11. God’s fruit

Meditations in James: 11 :  God’s Fruit

Jas 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.

Tucked away in Scripture we sometimes find gems that we were not expecting. I believe this verse is one such gem. James, aware of the needs of those he is writing to, has been telling them how to cope with this sometimes difficult world. He has shown us how we may have a positive perspective of trials and reminded us that we can ask God for wisdom to know how to cope. He’s told us to have a right perspective of God, realising that He is good and everything that comes from Him is good, and to that he tacks on this reminder of what has happened to us and why.

Years ago I wrote a short story around the idea that Scripture gives us that before all things the Godhead looked into time-space history future, considered the world they would make and mankind on it, saw the Fall and its effects, and planned accordingly. No, they didn’t NOT give man free will so that the Fall would never happen, but instead they allowed it to happen, allowed men and women to sin, but made provision for a possibility that was staggering in its enormity. They planned for the Son to come and provide a way whereby sinful men and women could come back to God and enter into a living relationship with Him. Absolutely everything was provided for, the means of forgiveness, the channel of communication, and even the power source to be given to enable new lives to be lived. The possibility was of a new race of human beings living in harmony with God, empowered by Him, guided by Him and filled with Him. They would still have the old life within them, but they would reject it for the love of God. They would be love motivated and love empowered beings. They would be Spirit motivated and Spirit empowered beings. Out of the old sinful lives would emerge something new and beautiful, but what would be the thing that would bring them to Him?  What would be the catalyst that triggered this new birth, this new life?

The answer is very simple: the word of truth. The Son would first come communicating truth and as it was received, some would respond and gather to him. Yet the truth about the past was insufficient. Yes, the beings had heard of God’s dealings with His people and understood a little of His greatness and His desire to have a people for Himself, a people who would talk to Him and listen to Him, who would relate to Him, but this truth was insufficient. This human race needed to know that God loved them because, as we said, love would be the motivating force brought by the Spirit. Thus the penultimate part of the plan, that the world had to be told about, was that this Son willingly laid down his life for us. The final part of the plan was that he would be raised from the dead and ascend to heaven, to retake his place next to his Father. The world had to be told this. This is why it was so important that Jesus had to have followers who would tell what they had seen and heard.

Thus in time-space history, about two thousand years ago, this band of witnesses are waiting and wondering, waiting for God’s appointed time and wondering what will happen. God loves doing things with significance and so on the feast day called Pentecost (which was all about first fruits) He came and alighted on these witnesses. The joy they experienced, and the sense of sudden understanding of the truth they had witnessed, drove them out into the streets praising God. As they were questioned, one of them, Peter, stood up and preached the truth. As they listened to that first ‘Christian’ sermon, three thousand of them opened their hearts to God and were born again as He came to them with forgiveness and His Spirit. The word of truth brought new birth, and has continued to do so ever since. As someone has said, the Christian Faith is a religion with content. There is truth to be told and that truth, when it encounters open hearts, has the effect of bringing a surrender which God takes and blesses and a new life is formed.

These, says James, with a look back to the Old Testament, are like first fruits of a great harvest. The first fruits of the harvest, according to the Law, belonged to God. Presenting to God these first fruits was an acknowledgement that in fact all the harvest was His gift. The first fruits were reminders that it all belonged to God, it was all His gift. So it is that Christians are to be considered first fruits, or reminders, that everything in Creation belongs to God and is His gift to us. This significant reference says, in the context of the difficult world and the trials we go through, don’t forget that this is God’s world even though fallen, and that you Christians are signs to the rest of the world of God’s goodness which has been restated through you. The sin of the Fall opened a Pandora’s Box of awfulness into the world, and so the world is sometimes hard and difficult to live in. However, God has declared again His goodness and love in bringing forth a new creation, a new expression of His love, a new people who show everyone else what is possible. You can’t get more positive than that!

Finding the world difficult? Going through trials?  Remember who you are. Remember how you came into being. Remember you are a divinely supernatural creation, a sign to the rest of the world of God’s love and goodness. How you respond in your trials will reveal even more who you are and also God’s goodness and love. Shine forth!

10. God is good

Meditations in James: 10 :   God is Good

Jas 1:16,17 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

There is, in the world, a lie that has been generated by Sin and by Satan, that God is a hard and harsh God. It runs from blaming God for minor injuries right through to blaming Him for the Holocaust. With little thought about the matter it blames God for creating evil and it blames God for suffering generally. Rarely does the Bible ‘defend’ God because the foolish will always think and say foolish things and the wise will seek and come to the truth anyway. Yet it is a clear truth that the sinful nature always looks on the black side when it comes to God. People have been deceived by Satan ever since that first deception in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3) and have listened to his lies (Jn 8:44) and have thus been blinded to the truth (2 Cor 4:4).  Sin generally has a blinding effect (Jn 12:40, 1 Jn 2:11). When things go wrong sin suggests that it is God’s fault. When we are tempted, we say it is God’s fault. These are the silly things that come into our minds, and out of our mouths, and James warns against these things, warns against being deceived.

