Scripture to Meditate On

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. James 1.2-3

Well, let's be honest. At first blush, if we take this seriously, it seems odd. We should 'count it all joy', should be in some sense pleased, when life gets hard? Who lives like that?

Well, actually we live this way. We may not exactly be pleased when life takes a nosedive. But we do rejoice in that very biblical sense of joy. This isn't a matter of trying to hide from reality, of covering life over with some sentimental religious fluff. Actually, this is living more in tune with reality.

As James says, we can rejoice because we know something. We know that Jesus is at work in that hard situation. (And isn't that at the heart of what true rejoicing is about?) We know that Jesus is going to use the situation to make something good happen: endurance (a better translation, IMHO, than 'steadfastness'). And don't we need a healthy supply of endurance when it comes to doing a good job of dealing with life. So, knowing what Jesus is up to, we can rejoice. And that would be because of our faith, our trusting the Father in the situation. This faith, according to James, is being put to the test and, as a result of passing the test, it is rewarded with endurance. And maybe that's not so odd a way of dealing with life.

Desires

Jesus has come so that we can become whole people. While that goal is finally attained only in the age to come, we work toward the goal, and make progress, throughout our time in this age. We work at becoming whole people. It might be helpful to put all of that into church words. I’m talking about sanctification, about becoming holy people. When I say it that way, other things can become clearer. One of those things is the obstacle that stands in our way to becoming whole people. The obstacle is sin.

Now, if we’re going to make progress to that goal in this life, there are some things that we are going to need to do. For one thing, we are going to need to understand this obstacle that stands in our way. We are going to need to understand this thing called sin. You cannot solve a problem until you have a clear understanding of what that problem is.

One bit of Scripture that will help here is found in the letter that James wrote. He explains some dynamics of sin that we need to grasp. Listen carefully.

Making Distinctions

[Originally preached on 31 October, 2004]
James 2.1-13

We’re back in James this morning. And that means that we are back to James’ intensity, zeal and high standards. This time he turns his eye on how the saints were dealing with people in terms of their wealth – or lack of it. First, we’ll look at what’s going on in our text, then we’ll look at how the principles that we find there apply to us.

James brings up what evidently was an issue in the congregation to which he was writing. The people there were making distinctions between the rich and the poor. The rich were warmly welcomed and ushered to a nice place to sit for the service while the poor were neglected and treated quite badly. Now, as you read this you might be a bit surprised at how these Christians fell into what must have been an obvious pitfall. How could they miss the fact that they were being partial to the wealthy? And yet, doesn’t this remind us that our sin isn’t always obvious to us? That’s why we need the Word wielded by the Spirit to point out to us what should be – but aren’t – obvious sins.

James is quite clear as he points out their sin. ‘…have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?’ [Verse 4] Now, there is no sin in noticing that one person is different from another. Some people are rich and others are poor. That’s just a fact. But the problem for this congregation came when they took the next step and chose the rich over the poor. That’s where evil came into play.

Now, James tells us why this is so wrong. ‘Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man.’ [Verse 5-6] James points out to these saints that they have more in common with the poor than with the rich – at least where it counts most. God is partial to the poor, to the ‘underclass’, to the nobodies. And that is something to come to grips with. It is a theme that comes up in different places in the Scriptures. Listen to Paul. ‘For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.’ [1 Corinthians 1:26-29] Then there is what Jesus said on this. ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. … But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.’ [Luke 6:20-21,24,25] God is partial to the poor. He always has been. And the congregation that received this letter from James had forgotten that. And so they made a distinction. They drew the line in the wrong place. And James calls them to account.

There is another reason why their behavior was so wrong. They were breaking the second of the two great commandments. ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Whenever someone belittles another person he is breaking this key command of God. He is becoming a transgressor of the Law of God. James reminds these saints that they will be evaluated by that Law, what he calls the law of liberty. We’ll probably come back to this in a future sermon.

James is clear. The saints in this church were erring greatly by the way they were making distinctions between the rich and the poor. This was a serious sin. And it still is.

We’ve seen what James is talking about in our text. Now, what we need to do is to see what the Spirit is saying to us by this passage. What is the nudge that we need to feel from this text of Scripture? James is pointing out a problem that is based on economic differences. I don’t think that we have significant problems in this area. I don’t think that there are barriers within our church based on economic differences. But we still need to be careful. If we ever do fall into such a problem, it isn’t going to show up as some of us saying, ‘Well, that person is in a different economic class’ and then following that up by erecting a barrier. It’s more likely going to show as something like, ‘I just don’t have anything in common with him’ and then just not working at developing a relationship. It will not be obvious but rather subtle. So, from time to time, it’s good to ask yourself whether there are people here that you rarely if ever talk with. If so, you should ask yourself why that is. It might be that you have fallen into the same kind of pitfall that the saints in our text fell into.

Distinctions based on economics might not be a problem, but that isn’t the only way to build a barrier to relationship. Let’s look at a different kind of distinction that might cause problems within the body: personality. I recently stumbled over something at the Bible study in Clymer. We were looking at Luke 7 where John the Baptist sends messengers to Jesus. ‘Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?’ It appears that John is a bit confused. Jesus seemed to be the one, yet now there are doubts. Why? Apparently, John expected the messiah to come and clean house in Israel. I think that’s what John was anticipating when he said, ‘I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’ [Luke 3:16-17] You can almost hear John thundering these words. When Messiah comes the nation of Israel was to be purified, the faithless chaff toss out on its ear and then consumed by the flames of judgment. But what does John hear about Jesus? What is Jesus doing? Is He ‘cleaning house’ as John expected? No. He is quietly preaching and healing people. And so, John is a bit perplexed. ‘If Jesus is the Messiah, where is the fire and the winnowing fork? Where is the thundering from on high?’ One reason for John’s confusion is that he was a fire and brimstone kind of guy. He had a personality that didn’t major in subtlety. But Jesus wasn’t like that. Now, everything that John prophesied about Jesus was true. But Jesus went about doing it in a way that was different from what John expected. And that confused him. It seems that part of the problem is that John’s way of going about things was different from how Jesus did them. The problem seems to be one of personality. And John assumed that the Messiah would be like him, that the Messiah would have a personality like his. But He doesn’t.

As you look at the Church it’s clear that the saints aren’t the same. Some are quiet. They are being faithful Christians, following Jesus each day. But they are doing that in a quiet way. There are others, however, who are aggressive and outwardly passionate. They are also being faithful Christians, following Jesus each day. But their style of doing that is quite different from the quiet Christian. There are bursters and there are plodders. There are those who have a knack at seeing the big picture and getting a vision for the future. Then, there are those who pick up on the little details that others miss. We are different kinds of people with different kinds of personalities. God made us different. And that’s okay. But the problem comes when a Christian with one kind of personality considers another Christian with a rather different kind of personality and draws the wrong conclusions. Then barriers are erected and some people are kept at arms’ distance. Then someone’s sincerity as a Christian is doubted. And the result is a lack of unity and a lack of love for the neighbor. Again, you need to consider yourself. Could it be that there is a barrier between you and another of the saints because of what amounts to differences in personality? The command of our Lord is clear. ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ That command includes the other saints who seem very different from you. Are there some changes that you need to make?

Now, it gets more interesting when the differences are not a matter of personality but of theology. Christians understand the Bible differently on so many topics. And that will continue to be the case until Jesus comes back. How shall we deal with this? Where do we draw the lines? Which differences here should raise a red flag for us? What if you find out that a Christian whom you know actually thinks that abortion is not always wrong; that there are some situations where it is justifiable? Should that make a difference in your relationship with this person? Should you shun him or even doubt the validity of his faith because of that? Most of us don’t erect barriers when it comes to the differences between Baptists and Presbyterians, or between those who do believe that God elects to save some and those who don’t believe that. But what about a Christian who believes that there are some errors in the Bible – not many, and they’re all limited to the Old Testament history? What do we do with this brother? And there are lots of other examples. The problem, of course, is that there are those who are far too narrow when it comes to these things. ‘If you don’t agree with me on topics A, B and C then you are obviously an unbeliever.’ But then there are those who are just too loose. ‘It doesn’t matter what doctrine you believe just as long as you can say, “I believe in Jesus” ’. There are problems on both ends of the spectrum.

Now, what makes all of this even more complicated is sin. There are some personality traits that are just wrong. They are sinful. They need to be changed. And no one understands the Bible correctly in all that it teaches. We are all wrong in lots of places. But there are some ways of understanding the Bible that are so terribly off the mark that they threaten the very truth of the Gospel. They are heresies which should not be tolerated. In these and other things, there is sin. But how do we make allowances for immaturity? How do we leave room for the possibility of growth? Is this person an out and out heretic, or is he a true Christian who has been poorly taught and who could do so well with a little patient teaching from someone he trusts?

