James Chapter 1 - verse 5 - Ask God

What did James know that will help us?

Perhaps one of the most difficult things to be among the free is a leader.  Free people have free ideas, and lots of them.  A Pastor asked his prayer group what they thought was the worst problem facing America and what would they do to fix it.  The responses ran from sexual immorality to apathy, about which he said he had little concern.  Freedom is a wonderful thing, but for a leader it means facing the daily challenge of leading ideas and being able to comprehend the incomprehensible God for those who look to the spiritual leader to help them "Get God."  Is this perhaps some portion of what was happening in the life of James?  Were people asking him, "Hey you're in that way thing, what's that mean?"  "Aren't you a Jesus follower?"  "Are you people really carrying fake news about Nero?"  (That's probably not real that last one, oops, fake pun...oops)  Had James become acutely aware that it wasn't just enough to have faith, he had to be able to help others with their faith?

"5: If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." (James 1:5 NIV)  

Now before you get all comfortable reading this, which is Southern colloquial for, don't get comfortable and lean back in that arm chair!  Take note, you wouldn't open up a conversation with someone by asking them if they have a problem with being wise, would you?  We couldn't because in

our present day it is an insult to be called unwise- we rank it together with stupid, and consider it akin to ignorant; none of which would count in the day that James asked the question.  Because in his day the idea of wisdom entailed experience in life combined with guidance from above.  We consider one wise who makes prudent decisions, in the times James penned this - wisdom was considered a virtue that lent itself to quiet and solitude.  Very different images we have of the art of thinking.

There are substantial differences between the time that James wrote to, and the time you live in, if this writing gets preserved, they will no doubt wonder why we were so primitive; but if we note the differences, it begins to add to the value of what James says, rather than take away from that value, and here's why.  These people had no electricity, no air conditioning, no cellular communications, no toothpaste and toothbrush, no automobiles, no tires, no laptops and networks, and you get the point- in fact, if you time traveled back to this place, and you had saved a small .mpeg movie on your phone, because there wouldn't be cellular streaming, that we know of, unless it could stream back in time something we can only speculate about at this time, but if you had that, and your battery held up, and you played it- they'd react.  What would they say about you with your fancy device?  Would it be good, or might you end up being in a real pickle?  Because all the technology that we have does change us, and those changes aren't all good- some of them are very dangerous changes that we keep messing with, and thinking that, as Satan famously says- "It's going to be O.K."  It may not be, and James says, perhaps it would be good for you to ask God - for wisdom, my goodness, do we need it.

But James doesn't present the issue as a seeking wisdom issue, he presents it in the manner of, if you lack wisdom, he suggests then that you, ask God for such, because God gives generously to all without finding fault, and He will give it to you.  That's substantially the message in break down, and it begins with you being honest enough to admit you might not be as wise as you believe you are. That's not something we're comfortable with, we don't like to do assessments of what we're about- and we especially don't like dead on honesty, "Honey do these jeans make me look fat?"  We've got an enormous amount of problems in our world, but if we try to sort them all out, we'll go crazy- and we'll discover, we can't solve them, we simply and profoundly cannot- who can, God.

James Chapter 1 verse 4 - hold on tight!

What did James know that will help us?

There won't always be a church in the world- there will come a day when it is gone- the reason for that is the removal of the Holy Spirit from the earth.  We know this will happen.  Those who do not believe the Bible don't consider this important.  Those who have read the Revelation of Christ understand that this will take place, and what will follow is beyond any human beings ability to see. 

Right now total evil is held back, somewhat in check, like a hit man with no bullets in his gun, he's dangerous, that's for sure, but, not instantly deadly.  When there is no holding action against the evil on earth, then nobody can see what that's like, but it won't be nice.  Did James at some point in his life wonder if it had already hit?  