James starts his attack on this way of thinking, aware of the struggles we cope with in this Fallen World, dispersed among the world, referring to everything good that is part of our existence. It’s one thing to focus on all the bad things of the world (actually brought about by sin in mankind) but rarely do we hear anyone categorising all the good things of this world. James doesn’t bother to stop to think about what they are, but you might like to do that sometime. Stop and consider the wonderful provision that this planet has for us. Consider the potential for enjoyment that God has given to us. Consider the wonder of such things as love, joy, peace. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to see the wonder of His goodness in your life. I did that a number of years ago and have been marvelling ever since, as I have started to realise even more how God’s hand has been on my life, throughout it, and that hand has only ever brought good, wonderful good!

No, James simply acknowledges that there are things in our experience that are actually good and faultless and, he says, they come from God. Only good things come from God because God’s character is good. Indeed everything that God does is good. It started, as far as we are concerned, from when He created this world: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Gen 1:31). Before sin entered the world, that was a description of it, very good! When Moses spoke of the land, even though it was occupied by sinful pagans, he said, “God is giving you this good land to possess” (Deut 9:6). When one of the scribes recorded what happened he declared, “Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled” (Josh 21;45), i.e. God had promised good for them and all that had come about.  When Abigail spoke to David she said, “When the LORD has done for my master every good thing he promised concerning him” (1 Sam 25:30). She acknowledged what was generally accepted, that God had promised good for David. Solomon also, at the dedication of the Temple, reiterated the same thing: “Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.” (1 Kings 8:56).  David wrote it as a song to be sung, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.” (1 Chron 16:34). This came to be something declared at great moments, such as the dedication of the Temple referred to above, “they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: ‘He is good; his love endures forever.” (2 Chron 5:13). This had practical outworkings, for instance, when Hezekiah reinstigated the Passover and some came not having had time to purify themselves: “But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God–the LORD, the God of his fathers–even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.” (2 Chron 30:18-20). He trusted in God’s goodness in the situation and God honoured that.

But even more than that, James says, not only is God like this but He is always like this. He doesn’t change! In the beginning when God made everything He made the sun and the moon and the stars and as fixed as they are, so is His character. Even as He shed natural light on the earth, so it is a reminder of His own glory that shines, ever giving us light, a glory that is unfading in the Gospel (2 Cor 3:11). For ever His love keeps pouring out and will not stop because it is simply an expression of His character. This is what He is and so this is what we receive. No, we don’t need to let the gloom of the world, or the gloom that Satan would bring on us through difficult circumstances, bring us down. From our God come good things, even in the midst of this world, wherever we are. So, if the enemy has been spreading lies in your mind about God, it’s time to refute them with the truth of Scripture. Let’s join with the saints of old and continually be found declaring and singing, “God is good; His love endures for ever!”

9. Temptation

Meditations in James: 9 :  Going through the Door of Temptation

Jas 1:13-15 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Trials, tests and temptations are all expressions of the same thing.  Trials, we might say are simply the general descriptions seen from our perspective when life gets difficult. Tests are the same thing but seen from God’s perspective. God allows trials to act as a test of where we are in terms of spiritual maturity, and as a means of strengthening us. Temptations are the same things but seen from Satan’s perspective as a means that he can use to cause our downfall. Every test actually involves a temptation, even if it is just the one to give up.

James, you will remember, is very mindful that the people of God are now scattered in the world, dispersed to be light and salt in fact, and is aware that living in the midst of the world we thus live in an environment that is sometimes hostile and very difficult. He wants to call us into a place of awareness of what is going on. In fact this call is really not seen so clearly anywhere else is the Bible. He wants us to be clear about trials, tests and temptations and now moves on to clarify our thinking about the temptation aspect of all this.

Look, he says, when you are tempted, don’t blame God. God NEVER tempts us because temptation is a prompting to do wrong – and sometimes we fail and give way to it, and God doesn’t ever want us to do wrong. God is always working to lead us into righteousness, into doing what is good and right. When there is a trial, and there is a temptation aspect to it, that temptation aspect doesn’t come from God. Yes, God uses the trial and the temptation but he never brings the temptation part of it, because that part always has a different origin. To see that origin, let’s go first back to the Garden of Eden. The very first temptation came to a sinless couple, Adam and Eve. He prodded them to take unilateral action, separate from God, disregarding what God has said, in other words to be disobedient. They chose to respond to him and temptation became sin.

