Transcript
I was only kidding about the
three hours. But I can tell you I am chomping
at the bit to begin a new study. I’m chomping at the bit especially
given the task at hand to start a new book of the Bible. And even this particular epistle,
the epistle of James, We know that we are called to
faith. We just read about that in Ephesians. I didn’t plan that,
but what a great passage to consider the fullness of our calling in
Christ. One of the most distressing things
that we come across in this world is feeble faith, people whose
faith is so timid, so distrustful of God, even to the point of
causing us to wonder whether it is a genuine faith, whether
it is a false faith. We are told in scriptures to
examine ourselves. We are told that by Jesus himself
that there is even such a thing as a false profession. Jesus in Matthew chapter 7 verse
21, one of the most solemn sections of scripture in all the Bible
says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom
of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven
will enter Paul writing to the Corinthians
says test yourselves to see if you are in the faith examine
yourselves Peter likewise lays out in that
rich passage that Dan Harper shared last Lord’s Day that there
are a number of graces that should be present in a believer’s life. Diligence, and moral excellence,
and knowledge, and self-control, and perseverance, godliness,
brotherly kindness, love. And then Peter says this, if
these qualities are yours and are increasing, it calls us to
a test. It calls us to an assessment
of our own heart. And likewise does the book of
James. You question immediately, and
I’m sure even as some of you took up this little pamphlet,
the letter of James, I’m sure some of you even wondered, is
this book, this heavy, intense book, is this for us as believers? Perhaps you’ve heard that argument
in the past. Is this book really a book for
Christians? Is this book a book for non-Jewish
believers in Christ? It’s kind of interesting looking
back now. I had some extra time on my hands this last month.
Having just celebrated 20 years of ministry here, I noted that
time flies and with it many difficult memories. I recently went through
a file that mentioned some of our early challenges here as
a church. Almost everything that we ever
said that we believed and held to was challenged. Believers’
baptism, the doctrines of grace, the belief in a literal hell,
leadership by a plurality of elders. Again and again, came
in looking for a ground floor opportunity to shape a church
after their own liking. One of the most fascinating things
that happened is that we sometimes were challenged by completely
opposite theological perspectives. We not only came face to face
in this church with reconstructionists Theonomists, but we also on two
separate occasions Dealt with what were called what are known
as ultra dispensationalists These people insisted that I only preach
from Paul’s epistles For them The Sermon on the Mount and really
anything outside of the epistles of Paul is unimportant to the
Christian to non-jewish converts The Epistle of James is a book
about faith and the exercise of that faith. Faith is the one
great overarching theme in this book. The word faith occurs 16
times in this short letter. It’s not a book that is only
for Jewish Christians. It is a book for Christians. whether they happen to be of
a Jewish heritage or not. Just a few words about the history
of this little epistle. While God has providentially
hidden the precise date of James’ writing, his letter had to be
one of the earliest epistles written. We can determine that
it must have been written, first of all, only after difficulties
and sinful patterns had been established and begun to develop
in the churches because James is addressing many of those sinful
patterns it had to be sometime after the council in Jerusalem
the one recorded in Acts chapter 15 where James really is still
in in kind of a fledgling role in his leader in that church
but it had to be prior to A.D. 70 because if James is the ruler,
the leader of the Jerusalem church after A.D. 70 there is no Jerusalem. And so James must have written
this letter sometime between A.D. 50 and A.D. 70. Even though James was one of
the first books of the New Testament ever written, it was one of the
last books received into the New Testament canon. Now if that
word is new to you, don’t panic. The word canon originally referred
to a reed, a stick that was used as a unit of measurement. It