Did John talk about the Revelation he received on Patmos?  Did these early followers of Christ believe that they were living in the last days?  It's possible- some historian's claim that the rise of the common name, "Roman candle," used on the 4th of July, had it's inception under Nero who tarred and burned Christian's on stakes to light the roadways, calling them, Roman Candles.  If you saw such, wouldn't the horror be impossible to escape?  If you had seen your brother die on the cross, then saw Him rise again, then saw Him testify before as many as 500 hundred witnesses, and then you saw Roman candles, and Nero's terror, what would you think was happening?

Too often we see verse 4 of this incredible opening statement from James, and we go right over it moving on in chapter one, we're in a hurry, but I want to gently suggest to you that there is merit in taking it slow.  Some things are better done slow, aren't they?  Eating ice cream on a hot summer day isn't one of those, it melts, but for example, a nice lazy walk among the trees can be slow and refreshing.  Verse 4 is something like that:  "Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (NIV) It's not the nicest visual context to think of, but in my mind James represents a bull dog kind of faith.  He'd been through it, and was likely in my mind going through it some more, when he wrote what his heart was led to believe was God's intent for the people who followed his Brother's way.

Solubility is an important part of the chemical process that we love on a hot summer day called Lemonade.  Get the squeezed lemon juice, the sugar content, and if you put a touch of Karo syrup in, well, let's hope it dissolves well and adds zing.  The ability to mix in - very substantial, can't have gas, lemonade, syrup for pancakes, glue, and the list goes on and on, without it -but you get the point, do you have the ability to blend, and are the sort of person who allows life to teach you to do that?  James would use the term, "Let."  Let perseverance finish it's work," let's halt there briefly to ask, "Could such be prevented?" The answer is almost always, yes, all we have to do is bow out of a difficult circumstance, and perseverance will be out of the picture.  So James in this one small word is suggesting to you that your life should include those aspects which aren't comfortable, aren't without unpleasant smells and temperatures and mixes of emotions.  He's suggesting that not everyone is going to finish first, but that if you are smart about following Christ, you will finish.

Imagine the hot sunny day, it's the kind of heat that comes up off the pavement in waves, there you are at the starting blocks.  Next to you are athletes equally trained, some even better trained, each of you wanting to come in first place, but at the beginning of this race, your thinking of the immediate need, are the blocks right for your feet, is the lean right for a quick jump off the gun, are you alert enough, strong enough, and ready.  It is hot, and the heat does affect your ability to withstand the moments before the race.  But there you are.  Got the picture, "Bang," the starting gun goes off, now your thinking isn't about the end of the race, it's each step exerting as much maximum pull on your muscles as possible, you do it without thought, it is reactionary, you don't think you just "Dash."  Now your are about a hundred feet into the race and you begin to feel the burn, the muscles drawing

oxygen, your lungs beginning to feel the strain, and you strain on, you don't want to lose the race.  Halfway through the intensity of every pain in every joint in every muscle in every breath is such that your brain shuts out the pain and you focus on the moment, the competition, this is where coaches always scream "Don't look around, look ahead and run," but even the greatest, look, a quick glance to see, how are the others doing.  Now you are three quarters of the way through, and you realize that you are going to finish this thing, you are going to complete the race, no matter what.  You can almost taste the tape.  Then quicker than you believed possible, it's over, your done, and...

Perseverance doesn't just happen at the end of the race.  The beginning of the race,  in some sense, will always be, the concluding aspect of some wider angle picture of the race.  Where you were before you were engaged in this particular race.  Life is like that, and Christianity is an enhanced model of that event.  We run the succeed, and in Christianity that means serving Jesus, and in serving Jesus, James saw, we must serve our fellow man, without that, we can't make the reality of what we know real to others.  This then is the background aspect perhaps of what James saw about perseverance.  That as a young man at home, he thought being around his brother involved this type of perseverance, but then he saw Him die, then He saw Him come back to life, then he saw Him appear to up to as many as 500, and then James saw the "Roman candles," and the questions came hot and heavy about why such power would not stop such an assault.  Then the answer moved through his life in a magnificent awakening of what it means to know Jesus,. "Let perseverance."

James Chapter 1 getting toward verse 4, verses 1-4

What did James Know that Can Help Us?

