James 5:19-20

If you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.
John 8:31

Your mortal life is the chief indication of whether or not you have eternal life. However, in spite of this clear teaching from Jesus, there are many who seek to rationalize their blatant disobedience to God. Using church membership as a sign of obedience in place of actual church attendance and involvement, or using a past experience of “conversion” in place of a present reality of continuing in the truth of the gospel, many falsely assure themselves of salvation while there is no reason to feel so secure. As they speed down the road of life, they point to their seat-belt of trite-theology all the while ignoring the cold reality that sooner or later they will arrive at the bridgeless ravine on the road to destruction. Yet, tugging, pulling, and pointing at their seat-belt, they assure themselves of their safety and seek to persuade those around them of “the decision they made that one time.” The answer of Jesus is short, but it certainly does not miss the point, “if you continue in my truth, then are you my disciples.”
“My parents are Christians.” “I was saved when I was a kid.” “I’m not really in church now, but I used to be pretty regular.” “I’ve always believed in God.” “You know, once saved, always saved.”
No matter how it is worded, the error always comes in the same form – false confidence. To them, the Biblical doctrine of assurance is so convoluted that they place surety where there should be none. The confidence they have in their eternal state before God substitutes obedience in their life with the phrase, “Well, you know, nobody’s perfect. Everybody sins.” Instead of acknowledging that their lifestyle of godlessness indicates an absence of the Holy Spirit in their life, they declare themselves to be children of God, while all the while they are merely self-deceived children of the devil.
We must understand this truth - a true Christian will never reject the truth of the gospel. Saving faith will be evidenced by a life of works. James has endeavored in his entire epistle to reveal this truth. A true Christian patiently endures hard times. A true Christian prefers others over himself. A true Christian labors to tame the tongue. A true Christian submits to God. A true Christian is not ensnared by the deceitfulness of riches. But even with such clear evidence, there are those who do not understand or believe this truth. In their life-style of disobedience they still profess that they are Christian. So, what do we do with those who profess themselves to be Christian while their lifestyle indicates otherwise?

God…has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
2 Corinthians 5:18

We have one option. Treat them like the non-believers that they are. Don’t coddle their false-confidence. Don’t reinforce their misunderstanding. Don’t accept misapplied truth that skirts the real issue of their desperately sinful position before a Holy and Just God. Church membership and Christian parents have never saved anyone from hell. The rotten-planked bridge of self-confidence must be dismantled and replaced with the truth of Scripture. James 5:20 says that those who are truly converted must come along and help those in error to see the truth. In gentleness and in meekness we must proclaim the truth of reconciliation, especially to those who are falsely assured so that they might be saved and brought into a life of true assurance.

Reflect: If Jesus is so clear in John 8, why do people still continue to call themselves Christian even when their lifestyle doesn’t seem to indicate it?

James 5:13-18

When Omri died, his son became king. The new king, Ahab, brought new possibilities. Perhaps he wouldn’t be as evil as his corrupt father. Perhaps he would lead the nation of Israel in a massive revival, and turn from the worship of pagan gods to the worship of the true God. All of these hopes were crushed almost immediately. Instead of turning to God, Ahab built a massive worship center to Baal. Instead of obeying the commands of God, Ahab married a princess of the pagans, Jezebel. Seeing this corruption must have been so discouraging to all those living in Israel at the time. In response to this wickedness, the prophet Elijah took a trip to see King Ahab. In boldness Elijah (whose name means “my God is Jehovah) shocked King Ahab by saying, “Until I say, there will be no rain in your entire country.” In a subsistence culture, no rain meant massive starvation, bankruptcy, and ultimately political unrest. This proclamation was a devastating one, and for three years, the wickedness of Ahab was met with the punishment of a God-sent drought. Eventually, Elijah prayed to God, and asked Him to suspend the curse and allow rain to come again. In a torrent, the rains came rushing in, and washed the dry and parched Israel.
What power! Many would see Elijah, and perhaps conclude, “What an incredible miracle he just performed.” But the truth of Scripture is that Elijah did not accomplish this great task. As we read Scripture, there is only one with the power to control the weather, and that is God. Elijah was the mouthpiece who proclaimed the work of God, and as we read the book of James, we see that Elijah was the one who prayed that God would hold back the rain and then send the rain, but the one with all of the power was God. Elijah prayed, and God accomplished.
In James 5:13-16, James sees the Christian life as a life that should be lived with this Elijah-like, God-ward perspective of trust. There is no circumstance that does not need prayer. James spent much time in his epistle speaking to those who are suffering, and helping them to see that they must endure with patience so that God would accomplish a great sanctifying work in them. Now, James continues his message to these sufferers by saying, “If any among you suffer, let him pray.” The natural response in suffering should not be murmuring or complaining like the Israelites in the wilderness, rather, knowing that the supreme God of the universe is fully capable of helping and strengthening, we should turn in prayer to Him.
Finally, James addresses those who are physically sick. In verses 14 and 15 we find a text that many have argued over, and perhaps many more have misinterpreted. The words “anointing him with oil” leaves the reader perhaps imagining an Old Testament ceremony where someone poured oil over the head of another while blessing them, or giving them a promise. The word here used for “anoint” has nothing to do with ceremony, but is instead a salve or an ointment for a treatment. James is not speaking of mystical powers in these verses. The oil does not heal, rather, in verse 15, if there will be any healing of the sick, it will be God that raises him up. Those who peddle healing oils or those religious charlatans who proffer themselves as “faith-healers” are little more than snake-oil salesmen. Their “anointing oil” has no more power to heal than does a quart of 5W30 at the auto-parts store. It is not in their power that the sick are raised, rather, like in the prayer of Elijah, it is only the God of heaven who hears and answers prayers offered up from a clean heart and a clean life (a righteous man) that will heal.

