“What Is a Christian?” Part 32” by Romans
Two weeks ago, we reviewed and examined how we should fight the good fight of Faith and the admonition to Timothy and to us to wage “a good warfare.” Tonight, we are going to now look at another facet Faith, this time written by Jesus' half-brother and Apostle James.
In the first chapter of James' epistle where we read, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8).
Of this, The Preacher's Homiletical tells us, “Commonplace, practical wisdom.—St. James wrote to persons who were placed in difficult circumstances, partly through their own national characteristics, and partly through the events that were transpiring in public life. The Jews of every age, but peculiarly of that age, were of a contentious and quarrelsome disposition, and this made them a troublesome section of the people wherever they settled.
It came indeed to be pretty generally understood, that if there was a revolt anywhere, the Jews were mixed up with it, if they were not at the bottom of it. The usual feeling towards Jews in the time of St. James is fairly represented by that towards the Russians in our own day. And the Jews were as contentious in private family life, and in their local synagogue life, as in their public life.
St. James evidently has these characteristic elements of the Jewish nature fully in view. When the Jew became a Christian, it might not come to him at once that the Christian tone and spirit, which should characterise him in all forms of intercourse, was altogether different.
Very easily could the faith of Christ as Messiah be taken up; and since it was not inconsistent with attendance at the Temple, observance of circumcision, and obedience to the law, it might not strike many of the Judæo Christians that it necessitated any change of temper, or toning of relationships.
And then there were others who were called to suffer much in consequence of acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah; and they too were perplexed concerning the spirit with which their trials and persecutions should be met. It is in application to both such cases that St. James gives the advice of this passage, though the latter case appears to be the more prominent one.
The wisdom which some may feel that they lack is “practical wisdom”—what we properly mean by “common sense,” or skill in the wise ordering of life, and in estimating and duly meeting all our various obligations. By “wisdom” St. James does not mean “learning,” or “knowledge,” or “science.”
He was evidently a great Bible student, as all earnest Jews were, and seems to have been especially influenced by the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the later sapiential {or, wisdom} writings, and by the practical writings of the prophets; and it is in the book of Proverbs that we must seek for the sense in which he uses the term “wisdom” in his epistle.
Dean Stanley points out that the book of Proverbs is not on a level with the Prophets or the Psalms: “It approaches human things and things Divine from quite another side. It has even something of a worldly, prudential look. It is the philosophy of practical life. It is the sign to us that the Bible does not despise common sense and discretion. It impresses upon us in the most forcible manner the value of intelligence and prudence, and of a good education.
The whole strength of the Hebrew language, and of the sacred authority of the book, is thrown upon these homely truths.” It is planned so as to provide the young man, who has no life-experience to guide him, with “sound knowledge and discretion.” It directs him amid the pitfalls, difficulties, and duties on which he must enter with the simplicity of youth still upon him.
It was this kind of practical skill, to meet aright the unexpected and almost overwhelming responsibilities of kingship, that Solomon asked in his prayer at the outset of his reign. Kitto says: “The wisdom which Solomon craved was that of which he had already enough to be able to appreciate the value of its increase—practical wisdom, sagacity, clearness of judgment and intellect in the administration of justice, and in the conduct of public affairs.” Taking wisdom then in this simple and practical sense, there is point in the counsel of St. James for us all.
Precisely what thoughtful and devout people feel that they lack, especially when trials and misunderstandings seem to attend their endeavour to live the godly life, is the practical wisdom that would enable them to think aright of these trials, and would enable them so to control themselves under them, and so to order their conduct in relation to them, as to be patient under all circumstances, and fully maintain everywhere the Christian spirit.
I. Practical wisdom for the ordering of life is a common requirement of Christian disciples.—Life is distinctly a new thing to a man when he becomes a Christian. “He has not passed that way heretofore.” He has no experiences in the self and worldly life that can be any really practical help to him. He is in much the condition of the young man who, with good principles, but very limited and often unsuitable experiences, goes out into life to meet the surprise of its varied trials and temptations.