was about the length of a man’s arm from elbow to the tip of
his fist. The word eventually came to refer
to books or letters that measured up to the standard of Scripture. That a writing was divinely inspired
and authoritative. It measured up. God, of course,
as the ultimate source of truth and the one who reveals truth,
God knew that a writing was Holy Scripture the moment that it
was provided. but it’s vital to understand
that the church itself didn’t grant or bestow authority on
any book of scripture. They merely recognized those
writings for what they already were, divinely given, divinely
authoritative revelation. And so when we speak of a book
of the Bible being part of the canon of scripture, we acknowledge
the process of the human recognition of scripture. History shows no
knowledge of this little letter of James until late in the second
century BC, about 180. A likely explanation for that
is that the epistle was Initially sent to a broad base and a very
diverse group a Number of Jewish Christian churches and it was
not written by an apostle as we’ll see in a moment and So
as the decidedly Christian and strongly Gentile Church began
collecting first the epistles of Paul and then the Gospels
a letter like this and written by James, not an apostle, would
have had very questionable appeal to the early church. It was almost
unknown in Gentile Christian churches. Nevertheless, early
church father, Origen, held the epistle of James to be genuine
and he quoted it as scripture. A hundred years later, early
church father Eusebius acknowledged the usefulness of James’ letter,
quoting from it as scripture as well. And yet again, another
hundred years later, Jerome, the one who translated the Bible
into Latin, included James in his Latin Vulgate. After that, Augustine likewise
championed the official inclusion of James into the New Testament
canon, the official list of received writings. That was in AD 397
at the Council of Carthage. And so even though slow to be
received into the New Testament canon, once it was received,
the epistle of James went completely unchallenged. until the time
of the Reformation. When a man named Martin Luther,
and I would say wrongly, doubted the legitimacy of this epistle
because he believed that James contradicted Paul’s doctrine
of justification by faith. His statements were so strong
that he referred to this epistle as an epistle of straw. However,
even Luther Quoted from James frequently regarding it as God’s
Word and finally at the Council of Trent in 1546 the epistle
of James was officially affirmed again as Holy Scripture and So
regarding its legitimacy Puritan commentator Robert Johnstone
said something would be wanting to We would be lacking, he says,
had we not James in the New Testament, simple and natural, informed,
called forth evidently by reports which he had received, serious
faults that had shown themselves in many of the Jewish Christian
churches, particularly bigotry, bringing with it angry dissensions
and criticisms and worldliness. In other words, he says that
James was a very needed epistle, not only for that day, but for
ours as well. Not only for Jewish Christians,
but for Christians, all Christians. You probably already know that
this epistle is categorized in a general category called either
the general or the Catholic epistles. The epistles of James, the two
epistles of Peter, three of John, and the epistle of Jude are grouped
together into a collection of letters that is known as the
general or Catholic epistles. Please understand me. When I
say that these are the Catholic epistles, it has absolutely no
reference whatsoever to the Roman Catholic Church. Instead the
word is being used here according to its literal Significance meaning
general or universal these letters were distributed to a broad audience
Instead of to a select individual say Timothy or Titus These letters are called such
because they’re not addressed to any specific people But they
were distributed in this wide, more general intent. We learn a great deal about James
as an individual just from the style of his writing. His tone,
his use of words, his phraseology, his passion, his creativity. One reading of the epistle of
James and the reader knows that this epistle is unlike almost
any other New Testament letter. Even the minute details bears
this out. James uses more than 70 words
that no other New Testament writer employs. He uses many phrases
found nowhere else in Greek literature. As one scholar, portrayed, James
writes with the power of the expert craftsman in language.
