Wholly Devoted to God • 09.01.24
Nick Lees   -   September 3, 2024

Wholly Devoted to God
James 1:1-18

Learning to live for God in a broken world

  1. View encountering trials as a source of joy
  2. Ask God for wisdom and believe he will answer
  3. Boast in God’s provision, knowing this life is temporary
  4. Speak correctly about the source of temptation
  5. Acknowledge God is the giver of every good and perfect gift

 

Good morning, church family! (Welcome guests + introduce self)

Today we are kicking off a new series for the month of September. We are going to be studying the book of James: Faith that Works.

Dismiss 4th + 5th graders

Ushers + Bibles (James 1; page _)

If you’ve been with us throughout the year, you have heard a lot about trusting God from the book of Isaiah. As we worked through that book chapter-by-chapter we saw often the dangers of trusting in self or in anything other than the One, True God. If you’ve read the text for today ahead of time, you may have chuckled (or sighed) to yourself about how familiar the teaching sounds. Although we are in a completely different book of the Bible written in a completely different era of history, there is a lot of overlap in the teachings from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah and the New Testament church leader James. And that’s a good thing! It demonstrates the consistency of God’s Word and the message that God is communicating across the centuries. As James will testify in our text today, Yahweh is the unchanging God.

And that truth about God’s character can bring us great comfort in our trials. Because He is the unchanging God, then all that he has said in His Word about hope and joy during trials is still true today. And, as we’re about to see, God has said a lot about trials and how we ought to respond to them.

Our sermon is titled Wholly Devoted to God. This title reflects the call found in James to be people of authentic faith. People who are not wishy-washy or double-minded, but rather who are firm in our faith. God has created us as his image-bearers, and the best possible life is found when we live wholly devoted to Him. We’re going to hear about that today.

Before we read the text, I want to acknowledge that I know we have sufferers in our midst. We are a broken people living in a broken world. Some of your suffering I or our pastor team knows about, others we do not. But God knows the depth and extent of your suffering in a way that mere humans never could. If you are here and are going through a season of trial or suffering or even just wrestling with what seems like incessant temptation, I want to encourage you to pay close attention to what God’s Word has to say to you today. Allow the Lord of Heaven and Earth to speak into your situation and provide hope and guide you on the path to healing and holiness.

Let’s turn our attention to the Word of God.

James 1:1–18 (ESV)

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:

Greetings.

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 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. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James does not waste any time getting into the meat of his letter! In what can only be described as the briefest of manners, he introduces himself, identifies his intended audience, and then immediately dives into tackling some very hard and personal matters in the lives of these Christians. What you are going to find is that James is a very practical letter. It is rich in wisdom and founded upon deep convictions about God and the Lord Jesus Christ while also being intensely practical in the counsel it offers. It speaks to hurting and broken people who are living in a broken world. Which is why our aim for this morning’s message is…

Learning to live for God in a broken world

Now, you need to understand that James knows a thing or two about living for God in a broken world. He was well-acquainted with suffering. I’ll share more about that in just a moment. First, in case you didn’t know, James is none other than a brother of Jesus Christ and a leader of the early church in Jerusalem. But that’s not how he identifies himself in this letter, is it? No. He identifies himself as “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Interesting. A man of considerable repute and stature in the early church identifies himself as a servant. He finds his identity not in his bloodline or who he’s related to, nor in his standing in the church, but in his relationship with his God and Lord. That is what defines him. That is how he wants to be known to others. A servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What I find particularly interesting is that James did not always believe in Jesus as Lord and as the Christ. It is well-known throughout church history that James initially struggled to understand and believe that Jesus was the Messiah the Jews had been waiting for. Yet, he was present for his brother’s unjust arrest and execution on the cross. And he had the privilege of seeing his brother again after Jesus conquered sin and death through his resurrection. And after witnessing such incredible events, James repented and believed. And now, we hear that he identifies as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. What an incredible transformation in this man. Yet the path of transformation was paved with suffering.

Not only did James endure the unjust arrest and murder of his brother, as a leader in the early church, he faced much opposition from the Jewish religious leaders. The book of Acts records the persecution the early church faced from men like Saul and the other Pharisees. Christians were being hunted down and thrown in prison, and some were killed. After Stephen is stoned to death in Acts 7, the following statement is said:

Acts 8:1–3 (ESV)

And Saul approved of his execution.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

This is the environment that James was leading the early church through! An environment saturated with suffering and brokenness. It’s safe to say he is speaking from experience.

Now, notice to whom James says he is writing… To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.

