James 1:16-18
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 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. 18 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 had just said that God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone with evil. Now James cautions the believers to not be deceived by people who teach falsely about God. There was deception in the early church as there is today as well. In fact Jesus told the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares because He knew that there would be deceivers in the church. (Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43). Once we allow ourselves to get deceived concerning the nature of God, it’s only a matter of time before we get back into our old life of sin, resulting in death.
Then he goes on to tell the believers that every good and every perfect gift comes from above, meaning, from Heaven, and comes down to us from God Himself. That is something we should never forget. Because God is good and perfect, therefore everything that comes from God is also good and perfect as well. Love, grace, mercy, wisdom, hope, joy, peace, eternal life and the like, all come from God. The opposite is also true – nothing bad or imperfect comes from God.
He then refers to God as the Father of lights, perhaps referring to God being the creator of the lights in the sky – the Sun the Moon and the stars. These lights serve mankind – no matter who we are, and how we live, depicting the good nature of God, irrespective of our lifestyles. Earlier Jesus had said, in Matthew 5:45, “That you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
At the time that these words were spoken, the only lights that were prevalent in the world would have been the sun, the moon and the stars. Other lights would have been those created by fire. It’s only 18 centuries later that the light bulb was invented and the word, ‘light,’ took on new meaning. So until then, the light that shone always caused shadows that were never stationary, as the source of the light was also not stationary. So what James seems to be saying here is that though the light that God created seems to be constantly on the move (though they really don’t move, but the earth does), yet the God who created them is unchanging. So if God is known to be good all the time, it means that His gifts too are good, and perfect all the time as well.
The quicker we come to this realization that all that God gives us is good and perfect, the quicker we will stop grumbling at or questioning what He gives us, and we will become grateful for his gifts and blessings in our lives. It’s a tragedy when we look at blessings and interpret them as anything other than blessings.
James goes on to say that God brought us new life, and this was His will/plan/thinking, meaning that He was not influenced by anyone to do this. This reminds me of what the Apostle John said in John 1:12-13, “12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John too was making a reference to the fact that our being born again had nothing to do with man’s will/planning/thinking but it was part of God’s plan. James says that God raised us to a new life through faith in the Word of Truth. The Gospel is the message of the truth of God’s love and salvation to the world. It’s the message of Jesus who was the Word made flesh, who was full of Grace and Truth (John 1:14) and also, ‘The Way, The Truth and The Life.’ (John 14:6). Those of us who put our faith in the work of Jesus on our behalf through his death, burial and resurrection, are now born of God (John 1:12-14).
Now we who have been born again are the firstfruits of a harvest as it were, and the hope is that many more millions will come to faith in God through Jesus just like we did. It is God’s will that all men be saved and that none perish, and so James refers to those early Christians who had come to faith in Jesus, as the firstfruits of a much larger soon-to-be, harvest.
James 1:19-20
19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
James then goes on to encourage the believers to learn a very important tip while communicating with one another. Remember how the world had one language and they decided to pursue a futile endeavor to build a tower that would reach the heavens? What did God do at the time? Instead of destroying the building or destroying the builders, He decided to break the lines of communication between them, by causing them to speak different languages. That’s how the world began speaking different languages initially. With no understanding of each other, the work came to a standstill – such is the power of communication. Therefore, if we are to be united, we need to learn how to communicate well with one another.
Communication seems to be the main reason for most conflicts in relationships. We need to learn to listen carefully, speak carefully and control our anger if we are to build and maintain healthy relationships.
James suggests a great formula that serves us even today while communicating with one another. Firstly, we need to be swift / quick to hear, meaning that we need to take the time and effort to listen actively – not passively. It’s only when we take time to listen to someone – even one with whom we might have a difference of opinion or might be in conflict with, that we have the chance to understand their point of view. Understanding another’s point of view might itself resolve the conflict before it flares out of control. For some people, listening comes easily, and almost naturally, while for others, it might take a lot more effort to do, but James seems to be saying that it’s worth the effort, if we are to build and maintain healthy relationships.