These are difficult questions, but here’s a place to start to deal with these things. Consider the other people in this room, members of Faith Reformed Church. They are your brothers and your sisters because of Jesus. They are members of your extended family. Jesus says that there are to be no barriers between us. There is to be no ‘us and them’; no ‘I just don’t have anything in common with him’. Sure, there are differences, lots of differences. I’ve mentioned only a few of the possibilities. But those differences are not to affect how you relate to each other. You are to love each other as Jesus has loved you. What you are as Christians outweighs what differences there might be. So don’t let the evil one stress the differences that exist and in this way undercut the unity that we have. Next week we will be having the Lord’s Supper. Part of examining yourselves before you take is to consider your relationships with the other saints. Next week, be ready to say before God: yes, there are differences, but there are no barriers – or at least none that you’re not working on.

True Religion

[Originally preached 3 October, 2004]
James 1.26-27

James continues his relentless pursuit of integrity for the people of God in our text. He is still motivated by a concern lest these saints be deceived. His desire is that their walk before God and the world be obviously faithful. He deals with three areas in our text: bridling the tongue, visiting orphans and widows and keeping unstained from the world. James spends a good deal of time on the topic of the tongue in chapter three so we’ll leave any discussion of that until then. This morning we’ll take up the remaining two areas. Here, let me remind you that this letter is wisdom literature. That means, among other things, that we will not find the academic concern for scientific precision. Wisdom literature intends to make a splash with striking statements. It leaves sorting out the details for another time. It’s important to remember this here because you need to know that our text is not a careful and detailed statement of what true religion is. It’s not intended to be. Much misunderstanding could be avoided if we remember that the Scriptures are written in different styles, different genres. We need to take these differences into consideration if we are to properly apply the Word.

In verse 27 James speaks about a religion that is pure and undefiled before God. Here, he points to two topics. We’re going to look at the second of these topics first. Then we’ll look at the other and see how the two relate to each other. James exhorts us to keep ourselves unstained or unspotted from the world. Here, we need to take a closer look at this word ‘world’. It is a word that is used in a multitude of ways. One commentator counts something like a half dozen ways this word is used. Let me focus on just one sense that fits in our text. The world is ‘the whole human scheme of things organized in terms of human wisdom to attain a human goal without reference to God, His laws, His values or His ultimate judgment. The world is, in fact, anything and everything that is at odds with the Lordship if Jesus over our lives.’ [J. A. Motyer] And so, we have a very basic contrast that defines this life. On the one hand, there is the Church while on the other there is the world. The Church looks to God and submits to Jesus as Lord and lives accordingly. The world refuses to do so but rather follows its own ideas and lives accordingly.

When I was a young child I used to hear pastors preach about the danger of worldliness, the danger of becoming like the world. Sadly, most of them focused on the wrong things. They warned about going to movies and the length of a man’s hair. But the warning was and still is proper. It is a warning that we see in our text. James is exhorting us not to allow the goals, the methods and the attitudes of the world influence us. It is a call for a sharp difference between the Church and the world. And it is a difference that begins in the heart and shows quite clearly in the actions of life. But, this is a battle that the world pursues vigorously. Listen to the Apostle Paul. ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…’ [Romans 12:2] Or as a one-time popular paraphrase puts it, ‘Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold.’ As you work at walking faithfully you have felt the pressure to conform. You have felt the world trying to mold you into its image. It is attacking you and your children every day. It uses all the various social institutions of our culture, the different media, and any other method it can. To use the imagery of Revelation, this is the false prophet with his false message trying to get us to believe him. This is the world. It’s appropriate for you to consider how the world is attacking you. Are there some ways in which you are especially susceptible? How to you use your time, your energy? What are your goals? What do you hope for? Are these things in keeping with the Lordship of Jesus? How is the world trying to get you to conform? Listen to some words of wisdom from the Apostle John. ‘Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.’ [1 John 2:15-17]

Now, let’s look at James’ other concern, his other test of true religion, ‘visiting orphans and widows in their affliction’. It’s not the kind of thing you might expect today when summarizing our religion. And yet, that is exactly what James does. For him, this is a test whether your religion is real, whether it is pure and undefiled in God’s opinion. If it doesn’t pass this test then James warns us that our religion is worthless, useless, vain. It is not a religion that works. We need to be careful to heed his words as we take a closer look.

First, James specifies orphans and widows. Are these the only people that he is concerned about? Here’s another place where we need to remember that this is wisdom literature. James is speaking about the needy. In his day the orphan and the widow were among the neediest. In our text, James is pointing us to those who are needy. And what are we to do with these needy? James chooses an interesting word. We are to ‘visit’ them. This is a word with a significant Old Testament background. Listen to a couple of places where it used. ‘And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” ’ [Genesis 50:24-25] ‘Then [Naomi] arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.’ [Ruth 1:6] This Old Testament sense carries over into the New Testament as well. ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people…’ [Luke 1:68]Now, there is more to this word, but in these examples we see God expressing His concern for His people and acting accordingly. That is the sense that James is drawing upon. He is telling us that real religion, one that counts before God, is one that takes note of the needy, like the orphans and widows, and then does something about it. This is a call to care about those in need. We are to care about and then care for them. James is not original here. Jesus makes the same point when He talks about the difference between the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. The sheep saw the needs of their brothers and sisters in the faith and did something to meet those needs. The goats didn’t. And so, the sheep were welcomed into the kingdom while the goats were excluded.

Now, why does James stress this here? Back in chapter one James describes the saints as those who have been ‘brought forth’ by God. He uses the language of being born. And this fits when we remember that we are children of God. If that is true, then we will bear the family resemblance. So, what is God like? He visits the orphan and the widow. ‘The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.’ [Psalm 146:9] ‘Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.’ [Psalm 68:5] So, do you see what James is saying? If you’re religion is true, if you really are a child of the Father, then it will show. You will bear the family resemblance. And one way that will show is in visiting orphans and widows in their affliction. So, for James, a Christian who doesn’t care about the needy makes as much sense as a square circle. Now, God is patient. He knows that there is much for us to learn and that we don’t learn quickly. But once we come to see some new aspect of Christian living God expects some movement in the right direction.

It’s here that we face a problem. To care about and to care for the needy will take at least two things: time and money. And both seem to be in short supply. Yet, we have before us a clear expectation of the Spirit. True religion is visiting orphans and widows. How shall we deal with this knotty problem? How can we find the time and money and whatever else that is needed to obey the Scriptures? This is where we bring James’ other exhortation into play. ‘Keep [yourself] unstained from the world.’ Is your assessment that time and money are in short supply based on Godly wisdom or on worldly wisdom? Is it possible that in this area you are conforming to the world? Take the area of money. Consider the themes of our culture when it comes to money. One prominent theme is fear. We are tempted to a fear of the future, a fear of what might happen, a fear of failing to plan well enough and of finding oneself in financial trouble. And what is our protection against all of this, at least according to the world? A very large nest egg. We need to save for all the contingencies. There needs to be a fund for the next car, for the children’s education, for the water heater that is bound to go sometime. And there certainly needs to be a large sum of money for that great unknown, retirement when you get old and fail in health. We hear this message of fear every day. Now, let me be clear. Am I saying that it’s wrong to save? Absolutely not! I want to be very clear on that. That isn’t my point. My point is about why you choose to save in the way that you do. Is your money management based on the wisdom of the world? Is it based in fear? Fear makes sense if there is no God who will care for you. But fear makes no sense if your God promises to provide for all of your needs throughout all your days. Saving makes sense but not as a defense against a dangerous future. Jesus is the only real defense against danger. So, my point is not that it’s wrong to have money in the bank. My point is that it is wrong to be afraid and to think that good money management will protect you. The world says that you can only count on yourself. So you had better prepare now for that uncertain future. Jesus says trust Me for the future.

Now, I went through all of that to get to this point. If you are able to set aside this fear, if you are able to trust Jesus for you future, then you’ll be freed to make wise decisions about your money. I have been moved by the plight of Christians and especially pastors who live in the former Soviet Union. I have read about them in the newsletter that we get from the mission agency Come Over And Help. Here are people who have nothing. They live in shacks and small, cold apartments. They are barely making it. Now, as you know, I recently sold my house. With the money, I paid off a few bills and bought my little car. I still have a chunk of it left. One of my prayers has been that God would give me wisdom in how to use this money. The advice of the world is clear. ‘You’d better sock it away. Retirement is coming and you don’t have enough. You never know what’s going to happen.’ That is the message of fear. Then there is Jesus’ message. ‘Trust Me for your future.’ Then I come upon our text that calls me to care about and to care for the needy. And so I’ve asked myself if maybe I should take some of that money and send it to those pastors and saints who have so little. Maybe I should share what I have with them. After all, what’s the worst that could happen to me? And even if ‘the worst’ were to happen, Jesus’ promise is firm. He said that He would take care of me.

