Home Page
David Pawson - A Commentary on James Pt2 - Trials and Temptations
Copyright “This David Pawson video is the copyright of ©David Pawson Teaching Trust 2020 and is streamed with the permission of the David Pawson Teaching Trust. For a full library of David’s teaching resources please visit www.davidpawson.org”
Thoughtful Thoughts 8.11.24 by John Dunning. James Part 2
Introduction… A faith that works…
James is writing to all Jews who believe in Jesus Christ, and there were quite a lot by then. The problem was that many were slipping back into the world, especially after Nero’s persecution which resulted in a great many martyrs.
Many believers gave up by going back to their old synagogue by publicly denying their faith in Jesus.
Others were giving up and becoming as worldly as the pagan cultures they had emigrated to.
James says that godliness is keeping on, keeping on, 1:12-15, and not giving up.
The letter of James is written in a style the Jews called ‘musings’, which are thoughts that move between subjects as if thinking out loud.
—
1). Wisdom…
Wisdom is something we lack but may access by asking God for it, in faith, (1:5).
- a) There is worldly wisdom, which is of the flesh and the devil, (3:14-15).
- b) Then there is heavenly wisdom, (3:17-18).
—
2). Money…
Money is something we are warned about, over and over again in the N.T., both here, (1:10-11; 2:1-13; & 5:1-11), and elsewhere in the N.T., by Jesus and other N.T. writers. The N.T. teaching on money in 2 Cor. 9:7, is the complete opposite of the teaching given by many American TV evangelists. Many don’t allow the truth to get in their way of making money.
—
3). Faith…
James puts very simply in the negative form that faith requires it to be acted on or it isn’t faith. A person’s justification depends on faith - but we don’t have faith unless it is put into practice, (1:19-27 & 2:14-25). To the “seeker”, the message is “COME”. Once we have come to faith, God says “be holy for I am holy”.
For “Faith” to be recognised as being faith, God requires that it be acted on. Being acted on, is a requirement.
This is the point that Martin Luther failed to grasp. Whereas Luther was talking about conversion, James is writing about “discipleship”. James is saying we must practise what we preach. To be “Born again”, as Jesus put it, we don’t need “works”, but once we are “Born again”, our faith will be evidenced by what we do.
—
4). Worldliness …
Worldliness comes in many different guises; (3:1-12; 4:13-17) and is self explanatory.
—
5). Godliness …
Godliness is submitting to God; (as we see in; 1:1-4; 1:9; 1:12-18; 4:1-17; 5:7-20).
Note that we are given spiritual birth by acting on the word of truth, (1:16). Compare what Jesus said in the story starting at John 3:3. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. This is how we find Jesus Christ.
—
6). Humility
True repentance & humility. (1:1; 4:6; 4:10).
a). There was more than one “James”. It couldn’t have been James the apostle as he was martyred very early on.
The reason a little bit of detective work was needed, is because the author minimises himself so much, that he doesn’t say who he was, and so we have to do a process of elimination to discover it was James, a brother of Jesus. The fact we have to do detective work is a glimpse of the new found humility that James found after discovering who his “brother” was. He did a “U” turn upon discovering that. James starts by simply declaring he is a servant of God - and Jesus.
-
b). In the same way Jude simply says, “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James”. That kind of self-minimising is what happened to all those who met Jesus after His resurrection. They (including Peter) never again puffed themselves up, claiming to be this or that great person.
-
c). Now if you remember, Mary “kept these things in her heart” regarding Jesus’ birth. She knew that Jesus pre-existed but never told her natural children about the supernatural birth of Jesus. (In fact Jesus called Mary, “woman” and not “mother”.)
-
d). This discovery of who Jesus is, Jesus left to be made individually. Jesus appeared to this particular James after the resurrection, (1 Cor. 15:7), even before appearing to the apostles. Imagine the horror when it dawned on James just how badly he had once treated Jesus, (Mark 3:21 & 33). James had done a complete turnabout, and that is what the word “repent” means. They all developed the same attitude of John the Baptist, when he said, “He must increase and I must decrease”. James and Jude no longer called themselves brothers or half brothers of Jesus, but servants, after realising who Jesus is.
—
7). Practising what we preach…
James is saying that we must put into practice what we believe, or the truth has not yet come to us. If we fail to practise our faith, it is dead. (James 2:26.) We must DO what the Bible says; (1:16; 1:19-27; 2:22-25). Jews would agree with this Jewish letter, except for just one thing – and that is the proclamation of Jesus being both the Christ and the Lord. After Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, He enables us to DO what He says. One of the names for the Holy Spirit is “Helper”. Jesus Christ said that the Holy Spirit would be sent by Him to be in His place on earth. This is important. It means it is not popes who can take that title for themselves, even though they very cheekily disobey Jesus by taking the Holy Spirit’s title, for themselves.
Read James ch.2 whilst looking up the references this week, as there’s a lot to think about in this letter.
This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.
This link takes you to our devotional https://blog.inspirationalmedia.org.nz/
This ministry is a registered charity in New Zealand. Please consider supporting us financially. Your support enables us to continue providing FREE discipleship resources, an internet radio station and also REACH OUT TO CHINA with a Chinese website touchina.org.nz. Thanks for partnering with us in the mission! Below is a secure donation link:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=52MB57P7B3DW2
--------- Click HERE for our previous broadcasts --------
Inspirational Radio…
We have launched our new online discipleship ‘radio’ station…. which is streamed from our new website:- https://InternetChristianRadio.com/
Our new website station “Inspirational Media Radio”, has hour-long Bible readings, David Pawson sermons, testimonies, and classic hymns. Just follow the website links.
PS: In order to cut costs, our office has needed to move to being more of a part time service provider, so bear with us if there is a time lag in our responsiveness, and if you wish to help sustain us, Cyber Membership helps us and enables you to have substantial benefits all round. (See “Membership Options” ).