A Translation of James

Translation of James

James 1

^1.1Jacob/James, God’s and the Lord Jesus Christ’s slave

To the twelve tribes, the ones in the Diaspora

Hello.

²Consider [it] total happiness, my brothers, whenever you stumble upon different kinds of testings, ³because you know that the testing-designed-to-prove-the-authenticity*** of your faith produces endurance. ⁴And the endurance had better have its complete work, so that you can be complete and whole, lacking in nothing. ⁵But if one of you lacks wisdom, he had better ask from the God Who gives to all generously and Who doesn’t mock, and it will be given to him. ⁶But he had better ask in faith, doubting nothing, because the person who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is blown and thrown around. ⁷Indeed, that human had better not expect that he will get anything from the Lord, ⁸a man doubting and unstable in all his ways.

⁹And the lowly brother had better brag about his high position. ¹⁰And the rich one in his lowly position, because like a flower of grass he passes away. ¹¹For the sun rises with the heat and dries up the grass and its flower falls off and the beauty of its face is destroyed, so too the rich [brother] fades during his travels.

¹²Blessed is the man who endures testing, because after he has become proven-authentic-by-testing he will receive the crown of life, which He promised to those who love Him! ¹³No one who is being tested had better say that “by God I’m being tempted!” because God is untemptable by evil things, and He tempts no one. ¹⁴Rather each person is tempted by their own desire, being dragged away and lured. ¹⁵Then the desire gives having conceived gives birth to sin, and the sin when brought to completion gives birth to death.

¹⁶Don’t be tricked, my loved brothers! ¹⁷every good giving and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights, concerning Whom there is no variation or shadow of change. ¹⁸Because He decided to , He gave birth to us by the message of truth, so that we would be a firstfruits, one of His created things.

¹⁹Know [this] my loved brothers, and every man had better be fast when it comes to listening, slow when it comes to speaking, slow when it comes to anger, ²⁰because anger from a man does not accomplish God’s righteousness. ²¹So, because you’ve put off all dirtiness and an abundance of badness in humility, take the implanted message, the one able to save your lives!

²²And become doers of the message and not only hearers, thereby deceiving yourselves, ²³because if some is a hearer of the message and not a doer, this person is like a man who studies the face of his existence in a mirror, ²⁴because he studies himself and goes out and immediately forgets what he’s like. ²⁵But the person who looks into the perfect law, the one of freedom and who continues, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but an action taker—this one will be blessed in his doing. ²⁶If someone seems to be worshipful who doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, the worship of this guy is empty. ²⁷Wworship that is clean and undefiled before the God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their suffering, to keep oneself untainted by the world.

James 2

^2.1My brothers, don’t hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partialities/favoritisms***. ²For if a man wearing gold rings would come into your synagogue in white clothes, but also a poor man would come in filthy clothes, ³And you would look on the one wearing the white clothes and would say, “You, sit here in a good spot” and to the poor man you would say “You stand or sit there under my footrest.” ⁴Then aren’t you discriminating among yourselves and haven’t you become judges of with wicked reasonings? ⁵Listen up, my loved brothers, didn’t God pick for Himself the poor in/with regard to the world as rich in faith and inheritors of the kingdom, which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶But you yourselves dishonor the poor! Aren’t the rich people exploiting you and are they themselves taking/drawing*** you into court? ⁸If indeed you fulfill a royal law according to the Scripture: “You will love your neighbor as yourself,” you act in a good way. ⁹But if you play favorites/discriminate***, you commit sin, being exposed by the Law as violators, ¹⁰because whoever would keep the whole law, but would trip up on one part, he is in a state of having become liable*** for all of it! ¹¹For the one who says, “You will not commit adultery” also said “You will not murder.” And if you don’t commit adultery, but you do murder, you are in the state of having become a violator of the Law. ¹²So speak in this way and act in this way: as those who are about to be judged through the law of freedom! ¹³For the judgment was merciless against the one not showing mercy! Mercy triumphs over judgment***!

¹⁴What is the benefit/what good does it do, my brothers, if someone would say he had faith, but wouldn’t have actions? That kind of faith can’t save him, can it? ¹⁵If a brother or sister really were naked and in need of their daily food, ¹⁶but anyone of you would say to them, “Go peace, warm yourselves up and feed yourselves until you’re full,” but you all wouldn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? ¹⁷So too the faith, if he wouldn’t have actions, is dead by definition.

