In life, why do you do what you do? Is it to get that A on the Spanish quiz to make your parents proud? Is it to get that promotion at work? Is it to be wealthy to buy whatever you want?
James confronts his readers with a list of things they are doing. They want what they don’t have, they hurt others, they fight, they forget to ask, and they ask with the wrong motivation. James reminds us to consider when our priority isn’t on God and our motivation isn’t to do God’s will. When we draw humbly to God that is when we see His will and motivation come into picture.
James questions the readers “what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you” (James 4:1a NASB95). He points out that it’s someone’s human desires, motivations, and pride. This reminds me of the movie Emperor’s New Groove.
Kuzco only wants what he wants. He throws a guy out a window because the gentleman threw off his groove. He plans to demolish someone’s home because he thinks it would be a good vacation spot, and he refuses help when he finds himself as a llama. In his attempts to return home, he faces difficulties and ends up alone because he is too focused on his own needs and desires that he rejects Pacha’s kindness.
This can happen between you and your siblings, friends, spouse, neighbors, or fellow church members. Conflict is sparked quickly when our motivation is simply self satisfaction instead of focused on bringing glory to God and following His will.
In Job today, we read that Job struggled to admit that his friends could even be remotely right and he refused to humble himself. In Psalm 99, it displayed many examples of individuals who saw success because their focus was on God. Psalm 99:6 mentions three individuals: Moses, Aaron, and Samuel. Each of these three did the will of God. Moses, however, is seen struggling to follow God’s will. He is scared and focused on himself when God speaks to him through a burning bush. He strikes a rock for water without the permission of God to satisfy the people. And yet, he was remembered as a great man of faith following God’s will instead of his own.
God has set up many reminders to us to help fix our motivation. We have account after account of individuals who find success when their motivation was to do God’s will. Like when Moses finally listened and helped the people escape Egypt. And there are examples of people who face failure when their motivation is self surviving like Jonah when he ran from God.
Do you have a time in your life when your motivation was on yourself? Do you remember how that went? I know I have plenty of examples when my motivation wasn’t focused on glorifying God.
I used to quiz when I went to FUEL and I never won first place. I skipped a year or two but a lot of the material I memorized stays with me to this day. The year I did the worst was the year my motivation was to win a trophy. The Michigan team had been doing well for a few years and the year before they got second place in overtime: it was some of the best quizzing I’ve ever watched. With the hopes to be like them, I tried my best to live up to the Michigan winning name but failed spectacularly. I don’t even remember the material that was quizzed on that year. From then on, my motivation shifted. Instead of wanting to quiz to win, I focused on bringing glory to God by writing His words on my heart. I also focused on building relationships with my fellow quizzers. My fellow quizzers and I would laugh during practice pausing for dance breaks and singing our way through the memory verses. Instead of being motivated by the desire to gain fame or win a trophy, I focused on memorizing God’s word. Those years, I remember the material, the joy, and the friendships that I made.
When we have the wrong motives, our life will become clouded and we won’t reach our dreams. Instead, James reminds us that we must humble ourselves and follow God’s will. With God as the center focus, we are much more likely to succeed. Hopefully you won’t have to experience being miserable and mourning in order to humble yourself to God.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
Think of a time when you were in a fight with someone. Would that quarrel be resolved quicker if your motivation was focused on forgiveness, restoration, and selflessness?
How does your motivation impact the results of what you do?
What is one way you can improve your motivation, being focused on God instead of self?
PRAY:
Dear God, thank you for the many individuals who have gone before us and thank you for providing and guiding them. You have answered the prayers of thousands before me and you have forgiven those who have fallen short. Please forgive me of my sins and shortcoming. Reveal to me how I can walk in Your path and not follow the desires of my own heart. May honor, glory, and praise be Yours. Amen
Makenna Landry, née Cisler, is an ABC graduate and licensed pastor of the Church of God General Conference working to service God by teaching His word and supporting His people through all aspects of life. She has two children, a passion for helping people, and loves Disney. She spends her time writing and enjoys playing board games with friends and family.
-Devotion by Makenna Landry, née Cisler, a 2021 ABC graduate. Makenna is a licensed pastor of the Church of God General Conference working to service God by teaching His word and supporting His people through all aspects of life. She has two children, a passion for helping people, and loves Disney. She spends her time writing and enjoys playing board games with friends and family.
Key passage: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” James 3:17-18 (ESV)
James 3 starts off by making the claim that not everyone can be a teacher. This is similar to the lesson I wrote on 1 Timothy that not everyone has the right to understand or focus not on scripture but on other things that tickle the ears of the listeners. This warning from James ties into the passage of Job. Job’s friends are trying their best to help Job and Job refutes them at every turn. At the end of Job, we see neither party was in the right. Job and his friends hold an example to us to be careful what we say to others.
This is why the entire chapter of James 3 is so important. It teaches and guides us on how we can speak to others and what wisdom we should pass along to others.
Let’s break down the chapter.
James 3:5 (ESV) says, “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!”
James is not telling his readers that people should have low self esteem and a bad view of themselves. He warns against pridefully honoring yourself over others. This can be seen more as bragging about your accomplishments instead of humbly celebrating victories.
James 3:8 (ESV) but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
This verse is pretty doom and gloom! It feels helpless and like we are in an endless maze. So the question arises what does that mean? What does it mean that the tongue is a restless evil that cannot be tamed?