He is addressing the Jewish Christians who are spread throughout the nations. Dispersion means those who were scattered abroad. He is writing to his people who have been driven out of Jerusalem from this persecution at the hands of Saul and the Pharisees. These Jewish Christians who are spread abroad were likely facing many hardships… poverty, persecution, fleeing from their homes, and so on. What hope, what answers could James possibly give to them? How could he help them respond to the hardships of their life in a way that provided purpose and direction? Let’s find out together!

What we’re about to see today and over the next several weeks is how James teaches these Christians to have a consistent and undivided commitment to God in Christ. He is going to help them learn how to live for Christ through their trials. I think you’ll find that his teachings are still incredibly relevant to us today.

The first lesson from James in living for God in a broken world is to…

  1. View encountering trials as a source of joy

Seriously?! That’s James’ advice to these people who have had to flee their homeland? Who were probably wrestling with providing for the family’s daily needs? Count it all joy when you meet trials?! Put yourselves in their shoes, or perhaps just think about the trials you are currently facing… If I say to you, “Count it all joy when you meet trials!” Doesn’t that make you want to shout, “WHY?! HOW!?” Well let’s hear James out. Why does he say to count it all joy when you encounter trials and how does he say to do it? Let’s review the text again…

James 1:2-4

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, WHY?! Here’s our answer… 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James says that Christians should view encountering trials as a source of joy because of what they are accomplishing in your life! God is at work in the trial. He doesn’t waste trials, and they are not meaningless.

James wants the Christians of his day to know this truth. Do you know this? Do you believe that God is at work in your trials? He tells us that the trial is a testing of your faith. Another way of putting this is to say that trials purify your faith. The word testing here is the same one that we heard about last week from 1 Peter 1. Let me share just a snippet of that passage again today.

1 Peter 1:6–7

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if 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.

This testing of your faith is likened to being refined by fire. The analogy of precious metals being refined is helpful. Gold requires temperatures of 1000 degrees Celsius to have its impurities refined out of it.

1000 degrees Celsius is the equivalent to lava flowing from a volcano. Pretty stinking hot. Not something you enjoy being close to… And yet that’s the analogy that God uses in His Word to describe how Christians are refined by trials. Trials are our 1000-degree Celsius opportunities. They are an opportunity for our impurities to be revealed and removed.

So, what comes out of your heart when you’re undergoing a trial? And what does that reveal about you? Jesus told us that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks… What comes out of your mouth in the midst of trials? If you’re anything like me, then what’s tempting to come out is complaining, arguing, maybe even despair and the desire to escape… That’s our temptation, that’s our natural bent! Anyone else willing to own up to responses like that? Whatever it may be, the temptation, our natural bent, is typically something far different than “counting it all joy”!  So how do we get there?

Well, it starts by recognizing the purpose that God has for trials. They produce something within us. James spoke of it just a moment ago. They produce steadfastness. What is that?

The definition for the Greek word is the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty. Other possible synonyms for this are patience, perseverance, endurance. This is first and foremost an attribute of our God. Many times, throughout Scripture God is said to have steadfast love that endures forever. It is his steadfast love that enables him to continually pursue us, even when we sin and rebel against Him. His love has the capacity to bear up in the face of the difficulty of our obnoxious, odious rebellion against Him! Thank God for his steadfast love! Our God is a steadfast God. He is willing and able to endure and to be patient with us.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

That’s why we can count trials as all joy. Because they refine us to look more like God. As a result of enduring trials, we more accurately reflect the image of God. We’re not talking about simply surviving the trial but being purified into a greater degree of holiness because of what we learn through it. This is for our eternal good and it also brings God glory.

James goes further though… He tells his readers that they must let steadfastness have its full effect on them… This implies that Christians have a choice for how to respond to trials! Will they resist what God is trying to teach and produce in them through the trial? Will they try to escape the trial because it is too hard? Or will they faithfully endure through the trial by allowing God to use it to refine them? James wants them to endure so that they may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Those are some powerful promises! Perfection… completion… lacking in nothing. God uses trials to accomplish his plan for us – to refine us into his holy people who accurately reflect him and are ready for eternity with him. After all that’s what verse 12 implied:

James 1:12 (ESV)

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

So maybe, just maybe, trials are worth it. What do you think? If trials are a means of God to conform us to His image, then perhaps we ought to change our perspective on trials. Rather than seeing them as bad and to be avoided we ought to say, “God, I may not like trials, but I understand they’re necessary. I understand that you’re working through them. Please help me to be a good steward of the trials you allow in my life.”

