Mr

Mr. D's Notes on James

Chapter one James 1.1-4

Rev. Stanley L. Derickson Ph.D.

1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

James means supplanter. This book is written to the twelve tribes scattered abroad. It would seem logical since he writes to believers that he is writing to the many people that were present on the day of Pentecost and the same people that went home after receiving the words of Peter. These were the first believers, and most likely some of their converts. It is also quite probable that many that were scattered from the church in Jerusalem later were also scattered in this area.

James is one of the early books and he would have wanted to give these new converts some doctrine and training. It isn't like the Graham campaigns when there is an attempt to follow up on the new believers by phone or email. These were scattered all over the known world.

He identifies himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Serving both God and Christ is of interest. Why would he mention two members of the God head? He serves God, why list Christ as well? I wonder if it was a left over from his Jewish background. The Old Testament saint served God; Christ was not on the scene. When James converted, he would have had this strong "serving God" ideal, thus might be why he mentions both God and Christ. He may have served God, and now was serving Christ as well.

It should be noted that these doctrines of the Trinity were not refined until much later in the history of the church, they may not have grasped all the intricacies of theology that we are fortunate enough to have.

It is of note that he introduces himself as a servant - lists no qualifications, just that he is a servant. Paul on the other hand, at times, lists qualifications in his introductions. It isn't that James didn't have the qualifications; he just didn't feel he needed to list them.

James being an earlier book may not have had the problems of acceptance that Paul had later on. Paul also had the added problem of having been a persecutor of Christians.

He himself most likely wasn't all that well removed from Judaism, and he knew that most of his readers were going to be newly converted Jews, so He identifies the "God" that they all worshiped, and added Christ in that Christ was the Messiah, and He was an added item to the Judaic mindset, even though He was God, there was that distinction I would guess.

I say that they were mostly Jews in that he is writing to the "twelve tribes" a clear indication of his thinking at the time of writing.

The term "greetings" is related to the word that is translated "joy" in verse two. It is a word that can be used of a farewell, and it indicates a joyful greeting or farewell. He is pleased to be writing to them, and to have an anticipation of them receiving his letter.

James use of the term servant may indicate that he is a humble person, one that does not like to draw attention to himself. I read on several online forums and it is of great interest to watch people as they post for the first time. Some are meek and slow to enter into the discussions; while others jump in with both feet to be sure everyone knows they are there.

One man posted a couple of very vague questions on a board and the regulars gave some very "safe" responses knowing that someone was laying a trap. This man had an arm load of degrees and knowledge and he wanted to hit everyone over the head with both so they would be sure that all knew he was there.

This is not uncommon on forums, but usually after the bold have been proven wrong they settle in to become a valued participant of the forum.

James greets the "brethren" or brothers in Christ. John 1.12 speaks to our brotherhood in Christ. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name:" And one further Scripture that shows the same relationship. Matthew 12.50 "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."

2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

He jumps right into the doctrine. Count it joy when the Devil attacks. It is a joyful occasion because you are saying no and defeating the Devil on his own grounds.

When you are walking down the mall and that really neat guy or gal struts by, you can be joyful knowing that you did not succumb to a lonnnnnng look that might lead to incorrect thoughts. When you find that billfold with two thousand dollars in it, you can be joyful as you attempt to return it to its rightful owner without those thoughts of pulling the cash and dumping the rest.

God would have us closing the door on the devil at every opportunity and that, not only should make us happy, it most assuredly pleases Him as well.

3 Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

James may have been acquainted with Paul's teaching since this same concept is found in Rom. 5.3, or maybe more plausible would be that it was a common theme of the Lord's teaching. Paul mentions, "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;"

Knowing that this process worketh patience. Hum, now he is meddling, telling us that patience is the end result that is desired when we are tested - so who says we need patience?

Patience is that quality that allows you to be steadfast in your walk, it relates to continuing on no matter what is put in your way - doing what is your appointed task. In our case, as believers, it is to walk with God and not the Devil. It is to stand against the Devil in all that he throws our way. Ephesians is clear that we are to stand against him with the armor of God on our person to allow our standing before him.

Trials are a body builder for the believer; they strengthen us to withstand the Devil.

Trials are a trying of our faith, as well. As we walk with God by faith, the Devil tests our commitment, he tests our beliefs, and he tests our faith in what God has said to us in the Word. All this stretches our faith so that we might have patience in our stand against the enemy of God.

