2 Peter 3
KingComments2 Peter 3:1
Partakers of the New Creation
James 1:13. The temptations James is talking about in this verse are of a totally different kind than the temptations or trials he has been talking about up to now. The temptation he has spoken about up to now are the temptations or trials you have to deal with in the life around you. Those are circumstances in the midst of which your find yourself in that challenge you to show your faith.
The temptations that James refers to in James 1:13-14 are temptations that have their origin in yourself. Those are temptations that are related to your flesh, in other words, your sinful nature. So you see that James indicates two kinds of temptations: temptations that are challenging you from the outside and temptations out of yourself, from your inner being.
God can test you through outward circumstances. His purpose with that is to bless you. You see that with the example of Abraham. To tempt Abraham, that is to test him and make his faith visible, God asked him to offer his son (Genesis 22:1). You see that in the way that Abraham goes in the obedience of faith, his faith reveals itself as faith in the God of resurrection. Of course God knew that he possessed that faith, but now you know that too. The faith of Abraham has become visible. Therefore this temptation or trial does not come from Abraham himself, but from God. When there is no question of sin, but obedience and perseverance are tested, it concerns the condition of the heart, to be taught, guided and formed.
But as soon as there is a question of stirring up the lusts, it cannot possibly be said that God is tempting. The temptations that are coming from your inner being do not come from God. You can never say that God is trying to incite you to sin. A temptation to sin occurs when you do not keep your lusts under control, but give in to it.
God cannot be tempted by evil, for there is no evil in Him. Therefore evil or sin cannot possibly come from Him to tempt you in one way or the other. You see that in a striking manner in the Lord Jesus, especially in the temptations to which He was exposed in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13). He was and is without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He could not possibly be tempted by something from Himself, because there was no sin in Him (1 John 3:5). The ruler of the world could not find anything in Him when He was on earth, not a single connecting factor (John 14:30).
But the Lord Jesus has been in very tough circumstances. His path on earth, which He went through in dependence on His God, was the cause of that. He wept at the grave of Lazarus and over Jerusalem (John 11:35; Luke 19:41). His sorrow was true, for He felt the consequences of sin in perfection. Calamity did not pass Him by. Despite all sadness and disappointment He kept on trusting God. But He has never been tempted by God to sin. Neither does God incite us to sin. He does not tempt to sin.
James 1:14. When you give in to temptation then that is because you are drawn away and enticed by your own lust. You might have watched something bad on the internet and you started to think about it. In that case you have not judged it radically, but you allowed yourself to be enticed by what you saw. It might have been a beautiful car, a beautiful woman or a handsome man. You gave your fantasy the free reign and you have let yourself be drawn away by your own lust.
James 1:15. Once that process has started lust will not only remain an inner lust but it will surely result in a deed. You now have come that far in your thinking about the lust that you also want to possess it. Then lust gives birth to sin. You take possession of the object of your lust, either in reality by for instance buying that car or in your feelings by inwardly taking possession of that woman or man and start to have sexual intercourse with her or him in your feelings. If you continue to live in this situation, then sin will have power in such a way over you that you cannot control it. It becomes full-grown and strong. It rules in such a way over you that it leads you in death.
James says these things to warn you not to let you be misled in the temptations that come from yourself. Those temptations do not come from God and therefore you should not try to consider them at all. If you do, then it means the end of your life as a Christian. The end of the path of a sinner is death (James 5:20). You may say that lust is the grandmother of death: lust gives birth to sin and sin brings forth death.
If you consider the way Paul speaks about that, it seems it doesn’t agree with what is said here. Of course each agrees with the other, only you ought to know how Paul presents these things and how James does. When Paul says that lust comes forth from sin, then he means with sin the indwelling sin, the power of sin (Romans 6:12). The indwelling sin, the sinful nature, is the source out of which all sinful deeds come. The indwelling sin produces lust (Romans 7:8).
When James appears to say the opposite by saying that lust gives birth to sin, then that is an apparent contrast. What he says is not in contrast to what Paul says, but it connects with it. James speaks about lust as a sinful deed that can only produce another sinful deed. Therefore you may say that James deals with the efficacy, while Paul deals with the source.
James 1:16. James appeals not to deceive yourself regarding the fact that what comes forth from yourself does not come forth from God. He does that with a special appeal on how much the brethren mean to him. You hear that in the way he addresses them, namely as “my beloved brethren”. When you see your brothers and sisters as your ‘beloved brothers and sisters’, you will not allow that something disturbs that relationship.
James 1:17. A wrong perception on temptations disturbs that relationship. If you say for example that God is against you when you are tempted, you give a false impression of God. James has exposed that. But now he will explain that although you are in the midst of temptations and although there are temptations which may come forth from you, you still belong to a perfectly new world. He speaks about that when he says “that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures” (James 1:18). That means that you, by faith in the Lord Jesus, already belong to that new creation that will be revealed when He will reign in majesty and glory.
That wonderful new thing and everything that’s connected to it, finds its origin “above” in heaven, from where it comes down as a “good thing given” and a “perfect gift”. The expression “every good thing given” refers to the act of giving by God, in which there is absolutely no wrong motive. The expression “every perfect gift” refers to the content of what God gives.
The good thing given and the perfect gift of God is the Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 9:15). You may also think of His Spirit and His Word as good things given and perfect gifts. That is the case with everything that comes from God. From God only good and perfect things come forth. Here you see that God is a Giver, while in the Old Testament He is the Demander.
He gives as “the Father of lights”, which means as the origin of a manifold light. Every gift comes from the light but will always remain in relation with the light. Therefore a gift of God will never ever be connected with darkness and sin.
James 1:18. Therefore, to be able to give you according to the purposes in His heart for you, it was necessary that God Himself started to work that in you. Because He cannot change, you had to be changed. He has made that happen. He planted the new life in you. He did that “in the exercise of His will”, which implies that He will never come back to that matter. He did that “by the word of truth”, for only in that way you learn to know God and also yourself. That Word has been applied to you by the Holy Spirit. That is how you became a new creation.
It is still “a kind of” because it still does not apply to your body. Inwardly, however, you already partake of what will be general in creation, in the millennial kingdom, in future. In the old creation God now already sees people who belong to that new creation. You happen to be one of them. Isn’t that a reason to praise God?
Now read James 1:13-18 again.
Reflection: What are the contrasts between the section of Jam 1:13-15 and the section of Jam 1:16-18?
2 Peter 3:2
Partakers of the New Creation
James 1:13. The temptations James is talking about in this verse are of a totally different kind than the temptations or trials he has been talking about up to now. The temptation he has spoken about up to now are the temptations or trials you have to deal with in the life around you. Those are circumstances in the midst of which your find yourself in that challenge you to show your faith.
The temptations that James refers to in James 1:13-14 are temptations that have their origin in yourself. Those are temptations that are related to your flesh, in other words, your sinful nature. So you see that James indicates two kinds of temptations: temptations that are challenging you from the outside and temptations out of yourself, from your inner being.
God can test you through outward circumstances. His purpose with that is to bless you. You see that with the example of Abraham. To tempt Abraham, that is to test him and make his faith visible, God asked him to offer his son (Genesis 22:1). You see that in the way that Abraham goes in the obedience of faith, his faith reveals itself as faith in the God of resurrection. Of course God knew that he possessed that faith, but now you know that too. The faith of Abraham has become visible. Therefore this temptation or trial does not come from Abraham himself, but from God. When there is no question of sin, but obedience and perseverance are tested, it concerns the condition of the heart, to be taught, guided and formed.
But as soon as there is a question of stirring up the lusts, it cannot possibly be said that God is tempting. The temptations that are coming from your inner being do not come from God. You can never say that God is trying to incite you to sin. A temptation to sin occurs when you do not keep your lusts under control, but give in to it.
God cannot be tempted by evil, for there is no evil in Him. Therefore evil or sin cannot possibly come from Him to tempt you in one way or the other. You see that in a striking manner in the Lord Jesus, especially in the temptations to which He was exposed in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13). He was and is without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He could not possibly be tempted by something from Himself, because there was no sin in Him (1 John 3:5). The ruler of the world could not find anything in Him when He was on earth, not a single connecting factor (John 14:30).
But the Lord Jesus has been in very tough circumstances. His path on earth, which He went through in dependence on His God, was the cause of that. He wept at the grave of Lazarus and over Jerusalem (John 11:35; Luke 19:41). His sorrow was true, for He felt the consequences of sin in perfection. Calamity did not pass Him by. Despite all sadness and disappointment He kept on trusting God. But He has never been tempted by God to sin. Neither does God incite us to sin. He does not tempt to sin.
James 1:14. When you give in to temptation then that is because you are drawn away and enticed by your own lust. You might have watched something bad on the internet and you started to think about it. In that case you have not judged it radically, but you allowed yourself to be enticed by what you saw. It might have been a beautiful car, a beautiful woman or a handsome man. You gave your fantasy the free reign and you have let yourself be drawn away by your own lust.
James 1:15. Once that process has started lust will not only remain an inner lust but it will surely result in a deed. You now have come that far in your thinking about the lust that you also want to possess it. Then lust gives birth to sin. You take possession of the object of your lust, either in reality by for instance buying that car or in your feelings by inwardly taking possession of that woman or man and start to have sexual intercourse with her or him in your feelings. If you continue to live in this situation, then sin will have power in such a way over you that you cannot control it. It becomes full-grown and strong. It rules in such a way over you that it leads you in death.
James says these things to warn you not to let you be misled in the temptations that come from yourself. Those temptations do not come from God and therefore you should not try to consider them at all. If you do, then it means the end of your life as a Christian. The end of the path of a sinner is death (James 5:20). You may say that lust is the grandmother of death: lust gives birth to sin and sin brings forth death.
If you consider the way Paul speaks about that, it seems it doesn’t agree with what is said here. Of course each agrees with the other, only you ought to know how Paul presents these things and how James does. When Paul says that lust comes forth from sin, then he means with sin the indwelling sin, the power of sin (Romans 6:12). The indwelling sin, the sinful nature, is the source out of which all sinful deeds come. The indwelling sin produces lust (Romans 7:8).
When James appears to say the opposite by saying that lust gives birth to sin, then that is an apparent contrast. What he says is not in contrast to what Paul says, but it connects with it. James speaks about lust as a sinful deed that can only produce another sinful deed. Therefore you may say that James deals with the efficacy, while Paul deals with the source.
James 1:16. James appeals not to deceive yourself regarding the fact that what comes forth from yourself does not come forth from God. He does that with a special appeal on how much the brethren mean to him. You hear that in the way he addresses them, namely as “my beloved brethren”. When you see your brothers and sisters as your ‘beloved brothers and sisters’, you will not allow that something disturbs that relationship.
James 1:17. A wrong perception on temptations disturbs that relationship. If you say for example that God is against you when you are tempted, you give a false impression of God. James has exposed that. But now he will explain that although you are in the midst of temptations and although there are temptations which may come forth from you, you still belong to a perfectly new world. He speaks about that when he says “that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures” (James 1:18). That means that you, by faith in the Lord Jesus, already belong to that new creation that will be revealed when He will reign in majesty and glory.
That wonderful new thing and everything that’s connected to it, finds its origin “above” in heaven, from where it comes down as a “good thing given” and a “perfect gift”. The expression “every good thing given” refers to the act of giving by God, in which there is absolutely no wrong motive. The expression “every perfect gift” refers to the content of what God gives.
The good thing given and the perfect gift of God is the Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 9:15). You may also think of His Spirit and His Word as good things given and perfect gifts. That is the case with everything that comes from God. From God only good and perfect things come forth. Here you see that God is a Giver, while in the Old Testament He is the Demander.
He gives as “the Father of lights”, which means as the origin of a manifold light. Every gift comes from the light but will always remain in relation with the light. Therefore a gift of God will never ever be connected with darkness and sin.
James 1:18. Therefore, to be able to give you according to the purposes in His heart for you, it was necessary that God Himself started to work that in you. Because He cannot change, you had to be changed. He has made that happen. He planted the new life in you. He did that “in the exercise of His will”, which implies that He will never come back to that matter. He did that “by the word of truth”, for only in that way you learn to know God and also yourself. That Word has been applied to you by the Holy Spirit. That is how you became a new creation.
It is still “a kind of” because it still does not apply to your body. Inwardly, however, you already partake of what will be general in creation, in the millennial kingdom, in future. In the old creation God now already sees people who belong to that new creation. You happen to be one of them. Isn’t that a reason to praise God?
Now read James 1:13-18 again.
