James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
Greetings.
Trials and Temptations
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
…Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Listening and Doing
19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
My Understanding: As I was prayerfully reading through this passage of scripture this morning, and was taking notes on what I read, all of a sudden I began noticing these two words: “The word.” And, then I recalled that the song the Lord placed in my mind this morning begins with “Let the word…”, so I read back through the passage, looking for references to “the word,” or to something referring to the word, such as “the perfect law.” When I had completed that, then I remembered that this song was divided into, not only three verses, but three distinct thoughts or subjects: 1) The Word, 2) The Peace of Christ, and 3) The Love of Christ. So, I read back through the passage again, looking for verses that pertained either to the peace of Christ (or a parallel word, such as “joy”) or to the love of Christ, and immediately the Lord helped me to see those subjects in these verses, too. So, with that understanding, I will share what I learned this morning concerning how this first chapter of James relates to these three topics of the word, peace, and love of Christ.
The Word of Christ
“…but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (I Co. 1:23-25 NIV 1984).
Christ Jesus is the wisdom of God and Christ Jesus is The Word. Christ “has become for us wisdom from God – that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (I Co. 1:30). So, the word here is not just the Bible, but the Word is Christ himself who is the wisdom from God. And, the word is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, if we are praying for wisdom in a particular situation of our lives, we need to be in the physical word, the Bible, seeking God for his wisdom, we need to have an accurate understanding of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as to how it is to be lived out in our daily lives, and we need to be in daily fellowship and communion with our Lord through reading his word, listening to what he says, and then doing what he says. The “double-minded” man who prays for wisdom but does not really believe God will give it to him is similar to the man who looks in the mirror and then walks away and forgets what he looks like. If we ask God for wisdom, then we need to read his book of wisdom, and then we need to do what it says. Then we will not be in danger of being “double-minded.”
God chose to give us birth through the word of truth, i.e. through Jesus Christ, his Son, as well as through his word, the Bible. The Word is our source of life. Through The Word we have been regenerated, and through The Word we learn how to walk in daily fellowship and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. This is in contrast to us giving into temptation to sin or thinking that God is tempting us and thus we have to give in. The record is set straight here. We sin because we give into our own evil desires. Yet, Jesus came to set us free from the control of sin over our lives. One of the biggest lies of Satan is to convince us that there is still a question of who is going to win this battle, but Christ already won! All we have to do is to appropriate to our own lives what Christ already did for us on the cross in dying for our sins, once for all. God does not change like shifting shadows.
The deed is done! The debt is paid! Jesus paid it all!! He will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. We have not yet resisted sin to the point of shedding blood. Christ will provide a way of escape out from under the temptation to sin, but we have to let him. First of all, we need to not be providing for ourselves the temptation by taking into our minds the filth that is on TV, in movies, in today’s music (secular), in video games, and on the internet. We need to rid our own lives of anything that leads us to sin and not test God by playing with sin. We need to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. And, we need to be filling our minds with things that are lovely, praiseworthy, pure, noble, true, right, and excellent, etc. We need to fill our minds with what is godly and with God’s Holy Word, so that we can obey him and we can have wisdom that is from above. We need to accept (say yes to; take on; apply; agree with by how we live our lives) the word planted (established; embedded; ingrained; rooted) in us, which can save us from our sins.
And, we need to make sure we are not taking in the word merely for intellectual exercise or out of a sense of religious duty, but that we are being rooted and grounded in its truths in all practical living in our daily lives. The word does us no good if we read it, close the book, and then walk away and forget what we look like. In other words, the word of God, including Jesus Christ, himself, and his Holy Spirit within us, serve as a mirror for our lives in revealing to us what is in our hearts. So, we need to make sure we aren’t just reading it to get in our “5 minutes a day” with God, which is more than a lot of Christians give to God each day, sadly enough, but we need to drink the word of God into our entire being so that it is truly like the tastiest meal we have ever eaten. We need to smell the aroma of it and the wonderful taste to our tongues, and we need to long for it more than we do a physical meal. And, then we need to allow it to give strength and health to our spiritual lives by doing what we have learned. Journaling really helps with this, because we have a record of what he taught us, and we can check back and see if we are putting it into practice.