¹⁸Butwill someone say, “You have faith, and I have actions”? Prove to me your faith without actions, and I will prove to you the faith from my actions! ¹⁹You believe that God is One, good job, even the demons believe [that] and so they shake in fear***! ²⁰But do you want to know, o empty man, that the faith without actions is useless/inactive/doesn’t work! ²¹Wasn’t Abraham our father proved righteous by actions by offering up Isaac his son on the altar? ²²You see that the faith acts together with his actions and by the actions the faith was made complete. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴See that by actions a man proved righteous and by faith alone! ²⁵But also in the same way wasn’t Rahab the prostitute by actions proved righteous by welcoming the messenger as guests and sending them out on another road? ²⁶For just as the body without a spirit is dead, so too the faith without actions is dead!

James 3

^3.1Many of you, don’t become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will get a greater judgment. ²For absolutely all of us trip up in many things. If some doesn’t trip up in speech, this is a perfect man, who is able to bridle/control also his whole body. ³But if we throw the bridle of the horses into their mouths so that they would obey us, then we direct their whole body. ⁴Look, also boats which are so great and driven by harsh winds are directed by a very small steering paddle, wherever the desire of the one who is guiding plans. ⁵So too, the tongue is a small part and boasts great things. Look, how big a fire burns such a great forest! ⁶And the tongue is fire! The world of unrighteousness! The tongue puts itself in charge among our body parts. The thing that stains the whole body and sets on fire the wheel of life and is being set on fire by Hell! ⁷For every species of both wild animals and birds, both reptiles and sea creatures is being tamed and is in a state of being tamed by human species, ⁸but the tongue no one among men is able to tame, an unstable/chaotic evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With this [body part] we bless the Lord and Father and in this [body part] we curse humans, the ones coming to exist according to the likeness of God! ¹⁰From the same mouth a blessing and a curse comes out. It shouldn’t be that these things happen this way. ¹¹The spring doesn’t gush bitter [water] and sweet [water] from the same hole, does it? ¹²My brothers, a fig tree can’t make olives or a grapevine figs, can they? Neither [can] a what is salty make sweet water.

¹³Is there someone wise and learned/experienced*** among you? He had better show his actions from his good lifestyle in the humility of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your heart, don’t boast and lie against the truth! ¹⁵This isn’t the wisdom from above that has come down, but earthly, unspiritual***, and demonic! Because wherever there is envy and selfishness, chaos and every base/wicked thing are there. ¹⁷And the wisdom that comes from above first of all is holy/pure, then peaceful, tolerantobedient, filled with mercy and good fruits, undiscriminating/nonjudgmental/impartial***, unhypocritical. ¹⁸And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to those who practice peace.

James 4

^4.1Where to wars come from? And where do battlescome from among you? Isn’t from this? From your pleasures that wage war among your body parts? ²You desperately want, but you don’t have, you kill and envy and you can’t get [it/enough]***, you war and battle, you don’t have because you don’t ask. ³You ask and you don’t receive because you ask wickedly, so that you can blow your money on your pleasures! ⁴Adulteresses, don’t you know that the friendship of the world is hostile/an enemy of God? So whoever would want to be a friend of the world, is made [to be] an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you think that for no reason the Scripture says the Spirit Who lives in you desperately wants with jealousy, ⁶and gives greater grace? Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. ⁷So, subordinate/submit to God, stand against the devil, and he will flee from you! ⁸Draw near to God and He will draw near to you! Clean [your] hands, sinners, and make your hearts holy, doubters! ⁹Feel miserable and mourn and cry! Your laughter had better turn into mourning and your happiness into dejection/depression. ¹⁰Be humbled before the Lord and He will raise you up. ¹¹Don’t talk down to one another, brothers. The person who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against to the Law and judges the Law. But if you judge the Law, you’re not a doer of the Law, but a judge. ¹²There is One Lawgiver and Judge, the One Who can save and destroy, but who are you who judges the neighbor?

