James: A Commentary -- Chapter 5

 

James 5:1-6

     This section is a powerful indictment against those who have amassed great amounts of wealth. Some people say that the Bible does not say that it is wrong to have a lot of riches. Yes, it does. It says it right here. Jesus said it too.

     In these verses, James says that the rich will weep and howl and lose everything because they have hoarded wealth in the last days. This means that they had enough money to live well and they could have given to help people and they didn’t do it. God says that’s wrong.

     One way that the rich hoard money in the last days is through the exploitation of the worker. They do not pay a living wage with proper health benefits so that they can have more and more for themselves. But, God knows what they have done, and there will be a day of reckoning. They may have lived in abundance on the earth, but their eternity will be bleak. That is not me judging, that is the revealed word of God.

     Jesus said as much. In the parable of the rich man, the rich man had a great harvest so much so that he was going to tear down his barns and build bigger barns. God said his soul would be required of him. Why? He had more than enough and kept if for himself instead of helping others.

     Jesus also gave us the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man had enough money to have purple clothing which was enormously expensive in that day. He bought that instead of helping Lazarus. The rich man ended up in hell.

James 5:7-12

     This is an important discussion on patience and perseverance in the midst of suffering in this world. What James is saying to us is that there will be suffering in this world while we wait for the promised coming of Jesus back to rule and reign in righteousness in this world.

     James gives us three examples of patient waiting for that which we are in expectation of. First the farmer. The farmer plants the seed in the field and then has to wait for the seed to sprout, for the sprout to grow, and then he has to wait for the fruit or grain to ripen. Eventually, the farmer will reap the harvest.

     The second example is the prophets. They told the people that the Messiah would come. They waited for years, and still, they did not see it happen in their own lifetimes. However, God kept His word. Jesus was born. He was the Promised One. The waiting of the prophets came to fruition in Jesus.

     James gives us Job as the third example. Job really went through a vast amount of suffering. In spite of it all, he never turned on God or cursed God. He waited for the deliverance of the Lord, and the Lord came to the aid of Job.

     We go through hard times now. Life is suffering. However, we have the promise that Jesus is coming. We wait and work for Him until the day we go to be with Him or He comes back to this earth.

James 5:13-15

     In these verses, we are given a guideline for praying for the sick who are members of the church body. A sick person should ask the church leaders to come and pray for him. They are to come and anoint the sick person with oil, and they are to pray for the recovery of the one who is sick.

     If the sick person has committed a sin, that individual is to confess that sin and receive forgiveness. A note on this. This passage is not saying that all sickness is caused by sin. It is saying that we are to confess and receive forgiveness. Some sickness may be caused by living a sinful lifestyle, but by no means is all or most sickness a result of that.

James 5:16-18

     These verses tell us about the power of prayer. The initial context is on praying for the sick. Prayer for healing is effective. I have seen the sick prayed for, and they recovered. I believe in the power of prayer. God does not always answer prayers in the way we want or expect. However, many people praying can have a great effect.

     As an example, James gives us the prophet Elijah. He was a great prophet of God. He prayed that it would not rain, and God stopped the rain for years. When he prayed again for the rain to come, it came back like a torrent. The fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much.

James 5:19-20

     James concludes his epistle by telling us one of the greatest things that we can do as a follower of the Lord Jesus. What is that? It is to turn sinners from the error of their ways. The Lord gave us the Great Commission to go and tell. When we tell others about the love and forgiveness of the Lord we are giving them the greatest gift in the world.

     Also, we are to help our fellow believers to turn back to the Lord when they have gone astray. We don’t do this by judging or condemning. We do that by being there for them when they need help and encouragement finding the way that they need to be on and the path that they need to trod.

Conclusion

     This journey through James has been exciting for me. I love this epistle and its message. I hope you will keep studying James, and I hope that you will apply the teachings of this book to your life.

 

Verses For The Week

 Psalm 103:8 -- "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love."

Ephesians 4:7 -- "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it."

The Weekend Sermon -- "Mark 3:1-6"

      I am once again glad to be able to post the message this week. I hope that all finds you well. I am doing a little better than I have been, and I thank the Lord for that. 

