Song: Trust and Obey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjWV_Kuxd2s
I Want To Walk As a Child of the Light.
Prayer:Father God we bless you and thank you for this day. Thank you that no matter what happened you were with us and will forever be with us. Help us Lord to trust you more and to set aside the cares of our lives to simply be with you for this time. Father thank you that you know our needs even better than we do, so we cast all our cares on you once again. In Jesus name amen.
James 1: 16+
Let’s review a little before we start. In verses 13-15 of James 1 we read: Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
We discussed that truth in depth. Tonight we will begin with an admonition and then the opposite truth.
James 1:16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
This is GOOD news. Often we hear part of verse 17 quoted, “Every good and perfect gift is from God”. And we forget both the end of it and verse 16.
One author said of verse 16, “Emotions and sinful thinking can trick us into turning away from God. It's important to cling to the truth, which is that every good thing in our lives is a gift from God. In the midst of our trials, we are tempted to change our opinion of the trustworthiness of our God.” (https://www.bibleref.com/James/1/James-1-17.html)
That is an interesting insight isn’t it? When we do not like the circumstances of life we may be tempted to think God is NOT good or doesn’t care about us.
I am thinking of Daniel who had the exact opposite attitude. Remember in Daniel 3:18 Daniel said, “But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”
Daniel trusted God even in the face of a fiery furnace. And it turned out well for Daniel, but he did not know that for sure when he refused to bow down to the idol. He knew God could save him, but said, even if God did not save him, he was going to worship only God.
I want to be more and more like Daniel. Don’t you?
That author went on to say that when we forget the truth of verse 17 (every good gift is from God) and another one that says God withholds no good thing from us (Psalm 84:11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.), that “attitude leads to even more temptation.
We begin to look elsewhere for the good things we think we're missing. "If God won't provide them," we think, "we'll have to go and get them for ourselves." We attempt to take control. We struggle to find our own satisfaction. “
Dodi Note: Uh-oh right? Isn’t that true? And doesn’t that send us right back sort of as proof of the truth we discussed last week? Remember? James 1:13-15 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
The author I am quoting goes on to say: James is encouraging believers in Christ to tell themselves the truth: God gave you every single good thing in your life. He is the source of all the good you have and all the good you crave. Who God is does not change when our circumstances change. He doesn't go from being a good God to a bad God when our trials began. He is still the source of all the good in our lives; He never changes.
James also uses a play on words in this verse, referring to God as the Father of lights, or "of heavenly lights." He is the source of the light. The sun can never be in shadow. At times, shadows may fall on us, but He is ever and always light. If we turn away from Him, we go only deeper into shadow. Turning from God in order to escape hardship is as ridiculous as hiding from the sun in an effort to escape darkness. When faced with ordeals, we should seek the one who can make all things new.
What does it mean to remain faithful in hard times? It means continuing to acknowledge that God is the source of what is good in our lives, and what will be good in the future.
Dodi Note: Interesting? Rich? Comments or questions?
Let’s recap the passage before we ponder the next part.
James 1 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Dodi Note: “Of His own will….because God WANTED you and wanted me, he brought us forth (called us into existence). He did that so we might be a kind of firstfruits. What on earth does that even mean? Let’s find out.
NLT makes it a bit clearer. NLT: "He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession."
So this must be talking about our rebirth and not our first birth. (Same source)
In the previous verses, James urged Christians to tell themselves the truth about who God is. He cares for them, even when—especially when—the trials come. God is the giver of every good thing in our lives. He is the unchanging source of any good we have ever had, have now, or will ever experience in the future.
Now James completes that thought with an example of one of God's greatest good gifts to us. God gave us new life in Christ. That's an essential truth, but also something easy to take for granted. It's a necessary thought to hold on to in the middle of trials. Specifically, God brought us forth—or gave us birth—by His own will. He wanted to! God has cared about us from the beginning.
James writes that God gave us birth by the Word of truth. Maybe James uses the "Word of truth" to refer to Christ as the means by which He saved us. He may also be referring to God's act of creation, bringing us to life as He brought the world to life with a word. In either case, we Christians are the "firstfruits" of His creation, likely meaning we have standing above all the rest of what He has made.
What more evidence do we need that our God is good and loving and powerful and faithful to us? No matter how dark our circumstances in the moment, nothing can change the enormous good gift that God has given to us in Christ.
One more thought on firstfruits. This is from eBible and a person named Tim.
The first fruits offering in the Old Testament was first mentioned in Exodus 23:19. When the annual harvest was gathered, the best of the very first of the crops that were collected were to be offered to God in gratitude for the harvest.
