James 1

Meeting with testing and trials

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

Counting it all joy

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

Knowing that it will produce good results

3 knowing that the trying of your faith produces patient endurance. 4 But let patient endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Asking God for wisdom

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask it from God, who gives to everyone liberally and without criticizing, and it will be given to him.

1:5 The trials we face – the testing of our faith – will sometimes confuse and perplex us. We may not understand what God is doing or why He is dealing with us as He is. By our reasoning we will not understand why trials have come to us or how to make use of them spiritually. We need a wisdom that comes from God so we will know how to face trials and all the varied circumstances of life. Let us ask God for it, both for ourselves and for others. He delights to give it – Col 1:9; 2:3; Eph 1:17; 1 Cor 1:31; 2:6-10; Dan 2:20-21; Prov 1:20; 2:6; 8:1; Ps 51:6; 111:10. James describes this wisdom in Jam 3:17.⚜

6 But let him ask in faith, without wavering at all. For he who wavers is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man think that he will receive any thing from the Lord. 8 A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Both the poor and the rich should rejoice

9 Let the brother in lowly circumstances rejoice because he is exalted, 10 but the rich because he is made low, for like the flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For as soon as the sun has risen with burning heat, it withers the grass, and its flower falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also the rich man will fade away in his ways.

1:11 Compare Ps 103:15; Isa 40:6-8; 1 Pet 1:23-25.⚜

The reward for patiently enduring trials

12 Blessed is the man who endures trials, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

The reward for patiently enduring trials

13 When tempted let no one say, “I am tempted by God”, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.

1:13 God tests us and proves us, but does not tempt us (Gen 22:1; Ps 66:10-12). Matt 6:13 is a prayer He delights to answer.⚜

Temptation, desire, sin, and death

14 But each person is tempted, being drawn away by his own evil desire, and enticed.

1:14 We are not innately, naturally holy as God is. Our old nature is fallen and corrupted. That is why sin has an attraction for us (Gal 5:16-17; Rom 7:15-20; Eph 4:22-24). Satan knows this very well and brings enticing, tempting things before us (1 Thess 3:5). But if we give in to temptations the fault lies only in us, and we should not dream of blaming God for it. Compare 1 Cor 10:13.⚜

15 Then when desire has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.

1:15 Spiritual death is the final result of sin. Compare Gen 2:17; Rom 5:12; 8:6. Acts of sin have their beginning in desire (Gen 3:6; 2 Pet 1:4; 1 John 2:16). In the strength given by God believers must fight in the battlefield of their desires, and win before desire brings forth sin.⚜

God’s good gifts

16 Make no mistake, my dear brethren, 17 every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variability, or shadow of turning.

1:17 God’s gifts can be nothing less than good and perfect. They cannot be tainted with sin or promote sin. If men abuse God’s gifts and make with them opportunities for sin, the fault is in men, not in God’s gifts.⚜

18 Of his own will he begot us with the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creation.

1:18 Here is God’s greatest and best gift to men.⚜

Listening and doing

19 So, my beloved brethren, let everyone be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to get angry. 20 For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

1:19-20 From thoughts of the new birth he turns to thoughts of what that experience should produce in our lives.⚜

21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and the abounding wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man seeing his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he sees himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what he looked like.

1:22-24 Hearing the teachings of the Bible without acting according to them is useless. Mere hearing only increases our condemnation. In the parable of the sower all four classes of people hear the Word (Matt 13:19-20, 22, 23), but only one class produces fruit. The Jews were great for reading the Word and hearing it and memorizing it, but (like most of us) not so great in acting according to what they heard (Matt 23:3; Acts 7:53; Rom 2:17-24). See in Matt 7:21-27 the emphasis the Lord Jesus put on obedience to His teaching. A great many who are called Christians will be lost forever because they have not done what the Word of God says they must do to be saved. And many more will lose the rewards they might have had because they did not do what God’s Word told them to do.⚜

25 But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues to do so, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the deed, this man will be blessed in what he does.

1:25 The law of Moses brought bondage – Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1. Believers are free from that law – Rom 6:14; 7:4. But they are under Christ’s law – 1 Cor 9:21 – a law of grace and love. This law when obeyed gives freedom – not freedom to sin, but freedom from sinning.⚜

True religion

26 If anyone among you seems to be religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is useless.

1:26 Verse 19; Jam 3:2-12. On every hand there are many who do not control their tongues. Evidently, then, many are self-deceived and have a useless form of worship.⚜

27 Pure and faultless religion before God the Father is this: To look after the fatherless and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

1:27 We should understand that God does not accept every kind of worship and religion – Matt 15:8-9. Compare Ps 50:7-21; Isa 1:11-17. The kind of religion God wants to see is love and holiness in action, not merely in word. God has a special concern for the weak and helpless and poor – Ex 22:22; 23:11; Lev 23:22; Deut 10:18; 24:19; Ps 146:9; Isa 1:17; other references at Gal 2:10. We too must have concern for them, if we want to be pleasing to Him. God has a hatred for the pollutions of the world. So must we have if we want our worship to be fully acceptable to Him (Rom 1:18; 2 Cor 6:17; 7:1; 1 Pet 1:15-16; Jude 23).⚜