We are starting our summer sermon series through the book of James. While I’m sure you have plans for picnics, vacations, and relaxation, I would encourage you to make time to worship regularly this summer. There is no better way to reenergize your soul than to worship the Living God. Therefore, I invite you to join us on the "Journey with James."You can listen to the audio or read the text.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/hl4mwzz5mae/Jumping In.mp3
“Jumping In” / Brimfield Faith UMC / June 6, 2010
James 1:1-8
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Beginning this morning we will be embarking on a summer long journey through the letter of James. I try to preach through a book of the Bible at some point during the year because I think it is important to appreciate Scripture in its entirety. We can learn a great deal from selected verses or from a passage, but we can gain different insights when we go through a book from start to finish. The Letter of James has a unique relationship with the rest of the New Testament. It functions as a balance to various perspectives in the Scriptures. I trust that the journey will be a fruitful one for everyone who journeys with us.
JAMES “THE JUST”
If you want to open your Bibles to James 1:1, we will begin. As we begin to read this letter, it is helpful for us to understand things about the sender and recipients of a letter. The opening reads, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.” In the first verse we learn some important things. First, we learn that this is a letter from a man named James. James provides a short, ambiguous, introduction to his identity. As a result, scholars can only speculate on the exact identity of James. Our best guess is that this letter is intended to reflect the ideas of James, the brother of Jesus. From Scripture and scholarship we know that James was not an apostle but was held in high esteem in the early church. Eventually, he assumes the position as the head of the church in Jerusalem. Because of his leadership and his righteous lifestyle, he is often referred to as James “the Just.”
Understanding the author of the letter can help us to understand the letter. James writes to a church that is under persecution, struggling with its identity, and how to apply their new faith in everyday life. It is written 30 or 40 years after Jesus’ death, not to a specific community, instead, it is written to “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.” The Dispersion referred to the Jewish people who had been scattered from Jerusalem at different points into the surrounding areas. Christianity had originated in Jerusalem and was spread as different disciples set out on missionary journeys to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. In the early days, there was a diversity of beliefs about Christianity, much like today, and James writes his letter hoping to get his specific doctrinal points of emphasis through to these new believers.
James “the Just” led the early church movement called Jewish Christianity. The Letter of James represents the concerns of Jewish Christianity. Jewish Christianity from James’ perspective focused on maintaining the Jewish faith while following Jesus as the messiah. As a result, they emphasized certain points of doctrine over others. James’ movement at various times found itself in conflict with the Apostle Paul’s followers. Paul, while Jewish, focused more on converting Gentiles to Christianity. While these were two of many early movements of Christianity, these two frequently found themselves in conflict.
The Apostle Paul played a large role in shaping the identity of the early church, especially the Gentile, non-Jewish, church. The Christianity that we read in the Scriptures and practice is heavily influenced by Pauline theology. While there is nothing wrong or heretical with Pauline theology, it is susceptible to certain tendencies and errors. The main one being Paul’s theology emphasized the primacy of grace and people mistakenly assumed greater liberties than Paul ever intended. James warns believers against the pitfalls of Paul’s theology. As we read James letter, it will be our task to become tuned in to the potential pitfalls of Pauline theology.
This summer, we will discover some reoccurring themes within the Letter of James. They will be themes like faith, wisdom, prayer, and endurance. James has not chosen these themes randomly or haphazardly. Instead, these are the primary pitfalls James has identified in Paul’s theology. While there may been some direct conflict between Paul’s teachings and James’ teachings, I think the bigger issue was Paul’s followers misunderstood, misapplied and at times took certain liberties with Paul’s teaching. The Letter of James attempted to correct those errors. Those corrections and warnings against the pitfalls have served the church for almost 2000 years and as we will see are just as pertinent today as ever before.
PITFALL #1: INCOMPLETE FAITH
#1. Modern Christians have a tendency at times to misunderstand FAITH.
In Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul writes the hallmark verse about salvation by faith. He says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.” While verse 10 emphasizes that we are “created in Christ Jesus to do good works,” many Christians have come to understand faith as a passive activity. As a result, we separate faith from our actions. We have a tendency to sit on our laurels and think the world will come to us on a silver platter. From this verse and others, we think that hardship cannot come to those who have faith in Christ. In reality, this couldn’t be further from real faith. We will see through the Letter of James attempts to clarify different misperceptions about faith.