Now because we all are tainted by sin, which Paul refers to in Christians as our old nature,  if we allow that old nature to remain, then we become vulnerable to the whispers of the enemy who suggests that we give way to that old nature and do our own thing regardless of God. Thus in the midst of a trial, when we are feeling pressurised and weak, that old nature that James calls evil desire, rises up in self-centred concern and submits to the suggestion from the enemy. Some people wrongly say, “Satan made me do it!” No he didn’t; you simply made an act of will to submit to his suggestion. He has no power over a Christian unless you give him it. Because there was an areas of your old life that has not been put to death, you were vulnerable at that point and temptation rose up, either from within that old nature or by Satan whispering to you, and you either had to battle with it and overcome, or give way and sin. No wonder Paul uses such language as, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” (Rom 6:12) and “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature” (Col 3:5)

But temptation is like a doorway that appears before you in your life and if you go through it, it has consequences, dire consequences! James spells it out. He starts out each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. That is the temptation, your unsanctified desires, desires of the old nature that you have not put to death, tugging at you to pull you off course, enticing you away from what is good and right. It is like a doorway of temptation stands there inviting you to go through it, leaving the holy ground that you’ve been called to, to step outside the kingdom of God and do the same as the occupants of the dominion of darkness (see Col 1:13). When we do give way and go through that doorway, we sin. When we do wrong we have two paths immediately ahead of us. The first is the path of repentance back to God: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:9). The other path is the path of self-justification and blame of others (see Adam & Eve – Gen 3:12,13) and because the sin has not been properly dealt with, it makes us more vulnerable to further attacks or temptations from the enemy, and the eventual consequence of ongoing sin is death.

So, are there things in our lives that fit into the category of the things that Paul tells us to ‘put to death’, “sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed” (Col 3:5) and “anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips” (Col 3:8). If we tolerate these things they will be the means of our downfall. Yes, it is sometimes a difficult world and yes, temptations do sometimes come, but we can minimize them by getting God’s help to deal with these issues which, if left, make us vulnerable and cause our downfall. Ensure you deal with them. Don’t risk the alternative. You aren’t as strong as Satan would like you to think you are. The old nature, if not put to death, will rise up and bite you. Don’t let it happen. Go to God, confess it, and deal with it before Satan has any further opportunity to cause your downfall. Do it!

8. Persevering

Meditations in James: 8 :  Persevering under Trial

Jas 1:12 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.

The temptation to give up is a common one. It arises when we have stepped out in some new venture and it doesn’t seem to be working out quite as we thought. All of our early enthusiasm seems to have melted away in the face of struggles, and thoughts of giving up float into our mind. When that new venture was a new area of learning, again we might have started out with great enthusiasm, relishing the picture of us obtaining new knowledge and new understanding. I’ve done it with a new language and I’ve envisaged speaking fluently to other peoples. It could be a whole range of learning experiences. When we heard about the course, its newness excited us and we thought, “I could do that” and then, after the first few lessons, we thought, “This is hard work!” Then we were required to do extra reading and at the end of the day you found yourself reading the same paragraph over and over, wondering whatever it meant. Then there was the homework, the assignments that needed to be in by a certain day, and suddenly it is pure hard graft, and you wondered about the wisdom of having started it, and you wondered about giving up. Going to the gymnasium to start a keep-fit regime is just as bad. You hear others telling enthusiastically how much healthier they feel and so you enrol and the first workout was exhilarating but then came the aching muscles the next day. Next time wasn’t quite so exciting and the thought of aching muscles seemed to bring them on. You began to wonder if it was worthwhile, you begin to wonder about giving up.

Now all of these examples have similar characteristics. There is the flush of early excitement, the growing awareness that effort is required, the sense that this is really hard and the wonderings about giving up. It is at this point that perseverance comes in. As we noted in an earlier meditation: perseverance is the act of keeping going. But it is more than the physical act; it is the act of will, the determination not to give up.  Now all of this first part of James’ letter is about surviving in this sin-weary world, especially when the going gets hard, especially when you are in the midst of a trial – life not going as you think it should. In those circumstances you start getting tired, in those circumstances you start thinking about giving up. In the midst of such times you can feel quite down. Physical weariness is often accompanied by emotional weariness. You can read all the verses but all you are aware of is a weariness and a desire to escape. If you are a Christian leader it is very likely that you will have gone through times (note the plural!) when you have felt like giving it all up and retiring somewhere quiet, where you have no responsibilities, no people criticizing you, no ungrateful people after you have poured out your life to them. Oh yes, Christians are just as vulnerable to these feelings as the rest of the world, if not more so.