4 But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

"Let" is of note, it indicates that we can stop our progress in patience. We are to allow patience to have its work done in us. In other words, don't stop the trials or avoid the trials so that patience can do what it wants with, and to you.

This is the only way that we can be perfect, entire and wanting nothing. Perfect relates to having matured to its final end. Entire relates to being complete - all parts present and functioning. This sounds like what God wants in the way of disciples, yet we cannot be this sort of person unless we go through the trials and gain the patience that we need.

Computers usually have a processor unit that makes the decisions and a memory unit that stores all the information. A university, years ago built a unit that combined these two sections into one. They fired up the monster and started working with it. The unit was taught to think on its own. It did not function as planned at first, but after awhile it began to function pretty much as designed.

One day a janitor was cleaning in the back of the unit and noticed some wires lying loose on the floor. He asked someone about it and upon inspection it was found that about twenty percent of the computer had not been hooked up.

The computer had learned around its deficiency. We, on the other hand are to be complete - ready to go - all hooked up - ready to serve our master and Lord.

APPLICATION:

1. This passage brings up the thought of why do the innocent suffer? It also raises the question; if trouble comes into our lives does it mean that we have done something wrong? Let’s consider the first question. Anyone can suffer, not only the innocent, but suffering comes from sin. Sin entered the world and nothing has been the same since. God allowed man free choice and man picked sin and all its ramifications.

The second question relates to Hebrews twelve where the author tells us that God, being a good Father will chastise the erring saint. This chastisement is normally for sin that is not confessed nor stopped. If a believer falls into sin and confesses it, all will be right with God, however if the person fights the Spirit's working in their life and continues to walk in sin, chastisement should be expected. ("4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. 5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?")

2. Have you ever had one of those weeks? One of those weeks that seemed like a year? A week when everything goes wrong? A week when everybody comes over for a visit when you don't have time? A week when you never get any of your projects finished? A week when you have a headache or two every day? A week when the bills all come in at once? A week when there are a few extra bills coming in as well? A week when you'd like to end it all by moving to the top of a mountain for the rest of your life?

We have all had some of those weeks and some of them at the same time. James had something totally obnoxious to say to us - "count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;" (Verse two) - "Be joyful in your trials." Now, I can't use my voice to show you how he said that, but I can almost guess that he said it very softly to make us take a special note of his encouragement.

Some might ask how James could say such a thing. He could say it because he knew what the people were going through. Remember, we decided that the recipients were probably from the scattering of Christians from Jerusalem in Acts eight? They scattered, not to go seeking their fortune, but they were scattered for fear of their lives. They were under great persecution.

James wants to bring them encouragement in their hard times, and he says "be joyful in your trials."

Some of these folks had lost family members, some had lost their belongings, some may have been beaten, and James says "be joyful in your trials."

The Roman Empire was headed by Claudius, an inept ruler that made it to the throne because the Roman Senate could not decide on a new leader - since there was no one else, he was set in power. Caligula had preceded Claudius and he was known for his cruelty and madness. Nero was coming to bat and Christians were in deep trouble under his reign.

James in light of death, loss of homes, facing lions in the coliseum tells the Christians "be joyful in your trials." I trust that you can find some comfort in this when you next encounter hard times. Always remember, it can always get worse if you wait awhile, but in it all, be joyful.

I fear that this is one area where I did not do all that well in my life. Oh, we have had the trials, we have had the hardships, but the joy was seldom there when I started with my many pity parties. I lost some of the "Joy" if you will, in not understanding this concept.

3. Take a moment and consider your hardest set of trials in your life thus far. What was the trial? How did you handle it? Were you frustrated? Were you joyful? How did you work out the details? How did you give Him the glory?

In looking back over many years I always seem to end up remembering a two-week period of great trial. This is one where joy should have been the norm, but I confess, it was not. I was nearing registration for my third year of Bible College. The day of registration came without the Lord's provision of the money that we did not have. I went to the school office and told them of our situation.

We decided to wait a semester then continue. We found out late that afternoon that the school had rented our apartment to another couple and that we had to be out of the apartment that weekend. We had nowhere to go, little money and seemingly not a friend in the world.

We rented a trailer, and packed up all we owned and started down the road to Denver to find an apartment. The big hill just east of the school proved to be way too much for our little Chevy two station wagon. I backed down the hill and turned around, and went back down the road to get a good run at the hill. We hit the bottom of the hill as fast as we could and as we neared the top of the hill we were barely moving. We did clear the top, but only with the assist of the Lord I am certain.

