Crown of Life
Notes
Transcript
James wrote this letter to Jewish believers throughout the Gentile world, and started things off by saying “suck it up! Take the medicine even though you don’t like it”
James 1:2–4 “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.”
Remember, the Jewish community was protesting daily against these new Christians. The Romans couldn’t tell them apart, so they were annoyed by this.
AND there was a famine throughout the lands, adding to the tension.
This section opens up and develops the theme of the first 2 chapters - faith and obedience.
2 things I preach heavily on. We MUST have faith, and we must be willing to obey God and follow Him in His call in our lives. As individuals, as a church, and as a movement, we must be trust God and act on that faith.
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.
It would be silly to think that God’s word would give us direct knowledge of all of life’s issues.
It takes wisdom to apply God’s ways given through His word to our lives. Thus we need WISDOM, and wisdom comes from God!
Knowledge is to know something, like knowing that if I add 2 + 2, I will get 4.
Wisdom is the ability to understand, and hopefully apply, data that doesn’t directly fit together. Like knowing that hot things burn and hurt to touch. And knowing that electricity can produce heat. So you don’t want to touch jumper cables that are hooked up backwards...
James tells us that God gives out His wisdom without judgement to His people. But he does point out 1 single condition, and a way to check ourselves if we don’t find God’s wisdom...
Ask w/o doubting!
Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for—believe that you have received it and it will be yours.
Doubting is being “double-minded and unstable in all ways”
But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its water churns up mire and muck. There is no peace for the wicked,” says my God.
This “peace” is shalom! Which is much more than a lack of conflict.
The readers/hearers would know Isaiah, and would understand this imagery.
Believers who are poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them. And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field. The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements.
Continuing with the double minded concept, James points to the main area in life that people struggle choosing God over. Money! (Though today people struggle with sexuality, how they were made, and think that “whatever I want IS what should be,” money is still the strongest holdout.)
Those who are poor and in low status here on earth but have Jesus, are heirs and sons/daughters of the Most High! They have been honored by God almighty.
Those who are rich on earth, but have Jesus, God has humbled their heart and spirit to see that they need God, and that their MONEY will not save them when it truly matters. They will not last on earth forever.
The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them; indeed, the people are grass.
This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches.
This wasn’t a new concept for the Jewish believers, but they needed the reminder and to know that Jesus came for God’s kingdom, and salvation looks different than people originally expected before Jesus came.
God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.
Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.
Patiently wait and endure through the testing and temptations - leaning in to God.
And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Paul also talks about enduring and receiving a crown after enduring when he wrote to Timothy.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.
BACK TO JAMES SLIDE
God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.
Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.
But then we are reminded by James that God does not do the tempting. God does not do evil! He may allow for bad things to happen, He may also call for justice (and in ways we might not understand or even like), but He does not temp people or do bad to people.
But he points to our fleshly desires, and when we give way to them they bring sinful actions, and that grows and gives birth to death.
It comes from our own hearts (the flesh and fleshly desires) even from the ruler of the air, the enemy!
This hearkens back to the Garden - one way leads to everlasting life, the other leads to death, destruction, and eternal damnation.
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Doubles down on God not tempting and doing evil, showing all good comes from the Father. Pointing to him as the Father of lights.
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
BACK TO JAMES SLIDE
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
God being the “Father of lights” who doesn’t cause “shifting shadows” show’s God’s unchanging and stable ways. And this is reminiscent to God’s spirit hovering over the void in the beginning of Genesis.
But it reminds me of something else...
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REMINDS ME OF - Plato’s allegory of the cave: (would have been know, as it was written nearly 400 years earlier), BUT NOT LIKELY WHAT HE’S DIRECTLY REFERENCING.
Prisoners chained in a cave forced to live their whole lives looking at the back wall.
All they ever see is the shadows cast from fire, shadows of puppets and things that people are displaying (think watching social media reals).
One escapes and sees the fire and knows reality and returns, but no one believes him about the truth.
BACK TO JAMES SLIDE
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
God doesn’t change, and the light He casts (His wisdom and truth!) does not change and doesn’t make things shift from era to era. What was true in God’s word IS STILL true in God’s word.
And because God loves His creation, He gave His word of truth, He gave JESUS, so that we could be His and be brought back to Him. (Firstfruits is somewhat common phrase in the NT for Christians.)
PRAYER -
Father, thank you so much for you Love, your word, and your truth. Thank you for bringing us back to you through your son, Jesus. We rest in your unchanging ways and look forward to receiving the crown of life that you have for us on that day. Be with us as we continue to study through your word and the book of James. Help us to discover your truth and your calling in our lives through this study.
In Jesus’s name, amen.
