Untameable

James 3:7-8 says “⁷For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:  ⁸But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”

Today’s lesson is yet another continuation on from previous lessons. Yesterday we learnt how the tongue is a small thing but is capable of great things. We learnt that it is a fire, a world of iniquity which is capable of defiling the whole body. The last thing we learnt yesterday is that our words affect our entire being and that the tongue is “set on fire of hell”.

Today we are learning more about the tongue. Verse 7 says “For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind” James here is setting us up with a comparison. The bible tells us that every animal: every mammal, every insect, every bird, every reptile, every amphibian and every fish has been tamed by mankind. Just as a quick side note the word ‘beasts’ in Greek means a wild or dangerous animal. With this is mind, take any zoo; what does it contain? It contains all manner of animals, most of which are dangerous! Are these animals a threat though? Generally, no (I say generally because I’ve heard some pretty crazy zoo animal escape stories!) These animals are not a threat because they have been tamed. We use horses to pull ploughs, we use dogs for hunting and scavenging, Noah used birds as testers to see if the water had gone and some circuses have performing elephants, bears or even fleas! The bottom line is that man has a pretty good grasp on taming animals. If you go to any safari park, any zoo, any aquarium, any bird park or any reptile house you are going to see animals that have been tamed. Sharks, lions, bears, tigers, monkeys, snakes, lizards; you name it, somewhere has it. With this in mind we move on to our next point.

Verse 8 says “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” There are just some things out of man’s control though; one of them is taming the tongue. The verse says ‘no man’ can tame the tongue. When the bible says no man it means no man! No-one is capable of taming their own tongue. It’s funny that man has the capability to tame all other things except himself! The next phrase in the verse shows us why it cannot be tamed. The bible calls the tongue “an unruly evil”. The word ‘unruly’ here means unrestrainable. No man can restrain his tongue. Have you ever been in a situation where you were splitting at the seams wanting to say something but trying with all your might to keep it in, but eventually blurting it out and causing problems? You walk away thinking “why couldn’t I just keep my mouth shut?!” however I wouldn’t beat yourself up over it, keep in mind that no man can tame the tongue. Keep in mind though, the things man cannot tame, God certainly can! With a little help from the Lord restraining your tongue will be a lot easier.

The last phrase in the verse says that the tongue is “full of deadly poison”. What is the primary purpose of poison? Simply, to kill. Nature uses it to neutralise its prey, man uses it to neutralise fellow-men! This is not just some mild poison though; the poison of the tongue is deadly poison; and if our tongues are poison so too will our words. Poison takes time to work, but it slowly kills the prey. A venomous snake will strike its prey and inject it with venom. The prey does not just drop dead though. The poison takes time to set in. It shuts down the organs one by one until life is impossible to cling on to. Poisonous words are much the same. When they are dropped into someones ear it takes time to spread. It will spread throughout their entire being, completely destroying them. It will affect their mind, their heart and eventually their tongues. Another thing about a poisonous tongue is that it is contagious. Like we learnt yesterday it only takes a small spark to start a huge fire. Small words can have a big impact, and will often lead to bigger words.

How is your tongue today? Are you letting it be unruly? Are you asking God for His help in the matter? If not I urge you to pray each morning and ask Him to guide your tongue and purge the poison from it. Don’t let your tongue become an unrestrainable evil. It is true that no man can control his tongue, but the things that man cannot do, God can do. Ask God to keep the fire at bay before it gets out of control! – Andrew.

 

The Devil’s Organ

 

 

The tongue is a fire (Photo credit: Loving Earth)

James 3:5-6 says “⁵Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!  ⁶And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.”

Yesterday we saw from verses 3-4 how a small thing such as a bit for a horse or a rudder for a ship can control and influence something much larger and more powerful that itself. Today’s lesson picks up from where we left off.

Verse 5 says “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” the first phrase ‘even so’ simply shows us that it is a continuation from the examples given in verses 3-4, it’s just saying that it’s the same general idea. The verse continues “the tongue is a little member”. It is an undisputable fact that the tongue is small. The word ‘member’ here means limb or organ (the tongue is an organ). Compared to our other organs the tongue is pretty small, but boy does it cause a lot of trouble! The verse continues “and boasteth great things”. The tongue is a small organ in our body but it boasts great things! When I read this verse I think of those little dogs. They are so small and seem so harmless until you get closer and they start yapping and growling! They are little things, but boy do they boast great things; I’ve come across Rottweiler’s who are more timid than some of these toy dogs!

So the first thing we have seen is that the tongue is a small thing that boasts great things. Many confrontations have started because of something someone has said; sometimes even by the way they said it! It is a great truth though that the tongue does boast great power. Proverbs 18:21 says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” the tongue holds the power to utterly destroy or preserve life. When I see this I think of the old-time Kings and queens. When a criminal was brought before them they could either sentence them to death or set them free. They had complete control over the convict’s future. The tongue holds this great power. The wrong words, in the wrong place, at the wrong time could end with someone dying.  An old war poster read ‘LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS’. Even things said in the privacy of a home has the potential to get out and cause 100s of problems. The tongue is a super power.

