Sermon Tone Analysis

Probity, Prayer, and Perseverance

I read

“Labor together with one another, compete together, run together, suffer together, die together, rise up together, as God’s managers and assistants and servants.

Please the one whom you serve as a soldier, from whom you also receive wages.

Let none of you be found a deserter.

Keep your baptism as weaponry, your faith as a helmet, your love as a spear, your endurance as a full set of armor.

Let your works be your war-time deposits, so that you may receive your deserved savings.

Be patient, therefore, with one another, in gentleness, as God is with you.”Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius sums up the ethos of James’ final exhortations to a struggling church: Probity, Prayer, and Perseverance.

Probity is the quality of having strong moral principles; honesty and decency.

Three Final Exhortations for the Church:

Walk daily in Christ-centered Probity (James 5:12)

“The strength of a man’s virtue must not be measured by his efforts, but by his ordinary life.”

Blaise Pascal

Pascal seems to hint at what James is conveying to us this morning when he exhorts the church to

With a great deal of concern, James says “above all, “meaning, this is of great importance, just let your yes be yes and your no be no.

Do not add an oath, or swear, in God’s name.

What does James mean?

When James says, “Do not swear,” he is not speaking of vulgar language, but he is speaking of using God’s name to invoke an oath.

A brother to sister might be tempted to reinforce something they said; kind of like when we are trying to convince someone of something that might be outlandish and we say “I swear to you” or “I cross my heart hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.”

Someone also may be tempted to use God’s name to bind them to “act right” from now on.

Say someone has a problem with stealing and they get caught red handed.

The thief may say, “I swear to you, I will never steal again, so help God.”

James exhorts you to not swear an oath using God’s name.

Let your yes and no be enough.

James is likely drawing on Jesus teaching in the Beatitudes, as he as done for most of his letter.

If you turn to Matthew 5:34-37, you will see James’ exhortation is strikingly similar to Jesus’.

Matthew 5:34–37 (ESV)

But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,

or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

In Jesus’ day, the rabbis abused oaths with a corrupt framework to determine if an oath was legitimate or not.

If an oath was sworn by Jerusalem is was not binding.

If it was swore toward Jerusalem it was binding.

Once agin, if an oath was sworn by the temple, it was not binding, but it it was sworn by the temples gold, it was a binding oath.

This system defeated the integrity of an oath, which ironically reveals why we need oaths.

Does this mean that we are to never invoke an oath?

Not necessarily.

Paul invokes God’s name to validate the truth of what he says (Roman 1;9; 2 Cor 1:23; 11:11; Gal 1:20; Phi; 1:8; 1 Thess 2:5, 10).

Also, the marriage covenant is an oath to be faithful to each other until death do you part.

We call on our civic leaders to promise to lead with integrity.

The oath assures us there is some accountability.

Oaths are not ideal, but are necessary in a Genesis 3 broken world.

The need for an oath or a promise reveals that we are promise-breakers.

We are not always reliable, or at least we do not have the sovereignty to control all of life’s circumstances.

So, even if we have good intentions, we still cannot guarantee we can keep our promises.

We must temper everything we plan or promises with “Lord willing” (James 4:13-15).

The main truth Jesus and James is teaching is,

“You should live your life with such integrity and probity that you do not need an oath.

Your neighbors know without a doubt your “yes” means “yes” and your “no” means “no” and they do not feel obligated to solicit an oath.”’

In the movie Mary Poppins, the two children, Jane and Michael Banks, jumped into bed after their incredible first day with the amazing Mary Poppins.

Jane asked, “Mary Poppins, you won’t ever leave us, will you?”

Michael, full of excitement, looked at his new nanny and added, “Will you stay if we promise to be good?”

Mary looked at the two and as she tucked them in replied, “Look, that’s a pie-crust promise.

Easily made, easily broken!

That is world by which we live.

We are prone to make pie-crust promises which are easily made, easily broken.

James, following the lead of Jesus, calls you to daily walk in a manner of Christ-centered probity.

Live with such treasuring Spirit empowered integrity that your neighbors will have no need for a vow from you.

The strength of your daily virtue will speak for itself.

Pray at all times sin -confessing, sickness healing, community minded prayers (James 5:13-18)

Prayer takes up the bulk of James’ attention in his final eight verses of his letter.

He mentions prayer in every verse between verse 13-18.

Prayer is recognized as a source of strength.

You will notice in

James 5:13 (ESV)

Is anyone among you suffering?

Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful?

Let him sing praise.

Again in verse

James 5:14 (ESV)

Is anyone among you sick?

Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

James 5:15 (ESV)

And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

James 5:16 (ESV)

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Suffering, sickness, and sin can weaken your resolve to faithfully love God and neighbor.

James’ remedy for much of their internal problems is for the church to pray as a source of strength.

Prayer is a source of strength in three ways for the church.

Prayer is a source of strength for yourself (James 5:13)

James 5:13 (ESV)

Is anyone among you suffering?

Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful?

Let him sing praise.

James offers a spectrum of prayer for the individual believer in verse 13.

He’a capturing the same idea as Paul when Paul exhorted the Ephesian church to

Ephesians 6:18 (ESV)

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

and to the Thessalonian church

1 Thessalonians 5:17–18 (ESV)

pray without ceasing,

give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

James offers the same idea with two contrasting situations.