You know how sometimes when you stub your toe really hard you cry out in pain. Some people swear others have swear alternatives like “gosh darn it”, “holy cow”, or “great googly moogly” (can you imagine someone actually saying that besides Major Monogram from Phineas and Ferb ha!). All these phrases and words, a lot of us have used in place of curse words. But does that make it good to say it? When I was young and really into the phase of finding alternative expressions from curse words, my mom shared a piece of advice that still shapes how I speak and talk to this day: any word used poorly becomes a curse word. When our intention is to express anger and pain towards an individual or object our words are no longer from God but from the evil that plagues this world.
No matter how hard one might try not to use the socially deemed words with bad meetings, our heart behind anything we say reflects whether or not the words are bringing glory to God. This might not even be the words we say but the tone we say it in! Our language abounds in ways that we can be rude to others. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t try. We will mess up and we won’t ever be perfect, yet we can be reminded by James to try our best to tame our tongue.
What are some ways you might be cursing in your life? Do you use curse words, do you use alternative curses, or does your tone reflect one of judgment and anger? What are ways you can work towards taming your tongue?
When we consider shaping the things we say to God, we have to consider what would bring Him glory. That’s why I started the lesson with James 3:17-18. It brings into the view the focus of our hearts and words. Wisdom is not just something we impart to others but something that should be imbued in our very being. Our thoughts, words, and deeds should be done in wisdom.
From James 3:17-18, what does it look like to have wisdom in the way that we speak?
Psalm 98 is a great reminder of the heart behind our words to God. James is specifically focusing on our words to others, but Psalm 98 can be an example of the heart behind the words we say.
Have you ever heard someone say, “I can’t sing so I make a joyful noise”? I know many individuals who have said it to me and they are some of the most joyful worshipers I have ever seen. To give them credit they also can sing a lot better than they think. But worship isn’t about perfection. It’s not about a big band, special lighting, perfect pitch and harmony.
When we worship God with Him as the focus, we are taming our tongue. The more we align ourselves with God’s goodness, faithfulness, and lovingkindness the more our words are shaped to reflect Him. Singing praise to God fills us with holy thoughts and focuses our attention on the one we should be following.
Further QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
How can worship help you tame the tongue?
What are ways you can bring glory to God through your words?
How did you relate to the individuals in the book of Job in today’s reading?
PRAY:
Father in heaven may glory be brought to You in my words and deeds. Help me tame my tongue and speak gently to those around me. You have made all things and Your love endures forever. Be gracious to me and show me how to be gracious to those around me. In the name of Jesus Christ, my savior and mediator, amen.
Key passage: “Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together, before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.” Psalm 98:8-9 (ESV)
Psalm 98 is a psalm of praise. It sings great thanksgiving to God recognizing God’s good works and His never ending love. It ends with the reminder that God will judge the world with righteousness and fairness.
Christians today, and across time, have been considered judgmental. Christians hold to the moral standards Scripture teaches and tries to hold others to the same moral standards. This in my own life has come across to people as overly innocent, stuffy, fake-y, and judgemental. I distinctly remember when I told a fellow classmate in my early years of elementary school that he should follow the rules because it shows respect to the adults. He did not agree with me, calling me all of the things I listed above. Needless to say, the years of elementary school he and I were never on good terms because he continued to do the wrong thing and I continued to try to correct him. He viewed me as judgmental and too proper and I was always annoyed that he refused to do the right thing.
Thank the LORD that it is not on me to judge his actions. I think that’s the sentiment behind this psalm. God is the ultimate judge and He does so with great fairness. He has set forward a path to righteousness and He draws the lines on who will receive the reward of the kingdom and who will not. If I could tell my younger self to just let it go, it would have been a much more enjoyable time in my life.
There are times that we might thank God for being the perfect judge, while other times we might question it like Job questions in Job 21.
Zophar reminds Job of the downfall of pride and reminds Job of the importance of carrying for the needy. Job’s response is one filled with questions and a complete lack of reflection on himself. He instead looks outward towards the wicked people. He wonders why they would be receiving so much and living a healthy, long, prosperous life. Zophar stated evil faced death but Job turns it around on Zophar pointing to the sinful individuals living happily around them. This brings into question God’s judgment. Is he truly a righteous and fair judge when Job, a godly man, suffered while evil men had riches?
At that moment, Job couldn’t see the full picture of God’s judgment. He saw the moment he was living in and how unfair that single moment felt.
Do you have moments like that? I know I do, as do my kids.
When I was in high school, my younger sibling was being homeschooled while I had to attend public school. At the time I would have said it felt like the boils Job experienced with how much I disliked public school. It felt unfair to have to get up at 5:30 every morning and get home at 3 just to do homework all night when my brother could sleep in and finish with school before the rest of us were home.
As an adult, I can recognize how that was better for both of us. Our learning styles and career paths were different so we needed different schooling. But in the moment, I felt like Job was pointing to other people and thinking that it wasn’t fair they had what he wanted. That phrase the grass is always greener in someone else’s yard was how I felt. Even four year olds feel this!
My four year old has started saying the phrase “that’s not fair”. It has blown me away how early children build that phrase into their vocabulary thinking they are owed some sort of evenness with their parents, siblings, and friends. Sometimes we look down on Job for having that perspective or on others when they ask why good things happen to everyone but me.
What are some times in your life that you’ve questioned the fairness of life?
In those times, we can remember that God’s fairness isn’t for this life but the life to come. His judgement is on our actions, attitudes, and beliefs during the trials of life. It’s for a glorious, perfect, eternal kingdom and not for the 80 years we are here on earth.
