Week 2--The Journey Continues

Read James 1:1-18

James begins by telling his readers to consider it “pure joy” when they face trials and temptations. For these believers, the trials were not necessarily life-threatening, but they were frustrating. They faced social rejection and boycotts. Having been brought up in traditional, Jewish homes, these new converts to The Way would face rejection in their closest relationships.

I think of those of us who have non-Christian families. Fun occasions like birthdays and Christmas always carry with them the sting of rejection. The people who should know you best don’t know you completely. The people designed to accept and support you question the very ideology that shapes you. The audience of James’s epistle was living in this tension.

Living in this dynamic surely tempted them to become discontented. “Lord, I chose You. I chose this Way, but my circumstances are not good! What are You doing? Where are You?”

Further compounding their suffering was a radical departure from the sacrificial system in which they’d always trusted. In the good old days, if you will, they could see the animal on the altar, a tangible reminder that their fellowship with God was restored. Faith in Christ meant they no longer had this act of atonement and restoration. Their new action was to continually place their trust in Christ’s sacrifice on behalf of their sins. In so doing, James encourages them that their faith will become mature and complete.

For James, the remedy for the world’s trials and temptations is a dose of godly wisdom. Because their trials are ongoing, their prayers for wisdom must be continuous as well. He reminds his readers that, “God…gives generously to all without finding fault…”. In other words, the believer shouldn’t be afraid to repeatedly go to God for wisdom. He will not respond with, “You again? What did you do with the wisdom I gave you last week?!”

We are bent on instant gratification. This is revealed in our prayer lives when, after praying for something and not sensing any response from God, we stop praying for it. In my prayer life, there are very few things for which I pray continually—especially if I am not seeing results on my timetable. After years of praying for my brother and sister-in-law to have children, I am tempted to gloss over praying for them. Surely God knows I want this by now, right? Why keep beating the drum?

Perhaps this is why James’s next admonition is to ask God for wisdom without doubt. The doubt James describes is not doubting that God can fulfill the petitioner’s request, it’s doubting God in general. It speaks of a deeper, internal crisis of faith. After seasons of crying out to God and not seeing the results we had in mind, we can be lured into self-pity. And from this pitiful place we begin to ask the deeper, darker questions, “Is God really God? Can I really trust Him? Is He really there?” (Note that these are the same questions that got us tossed out of Eden!)

Another encouragement James offers his audience: their humble position in this life is actually preparing them for a much higher position in the life to come. It is this faith in eternity that allows James to call their present trials “pure joy”, because they are being refined for the joy to come. In contrast, those who seem to have it all in this life will be humbled when the end comes.

When we take our eyes off eternity and compare ourselves to those around us, it is easy to cry, “the wicked are…always carefree, they increase in wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure; in vain I have washed my hands in innocence.” (Psalm 73:12-13) We are tempted to doubt God’s control, His goodness, and His particular concern for us.

Knowing this, James exhorts his readers not to give temptation a foothold.

When Shannon and I started a garden at school last year, we did not agree about putting down mulch. She wanted to cover everything with mulch. Always wanting to save money, I persuaded her to simply mulch around the plants and leave much of the soil exposed. When we came back to school after summer vacation, the garden had been completely overrun with weeds. The weeds had grown around the plants we’d planted, making them almost impossible to uproot. Spraying them with weed killer would have killed our good plants along with the weeds.

Temptation is the weed in our life’s garden. If we are not prepared, even vigilant, against resisting it, it will destroy the life around it. Once we let temptation in, it’s really hard to get it out. And, like the weeds in my garden, temptation doesn’t just stay in one place, it grows and spreads, reaching from temptation to desire to sin to death.

In contrast, God, through His word, gives us life. Our lives are designed to bear the best of the harvest, not to be overrun with weeds. James tells his readers they were created to be the firstfruits of God’s creation—a familiar image to his Jewish audience (Deuteronomy 26:9-11).

