Bona Fide
A study of James
Genuine Christian living
Part 1
Introduction
“Miraculous”
“Revolutionary”
“The Greatest Ever”
In today’s world we are slammed with claims of greatness
From the TV commercials selling hair care products to cars
To Magazine and internet ads claiming life transformation
Heath
Wealth and Prosperity
Just buy this or use that
And you will find everything that you are looking for
These messages just seem to leap out at us
The claims are that these products can change our lives
They are new and improved
We can have cleaner clothes
More friends
Whiter teeth
Beauty
The acclaim of thousands
More confidence
And with these claims come the claims of
Happiness
The good life they call it
Having just finished what seems like a year’s long battle for the Whitehouse
We know that talk is often cheap
Politician’s promises often fade faster than the morning dew in August
And so do many of the claims of greatness from the TV and magazines
We as well as the unbelieving world here other claims as well
“Jesus is the answer”
“Believe in God”
“Follow me to church”
Unfortunately many making these claims
Are guilty of negating them with their actions
You see they profess faith in Christ
They “say” God is the answer
But their lives and their actions do not show this faith
They have the right answers
But they contradict the gospel with their lives
The Book of James is written to show us a blue print to genuine Christian living
I like to call it “Bona Fide”
Several times in the movie Oh Brother Where art thou
The term Bona Fide comes up
He’s Bona Fide the Warby Girls say to Everrret
But you ain’t Bona Fide
I looked up the word Bona Fide in the dictionary
The first meaning is genuine; real.
The second---sincerely; without intention to deceive.
Both of these definitions are a good fit when we are talking about
Genuine
Bona Fide
Christian living
Walking the walk
Talking the talk
Showing Jesus in our
Lives
Our Actions
And
Our Words
Listen
Not being Bona Fide
Damages the cause of Christ
Think about those claims on the TV and in the magazines
When the products that they are selling don’t live up to the claims they make
They are labeled as fake
Counterfeit
Hypocrites
Etc.
-----Pause----
James
The brother of Jesus
Not the Apostle James the brother of John
Not the fisherman
Not the Martyr who was the first of the Apostles to be killed for Christ
But James
The son of Joseph and Mary
The half Brother to Our Lord
With real energy writes a letter to the believers
Let me give you a little detail about their present circumstances
They are under sever persecution
They have lost friends
Families
Jobs
Homes
And
They need encouragement
They need direction
So James addresses the issue of Bona Fide Christian Living
Over the next several weeks we are going to dig deep into his writings
We are going to look at What Characteristics a Bona Fide Christian Should possess
We are going to look at
Genuine or Bona Fide religion
Genuine or Bona Fide Faith
Genuine or Bona Fide Wisdom
It is my prayer to show you how to apply God’s word to your lives
And to help you grow as you do that
And it is my prayer that as you grow
People will look at
You
Look at the Church
Look at Jesus
With true expectations of Realness
Of Genuineness
Of Bona Fideness
Please open your bible to James Chapter 2
I Know I am skipping ahead just a bit
But I believe for the introduction to this Great book this verse
Puts the book of James in a Nut shell for us
James 2:18
18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”
We talk a lot about Grace
We talk a lot about salvation by faith
Not by works
And James is not contradicting these teaching in any way
What he is saying is our good deeds
Should be evidence of our salvation
The salvation we received by faith
Deeds are the product of our acceptance of grace
The product of the Newness that comes from Jesus
Remember last week we discussed newness
How Jesus gives us a new life when we accept his salvation
And how he gives us a new nature when we apply him to our lives
And how he gives us a new freedom by taking away the power and the punishment of sin in our lives
It is that newness
That should produce the good deeds that James teaches us about
In the weeks to come
It is this fact that
good deeds are evidence of salvation
I want you to take home
You see the way we show that we are Bona Fide
Is by how we interact with others in the world
Believers or not
And it is this interaction that can make the difference between rejections of the word of truth
Or
Life changing acceptance of the word of truth
We have a huge responsibility as believers
And like it or not
You may be the only Jesus
And the only bible they ever see or hear
Are you living and speaking as a true
Bona Fide
Representative of Jesus?
