Book of James - Grace in Action Part 1

I have not posted for a while so I thought I would post my mini series on the book of James entitled "Grace in Action" because it is very practical and what James says demonstrates Grace as it is not the natural human reaction!! Here's the first part.  I have not copied out the scriptures so you'll have to look them up - I use Today's New International Version.  The audio is available to download on www.gciwales.org

Book of James "Grace in Action" Part 1

Today I'd like to start a mini series on the book of James.  I've entitled it "Grace in Action" because many of the things James talks about are not our human reactions to situation, but they demonstrate the love and grace of God.

The book of James was written by James, an apostle and disciple but not James the brother of John.  He was the son of Mary and Joseph, i.e. he was the half brother of Jesus.  This is disputed by Catholics and groups that believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary, but most believe that Mary and Joseph had other children after Jesus that included James. Matt 13v55 names Jesus brothers as James, Joses, Simon and Judas. The parallel to this is Mark 6v3 and they also refer to sisters, however none are named.

James was one of the inner circle of followers before and after Jesus death.  Being family you'd expect that, however the only other brother mentioned in Matt 13 who is recorded elsewhere is Judas, or Jude, who wrote the book of Jude.  I assume he's referred to as Jude to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus.  Luke 16v6 refers to them both in the same verse so we know that they are separate people.

So, lets have a look at what he had to say.  READ v1  The first thing we notice in the greeting is that he does not do any name dropping that a man of his position would be entitled to do.  Instead he's humble and describes himself as a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that his brother Judas gives a very similar greeting in Jude v1 where he says "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James..."

James was the leader of the church in Jerusalem and he was one of the Christians who remained there when the other apostles had fled persecution and had spread out into the world as they knew it.  In Acts, end of 7v54 - End & into 8v1-3  it shows that after the stoning of Stephen, the church was scattered and a certain Saul was instrumental in trying to destroy it - we'll turn there later.  It's therefore ironic that Paul says in Galatians that when he went to Jerusalem to meet the apostles, only Peter and James were there.  You could see why people were suspicious of him.  

The other thing to notice before we start is that it was written about 10 to 12 years after Jesus death and resurrection, so it was one of the earliest books to be written.  Some say that he contradicts Paul and the later books, and to a certain degree, the church was still learning and adapting to circumstances so the thinking and teaching would have changed to a degree.  For example it was written before the Jerusalem Council which officially decreed that circumcision was not required.  The church was still pretty Jewish in character at this point, so again this sets the context.    

Notice that the book was a letter to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.  Twelve tribes is reference to the tribes of Israel and as we read in the book of Hosea, ten of them were scattered abroad for disobedience.  I'm not talking about that today, but you can read about what's described as the dispersion in (Hos1:6; Hos8:8; Hos9:3, Hos9:15-17).  The cities around the region would therefore have had Israelite communities.  The tribes intermingled over time and nowadays the tribes of Israel are referred to generically as Jews, and the book was written to these communities containing the descendants of the twelve tribes.  Unlike Paul's letters it was not written to a specific church or region so it would have been an open letter written for and circulated around the Synagogues and new Christians coming from an Old Covenant Israelite background rather than a gentile audience that Paul ministered to.

Some churches read a lot into the phrase twelve tribes to support the British Israelism theories, and they map out exactly where the tribes were settled and where they migrated afterwards, pure speculation in my opinion as I've looked for evidence to back this up and can't find any myself. However, that is immaterial as the letter is clearly speaking to a Jewish Christian audience and as we read in Galatians, Christianity dissolves national distinctives as we are all one in Christ.  This is only really a matter of interest, so we can understand the original context, audience and interpret the letter accordingly.  The message that we see, however, is universally applicable to people no matter what our background is.

READ v2  I don't know about you, but when I'm going through trials and difficulties, joy is not the primary emotion going through my head!  The word joy also means 'calm delight'.  Over the last couple of months - particularly in the run up to Christmas we seemed to have one thing after another going wrong, and sometimes it feels like we are being dragged down to the edge of despair.  This verse says trials of many kinds so it's not clear what it's referring to specifically, but don't forget the Christians in Jerusalem were undergoing persecution so they were going through all kinds of trials that put them in physical danger.  We can take it as saying that anything we're going through should result in joy or delight.  I know people with money problems, health problems, job problems, relationship problems, all sorts of trials.  Joy however is not a human reaction to trials - so hold this thought and we'll revisit it later.

READ v2-3 - it is easy to blame God or blame ourselves when things go wrong.  We are bombarded with a false health and wealth gospel that says that if you pray hard enough and have faith, that God will provide everything you want.  So when things go wrong it's easy to think that it's somehow God's fault that he's not keeping his end of the deal, how could he possible let x y or z happen, or people think that they have done something wrong and are being punished for it.  Either way, people have their faith tested and people can and do lose faith.