This brings the question, what is God looking for? How do we find ourselves in a place that we can praise God for being the perfect judge instead of viewing life as unfair?
That’s where James comes in!
James chapter two is really what the book of James is known for. It speaks on the fact that our faith should spur on our actions in order to live a righteous life. Simple belief doesn’t make us righteous. Belief is the first step to a life committed to God. James expands on what to do once you take the step of belief.
He does this by pointing to Abraham and Rahab. For some background, Abraham is considered the founder of faith and a righteous man that we all want to strive to be like. His faith spurred him towards countless times of obedient action. The first was moving away from his home, family, and all that he knew to travel to a foreign land. During those travels he obeyed God at almost every turn. No one can claim perfect, not even Abraham, but his failures don’t define him. Instead his times of obedience do. James specifically points to Genesis 22. God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac was Abraham’s only son with his wife Sarah. Isaac was a long awaited promise who took Abraham and Sarah many years to conceive. He was God’s promises fulfilled for Abraham and the other promises God had made rested on the shoulders of Isaac. Yet, Abraham was still obedient. His actions marked his righteousness. The same goes for Rahab. She risks everything to hide the Israelite spies in Jericho.
But how do we show our faith?
Living in the United States in the 2020s doesn’t give a lot of opportunities to help hide God’s spies, discover new lands, or sacrifice everything. Some of the things Abraham did would even be extremely frowned upon in today’s society!
We can be thankful for the book of James once again. It shows that faith looks like helping others, showing fairness to everyone around us and other key ways to have our faith displayed in every aspect of our lives that we will read in the days to come.
God is our good, righteous, and fair judge. We can bring Him glory, honor, and praise through our actions towards those around us. Instead of judging others like in the story I shared from my past, we should show them love and kindness, helping when they are in need, and treating all people with respect and dignity.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
How can you remind yourself to trust in God’s judgment?
How can you praise God each day for what He has blessed you with even if the grass seems greener somewhere else?
What is one way you can show your faith to someone today?
PRAY:
Dear God, thank You for Your righteous judgment. Thank You for the Biblical examples You have gifted the world to show me how to be righteous. Heal my heart from judgement of those around me and replace it with a heart of love and kindness. Place in my life a way to show someone Your love today and open my eyes to the needs of those around me. Amen
Makenna Landry, née Cisler, an ABC graduate of 2021, is a licensed pastor of the Church of God General Conference working to service God by teaching His word and supporting His people through all aspects of life. She has two children, a passion for helping people, and loves Disney. She spends her time writing and enjoys playing board games with friends and family.
Key passage: “Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 97:10 (NIV)
Job, a man having faced great turmoil and distress. You by now have come familiar with the back and forth between Job and his friends. In today’s reading, Job laments that his friends have harshly and shamelessly reproached him not once, not twice, but ten times! His own personal inner thoughts are turmoil enough. To hear his friends speak to them aloud must have been devastating! His friends are still convinced that Job must have done something evil to deserve this wrath of God, but Job seems to see it as God simply putting him through the ringer with no clear reason. His friends blame him and he blames God. This blame game is not unfamiliar today.
In today’s psychological world, the blame game is ever a rising issue. People tend to try to place the blame on anything but themselves. Why else would someone be facing hardship if not from an outside source? Just as Bildad blames Job and Job blames God, we are constantly trying to find someone else to blame. It makes it easier to handle the hardships in life. Or so we want to think.
In reality, once we reach the end of Job we will see God speaking that neither Job nor Bildad are entirely right. We see at the beginning of Job that it was Satan causing the misfortune! The same goes for the bad things that happen in our world today. James reminds us in the reading today, that “every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17a NIV). How do you remind yourself to stop playing the blame game in your life?
Here is my suggestion:
Read the book of James! Especially the first chapter like we did today. It reminds us that trials are bound to happen and that we must persevere through them because the one who perseveres will receive the crown of life (James 1:12). Let’s take a closer look at chapter one to help understand and apply the scripture.
James opens his letter to the scattered Jewish Christians by identifying himself as a servant. He was likely the leader of the Jerusalem church and even likely to have been the half brother of Jesus and yet he identifies himself as a servant. One who gives his life in humble service to God. This humility is common among the New Testament writers and is one that we need to remind ourselves to copy. It can be easy to get wrapped up in titles, talents, awards, but our identity should always be rooted in God. He grants every good and perfect thing in life. How do you show that your life is rooted in God and not the world? This theme of rooted in God is seen throughout the book of James as it explains how to be doers and not simply hearers of the Word of God.
What does James mean when he says to “consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2 NIV)? Consider Job once again. Even though he was struggling and played the blame game with God and his friends, he still held fast to hope. Chapter 19 of Job ends with Job’s excitement and hope to see God one day. He trusted that God would restore all things even if it wasn’t during this age. James gives his readers the hope that can be held onto during trials that can help produce joy. That hope is the crown of life! This crown of life is the promise of restoration in the Kingdom of God. When all things are made new and we will live eternity with our loving creator.
How do we display joy during trials? James answers this question as well. He first reminds his readers that temptation and evil is not from God. Similarly we see this theme in today’s Psalm that wicked is the opposite of God. Wickedness can not come from something that is good. Reminding ourselves of this can help focus that God will bring good even while we are persevering through trials.
Joy is also shown through verse 19. James wrote “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” (James 1:19 NIV).
