Pure Joy

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. James 1:5

James 1:1-11 – Doing the Word: Directions for life to a scattered church from The Letter of James
Fourth Sunday of Pentecost – June 28, 2020 (am)
   

What does it mean to be [steadfast]? That’s not a word we use very often these days. You’re more likely to read it in Shakespeare than on Instagram. But it looks pretty positive in this passage today. Evidently we can know that the testing of [our] faith produces steadfastness, and that should actually enable us to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds. So, steadfastness sounds like a pretty sweet quality, pretty desirable! It makes trials [joyful]! Wow!

But that’s not the only amazing insight in this passage. It’s filled with reassurance! And what James said needed to be pretty reliably refreshing because he was writing to people who’d been driven from home by religious persecution (1). Not just anything was going to help these folk feel better. No mere platitudes were going to work with them! They were actually facing trials of various kinds (2), of many different sorts—as we’ll see in this letter. And nothing is worse than giving empty or insufficient comfort to people who are suffering.

We know that. These days are filled with trials of various kinds (2). We’re aware of COVID issues straining our lifestyles, our economy, our relationships. We’re aware of race riots in our streets and partisan political posturing that just adds fuel to the fires. And we’re aware of this unusual season in our own body—names we’ve listed many times before—but I’ve talked with others this week who are just reeling under the weight of their testing. If I started listing some of those names, I’d just magnify the weight of others by leaving them out!

We need help knowing how to respond to our trials. And James (1), here, Jesus’ half-brother, gives us some help. Three Words of Reassurance in Our Trials

The Product of Our Trials Will Eclipse the Pain – 2-4

That is a reassuring word! And if it’s true, it’s surely refreshing! Steadfastness is more desirable than [many kinds of] trials are painful! Or, to say it differently, if steadfastness is the outcome, any given [trial] will seem worth it—and more—[joyful]!

So, we really need an answer: what does it mean to be [steadfast]? kjv calls it patience; nasv, endurance; niv, perseverance. It means constancy. In the lxx, nerving oneself… to hold fast to God…; and in classical Greek, all perseverance in the face of hostile forces (Davids 68). In the nt it is, the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings (Strong).

Paul expressed a similar idea in Rom.5:3 … we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. And Peter agreed: 1Pe.1:6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while… you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith… may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Unwavering faith even in the face of trials, that is steadfastness.

So, that’s what it is. But what does it look like? What does it look like when our faith is fixed in Christ? We love Him! We love God with all [our] heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we love [our[ neighbor as [though he were us]! (Mar.12:30-31) We obey God! (Joh.14:15) We honor His Word and proclaim His gospel! (Mat.28:18-20) We’re filled with the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal.5:22-23). Steadfastness is all of this, increasing, [tested], strengthened by trials, by hardships of all kinds in this fallen, suffering world.

That’s what we look like increasingly as we live through this testing. Then the outcome is that [we become] perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (4). [We become] mature (niv). Ultimately, I believe this is talking about who we will be in heaven if we endure, become steadfast, here on earth. You can see that down in v.12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God promises to those who love him. Or, Rom.8:18 … the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

The product of our trials eclipses the pain! But there’s more!

Always-Available Wisdom (Are You Kidding Me?!) – 5-8

James has just described the full effect of steadfastness as lacking in nothing (4). That’s our future. But in the meantime, as trials and testing press in on us: 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who, get this, gives generously to all, without reproach, and—what will happen?—it will be given him. Unbelievable!

Wisdom isn’t just one of the things we lack in the face of trials, it is the thing we lack! We lose our minds when we’re in hardship! We forget who we are! We forget who God is! We forget we’re His, with all that means! We forget His promises! Or at least we doubt that they can reach us in our present struggle! We believe we need to find our own way out—our own answers, our own resources! We believe we need to rely on our own wisdom, or the wisdom of some stranger whom we’re told is the expert in our area of lack!

As we pray for one another in this season, we need to pray for wisdom, practical insight into the ways of God in our time of testing, and humble courage to live accordingly—wisdom.

Wisdom is what Nick needs as he cares for Angel and his family. There are medical experts in many places. And they have good insight. So, how do you choose?

There is also instruction from Scripture, right here in Jam.5:13-16. Where does prayer and anointing with oil by the elders fit it with health challenges great and small?

How do we decide how to respond to the tragedies and foolishness that are going on in our day—the confusing instruction on managing COVID-19, the racial tensions that are boiling over? How do we decide?

