Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.'--James 1:4.
IT does not appear from the rest of this letter that the persons to whom it was addressed were under the pressure of any particular trouble or affliction. Seeing that they are the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,' the width of that superscription makes it improbable that the recipients were undergoing any common experience. It is the more noteworthy, therefore, that at the very outset James gives this exhortation bearing upon trials and troubles. Clearly it is not, as we often take it to be, a counsel only for the sorrowful, or an address only to a certain class of persons, but it is a general exhortation applicable to all sorts of people in all conditions of life, and indispensable, as he goes on to say, for any progress in Christian character.
Let patience have her perfect work' is an advice not only for sad hearts, or for those who may be bowed down under any special present trouble, but for us all. And it is the condition on which it is possible, and without which it is impossible, that any Christian man should be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.' So I want you to look with me, first, at what is the scope of this counsel; and then at how it can be obtained; and then why it is so important: what--how--why.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.'--James 1:5.
IF any of you lack: James has just used the same word in the previous verse, and it is to be regretted that the principle upon which our authorised translators went of varying the rendering of identical expressions, masks the repetition here. James has just been telling his brethren that their aim should be to be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.' And that thought naturally suggests the other one of how great the contrast is between that possible completeness and the actual condition of Christians in general. So he gently and courteously puts, as a hypothesis, what is only too certain a fact in those to whom he is speaking; and says, not as he might have done, since you all lack,' but, with gracious forbearance, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.'
Now, it seems to me that, in this hypothetical exhortation there are three points to be noted, two of them being somewhat unlike what we should have looked for. One is the great deficiency in the average Christian character--wisdom; another is the great means of supplying it--ask; and the third is the great guarantee of the supply--the giving God, whose gifts are bestowed on all liberally and without upbraiding.
The crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.'--James 1:12.
MY purpose is to bring out the elements of the blessed life here, by grouping together those New Testament passages which represent the future reward under the metaphor of the crown,' and so to gain, if not a complete, at all events a comprehensive view of the elements of the blessedness of the perfected life hereafter.
These passages are numerous. Paul speaks of the incorruptible crown,' the reward of the victorious athlete, and of' the crown of righteousness,' the anticipation of which soothed and elevated his last solitary hours. Peter speaks of the crown of glory,' the reward of the faithful elders. James speaks in my text of the crown of life' which the man wins who is proved by trial and stands the proof. The martyr Church at Smyrna is encouraged to faithfulness unto death' by the promise of the crown of life' from the hands of the Lord of life. The angel of the Church at Philadelphia is stimulated to hold fast what thou hast, that no man take thy crown.' The elders cast their crowns before the throne.' If we throw all these passages together, and study their combined effect, we shall, I think, get some helpful and stimulating thoughts.
That we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.'--James 1:18.
ACCORDING to the Levitical ceremonial, the first sheaf of the new crop, accompanied with sacrifice, was presented in the Temple on the day after the Passover Sabbath. No part of the harvest was permitted to be used for food until after this acknowledgment, that all had come from God and belonged to Him. A similar law applied to the first-born of men and of cattle. Both were regarded as in a special sense consecrated to and belonging to God.
Now, in the New Testament, both these ideas of the first-born' and the first-fruits,' which run as you see parallel in some important aspects, are transferred to Jesus Christ. He is' become the first-fruits of them that slept'; and it was no mere accidental coincidence that, in this character, He rose from the dead on the day on which, according to the law, the sheaf was to be presented in the Temple. In His case the ideas attached to the expression are not only that of consecration, but that of being the first of a series, which owes its existence to Him. He makes men the many brethren,' of whom He is the first-born'; and He, by the overflowing power of His life, raises from the dead the whole harvest of which He is the first-fruits.
Then that which Jesus Christ is, primarily and originally, all those who love Him and trust Him are secondarily and by derivation from Himself. Thus, both these phrases are further transferred in the New Testament to Christian people. They are the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb'; or, as my text has it here, with a qualifying word, a kind of first-fruits'; which expresses at once a metaphor and the derivation of the character. They are also the Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven.'
So, then, in this text we have contained some great ideas as to God's purpose in drawing us to Himself. And I want you to look at these for a moment or two.
Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.'--James 1:25.
AN old tradition tells us that James, who was probably the writer of this letter, continued in the practice of Jewish piety all his life. He was surnamed the Just.' He lived the life of a Nazarite. He was even admitted into the sanctuary of the Temple, and there spent so much of his time in praying for the forgiveness of the people that, in the vivid language of the old writer, his knees were hard and worn like a camel's.' To such a man the Gospel would naturally present itself as a law,' which word expressed the highest form of revelation with which he was familiar; and to him the glory of Christ's message would be that it was the perfecting of an earlier utterance, moving on the same plane as it did, but infinitely greater.
Now that, of course, is somewhat different from the point of view from which, for instance, Paul regards the relation of the Gospel and the Law. To him they are rather antitheses. He conceived mainly of the law as a system of outward observances, incapable of fulfilment, and valuable as impressing upon men the consciousness of sin.
But, though there is diversity, there is no contradiction, any more than there is between the two pictures in a stereoscope, which, united, represent one solid reality. The two men simply regard the subject from slightly different angles. Paul would have said that the gospel was the perfection of the law, as indeed he does say that by faith we do not make void, but establish, the law. And James would have said that the law, in Paul's sense, was a yoke of bondage, as indeed he does say in my text, that the gospel, in contrast with the earlier revelation, is the law of liberty.
And so the two men complement and do not contradict each other. In like manner, the earnest urging of work and insisting upon conduct, which are the keynote of this letter, are no contradiction of Paul. The one writer begins at a later point than the other. Paul is a preacher of faith, but of faith which works by love. James is the preacher of works, hut of works which are the fruit of faith.
