Part of a sermon series on the Book of James. What a Christian has: trials and tribulations, temptation, joy wisdom and freedom.
A Recipe for Real Religion by Lewis Fawcett. Get religion like a Methodist, experience it like a Baptist; stick to it like a Lutheran; conciliate it like a Congregationalist. Be proud of it like an Episcopalian. Simplify it like a Quaker. Glorify it like a Jew Pray for it like a Presbyterian. Work at it like the Salvation Arm. Propagate it like a Roman Catholic. Enjoy it like an [African American].
Religion, faith, the marks of true Christian what are they and do we have them? The book of James is a practical book on ethical living as opposed to religious doctrine like we find in Romans. It is a short, concise book of practical thoughts on Christian living. The author of James is not the disciple James but the half brother of Jesus. He was a leader in the early church of Jerusalem. Some say he was their first pastor or bishop whatever the case he initially welded a great deal of power yet note how he begins his letter. VS 1 Some translations read bond servant or slave of God. He begins the letter with great humility as a man wholly devoted, obedient and loyal to Jesus Christ. And then he gets right to the point. I like Dr. Tony Evans translation of verse 1: My name is James, Jesus is Lord, now let’s get to it. James does not waste words or space he gets to the point this is Christian living.
In Chapter one he gives us five things that the Christian has and challenges us to live them out. VS 2. Christian life will have trials and tribulations. The Greek word used here implies trouble or something that breaks the pattern of peace, comfort, joy and happiness in someone’s life. The word “face” as in you will face trials” suggests that one is surrounded by people, objects, and circumstances that will try one’s faith. James didn’t have to tell us that Christian life includes trials and tribulations.
All I have to do is look around the room and call on just about any one of you to testify to that fact, from disease and illness to financial and family struggles to child custody battles and problems at work. We got the trials and tribulations covered. But, James’ focus is not on the events themselves but on our attitude in the midst of them. He says the second thing that Christians should have in their life is an attitude of joy, not just simple, quite, little joy, the word here means ecstatic joy. As If it isn’t enough to have these problems but now we have to have them and be happy, happy, happy about it.
But that is not exactly what James is calling for here. We need to be careful to understand his words. He is not suggesting some kind of masochistic happiness in the hurts and losses of life. He is not suggesting that we manufacture some kind of other-worldly, phony sense of joy about our troubles. We need to dismiss our modern notion of joy and happiness as linked to immediate gratification and full satiety of our wants and desires. The kind of joy that he is talking about is the kind of joy that understands sacrifice in the present life for the attainment of the future good.
It is a joy that is fundamentally beyond ourselves. It is a joy that is the result of a deep sense of being in the presence and will of God. It is found in a sensitivity and humility before God. Don’t pretend to be happy in adversity but have a positive outlook because of what trials can produce in our life when we let God lead us through them. Turn hardships into times of listening and learning from God.
If I asked you would you like to go through some of the trials and tribulations of your life again? You would undoubtedly say, No way! But if I asked you, Are you grateful for what that difficulty accomplished in your life? Many of you would say, I wouldn’t trade those lessons and the character developed in those trials for anything. That is why we consider it all joy. We consider it joy because we know that when tough times come, the end result is going to be strength, character, and maturity in faith. James tells us that God looks upon the person who has endured trials and tribulations with favor “so consider it pure joy y brothers whenever you face trails of many kinds.
Then James goes on to say if that isn’t enough the Christian will also have temptation in life, he cuts right to the chase on this one, “temptations are not from God.” If I had a dime for every time someone said, “God is tempting me to test me” I’d have a nice little nest egg somewhere. James is confronting that though. He says that temptation does not come from God but comes from evil desires from within us. It begins with a slightly naughty kind of thought – I can tell a little lie this time without getting caught, no one will notice if I take a little peak at that magazine with the brown cover on it, what will it hurt if I just this one share a little gossip, have a little too much to drink this time–temptation attracts attention, entices one to try on a little sin, it persuades one to approach the edge of sin and then it lures by means of tantalizing bait try sin on. Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on your front door forever.
I was talking with Katherine Rushforth this past week. She, Lisa and her son had been fishing and she said they caught over fifty fish in an hour. I couldn’t believe it – whever I have been fishing I fish for hours and hours and never so much as get a nibble. So I asked her what kind of bait they were using and she laughed and said sometimes they used bread, or crickets or hot dogs that it didn’t matter what kind of bait you used because the fish are primed to bite the bait. They fish at a private pond that a man stocks every year. After stocking the pond, the man begins going down to the dock every day and throwing out a little food for the fish. Soon the fish come to expect the food and more and more fish are coming to the dock as soon as he walks out on it. And then when the time is right, the man casts out a little food and throws a baited hook out into the water at the same time. The fish bite the bait and take the hook without even realizing what is happening to the until it is too late. They are caught and being reeled in for supper tonight and they’re the main course
That’s what sin does, it teases and entices us to take a little bite and just about the time we get comfortable with it, it throws in the hook and we are caught giving birth to sin which can become full blown in our lives to the point of death. Man is responsible for the temptation of sin not God. It is our evil desires and lust that tempts us.