     For today, we are once again making our way through the Gospel of Mark. In our last message, we began to see that religious opposition was forming to the work of Jesus, and we will see that once again in our passage today. 

     One Sabbath day while Jesus was in the synagogue, a man with a withered hand was in the audience. Jesus saw him, and He told him to stand up. Jesus then asked if it was lawful to do good or evil on the Sabbath. The people and the religious leaders did not utter a word. 

     The reaction of the people made Jesus angry. He was distressed that they were so stubborn and uncaring. So, Jesus told the man to go ahead and stretch out his withered hand. The man did as Jesus asked, and he found that he was totally healed. After this, the religious authorities and the party of Herod began to plot how they could kill Jesus. 

     What can we learn from this encounter that Jesus had with the man with the withered hand? There are two main points in this that I want everyone to get. First of all, the religious leaders of Jesus' day were not doing what God wanted them to do. They said that they served God and had a lot of religious ritual, but they did not do what God expected. All they had was ritual and laws. They did not really care about people or the true ways of the Lord. That is why they cared more about not violating a rule they made in order to see someone made whole. 

     This is happening in our own day and age. There are those just like the religious leaders in Jesus' day who say they follow Jesus, they have big churches and they make a big show, but they do not do any of the things that Jesus said. 

     Jesus said that we are supposed to care for the poor and least among us. Yet many religious people don't care about the homeless and those who are impoverished. Instead, they spend all they have on entertainment and want more and more for themselves. They want more tax cuts and can't stand to see some poor person get a little bit of help. 

     Right now, many religious people clamor for war when Jesus called for peace and non-violence. Jesus said we are to love our neighbor as ourselves and to do unto others as we would have done to us. However, I have seen some cheer on the deportation of those who have done nothing wrong. 

     Just as in Jesus' day, today they are many who say one thing and do another. Just like then, Jesus now knows those who are His own. 

     Now, for the second thing I want us to really understand from this text. It is always the right time to do what is good. No matter if the church service is going on like when Jesus was with the man with the withered hand, now is always the right time to help someone and to do what needs to be done to try to make this world a better place. 

     There is a vast world of hurting and lonely people who need someone to care about them. It is our responsibility to be like Jesus in this world and to aid people in need. It is our job and our responsibility to tell others about the love of Jesus, and we need to not just tell, we need to demonstrate the love of Jesus through our lives. 

     In all things, let us follow Jesus. Let us do good as He did. Let us learn from Him and follow Him all the days of our lives. Amen.

Prayer Requests

     Please keep praying in regard to my health, Thank you. 

     Right now, there are wars and conflicts going on everywhere. At least it seems like it. Please keep praying for peace. Pray for peace in this Middle East conflict where the US, Israel, Lebanon, Iran and many other nations are in the midst of conflict. I am really concerned about Lebanon. All of those people run out of their homes and nowhere to live. It is all so horrible. Also, please remember to keep praying for peace in Sudan, Myanmar and Haiti. And pray for the people of Cuba who are having a real mess right now. 

     For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in the nations of Myanmar and Mali. Pray that many will come to know Jesus. 

     Next week, we will continue in Mark. I will post the verses on Tuesday and the next portion of the James commentary on Wednesday. May God bless you all. 

James: A Commentary -- Chapter 4

 

James 4:1-3

    As we begin chapter four, James is continuing his theme from the previous chapter by telling us once again the problems that greed, envy and selfishness can bring into our lives. In fact, James tells us that wars, quarrels and fighting in our relationships and in this world are in large part a result of our selfish desires.

     James tells us that we desire to have something that someone else has so we go to battle and kill. We covet what another person or a country has, so we are willing to resort to violent means in order to get it.

     In essence, what James is getting at is that wars, arguments, and sinfulness in general are rooted in greed and selfishness with selfishness being the key problem. If we think about our needs and ourself all the time it makes us puffed up with pride. It causes us not to care about anyone or anything except the satisfaction of our own desires, and this is contrary to the example of Jesus whose whole life and ministry were about selflessness, humility, non-violence, and loving-kindness.

    James tells us that if we desire to have something in life, we need to ask God. But we need to have the right motives. We are not to go around asking God for things just so we can have our own selfish desires satisfied. When we ask for things, we are to ask with the motive of using the things that God has given to us for the betterment of this world and the people and the creatures within it.

