Through the Bible - James

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1:1-4)

James, the Proverbs of the New Testament, calls us to a faith that is not merely heard but lived.

The Man Behind the Letter

These last several letters are short, and James is only five chapters. I'll be honest with you—James has always been a difficult book for me. After moving through Paul's epistles and Hebrews, which have a very systematic form and easy outlining, James reads almost like the Proverbs of the New Testament. It is full of practical exhortations rather than the structured theology of the church.

It is striking to realize this is very likely one of the first letters written among the churches. It came from the brother of our Lord. As you read the Gospels, Jesus' earthly half-brothers were not into his ministry. In John 7 they mock him—if you really are who everyone thinks you are, go up to the feast and show yourself publicly. At another point his brothers and mother came to pull him out of the crowds, concerned about his preaching. They did not fully believe until after the resurrection. But James tells us the risen Lord appeared to him. If your crucified brother rose from the dead and appeared to you, you'd know this isn't just some guy.

James became an early leader and an early martyr of the church. The religious establishment in Jerusalem pulled him to the pinnacle of the temple—the corner overlooking the Kidron Valley—and pushed him off. The story goes that he did not die from the fall, but got back on his knees and called out to God in prayer for the forgiveness of those seeking to kill him.

The Themes of James

Two themes run through this letter. The first you saw in nearly every chapter: how we are to use our tongues. James gives a strong exhortation that the tongue is a fiery member that causes much trouble. Every one of us has experienced this—we say things in our flesh that we regret not even a nanosecond after the words leave our mouths.

The second theme is faith—not just faith, but works, and faith that is worked out. Because of this, Martin Luther had a hard time with James. He loved Romans and Galatians, which proclaim that the just shall live by faith, the foundation of the Reformation. When he came to "faith without works is dead," he struggled with this letter—he even questioned whether it belonged in the canon. We have to remember Luther came out of a strict works-based Catholicism and swung to the other side. But this book is important. We live in a time when many in the church say, "Just believe, just have faith." Yet a true faith will produce works. It will be an active faith.

What Makes Faith Grow

The first thing we discover is what makes faith grow. We know from Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. James affirms this. But early in the letter he points to something many Christians have stumbled over: "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations."

How can we count it joy? Because we know this—the trying of our faith produces patience, and patience performs a work in us that makes us complete, entire, mature. We talked last week in Hebrews about God bringing us beyond being babes in Christ to the strong meat of the Word. Here James speaks of maturity too. We must not be Baby Huey Christians who have been in the church for decades and never moved on.

Notice verse 4: "Let patience have her perfect work." Circle the word let. We can disregard the work God is doing by trying to find our own way out of every trial. When difficulty comes, we reach into our own resources and our faith never grows. When God first called Abraham, a famine came, and Abraham went down to Egypt to find help from the world. Years later in Genesis 22 he would declare God's name as Jehovah Jireh—the God who provides. God was teaching him that very lesson from the first famine.

Think of Jacob, who fled every difficulty until God boxed him in at Genesis 32—his father-in-law on his tail, his brother promising to kill him. He sent his family across the river and wrestled with God all night until his hip was out of socket. The man who ran his whole life walked with a limp for the rest of it. God was working maturity into him, and God seeks the same in us. So I've heard people say, "Don't pray for patience, or God will give you trials." Listen—you're going to have trials whether you pray for patience or not. The question is whether you will let them work in your life so you become tried and true.

Asking God in Faith

The word "wanting" in verse 4 is the same word in verse 5: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." Is there anyone here who lacks wisdom? Not a week goes by that I'm not confronted with something I'm insufficient to handle—a counseling situation, a phone call, a passage of Scripture, something in my marriage. God brings us to those places where we recognize our lack so we will call out to him.

He gives "to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." Our God is the great giver who doesn't hold back and is not a respecter of persons. Paul said it too: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." Jesus said ask, seek, and knock. God allows us to come to the place of need so he can show himself faithful—and he is faithful.