We ask God for wisdom, and He gives generously to all without reproach—without finding fault [niv]—and it will be given [to us]. He won’t even pick on us and say: What, you again? You lack wisdom again? What’s the matter with you? 6 But [we must] 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. Take God at His Word! Don’t [doubt] Him! He’s not like us. He’s reliable! Really!

This World’s Wealth Buys No Privilege with God – 9-11

Now, the link between this paragraph and the last one is not as clear as the one between that one and the one before (cf. Moo 69). But I think it is clear enough. In vv.5-8, don’t [doubt] God’s resources, His presence and power to help in just the way we need most in our trials. Then in vv.9-11, don’t inflate the value of your own resources, no matter how highly regarded they are in this world.

Rather: 9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation because, despite his poverty (lowly status), he [lacks nothing] of true value when he has faith in Christ; 10 and [let the] the rich [brother boast] in his humiliation, because, even with his exalted status in this world, apart from faith in Christ, like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. His pursuits that made him rich in this world have no power to make him [steadfast], unwavering faith… in the face of trials. And it’s only the man who remains steadfast under trial who will be blessed, who will receive the crown of life (12). His [riches] can’t achieve that! From this world’s perspective, his [riches] should be his boast and his faith is actually something he should seek to hide—it’s [humiliating] to be called a Christian. In reality, however, his humiliation, his identification with Christ, is his boast—true, lasting [riches], not fleeting [riches] that buy nothing of eternal value and evaporate in the white heat and pure light of God’s righteousness!

Conclusion

These are refreshing truths in our trials! (1) This world’s riches gain us nothing of lasting value—good to know! (2) God [grants us] wisdom even in our trials, and without finding fault! (3) Our trials strengthen our faith, mature us, make us [steadfast]. So, we can even have joy right in the midst of them—with cause!—just like a mother has joy through labor looking forward to seeing her child, but a favorable outcome is even more certain! It’s our sure, perfect inheritance in Christ!

[Pure] joy, that should be our disposition in these days, my friends, [pure] joy!

4th of July Remembrance – 2020

This week we celebrate the birth of our nation 244 years ago. It was a bold pursuit back then, “the American Experiment,” as it has been called—essentially meaning an experiment in the viability of democratic rule through a representative republic and of personal liberty for each and every citizen—a “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” as President Lincoln called it in his Gettysburg Address.

And those who formed it knew it would capture the attention and imagination of the world with compelling force. In a letter to John Adams penned 199 years ago (12 September 1821) Thomas Jefferson wrote: “[S]hould the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the 4th of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines, and all who work them.”

With what is going on in our day, however, it is increasingly difficult for us to understand how those who signed a document that says, “all men are created equal,” could continue to perpetuate and participate in the institution of human, chattel slavery. If “all [people]… are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, [and] among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” how can one man impede another’s happiness, remove his liberty, or take his life with impunity?

Frederick Douglass raised questions like this one, and far more incisive ones, in his speech give on 5 July 1852 in Rochester, NY. The title now given to his lengthy oration is, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? As he spoke, Douglass was richly affirming of the vision and courage of the founding fathers and of those who signed the Declaration of Independence. But he was equally eloquent in his assessment of the fact that stirring words like, “all men are created equal,” had little meaning to blacks, especially in the south.

One of the reasons we made mention of Juneteenth a couple weeks ago was because 19 June 1865 could be celebrated by slaves with the same gratitude to God that the rest of the nation celebrated the 4 July 1776. It was then, just over a century later, when the gripping descriptions of the Declaration of Independence became their legal birthright as well.

So, we don’t diminish joyful commemoration of the 4th of July in our day. We simply recognize that the freedom it expressed back then didn’t become the possession of all by the winning of our 18th century Revolutionary War. For some, it didn’t become their possession until after the outcome of our 19th century Civil War.

So, bottom line, the history of our nation, though glorious and worthy of great celebration, is also complicated and must be remembered with unrelenting humility. Gifted and far-sighted though our founding fathers were, they were also fallen men just like us, and marred by the same short-sightedness we continue to display today.

What we can be most pleased by today, however, is that the ideas of freedom and government described in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, though we have often been flawed in our faithful application of them, have been used by God to open a way for the gospel to take root and to grow among us, to flower and to spread, both at home and abroad, through the witness of His people here in the free expression of their beliefs.

So, let’s celebrate this Saturday! Let’s celebrate our freedoms as the blessing of God that they are. And let’s commit afresh as a Church to use them for the pursuit of His truth and the proclamation of His Kingdom and glory, which were such compelling images to our fathers two-and-a-half centuries ago as they laid the foundation for this nation under His sovereign hand.