Verse 5 continues “Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” another great truth is presented here. Look at how much can be destroyed by a little fire. I have witnessed countless stories on the news about raging forest fires kindled by someone throwing a cigarette butt away or the sun shining through a discarded glass bottle. Great things can be burnt by a small fire. Take for example the fire of London in 1666. Embers from a baker’s oven caused a fire that lasted for 4 days, destroying over 13,000 houses, 89 churches and 52 guild halls; destroying in total 80% of London and leaving 100,000 people (a sixth of London’s population) homeless. Just a few embers destroyed most of a city; ‘how great a matter a little fire kindleth!’ our words can have this effect. We may say something that will come back to hit us in a big way if we are not careful. We can cause big problems from little words.

Verse 6 goes on to explain more. The verse says “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” The first thing that sticks out to me is the first phrase ‘And the tongue is a fire’. Notice it does not say it is like a fire, it says it is a fire. Fire has its disadvantages and advantages. On the bad side it can cause death and destruction but on the good side it can help with cooking and be used to power machines. The fire does not change, only how it is used does. Our tongues are the same. Our tongues are fire, this is not a bad thing, it’s how we use that fire. We can use it to destroy people or empower them. However we see from the next phrase the truest nature of the tongue.

The verse continues “a world of iniquity”. The tongue is filled with different sins. Lying, blasphemy, cursing, covetousness, slander, railing and so on. The tongue doesn’t just hold one sin; it is a world of them. The world is big; the tongue is small, but we see that the tongue holds a world of iniquity. In other words it is filled with a great quantity of all manner of wickedness.

The third noticeable phrase is the next bit of the verse “so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body”. The tongue is an iniquity filled organ among our other organs and limbs; so much so that it defiles the whole body. Take, for example, a man who says something wrong and it gets him into a fight, it is not his tongue that gets beaten up, it’s the rest of his limbs and organs! The tongue brings trouble on the whole body. Not only this, but more often than not people judge other people by what they say. Therefore if a person’s speech is wrong it brings a bad name, a defiled name, on the whole body. The tongue also has the power to lead the whole body into sin. When you say you are going to do something more often than not you will end up doing it. We saw yesterday that what we say comes from the heart, and if you have purposed to do something in your heart it will come out in what you say. This will lead to sin.

The tongue is also very influential. Say you get up one Sunday morning. You look outside and its pouring down and you don’t feel well and you sit there and say to yourself ‘I can give church a miss this morning, that weather is terrible and I really don’t feel well, I’ll just go back to bed’. What has just happened? Your tongue has influenced you into not going to church!

The next phrase in the verse says “and setteth on fire the course of nature”. The ‘course of nature’ literally means here the wheel of nature. Think of your life as a circle. Now say you set a small part of this wheel on fire by something you say. Sooner or later the fire is going to travel all around the wheel and destroy it until there is nothing left. Your entire life can be injured or even destroyed by the tongue. Time does not fix something that is burnt, nor does time correct the sins of the tongues. The sins may be forgiven, but the fire will keep spreading. It is amazing how something someone said when they were younger can change their future. They kindled a small fire and it spread throughout their whole life.

The last statement is a profound one. Some of you may be thinking ‘well where does this fire originate?’ and here we are given the answer. The verse ends “and it is set on fire of hell.” The multitude of sins from the tongue are inspired by hell itself. A bad tongue is the devils organ. With it he purposed to overthrow God, with it he convinced a third of the angels to go with him out of heaven and with it he lies to us on a daily basis. It is no wonder though, if the tongue can lead the rest of the body into sin, if the tongue can break relationships and cause strife then of course he is going to use it! there is an alternative to the fiery tongue of hell though. As we see in the bible at Pentecost God sent tongues of fire. We have the choice to have a tongue set on fire by God. With it we can share the gospel, praise His name and glorify Him.  it is all a heart matter though. If the heart is on fire for the things of this world then the tongue will reflect this and it will burn with the fire of hell, but if the heart is on fire for the things of God then this will be reflected and it will burn with a heavenly fire!

Let me ask you today, what is your little tongue boasting? Is it telling of your almighty God or is it telling of worldly things? I pray that today you will realise that little words can cause a big problem. Don’t let your tongue defile your whole body. Claim the heavenly fire for your heart and tongue. Use it for God’s glory! James has told us we are to be swift to hear and slow to speak. I pray that as you go about your daily life you will be careful not to kindle any fires. As Thumper said “if you can’t say something nice…don’t say nothing at all”. I pray that you will think about your words before they leave your lips, it will save you a lot of trouble in the long run! – Andrew.

 

Bits and Boats

Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

James 3:3-4 says “³Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. ⁴Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.”

This lesson, as well as lessons to follow, all tie into each other so looking back at the preceding verses is advised. Yesterday we saw an introduction of sorts to this lesson at the end of verse 2 which said “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” We see from this verse that someone who does not offend with their words is able to bridle the whole body. This shows us that what we say affects everything that we do as we will see in today’s verses.