But what happens when a trial inevitably comes? How can you be a good steward of the trial? How do you squeeze the most spiritual growth and refinement out of it? A few thoughts on that…

First, ask God to change your perspective on trials. Ask Him to help you see trials as an opportunity for growth. To recognize that trials are a testing of your faith. Allow that testing to happen and see what needs refined. You can choose to look at a trial and say, “Alright, God, I want to squeeze the most possible good out of this as I can. Help me to do that.” Douglas Moo, in his commentary on James, put it this way:

The picture is of a person successfully carrying a heavy load for a long time. The NT repeatedly emphasizes the need for Christians to cultivate this quality of perseverance or steadfastness when facing difficulty. But James suggests that trials can also produce this quality of endurance. Like a muscle that becomes strong when it faces resistance, so Christians learn to remain faithful to God over the long haul only when they face difficulty.

…the benefits of testing come only to believers who respond to them in the right way: Christians must allow endurance to do its intended work. (Douglas Moo, Pillar New Testament Commentary: James)

I appreciated Moo’s analogy of trials to resistance training for your physical health. If you want to build muscle and have a healthy body, then you have to endure through the difficulties of moving weights around. It is the actual process of pushing through the resistance that your muscle becomes stronger. A person who abandons a lift the moment resistance begins will not benefit from it like a person who endures and presses through it. That is the process of growth. The same is true for our response to trials/suffering. If you bail out the moment its hard, then you short-circuit the growth that could have been yours through endurance/steadfastness.

So, how should we respond to this teaching? First, ask God to help you change your perspective on trials. Ask him to help you see them the way he does. Second, change your response to them. Make it your aim to squeeze all the good out of them that you can. That may be increased dependence on God, a revitalization of your prayer life, a greater consistency in His Word, getting back into Christian community in the church, or a whole host of other responses. It will look different for each of us depending on what area of our life needs refined.

Third, allow trials to draw you nearer to God. If there is one thing that trials reveal, it’s our neediness as humans. Trials confront the arrogant self-sufficiency that so many of us naturally walk around with. They take away the opportunity to puff out our chests and say, “I’ve got life figured out.” Trials bring us to our knees. They humble us. They humiliate us. The way a Christian remains steadfast is not by pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. It’s by humbly depending on your God. So, draw near to him through His Word and prayer.

As you change your perspective on trials and allow them to draw you near to God, then you will increasingly be a good steward of trials. Then you will learn how to count trials as all joy. You will see how God is working and refining you to be a man or a woman after His own heart. Which can bring great hope and, even joy, to our trials! They are not meaningless but redemptive! Lord, help us to be a people who think and function like this!

The alternative is to face suffering and trials with no redemptive purpose or hope. Is that really what you want to do? Because you cannot avoid suffering in this broken world. If you continually avoid, deflect, run from hard things, you will continue to hinder God’s efforts to mature you in your faith and his preparation for eternity. Please don’t pursue that path! It will not end well for you. We’ve all likely seen or known someone in our lives who does not handle suffering/trials well. Their life is a wreck. They have no hope. They continue to wallow in their suffering and their sin. There is a better way! God’s way!

Speaking of God’s way, let’s look at our second lesson about living for God in a broken world from our text…

  1. Ask God for wisdom and believe he will answer

We see this in verses 5-8. This has been a frequent prayer in my life, “God give me wisdom. Help me to know how to live in a way that pleases you.” Wisdom is something we all need. Especially in the midst of trials! Perhaps it would be helpful to define the term.

Wisdom is the capacity to understand and function accordingly (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature)

Wisdom is the means by which the godly can both discern and carry out the will of God.  (Douglas Moo, Pillar New Testament Commentary)

Wisdom has two components to it. Knowledge and application. You understand and know what God wants and then you do it. It makes sense why those who James is writing to would need wisdom. They’ve been driven from their homeland and are struggling through various trials, so they need wisdom on how to live. They need to know God’s truth and hope-filled counsel for hard situations! And God delights to give wisdom to his people. He is generous, or perhaps a better translation of that word in verse 5 would be “single-minded” in his giving. That means his intent is undivided in giving wisdom to those who ask for it! God wants you to know how to live righteously. It sounds similar to what Jesus himself taught in the Sermon on the Mount…

Matthew 7:7–11

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

God delights to give good things to those who ask him! If sinful humans know how to give good gifts, then how much more will our perfect God know how to give good things to us! James reminds his readers that they need wisdom in the midst of their trials, and they ought to ask for it. God is faithful to answer that prayer!