In referring to this practice, James (in my opinion) was saying that those who became followers of Christ at the time in which he was writing through the receiving of the gospel message (the word of truth), and the forgiveness of their sins through faith, were similarly consecrated as the very beginning of the worldwide harvest of the redeemed that God was seeking to gather from among humanity, and that He has continued to gather to the present day -- the start of restoring humanity to what God had meant it to be at the time of creation in terms of fellowship with Him.
Dodi Note: I don’t absolutely understand all this. But one thing we can all take away from these verses is that God is GOOD. God invited us to NEW BIRTH in His love via Jesus and we are “first fruits” which in part means set apart and consecrated to/for God’s purposes.
Any comments?
The next verses are simple and yet if we live them will have a profound impact not only on us, but also those around us.
Hearing and Doing the Word
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Dodi Note: WOW.
We are instructed to be QUICK to hear (listen) and SLOW to speak. Have you ever heard it said that God gave us only 1 mouth but 2 ears because we are to listen twice as much as we speak? Ha ha. But it is true.
That can be quite difficult at times. However, I hope you, like me are making progress.
Remember I told you at the beginning that I really like James. The reason is because it gives me very simple directions on how to live the Christian life. Am I always quick to listen and slow to speak? Absolutely not. Have I grown in it? Decidedly yes. I imagine the same is true for you all.
Here are a few other places which tell us similar things.
Proverbs 10:19 When words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
Dodi Note: Ever say things you really really wish you could take back? But words once spoken take on a life of their own. Do we agree that restraining our lips is wise?
Proverbs 14:29 A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man promotes folly.
Proverbs 16:32 He who is slow to anger is better than a warrior, and he who controls his temper is greater than one who captures a city.
Proverbs 17:27 A man of knowledge restrains his words, and a man of understanding keeps a cool head.
Proverbs 29:20 Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
And from Ecclesiastes 7:9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger settles in the lap of a fool.
One on this topic from James 3:10 Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be!
Dodi Note: We will get to this one later. But are we all getting the idea that watching what we say is a smart thing to do?
The last bit of verse 19 says we are to be “slow to anger”. That can be difficult too. But we have a Master Model for this. Over and over God is described as “slow to anger and abounding in love”.
Psalm 86:15 But You, O Lord, are a God [who protects and is] merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.
Psalm 103:8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in compassion and lovingkindness.
Dodi Note: Aren’t we grateful for this characteristic of God? Because each of us have done plenty to earn his anger. We are very blessed that our God is slow to anger and abounding in love. And since we are His children, we want to grow up to be like him.
I particularly like Joel 2:13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Or in Amplified
Rip your heart to pieces [in sorrow and contrition] and not your garments.” Now return [in repentance] to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness [faithful to His covenant with His people]; And He relents [His sentence of] evil [when His people genuinely repent].
This was talking about repentance. The verse just before it Joel 2:12 said, “Even now,” says the Lord,
“Turn and come to Me with all your heart [in genuine repentance],
With fasting and weeping and mourning [until every barrier is removed and the broken fellowship is restored];
And then… James goes on…
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
Dodi Note: Great, right? All these wonderful instructions and then a reminder we can NOT simply hear, as in know the truth, we must DO the Truth.
I found an online source that was simple and explained it quite well.
In the paragraph preceding the one we are studying here, James encourages his readers to be quick to hear these words of truth. Listening and receiving again and again the truth of God's amazing love and grace for us will help us to be more deliberate and faithful in our words and with our anger.
Now James wants to expand on what true hearing is. Hearing involves action that is an appropriate response to what you just heard.
Dodi Note: That makes sense, doesn’t it?
If I am really hearing a warning of an oncoming car, then I would respond appropriately by getting out of the way. I make the adjustments in my life that fit with the truth I have been given. We often wonder if our children or others in our care are truly hearing us when we see no outward response.
James tells his readers that when they hear, but do not integrate what they hear into their lives that they are deceiving themselves. He compares these people to those who look into a mirror and then forget what they see. How does this become deceiving? A mirror gives me a fair assessment of what is my physical appearance.
But as soon as I walk away from the mirror, I no longer have the image in front of me. I can't "hold on to it" so to speak. If I never go back and look in the mirror, I cannot be sure of what I look like. I begin to forget. And if I choose to dismiss immediately what I saw (I am not really that fat, thin, bushy-haired, etc.) then I forget even more quickly the truth the mirror revealed to me.