In all of this I want to be very clear. I am not saying that you are miserly people, that you are cheap and want to hoard your money. I am not saying that because I know that it isn’t true. Also, I am not saying that saving money is a bad idea, that it is somehow sinful. And I am not saying that you should give all your money away. What I am saying is this. Could it be that you have been fooled into believing the world’s message about your future, about what it should look like and about the fear that it might turn out badly? Are you motivated by fear as you consider how to manage your money? Or is your hope securely rooted in Jesus when it comes to this area of your life? We have before us a word from the Spirit. It tells us what true religion looks like. True religion is caring about and caring for the needy. We can’t ignore it. We need to obey it somehow. The only way that we will be able to even think about how to obey our text is by first taking Jesus at His word. ‘Yes, Lord, I do trust You. I have no clue how my future will all work out. I know that there will be bumps in the road. But I also know that You will keep me in Your care.’ It is only when we do this that we will be freed to look at our money and make wise choices about how to use it. We may make very different choices but at least in this we will be the same. Our choices won’t be rooted in fear. Instead, we will be confident in the loving care of our Savior, Jesus. In that we will be able to rejoice together.

Doers of the Word

[Originally preached 26 September, 2004]
James 1.22-25

We are finally getting back to James after a little hiatus. We return to see again James’ wisdom and his pastor’s heart. He really cares about the people to whom he is writing. And because he cares he warns them. He is concerned lest the people deceive themselves. He voices that concern in verse 22. And it’s not only there that he warns them about this danger. He repeats the same concern back in verse 16 and then again in verse 26. James knows that someone who is deceived is in great danger. Such a person thinks that all is well when it isn’t. This is especially dangerous when a person’s soul is at stake. And so James cries out to these saints. ‘Don’t be deceived! Understand the true state of your soul.’

It’s here that we have a difficulty. How do you understand the state of your soul? How does one examine his own soul to see if all is well? What do you do? What do you look for? Do you ask yourself how you feel? That won’t work. Even when it comes to the health of the body, that won’t work. Someone with high blood pressure, for example, feels no pain. And yet, he is a prime candidate for a stroke or some other major problem. Determining the health of the soul is the same. So, James doesn’t ask us how we are feeling. Instead, he asks us how we are acting. It is our actions that reveal the state of our soul. In our text this morning James zeros in on one particular area of activity. Later, he will point out some other areas to consider. But in this text James asks us how we are acting when it comes to the Word. And so, he writes, ‘But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.’

Now, please notice that James is talking about hearing the Word. It’s easy to assume that James is talking about our reading of the Word. And while this text applies to that, it has special application not to our times of Bible reading but rather to the times when you listen to the preaching of the Word. This isn’t the exclusive application of our text, but it is a primary one. So, what James is really asking here is this. ‘Do you just hear the sermon, or do you also do something as a result?’ How you answer this question is a way of examining yourself. It is a way of getting a look at the health of your soul. James’ assumption is that hearing the word preached places a responsibility on you. The preaching of the Word obligates you to do something with what you’ve heard.

Now, the question that you might be asking is, ‘Do what? What is it that I need to do with the sermon?’ And the answer isn’t complicated. What you need to do with any sermon is believe it. Now, remember that believing is not just agreeing mentally with the content of what you’ve heard. Believing is agreeing and then acting accordingly. What you really believe shows in how you act. In the preaching of the Word the commands and promises of Scripture are explained, sins are exposed, a way of looking at life is impressed upon you, the character of the Father is revealed, the love of Jesus for His own is extolled, and the quiet, yet indispensable work of the Spirit is displayed. These are things that you need to believe, which includes acting upon them. And James writes that if you fail here, if you don’t do something with what you hear, then you are deceived. You think that all is well with your soul when it obviously is not.

This isn’t to say that every sermon needs to be some ecstatic experience that dramatically changes your life. That would be true if God were in a rush, which He isn’t. He works slowly, and usually quietly. But it does mean that over time you should see areas of your life being worked on as the Spirit takes different parts of the different sermons and presses them home. It does mean that over time you should see change. Not seeing change is a yellow warning flag that something is not right. Change, becoming more like Jesus, is what is normal for the Christian.

But benefiting from the preaching of the Word takes more than showing up and listening. If you are going to change as a result of the preaching of the Word there are things that you must do. For one thing, you need to ponder the sermon. You need to mull over what you’ve heard. Some of you take home the manuscripts of the sermon so that you can review it during the week. Some take a tape to listen to it again. Those are good things to do. In addition, you should discuss the sermon as a family. Talk about it over Sunday lunch. This can especially help the children to learn how to think about the sermon. This doesn’t need to be long and involved. Just have each member of the family, parents and children, mention one thing about the sermon. You fathers look for opportunities to build on what your children say to help them understand. Think about what was preached and mull it over, individually and as families. Then, another thing that needs to happen is that you need to pray. Don’t expect any fruitful ‘doing the Word’ unless you pray. Pray before the sermon, during the week. Pray for me so that I will be accurate and clear as I preach. Pray for yourselves and each other that you all might be able to give close attention to the preaching. Then pray after the sermon during the following week. Pray about the particular items that the Spirit may have pressed upon your thinking. As you do these sorts of things, you will see good fruit coming from your hearing of the Word. You will see yourself doing the Word. You will see growth. You will be able to avoid being deceived.

Now, James doesn’t stop with just a command. He also gives encouragement to obey that command. Here, we come upon his illustration of the two men and the mirror. One of the last things that I do before I leave home on Sunday mornings is to look in the full length mirror on the back of my bedroom door. I check to make sure that my hair is combed, my tie is straight and things like that. I imagine that you do the same sort of thing. And if you or I see something in that mirror that isn’t quite right we make adjustments. How foolish to look, see something amiss but then do nothing about it. But that’s exactly what this first man does. He looks and forgets all about what he sees in the mirror. He doesn’t straighten his tie or smooth his hair.

Now, James isn’t talking about mirrors and he isn’t concerned here with neatness. What he’s getting at is looking in the Word. The Word is a mirror. The Word shows us who we really are. And we need to get that right. How you think about yourself is so important. It is a place where so many are deceived. There are those who think of themselves in such exalted terms. These folk think so highly of themselves and their abilities. And it shows. It affects their relationships. Then there are the folk who think of themselves as just barely more valuable then dirt. They have a very low opinion of themselves and their abilities. And this shows too. This also affects their relationships. And then there are most people who bounce back and forth between these two poles. One time they’ll say, ‘I’m so great. Just look at what I did.’ Then, other times, even the next moment, they’ll say, ‘I am such a jerk. Just look at what I did.’ James’ solution is to look at the Word and remember what you see. The Word reveals to you who you really are. You are a sinner who is also a saint. Isn’t that what the Gospel says? Scripture lays out, in stark detail at times, the vile wickedness of your sin. Every worship service we are all reminded of some aspect of our sin by the Reading of the Law of God near the beginning of the service. But then, in the Confession of Sin we do something with what we heard from the Word. We own our sin. No excuses. We agree with God. We are sinners worthy of death and hell. And yet, that isn’t all that we pray. We also come in Jesus’ name, as God’s beloved children, asking, again, for forgiveness. What boldness! What audacity! We sin and then actually expect forgiveness?!? Yes! And why? Because the Word which we hear tells us that we are God’s saints covered by the sacrifice of Jesus on that cross. We do not sink into despair because of our sin. But we boldly go to the Father asking for forgiveness and for change. And we are granted our request. The Declaration of Pardon reminds us that God forgives wicked sinners like us! We have heard the Word. We have peered intently into it and have seen who we really are. But we do not stop there. We act on what we have seen and are blessed by it. That is one example of doing the Word. That is one way of looking at the Word and not forgetting what we see there.

Seeing it this way also explains James’ interesting way of describing the Word. It is the ‘perfect law of liberty’. The Word is ‘law’. Our culture hates the biblical notion of law. And the reason is clear. God’s Law is something that you must submit to. God’s Law is something that has authority over you. Our culture is so independent that it will submit to no one. People might grant outward compliance or even willing obedience, as long as they agree with the command. But that isn’t submission. Mere outward compliance or even willing obedience to those commands that we find agreeable isn’t the way to respond to God’s Word. That isn’t doing the Word. And this is why it’s helpful to see that James calls the Word the perfect law of God. This Word is a perfect fit for you. It is exactly what you need. It will reveal who you really are, if you are willing to see it. And because it is a perfect fit it bears good fruit in your life. This perfect Law brings liberty. What is the longing of every soul? It is to be free; to be free of the shackles which bind it. Most people don’t understand the real nature of their shackles and so they seek freedom in the wrong places and in the wrong ways. But we know the truth. It is our sin that shackles us. And we also know that we can be free of those shackles. We can be free because of the Gospel. By hearing and doing the Word, we can grow in our experience of real freedom. As you hear the Gospel preached and as you believe that Gospel and do it, what happens? More and more of your sin is exposed. It is exposed by the Spirit so that it can be dealt with. And as more of your sin is dealt with and removed, you become more like the pure saint that you were intended to be. You come more and more into the freedom that you will enjoy in fullness in the age to come. But the key is hearing and doing the ‘perfect law of liberty’. Is it any wonder that James tells us that such a person ‘will be blessed in his doing’?

For some of you this sermon has been a warning from the Spirit. The Spirit is warning you that you are deceived. You think that all is well with your soul. And yet, you are unable to present any evidence of doing the Word that you hear preached each Sunday. But the Spirit does this so that you might repent. There is always hope for the sinner who repents and believes the Gospel. With James I would urge you, ‘Be not deceived, my beloved brethren.’