James 4:4-6

     These next three verses contain two very important points. Let’s consider the first. Being a friend of the world means that we are enemies of God. Being a friend of the world means that we do things the way that people in the world who don’t know God do them. This world is in rebellion against God. This world believes in things that are in entire contradiction to the things of God. This world teaches that greed is good and selfishness is right. It teaches that might makes right and that the accumulation of position and possessions are what will bring happiness. This is not the teaching of Jesus. He told us that it profits a person nothing if they should gain the whole world and yet lose their own soul.

    To be a friend of God means to follow the teachings and the commandments of Jesus. It means being humble and loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength as well as loving our neighbor as ourselves. Being a friend of God means doing unto others as we would have done unto us.

    Now, there is another important teaching in these verses. In verse 6 we read, “God opposes the proud, but gives favor to the humble.” God does not approve of a prideful heart. A heart lifted up in pride is what got Satan in trouble in the first place. A prideful heart says that it can be good without God. It says that man’s way is the right way, and the God’s way is not worth following.

     On the other hand, the humble person receives God’s grace. A good example is from the teaching of Jesus. He told the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector. The Pharisee prayed telling God all of the good things that he had done. He was so glad he wasn’t like that sinful tax collector standing next to him. The tax collector would not even lift his eyes to Heaven. Instead, he said Lord be merciful to me a sinner. Jesus said that the tax collector and not the Pharisee was the one who went home justified. God gives grace to the humble, but He rejects those who are lifted up with pride and self-righteousness.

 

James 4:7-10

     On the continuing theme of humility, James exhorts his readers to submit to God and resist the devil. Being a humble person requires submission. We submit to God knowing that His way is the best way. We submit to obeying His laws and commandments. We submit to the path that Jesus has called His followers to walk. We must also submit to the Lord’s will that He has for us as individuals. Whatever the Lord has called us to do for Him in this world, that is what we need to be about doing.

    We are to resist the devil. Satan was the opposite of humble. He was lifted up with pride and thought that he could take over for God. He led a rebellion in the heavens and was followed by one-third of the angels. He was cast out of heaven, and he opposes God and what God wants to do in the world and in the lives of people to this day.

     Those who have the desire in their heart to be close to God, God will draw close to them. As Jesus said, He will not cast out any person who comes to Him. Whoever will may come. Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavy laden Jesus said.

    James goes on in this section to call sinners to repentance. He is calling people away from sin and back to a proper and right relationship with the Lord. Those who do not know God are urged to purify themselves. They must mourn for there sins so that joy will come from having a right relationship with the Father through the Son.

James 4:11-12

     These next two verses are very similar to the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. If you remember, I said that James is telling us many of the things that Jesus taught while He was on this earth. Jesus told us not to judge others. We should not try to judge a person’s motives or intentions because we have absolutely no way of knowing what is in another person’s heart. Also, Jesus told us that we need to get the beam out of our own eye before we worry about the speck that is in our brother’s eye.

     Verse 12 is so important. We are not to judge our neighbor. We are to follow the teaching of Jesus when He calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

James 4:13-17

     This section has a deep personal resonance with me. I am writing this on the 16^th anniversary of the death of my father. What happened to him encapsulates these verses. My dad got a report that he was in the best health of his life. He had been waiting to get the call from the doctor, and he hadn’t gone to pick up his dog from the veterinarian yet. He walked out the door to drive over to the vet’s office and told me we would go to get something to eat when he got back. That is the last thing my dad ever said to me. He died of a stroke.

     One of my best friends had the flu. I talked to him on the phone on Friday afternoon. He told me he was doing better, and that on Monday, we would work on the lawnmower we were repairing. On Monday morning he died.

     Life is short. It is here and then gone, and no one is promised a tomorrow. With that in mind, we all need to go about doing good and serving the Lord now. We need to tell and show people we love them now. There may not be a tomorrow to do it.

Verses For The Week

 Romans 12:10 -- "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor."

John 13:34 -- "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."

The Weekend Sermon -- Mark 2:18-28

      Thank you for reading the message today. I hope that your day is going well. I am doing well today, and thankful for the opportunity to post the sermon.