If I do not act on the truth I hear of my good heavenly Father, then I am deceived because the truth I heard does not stay before me, and I soon forget it and so forget myself.
Dodi Note: I like this because in my studies over the years I learned that as we mature in God’s love, we are able to “act like ourselves” no matter how stressful life is. That means, since our identity is “Child of God” we will act like a child of God and not a spoiled brat when we do not get whatever we wanted.
The author continues: We are tempted when we are in trouble to believe that just hearing the truth, or "knowing" the truth is enough. We listen, hoping that our listening itself with solve our problems.
Isn't it enough to know that complaining and grumbling are harmful to my peace in Christ? Do I really have to stop doing these things?
Isn't it enough to hear God made me out of His own free choice and love and that He is good and generous?
No. James says that when we do this we are deceiving ourselves, lying to ourselves. We believe that we are living in the truth when in fact we are not.
We are not enjoying any of the benefits of trusting in God because we are not in fact trusting Him.
We are like someone who goes to a specialist for a health disorder, listens to his or her recommendations, but then do none of them. But we are deceived because we want to believe that somehow just going and hearing what the doctor had to say was enough.
But then after several weeks with no change in our health, we may start to wonder why we are not feeling better.
In my early 20s I went through a period in my Christian life where I wondered why God seemed so distant or even absent in my life. I spent time with a Christian counselor who took seriously many commands in the New Testament that up until then didn't seem that important.
One of them was about grumbling and complaining. She actually believed I was to attempt to obey that command!
Dodi NOTE:
Over the time I met with her, she helped me take some difficult steps to change what I thought and said. And what I discovered is that God became much more present to me in my everyday life.
Dodi NOTE: Isn’t that a grand benefit of being a doer of His Word?
Not that there are not still times when I can't see what He is doing and that I trust Him only by choice and not by much else. But overall as I took God more seriously in all areas of my life, I began to see the truth of His love and care for me in new ways.
Dodi NOTE: Listen to the next part carefully.
To act on the truth we hear is to live as if God is truly our gracious heavenly Father and that He alone gives us our worth, our identity. But this is to allow very deep habits of mind, words, and actions to be transformed.
The way we relate to others, and ourselves how we spend our time and money, our general outlook on life all need to come under the light of God's gracious work.
The reason we are to turn from grumbling for instance is because when we are complaining we do not trust that God is good, present, and active. We are attempting to live in two minds--to say we trust God but act as if we do not. Jesus often encouraged people to not be afraid, but to trust Him. He knew that when they acted out of their fear, they were unable to act out of trust in His goodness.
To act on what we hear though, is not simply to try harder not to, say, not complain or be anxious. James is not encouraging his readers to simply try harder to live right. He is encouraging them to do whatever they need to do in order to feed their faith in their heavenly Father.
So we turn our anxiety over to Jesus Himself and our desire to grumble. We hand over each day, relationship, thought, and question to God moment by moment, thus allowing our faith in Him to become a living thing.
James says this is looking into "the perfect law of liberty." Trusting in, resting in our Father is true freedom. This is where we become who we are meant to be.
Only by placing our hand in the Father's who has grabbed hold of us will we come to know ourselves. We look into this perfect law when we see that we are indeed children of our heavenly Father and not gods ourselves. It is when we stop trying to trust in our money, looks, family or friends, jobs, etc., to give us life and tell us who we are. And of course, this involves actively pursuing being reminded of the great news of our Triune God.
James says this will involve persevering. It is a continual choice we make to trust in God. It is a truly ongoing relationship. James has already spoken of persevering when he spoke of steadfast faith (v.4) and endurance (v.12).
Clearly then James sees this as key to getting through the trials we face. We need to keep on choosing to know the truth about God and to trust in His character and work in our lives.
James reminds them of who God is, not because they haven't heard it before, but because part of acting on what we hear is to hear it again and again. We so easily forget the truth about our lives and ourselves. We need to keep going back to the mirror of God's Word.
Again James reminds them of the results of continually choosing to hand our lives over to God. The one who perseveres in looking into the perfect law will be "blessed in his doing."
God will bless us in the midst of our acting in faith. He will meet us richly as we choose to live as if He is who He reveals Himself to be. The truth will become more manifest in our lives, we will enjoy the true freedom He is calling us to, we will know and enjoy His great love for us more and more. It is our hope in these things that can enable us again today, to count on Him to be our true Father.
So Father God, thank you for this time and this truth. Help us all to be slow to speak especially if we are angry and quick to listen. Help us to be doers and to TRUST LEAN and RELY on you more and more. In Jesus name, Amen.