A Book of Wisdom

December 7th – Les Kovacs           James 1 - 3
Observe:  James, a half-brother of Jesus, wrote this letter to all the Christian communities as a collection of Godly advise on various practical matters, much like the Wisdom Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, with a focus on faith in God.  He may not have a running narrative, but he does have that underlying theme of true faith in God, and he uses a lot of poetic imagery throughout his letter to get his points across.

James starts by challenging his brothers and sisters in Christ to count as joy all the hardships that come their way because by persevering through these difficulties, our faith in God will increase as we put our trust in Him more and more.  Christians that trust God will seek His wisdom for dealing with life’s ordeals, and not the wisdom of the world.  He confirms that it is our own desires that tempt us to sin, not God tempting us.  Only good and perfects gifts come from our heavenly Father.

James encourages Christians to not only listen to scripture, but to live it out by actively doing the things it says, and you will be blessed in what we do.  We are not to show favouritism in our actions, but are to treat everyone equally, thereby keeping the law of loving your neighbour as yourself.   He says that “mercy triumphs over judgement”.

James insists that true faith shows itself through our deeds.  Faith without action is dead.  Even demons believe in God’s existence.  A Christian’s faith and trust in God is demonstrated by their actions, and he gives the examples of Abraham being willing to offer Isaac on the altar, and Rahab when she sheltered the two spies.

In Chapter 3, James tackles words and wisdom.  His imagery for words is the tongue, and how small an organ of the body it is, yet so powerful and uncontrollable.  He compares it to the bit in a horse’s mouth, the rudder of a ship, and the spark that ignites a forest.  He argues that it is untameable, because both blessings and curses come out of the same mouth.  The same tongue that praises God also curses our brothers and sisters, and that shouldn’t be.

He then compares two kinds of wisdom.  Worldly wisdom, which is based on envy and selfish ambition, is a source of disorder and evil in the world.  But Godly wisdom, which is faithful and self-sacrificing, is the source of peace, gentleness, mercy and, ultimately, righteousness.

 Interpret: The first chapter in the book of James sets the tone for the rest of his letter to his Christian brothers and sisters.  He says that God wants us to trust Him more as we learn more about Him.  This is so important that he calls on us to find joy, even in hard times, because hardships help us develop our trust in God.  Those who really trust God will ask Him for wisdom, will recognize Him as the source of all the good in their lives, and will actively do the things they read in His Word.  As a follow-on to these ideas, James insists that ''faith'' which doesn't result in good works is dead.  This kind of faith is really only an intellectual agreement with the ideas, but it is not a God-trusting, saving faith.  James doesn't deny that belief in God is essential to salvation, and he doesn’t claim that works are necessary to obtain salvation.  Instead, he makes the case that works are to faith what breath is to the body: a sign of life.  A ''faith'' without works is like a body without breath: dead.  He calls out those who judge by outward appearances alone as being influenced by sinful values.

In Chapters 1 and 2, James introduces the idea of how one's actions demonstrate the reality of their beliefs or faith.  In Chapter 3, James continues to explore this connection as he explains how powerful our words are and the lasting effect they can have, both for good or evil.  He then delves into the sources of wisdom available to us: the wisdom of the world with its “me-first” attitude, and is the source of conflict between us; or the wisdom of God, with its self-sacrificing humility and is the source of peace and harmony. 

Application: The book of James is about understanding what saving faith looks like. How does faith in Christ reveal itself in a believer's life?  What choices does real trust in God lead us to make?  Those are the questions that James answers.

The world is full of people “looking out for #1”.  P.T. Barnum is credited with saying “there’s a sucker born every minute”.  And there are hundreds of thousands of social media influencers, who pedal the latest and greatest “next thing”.  All of them relying on the wisdom of the world and grabbing for themselves whatever fame and fortune they can amass while doing it.  They are only concerned with what was in it for them, and yet how often have we fallen for a slick sales pitch?
 
Compare that with the life of Jesus Christ.  In His entire earthly life, His only concern was the reconciliation of a broken humanity with our heavenly Father.  He took nothing for Himself.  “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage”; (Philippians 2:6.).   His life was all about obedience to God out of love for His Father and His children.  It was accomplished through perseverance and humility.  As disciples of Jesus, we are called to do no less.  We are to grow in our faith and trust in God’s provision for our lives.  We are seek true wisdom which comes from God alone.  And we are to live that faith by meeting the needs of others in humility. 
 
Questions:  How often have we spoken words that have hurt others beyond any physical harm we could do to them?  How often have we passed up the chance to help someone else because it wasn’t convenient?
 
Prayer:  Heavenly Father, we realize how dangerous pride is in our lives and how important true faith and humility is to your heart.  Keep us from falling prey to the many temptations that pride seems to scatter in our paths, where we want to be the centre of attention, and desire to receive all the acclaim and glory that rightly belongs to you.  Help us to clothe ourselves in humility and truth, by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us so deeply, that others will start to see Jesus in our works, and not the old prideful people we used to be. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.
 
Song:  Fix My Eyes – For King and Country
youtu.be/iXGuWHb5INk