¹³Come on, now, those of you who say “Today or tomorrow we’ll go into such and such a city and we’ll work there for a year and make business deals and profit,” ¹⁴you who don’t know what kind of tomorrow your life will have, because you’re a vapor that***** appears for a little while, then also disappears. ¹⁵Instead of what you said, [say] “If the Lord would want, we’ll both live and do this or that.” ¹⁶But now you’re bragging with your arrogant-boasts! All of that kind of bragging is evil! ¹⁷So, for the person who knows to do what’s good and doesn’t do [it], it is sin for him!

James 5

^5.1Come on now, you rich people, sob, crying out because of your miseries that are coming on! ²Your riches are in a state of decaying and your clothes are in a state of becoming eaten-by-moths! ³Your gold and silver has become tarnished and their corrosion will be a testimony against you! And it will eat your fleshes like fire! You did store up in the last days! ⁴Look, the paycheck of the workers who mow*** your fields, the person being robbed [or perhaps ‘waiting to get paid’] by you cries out, and the shouts of those who harvest are in a state of speaking into the ears of the Lord of Armies! ⁵You lived for pleasure*** on the earth and you lived it up, you fed your hearts on a day of slaughter, ⁶you found guilty, you murdered the righteous person, he didn’t position himself against you!

⁷So, be patient, brothers until the coming of the Lord! Look, the farmer waits for the precious fruit from the ground, while being patient for it until it would get the early and the late [rain]. ⁸And be patient yourselves! Strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord is close. ⁹Brothers and sisters, don’t groan against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Look, the Judge is standing in front of the doors. ¹⁰Brothers, take the prophets as an the example of suffering-evil and patience, who spoke in the Name of the Lord. ¹¹Look, we call blessed the people who endured. You’ve heard about the endurance of Job and you know what the Lord did in the end, because the Lord is caring and compassionate.

¹²But above all, my brothers, don’t swear oaths either to heaven or earth or any other oath. But your yes had better mean yes, and your no had better mean no, so that you don’t fall under judgment.

¹³Someone suffering evil among you, had better pray. Someone who’s happy had better sing praise songs! ¹⁴Someone who’s sick among you, had better summon the elders of the church and they had better pray over him, while smearing [him] with olive oil in the Name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him—even if he would have done some sin, it will be forgiven him. ¹⁶So confess out loud your sins to one another and pray for another, so that you’d healed. A righteous person’s prayer is really strong, so it’s effective. ¹⁷Elijah was a man with the same nature as us, and in a prayer he prayed that it wouldn’t rain. And it didn’t rain on the land for three years and six months! ¹⁸And he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit!

¹⁹My brothers, if someone among you has been led astray from truth and someone turns him around, ²⁰he had better know that the person who turns a sinner around from the deception of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a large number of sins!

A Faith that Works Waits for Jesus and Prays in Faith (James 5.7-20)

Click HERE to listen to or download the Sermon Audio
Scripture: James 5.7-20

Translation: ⁷So, be patient, brothers until the coming of the Lord! Look, the farmer waits for the precious fruit from the ground, while being patient for it until it would get the early and the late [rain]. ⁸And be patient yourselves! Strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord is close. ⁹Brothers and sisters, don’t groan against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Look, the Judge is standing in front of the doors. ¹⁰Brothers, take the prophets as an the example of suffering-evil and patience, who spoke in the Name of the Lord. ¹¹Look, we call blessed the people who endured. You’ve heard about the endurance of Job and you know what the Lord did in the end, because the Lord is caring and compassionate.

¹²But above all, my brothers, don’t swear oaths either to heaven or earth or any other oath. But your yes had better mean yes, and your no had better mean no, so that you don’t fall under judgment.

¹³Someone suffering evil among you, had better pray. Someone who’s happy had better sing praise songs! ¹⁴Someone who’s sick among you, had better summon the elders of the church and they had better pray over him, while smearing [him] with olive oil in the Name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him—even if he would have done some sin, it will be forgiven him. ¹⁶So confess out loud your sins to one another and pray for another, so that you’d healed. A righteous person’s prayer is really strong, so it’s effective. ¹⁷Elijah was a man with the same nature as us, and in a prayer he prayed that it wouldn’t rain. And it didn’t rain on the land for three years and six months! ¹⁸And he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit!

¹⁹My brothers, if someone among you has been led astray from truth and someone turns him around, ²⁰he had better know that the person who turns a sinner around from the deception of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a large number of sins!

