Copyright © S P Townsend
The letter of James can be a difficult text for some of us to read, those of us who like everything to be laid out systematically and in order, every thought linked logically to the next. James doesn’t write like that. He writes as though he is recording images passing through his mind. And just as our thoughts can dart this way and that, some sparked by earlier thoughts, some appearing out of nowhere, so James presents a kaleidoscope of advice, encouragement, warning and exhortation. The temptation for the preacher is to organise what James wrote, to impose some structure on it, to try and arrange the content into some kind of logical order.
I was about set to embark on such a process for this sermon, when it seemed as though God said to me, “If I wanted James’ letter to be presented in a logical and systematic way, don’t you think I would have told him to write it that way? So why do you think you should try to impose some logical order where none was intended.”
You see, the letter of James is meant to be read. So read it, from start to finish. It can take you less than 20 minutes. Allow the images to flow through your mind, as if you were listening to a wonderful piece of music. Pause to meditate on what you read – shut your eyes and allow your thoughts to range where they will under the Holy Spirit’s direction. It will be as if a multitude of balloons were released into the wind, scattering and swirling this way and that. Here comes one now, if you leap up you can grab it. Look, there’s a message attached; what does it say?
“I chose to give you birth through My word of truth.”
O Lord, you truly did chose to bring me into your family, you really do love me. Thank you with all my heart for embracing me.
God’s intention is that each of us should be mature, complete and lacking in nothing (James 1:4). If you belong to Him, if you are His child, then everything that impacts upon your life – the joys, the sorrows, the adventures and the tragedies – all are used by God to accomplish His purpose for you (Romans 8:28). Even the evils spawned by the enemy, and designed to destroy us, even these God can use to bring about His good purpose. As Joseph said to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20).
So what can interfere with this process? Who can hinder God’s purpose to make you mature, complete and lacking in nothing?
You can, says James. You can submit or you can resist. You can listen or you can block your ears. You can remember or you can forget. You can step out or you can fall back. You can persevere or you can give up. You can occupy yourself with what is passing, or you can pursue what will endure. You can allow God’s word to guide you or you can allow yourself to be deceived.
Deception, says James, can arise in three distinct ways.
Firstly, we can be deceived about God Himself. “Do not be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:16,17)
Secondly, we can be deceived about ourselves. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)
Thirdly, we can be deceived about religion. “If anyone considers himself to be religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” (James 1:26)
Although James says that we can be deceived, there is no need for us to be deceived, and his intention is to warn us so that we do not fall into this trap.
“Do not be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” (James 1:16-18)
If we do not develop a correct understanding of who God is, what His purposes are, and how He carries them out, then we will never be able to exercise the kind of faith that James describes earlier in the chapter – the kind of faith that enables us to endure trials with perseverance, to reach full maturity, to lack nothing, to achieve the highest that God has planned for us. The kind of faith that asks and receives.
It is very easy to have a false image of God in our minds, either an image we invent for ourselves or an image that the enemy of our souls whispers into our ears at unguarded moments. The doubts creep in: God doesn’t really care about me; He wants to hurt me; He doesn’t understand what I need; He is not serious about what He said, and so on.
God’s greatest complaint about the Children of Israel on whom He bestowed His love and protection: “they do not know my ways.” “I am their Father, yet they do not know me.” How can we know His ways without spending time with Him, and without allowing that word of truth, through which He gave us birth, to fill our hearts and our understanding and motivate our doing?
Each time Jenny gave birth I held the baby in my hands, and each time as I looked at that tiny person its eyes would open wide and gaze into mine. I was then conscious of three things – those three things that the Apostle Paul said will endure, unlike the transient material things that fill our lives – faith, hope and love. Faith not on my part but on the baby’s. Utterly dependent and utterly content in that dependence. Unable to do anything but lie there in my hands and trust me. Hope – my hope for the little one, for its future, for what it would grow up to become in good time. Love – our love for each other, so strong in my heart for that little one, and still only a seed in its heart, but a seed that would grow and strengthen as we spent time together, as it grew to know me better.
Brothers and sisters, that commitment expressed by a father or mother at the moment of birth does not begin to compare with the commitment of your heavenly Father for you. At the moment of your new birth he gazed into your eyes with a greater intensity of love than any father has for his newborn, and vowed “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
What kind of image of God do you have? Is it a correct one derived from time spent with His word and in His presence? Or is it a false one, derived perhaps from others who have let you down or even from your own faults?
. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:22-24)
Paul White, medical missionary in what used to be Tanganyika, wrote a number of tales incorporating African animals. Some of these were later developed and recorded by an Australian comedian, whose name I have forgotten. One of these involved Toto the monkey, Boohoo the hippopotamus, and a mirror. Boohoo wanted to see a reflection of himself. Toto wasn’t so sure this was a good idea. But Bohoo was persistent, and eventually Toto brought Boohoo a mirror to look in. Boohoo was devastated to see the big, ugly face looking back at him. He told Toto to put the mirror on the ground.
“What are you going to do?” asked Toto.
“Stamp on it!” replied Boohoo. “I don’t like mirrors.”
We may not like what we read about ourselves in God’s word, but no benefit is gained by walking off and forgetting about it. God wants to use His word to transform us.
. “If anyone considers himself to be religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion 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.” (James 1:26-29)
The third way in which we can be deceived concerns religion. How is it that we should behave as godly men and women? What are the duties we should perform? Deception in this matter is widespread. In the name of God people hurt and hate, grasp and seize, maim and kill. False religion arises whenever we substitute rules for relationship. True religion is when we act just as our Father in heaven would act, and only when we know Him well and walk closely with Him will we live like Him.
Copyright © S P Townsend