Julian's Blog

In James 3:1-12 James talks about the importance of words. Words are so powerful those who teaching will be judged more severely, the tongue is such a small part of our body, and yet so powerful, finally our tongue helps diagnose our hearts. 1. 3:1 Teachers James begins by saying that we need to be careful before rushing to become a teacher. Why is that? It is because teachers are associated with authority, we take what they say seriously, and so their words can have more damage than other people’s words. Proof that words plus authority are powerful - Adolph Hitler – some say he may have killed his niece with his own hands, but apart from that he did not kill anyone, even if he is responsible for the death of millions. Another reason teachers get harsher punishment is – what if they are communicating lies. What a pastor would stop promoting the gospel, and preached a different message? People would no longer hear the good news. What are some kinds of ways some ...

This passage, James 2:14-26 seems to be problematic. James says flat out – “we are justified by our works”. What does he mean? Is he contradicting Paul? I have to say no! Ephesians 2:8-10 gives us the perfect way to relate faith and works: Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works , which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. We are saved by faith and no works, but we are saved for the purpose of doing works. Even when James appeals to Abraham’s life to show that Abraham was saved by works, he quotes Genesis 15:6 which is clear that it was Abraham’s faith that was counted to him righteousness and then many years later, his faith is shown to be alive, when he trusted God to the point of being willing to sacrifice his only child. Faith without works is death. Works show that our fai...

The argument in James 2:1-13 is essentially that it is anti-gospel, anti-Christian. If we think of the Gospel, we know God, chose us while we are his enemies, while we were in our hopeless state of sin, he chose to be his. When we show partiality, we take God’s spot, we become judges (v.4) but unlike God who chose the poor, which could include anyone that is a believer, in light of our empty spiritual state when God redeemed; we chose people who meet specific criteria. In doing so, we have acted in a way that is anti-gospel. As we Christians we ought to live out our lives and every aspect of them in ways that reflect the gospel.

Verses 1:19-27 tell us to listen humbly, be doers of the word, and exercise a religion that is pleasing before God. 1. Righteous God, Righteous Life In verses 19-21 James describes a person doing three things – not listening, speaking too quickly and getting angry. All three things tend to happen when we are upset. Our emotions tell us something is wrong, and we are convinced already that this is the case, so we no longer listen, but rather want to be heard. We truly believe something is wrong, so we are angry and want to make things right. The only problem according to James, is that we cannot make things right, and especially not with our anger. James says that our anger will not produce the righteousness of God. A few things can be said for general application: We must listen first, and then speak carefully. Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 makes this same point. We are not God. So we need to be careful with our speech. We should be quicker to reading the Bible, and listening ...

When we are tempted, we must not blame God, because God is not the author of our temptation, rather he is the author of every good thing we have. 1. God is not tempted and does not tempt We have a tendency to shift blame. Often we don’t realize we are doing it, because we really, truly believe it is not our fault. Sometimes we are so convinced we are not at fault. I’ve played tennis with a guy who blamed his racket when I beat him! When it comes to blaming God for temptation, it might be grounded in some truth, such as God’s sovereignty. If the Lord is king and in control, then we might be justified in blaming him when bad things happen. James counters this kind of thinking, with two statements: God cannot be tempted with evil, and he does not tempt anyone. The question than generally comes up here is – was Jesus tempted then, if God cannot be tempted? Douglas Moo – God is omnipresent, Jesus is not. When we recognize Christ as a true human, he has put aside some of t...

James 1:2-12 covers trials. First, verses 2 to 4 tell us to rejoice because trials produce a whole and complete Christian. Secondly, verses 5-8 tells us to ask in a way that is “whole”, in order to receive wisdom from God, and finally in verses 9-12 we are to treasure Christ more than anything. 1. 2-4 rejoice in Trials because they produce whole and complete Christians Granted, this is so counter-intuitive. But we know this is true, from our own lives. We learn more through mistakes than victory. A guitarist builds goes through pain before developing tough calluses on the ends of his fingers. When you go to the gym and you want to build muscle. After a workout, your muscles tear and build up stronger. If you want to get good at anything, you need to be willing to put in hours of hard work. I remember partaking in a double, badminton tournament. We were going to play each team in the competition three times. In the first round, we won every game. We thought we wou...