James 1:1-4: Living with purpose and wholeness

Introduction

Turn in Bibles to

James 1:1–4 ESV

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.

Towards the back, right after the book of Hebrews

Page 1011 in the pew Bible

Right

Hook question: When you think of the “perfect life,” what do you think of?

Author and Recipients of James’ Letter

James is the brother of Jesus and servant of God

(half) Brother of Jesus

James a very common name in the first century, at least four people in the NT bear this name

Two most likely candidates for the author of this book

James the son of Zebedee, one of the 12 disciples

But he was martyred in A.D. 44 by Herod Agrippa I

The book of James was not written this early

James the brother of Jesus

Tradition has long held this to be true

Since the only other likely author was killed, this is what we go with

But this is not how James identifies himself in his letter

Servant of God: This is how James identifies himself

Not by appealing to his human pedigree as the brother of Jesus

James knows that physical heritage is not what makes a person righteous before God

Matthew 12:46–50 ESV

46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

James identifies himself as a doulos, a bondservant, slave

This is a difficult concept, because we want to get away in our minds from the picture of colonial slavery

But we don’t want to lose the force of the word - it does mean “slave” in the sense that James sees himself as bound by the will of God to serve and obey him in all things

This is the term least likely to be used by Christians today of themselves

We like identifying ourselves as “friends of God,” “children of God,” even “followers of Jesus”

But would we identify as “bondservants of God”? “Slaves of God”?

James is writing the “twelve tribes in the dispersion”

Twelve tribes

This could mean James is writing only to Jews

But we know from Paul’s teaching in Romans that there is a difference between “ethnic” Israel and “true” Israel

Ethnic Israel are the Jews as physically descended from Abraham, some of whom accepted Jesus as Messiah but most of whom did not

True Israel is made up of all of God’s people who have received Jesus by faith and turned in trust to him

And Paul argues in Romans that the Gentiles have been grafted into true Israel

James can’t be writing only to physically descended Jews - being a servant to the Lord Jesus Christ would be nonsensical to them

So he must be writing to Christians, and likely he means all Christians who are a part of “true Israel”

Still, the fact that James uses this way of describing God’s people shows that he does have a definite Jewish leaning

Dispersion

A word that simply means “scattering”

It referred to the scattering of the Jews among the nations, particularly after the fall of Rome in AD 70

But James is written before that, so its probably more accurate to say that James is writing to all of God’s people who are scattered among the nations of the earth - its very important that we understand this concept

He is writing to Christians as foreigners in the lands in which they find themselves

He understands that to live as a follower of Jesus is to be a foreigner in the world

Because our ultimate allegiance is not to a nation but to Jesus and his kingdom

Because the world is at odds with God and to follow Jesus will mean we are at odds with the cultural values around us

Application: To follow Jesus means to be a stranger in the world

This does NOT mean we adopt a “woe is me” attitude of indifference, martyrdom and hostility to the world around us

It does mean that we have to understand that for a Christian, the world as it currently exists is not truly “home”

No nation, state, city, jurisdiction is truly “home” for us

In a very real sense, we should not be surprised or discouraged when we feel like we are outsiders in our own country

James’ main concern is for his readers live spiritual integrity

The major theme of James: Living a perfect and whole life of spiritual integrity

This idea shows up right away in

Count it joy in trials of various kinds

James 1:4 ESV

4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Two very important words: James wants his readers to be perfect and complete

Trials produce steadfastness

The effect of steadfastness is perfection and wholeness

Perfect = Greek telos which is a word that means “attaining an end or purpose”

attaining an end or purpose

James uses this word more than any other book in the NT

William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 995.

To be perfect means to be mature, not necessarily emotionally but developmentally - to be the best version of something so that it fulfills its intended purpose with no room for improvement

Illustration: A pickup truck

The telos of a chair is to be sat in

What is the intended purpose of a truck? To be perfect means to fully achieve that purpose.

To get from point A to point B

To be able to haul a substantial amount of cargo

In my case, to be able to fit my family in comfortably and safely

For a truck to be perfect, it needs some things and not other things

For example, if it gets 50 MPG but falls apart when you put a load of rocks in it, it is not per - it has missed its purpose

This of course begs the question: What is the intended purpose of a human? This question immediately places us at odds with our culture.