Reflection: What are the contrasts between the section of Jam 1:13-15 and the section of Jam 1:16-18?
2 Peter 3:3
The Practice of the New Life
James 1:19. After the wonderful explanation of the work of God in His own James continues with the practice of the new life. His purpose is that his readers, whom he again calls “my beloved brethren”, may know what ought to mainly characterize the new life. The first thing he mentions is “to hear”, to listen. If you are newly converted it is especially important to listen to the Lord and to do that in the attitude of the young Samuel. Eli taught him to say: “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of Someone Who hears (Isaiah 50:4). Therefore He absolutely always knew, when He was on earth, what to say to the right people at the right time.
You also can only say something meaningful if you have first listened. It is good to consider why God has given you two ears and only one mouth. Be quick to hear what the Lord has got to say.
Do not be quick to respond to what men say. Control your tongue and try not to be rash with your mouth (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:1). Don’t let yourself be tempted to react sharply and angrily if people treat you unjustly. That anger can just suddenly pop up if you see or hear something that is unjust or if you feel yourself to be offended. Then you lose your patience just like that.
James 1:20. Of course it is not always wrong to get angry. Anger is a feature of God. When He gets angry He exerts His anger in perfect righteousness. Sometimes it is necessary for you to be angry, but be careful that there is no self-interest involved. Therefore it is for a reason why Paul warns us not to sin when we are angry (Ephesians 4:26). For when you get angry because of seeing a certain injustice, you can get so upset and angry that you cannot control yourself anymore. Then you say or do things that are not fitting to you as a ‘first fruit among His creatures’.
With the Lord Jesus anger and grief go together perfectly (Mark 3:5a), while with us anger can possibly go together with being personally offended. When we are angry because we are personally offended, it has got nothing to do with “God’s righteousness”. In that case it becomes clear and visible that we are our own judge, while there is nothing to be seen of God’s righteousness.
James 1:21. In order not to fall into the trap of a wrong anger, James passes on some instructions. You have to put aside something and receive something. Consider the order. You ought to put aside something first, for then you create room to receive something. James mentions two things you should put aside. As a matter of fact he is up to date when he starts with “all filthiness”. The world is full of that and it easily clings to the believer.
Filthiness may just jump toward you; it splashes from the bill boards alongside the road and if you do not watch out it is also on your television or computer screen. Do not look at it, turn your eyes off of them, do not be occupied with such things. You must inwardly take distance of those things.
That also goes for “[all] that remains of wickedness”. Do not be tempted to express your anger in a way that you show more of yourself instead of showing the reason why you are angry.
James urges for a good mind. That good mind expresses itself in “humility”. If you are humble, God can implant His Word in you. ‘Humbleness’ is the right ground for the implanted Word to grow and to come to maturity. Then that Word can be effective. Then you will be led by the Word on your path of life and in that way you will be able to proceed that path up to the full salvation. Your life will bear fruit that comes from the new creation that you are, a fruit which is a joy to God.
James 1:22. In that way it will become clear that you are not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer. Herod for example was only a hearer. He loved to hear John speaking (Mark 6:20), but he was not a doer of the word spoken by John. When it came done to it, he would rather have John killed than go back on a promise he quickly made under the influence of his aroused lust (Mark 6:21-27).
James 1:23-24. John had held up a mirror to him. Herod had looked into that mirror for just a moment. He saw what kind of man he was, but he went away and forgot what kind of person he was. If you read in the Bible you must not do that in a hurry, but calmly. If you just read something quickly, you do not really look into the mirror. The Bible has to be given the chance to show you what kind of person you are, that you may adapt your life to it.
James 1:25. You ought to look into “the perfect law of liberty”. The perfect law is not a series of rules and commandments that God imposes on you as His demands. With the perfect law is meant the whole Word of God. That Word of God holds up to you the law, which means the lawfulness, of liberty. He who has received the implanted Word with humbleness will show the fruits of that Word. That is a lawfulness, a process that cannot occur in any other way.
You see that perfectly in the life of the Lord Jesus. The law of God was in Him (Psalms 40:8) and that law completely connected to His desire to do the will of God. A small example may possibly clarify this. If I give one of my children the command: ‘Eat of those cookies’, then he or she does that delightfully, because it is fully in accordance with his or her desire. Being obedient out of love and doing things that you naturally love to do, give the greatest sense of satisfaction.
James adds to it that it is important to abide by it; that means that you must persevere. Then you will “be blessed” in what you do; it gives you the sense of happiness. It doesn’t mean that you will succeed in everything you do, but that you experience happiness in everything you do.
James 1:26. James comes back to the tongue. The tongue is the most important measure of what dwells in the heart of man. The Lord Jesus even says that we are justified or judged according to our words (Matthew 12:37). If you know how to bridle your tongue, then you are also able to serve God in the right way. But he who thinks to be religious, who thinks that God should be satisfied with the way he serves Him, while from his tongue comes a waterfall of words, deceives his own heart (Proverbs 13:3b; Proverbs 10:19).
Why is James that sharp in his judgment of the tongue? He will explain that penetratingly in chapter 3, but it is already clear here that what matters to him is that it comes down to deeds and not nice words. He says: ‘Just show what religion means to you. All that talking doesn’t mean anything to me.’ He who talks much, but does not do, has a ‘worthless religion’. He may think that he is doing great, but what he is doing is worthless.
James 1:27. In the final verse of this chapter James explains the way it supposed to be. It is about “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father”. All service of God must happen in purity of the heart. Insincere motives are not to be playing a role here. Even the service itself ought to happen without being stained by using any inappropriate means. Serving God means that God is in the center. He determines how the service is to be done.
When you visit widows and orphans in their distress you show them God’s Fatherly love. He is after all the Father of orphans and the Judge for the widows (Psalms 68:5; Psalms 146:9). God’s love seeks the helpless and the socially deprived ones. When you visit them in their distress it means more than only showing your interest in them. It means that you are trying to empathize with them in their circumstances and in that way expressing your concern for them.
However, this is not the only way to give substance to ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’. If that was the case, then Christendom would not be more than a social program. God is not only love, but He is also light. That’s why James adds to it that you ought to keep yourself “unstained from the world”. True religion doesn’t lose out of the sight the natural character of the world, but takes into account that the world has rejected the Lord Jesus. The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). You have been delivered from it (Galatians 1:4), you do not belong to it anymore.
Therefore you cannot use anything from it in your service for God. Everything you would like to use from the world to only make your staying in there as pleasant as possible dishonors God. His assessment of the world should determine your dealings with it, just as His care for the defenseless in that world should determine your care for them.
Now read James 1:19-27 again.
Reflection: How do you put into practice of what James says in this section?
2 Peter 3:4
The Practice of the New Life
James 1:19. After the wonderful explanation of the work of God in His own James continues with the practice of the new life. His purpose is that his readers, whom he again calls “my beloved brethren”, may know what ought to mainly characterize the new life. The first thing he mentions is “to hear”, to listen. If you are newly converted it is especially important to listen to the Lord and to do that in the attitude of the young Samuel. Eli taught him to say: “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of Someone Who hears (Isaiah 50:4). Therefore He absolutely always knew, when He was on earth, what to say to the right people at the right time.
You also can only say something meaningful if you have first listened. It is good to consider why God has given you two ears and only one mouth. Be quick to hear what the Lord has got to say.
Do not be quick to respond to what men say. Control your tongue and try not to be rash with your mouth (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:1). Don’t let yourself be tempted to react sharply and angrily if people treat you unjustly. That anger can just suddenly pop up if you see or hear something that is unjust or if you feel yourself to be offended. Then you lose your patience just like that.
James 1:20. Of course it is not always wrong to get angry. Anger is a feature of God. When He gets angry He exerts His anger in perfect righteousness. Sometimes it is necessary for you to be angry, but be careful that there is no self-interest involved. Therefore it is for a reason why Paul warns us not to sin when we are angry (Ephesians 4:26). For when you get angry because of seeing a certain injustice, you can get so upset and angry that you cannot control yourself anymore. Then you say or do things that are not fitting to you as a ‘first fruit among His creatures’.
With the Lord Jesus anger and grief go together perfectly (Mark 3:5a), while with us anger can possibly go together with being personally offended. When we are angry because we are personally offended, it has got nothing to do with “God’s righteousness”. In that case it becomes clear and visible that we are our own judge, while there is nothing to be seen of God’s righteousness.
James 1:21. In order not to fall into the trap of a wrong anger, James passes on some instructions. You have to put aside something and receive something. Consider the order. You ought to put aside something first, for then you create room to receive something. James mentions two things you should put aside. As a matter of fact he is up to date when he starts with “all filthiness”. The world is full of that and it easily clings to the believer.
Filthiness may just jump toward you; it splashes from the bill boards alongside the road and if you do not watch out it is also on your television or computer screen. Do not look at it, turn your eyes off of them, do not be occupied with such things. You must inwardly take distance of those things.
That also goes for “[all] that remains of wickedness”. Do not be tempted to express your anger in a way that you show more of yourself instead of showing the reason why you are angry.
James urges for a good mind. That good mind expresses itself in “humility”. If you are humble, God can implant His Word in you. ‘Humbleness’ is the right ground for the implanted Word to grow and to come to maturity. Then that Word can be effective. Then you will be led by the Word on your path of life and in that way you will be able to proceed that path up to the full salvation. Your life will bear fruit that comes from the new creation that you are, a fruit which is a joy to God.
James 1:22. In that way it will become clear that you are not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer. Herod for example was only a hearer. He loved to hear John speaking (Mark 6:20), but he was not a doer of the word spoken by John. When it came done to it, he would rather have John killed than go back on a promise he quickly made under the influence of his aroused lust (Mark 6:21-27).
James 1:23-24. John had held up a mirror to him. Herod had looked into that mirror for just a moment. He saw what kind of man he was, but he went away and forgot what kind of person he was. If you read in the Bible you must not do that in a hurry, but calmly. If you just read something quickly, you do not really look into the mirror. The Bible has to be given the chance to show you what kind of person you are, that you may adapt your life to it.
James 1:25. You ought to look into “the perfect law of liberty”. The perfect law is not a series of rules and commandments that God imposes on you as His demands. With the perfect law is meant the whole Word of God. That Word of God holds up to you the law, which means the lawfulness, of liberty. He who has received the implanted Word with humbleness will show the fruits of that Word. That is a lawfulness, a process that cannot occur in any other way.
You see that perfectly in the life of the Lord Jesus. The law of God was in Him (Psalms 40:8) and that law completely connected to His desire to do the will of God. A small example may possibly clarify this. If I give one of my children the command: ‘Eat of those cookies’, then he or she does that delightfully, because it is fully in accordance with his or her desire. Being obedient out of love and doing things that you naturally love to do, give the greatest sense of satisfaction.
James adds to it that it is important to abide by it; that means that you must persevere. Then you will “be blessed” in what you do; it gives you the sense of happiness. It doesn’t mean that you will succeed in everything you do, but that you experience happiness in everything you do.
James 1:26. James comes back to the tongue. The tongue is the most important measure of what dwells in the heart of man. The Lord Jesus even says that we are justified or judged according to our words (Matthew 12:37). If you know how to bridle your tongue, then you are also able to serve God in the right way. But he who thinks to be religious, who thinks that God should be satisfied with the way he serves Him, while from his tongue comes a waterfall of words, deceives his own heart (Proverbs 13:3b; Proverbs 10:19).
Why is James that sharp in his judgment of the tongue? He will explain that penetratingly in chapter 3, but it is already clear here that what matters to him is that it comes down to deeds and not nice words. He says: ‘Just show what religion means to you. All that talking doesn’t mean anything to me.’ He who talks much, but does not do, has a ‘worthless religion’. He may think that he is doing great, but what he is doing is worthless.
James 1:27. In the final verse of this chapter James explains the way it supposed to be. It is about “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father”. All service of God must happen in purity of the heart. Insincere motives are not to be playing a role here. Even the service itself ought to happen without being stained by using any inappropriate means. Serving God means that God is in the center. He determines how the service is to be done.
When you visit widows and orphans in their distress you show them God’s Fatherly love. He is after all the Father of orphans and the Judge for the widows (Psalms 68:5; Psalms 146:9). God’s love seeks the helpless and the socially deprived ones. When you visit them in their distress it means more than only showing your interest in them. It means that you are trying to empathize with them in their circumstances and in that way expressing your concern for them.
However, this is not the only way to give substance to ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’. If that was the case, then Christendom would not be more than a social program. God is not only love, but He is also light. That’s why James adds to it that you ought to keep yourself “unstained from the world”. True religion doesn’t lose out of the sight the natural character of the world, but takes into account that the world has rejected the Lord Jesus. The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). You have been delivered from it (Galatians 1:4), you do not belong to it anymore.
