James 1:5-18
A Heart that Wants to Believe (vv. 5-8)—“Let him ask of God who giveth liberally”
a. “Asking” is 90% of praying, but what are we to ask for? The answer is “wisdom.”
b. James has a lot to say about “wisdom” (1:5; 3:13-18).
Knowledge is the ability to take things apart, while wisdom is the ability to put them together.
Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. Being educated or intelligent does not make one wise, or necessarily give one common sense.
c. Why is wisdom so necessary to seek? Why not strength, or grace or deliverance? Wisdom is the only one of these that will not let us miss the opportunities, which God has given to us to bring us to maturity.
The Wonderful promises made to us when we ask God for Wisdom
o God will give us wisdom
o God will give us a liberal amount – an abundance of wisdom
d. James compares the doubting Christian to the waves of the sea, up and down; or to a “double-minded man.”
Both indicate instability in the mind. Peter exemplified such in his attempt to walk on the water to Jesus (Mt. 14:22-33). At first, he kept his eyes on Jesus, but then the roar of the wind and the tossing of the waves distracted him and he ceased to walk by faith. His double-mindedness almost cost him his life.
A Christian who loves God will trust Him in the trials of life and not become double-minded, i. e. try to love God and the world. Lot was double-minded when trials came to him, in contrast to Abraham, whom triumphed and matured in his faith.
Paul described such a person in a similar way: “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Ep. 4:14). Immaturity and instability go together.
e. James closes this section with a beatitude: “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation” (v. 12). He started and ended with “joy.” Such joy anticipates the Crown of Life, or the Sufferer’s Crown, which awaits every Christian who suffers without faltering, or who endures to patience without complaining. Of course, the main motivation to suffer to maturity is to bring God glory, but the rewards are also out of this world. Each crown is earned here on earth, in order that we can cast them at Jesus’ feet in heaven. First cross, then the crown.
James uses the word “love” to show our true devotion and motivation. Love is behind each of the imperatives in this section. Love is the reason for the joyful attitude in trials, the understanding mind, the surrendered will, and the believing heart. Love involves trust, trusting God in all situations. Count, know, let, and ask your way to growing from an immature baby to a grown and mature pilgrim, as you run the race through this world which is not your home.
The Significance of Trials and Temptations (James 1:13-18)
Sometimes trials are testings on the outside, and sometimes they occur as temptations on the inside. God sends the first and Satan sends the second. Why does James connect the two?
Wiersbe explained:
“What is the relationship between testings without and temptations within? Simply this: if we are not careful, the testings on the outside may become temptations on the inside. When our circumstances are difficult, we may find ourselves complaining against God, questioning His love, and resisting His will. At this point, Satan provides us with an opportunity to escape the difficulty. This opportunity is a temptation.” [Be Mature, p. 35]
How to deal with temptations
Look ahead and beware of judgment (vv. 13-16)
There are many biblical illustrations of this problem:
Abraham is tested by a famine in Canaan, but instead of proving God, he turns it into a temptation and goes to Egypt for help.
Israel is wandering in the wilderness and is tested in the lack of water. Instead of turning it into a time for God to work, they allow Satan to work and complained against God.
(1) God does not tempt and cannot tempt, for He is too holy to do that, but He does test. It is the believer that turns testings into temptations.
A temptation is an opportunity to do a good thing but in a wrong way.
Wanting to pass a test in College is a good thing, but cheating to do it is a bad thing.
Temptation is caused by sin and that sin eventuates into a process. James gives four stages to that process:
Desire (v. 14)
Desires are a part of life and not bad in themselves. If we did not desire to eat we would soon die of starvation.
The problem occurs when we attempt to satisfy those desires outside of God’s will. The desires become “lust.”
Eating is normal, but gluttony is sin.
Sleeping is normal, but laziness is sin.
Marrying is normal, but adultery is sin.
These drives are to be kept in constant control. They must be our servants, not our masters.
Deception (v. 14)
No temptation seems to be a temptation at first, for deception is involved.
James uses illustrations from the exercise of hunting and fishing. “Drawn away” conveys the idea of baiting of a trap and enticing the prey.
Since an animal is not going to deliberately step into a trap or grab a bare hook, deceit is necessary.
The bait is an appeal to our natural desires. For Lot, the bait was the “water-watered plains of Jordan,” and for David it was the beautiful Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop.
