James 1 Chapel

James

This is James the half-brother of Jesus

During Jesus’ earthly life, James was not a believer in who Jesus is

John 7:5 ESV

For not even his brothers believed in him.

But became a believer and follower after His resurrection

John 7:5

1 Corinthians 15:7 ESV

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

Even to the point that James became a leader in the early church

Galatians 2:9 ESV

and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

Why is He Writing

Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary Purpose

The letter by James was designed to produce a vision for wisdom, good works, and the power of prayer. It did this by showing practical ways to live out the ethical implications of Christianity. Behind each of James’s corrections are the unwavering holiness, goodness, and power of God.

James 1:

Do Not Be Deceived

James 1:16–18 ESV

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.

, So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. He chose to give birth to us by giving us His true Word. And we, out of all creation, became His prized possession.

Why would James tell us to not be misled? Because we often are.

What is the popular belief among Christians in regard to God and His goodness? God is good, He loves us, therefore He should make good things happen for us, especially if we are being good.

So what do we do? We try to please God, keep Him on our good side, so He does right by us.

This is wrong!! We are just using God, trying to get the life we want and not seeing the life He has for us. We are acting like God and asking Him to serve us, that’s backwards.

James is writing this to the scattered believers throughout the land. Do you know why they have been scattered? Persecution, the hunting and killing of Christians.

To them James writes, God is good, He created the beauty all around us, all that is good is from Him, He doesn’t change, in fact we know He’s good because we have believed in His ultimate gift of love and goodness, Jesus. That’s how we know God is good and that He loves us, He gave us Jesus.

God doesn’t change, but do you know what does? Our circumstances. James is saying to us and them, don’t be misled, just because your circumstances have changed, and for the worse, don’t doubt God’s goodness. Even in these bad circumstances He is doing something good. So what could it be.

Perfection and Completion

, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

When troubles come, circumstances, when not if

Consider, make and effort to think a certain way, remember God is good, He does love you, these circumstances are either our fault do to sinfulness, or God has allowed them, and always for a good purpose.

We can have great joy in the midst of bad circumstances bc we know God is at work in us. He accepts us the way we are, but loves us way too much to leave us that way. He desires to make us more and more like Jesus, trials is a way to accomplish that.

Troubles, trials, testing, and even temptation are all the same word, or word root in the Greek. What is the purpose of a test? To show you what you know and don’t know, where you’re at.

Faith is tested to show where it’s at, how much or how little we really believe in this God who loves us.

Endurance, sit under a weight that we can’t sustain on our own. Natural reaction is to want it off, to wiggle out, not to just try to support it, ask for help, get a spotter.

But faith is a muscle, and like any muscle it needs to be tested in order to grow, to build endurance for circumstances in the future.

This is not a one time deal, it will happen time and again, but it is always for a greater good purpose.

Romans 8:28–29 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Wisdom and the Fine Print

Romans 8:38 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

If you need wisdom on how to deal with your circumstances, James says to ask God, who is good and will give it to you generously. This may not be immediate answers or quick fix, but will help us see things from His perspective.

But don’t doubt God’s goodness and His purposes, we must believe, we can’t just want our life fixed and made the way we want it, God is God,

Lastly, here’s the deal. God took care of our greatest problem, our worst circumstance, that being our sinful separation from Him and our eternity separated from Him. He proved He was good and loving by sending Jesus. All our bad circumstances are nothing in comparison to that.

God loves us and accepts us, but won’t leave us as we are, He will allow or cause things to happen in our life so that we trust Him more, grow our faith, make us more like Jesus, who endured the cross for you and I because of His love, trust and obedience to His Father who He knew loved Him.