Reflect: Describe each word in the following phrase from James 5:16, “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” See Romans 10:10 for some help.

James 5:12

“Again, you have heard that it has been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” – Matthew 5:33-37In teaching his disciples, Jesus emphasized the importance of words in the life of a Christian. If a Christian is living a pure life, free from lying and deceit, then he has no need to swear on anything when he makes a statement. “I swear to you on my mother’s grave!” “I swear on my life!” “As God is my witness!” “I swear on a stack of Holy Bibles!” No matter what the statement that we are making, there is no need for us to follow it up with “and I swear…”.
The obsession with swearing on this or swearing on that reveals a deeper problem. If we always have to validate our statements with “and I swear…” then this indicates that in the other things we say, we are somewhat less than honest. In effect, by overemphasizing our truthfulness in one moment, we indicate that in other moments, we fail to tell the whole truth. This should not be the case. In Luke 6:45, Christ said, “for of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaketh.” As Christians, we should be marked by a right heart that results in a right use of the tongue.
To those around us, believers and non-believers, the indication of our lives is that we are honest and true in all our dealings, not merely the ones where we tag on the phrase “and I swear…”. Being convicted by the Holy Spirit and striving to keep a clean conscience before God and men, we must not ever lie. And we do not need to emphasize that we are telling the truth in any particular moment, for we must always tell the truth. It should be our testimony as Christians.
It is interesting that following his teaching on worldly wisdom versus godly wisdom, James says, “above all things” in reference to this principle of being honest in the place of swearing. The business world does not work like the church. In worldly wisdom, agreements must be sworn to, signed, and witnessed in order to be true. This is because there is a different motivation behind the deals that occur in business and the commitments that we should have to on another in the church. In business, it is all about what can I get, but in the church, the Christian should be thinking, “what can I give to help the body.”
Seeking self-interests in the church is an affront to the ethic of Christianity. Rather, when each member is seeking the health and well-being of every other member, I can trust you when you say something to me. I don’t need you to swear to me. Rather, in pure Christianity, I trust that you are striving to do right before God and before others (including me). The church should be different than the world. In a church, we can trust that what the next person says is meant from a heart fully surrendered to God. Godly wisdom is different from worldly wisdom, and the church must be different than the world.

Reflect: Read James 1:26. How does this verse relate to the ethic of not needing to swear to establish honesty.

James 5:7-11

As James heads towards the end of his epistle, he returns the reader to something with which he had begun the letter – patience. In James 1, James admonished the reader to “count it all joy” when he comes into trials and hard times. He had further said that while trusting in the goodness and wisdom of God, we should allow faith-fueled patience to grow in us. Now, using three illustrations, James teaches how to be patient as God works in us.
First, he says be patient like a farmer. A farmer doesn’t plant seeds in the ground and then go back out the next day and stare at the dirt anxiously looking for signs of growth. He doesn’t fret for the first week when no rain comes on the seeds he planted. Rather, he knows that in due time rain will come, and the sun will shine, and his crops will grow. The formula for plant growth does not include any measure of anxiety on the farmer’s part. Rather, with “long patience” the farmer rejoices at the bountiful harvest that arrives.
Second, James reminds the reader to be patient like the Old Testament prophets. There was no group of people more ignored, despised, rejected, and abused than were the prophets. For example, before telling Jeremiah to proclaim the message of God, God told him that no one would listen to a word he would say. Others were beaten and killed as they proclaimed the very message of God, yet through patient endurance they never failed to deliver the message God had given to them.
Third, we are reminded of Job. In Job’s life, through the supremacy of God, Satan’s ill intentions were used to accomplish an incredible work of sanctification and perfection. Through God’s mercy, Job found restoration and kindness in spite of the darkest troubles of his life. Patiently, Job endured the trials by resting constantly in the character of the omnipotent, omni-benevolent, omni-sapient God.
Seeing these examples of patient endurance, why should we fill our lives with fretting from one point to the next? Why should we doubt the goodness and wisdom of God in whatever circumstance His Providence has brought us to? How can we expect the love of God to take on a form altogether foreign to those he loved so dearly in the Old Testament? We mustn’t turn the trials of life into pity parties or faithless outbursts of frustration. Rather, like the saints of old, we can trust God.
When trials come, no longer fear;
for in the pain our God draws near
to fire a faith worth more than gold,
and there His faithfulness is told.
- Keith and Kristyn Getty