For the rest of you this sermon has been intended as an encouragement. Doing the Word isn’t easy. Coming to grips with your sin isn’t fun. But you still work at hearing and doing the Word. Well done! And as you do that, you are seeing the fruit. You are being blessed in your doing. You are coming into a greater experience of the freedom of the Gospel. You are becoming more like Jesus. Let me encourage you, then, to press on. Continue the good work that you are doing. Persevere until the day when the struggle is over and you enter into the complete freedom of the Gospel.

Receive The Word

[Originally preached 5 September, 2004]
James 1.19-21

The heart of our text this morning is in verse 21 where James exhorts us to ‘receive the Word’. It appears that he is building on his thought back in verse 18 when he referred to the Word of truth. While this is the key thought of the text, James buttresses it with lots of qualifiers. He wanted to be sure that his listeners understood him. It’s these qualifiers that explain this command to us. It’s these qualifiers that will help us to see more clearly what it means to ‘receive the Word’. So, our goal this morning is to understand a bit better how to obey the command of God in our text, how to ‘receive the Word’. If we can grow here, everything else will fall into place.

Let’s start with verse 21. ‘Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.’ We have here something of a contrast. On the one hand, James is telling us to put away sin; get rid of it. And then, on the other hand, he is exhorting us to receive the Word. He is connecting two aspects of being faithful. But this is not a meaningless connection. He writes this way to make a point. These two are mutually exclusive. You cannot be content to see sin in your life, doing nothing about it, and at the same time receive the Word. The two just can’t go together. Now, a person can hear the Word preached and understand the main points that are being made. In that sense, he can know what the text is teaching. But that is not the same thing as receiving the Word. Receiving the Word is not primarily an intellectual matter. You can be very knowledgeable about some topic if you study hard enough. That’s true of history, of biology and even of the Bible. There are many who have studied the Bible and know its contents quite well, who have not received the Word. And the reason for that is clear. Receiving the Word is first of all a Spiritual matter. By that I mean that it is something that depends on the Spirit. It is the Spirit who takes what is in your mind, the things of the Bible that you have studied, and drives them home to your heart so that these things might show in your life. It is this process that involves the mind, the heart and then the outward life that James is talking about. This is receiving the Word. And so, James is telling us that there are two things that cannot peacefully co-exist: being comfy with your sin and receiving the Word. If you want to receive the Word – and James will show us in a bit how important that is – then be prepared to have a fight on your hands. You must get rid of your sin.

James has a specific sin in mind as he exhorts those first-century Christians. Now, this isn’t the only kind of sin that the saints need to deal with, but it probably was one that those particular saints had a problem with. And so, James uses it as an example of what he is talking about. ‘… let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires.’ [James 1:19-20] Here, James is teaching us how to deal with people. All too often, the tendency is to be slow to hear the other person and quick to tell him what you think. But when you don’t listen carefully and instead respond too quickly one common result is anger. That’s one result of people jumping to conclusions, of misunderstanding what the other person is really trying to get at, and of just being abrupt and abrasive as you rush along, not being careful to listen. James is quite clear. This will not result in the kind of living that God requires. And so, he commands us to be quick to listen and slow to speak.

Now, this is just an example of a sin that you must get rid of. If you won’t get rid of sins like this then you won’t be able to receive the Word. And so, we find a principle here in James. How you deal with the people around you will affect your ability to receive the Word. It will affect your ability to mature as a Christian. Let’s pursue this a bit. You husbands and wives, how do you talk to each other? Is there anger? Now, remember that anger doesn’t have to show as blowing up. It can also show as giving up. ‘I just can’t talk to him any more. He doesn’t understand me. He just won’t listen to me. Why should I bother?’ And then you leave the room even though you’re in the middle of a conversation. Could it be that this is a fruit of anger? Consider other interactions that you have with people inside and outside your family. Do the virtues of patience, love and a gentle spirit show in how you deal with others? Keep clearly in mind what James is telling us. How you deal with one another affects you Spiritually. And James isn’t alone in this. Listen to Peter. ‘Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.’ [1 Peter 3:7] Your social relationships affect your Spiritual relationship with your God. Peter focuses in on our prayer life, while James points to the ability to really get what God is saying in His Word. How many people think that they can have an argument in the car on the way to church and then walk into the building ready to worship as if nothing happened? The principle is true whether the conflict is as fresh as five minutes ago or as old as something that has been unresolved for years.

Do you see James’ point? It is so important that you receive the Word. But that will never happen if you don’t get rid of your sin. If you refuse to deal with your sin, don’t expect to be able to progress as a Christian. More and more of those trials will end up as temptations given in to, leading to death, instead of tests of faith passed, leading to life. So, let me urge you to deal with your sin. Get rid of it. And remember what that means. When the Spirit points sin out to you, quickly repent of it. Quickly. Then come again to Jesus in faith, asking for forgiveness and for change. If you do that, then you will see your sin fading away. Then you will be able to receive the Word.

James tells us more about how to receive the Word. He tells us to do it ‘with meekness’, or as some translations have it, ‘in humility’, which is the same thing. The problem today, of course, is that these are qualities that are not well understood. That makes sense since one goal of our culture is to avoid such qualities. These are not the virtues that are being extolled in our day. Ours is a very proud era. The call is to be aggressive, self-assured, independent. Meekness just doesn’t fit in with that list. And even Christians misunderstand. The popular notion is that meekness or being humble is something akin to thinking of yourself as worthy as a piece of dirt. The meek person aims to be timid. But can this be true. Jesus called Himself ‘meek’, but did He try be a timid piece of dirt? This isn’t what James is exhorting us to. Meekness is not thinking less and less of yourself. Rather, it is thinking accurately about yourself. From time to time Joe and I will talk about math. Just a couple of weeks ago we were talking about one of the projects that he was working on. And he waxed eloquently about derivatives and all sorts of other things. Now, when it comes to me talking to Joe about math, meekness makes sense. That doesn’t mean that I should think of myself as stupid. But the facts are clear. My last course in math was calculus one, which I didn’t understand all that well. Joe has a doctorate in the field. So, when he writes out an equation and says, ‘This is how you’d solve that problem’, all I say is, ‘Okay’. But what is this but understanding myself accurately, especially when it comes to discussing math with Joe.

Receiving the Word with meekness doesn’t start by thinking of ourselves in some demeaning way. Instead, it means that we understand that it is the Lord Jesus who speaks to us by His Word and Spirit. So, when Jesus says, ‘How you treat the person sitting next to you makes all the different in the world’, we respond by saying, ‘Yes, Lord’. When Jesus says, ‘Your life is mine. Devote it to Me’, we say, ‘Yes, Lord’. When Jesus says, ‘This is the way. Walk ye in it’, we say, ‘Yes, Lord’. That’s meekness. Now, it may be that you’ll wonder about something that Jesus has said and ask, ‘Lord, are you sure about that?’ Ananias said that in Acts 9 when Jesus sent him to the blinded Saul of Tarsus. ‘Are you sure, Lord? I’ve heard disturbing things about this persecutor of the Church.’ But when Jesus told him, ‘Yes, I’m sure’, how did Ananias respond? ‘Yes, Lord.’ Does a different kind of response make any sense? That’s meekness.

But there are some who think that they can get away with a ‘No, Lord’. Understand that there are many ways to say, ‘No, Lord’ without actually saying those words. For one thing, you just ignore what you don’t like when you hear it taught from the Bible. So, you say, ‘That’s an interesting thought’, and then push it out of your mind. It’s not as rude as ‘No, Lord’ but just as effective. Or you say, ‘That can’t be right’, but fail to pursue it further to see if maybe it is. Or you say ‘Well, that’s just his interpretation’, and then thoughtlessly cling to what you’ve always believed. There are many ways to say ‘No, Lord’, but they all boil down to the same thing. Pride. So, whenever it’s time to hear from Jesus, as He speaks by His Word and Spirit, the attitude you need to have is quite simple. ‘Whatever you want is fine with me, Lord. Just help me to understand what it is you want me to do, then give me the grace to do it.’ If you adopt that attitude you won’t understand everything in the Bible. But you will understand everything you need to and it will show as you make progress as a Christian and as a person. But God help you if you refuse to meekly submit to Jesus as He teaches you from His Word. God help you if, by one scheme or another, your heart says, ‘No, Lord’. God forbid that any of you come even close to such an attitude.

That leaves one last thought. James tells us that this Word is ‘able to save your souls’. It sounds as if our salvation is somehow incomplete, that there is more of the Word that we need so that our souls will be saved. And that is exactly right. Salvation is not just a matter of something that happened in the past. It is also something that is ongoing and something that will be completed in the future. You’re not done being saved. Enduring the tests of faith, wrestling with temptations, fighting hard against sin and death – dealing successfully with all of these things is a part of being saved. It’s a part of the ongoing process of being freed from the bondage of your sinful habits to a growing experience of the life of God. Do you want to continue being saved until the day that the process is completed? Then receive the Word! Deal with sin by repentance and faith as soon as the Spirit points it out to you. Pursue the meekness that understands that He is the Lord and you are His disciple. If you do these things then you will be blessed by your God, in this life as well as in the life to come.

