The Good Life (James 3.13-4.3, 7-8) Sept 16, 2021
James • Sermon • Submitted
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What is the good life? Is it having everything that one desires? Or is it having nothing to worry about in one’s life? What it the good life?
For James the good life is one that is in line with what God teaches and wants for those who are in God’s care. As noted before, James is what is known as Wisdom literature which tells us how to live. And it is difficult to hear what James has to say in our society. We like our “freedom” and liberty but James will have none of that. In her commentary on this passage, E. Elizabeth Johnson state that in “James’s 108 verses there are 54 imperatives, which may go a long way toward explaining the letter’s lack of popularity in a church that generally does not like to be told what to do.” An imperative is some thing that is a command, you are to do what is being told. And in a church steeped in the “freedom” loving world that we are in, this is not a something that we like to hear. We like to believe that we know what to do and how to live “the good life”.
So, what does James say the good life is? The first chapters of the letter tell us what he believes. There is not being double minded, taking care of those who are not able to take care of themselves, showing no partiality, taming the tongue and much more. This is what James says is part of the good life. But these things go against what the culture of the day (and today for that matter) would have thought that the good life was. But to James there is much more.
James goes back to the first verse of chapter three and asks the teachers who is wise among you and who has understanding. These questions could also be asked of all those who are listening to this letter. And the question comes to us of “what is wisdom”? The dictionary states that it is “ability to discern inner qualities and relationships” or “good sense”. Who is able to show these qualities? Who is able to show good sense? The one showing their good works done in gentleness is the one who is showing their wisdom. But what about the one who do not show this wisdom by their gentle works? They are full of envy and selfish ambition. They are the ones who want to get ahead and believe that by showing their “wisdom” by being upwardly mobile persons. They are the ones who are showing that they want more and want what others have. Selfish ambition, wanting to move up in the world, is key to their lives and their understanding of wisdom.
And this is unusual for most of those who taught wisdom. They taught wisdom for wisdom’s sake. That the mark of the true wise person what that the person truly knew how much they did not know. But that had become twisted as many things do and those who were “wise” wanted others to know how wise they were. They wanted to flaunt their wisdom and gain by it.
But James tells those listening that this kind of wisdom does not come from above rather it comes from below. The wisdom that comes from above is from God and is shown as James states before from the showing of good works with gentleness. The wisdom that comes from below is more sinister than one believes. It is not wisdom that comes from having good old common sense, but is rather demonic and unspiritual. It is a wisdom and this is marked by selfish ambition and envy. Where there is selfish ambition and envy there is also disorder and wickedness. These marks are ones that show the problem with the wisdom of earth. When ambition becomes selfish, then people will do anything to get what they want. The same with envy. This will show up later in the text.
James then gives his own fruits of the spirit. He marks what wisdom from above is: “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.[1]” These marks are marks that would have been hard to hear in a first century setting. They are hard to hear in a 21st century setting as well. To be peaceable and gentle would have been to be one who wanted peace and was willing to be meek in spirit. Those attributes would have been seen as bad in the time that James was writing his letter. Why? They were the marks of those who were in the lowest of the low and in slaves. These were the people who were to be meek and peaceable. They were to know their betters and those who were above them in all things. They were to be subservient to them. In today’s society, these attributes would be seen as one being weak. In a society where the strong man (think John Wayne or any other rugged individual) is the ideal, then these attributes are an anathema.
Being willing to yield is something that we need to hear today as well. How often do we have arguments in which neither side will back down from their stated position? I am not saying that there are not any positions that we should take a stand on. What I am saying is that we should be willing to back down and listen to what the other persons is saying so that we know what is being said. Who knows? We might find out that we have more in common with this person than we realize.
It is being full of mercy and good fruits where James makes his plea that ties in with the parts of the letter that have come before this. Here he is saying that those who show mercy are showing the good fruits of their works. These works are the works that show the faith of a person to do the will of God in all that there is and will be. Being full of mercy is one of those works. Showing mercy to widows and orphans is one of the ways that the works are shown.
Another tie in with an earlier part of the letter is the showing of no partiality. There is to be nothing that shows how a person feels toward another, whether known or unknown, within the assembly. James has already said that this is to not be a part of their worship services. If there is, then there is hypocrisy and this is not to be a part of the good life. But those who make peace will harvest the peace that they have sown in righteousness.
James then goes further into the “good life”. He asks where the conflicts and disputes that are a part of the congregation are coming from. He tells them that they are coming from the cravings that are a part of then their lives. They are craving those things that they see and that they hear about in their everyday lives. Sound familiar? What have we seen and craved after?
He then says that they want something but don’t have it, so they commit murder to get it. This might be a bit of hyperbole, but remember the first murder: Cain wanted what Able received and he murdered his brother because of that. James is telling them that they do not have what they want and so they are willing to do anything, including murder, to get it. They covet and cannot get the thing that they most desire. Because of this they engage in disputes and conflicts. But James then tells them that they do not have what they want because they do not ask for it. Remember the story of David and Bathsheba? God told David that had he wanted more (just not another’s wife) and asked for it, it would have been given to him. The same thing is happening here. The congregation wants what they do not have, therefore they covet and have envy for those things that others have.
But there is something important to know here: There are some who have asked. But they are not asking in the right spirit. They are asking in the wisdom of the world and have selfish ambition or envy. Therefore, their prayers are not answered in the way that they want them to be. Or as the Revised English Bible says it: “Or, if you do, your requests are not granted, because you pray from wrong motives, in order to squander what you get on your pleasures[2].” Those that are asking are asking in a spirit that only shows where their true desires lie.
The book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone has a perfect illustration of this. In the book Harry discovers a mirror, the Mirror of Erised. In this mirror one sees what one desires the most in all their life. For Harry that is his parents and his family. For his friend Ron, it is being the best of all this brothers and family. It is explained to Harry that “the happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror; that is, he would be able to see himself exactly as he is.” The mirror would show a person who is content. Notice also that the name of the mirror, Erised, is desire spelled backwards.
It is here that James lets the listeners both then and now know that those who are friends of the world cannot be friends of God and vice versa. There can be no middle ground. Jesus said that we are to in the world and not of it.
So, what do we do? We are called to call upon and submit ourselves to God. When we resist the Devil then he will turn and run. We are told to draw near to God and God will draw near to us.
What is the good life? Is it having all the things that we can accrue or have that we desire? There is a story of a man who was buried in his Cadillac. When the car was being lowered in to the grave someone commented “now that’s living”. Really? What was this person saying? That the one who dies with the most toys wins? Is that the good life? I hope that we know the answer to that question.
The good life is contrasted with the life that the world would say is the good life. That selfish ambition and envy are put aside so that we obtain wisdom that comes from above that is full of gentleness, peace, mercy and good fruits. Psalm 1 tells us that the those who follow the path of God are like trees who shall not be moved. Those who do not follow the ways of the unrighteous are to be thought of as blessed. And so, the good life will show our greatest desires in the mirror in that we will see just ourselves because we have drawn near to God and God has drawn near to us. We really do not need anything else to live the good life. Amen.
[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.
[2] The Revised English Bible. Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print.