Summing Up

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Don Merritt

There are some misconceptions surrounding this book, and maybe that is why many modern-day teachers avoid it. Can Jesus be found in James? Well, let’s see… didn’t I write a “Bonus Post” on its connection with the Sermon on the Mount? Remember the chart? Every verse from James 1:2 through James 5:18 has a direct parallel in the Sermon on the Mount… and commentators say Jesus isn’t in James… that only leaves three verses without a direct parallel!

Does James really stress works over faith?  Now be careful before you say that he does, remember the parallel with the Sermon on the Mount! If you’ve followed these posts, you have seen that James teaches that salvation comes by faith, and that as Christians we put that faith into action, which is exactly what Jesus taught. It is true that James hasn’t used the “magic words” of certain teachers who came along centuries later, but the essence is the same, for there is no conflict between faith and works, unless you manufacture one yourself.

Here’s What I Think…

James gives us a whole bunch of moral teachings and then places priority on our relationship with Christ through intercessory prayer for one another: Love in action. Jesus said that the whole Law and prophets were fulfilled in the command to love God and love your neighbor as yourself; James demonstrated this principle in action. If you approach Scripture the way many theologians do, you are looking for proof texts to plug into your systematic theology chart, and you miss this treasure “hidden” in the book of James.

Some commentators have claimed that James is a legalistic book, are they right?

Personally, I don’t think so, but I can see why they say it.  There seems to be an impulse in some traditions to assert rules and even condemnation of others at every opportunity, and James gives these good folks a great deal of highly quotable material, as long as context isn’t an issue for them… and context in James isn’t as easy to identify as it is in other places. My real question relates not so much to James as it does to the impulse to make rules to hold others accountable to.

Here’s another way of saying this: Why is it that some Christians read the Scriptures and see faith in terms of ordinances and violations while others see love and our response to love?

Obviously, I’m not the first to ask this sort of question, and just as obviously I won’t be the last to have a stab at it, if nothing else I hope to encourage you to give this a thought or two. In the next post, I’ll share mine…

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The Beatitudes and Forgiveness, part 1

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Don Merritt

Matthew 5:3-12

I have no doubt that you are familiar with this text; it is one of the most often quoted in Scripture. No doubt you’ve studied it in studies, classes and sermons many times, but have you ever considered who is the one who is not blessed? In this final lesson on forgiveness, let’s take a look at this “other side” of the Beatitudes and see where forgiveness is and where unforgiveness is. After that, let’s examine a question about forgiveness: Might God expect us to forgive because it is better for us and our own well-being than not forgiving would be?

Before we jump in, let’s all be on the same page about the term “blessed”. The Greek word rendered “blessed” in the English is makareos which means “happy.” So, where the text says “Blessed are…” it means “Happy are…” in common English.

5:3       “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

For a person to be called “poor in spirit” they must be humble, loving, and gentle. Those who are not poor in spirit would include those who are proud, boastful, and arrogant. If you think about it, being proud and arrogant requires a great deal of effort. You must always be right, you must always meet a challenge head-on, and you can never endure an insult or slight.

5:4       Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.

People who mourn are capable of forming relationships. They love other people and can allow themselves to grieve their loss when those people are gone, but someone who does not mourn has no such relationships. They have set themselves apart from loving human interactions and cannot mourn for they do not feel warmth. These must be lonely and miserable people.

5:5       Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.

The meek are very much like the poor in spirit. They are gentle and humble and they do not strive for fame and fortune, they don’t need to be the center of attention enforcing their will on other people. Yet those who are not meek must do all of these things. Imagine the burden they must carry! At a social guttering, they feel the pressure to impress, to entertain, and to know all. They can never let their guard down, lest someone should outshine them. If someone were to wrong them, what you would get is drama that lasts weeks if not months.

5:6       Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled with it, but what about those who don’t? They will not find righteousness, they will not find God’s way nor will they receive mercy. Once again, they have cut themselves off from that which is right, pure, and good and do not follow God’s ways. What a miserable lot they have chosen for themselves!

5:7       Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.

The merciful show mercy to others; they forgive those who wrong them, but those who are not merciful hold grudges. They can’t bring themselves to forgive even a small slight, for they are much too self-important for that. Try to imagine the load they force themselves to bear in holding on to their anger, resentment, and pain as they struggle through life. Imagine the pressure and energy it would take to exact revenge for anyone who might offend them.