Therefore you cannot use anything from it in your service for God. Everything you would like to use from the world to only make your staying in there as pleasant as possible dishonors God. His assessment of the world should determine your dealings with it, just as His care for the defenseless in that world should determine your care for them.
Now read James 1:19-27 again.
Reflection: How do you put into practice of what James says in this section?
2 Peter 3:5
The Practice of the New Life
James 1:19. After the wonderful explanation of the work of God in His own James continues with the practice of the new life. His purpose is that his readers, whom he again calls “my beloved brethren”, may know what ought to mainly characterize the new life. The first thing he mentions is “to hear”, to listen. If you are newly converted it is especially important to listen to the Lord and to do that in the attitude of the young Samuel. Eli taught him to say: “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of Someone Who hears (Isaiah 50:4). Therefore He absolutely always knew, when He was on earth, what to say to the right people at the right time.
You also can only say something meaningful if you have first listened. It is good to consider why God has given you two ears and only one mouth. Be quick to hear what the Lord has got to say.
Do not be quick to respond to what men say. Control your tongue and try not to be rash with your mouth (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:1). Don’t let yourself be tempted to react sharply and angrily if people treat you unjustly. That anger can just suddenly pop up if you see or hear something that is unjust or if you feel yourself to be offended. Then you lose your patience just like that.
James 1:20. Of course it is not always wrong to get angry. Anger is a feature of God. When He gets angry He exerts His anger in perfect righteousness. Sometimes it is necessary for you to be angry, but be careful that there is no self-interest involved. Therefore it is for a reason why Paul warns us not to sin when we are angry (Ephesians 4:26). For when you get angry because of seeing a certain injustice, you can get so upset and angry that you cannot control yourself anymore. Then you say or do things that are not fitting to you as a ‘first fruit among His creatures’.
With the Lord Jesus anger and grief go together perfectly (Mark 3:5a), while with us anger can possibly go together with being personally offended. When we are angry because we are personally offended, it has got nothing to do with “God’s righteousness”. In that case it becomes clear and visible that we are our own judge, while there is nothing to be seen of God’s righteousness.
James 1:21. In order not to fall into the trap of a wrong anger, James passes on some instructions. You have to put aside something and receive something. Consider the order. You ought to put aside something first, for then you create room to receive something. James mentions two things you should put aside. As a matter of fact he is up to date when he starts with “all filthiness”. The world is full of that and it easily clings to the believer.
Filthiness may just jump toward you; it splashes from the bill boards alongside the road and if you do not watch out it is also on your television or computer screen. Do not look at it, turn your eyes off of them, do not be occupied with such things. You must inwardly take distance of those things.
That also goes for “[all] that remains of wickedness”. Do not be tempted to express your anger in a way that you show more of yourself instead of showing the reason why you are angry.
James urges for a good mind. That good mind expresses itself in “humility”. If you are humble, God can implant His Word in you. ‘Humbleness’ is the right ground for the implanted Word to grow and to come to maturity. Then that Word can be effective. Then you will be led by the Word on your path of life and in that way you will be able to proceed that path up to the full salvation. Your life will bear fruit that comes from the new creation that you are, a fruit which is a joy to God.
James 1:22. In that way it will become clear that you are not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer. Herod for example was only a hearer. He loved to hear John speaking (Mark 6:20), but he was not a doer of the word spoken by John. When it came done to it, he would rather have John killed than go back on a promise he quickly made under the influence of his aroused lust (Mark 6:21-27).
James 1:23-24. John had held up a mirror to him. Herod had looked into that mirror for just a moment. He saw what kind of man he was, but he went away and forgot what kind of person he was. If you read in the Bible you must not do that in a hurry, but calmly. If you just read something quickly, you do not really look into the mirror. The Bible has to be given the chance to show you what kind of person you are, that you may adapt your life to it.
James 1:25. You ought to look into “the perfect law of liberty”. The perfect law is not a series of rules and commandments that God imposes on you as His demands. With the perfect law is meant the whole Word of God. That Word of God holds up to you the law, which means the lawfulness, of liberty. He who has received the implanted Word with humbleness will show the fruits of that Word. That is a lawfulness, a process that cannot occur in any other way.
You see that perfectly in the life of the Lord Jesus. The law of God was in Him (Psalms 40:8) and that law completely connected to His desire to do the will of God. A small example may possibly clarify this. If I give one of my children the command: ‘Eat of those cookies’, then he or she does that delightfully, because it is fully in accordance with his or her desire. Being obedient out of love and doing things that you naturally love to do, give the greatest sense of satisfaction.
James adds to it that it is important to abide by it; that means that you must persevere. Then you will “be blessed” in what you do; it gives you the sense of happiness. It doesn’t mean that you will succeed in everything you do, but that you experience happiness in everything you do.
James 1:26. James comes back to the tongue. The tongue is the most important measure of what dwells in the heart of man. The Lord Jesus even says that we are justified or judged according to our words (Matthew 12:37). If you know how to bridle your tongue, then you are also able to serve God in the right way. But he who thinks to be religious, who thinks that God should be satisfied with the way he serves Him, while from his tongue comes a waterfall of words, deceives his own heart (Proverbs 13:3b; Proverbs 10:19).
Why is James that sharp in his judgment of the tongue? He will explain that penetratingly in chapter 3, but it is already clear here that what matters to him is that it comes down to deeds and not nice words. He says: ‘Just show what religion means to you. All that talking doesn’t mean anything to me.’ He who talks much, but does not do, has a ‘worthless religion’. He may think that he is doing great, but what he is doing is worthless.
James 1:27. In the final verse of this chapter James explains the way it supposed to be. It is about “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father”. All service of God must happen in purity of the heart. Insincere motives are not to be playing a role here. Even the service itself ought to happen without being stained by using any inappropriate means. Serving God means that God is in the center. He determines how the service is to be done.
When you visit widows and orphans in their distress you show them God’s Fatherly love. He is after all the Father of orphans and the Judge for the widows (Psalms 68:5; Psalms 146:9). God’s love seeks the helpless and the socially deprived ones. When you visit them in their distress it means more than only showing your interest in them. It means that you are trying to empathize with them in their circumstances and in that way expressing your concern for them.
However, this is not the only way to give substance to ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’. If that was the case, then Christendom would not be more than a social program. God is not only love, but He is also light. That’s why James adds to it that you ought to keep yourself “unstained from the world”. True religion doesn’t lose out of the sight the natural character of the world, but takes into account that the world has rejected the Lord Jesus. The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). You have been delivered from it (Galatians 1:4), you do not belong to it anymore.
Therefore you cannot use anything from it in your service for God. Everything you would like to use from the world to only make your staying in there as pleasant as possible dishonors God. His assessment of the world should determine your dealings with it, just as His care for the defenseless in that world should determine your care for them.
Now read James 1:19-27 again.
Reflection: How do you put into practice of what James says in this section?
2 Peter 3:6
The Practice of the New Life
James 1:19. After the wonderful explanation of the work of God in His own James continues with the practice of the new life. His purpose is that his readers, whom he again calls “my beloved brethren”, may know what ought to mainly characterize the new life. The first thing he mentions is “to hear”, to listen. If you are newly converted it is especially important to listen to the Lord and to do that in the attitude of the young Samuel. Eli taught him to say: “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of Someone Who hears (Isaiah 50:4). Therefore He absolutely always knew, when He was on earth, what to say to the right people at the right time.
You also can only say something meaningful if you have first listened. It is good to consider why God has given you two ears and only one mouth. Be quick to hear what the Lord has got to say.
Do not be quick to respond to what men say. Control your tongue and try not to be rash with your mouth (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:1). Don’t let yourself be tempted to react sharply and angrily if people treat you unjustly. That anger can just suddenly pop up if you see or hear something that is unjust or if you feel yourself to be offended. Then you lose your patience just like that.
James 1:20. Of course it is not always wrong to get angry. Anger is a feature of God. When He gets angry He exerts His anger in perfect righteousness. Sometimes it is necessary for you to be angry, but be careful that there is no self-interest involved. Therefore it is for a reason why Paul warns us not to sin when we are angry (Ephesians 4:26). For when you get angry because of seeing a certain injustice, you can get so upset and angry that you cannot control yourself anymore. Then you say or do things that are not fitting to you as a ‘first fruit among His creatures’.
With the Lord Jesus anger and grief go together perfectly (Mark 3:5a), while with us anger can possibly go together with being personally offended. When we are angry because we are personally offended, it has got nothing to do with “God’s righteousness”. In that case it becomes clear and visible that we are our own judge, while there is nothing to be seen of God’s righteousness.
James 1:21. In order not to fall into the trap of a wrong anger, James passes on some instructions. You have to put aside something and receive something. Consider the order. You ought to put aside something first, for then you create room to receive something. James mentions two things you should put aside. As a matter of fact he is up to date when he starts with “all filthiness”. The world is full of that and it easily clings to the believer.
Filthiness may just jump toward you; it splashes from the bill boards alongside the road and if you do not watch out it is also on your television or computer screen. Do not look at it, turn your eyes off of them, do not be occupied with such things. You must inwardly take distance of those things.
That also goes for “[all] that remains of wickedness”. Do not be tempted to express your anger in a way that you show more of yourself instead of showing the reason why you are angry.
James urges for a good mind. That good mind expresses itself in “humility”. If you are humble, God can implant His Word in you. ‘Humbleness’ is the right ground for the implanted Word to grow and to come to maturity. Then that Word can be effective. Then you will be led by the Word on your path of life and in that way you will be able to proceed that path up to the full salvation. Your life will bear fruit that comes from the new creation that you are, a fruit which is a joy to God.
James 1:22. In that way it will become clear that you are not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer. Herod for example was only a hearer. He loved to hear John speaking (Mark 6:20), but he was not a doer of the word spoken by John. When it came done to it, he would rather have John killed than go back on a promise he quickly made under the influence of his aroused lust (Mark 6:21-27).
James 1:23-24. John had held up a mirror to him. Herod had looked into that mirror for just a moment. He saw what kind of man he was, but he went away and forgot what kind of person he was. If you read in the Bible you must not do that in a hurry, but calmly. If you just read something quickly, you do not really look into the mirror. The Bible has to be given the chance to show you what kind of person you are, that you may adapt your life to it.
James 1:25. You ought to look into “the perfect law of liberty”. The perfect law is not a series of rules and commandments that God imposes on you as His demands. With the perfect law is meant the whole Word of God. That Word of God holds up to you the law, which means the lawfulness, of liberty. He who has received the implanted Word with humbleness will show the fruits of that Word. That is a lawfulness, a process that cannot occur in any other way.
You see that perfectly in the life of the Lord Jesus. The law of God was in Him (Psalms 40:8) and that law completely connected to His desire to do the will of God. A small example may possibly clarify this. If I give one of my children the command: ‘Eat of those cookies’, then he or she does that delightfully, because it is fully in accordance with his or her desire. Being obedient out of love and doing things that you naturally love to do, give the greatest sense of satisfaction.
James adds to it that it is important to abide by it; that means that you must persevere. Then you will “be blessed” in what you do; it gives you the sense of happiness. It doesn’t mean that you will succeed in everything you do, but that you experience happiness in everything you do.
James 1:26. James comes back to the tongue. The tongue is the most important measure of what dwells in the heart of man. The Lord Jesus even says that we are justified or judged according to our words (Matthew 12:37). If you know how to bridle your tongue, then you are also able to serve God in the right way. But he who thinks to be religious, who thinks that God should be satisfied with the way he serves Him, while from his tongue comes a waterfall of words, deceives his own heart (Proverbs 13:3b; Proverbs 10:19).
Why is James that sharp in his judgment of the tongue? He will explain that penetratingly in chapter 3, but it is already clear here that what matters to him is that it comes down to deeds and not nice words. He says: ‘Just show what religion means to you. All that talking doesn’t mean anything to me.’ He who talks much, but does not do, has a ‘worthless religion’. He may think that he is doing great, but what he is doing is worthless.
James 1:27. In the final verse of this chapter James explains the way it supposed to be. It is about “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father”. All service of God must happen in purity of the heart. Insincere motives are not to be playing a role here. Even the service itself ought to happen without being stained by using any inappropriate means. Serving God means that God is in the center. He determines how the service is to be done.