There are three things here on which I touch now. First, the perfect law; second, the doers of the perfect law; and third, the blessedness of the doers of the perfect law.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.'--James 1:27.
THIS is a text which is more often quoted and used than understood. The word religion' has somewhat shifted its meaning from that which it bore at the time of our translation. We understand by it one of two things. For instance, when we speak of the Mohammedan or the Brahminical religion we mean the body of beliefs, principles, and ceremonies which go to make up an objective whole. When we speak of an individual's religion we generally mean, not that which he grasps, but the act, on his part, of grasping the consciousness of dependence, the attitude of reverence and aspiration and love and its consequences within. But when our translation was made the word meant rather worship than religion, or, to use an expression which has been recently naturalised among us, it meant the cult' of a God, and that mainly, though not exclusively, by ceremonials, or by oral and verbal praise and petition. Now, it is obvious that that is the meaning of the expression in my text, because otherwise you would have a patently absurd saying. If James meant by religion' here what we now mean by it, to say that benevolence and personal purity are religion would he just equivalent to and as absurd as saying that a mother's love is washing and feeding her child, or that anger is a flushed face and a loud voice. The feeling is one thing, the expression of it is another. The feeling is religion, the expression of it is worship. And so if you take the true meaning, not only of the original Greek, but also of the word religion' at the beginning of the seventeenth century, then you will understand the passage a little better than some of the people that are so often quoting it do.
For the writer is not talking about religion, but about its expression, worship.' And he says that true worship, pure and undefiled … is to visit the widows and the fatherless in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.' He has been, in the previous verses, striking at various forms of self-deception, such as that a man should conceive himself to be all right, because he listens to the law, and then goes away and forgets it, or that a man should think himself a real worshipper, while he does not bridle his tongue, and then he states the general principle of my text--worship has for its selectest manifestation and form these two things, beneficence and purity. Now I would deal with these words and seek to point out first--
The faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.'--James 2:1.
THE rarity of the mention of Jesus in this Epistle must strike every attentive reader; but the character of the references that are made is equally noticeable, and puts beyond doubt that, whatever is the explanation of their fewness, lower thoughts of Jesus, or less devotion to Him than belonged to the other New Testament writers, are not the explanation. James mentions Christ unmistakably only three times. The first occasion is in his introductory salutation, where, like the other New Testament writers, he describes himself as the slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ'; thus linking the two names in closest union, and proffering unlimited obedience to his Master. The second case is that of my text, in which our Lord is set forth by this solemn designation, and is declared to be the object of faith. The last is in an exhortation to patience in view of the coming of the Lord to be our Judge.
So James, like Peter and Paul and John, looked to Jesus, who was probably the brother of James by birth, as being the Lord, whom it was no blasphemy nor idolatry to name in the same breath as God, and to whom the same absolute obedience was to be rendered; who was to be the object of men's unlimited trust, and who was to come again to be our Judge.
Here we have, in this remarkable utterance, four distinct designations of that Saviour, a constellation of glories gathered together; and I wish now, in a few remarks, to isolate, and gaze at the several stars --the faith of our Lord--Jesus--Christ--the Lord of glory.
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15. If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16. And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; not withstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17. Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22. Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect! 23. And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.'--James 2:14-23.
{Jam 2:17}JAMES thrice reiterates his point in this passage, and each repetition closes a branch of his argument. In James 2:17 he draws the inference from his illustration of a worthy sympathy which does nothing; in James 2:20 he deduces the same conclusion from the speech put into the mouth of an imaginary speaker; in James 2:24 he draws it from the life of Abraham. We shall best et hold of the scope of these verses by taking these three parts separately.
He, was called the Friend of God,'--James 2:23.
WHEN and by whom was he so called? There are two passages in the Old Testament in which an analogous designation is applied to the patriarch, but probably the name was one in current use amongst the people, and expressed in a summary fashion the impression that had been made by the history of Abraham's life. A sweet fate to have that as the brief record of a character, and to be known throughout the ages by such an epitaph! As many of us are aware, this name, the Friend,' has displaced the proper name, Abraham, on the lips of all Mohammedan people to this day; and the city of Hebron, where his corpse lies, is commonly known simply as' the Friend.'
My object in this sermon is a very simple one. I merely wish to bring out two or three of the salient elements and characteristics of friendship as exercised on the human level, and to use these as a standard and test of our religion and relation to God.
But I may just notice, for a moment, how beautiful and blessed a thought it is which underlies this and similar representations of Scripture--viz., that the bond which unites us to God is the very same as that which most sweetly and strongly ties men to one another, and that, after all, religion is nothing more or less than the transference to Him of the emotions which make all the sweetness of human life and society.
Now, I shall try to bring out two or three points which are included in that name, the Friend of God,' and to ask ourselves if they apply to our relations to Him.
My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. 2. For in many things we offend all If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 3. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. 4. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. 5. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth ! 6. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 7. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things m the sea. is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind. 8. But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 10. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter! 12. Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. 13. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you! let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.'--James 3:1-13.
THERE is a recurrence to earlier teaching in James 1:19, 26, which latter verse suggests the figure of the bridle. James has drunk deep into Old Testament teaching as to the solemn worth of speech, and into Christ's declaration that by their words men will be justified or condemned.
No doubt, Eastern peoples are looser tongued than we Westerns are; but modern life, with its great development of cities and its swarm of newspapers and the like, has heightened the power of spoken and printed words, and made James's exhortations even more necessary. His teaching here gathers round several images m the bridle, the fire, the untamed creature, the double fountain. We deal with these in order.
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