Take a moment or two to consider what we’ve seen so far… and I’ll see you next time, when we will wrap this up.

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James Closes His Letter

Posted on April 22, 2025 by Don Merritt

James 5:13-20

In concluding his letter, James speaks on prayer in the only passage in his letter that doesn’t have a direct parallel in the Sermon on the Mount. Actually, this is one of the strongest statements concerning the power of prayer in the entire New Testament, and if you are like me, it’s also one of the most challenging. Oh yes, it’s all well and good to read about the power of prayer, but we live in a “sophisticated” time of knowledge and science, and we are likely to find some of James’ comments quaint and folksy, but hardly 21st century. Yet, there it is, what are we going to do with it?

Verses 13-15 deal with trouble, happiness, and sickness, and with trouble and sickness we are urged to pray, while in happiness we are told to praise.  Verse 15 is challenging for us: “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”  How are we to understand this? If you have been with me for a long time, surely you have an idea of what is going here… don’t you? Each of the books we have studied in the past tells us clearly to change our focus away from our earthly understanding and put it onto a heavenly understanding of things. Sickness is a physical affliction, and while that can be a very rough thing to deal with (persevere is a word that comes to mind) it is not the end game.

So often we have looked at things like this, and when the outcome, at least in physical terms, wasn’t the one we expected or hoped for, we let someone convince us that we didn’t have enough faith. Did it ever occur to anyone that our prayer wasn’t within God’s will for the person? I know this can be hard, yes I’ve been there too, but maybe God had a better plan for the sick person than leaving them here in this vale of tears.

Do we really believe that what we believe is really real?

If so, prayer isn’t about getting what we want from God, it’s about getting what God wants for others. Yes, that is a thought worth reflecting upon…

Notice that verse 16 begins with “therefore”

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

In verse 15, we saw that prayer would make the sick person “well”. The word translated “well” is also the word that is used for salvation. Even more interesting, the verse ends by saying their sins will be forgiven: “Therefore…” verse 16. This should be a familiar pattern for setting context by now, what is James actually teaching?  It would appear that the higher priority is on being healed from our sin, and oh yes, if the Lord wills it, from sickness too.

Verses 17 and 18 give us the example of Elijah as a great man of prayer, and then we come to 19-20:

My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

James 5:19-20

Have you ever wandered off the path, maybe not even realizing it, and then you found yourself rather far afield of where you should have been in your faith? Well, I have! Whoever helps someone back from one of these wandering periods saves them from death and covers a multitude of sins.  I hope you will take special note of two things:

1. This is the last verse in this passage, summing up its contents. With this in mind, when James is talking about healing sick persons through prayer, what is he really getting at?

2. This is also the ending of the letter, summing up its contents: What is the letter, and all of this moral instruction here for?

To complete our tour of James, we’ll wrap this up in the next two posts with some thoughts on the book’s message and application for us today, see you there!

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Simplicity, Naïveté and the Ways of God

Posted on April 22, 2025 by Don Merritt
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Recently a friend of mine was speaking with a small group of people; they were asking him questions about various things. One of them asked him what kind of programs and outreach activities he thought would best help a church to reach their community, and he told them that he doubted programs or activities would help them reach their community at all; they seemed surprised.

That was not the “right” answer.

Instead, he suggested they make an effort to disciple their congregation.

That wasn’t the “right” answer either.

They told him that their congregation wasn’t reaching the community because the pastor wasn’t very good at “evangelism”.

He suggested they make an effort to make disciples of their congregation: Wrong again! Nope, churches can only reach the community for Christ when the pastor is really dedicated to “personal evangelism” and gets out there and “brings the people in”.

My friend suggested that if their congregation grew into disciples, they would have a hundred people sharing their faith in deed and action as well as in word, but yes, you guessed it, that was the wrong idea.

His suggestion is too simple, too simplistic, too naïve; nobody will ever do that… Why, his suggestion as it turns out, is pretty much childish. This was a sophisticated bunch; my friend is not sophisticated, he is naïve and childish in his thought about their problem, for becoming a disciple who shows their faith by the way we live, who shares, loves and cares about other people is unrealistic in this modern age, and way too hard. Only a simplistic child would suggest that!

Maybe so…

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:3

…or maybe we just prefer things to be way too complicated.

