James 1

CHAPTER 1THEME: God tests faith by trials; God does not test with evil; God tests faith by the Word, not by man’s wordsThe Epistle of James is a very practical book which deals with the ethics of Christianity rather than with doctrine. James will really bear down on some practical issues, but the theme of faith is also seen throughout his entire epistle. The emphasis in James is on the works which are produced by faith. In the first three chapters he is going to speak of the verification of genuine faith and give us some of the ways God tests faith.

James 1:1

GOD TESTS FAITH BY TRIALS"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." “Servant” is literally a bond slave. Now I do not know about you, but I am confident that if I had been the Lord’s half brother on the human side, somewhere in this epistle I would have let you know that. I would have brought in that fact in a very pious and humble way, but I surely would have let you know. However, James does not do that. Instead, he calls himself a bond slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. At first the Lord Jesus’ human brethren did not believe He was the Son of God. They had been brought up with Him and had played with Him. They had seen Him grow. They noticed that He was unusual, but they did not believe that He was the Savior of the world. Our Lord Jesus was so human when He was here on this earth that even His own brethren did not believe at the first. Of course, your family members are always the hardest people to reach, yet they are the ones we should reach.

James came to know the Lord Jesus not only as his blood brother but as his own Savior, and then he became His bond slave. Notice what James calls Himhe uses His full name, the Lord Jesus Christ. James says, “He is my Lord.” Jesus was His human name, and James knew Him as Jesus, his half brother; but he also knew Him as Christ, the Messiah who had come and had died for the sins of the world. Jesus was not just a name, but He was called Jesus because He would save His people from their sins. “To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.” It is obvious that James is referring to the believers in Israel. He is writing to the Christian Jews of that day. After all, the early church was 100 percent Jewish for quite a period of time. A few Gentiles became believers, and then a great revival broke out in the heart of the Roman Empire in the area of what is Turkey today. That is where the seven churches of Asia Minor were located. But James, evidently writing before this took place, is addressing the Jewish believers. “To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.” Today people speak of the “ten lost tribes of Israel,” but no tribes really got lost. God scattered them throughout the world. They did not settle in England or the United States, although there are many Jews in both places. They are on every continent of the world. There is a tremendous Jewish population in Russia. There are some in China, some in Japanthey are “scattered abroad.” James wrote this epistle to believing Jews of that day who were scattered abroad. “Greeting"that translation is a little stilted, for the word in the Greek literally means “rejoice.” He writes to them and says, “Rejoice.” James was not sour-tempered. James was a man with a lot of life in him. Now James is going to speak of rejoicing under unusual circumstances

James 1:2

“Divers temptations” means various trials. In other words, when you are having trouble, don’t start crying as if something terrible has happened to you. You are to rejoice and count it all joy that God is testing you in this way! The question is often asked whether the Christian is to experience joy in depth in all the trials and tensions of life. Very frankly, the answer is nothat is not what James is saying here. It leads to unreality to say that you are reconciled to the will of God when troubles come to you when you really are not reconciled. People piously say they have accepted God’s will yet go around with a long face and weep half the time. My friend, you are not reconciled to the will of God until you can rejoice. James goes on to make it clear that God does not give us trouble for trouble’s sake; it is not an end in itself.

James 1:3

God has a goal in mindyou can count on that. James is speaking here about the attitude of your heart toward your trouble. The Greek aorist tense used here suggests that the joy is the result of the trial. In Hebrews 12 we see that one method God uses in the life of the believer is chastening, which literally means “child training.” Trials are meaningless, suffering is senseless, and testing is irrational unless there is some good purpose for them. God says there is a reason for them, and it is a good reason. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom_8:28). When the external pressures of testing are upon us and we are placed in the fires of adversity and tragedy and suffering, the attitude of faith should be that God has permitted it for a purpose and He has a high and lofty goal in view. We can know that God is working something out in our lives. I must hasten to add that this does not necessarily mean that we will understand what purpose God has in it. This is the test of faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. Someone in the Middle Ages said, “God nothing does, nor suffers to be done, but what we would ourselves, if we could see through all events of things as well as He.” What are some of the purposes served in the testing of faith? In this epistle, James says that testing is the proof positive of genuine faith. Let me use a rather homely illustration. Some years ago I had the privilege of leading to the Lord a secretary to one of the officers in a large airplane plant here in Southern California. On a number of occasions she asked me to speak to a Bible study class in that plant. While I was there I learned something of how airplanes are built.

They start out by designing a new plane on the drawing board. Then blueprints are drawn up and models are made. The models are tested, and then construction begins. After about two years the first plane will roll off the assembly line. The question remains: Will it fly? Will it perform?

Will it stand the test? So a test pilot must then put the plane through the paces up in the air. When the plane has proven to be all that the maker has said it is, there is confidence in the plane and the airlines will buy it. It is then brought to the airport where passengers will board it, and the plane thus becomes serviceable and useful. In the same sense, ore is brought to an assayer to prove that it is gold or that it is silver. He will put a fire under it and pour acid on it, and then he declares whether or not it is genuine.

Likewise God puts faith to the test to prove that it is genuine. Someone has expressed it like this: “The acid of grief tests the coin of belief.” There is a lot of truth in that. God tests our faith for a purpose: “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” He tests us in order that He might produce patience in our lives.

James 1:4

It is patience which will make you a full-grown Christian, but how does God produce patience in you? The very interesting thing is that patience is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. You will never become patient by trying to be patient, but neither will the Holy Spirit place it on a silver platter and offer it to you as a gift. Patience comes through suffering and testing. “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” You will never be a “perfect"that is, a complete, fully matureChristian without patience. Some Christians therefore have never really grown up but have remained babes. I made the statement as a pastor one Sunday morning that there were more babes in the church service than there were in the nursery downstairs. I tell you, I didn’t get too many laughs from that comment. The difference, however, is that the babies in the nursery were beautiful, but the ones sitting in the church service were not very pretty. There is much clamoring and criticizing, turmoil and tension in our churches today. The reason is that many Christians have not grown up; they are still babes. David wrote in Psalms 131, “LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child” (Psa_131:1-2). In other words, David said, “I found out I had to grow up. I needed to get off milk and start eating porterhouse steak. I needed to eat of the Bread of Life.” God tested David, and that testing enabled him to grow up. Paul wrote in the Book of Romans that patience is one of the results of being justified by faith: “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope” (Rom_5:3-4). There is a purpose in it all, you see. There are many shallow and superficial saints today. There are many who are insecure as Christians. There are believers who try to be intellectual and who question the Word of God. And there are those who feel that as Christians we should try the “new morality.” My friend, the problem with such believers is that they have never grown upthey are still little babes. God gives testing and trials to produce patience in our lives and that we might become full-grown children of God. How we need that today. God must send us trouble so that we learn patience, which will also produce hope and love in the lives of men and women. Over the years of my ministry I have seen the Holy Spirit work this out in the lives of many folk. I recall one man who, when I first knew him, was always finding fault. As a pastor I had never had such a critic before. Then he began to attend the midweek Bible study at the church. I noticed that he brought his Bible and took notes. Over a period of ten years God sent that man a great deal of trouble, but he grew up and became one of the sweetest Christians I have ever known in my life. This is the type of testing which God gives to those who are His own.