It’s hard to do that when you are facing hard times. I was recently listening to the book Vertical Marriage. It was discussing this verse and how it’s so easy to do this when life is easy, finances are secure, jobs are good, everyone is healthy and on the same page. But as soon as a snag happens all of those things fly out the window. The more we don’t listen, the more likely we will say something hurtful, and the higher chances not only yourself but the person you’re disagreeing with is to become angry. This anger comes from frustration, hurt, a lack of joy, and much more. It’s extremely easy to jump to anger when you are facing something difficult. Let this passage encourage and remind us to seek joy in all that we face.
QUESTIONS TO POUNDER
How have you found joy this week?
What are things that bring you joy? How can you praise God through those things?
PRAY
Dear Heavenly Father, Allow Your Holy Scripture to draw me closer to You. May Your Words fill me with Your gift of joy. Teach me to know Your good and perfect ways and protect me from evil. Forgive my sins and heal my wounds. May I see You, my loving heavenly father, in every moment today. Give strength for the hardship and joy that lasts. I praise you for the greatest gift of Your son. In the name of Jesus, Amen
The wisdom James is giving his readers sounds a lot like the wisdom given in the law of Moses (Leviticus 19), from the book of Proverbs, and from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5, 6, & 7). I can’t think of a better devotional than to review it and what I believe it means so I can apply it:
Let not many of you be teachers, because teachers will be more harshly judged. Teachers have a responsibility to seek God’s wisdom about what they are teaching others so that they will not lead others astray. They are influencers. If you’re going to influence someone to follow God’s word, take care that you are seeking God’s wisdom about how to interpret it so that you can lead by example, like Jesus did.
We all stumble in many ways. But if we can learn to control our tongue, we can be a perfect person, able to control how we behave. Jesus did this. He only spoke what the father told him, and then did what his father said to do.
Like a ship’s rudder directs the whole ship, or a bit in a horse’s mouth directs the whole horse, so the tongue bridled can direct the person’s behavior. The tongue speaks what’s in the heart of the person; the person’s own will. If the tongue can be tamed, by seeking God for his wisdom about what to speak and then do, the person is letting God lead, or letting God’s will direct her, or walking by the spirit.
Practice using caution when you speak, seeking God’s wisdom about what you should say and what you should do like Jesus did, so that what you say is what you do, and what you do is what God says is good.
Again, just as a small flame can set a whole forest on fire, so the tongue is a small thing, that can send a person to the grave. If what you speak is not of God, you’re speaking of your own wisdom and doing your own will. When you do this, death is the end result if you do not get back on the right path.
Man has tamed all of God’s creation, and yet he cannot tame his own tongue. With it he blesses his father but then curses men who were made in the likeness of God. Let’s not let it be this way, friends.
Who among you is wise and understanding? If you are, prove it through your good deeds. Notice that it doesn’t say the wise and understanding should become a teacher, though that should be a prerequisite, I think.
If you are wise and understanding, it will be evidenced by your bridled tongue. You will be a gentle person, who does the will of God.
Deeds that are not good, or not wisdom from above, include bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. The behaviors involved with these characteristics are earthly, or demonic, and they create disorder and evil. They are deeds done with the motivation of loving oneself without a care for others.
Deeds that are good, from above, will be produced from people who are first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. These are deeds that are done for the good of others, for love’s sake.
The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. In other words, our goal is to sow the word of God in others peacefully, so that they too will bear righteous fruit; they’ll become people who also become righteous and are peaceful.
How many times do you see the opposite happen, especially online? I work from home, with fewer opportunities to spread the gospel face to face, but I enjoy doing it online. Others use this tool as well. Unfortunately, I think many keyboard warriors have missed the mark on this one. There seems to be a motivation of pride – to win an argument, with much quarrelling and name calling, rather than peaceful planting for love’s sake. If someone doesn’t want to hear your argument, shake the dust off and move on peacefully.
Chapter 4.
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? It’s your desire to please yourself, or for your own will to be done. For example, you lust and do not have, so you murder. You are envious and cannot obtain what someone else has, so you fight and quarrel.
You do not have what you want because you do not ask. If you do ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you can spend it on your own pleasures.
You are supposed to ask to receive things for your own good and for the good of others, that is, God’s wisdom about whatever God says is good for you.
If you don’t, you’re like an adulteress, envious of something not meant for you, but you take it anyway to please yourself. When you do this, you’re a friend of the world, and an enemy of God, because you do the things opposed to his will and will therefore hurt yourself or others in the process with your own will/judgment.
He jealously desires his spirit to dwell in us, which prompts us to desire to do his will, not our own. Therefore, he gives greater grace to the humble, that is, to those who seek God’s help in making decisions (and then act on his wisdom about what to do).
So, submit to God for his wisdom. Resist the devil by resisting the urge to walk by the flesh (your own will) rather than the spirit’s urging, and the devil will flee. Remember that he fled from Jesus after his temptation because Jesus met him with this resistance. He told him he will do God’s will. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
Be humble people. Humble people cleanse their hands (stop sinning). They aren’t double-minded, they are seekers of one will, God’s. If they were sinning or seeking to please both God and man, they need to mourn and weep their sin and circumstance. Humble people will be exalted.
Don’t speak evil about your neighbor. This means do not slander; don’t charge someone falsely with malicious intent by attacking their reputation. When you do this, you have judged your neighbor as unworthy of receiving the royal treatment of love. When you do this, you have spoken against the law (of Moses (Exodus 20:16), but as it should be applied under the law of liberty) and become a judge of it, rather than a doer of it.
