STUDIES IN JAMES

�� A contemporary author who loves mysteries describes his frustration when the mystery gets too great.� A friend gave him a mystery book to read, and soon he found himself deep in the midst of the sinister plot.� "Imagine my consternation," he says, "as I came to the end of the unraveling of the mystery to find the last page had been torn out.� The final lines of that next to the last page went like this:� 'What was it that Mrs. Daisy Dick had seen when she looked through the window of the tower‑that had torn from her that last terrible shriek of protest, that cry of No!� No!� as she plunged to her death on the flagstones beneath?'"� She plunged, and the reader was left hanging in the air because the conclusion was missing.� That was more mystery than he cared for.

�� The letter of James begins with a mystery also, and this mystery is one that has caused a great deal of frustration.� Many have found it hard to be happy with the unknown.� Thousands of pages have been written about the mystery.� It is the same mystery that you would experience if you received a letter signed James.� If you only knew one James, the mystery would not be difficult to solve, but if you knew several by that name it could be quite a task to figure out which one it was who wrote the letter.�

�� This is the mystery which has faced scholars all through history.� Nobody but the God who inspired him to write knows for sure which James of the New Testament wrote this letter.� There are four men by the name of James in the New Testament, and each of them has been made to be the author of this letter.� Some argue that it could have been a James not mentioned in the New Testament at all.� Tradition has attributed this letter to the James who was the� brother of Jesus.� He opposed Jesus until after the resurrection.� Jesus made a special appearance to His brother when He rose from the dead, and James became a believer and a dedicated leader in the church at Jerusalem.� Paul called him one of the pillars of the church, and though he was not an Apostle, he was for many years the head of the home church of Christianity.

�� The vast majority of scholars through history agree that the evidence supports this tradition.� James writes with the authority of one who lived with the Master of the art of living.� This letter is more like the Lord's Sermon On The Mount than anything else in the New Testament.� You might think it is a waste of time to dwell on who the author was, but not so.� Thousands of hours of the time of the greatest Christian scholars in history have been consumed in struggling to solve the mystery of who James was.� If you are not convinced of the authority of the author, but believe he was just some godly man writing down some pious advice, it will undermine the value of what God is saying to you in this letter.�

�� This happened to Martin Luther, and to many others.� He did not consider the letter of James to be equal with the other Scripture written by the Apostles.� He called it an Epistle of straw, and when he published his Bible in German, he put James in the back, and he didn't even list it in the contents.� He influenced many others including Tyndale to follow the same pattern in their Bibles.� Luther did not reject James, but he made it second class Scripture.� There is an extremely value lesson to learn from Luther's attitude toward the letter of James.� It is a lesson that can help us avoid the folly of many of God's greatest servants.

�� First we have to understand why Luther had the attitude he did.� Luther was a reformer in constant conflict with the Catholic church leaders.� Luther's main theme was justification by faith.� Luther emphasized the need for personal faith in Jesus Christ; a trust in His atonement, and His shed blood for forgiveness of sin.� The death and resurrection of Christ, and faith in the Christ who died and rose were the foundations of his Reformation theology.�� The letter of James does not deal with these things at all.� It does not mention the blood of Christ, or His death and resurrection.� James does not emphasize faith, but his focus is on good works.� He even says that faith without works is dead.� The opponents of Luther used the book of James constantly in their debates with him.� The result was that Luther looked upon James as a hindrance to the doctrine of justification by faith.�

�� Luther did what Christians are always in danger of doing in reaction to controversy.� They blind their minds to the fact that the whole Bible is the Word of God.� The greatest tragedies in Christian history are those who come about because Christians pick and choose which parts of God's revelation they are going to live by.� Every time this happens it produces a kind of Christianity which is a perversion.� All cults are based on selected Scriptures instead of the whole counsel of God.� No church and no Christian will ever have the kind of balance that leads to true godliness and Christlikeness until they can accept all the Scripture as their authority for faith and practice.

�� Luther could not see beyond his conflict, and rise above it to incorporate the practical emphasis of James on works with his emphasis on faith.� The result was Lutheranism in Germany and surrounding nations came to a point where dead faith dominated.� Luther had God's truth about faith, but he didn't have the balance of God's truth about works, and because he failed to listen to all of God's Word his movement was not all it might have been.� It was the dead orthodoxy of Lutheranism that led to the formation of other evangelical denominations, which would not have been necessary had Luther listened to James.

