Life Project Blog

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

James 1:22-25

One of my very favorite verses in all of the Scriptures is verse 22, and I can’t help but notice that it’s almost never quoted outside of a study of James; not even by me! I really love this verse because it just brushes past all the arguments and excuses and comes right down to the bottom line: Do what it says!

We aren’t just to read the Word, we’re supposed to follow the Word, just like we aren’t just supposed to be in Christ, we are supposed to follow Him. So simple, yet so seldom done. If we just read it, we deceive ourselves because we get the idea that everything is great, after all, I read my Bible today. Then what do we do, go out and do what everybody else does? In the immortal words of Chef Gordon Ramsey, “That’s not good enough!”

James follows with an interesting illustration, that of someone looking into a mirror, seeing their face and then forgetting what they looked like. Hearing the Word and not following it is pretty much a waste, for we are to put it into effect in our lives.  Even better, James tells us exactly what he means.

We are to gaze at the “perfect law that gives freedom” intently, and then act accordingly. To fully comprehend James’ instruction, all we need to do is to know what he means by “perfect law that gives freedom.”  I think Jesus can help us out here:

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:37-30

James is talking about putting our love of God and of one another into action; if we do we will be blessed in everything that we do. What a simply amazing little passage, so simple, so clear.

What holds us back?

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

James 1:19-21

I really like these verses, they are both familiar and practical; to me they are also profoundly important as a way of life.  Verse 19 is quoted so often that I’m not even sure those who quote it know it’s from the Word and it is certainly great advice, but how often do we take the time to notice that it is only the introduction to a larger theme?

First the advice: Quick to listen. For many of us, that would be quite an accomplishment in itself.  I don’t know about you, but there are still times when I find myself neglecting this one.  Slow to speak is the next one, and I know plenty of people who struggle with this. As for me, I’m usually slow to speak, but once I start you can’t shut me up; OK, maybe we are all “works in progress.” Slow to become angry is the third in this series, and it is a real problem for some. I doubt I need to say much more on this…

Verse 20 has the point James is setting up in verse 19, yet it isn’t quoted so often as the previous verse for some reason. Human anger doesn’t produce “the righteousness that God desires.” Have you ever thought about that? What does our anger really produce?  Out of every 10 times we become angry, how many times does our anger produce anything worthwhile?  OK, I can see that there are rare cases when we become angry over an injustice and then we do something about it.  Yet even in those times, if we are acting out of anger, how often can we avoid inflicting a second injustice because we don’t stop soon enough? An example: We become angry because we see someone shove another person out of their way; how do we respond? We might let them have it with angry words, and call them all sorts of ugly names.  Do two wrongs cure an injustice? It is very difficult to respond in anger without going too far.

Verse 21 is the conclusion, something we can tell right away because of the word “therefore.” Therefore is always the conclusion when someone is making a persuasive case. What James was really getting at in the first two verses was this: “get rid” of all that “moral filth” and “evil” that is “prevalent” and “humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”

Let’s pause a moment and think about this “get rid” part. This is a metaphor that is used several times in the New Testament, for in the Greek it looks like the “taking off” and “putting on” that Paul likes to use. Here it would go something like this: “Take off those filthy rags that are covered with evil and clothe yourself with the righteousness of God.”  Now, looking at verse 21 again, we can see that we are to take off (get rid of) the moral filth and evil, and put on (humbly accept) the Word that can save you. Here’s a question you might want to ask yourself: Is the “Word” a what or a who?

If you regularly read Scripture, you should know that I am going to say that this “Word” that can save you is none other than the Person of Jesus Christ.  Yes, dear reader, going back to the beginning, if we are quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger, we would be putting our trust for Christ into action. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

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

James 1:12-15

James is summing up this section here, and he returns to the idea of perseverance. We should consider trials a blessing, for in coming through trials, we learn to persevere in our faith, to remain firm in all situations and ensure that when the Day comes, we will receive the “crown of life.”