The first example we are given is in verse 3 which says “Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.” The first thing we see is how we control a horse. To obtain and retain control the use of a bit is essential. The verse says ‘that they may obey us’. The bit demands obedience. Not only does it demand obedience though; it also steers. The verse says ‘and we turn about their whole body’. A bit is used to turn the horse to the desired direction. It is interesting to note that such a small piece of equipment can alter the ‘whole’.

First consider a horse without a bit. If you are on its back you will have no control. With no bit you cannot force the horse into obedience and therefore you cannot turn it into the right direction. A horse without a bit will go where it likes and do what it wants. Now on the other hand consider a horse with a bit. With just a small thing complete control can be gained. On the horses back you can turn it in any way you want.

Now you may be asking ‘well Andrew, that’s all well and good, but how does that apply to us?’ (I asked myself a similar question!) This is what I came up with. As Christians, we need a spiritual bit. As we see in later verses the tongue “can no man tame; it is an unruly evil” (verse 7). As Christians what we say can affect ours, and everyone else’s, lives. Proverbs 18:21 says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue”. The tongue holds great possibilities for us, with it we can share the gospel, sing songs and praise God, but it can also be used to ruin people, to start wars and to cause death.

Everyone has experienced moments of anger where they have said something they did not mean which possibly affected someone for the rest of their life. In verse 7 James calls it unruly. As a horse without a bit is unruly so is a Christian without their spiritual bit. With a horse the bit demands obedience and directs the paths, with a Christian the spiritual bit does the exact same.

So what is this spiritual bit? The answer: God. God is our spiritual bit. As the bit overcomes the wild nature of the horse so God overcomes our sinful nature. If we have God as our spiritual bit we will obey Him and He will be able to control our whole body.  another thing to point out is that the bit goes in the horse’s mouth. Have you ever tried to talk with something in your mouth? It is not easy. The idea of a spiritual bit is this: If we have God in our mouth (figuratively) then 3 things will happen. 1) We will obey Him, 2) He will guide us and 3) We will not be able to use our tongues for the wrong thing.

Verse 4 says “Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.” Here we have another example. This time imagine a mighty ship, pushed along by fierce winds, but yet they are controlled with a small rudder in whatever direction the governor wants it to go. Again we are shown something small controlling something mighty and again we see the picture of the unruly tongue. Even the greatest man, if he is not careful, will be driven by the ferocity of his tongue. But there is something small which can control it. We saw in verse 2 that a control of the tongue means a control of the whole body and in this case a control of the rudder gives control of the whole ship. Notice though that it is something small controlling the larger. A bit of self-control, with God’s help, goes a long way.

Why is the tongue so dangerous though? Matthew 12:34 says this “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” What is in the heart will be what comes out of the mouth. If Jesus is the Lord of your heart he will also be the Lord of your tongue.  It is when our hearts are filled with anger, bitterness and hatred that problems occur.

Let me ask you today, have you got your spiritual bit and rudder? Is God controlling what you say? Is He guiding you? Realise that what you say holds a lot more significance than you know. With this in mind it is so important to control your tongue. It doesn’t take much, we have seen this. Just let God take control.  Give God the control of your tongue and watch how it affects your life and everyone around you. – Andrew.

Watch Your Mouth!

James 3:1-2 says “¹My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. ²For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”

Chapter 3 deals a lot with the tongue and the dangers of it. From what we have seen already in James already we see that what Christians say is a very important aspect of their faith. As we will see in lessons to come James’ audience had a big problem with how they conducted their speech. James has already warned them to be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. This would give us the indication that the believers this is written to were very outspoken and did not listen like they should have been and consequently arguments inevitably arose.

Verse 1 hits on another problem that is still around today. The first part of the verse says “My brethren, be not many masters”. The phrase ‘my brethren’ shows us that this is talking to believers so this applies to us today. The next bit says ‘be not many masters’. From this we can gather there was an obvious problem with leadership. Everyone wanted to be in a position of leadership, perhaps because of the authority or perhaps because of the prestigious office. Whatever the case may be we can see there was a problem. However, these people desiring to be in an office did not consider the tremendous responsibility and more importantly their accountability. Those who are in a position of leadership face a far stricter judgement. Teachers of God’s word must teach God’s word; but they must also be accountable in everything else they say. They must speak the truth. They must also adhere to what they preach! If you are a spiritual leader you can’t go around telling people not do things when you yourself are doing them. You have to practice what you preach. Otherwise you are in danger of being called a hypocrite. Un-salvageable damage has been caused in people’s lives from preachers and teachers who were unprepared or whose spiritual life was not up to par.

The second part of the verse says “knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.” This links back into my previous point about accountability and responsibility. If a spiritual leader is leading his church in the wrong direction, preaching false doctrine, gossiping, lying, bullying, slandering, cursing or using his tongue to talk about things that aren’t glorifying to God then this ‘leader’ is in danger of the souls he has led astray. He will not be sent to hell if he is truly saved but he will not be rewarded for his incorrect service. A spiritual leader must conduct his words in a fitting manner at all times.