James 1:5

“Wisdom” here is related to the trials which James has been talking about. You and I have troubles and trials and problems. How are you going to solve this problem? How are you going to meet this issue? How are you going to deal with this person? If you lack wisdom in regard to a problem, you need to go to God in prayer. Wisdom is the exercise and practical use of knowledge. Many people have knowledge, but they do not have any practical sense whatsoever. Even to this day I get a good laugh just thinking about the man with a Ph.D. with whom I used to play golf. One day out on the golf course it began to rain, and he looked at me in utter amazement and asked, “What shall we do now?” Well, you don’t need a Ph.D. to know that you need to get in out of the rain! I said to him, “I think we’d better seek shelter.” Wisdom is to know how to act under certain circumstances of testing, of trial, or when problems or questions arise. Life is filled with these, and you and I need wisdom from God. “That giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.” God is in the business of giving out wisdom “liberally,” that is, simply. He will just simply help you out in times like that. He “upbraideth not” means, according to Marvin R. Vincent in his Word Studies in the New Testament, the “pure, simple giving of good without admixture of evil or bitterness.” If we lack wisdom, let’s go to God who will hear and answer our prayer.

James 1:6

Maybe it is not your problem, but it has been my problem over a great deal of my Christian life that I simply have not believed God. Don’t misunderstand meI have trusted Christ as my Savior, and I believe with all my soul that He saved me and is going to save me for heaven. I believe that with all my heart, but down here in this life, where the rubber meets the road, is where I have had my problems. For example, I went through college in almost total unbeliefI didn’t believe God could put me through college. I was a poor boy who had to borrow money and work at a full-time job. It was difficult.

Every year I would finish, thinking I would not be able to come back the next year. Lo and behold, God always opened up a door, and I was able to continue. I was actually a miserable fellow as I went through college. When I look back, I realize I could have had a lot more fun if I had only believed God. “But let him ask in faith nothing wavering.” Why don’t you believe God, my friend? Do you as a Christian have a long face today? Are you wondering how your problems are going to work out? I know exactly how you feelI’ve been there. Why don’t you believe God? Why don’t you trust Him and turn them over to Him? I know I do not have the brains to meet the problems of life; I know I am not capable of living in this complex civilization, but I have a heavenly Father who can supply the wisdom that I need. “For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” We say, “I believe God is going to work this out,” but then we jump at it ourselves and make our own decision. So often I turn a problem over to the Lord and believe Him, but then the next day I do not believe Him. I decide that nothing has shown up by way of solution, so I will solve it myself. That’s where I make my mistake. Such a man is “like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”

James 1:7

If you are going to work out your problem for yourself, then God cannot work it out for you. Instead of going like a bull into a china closet and trying to work something out, why not turn it over to God? Now James gives a proverb, and it is a good one

James 1:8

This was Israel’s big problem. Hosea said Israel was like a silly dove. She first flew off to Egypt seeking help, and then she flew to Assyria. She turned first to one and then to the other, but she did not turn to God. Many times when a problem comes up we go here and there trying to solve it, until it occurs to us that we have never taken it to God. When you started out today did you turn the issues of the day over to God?

I used to do a great deal of counseling as a pastor, and I would meet many new people during the day. One of the prayers I always prayed was, “Lord, I’m going to meet some new people today, and I don’t know how to treat them. This man may prove to be a wonderful friend who wants to help me get out the Word of God. This other man may be seeking to hurt my ministry. Lord, help me to know the difference. Help me to be able to know which man I can put my arm around and help, and make me wary of the man who does not want my help at all.

Lord, give me wisdom today.” We need wisdom to meet the issues of life.

James 1:9

You may say, “I’m just a poor individual. I don’t have very much. I don’t have any wealth.” My friend, if you are a child of God you have a lot of wealth. You have treasure in heaven. And have you ever stopped to think what you have down here, what you have in Christ? We have everything in Him.

Paul wrote, “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (1Co_3:21-23). I belong to Christ, and everything He has He will make over to me. I have life. I have blessings. Even death is coming to me someday, if Christ doesn’t come in the meantime.

All of that is from Him, and all of these things we can rejoice in. It does not matter if you are the humblest saint or the poorest person on earth, you are rich in Christ, my friend, and you have something to rejoice over.

James 1:10

I always think of this verse when I walk across the campus of my alma mater. Every building there is named for some rich man. Do you know where those rich men are today? They are like the flowers which bloomed yesterday but are gone today. I think of how powerful they were, the riches and the influence they had, but today they are pushing up daisies somewhere and they have faded away. Don’t rejoice in the fact that you are a rich man, because you will not have your money very long.

You may have invested in gilt-edged bonds, and you may have stocks which you do not think you will lose. My friend, you may not lose them, but those stocks and bonds are going to lose you one of these days. In death you will not be able to hold on to them. The old adage says, “There’s no pocket in a shroud.” You won’t be able to take it with you. The rich man is like the flower of the grasshe shall pass away.

James 1:11

I had the privilege years ago of speaking occasionally to a group of Christians in Hollywood, California. Among those who attended was a movie star who had become a Christian later on in life. She was getting old at that time, and when I looked at her I thought of how that beauty, which had brought her fame and fortune at one time, was now passing away. God says that the rich man shall “fade away in his ways.” My friend, rejoice today that you have a Savior who is not only going to save you for heaventhat’s good enough for mebut He is going to help you this very day. When I teach the Book of Proverbs I liken it to a young man who is considering the catalogs he has received from different universitiesamong which is the University of Wisdom. Here in the Epistle of James we find a different schoolthe School of Hard Knocks. That is the school most of us are in today. God wants to bring all those who are His own to full maturity as Christians, and He has many tests for doing that. He tests all of His children to see whether or not they are genuine, to weed out the phonies and the pseudosaints. He also wants to give assurance to His children.

We should not regard our trials as evidence that we are not His children but rather as proof positive of our faith. My friend, if you are not having a little trouble today, you should question your salvation; if you are having trouble, that is a good sign that you belong to Him. While God has many goals in His testing, the one James has emphasized here is patience. God not only wants to give you proof that you are a genuine child of His, He also wants to produce patience in your life. Much has been written about testing and God’s purposes in it. William Penn, the man from whom the state of Pennsylvania got its name, made this statement: “No pain, no balm. No thorn, no throne. No gall, no glory. No cross, no crown.” Someone else has expressed it like this: “If I must carry a burden, Christ will carry me. Sometimes we must be laid low before we look high. In ourselves we are weak, even where we are strong. In Christ we are strong, even where we are weak. It’s not how long you’ll live, but how you are going to live.” This perspective is important to have. Many people wonder why in the world they must endure a particular experience. A number of years ago I received a letter from a Christian man who wrote: “I have a wife who has been sick for the past twenty years and has been paralyzed for the last ten years with Parkinson’s disease. There is no hope of her ever leaving the hospital. How can a loving Father make a person suffer and linger as she has? And I know she loves the Lord.” This man was genuinely concerned. He didn’t have an answer for his problem, and neither did I. I couldn’t tell him why it was happening, but I could tell him there was a purpose in it and that God was working out something in her life.

