Seeking Wisdom Series

Seeking Wisdom

James 1:1-8

May 21, 2023

I love to read and it’s not unusual for me to be reading 4 books at a time and order more as well. I buy very few books, although I just bought 1 because it was to new to be transferred by the library. It had a great paragraph in it, that I glanced at. It may be the only paragraph I like, but it’s worth it.

Learning how to speed read was one of the greatest things to happen for me when I was in college. I still use it on non-technical books. I want to recommend a book to you today - - - it’s one that you can’t speed read through, because you’ll miss so much.

Obviously, it’s the Bible. But, I want to jump on one particular book of the Bible. As we start a new series today . . . for the next couple of months, through the summer, we’re going to dive in deep and look at the most practical NT book of the Bible. It’s the book of James.

I could probably give you 20 minutes of background on this book, but I’m not. I’ll give you about 3 quick minutes and then we’ll look at this power packed book which offers us so much wisdom on how to live our lives, that it very well may transform and shape or reshape your life.

James, the author of this book is considered to be the ½ brother of Jesus. Half brother because they had the same mom, but Jesus was born supernaturally. James was against Jesus, as was his family when Jesus started His ministry, but somewhere along the way, James and others in his family came to see Jesus as the Messiah.

This is also believed to be the first book written in the NT. Most likely it was written around 48 AD. And it’s believed James died as a martyr for Christ, his Lord, and his brother in 62 AD.

The book of Acts tells us that James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem - that’s the first church! In Galatians 2:9 — Paul referred to James as “a pillar” of that church. Acts 12 says that when Peter was delivered from prison by an angel, he made a point of sending a message to James to let him know what happened. And it was James who moderated the church conference described in Acts 15 which dealt with the potentially divisive issue of what to do with Gentile converts to Christianity. James was able to bring peace and unity to the church.

So, that’s a snippet of James. Now let’s look at what he said. Today, we’re look at James 1:1-8 - - -

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

That’s pretty practical teaching. I mean you almost don’t need me to explain what James was talking about. I said almost . . . .

James starts by telling us this letter is for the 12 tribes in the dispersion.

James is reminding these Jewish Christians of their spiritual heritage as the people of God, gathered by Jesus the Messiah. Because of Roman persecution, many early Jewish Christians fled from Jerusalem. They feared for their lives, so they went to areas that were more sympathetic towards them - - - and not threatened by the fact that Jesus was their King.

I kind of have a thought that this series of sermons will vacillate between being a Bible study and sermon. I spent a lot of time researching the Greek of our English words and they give us a little different flavor of what James was saying. I really believe this will give us a deeper and richer understanding of what God wants us to understand from this book.

So, James continues by saying what none of us want to hear - - - -

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,