�� If we can learn from Luther's mistake, we can find God's best instead of His second best.� Do not reject anything in God's Word just because it seems to contradict, or conflict, with a truth you hold to be precious.� Do not ignore parts of the Bible that are misused and abused by cults and extremists.� Jesus said we are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.� All Scripture is inspired of God and profitable, and not just the parts you like best.� If you pick and choose, you will be an unbalanced Christian.� What you have may be good, but it will never be God's best.�

�� All of this relates to the letter of James because it is a part of the Bible which has suffered from attack and abuse.� Many have ignored it in building their Christian lives.� Those who have studied it, however, have found that it does not at all conflict with Paul, but, in fact, adds to, and compliments Paul.� James is not writing to help Christians formulate doctrine.� He is writing to help Christians make doctrine practical.� James is a man of action, and his letter is on how to put faith to work.� It is practical from start to finish, and you cannot criticize him for not saying anything about basic Christian doctrines, for that was not his purpose in writing.�

�� Calvin points out that God does not require every man to handle the same arguments.� Paul was chosen by God to deal with certain aspects of God's truth.� James was used to communicate other aspects of God's truth.� There would be no point in the letter of James if all he said was what Paul had already said.� James did not fail because he wrote nothing of the cross or resurrection.� It was not his purpose to do so, and every man is to be judged according to what his purpose is, and not according to what others think his purpose should have been.�

�� Let's begin our study of this letter then with the assurance that whoever James was, he was a channel through whom God spoke in his day, and through whom he continues to speak today.� Some will not like James because he speaks too frankly on subjects where all Christians have some big hang‑ups.� He will step on all or our toes before he is done.� He will hit all of the major weaknesses and sins of the Christian life, and he will hit them hard.�

�� Doremus Hayes, one of the greatest Bible teachers of all time, writes in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "There are those who talk holiness and are hypocrites; those who make profession of perfect love and yet cannot live peaceably with their brethren; those who are full of pious phraseology but fail in practical philanthropy.� This epistle was written for them.....The quietists who are satisfied to sit and sing themselves away to everlasting bliss ought to read this epistle until they catch its bugle note of inspiration to present activity and continuous good deeds.� All who are long on theory and short on practice ought to steep themselves in the spirit of James."�

�� If true doctrine was enough to be an adequate Christian, James says that the demons themselves would be perfect Christians, for they believe that God is one.� The demons acknowledge Jesus as the Son of the Most High in the Gospels, but they believed the truth and tremble says James in 2:19.� Their theology doesn't do them or anyone else any good because it is truth not obeyed and practically applied.� If one's creed does not control one's conduct, his creed is not worth the paper it is written on.� Many will feel the wrath of God who had a beautiful creed, but who never learned the lesson of James to put it into practice.� James wants to see saints in shoe leather, and not just in stained glass windows.� The Christianity of James is Christianity in action.� It is above all‑practical.�

�� One of the greatest problems the church has struggled with all through history is that of getting Christians to act like Christians.� It is no problem to get them to talk like Christians, and to believe doctrine like Christians should, but it is a battle to get them to act like Christians should, and that is why James is such an important part of God's total revelation.� It wakes us up to the realization that all our belief, and all our words are dead and useless unless they lead us to practical action that does some good.� Action is what makes faith come alive.� All the Christian talk about faith, hope, and love are only theory until action makes them real to life.

�� C. S. Lewis captured the essence of the message of James when he wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you love your neighbor or not; act as if you did.�� As soon as you do this you find one of the great secrets.� When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him."�� We so often fail to be Christian because we want to get the feeling we love someone instead of acting on God's Word, and finding that out of action love comes.� James says that theoretical Christianity is not the religion of the Bible.� If your religion is not practical, it is not biblical, even if everything you say if from the Bible.� We need to recognize that we cannot wait until we feel like being Christian.� We need to just go ahead and act like a Christian should, for it is being a doer of the word that really matters.