About a year and a half ago, my wife and I were looking at our budget before I came to the church on a Saturday. We needed about $1,130 and didn't have it. I was the anxious one; Andrea kept saying, "The Lord's going to provide." We prayed in the driveway. After the service that night, someone handed me a check—it was for $1,000. The next morning someone put a $100 bill in my hand, and in our post office box was a check for $20. The Lord was simply saying, "I'm faithful," and it was exactly what we had asked for.

Proverbs says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." But you'll never know if God will direct your paths if you keep leaning on yourself. Faith will not grow if it is never tested—and an untested faith is not a worthy faith.

Asking Without Wavering

James says, "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." The one who wavers is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed; let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord—he is double-minded and unstable in all his ways. This verse might frighten you, because you've felt double-minded, believing God can do something while struggling to fully believe it.

But I'm thankful for Matthew 17. After the Mount of Transfiguration, a man whose son was severely demon-possessed cried out for help. Jesus said, "All things are possible to him that believeth." With tears the man said, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." Did Jesus say, "Sorry, you're double-minded, see you later"? No—he healed the boy. Interestingly, when they brought the child, the situation seemed to get worse; the boy went into a seizure, and at Jesus' touch he was as if dead. Then Jesus brought a great miracle. Sometimes when we bring things to the Lord it seems to get worse, but that doesn't mean God isn't working.

Doers, Not Hearers Only

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass... If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. (James 1:22-26)

God uses both trials and the Word to strengthen our faith, but the Word must be exercised by faith. A hearer only is the man who looks in the mirror, sees mud on his face, and walks away doing nothing. The mirror's purpose is not just to reveal what's wrong but to show us how to clean it up. As we look into the Word, it looks into us—it is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, as we saw in Hebrews 4.

Now, I don't recommend flipping the Bible open and saying, "Lord, speak to me," landing on "Woe unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep." We're not to play Bible roulette. We're to study to show ourselves approved, rightly dividing the word of truth, spending daily time with the Lord—in the morning, before the trials come. And when we read it, we must be doers, not hearers who think, "My brother needs to hear that," instead of, "Lord, you're speaking to me."

Jesus said the same at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Whoever hears his sayings and does them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock; the rain, floods, and winds came, and it did not fall. Whoever hears and does not do is like a foolish man who built on the sand; the storm came and great was its fall. Notice—both faced the storm. The testing comes either way, but we are only ready for it if we have been doers of the Word.

Faith Recognized: Justice and Mercy

Moving into chapter 2, James shows the things by which faith is recognized. These line up with Micah 6: "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

First, justice. James warns against having "the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ... with respect of persons." If a rich man in fine apparel and a poor man in dirty clothing both come into the assembly, don't fawn over the rich and tell the poor to sit at your footstool. Notice Micah says "do justly," not merely "love justice." We all love justice—you feel it when someone cuts you off in traffic and you wish a cop were there. But we're told to do justly. Our God is not a respecter of persons. He chose the Jewish people out of love, not favoritism, and he has chosen us out of love, revealed through the death of his Son.

Second, mercy. "He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment." Then James asks, "What doth it profit... though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?" He repeats three times—in 2:17, 2:20, and 2:26—that faith without works is dead. "Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."

Faith Proved by Works

"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." The devil knows God's Word better than you or I, and uses it to deceive many. He believes there is a God and even trembles, yet he is not saved. So a person may say they believe and fear God and still not be saved.

James uses Abraham. In Genesis 15:6, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness"—years before Isaac was born and years before Genesis 22. Paul cites this to show justification by faith. But James shows that when Abraham offered Isaac on the altar, his works proved his faith was real and mature. "By works was faith made perfect."