In this section, James makes it clear that God is the Creator of every good and perfect thing. He is not to blame for our temptations, or for the resulting sins. Sin is already rooted in us and it is our yielding to temptation that allows it to grow.

Like the readers of James’s epistle, we face rejection and disappointment. We, too, have a choice. We can choose to keep our eyes on the world around us, dwell on how much better everyone else has it, and eventually find ourselves in soul-killing despondency, or we can ask God for wisdom, bank on our eternal inheritance, and live fruitful lives.

1. What is the difference between discontent and living with an unmet desire?

2. Is it a sin to be discontent?

3. In what situations are you most inclined to pity yourself? How would godly wisdom make a difference in each of those situations?

4. I used the metaphor of weeds spreading through a garden to describe sin’s infiltration and eventual destruction of our lives. Now, when I see my garden, I’m also reminded of a spiritual principle. Create your own metaphor for James 1:14-15 that will help you remember the pernicious effects of sin.

5. My usual response to the testing of my faith is to doubt God and grab for the reins, not to persevere; but James says the testing of our faith develops perseverance. How do you see this at work in your life?

Week 1 - The Dig Begins

Each Biblical book is written in a specific literary form. The book of James is an epistle, or a letter. Each epistle contains basically the same elements. Knowing this helps us to see the way the book is organized.

Elements of Biblical Epistles

1. name of the writer

2. name of recipients

3. greeting

4. prayer, wish, or thanksgiving

5. body of letter

6. final greetings and farewell

We have to keep in mind that when we are studying an epistle it really is a letter written to a specific group of people. This is why it is important to know who wrote the letter and to whom they were writing. While scripture is God’s living word to all of his people, knowing the original purposes is very helpful in understanding what the letters are really saying. To that end, we now give you “James: The Basics.”

Author

James was written by a guy named James. (surprise, surprise) But just who was this James? He was the brother of Jesus. James lived with Christ during His “Pre-public-ministry” years. There’s definitely some room for sibling rivalry in that relationship – how do you attempt to live up to Jesus? He was a leader in the Jerusalem church. The early church fathers knew James as “old camel knees.” This nickname is an allusion to his great focus on prayer, the ultimate combination of faith and works. Finally, James was executed in 62AD.

Date Written

James was written within about 15 years of the crucifixion. Some sources date the book as early as 42AD, while others believe James was written in the later 40s. Regardless of the specific date, there is consensus that James was written prior to the apostolic council held in Jerusalem in 49AD. The book contains no mention of the council, which would have been important to a leader in the Jerusalem church such as James.

Audience

Jewish Christians were the audience to whom James was writing. These believers had been scattered because of persecution and were most likely part of house churches outside of Palestine. James is writing to encourage these believers to press on in their faith, to live a life transformed by their knowledge of Christ. It appears that conflicts have entered the churches and are leading to some wavering commitment between worldly things and true faith. James writes to combat this conflict.

Literary Features

Because the original audience was Jewish Christians, there is a Jewish style of reasoning evident throughout the book of James. Also, James frequently reflects on the law of Moses, or Torah, throughout his writing.

Though James begins in the style of an epistle, the remainder of the book takes on characteristics of a collection of wisdom sayings. This has caused some commentators to refer to James as “the Proverbs of the New Testament.” The book contains many directives, showing that James is more interested in action than in mere belief. He writes in a way that meant to persuade his readers to actively live in a way worthy of a life-transforming Gospel.

Another really important fact in studying an epistle is beginning by reading the entire letter. Much like finding a place on a globe helps you understand better where it is. Each passage of the letter will make more sense when you know it in the whole of its context. So take a little time to read through the whole letter of James.

Questions:

1. After reading the letter what are your first impressions on themes in James?
2. Why is it significant that Jesus’ brother believed that the Gospel should transform the lives of those who believe?
3. James was known as “old camel knees.” If someone were to give you a nickname based on your spiritual life, what might that name be? What nickname would you desire?

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We'll be studying James this spring. The name for this blog and its URL come from James 5:17, "Elijah was a man just like us." What better way to start off a women's Bible study? Enjoy!