When you visit widows and orphans in their distress you show them God’s Fatherly love. He is after all the Father of orphans and the Judge for the widows (Psalms 68:5; Psalms 146:9). God’s love seeks the helpless and the socially deprived ones. When you visit them in their distress it means more than only showing your interest in them. It means that you are trying to empathize with them in their circumstances and in that way expressing your concern for them.
However, this is not the only way to give substance to ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’. If that was the case, then Christendom would not be more than a social program. God is not only love, but He is also light. That’s why James adds to it that you ought to keep yourself “unstained from the world”. True religion doesn’t lose out of the sight the natural character of the world, but takes into account that the world has rejected the Lord Jesus. The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). You have been delivered from it (Galatians 1:4), you do not belong to it anymore.
Therefore you cannot use anything from it in your service for God. Everything you would like to use from the world to only make your staying in there as pleasant as possible dishonors God. His assessment of the world should determine your dealings with it, just as His care for the defenseless in that world should determine your care for them.
Now read James 1:19-27 again.
Reflection: How do you put into practice of what James says in this section?
2 Peter 3:7
The Practice of the New Life
James 1:19. After the wonderful explanation of the work of God in His own James continues with the practice of the new life. His purpose is that his readers, whom he again calls “my beloved brethren”, may know what ought to mainly characterize the new life. The first thing he mentions is “to hear”, to listen. If you are newly converted it is especially important to listen to the Lord and to do that in the attitude of the young Samuel. Eli taught him to say: “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of Someone Who hears (Isaiah 50:4). Therefore He absolutely always knew, when He was on earth, what to say to the right people at the right time.
You also can only say something meaningful if you have first listened. It is good to consider why God has given you two ears and only one mouth. Be quick to hear what the Lord has got to say.
Do not be quick to respond to what men say. Control your tongue and try not to be rash with your mouth (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:1). Don’t let yourself be tempted to react sharply and angrily if people treat you unjustly. That anger can just suddenly pop up if you see or hear something that is unjust or if you feel yourself to be offended. Then you lose your patience just like that.
James 1:20. Of course it is not always wrong to get angry. Anger is a feature of God. When He gets angry He exerts His anger in perfect righteousness. Sometimes it is necessary for you to be angry, but be careful that there is no self-interest involved. Therefore it is for a reason why Paul warns us not to sin when we are angry (Ephesians 4:26). For when you get angry because of seeing a certain injustice, you can get so upset and angry that you cannot control yourself anymore. Then you say or do things that are not fitting to you as a ‘first fruit among His creatures’.
With the Lord Jesus anger and grief go together perfectly (Mark 3:5a), while with us anger can possibly go together with being personally offended. When we are angry because we are personally offended, it has got nothing to do with “God’s righteousness”. In that case it becomes clear and visible that we are our own judge, while there is nothing to be seen of God’s righteousness.
James 1:21. In order not to fall into the trap of a wrong anger, James passes on some instructions. You have to put aside something and receive something. Consider the order. You ought to put aside something first, for then you create room to receive something. James mentions two things you should put aside. As a matter of fact he is up to date when he starts with “all filthiness”. The world is full of that and it easily clings to the believer.
Filthiness may just jump toward you; it splashes from the bill boards alongside the road and if you do not watch out it is also on your television or computer screen. Do not look at it, turn your eyes off of them, do not be occupied with such things. You must inwardly take distance of those things.
That also goes for “[all] that remains of wickedness”. Do not be tempted to express your anger in a way that you show more of yourself instead of showing the reason why you are angry.
James urges for a good mind. That good mind expresses itself in “humility”. If you are humble, God can implant His Word in you. ‘Humbleness’ is the right ground for the implanted Word to grow and to come to maturity. Then that Word can be effective. Then you will be led by the Word on your path of life and in that way you will be able to proceed that path up to the full salvation. Your life will bear fruit that comes from the new creation that you are, a fruit which is a joy to God.
James 1:22. In that way it will become clear that you are not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer. Herod for example was only a hearer. He loved to hear John speaking (Mark 6:20), but he was not a doer of the word spoken by John. When it came done to it, he would rather have John killed than go back on a promise he quickly made under the influence of his aroused lust (Mark 6:21-27).
James 1:23-24. John had held up a mirror to him. Herod had looked into that mirror for just a moment. He saw what kind of man he was, but he went away and forgot what kind of person he was. If you read in the Bible you must not do that in a hurry, but calmly. If you just read something quickly, you do not really look into the mirror. The Bible has to be given the chance to show you what kind of person you are, that you may adapt your life to it.
James 1:25. You ought to look into “the perfect law of liberty”. The perfect law is not a series of rules and commandments that God imposes on you as His demands. With the perfect law is meant the whole Word of God. That Word of God holds up to you the law, which means the lawfulness, of liberty. He who has received the implanted Word with humbleness will show the fruits of that Word. That is a lawfulness, a process that cannot occur in any other way.
You see that perfectly in the life of the Lord Jesus. The law of God was in Him (Psalms 40:8) and that law completely connected to His desire to do the will of God. A small example may possibly clarify this. If I give one of my children the command: ‘Eat of those cookies’, then he or she does that delightfully, because it is fully in accordance with his or her desire. Being obedient out of love and doing things that you naturally love to do, give the greatest sense of satisfaction.
James adds to it that it is important to abide by it; that means that you must persevere. Then you will “be blessed” in what you do; it gives you the sense of happiness. It doesn’t mean that you will succeed in everything you do, but that you experience happiness in everything you do.
James 1:26. James comes back to the tongue. The tongue is the most important measure of what dwells in the heart of man. The Lord Jesus even says that we are justified or judged according to our words (Matthew 12:37). If you know how to bridle your tongue, then you are also able to serve God in the right way. But he who thinks to be religious, who thinks that God should be satisfied with the way he serves Him, while from his tongue comes a waterfall of words, deceives his own heart (Proverbs 13:3b; Proverbs 10:19).
Why is James that sharp in his judgment of the tongue? He will explain that penetratingly in chapter 3, but it is already clear here that what matters to him is that it comes down to deeds and not nice words. He says: ‘Just show what religion means to you. All that talking doesn’t mean anything to me.’ He who talks much, but does not do, has a ‘worthless religion’. He may think that he is doing great, but what he is doing is worthless.
James 1:27. In the final verse of this chapter James explains the way it supposed to be. It is about “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father”. All service of God must happen in purity of the heart. Insincere motives are not to be playing a role here. Even the service itself ought to happen without being stained by using any inappropriate means. Serving God means that God is in the center. He determines how the service is to be done.
When you visit widows and orphans in their distress you show them God’s Fatherly love. He is after all the Father of orphans and the Judge for the widows (Psalms 68:5; Psalms 146:9). God’s love seeks the helpless and the socially deprived ones. When you visit them in their distress it means more than only showing your interest in them. It means that you are trying to empathize with them in their circumstances and in that way expressing your concern for them.
However, this is not the only way to give substance to ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’. If that was the case, then Christendom would not be more than a social program. God is not only love, but He is also light. That’s why James adds to it that you ought to keep yourself “unstained from the world”. True religion doesn’t lose out of the sight the natural character of the world, but takes into account that the world has rejected the Lord Jesus. The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). You have been delivered from it (Galatians 1:4), you do not belong to it anymore.
Therefore you cannot use anything from it in your service for God. Everything you would like to use from the world to only make your staying in there as pleasant as possible dishonors God. His assessment of the world should determine your dealings with it, just as His care for the defenseless in that world should determine your care for them.
Now read James 1:19-27 again.
Reflection: How do you put into practice of what James says in this section?
2 Peter 3:8
The Practice of the New Life
James 1:19. After the wonderful explanation of the work of God in His own James continues with the practice of the new life. His purpose is that his readers, whom he again calls “my beloved brethren”, may know what ought to mainly characterize the new life. The first thing he mentions is “to hear”, to listen. If you are newly converted it is especially important to listen to the Lord and to do that in the attitude of the young Samuel. Eli taught him to say: “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of Someone Who hears (Isaiah 50:4). Therefore He absolutely always knew, when He was on earth, what to say to the right people at the right time.
You also can only say something meaningful if you have first listened. It is good to consider why God has given you two ears and only one mouth. Be quick to hear what the Lord has got to say.
Do not be quick to respond to what men say. Control your tongue and try not to be rash with your mouth (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:1). Don’t let yourself be tempted to react sharply and angrily if people treat you unjustly. That anger can just suddenly pop up if you see or hear something that is unjust or if you feel yourself to be offended. Then you lose your patience just like that.
James 1:20. Of course it is not always wrong to get angry. Anger is a feature of God. When He gets angry He exerts His anger in perfect righteousness. Sometimes it is necessary for you to be angry, but be careful that there is no self-interest involved. Therefore it is for a reason why Paul warns us not to sin when we are angry (Ephesians 4:26). For when you get angry because of seeing a certain injustice, you can get so upset and angry that you cannot control yourself anymore. Then you say or do things that are not fitting to you as a ‘first fruit among His creatures’.
With the Lord Jesus anger and grief go together perfectly (Mark 3:5a), while with us anger can possibly go together with being personally offended. When we are angry because we are personally offended, it has got nothing to do with “God’s righteousness”. In that case it becomes clear and visible that we are our own judge, while there is nothing to be seen of God’s righteousness.
James 1:21. In order not to fall into the trap of a wrong anger, James passes on some instructions. You have to put aside something and receive something. Consider the order. You ought to put aside something first, for then you create room to receive something. James mentions two things you should put aside. As a matter of fact he is up to date when he starts with “all filthiness”. The world is full of that and it easily clings to the believer.
Filthiness may just jump toward you; it splashes from the bill boards alongside the road and if you do not watch out it is also on your television or computer screen. Do not look at it, turn your eyes off of them, do not be occupied with such things. You must inwardly take distance of those things.
That also goes for “[all] that remains of wickedness”. Do not be tempted to express your anger in a way that you show more of yourself instead of showing the reason why you are angry.
James urges for a good mind. That good mind expresses itself in “humility”. If you are humble, God can implant His Word in you. ‘Humbleness’ is the right ground for the implanted Word to grow and to come to maturity. Then that Word can be effective. Then you will be led by the Word on your path of life and in that way you will be able to proceed that path up to the full salvation. Your life will bear fruit that comes from the new creation that you are, a fruit which is a joy to God.
James 1:22. In that way it will become clear that you are not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer. Herod for example was only a hearer. He loved to hear John speaking (Mark 6:20), but he was not a doer of the word spoken by John. When it came done to it, he would rather have John killed than go back on a promise he quickly made under the influence of his aroused lust (Mark 6:21-27).
James 1:23-24. John had held up a mirror to him. Herod had looked into that mirror for just a moment. He saw what kind of man he was, but he went away and forgot what kind of person he was. If you read in the Bible you must not do that in a hurry, but calmly. If you just read something quickly, you do not really look into the mirror. The Bible has to be given the chance to show you what kind of person you are, that you may adapt your life to it.
James 1:25. You ought to look into “the perfect law of liberty”. The perfect law is not a series of rules and commandments that God imposes on you as His demands. With the perfect law is meant the whole Word of God. That Word of God holds up to you the law, which means the lawfulness, of liberty. He who has received the implanted Word with humbleness will show the fruits of that Word. That is a lawfulness, a process that cannot occur in any other way.
You see that perfectly in the life of the Lord Jesus. The law of God was in Him (Psalms 40:8) and that law completely connected to His desire to do the will of God. A small example may possibly clarify this. If I give one of my children the command: ‘Eat of those cookies’, then he or she does that delightfully, because it is fully in accordance with his or her desire. Being obedient out of love and doing things that you naturally love to do, give the greatest sense of satisfaction.
James adds to it that it is important to abide by it; that means that you must persevere. Then you will “be blessed” in what you do; it gives you the sense of happiness. It doesn’t mean that you will succeed in everything you do, but that you experience happiness in everything you do.
James 1:26. James comes back to the tongue. The tongue is the most important measure of what dwells in the heart of man. The Lord Jesus even says that we are justified or judged according to our words (Matthew 12:37). If you know how to bridle your tongue, then you are also able to serve God in the right way. But he who thinks to be religious, who thinks that God should be satisfied with the way he serves Him, while from his tongue comes a waterfall of words, deceives his own heart (Proverbs 13:3b; Proverbs 10:19).
Why is James that sharp in his judgment of the tongue? He will explain that penetratingly in chapter 3, but it is already clear here that what matters to him is that it comes down to deeds and not nice words. He says: ‘Just show what religion means to you. All that talking doesn’t mean anything to me.’ He who talks much, but does not do, has a ‘worthless religion’. He may think that he is doing great, but what he is doing is worthless.