James 1:12

“Temptation” is the same word as we have had before, which is sometimes translated as “testing” or “trying.” “Temptation” is a good translation if you understand it in a good sense, as we will see later in this chapter. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” Testing is one of God’s methods of developing us in the Christian faith. This is the way He is going to enable us to grow and develop patience in our lives down here, but He also has something in mind for the future"the crown of life.” Testing of any kind, but especially if it is a severe calamity or tragedy, has a tendency to produce a miasma of pessimism and hopelessness. I do not blame the man whose wife was ill with Parkinson’s disease for feeling like he did. I do not blame him for asking, “Why?” But the child of God can have the confidence that God is doing it for a very definite reason and that He has a purpose in it all. However, the man of the world will sink beneath the waves of adversity. Life, even at its best, makes him pessimistic. How many pessimists are there today? How many cynics? How many are there who are filled with bitterness, although they have everything? We are seeing an epidemic of suicides among teenagers, and thousands of other young people are dropping out of society today. Why? It is because they have no goal in life. One of the more sensible news commentators made this remark: “Back during the depression people had a will to live and there were very few suicides, but today when everything has been given to them they want to die.” When faith is tested and surrounded by darkness, when the waves are rolling high and all seems lost, the child of God knows that this is not the end. It may be gloom now, but it will be glory later on. As the psalmist said, “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psa_30:5). James says here, “He shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” I have noticed that people who have suffered a great deal have been brought into a closer loving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone has expressed it like this: Is there no other way open, God, Except through sorrow, pain, and loss, To stamp Christ’s likeness on my soul No other way except the cross? And then a voice stills all my soul As stilled the waves of Galilee, “Can’st thou not bear the furnace heat If midst the flames I walk with thee? “I bore the cross. I know its weight. I drank the cup I hold for thee. Can’st thou not follow where I lead? I’ll give thee strength. Lean hard on Me.” Author unknown You see, suffering brings an individual into a loving relationship with Christ. And it causes him to look forward to that day when he will be brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus who will give him the crown of life. What is “the crown of life”? There are many crowns mentioned in Scripture which are given as rewards to believers. A crown is not salvation, but it represents a reward. It is something that is given to an individual as a reward. For example, there was an unknown boy from California who went to the Olympic Games and won six gold medals. Suddenly his face was seen on every billboard, on television, and even in commercials. I am told he also signed a movie contract. He won six medalshe received his rewards. My Christian friend, the Lord Jesus has a reward for those who will endure down here. James says, “He shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” Testing will either drive you to the Lord or it will drive you away from Him. So many Christians become bitter. My friend, it is not going to be a pleasant experience to come someday into the presence of Christ if you have let the very thing your heavenly Father was using to develop your character and to bring you into a loving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ make you bitter. We will have testings, but there is going to be a crown of life for those who persevere under trial. I have done a great deal of reading about the crowns which are mentioned in Scripture, and I sometimes wonder where some of the interpreters get all their information. Let me give you my very simple interpretation of what I think a crown of life is. We find in Scripture that there are different kinds of punishment for the lost. Some will receive so many stripes; others will receive more stripes. There are degrees of punishment for the lost. Likewise there are degrees of rewards for believers.

I do not expect to receive the reward that a man like Paul the apostle or Martin Luther or John Wesley will receive. Although I don’t expect to receive a reward as they will, I do hope that I can come in for somethingI am very much interested in that. I think that a “crown of life” is that which can bring you into a closer relationship with the Lord Jesus more than anything else possibly could. In the Book of Revelation it speaks about the Lord giving to each of His own a stone with a name written on it (see Rev_2:17). We have assumed that that means He will give each of us a new name. There’s an old favorite gospel song that says, “There’s a new name written down in glory….” Well, it is not the new name spoken of in Revelation, but it is your name that is written down in glory if you are a child of God. As best as I can determine, the new name spoken of in Revelation means that God is going to give each of us a stone on which there is written a name of Christ which applies to our experience with Him. To you He means something a little special other than what He might mean to someone else. In other words, the Lord Jesus means something to you that He does not mean to me. He means something to me that He does not mean to you. I can remember a time in my life as a young fellow that I stood at the crossroads at a Bible conference, trying to decide if I would go into the ministry or continue to follow a life of sin. There was a girl there at that conference in whom I was very much interested, but she was not really what you would call Bible conference material. I never shall forget that night yonder in Middle Tennessee. I crawled in under a water maple tree which was thick with leaves. In the shadefor the moon was shining brightlyI got down on my face and told the Lord Jesus that I needed His help and strength to make a decision. As a result of that night He means something to me that I’m sure He does not mean to you.

You probably have a precious moment in your life which I have not experienced. I believe that the new name written on a stone is going to reflect what Christ means specially to you. It is my conclusion that the crown of life means that you are going to have a degree of life in heaven which someone else will not have. There are a lot of folk who have gone through this world without doing anything for God. I thank God there was one thief on a cross who turned to Christ, but I cannot imagine that he will get very much of a reward, especially when I compare him to a man like Paul the apostle. Imagine what it is going to be like someday when Paul receives the crown of life! Paul was very much interested in the crown of life, and James was interested in it too. There will be a crown of life, but you cannot receive that crown of life until you have been out on the racecourse of life, until you have gotten right down where the rubber meets the road and where life is being lived out. If you can live for God down here, my friend, He has a crown of life for you someday. That is something to which we can look forward. When I think of the testings of this life, I am reminded of the deacon who got up in a testimony meeting in which the people were being asked to give their favorite verses of Scripture. This deacon got up and said, “My favorite verse is ‘It came to pass.’” The minister looked up in amazement, and all the people were puzzled. Finally, the pastor asked, “Brother what do you mean your favorite verse is ‘It came to pass’?” The man replied, “When I have trouble and trials, I just go to the Lord and praise Him and say, ‘I thank You, Lord, that it came to passit didn’t come to stay!’” Thank God for that, my friend. I don’t know a better way of putting it: The trouble hasn’t come to stay. James uses the same argument to warn the rich when he says, “You are like the grass and the flower of the grass.” It may look pretty for you today. Life may be beautiful, my friend, but the flower is withering and your riches will not deliver you. Someday you will stand before Jesus Christ. Every human being is to stand before Himthe unbelievers will stand before God at the Great White Throne judgment. Also all believers, called the church, will go beforehand to the bema seat of Christ to see whether or not they will receive a crown of life. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to have that crown, the crown which He offers to those who, after they have endured the testings of this life, love Him.

James 1:13

GOD DOES NOT TEST WITH EVIL"Temptation” is used in two senses: testing under trial, as we have seen in verse Jas_1:12, and now solicitation to evil, verses Jas_1:13-14. James is now going to talk about that temptation, which is temptation to do evil. People often say that the Lord tested them when it wasn’t the Lord at all. God cannot be tempted with evil, and He does not tempt with evil. James deals with something here which is very important for God’s children to understand, because we often blame God for a great many things in our lives for which He is not responsible. We have seen in the preceding verses that God tests His own children, but now James makes it very clear that God never tests men with evil and with sin. “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God"a more literal translation is this: “Let not one man being tempted say, I am tempted of God.” Notice that James is no longer using the noun temptation as he was previously. He is now using the verb; he is speaking of the action. The natural propensity of mankind is to blame God for his own fumbles, all of his foibles, all of his faults and failures and filth. From the very beginning, since the time of the fall of man, this has been true. Adam said, “…The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Gen_3:12)he really passed the buck! The woman did the same thing; she said, " …The serpent beguiled me …” (Gen_3:13). Actually, all three of them were responsible. We often hear questions like this: Why does God send floods and earthquakes and allow the killing of babies? We blame God today for the result of the greed and avarice and selfishness of mankindthat is what is really responsible for floods and earthquakes. Man builds too close to a river and, when in the natural course of events the river rises, he calls it a flood and an act of God. But man thinks it is more pleasant to build by the river, or it’s nearer transportation, or that is where the business is. It is actually the greed and avarice of man that causes him to build where it is really dangerous to build. If you are going to live in Southern California, for example, you are going to take a chance on having an earthquakeyou can be sure of that. We had a small one just the other evening as my wife and I were sitting in our den. The seismologists predict that we are in for a big earthquake here, yet people are still streaming into Southern California and putting up high-rise buildings. We ought not to blame God if a slab of concrete falls off one of those high-rise buildings and kills one of our loved ones. It would be much safer in the wide open spaces of Texas. I’m a Texan, but who wants to go back there?