Briefly lets focus on verse 3, it's often overlooked as sitting between the heavy concept of verse 2 which opens the door on an entirely different way of reflecting on rough times, but here's where it has to get a bit strange, do you wonder that perhaps James may have heard, "Your brother doesn't make messes..." Just food for thought...so in verse 3 we see the idea of faith, the idea of it producing something which allows you to continue on in the midst of rough times.

What is amazing love? “2Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” This is amazing love, that you have the power to make all kinds of all kinds of things, different, but if you do, the result will be people who become servile, incapable of actually ever loving. Want to add a dose to your theology, consider that God often does indeed answer prayer by deepening what you think you know, until by not making the thing you pray so earnestly about, happen, “Bang,” you see, at some point in the not too distant future, that He, God, personally, taught you a fact of love. How’d He do that, by allowing what appears to be bad to teach you that good and goodness reside and flow from Him and Him alone. That’s a theological point you can only come to understand when you’ve been roasted with a couple of your friends, and suddenly a man was standing there letting you know He and He alone, controls the outcome of your trial. (Daniel 3:25)

Let me gently suggest to you that James lived a trial. Let me gently suggest to you that James saw his brother (remember we agreed to drop that half brother stuff...it’s understood...ok?) and his brother was in the family, dad, Joseph, had been through many things involving faith of life and death, in the birth of your brother (you play James here). Mom, Mary, was the evangelist of the crew, she’s the one who dared the King to try and kill

the real King who she carried, your brother; who it’s probably pretty reasonable to presume, she worshiped? (cf. Luke 1:46-55) So as you James grow up in this household it’s not hard at all to see there were times when you experienced without a doubt, both a sense of jealousy and some envy and some anger and resentment- along with the times of joy. Which, as an older man will you remember and write about? But even though you write about joy, it is now seasoned with years of experience, and, depth you did not have before you now finally have come to understand, yes – your brother was God.

Why gently suggest? Because when you wham people with the God/man stuff, the tendency is to reject it, maybe not vocally, maybe not expressly; but within their hearts, folks can accept and get they believe, what it means to have God. Big, high, glorious, easy, not present, not somebody, not real- very ethereal, very God. But Jesus as a human, not so easy, we humans, have all sorts of weird emotions and thoughts, and does the Bible really say that Jesus was just like us? In every way? Well hard as that might be to fathom, that’s

precisely what it says. (Hebrews 2:17-18) If we believe that it must make us sit down and reconsider what Jesus is in our lives? He isn’t somebody to be played with at all, He takes suffering to an entirely different level, and uses the same in entirely different ways to accomplish and us, what formerly wasn’t possible. The only question, which is the one James is actually asking is, will you be there for Him?

James Chapter 1 verse 3

What did James Know - that will help us?

The book of James is an attractive read for us because we sometimes get into situations that are a mess.  James knew mess, and it's not too awful hard to understand why.  Imagine, just try to get your head around what it must have been like to be the brother to God as human?  We just can't get there, but we can get close.

  2Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Briefly lets focus on verse 3, it's often overlooked as sitting between the heavy concept of verse 2 which opens the door on an entirely different way of reflecting on rough times, and verse 4 which closes the thought about enduring. But here's where it has to get a bit strange, do you wonder that perhaps James may have heard, "Your brother doesn't make messes..." Just food for thought...so in verse 3 we see the idea of faith, the idea of it producing something which allows you to continue on in the midst of rough times.

Notice some particular word phrases here, because they are meaningful - "the testing of ---your faith---" that should raise your eyebrows only a slight bit, but it should raise them, faith, one of the most difficult of all constructs of Christianity to define, and here James says it can be unique to the individual- it is, your faith.  That's a different concept than many folks have because most folks actually only rarely examine the concept of faith, they simply exist in it or they don't.  For many people that's a simple matter- they pray, because they believe in prayer.  They speak to Jesus because through the Bible they have come to understand that as He walked through walls (John 20:26-28) and appeared to men walking (Luke 24:13) and is recorded as having appeared to as many as
500 hundred.