This is indeed a message of hope, giving us, as it does, a whole different perspective on the trials that everyone faces in this life. James goes on to point out that trials do not come because God is tempting us, for God does no such thing, He doesn’t need to; we seem to find our way into temptation quite on our own. Each of us has our own dark little secret place where we hide our desires and evil motivations.  They pop up periodically and we follow them, and the result is that we fall into sin, and if we let that sin carry us away with it, death ensues.  In this case, “death” is separation from God as opposed to in the physical sense.

So, there is the pattern, there is the cycle; the question is how can we stop it? In James’s words, how can we “persevere” in our faith?

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

James 1:16-18

We have a pretty good hint in these verses, for as James says “every good and perfect gift is from above.”  Where can we look to quash those evil desires that lead us to temptation?  Above! We can increase our focus on our relationship with Jesus Christ.  God does not trick us, nor does He move the goal posts, for He is reliable, constant and true. He is our source of light, life and truth; He is where we need to look in a time of trial and testing, not this world or our own inner desires.  As Paul put it elsewhere, we should set our minds on “that which is above”. That is where our salvation from trials comes from; that is where we will receive the crown of life.

Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they 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 will fade away even while they go about their business.

James 1:9-11

In this brief text, James jumps to a subject that will keep cropping up in this letter: Rich and Poor.  James takes an approach to this subject that is very much in line with that of Jesus, and is quite different from the one most have today, for James sees material wealth as a snare.

Have you ever seen a TV show called “The Edwardian Country House”? In my history geek view, it is the best “reality” show of all time. A bunch of volunteers are placed in an Edwardian era country house in northern England, and they have to live and work as people would have in the Edwardian Era (1901-1910) for three months.  There is a family who are designated as the Lord and Lady of the Manor, and they must live as such high-ranking people would have lived in those times, being waited on hand and foot. The rest are the servants, from the butler to the scullery maid, and they do all the work.  Boy oh boy do these people have their challenges adjusting from the 21st century to Edwardian times!

In those days, everyone went to church. In one episode they show how this worked out. The Family rode to church in their motor car; the “upper servants” rode in a horse-drawn carriage behind, and everybody else walked the two miles each way.  Now of course, everyone involved was a “good Christian” but they had very different stations in life. The rich landowners all sat in the front of the church in places of honor, while their servants sat in the very back or in the balcony in silence as second-class citizens.

I thought this was an important scene for any Christian to see, for it shows how the attitudes of this world have played out in the Body of Christ.  Of course history shows us that this sort of thing has gone on since the very early days of the church, and we see much written against it in Scripture, such as in these verses; interesting isn’t it? Have you seen things along these lines?

As for me, I’ve only seen this kind of thing expressed in subtle ways, but I’ve seen it, and it is nothing less than disgraceful. In Christ, we are equal. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, black or white, rich or poor, for in God’s eyes we are His children… and we are all expected to love one another and to put the interests of others ahead of our own.

I think this is an important point for all of us to reflect upon and to ask for God’s guidance in, that we might truly understand what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

James 1:2-8

We begin our adventure with James on a good note; expectations running high. After providing his name and addressing his letter to the 12 tribes scattered all over, he jumps right into rich content with these verses.  I used to think this was a really odd thing to say, you know consider it pure joy when you go through a trial.  Yet James has a real point here, for we don’t normally develop perseverance in any field of endeavor without facing a trial of some sort, and living in this world, we will surely need perseverance.  Let’s face it, nobody grows to maturity in life without developing some perseverance, and as time goes by, being immature ceases to be cute and moves into the category of unattractive.

Verse 5 has always been of particular interest to me; James makes it sound so easy.  If you lack wisdom, ask God for it and He’ll give it to you.  Personally, I’ve noticed that if I ask for wisdom, I get trials. If I ask for patience, I get trials. If I ask for perseverance, I get trials.  Do you suppose there is a connection? I admit that this isn’t very scientific, anecdotal as it is, but James might be going somewhere like this in his thinking: Trials are an important part of spiritual growth and there is no way around that.