Verse 2 says “For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” The first phrase ‘for in many things we offend all’ is like an expansion pack to all believers. It is not just the leaders who are accountable for things they say. Neither is it just the things that are said. The verse says ‘for in many things’. There are people out there who are always offended by the smallest things. There is always something you do that is going to offend someone. This will be explained in more detail in later lessons.

The second part of the verse says “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” James 1:26 explains that if any man who seems to be religious but doesn’t bridle his tongue hasn’t got true religion. Now we see here that if there is a man who does not offend in what he says then this man is perfect. We also notice something very interesting. We see that a man who doesn’t offend with his words is able to take control of his whole body. A person who can control his speech can control everything.  As we will see in later lessons the tongue is an uncontrollable member. With this in mind we notice that a man who can control the most uncontrollable member of his body can control everything.

Let me ask you today, can you control your tongue? Do you desire to be a leader when in reality you need to be the one being taught? Are you trying to force your way into a ministry when you have no place being there? Realise today that some people are just not called to the ministry and forcing your way in will not result in a blessing. If you are a spiritual leader are you adhering to the things that you teach or do you go around slandering and lying? Are you teaching proper doctrine? Realise that if you are in a leadership position you are held accountable for the people you lead. Also realise today that it is not just the spiritual leaders who are accountable for the things they say. Every Christian has an obligation to control their tongue. If you can control your tongue then you can control the rest of yourself. Self-control is an important part of Christian life. If you are not up  to scratch today I pray that you will take it to the Lord and confess what needs to be confessed and ask for His help to get over it. If you are a gossip ask for forgiveness and change. If you are a liar ask for forgiveness and change. If you are constantly running people down ask for forgiveness and change. If you are doing anything that is not glorifying to God then take it to God and change. The only way to be effective as a Christian is to set the right example with a little self-control. – Andrew.

 

Flaunting Faith

James 2:21-26 says “²¹Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? ²²Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? ²³And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. ²⁴Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. ²⁵Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? ²⁶For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

In these last verses James is bringing his point to the end. Due to the fact that this whole chapter is one continual point you do have to look back to other verses to get the full picture of what’s going on.

Verse 21 says “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?” James concludes his point by giving us some examples, the first of which as we can see from the verse is Abraham. Romans 4:2-3 says “²For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. ³For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” From these verses, and from the rest of Romans 4, we see that Abraham was not justified by works but by faith. Now you may be saying ‘but Andrew, the verse in James says that he was justified by works, is this not a contradiction?’ at first it may seem this way, but delving deeper into Gods word reveals all.

Justification is an important doctrine in the bible. Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous on the basis of Christ’s finished work on the cross. It is not a process; it is an act. Justification is not something the sinner does but rather something God does for the sinner when he trusts Christ. But how can you tell if someone is justified by faith if this justification takes place between the sinner and God privately?  This is where Abraham comes into it. The justified person has a changed life and obeys God’s will. His faith is shown by his works. God knows the heart of a person and whether they are justified or not, but the justification spoken of in James 2:21 is a justification in the eyes of man. People saw his works and through this knew he had faith. His works did not justify him; instead his works showed he was justified. The second part of verse says “when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?” I once read faith described like this:

Faith is not believing in spite of evidence; faith is obeying in spite of consequence

When God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son what did he do? He willingly obeyed. Abraham knew the consequences, he knew he was going to lose his son, but he obeyed anyway; trusting that God had good reason for doing whatever He was doing.  This was Abrahams work. You may be saying ‘well no-one actually saw Abraham put his son on the alter’ and in saying that you would be right, but we have a divine account which tells us all about it. Anyone who has read Genesis in the last few thousand years has read of Abrahams willing obedience. Everyone has seen his faith in obeying God and through this we see his justification. He was willing to do whatever God told him to do, no matter how difficult; if this is not evidence of a changed life and a living faith then I don’t know what is!

Verse 22 goes on to say “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” we can see through Abrahams willing obedience that his faith was a working one. his “faith wrought with his works”. There was a perfect relationship between Abrahams faith and Abrahams works. Someone once said ‘Abraham was not saved by faith plus works, but by a faith that worked’. Abraham had a working faith, it was not dead, but instead it was ready to obey anything God told it to do. By faith Abraham was justified by God and his righteousness declared; by works he was justified before men and his righteousness demonstrated. Going back to verse 18 which says “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” We see here that Abraham was showing his faith by his works. Back in verse 22 we also see how “by works was faith made perfect?” in other words Abraham’s faith was made complete by what he did. Imagine a picture that had been torn it two. One half of the picture was faith, the other half was works. Each piece on their own is not a complete picture; it’s only when they are brought together and put side by side that the picture is complete.