Now why should that be? Well, the apostle Paul knew a thing or to about this stuff when he wrote, “put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” (Eph 6:13). Let’s not focus on the armour, focus on what he says it enables us to do: to stand. Imagine your Christian life is like a plot of ground that you have inherited and it is wonderful. The land all around it is horrible. What is Satan’s desire? To push you off that ground, to relinquish your inheritance. He will do it by whispering or shouting lies at you to make you believe things that aren’t true and forget the things that are true. He will whisper or shout temptations at you to make you think the grass is greener off this patch you have inherited, and seeks to get you to step off this holy land into things that are unclean, impure, or generally unrighteous. If the trial is severe then he even has the capability of bringing physical or emotional or mental upheavals. Oh yes, read Job and you will see his capabilities, but if you do read Job see Satan is only allowed to go as far as God allows him to.

And there we have gone the full circle. This trial is a test! Tests are made for you to pass them. God cheats, He gives you help! He is there with you in the middle of it to help you. His grace is available to you in a variety of forms. Oh yes, it is a test and a hard one at that, but God is doing everything He can to help you pass it. Part of the test is ALWAYS how long will it take for you to turn to Him for help, how long will you keep on asking for help? That’s where perseverance comes in.

This is where the famous quote from Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego comes in: “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Dan 3:17,18), i.e. we’re going to trust God to turn up, but even if He doesn’t, we know the right thing to do and we’re going to carry on doing it!  And of course the Lord turned up.

There is a glorious end to this, the promise of a crown of life. What is a crown? A symbol of a ruler.  The reward for passing the test is that we are made rulers over life by God, given the ability to go through life, living it to the utmost with love, joy peace etc., ruling over the circumstances, being in control rather than being oppressed and driven by the circumstances. You are in the driving seat!  May it be so as you and your Lord persevere and triumph through the present trial, whatever it may involve!

7. Humility

Meditations in James: 7 :  Pride within Humility

Jas 1:9-11 The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.

If yesterday’s verses were those that we didn’t like the sound of, today’s are verses that make you do a double-take of what is being said.  One of the problems of living in the affluent West in the beginning of the twenty-first century, which we have commented upon elsewhere, is that it is so easy to loose perspective. Our value systems say that the successful person is the rich person who has done great things in business or achieve fame or stardom in the entertainment world. These are the people we so often put upon a pedestal in our thinking. These people we elevate to the ‘great and the glorious’ but for James the heavenly perspective, or perspective from the kingdom of God, is quite different.  In the kingdom of God, the poor are elevated and the rich are debased. Why is it like this?

Well let’s start with the poor. Jesus taught, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (Lk 6:20) Why should the poor be blessed? Well, very simply, the poor are likely to be more aware of their own poverty and be more open to the Lord and find it easier to receive the salvation that is being offered. Also the Bible is full of references to God’s care for the poor, e.g. “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.” (Psa 82:3) and “Blessed is he who has regard for the weak” (Psa 41:1). Also much of Moses’ Law was about caring fro the poor, e.g. “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien.” (Lev 19:9,10). There are many such references. The reality is that God wants the poor to be cared for. In this world of abundance, He doesn’t want anyone to starve.

But James is speaking to the church and recognizes that not everyone has the same level of provision and so refers to the brother in humble circumstances. At this point he’s not chiding the rest of the church; he’s just saying to that person, you can take pride in, or rejoice in, the fact that your position makes you high up on God’s agenda, you are under His eye. You may feel poor in material things, but in spiritual things you are rich in God’s love and concern for you.

Let’s look next at the rich. As the Bible shows God’s concern for the poor, so there is also concern for the rich, but it’s a different kind of concern. It is concern that the rich don’t become self-reliant and loose their spiritual inheritance: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6:19-21).

The reason that people are rich is usually because they have devoted their life to making money. Jesus felt so strongly about this he went on to say, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Mt 6:24). When James says the one who is rich should take pride in his low position he is saying that the rich man should realize his vulnerability, his disposition to rely upon wealth and not God, and realize the danger he is in and realize that spiritually he is in fact a small person, even if he is big in wealth or stardom. To emphasise what he feels, he illustrates it by reference to a plant growing up but being scorched by the sun. The rich and famous are often like that, is what he is saying. They grow up to riches and stardom, but how easily their business can collapse or their stardom collapse. There is great vulnerability in being rich and famous!