Instead of seeking God’s wisdom about your neighbor and what to do, you used your own wisdom to judge him falsely according to your own will. You will be put to shame, for there is only one judge, who is able to save and destroy.
We do this when we rely on our own will to make a profit as well. When you make your own decisions about what you’ll do to make a profit, or an abundance beyond what you need, and succeed, you become boastful. When you boast in relying on your own wisdom and will to make a profit, rather than relying on God for your provision and what to do with it, you’re being arrogant. Instead, seek God’s will in the matter, and do it. You don’t know what tomorrow holds for you.
If you know the right thing to do according to God’s will but do not do it, that is sin.
Chapter 5.
If you’re rich and store up treasures for yourself on earth without regard for reliance on God for your provision, nor using your abundant excess for those in need, your wasted rotting possessions will testify against you in the end (because you’ve decided to be the judge of how you’ll behave instead of relying on God’s wisdom to teach you what to do in various matters of this life).
The context here is about the rich who have been wicked, withholding the pay to those who served them in making their abundance. Like Abel crying out to God, the cries of those you’ve mistreated will reach the ears of the Lord, whom God appointed judge.
While you were enjoying your luxuries, those who worked hard but were treated badly were dying. You didn’t save them with your wealth by helping them with it. Instead, you condemned the righteous to death by withholding what could have helped them. They died without fighting against you for help.
Instead of being like this rich man, be like the righteous laborers. Be patient until the coming of the Lord, just as the farmer is patient in waiting for the precious produce of the soil to be ready. If you can be patient in thinking on the coming of the Lord whose time is near, it can strengthen your heart, and you can endure.
Don’t complain against brothers and sisters in Christ, so that you won’t be judged. The judge is standing at the door! I tie much of what I read about unrighteous complaining to the Israelite children in Massah and Meribah. They were judged for grumbling against Moses (and in turn, God) for bringing them out of slavery only to suffer in the wilderness, with no regard for the good God had done for them. They looked back at their life as a slave and thought it better than being free in the wilderness. This showed a lack of faith/trust and disobedience to God, as it was testing God.
As examples, this wisdom from God mentions the prophets of old, how they endured suffering for doing what was right in God’s eyes with patience and were counted blessed, especially the prophet Job. Those closest to him urged him to grumble against God for his poor circumstances. He never did. We know how it turned out for him in the end, full of God’s mercy and compassion. Take him as an example to follow if you are suffering.
Above all, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes and your no, no, so that you do not fall under judgement. I think this comes from Matthew 6:33. The Law of Moses says, “Do not make false vows, fulfill them to the Lord.” But Jesus says don’t make a vow at all. Let your word be good enough.
So why would this be above all? Because oaths in Jesus’s time were used to manipulate or test God. People would use vows or oaths in the name of God to get someone to do what they wanted them to do because they’d swear by God’s name. Don’t do this!!! I believe it is also part of taking God’s name in vain (e.g., “I swear to God I’ll do what I say”).
What’s in the heart of the person who swears by God’s name? It’s not to honor their commitment but to get what they want using God. Just let your word be good enough. Don’t test/use/manipulate God. He can’t be tempted anyway so you’re just condemning yourself.
If you are suffering, pray.
If you are cheerful, sing praises to God.
If you are sick, call for the elders of the church and they will pray for you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up.
Notice that if you are suffering, you are to pray, but if you are sick, you are to have someone else pray for you. I think this is because the sick person may not be able to pray as he would when well. But what follows should follow all who are righteous who pray; it should be a prayer like the Lord’s prayer, including asking for forgiveness of sins.
Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. I don’t think this is strictly in context with someone who is sick needing prayers for sin. It should be a part of our everyday life as Christians, as we pray the Lord’s prayer together. The prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought before God, can accomplish much, just like it did for Elijah when he earnestly prayed for no rain.
If anyone among you strays from the truth and someone turns him back, know that the one who has turned a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. Turning someone from sin is loving them. But be sure to be gentle when you do it. And be sure you don’t have a log in your own eye first (Prov 10:12; Matt 18:15-17; 1 Peter 4:8).
Our daily lives should involve helping each other be the people God wants us to be, working together to know and do God’s will. It will involve praising God together, serving each other, praying for one another, and helping each other abstain from sin or turning away from it. Lives are at stake.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Chapter 3 places a lot of emphasis on taming the tongue. I think this has to do with stopping ourselves to seek God’s wisdom before we speak and proceed to act on our own wisdom/with our own will. What do you think?
2. Chapter 4 seems to lump things we do that don’t seem too harmful (like quarreling) with things we deem very harmful, like murder. Jesus seems to do this too when he applies the New Covenant command of love to Old Covenant laws (i.e., don’t just refrain from murder, refrain from being angry with your brother). I think he does this to show us how to stop sin from “growing”. If you can cut off anger and love your brother, you won’t murder him. What do you think?
3. Chapter 5 made me think a lot. God is for the protection of his people. His laws are for our good and the good of others, yet he calls us to sacrifice our rights in order to save others. Others in turn are to sacrifice for us. How do you decipher when to speak up and act for justices’ sake verses staying silent and suffering unrighteousness done to you by others, knowing God will judge through Jesus in the end?