James 1:27. In the final verse of this chapter James explains the way it supposed to be. It is about “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father”. All service of God must happen in purity of the heart. Insincere motives are not to be playing a role here. Even the service itself ought to happen without being stained by using any inappropriate means. Serving God means that God is in the center. He determines how the service is to be done.
When you visit widows and orphans in their distress you show them God’s Fatherly love. He is after all the Father of orphans and the Judge for the widows (Psalms 68:5; Psalms 146:9). God’s love seeks the helpless and the socially deprived ones. When you visit them in their distress it means more than only showing your interest in them. It means that you are trying to empathize with them in their circumstances and in that way expressing your concern for them.
However, this is not the only way to give substance to ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’. If that was the case, then Christendom would not be more than a social program. God is not only love, but He is also light. That’s why James adds to it that you ought to keep yourself “unstained from the world”. True religion doesn’t lose out of the sight the natural character of the world, but takes into account that the world has rejected the Lord Jesus. The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). You have been delivered from it (Galatians 1:4), you do not belong to it anymore.
Therefore you cannot use anything from it in your service for God. Everything you would like to use from the world to only make your staying in there as pleasant as possible dishonors God. His assessment of the world should determine your dealings with it, just as His care for the defenseless in that world should determine your care for them.
Now read James 1:19-27 again.
Reflection: How do you put into practice of what James says in this section?
2 Peter 3:9
The Practice of the New Life
James 1:19. After the wonderful explanation of the work of God in His own James continues with the practice of the new life. His purpose is that his readers, whom he again calls “my beloved brethren”, may know what ought to mainly characterize the new life. The first thing he mentions is “to hear”, to listen. If you are newly converted it is especially important to listen to the Lord and to do that in the attitude of the young Samuel. Eli taught him to say: “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of Someone Who hears (Isaiah 50:4). Therefore He absolutely always knew, when He was on earth, what to say to the right people at the right time.
You also can only say something meaningful if you have first listened. It is good to consider why God has given you two ears and only one mouth. Be quick to hear what the Lord has got to say.
Do not be quick to respond to what men say. Control your tongue and try not to be rash with your mouth (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:1). Don’t let yourself be tempted to react sharply and angrily if people treat you unjustly. That anger can just suddenly pop up if you see or hear something that is unjust or if you feel yourself to be offended. Then you lose your patience just like that.
James 1:20. Of course it is not always wrong to get angry. Anger is a feature of God. When He gets angry He exerts His anger in perfect righteousness. Sometimes it is necessary for you to be angry, but be careful that there is no self-interest involved. Therefore it is for a reason why Paul warns us not to sin when we are angry (Ephesians 4:26). For when you get angry because of seeing a certain injustice, you can get so upset and angry that you cannot control yourself anymore. Then you say or do things that are not fitting to you as a ‘first fruit among His creatures’.
With the Lord Jesus anger and grief go together perfectly (Mark 3:5a), while with us anger can possibly go together with being personally offended. When we are angry because we are personally offended, it has got nothing to do with “God’s righteousness”. In that case it becomes clear and visible that we are our own judge, while there is nothing to be seen of God’s righteousness.
James 1:21. In order not to fall into the trap of a wrong anger, James passes on some instructions. You have to put aside something and receive something. Consider the order. You ought to put aside something first, for then you create room to receive something. James mentions two things you should put aside. As a matter of fact he is up to date when he starts with “all filthiness”. The world is full of that and it easily clings to the believer.
Filthiness may just jump toward you; it splashes from the bill boards alongside the road and if you do not watch out it is also on your television or computer screen. Do not look at it, turn your eyes off of them, do not be occupied with such things. You must inwardly take distance of those things.
That also goes for “[all] that remains of wickedness”. Do not be tempted to express your anger in a way that you show more of yourself instead of showing the reason why you are angry.
James urges for a good mind. That good mind expresses itself in “humility”. If you are humble, God can implant His Word in you. ‘Humbleness’ is the right ground for the implanted Word to grow and to come to maturity. Then that Word can be effective. Then you will be led by the Word on your path of life and in that way you will be able to proceed that path up to the full salvation. Your life will bear fruit that comes from the new creation that you are, a fruit which is a joy to God.
James 1:22. In that way it will become clear that you are not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer. Herod for example was only a hearer. He loved to hear John speaking (Mark 6:20), but he was not a doer of the word spoken by John. When it came done to it, he would rather have John killed than go back on a promise he quickly made under the influence of his aroused lust (Mark 6:21-27).
James 1:23-24. John had held up a mirror to him. Herod had looked into that mirror for just a moment. He saw what kind of man he was, but he went away and forgot what kind of person he was. If you read in the Bible you must not do that in a hurry, but calmly. If you just read something quickly, you do not really look into the mirror. The Bible has to be given the chance to show you what kind of person you are, that you may adapt your life to it.
James 1:25. You ought to look into “the perfect law of liberty”. The perfect law is not a series of rules and commandments that God imposes on you as His demands. With the perfect law is meant the whole Word of God. That Word of God holds up to you the law, which means the lawfulness, of liberty. He who has received the implanted Word with humbleness will show the fruits of that Word. That is a lawfulness, a process that cannot occur in any other way.
You see that perfectly in the life of the Lord Jesus. The law of God was in Him (Psalms 40:8) and that law completely connected to His desire to do the will of God. A small example may possibly clarify this. If I give one of my children the command: ‘Eat of those cookies’, then he or she does that delightfully, because it is fully in accordance with his or her desire. Being obedient out of love and doing things that you naturally love to do, give the greatest sense of satisfaction.
James adds to it that it is important to abide by it; that means that you must persevere. Then you will “be blessed” in what you do; it gives you the sense of happiness. It doesn’t mean that you will succeed in everything you do, but that you experience happiness in everything you do.
James 1:26. James comes back to the tongue. The tongue is the most important measure of what dwells in the heart of man. The Lord Jesus even says that we are justified or judged according to our words (Matthew 12:37). If you know how to bridle your tongue, then you are also able to serve God in the right way. But he who thinks to be religious, who thinks that God should be satisfied with the way he serves Him, while from his tongue comes a waterfall of words, deceives his own heart (Proverbs 13:3b; Proverbs 10:19).
Why is James that sharp in his judgment of the tongue? He will explain that penetratingly in chapter 3, but it is already clear here that what matters to him is that it comes down to deeds and not nice words. He says: ‘Just show what religion means to you. All that talking doesn’t mean anything to me.’ He who talks much, but does not do, has a ‘worthless religion’. He may think that he is doing great, but what he is doing is worthless.
James 1:27. In the final verse of this chapter James explains the way it supposed to be. It is about “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father”. All service of God must happen in purity of the heart. Insincere motives are not to be playing a role here. Even the service itself ought to happen without being stained by using any inappropriate means. Serving God means that God is in the center. He determines how the service is to be done.
When you visit widows and orphans in their distress you show them God’s Fatherly love. He is after all the Father of orphans and the Judge for the widows (Psalms 68:5; Psalms 146:9). God’s love seeks the helpless and the socially deprived ones. When you visit them in their distress it means more than only showing your interest in them. It means that you are trying to empathize with them in their circumstances and in that way expressing your concern for them.
However, this is not the only way to give substance to ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’. If that was the case, then Christendom would not be more than a social program. God is not only love, but He is also light. That’s why James adds to it that you ought to keep yourself “unstained from the world”. True religion doesn’t lose out of the sight the natural character of the world, but takes into account that the world has rejected the Lord Jesus. The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). You have been delivered from it (Galatians 1:4), you do not belong to it anymore.
Therefore you cannot use anything from it in your service for God. Everything you would like to use from the world to only make your staying in there as pleasant as possible dishonors God. His assessment of the world should determine your dealings with it, just as His care for the defenseless in that world should determine your care for them.
Now read James 1:19-27 again.
Reflection: How do you put into practice of what James says in this section?
2 Peter 3:10
The Practice of the New Life
James 1:19. After the wonderful explanation of the work of God in His own James continues with the practice of the new life. His purpose is that his readers, whom he again calls “my beloved brethren”, may know what ought to mainly characterize the new life. The first thing he mentions is “to hear”, to listen. If you are newly converted it is especially important to listen to the Lord and to do that in the attitude of the young Samuel. Eli taught him to say: “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of Someone Who hears (Isaiah 50:4). Therefore He absolutely always knew, when He was on earth, what to say to the right people at the right time.
You also can only say something meaningful if you have first listened. It is good to consider why God has given you two ears and only one mouth. Be quick to hear what the Lord has got to say.
Do not be quick to respond to what men say. Control your tongue and try not to be rash with your mouth (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:1). Don’t let yourself be tempted to react sharply and angrily if people treat you unjustly. That anger can just suddenly pop up if you see or hear something that is unjust or if you feel yourself to be offended. Then you lose your patience just like that.
James 1:20. Of course it is not always wrong to get angry. Anger is a feature of God. When He gets angry He exerts His anger in perfect righteousness. Sometimes it is necessary for you to be angry, but be careful that there is no self-interest involved. Therefore it is for a reason why Paul warns us not to sin when we are angry (Ephesians 4:26). For when you get angry because of seeing a certain injustice, you can get so upset and angry that you cannot control yourself anymore. Then you say or do things that are not fitting to you as a ‘first fruit among His creatures’.
With the Lord Jesus anger and grief go together perfectly (Mark 3:5a), while with us anger can possibly go together with being personally offended. When we are angry because we are personally offended, it has got nothing to do with “God’s righteousness”. In that case it becomes clear and visible that we are our own judge, while there is nothing to be seen of God’s righteousness.
James 1:21. In order not to fall into the trap of a wrong anger, James passes on some instructions. You have to put aside something and receive something. Consider the order. You ought to put aside something first, for then you create room to receive something. James mentions two things you should put aside. As a matter of fact he is up to date when he starts with “all filthiness”. The world is full of that and it easily clings to the believer.
Filthiness may just jump toward you; it splashes from the bill boards alongside the road and if you do not watch out it is also on your television or computer screen. Do not look at it, turn your eyes off of them, do not be occupied with such things. You must inwardly take distance of those things.
That also goes for “[all] that remains of wickedness”. Do not be tempted to express your anger in a way that you show more of yourself instead of showing the reason why you are angry.
James urges for a good mind. That good mind expresses itself in “humility”. If you are humble, God can implant His Word in you. ‘Humbleness’ is the right ground for the implanted Word to grow and to come to maturity. Then that Word can be effective. Then you will be led by the Word on your path of life and in that way you will be able to proceed that path up to the full salvation. Your life will bear fruit that comes from the new creation that you are, a fruit which is a joy to God.
James 1:22. In that way it will become clear that you are not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer. Herod for example was only a hearer. He loved to hear John speaking (Mark 6:20), but he was not a doer of the word spoken by John. When it came done to it, he would rather have John killed than go back on a promise he quickly made under the influence of his aroused lust (Mark 6:21-27).
James 1:23-24. John had held up a mirror to him. Herod had looked into that mirror for just a moment. He saw what kind of man he was, but he went away and forgot what kind of person he was. If you read in the Bible you must not do that in a hurry, but calmly. If you just read something quickly, you do not really look into the mirror. The Bible has to be given the chance to show you what kind of person you are, that you may adapt your life to it.
James 1:25. You ought to look into “the perfect law of liberty”. The perfect law is not a series of rules and commandments that God imposes on you as His demands. With the perfect law is meant the whole Word of God. That Word of God holds up to you the law, which means the lawfulness, of liberty. He who has received the implanted Word with humbleness will show the fruits of that Word. That is a lawfulness, a process that cannot occur in any other way.
You see that perfectly in the life of the Lord Jesus. The law of God was in Him (Psalms 40:8) and that law completely connected to His desire to do the will of God. A small example may possibly clarify this. If I give one of my children the command: ‘Eat of those cookies’, then he or she does that delightfully, because it is fully in accordance with his or her desire. Being obedient out of love and doing things that you naturally love to do, give the greatest sense of satisfaction.
James adds to it that it is important to abide by it; that means that you must persevere. Then you will “be blessed” in what you do; it gives you the sense of happiness. It doesn’t mean that you will succeed in everything you do, but that you experience happiness in everything you do.
James 1:26. James comes back to the tongue. The tongue is the most important measure of what dwells in the heart of man. The Lord Jesus even says that we are justified or judged according to our words (Matthew 12:37). If you know how to bridle your tongue, then you are also able to serve God in the right way. But he who thinks to be religious, who thinks that God should be satisfied with the way he serves Him, while from his tongue comes a waterfall of words, deceives his own heart (Proverbs 13:3b; Proverbs 10:19).