We finally were offered our pastor’s garage to store our belongings in and I took my family to Nebraska to stay with our folks. I returned and looked for an apartment all week with little success. There was a rather serious shortage of apartments at the time. I went to Nebraska for the weekend and gathered my family and we returned to stay in a camping trailer that someone had offered us.

The next Friday we got up at five A.M. and left so that we could get warm. We found a couple of listings in the newspaper so as soon as we could call I stepped toward a phone booth. I noticed the coin return was full of coins. I started empting it and then noticed there were coins and a bill lying on the ground outside. The find wasn't big bucks, but it was such a great encouragement. I made the first call and the apartment was still available, so off we went.

We moved in that weekend. A couple of weeks of great turmoil and trial, but the Lord was with us all the way through. I can't say that I was joyful through that time, but when you know how little patience I had at the time, it is obvious that God was just allowing that patience to grow and grow.

There were times when joy was the norm and it made me wonder why I hadn't allowed joy to enter into those other situations. We were on an interstate at two A.M. and the fuel pump failed about ten miles from town. I caught a ride to town but could not find a part - called my father-in-law and he said he would be right out. I walked back to the car singing all the way knowing that blisters were forming on my feet.

It was a time of joy even though things were rather dark both literally and in our lives. Take time, when trials strike to realize what it is and bring joy to yourself so that you can go through this time as God would have you go through it.

4. Continuing on, in this line of thought - trials will come. II Timothy mentions in 3.12 "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." We in America have certainly not seen this persecution. We ought to be getting ready for it, for I think we can see it coming right now if we only open our clouded eyes. Eyes clouded with a phony piousness and self righteousness that has been turning our countrymen against us, rather than our strong witness turning them to Christ.

The persecution of Christians is becoming the common place around the world and the world does not care. It is of import that believers are now concerned and calling for protests against the persecution of Christians. There is a large flaw in that thought.

We ought to have been protesting the persecution of human beings years ago, not standing by until we are persecuted. We may get in on the trouble that our silence has allowed upon so many others around the world for so long.

If we live Godly we WILL suffer persecution. It may be that God is going to have to use the reverse order in America - bring persecution so that we will live Godly.

5. As I have talked to people over the years and as I have observed my own life, I have found that tests are like a long staircase.

Often you will go through a hard time, then a peaceful time, then along will come another trial. It is the joy that levels these out so that they don't seem to be so bumpy. This is not a guarantee either, for there are times when you must wonder if trials will ever cease.

I am sure that Job wondered at times if the world was totally against him. Trial upon trial upon trial and no let up for such a long time.

I have also noted that when you fail a trial you may shorten the agony, but another trial that will teach you what you didn't learn will be close behind - so, why not find some joy, work your way through the trial while you are there and be finished with it.

In a similar vein, if God is not testing you, what is going on?

Some possibles are: He may be done with you; you may be perfect and ready for anything. Small trials may come along but some people seem to reach a point where they have learned what is not so obvious to the rest of us.

There is the possibility that you have failed so often that God has given up on you, but this isn't a possibility for He never gives up on His children. There is the possibility that He has stopped because you are no longer responding to His moving in your life. He may put you on the shelf like you have done to Him.

We do have a Biblical example of a man that must have tried the Lord, yet God just kept working until one day Peter was the one chosen to preach the sermon on the day of Pentecost. He stepped out and was walking on water, then doubted and sank (Matt. 14.29-30). He did not understand the teaching according to the Lord Himself (Matt. 15.14-16). Then there was the denial of the Lord (Matt. 26.74-75). This pictures the testing and maturing that goes on in a believer's life. If Peter made it through and became useful, then we can also.

Know that God is not a meany, He is our Father and He desires the very best for us. He is molding us as a potter molds the clay to fit the purpose that He has in mind for each one of us. He is preparing us for His purpose and His work, thus we can have joy in that fact, each and every time a trial comes our way.

There is also Joseph, sold into slavery, and raised through those trials to leadership in the land. When he spoke to his brothers, his comment was "You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good." Gen. 50.20

6. In Jame's mind and in the minds of other believers of his day the term servant was not a title of derision, nor of humiliation. It was, rather a term of pride and joy. It was a joy to serve Christ as a bond slave. To serve God with your life was the utmost one could give.

Today, I fear, many view the ministry as a sentence rather than a privilege. I read on pastor internet forums and the men that post are so downtrodden, abused, and penniless that you would think they were slaves of the highest order being bought and sold without their consent.