The teaching of these verses is first of all a challenge to us to assess our personal circumstances. If we are poor, can we rejoice in the fact that in God we are rich? Do we appreciate the shear wonder of God’s salvation? Living dispersed in this world, other people’s affluence is so often made very obvious to us, and this in turn makes us feel even more inferior. It shouldn’t, if we are Christians. We are rich in Christ.  If we are rich, are we really aware of how spiritually vulnerable we are? It is so easy to focus on the money making side of our lives and neglect our spiritual health. In the money making process it is so easy to stray into unrighteousness in our dealings with money or injustice in our dealings with people. James’ call to the church dispersed into the world is to hold a right perspective in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. Make sure you do it.

6. Doubting

Meditations in James: 6 :  No Room for Doubting

Jas 1:6-8 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. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

I think if we are honest, there are verses in the Bible that we hurry by because we either don’t understand them, or we have a feeling about them and don’t like what we feel. I’m afraid these verses are like that for me. Yet I wonder how many of us relish what we read here today? It’s those words he must believe and not doubt. I mean, it is easy to believe and not doubt when everything is going well but the context of this is what we’ve already looked at – trials!   But it’s more than ‘just’ trials; it’s trials that require perseverance because they go on and on, and they are trials that need wisdom to know how to cope, and it’s all about asking for wisdom that he is talking about here. In such situations it isn’t easy not to doubt.  Because of the whole nature of a trial your faith is being tested and your temptation is to doubt, but James is quite uncompromising: he must believe and not doubt!

We live in a day when much counseling is gentle and understanding but for the apostles the truth is something to be taken hold of and used, and so for them they haven’t got time to be gentle. James is so often right in your face. You want to ask for wisdom from God who gives generously without finding fault? Then don’t be half-hearted about it! Don’t let there be any room for doubting. Grab hold of the truth and believe it: God loves you, is for you and wants to give you wisdom to help you through. Believe it! No messing around, believe it! But it gets worse. He explains what a doubter is like. You’re like a wave in the sea that is at the mercy of the wind, so it gets buffeted about all over the place. Imagine a little boat on the waves or a cork bobbing around. They are both being pushed all over the place, changing direction all the time, driven by whichever way the wind is blowing. It’s a powerful picture and, says James, that is what the man who asks without faith is like.

It gets worse. This person is double minded he says. They say they believe but they doubt. They pay lip service to God’s word but when it comes to it they are driven by desires or other people or circumstances. When we come to the Lord, our motivation should be the truth of the word of God which has captured our hearts. We shouldn’t just pray because in trial we want peace, or because other people tell us we ought to pray, or because the circumstances are so annoying us we’re forced to pray. No, prayer should come as a natural expression of our relationship with the Lord, out of a sure conviction that He loves us, if for us, and loves to give generously and without finding fault.

If we don’t have that conviction then it will be those other expressions of ‘wind’ buffeting us that will have motivated us to pray, and they will all be self-centred, and as such our praying will be off-beam and we won’t get what we ask for. James is going to pick up this theme a bit later and develop it some more. Very simply, prayer should not be ‘driven’ by self-concerns but should be an act of faith, responding to the word of God and the prompting of His Spirit. When we pray in this way we will find the things we are asking for are in line with God’s heart, in line with His will, and because they are, He will grant them. How often Christians come to God with a ‘shopping list’ of things they want, instead of enquiring, “Lord, what do you want for me?”

There are times in the prophetic Scriptures of the Old Testament when the prophet or psalmist receives a word from the Lord about the Lord’s will and the next thing we find them doing is praying for it. The person who lacks understanding will say, “Why is he praying for what he has already declared?” and the answer is because he has heard that this is God’s will and he knows that the things to ask for in prayer are the things that are on God’s heart. The things that simply emanate from our hearts, that are self-centred, are so often wrong and we wonder why they are not answered!!!

Asking God for wisdom is coming to God acknowledging our lack and His ability to provide. This is a good heart position to have, but that is only stage one. Stage two is built on that good start. Yes, it is good to realize our own inadequacy and our own inability and it is good to realize the Lord’s ability, but stage two requires that we believe about Him what the Bible teaches, that God is good, God is love, and that God delights in giving to His children. There are those who wallow in half of stage one, that they are inadequate. That isn’t faith. It is semi-realism.

Faith is the sure belief (because we’ve heard it in His word and by His Spirit) that God knows the answer to every problem, every difficulty, and God wants to give us the answers to the difficulties that face us daily. Faith also says, “He wants me to have His answers, so I can ask Him in assurance that He will give when I come with an open heart.” This person’s faith is anchored by the truth. They are not being blown all over the place; they are not firing up desperate petitions of all shapes and kinds. They know they have a problem and that God has the answer and that He delights in giving generously and without finding fault. They ask with assurance; they ask in faith. Let’s be those sort of people! 