I know it’s nicer there than when I was just a boy growing up, but I want to stay here in California. However, I’m not going to blame God when the earthquake comes. We have already been warned that it is coming. Men also blame God in their philosophies today. Pantheism, for instance, says that everything is God, but good is God’s right hand and evil is His left hand. Fatalism says that everything is running like blind necessity. If there is a God, they say, He has wound up this universe like an eight-day clock and has gone off and left it. Materialism’s explanation of the problem with the human race is that the loftiest aspirations and the vilest passions are the natural metabolism of a physical organism. God has answered these philosophies in His Word. There is no evil in God. In Him all is goodness and all is light and all is right. John wrote in his first epistle, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light [that is, He is holy], and in him is no darkness at all” (1Jn_1:5). The Lord Jesus made this very interesting statement: “…for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (Joh_14:30). That means there is no evil or sin in Him. But every time Satan gets around me, he is able to find something in me. Let me introduce something which is theological at this point: Jesus could not sin. Someone will immediately ask, “Why, then, was He tempted?” In Mat_4:7 our Lord said to Satan, “…It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” God wants to save from sin, and He does not tempt men to sinHe wants to deliver men. He never uses sin as a test, but He will permit it, as we shall see. The Lord Jesus had no sin in Him"The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” The reason He was tempted was to prove that there was nothing in Him. After He had lived a life down here for thirty-three years, Satan came with this temptation, a temptation that appealed to man’s total personalitythe physical side, the mental side, and the spiritual side of man. The Lord Jesus could not fall, and the testing was given to demonstrate that He could not fall.

If He could have fallen, then any moment your salvation and mine is in doubt. The minute He yielded to sin, we would have no Savior. His temptation was to prove that He could not sin. Let me illustrate this with a very homely illustration from my boyhood in west Texas. My dad built cotton gins for the Murray Gin Company, and we lived in a little town that was near a branch of the Brazos River. In the summertime there wasn’t enough water in that river to rust a shingle nail, but when it began to rain in wintertime, you could almost float a battleship on it. One year a flood washed out the wooden bridge on which the Santa Fe railroad crossed the river. They replaced it with a steel bridge, and when they completed it, they brought in two locomotives, stopped them on top of the bridge, and tied down both of the whistles. All of us who lived in that little town knew for sure that something was happening.

We ran down to see what it wasall twenty-three of us! When we got there, one of the braver citizens asked the engineer, “What are you doing?” The engineer replied, “Well, we built this bridge, and we are testing it.” The man asked, “Why? Do you think it’s going to fall down?” That engineer drew himself up to his full height and said, “Of course it will not fall down! We are proving it won’t fall down.” For the same reason, Jesus was tested to prove that you and I have a Savior who could not sin. God cannot be tempted with sin, and God will not tempt you with sin. However, God does permit us to be tempted with sin. In 2Sa_24:1 we read, “And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.” Frankly, that was sinful. Then, did God tempt David with evil? My friend, to understand the Bible you always need to get the full story. In 2 Samuel you have man’s viewpoint of the events recorded. From man’s viewpoint it looked as if God was angry with Israel and He simply had David do this.

However, in 1 Chronicles we are told God’s viewpoint of it: “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel” (1Ch_21:1). Who provoked David to sin? It was Satan, not God. God merely permitted Satan to do that because He was angry with Israel and their sin. God never tempts men with evil. Who is responsible for our propensity to evil? What causes us to sin? Someone will say, “Well, you have just shown that it is Satan.” Let’s look at what James has to say in verse Jas_1:14

James 1:14

We are talking here about the sins of the flesh. Who is responsible when you are drawn away to do evil? When you yield to evil temptation? God is not responsible. The Devil is not responsible. You are responsible. A man got lost in the hills of Arkansas back in the days of the Model T Ford. He had lost his way, and there were no highway markings. He came into a small town and saw some little boys playing there. He asked one of them, “Where am I?” The little fellow looked at him puzzled for just a moment. Finally he pointed at the man with his finger and said, “There you are!” My friend, when you ask, “Who tempted me to do this?” God says, “There you are. It’s in your own skinthat is where the problem is.” “Every man is tempted.” Every manthis is the declaration of the individuality of the personality in the race of mankind. Just as each one of us has a different fingerprint, each one of us has a different moral nature. We have our own idiosyncrasies, our own eccentricities. All of us have something a little different. One man was talking to another and said, “You know, everybody has some peculiarity.” “I disagree with you,” said the other. “I don’t think I have a peculiarity.” “Well, then, let me ask you a question. Do you stir your coffee with your right hand or with your left hand?” asked the first man. “I stir it with my right hand,” the other man replied. “Well, that’s your peculiarity. Most people stir their coffee with a spoon!” May I say to you, all of us have our peculiarities. One person may be tempted to drink. Another may be tempted to overeat. Another may be tempted in the realm of sex. The problem is always within the individual. No outside thing or influence can make us sin. The trouble is here, within us, with that old nature that we have. I think of the little boy who was playing around one evening in the pantry. He had gotten down the cookie jar. His mother called to him and said, “Willie, what are you doing in the pantry?” He said, “I’m fighting temptation!” He was in the wrong place to fight temptation, but that is the same place a lot of grown-up people are today. Many things are not bad within themselves, but it is the use we make of them that is wrong. Food is good, but you can become a glutton. Alcohol is medicine, but you can become an alcoholic if you abuse it. Sex is good if it is exercised within marriage. When it is exercised outside of marriage, you are going to experience several kinds of damage. Our society has an epidemic of venereal disease because of the looseness of the “new morality” today. Many psychologists are trying to help us get rid of our guilt complexes. A Christian psychologist who taught in one of our universities here in Southern California told me one time, “You need to emphasize in your teaching that guilt complex more than you do. A guilt complex is as much a part of you as your right arm. You just cannot get rid of it.” However, the godless psychologist may attempt to remove the guilt complex in the wrong way. For example, a Christian lady called me one time and said, “Dr. McGee, a most frightful thing has happened to me. I’ve been having a real problem and have been on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to certain trials I’ve been going through. I went to a psychologist whom my doctor recommended. When he found out that I was a Christian, he said, ‘What you need to do is to go downstairs to the barroom and pick up the first man you find there. Then you’ll get rid of your guilt complex.’” I agree with the woman that such counsel is frightful indeed! Then there are other psychologists who say, “What about your background? Did your mother love you? Did anything unusual happen while you were in the womb?” If you said, “Well, my mother was caught in a rainstorm while she was carrying me,” the psychologist would say, “That’s the reason you’re a drip!” Well, he practically says that when he blames his patient’s problems on the mother. My friend, you could solve a great deal of your problems for which you are blaming someone else if you would say to the living Lord Jesus who is right now at God’s right hand, “I’m a sinner. I’m guilty.” Then He will remove your guilt complexHe is the only One who can do that. Proverbs says, “For as he [man] thinketh in his heart, so is he …” (Pro_23:7). The solicitation to sin must have a corresponding response from within. James says that it is of your own lust (lust is an overweening desire and uncontrolled longing) that you are drawn away into sin. The Lord Jesus said, “I will draw all men unto Me” (see Joh_12:32), but the scoffer says, “He’ll not draw me!” My friend, He will not force you. Hosea tells us that He will only use bands of love to draw us to Himself. He wants to woo and win you by His grace and love. Frankly, evil is attractive today; it is winsome. We are told that Moses was caught up at first in the pleasures of sin. Man can be enticed; the hook can be baited. If he yields, before long a person will become an alcoholic or a dope addict.