The Point I’m Stressing: People who have true faith show that faith by waiting in faith and excitement for Jesus' Return and by praying in faith that God will answer!--JESUS REALLY IS COMING BACK!!! and GOD REALLY DOES ANSWER OUR PRAYERS!!!

Interpretation

1.      Structure

a.       Wait Patiently for the Lord to Return

                                                              i.      Instruction: Endure Patiently for Jesus’ Coming

                                                            ii.      Comparison: A Farmer waiting for the fruit being patient for rain

                                                          iii.      Instruction Restated:

1.      Be patient

2.      Be emotionally/volitionally strong

3.      Basis: Jesus is coming soon

                                                          iv.      Implication of the Return of the Messiah

1.      Don’t groan against each other

2.      Basis/purpose: the action is punishable/avoid judgment

3.      Warning: the Judge is closeby!

                                                            v.      Example to Follow 1: the Prophets’ suffering and patient endurance

                                                          vi.      Importance of Endurance: it results in blessing

1.      It results in blessing

2.      Proof it results in blessing: the story of Job

a.       Job Suffered

b.      The Lord blessed

3.      Basis: The Lord is caring and compassionate

b.      Don’t Take Oaths

                                                              i.      Prohibition: Don’t Taking oaths

                                                            ii.      Instruction: Mean what you say, be faithful with your words

                                                          iii.      Basis/Purpose of the Instruction:

1.      [implicit basis] breaking what you’ve said is a punishable offense

2.      [explicit aim] avoid judgment

c.       Pray

                                                              i.      Pray if you’re suffering

                                                            ii.      Pray in praise if you’re happy

                                                          iii.      Pray for healing if someone is sick

1.      Process:

a.       The sick person summons the elders to pray

b.      The elders pray for healing while smearing the person with oil in the Name of the Lord

2.      Expectation/Promise: Praying in faith will result in healing

a.       Requirement: Faith in the prayer

b.      Result: healing

c.       The Healer is the Lord, who can raise the dead

d.      Grace: Sin does not inhibit the process, rather sin is dealt with

                                                                                                                                      i.      Implications: Healing is connect to confession and prayer

1.      Instruction: Confess your sins to one another

2.      Instruction: Pray for one another

3.      Result: you will be healed

3.      Doctrine of Prayer Implied by the Above

a.       Stated: Prayer by a Godly person is powerful

b.      Example: Elijah prayed

                                                                                                                                      i.      His prayer kept the rain from coming for 3.5 years

                                                                                                                                    ii.      His prayer allowed the rain to come and the ground to produce food again

d.      Correct the Deceived Person

                                                              i.      Instruction: Correct a deceived/straying Christian

                                                            ii.      Reason: You action can lead to that person’s salvation from death (either temporal [God does kill people who are His, but walk away from Him] or but in this passage mainly ultimate [hell awaits the person who proves their faith was fake by abandoning Christ] and cover over the sins of the time of straying [that is, grace always is there for the repentance person]

2.      Themes

a.       The Return of Jesus the Messiah

                                                              i.      This is the main theme of 7-11, it is what we are to wait patiently for, to endure for (v.7), the waiting is implied to come with hope of blessing via the story of the farmer (v.7), it is not something that is easy to wait for (v.8), but it is soon (v.8), which gives us the strength and courage to wait (v.8)!!!

                                                            ii.      The return will also bring judgment against sin, especially problems within the body of Christ (v.9)

                                                          iii.      Perhaps thematically the example of the prophets is important because their message which was authorized by the Lord was often about His Return and the judgment that would come with Him

                                                          iv.      The example of Job also reinforces the theme of coming, because it was when the Lord finally came that all was set right

                                                            v.      The coming of the Lord will bring vindication and blessing and relief from suffering for those who trust in Him, who know Him, because the Lord really cares and is compassionate!

                                                          vi.      Judgment also will come against those who’s words have no integrity (v.12), and against those who have been deceived or have strayed (v.20) because of their sins

b.      Endurance/Patience

                                                              i.      Of course the biggest theme is that real Christians with real faith need to endure, to put up with what is happening to us until the Lord does come back!

                                                            ii.      The endurance with the expectation of reward and relief is compared to that of the patience of a farmer waiting on his crops

                                                          iii.      An example of patience/endurance is the prophets and Job, who all suffered great things, but did so with endurance,

                                                          iv.      We endure with an expectation of vindication and relief, just like Job—there is coming for all of us a relief and vindication from all our suffering when Jesus returns just like Job,

                                                            v.      We can endure because Jesus is coming soon (v.8)

                                                          vi.      and expect relief because of the character of God—Jesus is caring and compassionate!