Verse 23 goes on to say “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:3 both state this verse. We see that scripture was fulfilled which said that Abraham believed God. Abraham’s faith was never inactive; it was accounted to him for righteousness. His obedience gained him the title “the friend of God”. What a title! To be the very friend of God, to commune with Him and spend time with Him; this for the Christian is one of the greatest honours and privileges, and all because he had a working faith!

Verse 24 confirms this. The verse says “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only”. Now before I continue I want to make a note that this verse is still in context of the example of Abraham. Many people take this verse out of context to try and say that you can get to heaven through works. This however is wrong. The context of the verse is that of Abraham, why would James suddenly jump from an example in the past to a present comment that wasn’t relevant to what he had just said? The answer: he didn’t. Verse 24 is part of the Abraham example and is not to be taken out of context. This verse is simply pointing out that a justifying faith is a working faith. Taking it in context with the previous verses there were those who thought they had faith but could not prove it. This verse shows that to be justified in the eyes of men, to be able to prove you have faith, there has to be works. Just claiming a faith does not justify you. There needs to be evidence.

I cannot stress enough though that I am in no way, shape or form saying that you need good works to get to heaven. You cannot work your way to heaven, trying too shows that you are not fully trusting in God’s salvation.  Works do not get you to heaven, before or after salvation. Works come about as evidence of a changed life. To prove your faith you have to work. God does not need proving too, He already knows your faith; works are for other people to see. Not to boast about, but instead to glorify God. You show your faith by what you say and do.

Verse 25 gives us another example. The verse says “Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?” this is another story from the Old Testament. This example deals with Rahab when she helped the Jewish spies escape when she found out that God was going to destroy the city. We see again that she showed her faith through her actions. Her deeds did not save her, the faith that spurred the deeds saved her.

The last verse in chapter 2 says “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” This is James conclusion to his point. As the body without the spirit is dead; so too is faith dead without works. The one relies on the other. You need both in order for them to be alive. A bicycle is capable of movement; but simply sitting on it (in most cases) will not make it go. It is not until you put your legs to work that you start to go somewhere. Sitting on the seat and putting your feet on the peddles but not doing anything is going to result in you falling off. This is like faith without works. However if you sit on the seat, put your feet on the peddles and start to do some work you’ll start to go forward. This is like faith with work. Not only will you go forward but you will be stable. A faith that is moving and working is a faith that will go far.

Look into your heart today. Search your faith and see how it measures up. Are you showing your faith through what you do? Can you see that faith without works is a dead faith? I pray that today you will assess yourself and see how your faith fairs. – Andrew.

Louder Than Words

James 2:18-20 “¹⁸Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. ¹⁹Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. ²⁰But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”

Verses 18 and 19 are two of my favourite verses in James; they convey such a great truth in a simple yet effective manner.

Verse 18 sets out a great summary of the previous lesson. The verse says “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works”. James here gives the picture of a man coming up to another and saying “you have faith, and I have works: show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works”. Here again we see one person who is all talk and no work. This man says he has faith but with no works to go along with it how can he prove it? Have you ever heard the expression ‘actions speak louder than words’? It amazes me how true this saying is. The other man says that he will show his faith by his works. The first man stands around saying he has faith whereas the second man has no time to stand around saying he has faith, instead he’s out doing what he has been commanded to do and through this his faith is proved. Having faith is believing what the bible teaches. If we believe the bible, then we must also believe that it is our Christian duty to help people and spread the gospel. Thus, if works elude our life then how does this show others that we are believing? And if we cannot show we are believing how can we show we have faith? Always remember that actions speak louder than words. Instead of standing about talking about your faith how about going out and proving it?

Verse 19 is another cracking verse that cuts straight to the heart. The verse says “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” Talk about a complacency buster! Some people put faith as just knowledge of God.  They think that because they know there is a God that they instantly have a faith.  They couldn’t be further from the truth though. For one we’ve already seen that you cannot have faith without works, the second thing we see is that knowledge of God is not enough. The verse starts out “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well”. The verse is saying ‘you believe there’s one God, good job!’ in my mind this has a slightly sarcastic/humorous tinge to it, especially when the rest is taken into consideration. The rest of the verse says “the devils also believe, and tremble.” The verse says ‘you believe there’s one God, good job: the devils believe that too, and tremble.’ Not only do the devils believe that there is one God, they tremble! They show more reverence and faith that some believers do! If this doesn’t spur a change then nothing will. Verse 20 gives further emphasis.

Verse 20 says “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” continuing on from the point in verse 19 James continues with a ‘but’. The word but in Greek is de which is translated to mean now. So James is saying ‘now will you know’. James, having made his point, is asking them if they will change. The verse continues “O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” he starts out by saying “O vain man”. The word ‘vain’ is the Greek word kenos which is translated empty. James is emphasising on their empty faith. Therefore the verse is saying ‘now will you know, O empty man, that faith without works is dead’. James is hoping that his message had finally hit home. He makes the point again that faith without works is dead. An inactive faith is an ineffective faith; an inactive faith is an empty faith and an inactive faith is a false faith.