But there is a major condition to the asking… you must not doubt, you must ask in faith! You must believe that God is able and willing to answer your prayer when you pray! Someone who prays for wisdom but doesn’t really believe God will answer is a double-minded man, he’s like a wave of the sea tossed back and forth by the wind. One moment they believe God will work, but the next they’re doubting and trying to do things in their own strength! This type of person is unstable. The promise for this type of person is that they will not receive anything from the Lord. This ought to be a strong warning to us! Stay the course in your walk with God. Be of one mind and one attitude to follow God. Ask, seek, knock. Trust that He will answer.

Our third lesson for today is to…

  1. Boast in God’s provision, knowing this life is temporary

This comes from verses 9-12. In this section we hear of the brevity of this life and the eternity that follows. Remember James’ audience here… he is writing to exiles, many of whom were likely struggling with poverty… From the other writings in this letter, it also sounds like there were real challenges to not show partiality to those who were wealthy. Others were tempted towards jealousy and selfish ambition. They were dabbling in worldliness. Chapters 3-5 are thick with warnings and teachings about such matters. Yet, as James reminds them in 1:26-27, Christians are called to be generous with their possessions and to serve those who are in need.

And in his teaching here in 1:9-12, he reminds them that it doesn’t matter whether you’re poor or rich, both will pass away, just like the flower of the grass. We hear repeatedly throughout Scripture that our lives on this earth are temporary, they are a mere mist that vanishes, a flower that fades, BUT this life is not all there is! The thread of eternity is interwoven throughout the tapestry of Scripture. You cannot make sense of life, and especially trials, without having a biblical view of eternity. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial! Why? Because of eternity! For when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. God has promised a reward to those who love him who endure trials! You will receive the crown of life, eternity with Him. When you have this perspective and size up your trials in light of eternity, it changes things! Suddenly the trials are brought down to size. They don’t have to be the biggest or scariest thing in our lives because, in light of eternity, God is forcing them to do good to us! They are preparing us for our heavenly home.

This life is not all that we are living for. Christians believe in a life after this one. We know this to be true based on Scriptures’ teaching and Jesus’ own D/B/R. Humans are an embodied soul or an ensouled body. We are not just physical; we are also spiritual! When our body dies, as it inevitably will, our spirit lives on! You will spend eternity somewhere.

Even more amazingly, based on Jesus’ D/B/R and the teaching of Scripture, we also know that there will be a bodily resurrection someday. We are not just going to live on as spirits forever, but that we will one day have glorified bodies that are without imperfection of sin or sickness or plagued by death! What a hope! That day comes when Jesus ushers in the new heavens and new earth and we are made new again.

This is a clear teaching of the Bible and a tremendous hope to Christians. Knowing that there is more to life than just the trial we are going through can provide us tremendous hope. It is this same truth that Paul held on to when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Because we are more than just a body, there is much hope in the midst of the trials of this life. Though our body passes away, Christians have the hope of an eternal glory that is beyond all comparison.

Regarding these truths, there are some foundational things that need to be understood. Scripture teaches that all of us fall short of God’s perfect standard. All of us rebel. We all have sinned. And God is perfect. He is holy. Our sin separates us from Him. His Word tells us that our sin earns us death (eternal death). Which is why we need a Savior, someone to rescue us from our separation from God! This is not something we can rectify on our own.

The Bible thankfully also reveals that this Savior is Jesus Christ. The very one that James confesses as Lord. Jesus is the perfect Son of God who came to this earth and lived a sinless life in my place and died a death on the cross for my sins (for all his people’s sins). While on the cross he took on the entire wrath of God meant for our rebellion. And HE SATISIFIED IT, EVERY LAST OUNCE!

But every man and woman, boy and girl, must respond to this truth. Will you agree with God that you need a Savior? Do you believe that you will spend eternity somewhere?

If you want to spend eternity with God in his presence to bless, if you want to be able to count trials all joy, then you need to confess your sins and ask God for forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Profess your faith in Him and seek to live with an eternal perspective in the face of your trials. Know that, even though the trial is still hard, it is not meaningless nor will it last forever. God has a purpose in it and his purpose is your holiness and eternal perfection with him.

With that in mind, lets turn our attention to the next lesson for living for God in a broken world. This one comes from verses 13-15 and it is…

  1. Speak correctly about the source of temptation

In verse 13 James commands them not to say that temptation is coming from God. Now you may not notice this in your English translation, but the root word for trial and temptation are the same word. It can be translated either way based on the context. And for anyone who has been in a trial for any length of time, you know that with the trial often comes temptation to sin. Or perhaps the trial began because of a temptation to sin that you gave into. Whatever the case, trials and temptations are linked, and James is careful to instruct these Christians on how they think and speak about their origin.

