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The letter written by James addresses a group of Christians who were formerly Jews. Understanding the letter can be a challenge when we don’t understand the basis for it. It’s an awful lot like reading someone else’s mail. However, there are some clues in the letter that guide us to understanding the basis of the letter and as such help us in interpreting it. Here are my thoughts.
First of all there are a lot of references to wealthy and poor Christians in the congregation (1:9-10 and 5:1-9). In fact, the letter opens up addressing the poor Christians who are facing temptation by instructing them to embrace the temptation and to be made stronger by it (1:2).
So what was the temptation? The temptation to murmur and verbalize discontent (5:9) against their fellow Christians who were wealthy. An awful lot of instruction is given in the letter to controlling their speech (tongue).
So how were the wealthy Christians abusing their poorer brethren? First of all by discriminating against their poorer brethren and showing preferential treatment to Christians who were wealthier (2:1-4).
In addition, apparently some of the poorer Christians were employed by their wealthier brethren who had held back their wages fraudulently (5:1-4).
A lot of encouragement is given to these poorer Christians to endure the temptation and not respond in a negative way to their mistreatment. In addition, a lot of words are used condemning the actions of the wealthy Christians.
Finally, the last part of the letter is dedicated to enjoining these poor Christian not to dwell on their mistreatment but to pray and sing about all sorts of things (5:13-20). In other words, don’t dwell on your mistreatment but get about the business of God and place your cares upon him.
In todays congregations there are occasional problems among Christians. The lesson from James is clear… don’t make the problems worse by slandering each other but endure the mistreatment and get busy about the business of God placing all your cares upon him. Amen!
In the Bible the Lord’s people have been compared to a flock of sheep and their leaders are called Shepherds. God owns the flock and the Shepherds are accountable to him.
One of the reasons for the comparison is because sheep have value and so do the Lord’s people.
Sheep produce meat, dairy products, wool and Lanolin, etc. The Shepherd finds the best pastures for the sheep so that their nutritional needs are met and they can be productive. He also protects them from predation.
The Shepherd may also vary the genetics of his flock by bringing in Rams who have the characteristics he desires (wool vs. meat types). Frequently a Ewe may produce twins or even triplets. The Shepherd identifies sheep with superior genetics and maximizes their impact in the flock.
If a Ewe doesn’t produce a lamb every year she is culled as are the aged sheep. Every year the Shepherd gives an accounting to the flock owner.
The Lord’s people/church has great value. Her Pastors/Shepherds nourish the flock by teaching from God’s word. They are also taught to congregate/flock with each other. There is no culling of the aged in the church. The aged can still provide sound judgment and provide opportunities of service and honor for the rest of the congregation.
Those who possess superior spiritual genetics, if called upon, will sacrifice their own lives for the benefit of another.
The church’s spiritual economic value is the good deeds she does for each other and for the community.
The goal of the Pastor/Shepherd is to deliver the entire flock/church to their owner (God) on the Day of Judgment… and that’s exactly what God expects of them. Don’t let God down.
In the Bible God’s people are often referred to as a flock of sheep and those in charge of God’s sheep/church are called Shepherds or Pastors.
There are probably a lot of reasons for describing the church as a flock of sheep but one very important reason is because sheep depend upon each other for defense.
Sheep don’t have fangs or claws like a lion. They aren’t swift enough to out run a wolf. They can’t spray repulsive scent like a skunk and they can’t camouflage themselves.
So what can they do? In the wild they can group together in a solid circle with the Rams and older animals on the periphery and the younger and weaker in the interior. A solid front can be intimidating to a predator and the predator may skulk off waiting until an unsuspecting lamb wanders off from the protection of the group to acquire his prey.
Of course domestically, a flock of sheep has a Shepherd who is constantly vigilant watching out for the flock… so too the church.
Just as flocks gather together to ward off predators, Christians congregate together and strengthen each other by learning about God, learning how to lead sin free lives and by learning what it means to live a life of service until Faith is built up and fortified.
