Recap

So far in James we've read identified the key themes of trials and temptations, wisdom, and dealing with the poor. Traditionally attributed to Jesus' half-brother, James was written to the all churches offering wisdom. Drawing inspiration from the book of Proverbs, this letter lacks any particular structure. Instead, it focuses on providing the reader with some simple wisdom sayings and then unpacking what they mean.

James introduced the letter with identifying three key themes. Trials build endurance, leading to maturity. Wisdom from God strengthens faith and is readily available. Believers should avoid placing confidence in riches, which fade like flowers, and instead trust God.

These themes were then repeated and thread throughout the letter. James stressed that faith must result in action. Hearing God’s word without applying it makes the faith meaningless. True religion involves guarding one’s speech and caring for the needy. Partiality toward the rich and neglect of the poor violated the "royal law" to love one’s neighbour.

Faith without works, James argued, is dead. He uses examples like Abraham and Rahab, who demonstrated their faith through actions. Works are the evidence genuine faith, making it fruitful and alive.

James 3-5

Next up is the tongue. James warns that not everyone should be a teacher. Those that teach aren’t just judged by how they live, but also by what they teach and how that impacts those they teach.

Anyone who can control their tongues, what they say, learns to control their body. The tongue is a small thing that leads and controls the rest of the body, like a bit in the mouth of a horse, or the rudder on a ship.

Left uncontrolled, the tongue can cause damage like a wildfire. It corrupts and pollutes the body. And it is incredibly hard to control and tame. Humans have learnt to tame all sorts of animal, but the tongue proves illusive.

Believers are able to speaking blessings to praise God in one moment, and then in the next complain and gossip about a neighbour. James emphasises that this shouldn’t be the case.

These things shouldn’t mix, just like a stream can’t produce both fresh and stale water and trees can’t produce two kinds of fruit.

Growing up, we had a phrase “what’s down in the well comes up in the bucket”. What this meant is that the stuff deep down inside of us will always make its way out. If someone is deeply toxic, they might be able to hide it for a while, but eventually that toxicity will leak out.

But the reality is we all have the power of sin in us in some shape or form. Those darker elements we’ve not addressed or still need to work through. If we don’t control our tongues, that stuff can leak out in what we say. And as we’ve already explored, the more we indulge sin, the more we are shaped by it.

That’s not to say that we want to be too faced, controlling our speech so it looks good to everyone else, when internally we’re still toxic and unhealthy. But it is recognising that how we talk shapes us.

If we’re going through the process of healing internally and clearing out the toxicity with the help of the Holy Spirit, then how we talk can help or hinder that process.

James then outlines two types of wisdom. True wisdom is demonstrated in how we live our lives. It is shown in good works in gentleness. Meanwhile, there is earthly wisdom that seeks to boast and promote itself. It is fulled by envy and ambition. This leads to wickedness.

True wisdom is motivated by peace. It seeks to be pure, being gentle, showing mercy, submitting to others, and bearing good fruit. All of this leads to righteousness.

James then starts to name the power of sin in believers that is shown through their actions. He describes the power of sin as ‘the cravings that are at war within you’ (James 4:1). For example, jealousy can lead to murder, or causing disputes and conflict.

James points out that the only reason his readers don’t have what they need is because they don’t ask God for them. Oh sure, they do ask God for things. But they ask for the wrong things, focusing on their own pleasure rather than on what would actually benefit them.

It’s like they have one foot in God’s camp, and the other in the camp of the world, still chasing after the things the world sees as important. James calls this out as adultery. They can’t have both. If they want what the world wants, they are making themselves and enemy of God.

Quoting Proverbs 3:34, James points out that “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6). Therefore, be humble. Submit to God and resist the devil. It’s not too late. Those that draw close to God, God will draw close to them, as long as they are repentant and humble.

Next up is gossip and slander. James encourages his readers to not slander and judge one another. This feels at odds with Paul’s teaching that we are qualified to judge (1 Corinthians 6:1-6) and that we should hold one another to account.

But that’s not quite what James is talking about here. James is specifically talking about those who speak evil against one another, in other words, gossiping privately.

These people are setting themselves up as judge and jury, and in doing so are breaking the law. Remember, we saw in James 2:8 that for James the law is to love your neighbour as yourself. When you gossip and slander someone behind their back, you are not being loving.