Behold Your God

[Originally preached 29 August, 2004]
James 1.17-18

It may appear that James is onto a different topic in our text today. But he isn’t. He is still dealing with the topic that he began his letter with. He is still dealing with trials and temptations. He picks up where he left off in verse 15. He is dealing with the threat of death. Here, he offers hope to his readers - and to us. His goal isn’t just to describe the situation. It is to help the saints as they live that situation. And so, as any good pastor, he exhorts and encourages. If you boil down the encouragement of our text it’s simply this. ‘Behold your God’. That is such great advice. When in need, look to your God. Consider what kind of God He is. Remind yourself that He is bound to you with bonds of love because of Jesus. Learn how to depend on Him. Get to know Him well so that you can lean upon Him, especially in times of trial. That’s what James is trying to get us to do. Let’s see how he goes about doing that.

To start with, did you notice that James focuses on something specific about God? He does that, in part, by the title for God that he uses. The different names of God aren’t just for variety. Each one has something about it that reveals God’s nature to us. The name James uses here is ‘Father of lights’. Why? What is it about this name that is intended to be helpful? Let’s take it apart. To start with, we need to understand what these ‘lights’ are. They are the heavenly lights. In fact, that is how some translations render it. James is referring to the sun and moon; the lights of the sky. Then, by calling God the ‘Father’ of these lights, he is reminding us that our God has created all these lights. Our God is the ‘Father of lights’.

It’s as if James were telling the saints. ‘Look up to the sky. What do you see? You see the sun and moon, the heavenly lights that God created. And why did He create them? Why did create these lights? He created them to dispel the darkness.’ We do not appreciate the importance of these heavenly lights. Most of us live in or near a city. We have streetlights to keep the darkness at bay. But go to some field in the middle of a forest where there are no streetlights or the like, and wait until dark. Choose the time when there is a new moon. It will be quite striking because you’ll see all the stars. And that will be beautiful. But try walking. Try finding your way back home. You can’t see the roots that trip you nor the ditches that swallow you up. The heavenly lights dispel the darkness and help you to see. They are gifts from God for you.

What a great picture of a basic truth. You are surrounded by the darkness where the temptations to sin abound. How do you find your way? How do you avoid the pitfalls into death? James tells us. It is by the gifts of the Father of lights. ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…’ [James 1:17] As the reality of your need presses in upon you, look to your God. Remember who He is and what He does for you. He is the God who gives the gift of light to dispel the darkness. It is by His light that you will find your way.

But, as James points out, the reality is even better than the mere reminder. Consider these heavenly lights. Think about the sun and the moon. The sun rises and sets. It creates shifting shadows and then disappears for hours at a time. The moon goes through its phases from full to new and back again. These variations might be intriguing to the creative photographer, but they are a problem if you’re trying to find you way in the midst of darkness. These variations are the deficiencies of the heavenly lights. But, says James, not so with your God. ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.’ [James 1:17] His light does not vary. It isn’t bright at one time and then dim at another. He is consistently bright. He is always there to shine His light to dispel the darkness around you. He does not change in this. The reality of who God is for you is better than the mere reminders in the sky.

All of this points back to something that James wrote earlier. ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.’ [James 1:5] It’s the same dynamic here. When a need is felt we look to our God to meet that need, knowing that He will always respond by some gracious gift. In verse 5 James is specific. He points to God’s gift of wisdom, that insight into our God and His ways so that we can understand this life. Here, in verse 17 James is more general. But whatever the need, whether it is wisdom or something else to help when you are confronted by sin and death, look to your God. He will graciously give and meet your need. His light will expose hidden roots and ditches along the way and it will guide you past the danger.

James is not done reminding us about who our God is. ‘Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation.’ [James 1:18] The language of ‘brought forth’ is the language of birth. James is pointing us to the new birth. He’s pointing us to the act of God which made us His children. Here, just remember Nicodemus hearing Jesus’ say, ‘You must be born again.’ James highlights some things about this. First, the new birth is ‘by the word of truth’. You know that I stress that we do not believe in some mystical zap theology. I remind you of the importance of the Word and how the Spirit doesn’t act without it. Here is one place where you can see this truth stressed. We know that it is the Spirit of God who applies new life to people. Jesus comments to Nicodemus tell us that. But here James tells us the means by which the Spirit does that. We are brought forth into the new life of God by means of the word of truth. Peter also speaks to this. ‘…you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; … And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’ [1 Peter 1:23,25a] God uses His Word of the Gospel, especially as this Word is preached, to bring new life. The Word is so important. And one reason for this is that it is so powerful. James will come back to the importance of the Word and how to respond to it later. So, we’ll return to this topic in a later sermon.

James also tells us that God gave us this new birth ‘of His own will’. What is this about? If you think about it we all have at least one thing in common. We all got here the same way. We were all born. Because of decisions that your parents made, you exist. Now, how much input did you have into those decisions? How much input did you have into making sure that you were born? None. It was all because of your parents. You had nothing to do with it. Imagine! The most important decision of your existence, the thing that makes you what you are, and you had absolutely nothing to do with it. What a blow to pride. Now, take the next step. How much input did you have into making sure that you were born again? None. It wasn’t because you were especially good or especially attractive to God, or especially beneficial to His cause. You had no input into it. God, ‘of His own will’ decided to love you and give you new life. Now, there are some who get all hot when they hear this and talk about this making us robots or that this means that we should be passive as Christians since doing anything doesn’t matter anyway. But it’s much better to see how incredibly helpful this fact is, especially when you’ve really blown it, when twisted desires have fooled you and you fall into sin. There are too many faithful Christians who, at this point, think, ‘What I did was really bad.’ And then they freeze. They feel so guilty. Any hope of being restored to God dries up. ‘How could He love me now?’ But think. You had no input when He first included you in the family. You weren’t included because you were especially good. Why should that be a factor now? When He contemplated including you and decided to love you, what were you to Him but a filthy sinner? It can’t be any worse now. This isn’t to minimize the sin but to maximize God’s love for you. That love is without variation or shadow of turning. So, when you sin, don’t doubt His love. When you lose a battle with some twisted desire, don’t give up because you think the situation is hopeless. When you sin you know what to do. Repent of that sin. Believe again the Gospel of Jesus. And do that assured that your God will receive you again as one of His own.

Then there is the third thing that James points out. ‘Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation.’ [James 1:18] The goal of God’s sovereign decision to love you is that you might become a firstfruits to Him. Now, what does that mean? Firstfruits was an Old Testament festival in Israel. At that time each year the best of the harvest was offered up to God. As a part of the ceremony, the people recounted God’s goodness in keeping His promise to bring Israel into the Promised Land. There are a couple of things that stand out from the ceremony and fit well in the context of what James is writing. First, the offered portion, the firstfruits of the harvest, is especially God’s. It was freely acknowledged that all of the harvest was God’s, but the offered firstfruits was especially so. The second thing is that God keeps His promises. Picturing the saints as the firstfruits is so fitting as you battle against temptation and wrestle with the threat of sin and death. You are special to God. There are something like 6 billion people on this globe. All of them are God’s creatures. But it is only the saints who are especially His. All the kids of the neighborhood might be at the playground, on the monkey bars, the slide and the seesaw. The Mom who is there may notice all the kids, but her eye is on her own children. Are they okay? Are the having fun? Are the safe? If one of the other kids gets hurt, she’ll help to soothe the wound, but it is an entirely different matter when one of hers gets hurt. Every day of your life you are mixed in with the mass of humanity, ignored by most. But your Father is keeping a sharp eye on you. You are special to him. He will keep you safe. Remember that as you wrestle with those desires, are confused by all the trials, and feel the need for more of God’s grace. Behold your God. You are special to Him. He will never forget that. You shouldn’t either.

But don’t forget the other aspect of the firstfruits ceremony. God keeps His promises. He has promised you that you will get to the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey. But all those temptations lie in your path. Sin and death looms. The threat is real. But despite all of that remember this simple fact: your Father promised. He promised to get you through it all and to get you home to be with Him. Our God keeps His promises. Getting there is never in doubt. It’s just a matter of when. Now, again, some will take and twist this and make it into something it is not. They will say that this is an excuse to coast as a Christian since it doesn’t matter what we do. After all, God has promised! But such a person is a fool and has no true saving faith. We know that the promises of God are rather an encouragement to work all the harder since we know that our efforts at faithful endurance are not in vain, even when it feels that way. We know that our efforts will bear good fruit. We know that our God will use our efforts to get us home.

Let me close with this encouragement. Let me encourage you to get to know your God. And how does that happen? It happens when the Spirit responds to your prayers and uses the Word that you have stored away in your heart. Get to know your God so that you can enjoy who He is for you.