That brings us headlong into verse 6. When you ask God for wisdom, “you must believe and not doubt” and to be honest, it strikes me that this is where we sometimes go wrong.  I don’t just mean because we might have doubts, but because we often draw the wrong conclusion from James’ remark. If I ask for wisdom and get a trial instead, is that because I doubted, or is it because wisdom comes from experience? All too often, the Sunday school answer to that is that we lack faith.  This isn’t the point James is making here. His point is much deeper than that.

Look at what comes next: Someone who doubts is like a wave that is “blown and tossed by the wind.” This isn’t talking about someone who doubts God will answer their prayer with a sort of direct download of the “Wisdom App” it is referring to someone who doubts that Jesus is the Lord. That person is likely to be tossed on the churning seas of this world, never quite getting their bearings, always unsure, confused, adrift. This is where I used to ask my students, particularly the grad students a question: Do you really believe that what you believe is really real?

Well, do you?

The answer to that question, dear reader, is not only the key to understanding this passage, it is also the key to understanding most things. The person with doubts will receive nothing much, for they are “double-minded” and “unstable in all they do.” They are double-minded not because they are immature in their faith, but because they haven’t made their minds up; they are still holding back, holding on to the old life, seeking a compromise or a safety net. They are “unstable” because they haven’t entirely committed, and how can we learn to persevere if we hold back, straddle the fence and don’t commit?

Now you can see why I warned you to have your seat belts fastened, there will be some bumpy air at this altitude.

There are five men named James in the New Testament who could have written been the author of this letter. Three of the five are high-profile enough to be good candidates, so let’s have a very brief look at them.

1. James, the brother of Jesus.

2. James the Apostle, son of Zebedee.  This James was one of the inner-circle of Jesus, along with Peter and John.  Although he might be a good guess for authorship, he was beheaded by Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:2) around 44 A.D., meaning that this Letter would have been by far the earliest written of the New Testament books.  If he had written it, one would have expected him to mention that he was an Apostle in the letter, and there is no mention of apostleship.

3. James the Apostle, son of Alpheus. Again, there is no mention of apostleship, so the same objection would apply. Very little is known about this James.

The other two men mentioned in the New Testament who have this name are quite obscure, making them unlikely authors of a major letter such as this. I would conclude that the author is James, (half) brother of Jesus and brother of Jude.

As for the date and specific purpose of the letter, James gives us no real clues, so in these posts, I won’t speculate, rather I will focus on the more universal application as most commentators tend to do.  It is an interesting letter, almost a moral code.  The author seems to borrow from the moral coda of Leviticus 19, and parallels topically the Sermon on the Mount, and interestingly also appears to have been influenced by two Apocryphal books;  I’ll include a “Bonus Study” on that.

Looking at the theme and structure, James is interesting, for one could easily teach it by topic rather than by using en expository approach as I will do here.  The topics are

1. Waiting for Jesus  (1:2-4, 12-18; 5:7-12)

2. Wisdom  (1:5-8; 3:13-18)

3. Rich and Poor  (1:9-11; 2:1-13; 4:13-16; 5:1-6)

4. The Tongue  (1:19-21;, 26; 3:1-12; 4:11-12)

5. Prayer  (1:6-8; 4:1-10; 5:13-20)

6. Faith and Action  (1:22-27; 2:14-26)

To say the least, it’s an unusual outline, and we’ll get to it next, so have some hot coffee ready, pull up your chairs and fasten your seat belts, this is going to be a lot of fun!

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Colossians 4:2-6

This is a really neat little passage; there’s so much to see.  As Paul closes out his letter, he reminds the people to be devoted to prayer, and while this may seem routine, after all, Apostles talk about prayer a lot, Paul here seems to bring it to life.  I’m always struck by the idea of prayer being “watchful and thankful.”  Maybe thankful, as in giving thanks isn’t so surprising, but watchful!  How often do you hear someone say that we should be watchful in our prayers?