James 1:15

In other words, when the desire of the soul, having conceived, gives birth to sin, the sin, having been completed, brings forth death. James uses a very interesting word here: “when lust hath conceived.” The word actually means “to become pregnant.” Conception is the joining or union of two. The desire of this old nature of ours joins with the outward temptation that faces us and thus becomes sin. The Lord Jesus said, “If you are angry with your brother, you are guilty of murder"because it begins in the heart and moves out into action. He also said, “If you look upon a woman to lust after her, you have already committed adultery with her"because it begins in your heart. That is where sin always begins. The natural question at this point is: Is temptation sin? Of course it’s not sin; the answer is definitely no. It is when the conception takes placewhen the thought in the heart is carried out in actionthat temptation becomes sin. Martin Luther expressed it in this novel way: “You cannot keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.” Sin is the consummation of the act inwardly and outwardly. Temptation in and of itself is not sin. We all have an evil naturethere is no use trying to kid ourselves concerning that. We all have been tempted to do evil; everyone has a weakness in the flesh. One person may be a glutton and another may be a gossip. Both sins are absolutely of the flesh; both come from within. It is only the Lord Jesus who could say, “…for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (Joh_14:30). “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin.” There cannot be a stillbirth. Lust is going to bring forth something. When that evil thought in the heart is joined to the outward temptation, there is a birtha birth of the act, a birth of sin. Now we rationalize sin today. We rationalize our bad tempers. We rationalize our gossip. We rationalize a lot of polite sins, and we even rationalize gross immorality; but the Bible calls them sins. “And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” There are three kinds of death spoken of in Scripture. There is (1) physical death, and that comes to every man, you can be sure of that. Then there is (2) spiritual death, which is the condition of the lost manhe is “dead in trespasses and sins” (see Eph_2:1). Finally, there is (3) eternal death, which is the fate of the man who dies an unbeliever. The word death here primarily means “separation.” Therefore, for a believer it means that when sin is born in his life, when it becomes an action, his fellowship with God is broken. There is a separation. In 1Jn_1:6 we read, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” You cannot have fellowship with Him and permit sin continually to happen in your life. The great sin today, I suppose, is adultery. It is something that nearly every person has been faced withand it is not something new. I think that the emphasis that is given to sex in our society and the present-day mode of dress have led to the committing of adultery probably more than it ever has been committed in American history. Certainly, adultery along with the free use of alcohol have pulled down the great nations of the past. Wine, women, and song have brought down the great nations of the world. Rome did not fall to some outside conqueror; Rome fell from within because it was honeycombed with sin. I recall a fine-looking young man who came to me and said, “I’ve fallen in love with a very beautiful girl. I want her to be mine.” I asked him, “Have you asked her to marry you?” “Well, not exactly,” he said. “She’s married.” I said, “You had better give up this notion right now.” The young man went on to say, “But I want to ask you if it would be wrong for her to get a divorce and for us then to get married?” I told him, “Certainly it would be. You’ve been tempted, and I mean tempted a great deal, but as a child of God you would never be able to get by with such sin.” I went on to tell him of several instances of couples who thought they could get by with it but were never happy. It is tragic today when people think they can get by with sin. When lust conceives, it brings forth sin. The only kind of little brat that lust can bring into the world is sin, and sin will bring forth death. Sin will bring forth separation of fellowship with God if you are His child, and He will judge you for it unless you judge yourself. That young man left my office after I had tried to put the fear of God in him. He was a wonderful Christian, and he surely had been tempted. He came back a few weeks later and said, “Dr. McGee, we have made our decision.” I was certainly afraid they had made the wrong one, but he went on, “We recognize that in this life we never could be joined together. That’s entirely out of the question for us. I’m simply asking God to let us be together someday in heaven.” He worked with a very large company, and he told me that he had asked for a transfer to another city. I don’t think a month went by before he came to me after the morning church service, shook my hand, and told me good-bye. Temptationthere is a lot of it today. Many Christians say, “Oh, the Devil tempted me.” My friend, temptation cannot conceive until it is joined with the desire of your evil nature. The important thing is that when it is joined, it will bring forth sin, and sin eventually brings forth death. If you are a child of God, it immediately breaks your fellowship with Himand that is a death, by the way.

James 1:16

“Do not err"the word here means to wander, to roam about, or to stray. It is like the little lost sheep the Lord Jesus told about which the shepherd went out after. James is saying, “Don’t wander. Don’t think that somehow you can get by with sin.” The habitual and perpetual sinner definitely does not have a line of communication with God; he never has been born again. If you can live in sin and enjoy it, you are not a child of Godit’s just that simple. The story is told of the Calvinist and the Arminian who were having an argument. The Calvinist believes that once you are saved you can never be lost; the Arminian believes you can lose your salvation. The Arminian said, “If I believed your doctrine and were sure I was converted, I would take my fill of sin.” To which the Calvinist replied, “How much sin do you think it would take to fill a genuine Christian to his own satisfaction?” May I say to you, that is a tremendous answer. If you can be satisfied with sin, you need to examine yourself to see whether or not you are in the faith. “He that falls into sin is a man,” someone has said. “He that grieves at sin is a saint. He that boasts of sin is a devil.” My friend, all of us are subject to temptation, but let’s make sure that we do not give birth to sin. There can be no abortion here if you go through with temptation. Sin and death will be the end result.

James 1:17

One side of the moon is dark, and the other side is light. But in God there is no dark side. In all of us there is a shadow; you and I cast a shadow. The story is told that when Alexander the Great had conquered the world and returned to Greece, he looked up his old teacher, Aristotle, to tell him all that had happened. When he found Aristotle, he was taking a bath. Alexander stood in the doorway and told Aristotle what had happened. Then he said, “Now I am prepared to give you anything in the world that you want. What do you want?” Aristotle looked up and replied, “I want you to get out of my light!” May I say to you, that’s all any of us dowe cast a shadow. But there is no shadow in God at all. “With whom is no variableness.” God doesn’t vary, He doesn’t change, as the laws of creation reveal. God is not on a yo-yo like a lot of Christians are todayup today and down tomorrow, and round and round they go. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” I have a friend who is an insurance agent, and I like to kid him about the wording in his house insurance policy. It says that the policy does not include certain things which might happen to your house, including “any act of God.” I said to him, “What in the world do you think God is going to do to my house?” “Well,” he said, “there could be a cyclone or something like that.” I asked, “Do you think God is to be blamed for that?” I realize that it is just an expression which is used, but it has been the custom down through the centuries to blame God for such things. My friend, if you have a good gift, it came from Him. Count your many blessings today: the sunshine, the rain, the cloudy day, the bright day, the green grass, the water you drink, and the air you breathe. God gave us clean air and pure water. It is man who has polluted it.

God gives good gifts, my friend. God is good! You and I don’t really understand how good He is.

James 1:18

This is definitely a reference to the new birth. How does He beget us? “With the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” Beget means “to bring forth.” There are those who say, “Well, if I am predestined to be lost, there is nothing I can do about it. And if I am to be saved, I’ll be saved.” There are two wills involved here"Of his own will begat he us.” Again, you have in conception two coming togetherthere is no other way for a conception to take place. Therefore, when His will is joined with your will, you will be born again. Don’t tell me that you are not responsible. It is not His will that any should perish.