Cultural answer: Existentialism

So for a chair to be perfect would mean that it fully functions as to its intended purpose - a chair that is excellent at flying but cannot be sat in is not perfect, because it doesn’t fulfill its intended purpose

There is no intrinsic purpose of life other than what we make

Terminator movies: There is no fate but what we make

But apply that to purpose and meaning in life - “there is no purpose, there is no meaning, aside from what we make”

This is known as the idea of “existence before essence”

Your existence as a human being precedes any essence of what it means to be human or any purpose of being human

So you create essence and purpose as you live and have experiences, make decisions and develop

Christian Answer - goes all the way back to Genesis

We are made in the image of God

To reflect his character, nature and goodness out into the world he has made

To rule and reign over creation in dependence on him

To walk in joyful relationship with him

Historic teaching of Christianity in the Westminster Shorter Catechism

What is the chief end (purpose) of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever

Complete = wholeness

Having all necessary elements or parts

In this context, having all parts function together toward one purpose

James is after wholeness in a direction

James wants his readers to live lives of wholeness in alignment with the true purpose of life

A life that fulfills God’s intended purpose for it

A life of wholeness and spiritual integrity such that all spheres of life work toward its purpose

This is why James hones in on super practical issues: how you speak, how you use your wealth, how you treat others, how you work out your faith in action

Because to live in many different directions is a fractured way to live - to live one way on Sundays, to express faith, but to live different lives the rest of the week, or to willfully not submit certain areas of our life to Jesus.

Because to

As soon as we mention purpose, we have to ask: What is the purpose of life? We are immediately at a crossroads with our culture.

Cultural answer: Existentialism

There is no intrinsic purpose of life other than what we make

Terminator movies: There is no fate but what we make

But apply that to purpose and meaning in life - “there is no purpose, there is no meaning, aside from what we make”

This is known as the idea of “existence before essence”

Your existence as a human being precedes any essence of what it means to be human or any purpose of being human

So you create essence and purpose as you live and have experiences, make decisions and develop

Christian Answer - goes all the way back to Genesis

We are made in the image of God

To reflect his character, nature and goodness out into the world he has made

We are made in the image of God, and so we are intended to be a reflection of his goodness and character out into creation, and to live in joyful relationship to our creator forever

To rule and reign over creation in dependence on him

To walk in joyful relationship with him

Historic teaching of Christianity in the Westminster Shorter Catechism

Historic teaching of Christianity in the Westminster Confession of Faith

We are made in the image of God, and so we are intended to be a reflection of his goodness and character out into creation, and to live in joyful relationship to our creator forever

What is the chief end (purpose) of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever

James knows that it is one thing to say that idea out loud and quite another thing to live according to it

So when we are talking about living a “perfect and complete” life, we are talking about two things

A life of consistency and structural integrity such that all spheres of life work toward its purpose

So James gets super practical to fixate on bringing all areas of life under the reign of Christ

James is concerned that the integrity of the faith of his readers in Jesus would be compromised from their life among the pagan nations

The difficulty they experienced might make them decide to throw in the towel with regard to faith “its not worth it”

How we respond to suffering

The pressure to conform to the rest of society around them might cause them to make compromises in their faith

How we view wealth

Where we find wisdom

What we do with anger

How we speak

How we treat people

Application: To return to the opening question, What do you believe is the purpose of your life? What does the “perfect” life look like to you?

Some people think purpose and completeness is to be found in our relationships to other people

Friendship

Dating someone

Marriage

Family

Popularity - some people think the perfect life is the life where no one is upset with you

Some people think purpose and wholeness is found in power and wealth

Make a lot of money so you never have to worry about finances

Have a strong career where you are respected

Some people find purpose in their own self

Your academics and the knowledge you accumulate

our own self image and body image

In different ways for men and women, girls and boys

The perfect life means having just the right kind of body that I want

So your eating habits and exercise are oriented around trying to sculpt and craft the perfect body

Of course there is always the finding of purpose in simple hedonism

The purpose of life is to just experience as much pleasure as possible

So we cycle through sexual partners

We participate in the use of alcohol and drugs to give us a certain feeling

The truth is you only ever find true purpose, maturity and wholeness in God, because he has made you with purpose

James 1:2–3 ESV

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.

James is concerned that the integrity of the faith of his readers in Jesus would be compromised from their life among the pagan nations

Whatever you think the perfect, whole life is, your first instinct is probably not to look for it in suffering, which is exactly where James tells us to look for it in his opening words

James 1:2–3 ESV

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.

Malachi 1:2–3 ESV

2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”

Suffering is the path to purpose and wholeness

The difficulty they experienced might make them decide to throw in the towel with regard to faith “its not worth it”

The pressure to conform to the rest of society around them might cause them to make compromises in their faith

Consider trials a joy

What is joy?