                                                        vii.      As we suffer, we can endure, but we should also pray—it is not wrong to pray for relief and/or strength

                                                      viii.      If endurance is easy for you right now, praise God!

                                                          ix.      If you are enduring sickness, seek relief now through prayer, endurance does not mean holding on to suffering that can be relieved, it means putting up with the stuff that won’t be relieved for a while

                                                            x.      Endurance also means enduring not only through hard times, but sticking with the path God has put you on when you trusted Him for eternal, that is believing true things about God and living a life that proves your faith is really real

                                                          xi.      But endurance should also be a concern inside the family of God for one another, do we see our brothers and sisters enduring

c.       Judgment

                                                              i.      Judgment is coming when Christ returns

                                                            ii.      Judgment will come against sin in general (v.20)

                                                          iii.      Judgment will come against people for their words in particular

1.      Groaning against others, complaining (v.9)

2.      Taking false oaths, not keeping promises, not having integrity in what you say (v.12)

d.      Wisdom

                                                              i.      The undercurrent of the passage is that what we do matters, and so we should seek to live wisely, especially in how we use our words, which has been a major theme in James throughout the book

                                                            ii.      Wisdom should dictate appropriate responses to different situations, patience in suffering, praise in joy, prayer in sickness, correction when people are straying

                                                          iii.      Wisdom is also found in seeing the implications of the return of Christ, seeing how these basic Christian doctrines really do affect our lives, and how we should live, but of course wisdom is not just about knowing what to do or figuring out what to do, it is about doing it

e.       Faith

                                                              i.      James has been showing how a faith that is true faith works, it affects how we live and how we respond to our current situation

                                                            ii.      Faith is assumed in the Coming of Christ—you only wait for something you believe is really going to happen

                                                          iii.      Faith is assumed in the appeals to judgment, it only strengthens our resolve to live for God if we really believe it is coming

                                                          iv.      Faith is assuming prayer, we believe that God will answer

                                                            v.      Faith is assumed in correcting an deceived or straying brother or sister, because for us to correct assumes that we trust God in what He has said about Himself, and we truly believe in the consequences of rejecting Christ

f.       Prayer

                                                              i.      This is the core theme of vv.13-18

                                                            ii.      It is our response to suffering

                                                          iii.      It is our response to joy in the form of singing praise songs

                                                          iv.      It is our response to being sick

                                                            v.      It something that is does by church elders for Christians

                                                          vi.      It something that Christians do for each other

                                                        vii.      It is something that is powerful

                                                      viii.      It can accomplish big things, even long lasting things

                                                          ix.      It works because God listens and acts

g.      Speaking

                                                              i.      How not to speak is articulated in v.9 (don’t groan/complain against each other) and in v.12 (don’t break your word)

                                                            ii.      How to speak is covered in v.12 (mean what you say), v.13 (pray, sing praise songs), v.14 (pray for healing), v.16 (confess your sins to each other and pray for one another)

                                                          iii.      It is how the prophets are qualified “who spoke in the name of the Lord”

                                                          iv.      “in the Name of the Lord” occurs in v.10 and v.14, that is speaking with the Lord’s authority, which seems to indicate a bit of a connection between elders and prophets at least when it comes to the authority with which they are speaking and praying

                                                            v.      It is clearly required in correcting a deceived or staying brother or sister

h.      Agriculture

                                                              i.      This appears in the farmer comparison in v.7, and in the Elijah example in vv.17-18, which seems in some ways to bracket that as a section

i.        Healing

                                                              i.      Healing is what is clearly sought for in prayer

                                                            ii.      The healing can even go to the point of raising the person up from near-death or even death (v.15)

                                                          iii.      Healing is an appropriate request

                                                          iv.      Healing is connect with forgiveness of sins and repentance, which may suggest that physical healing is at play as well as spiritual healing although mainly it is the physical that is being discussed here

                                                            v.      This healing is clearly understood to happen in the churches today (contrary to what some people teach)