This is an educated man, and as we’ll see, a godly man that
seeks to impart these truths to his people. The epistle of
James is not only lively, it is intense. The writer imports
and even seems to create on the fly a number of graphic images
to illustrate his points and his perspectives. He has, as
one commentator said, the eye and imagination of a poet. Consider these, if you will,
Jamesisms. One who doubts is like the surf
driven and tossed by the wind. The rich, like flowering grass,
will pass away. A man who perseveres will receive
the crown of life. When lust is conceived, it gives
birth to sin. A hearer, not a doer, is like
a man who looks at himself in the mirror. The tongue, he says,
is likened to a horse’s bit, a ship’s rudder, a flame in a
forest. Worldliness and selfish ambition
is likened to adultery. Perseverance and grace is likened
to a patient farmer. Metaphors such as these, as well
as the entirety of this epistle, led one student of this book
to commend James as a writer with these words. A keen observer,
he was alert to the operations of nature and also an attentive
observer of human nature. He knows the fashions of the
world and he notes with unerring clearness the humorous shrewdness,
the characters of men. He sees their superficial goodness,
their indolent selfishness, their vulgarity and mischief of their
untamed thoughtlessness. If you would, look either in
the booklets that I provided or in your New Testament. Look at James chapter one, verse
one. James, a bondservant of God and
of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes who are dispersed
abroad, greetings. I’ve told you this is a book
about faith. It’s a book that helps us to
examine our faith. And what I want to just do very
briefly this morning is provide you with three tools that James
introduces here in this examination of our faith. We don’t want to
just ponder what may or may not have been true of those churches,
those individuals in the churches to whom James writes. We want
to consider our own life. We want to examine our own Christian
testimony. We want to examine our own standing
before God. And James presents here three
tools for doing so. First of all, in the examine
of our faith, we see a man. Just a man. Just a man that God
is going to use, that God desires to use in each of our lives as
he has for countless centuries. James. The name James was a very
common one in Jesus’ day. It was literally the name in
Hebrew of one of the great patriarchs, that of Jacob. So it was a very
popular name among the Jews and accordingly, men with this name
are referred to frequently in the New Testament Even though
the name is cited 42 times in the New Testament, those occurrences
really can be pared down to refer to only about five or six different
men. With regard to the letter that
bears this name, the option as to the author’s specific identity,
which James is it, it’s easily narrowed down to one. There are
only two real possibilities. one that can be easily set aside. There was the Apostle James,
the son of Zebedee, the Apostle John’s brother, both of whom
were among Christ’s earliest disciples, and in that he would
be a good candidate. But this James cannot possibly
be the one who wrote this epistle, because he was one of the first
apostles to suffer martyrdom. He was killed far early to have
written this letter, but there is another James. There is another
James that does stand out, fitting precisely as the author of this
letter. This James is mentioned repeatedly
throughout the book of Acts. Paul also refers to the same
James again and again. This James is seen as a significant
leader in the church in Jerusalem. He’s well known among believers,
especially those who were converted out of Judaism. And this James
was also a sibling of Jesus. Scripture indicates that Jesus
had four brothers, half brothers by Joseph, James, Joses, Jude,
and Simon, and two unnamed sisters. And it seems that James must
have been the oldest of these brothers because when they are
introduced, he’s mentioned first. It’s also this James who was
affectionately called in the early church, James the Just. He was an exceptionally righteous,
God-fearing man. This James is the writer of the
epistle that bears his name. Even though much of James’ early
life is providentially obscured, hidden by God himself, We’re
able to build a helpful sketch of this man. John’s gospel informs
us that James was not initially a devoted follower of Christ. In John chapter 7, verse 5, it
said not even his brothers were believing in him, and that would
include James. But we can justly conclude that James did come
to faith sometime after the resurrection. which was made all the more real
to James because he had a face-to-face encounter with the risen Christ. Paul alludes to this amazing
meeting with an almost tantalizing brevity. In 1 Corinthians 15,
he just said, he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. He doesn’t tell us anything about
that meeting. And neither does James. But it’s
