James 1:1-18 Part 2 Bible Teaching

Welcome

If you haven’t been here before, we do “church deconstructed.”

This means we pray, hear the word of God set to music, sit in quiet reflection then come back and study the Word of God together.

I say together because I am merely the presenter and you are the hearers and it is up to you and the Holy Spirit to discern what is right and what is not.

I will do my best to teach the word contextually and within the scope of the original language but we are all responsible before God for the Christianity we embrace.

After our brief time together people are free to fellowship or they can run for the hills. Why do we do church this way?

Because contrary to models on how to build a church we believe that the actual church is an amalgamation of believers from all over the world not a brick and mortar location.

If people want to serve others they don’t need us to tell them how. If they want to come here but give their money directly to people in need that is up to them.

If they want to form bible studies with each other they can.

This is a community space and place to be used as individual believers are so inclined.

In the end, we preach and live a completely subjective Christianity as opposed to an objectively demanded one.

So let’s pray and see what the Lord chooses to do in me and you today.

PRAY
MUSIC
SILENCE

Teaching
James 1.18 part II
Meat
January 18th 2015

So we left off last week reading in James chapter 1 verse 5:

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

The context, as we noted, was James had been talking about rejoicing in our trials. The reason he gave was because it is through our life’s trials and tests and temptations that God develops patience in us.

James now goes on and adds some caveats to what he says in verse five, saying

6 “But” (however, or take note) “let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

At verse nine he continues, having addressed the idea of happily enduring trials, but now says:

9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

And then, as if returning to his original opening thoughts on enduring temptation cheerfully says: (verse 12)

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Then, in what seems like a clarification on who is involved in our trials and temptations James adds:

16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Alright, back to verse 5-8

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

The principle presented here by James is one of the most important in the Christian walk relative to a believers peace, rest, and stability of mind.

Jesus is the prince of peace and our relationship and our walk with Him ought to produce a state of mind that reflects the peace He gives.

In all the years I have spent counseling with and taking calls from troubled believers the most difficult, in my book, and without question the most frustrating are those meetings and conversations with those whose state of mind is perfectly described here by James – unstable – like a wave of the sea.

You see, their instability makes their plight bigger, more relentless and more unsteady than it really is and as a result they rarely rest, have peace, and therefore any kind of real security in heart or head.

If you have ever been on a truly storm-tossed sea you know the perfect picture James gives us of what is occuring in the souls of those so unsettled, so split, so spiritually schizophrenic.

One minute they are praising and trusting God with extreme adoration and the next they are doubting Him and his love, doubting their place and standing with Him, doubting whether He cares for them or not, doubting that things will work out for their good.

Worse yet, they go from knowing they are saved to wondering, from knowing God is there to doubting Him at all.

What is lacking is unity of mind, constancy of spirit, strength in the Lord by faith.

It wavers – constantly, relentlessly, ruthlessly.

As I prepared this message, and was literally at this point in writing I noticed the conversation of two men who were sitting behind me in a booth at Denny’s getting hot.

One of the men was getting particularly hot under the collar and was tossing out some really choice terms for all to hear.

I noticed the man when I arrived around 4:30 in the morning and then watched another man pass me and join him about an hour later.

At the point the one mans voice started to amplify and he was saying things like:

“You SOB, you mother trucking devil,” the waitress approached me and asked if I was bothered by this and if he was personally insulting me.

I turned an saw that the man had been all alone – and was carrying on the entire conversation by himself!

I told the waitress that the man was a schizophrenic and that his insults were not directed at me.

But his plight entered into my heart – especially in light of these exact passages I was preparing to teach:

6 For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Our physical schitzophrenic had not one bit of peace. No stability. No constancy of heart or mind and was in an utterly miserable state. He had no solutions, no hope and was subject to the whims of circumstance.

Taking his mental state to a spiritual place, we know from Hebrews 11:6 the importance of faith.

In the comparison we might call faith spiritual lithium and the antidote for wavering souls.

It is grounded and trusting and reassured, absolute NOT in our abilities, NOT in outcomes according to our desires but certainty that God is in charge and whatever happens is good because it is happening according to his will.

I have to admit to something here. And my admission may be wrong but it is how I see faith operating in the Christian life today.

From scripture there is plenty of evidence of men and women of faith desiring a specific outcome or action or event to occur and they had the faith to see it come to pass.

In each of their stories there is an element of God having to act and the people involved moving into the dark, so to speak, knowing He would.

Abraham lifted the knife, Moses lead the COI into the wilderness, Daniel spoke knowing his destination would be the lion’s den. David stepping into the ring with Goliath – all trusting in the Living God to deliver them.

But we have to be fair. Scripture does admit to the fact – in fact James admits to it here – that it is through trials and difficulties that God produces all manner of characteristics He desires in us.

I’m not so sure we can take singular stories of great faith from scripture and prop them up without adding in the fact that God prunes and purges and allows for tests and trials and disappointments too.

I say all this because in my estimation living by faith is NOT best defined as living a life where WE can manipulate outcomes (like moving mountains) because we want it done, nor is living by faith void of trouble and woe and misery.

