James
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James is full of short memorable sayings
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,
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5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.
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13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.
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17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
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19 My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
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22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
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27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
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10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.
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13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
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19 You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.
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26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
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7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
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14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. 15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
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17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
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16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.
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19 My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
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Before we get into the main portion of the scripture today, I just want to start off by saying that we are saved by the grace of God based on our faith, not on our works.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
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Last week we went through Galatians and we spent time on this concept of not being justified before God by works, but instead by faith in Jesus Christ.
16 and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.
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Can you see that Paul is drawing a comparison between the two? Remember what he was condemning when he wrote to the Galatians? They were requiring christians to become circumcised and to follow the whole law in order to be justified before God. And Paul rebuked them for it. You see, you can stray away from the truth of being saved through faith in more than one direction. Paul teaches here that justification before God can’t be obtained through following the law, otherwise Christ died for nothing. You can’t earn right standing before God by following the law, you can only be right with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is the only possible means by which a person can be justified. And Jesus established a new covenant in his own blood that we live under now. We no longer live under the old covenant therefore those who enter into the new covenant with Jesus should not be made to also enter into the old Mosaic covenant. Paul talked about the freedom we have knowing that we are saved and not being under the weight and burden of trying to atone for our sins through sacrifices and rituals anymore.
Whereas Paul had to write letters to address that problem that was prevalent, James also had to address a different problem that arose. Very likely a problem that arose from people who misunderstood Paul’s teachings about salvation concerning the relationship between faith and works.
Example of salvation by grace through faith being in the middle — Paul address those on one side of the pendulum, James address those on the other.
James talks about deceiving yourself into believing you have faith in Jesus when you don’t — Something we rarely hear anyone talk about in our country today, but James recognized as a life and death matter and still is today.
19 My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
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He goes on to tell us pure religion is to look after orphans and widows and to keep oneself unstained from the world, to not show favoritism toward the rich, to love our neighbor as ourself, to flee from all sin and to show mercy to each other when someone falls.
Which leads us into one of his longest, if not the longest, section on one topic, faith and works.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder. 20 Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? 21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete, 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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