Satan tried to deceive Jesus in the wilderness temptation, but each time he was defeated with the Word of God.
Disobedience (v. 15)
The emotions (desire) and the intellect (deception) have now become the will. James changes his illustration to the birth of a baby. Lust has a child and it is sin. Sin has a child and it is death. This has been called the LSD of temptation—lust brings forth sin and sin bears death.
Will power takes over in the process of sinning. We may say, “I don’t feel like doing so and so” or “I don’t feel saved.” Will acts regardless of feelings. When feelings control us, we are vulnerable to temptations, but when will controls us we act right, regardless of our feelings. Paul said: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Ph. 2:13)
Death (v. 15)
Disobedience gives birth to death, not life. It may take years for that baby to be born, but while the mills of God grind slowly, they grind exceedingly fine.
The four steps to temptations are clearly seen in Eve’s encounter with the serpent (Ge. 3:5). Achan in Jos. 7 is another of example of how Satan’s takes one down the path to destruction—He saw the wedges of gold and the Babylonian garment, he coveted, he took, and he was judged.
The only way to overcome temptation is to take our eyes off of the bait and look at the consequences of eating—God’s judgment.
f. Look around and behold God’s goodness (v. 17)
God loves His children and would not withhold any good thing from them, but the Devil tries to convince us that He does not want the best for us. He told Even that God was withholding the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil from her in order to keep her from “knowledge.”
God’s goodness is the barrier to temptation. Moses warned Israel not to forget God’s goodness when they began to enjoy the blessings of the Promised Land (E. 6:10-15).
James presents four facts about God’s goodness.
God gives only good gifts. They may not always seem good to the human perception, but God is perfect and always gives the best.
The way God gives is good. Motive is everything in a gift. The only difference between a gift and a bribe is the motive behind it. Jesus taught this principle in the Sermon on the Mount:
Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a tone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? [Mt. 7:9-11]
He gives constantly. “Cometh down” is a present participle: “it keeps on come down.” God loves to give his children gifts, and they simply rain down, although some go unnoticed by us.
God does not change. There are no shadows with the Father of Lights, no variableness of turning. He is immutable, unchangeable in His essence, His attitudes, or His purpose. God’s goodness is an attribute directed only to His children, and always has our best interests at heart.
It is not the judgment of God that cause us to repent but the goodness. David forgot God’s goodness in the sin with Bathsheba. The prophet Nathan said to him:
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, “I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; and I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.” (2 Sa. 12).
Joseph did not forget God’s goodness when he was seduced by a temptress, Potipher’s wife. He responded to the woman:
Behold, with me around, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil, and sin against God? (Ge. 39:8-9)
Look within and behold your divine nature (v. 18)
James uses the birth illustration in showing how lust births sin and sin births death. He uses the same illustration in v. 18 of the birth of a child of God.
James gives the characteristics of the divine birthing.
It is divine
Nicodemus learned that just as one can cause his own natural birth, neither can her cause his own spiritual birth (Jn. 3:1-7).
Spiritual birth, like physical, is a miracle wrought by God. Our new nature is divine.
It is gracious
We did not choose our physical birth, our parents, the time in which we would be born, or the country into which we would be born.
We did not choose our spiritual birth, either: “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:13).
The new birth is the work of God, not man’s works, nor man’s will, nor man’s ways.
It is wrought by the Word
As natural birth requires to parents biologically, spiritual birth requires two parents—The Word of God and the Spirit of God.
John explains further: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:6). Peter continues: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Pe. 1:23).
It is noble
We are the “firstfruits of His creatures.” The Jew understood that the firstfruits were the first of the harvest, and given to God.
Humans are God’s masterpiece of creation, but Christian humans are the firstfruits. We have God’s nature living inside of us. Therefore, it is beneath our dignity to accept Satan’s bait or to desire sinful things.
Throughout the Bible, God ignores the first birth, but highlights the second birth. The first birth provides the outward man who is carnal and at enmity with God. The second birth provides the inward man, who crucifies the flesh, and yields to the control of God’s Spirit living in us. This new nature must be allowed to grow in spiritual things, while the old nature must be starved to death and crucified. “Man must not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4).
God provides the three barriers to help us conquer temptation: Look ahead to judgment, look around at God’s goodness, and look within to our divine nature.