And we think there is hope for a young man if, on thus entering upon untried scenes, he is humble enough to recognise that he “lacks wisdom.” Whether a man came over from Judaism to Christianity or from Paganism, he could never find it an easy thing to adjust himself to the new conditions and responsibilities. It may be questioned whether even now any man finds it an easy thing to adjust himself to the claims of a really earnest religious life.
Practically we all find out, sooner or later, that we “lack wisdom”—precisely the wisdom which would enable us to fit our Christian conduct and relationships perfectly and pleasantly to our Christian principles and to the Christian spirit. Look at this “practical wisdom” in some of its more evident spheres. 1. The Christian discovers that he has a new standard for the management of himself.
Every man finds out that he needs wisdom for the skilful ordering of his own bodily faculties and powers, his mind and abilities, and his temper and passions. “Knowing ourselves” is the intense work of early life; wisely ordering ourselves, according to our knowledge of ourselves, is the even more intense work of early manhood. But the Christian has another, a new, and a higher standard of self-management.
It needs to be set before us much more forcibly than it is, that the human example of our Divine Lord is that of a man who, with practical skill, ruled and ordered His own bodily life, mastering all its weaknesses, and putting it always into wise restraints. It may very well be that we all feel to “lack wisdom” in this, the first sphere of a self-rule. “The body for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
2. But practical wisdom is needed for ordering the commonplace and every-day associations of life. A man has to be distinctively and unquestionably Christian, in tone and spirit, everywhere, every day, and in everything. For the man who is not a Christian always is not a Christian at all. And yet what practical wisdom he needs! So easily he can undervalue the home-sphere, and say, “It does not much matter what I do there.”
So easily he can make a distinct sphere of business, and say, “Business is business; we do not want religion there.” So easily he can be carried away by party feeling, and then but unworthily share in the witness of public life. Facing the commonplace obligations of home and business and society, we may all feel that in our effort to find full and adequate expression of the Christian spirit we all “lack wisdom.”
Is there a satisfied, or self-satisfied, Christian man or woman? It can only be that by them the claim of the Christian religion to tone and rule the every-day life of relations is not duly estimated. 3. And as the unexpected is “the thing that happens” even in the Christian life, practical wisdom is needed for rightly meeting the anxieties, trials, temptations, and calamities that come as surprises in every life.
Of these St. James was thinking; and it was concerning the securing of the right preparedness for such scenes, and the right response to such circumstances, that he wrote to these Christian Jews. “Let patience [under trials] have her perfect work.” “And if any of you feel that you lack the wisdom which would enable you so to order your lives as to win for patience her perfect work, then let him ask for the needed wisdom from God.”
Surely it comes home to us all, that in our effort to tone our lives with the Christian spirit, and to fill our daily lives with the Christian principles, we do “lack wisdom,” we do need practical skill.
II. Practical wisdom for the ordering of every-day life and relations is a Divine gift.—“Let him ask of God.” Wisdom, as the learning of the schools, can be thought of as a purely human acquisition. It is not indeed so regarded by the Christian, who seeks Divine help and blessing even in the acquisition of knowledge.
But this practical wisdom, which adjusts the Christian principles to the relations of life, as if a man had passed through an actual experience, and had well learned the lessons of it, is distinctly a gift of God, a Divine bestowment upon the humble, open-souled, prayerful, obediently-toned man.
It would be pleasant to philosophise about this, and to show that what we really need is to put God—God in Christ—into vital relation with each scene and duty and struggle; that we cannot get God save as He gives Himself to us; and that putting Himself into, keeping Himself in, our lives, is His answer to prayer, and His supply of wisdom...
And it is also true of our mental and moral life, though in these matters we have to bring in some new and important considerations. Given the case of a man who knows what is good for his bodily health, and the assumption is that he will do it. But given the case of a man who knows what is for his moral good, and there is no security at all that he will do it; there is indeed every probability, or every fear, that he will not.
Froude cleverly hits off the weakness of experience, if we treat his sentence as applying to morals. He says, “Experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which cast their rays over a path which has been taken.” In relation to the moral and religious ordering of the moral and religious life, we have to take into account the disturbing element of the biassed, self-pleasing will.