There are two components to faith: the intellectual and the involvement. If I want to fly to Germany, I can buy the ticket, believe it's valid, stand in the San Diego airport, and believe that plane goes to Frankfurt—but until I board, buckle up, and roll down the runway, I'm not going to Germany. So it is with our journey to the Lord. Many have a mere intellectual assent. People say, "Yeah, I believe in God, I believe Jesus died for my sins," while standing there half-drunk, beer in hand, showing no pattern of righteousness. Faith without works is dead.

He then gives Rahab: "by works a man is justified, and not by faith only"—circle the word only. Rahab professed faith in Israel's God and proved it by sending the spies out another way. "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." We don't strive to manufacture works—that's religion. The love of God, shed abroad in our hearts by his Holy Spirit (Romans 5), constrains us. We saw this Wednesday in Matthew 25: the sheep clothed, fed, and visited Christ in others, proving their faith real; the goats had an appearance of godliness without the love of God, and their faith was dead.

Faith Recognized: Walking Humbly and the Tongue

The third mark from Micah is to walk humbly with your God, laid out in chapter 3, which builds on 1:26—if a man seems religious but bridles not his tongue, his religion is vain. For eighteen verses James addresses the tongue, and this carries the character of humility, because with the tongue we boast great things.

He opens with a warning: "My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." I remember reading that early when the Lord called me to teach—I taught through James in junior high ministry—and that verse gripped me. There is real accountability before God for teaching his Word; Jesus said it would be better to have a millstone hung around your neck than to teach men wrongly. I don't want to be called reverend—God is the One who is reverend—but teaching his Word is a reverent position, and I must recognize the accountability.

There's also an accountability between you and me. I speak many words in a week; my wife tells me I talk too much. You watch my life to see whether what I say lines up with how I live. In Acts 7, Stephen said Moses was "mighty in words and in deeds." Lord, help me not just to be excellent in word. Many appear religious and talk up their religion, but do their deeds back up their speech?

The Untamable Tongue

"If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." We put bits in horses' mouths to turn their whole bodies; great ships are turned about by a very small helm wherever the governor desires. Even so the tongue is a little member that boasts great things. "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, set on fire of hell.

Think of what the tongue has done—the World Wars were largely drummed up by the tongue, men's hearts stirred to unbelievable things. Every kind of beast and bird and serpent has been tamed by man, "but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." With it we bless God, and with it we curse men made in God's likeness. "My brethren, these things ought not so to be." Does a fountain send forth sweet water and bitter? Can a fig tree bear olives? Neither can salt water yield fresh.

This is only possible by the Spirit of God. Walking in the flesh reveals itself in corrupt communication. Paul told Ephesus, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying." We must yield the tongue to the Lord. I think of Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3, making the excuse that he could not speak. God answered, "Who hath made man's mouth?"—essentially, yield your tongue to me and I will use it. So must we.

How Faith Fails: Fights, Wars, and Worldliness

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not... ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. (James 4:1-3)

In chapters 4 and 5 James shows what causes faith to fail. First, fights and wars—and he reveals their source. They stem from our desires, lusts, and covetousness. That's why we must die daily to the flesh, as Paul said. Fights and wars also reveal a lack of faith in prayer—"ye have not, because ye ask not." And when we do ask, sometimes we ask amiss, for the sole purpose of spending it on our pleasures rather than for God's glory.

Second, the love of the world. "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?... The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy"—our God is a jealous God. This last year Oprah Winfrey said what drove her from the Baptist church she grew up in was a pastor saying God is a jealous God. She didn't understand it. God is not jealous of us—he's jealous for us. He doesn't covet what we have; he desires us so we will not be destroyed by the things of this world.

"None of God's word was written in vain." "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." How did Jesus resist the devil? By the Word—"it is written," three times. Then James says, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded... Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord." Cleansing comes not by temple sacrifice but by confession—1 John 1:9—"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us."

