David Pawson - James Pt2

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THOUGHTFUL THOUGHTS  17.4.26 BY JOHN DUNNING.

“Faith IN ACTION”, The letter of James; Part 2

A). CATCH-UP… 

James was writing to the Messianic Jews who believed in Jesus Christ, and there were thousands already, (Acts 4:4; 21:20). The problem was that many were slipping back into the world, especially after persecution was resulting in a great many martyrs. Many Jewish believers in Jesus were going back to their old synagogue and in order to do that they had to deny who Jesus is. Gentiles couldn’t do that, and some of those believers that gave up under the pressure of persecution were going back to being as worldly as the pagan culture around them.

B). INTRODUCTION… A faith that works…

Part of godliness is keeping on, keeping on, 1:12-15, and not giving up.

The letter of James is written in a style the Jews call ‘musings’, which is moving between subjects as if he is thinking out loud, like a grandad sharing his wisdom, and whose thoughts are being written down.

C). CONTENT OF JAMES

1). “Wisdom”… 

Wisdom is something we get by asking God for it, in faith, (1:5)

a) There is worldly wisdom of the flesh and the devil, (3:14-15).
b) Then there is heavenly wisdom, (3:17-18).

2). “Money” …

Money is something we are warned about, over and over again in the N.T., both here, (1:10-11; 2:1-13; & 5:1-11), and elsewhere in the N.T., by both Jesus and the other N.T. writers. The N.T. teaching on money is the complete opposite of the teaching that’s now given by so many so-called ‘prosperity movement’ evangelists, who simply don’t allow the truth to get in the way of making money.)

3). “Action”…

Action is something that is a requirement. Faith requires that faith is acted on – or it isn’t faith. We are told that a person being put right before God depends on our faith being put into practice, (1:19-27 & 2:14-25). This is what Martin Luther rebelled against, because he completely misunderstood James. That was because Luther was talking about conversion, James is writing about “discipleship”. James is saying we must practice what we preach. It is a walk with the Lord, not just “a flash in the pan”.

4). “Worldliness” … 

This comes in many different guises; (3:1-12; 4:13-17).

5). “Godliness” …

Godliness is gained by submitting to God and accepting His righteousness to replace our unrighteousness; (see 1:1-4; 1:9; 1:12-18; 4:1-17; 5:7-20).

James says in 1:16 that by ACTING on the word of truth we are given, we are able to be born again. This is how we find Jesus Christ – we just have to act on the revelation that His words give us. The revelation informs us what we need to do, like a sign post, and we need to act on the information; (Psalm 119:33).

James puts it like this; “Faith comes by “hearing”, and hearing by the word of God”. Jesus expected Nicodemus to act on the teaching he had received, which is what we find in John 3:3). Another example is that John the Baptist refused to immerse (baptise) the Pharisees who asked him to, because the Pharisees had not repented. 

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6). “Humility” …

Jesus appeared to James after the resurrection, (1 Cor. 15:7), even before appearing to the apostles. Imagine the horror when it dawned on James just how badly he had once treated Jesus, (Mark 3:21 & 33). 

James teaches that humility follows true repentance. (1:1; 4:6; 4:10).

(Note that James starts by declaring he is a servant of God and of Jesus, because he cannot bring himself to say that he was a half brother of Jesus. That kind of self-minimising is what happened to all those who met Jesus after His resurrection. They never again puffed themselves up, claiming to be this or that great person.) 

James had done a complete turnabout, and that is what the word “repent” means. They all developed the attitude of John the Baptist, “He must increase and I must decrease”. James and Jude no longer called themselves, brothers or half brothers of Jesus, but “SERVANTS”, after realising who Jesus is.

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D). EPILOGUE; “Practising what we preach”…

Now if you remember, Mary had “kept these things in her heart” regarding Jesus’ birth. She knew that Jesus pre-existed but never told her natural children about the supernatural birth of Jesus. (In fact, Jesus called Mary, “woman” and not “mother”.) This discovery of who Jesus is, has to be made individually. 

James is saying that we must put into practice what we believe, or the truth has not yet come to us. We must DO what the Bible says; (1:16; 1:19-27; 2:22-25), not just learn Bible verses.

Jews would agree with this Jewish letter whole heartedly, except for just one thing – and that is the proclamation of Jesus being both Lord and Messiah (ie. which is what “Christ” means).

Jesus does enable us to DO what He says, by sending His Holy Spirit to us. One of the names for the Holy Spirit is “Helper”. Jesus Christ said that the Holy Spirit would be sent by Him to be in His place on earth, so that means it is not any pope that that title belongs to, (even though popes have taken it as one of their titles for hundreds of years.)

This blog is an “interest-getter” for you to read this week’s book. Look up the references as there’s a lot to think about in this letter.

This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

Do share this study with your friends… and pray for us… thankyou.

This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

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