5. Wisdom

Meditations in James: 5 :  Asking for Wisdom

Jas 1:5 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.

Wisdom isn’t something that is much talked about today.  ‘Wise’ men are either relegated to the Christmas story or to fairy tales. Yet wisdom is something that is spoken about a number of times in the Bible, in fact over two hundred times! For instance the psalmist said, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psa 90:12) and “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” (Psa 111:10).  But wisdom isn’t some mystical thing; it is very simply “the knowledge of how to…” so when the psalmist spoke about the fear or awesome respect for the Lord, he meant that this was the start for how to live a right life.

Bearing in mind that James was speaking to the scattered church, the church that lived out in the world away from the strength and security of Jerusalem, knowing how to cope with life would have been a very real concern for them – and us. Of course there has to first of all be an awareness that we are called to be different before we have a need or concern for how to be different.  The Christian who is like a chameleon, blending in with the word and doing nothing in service of their King will have no need of wisdom. It is only when you realize your calling to be different and your calling to serve, that you become aware of a need to know how to live, how to serve. For myself, I don’t think there is anything I ask for as much as wisdom: “Lord how I am supposed to do this? How am I to go about doing that?”  Not only is it the thing I ask for most, it is the thing for which I find I get the most answers to prayer.

Why is that? It is because, as James says, God gives generously to all without finding fault. Notice some of the words in that verse. Generously: a generous person isn’t stingy or half-hearted in the way they give. To the contrary, they give freely and without restrictions, they give lavishly. The apostle Paul spoke of “the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us” (Eph 1:7,8). When God gives, He gives in abundance. If we have had a poor upbringing we may still have a feeling of poverty where we are always thinking in limited terms, but this doesn’t apply to God. He delights in giving in abundance. The apostle John said the same thing: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us” (I Jn 3:1). God pours out liberally in His giving to us, and that is true of the wisdom He gives to us.

Probably the best example of this is Daniel in the Old Testament: “I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom” (Dan 2:23) God had given him the knowledge of how to respond to the king’s dream. Listen how Daniel came to be referred to: “There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods.” (Dan 5:11). How did Daniel come to have such a reputation? “Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery” (Dan 2:17,18). He knew God had the answer and he asked God for it!  You find the same sort of thing with Nehemiah: “Then I prayed to the God of heaven” (Neh 2:4). How simple those words are, but how little they occur in so many of our lives. When we know that our Lord is generous in His giving, then we will ask of Him.

But there’s another significant word: all. Simple, but significant, because there are some of us who feel we are so insignificant that God wouldn’t turn up for us. If we say that we deny His word and we deny His love. No, He wants to give generously to ALL and that includes every one of us. The only criteria is that we ask and believe.

The final words to note are the final phrase: without finding fault. Because some of us grew up with parents who were constantly critical of us, we think God is the same. No He’s not! When Paul said, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1), he meant it. God isn’t constantly looking to criticize us, put us down and make us feel bad. To the contrary, He is for us (Rom 8:31) which means everything He does seeks to bless and build us and help us succeed in our lives.

If we need wisdom, it means that we are in circumstances that are beyond us, but God realizes that and doesn’t chide us, because they are not beyond Him and He delights in showing us how to walk through the particular difficulty. Whatever it is – knowing how to cope with a difficult relationship, knowing how to cope with the children, knowing how to do school or college work, knowing how to cope with your job – God has the answer and all we need do is ASK Him for it. Check out the day. What are the things that concern you in it? Ask Him about them. Ask Him for wisdom to know how to deal with them – and then watch for the thoughts you start finding you are having!  Be a receiver of God’s wisdom. Enjoy living!

4. Maturity

Meditations in James: 4 :  Steps to Maturity

Jas 1:4     Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Vitamins DO things for you. Antibiotics DO things in you. When you take antibiotics, the doctor tells you to keep taking them until they have finished their course. They need to build up in your system until they overcome whatever it is you are suffering from. They must finish their work. In a similar sort of way, an author must ‘finish their work’. I’m told that those who write books, regularly often come to a point where their ‘creative juices’ seem to dry up for a while and the book comes to a grinding halt. Getting out, getting some fresh air, going walking; all these sorts of things I’m told help stir life and creativity and enable the author to persevere until the work is complete and the manuscript is ready to go to the publisher.

Some people age but never mature. Why is that? What is maturity? What is it that is missing from them? Well it’s not a physical thing because they look the same as anyone else and can do all the physical things that everyone else can do. No, maturity involves ways of thinking, ways of coping with emotions. There are probably dozens of criteria for measuring when a person is fully mature and they cover physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of their life.