Desire, Sin, Death

[Originally preached 22 August, 2004]
James 1.13-16

In our text James makes what may appear to be a sudden shift in his letter. He was talking about trials when, all of a sudden, he switches to the area of temptation. And yet, it isn’t really out of the blue. For one thing, the words translated ‘trial’ and ‘temptation’ are actually the same in the Greek that James wrote. And more than that, every trial is, at the same time, a temptation. When God tested him, Abraham had a choice. He could believe God and act accordingly, which meant sacrificing Isaac. Of course, Abraham could have chosen not to believe God and then acted accordingly, which would have meant refusing to sacrifice Isaac. The first choice meant passing the test. The second choice meant giving in to temptation and falling into sin. In that case, what God intended to be a means of blessing for Abraham by his passing the test would have become a means of cursing. Every trial is, at the same time, a temptation.

In our text, James anticipates what someone might say when, facing a trial, he fell to the temptation. ‘It’s God’s fault that I fell for that temptation and sinned! After all, the test came from Him.’ This person just doesn’t understand God. And James sets out to show him that. Yes, it is God who confronts us with trials, those tests of faith. But His intention is always that you would succeed and thus be blessed. It’s very important that you hold on to that. God wants you to pass the test. God wants you to be blessed. But if God were to confront you with a trial in the hope that you would fail that would mean that God would want evil to prevail. God isn’t like that. That’s a description of Satan. God doesn’t lure people to sin by temptation. To do so, God would have to have given in to the temptation to do evil to you Himself. And that’s just impossible. So, James responds, ‘No, it’s not God’s fault that you fell into sin. Actually, it’s your fault. You bear the responsibility for falling for the temptation and sinning.’ This speaks to all of the excuses that we use to cover up our sin. So, for example, we can’t say that it was the devil’s fault. ‘That devil was just too strong for me. No wonder I sinned.’ We can’t say that we had unmet needs that we were trying to satisfy. ‘I never really experienced a father’s love. That’s why I did it.’ And we can’t say that there were extenuating circumstances that excuse our sin. ‘If you were in as much pain as I you’d lose your temper too.’ In these and so many other ways, we are saying the same thing. ‘It wasn’t my fault. It was someone else’s fault.’ Maybe even saying, ‘It was God’s fault.’ James is clear. That’s all garbage. ‘When you sin, it’s because you gave in to the temptation. You have no excuse.’ Blame shifting has a long history. It started back in the Garden when Adam told God, ‘It was the woman whom You gave me.’ It’s alive and well today. You need to beware.

James’ goal in our text isn’t to condemn but to help. And so, he explains the inner dynamics of our giving in to sin’s temptations. He offers to us what might be called the psychology of temptation. He takes a look into the soul and shows us what goes on in there. Notice where he starts. ‘But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.’ [James 1:14] The starting point is desire. Now, desire is not necessarily evil. It can be, but it isn’t necessarily so. This same word is used in some very positive senses in the New Testament. Jesus ‘earnestly desired’ to eat the Passover with His disciples. Paul’s ‘desire’ was ‘to depart and be with Christ’. And when it came to becoming an elder he wrote, ‘If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.’ To have a desire is not necessarily evil. And here in our text, it starts out being just fine. We all have desires that are quite good. There are times when we desire to enjoy a good meal with friends. A young man may desire a wife. Any good mother desires to see her children flourish. These are good desires. But, the desire for a good meal can become gluttony. The desire for a wife can lead to immoral behavior. The desire for flourishing children can become an all consuming goal and thus an idol. In each of these cases something happened to a good desire. Something changed. The desire that was good was twisted and became evil. It’s important to see this. The sins that we fall into are usually tied to some very good desires that become corrupted so that what was once good becomes quite evil.

Now, James moves on. He points us to these now twisted desires that ‘lure and entice’. What interesting words! They reflect the subtlety that is going on. Temptation is not some guy with horns dressed in red saying, ‘Hey, don’t go down the strait and narrow that leads to life. Turn left here and follow me to hell and suffer the consequences forever.’ Temptation is subtle, enticing, alluring. Proverbs illustrates the subtlety when it contrasts wisdom and foolishness. These two qualities are pictured as two women calling to passers-by. Listen to how wisdom calls. ‘ “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” ’ [Proverbs 9:4-6] But then listen to folly. ‘The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” ’[Proverbs 9.13-16a] Did you notice that foolishness mimics wisdom. The invitation to the simple, the naïve, is the same. It is only later that the difference is heard. Listen to the rest of Folly’s call. ‘And to him who lacks sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” ’ [Proverbs 9:16b-17] Wisdom and foolish sin sound so close at first. It is only the later alluring call to enjoy sin that distinguishes them. Twisted desires lead astray.

Now, when these desires have done their work what happens? ‘Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin…’ [James 1:15a] The simpleton who hears folly’s invitation has not sinned, even if he feels the pull of temptation. But once he takes even one step in her direction then he has crossed the line. Then he has sinned. The corrupted desire has done its work. Now, understand that it isn’t a matter of outside forces that make the difference here. The difference is all a matter of choices you make. The person who sins has decided to heed those twisted desires. This is a key point to understanding the psychology of temptation. Corrupted desires lead to sin because we choose to listen to them.

James doesn’t stop here. There is one more step. ‘… and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. [James 1:15b] And here you need to remember that death is to be understood in its broadest sense. If real life is enjoyment of God and all of His glorious gifts to the full, then death is the exact opposite of that. There is no joy, no happiness, no love, no peace, no God. Living for such a person is very dark, very depressing, very lonely. It is awful. And so, the problem with giving in to temptation is not that some rule is broken. The problem is that any experience of real life is squeezed out of you until death completely overwhelms. So, we have here a counterpart of what James has previously told us about the trials of life. If we endure the trials, we receive good things now, becoming complete and perfect. We grow in our experience of the life of God. [James 1.2ff.] We also will receive a great good later, the crown of life, the full enjoyment of real life forever in the age to come. [James 1.12]But the same sort of thing is true of falling for those temptations. There is a growing experience of death. A downward spiral begins which will culminate in eternal death forever. And please remember James’ audience. He is not writing to the pagans. ‘Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.’ [James 1:16] James is warning the Church. He is warning you. The Spirit of God who wrote this is warning us all about the significance of our choices. If we aren’t careful we could choose death.

All of that leads up to this point. Here is the question you must ponder. How do you protect yourself from this danger? Consider a couple of things. First, you need to understand your own heart. By that I mean, you need to understand the desires that reside there, especially the ones that are easily corrupted. There are some things that do not faze me in the least. They hold no allure and so they do not tempt. While I’ll enjoy a glass of beer with dinner on a hot summer day, I’ve never gotten drunk. If someone were to say to me, ‘Come on, let’s tie one on tonight’, I’d just walk away. It just isn’t enticing. But there are other things that I have a real problem with. I easily succumb in these areas. Desires here are easily twisted and corrupted. You are the same. And so you need to understand your desires and how some of them are easily twisted.

So, you enjoy a little time alone just to catch your breath, ponder a few things, get recharged so that you can return to the fray with some energy. That’s a good desire. But what if that becomes a demand? What if you get angry if your ‘alone time’ is interfered with? ‘All I wanted was just a few minutes to myself. Was that too much to ask!?!’ A good desire just got twisted and resulted in sin. Or you might enjoy being creative. Maybe that means doing some woodworking or crafts or playing a game. You find this a way of relaxing and expressing yourself. That’s a good desire. But again what if it gets twisted? What if while you are ‘being creative’ the dishes pile up or that household repair project still waits to be done? We all need to understand ourselves and the places where we are prone to falling, the good desires that are so easily twisted.

You cannot do that alone. Your heart is so subtle that you aren’t able to discern what’s really going on. Ultimately, it is the Spirit who must uncover those areas of your heart and show them to you. And how will that happen? It won’t be by some mystical zap. The Spirit uses the Word. You need to receive as much of the Word as possible. That means things like paying close attention to the preaching of the Word, daily Bible reading, becoming a part of a Bible study group. The more of the Word you hide away in your heart, the more you give the Spirit to work with. And along with that you need to pray. You need to ask the Spirit of God to deal with you and with your heart. You need to pray about the areas of weakness that will become evident to you. You need to deal with these areas of desire before they become twisted. If you can do that, imagine the sin that you can avoid.

But what if you find that you have given in to some temptation? What if the process toward death has started and you’re past the point of restraining desire but have already sinned? What happens now? The answer should be obvious. As soon as you become aware of any sin, your first response needs to be repentance. Don’t wait. Don’t think that it’s only a little sin. At the first sign of sin, repent. The foundation of real repentance starts with an awareness of the seriousness of the situation. The danger is real. James isn’t writing about hypothetical situations that could never really happen. They can and have. But with that awareness of the seriousness of what’s going on there is also an awareness of the kind graciousness of our God in Jesus. Our Father loves to forgive sin. Do not hold back your repentance because you think that He must be too angry with you to forgive you just now. That is a lie from Satan himself. Whenever sin is revealed to you run to your Father, eager to repent knowing that He will always receive you with open arms.