We all go through bad times, and our faith is tested.  But v3 says that the testing of our faith produces perseverance.

v4 notice perseverance produces maturity... not lacking anything.  The bad stuff we go through produces the character of Christ because we have to rely on his strength to get us through.  So what he's saying is that in the face of trials, we should consider it pure joy because the perseverance it produces leads to maturity and us not lacking anything.

v5- So if you need wisdom you need to ask for it and God will give you wisdom.  That's not easy as it's difficult in the middle of a stressful situation to even realise that you need wisdom, not alone have the presence of mind to ask for it! Notice that God does not find fault if you ask for wisdom.  That's his grace - that no matter what we're going through, if you turn to God He will help.  In this context he will be seeing us grow and develop into maturity.

v6 Do not doubt God.  He's saying we should have confidence in God and not be tossed to and fro as a wave on the ocean.  Christ is described as the solid rock.  In Matt 7v24-27 Christ said if we listen to his words and do them it's like building our house on the rock.  However if we hear and don't do them it's like building your house on the sand.  Here in James it's saying that if we ask God for wisdom and then don't listen and doubt him, we're like a wave.  Waves go in one direction then the other - sometimes they bounce off the cliffs so you get cross waves and from the beach you see water flowing is all directions like we saw at Llangrannog last summer.  It sometimes feels that with competing and conflicting pressures of life that we're being sent it all directions.  It's easy to be so busy that we lose our grip on the solid rock.  It's easy to doubt God and doubt ourselves when things get out of control.  But.  We should not doubt God.  The reality is that God is there always and we can cling on to him for strength and wisdom.

I saw a video recently posted by Francis Chan and he was talking about the Afghan Philipino hostages from a couple of years back and they felt the presence of God strongly in their trial so they did experience the joy of Christ.  It sounds weird but one of the hostages said that they were grateful to be free, but they wished they were still there to have that closeness with God.  We see this in the bible too, earlier I referred to Stephen, and if you look at Acts 7v 54-End we see that just before he got stoned to death, Stephen looked up and saw Jesus.  READ  He was not afraid to die for his beliefs because he saw what was ahead.  I believe that the joy or calm delight to which it refers is the presence of God in the situation.  It's not a human emotional reaction.  Going back to v6 We can stand firm in confidence not in ourselves but in God.

READ 7-8 If we are not solidly with God and try to work things out ourselves, or take wisdom from other sources, it describes us as double minded or some translations call it being double souled.  In context again this is being conflicted between the wisdom of God and other material considerations to coin a planning phrase.  In planning law you make decisions in accordance with the policies unless other material considerations dictate otherwise.  With God you don't get that flexibility - we are saved by God's Grace.  Full Stop.  Jesus has done it for us and we have to believe that.  We need to stick to God and not let the doubt of other material considerations sway us.

If we doubt God and lean on our own understanding and wisdom, James says we can't expect God to give us anything.  In other words, if we ask for help then decide we can do it on our own, we get no-where.
Lets move onto the next passage.  READ v9-11  This section talks about putting things into perspective.  The first part seems logical, that the poor would rejoice if they were lifted up in God's eyes, but the second talks about the rich rejoicing in their humiliation or when they became poor.  But why would they rejoice in humiliation or becoming poor?  It talks about the world's riches being worthless to God - like a flower withering in the sun.  James speaks out against the rich, and Chapter 5 shows why - Lets turn forward a few pages.  READ 5v1-6 I don't think it's money as such but the way the rich had got it and had used it.  This may have been a reflection of the language Jesus had used.  He overturned the tables in the temple, he said it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom, he told the rich man to sell everything and give to the poor, he spoke out against the rich splashing the cash at the collection bowl.  To Jesus, the widow's mite was important as it reflected her heart.

Maybe this passage also reflected the persecution when people lost everything and fled their homes and riches at the hands of the rich Jews.  Maybe he was contrasting their elevation from poverty in God's eyes with the physical riches of the oppressors?

Certainly rejoicing is not a natural emotion in these circumstances, when riches are lost, or you are brought down to earth, but James was talking about the bigger picture which is revealed in v12.  READ v12 This is a beautiful scripture for those going through the mill.  Notice - it's the crown of life that God promised to those who obey him!... Right - No, it's promised to those who LOVE him.  That's the bigger picture here. No matter what we go through in this life, if we endure and believe and love God, we are promised the crown of life.  As I went through Christmas time, the gift of life is given to us by God's Grace.  The love and faith we need are gifts, but we need to believe this to be true in order to unlock this reality.

To me v12 is the key scripture here, if you love God and have the crown of life - the new life in Christ, it changes the way we see everything and as we saw in scripture last week, God changes us.  He moulds and shapes us until we become who he wants us to be or he sees his face reflected in us depending on the analogy.  v12 also shapes the context of the rest of the letter which is mostly very practical in the advice he's giving.

So, having set the scene, James now goes on to illustrate the contrast between our human nature and God's nature, which illustrates God's Grace in working with us at all.
READ 13-15 Notice that we are more than capable of doing daft things all by ourselves, and we can't blame God or anyone else for it.  I'm afraid that saying that God put the temptation in our way to test us just doesn't cut it for James.  This passage shows the raw human nature without God, notice the sequence of events - desire leads to sin leads to death.

However, James contrasts this with the reality of God.
READ 16 - 17 Every good gift comes from God.  We can be certain of God, he's not like shifting shadows, he's solid and His love for us is dependable.  He's described as light not shifting shadow.  A shadow is formed when something gets in the way of light or interferes with it.  But God is Love and this brings pure light.

READ v18 Wow!! Birth through the word of truth - new life - to be a kind of first fruit.  The audience coming from a Jewish background would have been familiar with the concept of first fruits and Jesus himself is described as THE first fruit in 1 Cor 15v20.  James is using very much old and familiar terminology along with the imagery that Jesus used to describe himself to show the Jewish Christians that they were what the Old had pointed to.  Jesus was the word, the way the truth and the life, and they, and we, through His Grace, are first fruits of that life.

Remember I said earlier that the joy and the calm in the face of trials that James refers to are not human reactions - I would like to suggest that they are the fruit of our new lives as first fruits of a coming age.  It's through being in Christ and having Christ in us by his spirit that we can see  the bigger picture and cope with it.

So what does that mean in reality?  What are the practical implications for the way we live?  We'll continue next time with James demonstration of Grace in Action.