The writer to the Hebrews wrote, “let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity” (Heb 6:1) He saw that there were basic teachings that all new Christians should be taught, but there was deeper understanding of the Faith that should also be brought. Jesus warned in one of his parables about not going onto maturity: “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.” (Lk 8:14). Jesus was thus teaching that maturity was not letting worries of life, or seeking after material pleasures, hinder spiritual development, hinder coming to a deeper and deeper knowledge of God, a relationship that was fruitful. That was what that part of the parable of the Sower was all about. Paul, describing one of the Colossians, said, “He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” (Col 4:12). There he says that maturity is being able to stand firm in God’s will, being fully assured of who you are, someone loved by God, cared for by God and provided for by God. A mature person knows all these things.

Paul described the role of spiritual leadership ministries as, “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph 4:12,13). For Paul the work of the church was to raise up people to full development (maturity), so that the body (the church) could act fully as Christ on the earth, expressing his ongoing ministry. A mature church is one where each person is operating as God designed them to be: “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Eph 4:16)

Thus a ‘mature’ Christian is one who understands their faith, understands God’s love for them, is secure in it, has their heart set with right priorities on doing the will of God, not being distracted by materialism, working out their gifting in harmony with others in the church to create an instrument in the hand of God that brings blessing to this world and glory to God.

But how do we reach this maturity? Is it simply by reading God’s word, and receiving teaching in the church? Well those things are certainly important, but James is focusing on a crucial ingredient in these verses – trials! We can agree in our minds to the fact that God loves us and His grace is there for us, but it is only when we go through trials that we prove it. It is only in those times that we truly come to ‘know’ that he is there for us on a daily basis, and His grace is what keeps us going. It is only when we face such a trial that we suddenly find within us a determination to keep going.

It is the Holy Spirit within us, linked with our spirit encouraging us. Suddenly we ‘know’ we want to fight our way through this trial with all the ability that God gives us. Suddenly it seems important. We’ve got to get through this. We’ve got to keep going. This is perseverance at work! Perseverance, a dictionary says, is the act of keeping going. But it is more than the physical act; it is the act of will, the determination not to give up.  As this works in us so it brings us into maturity, so let’s repeat what we said about, so that you really take it in: a ‘mature’ Christian is one who understands their faith, understands God’s love for them, is secure in it, has their heart set with right priorities on doing the will of God, not being distracted by materialism, working out their gifting in harmony with others in the church to create an instrument in the hand of God that brings blessing to this world and glory to God. Be mature! Let perseverance work and work in you to bring you to full development (maturity).

3. Testing

Meditations in James: 3 :  Joyful Testing

Jas 1:2,3    Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Living in the West in the early part of the twenty-first century, we are more affluent and have more technology than any people who have ever existed before us. Life should, therefore, be easy and pleasant, but so often it isn’t. If you asked most people, they would pause, reflect and then say something like, “Life is tough!” Why is that? It is, I suggest, because we live in a Fallen World where sin prevails and therefore things go wrong and people are nasty. As a dispersed people (see yesterday) we are out there in the world, largely alone, having to learn to cope with the less-than-perfect life that rolls out before us. A lot of the time it may be humdrum, ordinary with no particular problems, but then suddenly something happens, something goes wrong and we are in conflict or stress and anxiety, or we are struggling with illness or infirmity. That’s what life in this Fallen World is like. The staggeringly wonderful news for Christians, of course, is that we are not alone; we have the Lord with us. Moses was able to encourage Israel with, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deut 31:6) and the writer to the Hebrews was able to take that and apply it to us when he wrote, “be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Heb 13:5,6).

So the first thing to note from our verses today is that we live in a world where things go wrong, things that James calls ‘trials’. The second thing to keep in mind, which isn’t in this verse, is that whatever happens the Lord is with us in it. Perhaps we would to well to remember a third thing,  that however difficult the trial seems to be, the Lord will be there seeking to bring good out of it for us: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28). Bear those two things in mind: the Lord is with us and He will be working to bring good out of what otherwise might be a bad situation!

But then James says something about what is going on. He says God is testing your faith. Our education system, at the government’s direction, seems paranoid about testing. Our children constantly seem to be getting tested. Why do the government want teachers to do this? They do it because they want to check a child’s progress and ensure that they are learning. That is exactly why God tests us. There is a clear indication in Scripture that God expects us to mature – we’ll see that tomorrow. The writer to the Hebrews chided them saying, “though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Heb 5:12-14).