Why is James that sharp in his judgment of the tongue? He will explain that penetratingly in chapter 3, but it is already clear here that what matters to him is that it comes down to deeds and not nice words. He says: ‘Just show what religion means to you. All that talking doesn’t mean anything to me.’ He who talks much, but does not do, has a ‘worthless religion’. He may think that he is doing great, but what he is doing is worthless.
James 1:27. In the final verse of this chapter James explains the way it supposed to be. It is about “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father”. All service of God must happen in purity of the heart. Insincere motives are not to be playing a role here. Even the service itself ought to happen without being stained by using any inappropriate means. Serving God means that God is in the center. He determines how the service is to be done.
When you visit widows and orphans in their distress you show them God’s Fatherly love. He is after all the Father of orphans and the Judge for the widows (Psalms 68:5; Psalms 146:9). God’s love seeks the helpless and the socially deprived ones. When you visit them in their distress it means more than only showing your interest in them. It means that you are trying to empathize with them in their circumstances and in that way expressing your concern for them.
However, this is not the only way to give substance to ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’. If that was the case, then Christendom would not be more than a social program. God is not only love, but He is also light. That’s why James adds to it that you ought to keep yourself “unstained from the world”. True religion doesn’t lose out of the sight the natural character of the world, but takes into account that the world has rejected the Lord Jesus. The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). You have been delivered from it (Galatians 1:4), you do not belong to it anymore.
Therefore you cannot use anything from it in your service for God. Everything you would like to use from the world to only make your staying in there as pleasant as possible dishonors God. His assessment of the world should determine your dealings with it, just as His care for the defenseless in that world should determine your care for them.
Now read James 1:19-27 again.
Reflection: How do you put into practice of what James says in this section?
2 Peter 3:11
The Practice of the New Life
James 1:19. After the wonderful explanation of the work of God in His own James continues with the practice of the new life. His purpose is that his readers, whom he again calls “my beloved brethren”, may know what ought to mainly characterize the new life. The first thing he mentions is “to hear”, to listen. If you are newly converted it is especially important to listen to the Lord and to do that in the attitude of the young Samuel. Eli taught him to say: “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of Someone Who hears (Isaiah 50:4). Therefore He absolutely always knew, when He was on earth, what to say to the right people at the right time.
You also can only say something meaningful if you have first listened. It is good to consider why God has given you two ears and only one mouth. Be quick to hear what the Lord has got to say.
Do not be quick to respond to what men say. Control your tongue and try not to be rash with your mouth (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:1). Don’t let yourself be tempted to react sharply and angrily if people treat you unjustly. That anger can just suddenly pop up if you see or hear something that is unjust or if you feel yourself to be offended. Then you lose your patience just like that.
James 1:20. Of course it is not always wrong to get angry. Anger is a feature of God. When He gets angry He exerts His anger in perfect righteousness. Sometimes it is necessary for you to be angry, but be careful that there is no self-interest involved. Therefore it is for a reason why Paul warns us not to sin when we are angry (Ephesians 4:26). For when you get angry because of seeing a certain injustice, you can get so upset and angry that you cannot control yourself anymore. Then you say or do things that are not fitting to you as a ‘first fruit among His creatures’.
With the Lord Jesus anger and grief go together perfectly (Mark 3:5a), while with us anger can possibly go together with being personally offended. When we are angry because we are personally offended, it has got nothing to do with “God’s righteousness”. In that case it becomes clear and visible that we are our own judge, while there is nothing to be seen of God’s righteousness.
James 1:21. In order not to fall into the trap of a wrong anger, James passes on some instructions. You have to put aside something and receive something. Consider the order. You ought to put aside something first, for then you create room to receive something. James mentions two things you should put aside. As a matter of fact he is up to date when he starts with “all filthiness”. The world is full of that and it easily clings to the believer.
Filthiness may just jump toward you; it splashes from the bill boards alongside the road and if you do not watch out it is also on your television or computer screen. Do not look at it, turn your eyes off of them, do not be occupied with such things. You must inwardly take distance of those things.
That also goes for “[all] that remains of wickedness”. Do not be tempted to express your anger in a way that you show more of yourself instead of showing the reason why you are angry.
James urges for a good mind. That good mind expresses itself in “humility”. If you are humble, God can implant His Word in you. ‘Humbleness’ is the right ground for the implanted Word to grow and to come to maturity. Then that Word can be effective. Then you will be led by the Word on your path of life and in that way you will be able to proceed that path up to the full salvation. Your life will bear fruit that comes from the new creation that you are, a fruit which is a joy to God.
James 1:22. In that way it will become clear that you are not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer. Herod for example was only a hearer. He loved to hear John speaking (Mark 6:20), but he was not a doer of the word spoken by John. When it came done to it, he would rather have John killed than go back on a promise he quickly made under the influence of his aroused lust (Mark 6:21-27).
James 1:23-24. John had held up a mirror to him. Herod had looked into that mirror for just a moment. He saw what kind of man he was, but he went away and forgot what kind of person he was. If you read in the Bible you must not do that in a hurry, but calmly. If you just read something quickly, you do not really look into the mirror. The Bible has to be given the chance to show you what kind of person you are, that you may adapt your life to it.
James 1:25. You ought to look into “the perfect law of liberty”. The perfect law is not a series of rules and commandments that God imposes on you as His demands. With the perfect law is meant the whole Word of God. That Word of God holds up to you the law, which means the lawfulness, of liberty. He who has received the implanted Word with humbleness will show the fruits of that Word. That is a lawfulness, a process that cannot occur in any other way.
You see that perfectly in the life of the Lord Jesus. The law of God was in Him (Psalms 40:8) and that law completely connected to His desire to do the will of God. A small example may possibly clarify this. If I give one of my children the command: ‘Eat of those cookies’, then he or she does that delightfully, because it is fully in accordance with his or her desire. Being obedient out of love and doing things that you naturally love to do, give the greatest sense of satisfaction.
James adds to it that it is important to abide by it; that means that you must persevere. Then you will “be blessed” in what you do; it gives you the sense of happiness. It doesn’t mean that you will succeed in everything you do, but that you experience happiness in everything you do.
James 1:26. James comes back to the tongue. The tongue is the most important measure of what dwells in the heart of man. The Lord Jesus even says that we are justified or judged according to our words (Matthew 12:37). If you know how to bridle your tongue, then you are also able to serve God in the right way. But he who thinks to be religious, who thinks that God should be satisfied with the way he serves Him, while from his tongue comes a waterfall of words, deceives his own heart (Proverbs 13:3b; Proverbs 10:19).
Why is James that sharp in his judgment of the tongue? He will explain that penetratingly in chapter 3, but it is already clear here that what matters to him is that it comes down to deeds and not nice words. He says: ‘Just show what religion means to you. All that talking doesn’t mean anything to me.’ He who talks much, but does not do, has a ‘worthless religion’. He may think that he is doing great, but what he is doing is worthless.
James 1:27. In the final verse of this chapter James explains the way it supposed to be. It is about “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father”. All service of God must happen in purity of the heart. Insincere motives are not to be playing a role here. Even the service itself ought to happen without being stained by using any inappropriate means. Serving God means that God is in the center. He determines how the service is to be done.
When you visit widows and orphans in their distress you show them God’s Fatherly love. He is after all the Father of orphans and the Judge for the widows (Psalms 68:5; Psalms 146:9). God’s love seeks the helpless and the socially deprived ones. When you visit them in their distress it means more than only showing your interest in them. It means that you are trying to empathize with them in their circumstances and in that way expressing your concern for them.
However, this is not the only way to give substance to ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’. If that was the case, then Christendom would not be more than a social program. God is not only love, but He is also light. That’s why James adds to it that you ought to keep yourself “unstained from the world”. True religion doesn’t lose out of the sight the natural character of the world, but takes into account that the world has rejected the Lord Jesus. The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). You have been delivered from it (Galatians 1:4), you do not belong to it anymore.
Therefore you cannot use anything from it in your service for God. Everything you would like to use from the world to only make your staying in there as pleasant as possible dishonors God. His assessment of the world should determine your dealings with it, just as His care for the defenseless in that world should determine your care for them.
Now read James 1:19-27 again.
Reflection: How do you put into practice of what James says in this section?
2 Peter 3:13
Chosen to Be Rich in Faith
James 2:1. You have seen in the final verses of the previous chapter that God is a caring Father and that He is light and love. By helping widows and orphans you can show that God is a Father Who looks after those who are deprived of all help. Because God also is light, the command goes together with keeping yourself unstained from the world.
Now to keep you from becoming excessive in your separation from the world and falling into Pharisaism, James presents to you in the first verse of this chapter “the glorious Lord”. He does that in connection to the admonition that there should be no “personal favoritism” with those who believe in our “Lord Jesus Christ”.
James calls the Lord by His full name because he must rail against the great evil in the Christian church regarding giving preferential treatment to certain people, due to their social position. Such a conduct is absolutely in contrast with the Person of Christ and the confession of faith in Him. Partiality is totally strange to Him (Acts 10:34). That is also not the way He dealt with you and me, right?
If you are impressed by socially successful people, people with a high position, and admire them for the nice looking car by which they come to the meeting and the nice clothes they wear for that occasion, then you have not really looked well to ‘the glorious Lord’. What does that entire earthly splendor mean in the light of His glory?
The Lord had glory with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). Also on earth He had glory, not for men (Isaiah 53:2), but for those with faith (John 1:14). This glory radiated through His humble stature. He will have glory when He returns to earth (2 Peter 1:16-17). There is also a glory that is typical of Him and which we will see without taking part of it (John 17:24). He is the center and the radiation of all God’s thoughts and glory (Hebrews 1:3). All glory is in Him.
That glory is in sharp contrast with earthly glory. In the light of the Lord of all glory there is no room for rank or position. Then everything that is attractive to the man of the world shrinks and also the matters that still exert a strong attraction on us as believers, such as wealth, reputation, position and power. Those are all matters that make man blind for true glory and through which he is on his way to hell. We too are inclined to look at the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). Let us bear in mind that what is highly estimated by men is an abomination to God.
By the way, James is not calling for “leveling”, that is, eliminating ranks and classes from the world and making everyone equal. He only wants the differences that exist in social life to play no role among believers in their dealings with one another as believers. In case that happens, he wants this evil to be judged. There are indeed differences among believers that are to be considered in their dealings with one another, such as a difference in age, in gender, in gifts. Those differences were made by the Lord. The differences are not to be played off against one another, but are supposed to be complementary to one another.
James 2:2-3. James calls the evil by its name. He describes how men behave toward a rich man and toward a poor man when they enter the synagogue. Both the way they approach the rich and the way they approach the poor are wrong. It is far below the level of the glory of the Lord in Whom they say they believe. They look up to the rich man, due to his golden rings and his nice clothes and they look down to the shabby clothed poor man. They guide the rich man with a bow to a nice place, and they give the poor man a standing place or a place by their footstool.
James 2:4. With such a behavior they show an arrogance that comes down to playing the role of judge. They have neither authority nor ability for such a way of acting. The distinction they made, they made among themselves, for their own benefit. There is nothing of the Lord in this matter. On the contrary, they act “with evil motives”. Such an evil motive is for example that they try to gain favor with rich people, because that can deliver them profit. They cannot gain any profit with poor people and therefore they do not care about them.
Do you remember what James said about ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’? Was it not that precisely the poor people were to be visited in their affliction? How far away is making this distinction with evil motives from the true religion!
James 2:5. “Listen, my beloved brethren”, James says. In other words: ‘You must listen carefully. You are really my beloved brethren and therefore I tell you how God thinks about the socially deprived people. The poor in the world have priority with Him, they have a special place with Him.’
Paul also says that to the Corinthians, who were also that sensitive to the honor and reputation of the world (1 Corinthians 1:16-28). The fact that God has chosen the poor does not mean that He has chosen them because they have no money, but because they have no rights and because they are dependent on others. With God it is about people who are of no account.
By their being chosen they became rich in faith. To be rich in faith means to be rich in God (Luke 12:21). These riches cannot be expressed in money. Even the world is theirs (1 Corinthians 3:21-23) because they belong to Him Who owns all silver and gold (Haggai 2:8). They still have to wait for taking possession of that until the Lord Jesus comes back.
The Lord Jesus was the poor One par excellence. He was rich, but became poor for our sake, so that we might become rich through His poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9). That poverty was not the feeding trough in which he was laid after His birth and the cloths in which He was wrapped, for that could not possibly make us rich. It was also not His poverty on earth, where He had nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). We have become rich through nothing else than through the poverty of the three hours of darkness on the cross, where He suffered the judgment of God on our sins.