You are begotten by the Word of God. When you are willing to come, when you believe the Word of God and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, you will be born again. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1Pe_1:23).

James 1:19

“Wherefore, my beloved brethren"James is talking to the child of God. “Let every man be swift to hear.” Swift to hear what? To hear the Word of God, of course. After you have been begotten by the Word of God, you are not through with it. You are going to grow by the Word of God. You have something that is living, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword (see Heb_4:12).“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1Co_2:14). However, as a child of God you are indwelt by the Spirit of God who wants to teach you the Word of God.

The Creator of this universe and the Redeemer of lost sinners wants to talk to you, my friend. James says, “Be swift to hear. Be alert.” As I stand before a church congregation, I sometimes feel like crying out to them, “Wake up!” or, “The place is on fire!” because I would like to get them alert and moving. Oh, how we need to be alert and quick to hear the Word of God. “Slow to speak.” God gave us two ears and one mouththere must be a very definite reason for that. There is a real danger of our talking too much. There are those who argue that the minute someone is saved they should begin to witness. I do not think a newborn Christian is quite ready to witness. If he got saved last night, we want to hear his testimony todayespecially if he is a prominent person, if he is a rich man, if he has been a gangster, if he is in the entertainment business, or if he happens to be an outstanding politician. Those are the ones whose testimonies we are eager to hear.

I often regret it when singers give a little talk before they begin their song. Many times I have just bowed my head in embarrassment at some of the things they have said. One sweet little girl had a lovely voice, but when she got up and said, “I’ve just been saved two months,” I cringed, and I had a right to, because what she went on to say was as contrary to the Word of God as anything possibly could be. I also think it is a tragedy that some of these Hollywood entertainers have been encouraged to testify shortly after their salvation experience simply because they are well-known persons. Their theology is sometimes as rank as it can be. They need to study and know the Word of God before they are pushed up front to speak.

God says we are to be quick to hear but slow to speak. Someone will ask, “But aren’t we to witness?” Yes, but be very careful how you witness and make sure about your own life first. The story is told about Socrates and a young man who was brought to him to enter his school. Socrates was a school teacher as well as a philosopher. The young man came in and was introduced to Socrates. Before he could say a word, the young man started talking, and he talked for about ten minutes. Finally, when the young man finished, Socrates said, “I’ll take you as a student, but I’m going to charge you twice as much.” The young man asked,“Why are you going to charge me double?” Socrates’ reply was this: “First, I am going to have to teach you how to hold your tongue and then how to use it.” James says, “Quick to hear but slow to speak.” Christians need to be very careful not to reveal their ignorance of the Word of God.

Listen to Him. Yes, the Bible says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,” but we need to be very careful what we say. “Slow to wrath"that is, slow to anger. Don’t argue about religion and lose your temper. It is good to be a fundamentalist, but don’t start fighting about every little jot and tittle of theology with everybody in sight who disagrees with you. After all, you don’t have all the truth. Be “slow to wrath.” Don’t get angry. Jonathan Edwards was the third president of Princeton and probably one of America’s greatest thinkers and preachers, but he had a daughter who had an uncontrollable temper. One day a fine young man at the school, who had fallen in love with her, came to Jonathan Edwards and asked for her hand in marriage. (That was the custom in that day, but it seems to have fallen by the wayside now.) Jonathan Edwards said, “You can’t have her.” The young man said, “But I love her.” Edwards said, “You can’t have her.” The young man said, “But she loves me.” Again Edwards said, “You can’t have her.” “Why can’t I have her?” he protested. “Because she is not worthy of you,” replied Jonathan Edwards. “Yes, she is a Christian, but the grace of God can live with some people with whom no one else could ever live.” May I say to you, there are a lot of unworthy Christians today with uncontrollable tempers that spoil their testimonies as much as anything in this life can spoil them.

James 1:20

The anger of man is contrary to the will and work of God. This is the reason we shouldn’t argue about religion. I have never yet found anybody who agrees with me 100 percent or with whom I agree 100 percent, but that is no reason for me to fall out with him. Someone came to my office the other day while I was listening to our broadcast as it came over the radio. He said to me, “What are you doing?” And I said to him, “You know, I am listening to the only man with whom I agree 100 percent!” James says, “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” You may feel that you are angry because you are a defender of the faith, but, my friend, the wrath of man simply does not work the righteousness of God. Don’t kid yourself that you are angry for His sake, because He’s not angryHe’s in the saving business.

James 1:21

“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness"that is, put away all filthiness of the flesh. “And superfluity of naughtiness” is better translated as “abundance of wickedness.” “And receive with meekness the engrafted word.” The word engrafted should be “implanted"the implanted Word of God. In other words, you are to receive the Word of God. I believe the Word of God is the greatest preventive against the sins of the flesh. The old Scottish preacher said, “Sin will keep you from the Bible, or the Bible will keep you from sin.” He was certainly accurate in that. “Which is able to save your souls.” James is speaking to those who have been saved. You have received the implanted Wordit has been planted in your hearts. The Word has already brought salvation to you, but you have a life to live as a Christian. Salvation is in three tenses: I have been saved; I am being saved; I shall be saved. James is speaking here of salvation in the present tense.

James 1:22

GOD TESTS FAITH BY THE WORD, NOT BY MAN’S WORDSThe child of God can never get away from the Word of God. Every child wants to hear the voice of his father, especially if it is a voice of comfort as well as a voice of correction. One who isn’t interested in the Word of God or doesn’t stay near itif he is a child of Godis going to get into trouble. For a great many people this is the most familiar verse in the Epistle of James You and I live in a day when we have many translations of the Bible. They are multiplyingevery year, two or three new translations are published. Personally, I have not found a new translation that I feel is really adequate to take the place of the Authorized Version. I think the Authorized Version needs improving in certain places, but I still use it, as you well know. However, we do need a new translation! It should be different from Tyndale’s and from the Authorized Version and from the American Standard and from all of these new translations.

Any Christian could make this new translation. You could make a new translation of the Bible. You might say, “You don’t know me. I’m not capableI’m not familiar with the original languages, and I know nothing about the handling of manuscripts.” My friend, in spite of your limitationswhich may be manyit is still possible for you to make the best translation of Scripture that has ever been made. Do you know what the name of that translation is? It is known as the Doer’s Translation.“Be ye doers of the word.” That’s a good translation a Doer’s Translation. Paul put the same thought in just a little different phraseology: “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart” (2Co_3:2-3). The world today is not reading the Bible, but they are reading you and me. Someone has expressed it poetically: The Gospel is written a chapter a day By deeds that you do and by words that you say. Men read what you say, whether faithless or true. Say, what is the Gospel according to you? In verses Jas_1:22 through Jas_1:25 we have come to the real pragmatism of James. I like to outline these verses like this: (1) Verse Jas_1:22the demands of the Word; (2) verses Jas_1:23-24the danger of the Word; and (3) verse Jas_1:25the design of the Word. We have in this section that which is substantive, that which really gets down to where we live. Here in verse Jas_1:22 we have the demands, or the imperatives, of the Word: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” There is an element about the Word of God which makes it different from any other book. There are many books which you can read to gain information, knowledge, intellectual stimulation, spiritual inspiration, amusement, or entertainment. But the Word of God is different, and this is probably the reason it is not as popular as other books: it demands action. “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.” It requires attention. The Lord Jesus said, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself” (Joh_7:17, italics mine). The Word of God demands action: “O taste and see that the LORD is good …(Psa_34:8, italics mine). You can read history, but it asks nothing of you. You can read literature, but there are no imperatives, no declarations, and no explanations, although it may have a lesson to teach which may or may not have been in the mind of the author. You can read science, but it makes no demands on you whatsoever. You can read a cookbook and it gives you a recipe, but it does not say you have to cook. There is no demand that you mix up a batch of biscuits or that you make a chocolate cake. However, the Word of God is a command.