Once Faith is mature and the Soldier of Christ is fully armored the great lion Satan will skulk away in fear. Especially if he is facing an army of Christian soldiers.
Remember what Jesus told Peter?
“Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it”
There are a lot of reasons to congregate together with other Christians and defense is one of those… even sheep know that
Towards the end of the Gospel of Matthew a group of people who didn’t believe in the after-life (Sadducees) came up with a really tough question that they thought Jesus couldn’t answer. They built a story where a woman had been married and widowed by seven brothers. They asked whose wife would she be in Heaven?
Jesus looked at them and told them their mistake was in not knowing that there is no marriage in Heaven (Like… is that the best you’ve got?). They were stunned into silence. One interesting thing about that is that Jesus wasn’t quoting some scripture out of the Bible… this was brand new information to them.
Here’s what I’ve been wondering… why? Why isn’t there marriage in Heaven? I mean, even Stevie Wonder can see that marriage is one of God’s greatest gifts to human kind. Why not have that gift in Heaven?
Think about this, a young man and a young woman commit themselves to each other, the road may be a little rough, they may have different ideas about things but with time the road gets smoother and they find a way to come into agreement and learn to live in happiness.
We all have seen marriages that have lasted sixty years or more and then one spouse’s passes and the other one doesn’t last very long either. Life just isn’t worth living anymore.
So why is there no marriage in Heaven? It might be because marriage on earth foreshadows the relationship in Heaven that all the saved will share with all of each other and with God.
Imagine the love you see between two people who have been married 60 years or so being the same kind of love and emotional intimacy existing between all of God’s people in Heaven for eternity.
There won't be marriage in Heaven between a man and a wife because we will all figuratively be married to each other.
A lot of folks look back on the road they have traveled and see a lot of mistakes and a lot of broken and failed relationships. But they also may see an elderly Christian couple who have overcome those things and take heart and see a little hope and build a little faith that things can be different.
We all make mistakes but we don’t have to keep making those same old mistakes over and over again. A great blessing awaits the people of faith. Set a new course in your life to realize that blessing and live in eternal happiness forever with all of God’s people.
I know people who have had loved ones act in such shameful ways that it forever affects their relationship. So much so that in effect they never have a relationship. It is an open and continual wound that never heals. It doesn’t have to be that way.
In the Perkins family we’ve had many such negative events; Adultery and divorce, alcoholism, drug dependency, gambling, murder, suicide attempts, political differences, religious differences and I guess every sort of difference that you can imagine, and yet generally we are a big happy family. Here are some reasons that I think that is so.
We were taught to love each other and forgive and we had plenty of family gatherings where that was demonstrated.
I remember as a kid that we had come into town to spend Christmas and were staying at my grand-parent’s house and there was a big commotion. One of my uncles had come home drunk and knocked over the Christmas tree. Somehow they got the Christmas tree back up and we had a good Christmas and no one seemed to be too mad about it.
Every other year we gather at my brother Greg’s home for Thanksgiving and before the prayer the three brothers talk about family and memories and what the future holds and how God has blessed us.
A few years back we had a Perkins’ family reunion in San Diego, California and had 120 people in attendance. I give Facebook a lot of credit for that because we are all friends on Facebook. I’ve seen relationships build that didn’t previously exist. At the reunion many said… you know, I’ve never met you but I feel like I know you!
I’ve seen a relationship build between my daughter and my oldest cousin. Lauren has only seen Dave Perkins a few times but I can see that they love each other. We even have a private Facebook page that only family members are on so that we can share things that the rest of the world wouldn’t begin to understand.
I heard my daughter tell another cousin's wife (who had a tragedy occur in the family), "I love you and I think about you every day". They have only met once or twice but those are healing words.
We have several text message groups; Texas Perkins, Perkins Hog Hunters with Extreme Malice, Perkins Texas 42, Perkins Texas aggies, Deplorable Perkins and a few more. It’s not unusual for me to look at my phone during the day and see over 100 text messages.
We always contact each other on our birthdays including calling and singing “Happy Birthday”. The common response of the listener is to say you sound like the “Mormon Tabernacle Choir”.