But there are times when challenging someone’s behaviour to their face is being loving. It’s correcting something in them that needs to be corrected so that they can continue to live in the freedom that God offers.

This is where understanding the context and nuance of what authors are saying matters. Otherwise, you just do a straightforward reading and come to the conclusion that Paul and James are directly contradicting one another. In reality, they are speaking to two different issues. Bad behaviour that needs correcting, and general gossip that doesn’t honour or love the one being gossiped about.

Moving from how believers are to speak to and about one another, James addresses again where the believers’ confidence is at. There are some that go about planning out what they are going to do with their live, looking to grow and expand.

The problem with that is none of us knows the future, and if you are not careful, you start to put your trust and confidence in your plans. That’s not to say that we should never make plans. Plans are good. But we should hold our plans lightly so that we can say “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:15).

The worst for this who are already rich, because they are more tempted to put their confidence in their riches and their plans to grow their wealth. The reality is these material things are temporary. They waste away, and can disappear.

Even worse, if they were got poorly, by oppressing others. In their pursuit of luxury and pleasure, they have oppressed others.

Better, then, to be patient. Not seeking one’s own benefit but the return of Jesus. In this we are to be less like businessmen looking to expand what we have, but like farmers who patiently tend the earth knowing at some point there will be a harvest.

This sort of life is hard and so requires patience and strength to persevere. But we have examples in the prophets and those who have gone before us who were faithful and endured despite the difficulties they faced.

Specifically, James points to Job, whose life was incredibly hard but whose only desire was to hear from God. And God was merciful and compassionate with him.

Finally, James ends with an appeal to pray. If you are suffering and struggling, pray. If you are doing well, pray. If you are sick, call together leaders in the church and have them pray for you and anoint you with oil.

Here and Mark 6:13 are the only times that people are anointed with oil to be healed, which doesn’t give us much to go off of. But let’s take Mark 6:13 as our example. Jesus goes around healing the sick with no oil and it’s fine. But then he gathers his disciples together and sends them off to heal, and they use oil. Why? Because Jesus is not with them.

The oil serves as a physical reminder of the presence of Jesus in the healing. Jesus is the Christ. The messiah. The anointed one. The oil is a tangible object to point to the fact it’s not the believer that is the source of this healing. It is Jesus.

Tied into prayer, James also encourages confessing sins to one another. There’s potentially a number of reasons for this. It may be that there’s a link to healing and confession that leads to repentance. It also may be that as more people repentant before one another, it heightens the needs for God to deal with the power of sin inside the believers, which then leads them to prayer.

James points to Elijah as the example of the power of prayer.

Finally, James encourages the readers that one of the greatest things you can do is help lead someone who has walked away from the faith, back to the faith.

James, like Proverbs, is a letter that is to be meditated on. Its wisdom should be used to examine each of our lives to allow God to highlight areas for change. Do we need to engage with our trials rather than flee from them, so that we can grow through them?

Maybe our language needs dealing with, as we learn to have wisdom in how we speak. Perhaps we claim to have good faith, but then our actions don’t mirror that. Or we find that our trust is too much in our resources and our plans to protect ourselves, not in God. That is the letter from James.

Psalm 30

This psalm is attributed to king David and falls into the category of praise psalm, specifically a thanksgiving psalm. The psalmist, potentially David, is thanking and praising God for saving them from sickness, or from near death. 

Psalm 30:1-3 - A testimony of praise

Psalm 30:4-5 - An encouragement for others to praise

Psalm 30:6-12 - The psalmists’ own experience

The psalm opens with its purpose. The psalmist praises God because the Lord has heard the cries, and healed them, saving them from death.

Turning to those around them, they encourage others to praise God. They speak to the saints, the faithful ones, telling them to give thanks. The reason they can give thanks? While God’s anger may be present, and there may be weeping now, they will soon be replaced with God’s favour and joy.

The psalmist begins to share their own experience. They had made a commitment to stand with God, and then it had seemed like God had hidden his face. So the psalmist continues to hold on to God, crying out to him for help.

And he did. God turned the psalmist’s mourning into dancing, their clothes of grief into clothes of joy. Because of this, the psalmist will never cease to praise God and share of his goodness.

The psalm is a reminder to us to share the good that God has done for us. We are to be honest and real about the difficult times, but then celebrate with others when God proves himself faithful.