reasonable and likely to assume that Jesus’ post-resurrection
appearance to James was the flashpoint of salvation, transformation
in his life. We do have to read between the
lines a bit, because at one point he’s not a follower of Christ,
and then he’s graciously confronted by the Savior, and the next thing
we know, James is serving and leading the church in Jerusalem. such as the remarkable transforming
grace of God, isn’t it? There doesn’t even appear to
have been a probationary period for James. He was saved, transformed,
and immediately drafted into service, and he unquestionably
was received by the apostles of the church. The book of Acts
allows us only Glimpse, but it encourages us to likewise receive
James’s transformation if you would please turn to the book
of Acts You can keep a finger or tuck your booklet in in the
epistle of James there The book of Acts go all the way back to
Acts chapter 1 There’s a fascinating stream here In Acts chapter 1
verse 14, only 40 days after Christ’s resurrection and just
prior to his ascension, there is an almost casual mention of
Jesus’ family being present. Acts 1 14, these, that is the
11, all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer
along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with
his brothers. I would take that to mean that
all of them were at least in the pipeline of faith. I think
it’s reasonable to believe here that James, even here, is a saved
follower of Christ. The next we see of James, all
the way in chapter 12, if you would. The next time we see James, here
in chapter 12, he has become a significant leader in the church
in Jerusalem. Look at verse 17. Peter motioning
to them with his hand to be silent he described to them how the
Lord had let him out of prison and he said report these things
to James and the brethren. So James here was an important
enough figure to have been named individually in addition to describing
these things to the rest of the believers. James is strong Leadership
is on display at the Jerusalem Council if you would Acts chapter
15 In Acts chapter 15 look at verse
13 and After they had stopped speaking James answered here
is this meeting trying to decide between the Apostles and the
leaders there in the church in Jerusalem how they were going
to approach ministry to the Gentiles were they going to require circumcision
were they going to require dietary laws James takes the lead Among
even all of the Apostles after they had stopped speaking James
answered saying brethren Listen to me. He commanded their authority
Ultimately James takes the initiative to write down the conclude conclusions
at which they had arrived at this Jerusalem conference Finally
in the book of Acts if you would turn to chapter 21 Even the Apostle Paul Acknowledges
by his behavior the leadership the authority of James the leader
of the Jerusalem Church and Acts 21 verse 18. And now the following
day Paul went in with us to James and all the elders were present. So James is a significant leader.
He’s a significant man. Turn if you would to the book
of Galatians. In the book of Galatians we see
immediately Paul’s assessment of James. It’s remarkable. In
chapter 1 Just glide down to verses 18 and 19, where Paul
is recounting his own testimony, and he says, then three years
later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas,
Peter, and stayed with him 15 days, but I did not see any other
of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. Paul here
clearly seems to allude to James as an apostle. And that poses
a bit of a problem. Because James doesn’t even claim
that for himself, not here in this epistle nor anywhere else.
Officially, apostles were those who had been particularly chosen
of the Lord for such service. They’d walked with him during
his earthly ministry. They’d witnessed his resurrection
of Christ. And even though James grew up
with his brother, Jesus, He was not even a disciple during Christ’s
earthly ministry, let alone an apostle. But he was a special
witness to Christ’s resurrection. So when Paul alludes to James
as an apostle in quotes here, it seems best to take this in
the wider sense of the term, a sent one. From the standpoint
of godliness, influence, authority, James was very nearly an apostle,
but not officially so. But beyond that initially vague
allusion to James as an apostle of sorts, Paul follows with a
very clear reference informing us that upon his next visit to
Jerusalem some 14 years later, James had become a very important
figure in the church. in the Jerusalem church he’s
the first one among three significant leaders that Paul mentions look
at chapter 2 verse 9 Galatians chapter 2 verse 9 and he says
this James and Cephas and John those are those are two powerful
names with him to be associated Peter and John arguably some
of Jesus’ closest friends and companions and apostles in the
church. And it says that of those three,
they were reputed to be pillars, leaders there in the Jerusalem
church. So James was a significant leader.
