A geek looks at James 1:1-11

Who is James? What did he do that gave him the right to author an epistle in the New Testament? What does the bible tell us about him? Let's take a look and see what both the bible and history teach us. He is mentioned in Matthew 13:55 when the Nazerenes objected to Jesus teaching (Isn't this his mother, Mary? Aren't these his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?), in Mark 6:3 at the same scene, and in Galatians 1:19 where Paul refers to him as "the apostle James, the Lord's brother". John tells us that James did not believe that Christ was who he said he was in John 7:5. Paul describes his conversion in 1 Corinthians 15:7 as being at the time when the resurrected Christ appears to him, and in Acts 15:13 James is described as being a leader of the church in Jerusalem where he appears to be acting in the role of chairperson, summing up the arguments of Peter, then adding his own arguments, then delivering a verdict: It is my judgement (decision, verdict), then ...(v.19). In short, James is a man who, while he didn't believe from the beginning (after all, he grew up with Jesus - I am sure that there must have been some familial conflicts), became a solid believer and eventually a pillar in the Christian church in Jerusalem. He is shown to us as a man of wisdom who thinks things through rather than making snap decisions (Acts 15:13-21 shows this deliberation, as does his slowness in accepting Christ prior to the evidence of his resurrection). All in all, he seems to be one of the stable, knowledgable, confident individuals found in churches, someone who is absolutely certain of what he believes, who is kind, gentle and caring but will still not hesitate to tell you, lovingly, the correct course to go when you go wrong. This is the kind of man I would happily take instruction from.
Even though James played a prominent role in the early church, even to the point of being one of the leaders of the church, he didn't do a lot of writing. We have only one letter by him, which was written to Jewish believers who had spread from Jerusalem. The letter was most likely written around AD 49 or AD 50, just prior to the council in Acts 15, about the time of Paul's second missionary journey. The purpose behind this marvelous letter is to teach us how to behave properly as christians. There was a great deal of heresy going on at this time, along with huge debates on which rituals should a Christ follower obey? Eating meat, circumcision, sacrifices, Mosaic law... what was needed and what was not. On the other side of the coin there was the argument raging that Christ gave freedom from law, so we can do anything we want: Divorce, prostitutes, favortism, self gain and so on. James wrote his letter to help straighten this out. In chapter one, he begins by addressing a simple issue: The thinking that believers should not have trials. He addresses this by instructing us to "take joy WHEN we face trials" and goes on to give us hope, confidence, and a plan of action.
This is incredibly relevant nowadays, perhaps even more so than in James' day. There is a huge charismatic movement which teaches that believers should not have any problems, and if you do experience problems then you must be living in sin. However, James tells us that as believers we will have problems, and that these problems (the testing of our faith) will in fact make us stronger believers (develop perserverance) and will also mature our faith and complete us. His plan of action for us when we experience problems? Don't look at the problem itself. Instead focus our attention on what that trial will result in. Looking at verse 4 we can also see that he is clearly telling us that as long as we are alive we will have problems. Perserverance must finish it's work (by more trials leading to more perserverance) so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.
But as a sinful human I already know that I will not be mature and complete until Christ returns for me. Which means that while these minor problems in my life (house burning down, car wreck, lost job etc) seem huge, they are going to make me more like Christ if I look to the work perserverance is doing. After getting trials out of the way James immediately moves into wisdom, which is something that we as christians should exhibit. Wisdom is usually the result of maturity so it is a natural transition in his writing. In verse 5 we are given an awesome promise, one that we should all strive to take advantage of daily: "If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God... and it will be given to him" Remember that Proverbs teaches us "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom" and 'fear' can be just as well read as 'awe' or 'respect'. I think that it is very difficult for us to be in awe of something that we don't know, so in essence what we are promised is that if we ask God for wisdom, He will give us a deeper understanding of Him and His word, and also a closer relationship with Him. Ours for the asking.
This promise, however, does have a caveat: We must not doubt that God will give what He as promised. Instead, when we ask, then because we know this promise, we should start acting with that increased wisdom, expecting it to be there. We should look for it, not think "When will I get it". It's like muscles: Most of us can lift far more than we are aware, because we have never tried it. If I always lift 20lbs, I am going to have to step out in faith, and not doubt, when I attempt to lift 100lbs. (I know it's a weak analogy, but it sort of gets the idea across). James goes on to say that if we doubt, we really don't believe, and have no confidence at all. For a good example of what we are like when we doubt, ask a 5 year old if they want to stay home and watch movies and eat ice cream, or go out with friends to a McDonald's playplace. They will choose one, then the other, then the first, and will be hours making up their minds (or in our case "what song do you want to sing"). We have to take our stand and decide to trust God before we see results. He will deliver once we trust.
Now that James has dealt with trials, with trusting God, with maturity and with doubt he moves on to attitude. So often we have the opinion of "oh, poor me, I have no wealth" or "I am wealthy because I am incredible" (ok, maybe not that extreme). James, on the other hand, tells us that if we are poor, we should rejoice because our treasure is in heaven, and we have nothing here on earth to distract us. On several occassions Jesus talked about the poor being blessed, the most famous being "it is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than to pass a camel through the eye of a needle". And while needles back then were not quite as fine as they are today, I am still willing to accept that it wouldn't be easy to fit a camel through one even if the eye were a full inch in diameter. As believers and followers of Christ we are called to give up all for Him, and place it under His control. With great wealth this is very difficult to do, but with poverty it is simple to give our meager possessions to him.
The wealthy man, on the other hand, needs to be thankful for his low position. This, I believe, is the humility that comes because wealth is so easily lost. How many people in the last 3 months with the US economy collapsing have been humbled? How many of them are rejoicing because their trust was in God, not in something as ephemeral as money? I pray many. James is telling us that our wealth will fade away and that we should rejoice that we are using it while we have it to build God's kingdom and not our own.
The second half of this chapter we will look at next time, as it carries on in the same vein. So far we have seen, contrary to the worlds teachings, that trials and tribulations are a good thing for us, and can be dealt with in confidence that they will result in good, that wisdom is ours for the asking, that doubting God's promises is the equivalent of chidish indecision and finally that, again contrary to the worlds teachings poverty is a good thing, something to be proud of, and wealth is something to be humbled by. I am beginning to feel that James is teaching me that most of my preconceptions are wrong, and that I need to spend much more time in prayer and in the Word to understand what things are truly important, and what things are really valuable. I am beginning to form a general rule of thumb that if the world applauds it, or encourages it, it is ultimately bad for me. And if the world discourages it or frowns on it, it is worthy of further study to determine how God feels about it.
Lord, I pray for your wisdom to have clarity of mind about what is good and what is important. I thank you for giving us such clear teaching about how to live as a believer. I thank you for the trials we are all facing and pray that you help us remember to focus on what you promise to be the end result of trials: maturity. Lord thank you for the humility you give us in the low position of our wealth. Help us to realize that the poorest of us are far wealthier than most of the rest of the world, and that all of us have enough and more than enough to contribute to building your kingdom. I pray Lord that you reveal to us what you would have us do with the extravagant wealth you have blessed us with. Thank you for loving us Lord, and let us know you better so that we may love you more. Amen.