------Pause----
We spent a lot of time in December Preaching on Joy
And I
Like James
Believe in all my heart that we can’t find Joy apart from Jesus
And we can’t find joy when we are playing Christian but not living Christian
So we are going to look at how we become Bona Fide
You see James knows
That proof of our faith
Real faith
Bona Fide Faith
Is first and foremost
A Changed life
He knows that when we are truly saved
When we truly come with repentant hearts
That life change will begin
And that change will be evident in our lives, words and actions
-------Pause------
James begins his letter
By outlining some general characteristics of Genuine Believers
Some traits that should be common in every Christian’s life
We will cover that more in depth next week
Then he moves on to an Exhortation
Remember from our series on Hebrews
And Exhortation is a talk that is designed to encourage and inspire change
In this Exhortation
James encourages us to live justly in society
In simple terms
He teaches us about acceptance and fair dealing
Many struggle with accepting people or groups of people
James tells us this is unacceptable for believers
And that
Lack of acceptance
Or prejudices have no place in a Bona Fide Christians life
Next He teaches us about the importance of following God’s law
We know that we are saved by grace
Not the law
But we also know that because of that Grace we should desire to keep the law
Jesus says
If you love me
Obey my commands
Obedience
Once again evidence of salvation
Not conditions of salvation
Following James’ Teaching on the law
He exhorts us to control our tongues
We know Gossip, cursing, negativity
Is a problem in the world?
We know that everyone has the right to remain silent
But few have the ability
But
Let’s get real guys
We also know it can be and often is a problem in the church as well
James tells us
That to be seen as Bona Fide Christians
To truly show the love of Jesus
We Must
Listen to me
Must
Learn to control our tongues
Not only in the area of gossip
But also in our choice of words and even how we say what we say
There is an old playground song that says
Sticks and stones can break my bones
But words can never hurt me
I wish that were true
But it is not
Words have the power to
Build or to tear down
As a genuine Believe
We must learn to use them to build
---Pause---
Then our writer moves onto the topic of wisdom
We will learn that there are two types of wisdom in the world
God’s wisdom
And worldly wisdom
And it is God’s wisdom we should be seeking
God’s wisdom holds water
The world’s wisdom is like a bucket with holes
It will let you down when you need it most
--- Pause---
He moves from his teaching on wisdom to an encouragement for his readers to
Turn from their own desires and obey God
He shows us how to place God first in our lives
And how by being obedient to him and his will
We will find peace
Joy
And blessings
Once again
We know that obedience is a key to finding the blessings that God has for us
James goes on to give us lesson on trusting God
Instead of ourselves
Trusting his plans
Instead of blindly making our own plans apart for God’s direction
----- Pause---
Then James
Gives us a lesson on a hard topic for many of us
Myself included
He teaches us about patience
Then
He teaches us about endurance
He teaches us about keeping our promises
Dealing fairly with others
He teaches us about the importance of prayer
And About the importance of praying for others
And finally about the importance of helping each other remain faithful
The book of James is known as a how to book of Christian living
In these 5 short chapters are words
That mirror our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s own words
In James words echo the truths of Jesus’ teachings
But as a bonus
The
Wait there’s more part
The book of James
Is also a huge encouragement to me
As I pray it will be to you
In the fact that
James
Is living proof of
A changed life
And living proof that Jesus can wipe away our pasts
Our mistakes
Our sin
Our guilt and shame
James
Was Our Lords brother
Grew up with Jesus
He ate with him
Slept with him
But
He did not believe Jesus was who he said he was
At one point he along with the rest of family said he was crazy
He in short
Rejected Jesus as the Messiah
As the savior
He knew Jesus
But not as savior
It was not until Jesus showed himself to his brother
After his crucifixion and resurrection
That James believed
But
When he believed
Boy did he believe
And boy did he change
James
The once lost unbeliever
Accepted Jesus as his Lord and he
Put his past aside and became the leader of the Church
He preached and taught with the wisdom of God
And the authority of scripture
His new life was evidence of his salvation
And listen to me
People saw the change
In the closing scenes of Rocky 4
Rocky has triumphed over the Russian Ivan Drago
The cheers of the crowd changed from boos to praise
And Rocky says
If I can change
And you can Change
Everybody can change
You see it is change that made
James
Bona Fide
It is Change that makes us Bona Fide
And it is the evidence of change in our lives that Show others how to change as well
Close from the heart
Pray