So we read this in 2018, and we wonder, don't we- and yet, one singular significant spellbinding obvious historical fact presents itself, the Bible, despite all the attempts to stomp it out, is still here and if Christ didn't appear to these people, why'd the writer put it to papyri?

Jame Chapter 1:2-4 Focal verse 2 Brethren and Joy

WHAT did James know that will help us? 

Ever talk to somebody who knows it better than you do? Notice how they listen, then notice how they talk. Feel like it’s real? No it feels very false, it’s a conversation in which they feel they are making sense, but you realize, they don’t hear a single word you’ve said, been there? Your writer used to work at a place that was a dream job, in which, there were nightmare elements at work, so the dream was turned ever so slightly until it was no dream at all, how? Because as it was usual to happen, the boss would hear me utter “Look I’m saying red, they’re hearing and spouting back – blue.”

That was a phrase that the government taught me how to say when working as a network administrator it was part of what they thought was enlightened leadership in race and human relations. They thought and wrote that “We are now in the next century, this is the year 2000, and how we think and conduct ourselves must be a combined red and blue states and cultures effort. No longer to register and listen to the voices of division from those bases.” The boss had no idea what he was hearing, and the reason he had no idea is he really didn’t understand the fights which occurred over the issues being discussed in the 70’s in the Army by a Race Relations leader for his unit. If any organization wanted to believe they were ‘hep’ to the needs of it’s soldiers, believe me, that Army did, but come 2000, all those terms began to change in such a subtle way, still with me? James is my friends, subtle. He is writing as a man who has signed his death warrant. Do you honestly believe he wanted to? Do you honestly believe he sat there as the pastor of the Jerusalem gathering, and figured it be better to be dead? Not even close my friend, and yet, in writing his letter, he signed his death warrant, and he did it so that people could read: “2-My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3-Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4-But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (NIV)

My online commentary, “Morningside with Dr. D.” Is just now being breathed life back into, it was let go from emphasis a few years back when the church we were pastoring at decided in some sense that they wanted a different direction. Church’s are very much like groups in any general sense, when they want a different direction, either the leader can hear that, and act on it, or, they will in all likelihood, choose a different leader. We have this luxury in our time, the people who followed James, and who he pastored, didn’t, and that singular historical fact of the matter escapes us so easily when we read what he writes. We’re challenged for the most part, not directly by governments of evil, although in some instances, that certainly occurs without you hearing much about it, last year voice of the martyrs reported 1237 deaths by being murdered for not being willing to say they weren’t followers of Jesus; most of you who read this, won’t be in such a situation, at the present time- let that sink in.

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;” Let’s begin with this seemingly simple concept- ah, but dear Christian, or dear reader, it isn’t simple at all, not when you analyze or stop your busy, busy, day to take it in. Brethren, ah my, it is being done away with, as you read this, enormous evil forces are at work to kill the sense of family, to kill the sense of belonging, to kill the sense of being, “Brethren.” “Oh c’mon Dana, that’s ridiculous, there are no “evil forces” doing such, you’re just paranoid.” OK, I get that response, and could quip back, “Well so was the Grinch, and look what happened.” But that would be quip, and although much deeper than folks care to go about Dr. Seuss, is still enough of an opening to thought that I’d say, consider it’s possible, here’s why. If you wanted to kill the Holy Spirit, oh I know, we don’t discuss the Holy Spirit as being real, but just for the sake of argument, let’s say that He is; and let’s say that your task is to kill Him, how are you going to do that, seeing as how He is in every believer who is “Born from above.” (Very literally what Christ said to Nicodemus that night...”You must be born from above,” poorly translated, I would think even Dr. Mounce might agree, as “You must be born again.” [John 3:7] that translation, awkward and lacking, still gets the point across.) There are at present so many believers that trying to kill the Holy Spirit would be a tough assignment, would you gather them all together? That would mean a very strange, nation size; occurrence? That’s not at all likely is it? Would you take them on one at a time, well that could take a while, couldn’t it? Or would you devise a virus- oh-oh; now we’re talking terms that 2018 readers can relate to- a virus to kill the Holy Spirit? Hmm, that’s an idea, could you do it? What dear Christian do you think it would look like?