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“Above all”

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Don Merritt

James 5:7-12

This passage opens with the words, “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters…” (James 5:7a) and to really lock our understanding of it up, we should look at the word “then.” The Greek word here is ounwhich means “then, therefore, accordingly, consequently, these things being so”.  King James translates it “therefore” and both KJV and NIV have it right. You might wonder why I’m going to such lengths for “then” since I usually avoid this sort of discussion in these posts, and there is a solid reason. You may recall that in the last post, I spoke of keeping it in context and mentioned both the verses beginning at 4:1 and today’s section in asserting an overall context, something very difficult to do in this letter as I pointed out at the beginning of our review of James.  Verse 5:7 is where this is tied together in context, and atypically, it sets context backwards in the text by demonstrating that James is now summing up the prior lessons he has taught.

So, in light of all of this, James is telling us to be patient. In light of his discussion of favoritism, not loving the world, etc., we need to be patient until the Lord returns, for this life here on earth isn’t always easy and can lure us off the path of our faith. See it?

He uses an example of a farmer patiently waiting for his crops to grow before he can bring in the harvest (5:7b) He urges us not to grumble against one another, and equating “grumbling” with “judging” he warns that we will be judged if we do, for the Judge is near at hand (5:9).  In verse 10 he cites the prophets as examples of patient endurance, urging us to do likewise and in the next verse reminds his readers that they count those who have persevered as blessed, pointing out that the Lord used these people for great things, and reminding them of His mercy. Finally, in verse 12 he tells his readers that they must not swear:

Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.

James 5:12

“Above all” why “above all”?

“Above all” is used by other New Testament writers to introduce their final point, and it would appear that James is doing the same here, where he is referring to taking oaths.

James is mirroring what Jesus taught in Matthew 5:33-37, where Jesus said almost the same thing James is saying here. Jesus was tracing the Law of Moses which also prohibited oaths that were sworn by God that what a person was saying was true. This is taking the name of the Lord in vain and profanes God. Swearing by something on the earth is idolatrous, so this is a “catch 22” situation: No swearing.  As a consequence of this, US law allows one to “affirm” rather than “swear” a legal oath. In fact, Harry Truman “affirmed” rather than having sworn for his oath of office, the first president to do so.

The next and concluding section of the letter is a prayer, and we will see that in the next post.

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The role of feelings and emotions

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Don Merritt

In most cases, our feelings and emotions don’t help us to make the right choices when we have been wronged. In such cases anger, outrage and hurt are normal and sensible reactions, but as experience teaches us, these usually fade with the passing of time, and we begin to heal. We may not always be ready to forgive a wrong at the moment of its occurrence, but within a reasonable time frame, we come to the place where we can make the choice to forgive, and we should do so. If you consider our opening verses from Galatians, I think this point should be clear, after all, does unforgiveness belong in the category of acts of the flesh, or as one of the fruits of the Spirit? Again, fully healing is a process and may take time, but it is sped up considerably after we make the choice to forgive.

“Hold on a minute, what if the person doesn’t ask for forgiveness?”

“If your brother or sistersins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” Luke 17:4-5

Some might quote this verse as “proof” that they needn’t forgive if there is no repentance… and even to justify “letting them have it.” Unfortunately, they would have a contextual problem, however. In Luke’s account, this falls into a section on the duty of a servant, you might find the full context of interest: Luke 17:1-10. I think you’ll discover that Jesus didn’t give you an “out” He gave you a command involving maximum humility. Matthew writes on the same question in Matthew 18:21-33 and follows with the parable of the unfaithful servant, the bottom line of which is forgive or you won’t be forgiven.

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Sunday Sermon Notes: April 20, 2025

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Don Merritt

Resurrection Sunday 2025

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Romans 6:1-4

With these words, Paul launches his argument that sin is not irrelevant because of grace. No, we don’t keep on sinning so that we might receive even more grace, how can we do such a thing?

What exactly and precisely, does it mean for us to be “born again”?

The answer is in these verses: We are baptized into Jesus’ death; this is where the “old me” died with Him. When Jesus was placed into the tomb, He was most assuredly dead, but then a curious thing happened: He rose from the dead. When I was baptized, they put me under the water and then a curious thing happened to me also: I came up out of the water a new man: I was born again. I was a new creation because I went under without the Holy Spirit, and I rose up with the Holy Spirit within me; “sin” remained behind. (see also Acts 2:38) You see, when I was baptized, not only was my sin stricken from my “permanent record” I became a new person. As a new person, why would I want to run back to the old way? That would be stupid!