The best contextual definition of what it means to live by faith is to trust and believe that God is there, that He is in control, and that WHATEVER He wants is what we want too.

So instead of praying for our will to be done we pray that when His will is done we have the ability to see it, to accept it, and to glorify Him no matter the outcome.

This view is different from those who suggest that by our faith WE can accomplish all things through Him. That if we have enough of it God will heal all of our wounds, fill our bank accounts, and even keep us from death.

Not so sure this is the BEST contextual view of scripture as a whole.

Regardless of who is right, we do know this: “ . . . without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Such faith, I would propose, comes without wavering – and God reads the heart in His assessment of its, shall we say, purity? (that may not be the best word).

It seems, from what James says, is that God knows whether we are choosing to really trust Him . . . or not.

To not would include vacillations in our stance – uncertainty, wavering.

From what James suggests if this is our state then our ability to hear from Him, to receive wisdom, to know what to do will be compromised.

In a way this cycle can become sort of a vicious circle, can’t it?

It is faith that pleases God and he responds to our quests and queries for wisdom in the presence of it.

By His responding our faith grows, and our ability to receive wisdom from on high grows, which increases out faith (because it is certainly wise to have faith in God, right?) And on and on and on.

But if we withdraw in faith, His responses, according to what James says here, wain.

And then our requests of him fade (since He is not responding), and then our faith wanes, causing His responses to wane, which causes our faith wane even more, and pretty soon we are lacking in our communications with Him all together and before we know it we are either void of faith (and suffering an extreme crisis of faith) or we become spiritual schizophrenics who waver so much we can’t ever rest.

At least maybe what I just described seems like it’s this way to us. Perhaps He is constantly answering and providing to all who petition Him but He can only be known and heard by faith and so our ability to hear Him is compromised by our wavering?

All I think I can say is this: faith is often just a choice, a decision by each individual to really place everything in God’s hands or to take some of back and hold it in our own.

I know that scripture implies that it is God who gives us the faith in the first place – and I hear this – quite often in fact.

But when we really think about it life itself is a gift from God too – so is our very breath and every breath we take.

Doesn’t mean we don’t have a hand in how to approach or live or actuate the life within ourselves.

The presence of faith, gifted to us by God, in my opinion, only serves to make us responsible for whether or not we actually took advantage of it and lived by it or not.

But we still have to choose to enter the arena, to take the steps, to trust in Him and His ways and purposes when we launch out from safety and into the stormy seas of life.

In other words it seem to me that this element of living by faith is lost on people who waver when they ask, or doubt they are saved, or questions God’s love and they ignore the fact that living by faith is a personal choice.

I honestly believe each of us chooses, in everything we do, whether or not we are going to trust God and believe (not only in His existence) but that He has our best interests at heart and all we need to do is rely on Him for all things, trust in Him in all outcomes, and praise Him in the good and what we may perceive as the bad.

For those who cannot or refuse to choose to see God and His involvement in their lives by real faith, James says:

7 let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

This is an interesting statement.

James has said that if we lack wisdom ASK of God – we refer to this as prayer.

So it seems that James is referring to receiving answers to prayers. Those who ask of God with wavering faith cannot expect to receive an answer from Him, he seems to say.

We have to note that James does NOT say he won’t get an answer, just that such a person cannot think or expect or suppose that God would give him an answer to his petition.

I think this makes sense. If a person doubts that God will answer (after all he or she approaches God with a wavering mind) he could never expect or anticipate an answer, can he?

I do not believe James is saying God will NOT answer the request – only that the person cannot think or believe – that God would.

Going to God with a petition for wisdom in faith, however, nothing wavering, seems to say that a person can fully expect an answer because nothing is wavering in his or her expectation.

This is truly a call to choose to trust, to chose to believe, to genuinely set all doubts and miseries aside, and to stand complete (from the heart) that God will repond and supply them with whatever has been requested – in this case wisdom.

When we allow ourselves to really think about his what James is describing here is an individual choosing to genuinely place all of their hope and focus on the spiritual realms of heaven and to remove all the unstable, uncertain, worrisome elements that abide in their flesh from the equation.

Not easy to do. The flesh wars against such decisions. It tells us to fear, to worry, to doubt, to believe we have to make things happen, we have to trust in the arm of the flesh, we have to trust in others, that God only works when we have done our part – all these things.

But mixing them with faith in Him only creates instability and a bifurcated soul.
This is why verse eight says:

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

The Greek word here for double minded is DIP-SU-KOS.

It means double souled or two souled.

Two minds, two wills, two emotions.

It is only used here in an in James 4:8 where it is also translated, “double minded.”

In my opinion it takes us back to spiritual schizophrenia – but is probably most simply and best described by Paul as our experiencing a war between spirit and flesh.

For a human being to have both in full operation creates a being of utter instability, like a man with a mind like a storm tossed sea.

Is unstable in all his ways.

That’s the truly insightful thing about this analogy. When standing on a truly storm tossed sea it is the vast, unpredictable instability that makes peace impossible.

When you think you have some sort of rhythm resulting from a consistent wave pattern rogue disruptions come in from all directions and throw you off balance in a direction you could not possibly expect.