Even if he wasn’t an apostle, he certainly was at least one
of the elders of the church at Jerusalem. And all of this, his
family relation to Jesus, His character, his service to the
church in Jerusalem would all position him for great influence,
as well as a respected leader in that community. One commentator
said of him, as Jews, the readers had been accustomed to look to
Jerusalem for religious leadership. That was a pattern, to look for,
accept, to look for and accept doctrinal instruction and practical
guidance from James, the recognized leader of the Jewish Christians
in Jerusalem. The spiritual care of these Jewish
Christian congregations would in a very special way fall to
James. And James would come into contact
with representatives of these congregations. His concern for
their spiritual welfare soon disclosed disturbing conditions
and prompted James to write this epistle. Did you hear what he
said? James is leading. He’s essentially
pastoring this church. Jews from the land are coming
into Jerusalem for instruction as Christians. And in time, James
begins to observe some things, some patterns. And that’s what
prompts him to write this book. And you would say, well, those
were Jewish problems. No, they’re not. They’re Christian
problems. They were problems in the first
century church, and they’re problems in our church today, even this
church. Even though scripture is silent
about this James’ death, history declares that he suffered death
as a martyr. According to Jewish historian
Josephus, James met his end in 8062. Historians tell us that James
met with a violent death through the hatred of influential Jews
who were violently opposed to Christianity. Some historians
go into graphic detail on the circumstances and the manner
of his execution. Early church father, Clement
of Alexandria, historian Josephus, church historian Hadjusippus,
all record that the high priest that year, Ananus, brought forth
James to the Sanhedrin just like they had done to his brother
so many years before. They commanded James to proclaim
from the temple that Jesus was not the Messiah. And as Puritan
commentator Thomas Manton records it, they would have persuaded
him to the people to abandon the doctrine of Christ. Then
when he had refused and pressed quite the contrary, Fox’s Book
of Martyrs, John Fox records that James said this, Jesus is
the son of God and judge of the world. And with that, he was
thrown off of the pinnacle of the temple. When that didn’t
kill him, they all went down and gathered around him and beat
him and stoned him to death. James identifies himself by his
first name only, and then he calls himself a bondservant
of God. If you would, back to James’
epistle. Note that in addition to identifying
himself simply as James, he doesn’t play up any ecclesiastical titles,
nor does he even stand on his association with his half-brother
Jesus. And that’s because once James
saw Jesus Christ for who he really was, not just his half-brother,
but his Lord and Savior, those earthly, physical, family associations
faded to the background. The important thing for James
was his spiritual standing with Jesus, his Savior. So instead
here, James identifies himself with a very common lower tier
worker of his day, a bond servant. This designation was a common
one, as I said, an identifier with which anyone would be familiar,
that of a lowly, humble slave. The word was used in context
with rulers of all kinds, Caesars and kings. They’re obedient subjects,
masters of all kinds, business and landowners, reference to
slaves that labored under their authority. And even in religious
context, it was used of those that served in consecrated capacities. In the Christian context, Paul
and James both use it and encompasses all of those, a devoted, Yielded
obedient servant before God as his master It became a very appropriate
word to represent the relationship Between a believer and God since
we are utterly dependent upon God It also is telling that James
uses this humble designation for himself because for him this
was a glorious position To be an obedient slave to Almighty
God is a glorious position, not a lowly one. For him, any kind
of service to God was a privileged position. You might remember
that King David said it this way, Psalm 8410, a day in your
courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand
on the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents
of wickedness. I’d rather sleep on the porch,
he says, of the house of my God. Likewise, one faithful student
of scripture said, the holiest of men is no more than this.
God graciously gives his people many titles of honor, kings and
priests, children, heirs, but the spirit of a servant. Simple
willingness to obey him underlies all such relations. Whatever
else we may be, we are servants. But James not only says that
he was a servant of God, he had yet another master. James doesn’t
vacillate between two masters. He is the bondservant of God,
but he is also a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself
had declared that no man can serve two masters. And so immediately
we have a conundrum here. That would be true except that
he and the Father are both divinely unified as God. Their purposes
are the same, their goals are the same, their glory is the
same. By using these three grand titles, Lord, Jesus, Christ,
James expounds rather upon the fullness of the nature of his
master. When he refers to Jesus as Lord,
he acknowledges the Jesus Christ sovereign rule. When he speaks
of him as Jesus, he points to the fact that he was not only
He was not only citing his God-given name, but the name that indicated
his mission. And when he names the name of
Christ, he articulates to every Jew the fulfillment of God’s
great promise of the Messiah. So James here, if you think of
it, he only states his name and his place. His name and his role,
a mere servant. He doesn’t identify himself as
an apostle or as a leader of the Jerusalem church or even
as the brother of Jesus, just his name and his role. He didn’t
even need to distinguish himself between others who shared this
popular name. The people that he addressed
needed no further introduction. His basic identification was
enough. They knew of his character. They
knew of his standing. They knew of his usefulness to
God, and they no doubt knew of his family ties. He didn’t need
a title or references or commendations. He was well and affectionately
known. And so we come to the second
tool that God might use in the examination of our faith, not
only a man, but a people. You see, we’re not all that different.