How Faith Fails: Critical Judgment and Presumption

In verses 11 and 12 James warns against critical judgments: "Speak not evil one of another, brethren." We're so good at this. Paul told the Corinthians that comparing ourselves among ourselves is not wise. We say, "I'm better than Hitler, better than that person," yet when we set our lives next to God's law—and especially next to Christ—we are always shown to be off. Paul also said if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. So measure your life against the perfect law of liberty, not the guy down the street.

Then verse 13: "Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city... and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour." This presumptuous assurance reveals failing faith—living by sight, assuming tomorrow will be as today, only more abundant. That was America's mindset for a long time, with the stock market over 14,000 and housing prices soaring, everyone thinking it would only get better—buy, buy, buy. Then it fell; the market dropped to 7,100 and California housing fell 40 percent, and now people say, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." We ought to say, "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."

How Faith Fails: Fraud and Neglect

Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you... Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth... Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. (James 5:1-7)

James addresses those who heap up gold and silver that will canker and corrode. They will not be judged by their riches—which dissolve as nothing before God—but by the fact that they defrauded and neglected their laborers. Then he encourages those who were defrauded: don't worry, the Lord is your judge, and the Judge stands before the door.

Jesus told the parable of the man whose fields produced so much he said, "I'll build bigger barns," and God said, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." Solomon had the same mindset—building and gathering with no recognition that life is a vapor. His faith failed because he grew fixed on the things of this world. There are times we too allow our hearts to be led away rather than fully trusting God.

The Prayer of Faith

James finishes with a word about those who trust God in prayer. "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick." If sins are confessed, they shall be forgiven. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed."

This connects to what I shared last Sunday: if you come to offer your gift and remember something wrong between you and a brother, sister, or spouse, go make it right, then return and bring your gift. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." You may say, "I'm counted out of that one," but he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We've received imputed righteousness by grace through faith.

Then Elijah: "a man subject to like passions as we are," yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not for three and a half years; he prayed again and the rain returned. Circle the word earnestly—or diligently. We look at the prophets as spiritual elite, but James says he was just a man like us who prayed diligently, and God heard and answered.

Restoring Those Who Have Erred

Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. (James 5:19-20)

Every one of us knows people who once walked with God and today are not. Some are in love with the world, like Demas who "hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." Some have grown harshly critical of others; some live in presumptuous assurance, chasing whatever they can get; some are defrauding or neglecting the work of the Lord. The Lord would have us go to them, speak the word of truth, and call them back—just as Ezekiel was the watchman on the wall.

We read in 1 Corinthians that we are to treat such a person as an unbeliever, and some have built a whole doctrine of excommunication from that—getting rid of them entirely. I believe that's a wrong reading. How do we treat unbelievers? We evangelize and love them. So if a brother or sister has departed, we evangelize them. They may say, "Why are you preaching the gospel to me?" Because I think you're an unbeliever and you need to repent. That may upset them, but he who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death.

Paul told the Galatians, "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain"—he saw no fruit. But he didn't give up; he said, "I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." What a heart. He looked at those people, thought he had labored in vain, and chose to labor again until Christ was formed in them. May we have that same heart, because it is the heart of God.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank you for the exhortations of the book of James—even though it jumps around like the book of Proverbs, there are so many practical applications for us. Lord, I pray right now that you would speak to every heart in this room. Remind us of a family member, a brother, a sister, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor—remind us of the one who seemed in the past to have some relationship with you and has walked away. We lift them up to you in prayer. Send your Spirit and convict them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. I pray that in the next couple of weeks we would come in contact with them by something that could not be explained any other way but by your doing. Give us boldness to preach the gospel to them as if they were not saved, and draw them back to yourself. Let them draw near to you and resist the devil.

Lord, maybe there are some here who have stepped back, and your Word says you will have no pleasure in them. So I pray we would draw near to you with passion, as Psalm 63 says, following hard after you. Lord, I believe you are coming quickly, and when you come, may you find us doing what you've commissioned—doers of the Word, wise servants who have built our house upon the strong foundation of your Word. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.