3.      Doctrines

a.       The Imminent Return of Jesus

b.      The Gift of Healing is Alive and Well in the Church today

c.       Perseverance of the Saints/Endurance is Core to the Christian Life

d.      Prayer Works

e.       The Absolute Sovereignty of God

f.       The Church is a Family

g.      Christians Should Care about other Christians

Applications

1.      We should be excited and longing passionately for Jesus to come back!

2.      We should be care what we say

3.      We should pray, and pray in faith

4.      We should care about our family members enough and know enough about the truth to correct someone who is deceived into lies or ungodly lifestyles

5.      We should confess our sins

6.      We should pray for one another

7.      We should endure to the very end, we have to wait and hold on until Jesus comes back

8.      We should expect blessing when Jesus returns!

A Faith that Works is Humble, Wise, and NOT Exploitive (James 4.13-5.6) with audio

Scripture: James 4.13-5.6

Translation: ¹³Come on, now, those of you who say “Today or tomorrow we’ll go into such and such a city and we’ll work there for a year and make business deals and profit,” ¹⁴you who don’t know what [will come] of tomorrow, what kind of thing your life is, because you’re a vapor, the one that appears for a little while, then also disappears. ¹⁵Instead of what you said, [say] “If the Lord would want, we’ll both live and do this or that.” ¹⁶But now you’re bragging with your arrogant-boasts! All of that kind of bragging is evil! ¹⁷So, for the person who knows to do what’s good and doesn’t do [it], it is sin for him!

^5.1Come on now, you rich people, sob, crying out because of your miseries that are coming upon [you]! ²Your riches are in a state of decaying and your clothes are in a state of becoming eaten-by-moths! ³Your gold and silver has become tarnished and their corrosion will be a testimony against you! And it will eat your fleshes like fire! You store up in the last days! ⁴Look, the paycheck of the workers who mow your fields, the person being robbed [or perhaps ‘waiting to get paid’] by you cries out, and the shouts of those who harvest are in a state of speaking into the ears of the Lord of Armies! ⁵You lived for pleasure on the earth and you lived it up, you fed your hearts on a day of slaughter, ⁶you found guilty, you murdered the righteous person, he didn’t position himself against you!

The Point I’m Stressing: We need to acknowledge that God controls our destinies, not us, and that the same temptations that pull on rich people to exploit others to satisfy our own desires and give ourselves the illusion of control are found in our own hearts. Also, God knows and cares when you have been exploited by others. He will give you justice if you will ask Him for it. It is a good prayer to pray when we have experience injustice to ask God to help us to forgive and heal from the injustice, but also to give us justice and pay our abusers back for their injustice against us.

Interpretation

1.      Structure

a.       A Call on the Business Class to Humility

                                                              i.      Identification and Characterization of the addressees: people who act like they know the future

                                                            ii.      Identification and Characterization of the Addressees: people who don’t know the future or the fragility of their life

1.      Stated bluntly in two implied questions

2.      Explained with the metaphor of a vapor or mist that appears and disappears

                                                          iii.      Application of the Nature of Human Life: Humility and Wisdom: If the Lord wants it to happen, it will happen

                                                          iv.      Declaration of the Addressees current state: Arrogant and Sinful

1.      Identification of their actions: arrogant boasting

2.      Identification of arrogant boasting as sin

                                                            v.      Conclusion: Blowing of what was said is sin

b.      A Call on the Rich Class to Repentance

                                                              i.      A call to rich people to cry about what is happening: Their Stuff is Corroding

1.      Call to cry (perhaps sarcastic or unsympathetic)

2.      Declaration of the stat of their wealth

a.       Summary: Their wealth is decaying

b.      Their clothes are moth-eaten

c.       Their gold and silver is tarnished

3.      Explanation of the corrosion future/current purpose

a.       The Corrosion will be legal testimony against them

b.      The corrosion will eat their bodies like fire

                                                            ii.      Indictment against Rich People for Hoarding Wealth

1.      The rich are hoarding wealth at the when Jesus is soon to return

2.      They are getting their wealth by financial abuse

a.       The unpaid field workers are crying out to God against the rich

b.      The unpaid harvest workers are shouting to God of Armies for help

3.      They are using their wealth in self-indulgent, unwise ways

a.       They are living a grotesquely selfish and lavish and wildly-indulgent lifestyle

b.      they are living it up, glutting themselves at an unwise time: day of slaughter