Bear in mind, this isn’t an anti-technology spew, not a rant against the modern use of modern tools, at all, but it is, a cautionary note. Why a cautionary note; because new devices to communicate aren’t bad, they are massively good, but used in inappropriate ways, for evil, they carry an equally innocuous value. Therein is the danger in mass communications. Radio began the cautionary note with the famous broadcast by Orson Welles of H.G. Wells “War of the Worlds.” That moment shined a light on the power of this new inventions ability to communicate with people. Perhaps the next moments that highlighted the power not just of sound transmitted, but now images, would be the assassination of John Kennedy. Most people are familiar with a movie taken of that moment by a bystander named Zapruder. In your modern, some years ago, stance of memory, there was a person standing in front of a tank in China, it was filmed in a place called Tienanmen Square on June 5 1989. People born then today are approximately 29 years old! They may have been taught this as history, they may remember seeing it, but as to what it meant, as to what it accomplished? It was communication, that’s to be sure, just as a side note, they call that man the mystery man of Tienanmen square, know why? The point here is easy, this new technology we have seems like a very useful tool, but it may be something far more deadly than we realize, or can realize. A result of which is, we tend to deny it, ignore it, and protest any who say such.

Let me portend that during the times James put his truth to papyri maybe even parchment or vellum, papyri, from what little I’ve been able to determine, the most likely physical writing element, as we use paper, they used a type of paper we’d find grainy and not electric- “aquatic sedge (Cyperus papyrus) native to Africa, having a tall stem and an umbellate inflorescence with numerous arching rays.” (freedictionary.com) Let’s guess that it had an odor of river about it. Let’s guess that James didn’t care- and let’s begin believing that today it comes to us from God- believe me, this isn’t how my day was planned, writing a commentary.

Next from that simple matter of “What we are,” we are “Christians,” and most of you know that originally was a term making fun of those who believed in “The way,” the New Testament records that it was first in Antioch (Acts 11:26, penned by a historian, Dr. Luke) where those who were “Brethren,” and we should add by proxy of belief (for my Homophobic readers) sisters as well, and kids, in other words, “The family,” members who believe and agree with each other that Jesus Christ is Lord. From that simple matter James moves to a rather complicated series of arguments- and we’re going to attempt to make that appeal which is centrally focused on love- uh, introduction chapter 1 verse 1- make sense to us reading it in the year 2018.

“2-My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;” what we look at next after Brethren – we’ve sort of covered that, is the count it all joy, and of course books have been written about the subject of joy; my own sense of joy is the difference between times in your life and what happens,for example, when as a young boy in Torrance California my friends and I would go to the central park, think it’s still there, by the way, have Google earthed it; and we’d climb trees and there would be these fruits there and we’d eat them. They were marvelous. Being boys we’d find ways to mischievously throw these fruits at passerby and then hide. One day, one of the fathers of a little girl we threw them at, who didn’t appreciate it, hid himself and waited for us. What he taught us is, when you’re about

5’4 and all of 90 pounds and you’re facing a 210 pound ferociously upset dad, you’re really thankful when he says “I’d beat your stupid A#$’s but my daughter’s over there, and we’re Christian’s, and I don’t know what she’d think.” We were plenty scared, then he said, “Go, go over there and tell her you’re sorry.” Hey, it wasn’t rocks- it was fruit, c’mon...but, we were – yes we were filled with joy at the prospect of saying, “We’re sorry.” Crazy thing joy?

Sure was glad that dad was a Christian...

Joy, remember well the first time my friend Rob across the street said, “My dad plays drums down at Elitch’s man, he’s got a set in the basement, wanna see?” He taught me how to drum, but drumming is in my soul, it came so natural to me, it was like setting down into a nice warm comfortable bath when those sticks hit my hands, all of a sudden, drumming on desks with my pencil, tapping with my fingers, never being able to sit still, not really, not like some folks, man all of a sudden, at the ripe old age of thirteen, it made sense.