But James says the fourth thing that the Christian has is God’s wisdom at their beckon call. Verse 5 says “If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God.” As in he or she should pray to God for wisdom. Eugene Peter says that James’ nick name was “Old Camel Knees” because of thick calluses built up on his knees from many years of determined prayer. McBirnie notes “Prayer was [James’] constant business and delight. He seemed to live upon it and to trade in nothing but the frequent returns of converse with heaven.” When you are tempted, when you are facing life’s trials and tribultations that are sure to come ask for God’s wisdom and he will give it to you in abundance. God is a generous and lavish giver when we ask without doubt or wavering.
The doubt that James is talking about here is not doubt as in the sense of questioning, confusion or uncertainty but indecision that hesitates and doesn’t want to rely on God or God’s will. It is doubt that delays action in the face of what one knows he or she should do. God benevolently grants what we need when we ask with single hearted devotion, that while is sometimes falters, is essentially consistently and true to God. Wisdom begins with a healthy sense of fear and respect for God and it brings understanding of God’s purpose and plan. It gives determination to live one’s life according to God’s perspective for his way is always the best way.
The poor and rich in these verses isn’t referring to momentary means but righteousness. James is using a perspective metaphorically that was popular in the 1st century of post exilic judiasm. That perspective equated the image of wealth with wicked unrighteous while poor meant piety in God’s wisdom. He was not intending to say being poor is a blessing while affluence is a curse. He was saying righteous living in God’s wisdom is better than the greatest wealth of this world.
And then here is a really interesting thing. VS. 19-20. Most of the time preachers interpret this as referring to personal relationships but I don’t believe that is what James is saying. I mean it is good in human relationships for us to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. But the verb and sentence structure here suggests that James is referring to what he has aforementioned in the chapter. That being quick to listen, slow to anger and slow to speak is what man needs to do when hearing God’s wisdom.
When we let God’s word challenge us instead of us trying to make it comfortable and fit into our lives, when we let it push us beyond the limits of this secular worl,d it often will trigger a sense of anger that wants to reject and push away God. I have seen many people quit church, quit serving God, quit reading their bible and quit praying because they didn’t like what they heard, because it angered them.
James is saying that we need to receive the word with meekness and self control instead of rejecting its instructions with anger. That the Christian needs to put away all filthiness, wickedness and receive the teaching God gives and let it take deep root in our lives. James is insisting that Christians are deceiving themselves when they attend worship, hear a sermon, read the bible as an end unto itself without ever considering how these things and experiences should lead them to righteous living that is different from the world.
Have you ever consider what you do that is different than a non Christian? In the last twenty four hours, what did you do that a non believer would not do? You gave money to your friend to help support the American Cancer Society Relay for Life Walk – great but an athesist would do that. You didn’t yell or fight with your family yesterday so what I know a lot of good families, good parents who are non believer. The difference is as a Christian what we do isn’t because of a friend asks us, it isn’t because the Nanny on TV touts self control and disciples in the family. As Christian we should do what we do all for the glory of God, to point to God, to lift up his name.
The imagery of the mirror here stresses the difference between the exsisting person and the ideal in Christian living. That ideal is rooted in God’s wisdom and it brings freedom. VS 25 Living and doing the law brings freedom to live as God created us to live. VS 27 Freedom to behave in such as way as to please God by demonstrating concern for others first and foremost and then by living lives of holiness free from the pollution of the world. A real Christian lives a life that has trials and tribulations, joy, temptations, God’s wisdom and freedom.
Buttprints in the Sand
One night, I had a wondrous dream; One set of footprints there was seen.
The footprints of my precious Lord, But mine were not along the shore.
But then some stranger prints appeared, And I asked the Lord, "What have we here?"
"Those prints are large and round and neat, But, Lord, they are too big for feet."
"My child," He said in sombre tones. “For miles I carried you alone.
I challenged you to walk in faith, But you refused and made me wait.
You disobeyed, you would not grow, The walk-of-faith you would not know.
So I got tired and fed up, And there I dropped you on your butt,
Because in life, there comes a time, When one must fight, and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand, Or leave their butt prints in the sand."
We love the original poem Footprints. We all like to see ourselves in that poem walking with the Lord. But the real question of James is are we really learning to walk with the lord, appreciating and living out all that a Christian has in life or are we merely deceiving ourselves and leaving butt prints in the sand?
AMEN and AMEN.