That is also the only ground on which God could have made us “heirs of the kingdom”. When the Lord Jesus comes back to claim His kingdom, then all heirs will share with Him in His kingdom. God has promised that kingdom “to those who love Him”. James connects the promise of the kingdom to loving God.
That kingdom is appreciated only by those who know Who God is in His love. The love for God is present with all who know that God first loved them (1 John 4:19). If you have seen and also experienced that God has loved you, of which the highest proof is the gift of His Son, then there is nothing else left for you than to love Him, isn’t it?
Therefore you as an heir can also look forward to that kingdom. Up to that moment you are able, just like the poor about whom James is talking, to enjoy your spiritual riches. Do you already know something about your riches? They are all included and hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:2-3). It is up to you to dig them up.
In the light of His riches all riches of the world will lose its grip on you. Each investment of time and effort to make the riches of Christ to be your own, will show its efficiency when the Lord Jesus comes back. When you are that rich you will also be able to make other people rich. Then you can be a person of whom Paul says: “As poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
James 2:6. James points out to the readers that they have dishonored the poor by treating them with such disdain. They are blind for what these poor ones mean to God. But also for their conduct toward the rich with whom they love to gain favor, they seem to be blind. What God has done to the poor is in sharp contrast to what the rich had done to the poor.
Just take a good look at what the rich are doing, James says. They oppress you and personally drag you into court. You think it will benefit you if you treat them with honors, but in the meantime you are fleeced by them. These folks are about corpses.
James 2:7. And the worse thing is: through the conduct of the rich the “fair name” of the Lord Jesus by which you have been called, is blasphemed. Therefore there is absolutely no reason to look up to them and to approach them obsequiously.
Now read James 2:1-7 again.
Reflection: Do you approach your fellow believers without personal favoritism?
2 Peter 3:14
Chosen to Be Rich in Faith
James 2:1. You have seen in the final verses of the previous chapter that God is a caring Father and that He is light and love. By helping widows and orphans you can show that God is a Father Who looks after those who are deprived of all help. Because God also is light, the command goes together with keeping yourself unstained from the world.
Now to keep you from becoming excessive in your separation from the world and falling into Pharisaism, James presents to you in the first verse of this chapter “the glorious Lord”. He does that in connection to the admonition that there should be no “personal favoritism” with those who believe in our “Lord Jesus Christ”.
James calls the Lord by His full name because he must rail against the great evil in the Christian church regarding giving preferential treatment to certain people, due to their social position. Such a conduct is absolutely in contrast with the Person of Christ and the confession of faith in Him. Partiality is totally strange to Him (Acts 10:34). That is also not the way He dealt with you and me, right?
If you are impressed by socially successful people, people with a high position, and admire them for the nice looking car by which they come to the meeting and the nice clothes they wear for that occasion, then you have not really looked well to ‘the glorious Lord’. What does that entire earthly splendor mean in the light of His glory?
The Lord had glory with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). Also on earth He had glory, not for men (Isaiah 53:2), but for those with faith (John 1:14). This glory radiated through His humble stature. He will have glory when He returns to earth (2 Peter 1:16-17). There is also a glory that is typical of Him and which we will see without taking part of it (John 17:24). He is the center and the radiation of all God’s thoughts and glory (Hebrews 1:3). All glory is in Him.
That glory is in sharp contrast with earthly glory. In the light of the Lord of all glory there is no room for rank or position. Then everything that is attractive to the man of the world shrinks and also the matters that still exert a strong attraction on us as believers, such as wealth, reputation, position and power. Those are all matters that make man blind for true glory and through which he is on his way to hell. We too are inclined to look at the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). Let us bear in mind that what is highly estimated by men is an abomination to God.
By the way, James is not calling for “leveling”, that is, eliminating ranks and classes from the world and making everyone equal. He only wants the differences that exist in social life to play no role among believers in their dealings with one another as believers. In case that happens, he wants this evil to be judged. There are indeed differences among believers that are to be considered in their dealings with one another, such as a difference in age, in gender, in gifts. Those differences were made by the Lord. The differences are not to be played off against one another, but are supposed to be complementary to one another.
James 2:2-3. James calls the evil by its name. He describes how men behave toward a rich man and toward a poor man when they enter the synagogue. Both the way they approach the rich and the way they approach the poor are wrong. It is far below the level of the glory of the Lord in Whom they say they believe. They look up to the rich man, due to his golden rings and his nice clothes and they look down to the shabby clothed poor man. They guide the rich man with a bow to a nice place, and they give the poor man a standing place or a place by their footstool.
James 2:4. With such a behavior they show an arrogance that comes down to playing the role of judge. They have neither authority nor ability for such a way of acting. The distinction they made, they made among themselves, for their own benefit. There is nothing of the Lord in this matter. On the contrary, they act “with evil motives”. Such an evil motive is for example that they try to gain favor with rich people, because that can deliver them profit. They cannot gain any profit with poor people and therefore they do not care about them.
Do you remember what James said about ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’? Was it not that precisely the poor people were to be visited in their affliction? How far away is making this distinction with evil motives from the true religion!
James 2:5. “Listen, my beloved brethren”, James says. In other words: ‘You must listen carefully. You are really my beloved brethren and therefore I tell you how God thinks about the socially deprived people. The poor in the world have priority with Him, they have a special place with Him.’
Paul also says that to the Corinthians, who were also that sensitive to the honor and reputation of the world (1 Corinthians 1:16-28). The fact that God has chosen the poor does not mean that He has chosen them because they have no money, but because they have no rights and because they are dependent on others. With God it is about people who are of no account.
By their being chosen they became rich in faith. To be rich in faith means to be rich in God (Luke 12:21). These riches cannot be expressed in money. Even the world is theirs (1 Corinthians 3:21-23) because they belong to Him Who owns all silver and gold (Haggai 2:8). They still have to wait for taking possession of that until the Lord Jesus comes back.
The Lord Jesus was the poor One par excellence. He was rich, but became poor for our sake, so that we might become rich through His poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9). That poverty was not the feeding trough in which he was laid after His birth and the cloths in which He was wrapped, for that could not possibly make us rich. It was also not His poverty on earth, where He had nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). We have become rich through nothing else than through the poverty of the three hours of darkness on the cross, where He suffered the judgment of God on our sins.
That is also the only ground on which God could have made us “heirs of the kingdom”. When the Lord Jesus comes back to claim His kingdom, then all heirs will share with Him in His kingdom. God has promised that kingdom “to those who love Him”. James connects the promise of the kingdom to loving God.
That kingdom is appreciated only by those who know Who God is in His love. The love for God is present with all who know that God first loved them (1 John 4:19). If you have seen and also experienced that God has loved you, of which the highest proof is the gift of His Son, then there is nothing else left for you than to love Him, isn’t it?
Therefore you as an heir can also look forward to that kingdom. Up to that moment you are able, just like the poor about whom James is talking, to enjoy your spiritual riches. Do you already know something about your riches? They are all included and hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:2-3). It is up to you to dig them up.
In the light of His riches all riches of the world will lose its grip on you. Each investment of time and effort to make the riches of Christ to be your own, will show its efficiency when the Lord Jesus comes back. When you are that rich you will also be able to make other people rich. Then you can be a person of whom Paul says: “As poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
James 2:6. James points out to the readers that they have dishonored the poor by treating them with such disdain. They are blind for what these poor ones mean to God. But also for their conduct toward the rich with whom they love to gain favor, they seem to be blind. What God has done to the poor is in sharp contrast to what the rich had done to the poor.
Just take a good look at what the rich are doing, James says. They oppress you and personally drag you into court. You think it will benefit you if you treat them with honors, but in the meantime you are fleeced by them. These folks are about corpses.
James 2:7. And the worse thing is: through the conduct of the rich the “fair name” of the Lord Jesus by which you have been called, is blasphemed. Therefore there is absolutely no reason to look up to them and to approach them obsequiously.
Now read James 2:1-7 again.
Reflection: Do you approach your fellow believers without personal favoritism?
2 Peter 3:15
Chosen to Be Rich in Faith
James 2:1. You have seen in the final verses of the previous chapter that God is a caring Father and that He is light and love. By helping widows and orphans you can show that God is a Father Who looks after those who are deprived of all help. Because God also is light, the command goes together with keeping yourself unstained from the world.
Now to keep you from becoming excessive in your separation from the world and falling into Pharisaism, James presents to you in the first verse of this chapter “the glorious Lord”. He does that in connection to the admonition that there should be no “personal favoritism” with those who believe in our “Lord Jesus Christ”.
James calls the Lord by His full name because he must rail against the great evil in the Christian church regarding giving preferential treatment to certain people, due to their social position. Such a conduct is absolutely in contrast with the Person of Christ and the confession of faith in Him. Partiality is totally strange to Him (Acts 10:34). That is also not the way He dealt with you and me, right?
If you are impressed by socially successful people, people with a high position, and admire them for the nice looking car by which they come to the meeting and the nice clothes they wear for that occasion, then you have not really looked well to ‘the glorious Lord’. What does that entire earthly splendor mean in the light of His glory?
The Lord had glory with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). Also on earth He had glory, not for men (Isaiah 53:2), but for those with faith (John 1:14). This glory radiated through His humble stature. He will have glory when He returns to earth (2 Peter 1:16-17). There is also a glory that is typical of Him and which we will see without taking part of it (John 17:24). He is the center and the radiation of all God’s thoughts and glory (Hebrews 1:3). All glory is in Him.
That glory is in sharp contrast with earthly glory. In the light of the Lord of all glory there is no room for rank or position. Then everything that is attractive to the man of the world shrinks and also the matters that still exert a strong attraction on us as believers, such as wealth, reputation, position and power. Those are all matters that make man blind for true glory and through which he is on his way to hell. We too are inclined to look at the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). Let us bear in mind that what is highly estimated by men is an abomination to God.
By the way, James is not calling for “leveling”, that is, eliminating ranks and classes from the world and making everyone equal. He only wants the differences that exist in social life to play no role among believers in their dealings with one another as believers. In case that happens, he wants this evil to be judged. There are indeed differences among believers that are to be considered in their dealings with one another, such as a difference in age, in gender, in gifts. Those differences were made by the Lord. The differences are not to be played off against one another, but are supposed to be complementary to one another.
James 2:2-3. James calls the evil by its name. He describes how men behave toward a rich man and toward a poor man when they enter the synagogue. Both the way they approach the rich and the way they approach the poor are wrong. It is far below the level of the glory of the Lord in Whom they say they believe. They look up to the rich man, due to his golden rings and his nice clothes and they look down to the shabby clothed poor man. They guide the rich man with a bow to a nice place, and they give the poor man a standing place or a place by their footstool.
James 2:4. With such a behavior they show an arrogance that comes down to playing the role of judge. They have neither authority nor ability for such a way of acting. The distinction they made, they made among themselves, for their own benefit. There is nothing of the Lord in this matter. On the contrary, they act “with evil motives”. Such an evil motive is for example that they try to gain favor with rich people, because that can deliver them profit. They cannot gain any profit with poor people and therefore they do not care about them.
Do you remember what James said about ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’? Was it not that precisely the poor people were to be visited in their affliction? How far away is making this distinction with evil motives from the true religion!
James 2:5. “Listen, my beloved brethren”, James says. In other words: ‘You must listen carefully. You are really my beloved brethren and therefore I tell you how God thinks about the socially deprived people. The poor in the world have priority with Him, they have a special place with Him.’
Paul also says that to the Corinthians, who were also that sensitive to the honor and reputation of the world (1 Corinthians 1:16-28). The fact that God has chosen the poor does not mean that He has chosen them because they have no money, but because they have no rights and because they are dependent on others. With God it is about people who are of no account.
By their being chosen they became rich in faith. To be rich in faith means to be rich in God (Luke 12:21). These riches cannot be expressed in money. Even the world is theirs (1 Corinthians 3:21-23) because they belong to Him Who owns all silver and gold (Haggai 2:8). They still have to wait for taking possession of that until the Lord Jesus comes back.
The Lord Jesus was the poor One par excellence. He was rich, but became poor for our sake, so that we might become rich through His poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9). That poverty was not the feeding trough in which he was laid after His birth and the cloths in which He was wrapped, for that could not possibly make us rich. It was also not His poverty on earth, where He had nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). We have become rich through nothing else than through the poverty of the three hours of darkness on the cross, where He suffered the judgment of God on our sins.