Temptations come from within! We must look inward, not point our fingers outward towards God. God tempts no one. As we hear in this passage, each person is tempted when he/she is lured and enticed by his/her own desire.

So, who’s responsible for your temptation? You are. And it is unbiblical to blame God for your temptation. It’s ultimately your desires that lead you to be tempted. Ouch. That’s not fun to hear, is it?

Notice that it doesn’t say by his own “evil” desire. It just says desire. Humans are a factory of desires. We pump them out left and right all day long. I want to be respected. I want to be loved. I want affirmation. I want peace. I want ease. I want comfort. I want, I want, I want, I want! To be human is to desire. So how are we supposed to know when a desire is good or bad? By the path it puts us on and the end result of that path.

Notice the path James lays out in vv.14-15 for these desires that lead to temptation. It starts with your desire, then desire gives birth to sin and sin when is full grown brings death! James uses the analogy of childbirth to show how desires develop into sin which culminates in death.

So, how do we evaluate when a desire is putting us on this path that leads to sin and, ultimately, death? Well, that requires wisdom. Thankfully we know the God who graciously gives wisdom to those who faithfully seek it. It also requires us to be diligent about reading the Word and seeking to live according to it. God has given us His standard of truth which reveals right and wrong. It is our opportunity and obligation to calibrate our consciences and lives according to it.

In future weeks, we’re going to see how James explains the tension between faith and works (obedience) to his readers. However, for today, I’m just going to summarize the Christian life like this – just because you’ve trusted in Christ for salvation does not mean you’re off the hook for how you live in this life. (repeat) Choosing to follow Jesus is more than just a “get-out-of-hell-free” card! Jesus himself taught us to “repent and believe” – repent means to change your course – to do an about-face – turning away from your old ways of sinful living towards a new way of living for Him. That’s what I’m calling you to do now. To devote yourself to living for Christ through this ongoing evaluation of your desires.

If humans are factories of desires, then that means you’re pumping out opportunities to be tempted all day long. Desires can be used for good or for evil. For example, in my desire for comfort during a trial, am I turning to worldly comforts or to God? In my desire to have answers, am I turning to gossip or am I communicating biblically while trusting the Lord? In my desire to be right or to be vindicated, do I use sinful anger and speech to put others in their place, or do I speak wholesomely and in an edifying way, while trusting the Lord to vindicate me? When I want my kid/spouse/coworker to listen up or change, do I raise my voice in sinful anger, or do I calmly communicate what God says? These are all examples of everyday desires that run through our hearts. There are many more that we could rattle off if we went around the room. And here’s the thing…

We need to become experts in evaluating our desires. And we need to learn how to make those evaluations on the fly. Because how often do we pump out desires? All day long. And how powerful are those desires? Very powerful! We don’t typically have the time to sit down for 30 minutes to an hour to evaluate our desires each time they come up. So how do we become experts in evaluating our desires quickly? Here are a couple of practical questions to ask:

  • What is the situation?
  • What am I wanting?
  • Would this please Jesus?
  • What does God’s Word say about it? (Then do it!)

This requires you to be an ongoing student of two things – yourself and the Word. If you commit to continually learning these two things, then you’ll be on a course to recognizing your temptations and responding to them in a God-honoring manner. *pause*

In the midst of teaching them about the true source of their temptations, James also calls them not to be deceived about the character of God. God is not the source of temptation; He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. And this is our final lesson for today…

  1. Acknowledge God is the giver of every good and perfect gift

This comes up in 1:16-18…

God is the source of good, not evil! This passage could be a whole sermon in and of itself, but we don’t have time for that. Instead, I’ll just end with this… When these Jewish Christians were going through trials of various kinds… When James had one letter to write to them to provide them with teaching, encouragement and hope… he made sure to talk often about God’s character. Here he tells them not to be deceived, not to believe a lie about God. He wants them to realize that God is not the source of temptations, but he is the source of something! He is the source – the giver – of every good and perfect gift. Anything good that we experience in this life finds its origin in God. This has always been true, and it is founded in the reality that He is the unchanging God.

And of all of God’s good and perfect gifts, the one they needed to be reminded of the most was the gift of salvation that came by the Word of God in Jesus Christ. James tells them – God does not tempt us, He saves us. That is a wonderful truth to remember, and it brings incredible hope during trials. Christian, of his own will God saved you. He desired to make you, and he delighted to redeem you. Remember the truth of God’s character and work in your trials so that you can live wholly devoted to Him.

Let’s pray.

Pray