This is a difficult sentence for the western mindset, because our worldview across the board, Christian or not, is often about avoiding suffering as much as possible

Some people want to get around the difficulty of this verse by saying that joy does not equal happiness, and so even when we are unhappy in our circumstances, we can still be joyful. There are two problems with this.

This still leaves the meaning of “joy” undefined. Maybe we don’t have “happiness” in suffering, but we can at least have joy, but we still don’t know what that is.

Joy in the Bible really just means glad, gladness, gratitude

What are trials? James makes the paradoxical statement that we ought to consider trials to be “pure joy”

That is, not “only joy,” but “pure joy,” - joy that is pure and not compromised

“Trials” is an interesting word with two distinct meanings in the NT, both of which James uses (because he loves wordplay)

"Trials = Greek noun peirasmos

This can refer to either a difficult external circumstance - a “trial”

Or it can refer to an inward pull - “temptation”

This word can be used in a verbal sense - either to “test” or to “tempt”

Here, James is talking about external realities that are adverse and difficult

He says we should consider it joy when trials come upon us

He does not say suffering should be sought out

But he also does not believe suffering should be avoided

Trials “meet” us

Various kinds

There are many different kinds of trials

Material/financial

Relational

Emotional and mental

Physical

James likely has in mind trials that stem from living in a nation as a stranger and foreigner

Economic difficulty

Persecution

How can trials result in joy?

The object of our joy becomes something other than our immediate and self centered desires

In the NT, this paradox of being glad or joyful in suffering is consistently tied to future eschatological hope

That is, the hope that God will ultimately do something about all of the suffering we endure - more specifically:

He HAS done something about our suffering - he has entered into it in the person of Jesus, and he has suffered

So the NT ties our suffering to the suffering of Jesus, and then makes that into a future hope

Since we suffer with Jesus, we will be raised with Jesus

He WILL DO something about our suffering - Jesus will return to judge, to restore creation, to give eternal life with him to his people

Trials

And this is where we see joy and even happiness differently than our culture

There is a form of joy and happiness that is short term and immediate

It looks out my immediate circumstances and decides whether I like or don’t like those circumstances

It is short-sighted and pretty self centered

There is a form of joy that has as its object and referent a future reality and hope

It causes our immediate circumstances to be viewed in light of a future reality

It means I can celebrate and rejoice even in my suffering because my joy does not have as its source my contentment or discontentment with my present circumstances

So how does this work?

Trials constitute a testing of our faith that produces steadfastness - this, says James, is the purpose of suffering while we wait for the eschatological hope in Christ

“Trial” or “testing of our faith” results in steadfastness - perseverance, fortitude, endurance

It comes from a word meaning to stay or remain

Suffering tests and strengthens your faith such that your ability to joyfully endure hardship is increased

Steadfastness is not the end goal but rather the means by which we find purpose and wholeness

James 1:4 ESV

4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

The full effect of perseverance is maturity and wholeness

But James places an imperative here (command)

compare with

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Paul says that endurance produces character, but James adds that we must “let steadfastness have its full effect”

That is to say, that God’s has a purpose in suffering

God’s purpose in our suffering is to make us perfect, mature, able to fulfill our purpose

When you shake your fist at God and ask, “why me?” you are not allowing God to use your suffering

But God’s purpose in our suffering is contingent upon our reaction to our suffering

When you shake your fist at God and ask “why me?” he cannot accomplish his purpose in your suffering

When you just try to avoid suffering and get out of it as quickly as possible without reflecting on it, God cannot accomplish his purpose in your suffering

Conclusion

All of us want at a deep core level to live lives of purpose, meaning and wholeness

But we all define that purpose differently, and

We have to recognize that ultimately our purpose and meaning can only be found in God through faith in Jesus - that is, purpose and meaning is not in “finding yourself,” but in “losing yourself.” This gets us right back to Jesus words in

Matthew 16:25 ESV

25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

James is beckoning us to realize that ultimately our purpose is found in denying ourselves and losing our lives, and the path to wholeness is found in brokenness and suffering

Ultimately we find ourselves in the suffering of Jesus on our behalf.

This is so hard for us because every fiber in our being just wants to avoid pain and suffering

When we are hurting and suffering, our first reaction is always to try to get it to stop as quickly as possible

But its IN our suffering that we find God and his purpose for us

It is IN our brokenness that we find wholeness

Let us rejoice in our suffering and our trials, because we know that God is using them to perfect us, mature us, make us whole, and help us to fulfill the good purpose he has for us

Prayer