How To Avoid The Evil 3 C’s?

Mayor Gerardo Balmori

The Salvation Army

A lot is covered in this passage, but it points to some very important conclusions. We cannot be

comfortable, complacent or cowardly. James, in his most practical style, calls us to be completely

sold out to God. A life that is God-filled will look considerably different from a worldly lifestyle.

The first thing James confronts in this passage is that…

I. We cannot be COMFORTABLE.

Ours is a society built on comfort. Walk into any furniture store, and the name of the game is

comfort. They have chairs with built in heaters and massagers along with drink holders, magazine

pouches and remote control holders. Movie theaters have luxurious seating. Even airlines are

advertising comfortable seating. We are bent on comfort.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, “What is the source of our comfort?” Do we have

permanent comfort or temporary comfort? Eventually the movie usher is going make you get out

of that nice comfortable seat. James examines these two types of comfort. The first is…

A. Temporary COMFORT.

What does it mean to be temporary? It won’t last long. Temporary things go away. When we try to

find our comfort in temporary things problems arise. The first thing we notice is that there is a…

1. False love of the WORLD.

In verse 13, James talks about some people who make big plans about going here and there and

making all kinds of money. James reminds them of something. They had a…

2. False view of LIFE.

Not one of us is guaranteed another day on this earth. None of us are guaranteed to see the sunset

tonight. James says that our life is like a mist. It’s been said that we are living on borrowed time.

None us know when our loan will be called. It could be any minute. We have to look for…

B. Permanent COMFORT.

Where does our permanent comfort come from? It comes from God. It entails a true view of life

and a true love of the world. The first thing that James looks at is a…

1. True view of LIFE.

James says we should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean that we tag that on the end of every sentence we say, but we should

always live under the thought that God is in control, and we aren’t. Our view of life should be that

we rely on God. It’s up to us to view life as a gift from God and not waste any it. That brings us to…

2. True love of the WORLD.

As Christians, we aren’t to love the world; the line of thinking often goes. But the truth is, we are to

love the world. Some Christians have taken that to the extreme of removing totally from the world.

Jesus commanded us to go into all the world and share the Good News of salvation.

We all know that. The problem is that we often don’t follow through on that command. We know

we should, but we don’t do it. We come up with a myriad of excuses: they won’t listen to me, I’m

shy, I’m not sure what to say, they might criticize me, or a host of other reasons.

James says failure to do the right thing is sin. Failure to share Jesus with the world is sin. Are we

so concerned about our appearance before someone that we would rather not tell them about

Jesus, and let them go to Hell? Failure to do the right thing is sin, and we all know the right thing.

James then moves to the problem of complacency.

II. We cannot be COMPLACENT.

Our complacency often comes from looking out for number one. We get so wrapped up in our own

life, job, family, activities, and all that we forget the world while it slips and slides closer to the

precipice of Hell. The problem is in…

A. Looking out for OURSELVES.

In the first six verses of chapter 5, James addresses the people who are only looking out for

themselves. They looked only at their own bottom line. He’s talking about landowners who fail to

pay an agreed wage to workers merely to line their own pockets.

While many of us aren’t rich landowners with hired workers, this can still apply to us.

Why don’t we share Jesus with others? Is it because we are afraid of how someone will respond to

us?

James says that we should be…

B. Looking out for OTHERS.

James’ line of thought throughout this book is that the Church should be on the lookout for others.

We should seek to help others. For example in the first half of chapter 2, James instructs his