“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” James 1:12-15.
The above verses were covered in “The Crown of Life, James 1:12-15”, posted on 10-2-20. They are included here to maintain context.
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:16-17.
Let us refer back to verse 13, which says, “…God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone”; for it states here that, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights…” verse 17a.
God is good and He warns us of evil and temptations and even gives a way of escape.
“No temptation has over-taken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” I Corinthians 10:13.
“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16.
These blessed promises come down from the Father of lights, our Father.
“…comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:7b.
What a beautiful phrase; the poetic image of a “Father of lights” who changes not, “with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
Picture, if you will an open field and in the center of that field there is a huge shade tree, spreading out its branches many feet in all directions; as the sun rises the tree’s shadow is on the westerly side of the tree, its exact location depends on the time of year.
As the sun continues to rise, the shadow moves in an easterly direction until it is directly overhead, and you have a picnic under its cool shade. Soon you have to move as the shadow continues in an easterly direction until the sun is in the west and the shade begins to diminish on the east until sundown.
God’s personality does not shift or change to where He does this today and decides to do something else tomorrow.
God’s personality must be rock solid, for if it were not, chaos would reign in creation, we would not know what to expect from day to day.
It would be like waking up one morning and finding that gravity had become uneven, some here, none there, a pull twice as hard here, and next to nothing there and always shifting around.
How could anyone live under those circumstances? God defines His personality much more bluntly in another place.
“For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” Malachi 3:6.
“Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” James 1:18.
“Of His own will”, if God did not will it, it would not have happened; if He did not awaken us to the gospel, we would not be saved.
But it says of God.
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” II Peter 3:9.
If He had not sent His Son to die for us, there would be no gospel.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
Scripture says this of Jesus.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13.
We were not born of blood, that is to say, we are not Christians because our parents were, no matter how good they were.
Nor because it is our will, joining the church and doing all kinds of good deeds, and singing in the choir; you cannot earn your way to heaven, though many seem to think they will by their works.
Nor do we get to heaven by the will of man, baptism, or blessing by the priest or even the Pope, will not get you to heaven.
We are saved only by the shed blood of Jesus Christ; which is the will of God.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James 1:19-20.
Verse 19 is some of the best advice you will ever receive. Every person should be ready to listen, slow to speak, because you cannot put your foot in your mouth if it is shut; slow to wrath, a matter should be carefully investigated before flying off the handle.
We represent God as firstfruits of His creatures, He has done so much for us, and we should at least try to serve Him properly.
James says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren” James 1:19a, meaning that he is speaking to Christians in these passages.
“Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:21-22.
James is still speaking to Christians, and even though Scripture says this.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” II Corinthians 5:17.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” Romans 8:1a.
We are to, “…lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness…” the Christian is seen as righteous in God’s eyes, yet they are to lay aside all filthiness and wickedness, and not just wickedness, but an overflow, or abundance.
You can see this filthiness in the conversation at the water cooler at work; men stand around and soon one tells a coarse joke, and the talk degenerates from there until even the Christian is sucked into it.
The overflow of wickedness is really interesting. In the King James it is rendered this way.
“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” James 1:21.
Superfluity, now that is your word of the week; short definition, the state of being superfluous; 1. Being more than sufficient; excessive. 2. Unnecessary or needless.
However, it is the Greek meaning from which it is translated which is of interest.
According to Thayer’s Lexicon, superfluity of naughtiness is the “residue – the wickedness remaining over in the Christian from his state prior to conversion.”
It defines naughtiness, wickedness in the New King James, as malignity, malice, ill-will, or a desire to injure. So this wickedness is left over evil habits from the Christians prior life; the malice, ill-will, and desire for revenge are to be laid aside and given over to God who avenges and does the equalizing.
This “implanted word, which is able to save your souls” James 1:21b, is the way of ridding ourselves of things like filthiness, malice, ill-will, or vengeance.
It is the washing of the water of the word that cleanses us from these evils that reside in our hearts. The word here is a reference to the Scriptures. This is, in fact, how Christ cleanses His church.
“…that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:26-27.
Since James is addressing Christians, the statement, “…the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” James 1:21b, does not mean salvation, rather it is a reference to something else.
The word of God does indeed save souls from eternal damnation, but in this case the word is intended to lead believers into the abundant life as well as save the Christian’s physical life.
The premature death of a sinful Christian has already been discussed, so it is not necessary to go over it again, other than to emphasize the importance of studying the Scriptures to lead you into a holy life and to find God’s will for you.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6.
Do you believe this?
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:22-25.
I knew a woman who for perhaps fifty or sixty years rose every morning at five and read her Bible. Yet in all the time I knew her I never saw one bit of change in her life. It is not that she was a bad person, she was very nice, but I honestly do not think she really saw the things she had been reading for so long. However, I did see some real change later in her life so she may have accepted Christ before she died.
Bible study should produce change in the heart. This “…perfect law of liberty”, has the ability to change us, as though we were to look into the mirror of God’s word and as we peer intently we find ourselves being changed into the image in the mirror, and in so doing we begin to do the things that we learn.
“If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.” James 1:26.
While this verse is for all Christians its origin is likely to have been the Jews who joined the church without a real conversion to Christ.
In this state the unsaved Jew continues to think that it is the keeping of the Law that justifies him. And so his religion is one of doing works, yet the inward man has not been changed and his words betray his fallen state; self-deceived the unfortunate person moves ever closer to a Christ-less grave.
The unsaved Jew in question here underscores some things quoted earlier in John 1:12-13.
“… [children of God] who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:13.
The unsaved Jew is not born of blood just because they are children of Abraham or Jews, John 8:31-40.
The unsaved Jew is not born of the will of the flesh by the keeping of the law or any other works, Mark 7:1-13, Galatians 2:16.
The unsaved Jew is not saved by the will of man. No one, Jew or non-Jew is saved by a rabbi, priest, Pope or an individual’s own will when they approve of themselves, Luke 18:9-14, II Corinthians 10:12.
The unsaved Jew or the non-Jew is not saved by any of these things; only by trusting in Christ as their Savior will anyone have everlasting life.
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36.
“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27.
We now see the opposite side of the coin from verse 26, and works are included here as, “Pure and undefiled religion…” the difference here is that these works come out of the heart of Christ in caring for the helpless as He so often did when He walked in Israel.
Even these works would be useless if they were not done as unto the Lord. The outward evidence of salvation is that Christians endeavor to, “keep oneself unspotted from the world”.
The Crown of Life, James 1:16-27 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 8-17-11, updated on 10-5-20.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.