It is a trumpet. It is an appeal for action. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Joh_3:36). The message of the Lord Jesus Christ is (1) “repent”; (2) “come unto Me”; and (3) “believe” (see Mat_11:28; Mar_1:15). The Word of God demands belief. All advertising today is high-pressured. It is being used on radio, television, billboards, and in newspapers and magazines. They all use the hard sell. We are not only being brainwashed by the news on television and radio, we are also being brainwashed by advertising. Madison Avenue is throwing everything at the consumer. You are to buy a certain make of car, and you are told how wonderful it is over last year’s modelwhen about all they did was to make the steering wheel a little smaller than last year’s.

And you are told if you don’t use a certain deodorant you will lose your job. But the Word of God says that you are going to die in your sins if you don’t turn to Christ! Talk about high pressurethat is high pressure! The Word of God says, “…behold now is the accepted time …” (2Co_6:2, italics mine), and, “…To-day if ye will hear his voice” (Psa_95:7, italics mine). I believe that the greatest failure of the Christian church in recent years has been at this point. After World War II the Western world came out of the bomb shelters and went to churchprompted by fear of the bombs but not by fear of God. Church membership and attendance soared to new heights. I am very thankful I had a ministry during that period. I had a full church, and it was to me a glorious, wonderful time for ministry. But at that same time, lawlessness and immorality increased dramatically.

Drunkenness, divorce, and juvenile delinquency escalated. And in the lives of Christians there was a total breakdown in separation from the things of the world. What had happened? The church had been getting out the Word of God in the passive voice; it had been giving it out in the subjunctive mood, but God had originally given it in the imperative mood. We had forgotten that a leather-bound Bible needs some shoe leather to go with it. Memorizing Scripture is good, but it also demands action. “But be ye doers of the word.” James does not use the ordinary Greek verb for “be,” which is eimi; the word here is ginesthe which literally means “to become, to be born, to come into existence.” The imperative given here is for the born-again child of God. God is not asking the unsaved person to do anything, except one thingand that is actually not doing, but believing. When the people came to the Lord Jesus and asked, “What shall we do that we might inherit eternal life?” He replied, “Do? Why, this is the will of God that ye believe on Him whom He has sent” (see Joh_6:28-29). Doing, as far as God’s will is concerned, for the unsaved is believing on Christ. God is not asking the unsaved to do anything at all; He wants to tell them that He has done something. As a boy I played baseball on the school lot on Saturdays. I played first base, and it was a wonderful thing to which I really looked forward. We played the teams of other high schools around us, and it generally ended up in a fight no matter who we played. One Saturday as I was playing ball, I saw my dad coming up, and I knew he wasn’t coming to see the game. He had come to tell me he had some work for me to do. The truth is, I had neglected taking care of my chores before I had left home. My dad didn’t ask any of the other boys to do a single thinghe just asked me. Why? Those other boys weren’t his sons; I was. My friend, God isn’t asking anything of you until you become His child. But to those of us who have become children of God, He says, “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” It is sometimes difficult for us preachers to see that we also need to be doers of the Word. I remember one time playing golf with a medical doctor friend who is also a wonderful Christian. Another friend of this doctor wanted to join us, so the doctor introduced me to his friend, saying, “This is Dr. McGee.” The man said, “Oh, we have two doctors.” I wanted to make it clear to him what kind of doctor I was, so I said, “I’m a doctor who preaches, and he’s a doctor who practices.” May I say, we need more Th.D.’s who practice as well as preach! Someone expressed it in a little poem like this: It’s easier to preach than to practice; It’s easier to say than to do. Most sermons are heard by the many, But taken to heart by the few. Author unknown Hearing the Word of God will lead to doing by those who are His children. It will not lead to rote and ritual and habitual action; it will not lead to the drab, the monotonous, or the routine. The intent of the Word is to produce creative action and to make for productive performance, exciting living, and a thrilling experience. If we are motivated by an inner desire and are enjoying Spirit-filled living, you and I can go out on the golf course and enjoy playing golf and then enjoy Bible study equally as wellin fact, it will be thrilling to us. Hearing the Word will lead to doing for God that which is motivated by an inner desire. As we began our radio broadcast ministry, we also began to build up our office staff. I know that it is the finest staff I have ever had in all my years of ministry. God has sent each individual to us, and each has made a marvelous contribution. They are creative and dedicated workers. It is my feeling that in God’s work we need that which is creative, that which is dynamic, that which produces. “And not hearers only.” There is a difference between being a student in a class and being an auditor. I used to have quite a few folk who would audit my classes when I was teaching at the Bible Institute in downtown Los Angeles many years ago. I had more trouble with the auditors than I ever did with the students. They were constantly telling me I was too hard on the students. They didn’t realize I needed to be hard-boiled, but the students understood that I was kidding them half the time. Those auditors never had to take exams; they never had to make preparation; they never wrote any papers; they never got a diploma. They didn’t do anything. They just sat there. Faith leads to action, my friendit will make you more than an auditor. The story is told of a man who was always talking about his faithhe never did anything for anybody; he just talked about his faith. One day a friend came along and saw him stuck in the mud with his wagon. The friend said, “Well, you sure are well established in the faith!” May I say to you, what we need to do today is to keep moving. After we get established, we need to keep moving in the faith and not get stuck in the mud. “Deceiving your own selves.” Self-deception is a terrible thing. The apostle John says that those who say they don’t have any sin in their lives do not deceive anyone but themselves (see 1Jn_1:8). It is very easy to fall into the trap of rationalizing our sin and rationalizing our inaction. In verses Jas_1:23 and Jas_1:24 we have the danger of the Word

James 1:23

“A man beholding his natural face in a glass.” A very highly polished piece of brass was used as a mirror in that day. A mirror is a very interesting thing, and it is used here as a picture of the Word of God. When you look into a mirror, you see a reflection of yourselfyou see yourself as you really are. You may have noticed that on some pictures of Abraham Lincoln there is a wart on his cheek but that on others it is not there. As one artist was preparing to paint his portrait, he began to have Lincoln move around. He said, “President Lincoln, will you sit here?” Then this man would move his easel and have Lincoln shift around again. President Lincoln began to smile because he saw what the artist was doing. He was trying to get Lincoln in a position where the wart would not show. Finally the artist was satisfied, and he asked, “President Lincoln, how do you want me to paint you?” Lincoln replied, “Paint me just as I amwart and all.” That’s what a mirror would tell you; if you have a wart, it will show up.

That is one reason many of us don’t like to spend too much time in the presence of a mirror. My friend, the Word of God will tell you what you are. “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.” Someone will say, “It ought to say woman.” A woman usually carries a little mirror around with her to be sure her hair and makeup are all right. But what about men? Do they look in mirrors? They are just as vain, my friend. A man likes to be sure his tie is straight and his hair is combed. We are living in a day when our appearance seems to be very important. A mirror reveals our flaws. There is a danger, though, of looking into the mirror, seeing the flaw but doing nothing about it.

