“Humility Abides”
James 4:11-5:6
Today in the book of James we are going to tackle three of his teachings on developing a wholehearted devotion to Jesus.
They are simple, but not easy.
The first two verses we read, provide us with the solution for strife.
Did you catch that? The solution to strife.
Now I don’t care who you are or what stage of life you may be in,
because we live with other humans
we are bound to have strife.
James knew it, Jesus knew it.
So what’s the solution for it?
James tells us, we need to get right with other people. Simple, just like I said.
Difficult just the same.
Because the way James tells it
to get right with people is to not speak evil of them.
But, what if……?
Let’s face it, most of the time, but not all, when we have strife with someone we often don’t speak very highly of them.
To top it all off,
God has told us that if we want to be right with Him,
we must get right with other people first.
Remember the Sermon on the Mount? Matthew 5: 23& 24,
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”
James tells us that speaking evil of another person equates to judging them. The ancient Greek word used for “speak evil,” katalalia, describes the kind of sin of those who meet in corners or gather in little groups and pass on confidential information which destroys the good name of those who are not there to defend themselves. I love the ancient Greek language, they actually created a word for this behavior. Basically this group of gossipers is putting themselves in the same place as the law, which in effect judges the law itself. In essence, we have no right or authority to sit and give a negative opinion on someone without them being there, because God is the only true Lawgiver.
James sees it as wrong for two reasons.
First, it breaks God’s number one law,
to love one another.
Second, it steps in
and takes the right of judgment that only God has.
Do not be confused with what happens in the civil courts and with judges. This is not what James is referring to. When people sin, they are to be judged and pay the consequences of their sin. James is talking about the harsh, unkind, critical spirit that continually finds fault with others. It’s amazing how quickly strife ends when the critical spirit and critical words are removed and replaced with humility.
The next two teachings James provides for a wholehearted devotion to Jesus have to do with wealth. Here we go again with putting a camel through the eye of a needle.
This time James encourages a humble dependence on God. Not on ourselves. Somehow as soon as we consider ourselves in charge of what goes on in our lives we establish an independence from God.
James isn’t arguing about making wise plans for the future. The indicative mood in which James is writing this passage leads to a presumption of what will happen. When we make those plans with a kind of heart that does not take into account the hand of God and underestimates our own limitations,
we begin running our lives, without God.
James is reminding us, we do not know what will happen tomorrow. Trusting in our earthly wisdom to determine what will happen tomorrow is risky business in God’s eyes. James reveals that there are two certainties of the future – 1) God knows it and 2) We don’t.
James goes on to describe the frailty of human life as a vapor, here for a little time and then gone. Eugene Peterson puts it this way in The Messsage,
You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing.
The fact is we live and move only at the permission of God. That doesn’t mean we should stop planning and doing, but while we do, we should recognize our reliance on God.
Nine times out of ten, it is the arrogance of wealth that makes us think that we can live and move independently of God. This very arrogance is the essence of sin, a proud independence, the mother of the vices, it is the reason that angels fail. Take the case of Lucifer, Isaiah 14:12-15,
How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.[a]
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.
In contrast, listen to how Paul thinks of his future:
I will return again to you, God willing (Acts 18:21).
But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills (1 Corinthians 4:19).
I hope to stay a while with you, if the Lord permits (1 Corinthians 16:7).
The word “boast in your arrogance” James used here, alazoneia, was the word used for the characteristic of the wandering quack, who offered some potions to cure but they actually did nothing. Someone who boasted of things he was unable to do. James calls this boasting “evil.”
James ends this chapter with a challenge. One I think is worth pursuing today. Were we to live according to what we know in the Lord, our world would be a better place.
It’s not like James is not aware just how difficult it is to go from “knowing” what the right thing to do is and “doing” the right thing. James makes it quite plain. When you know these things, you are accountable to doing these things.
This has been a theme throughout his letter.
Genuine faith is proved by action.
It’s a fact, no matter how high and orthodox a view we have of God’s law, if we fail to actually do it, we are saying to the world that we do not in fact put much stock into it. James has referred to the uncertainty of life and often that creates fear and causes one to be passive and inactive. However, the uncertainty of life should not bring fear and inaction, but should draw us closer to a complete dependence on God.
