Grace to the Humble
Notes
Transcript
Those who are righteous achieve righteousness by living a life seeking peace.
Clearly, people were speaking ill of others throughout the land. Rumors, slander, defamation of character must of abound, and for some, it sounds like, they were searching for what they saw as power.
Don’t try to be teachers (unless you are truly called by God to do so) - because they will be judged more strictly and harshly.
Control your tongue if you can.
But you deny God’s wisdom and lean into your selfish ambition and bitter envy.
This wisdom is worldly, unspiritual, and even demonic!
James 3:17–18 “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.”
Those who are righteous achieve righteousness by living a life seeking peace.
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What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.
What is it with you people?!?! Why are you acting like this?!
Eh.… Don’t even try to blame this on other people.
You know this is coming from within you.
You are responsible for your actions! Someone might make you angry, or jealous, but are they really responsible for your reaction??
Beyond that! You want what they have, but you aren’t getting it. So you scheme, you fight, you steal, you slander, you murder their reputation, all in attempt to satisfy your greed and your lusts.
And this is all because you simply do. not. ask.
“Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.
See, Jesus said “if we ask he will give it to us. But we have asked, and he hasn’t given it to us. So of course, we have to take it. God is testing us to see if we are worthy, so we’re showing how we are worthy and how they aren’t.”
Doesn’t this feel like Jr High? It’s like watching reality TV. The more drama the better.
You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.
This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
So how do we know what God’s will is???
We were given the 10 Commandments, which Jesus broke down into 2 that we can’t forget: Love God and Love people.
If we’re going to love God, we’re going to honor His commands and requests. Which started with being His representation over corporeal creation.
How about how we’re dealing with people?
“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.
So ask with the will of God in mind, and HE WILL HEAR YOU!
You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.
James points back to OT language of cheating on God as adultery. Remember, the Church is the “Bride of Christ.”
Pick A Side! Don’t claim Jesus and live like everyone else on earth.
You can’t say you are a child of God if you’re living like a son and daughter of hell.
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.
Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
James sums up a major theme woven throughout the scriptures - our souls should be faithful to God.
So being true to yourself should ACTUALLY look like being true to the one who created you.
Other cultures, especially Asian cultures, understand this better than we do. They understand the importance of lineage.
We ARE children of God. We represent Him here. We should live like it!
Then he quotes Proverbs 3:34 from the Septuagint.
Therefore, submit 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, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable 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.
Translation: Repent!
Resist the devil and he will flee.
Seek and draw near to God, and He will come to you.
Then....repent. Actually repent. Allow yourself to feel embarrassed and bad for the things you’ve done.
Don’t be like those people who think that just because their sins are forgiven they shouldn’t even feel shame for doing wrong.
That is not biblical!! We see here directly, cleanse yourself, mourn, weep, don’t be joyous in your evil deeds. Humble yourselves before the Lord.
If you humble yourself before God, He will exalt you, He will honor you.
The penitent man - “only the penitent man will pass. The penitent man is humble, kneels before God...”
This doesn’t mean eternal mourning. But if you are truly repentant, you should feel sorrow for going against God. And if you’ve hurt others during that, you should feel regret and sorrow over that as well.
That’s why we are to seek reconciliation and confess our sins.
Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Clearly people were disagreeing with who should be leading the churches and teaching God’s word.
And with this, they were starting to slander one another.
This is a serious thing, and serious enough that the brother of Jesus felt the need to address it.
The word shown here as “criticize” is only used in NT 5 times, 3x here in James, 2x in 1 Peter.
It’s also in the Septuagint 13x, and the majority of the time it is to slander, gossip, speak harshly towards/about/against, and to spread lies.
Remember in vs 4, he just called them “adulterous people.” He’s not rebuking honest criticism, he’s rebuking slander!
Notice the OR here - anyone who defames (slanders) SAME WORD AS CRITICIZE - or judges...
Difference between holding each other accountable and judging.
Do not go about spreading slander among your people; do not jeopardize your neighbor’s life; I am the Lord.
But James doesn’t just talk about slandering one another, he points to judging and judging the Law...
back to James
Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
James comes back to the fact that we are to be DOERS.
Don’t think you are above the law and thus able to judge, but rather do the law.
Live it.
For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King. He will save us.
Help each other know when we are off the mark, sinning. But do it in love with open and honest communication. That means to do it in the hopes to making things right and making things right all the way around.
Help us to maintain humility, knowing that we are not God, and that His way is higher and better than our way.
Let’s leave the one and only true judge to be the judge and let’s go on living in the Spirit, and in peace.
Let’s lift one another up.
Let’s get busy building God’s Kingdom. Sowing peace as to reap the righteousness of God.
Pray -
Father God, we thank you for you who are. You are the only one who can truly judge rightly. I thank you that I am not you, that I am not the judge, for I know that I would not do it like you do. Bring peace among your people. Send your Spirit to guide us, directing us to your will and your plan in our lives, both corporately and individually. Help us to rebuild lives and relationships. Let your love, your integrity, your grace, your justice, your mercy, and your character be seen in our lives by those around us. Draw our neighbors to you. Help our church to be that light shining on the hill giving hope and guidance to the lost. And God, don’t let these simply be words. Guide us to live the Gospel out in our lives wherever we go. Help us to do this in humble courage knowing that you have already gone before us to make our way true.
And God’s people said - amen.