Today assess your own heart. Are you the Christian who stands around saying you faith, but not doing anything to show it? Do you claim to have faith because you know there is one God? If you are one of those people today take heed of what verse 19 says. Know that the devils believe there is a God, but this knowledge does not prove a saving faith.do you know today that a faith without works is dead? Is your faith living today? Is it growing stronger and stronger each day the more you work for God. Are your actions speaking louder than words? – Andrew.

Lonely Faith

James 2:14-17 “¹⁴What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵if a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, ¹⁶and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needed to the body; what doth it profit? ¹⁷even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone”

Over the past few days we have seen that James chapter 2 has dealt a lot with our attitudes towards people, and today carries the same theme. From here on in some very controversial verses are dealt with, but with a closer look into the word of God the message is clear.

Verse 14 poses an important question to us as believers. The verse says “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? Here the bible is challenging our service. The verse is saying, ‘what good is it, though a man say he has faith, but doesn’t show it through works? Can that kind of faith save him?’ it is a sad truth that there are people who claim to have saving faith yet do not possess salvation.  It is important to keep in mind that wherever God has a truth Satan has a counterfeit. Jesus himself gives us a clear warning in Matthew 7:21 which says: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Notice that verse 14 uses the phrase “though a man say he hath faith”. Notice this man is only saying that he has faith; but with no outward works to show his faith how can he prove he has it? What good is it saying you have faith but having nothing to show that you do? There are many people out there who have the right vocabulary and say the right things, but when it comes down to it their walk does not measure up to their talk. They go around thinking that their words are a good enough substitute for works, but we see this is wrong from the next few verses.

Verses 15 and 16 continues “¹⁵if a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, ¹⁶and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needed to the body; what doth it profit?” verse 15 and 16 gives the perfect example of verse 14. Here James gives the picture of a Christian Brother or sister coming into a fellowship without clothes or food. One of the believers who says he has faith says to them ‘go on in peace, be warmed and filled’ but doesn’t give them the things they need, then what good is this? Here we see that words are no substitute for works. You can tell someone you’re going to do something, but unless you do it then it’s no good to anyone.

Verse 17 gives a thought-evoking conclusion. The verse says “¹⁷even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone”. Here we see that the people, who claim they have faith, but do not have works, have a dead faith, because their faith is alone. You see faith and works go hand in hand. Note here that I am NOT saying that salvation requires works; I’m saying that works come about after salvation as proof of a changed life. Any declaration of faith that does not result in a changed life and good works is a false declaration. That kind of faith is a dead faith. The person who has dead faith has the knowledge of salvation, but they have never dedicated their life and accepted Christ as their saviour. He knows the right words, but cannot back it up with the right works. We see that when we get saved we get a new life, we are born again. Now with new life you expect growth. In order to grow as Christians in our faith there must be the presence of good works. If there is not good works then this faith is dead and there can be no growth.

Before writing this I listened to a song called “deeds”. The first chorus goes “if you don’t have faith you have nothing at all, if you don’t have deeds your faith will fall, they can’t be true without each other, you can’t have one without the other” the second chorus goes “if you don’t have deeds you have nothing at all, if you don’t have faith your deeds will fall, they can’t be true without each other, you can’t have one without the other”. I think this is a fantastic way of putting it. To start with if you don’t have saving faith then you don’t have anything, next if you don’t have deeds to show this faith your faith will fail. The second chorus puts it another way. This time it says that if you don’t have deeds you have nothing at all, and if you don’t have faith your deeds will fall. Think of it as your heart as your faith and your brain as your deeds. The heart supplies blood to the brain, but the brain sends electrical impulses to keep your heart beating. They cannot function or even exist without each other. The exact same is seen with faith and deeds. They have to be co-existent, or both will be non-existent.

How is your faith today? Is it dead being without works? Do you go around trying to substitute words for works? Or are you a do-gooder without faith? Understand today that one cannot exist without the other. If you’re a Christian today how are your deeds? Are they showing your faith or are you just talking about it? Search your heart today; make sure that your faith isn’t dead. If it is do not worry though, there is a remedy. Our God has power over death. He can raise your dead faith into living faith. Go to God today, ask for His help. You will know when your faith is living, the proof of a changed life is the desire to do works. You will start serving Christ the way you should be. Don’t settle for a dead faith, revive it today! – Andrew.

Mercifully Happy

 

“Mercy (compassion) rejoiceth against judgement” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

James 2:12-13 says “¹²So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³For he shall have judgement without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgement.”

 

Before we begin its important that we clarify something before people get confused. Both Jesus (John 5:24) and Paul (Romans 8:1) assure us that Christian believers will NEVER be judged for their sins. However, Christians will be judged for their deeds which they have or have not done.

 

This lesson is to be taken in context with yesterdays. Yesterday verses 8-11 were discussed where we saw believers who didn’t love the way they should have been. We saw that in failing to meet one aspect of being a Christian they were failing in everything. They were justifying themselves by pointing out the aspects they were meeting but they weren’t realising that God who said to those other things also said to do the thing they were not doing and in this they were found as transgressors.