     Today, we are once again studying what the Lord has to teach us from the Gospel of Mark. In our message for this week, I want to focus on two sections from Mark. In the first section, Jesus is asked by some why His followers did not fast. Fasting was and is an important part of the Jewish faith. 

     Jesus said that it was not appropriate for His followers to fast while He was with them. There would come a time when He was not with them any longer. Then they would fast. 

     The Lord then went on to say that one doesn't put a new patch on an old garment. That will cause the garment to tear. In the same way, Jesus said new wine is not put into old wineskins. If that happens, the fermentation process will cause the old wineskins to burst.

     Shortly after these events, Jesus and His disciples were walking through the fields. As they were walking, the disciples were taking some of the heads of grain and eating them. The Pharisees said that that was not a lawful thing to do on the Sabbath. To this Jesus responded that the Sabbath was for man and not man for the Sabbath. Jesus made it clear that He was the Lord of the Sabbath. 

     So, what is Jesus getting at in these two passages. Jesus is saying that when He entered into the world, when God became man and dwelled amongst us, things were going to be different. The old ways and the old covenant was replaced by what He was bringing into the world. He was making a new covenant and a new way. 

     Jesus was bringing a new spiritual dynamic. It wasn't about the old laws and regulations. His teachings would be the basis of doing what is pleasing to God. 

     One other place in the Gospels where we see Jesus doing this is in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus will say something like you have heard Moses say followed by but I say. For instance, Moses said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Jesus ended that and said we should turn the other check. 

     When Jesus came into this world, He was the Word made flesh. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity came among us in the person of Jesus Christ. He inaugurated a new way. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is God's final word. He is the ultimate word and what He has told us is far superior than anything that came before. That is why Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. He came to show us what God is really like and how we can please Him in what we do. 

     Jesus also brought in grace and truth. By His atoning death on the cross, He has made a new covenant through His shed blood. Now, those who put there faith and trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross are in Christ and they are redeemed through and by Him. 

     We are not made right with God by falling the old covenant with its laws and sacrifices. We are made right with God through the death and resurrection of His dearly beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of the Sabbath because He is Lord of all. He is the superior one. He is the great one. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Whatever He says, we do. His way and His path are what we follow. 

     Jesus has come into the world, and He has made all things new. All praise honor and glory belongs to Him. Amen. 

Prayer Requests

     I am feeling some better, and I thank you for your continuing prayers on my behalf. 

     Please keep praying for a ceasefire between the US and Iran. Pray for peace in Lebanon. Pray for peace in the entire Middle Eastern region which is enflamed with tension. We also need to keep praying for peace in Ukraine and Sudan. 

     Pray for those affected by the storms and tornadoes here in the US. Pray that they will get the aid and the help that they need. 

     For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in the nations of Cambodia and Kosovo. Pray that many will come to know Jesus. 

     Next week, we will continue in Mark. I will post the verses on Tuesday and the next chapter in the James commentary on Wednesday. May God bless you all. 

James: A Commentary -- Chapter 3

 

James 3:1

     Starting off in chapter three, James gives a stern warning to those who think that they want to become a teacher of the word of the Lord. He says that not many should want to become a teacher. The reason is that those who are teachers of the word are going to be held to a very high standard at the day of the judgment of the Lord.

     The Bible is clear that all people will stand before the judgment seat of Christ in order to give an account of what they have done with their lives. For the believer, this has nothing to do with one’s eternal destiny or salvation. We are saved by grace through faith and not of works. For the believer, this judgment is a judgment about what our reward and position will be in the world to come.

     Those who have been given the privilege of teaching and instructing others in the faith will be judged at a high standard. The reason of this is that people’s lives and destinies are in their hands. A teacher is responsible to make sure that they are telling the people what is right and true in regard to the things of the Lord.

     A teacher must also teach by example and not just words. A teacher or pastor must lead an exemplary life. When people see someone who is in authority in the church go down the wrong path or act in a hypocritical manner, that is a turn off. It causes people to not want to come to Jesus or not want to follow the Lord. That is not something that anyone wants to have on them when they stand before the Lord at the time of the judgment.

