James 1:1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
«Where are the lost ten tribes?» asks somebody. They never were lost. That is a mere piece of nonsense. There were, and there are still, twelve tribes of Israel, as much one as the other. Ask any Jew if it is not so. James writes to all his compatriots by nature, and to all the fellow-citizens of the saints by grace, and greets them. What a strange greeting it is!
James 1:2. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Or «trials.» Do not be sorry about it, be thankful for it. The gold should be glad to be put into the crucible; the Christian should rejoice to be tested and tried. Not only count it joy, but count it «all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.»
James 1:3-4. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
You need to grow; you will not grow without trials. You need to learn; you will not learn without affliction. It is God's school for you. Be thankful, therefore, when these afflictions come. They are the rumbling wagons of your Father, in which he sends you choice treasure. They are black ships that come from afar, loaded with precious things. But mind that you do get this patience; and that, when you have it, you have still more of it: «Let patience have her perfect work.»
James 1:5. If any of you lack wisdom,
Ah, James, you need not say, «If any of you lack wisdom,» for we all lack it! We are all poor, foolish creatures: «If any of you lack wisdom.»
James 1:5. Let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
The Lord might very well upbraid us for our folly, and say, «Poor child, I will give you wisdom; yet you are very foolish.» But he does not say that. He «giveth to all men liberally; and upbraideth not.» Let him who lacks wisdom ask of God: «and it shall be given him.» Can the Lord give wisdom? Surely, we must study, learn, and gain experience before we can know, and then afterwards knowledge, rightly used, groweth into wisdom. Can God give us wisdom ready made? Ah, yes, he can! He gives wisdom if we ask for it.
James 1:6. But let him ask in faith,
A man who has no wisdom can have faith; let him use his faith to get wisdom with it: «Let him ask in faith.»
James 1:6-7. Nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
He may receive something of the Lord; but he may not think that he shall.
It may come as a spontaneous gift of sovereign grace; but we have no right to expect an answer to prayer when we pray in a wavering style.
James 1:8. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
He sees double; he runs after two objects; and therefore he staggers across the street: he «is unstable in all his ways.»
James 1:9. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
Being lifted up by the grace of God to sit among the princes of Israel.
James 1:10. But the rich, in that he is made low:
Hard work this! Still, the child of God should rejoice in it, for now that he is stripped of earthly things, be finds his all in God.
James 1:10-12. Because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation:
Or, «endureth trial.» Blessed is the man who is tried and tested, and who lives through it; who conquers, notwithstanding all the battle and struggle through which he passes. We should say, «Blessed is the man who is not tried;» but it is not so. He who, bearing the heavy load, receives gracious strength to sustain him under it, gets a greater blessing than the man who escapes the burden.
James 1:12-13 , For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God:
That would be nonsense, and falsehood. When a man is seduced to evil, when evil casts its attractive spell over him, let him not blame God.
James 1:13-14. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
God tries men. God does not, in the sense in which the word is here used, tempt men. Satan tempts: God tries. But the same trial may be both a temptation and a trial; and it may be a trial from God's side, and a temptation from Satan's side, just as Job suffered from Satan, and it was a temptation; but he also suffered from God through Satan, and so it was a trial to him.
James 1:15. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
That is the pedigree of sin; it is born of lust, and it brings forth dust. Any sin, whatever it is, if we cling to it and love it, will bring forth death; rest assured of that. The only hope we can have of eternal life is by being parted from sin. That must be taken away from us; for there shall never enter into heaven anything that defileth. We have, from day to day, to fight against sin, till it is utterly put away from us.
James 1:16-17. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
God never turns from us; nor, in any way whatever, changes; he is the same God, ready always to bless us, ready to save us tonight as much as any other Thursday night. Ah, dear friends, what variableness we have! The other day we were frost-bitten, and crying out with the cold; and now tonight, perhaps, we feel dull, and stupid, and heavy, because it is so hot. Yet, what a mercy it is that God has no variableness, neither shadow of a turning; and we may come to him tonight, and say, «Lord, visit us as thou art wont to do! Revive us and refresh us. Put us into a lively, brisk, happy frame of mind tonight, and send us on our way rejoicing.»
James 1:18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
We are his creatures, but we are better than his other creatures; for he has made us twice over, We are his twice-born creatures; and we are the first ripe fruit of his creation, dedicated to his praise, gathered to his glory «a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.» Oh, that God would help us to honour him, and to live truly consecrated to him!
James 1:19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,
It is a great thing to have an open ear. Some are very slow to hear, especially to hear the Word of God, and the voice of God speaking that Word. Oh, to have our ears unstopped, that we may hear every syllable of truth gladly, cheerfully, retentively! God grant us that swiftness of hearing tonight!
James 1:19. Slow to speak, slow to wrath:
For, sometimes, when men are very quick to speak, they are also very quick in other respects as well; and volubility may be accompanied by a tendency to heat or passion: «Slow to speak, slow to wrath.»
James 1:20. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
Satan does not cast out Satan. Anger does not overcome evil. We may think we do well to be angry; but that will very seldom be the case.
James 1:21. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Perhaps you have seen a man grafting a tree. What a gash he makes in the tree before he puts in the graft! How he wounds it to make the sap flow into the new wood! If the Lord has made any of your hearts bleed tonight by the sharp cutting of his Spirit, we are not sorry, if it shall the better prepare you for receiving the grafts of his own nature, and his own Word.
James 1:22. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
It is a pity when a man deceives himself; he must be an arch-deceiver.
James 1:23-25. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein,
Perseverance to the end is wanted: «Continueth therein.»
James 1:25. He being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
The blessedness of true religion lies very much in the practical effect of it. Hearing is pleasant; but doing is the effectual proof of grace.
James 1:26. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
James settles that matter off very peremptorily. An unbridled tongue indicates a godless heart.
James 1:27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
This is not the secret part of religion. Of that we read elsewhere. But this is the very dress that true religion puts on; charitably caring for the most destitute of our fellow-creatures, and holy walking, that we be not as the men of the world are: «Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.»