Tag: Faith

Be Sober

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James 4:6-7 But he give more grace. Wherefore he says, God resist the proud, but give grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Four promises are made to backsliders here: God gives more grace to the humble; the devil will flee from you when you submit – give – yourselves to God; God will then draw near to you and lift you up.  When we give place to the enemy in our lives (Eph. 4:27), we are entering a backslidden state from where things will go from bad to worse as we regress spiritually, and decay will follow in all other areas.  We have to know that the enemy walks around like a roaring lion to seek whom he may devour (1Pet. 5:8) and for us to not fall for his vices, we need to be sober and vigilant and thus not get into a backslidden state, otherwise, we will be devoured. In 1 John 5:18 we have been promised that those born of God – which means you have been born-again and are saved – thus sin not and keep yourself, that the wicked one cannot touch you! Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

Answer to Prayer

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James 4:1-4 From whence come wars and fighting among you?  Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 

About this time in Judea the Jews made many insurrections against the Romans under the pretence of defending their religion and procuring their way of life. Many factions among the Jews also fought violently, massacring and plundering one another. In some provinces, Jews killed many heathens and brought destruction upon themselves. These wars were undertaken through a spirit of covetousness and zeal, trying to convert the heathen and destroy idolatry.

This passage should never be taken by the Christian as an excuse for unanswered prayer. By so doing he automatically classes himself as lustful, murderous, covetous, adulterous, worldly, proud, sinful, and blasphemous. Is it any wonder that God does not answer the prayers of such people? No man can ask amiss if he is in Christ and asks according to the promises (John 15:7; Heb. 11:6; Jas. 1:5-8). The reason Christian prayers are not answered is because of their unbelief.

For a Christian to get answers to prayers, we must be free from the cares of the world (Mat. 13:22; Lk. 21:34-36); not gain the world at the expense of our souls (Mat. 16:26); not offend others as the world does (Mat. 18:7); not be of the world – partake of it and be like the world (John 15:19; 17:14, 16); not love our lives in the world (John 12:25); be delivered from the world (Gal. 1:4); be crucified to the world (Gal. 6:14); shine as a light in the world, no darkness in us (Php. 2:15); deny worldly lusts; live godly in it (Tit. 2:12); be unspotted from the world (Jas. 1:27); not be friends with the world (Jas. 4:4); escape the pollution and corruption of the world (2Pet. 1:4; 2:20); not love the world, neither the things that are in the world (1Jn. 2:15-17); be like Christ in the world (1Jn. 4:17); overcome the world (1Jn. 5:4-5); be not conformed to it (Rom. 12:2); and be dead to its ways (Col. 2:20).

Who Is Wise?

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James 3:13-18 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. 

One who can bridle his own tongue and is qualified to teach others are seen in the Word as a wise man. True wisdom is always accompanied with meekness and gentleness. Scholars however are sometimes proud, overbearing, and disdainful. Such men have education, but not true wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and strife in your heart – someone always seeking recognition and are quick to argue to prove your point, you don’t have true wisdom. Even if you defend religion, you are false in your profession and lie against the truth.

There are eight characteristics of false wisdom mentioned: Bitter envying, strife in the heart (v14, 16), glory in profession (v14), earthly-minded, having only this life in view, sensual, living only to satisfy the animal appetites, devilish, inspired by demons (v15), living in constant confusion and every evil work (v16).

And eight characteristics of divine wisdom mentioned: to be pure – chaste, holy and clean; peaceable (Heb. 12:14); gentle – meek, modest, and kind; easily entreated – not stubborn or obstinate, but yielding to others. To be full of mercy – always forgiving and performing acts of kindness; full of good fruits; without partiality – having no respect of persons (Jas. 2:1-10); without hypocrisy – open, honest, genuine, and true.

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace refers to those living in right-standing with God that will always abide in His peace no matter what your circumstances are (John 14:27; Php 4:7).

Many Masters

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James 3:1-2  My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 

When we ‘master’ others – teach – from the Word of God and we cannot contain our tongues (Jas. 1:26) and offend others by telling them what to do or how to live, we do more damage and no good whatsoever.  Our lives, not our words, should set the correct example, that is why our feet must be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15) not our mouths. When we teach or reprove those who disrespect or dislike God’s Word, we bring shame on our testimony as followers of Christ (Pro. 9:7-9; Mat. 7:6) and cause others to stumble.  The Holy Spirit is the one to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8).  Matthew 23:10 says that we have one Master, Jesus Christ, and we must learn from Him – the Word (John 1:1, 14). Study the Word, not what others say about it, read your Bible so that you can develop faith, which comes through hearing (Rom. 10:17).  It is through prayer that we can contribute to change in others lives, and by walking in Christ’s footsteps: the life He lived while on earth (1Pet. 2:21-23) by setting a Christ-like example and not one we think is correct because of our own interpretations of the Word (2 Tim. 2:15).

True Saving Faith

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James 2:19-20, 24, 26  Thou believe that there is one God; thou does well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. 