Reflect: What are some things that have you unnerved or filled with anxiety right now? What characteristics of God can help you to be patient through tough times?

James 5:4-6

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. - Matthew 6:19-21

Having heard the command of Jesus to pursue what is most valuable, namely that which is eternal, many have turned away in disregard and disbelief. Jesus did not stutter when he said the words, but these disregarding disbelievers stumble when they try to reason away the clear meaning of His words. Jesus even goes on to make the point explicit when he said, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Sadly, many, even some who are professing believers, claim to believe the truth of this verse, yet they scrape and scrounge and slave to acquire the largest pile of stuff they can in their short life on earth. Rather than heeding the words of Jesus or even the admonition of Paul to “set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth,” these self-deceived slaves of gain become eternally near-sighted. With their spiritual eyes darkened or at least dimmed, their business model only includes 5, 10, and 20 year projections, and they do not plan for 1,000 years from now.
In addressing these eternally near-sighted American Dream success stories, James tells them to howl and weep, because in their shrewd investment here on the earth, they have become some of the most unwise investors in things that are eternal. Long after their investments and precious metals and expensive clothes have passed away, the things of eternal value will still sparkle and gleam with a heavenly luster. But it will not be as simple as just losing these goods. Instead, James says that these large piles of goods accrued here in this life will stand and testify against those who spent all of their life disbelieving and rationalizing away the value system of which Christ so clearly taught.
In the judgment, the heaps that these rich so tirelessly slaved to amass will serve as “Exhibit A” in the case condemning their disobedience to God. James says that it will testify how that they scrimped every last penny out of their workers, underpaying on business deals, and cutting corners in quality, all so that they could have a larger pile. He says that they lived lavishly and turned every extra dime into extravagance so that they could live the life of comfort. He says that they neglected the saints of God, not caring for their needs or for their very lives. Like citizens of Babel, they sought to make a tower of their goods that would reach to the heavens so that they could live on this earth like gods, but now, judgment day has come, and the pile of their goods stands as a testament to their disobedience.
The first thing we must see is what Paul says clearly in 1 Timothy 6:10, “The love of money is the root of all evil…” He does not say that money is evil. It is the infatuation with currency and power that is evil. It is the desire to take the place of God that is evil. It is the craving to have so much that you don’t need God that is evil. It is committing family-sacrifice for the sake of always putting in extra hours at work that is evil. It is amassing wealth to the neglecting of the saints that is evil. It is holding a bank account as more sacred than your brother’s welfare that is evil. May we not repent of money, rather, may we repent when the love and worship of that money takes root in our heart and be willing to give it all away when we realize it has become our master. Money is cheap, may we find something far more valuable to live for, namely Jesus.

Reflect: Read Matthew 19:16-26. What can we learn from this story?