James ends with,
“If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”
Jesus told a story with much the same point in Luke 12:41-48. The story was about servants and how they obeyed the master in the master’s absence.
The Master said, “Let me ask you: Who is the dependable manager, full of common sense, that the master puts in charge of his staff to feed them well and on time? He is a blessed man if when the master shows up he’s doing his job. But if he says to himself, ‘The master is certainly taking his time,’ begins beating up on the servants and maids, throws parties for his friends, and gets drunk, the master will walk in when he least expects it, give him the thrashing of his life, and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes.
Jesus concluded the story with this application:
“The servant who knows what his master wants and ignores it, or insolently does whatever he pleases, will be thoroughly thrashed. But if he does a poor job through ignorance, he’ll get off with a slap on the hand. Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!
James continues with the theme of putting too much faith in our wealth. Chapter 5 begins with another danger of wealth. Being rich can often lead to the illusion of wealth. Those with much wealth easily slip into the illusion that it is wealth that is taking care of them. James has been developing the idea of a complete dependence on God. Those who are rich, tend to have a propensity to forget that idea. It makes sense. Riches do seem to offer us security and present an additional and significant obstacle to the kingdom, Matthew 19:23-24,
As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom? Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.”
1 Timothy 6:10,
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
It’s not like riches and grace cannot go together. Jesus had followers who were rich, Zaccheus, Joseph of Armithea, and Barnabas, but James is speaking to those who are rich and forget about God. They are not only wallowing in wealth but they are abusing it to pride, luxury, oppression and even cruelty.
James then tells them to “weep and howl” this would have been understood as the style of an Old Testament prophet. James is telling the rich to mourn in consideration of their destiny. Look at how their riches will be revealed:
Corrupted
Moth eaten
Corroded.
These are words directly referring to their kinds of wealth.
Stores of food are “corrupted.”
Garments are “moth eaten.”
Gold and silver are “corroded.”
Each of them comes to nothing. In fact, James goes so far to say that those who become so bound up with their greed will perish with it like being eaten away in burning pain.
It’s evident when you see or read about the lives of those who have immeasurable wealth, the tendency to get caught up in all the food, clothing, and jewels wealth can provide is intoxicating and addicting. The crazy thing is there are times when those who love the Lord, wish they were wealthy. For James it’s like playing with fire. James reminds us to be content with what we have, because in the vapor of our life, soon it will all be gone.
One example of the corruptible nature of the wealth is the indulgent way in which they lived without regard to others, as an example, withholding the wages of their laborers. Basically, they live upon other’s labors and starve the poor to enrich themselves. We see it all the time, it appears in “capitalism.”
James tells us that the Lord God Almighty hears the cries of those who are oppressed. The phrase,
Lord God Almighty,
means the Lord of armies,
the kind of armies that come from a heavenly and angelic sense.
James is describing God as the warrior, the commander-in-chief of all heavenly armies. This title is suppose to provoke two types of responses:
- The unjust should hear a sober warning. The God of might and power and judgment has been alerted.
- Those who have been oppressed should become alert, their cries have been heard and the God of might and power is on their side.
This should bring hope to those who need it most.
Often those who are poor and without power in this world have little satisfaction when it comes to justice. Yet, here we are told, God hears their cries and He is the one who guarantees to ultimately right every wrong and answer every injustice.
I hear those cries every time I turn on the news. Let’s face it, America is one of the top ten richest countries in the world and yet according to Matthew Desmond’s article which I have placed in my “Pastor’s Pondering” we have done very little to assist those in poverty in the past 50 years. Mind you, those with money have become richer yet those without have not. I don’t usually stand on a soap box, but I spend much of my free time assisting those who need affordable housing in our community. This isn’t just a “current problem.” Here is another excerpt from Mr. Desmond’s article,
“You can read injunctions against usury in the Vedic texts of ancient India, in the sutras of Buddhism and in the Torah. Aristotle and Aquinas both rebuked it. Dante sent moneylenders to the seventh circle of hell. None of these efforts did much to stem the practice, but they do reveal that the unprincipled act of trapping the poor in a cycle of debt has existed at least as long as the written word.”
James reminds us to do some introspection.
“The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”
It is my hope that not only do we hear them ourselves today, but we decide to help them
Let’s pray.