 

Back in verse 12 James is talking to the believers again who had been respecting rich men and despising the poor. The verse says “so speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty”. The word “so” here is the Greek word houto meaning thus or in this manner. In this we see that this is referring back to the previous verses. Therefore this verse is saying: “you are speaking in this manner, and doing things in this manner. You’re acting like those who are going to be judged; you’re acting in a carnal way” (look back over verses 8-11 to get the whole picture).

 

Verse 13 goes on to emphasise this point. The verse says “For he shall have judgement without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgement.” This verse is saying that God will judge without mercy to those who have shown no mercy, but to those who have shown mercy can rejoice in the fact that they have security in their merciful ways. I believe this is referring to the Christians judgement concerning deeds. The Christians, like the ones discussed in the preceding verses, who showed no mercy to the poor but instead despised them will not receive any rewards concerning their acts; but those Christians who show mercy to others can rejoice in the fact that they will not be judged for not being merciful and they can rejoice in this.

 

Just as a side note here the word “mercy” is the Greek word eleos which is translated compassion. With this in mind it goes back to love being the fulfilment of the law (see yesterday’s lesson for more on this). In this we can see that the Christian who does not love everyone is breaking the foundation upon which Christianity itself is built. The unloving Christian will be judged in an unloving way, but the Christian who has shown true love to all can rejoice in the knowledge that they will not be judged in this way.

 

Ask yourself today how loving you are. Do you despise people? Do you go around saying you hate this and hate that? If so search your heart today and get rid of this hatred. We are commanded to love everyone. The past cannot be changed but the future can. If you’ve been unloving in the past ask God for forgiveness and start afresh. Ask God to help you love everyone the way He loves them. Ask for His compassion and His love for people. Don’t subject yourself to an unloving judgement. After all, it is far easier to love than to hate. – Andrew.

 

It Only Takes One

Breaking one link severs the whole chain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

James 2:8-11 says “⁸If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: ⁹But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. ¹⁰For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. ¹¹For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.”

In this lesson we see James coming to the end of his point about the rich and the poor. The two previous lessons from James 2:1-7 taught on our attitude towards people’s social standings; now in these verses James breaks it down into its simplest form.

Verse 8 contains one of the greatest truths in the bible. The verse says “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well”. From this verse we see that the royal law according to the scripture is love. This one sentence thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself is the fulfilment of all commandments.  Luke 10:25-37 explains to us that everyone is our neighbour so following this we are to love everyone. Going through the 10 commandments this truth can be plainly seen. If you love God you will not put other gods before him, if you love God you will not make false idols, if you love God you will remember the holy day to worship Him, if you love your parents you will not dishonour them, if you love someone you will not kill them, if you love someone you will not commit adultery, if you love someone you will not steal from them, if you love someone you will not lie to them and if you love someone you will not covet what they have. Love is the fulfilment of the law. Verse 8 tells us that if we fulfil this royal law according to the scriptures then we do well. It is good for us to love everyone. Keeping in mind the preceding verses spoke of how the people hated the poor and loved the rich so this verse is emphasising that we are to love everyone regardless of wealth or social standings. This is the right thing to do.

Verse 9 gives the clincher. It says “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors”. The verse says simply that if you have respect of persons then this is a sin and you are convicted of the law as transgressors. You may be asking what the big deal about respect is. Now I’m not saying that we should have a reverential respect to our elders, I’m simply saying that when we lift someone up on a pedestal that isn’t Jesus we have a problem. When someone gets our respect because of what they have and not who they are then this person has become an idol of sorts. This also ties in with my previous point. If we respect someone so much as to exalt them above other people then this is not showing an attitude of love for all people. This is showing a higher love for one person, inadvertently saying that other people aren’t loved as much. This placing people above God and not following the law of love is therefore a sin.

Verse 10 goes into more detail about sin. The verse says “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all”. This is a verse I would often use it giving people the gospel. People would say to me ‘I’ve never robbed a bank, I’ve never killed anyone, I’m a good person so surely I’ll get to heaven’ and this is the verse I take them too. The verse says whoever keeps the law, but offends in just one point, he is guilty of all. People have this distorted view that there are varying levels of sin; but it’s clear that there isn’t. From this verse we can see that one little lie puts you on the same level as a murderer. Now this may seem extreme, but from a holy perspective sin is still sin no matter how big or small. Everyone is guilty of breaking every aspect of the law. No sinner is worse than another. Everyone is on the same level.

Verse 11 goes on to emphasise the previous point. The verse says “For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.” The verse is saying that God said do not commit adultery, but he also said do not kill. Now if you don’t commit adultery, but you kill someone, then you are still a transgressor of the law. You have still broken one of God’s commandments. Think of the commandments like this. God is on one end of a chain; you are at the other end hanging on over a pit. There are 10 links of the chain between you and God (each link represents a commandment). Now keep verse 10 and 11 in mind. Say that you broke one of these links; Just one little link. What’s going to happen? You are going to fall. No matter which link you break you are still going to fall. Any link that is broken leaves you with the same result. Everyone’s chain is broken. From the first lie you told this chain was broken. You and I are as guilty as the next person.