Here, as in so many places, we need much wisdom. On the one hand, we need to take to heart the seriousness of the situation. The threat of death is real. We are in a war. It is a war that is not easily fought. And it is a war in which there are casualties. Some who start with us do not end with us because they would not take the warning of our text seriously. But, on the other hand, we must not become terrified, afraid to act at all lest we falter and die. Remember the love of God. Remember His great kindness. He wants you to flourish. He understands your weakness and how prone you are to sin. He is no harsh taskmaster for whom everything is cut and dried. He is your tender and patient Father. So, go to Him. Tell Him that you really want to please Him. Tell Him that you know that you fail so often. Ask for grace to cover the multitude of your sins. And ask confident that He will always grant grace in abundance. Go to Him in Jesus’ name and be optimistic about your future expecting your Father to care for you.

Trials

[Originally preached 15 August, 2004]
James 1.12

We return, again, to this profound sentence. I do think, however, that this will be the last time we’ll look at it in this series. We’ve looked at the word ‘blessed’ and some of the things that are associated with it. We’ve also seen how love is the motive for enduring trials. This week we shift our attention again to consider something else. We’ll start by looking at the phrase ‘crown of life’. We won’t be examining the meaning of this in any depth as much as noticing that it gives us a hint of the larger perspective on this life that James is taking. The claim of any religion is the same: ‘This is the way to understand this life. Once you understand life this way you will succeed.’ In our text James gives a large part of the Christian answer to the question, ‘How shall we understand this life?’ Let’s see what he has to say.

We can see that according to James, the reward for endurance in the face of trials is the crown of life. It’s a fitting phrase. The Greek work translated ‘crown’ doesn’t refer to the crown of a king. Rather, it is the crown given to the winner of a race. Today, when someone wins a race he’ll receive a gold medal. Back then, the winner received a crown of laurel, or the like. Like the gold medal, it was the reward for winning the race. We, along with all of the other saints, are in a race. And this race is a marathon. It requires endurance to reach the end. But all who do finish the race are winners. All will receive a crown. Now, the language of ‘crown’ is a symbol for the actual reward. And that reward is life, life in is fullest expression. Every saint who endures to the end will receive this ‘crown’, this fullness of life. Now, when will we gain it? We don’t gain it now. We will receive this crown of life in eternity, the age to come.

Now, I went through all of that to get to this point. In our text, James is not saying that the believer will receive this reward for standing firm in the face of some particular trial. Rather, James is saying that the reward is promised to those who stand firm in the face of all of the trials of life. This reward is for enduring to the end. Back in verse two James was referring to dealing with specific trials. But here, James is looking at the big picture. He is talking about all of life. And he is viewing this life as a life of trials, a life of testing. The blessing of the crown of life is promised to those who remain faithful through all of the trials of life. And so, what James is doing is looking at life from a particular perspective. There are many ways to look at the life of a Christian. Each of those ways is a piece of the whole pie. To get the right understanding you need to include all of the pieces of the pie. In our text, James is just looking at one slice: this life, for the Christian, is a life of trials. This life holds many trials to be endured. Understanding and accepting this piece of the pie is very important and will be very helpful. Now, my saying all of this probably raises some questions. So, for the rest of the sermon let’s look more closely at this perspective on being a Christian and at what the implications might be.

First, you need to see that trials are a normal part of Christian living. They are not odd or extraordinary or even rare. They are normal for the Christian. Why do I say that? For one thing, sending trials is something that God normally does. Consider some Scripture. ‘The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.’ [Psalm 11:5] ‘I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.’ [Jeremiah 17:10] These verses describe something of the nature of God and how He deals with us. And so, we see that divine characteristic being expressed in this passage. ‘After these things God tested Abraham…’ [Genesis 22:1] Consider how Moses described Israel's years in the desert. ‘And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.’ [Deuteronomy 8:2] Being put to the test, enduring trials, is a normal part of being one of God’s people. It is a normal part of how God deals with us. And so, we find Peter writing, ‘Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.’ [1 Peter 4:12] Trials, even fiery ones, are not strange. They are a normal part of being a Christian.

This basic understanding – that life for the Christian holds many trials – is critical. If this part of the Gospel is not believed by the Christian, then there will be significant problems. When a trial hits such a believer what will result? There may be confusion. Or there may be an unnecessary sense of guilt. Or even a lifelong bitterness that eats away at the person. How different it is for the saint who knows and believes these things. He can avoid these pitfalls and prepare for the various trials that he knows are coming.

Here is the key thought. There is no such thing as smooth sailing for the Christian in this life. You will hit bumps in the road. Your faith is going to be put to the test. There will, at times, be fiery trials. Expect these things. Know ahead of time how to respond. Remember that summary question. ‘Do you trust Me now?’

Along with seeing that trials are normal, you also need to see that they are good. Now, I realize that that will sound very odd to many people in our world. ‘How can something that hurts so much be good?’ But that just reflects a basic goal of our culture: avoid pain. A basic assumption of our world is that if it hurts, it’s bad. There is nothing to be gained from things that hurt. But if a Christian adopts that attitude, he will fail the tests that come because he will try to stop the pain by whatever means instead of striving to endure the trial faithfully. We all need to see that pain is not always an unmitigated evil. God uses pain for good. But the question will be raised, ‘How? How can trials be for good?’

For one thing, trials refine. Consider Job. Now, there was a trial. His wealth was gone. His children were dead. His health was broken. And what was left? Three ‘friends’ who accused him unjustly. But how did he respond? Here is one thing that he said. ‘But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.’ [Job 23:10] Do you know how they used to refine gold? The ore was placed into a very hot furnace until all of the dross was burned off. Job was in a burning furnace. His was a fiery trial to be sure. It hurt. And yet, he understood what God was doing. The dross of Job’s life was being burned off. What would remain at the end of the process was pure gold. Trials refine.

Consider a familiar prophecy about the coming of Jesus. ‘But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. ’ [Malachi 3:2-3] Malachi is talking about what Jesus was to do when He came. He would purify the saints. And He would do that by refining them in the furnace of trials. So, that’s why James could write, ‘Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.’ [James 1:2-3] Trials are good. They bring about much benefit. So, rejoice! Jesus is at work in your life purifying you until you are as good as gold.

There is another reason why trials are good. They provide to the Christian a sure basis for assurance. After all, what is a trial? It is a test of faith. Is there true faith in your heart? How can you tell? You can tell when that faith is put to the test. ‘Do you trust Me now?’ And how encouraging it is to see the answer of your heart revealed in your actions and attitudes. ‘Yes, Lord, I do trust You.’ What is that but true saving faith. What better way to calm a doubting conscience. What better way to quiet the accusing whispers of the evil one? ‘I know that I really do believe in Jesus. I know that true saving faith resides in my heart. I’ve seen it at work. And so, I have great confidence that I am one of Jesus’ own.’ Isn’t that worth enduring even a fiery trial?

Then there is the third and best reason that trials are good. They bring glory to God. This, of course, is the most important reason for trials. In John 9 we read about a man born blind. Do you remember the disciples’ question? ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ [John 9:2] And what was Jesus’ answer? ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’ [John 9:3] The man was blind for decades so that God could receive glory by the miracle that was about to occur. When you are put to the test, even if it isn’t being struck blind, it is an opportunity for God to be honored. Your situation can result in your God being praised. And that is always a good thing. So, we see Peter writing, ‘In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as was necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire —may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ [1 Peter 1:6-7] These saints were really put to the test. That’s what the letter is about. But the testing of their faith – the fiery trials that they faced and endured – will bear good fruit. Jesus will receive praise, glory and honor.

Trials are not only a normal part of being a Christian. They also can result in good. They can refine you into a Godlier person. They can encourage you. You can tell yourself that you are one of the real ones. And then, most importantly, Jesus is glorified by our enduring trials of faith. Is there anything more important than that?

Holding firmly to these reasons will save you from a glum disposition or even great discouragement because of the trials that you will most certainly face. In the midst of trials we can rejoice. The trial may be hard. It may really hurt. And yet, we know that good things are happening because of the trial. We may need to rejoice through tears of sorrow and pain, but we can rejoice. Jesus is at work in these trials. Your pain is not for nothing.

That leaves my last thought. And this is just taking the next step. Here we are, in the wilderness of this world, the place of testing. But one day we will cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land. One day we will receive the crown of life which Jesus has promised to those who love Him, to those who faithfully endure these trials. There is no other way to get to the Promised Land except by going through the wilderness. But we will get there. That is a hope that we must never forget. It is a hope that we need to nurture and keep fresh. And that is something that we need to do not just for ourselves but for each other also. We need to encourage each other with this hope, especially when the trials get really hard. We will make it out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land. And when we get there, there will be no more trials to endure. Then we will receive the crown of life. Then we will be able to enjoy fullness of life forevermore as we enjoy Jesus fully.

Love

[Originally preached 8 August, 2004]
James 1.12

We return to the text that we considered last week. My focus then was the idea of being blessed and some of what was associated with it. This week we’ll look at something else. This week we look at the phrase ‘which the Lord has promised to those who love Him’. James is referring to the ‘crown of life’ which is the specific blessing promised to those who endure trials. And it may be that we’ll return again to this text next week to take a look at that blessing. But this week we’ll consider this phrase and see what the Spirit has to teach us.

