective.
Application: So to should we. We must realize that just as the the flower of the grass passes away so do we. We are not eternal, the comforts that we are often tempted to place our trust in are not eternal. They will all fade away. But what will never fade away is our God. Our God will never fade away and because we have been reconciled to him, we too will never fade away. We get to live with God forever.
With that in mind, how does it change the way that we look at our trials?
We should see them as joyous because our God is using them to grow our faith in Him. As our faith grows in Him we will experience the awesomeness, goodness, holiness, and purity of who He is and will notice that nothing in this world is like it. We will recognize that trials are actually a light and momentary affliction in comparison to the promised inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus.
As trials come and go, we can be assured that they are not purposeless. We can be assured that our God is still good. That he is using them for our good and his glory. This will free us up not to run from him, but to him in faith.
So Christians, we should view life from a different perspective. How?
(1) By rejoicing, and not giving up, when trials come for they bring maturity. (2) By asking God for help in faith, and not relying on ourselves. (3) Finally, by recognizing that our hope is fixed in heaven, and not on this earth.
Prayer time: How can we be praying for you all this week?