What did James know that will help us?
If there is any doubt left in anybodies mind about the times being different today than they were just ten short years ago, take an honest look at the LGBTQ movement that didn't exist then. This entire block of protest oriented movement has come into it's own with the last five years, it might have had an undercurrent existence, but it wasn't mainstream in it's wide proclamation until the last five years. And it represents a minority shift in values being projected onto the majority and that's new as well. What do I mean by that, a minority, not many people register as a member of this sex declaring sect, they don't have big numbers of members, but they sound like they do, and they make anyone who takes any sort of opposing stand seem out of touch with modern thinking to put it kindly. What does this have to do with the writings of a disciple and church leader thousands of years ago? They had small groups of dissenting believers who thought everybody should be like them, the vocal minority who yells loud to get approval from the non vocal majority is not a new way. What is new since the time of Jame's writing is the change in the outward ways of people. During the time that James wrote, people lived in village groups, even though they had separate abodes, rooms in which they slept, their common area around those lodgings was the village square where they shared chores that could be done by groups, brought the produce in (they were largely agrarian), and chatted about the day as the day went on. They were friendly with each other because it was necessary for life, but also because, you will find, we humans tend to be likable folk, it's why we've done well as a specie. Enter James who says:
Bearing in mind dear reader that in the Greek there aren't divisions as we separate the scripture, but James in chapter one seems to group logically into two main sections, the first after his declaration of who is writing is the section with verses 2-18 that we've gone over in previous entries- that section might be designated and sometimes is designated as "Trials and Temptations." Now we move to a section that is often referred to as "Listening and Doing." It will be obvious why that is, so it seemed prudent at the outset of this section to take a look at those verses then focusing on the break out of logic in Jame's inspired writing:
19My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,20because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
26Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Notice the "My dear brothers and sisters," in an age where we are trying to confuse ourselves about how we are, and what we are, James begins by stating that this is to those who love him as brothers and sisters. People will do things for siblings they won't do for anyone else. Let's lock that down, you will do things for a brother or sister that you won't for anyone else, why is that? Let me suggest a couple of potentials, one is, brothers and sisters have spent a huge amount of time together- and that time brings out both the bad and the good of what a person is. Brothers and sisters know the real of each other, and cling to it instead of rejecting it.
The other suggestion is more subtle but it amounts to this, it's a decision that you are going to defend them, no matter what, and sticking to that has a production of results that brothers and sisters talk about as, "Yeah he was always getting himself into trouble, but I'd step in and..." Even when those times were bad, once a family called me to do a funeral for a biker, he'd been a rough dude, but his brother was there and two sisters and they were constantly saying "Yeah but we got him out of that..."
One other item interesting to note from that sad occasion, everybody believed that even though he lived like hell, he feared hell and believed that Jesus would get him out of hell? OK, you better believe that seemed to me to be an interesting thing to remember about a person? They remembered little kind things that he had done, and over a period of about two hours, his real character began to emerge, he might have been a rough dude, there is no doubt in my mind that's a rough life, but he had plenty of love in his existence. My hope is someday in heaven I'll hear a voice saying, "Glad you preached it that way, you told the truth about me, not what everyone assumed was the deal..."
Wrapping up this entry, please note the entry "take note of this," that's an emphatic, it means to place special emphasis on what's to follow that "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." Everyone is a fascinating term, isn't it? Everyone as it is translated here in the NIV is a good attempt at the Greek word which is two words actually, "pas anthropos" roughly translated as "pas"- "every," "anthropos," "man." But if you have signed on to BillMounce.com know that this translator and contributor to the New International Version of the Bible will take bold stands for truth in getting the words right. Why is this so important as to be in a commentary on James, one of those writings, because as we noted at the outset of this page, we're now trying to decide that men and women can be different than men and women, so the meaning of words is very important indeed.
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