�� James is a great believer in prayer.� Tradition calls him camel knees because he spent so much time on them in prayer that he developed calluses.� However, he does not hesitate to blast away at all the superficial ideas of prayer that many Christians have.� Prayer is not always answered, and he makes this clear.� Prayer can be abused and misused.� Prayer that does not get results is of no value.� Nothing counts with James which is not practical, and that even includes prayer.

�� James has such a love for the practical because that was the emphasis of his Lord and brother Jesus Christ.� You remember when the rich young ruler came to Jesus, and he acknowledge that he had kept all the commandments from his youth, but he asked Jesus what he still lacked.� Jesus knew he was a good man, and a reverent man.� Jesus loved him, but he said that he still lacked one thing, and so he said, "Go and sell what you have and give to the poor."� Jesus said that he had a beautiful religion, but it lacked practical application in life that helps solve some human problem.� The young man went away sorrowful because he just couldn't see getting so practical that would cost him a great deal.� He wanted religion to be a comfort to him, and to give him assurance of eternal life.� He didn't want a religion that made him get out of the ivory tower of his pleasant isolation from the sufferings of others, and do something about it.� That, however, is the only kind of religion that is Christlike, and the only kind of Christianity we find in James.� You don't just pray for a man who is hungry, you give him something to eat.

�� James condemns all the pious religion of those who say lovely things and believe glorious things, but who do not do the practical things that help meet human needs.� If James was going to be stranded on a deserted island, and he could only have one book with him, he would not likely say, as most Christians would, give me the Bible. James would likely choose a book about survival or on how to build a boat so he could get back into the stream of life where he could be a channel of truth and love into the lives of others.�

�� James is theology in action; a creed in conduct, and a call to practice what we preach, and to walk the talk. Vance Havner said, "We do not actually believe any more than we are willing to put into practice." A study of this letter will reveal, not what you believe, but whether or not you really do believe what you say you believe.� Bob Harrington said, "What this nation needs is a better me." That is practical theology. It is what we see in Paul when he spoke his first words when confronted by the Living Lord. He asked, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" That is the question the whole book of James urges us to ask daily.��

2.�� SUCCESSFUL SUFFERING� Based on James 1:1‑8

�� Imagine the testing of the body in such a sport as football.� To be on your feet and seconds later brought to the ground hard and fast.� Then to get up and do it again, and again, and again, but constantly moving forward.� All of that falling is not what wins the game, but whether or not you win depends a great deal on how you fall.� In fact, it has been pointed out that when the coaches begin to train their teams the first lesson they teach is not how to make a touchdown, but how to fall.� For days they learn to fall limp and to roll so as not to be injured.� There is nothing good about a fall.� It is only a hindrance to reaching the goal, but if you don't learn how to fall successfully it is not likely you will ever get a chance to reach the goal.� All the training is not to cross the goal line, but to survive until you get there.

�� What is true in football is likewise true in life in general.� If we� hope to make life a successful experience, and reach some worthy goals, the first thing we need to learn is how to fall.� Life is always filled with obstacles to overcome.� Scripture says, "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward."� And, "Man that is born of a woman is a few days, and full of troubles," says the book of Job.� The Bible from Genesis to Revelation gives a realistic picture of life, and that picture looks more like a washboard than a slide.� We must face the facts of Scripture and history and realize that the future holds trials, troubles, and for some even tragedy.� This realism in the Bible, however, is combined with an optimism because it reveals to us the way to triumph through our trials.�

�� The Bible is very practical and one of the books most noted for being practical is the book of James.� It was written by James, not the Apostle, but James the brother of our Lord.� It was written by a man who grew up with Jesus in the same family, and who knew his teachings very well.� There are more references to the Sermon on the Mount in James than in all the other Epistles put together.� It also has the distinction of being one of the first books of the New Testament to be written.� It was written about 45A.D.; less than 20 years after the death of Jesus.� The very first lesson that James teaches, like that of the football coach, is the lesson on how to fall, or if we were to give it a title we might call it, The Secret Of Successful Suffering.� In these first few verses James tells us of three requirements necessary for the successful suffering of trials.� The first is‑

I.� A POSITIVE RESPONSE OF THE WILL TO TRIALS.� verse 2.