4.      They are using their riches or rich status to legally abuse and kill people, who have not done anything to instigate it

2.      Themes

a.       Humble, Wise Faith showed in actions

                                                              i.      This theme is again the backdrop of the whole passage

                                                            ii.      However, this theme also appears in 4.17, where James now explains that it is not just what you do that counts, but what you don’t do too

                                                          iii.      The point is it is not just sin to do bad things, it is sin to not do the good things you know you should do—doing nothing still counts as doing something, but now that something is not good

                                                          iv.      The backdrop is especially prevalent also in 5.1-6, where James gives a warning of coming judgment to rich people who have been doing evil, their actions are not really showing that they have genuine faith, because they are violating some fundament Christian outlooks and lifestyles: they don’t act like Jesus will return soon, they steal from people, they hoard wealth, they are in the party scene, they violate justice and perhaps even kill people for profit

b.      Arrogance

                                                              i.      This is the main issue in both sections, it is perhaps clearer in the first where the arrogance is displayed in how the business people are thinking about their lives, like they are in control of the future, but really God is, so that is some serious pride. They forget that really they are dependent on God to be successful, not their own plans, which is not to say that they should be making plans, they should, but the attitude is one of arrogance and boasting, their actions serve to aggrandize their own egos and actions, and not the grace of God

                                                            ii.      In the second section the arrogance is not stated explicitly, buy implicitly, because there the rich people are acting as if Jesus is not coming back soon and as if there is no one who will ever hold them accountable for their actions, they are so self-obsessed that they think it is ok for them to abuse people to get they want, which assumes in their thinking that they are more important or better in some way, which is why they can and do abuse people, also their use of wealth indicates that they do not see wealth as a resource to be used to bless others but solely used for their own selfish indulgences

c.       Fragility of life

                                                              i.      The fragility of life, could be filed under decay or the transience of material things, but it is a strong theme in the first section, it is this understanding that life is fragile and its destiny does not lie in our total control

                                                            ii.      The fragility of life is also found in the second section, where the rich have also forgotten that their lives are fragile, or perhaps deeply know they are and seek to protect themselves from that fragility with wealth, they also kill and abuse, which indicates that the human life is fragile even to the actions of other humans. The prayers of the abused assume an understanding that they are fragile and dependant on God for their lives and for justice

d.      Humility

                                                              i.      The nature of the human life should bring us to humility before God, where we understand our complete and total dependence on him

                                                            ii.      However, humility should also bring us to care for others, because with humility in our hearts we can see that all people are important, not just ourselves. This is the failure especially of the rich. Humility means that we don’t see people as tools for our own exploitation, success, or profit

e.       Wisdom

                                                              i.      Wisdom appears in the call on the business class to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and the fragility of life and the lack of control we have over the future, as well as realizing that the soon coming of Christ has implications for how we live. Wisdom sees the implications of our actions and what needs to happen to achieve certain ends, but it also sees that the things that we see protection in from destruction are themselves in the process of destruction, wisdom sees that the only place for a human to hide for safety from death, destruction, corrosion, and sin is in God

                                                            ii.      Wisdom also calls us to change our lifestyles to conform them to God’s desired lifestyle

f.       Wealth

                                                              i.      Wealth is the aim of both sections, in the first section the problem is simply the presumption that we can control whether we attain it or not

                                                            ii.      The second sections problem is the misuse of wealth and a misunderstanding about the nature of wealth, it is the attempt to control whether one gets rich or not taken to the extreme

                                                          iii.      Wealth is transient, it is passing away, just like human life, in all its forms it is fragile and subject to corruption

g.      Decay/Transience of the Present World

                                                              i.      All things decay: human life and human stuff. The first section is all about how human life passes away, it decays into nothing,

                                                            ii.      The second section is all about how all the things that humans can own or possess or even use or cling to will pass away, even the use of the justice system in the present world by the rich will pass away at the return of Christ, that is, it will no longer be possible to have false justice or injustice, which is good news for the oppressed and bad news for the rich, who are using justice for injustice. The killing of the unantagonistic shows that human life is fragile and that the future is not sure for anyone

h.      Abuse

                                                              i.      The rich people found in the second section are abusers of people, they exploit people for their own gain, they steal land from people for their gain, they rob people of justice for their own gain, and they even take away people’s lives. They also abuse time and wealth by hoarding and blowing it all on their own addictions and pleasures

i.        Judgment/justice

                                                              i.      Judgment is coming

                                                            ii.      That is the implication of calling a failure to act sin (sin implies coming judgment)

