Speak No Evil

Recap

Last week focused on not all boasting about being teachers

Controlling what comes from our mouth then we can walk upright in all we do

With our mouth we praise God, and from the same mouth we curse our neighbor made in the image of God (fresh water and salt water can not come from the same fountain)

We also talked about two types of wisdom - Worldly wisdom, and Godly wisdom

Background

Author James, Hebrew name translated to Jacob, was half brother of Jesus written 49 AD to the messianic Jews - Jews converted to Christianity. Written with the major influences of 1-9 Proverbs, and the teaching of Jesus as seen in the Be attitude preached on the sermon on the mount.

James 1:2 we zeroed in on Joy in the midst of trials

James 1:22 Becoming not only hearers but doers of God’s word

James 2:5 zeroed in on the poor inheriting the Kingdom of God

James 2:10 Keeping the whole law

James 3:12 Being know for our Fruits

James 3:18 The blessings of peace makers

Ask and Receive

James 4:1–3 “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.”

Matthew 7:7–8 ““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

Serving God vs Friendship with the world

James 4:4 “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.”

Matthew 6:24 ““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.”

James 4:5–8 “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”? 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.”

Comfort for mourners

James 4:9–10 “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.”

Matthew 5:4 ““Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Warning against Judging others

James 4:11–12 “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?”

Matthew 7:1–5 ““Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Living for Today

James 4:13–14 “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.”

Matthew 6:34 ““Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”