1
I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad. So James is not writing to a church, or a group of churches, or an individual, like most New Testament letters. The letter is addressed to the twelve tribes, scattered abroad. 2
This is a map of the Roman Empire a few years before James wrote this letter. As you know the Roman Empire stretched around the Mediterranean Sea, and even into Britain. It is right across this vast Roman Empire that the Jewish Dispersion took place. Jew’s initially had a focus on the ‘promise land’, but over time, they found that money was to be made in trade. This trade lead them to the trading routes, which where the Roman roads laid across across the Empire. The Jew’s, and this included the Messianic Jew’s were to be found right across the empire, living in amongst the gentiles, doing business. It is these Messianic Jews, believers in Christ that James writes to. James addresses subjects in this letter, that he believes are of specific relevance to believers living in amongst gentiles. The reason that this letter is so relevant to us, is that we too are in this position. We might not be Jew’s, but we are believers, believer’s that the bible says are ‘grafted into the vine’ or in more understandable language ‘adopted into the same family, that the believing Jew’s are in’. So this letter addresses the things that you and I are going to need, day to day to survive, and more than survive, flourish as Christian’s in a non ‐ Christian society. There is another thing that we need to know about James, both the book and the man. The book is extremely practical, its no ‐ nonsense Christian living for daily life, but it is also very unstructured. Its full of practical counsel that can’t be put in order. James starts a subjects, then leaves it, then comes back to it later. It is full of pearls of wisdom, but they not strung together, its like Proverbs in the Old Testament. 3
This type of writing is known as wisdom literature. The Rabbis have different forms of preaching, and one of these forms is to simply ‘muse aloud’, it is called charaz . There is no prepared address, but just an elderly Rabbi in the synagogue sharing pearls of wisdom. It is believed that James was taught by such a Rabbi when he was a young man, and James is a master of charaz , and he is doing this for his readers in his letter. 3
I say all this because I am going to attempt to create a single narrative for the first 18 verses, but you may have to bear with me! The hook to hang all these thoughts on…. James was concerned that the believers would struggled to resist the gentile culture around them, and in adopting the life ‐ style of the gentiles around them, they would cease to think and behave like followers of Christ. 4
Stating the obvious, at the centre of every Christian is their faith in God. It is this faith that will ultimately determine everything else. Now you can attempt to protect that faith by avoiding any possible distractions, perhaps something akin to the monastic life. It avoids many of societies temptations and it also avoids many of the troubles. James suggests something else, he suggests that we welcome life's struggles, the things that test our faith. He tells us that when endurance is fully developed, we will be perfect, complete and needing nothing. What on earth does that mean? So if a runner keeps on running, and running, and running, eventually they will develop to be a perfect runner? Certainly this is not true of biological things, we are all born different. We are all predisposed to be better at some things than others, we do not all have the same biological capability. For those that are tone deaf, any amount of singing is not going to produce a world class singer. James is drawing a distinction between the natural reaction of humans, especially unbelievers, to avoid troubles at any cost. We all have a tendency to avoid taking risks, to minimise the chance of anything going wrong, and when I say wrong, I merely mean not to our plan, its not really going right or wrong, its usually just different than what we planned for. James is encouraging us to go with it, don’t try avoiding and controlling everything, these things on the surface cause anguish and pain, but if a little wisdom is applied, we can see 5
that as we hold tight to our faith, even in the most difficult of circumstances, they stop controlling us. We are free to follow the leading of the spirit, not the impulse to make short term destructive decisions to avoid ‘troubles’. James, goes so far to say that this process actually perfects you, it completes you, you end up free from the things of this world. And wisdom is required to see this and wisdom is needed to apply this. James knows this doesn’t come easy. So he suggests you ask for wisdom. Verse 5, if you need wisdom ask for it. 5
Its interesting that James also points out one of the biggest problems we face in western Christianity. We have other options that don’t require faith, we generally have a backup plan, right from the start! You see when the messianic Jew’s lived together they created a culture that set expectation, this is true of any society. When that culture is not Christian, whether atheist, pantheist, humanist whatever, then believers in that culture will start considering the other options around them. If you live in a technologically advanced society like we do, the options seem endless. If you add this to our natural risk aversion, you get the phrase ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’, i.e. if you have more than one basket not all the eggs will break if you drop one basket. This applied to your faith, to your walk with God, means that Christianity becomes optional, a hobby, an add on. We stop relying on our faith, we become self ‐ reliant The most scary part of verse 7 is where this self ‐ reliance or divided loyalty results in nothing from God. Again in verse 9 James is clearly aware of the temptations and trappings of wealth within the expanding Roman Empire, believers being tempted like everyone else, particularly when they have moved far from home to pursue some of this opportunity. Understanding this, James is turning upside down the way in which we perceive 6
achievement. I know that everyone, Christians alike, take great significance in the wealth and influence that people have. Honestly, I am yet to meet a Christian that openly commends the poor giving them the platform, and looks negatively at some one that has great wealth and influence. The only negative I see people attaching to wealth, is where it is perceived as ill ‐ gotten gain, whatever that means! The materialistic culture we live in is so strong, so aggressive, so pervasive in all we do, temptation is everywhere in more shapes and sizes than ever in history. James knew this was a struggle for all believers. So again, James returns to the theme of endurance, but this time he shows where it leads, he hints at it before but now we see where perfection and completeness come in. ‘Afterwards’.. they will receive a crown of life. Afterwards meaning after a life of endurance, God will reward us with a crown of life, its tough to think like this, real long term endurance is only possible when seen in a bigger context, best of all eternity. 6
So we all make mistakes, we get it wrong, we stumble, we fall, we follow the wrong direction, we sin time and again… But… this is not because God is making things extra troublesome for our perfection, not at all, the things we struggle with are a direct result of the world WE have created around us. Its our own collective desires that lead us into places, into things that we then fall to. We should never make the mistake to think that God is testing us through temptation. Our struggle is not with God, its with the world we create around us, and our inherent fallen nature, which has fuelled what we have created. More than that, we live in a blame culture, the media and politics epitomises this…. No we only have ourselves to blame, we all have to take personal responsibility. Recognising that God is good and perfect, and everything coming from him is good and perfect. We endure because this is true, it is the only constant we can truly depend on, whatever happens a good and perfect God gave us life. He gave himself to us in Jesus, Jesus was and is the word, and we are his chosen possession. I want to suggest one practical step this week from this morning. During this week, when something happens that you didn’t plan, something that annoys you, or makes you anxious, remember that thing until you have a spare moment. Then ask God for wisdom in this circumstance, ask God that he would show you a bigger perspective. God did not 7
create that circumstance but he will take you through it, developing your faith as you go along. Be prepared to tell someone about this circumstance and your reaction, perhaps in your small group or next week here at church. Lets pray… 7
Recommend
More recommend