James 1:24

James is answering what he has said in verse Jas_1:19 where he wrote, “Be swift to hear, slow to speak.” Here his emphasis is, “Don’t be so quick or hasty as you look into the mirror.” The thought in being “swift to hear” is to give it all your attention, to be alert to the Word of God. What James is saying here is, “Don’t treat it casually. Don’t go over it hurriedly like that.” Any man who is just a hearer of the Word and not a doerhis knowledge of the Bible doesn’t lead to actionis like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror, “for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” Folk who do not like to read in the Bible the fact that they are sinners simply pass over those sections. That is the reason, I think, that textual preaching is outmoded. I feel that we need to go through the entire Word of God and not pull out nice, sweet verses here and there. God did not give His Word in verses; verses are man-made. We need to take the Word of God as it is. The Word is a mirror that reveals what is wrong with you.

A man who goes to the doctor and has an X-ray taken which reveals a cancer in his body can respond by saying, “Now, look, doctor, I don’t put much confidence in X-rays. I think I’ll just ignore it and forget it.” I’ve known some people who have said that, and they have died. When the doctor told me that I had cancer, I wanted treatment just as quickly as I could get it. My friend, you cannot afford to read the Word of God and not respond to it. It demands your response; and if you don’t respond, you are responsible. If the doctor tells you you have cancer and you don’t do anything about it, is the doctor responsible?

He absolutely is not responsible at all. God has given you His Word, and you are responsible for your response to it. To a man who has been born again, the Word will say, “Look, you are no longer growing. You are actually leaving your first love.” God uses His Word to remind us of Himself and to call us back. One time I heard a song leader down in Chattanooga, Tennessee, say, “Let’s stand and sing ‘Standing on the Promises,’ but the trouble is that we sing ‘Standing on the Promises’ when we are really sitting on the premises.” That is what James is telling us not to do. The Word of God is a mirror which reveals our shortcomings, and we are not to forget what it says. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb_4:12). The Word reveals us as we are, penetrating below the surface of our beings. The Bible is not a popular book today. It is the best seller but the worst read. It is not popular because it shows us who we are. Many years ago in eastern Tennessee the story went around about a mountaineer’s contact with some tourists who had camped in the hills around his area. Because the mountain folk didn’t see many tourists in those days, when the tourists left, this particular mountaineer went to look around the area where they had camped. He found several things they had left behind, including a mirror.

He had never seen a mirror before. He looked into it longingly and said, “I never knew my pappy had his picture took!” He was very sentimental about it, of course, and took it home. He slipped into the house, climbed up into the loft and hid the mirror. His wife saw him do that but didn’t say anything. After he went out of the house, she went up to see what he had hidden. She found the mirror, and when she looked into it, she said, “So that’s the old hag he’s been running around with!” May I say to you, it is so easy to read the Word of God and to think it is a picture of someone else.

It is a picture of you, and it is a picture of me. In verse Jas_1:25 we see the design of the Word

James 1:25

Looketh means “to look attentively, penetratingly.” “The perfect law of liberty.” This is not the Mosaic Law; it is the law of grace. James does not talk about law here in the same sense that Paul does. When Paul talks about law, he is talking about the Mosaic Law. When James talks about law, it is the law of faith. There is love in law in the Old Testament, and there is law in love in the New Testament. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (Joh_8:36). However, the Lord also said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (Joh_14:15), and Paul said, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal_6:2). What law? Christ’s law. John says in his first epistle, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments …” (1Jn_5:3). When you are driving down a freeway, you will see that it is loaded with traffic, and it is also loaded with laws. If you want to have freedom to drive down that freeway, you had better obey the laws. There is liberty in Christ, and it is the only true freedom. However, you can be sure that if you are in Christ, you are going to obey Himand His laws are not hard; they are not rigorous. Because you are a child of God, your freedom does not entitle you to break the Ten Commandments. Those laws are for the weak, for the natural man.

Laws are for lawbreakers: what to do, where to go, and how, with a punishment prescribed for those who break over. Honest citizens do not need the law. I do not know one half of the laws of this state in which I live, but every shyster lawyer knows them, because he is seeking loopholes to break those laws. Today God has called His children to a higher level. A child of God has a spiritual spontaneity, a high and lofty motive, an inspiration of God. The believer has no desire to murder. He lives above the law. He is now motivated by the love of the Savior, and he desires to obey Him. The more we read and study the Word, the more we will learn, we will love, and we will live. Joy fills and floods the soul. We are not like galley slaves, whipped and chained to a bench and doing that which we do not want to do. You and I may not need to know all the laws of our state or of our country, but we certainly need to know the Word of God if we are to live for Him. I do not agree with the popular song today which says, “You don’t need to understand, you just need to hold His hand.” My friend, you do need to understand. You’re not apt to be holding His hand unless you do understand. There are too many folk today who are ignorant of the Word of God. It is no disgrace to be ignorant. I don’t know about you, but I was born ignorant. I didn’t know A from B when I was born. I couldn’t even walk or talk. I was in bad shape, but I didn’t stay in that shape and neither did you. It’s no disgrace to be ignorant, but it’s a disgrace to stay ignorant if you are a child of God.

James 1:26

Religious and religion are not actually Bible wordsthat is, they occur only about half a dozen times in the New Testament. James uses them more than any other New Testament writer. The word religion comes from a Latin word which means “to bind back.” Although Herodotus used the word, it was not a word used commonly in the Greek language. He spoke of the religion of the Egyptian priests. The word has to do with going through a ritual, a form, or a ceremony. There are many religions today, and they can demonstrate that they have faithful, zealous followers. But you cannot call a religion Christian simply because it conforms to certain outward forms of ritual. Christianity is not a religion; it is a person, and that person is Jesus Christyou either have Him or you don’t have Him. James is saying here that if a religious man does not control his speech, his religionregardless of what it isis vain. What about the Christian and his tongue? James is going to have a great deal to say in chapter 3 about the child of God and this matter of bridling the tongue. Someone has said, “You can’t believe half of what you hear, but you can repeat it.” That is a real problem in the church today. We have too many people who have unbridled tongues.

James 1:27

This is a tremendous statement. “Pure” is the positive side, and “undefiled” is the negative side. You need to have both if you are to have the right kind of religionand Christianity certainly ought to produce this. “To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.” This is the positive side. A child of God ought to be in personal contact with the sorrow of the world and the problems of the people of the world. This is where the politicians are very clever. They go out and meet the people and shake their hands. They make a personal contact. In the same way, Christians should be getting out where the people are. I feel there is a grave danger in our having a religion of the sanctuary but not a religion of the street. We need a religion of the street also. We should be in contact with the world in a personal way, with tenderness and kindness and helpfulness. “And to keep himself unspotted from the world.” This now is the negative side. Contact with the world does not mean that we should become implicated in the things of the world. As believers we are in this world but we are not of this world. I think of the story of the little boy whose mother had died. His father was a poor man, but he worked and tried to raise the little fellow. There was a wealthy couple, relatives, who became interested in the boy. They said to the father,“You are not able to give the boy everything in life. We are wealthy; we can give him everything.” So the father went to the little boy to talk to him about going to live with these folks. He said to the little fellow, “They’ll give you a bicycle, give you toys, and give you wonderful gifts at Christmas.

And they will take you on trips. They will do things for you that I can’t do for you.” The little boy said, “I don’t want to go.” And the father said, “Why?” The boy said, “They can’t give me you.” That’s what the little fellow wanted. There are a lot of people out yonder today who want that personal contact. My friend, you can bring a Christian contact to these people with sweetness and love and consideration and kindness. But let us remember to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. We can get so implicated in the things of the world that it becomes a dangerous thing.