The second thing he encourages them to do is to be slow to speak. By ‘slow to speak,’ he is not necessarily saying that we change the pace in which we speak as much as suggesting we take time to respond to what’s being said, so as to give ourselves time to think through our responses. How often problems arise because we react too quickly and in haste, without taking time to think through our response. Taking time to think before responding can prevent unnecessary conflict and hurts in the process.
The third thing that James suggests is that we be slow to getting angry. It seems that he is suggesting the absolute opposite of what most of us do – we are usually slow to listen, quick to speak and quick to getting angry. This might be the reason why we have so much conflict amongst ourselves, both in our families, amongst one another as members of the Body of Christ, and with those outside the faith as well. If we can but change the way we communicate and follow James’ advice, we will avoid a lot of uncalled-for conflict, hurt and strained relationships as well.
Getting angry takes no effort – holding it back takes a lot of effort, that’s why King Solomon said in Proverbs 15:18, “A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger allays contention.” Again he says in Proverbs 16:32, “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” If only we can master the art of holding back our anger we’ll find ourselves preventing a lot of conflict as well.
If we look at this verse in the light of who God is, we will realize that it’s just a reflection of Him. He is very quick to listen to us when we talk – He’s never too busy, nor does He hurry us on in our prayers. He’s never quick to speak even in situations when we might find ourselves questioning Him. He takes time to respond to us - at a time when we’re able to listen to Him. Finally He is never quick to getting angry. He is extremely patient with us. If not for God being slow to anger, where would we all be by now? We’d have been wiped out a long time ago.
James goes on to give a reason why one should be slow to wrath. He says, “For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” When we react angrily to someone who offends us, we are not reflecting the life that Jesus came to teach us to live. We are not to retaliate wrong-doing with wrong-doing – that would make us no better than those who are self-righteous and try to work out their own justice. Instead, we are to love the way Jesus taught us to and thereby reflect the righteousness that He bestowed upon us when we put our faith in Him.
In His sermon on the mount Jesus said in Matthew 5:20 – “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” What was the righteousness of the Pharisees? It was eye for an ‘eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ way of life. Jesus went on to say in Matthew 5:38-48, 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. 41 And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Jesus gifted us His righteousness but it was not to be merely received but to be lived out as well, much like a person who is trained in a skill needs to use the skill to prove he possesses it. The righteousness that God gifted us was meant to be lived out, and by exercising wrath, we are negating the gift, and going back to a life of retaliation and hatred, instead of demonstrating the love that we ourselves received from God.
James 1:21-25
21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 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; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 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 goes on to give the believers a few more tips on how to relate with, and love one another. He tells them to, “Lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness.” He seems to be saying, “Now that you’ve been raised to a new life, you need to live out the new life as well, and the first thing is to lay aside, put off or stop indulging in all filthiness, and any form of wickedness.” That’s the way we lived earlier, but now that we are saved, we need to stop living like that.
Merely laying aside filthiness and wickedness is not sufficient, yet so often that’s exactly what we find ourselves describing ourselves by – the things we don’t do, instead of the things we do. If a Christian was only known by the things we don’t do, and not by the things we do, then we’d soon find ourselves doing nothing, and worse still, before we know it, we’d be doing more evil than we did before we came to know Christ, because that’s our nature. If we don’t find something good to do, we will find something bad to do.
So James goes on to tell them that after laying aside filthiness and wickedness, they need to then put something else on instead. He tells them to receive the word of God that was implanted in their hearts as it has the power to save their souls. When tempted by the devil in the wilderness to turn stones to bread, in Matthew 4:4, Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3, which said, “Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.”
What God seemed to be saying through Moses, and later through Jesus too, seemed to be that just as the physical man needs food to nourish his body, and grow strong, so also as believers, we need to feed on God’s word, so that our souls that were saved may indeed remain saved, and not get lost on account of sin all over again.