                                                          iii.      More clearly, in the second section, justice is sought by the abused from God,

                                                          iv.      However, the theme of justice and judgment is also implied by the abuse of justice by the rich, they use judgment and justice systems to exploit and kill people legally

                                                            v.       the judgment and justice that will come with the Return of Christ is revealed by the phrase “in the last days” of 5.3, and in the phrase “will be a testimony against you” and “eat your fleshes/bodies like fire” and the threat of “Lord of Armies” and the phrase “on a day of slaughter” The point is Jesus is coming back to judge and bring punishment

j.        The Soon Return of Christ

                                                              i.      The phrase “last days” implies that the Jesus is coming soon, so the time we are living in are the last days of the earth.

                                                            ii.      All the threats of judgment against the rich are also assumed implicitly to be coming with the return of the Messiah, which is strengthen by the greek translation “Lord of Armies” for the Hebrew “Yahweh of Armies” in the OT, a phrase that is associated with the Yahweh’s Judgment Day, when He comes to settle the score for his people, for all those who seek Him for justice and trust in Him, but also for those who are merely human. Yahweh promises to settle the score between even pagan nations who don’t even worship Him who have abused or been abused by other nations.

                                                          iii.      The “day of slaughter” is also a clear reference to the Day when Yahweh comes to judge people with a sword, i.e. kill the bad people and give out true justice

k.      Sovereignty of God

                                                              i.      The Whole first section is dealing with the issue of people who are acting as if it is not God Who is truly in control of all that happens

                                                            ii.      The second section deals with people who think that God does not really have the power to either provide what is needed or to judge the wicked, with people who are trying by whatever means necessary to be in control of their own lives, while truly only God has that kind of control

l.        Prayer

                                                              i.      The theme of prayer has percolated in the book of James a few times, in the opening where we are instructed to ask God for wisdom without doubting He will give it, in ch.3 where blessings are said to come from our tongue to God, and in 4.2-3 where James indicts us for not asking from God and asking from Him for evil and selfish reasons

                                                            ii.      Here in 5.4 prayer is shown to be legitimate for asking God for Justice, it is surely in our self interest to have justice, but that desire is good, God doesn’t answer prayers that we pray so that we can have stuff to blow and enjoy an ungodly lifestyle, but He does answer self focused prayers that come out of our needs and pains

                                                          iii.      God will answer prayers for justice, that is what all of 5.4-6 is predicated upon. James writes with the assumption that God will hear the prayers of the people being abused and exploited by the rich, which serves to threaten the rich with punishment if they don’t repent, but also serves to encourage those who are abused and exploited that God will soon give them justice and relief from oppression

3.      Doctrines

a.       Real Faith Proves Itself By What We Do

b.      Wisdom is a key part of the Christian Life

c.       Humility is a Key part of the Christian Life

d.      Jesus is Coming Back Soon

e.       Judgment is Coming for Unrepentant Sinners

f.       Earthly Things are Temporary

g.      Being Rich is Not Wrong, but Getting and Using Riches in an Ungodly Way Is

h.      God is Absolutely Sovereign

Applications

1.      The temptation to think we are in control of our own lives is an illusion, actually God is in control, so we need to have a humble attitude about our plans and entrust God make what He wants to have happen happen regardless of our plans

2.      We need to recognize that our own hearts want us to use temporary stuff to protect us from being out of control, but the truth is those things are just as temporary as we are, so they cannot help us stay in control, that is God’s prerogative.

3.      Pray and ask God for forgiveness for the times that you have used people as tools to satisfy your own wants and protect your sense of control

4.      Pray and ask God to avenge you, to give you justice for the times that people have abused you, used you, or treated you in a way that didn’t give you the respect and honor you were given by God. People may have verbally abused you, physically abused you, sexually abused, manipulated you, made fun of you, lied about you, lied to you, or other injustices and God wants to give you justice for all those things, so just ask Him for justice and He will give it. But don’t take justice into your own hands and try to make that person/people pay for what they did, or refuse to forgive them, instead forgive them and trust God to settle the score.