Joy, it comes in lots of flavors. My son being born, in a German hospital, because I was in the Army, and the fact that my son was born, and that I was able to be there- this was 1979, October fifteenth, but my point is, in 1979 going in the birth room was still not totally the normal way for dads. The Army was doing everything it could to normalize living. Seeing my son born was mind blowing, something you never forget because believe me sons, my-my, they can challenge dads in ways only dads know.

Joy it gets deep down, all those years in college, being royally ripped off because as a first time student I’d no concept of what learning was. As I tell my Grandson, who still doesn’t get it, he’s in high school and he’s ‘blowing it off,’ I tell him, “Man you get it for free! You don’t even have to pay for it! Dude, I had to pay Dr. Mounce a hundred bucks to teach me Greek, you think I liked that?” But joy comes in all kinds of depths as I got one degree, followed by another degree, followed by a doctorate- you’ve no idea what it means to miss your mom

until you just wished as hard as you could that she could’ve been there to see her rebellious, worthless teenager, because I pretty much was, finally obtain not just a doctorate degree, but one in of all things, theology! Mom would have been proud, because her usual statement to me as I messed up time and again as a teenager was, “Jesus can and will forgive you, you only have to ask Him.” That boy, her son, had earned a doctorate about studying and discussing and learning about God- and now, that person gets the honor of being read by you. What a joy.

Count it all is a process we’re gonna have to cover in another entry...we’ve pretty much consumed as much of your morningside time as we can. Joy is the Greek term “chara” and from my Greek Interlinear NASB and NIV by Dr. William D. Mounce and Robert H. Mounce, is also used in other gospel’s and although it takes up space I want to break them out for you:

Also to let you know as a link that all quotes from this reference site: http://biblehub.com/faithstatement.htm

Matthew 2:10 -”When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.” (NIV)

Matthew 13:20 - “The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.” (NIV)

Luke 2:10 - “But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” (NIV)

Joy seems to me that we might agree it’s deep, it resonates within our inner being, and because my belief is we have such, it sinks into our souls. Now let me wax a tiny bit theological here- souls- my sense is, no matter how Freud tries to make belief in such unnecessary, he fails. No matter how so called biologists, and genetic biologists, such as
Dr. Richard Dawkins, try, they fail, at the point that one reaches an inexplicable moment, by which my meaning is, you’d rather do something else, but you’re constrained- and for the life of you, you can’t make sense of why? This has happened to me so many times in my life – mostly because, as you might guess, my mouth frequently has gotten me places that my brain and body weren’t ready for – to put it lightly, a result of which is, there is no explaining why my natural self didn’t reign. Dawkins or Freud might choose to say it another way – but my sense is, there is a deeper place in humans that holds a dearer part of all we are, the soul.

James wrote to the soul, yes, in the overarching view of what his letter means, my goodness, it will be love, my convinced state of that is marrow deep, years and years of inner arguing about James being right or wrong...but in the final analysis, James writes to the soul. Does James touch your soul? How can he not…do you count yourself as one of us, if you don’t, no better time to do so than now, be only to filled with joy to share such with you? James ...my-my- didn’t he just nail it down...my-my, he is somethin’ isn’t he? Jesus...is...the all in all joy.

James Chapter 1, Verses 2-4 - Excerpt from commentary verses 2-4

Not the commentary page, still working on that- but for now consider please, this concept idea:

What did James know that can help us?

Brief paragraph on post being completed...a teaser, if you will...