The first thing that we’ll need to do is to understand why James writes this. He could have easily left it out and the sentence would still make perfect sense. It sounds like a condition for receiving the blessing of the crown of life. It is granted ‘to those who love Him’. But we saw last week that the condition is enduring trials. Our phrase, though, is related to the condition. By including this phrase James is telling us more about fulfilling the condition of enduring those trials. This phrase is talking about the motive behind enduring trials. The phrase is about why we endure tests of faith. Simply standing firm isn’t enough. Why we stand firm is also important. As in all that we do, the motive behind our actions is important. It’s never just a matter of what we do. It’s always also a matter of why we do it.

Now, James could have chosen from several alternatives to fill out this phrase. He could have written ‘which the Lord has promised to those who obey Him’, or ‘to those who are faithful to Him’ or to some other biblical motivation, any of which could have been fitting. But he chose to talk about love. And this holds some important lessons for us.

Consider some of the popular motives for not giving in when put to the test. For some, it’s a matter of choosing to be good. When these folk hit a serious crisis, like the rest of us, they feel the pull to fall apart, to give in to anxiety or the like. But they choose not to. ‘I’m going to be calm in this. I’m not going to give in to panic like so many do.’ But consider the dynamics that are going on behind the scenes. Whenever this kind of person hits a bump in the road, he consults the ideal of the ‘good person’ that has been given to him. ‘This is what a “good person” does in a situation like this.’ And that’s what he does. This isn’t really conscious. Over the years it’s become second nature. But whatever the crisis, this person deals with it by matching this ideal. He is going to be one of the ‘good people’. He’s going to act like a ‘good Christian’ as he deals with this trial.

Now, there are a couple of problems with this. For one thing, this motivation has nothing to do with Jesus and the Gospel. You could be an atheist and adopt this motivation for dealing with trials. I think that I can say that the god that this person worships is that ideal that’s stuck in his head. He pursues the ideal of being one of the ‘good people’. But secondly, consider what is going on beneath the surface. Consider what is going on in this person’s soul. The real person inside is working hard not to be overwhelmed. Little bumps are manageable. But if this person hits some more serious bumps, life gets awfully challenging. Keeping up the appearance of handling life well - like one of the ‘good people’ - gets more and more difficult. It begins to cost in different ways. But, in many cases, that goal of appearing good is achieved and that makes the work seem worthwhile.

Now, what do we really have here. For one thing, we have a hypocrite. The reality on the inside doesn’t match what the outside is telling people. Also, as long as it works, we have a proud person who rewards himself by reminding himself, ‘I am one of the “good people”.’ And, on top of this, we have a slave. This person is enslaved to his god, and that slavery is a great burden. This person doesn’t understand the Gospel. This person thinks that God approves of and accepts only the ‘good people’. He doesn’t know that God doesn’t accept the ‘good people’ but only sinners. God only approves of sinners who have fled to Christ. This person doesn’t understand the freedom that grace provides. Christians are not slaves but the most free of all people.

There is another popular motive for trying to deal with trials well. It’s fear. Now, there is a kind of fear of God that is good. The Bible exhorts us to that kind of fear. But this kind of fear is very different. This kind of fear is always thinking in terms of being punished. ‘If I blow it, God will be angry with me, and then I’ll get it.’ When this person encounters the challenge of a trial, his key question is, ‘What should I do to keep God happy so that I won’t get whacked?’ What is this but slavish fear? It was this kind of fear that John had in mind when he wrote, ‘There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.’ [1 John 4:18] This person is not much different from a whipped puppy. Is this the fruit of the Gospel? Does God call us to be frozen by our fear? Neither of these kinds of people understands grace. Both are depending on their works. And so, life becomes a growing burden. How can there be joy for such people?

The Spirit knows that there are people like this and that there would probably always be. So, He guided James as he wrote our text. He had James write about love. The blessing is promised to those who endure because of love. Let’s take a look at what this means.

Most people in our culture have no clue when it comes to understanding love. For them, love is only about feelings. If they have a certain set of feelings toward a person, then they’re in love. If they don’t have those feelings, then they’re not in love. So, when you fall in love you marry, and when you fall out of love you divorce. Sadly, the Church hasn’t been able to fully escape falling into this misunderstanding. So, in an attempt to fix this problem, some within the Church try to downplay emotions, the feelings that we have. They emphasize that love is a decision of the will. It is a decision to act to benefit someone. And they tell fellow Christians to forget about emotions and feelings, and just decide to do the right thing. Now, there is an element of truth here. We are not to be ruled by the emotions. That’s not their purpose. But we must remember that part of the truth presented as the whole truth is a lie. And that is one of Satan’s favorite tools. We are not ruled by our emotions, and yet they are a part of our being. If we are going to correctly understand ourselves, we need to include the emotions, those feelings of elation and sadness, of excitement at being with that very special person, those comforting feelings you have when you are with a person who knows all about you - the good, the bad and the ugly - and still loves you. We are emotional people. God has made us such. And when we look at what it means for us to love, we need to include this aspect as well. Yes, love is a decision to act for the benefit of the other. But we do so with all of the emotional attachments that have been created over time.

Now, all of that is included in our love for Jesus. When we encounter a trial, we are confronted with choices to make. It’s good and proper, in such a situation, to ask, ‘What does obedience look like here? What shall I decide to do?’ But if that is all there is to it, then something very important is missing. Think about the people you love. Do you make decisions for their good based on the facts? Do you ask yourself, ‘What is the best thing for them in this situation?’ Of course, you do. But is that all that goes into it? I certainly hope not! If you love them, part of the equation includes the emotional attachments that you have with them. Any computer can analyze a situation based on the facts and spit out a course of action to pursue. But that’s not loving a person. One person loving another is an emotional thing. That’s true when we are talking about a husband and a wife, or two people who have been best friends since grade school, or an adult child caring for his aging father. And that’s also true when we are talking about a Christian and his Lord. When you face a trial and some choices need to be made, you could consult your Bible and find some formula that says, ‘In situation A, do B’. But is that it? As you consider your Bible to decide the best way to deal with a trial, you also need to say, ‘Lord Jesus, I choose this path of enduring the trial because I love You.’ Including that element makes all the difference. It’s the difference between merely being religious and having a real relationship with a person.

But let’s push on and ask a question that may seem obvious. Why should we love Jesus? Be careful how you answer that. Is it because that’s the religious thing that we’re supposed to do? Is it because that’s what the ‘good people’ are supposed to do? Some folk answer the question that way. But that can’t be. John gives us the answer to our question. ‘We love because he first loved us.’ [1 John 4:19] Now, think about how Jesus has loved you. Think about His living on this fallen globe and all the frustration associated with that. Think about how He had to deal with those obtuse apostles who seemed never to get it and the scheming Pharisees who were always after Him. Then think about the cross and that He suffered – physically, emotionally, spiritually – there. Why did Jesus endure all of that? He did it because He loved you. ‘The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’ And remember that the Good Shepherd knows all His sheep by name. He suffered all that He did because He loved you as an individual. So, why do we love Jesus? Our love for Him is a response to His love for us. We love Him because He loved us first.

Now, this leads to two thoughts. First, James’ reminder of the dynamic of love highlights the very personal nature of our religion. Think of the popular religions on this globe, the Eastern religions like Hinduism or Buddhism, and Islam. There is no emphasis on any personal relationship with any god. Even the spin-offs from the Christian faith, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or liberal Protestantism, lack this personal element. These religions emphasize behaving according to the rules or holding to proper doctrine or the like. If there is a deity, he or it is distant. It really does boil down to trying to do the religious thing, being one of the ‘good people’. But it isn’t so with our religion. Ours is a religion of love, complete with all the emotional attachments. Our religion is a personal relationship. This is at the heart of the Christian faith. Merely doing the religious thing or holding the right doctrine doesn’t cut it. The goal isn’t to be one of the ‘good people’. The key is love for Christ. This is so very different and so very important.

And that leaves my last thought. Believing this part of the Gospel is a great aid when it comes to dealing with the trials of life. When you hit a particularly tough trial, you might find yourself asking, ‘Why is this happening?’ But you know why it’s happening. The trial is an expression of Jesus’ love for you. All that He does is because of His love for you, including the trials. These trials are not quirks of fate or some such thing. They are expressions of the love of Jesus. If you can hold on to that it will help you to be able to respond well to the trial. The trial isn’t punishment. It isn’t Jesus turning the screws to see how much pain you can handle. And it isn’t even His coldly proceeding to the next step of His master plan with you as a mere pawn. The trial is His love in action. Jesus is in the process of doing you good by the trial. And so, we can refine that question that is at the heart of all our trials, ‘Do you trust Me now?’ We can expand it to be ‘Do you trust My love now?’ If you can answer, ‘Yes’ to that, even a faltering ‘Yes’, you will be able to stand when others fall. ‘Yes, Lord, I do trust You, I do believe that You love me even now. So, I willingly submit to this test of faith and I do it because I want to love You back.’