Our problems are no different, our tendencies towards sin are
no different. And so when James writes, he
writes to the 12 tribes who were dispersed abroad. James was immediately,
James rather immediately identifies his primary audience. And I say primary because here
we are preparing to read and study this epistle. Only religious
extremists would say that James is a book only for Jews. Or that Gentile converts to Christ
shouldn’t waste their time with the epistle of James. Or that
their epistles are the epistles of Paul. That approach is completely
unreasonable. This epistle is every bit a part,
not only of the New Testament, but it is part of the Bible as
a whole. So James calls out his primary audience, the Jews, and
he does so in an intimate fashion. But I want you to listen to this.
He calls out the 12 tribes. And he could have just said,
look here, I’d like to speak to you Israelites, you Jewish
people, Hebrews. But he uses a phrase that was
immediately familiar to them. 12 tribes. That would have immediately
elicited in every Jew’s mind the thought of a utopic, unified
Israel. But just as soon as it might
have stirred those thoughts, it introduced another. That in
a very real sense, these Jewish believers had a greater unity
before God than they ever had as a Jewish nation. They were
now one in Christ. Historically, there have been
a number of different views of the significance of the phrase.
Some people thought that it refers to all Jews who were living outside
the region of Palestine, believers and unbelievers. Some people
believe that he’s using it figuratively here, addressing Christianity
in general, using Old Testament terminology. The third and the
The position that I adopt is that he’s addressing Jewish people
primarily, who had come to faith in Christ, who were living outside
the city of Jerusalem. James is writing primarily to
them, to those Jewish people who had come to faith in Jesus
Christ. Likely hundreds, even thousands,
who were scattered throughout the region. And if you think
of it, think of it in these terms. He’s writing to religious people,
Christians with a distinctly Jewish background. And even that
background had a great amount of diversity, given the 12 tribes
from which they had come, not unlike even our own little congregation. You think that even in this congregation,
note our backgrounds, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist, Amish,
Presbyterian, Independent Baptist, Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Brethren,
not to mention more removed denominations such
as Unitarian, LDS, and outright heathen. He’s writing to various backgrounds.
all now professing the same Christ, who must now all reflect that
one Lord, one faith, one baptism of Christianity. James just says
to the 12 tribes who are scattered abroad. James says that his letter
is not only to the 12 tribes, but even more particularly to
the 12 tribes dispersed abroad, scattered like so many farmers’
crop seed, often used to speak of the nation
of Israel that had been scattered by wars that had taken Jews captive. Work drew people away. Family made people to move. Health, some would leave voluntarily. Others were taken away. So familiar was this concept
that they had a name for it. It was called the dispersion.
Anyone that lived outside of Jerusalem. Here’s the significance
of it. As one commentator said, within
a very few years of the ascension of the Lord, there were many
Jewish communities in the dispersion. Those moral defects upon which
the epistle dwells are precisely such as might arise in the churches.