Believing in God is no proof that you are justified by faith alone, for even devils believe without justification. Abraham is used as an example in verse 21 to 23 of someone justified by works when he had gone to offer Isaac his son upon the altar. See then how his faith shaped with his works and by works was faith made perfect. It was faith that led him to this act of obedience. Had he refused to obey, it would have demonstrated that he had no faith in God or His Word. Verse 25 speaks of Rahab the harlot who was also justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way.

Are you willing to be instructed as to the nature of true saving faith?

The body without the spirit is dead: Only the body dies at the time of physical death. This is caused by the soul and spirit leaving the body. The body returns to dust and the soul and spirit of the righteous go to heaven to await the resurrection (2Cor. 5:8; Php. 1:21-24). The soul and spirit of the wicked go to hell to await the resurrection (Lk. 16:19-31; Isa.14:9; Rev. 20:11-15). The soul and spirit are spiritual and immortal. They cannot go back to dust. Just as surely as the inner man leaves the body at physical death and is no longer with the body, so faith without works is dead (separated) and is powerless.

Christian Consecration

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James 2:14, 17-18 What do it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? Even so faith, if it had not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou has faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. 

This statement refers to those who say that they have faith and the works are not necessary for Christian living. It does not say they have a real and active faith, but they say they have. Can faith alone save? The Word is not referring to initial justifying faith but to the demonstration of Christian faith before men. Christianity demands of its followers’ good works to all men (Mat. 5:16; 16:27; 1Tim. 6:18; 2Tim. 3:17). One is not justified by works (Rom. 3:25-31; 4:1-6; 9:11; 11:6), but justified ones must do them – the works that follow obedience – to prove their Christian consecration (Jas. 2:14-18, 20-26).

Faith without works is dead; works without faith is dead (Jas. 2:17, 20, 26). Neither is complete in itself. It is like fire-burning without fuel and fuel-burning without fire. One can say that this is possible, but it is not; it is contrary to the creative makeup and the laws that govern fire and fuel.

By the Gospel

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James 2:10-13  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak you, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoice against judgment. 

Guilty of all means that one sin is enough to damn the soul (Rom. 5:12-21). The obligation to law is total (Deut. 27:26; Gal. 3:10). This applies to all laws that have the death penalty (Rom. 1:32; 1Cor. 6:9-11; Gal. 5:19-21). One is guilty of lawbreaking whether he breaks one or many laws. The authority which gave one commandment gave all of them and the one who resists Him by breaking one law is guilty of the whole. Do not commit adultery … Do not kill: These commandments are in both covenants, the old and the new (Exo. 20:13-14; Mat. 5:21-32; Rom. 13:9). We are not now under obligation to obey them because they are part of the old covenant which is abolished, but because they are part of the new.

The law of liberty refers to the new covenant, not the old. It is by the gospel, men of this age will be judged (Rom.2:16). The ones who receive mercy and show mercy rejoice in the fact that they will not face judgment because of obeying the law. They will be exalted by mercy above judgment. There is no mercy in law. The meaning is that mercy through grace will triumph over law because the demands of the law have been met by grace and the lawbreakers are justified by it through faith to escape the judgment of the law (John 3:36; 5:24) until such a person sin willfully after he has received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins (Heb. 10:26).

Lay Apart

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James 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls

So many warnings are written in the Word of what we should not be guilty of or partake in, but so many excuses contradicting God’s Word are still used for those who chose to remain in sin (Rom. 6; 1Jn. 3; 5:18).

We MUST lay apart all moral filthiness and wickedness, impure and unholy affections, baseness, vileness and depravity. Only then can we receive the engrafted Word. It is by the Word of Truth inborn and implanted in the soul that one is saved and begotten (Jas. 1:18; Eph. 5:26). The Word is called seed (1Pet. 1:23; 1Jn. 3:9). When it is implanted in the soul it germinates and springs forth into eternal life. Only the seed that fails to be sown on properly prepared soil and cared for, will fail to bring forth fruit (Matt. 13:3-30).

Be Slow to Speak/Wrath

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James 1:19-20 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 

The wrath of man cannot work the righteousness that God requires. For example, no zeal of doing anything out of anger can be justified before a just God. Therefore, we have been given two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

One of God’s attributes is that He is slow to anger (Psa. 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13) and we are warned that a wrathful man stirs up strife: but he that is slow to anger appease strife and that he that is slow to anger is better than the might, and he that rule his spirit than he that takes a city (Pro. 15:18; 16:32). The usage of the tongue is the one thing we are warned of the most in the Word of God and something we should all be sufficiently aware of (See Pro. 18: 7; 20-21; 1Pet. 3:10; Jam. 1:26; 3:1-12).

Begotten by the Word

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James 1:17-18 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 

Whatever is good comes from God who never changes; whatever is evil comes from satan and fallen man who are bent on doing whatever gains a selfish and sinful end.

God is the Father of Lights, which refers to Him as the creator of that which give light: the sun, moon and stars, which causes changes in the seasons of the year. But there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning in God, He is always – in every season – the same and does not change like the shadow of a sundial (Heb. 13:8).

It is God’s will that all people be saved – begotten by the Word (John 3:16; 1Tim. 2:4; 2Pet. 3:9). The Word of Truth is one of the agents that make men new creatures (John 3:5; 1Pet. 1:23; Eph. 5:26).