In verses 2 – 4, James begins his attempt to rectify this misapplication and misunderstanding about faith. Follow along: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Pitfall: Faith is mistaken for easy believe-ism.
The pitfall that James identifies first about faith is what I call easy believe-ism. This is a faith that shatters when things get difficult. If we are honest, we all struggle with this to an extent. If hardship comes our way, we immediately question God’s role in our lives. We default to thinking that God must somehow be punishing us. We judge the depth of our faith by the absence of suffering in our lives. When things go good, we say, “God is blessings me.” When things go bad, we say, “God is punishing me.” This is a false and incomplete view of both God and the world in which we live. This is the pitfall that James wants us to avoid.
Remedy: Life is designed to bring about mature faith.
We hear James’ remedy in the first verse after the greeting of the letter. “Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds…” James wants us to praise God in the good times and praise God in the bad times. In James’ view, God wants to use life to deepen and strengthen our faith. Faith is not the vehicle that brings us the easy life. Faith is the vehicle that brings completeness in God.
James doesn’t talk about salvation by faith anywhere in his letter, but he talks about the sanctification process at great length. The Greek word for mature is sometimes translated perfect. In Matthew 5:48, we are encouraged to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” James believes we are saved by faith in order to become more like our Creator Father. Therefore, he encourages us to view life as designed to bring about mature, complete faith.
He explains this process systematically: trails test faith, testing develops perseverance and perseverance leads to Christ-likeness. The end goal of God is to restore us into his image. James believes this is how it happens. James, of course, understands this is a hard and tedious process. This is why he address it first in the letter. If we don’t get these first concepts, we won’t succeed in following any of his other advice. Therefore, James addresses a second pitfall which builds on the first.
PITFALL #2: LACK OF WISDOM
#2. Modern Christians have a tendency to lack godly WISDOM.
Developing perseverance to obtain Chris-likeness can be a challenging journey to travel. James identifies a lack of godly wisdom to be a primary stumbling block on the journey. In Romans 8:28, Paul writes about continuing on the journey towards Christ-likeness, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” In this Romans passage, Paul talks about the role of the Holy Spirit sustaining us through life. There is nothing theologically wrong with this passage. In fact, it is one of the my favorite passages in the Bible.
The problem is Christians consistently misunderstand and misquote this passage. They think it says something like, “Everything happens for a reason.” This belief alleviates the need for responsibility and wisdom. Believers believe they are relying solely on the Holy Spirit, while in reality they are relying on worldly wisdom and the folly of man. When believers ignore godly wisdom in favor the Holy Spirit, they lose the guidance of both. The guidance of wisdom and the Holy Spirit are like two sides of the same coin. While James believes in the Holy Spirit, he does not address the role of the Holy Spirit in his letter at all. Instead he focuses on the importance of wisdom. James sees the pitfall as a misguided emphasis on the Holy Spirit. neglect of godly widsom.
Pitfall: We misunderstand the guidance of the Holy Spirit. (v.5-8)
The pitfall that James identifies is a misunderstanding of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. James sees believers who are not wholeheartedly seeking God for the wisdom and guidance that they need. They think they can solely rely on the Holy Spirit. The problem is that divorced from godly wisdom, the Holy Spirit becomes a gut-feeling based on what you had for dinner the night before. As a result, Christians begin to seek God and then hedge their bets. Instead of seeking God’s guidance, they look to other sources of wisdom. Perhaps the business page and the astrology page. Regardless, James says we need to ask God without doubt if we want to receive from him.
Remedy: Seek godly wisdom without doubt.
James understands that we need to ask God for wisdom. Verse 5 and 6 read, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt…” He undoubtedly draws this advice from the Old Testament. In Psalm 1 it reads, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Proverbs 1:7 reads, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and disciple.” Wisdom is the key to godliness for James. We must ask for it without doubt because we have a generous God who wants to share it with each of his children.
FAITH THAT ENDURES AND GODLY WISDOM
You will be rewarded with maturity and completeness when you seek godly wisdom without doubt. When we discover godly wisdom and persevering faith, we will discover the riches of a living a Christ-like life. Faith and wisdom will be reoccurring themes in the Letter of James because they are keys to the journey with God. As James tells us up front, the journey will be challenging one but one that will reap many rich rewards. As we have completed the first steps of faith and wisdom, they us ask our generous Father to sustain us in the journey.
Let’s pray.
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