How do you want to be known? James calls himself, “a slave to God and to the Lord Jesus the Christ.” Though we’re no longer slaves, but friends of Christ, it is a great grand opening to talking about how to be perfect, which is in doing the will of God until the end of our lives (because we’ve become people who really want to)!
James is writing to the 12 tribes dispersed abroad, so in other words, he’s writing to Jewish Christians in various lands. I’m not sure what persecution was going on at the time of James’s writing, but we have seen in other books of the Bible that spreading the Gospel put a target on Christians. James gives his brethren what they need to endure whatever happens to them to the end of their lives. He gives them God’s wisdom.
James encourages his brethren to consider various trials with joy, as a testing of their faith, as it produces endurance, which results in perfection. These words point my thoughts to Jesus in the garden. What was about to happen to him was happening because others hated him for what he spoke and did, and they wanted his influence to stop. They were jealous.
Jesus was in agony thinking about the cross and thinking about the disciples and early Christians who were about to be scattered for his sake, that James may be writing to now. He endured the cross by thinking about what would be accomplished because of this final trial.
This is how you endure hardships for the Lord; you think about all of the people you will influence by following Jesus’s example so that they too can desire to love like Jesus and be saved. This perspective can bring you joy. Changing your mind to have this perspective during various trials is wisdom from God.
But if we lack wisdom about what to do, especially during hardships, all we need do is ask and God will be generous to teach us his ways. But we must ask in faith, without doubting.
We shouldn’t doubt that he’ll give us wisdom about what to do when we ask because he’s proven that he’s a good God and father, who teaches us his ways for our own good. A good father won’t give his children something that’s going to harm them when they ask for something they desire, right (Luke 11:11-13)? Of course not. He’s going to give them what they need (though it may not always seem like it, such as in the case of Jesus going to the cross).
If you doubt that God is going to give you wisdom for your own good, and instead will give you wisdom that will harm you or make your situation worse (e.g., Massah & Meribah), you’re showing him that you don’t trust him. You’re like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. You’re not going to get anything from him if you don’t trust him.
James goes on to teach the dispersed brethren a bit of wisdom that we can all heed. I think it is the wisdom of God that’s of utmost importance for us to follow as his disciples. We’re not given a set of laws we must follow in the New Covenant, but we are given wisdom. Let’s desire it like Solomon did and do it like Jesus did:
A poor man knows that God is his provider. He can glory in his humility (glory in that he seeks God’s wisdom for his survival). But a rich man that does not rely on God for his means and pursues what he wants for his own personal gain can glory in his humiliation. He’s not going to make it to the Kingdom of God without seeking the father’s wisdom about his provisions (or his abundance).
Know that this life comes with trials. Trust in God’s wisdom to get through it and let it shape you into the kingdom citizen God wants you to be, so that you won’t be a person that desires harm to come to anyone, rather, you’ll be a person who loves like his son. In the end, your crown of life will be waiting.
Understand that when temptation comes, it didn’t come from God. It came because our world has been shaped by people who didn’t always choose God’s will. It came because there is a devil lurking about, persuading people to choose to eat of the tree that’s choosing their own wisdom about what’s good and evil, and then they do evil, which affects everyone. It came because we ourselves don’t always choose God’s will. Our own lust breeds sin that will always lead to death. But choosing God’s wisdom about what we should do to overcome our lust (our own will) approves us as one who wants God as our judge when we do what God says is good.
Every good and perfect gift given comes down from the father above (meaning, it was given by God, and it was his will). It was his will that he brought us forth by the word of truth (his wisdom about creating us new in Christ), that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creation. So be the first fruits you were meant to be, as lights to the world like his son.
You already know God’s word, so put away what remains of filthiness in your life that will prevent you from seeking God’s wisdom and doing his will. Be quick to hear from God, slow to speak, and slow to anger so that you will be a person prepared to receive the word implanted, which is his wisdom about what you should do to save your soul (and your neighbor’s soul).
If you hear the word of God (God’s wisdom about what you should do) but then fail to do it, you’re like someone who looks at himself in a mirror (hearing the word only), but then walks away, forgetting what he looks like. I equate this with going to church, getting filled with the Holy Spirit to do God’s will, then forgetting that you are a child of God throughout the week, and that you were meant to shine for others to see through your works. We need to actually do what we hear. That’s the word implanted. It’s continually being filled by the holy spirit so that we can walk by it (action).
Instead of looking at yourself in the mirror, look intently at the perfect law of liberty, to love as Jesus loved, so that you won’t be an effectual hearer only of the word, but a doer. Notice in this example that there’s no walking away, in contrast to the mirror. You look intently at it so that you won’t walk away and forget. Your eyes are continually fixed upon the law that says to do something, for loves sake, to save others, just like Jesus did.
Bridle your tongue to let God’s wisdom about what you should do prevail and guide you (by being quick to hear when you ask, slow to speak so that you’re sure you’re speaking God’s will and not your own, and slow to anger – God’s will about what you should do isn’t going to be to tell you to get angry, for the most part, because anger does not bring about the righteousness of God). Your own tongue can deceive you into thinking that you’re doing God’s will, but it’s just lip service if you’re not doing what God says to do.
Pure and undefiled religion is in the doing of God’s will continually, instead of our own (which is sinning). Doing God’s will will keep us unstained by the world. For Jesus, pure and undefiled religion was laying down his life for us. For us, it may be to love orphans and widows in their distress by visiting them and giving them what they need. It can be loving anyone in distress by visiting them to help them, especially the brethren.