Paul continues with the idea of having died with Christ as he moves from the picture of baptism to that of having been crucified with Christ. In this imagery, he reasons that since our old selves were crucified with Christ, our old selves died, and thus we are set free from the sin that ruled over us, so that now, united with Christ in His resurrection, we are free to live for God.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

Romans 6:8-10

These verses reflect the key point that Paul is making here: just as Christ died when His mortal human body was put to death, so also was our old self put to death when we decided to believe Him. Just as Christ rose from the grave, so also we rose again from baptism to be born again with an entirely new kind of life within us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. He continues…

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 6:11-14

Let’s consider the following phrases from 11-14:

… count yourselves dead to sin … do not let sin reign… Do not offer any part of yourself to sin … offer yourselves to God… offer every part of yourself to him…

Does anyone see a pattern here?

These little bits of text have something in common: They are commands that leave us with a choice to make. The choice is whether or not we will follow the command.

Jesus has entirely set us free from the oppression of sin; let it go so you can live a new life: This is Paul’s teaching on the subject of sin.

Before you say I’m crazy, consider one other point: Did you notice the way Paul is referring to “sin”? He isn’t speaking of it in the sense of rules and violations here; no, he is almost personifying it as a person or force of some kind. In that sense, it has no power over you any more, unless you allow it. (“Do not offer any part of yourself to sin”…”offer yourself to God”)

How can this be? How can I just be done with sin?

(Hint: you have a whole new life within you)

You see, in Christ, you are not under law, but under grace; offer yourself to God− He’s waiting for you.

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Great Days!

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Don Merritt

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will knowmy Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

John 14:1-7

This particular text is one of the most beloved in all of the Scriptures, full of love, hope and reassurance, containing some of the most memorable phrases in the Bible, and indeed in all of literature.  In the discussions that have come before it, there has been a challenge in the example Jesus set when He washed the disciples’ feet.  There has been a betrayal and predictions of Jesus’ death and then of Peter’s denial of Jesus.  Now, Jesus seeks to comfort the  disciples and to help them begin to understand that the events which would soon follow are nothing less than God’s Eternal Plan coming to its climax.

Verse 1 is the transitional verse that takes us from the tension and distress of the latter part of chapter 13 into a new topic.  Jesus is telling the disciples to take heart because He is not going to forsake them, even though He must be returning to the Father.  The key phrase here is “believe in God; believe also in me.”  It is key because it is phrased not as a suggestion or as advice but as an imperative: Believe!

Then, in verses 2-4Jesus uses the illustration of the Father’s house to tell them that His leaving is to serve the purpose of preparing their place in God’s “house”.  He uses an interesting method to tell them that He will return for them in due course so that where “I am” you also will be.  This is a clear play on the words “I am” and it indicates that upon His return there will be some amount of sharing His “I am-ness” with His disciples.

Having left off in verse 4 by telling them that they know the way to where He is going, He now responds to the insistence of Thomas that they don’t even know the where, much less the how…Jesus, with evident patience, tells them again what He has been telling them for a long time: He is the Way, you can only come to the Father through Jesus Himself.  He is the Truth; you can know no other truth, for no other truth is genuine.  He is the Life, for there is no other life that is eternal. He expands on this in verse 7 by pointing out to them that He and the Father are one.  If we want to know the Father, we will see Him revealed in His Son.  If we want to see the Father, we will see Him in His Son.

These verses comprise the opening of Jesus’ final discourse with His disciples at the Last Supper. A great deal will take place very shortly, culminating in His death on the cross. At the time, it would have been difficult for those disciples to put the pieces together to fully understand all that Jesus had told them about this time, and the eternal significance of those events. Yet for us, in looking back at those momentous events, it becomes clear that as traumatic as those days undoubtedly were for the disciples, they were not a time of loss, but a time of glorious victory, in which they had gained everything.

And so, it is for us today.

We are here on Saturday, waiting for our celebration of the Resurrection on Sunday. As we do so, we should remember that the victory is already won, and tomorrow, the Third Day, the Lord’s Day…Resurrection Sunday, will see the confirmation of everything that God has accomplished for us through His Son Jesus. Even more, as sure as the sun will rise on Sunday, Jesus arose from the grave all those years ago, and as surely as He rose, we will rise also from the grave on the Last Day.

Great days indeed!