Use experience how well soever we may, that disturbing element has to be reckoned with: and that makes us feel that we “lack wisdom”; and that drives us to seek the help of God, whose supreme work is in and on man’s will. God strengthens with “strength in the soul.” Wherein then lies the difference between every man’s life and the Christian man’s life?
Just here—Every man is learning by experience how to live. But his learning is seriously affected and biassed by the uncertainty of his self-willedness. The Christian man too is learning by experience; but he has asked God to set, to steady, to guide, and to control his will; and consequently, for him, the lessons of experience are in the Divine sanctifying.
Feeling his lack of wisdom, he asks of God. God may not change any of the circumstances of the man’s life; but God does set him and keep him rightly related to the circumstances; and therefore his life-experience does its best for him. St. James wrote to Christian Jews. It was a good and hopeful sign that they were conscious of “lacking wisdom.”
From the Christian point of view, then and now, there is no peril like that of the man who is quite sure that he can go alone. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” The inspiration of a life of trustful prayer is the daily renewed conviction that we “lack wisdom.” Prayer is our expression of the sense of need.
III. Practical wisdom for the ordering of life is obtained only on conditions.—“Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.” Here we are led to think of distinctions among professing Christians, rather than of distinctions between the worldly and the Christian. Even when we ask we may miss the response, by failing to meet the arranged conditions. We must ask for this daily Divine help in faith; but that faith required cannot possibly mean the acceptance of certain doctrines.
Answer to prayer is never assured in God’s word on the ground of the correctness of our intellectual beliefs. Faith in relation to prayer is seen by St. James as steady single-mindedness. The man of faith feels quite sure of what he needs. He has no questioning whatever about it. He gives way to no uncertainties, no doubts. He knows that he “lacks wisdom.”
He does not waver as to that, and there is consequently point and force in his prayer. And faith in prayer also includes confidence in Him to whom the prayer is addressed. This is indeed the very essence of Christian prayer. To be a Christian at all is to know God so as to trust Him thoroughly.
And this confidence has for its sphere everything pertaining to the practical life of godliness. Concerning everything the Christian prays with submission; but it may be said that in praying about material things submission is stronger than expectancy; but in praying about moral and religious things, in which the Christian man should be in full sympathy with God, expectancy ought to be stronger than submission.
With an unquestionable and unhesitating confidence we may ask for everything that pertains to the holy life. The positive condition is active faith, full confidence, assured hope of gracious response. The negative condition is, that there shall be no wavering,—no feeling as if we did want wisdom, and then feeling as if we did not; no disputing with ourselves, as if we could be sure about nothing; no half-heartedness in our praying.
Sometimes the ship, swayed about on the waters, is taken as the type of instability; but St. James knew that whatever the appearances, the ship was really answering its helm, and moving towards the desired haven. So he took his figure from the surging waves themselves. For these have no control of their own movements, and are under no apparent external control.
They surge this way or that, they rise high or low, according as they are played upon by the ever-varying winds. And so even God can hardly get at the man who wavers, for there are no steady moods to which he can respond. “Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.”
The waverer, the doubter, the man who is always uncertain, is a proverbially difficult man to deal with. He is never quite sure what he wants; he never knows how to ask; and before you can get him what he asks, he wants something else. Both God and man are compelled to give up the waverers as hopeless people.
“Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth [doubteth] is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.… A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Let me gather up the points of St. James’s teaching into a few brief but connected sentences.
1. It is one thing to lack practical wisdom for the ordering of our lives, and another thing to know that we lack it. 2. It is one thing to know that we lack, and quite another to be willing to ask for a supply. 3. It is one thing to be willing to ask, and quite another to ask properly. Of one thing we may be absolutely sure, and we may act on our assurance. If God makes conditions, He lovingly responds to them. “He giveth to all liberally [just the skill for life that they lack], and upbraideth not.”
There is much more to discuss regarding what it is to be a Christian in general, and specifically the Role that Faith plays as a vital aspect of our being a Christian. I plan, God Willing, to continue to review and examine this topic. I invite all of you who are hearing or reading my words to join me at this same place and time.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “What Is A Christian? Part 32.”
This Discussion was presented “live” on September 11th, 2024.
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