This is how James describes the double-souled – unstable in all his “ways.” On the storm tossed sea there is no stability in any way (or direction) because the waves and movements are coming in from all directions.

Some with the mind of the double-souled.

(beat)

Choose faith.

Choose to put everything – every outcome, every possibility, every choice – into His hands and throw fear and uncertainty out the window.

It’s NOT that in so doing we have certainty of outcome – that is nearly impossible in this world with a few exceptions.

But it is the certainty that God is in charge, that He will do what is necessary and is BEST for all involved, that we CAN and should trust Him with all decisions, and that in so doing He is pleased.

9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

Back to verse 9: Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted

As we mentioned last week this verse seems to introduce a new topic which appears to have no connection with the preceding (where James discusses how to approach trials).

We could read it this way (as it seems Luther did).

I would suggest that there is a connection to the former verses and verses 9-11 and we have a few options to consider.

First, James is writing to the scattered Jewish converts from the House of Israel.

They came out from under an economy where affluence was a sign of God’s approbation.

It was never that the affluent of the Old Testament were to trust in riches but it was certainly a sign of God’s favor in their lives.

Now, in this New Testament economy, there was a shift in thinking and the writer could have been trying to explain this shift to these suffering believers who had abandoned the former for the new.

The shift was many of the most respected and devout followers of Christ would actually be people who were poor – as modeled by the King they worshipped.

Having walked from the religion of their youth, a faith that was intertwined with a vibrant culture and financial stability due to a healthy network of relations, these scattered were in most cases alienated and disaffected and so James is giving them insight into how to view such trials – trials he may have alluded to in the very first verse of the epistle, trials that he said should be met cheerfully because they would produce in them patience.

That’s one way to explain the strange insertion of these three passages.

Additionally, having talked about being double minded, it could be that by including verses 9-11 James was trying to help them see the wisdom in seeking God only and to not allow their lust for wealth that others possessed divide their attentions to God.

Finally, these verse actually serve as a prelude to something James will touch on again in chapter two – the problem of respecting people (being respectors of persons) based on their financial well being.

I would suggest that all of these factors come into play and help explain why James included verse 9-11 here in this epistle.

Additionally, and tying into an intention to try and help these believers transition away from the focus of their former faith (physical well-being) and into the abundant spirit-life focused on well being on high, James seems to speak directly to a specific trial (rather than general trials he spoke on in the first few verses) and is attempting to articulate why the benefits of being part of the former economy pale in comparison to the benefits of life in Christ.

In other words there can be a great trial of faith with any reversal of fortunes and in the trial of going from riches to rags there was a perspective that had to duly be noted.

What perspective?

9 that “the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

Amidst all the other potential reasons James has said here what he has said, this is the most basic reason –

To point out the Christian perpecttive on wealth and riches – that when poor to rejoice in the riches believers have in Christ Jesus, but . . .

10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

The point does NOT seem to be that riches in and of themselves will make the possessor of them low but that the rich who have placed with trust and heart on those riches will be made low because in the end, they are all going to go away . . . and all the time, and focus, and attention upon them will have no value in the spiritual hereafter . . . OR, as James puts it . . .

“because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.”

In other words all the worldly splendor the person of wealth once possessed and experienced will too, like a flower in the field, wilt and melt under the power of the sun.

It seems that James probably had his eye on a passage found in Isaiah 40:6-8 which says:

“The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

Possibly borrowing from this imagery James wrote

11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

So he has said to the poor, the receipients of his epistle, those who today – inspite of their financial status – have placed their hearts upon the things of God and not of this world,

Rejoice that you have been made poor in your reliance and view and worship of the wealth of this world because . . .

As soon as the sun rises with burning heat the grass of the fields wither, and the flowers of the valleys dry up and die, and all the grace and fashion that accompanied them in their glory fades with them, and SO SHALL THE RICH MAN FADE AWAY IN HIS WAYS.

Note that James does not just pick on all rich people and say that they will all fade and whither as the grass and flowers. He says, “so shall the rich man fade away IN HIS WAYS.”

Also take note on the illustration that James appeals to in describing the rich – material things of beauty fading and whithering under the heat of the rising sun.

Jesus asked, speaking on the same subject,

“What does it profit a man if he gains (acquires) the whole world (a material thing orbiting under the sun) but loses (through fading and whithering) his soul?

His mind, his will His emotions?

When? By what? How will such men suffer such loss?

I think Paul gives us insight in 1st Corinthians 4 when he said:

1st Corinthians 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

We can array ourselves in Christ Jesus. We can wrap ourselves in humility, dress ourselves in brokenness, focus our hearts on heavenly things and rejoice in the fact that our time and attentions and lives will endure or we can look at those who choose to live opposite of us, the rich man AND his ways, and see, by comparison that such will fade from view.

All the pride, all the pomp, all the splendor will vanish.

The wisdom of His counsels, the plans and schemes for His empires, the sums accumulated and accounted for, and the mentality and heart that surrounded their creation – gone – poof, like a flower under a burning hot sun.

(beat)

Q and A
Prayer.