From James Chapter 1, verses 2-4, a natural division by subject (NIV)

“2-My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

Brethren, ah my, it is being done away with, as you read this, enormous evil forces are at work to kill the sense of family, to kill the sense of belonging, to kill the sense of being, “Brethren.” “Oh c’mon Dana, that’s ridiculous, there are no “evil forces” doing such, you’re just paranoid.” OK, I get that response, and could quip back, “Well so was the Grinch, and look what happened.” But that would be quip, and although much deeper than folks care to go about Dr. Seuss, is still enough of an opening to thought that I’d say, consider it’s possible, here’s why. If you wanted to kill the Holy Spirit, oh I know, we don’t discuss the Holy Spirit as being real, but just for the sake of argument, let’s say that He is; and let’s say that your task is to kill Him, how are you going to do that, seeing as how He is in every believer who is “Born from above.” (Very literally what Christ said to Nicodemus that night...”You must be born from above,” poorly translated, I would think even Dr. Mounce might agree, as “You must be born again.” But that translation, awkward and lacking, still gets the point across.) There are at present so many believers that trying to kill the Holy Spirit would be a tough assignment, would you gather them all together? That would mean a very strange nation size occurrence? That’s not at all likely is it? Would you take them on one at a time, well that could take a while, couldn’t it? Or would you devise a virus- oh-oh; now we’re talking terms that 2018 readers can relate to- a virus to kill the Holy Spirit? Hmm, that’s an idea, could you do it? 

 What dear Christian do you think it would look like?  

James - what's love?

WHAT did James know that will help us? 

Who do you love? Simple question isn’t it? Oh, what’s that you say, “It isn’t simple at all?” Glad you caught that, because many people in a world where the daily life is crammed to the rafters with perishable items; things which at the ultimate end of it all, won’t matter at all, perishables, speed past that question never realizing that love isn’t just an emotional response, it is indeed, something much, much deeper. Love can be best thought of, it seems to me on reflecting back over the years, as what a friend and best selling author, Dr. Stephen R. Covey, made me see in three distinct meetings. He said very simply one day, “Dana do you remember what someone bought you, or do you remember the gifts you give?” Caught me up short a bit, because it is, truthfully a little of both, but a little more of the latter; and I’d bet, truth be told, you tend to remember things you’ve given to others, more than things they’ve given to you. Dr. Covey believed and taught that love is a verb, it is what you do for others, and particularly, what sometimes you forcefully won’t allow yourself to not do, or do, for them, that enlivens the verb love in your life. Who do you love, might be more insightfully phrased as, who will you do things for, that you wouldn’t do for anyone else? This brief time together will be about James, a New Testament writer, a man; someone that scholars have to agree upon, nearly to the scholar on biblical writings historical authorship, was a man who knew Jesus Christ as a half brother. Imagine the enormous weight of that for just a moment, James is one of the people that in history, shouldn’t be ignored; he is, to borrow our modern hype word , awesome!

Not in any way being critical, or cynical, or any other negative meaning to this statement except to use it as a measuring tool, thousands of years have gone by since the New Testament recorder named James put together his ideas as the leader, most likely, of the first church at Jerusalem. What of the things that you have proffered out into the world, two thousand years from now, will be remembered and talked about, and argued about, and discussed, and made use of? Let’s put the idea of James being heavy into that historical perspective. Sure, it was a unique time, back in the day that James put this gospel entry together, people were murdered by the state for sharing such. Open aggression against Christian’s was becoming a pile on event for an Empire, Rome, both in decline and desperation, trying to remain the world dominant empire, they turned their hatred of failures in ethics and morality against the Christian’s who had suddenly become aware of, the truth!

To keep this in perspective imagine the power of a simple idea, for you, not your neighbor, not your friend, not even a close family member, but you, to find out in your life what love is? You probably believe, unless you’re simply evil incarnate, that you live a life of love? That you love others, and that they in turn, love you. Would that be a fairly accurate way of describing you? Not talking perfection, because every person faced with it, immediately admits that they lack in some area of love. They admit it, even the extremely vain and insensitive, have to face the mirror of reality eventually, and admit, they fall a bit short of perfect when it comes to loving others. So let’s keep the simple idea just that, would focusing on the truth of how deeply and devotedly you love others be something that could help your life improve?