of this class in an extremely short time. Likely to show themselves in
Christians who had been brought up in Jerusalem, and not just
Christians, but us. Not just Jewish Christians, but
us. James says that he, James, is
writing to the 12 tribes, greetings. And that one little word is actually
a word that proves that James is the author of this. The only
other time that very unique salutation was used was in the letter that
James composed summarizing the principles that they’d come up
with in Acts chapter 15. When we consider the epistle
as a whole, the challenge of outlining this epistle is well
known. It’s called notorious by one commentator. Some people
see as two major sections, some people see a dozen. It’s so challenging
that one very capable scholar said, a superficial glance at
this epistle might easily leave the impression that every attempt
to outline it must fail. Many pastors and scholars view
this epistle as one running disconnected and disjointed collection of
thoughts. That’s a harsh oversimplification
of the epistle of James, even if it’s not uncommon. There is
a unity of thought woven throughout this open letter, and to grasp
it, a careful student of scripture must remember that James’ special
place in God’s service. If we believe that James was
a leader, a leader, if not the leader in the church in Jerusalem,
It is plainly evident why he especially would be concerned
about the spiritual condition of the spiritual or of Jewish
believers in his purview. As a shepherd of the flock, his
foremost desire would have been their growth and grace so that
they might become a beacon of God’s light to their countrymen
and to the Gentiles. But as James observed, plentiful,
untamed lambs. He quite obviously began to observe
sinful tendencies. Thoughts and actions that displeased
God, specifically, as one noted, a great degeneration
of faith and manners. One pastor said this, to impress
on his readers the fact that Christianity is not faith merely,
but through the power of faith, a life. And in connection with
this, to point to them some special dangers and to reprove them for
some special and already notorious defects. Well, with the backdrop
of James operating as a faithful shepherd, desiring to stir the
hearts of his people to godliness, the overall theme of this letter
becomes quickly evident. James, just as Paul and Peter
urged the people under his watch to a wholehearted pursuit of
godliness. See, James was wrong about his
little epistle. James wasn’t writing in contradiction,
rather Luther was wrong about James’ little epistle. James
wasn’t writing in contradiction to the doctrine of justification
by faith. He’s not preaching the gospel
here. He’s not talking to unsaved sinners. Rather, He’s writing
to those who have professed faith. Those who have already been justified
by faith as believers. He’s not arguing for salvation
by works. He’s arguing that if faith is
genuine, if faith is real, if a person is truly saved, works
will be evident. Their presence is a fruit of
faith. Faith without the evidence of
good works, James says, is a dead faith. And he wants not merely
to challenge the genuineness of their faith, knowledge about
Christ. Rather, he wants not merely to
challenge the genuineness of their faith, he desires that
they would be assured of that faith by the fruit in their lives.
And we would agree that it can never be sufficient to rest on
a mere profession of faith alone. Conviction of sin, growth in
godliness, the grace of sanctification comforts the believer that their
faith is legitimate. I tell young people all the time
conviction of sin is a sign of life. that their faith is legitimate.
The Christian profession will invariably reveal itself in an
individual’s life, in their affections, what do they love, in their speech,
in their behavior. There’s an old saying, one that
I first heard in the context of sport. What a person does
should speak so loudly that people don’t have to hear what they
say. It’s a walking the talk. It’s evidence of a Christian
profession. A genuine Christian shows itself
without fail as vibrant and active and fruitful. One godly pastor
summarized it this way. The epistle of James demands
that Christian faith be functional. A living faith is a working faith. The author’s central claim is
to challenge the readers to test the validity of their faith.
Their acceptance of the faith is assumed. And the epistle does
not elaborate on the doctrinal content of that faith, but they
must realize that the gospel makes strong demands for a resultant
transformed living and daily conduct. Christian practice is
consistent. with Christian belief. The epistle
heaps scathing condemned upon all profession and administers
all empty profession and administers a stinging rebuke to its readers
worldliness. We will take up the epistle of
James and may God bless the use of his servant James as he uses
these people, the 12 tribes, Their sin is not unlike our own,
and may God bless the use of this little letter. Would you
go with me before the throne of grace? Our merciful King,
we humble ourselves in your glorious presence, and we thank you that
you brought to faith one of your own flesh and blood, your own
sibling, James, And you did so by remarkable appearance after
your resurrection, appearing privately as it were to him. Lord, we thank you for the work
that you did in his life and for how you used him, not only
in that day, but how you continue to use his observation of the
sinful tendencies of a people that garnered the need of this
letter. Lord, we pray for your grace
as you examine us in light of this great epistle. Use it, we
pray, for your glory in our lives. It’s in Jesus’ name that we ask.