�� The difference between tragedy and triumph is all in how you count your trials.� James says by an act of the will count it all joy when tried.� Don't let circumstances take you captive and control your life, but compel them to yield the fruit of joy by a choice of the will.� The Christian is never to be under the circumstances, always on top of them.� Faith does not change what life brings to you, but it is to change what you bring to life.� Every trial calls for a choice that involves the will.� It is not what happens that determines a person attitude, but how they chose to count what happens.� One man can get a flat on the way to work and count it a blast from the hand of fate, and be upset all day because he lost an hour of work.� Another can have the same experience and count it as the providential protection of God that may have saved his life, and he rejoices all day in thanksgiving to God.� The difference between the scowling crab and a smiling Christian is all in how you count your trials.� The scowler counts them a jinx; the smiler counts them a joy.�

�� The Bible has a high view of man's will power, especially after he has been delivered from being dominated by the forces of evil.� For James to say, count it all joy, it is assumed that if they will so choose they have the will power to do so, and only if they do can they be successful in their suffering.� James can urge them, warn them, and counsel them, but only they can make the choice, but they can if they will.

�� When those two planes crashed in mid air some years ago killing all aboard there were three men who watched it on the radar screen.� They saw the two planes on a collision course and they shouted and shouted until they saw them hit.� One of them became violently ill, the second passed out, and the third� had a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized.� They saw the danger but did not have control of the plane, and so all their efforts were in vain.� So it is in our experiences of falling into trials.� James can shout, count it all joy; preachers down through history can shout it; your friends can shout it, but then all they can do is stand and watch you go down unless your will responds in a positive manner and counts it all joy.� In other words, your will is the pilot in your life.� If it gives up all is lost, but if it refuses to be defeated you can never fail.� Your plans may fail, and the plane may go down, but the positive will, even then, land you safely with the parachute of joy.� As long as the will responds positively there is no such thing as defeat.�

�� When Dr. Maxwell from Prairie Bible Institute was in the Twin Cities, he told the story of the first man to bring a plane out of a tail spin.� His name was Stinson, I believe.� He was flying one day doing some fancy tricks when suddenly he went into a tail spin.� No one had ever come out of a tail spin before.� He tried everything he could think of.� He pushed and pulled, turned and twisted, and nothing happened.� It looked hopeless and time was short as he plunged toward the earth.� He finally decided to give it everything and get it over, and to his amazement, as he gave it the gas he pulled out of the tail spin.� He wondered, could it be he discovered the way to come out of a tail spin?� The only way to know was to try again, so he climbed up high and purposely went into another tail spin, and came out of it by the same method.� By an act of the will he turned a trial that had always brought tragedy into triumph.

�� Scripture tells us that God works in all things for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, but nothing works for good to those who will not count it good.� If we refuse to consider a thing good even when it is, it will not be good for us.� Like the woman who always complained about so many bad potatoes in her field.� One year almost all of them were good, and then she complained because she had no bad ones to feed the pigs.� Even blessings are not good to the person with a negative will, but to the person with a positive will even trials can bring joy.� But James makes it clear that this positive response of the will to trials must be based on the second requirement which is‑

II.� A POSITIVE RECOGNITION OF THE WORTH OF TRIALS.� verses 3 and 4.

�� The Scriptures tell us that no chastening for the present seems to be joyous.� James does not expect us to be joyful because we are suffering, or even while we are suffering, though that is not impossible, but the joy comes in reflection and by our recognizing how even trials can help us attain the spiritual goals of our life.� If we allow them, they can teach us patience, which is an essential virtue in becoming all that God wants us to be.� The joy we can have in trials is in recognizing that Christlike character is our goal, and if trials can help us to be more like Him, then we can rejoice and suffer successfully.

�� Virtues grow out of the possibility of vices.� Who has ever been brave who did not have a chance to be a coward?� How can one have courage who has never faced danger?� Who can know what patience is who has never been tried by impatience?� Trials are opportunities to develop virtues.� It is not the trial that brings joy, but the knowledge that the trial can teach us things that are never learned by a life of ease. Nobody would ever bother to watch football if there were no obstacles to overcome. Take away the opposition and the game loses all meaning.

