Summary of the Book of James

Knowing all that we know now, what’s the book of James about? The book of James is different from most New Testament books. James approached his audience as already being believers of the gospel as opposed to trying to get them to believe it. James wanted to make sure that his audience fully understood the implications of living it out. He was concerned with showing his readers how to live practically with Jesus. He wanted people to understand that faith is foundational, but it must be genuine, proven, and lived out if it’s going to amount...

All Good Things Come From God

Verse 17: “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.” All good things come from God. Good things are not accidents, coincidences, or benefits of our choices, they are gifts from God – PERFECT gifts from God. God loves us and provides for us, but he will not help us give in to lustful desires. Just because we want a new car, it might not be that perfect gift that we need from God at the moment. If you see someone else being blessed with...

The Wages of Sin

Verse 15: “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”In this verse we are given a harsh fact. Lust leads to sin, sin leads to death. Death is an appointment made for all because all are born sinners. Death is unavoidable so some use this as an excuse to go out and party and live it up giving in to sin and other desires. They’re right to an extent – we can’t avoid death. It is coming whether we like it or not, but we can change where our souls are spent after our appointed times to...

We Have a Choice - We Are Responsible

Verse 14: “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”Our temptation comes from the sin nature that is present in our hearts. When we are tempted, we are drawn away of our own (lust) desires. What is a desire? Definition: a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. Lust in the Bible is defined as the strong desire in our hearts to evil. Lust is never mentioned as being something good. We never lust to do good. Lust is the complete defining of selfishness. Lust tells us that...

God DOES NOT Tempt

Verse 13: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:”God doesn’t play with us, put us under pressure, or send temptations our way. God does not tempt any man. Temptations will come, but God is not the source. Satan likes to tell us that God has some sort of secret hidden agenda that He is not telling us.  He likes to use our own thoughts to cause trouble. We’ve had this discussion before. We get an idea in our heads, jump to conclusions, and then we’ve started...

Where Will Our Trouble Come From?

Have you ever heard someone say the phrase “I’m my own worst enemy?” Is there any truth to it? The answer is yes. This is what we’ll address in James 1:13-18. We like to blame everything on someone else. Most times we give that credit to Satan, but other times we blame this on God. In all actuality, we do it to ourselves because of the choices we make. We have a free will and can choose for ourselves which choices and paths we take. No one makes us sin but ourselves. It’s the oldest battle – and continues to be the biggest in all aspects of life....

Our Reward for Endurance

Verse 12: “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”The word blessed is a deep joy that comes from receiving God’s favor. Jesus used this word in the Beatitudes. If we take the lessons learned from verses 2-4 in James chapter 1 and apply them to the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12, we can see that we should:     Consider it joy to be poor in spirit     Consider it joy to mourn     Consider it...

James' Examples

James 1:9 “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:The brother of low degree is a poor man. James brings status into the situation because trials will come no matter how much money they have. During the time of James’ writings, ALL professing Christians were being persecuted. Money didn’t make a difference. We might think that having money will solve all of our problems but we never know how much debt people with money are in or how much their family is suffering due to the lack of their presence on a daily basis. Everyone is...

Being Double Minded

James 1:8 “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”Again, this goes to the subject of doubt. Being double-minded is similar to the phrase “trying to be in two places at once.” If you are struggling or wavering back and forth between two things, you are double-minded. This is the simplest definition of a hypocrite. Here’s a good way to see if you’re double-minded: In your personal life…if you proclaim diet and exercise and condone those who don’t follow dietary guides yet you stuff your face with cheeseburgers and never move, you’re double-minded. In...

The Danger of Being Unsure

James 1:6 “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”Ask in faith: What is faith? The biblical definition can be found in Hebrews 11:1. God only gives us one condition when we come to him. WE MUST ASK IN FAITH. Our prayers and requests won’t get a response if we don’t believe that God can do what we ask of him. We were told in our lesson from last week that these trials will test our faith. Faith is our complete trust in God. Hebrews 11:6 says “But without faith it...

Seeking Wisdom

This lesson is entitled “Dealing with Difficulty” for a good reason. We need to be ready for troubles and trials because we know they are coming. We discussed that last week. The main thought for this week is: It’s too late to gain spiritual stability when we are in the middle of a trial. Ignorance will make any situation worse, so God’s cure for anxiety is knowledge and faith. Again, this week we will look at two similar words with two entirely different meanings (last week was joy and happiness). To begin, we will look at the word wisdom. What...

Becoming Complete

James 1:4 “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”When we endure our trials as God intends, this rounds out or faith making us a complete being in Christ. Our completeness is recognized by three characteristics (we gain these by endurance): Maturity (Perfect): seasoned. Fit for the tasks God sends us to do. It is a quality based on the knowledge we have gained from those experiences. This does not relate to age. If you’re 40 and still making the same mistakes as you did in your 20’s, you haven’t...

Testing Our Patience

James 1:3 “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”The trying of our faith is a test. A test is a measurement of what we have learned over a period of time. The word test is positive although it has negative connotations. The Greek root word is the same word used in I Peter 1:6-7 meaning “proved genuine”. Trials and tests do not determine whether or not believers have faith. The trials strengthen believers by adding perseverance to the faith that is already present. The word patience that is used here means the same thing...

Count it All Joy

Were we promised when we got saved that we would have an easy life? No.Jesus knew that we would face troubles and trials in our lives. James wrote his book during the Roman persecution era of the church. The needed some good information how to handle their situations. This is why the book of James is often called the most practical book in the Bible (see James 1:1). Our troubles and trials are never an “if” they are a “when”. How are we supposed to deal with difficulties (because we know they are coming)? With a good attitude.Where does that good...

James' Work Life

James, like Jesus, was a Jew. James became a great leader in the church of Jerusalem at a hard time. His time was hard because the Gentiles, Jews, and born again Jews were trying to worship in the same place, but in different ways. In the Old Testament the Jews were given laws on how to live, but for the born again Jews and Gentiles, they were having to develop a set of guidelines to live by. What’s the difference in a Jew, a Gentile and a born-again Jew? ANSWER: A Gentile was anyone who wasn’t a Jew. A Jew was a person who lived by a set of laws...

The Salvation of James

James’ salvation did not happen until James encountered Jesus after the resurrection. I Corinthians 15:7 gives the encounter. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third...

The Early Life of James

Matthew 13:55-56 says “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? These were Jesus’ half-siblings because they did not share the same father. Since James is listed first in the siblings, we can assume he was 2nd in birth order. Christ was the first.Imagine being in a family of at least 7 – count Mary, Joseph, Jesus, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas and then throw in an unknown number...