I recently saw a discussion of how hard the pastors life was, that they were expected to do this and that, they were called away for church problems, they were underpaid etc. Yet, this same board listed a thread on pastoral pay, that disclosed that most of the same people were being paid fifty to a hundred thousand a year, and they are underpaid. I should be so underpaid - read that as "We could pay our entire debt in less than a year."

I realize the current church climate is not conducive to pastors, but the calling is from God, it is God we have the privilege to serve not the congregation.

My concept of ministry has always been, Christ went to the cross for me, so what can He call me to do that would be equal to or worse than that? Nothing, thus I ought to be pleased to serve Him to my fullest extent without thought to the hard ships, the put down etc.

Many on the boards are bent out of shape if they aren't addressed with the respect that they expect, or if they aren't honored as they would honor themselves. It is God that needs to be honored not his children.

These same pastors view their volunteer staff as mediocre, untrained, untalented, and not worthy of serving, but since that is all we have we will struggle along - even though that staff is called and trained by God - hum.

Many of the threads that I have read over the years make it quite clear that the average pastor views their church as an us/them group. That congregation is the dumbest bunch of sheep that I have ever tried to work with, while "I" am the perfect shepherd that ought to be bowed down to. It is not uncommon to call church members "ignorant" or make fun of their "ignorance."

I don't see taught in the Scriptures, an elite leadership ruling over a subjected "flock." I do see a committed, knit together, group that is working together toward the same end - glorification of Christ. This we/them idea is not Biblical and is leading ultimately to what we see in the Roman church - a large hierarchy to rule the masses.

7. In verse two we are told to be joyful in trials. Life Application Bible properly agrees that this is the concept taught here but points out that it means that during trials we are to accept them with joy, but it does not mean that we are to joy in the anticipation of coming trials. In the book of Job we don't see him going out to the country side seeking trouble, nor being joyful in the trials he did not know were coming. He was perking along in his normal everyday rut knowing that one foot was going to be placed in front of the other for the day. He did not anticipate possible trials; he did not have a joyful smile on his face as he wondered if there would be trials that day.

It is rather like one session I had with my dentist, a man that I would describe as a torture expert. To start with, his hands were the size of a giant dog's paws. When he started working in the back of your mouth it felt like you were getting cosmetic surgery to enlarge the opening. He had been working on me for three hours and the machine he used to cut away gum material was not working quite right.

To start with most of this time he was working on me live. He could not deaden the nerve itself on four teeth he was working on. He was in the middle of doing root canals so could not stop, so forged on in spite of my condition.

There was a small metal plate hooked to a wire. This plate was placed under your leg to make contact so that electric current could pass through the tip of his machine into the gum and burn away unneeded flesh. Now, you know why I used the word torture. The plate, at one point, was not making good enough contact so he pulled it out and handed it to me to hold. I knew what it was and I refused to hold it. I might sit and suffer the torture and pain but I was absolutely not going to participate in creating it for myself.

Don't go looking for trials; they will come when God has something to teach you. He has the time table and it is much better than ours even though we might think we know better.

8. Trials bring pressure to bear upon us to make us into the believers that God wants. Coal is coal unless it is subjected to great pressure for a long period of time. Without this process all you ladies that are engaged or married would not have the beautiful diamond that most of you have. Coal becomes diamonds. If there is no pressure, then there can be no diamond, you will only have coal.

So, it is with the believer, if there is no trial, there will be no good results. This is why we ought to have joy when trials come - the pressure will cause improvement of our beauty and value before the Lord.

If you run across a believer that is really on top of things and that has a good Christian nature about them, talk to them and see if there aren't some hard trials buried way down under the joy of living. I would guess that there is.

A very dear friend from years ago was the classic model of patience and godliness. One time when we were driving somewhere he shared his personal testimony with me. He knew I was under some hard trials and had been for quite some time. He told me of his time of telling God no to entering the ministry. God took him through trial after trial to train him and to increase his faith. He did not want to leave his business; he did not want to leave the money it was providing. Over a period of months the man ended up on his death bed where he finally told God that he was interested in doing His bidding.

His life from that point on was not peaches and cream, but it was on an upward slope that led to a very secure lifestyle and peace with God. He became one of the most influential and usable lay workers I have ever run into. His teaching was deeper than most of his age group. He was of great encouragement to me in that time of problems and hardship.

If you find yourself in trials, find an older, godly believer that has been there and you will find the shoulder to lean on that you need - work your way through those hard times, and watch your faith and trust in God grow to proportions that you could never believe of yourself.