Don’t just do good for those who society favors. If you do, you’ve chosen to be the judge of who’s deserving of God’s royal treatment, rather than relying on his wisdom about it. God favors those who favor him, who are generally the poor, because they’re humble (they rely on God for his wisdom instead of the rich, who generally rely on their wealth).
If you show partiality by way of how you treat the poor compared to the rich, then you’ve dishonored the poor. And for what? The favor you show to the rich goes to people who oppress you. They are those who have no problem dragging you into court when an issue arises, and will there blaspheme your name to win a case against you.
If you are fulfilling the royal law from scripture (Lev 19:18), “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well, because that’s God’s will (and in so doing, you fulfill all the Law of Moses and the prophets (Mat. 7:12; 22:40 with the Shema)).
If you show partiality however, that is sin. It is sin because you’re using your own wisdom/being the judge of who’s deserving of God’s royal treatment (who gets your love and who doesn’t?). It is better to be merciful to the poor than to judge them unworthy of your mercy by way of how you treat them.
And if you sin in this way, you are guilty of sin and are convicted as a violator of the Law (of Moses, I think; but also of the law of liberty). Not showing partiality is a moral law we should still “follow” under the law of liberty because we want all people to enter the kingdom of God. Treating the poor as well as we treat the rich just may show them the love of Christ, planting a seed of faith/trust that will bring them to the kingdom.
Jesus explained how to do this with some of the laws from the Law of Moses in his Sermon on the Mount. Here it looks like James is doing it with the law against showing partiality. The wisdom from God then, is the same wisdom from God under the New Covenant regarding how to fulfill this commandment. It’s in loving your neighbor as yourself – not just the rich and influential.
Under the New Covenant, we are to speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty, serving all with God’s royal treatment (treat them how you’d want to be treated because you are motivated by love to get them into the kingdom).
If you committed the sin of showing partiality under the Old Covenant, you would have to repent by making a sacrifice to cover the sin. Under the New Covenant, you need to repent to your high priest Jesus (a much easier yoke), and stop showing partiality because you realize that you want the poor to know the love of Jesus and enter the Kingdom of God as much as you want to. If you don’t show them mercy, God will not show mercy to you on the day of judgment.
You can’t rightly say you have faith without works that are evident of your faith. Your works are how you treat people based on whose will you decide to follow. If someone says he has faith but no works, it is like telling the cold and hungry person who asked you for food to, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” without actually giving him anything. This is worthless if you don’t give him what he needs when you are able.
Belief that something is true is not enough for justification’s sake. Take the belief that God is one for example. The demons believe this to be true, but shudder. They know the truth, but their actions reveal that they follow their own will and oppose the preaching of faith in Jesus. They shudder because they know they are guilty before a powerful God and will face destruction soon.
Abraham (a Jew) had faith, and so did Rahab (a Gentile). They believed that God was able to fulfill his promises to them for their good (or that God’s people would fulfill their promise because of who their God was in Rahab’s case), and so they acted based on their belief. They are included in the promises of God because of this. Likewise, let’s prove that we have faith by our works, which are acts of love, proving that we are becoming a person like Jesus, who chooses to do God’s will for the good of all; for loves sake.
QUESTIONS
1. Do you think that the sins of others in times past have affected your walk with God? If so, how can you change that so that you will affect others with the good you do?
2. Do you think the Royal law is the same as the law of liberty/freedom?
3. If we are guilty of a sin (like showing partiality) under the law of liberty/freedom, how does our high priest Jesus differ in how our sin is handled from the high priest under the Old Covenant?
In the margins on my Bible, I had the following notes for this section (presumably thoughts on a sermon or lesson I heard in the past):
We cannot underestimate the seriousness of sin
Jesus calls us to mourn our sins in acts of genuine repentance
If our natural reaction isn’t to mourn, we should pray for God to change our hearts
Our God deserves our full-hearted obedience & worship.
#3 stuck out to me as I was reading – are there times that we don’t mourn our sin? We try to make excuses for it, why it is ok for us to do it (and maybe not for someone else).
Usually, we try not to think about our own sin. But we do need to take time to reflect on our lives so that if we do have sin, we can repent and be forgiven.
I think in doing that, it can lead us better into #4. If we are mourning our sin, repenting, and asking God to change our hearts, that can help mold us to what God desires which obedience comes from and further leads us into a deeper worship.
In reading through these verses, I see how our selfishness and self-absorbedness can cause fights among one another, can lead us to seek out worldly pleasures, and to think too highly of ourselves.
Instead, we need to humble ourselves and work on selflessness as we turn to God. And there are some wonderful promises in this!
“Come near to God and he will come near to you…Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (vs 8 & 10)
I want to draw nearer to God, and He wants that too. He isn’t looking for ways to avoid us – He is looking for us to come to Him, and He will be right there with us.
~Stephanie Fletcher
Reflection Questions
Consider where in your life you have been/are friends with the world – thus making you an enemy of God. Are there times that we don’t mourn our sin? What excuses have you made for your sin?
Where would you rank yourself on a selfishness meter – 10 being always selfish, 1 being always selfless? How is pride and humility related to selfishness and selflessness?
What heart change might God be looking for from you? Will you pray for it?
How can you work at submitting yourself to God? How can you work at resisting the devil?
Reading this passage is powerful to me. It’s only 12 verses, so take the time and read through it if you haven’t.
The imagery just really paints a picture in your mind of the kind of control being talked about. And what has this control? The tiny little tongue.