Perkins’ have a great (although frequently misunderstood) sense of humor. We can make fun of each other and laugh at ourselves. If we know someone is a little sensitive we can even back off a little bit until we get them up to speed. My brothers and I were raised in a home that had a lot of laughter.
My uncle who never darkened a church house door after he left home was a drunk, left his wife for another woman and was notorious for his bar room fights. And yet in his old age I would call him three to four times a year and send him a ham at Christmas. I would occasionally talk to him about Christ but not all the time. The main thing I wanted him to know was I cared about him. Most of the time I just poked fun at him and he loved that. At the end of those conversations he would always tell me that he loved me.
About 5 years ago my brother Scott and I had a disagreement/misunderstanding and he was so mad at me I didn’t know what might happen, but now it’s just water under the bridge and the subject never came up again. You see if you love someone so deeply and intensely you just can’t let anything interfere with that. Of course there’s work you have to do along the way and communication is a big part of that as is demonstrating unselfish love.
I don’t know every situation and yours might be different but I do know a lot of situations and thought maybe these things could be of benefit to you. Sometimes those old wounds can heal if you apply a little medicine to them
Imagine you were at a dance and you saw a girl on the other side of the dance floor that just… took your breath away… her eyes sparkled, she smiled at you and you thought she was the prettiest thing you had ever seen and were summoning up the courage to ask her to dance when your dad came up and said, “I want you to dance with that other girl that no one else is paying attention to”. You looked over and saw a plain homely kind of a girl and your heart sank but you did it and danced the whole night with her. Finally at the very end you got to dance with the girl of your dreams and your heart beat so hard you thought it was going to break out of your chest.
That’s kind of like the story of Jacob, Leah and Rachel in the book of Genesis. Jacob had his heart set on Rachel but God had other plans for him and he had to marry Leah first in order to also marry her sister Rachel.
Here’s the thing… Leah knew Jacob didn’t love her. Jacob only had eyes for Rachel. What do you do when you realize your husband doesn’t love you? With many tears Leah prayed to God and God heard her prayers and opened her womb and gave her six sons and one daughter whom Jacob loved with all his heart… and Rachel? God closed her womb so she could feel some of Leah’s hurt.
When I used to work cattle every so often we would push a Brahma (Bramer) through the chute. Often times they would go down in the chute and “sull” stopping the whole process. You could put a kink in their tails or hit them with a Hot Shot but you just couldn’t get them to move until they were ready.
Leah didn’t “sull” she did what she could do, gave it a little time and left the rest up to God. Rachel eventually had two boys but died during the birth of the second. Leah lived a long life with Jacob and felt his love and was buried by his side. God does answer the prayers of his faithful ones (including Rachel).
Don’t despair if you’re not the prettiest one at the dance. God knows who you are and like Leah can make your offspring as numerous as the sand on the beach… one of whom was Jesus Christ. Have a little faith.
The letter that James wrote has a lot to say about proving our faith, which begs the question… does our faith need to be proven?...apparently so. James illustrates two ways faith is proven.
The first is by successfully conquering temptation to sin (James 1:2-3). When the Christian is faced with temptation and refuses to sin he has completed one leg of the race.
The second way faith is proven is by faith inspired works (James 2:14-26). The scriptures are replete with examples of faithful people whose faith inspired them to perform so called “works” and those works are illustrated in great detail.
The section on faith and works is concluded by the statement “faith without works is dead”. You may have conquered sin but there is still more to do. No one wants to have dead faith or even weak faith. Our goal is to have strong, vibrant faith.
The body builder goes to the gym every day to lift weights. One day is “arm” day another is “leg” day… so forth and so on. Eventually his physical body is transformed to the image of Herculean strength.
The spiritual faith builder exercises his faith by working good works every single day. As he does so he is transformed and his faith gets stronger and stronger until he is shaped into the spiritual image of Jesus Christ.
Our faith is proven in two ways; by refusing to sin and by proving our love for others by providing for their needs. Follow that formula and you will be well prepared for eternity.
