Week of Pentecost
+17 James 3:13-4:3, 7 & 8
13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living
an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from
wisdom. 14 But if you
are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover
up the truth with boasting and lying.15 For
jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly,
unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For
wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder
and evil of every kind. 17 But
the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at
all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of
good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers
will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. 1 What is causing the quarrels
and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within
you? 2 You want what
you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what
others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away
from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for
it. 3 And even when
you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what
will give you pleasure. 7 So
humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you. 8 Draw near
to God, and God will draw near to you.
This week we continue our look at the Epistle
of James and his thoughts on Faith that
works. Since I was away last week, part
3 has been omitted... but up to this point we've seen that faith that works
has a life-changing encounter with the Word of God (pt 1); it also engages in
the life-giving exercise of love (pt 2).
For this week there are a few things
that pop out from the reading that help us understand how faith works. First,
James in this section is using a typical "two ways" form of
instruction that was employed by many sages within the Jewish tradition--including
Jesus himself. Some examples would include: For the Lord watches over the
way of the righteous, but the
way of the wicked leads to destruction (Psalm 1:6); and Wide
is the gate and broad is the road
that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only
a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14). James is doing something similar with the
concept of wisdom. So... note the "two way" that James introduces: 13 If you are wise and
understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works
with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish
ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. One either has God's wisdom or one has bitter
jealousy and selfish ambition. Vss 15-18 further unpack this.
(vss 15-16)
(vss 17-18)
|
Not from God
|
Comes from heaven
|
|
Earthly/worldly
|
Peace-loving; gentle
|
|
Unspiritual
|
Willing to yield to
others
|
|
Motivated by the devil
|
Full of mercy &
good deeds
|
|
End result is
disorder/chaos
|
End result is a
‘harvest of goodness’
|
One of the primary
things that James is getting across is that traditional biblical wisdom the likes of which we find in the Old Testament is
vastly different than philosophical wisdom
(then as now). Philosophical wisdom is often about what you think; biblical wisdom is about what you
do (or fail to do). This comes out
loud and clear from James!
Another note of contrast that's worth
bringing out is the language that James employs in 13-14. The "wise"
person who understands God's ways is contrasted with one who is (a) bitterly jealous. The word in the Greek
is 'zelos'... it's where the word zealous and zealot come from. This word
appears 16 times in the New Testament, 11 of which are negative. Zealotry in James' day was a
political/religious movement that was willing to resort to violence and even
murder for the sake of advancing "God's ways."
The other term that's used in vs 14 is
selfish ambition. This term also had
a political connation in the NT era--that of a faction, or political party.
In the end, James seems to be saying
that even Christians can be tempted toward this 'way' of
fractious-factions--being overly zealous, and having a selfish ambition to
'win' or see their side win. His wise counsel is that this is not how faith works!
Cheers,
T.M.
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