It is so small, yet so powerful.
The words you say have a powerful impact on others. A kind word can lift someone from a valley, but a negative word can push someone down who may have already been knocked down.
My 3-year-old son made the joyful revelation when talking and making faces at his baby cousin this summer – “If I’m happy at her, she’s happy at me!” Life isn’t quite always like this, but typically, if you speak kindly to someone, you are much more likely to get a positive response from them whether it is a kind word back or help in an area you are looking for.
Verses 9-10 read: With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”
[italics added]
How can we curse someone made in God’s likeness with the same mouth we praise our God with? Those ideas are so contradictory, yet it is easy to put people down.
For example, you may be aware that we have an election coming up soon. There are so many negative things being said about politicians in all parties. But how can we talk this way about someone made in the likeness of God? I think what it boils down to is that is not how we are viewing them. We are looking at them based on their actions or thoughts that we don’t agree with, but not looking at who they are as a person which is someone made in God’s likeness.
Let us try to view everyone in this way in order that we might better praise God.
~Stephanie Fletcher
Reflection Questions
What do you think God is thinking about those who praise Him and curse men?
Watch your tongue today and see how many times you speak poorly of people – or catch yourself ABOUT to speak negatively of someone made in God’s likeness. Why do you think it is so common in the world?
How can we be different? Is it possible to state your opinion about ideas without putting down people?
How are we saved? We are saved by grace alone, through our faith in Jesus Christ. But what comes out of our faith? Shouldn’t it be works?
If we start with works and try to earn our righteousness, we won’t get there. We cannot earn salvation. However, if we have faith, works should come out of that.
I think most people reading this probably know these things. You’ve probably heard a sermon, read a devotion on it, etc. But do we live that way? Do we live in a way that is trying to work on all the individual things in our lives, to clean them up one by one, to do the good things we are supposed to?
Alternatively, we can focus on growing our faith. On accepting the gift given to us and let the good works come naturally as a result of that.
The youth group at our church recently read in Romans 12 which lists many snippets on how we should be living “love must be sincere…be joyful in hope…share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality…live in harmony with one another…do not be conceited…” and many more.
We could use this as a checkbox of good works to make sure that we are doing the right things to show our salvation. But that doesn’t address our hearts. If we need a checklist to make sure we are loving one another, we need to go back and look at our hearts. What we talked about in class was to pray to have our hearts changed so that living this way would come naturally out of the overflow of our hearts. And I think this relates to the faith vs works question.
If our faith is sincere, our hearts are changed, and the result of that is good works.
A checklist can be a good way for you to ask yourself – am I living as one whose heart has been changed – but I don’t think it is good to be living our lives based off of a checklist. It focuses you more on the tasks rather than the effects of what you are doing or the purpose behind it.
So maybe ask yourself if you are doing these good things, or avoiding the bad, but if you aren’t meeting the things on that list, don’t place your focus there. Instead, pray for God to change your heart and you should start to see that happen more and more.
~Stephanie Fletcher
Reflection Questions
Where have you seen faith without works? Where have you seen works without faith? Why, do you think, God is looking for both, working together?
Are you living as one whose heart has been changed? Are you living out your faith daily? What evidence do you have to support your answer?
Have you ever spoken without thinking and hurt someone as a result? Maybe you have seen this object lesson before, but think of a tube of toothpaste. It is really easy to squeeze the toothpaste out (my kids are happy to do so in excess if they make it to the counter before me). But once it is out, it is incredibly difficult, time consuming, and messy to get that toothpaste back in. Once you speak, you can’t take your words back. You can apologize, but that doesn’t change the fact of what you said.
How quickly do you become angry? I like verse 20 which gives us a reason why we should be slow to become angry – “for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
It is easy to get angry, to speak rudely, to interrupt others’ speech. But these things do not help us to live the life God wants us to. It might make us feel better for a second to have an outburst, but usually, we feel worse afterwards and it has done nothing to improve our lives.
But how do we go about avoiding this temptation that is easy to slide into?
“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.”
In a small group I was a part of in the spring, there was an idea that kept coming up from discussing the sermons – if you aren’t producing good fruit in your life, take a look – are you letting sin have a hold in your life? We have to be constantly on the lookout for where sin seeps in and push it out in order that our fruit can show.
Verse 22 – “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says[!]” You have to act. It is great to go to church, listen to sermons, classes, read the Bible on your own, etc. All great things. But if all you do is listen, it isn’t going to make a difference. You need to actively push the sin out of your life and pursue the good.
To circle back to the beginning of this section, here is what James writes in verse 26 “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.”
That is strong language! Do you thing about your words having such an impact as to make your religion worthless if you do not control your tongue?
Think about your speech – do you need to work on controlling what you say? Is there speech you need to ask for forgiveness for? Is there speech you need to forgive someone else for? What moral filth do you need to get rid of in your life in order to be able to accept God’s word?
Silence has value. In the words of Thumper “if ya can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”
~Stephanie Fletcher
Reflection Questions
Do you thing about your words having such an impact as to make your religion worthless if you do not control your tongue? When might you have questioned someone else’s religion because of what they said? When was the worth of your own religion decreased due to what you said?
Think about your speech – do you need to work on controlling what you say? Is there speech you need to ask for forgiveness for? Is there speech you need to forgive someone else for?
What moral filth do you need to get rid of in your life in order to be able to accept God’s word?
Seek Grow Love 