Later Jesus said in John 15:7-8, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” What He was saying very clearly, is that we need God’s word in our hearts and minds to lead us to live this new life – not to merely memories and reproduce it, but rather to remember it, to live it out in our daily lives, because that’s the only way we can grow spiritually, and in our intimacy with God and Christ through the Holy Spirit.
He goes on to say that anyone who merely hears the word of God, and does not obey it, is deceiving himself. Imagine knowing the recipe for a dish, and never using it to prepare the dish. Merely knowing it serves no purpose. Likewise, the word of God was meant to teach us to transform the way we live our lives. By proclaiming to know God’s word, and not living by it might impress people and even deceive people for a while, but ultimately the person who would be deceived is the one deceiving – not anyone else. Others will discover the true person eventually, and the deceiver will be left to regret his life of deceit.
He then uses an object lesson to makes his next argument regarding a person who hears the word of God and does not put it into practice. He uses the analogy of a mirror. All of us look at the mirror more than once a day, and the reason we look at ourselves usually is to ensure that we look presentable – no one wants to look shabby. But James asks the readers to imagine with him for a moment, a person who looks at himself in the mirror, and then walks away from the mirror forgetting the kind of person he is. Perhaps the mirror will reveal things on our face that were not meant to be there, like water, dirt, stains, etc. Once we discover that on our face, we don’t usually walk away from the mirror without doing something about it. We clean it off, don’t we? He says that when a person reads God’s Word, and sees himself for who he is, then he must do something about it and change wherever the Lord is asking them to change. But if, after reading God’s Word, though we discover areas of our lives that need to change, we forget what the Lord reveals to us, and we leave the time of study of God’s word unchanged, we make that of study time futile. If we don’t do anything to bring about the changes that need to take place in our lives, then we are deceiving no one but ourselves.
He goes on to tell them a few things that we too need to pay close attention to. Firstly he says that we need to look into the perfect law of liberty. Let’s explore the meaning of that phrase, ‘perfect law of liberty.’ We know that we were not saved by works, but by faith, that results in works of obedience. We do not get saved by anything we do, but through the faith in Jesus’ work on our behalf. This means that we are no longer depending on the law to help us attain righteousness, because no one can be made righteous by keeping the law. Now that we’ve been made righteous through faith in Jesus, and not by the observance of the law, we are free from the control of the law. That’s what is meant by liberty – we are free from the law. He uses the phrase, ‘law of liberty,’ to contrast with the phrase, ‘law of Moses,’ which was not only impossible to keep, but also got us more enslaved in sin.
He then says that, not only are we to commence living out this ‘law of liberty’ in our lives, but we are to continue on in it. Just as an athlete is awarded not when he begins a race and discontinues mid-race, but rather only when he completes it, and well. We too are to continue on in this new way of life, and not quit along the way.
He goes on to add another detail concerning our attitude to the word. Not only are we to hear it, and obey it, and continue in it, but we are to not be forgetful hearers. A person who forgets the word cannot obey it, and he who cannot obey it, turns back to his old life. We need to learn to meditate on, and memories God’s word, so that we are reminded of it, so that we may obey it.
He then goes on to say that if we hear the word, look into the perfect law of liberty and then don’t forget it, the next thing we should do is to actually do the work the word tells us to do. Any instruction if not obeyed, was wastefully given in the first place.
If we hear the word, look into the perfect law of liberty, don’t forget the word, and do what it says, then we will be blessed in what we do. There lies a lesson we should never forget. If we are to be blessed by God in what we do, then the best thing we can do is to follow God as He speaks to us through His word, and reminds us by His Holy Spirit at appropriate times.
For the Audio Version of this Study on YouTube, click here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZLvo0KHYe4&list=PLK5k2WsZdYlczQSZmDUu9Uy9elVKk4bts&index=8
For the Audio Version of this Study on Spotify, click here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ORvbbvy6iG3cSJYVWdSnY?si=5ede5417924e4822