Today ask yourself how much love you’re giving. Are you committing sin by exalting someone instead of Jesus? Realise today that one sin separates from God. There are no varying levels of sin; there is just sin. Don’t go around thinking you are good enough to get to heaven, because truth be told no one is good enough to get to heaven. We are all sinners. The only way there is through accepting Christ as your saviour (for more on this read the saved section). Evaluate your life today. Seek where you are going. Sort out any sin in your life. We’re no better than the next person. – Andrew.

Empty Handed but not Empty Hearted

Empty handed but not empty hearted (Photo credit: Richard Garten)

James 2:5-7 says “ ⁵Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? ⁶But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgement seats? ⁷Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?

This is a continuation from yesterday’s lesson ‘Pruning Partiality’. in James 2:1-4 we saw the problem that many people suffer with; respect of persons. We saw that faith and respect of persons cannot coexist, we saw that if we have a double standard about people then we are partial in ourselves and we saw that this partiality is nothing less than judgement of evil thoughts. Today’s lesson carries on the thought of the rich and poor.

The opening phrase of verse 5 is “Hearken, my beloved brethren”. James is just saying ‘guys, listen to what I’m saying!’ from this we can gather that there is obviously an important lesson coming. The verse continues “Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?” The first phrase we notice is “Hath God not chosen the poor” it is important to see that while men choose and exalt the rich of this world; God chooses and exalts the poor of this world. Man and God have two different ideas about true wealth. It is a beautiful picture that the poor of this world are rich beyond measure. Now you may be asking ‘how can the poor be rich?’ Well…

Firstly we see they are rich in faith. Often for someone who is poor, faith in the Lord that He will provide is a big thing. Generally someone who is rich in money will be poor in faith. They will rely on their money to see them through; but they forgot who gave them money in the first place! People soon forget that the money God gives them if used wrong can just as easily be taken away. Those who have nothing rely on God for everything. It is this trusting which makes them rich in faith.

The second thing we see is that the poor are “heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him” we can see two things from this point. The first is that the poor are heirs of the kingdom. Not only are they rich in faith, they are royalty! The second thing we see is that the poor are heirs to the kingdom because they love God. While the rich love their money and their possessions the poor love God. For man to love the world and its possessions is to hate God. The rich man fears death because of what he loses; the poor man rejoices in death because of what he gains. It is impossible for a man to follow after money and follow after God. I’m not saying that having nice things is wrong; I’m saying that it’s our attitude towards them. It’s when we put things higher than God that problems occur. Rich men idolise money. They place it above God and God does not tolerate that. It’s not a sin to have money; it only becomes a sin when it is used for the wrong reasons or in the wrong way.

The start of verse 6 shows us the attitude James’ audience had: “But ye have despised the poor.” we see simply that the people hated the poor. Their vision of the world had been completely distorted by money. They respected these men who had lots of money but more than likely no faith while they despised the men who had nothing except strong faith. James’ brethren who he was writing too had an eye for wealth, not for God. They wanted the big buildings and fancy pulpits instead of the members of strong faith. A church is not a building. A church is the people. If the people are superficial and don’t care about God then their ‘church’ will go nowhere; but if the people are poor and lowly and rely on God for everything then this church will be strong. The verse continues “Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgement seats?” this is a real kicker! James says these same men who you respect and give the best seats to in your assembly, are they not the same men who oppress you and who bring you to judgment? Talk about irony!

Verse 7 puts the final nail in the coffin. It says “Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?” James carries on to say that these rich men that you respect so much and offer them the best seats in your assembly, are they not the ones who oppress you and judge you, are they not the ones who blaspheme the very name by which you are called. Are these men not the hypocrites who bless God in church and curse Him outside of it? Are these men not the same men who put the same money in the collection that they put into bribery? Are these men not the same men who make money their idol? James brings them to the realisation that the same men they respect are the same men who will sell them out. They have been putting their trust and respect into the world instead of into God; and because of this their vision of what’s really important has strayed far away. Money put a blindfold on the believers. As they walked along they could not see where they were going or who they were following. When the word of God finally removed the blindfold they looked around and didn’t recognise where they were. They were so far from the truth, so far from what was important that they had lost sight of it altogether.

Realise today that the rich men you may choose to be in your assembly may not be the men God has chosen. Don’t look to a man’s worldly wealth, look to his spiritual welfare. No one can buy their way into heaven. They can’t invest in some scheme to fast track them to being heirs of the kingdom. However, there is something YOU can do. You can invest your time into the spreading of the gospel. You can make poor men rich in faith. Don’t be a respecter of persons; it won’t do you any good. Be a respecter of God and follow his plans for your life. Follow after God, not money. You can only have one master in your life, who’s yours? – Andrew