Just about every reader would answer a “Yes,” to that, feeling a tiny bit awkward were they to answer that they had it together when it came to loving others. James in writing about love, which is what we’re going to begin trying to see in his writings; we’re not going to impose some outside set of beliefs on James truth, instead we’re going to let what he says resonate with us, and in that endeavor, here’s a simple fact; the writing he did was about love, and by reading it as closely to the matter of the time in which he wrote it, and then bringing that into the matter today; my hope is that you’ll feel the love, see the love, learn what that love meant and possibly see ways to improve your own life when it comes to loving.

Let’s begin this brief time together about James then, with his words – James Chapter one- verse 1: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. “ (NIV) When the school system allowed me to teach my students upon first getting into a text for human behavior, business law or introduction to computing, it didn’t matter what subject we were studying together, when there was a writing to read, my saying is simple: “Know who wrote it, know when, know where, know what it means (not so easy to determine at times, as we shall find out) and if possible why.” Said it every time, my students reading this will remember, professor Richardson was a real stickler about this, and the why of that is simple, they’d next hear, “Because history ignored a book called “Mein Kampf,” that had they known these facts, Adolf might have been stopped.” Usually that got them a little bit more awake. But for anybody reading anything that is going to have any lasting value, my goodness, it is important to understand them! And they are composed of not just their name, in this instance, he says, in his opening, James; which we wouldn’t do- you don’t title a letter to a friend, in our country typically, we wait until we’ve written it first, then we sign it- but in the times, so this is the when of it, they wrote the authors name up front so folks would know who it was. But the beauty of James doesn’t stop there, right away he brings love into it, and that you might not see that isn’t mystical at all, nobody tells you that you have to leave a place where you are at, because of what you believe; at least not at present for most Americans. So you will like this next paragraph, we’re gonna nail down why this gospel is all about nothing but, centrally focused on, and meaning it, love.

We don’t want to get too heavy into this upfront or we’ll never get any distance into the central issues of this writing, but herein James says, as we would say, “A mouthful:” “To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:” We don’t get this because nothing in our lives, nearly world wide, resembles this- unless perhaps it would be people being told they have to leave their homes and go elsewhere, because they aren’t the right flavor of religion? Is that happening today? Yes it is, but usually, not in America, so when an American reads about the Jewish nation of Israel, being jostled out of their Roman homes and relocated, we believe we can see the root of it. Let me suggest that you consider the day you’re reading this, that at the moment when your parent comes home or the mom or pop who rules the roost gets in they say, “Well it was horrible in court today, we have to be out by tomorrow.” You’re shocked, where will you go, how will you get there, and even stranger, what should you bring, so you ask...and they say, “Get everything you can carry in a bag, in the morning we go!”

James is an incredible deep writing about love because not just in his heritage as the author and half brother of Jesus; but in the people he was writing this to, Christians. We don’t see it too clearly because it’s very subtle, but James is writing to Christians about faith in his half brother Jesus, and yet, he also titles out that this is to the twelve tribes dispersed; at the outset James is going to be controversial, because he doesn’t separate the gentiles who will read this who believe in his brother (look we know, yes, half brother, but let’s go with brother, because, the half brother is a theological technicality and if you’ve ever had a toy stolen by a half brother, you didn’t think of them at that moment as a half brother, did you?) from those who Jesus never denies in His ministry belong to God, Israel, the Jewish nation.

This is a good place to halt this page, because it’s already getting a bit deep, all honest, all in those few short sentences, if we’re to get the truth as it was written then, to the people it was written to, and in the language it was written in, by this amazing man; a man who has just signed his death warrant, by the way, because when this letter is read by Rome, he will have no way of denying that it is he, James; pastor of the church at Jerusalem, who penned it- for it, he will die. How many things that you are going to say, write and stand by, are you willing to die for? Such is the nature of the love of Christ, of faith, even if you’re told that because of that faith, you can’t even keep your family together, oh yes, Rome very much knew you could split mom and dad and kids up, send them to different village locations, and forever try to kill their family, their belief, and their faith. 

 That the gospel of James exists says they failed!