 

James 3:2-8

     In these verses, James is going to tell us what gets most of us into the most amount of trouble. This applies to leaders and to all Christians. To all people really. The things that we say are what get us into the most difficulties. Not being able to control our speech leads to quarrels, hurt feelings and many other disastrous consequences. The things that we say can fracture relationships causing people who were once friends to never want to speak to each other again. And that happens all because people are too quick to speak when they should be less quick to speak and quicker to listen.

     James is emphatic. If a person can control what they say, that person will be more apt to be able to keep the rest of his or her life in line with the principles and the precepts of the Lord.

     Staring in verse 3, James gives two examples of how a small thing like the tongue is to the human body can affect something that is much larger. For instance, a bit in a horse’s mouth allows the rider to make the horse slow down, speed up or turn to the left or to the right. Also, the rudder on a ship is tiny. Without it, the ship is not able to turn. It would be tossed to and fro and never get anywhere.

     The tongue is small, yet James likens it to a fire and to deadly poison. It can set a forest of lives on fire with the little nasty spark that flies out of it. People make boasts and threats and say horrible things to one another causing vast amounts of damage.

     James says that an uncontrolled tongue it a world of evil and is set on fire from hell. An uncontrolled tongue is the devil’s tool to make people look at some Christians and not want to be one. We have to get control of what we say, and that can only happen when our hearts are yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.

 James 3:9-12

     In verses 9 through 12, James goes on to tell us about the power and the potential hypocrisy of the tongue. James says that with the same tongue we will praise the Lord in church on Sunday, and then we go out in the world and assault people with the words that come out of our mouths.  James lays it out clearly. It should not be this way.

     What James is saying is that someone who is really trying to follow the Lord will get control of what they say. A spring cannot produce both fresh and salty water. A fig tree cannot produce olives, and a grapevine can’t produce figs. So, a person who is filled with the Spirit will not have speech that is praising the Lord at one moment and cursing people the next.

     What we need to do is learn by God’s power to speak words that heal and not words that hurt. Jesus said to let our yes be yes and our no be no. We need to mean what we say, and we need to use our words to help people in life and to help them know more about Jesus. Our speech needs to express the love of the Lord that is overflowing within our hearts.

James 3:13-16

     In verse 13, James moves us on to a discussion about earthly wisdom and the type of wisdom that comes to us from Heaven. We are told that if a person lives a good life with good deeds marked by humility, that is a sign that someone possesses true wisdom.

     Good deeds done in humility means that we don’t go around pointing out to every one all the good that we’ve done so that our good works are seen by people and we get the praise of men. Someone who does good deeds in humility is someone who is taking the words of Jesus seriously and is doing good deeds to be seen by the Father who is in Heaven.

      Those who are leaning into the so-called wisdom of the world are those who boast about what they do and are filled with selfishness and the ambition to be recognized by others as a significant person in the world.

      James tells us that the wisdom of the world is demonic. It is not spiritual. It is a denial of the truth. He tells us in verse 16 that envy and selfish ambition are at the heart of sin and evil practice. When a person is filled with envy towards what others have, they desire to get it, and they will be willing to harm others in order to obtain that which they wish to possess. A person filled with selfish ambition is only thinking about what is good for them. They are not loving their neighbor as themselves. On the contrary, they are hating their neighbor because they can’t stand that someone else should have more than them. They are filled with pride thinking that they are the best thing that has ever hit the universe.

James 3:17-18

     In these final two verses of chapter three, we are told what the characteristics are of the true wisdom that comes from Heaven. It is pure and peace loving. This means that it is not focused on oneself and the fulfillment of selfish desire. To be peace loving means that we desire that no one be in conflict, and we seek the path of peace and non-violence.

     The wisdom of Heaven is characterized as being considerate, submissive and full of mercy. We are willing to be those that forgive, and we don’t have to have our own way all the time.

     Good fruit in our lives is produced by the wisdom from Heaven. It creates in us a sincerity of heart that is focused on the things of God and upon doing His will.

     As James closes out in verse 18, he reiterates that the followers of the heavenly wisdom are peacemakers who sow in peace. I so much wish that Christians where much more known as peacemakers. Christians should not be known for violence, war and hatefulness. We must be the peacemakers that Jesus called us to be in the Sermon on the Mount.