James 5:1-3

The morning dew and the afternoon sun began to unleash a daily barrage against the barricaded hull of the freshly cast seed. Eventually relenting to its nature, a tiny white root broke from the inside of the seed and spiraled its way to the soil. Over the next couple of days a bundle of sun-glowingly green leaves emerged and accelerated towards the sky. The remnants of the seed and sprout were gone, and in its place a vigorous new seedling stretched its branches in every direction daily soaking in the morning dew and afternoon sun.
A few days passed, and from the bottom of the stalk, a little green finger tugged. As days passed, the growing stalk felt a small vine grasping and spinning up between its branches. The speed at which the vine grew was more than the little plant could handle. Before long, the vine had contorted itself around every branch and with the daily nutrients it was receiving, eventually it was as big as the young plant that was supporting it. When the little plant succumbed to the weight of the vine and bent over, the vine reached from the top of the plant to the ground, fastening itself into ground-gripping shackles. Within a few weeks, the vigorous plant eventually died from the trauma, having been choked out by the weeds and other vines. It had seemed so promising, but devastatingly it was overtaken and destroyed.
This is the picture that Jesus uses in a parable in Matthew 13 to describe those in whom the word of God had begun to take root but eventually “the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choketh the word.” Bound and wrapped with cares about their own financial stability and with amassing to themselves, they have overweighed themselves with things they were never supposed to hoard. The deceitful work of riches caused them to pursue treasure on earth to the neglect of treasure in heaven. In their pursuit of what they viewed as most valuable, they have been left without that which is truly valuable.
To this group of treasure-heapers, James begins chapter 5 by telling them to “weep and howl for your miseries.” As time had progressed, they had become ensnared by a desire to get more and to acquire as much as physically possible. Their view of investment had left them with barns that were filled goods, closets that overflowed with fancy garments, and bank accounts that glistened with gold and silver. Literally no better word could be used to describe their wealth than “heaps.” But they had failed to use their money in ways that truly mattered. They neglected to see that God is the giver of every gift. They imagined their worldly wisdom had brought them into success, James warned them that it had instead left them precariously on the precipice of destruction. Unless they adjusted their view, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches would leave them howling and weeping on the day of judgment.
Do you desire to be wealthy? Do you have an itch for more? Do you find yourself with a Smaug-like desire to make your own heaps? Purge yourself of the greedy desires that lead to damnation. Paul warns in 1 Timothy 1:9, “they that will be [want to be] rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” Will you be so ensnared to imagine that wealth comes into your hands from the Father so that you can squander it on your desires? Or will you have a proper view of the eternal, kingdom-advancing uses of money? May God set us free from the sweet poison of excess that laces the American Dream.

Reflect: Read Luke 18:18-30. What was that Jesus gave for someone who had succumbed to the idolatry of riches?

James 4:13-17

As I see it, there are two basic types of people who call themselves “Christian.”
The first group calls themselves “Christian” but is practically little more than superstitious atheists. They don’t make very much effort in the spiritual disciplines (bible study, prayer, church attendance, service) but they still prefer to use the title “Christian.” To them being a Christian is more about a onetime event that happened years earlier than in their daily being what the term Christian implies, namely, a follower of Christ. They view their relationship with God like a professional athlete views his relationship with a corporate sponsor – when they are a little low on cash or luck, they can just do a couple of commercials for him and he will throw some help their way.
The second group calls themselves “Christian” and is actually committed to striving to fulfill the term that they have taken on themselves. They view themselves today as they viewed themselves years earlier when they were converted, as a helpless sinner in constant need of the grace of a loving God. They constantly pursue the same things that the Apostle Paul pursued, chiefly, ‘That I may know Him,” and their life seems to have a holy discontentment about not yet having achieved a fully satisfactory relationship with God. In their minds, God has revealed himself and they must do everything in their power to see Him and know Him. He deserves their life, health, breath, and everything in them, so they live in constant dependant faith on God, trusting Him for their every need.
In James 4:13-17, James continues his comparison between earthly wisdom and the wisdom that is revealed by God. The example that he gives paints a portrait of a person who is almost exactly like the first group of Christians that we mentioned above. This character in James’s story uses the wisdom of the world to pursue and to get gain in whatever way he can. He develops a business model and then carries it out with seemingly flawless precision. Except that there is a problem, but not in something that he has done, rather it is in what he has not done.
In living life as a practical atheist, he has failed to acknowledge that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and that all blessing comes from the hand of God. In his flawless business model, he has flawed in the most basic way – he has failed to trust God for anything that has come into his life. Rather, in place of God, he has placed himself as the god of his own life, determining his own destiny and carrying out his own fate. In his mind, success and failure are products of his business model and nothing more.
James rebukes this type of Godless self-idolization. The worldly wisdom that neglects a relationship with God forgets the frailty and weakness of mankind. Like a greedy child tearing through presents without ever turning a word of gratitude towards those who have showered them with gifts, these “self-made” “Christians” view God as little more than another part of their insurance portfolio. They have health insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, and eternity insurance (God).
May it never be so with us! May we never become so sure of ourselves and our efforts that we forget that all things are in the hands of God, and that our very life and breath is in his hands! May we learn to trust Him daily, and not to be so presumptuous as to live our lives without faith in the God who made us and who saved us. May we never succumb to such a primitive view of Christianity that we neglect the one loves us and takes care of us.

Reflect: Read Luke 12. What illustration does Jesus give in Luke 12 that mirrors what James is writing here in James 4?