Watchful for what?  Things you want God to give you, like little favors?  “Oh yes, and Father please send me that new Lexus…” something like that?  Somehow I doubt it. Maybe watchful for someone who needs intercession, maybe an opening for the Gospel, maybe something that is within God’s priority system− yes that seems more like the kind of “watchful” that Paul has in mind.  He continues by asking for the people to pray for him, but again, not in the way we might expect.  Notice, that even though he is in prison, he didn’t ask them to pray for his release, he asked them to pray that he might preach the Gospel effectively.

I don’t know about you, but that gets my attention every time!  When Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:5 ff. He taught us to pray for God’s priorities. “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”  Do we remember to do that? Are we watchful for specifics that fit into this category?  Well, I can only speak for myself, but truth be told, I forget or overlook this more often than I’d care to admit. Paul seems to continue in this line of thinking when he advises us to be wise when speaking to “outsiders,” non-Christians.  We are to be ready to make the most of every opportunity, to show them the love of Jesus Christ: Maybe we should pray for those opportunities.  We are to speak to them “with grace, seasoned with salt…” Grace is often defined as “unmerited favor” meaning that we are to deal with them in love; more love than they might deserve.

I have a little secret for you to consider:  Speaking to someone with grace is not telling them that they are wrong, even if they are.  It doesn’t mean calling them names, or being critical of the way they live.  Yes, there is a fair chance that they live as unbelievers, but guess what? They are unbelievers, and that may be just how they are supposed to live.  Our job isn’t to correct the world, it is to save the world for Christ.  This requires grace, not criticism.  Salt is an interesting metaphor; I’ve heard many different explanations for this, so I’ll throw out my thoughts.  When we season food with salt, we add it to bring out the full flavor of the ingredients, and when we speak with grace, seasoned with salt, we are sharing the full love of God who so loved the world that He sent His Son to die to save it.  We need our speech to be so full of His grace, that nobody hears the slightest little bit of condemnation come from our lips!

So, when you put this all together, maybe I should remember to pray that God will bring me opportunities, and give me the words to share, so that some may be saved.  What do you think; do you need to join me in praying this way? If not, I’d love to hear why that is.

Colossians 3:18-4:1

In this section, Paul gives insight to how Christians should behave in the major personal relationships of daily life.  In 3:18-19, he speaks of husbands and wives, in 3:20-21 he speaks of parents and children, and from 3:22-4:1, masters and slaves, or today we would say employers and employees.  If you think about it, we spend most of our waking lives in one of these relationships, at least most of us do.

We can easily sum up all of these relationships by saying that in each, we are to put others ahead of ourselves. This is certainly true in Paul’s instructions to husbands and wives, even though he uses language in verse 18 that isn’t modern.  That wives should put their husbands first may not sound contemporary, but husbands are also to put their wives first.  This might be a little clearer in the parallel passage in Ephesians 5:22-33.

The same thing is true of the relationship between parents and children.  Both are to put the other first, giving honor where honor is due and giving love and nurture where they are due.  In the case of master and slave, or employer and employees, we have again the idea that both are to consider the other, with workers doing their very best always “as working for the Lord” and the boss is told to always do what is fair and right “because you know that you have a Master in heaven.”

I think that what is really important in this passage is the principle of putting others first.  This principle is at the very heart of “love your neighbor as yourself.”  All too often, people approach the concept of love looking at what they will get out of it, but this is surely not what Jesus had in mind when He taught us that the first will be  last and the last will be first.  We love and serve others because we love Jesus Christ, not because we want something. In short, we serve others because we have been called to serve, and in doing so we are serving our God, because we love Him.

Yes, there are always some who will want to take advantage, but we know that we are serving the Lord, and that “Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.” (v. 25)

One final thought, for some this is a hard concept to embrace, but it lies at the heart of Christian discipleship.  It is all so normal to expect that we receive something from our efforts, be it money or appreciation or loyalty, and people often disappoint us.  The key is that we are not merely serving the other person, we are serving our Lord, and He never disappoints.  Seek His presence, seek His love, focus your thought process on your relationship with Him… and follow where He leads.  He will lead you to serve where you should serve, and to avoid what should be avoided.