�� A young Italian working in an American stone quarry had both eyes blinded, and he lost one arm by careless handling of dynamite by others.� He was helpless and the future looked dark, but a woman who lived near the hospital where he was, and who knew Italian, had compassion on him, and she helped him get into a school for the blind.� He was grateful for the fact that someone cared, and he became an eager student.� He went on to become one of the most popular teachers in that school.� If he had never had his tragic experience he likely would have remained an illiterate the rest of his life.� The loss of his sight lead to him seeing more than he ever did before.� He once said, "The day of my accident was the birthday of my mind."� He counted his trial all joy.�

�� Archidimus in Thucydides, the famous Greek historian, said, "We should remember that man differs little from man except that he turns out best who is trained in the sharpest school."� Henry Howard has pointed out that this is true in nature as well.� The Australian black‑butt is a tree that grows in rich soil where there is a great deal of rain, and they grow so close together they are sheltered from the wind and storm.� It becomes huge in its life of luxury and ease, and it grows to a height of 300 feet, but in its sheltered life it develops no toughness of fiber, and, therefore, is practically worthless for any purpose where endurance is required.

�

�� In contrast with this tree is the English oak which battles the storms from its birth until it is strong and mature.� It grows slow but solid. The Australian‑butt will rot under ground in 6 months, but English oak is used in England for underground wooden pipes, and after 300 years they were dug up and found to be as good as when they were laid.� The proof that it is the trials endured that gives it the strength is that if the English oak is planted in Australia with its less vigorous climate, it grows twice as fast and is much feebler.� Therefore, even nature teaches that trials are of great worth in producing quality.

�� Who can find a greater quality of music than that of Handel's Messiah?� It did not come� out of a life of ease, but one of great trial.� In his biography we read, "His health and his fortune �had reached the lowest ebb.� His right side had become paralyzed, and his money was all gone.� His creditors seized him and threatened him with imprisonment.� For a brief time he was tempted to give up the fight, but then he rebounded again to compose the greatest of his inspirations, the epic Messiah."� If all had been going great for him, he may never have created his greatest work.

�� The greatest trial in all of history led to the greatest triumph in all of history.� When Jesus in the agony of Gethsemane recognized the worth of what He was to suffer for, responded with His will saying, "Not my will but thine be done."� He counted it all joy to go to the cross.� Scripture says, "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross."� Never has there been such successful suffering, and James urges us to follow that same pattern that Jesus followed by making a positive response of the will to trials, based on a positive recognition of the worth of trials.� The particular value which James stresses is patience, which we will not deal with now, for now we want to look at the third requirement which is‑

III.� A POSITIVE REQUEST FOR WISDOM IN TRIALS.� verses 5‑8.

�� In a sense, we are ending with the beginning.� We are covering last that which comes first.� Just as the response of the will is based on our recognition of the worth of trials, so our recognition of the worth of trials is based on our request for wisdom to be able to see it.� In other words, learning how to triumph in trials, and to suffer successfully, begins with prayer for the wisdom needed to guide our will to the proper choices.�� Success in anything for the Christian comes down to the simple phrase, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness."�

�� Like the football player, we do not wait until the tackler is upon us before we learn how to fall.� We learn this before the trial comes.� A Japanese proverb says, "Dig the well before you are thirsty."� Another says, "Shingle the roof before the storm."� The football player prepares through practice; the Christian prepares through prayer.� James is saying, if you don't have the will power to count it all joy when trials come; if you are not convinced that trials can be of great value, then you lack the wisdom which only God can give.� Therefore, you had better make a positive request for such wisdom, for without it you can never suffer successfully.�

�� Notice, he does not say we are to ask to be delivered from trials, but ask for the wisdom necessary to make them work for good in your life.� Alexander Maclaren said that the lack of wisdom is the chief defect in the average Christian.� It comes only by persevering in prayer.� Paul was constantly praying for the Christians of his day that they might have the wisdom of God.� In Col. 1:9 we read, "We do not cease to pray for you that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding."� We have not because we ask not James says.� Here is a clear statement that to ask for wisdom is always in the will of God, and God delights to grant it.� James himself was known to be a man of prayer, and that explains his practical wisdom.� Tradition says he has knees like a camel because he spent so much time on them.�

�� Donald M. Baillie relates of how in the 17th century the Westminister Assembly met to draw up a Protestant Confession of Faith.� At that assembly was Dr. John Selden, one of the greatest scholars of the day, but who was a defender of the Erastian heresy.� He gave such a brilliant argument for the heresy that the good Presbyterians there were at a loss as how to defend the truth.� Then, unexpectedly, George Gillespie, a young Scotsman, rose in the meeting and spoke against the heresy in an amazingly effective way which swept away years of labor on the part of Dr. Selden.� When his speech was over his friends got a hold of the notebook that had lain in front of him hoping to find the outline of his argument, but on the page they found nothing but a single sentence penciled over and over again as he sat there waiting to speak.� There were just three Latin words, "Da lucem, Domine," which means "Give light, O Lord."� He lacked wisdom but he asked of God.

�� Wisdom includes knowledge, but is more, for it is the ability to use knowledge to arrive at the best ends by the best means.� Wisdom directs the use of knowledge.� Many people have the knowledge of� how to drive a car, but they lack the wisdom which is necessary to drive it properly.� When a drunken man wants to drive a car, it is not knowledge he lacks, but wisdom.� Wisdom is the capacity to use knowledge effectively for good purposes.� Everyone suffers, but only the wise makes a success of it, for only the wise recognize that trials can be of profit if they are wisely used.�

�� Disraeli said, "The fool wonders but the wise man asks."� But notice that our asking must be positive.� It must be in faith without doubt.� God is ever ready to grant the request for wisdom, but He cannot answer the prayer of the double minded.�� This is one who is not sure he wants God's will,� and so he would not be able to receive the wisdom of God anyway.� He is like Augustine who in his early prayers before he came all out for Christ use to pray, "O God, make me pure, but not now." He was double minded.� He wanted to follow two paths at the same time.� Jesus said you cannot serve two masters, for you will love the one and hate the other. The double minded man literally does not have a prayer. God refuses to grant any request from such a person. They are like people who are "Trying to serve the Lord in such a way as not to offend the devil." They think they can be a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and get by with it. God demands a simple and single minded faith.

�� The lesson on how to suffer successfully involves the whole of one's spiritual life and relationship to God. In learning this lesson we will learn that which is necessary to be a complete and entire Christian. We will learn to fall in such a way that we are brought closer to our goal of Christlikeness for having fallen. We will do this by a positive response of the will to trials; by a positive recognition of the worth of trials, and by a positive request for wisdom in our trial. The most important thing to remember is that we must be asking God for wisdom if we are going to suffer successfully.

3.�� DON'T WASTE ANYTHING� Based on James 1:2‑4

�� Marcus Bach in his book The Power of Perception tells of how great worth is found in waste.� An old lead and zinc mine had been abandoned for years.� It appeared a worthless worn out pit with all its value exhausted.� But when man developed a new need, a need for Tungsten, the waste deposits from this old mine were re‑assayed and discovered to be full of Tungsten.� The ghost mine sprang back into life, and a thriving community grew up because waste could produce worth.� In other words, it was not waste at all, but valuable stuff.� Bach says, no mine is ever totally exhausted, and all waste just waits for man to discover a new use for it.� As men develop the power of perception, they see new values in what they formerly threw away.� Numerous are the examples of how what were once waste products are now valued products.

�� Nothing is more practical than the art of turning waste into worth and James the brother of our Lord was an expert.� He has the power to perceive the worth in what everyone else tends to call worthless‑the trials of life.� What can be a greater waste in life than to suffer trials and tribulation?� We count it all joy when we can escape these worthless types of waste.� But James, with an advanced perception, says you are throwing away your own treasure .� There is great value to be gotten from tough times. �In fact, it is one of life's most precious values‑the virtue of patience.

�� Less you think that patience is a very simple thing, let me point out how it covers a multitude of complex feelings and attitudes.�

1.� It means a calm waiting in hope.� This is the patience of the gardener or farmer who plants his seed and then must wait to see the fruit.�

2.� It means endurance of trial; a putting up with what is not pleasant, such as a nine year old boy who is convinced he can learn to be the world's greatest drummer.