I like what it says here in v. 25 where it says that the person who looks intently into the perfect law… I think here of when we look intently at ourselves in the mirror because we are looking for imperfections and for things we can do to improve our appearance. If we spent the time in God’s perfect law each day looking as intently into it as we may do looking intently into the mirror checking out our own physical appearance, what a difference that should make in our lives! We need to read the word of God with this kind of intensity and longing to see our imperfections and to learn what we can do to improve our hearts. The person who does this self-examination before God on a continual basis, not forgetting what he or she has heard, but doing it, will be blessed in what he or she does. You want God to bless you? Look intently into his word like you look at yourself in a mirror, do regular heart examinations, don’t forget what the Lord has shown you, but do it, and you will be blessed.
The Peace of Christ
Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. Keep a tight rein on your tongue. These were the three things I noted under the subject of peace. When we complain, grumble, and moan and groan over our circumstances, we are not at peace, and we certainly are not joyful. I admit that I sometimes forget that I am supposed to be joyful in all things, and I can find my mind, at times, going down a path of self-pity. Yet, the Lord is gracious, and he does remind me to be joyful, and then I am able to change from feeling down to being joyful and thankful when I go through difficulties and trials. And, the next step goes with being joyful. Sometimes, when we go through difficulties, we want to give up and/or to run away. We may even reject God, blaming him for all that we are going through. Yet, we are to persevere, even in the face of great suffering. Perseverance then helps us to mature and to be complete in Christ. I know personally that Satan loves to get us down to where we give up, but Christ came to set us free from all that. We must keep going. Each day is a new day. We just push restart and begin again, putting our faith and trust in the one who saved us.
The Love of Christ
Perseverance is love, and we show love when we persevere in the face of hurtful circumstances. Jesus is the best example of this kind of divine love in how he demonstrated his love for us, even while we were yet sinners. He died for us. God does not change like shifting shadows. Men do. Men (mankind) will fail us. They will disappoint us, betray our trust, and they will not live up to our expectations of them. Yet, God and his word will never fail. We should be quick to listen and slow to speak. Being a good listener and not getting hot under the collar when people say things we don’t like is showing love. Not giving in to sin is showing that we love God more than we love our sin. Looking after those in need, whether widows and orphans or anyone who is in need, is another way we demonstrate God’s divine love. And, lastly, we show we love God when we choose to not be polluted by this world and this world’s system, but we choose to come out from the world and to be separate from sin and worldly influences, and instead to fill our minds with things above, not things on this earth. We do this through being in the word, too, for the word teaches us what it means to truly love God and to truly love others with a godly (God-like) love.
The Peace of Christ / An Original Work / October 31, 2011
Based off of Col. 3:1-17; Eph. 5:19-20
Let the word of Christ dwell in you,
As you teach with all wisdom,
Teaching one another to not
Think on earthly things;
Think instead on things above,
Where Christ sits with God, in love,
Saving us from all of our sins,
Cleansing us; made new within.
Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts,
As you sing songs unto Him;
Speak to one another with psalms,
Hymns, and spir’tual songs;
Always giving thanks to God,
In the name of Christ, His Son,
Who gave His life up for us all,
And gave us eternal life.
Let the love of Christ within you
Rule in your hearts; grace within,
Purifying you from your sin,
Make you whole within.
Forgive as the Lord forgave.
Show His kindness ev’ry day.
In word or deed, whate’er you do,
Glory give to Jesus Christ.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Audio, song lyrics and sheet music (free):
https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs2/home/songs/the-peace-of-christ
Song on video:
http://youtu.be/tW7HXchJ9qE
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