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The Love of… Stuff

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Don Merritt

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

James 5:1-6

As we begin the fifth chapter, it’s easy to forget how the fourth chapter ended and think these verses are standing on their own as so many of these paragraphs have in this book, particularly if we have a modern translation with subheadings added, such as the NIV, where this paragraph has a subheading, and then verses 7 ff. have a different subheading.  If we continue in that way, and many commentators approach this as a “stand alone” section, these verses won’t make much sense unless we resort to a political understanding. I rather doubt that the politics of class envy are what James had in mind… if hadn’t been invented yet!

In the previous section, covered in the previous post, James is teaching people about priorities and keeping our priorities on God’s purpose and will, and avoiding the arrogant view that we are in charge, not God. Here, he is pronouncing God’s coming judgment on those who oppress the poor for their own personal gain, and in the next section he urges us to be patient for the Lord’s coming is near at hand, and further urging people not to judge one another… which was his point in 4:1-12.  Taking this larger passage into account and remembering that James has mentioned the rich twice before in his letter while teaching us first, not to show favoritism and then not to love this world and its allures, can you see how context is really important here? This isn’t “bag on the rich guy” as much as it is watch out for what’s going on in our own minds…

So dear reader, are you rich?

No, of course not, and neither am I. By the way, are you on your own computer as you read this… or are you on your smart phone… or your iPad or Kindle Fire? Is this your internet connection?  Do you realize that compared to most of the world’s population you are rich? Yeah, I’m not crazy about that thought either!

I can’t think of a passage anywhere in the Word that says that material wealth is evil or bad, but there are a lot of passages that warn us about being caught up in wealth, or lording it over others, and certainly there are passages about being tight-fisted and failing to help to meet the needs of others.

If it can be said that this letter has an over-riding theme, it would have to do with putting our love into action, you know, that “love your neighbor” thing… well Jesus was serious about that. We don’t need to be millionaires or super-rich to be tempted to love money and things, in fact if I were to be entirely honest, I would have to confess that I have met considerably more people of modest means who are lovers of money than I have rich people who are lovers of money. No, I’m not kidding… think about it! How about old Uncle Joe who is always so ticked off at those who have more than he does… Doesn’t he complain just a little too much?

Do you see it yet; have you gotten the point…?

It doesn’t matter how much you have, if we love the things of this world whether it’s money, possessions, power, position… whatever it may be, those things will be our undoing! There’s a great line in one of the old prayers in the Book of Common Prayer that says, “In our time of prosperity, good Lord deliver us.”

Yes, Lord, deliver us!

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Good Friday Reflections

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Don Merritt
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This post may not be for the faint of heart: Consider yourselves warned!

No, it doesn’t contain gratuitous descriptions of torture, violence or executions designed to illicit guilt, but it does contain a challenge!

Why are so many Christians going around with long faces today? Are they remembering the tragic assassination of Abraham Lincoln which took place on Good Friday in 1865? Probably not.  Is it because they are thinking about Jesus’ crucifixion, and lamenting not only his death, but their part in nailing Him to that cross?

It is a very human and loving response, when looking right at the crucifixion of Jesus, considering how terrible it was and how sad His passing, to feel sorrow and grief. It is a very human response even to feel a sense of shame and guilt in reflecting upon this scene.

I’m not quite sure that this natural human response is worthy of our heavenly calling, however. Isn’t this just the sort of thing Jesus died to put an end to? Sorrow, guilt, shame…?  Aren’t our natural human responses just the things that got humanity in trouble in the first place?

Think about it another way for a moment: Jesus’ death on the cross is the ultimate victory!  In this single act, He defeated death, He defeated sin and He defeated Satan… all in one stroke.  On that day long ago, he set us free from the guilt of sin and slavery to sin and death!

Why the long faces? Why the old religious rituals of contrition and penance to remember being set free from such things? You must admit that the irony of this is almost devilish. It’s almost as if we were more comfortable under the condemnation of the old Law than we are in the freedom of Christ. Yes, dear reader, today needs to be a day of reflection, but rather than reflecting with shame, sorrow, and guilt, we should be reflecting upon His Victory over these things.

Oh, I know that is what we do on Sunday in recalling His resurrection, but the resurrection confirmed His victory. The victory itself was won on the cross. How much more faith does it require to gaze upon the cross and see victory, than it does to gaze upon the confirmation and see glory?

Do we dare ponder such a question?

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