There he indicates he expects us to grow up, understand the truth and live it. God’s testing, however, doesn’t merely monitor our position; it acts like a work-out in the gym and strengthens us. Whereas a physical workout brings strength to our muscles, God’s work-out develops perseverance in us, that ability to just plug on when life seems difficult. Yes, there are times when life seems glorious and wonderful and easy, and at those times you don’t need any special resources, (and that is a danger for we forget our need of the Lord), but we’ve been saying that in this Fallen World life is sometimes difficult and the enemy would want us to give up on our faith, and so perseverance is something the Lord builds in to us. How does He do that? By allowing us trying times!

It’s not only James; Paul says the same thing: “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance” (Rom 5:2,3). It’s not only James and Paul; Peter says the same thing: “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Pet 1:6,7)

So there it is; these trials, these tests, work to bring perseverance which we need to handle the dark side of life, and as we do, our faith is seen to be genuine and all the angels looking on give a mighty applause because they see it is the work of Jesus and so when he returns, and every knee bows to acknowledge his wonder, this will be part of the reason for all the praise he receives. Our lives have the means of glorifying Jesus!

Which brings us to the first part of the verse that most Christians struggle with and focus upon: “Count it pure joy” when these things happen to you. Why? For the reasons we have been seeing: because we are taking part in God’s strategy which strengthens us, reveals us for who we are, encourages us as we realise that we can cope with His grace. It also brings great glory to Jesus as we triumph as he, standing alongside us is working out the Father’s purposes and bringing good out of every situation for us. Wow!  Rejoicing in whatever life is holding for you at the moment? Go for it!

2. Scattered

Meditations in James: 2 :  Scattered in the world

Jas 1:1    James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.

The Industrial Revolution in Britain, for the first time, split up families as men and later women went to work in mills and other industrial units away from the home. Until then the ‘family business’ tended to be where the home was and the family was largely together. The extension of that change, as now expressed in today’s living, we take for granted. Men and women leave for work, and children leave for school or college, often miles away from the home. The family is dispersed into the world each day. When young people leave home to set up on their own, it is now frequently many miles away from their parents. There has been a dispersion of families into the world. Although we take all this for granted and see it as a natural part of modern life, it has its dangers. The family, with individuals dispersed and alone, do not have the mutual support of one another and so the values of the family can be attacked in a secular society. It was for this very reason that James wrote his letter. The church was dispersed.

Initially the church was focused on Jerusalem and Judea (but Jesus had indicated that the church would go to the ends of the world – Acts 1:8). Stephen was killed and “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.” (Acts 8:1). This was the first of a number of persecutions that would come upon the church and each time the Christians would be dispersed more and more, but this had a very positive effect: “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there” (Acts 8:4,5). The truth was that God wanted the word to be shared across the world.

Initially the church was very largely simply made up of Jews and they obviously found it very difficult at times to let go their Jewish culture and upbringing as we see in the case of Peter’s vision (Acts 10:9-16) and his subsequent comment to Cornelius, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.” (v.28). Thus they still struggled with this idea of Jew and Gentile mixing, and the church initially was still seen by them as Jewish. In fact when the word got back to Jerusalem that Peter had gone to Gentiles, “the circumcised believers criticized him and said ‘You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them’” (Acts 11:3). So when more and more persecution came and the believers (largely Jewish) found themselves isolated and away from Jerusalem’s strong influence, they would first be confused and then there may have been a tendency to blend in with whatever society they found themselves amongst. It was to counter these tendencies and meet the needs of the believers in their new situations that James wrote.

We in the West, live in an age of constantly increasing materialism and secularism and of multicultural and multi-faith living. Without doubt Christians are, at present, a minority and in many ways there are similarities with the early church of James’ day. There is a tendency, in the beginning of the twenty first century in the West, in the face of secular government and materialistic media, to wilt in the face of the barrage of the enemy’s propaganda that casts doubt on the Christian’s belief. With the popular writings of such people as Dan Brown questioning the faith and proposing things that are not true, and the atheistic attacks of people such as scientist, Richard Dawkins, who interprets scientific facts in ways that satisfy his atheistic leanings,  Christians wonder about their faith. There is in fact nothing to fear but that doesn’t stop the enemy seeking to sow doubt and fear, and so we need the constant encouragement of people like James to remind us of the basis of our faith and particularly how that faith should be working out in very practical ways in our normal, every day lives.

The truth is that our faith is very practical and belief in Jesus, and in the salvation he brings, should touch every area of our lives. James is going to help us see that, but even before we consider what he says to us, can we check our hearts? Are we open to the Lord to challenge us over how we are coping with this secular, materialistic, unbelieving age? Do we hold firm to the truth in the face of all the untruth that is spoken around us? Are we sure about the truth, why it is the truth and why we can believe it? These are key questions for Christians living at this point of time in the West. Be ready to be challenged. Be ready to be stirred. This letter was written for such a time as this.  Enjoy it and be changed by it!