That is also the only ground on which God could have made us “heirs of the kingdom”. When the Lord Jesus comes back to claim His kingdom, then all heirs will share with Him in His kingdom. God has promised that kingdom “to those who love Him”. James connects the promise of the kingdom to loving God.
That kingdom is appreciated only by those who know Who God is in His love. The love for God is present with all who know that God first loved them (1 John 4:19). If you have seen and also experienced that God has loved you, of which the highest proof is the gift of His Son, then there is nothing else left for you than to love Him, isn’t it?
Therefore you as an heir can also look forward to that kingdom. Up to that moment you are able, just like the poor about whom James is talking, to enjoy your spiritual riches. Do you already know something about your riches? They are all included and hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:2-3). It is up to you to dig them up.
In the light of His riches all riches of the world will lose its grip on you. Each investment of time and effort to make the riches of Christ to be your own, will show its efficiency when the Lord Jesus comes back. When you are that rich you will also be able to make other people rich. Then you can be a person of whom Paul says: “As poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
James 2:6. James points out to the readers that they have dishonored the poor by treating them with such disdain. They are blind for what these poor ones mean to God. But also for their conduct toward the rich with whom they love to gain favor, they seem to be blind. What God has done to the poor is in sharp contrast to what the rich had done to the poor.
Just take a good look at what the rich are doing, James says. They oppress you and personally drag you into court. You think it will benefit you if you treat them with honors, but in the meantime you are fleeced by them. These folks are about corpses.
James 2:7. And the worse thing is: through the conduct of the rich the “fair name” of the Lord Jesus by which you have been called, is blasphemed. Therefore there is absolutely no reason to look up to them and to approach them obsequiously.
Now read James 2:1-7 again.
Reflection: Do you approach your fellow believers without personal favoritism?
2 Peter 3:16
Chosen to Be Rich in Faith
James 2:1. You have seen in the final verses of the previous chapter that God is a caring Father and that He is light and love. By helping widows and orphans you can show that God is a Father Who looks after those who are deprived of all help. Because God also is light, the command goes together with keeping yourself unstained from the world.
Now to keep you from becoming excessive in your separation from the world and falling into Pharisaism, James presents to you in the first verse of this chapter “the glorious Lord”. He does that in connection to the admonition that there should be no “personal favoritism” with those who believe in our “Lord Jesus Christ”.
James calls the Lord by His full name because he must rail against the great evil in the Christian church regarding giving preferential treatment to certain people, due to their social position. Such a conduct is absolutely in contrast with the Person of Christ and the confession of faith in Him. Partiality is totally strange to Him (Acts 10:34). That is also not the way He dealt with you and me, right?
If you are impressed by socially successful people, people with a high position, and admire them for the nice looking car by which they come to the meeting and the nice clothes they wear for that occasion, then you have not really looked well to ‘the glorious Lord’. What does that entire earthly splendor mean in the light of His glory?
The Lord had glory with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). Also on earth He had glory, not for men (Isaiah 53:2), but for those with faith (John 1:14). This glory radiated through His humble stature. He will have glory when He returns to earth (2 Peter 1:16-17). There is also a glory that is typical of Him and which we will see without taking part of it (John 17:24). He is the center and the radiation of all God’s thoughts and glory (Hebrews 1:3). All glory is in Him.
That glory is in sharp contrast with earthly glory. In the light of the Lord of all glory there is no room for rank or position. Then everything that is attractive to the man of the world shrinks and also the matters that still exert a strong attraction on us as believers, such as wealth, reputation, position and power. Those are all matters that make man blind for true glory and through which he is on his way to hell. We too are inclined to look at the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). Let us bear in mind that what is highly estimated by men is an abomination to God.
By the way, James is not calling for “leveling”, that is, eliminating ranks and classes from the world and making everyone equal. He only wants the differences that exist in social life to play no role among believers in their dealings with one another as believers. In case that happens, he wants this evil to be judged. There are indeed differences among believers that are to be considered in their dealings with one another, such as a difference in age, in gender, in gifts. Those differences were made by the Lord. The differences are not to be played off against one another, but are supposed to be complementary to one another.
James 2:2-3. James calls the evil by its name. He describes how men behave toward a rich man and toward a poor man when they enter the synagogue. Both the way they approach the rich and the way they approach the poor are wrong. It is far below the level of the glory of the Lord in Whom they say they believe. They look up to the rich man, due to his golden rings and his nice clothes and they look down to the shabby clothed poor man. They guide the rich man with a bow to a nice place, and they give the poor man a standing place or a place by their footstool.
James 2:4. With such a behavior they show an arrogance that comes down to playing the role of judge. They have neither authority nor ability for such a way of acting. The distinction they made, they made among themselves, for their own benefit. There is nothing of the Lord in this matter. On the contrary, they act “with evil motives”. Such an evil motive is for example that they try to gain favor with rich people, because that can deliver them profit. They cannot gain any profit with poor people and therefore they do not care about them.
Do you remember what James said about ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’? Was it not that precisely the poor people were to be visited in their affliction? How far away is making this distinction with evil motives from the true religion!
James 2:5. “Listen, my beloved brethren”, James says. In other words: ‘You must listen carefully. You are really my beloved brethren and therefore I tell you how God thinks about the socially deprived people. The poor in the world have priority with Him, they have a special place with Him.’
Paul also says that to the Corinthians, who were also that sensitive to the honor and reputation of the world (1 Corinthians 1:16-28). The fact that God has chosen the poor does not mean that He has chosen them because they have no money, but because they have no rights and because they are dependent on others. With God it is about people who are of no account.
By their being chosen they became rich in faith. To be rich in faith means to be rich in God (Luke 12:21). These riches cannot be expressed in money. Even the world is theirs (1 Corinthians 3:21-23) because they belong to Him Who owns all silver and gold (Haggai 2:8). They still have to wait for taking possession of that until the Lord Jesus comes back.
The Lord Jesus was the poor One par excellence. He was rich, but became poor for our sake, so that we might become rich through His poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9). That poverty was not the feeding trough in which he was laid after His birth and the cloths in which He was wrapped, for that could not possibly make us rich. It was also not His poverty on earth, where He had nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). We have become rich through nothing else than through the poverty of the three hours of darkness on the cross, where He suffered the judgment of God on our sins.
That is also the only ground on which God could have made us “heirs of the kingdom”. When the Lord Jesus comes back to claim His kingdom, then all heirs will share with Him in His kingdom. God has promised that kingdom “to those who love Him”. James connects the promise of the kingdom to loving God.
That kingdom is appreciated only by those who know Who God is in His love. The love for God is present with all who know that God first loved them (1 John 4:19). If you have seen and also experienced that God has loved you, of which the highest proof is the gift of His Son, then there is nothing else left for you than to love Him, isn’t it?
Therefore you as an heir can also look forward to that kingdom. Up to that moment you are able, just like the poor about whom James is talking, to enjoy your spiritual riches. Do you already know something about your riches? They are all included and hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:2-3). It is up to you to dig them up.
In the light of His riches all riches of the world will lose its grip on you. Each investment of time and effort to make the riches of Christ to be your own, will show its efficiency when the Lord Jesus comes back. When you are that rich you will also be able to make other people rich. Then you can be a person of whom Paul says: “As poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
James 2:6. James points out to the readers that they have dishonored the poor by treating them with such disdain. They are blind for what these poor ones mean to God. But also for their conduct toward the rich with whom they love to gain favor, they seem to be blind. What God has done to the poor is in sharp contrast to what the rich had done to the poor.
Just take a good look at what the rich are doing, James says. They oppress you and personally drag you into court. You think it will benefit you if you treat them with honors, but in the meantime you are fleeced by them. These folks are about corpses.
James 2:7. And the worse thing is: through the conduct of the rich the “fair name” of the Lord Jesus by which you have been called, is blasphemed. Therefore there is absolutely no reason to look up to them and to approach them obsequiously.
Now read James 2:1-7 again.
Reflection: Do you approach your fellow believers without personal favoritism?
2 Peter 3:17
Chosen to Be Rich in Faith
James 2:1. You have seen in the final verses of the previous chapter that God is a caring Father and that He is light and love. By helping widows and orphans you can show that God is a Father Who looks after those who are deprived of all help. Because God also is light, the command goes together with keeping yourself unstained from the world.
Now to keep you from becoming excessive in your separation from the world and falling into Pharisaism, James presents to you in the first verse of this chapter “the glorious Lord”. He does that in connection to the admonition that there should be no “personal favoritism” with those who believe in our “Lord Jesus Christ”.
James calls the Lord by His full name because he must rail against the great evil in the Christian church regarding giving preferential treatment to certain people, due to their social position. Such a conduct is absolutely in contrast with the Person of Christ and the confession of faith in Him. Partiality is totally strange to Him (Acts 10:34). That is also not the way He dealt with you and me, right?
If you are impressed by socially successful people, people with a high position, and admire them for the nice looking car by which they come to the meeting and the nice clothes they wear for that occasion, then you have not really looked well to ‘the glorious Lord’. What does that entire earthly splendor mean in the light of His glory?
The Lord had glory with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). Also on earth He had glory, not for men (Isaiah 53:2), but for those with faith (John 1:14). This glory radiated through His humble stature. He will have glory when He returns to earth (2 Peter 1:16-17). There is also a glory that is typical of Him and which we will see without taking part of it (John 17:24). He is the center and the radiation of all God’s thoughts and glory (Hebrews 1:3). All glory is in Him.
That glory is in sharp contrast with earthly glory. In the light of the Lord of all glory there is no room for rank or position. Then everything that is attractive to the man of the world shrinks and also the matters that still exert a strong attraction on us as believers, such as wealth, reputation, position and power. Those are all matters that make man blind for true glory and through which he is on his way to hell. We too are inclined to look at the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). Let us bear in mind that what is highly estimated by men is an abomination to God.
By the way, James is not calling for “leveling”, that is, eliminating ranks and classes from the world and making everyone equal. He only wants the differences that exist in social life to play no role among believers in their dealings with one another as believers. In case that happens, he wants this evil to be judged. There are indeed differences among believers that are to be considered in their dealings with one another, such as a difference in age, in gender, in gifts. Those differences were made by the Lord. The differences are not to be played off against one another, but are supposed to be complementary to one another.
James 2:2-3. James calls the evil by its name. He describes how men behave toward a rich man and toward a poor man when they enter the synagogue. Both the way they approach the rich and the way they approach the poor are wrong. It is far below the level of the glory of the Lord in Whom they say they believe. They look up to the rich man, due to his golden rings and his nice clothes and they look down to the shabby clothed poor man. They guide the rich man with a bow to a nice place, and they give the poor man a standing place or a place by their footstool.
James 2:4. With such a behavior they show an arrogance that comes down to playing the role of judge. They have neither authority nor ability for such a way of acting. The distinction they made, they made among themselves, for their own benefit. There is nothing of the Lord in this matter. On the contrary, they act “with evil motives”. Such an evil motive is for example that they try to gain favor with rich people, because that can deliver them profit. They cannot gain any profit with poor people and therefore they do not care about them.
Do you remember what James said about ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’? Was it not that precisely the poor people were to be visited in their affliction? How far away is making this distinction with evil motives from the true religion!
James 2:5. “Listen, my beloved brethren”, James says. In other words: ‘You must listen carefully. You are really my beloved brethren and therefore I tell you how God thinks about the socially deprived people. The poor in the world have priority with Him, they have a special place with Him.’
Paul also says that to the Corinthians, who were also that sensitive to the honor and reputation of the world (1 Corinthians 1:16-28). The fact that God has chosen the poor does not mean that He has chosen them because they have no money, but because they have no rights and because they are dependent on others. With God it is about people who are of no account.
By their being chosen they became rich in faith. To be rich in faith means to be rich in God (Luke 12:21). These riches cannot be expressed in money. Even the world is theirs (1 Corinthians 3:21-23) because they belong to Him Who owns all silver and gold (Haggai 2:8). They still have to wait for taking possession of that until the Lord Jesus comes back.
The Lord Jesus was the poor One par excellence. He was rich, but became poor for our sake, so that we might become rich through His poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9). That poverty was not the feeding trough in which he was laid after His birth and the cloths in which He was wrapped, for that could not possibly make us rich. It was also not His poverty on earth, where He had nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). We have become rich through nothing else than through the poverty of the three hours of darkness on the cross, where He suffered the judgment of God on our sins.
That is also the only ground on which God could have made us “heirs of the kingdom”. When the Lord Jesus comes back to claim His kingdom, then all heirs will share with Him in His kingdom. God has promised that kingdom “to those who love Him”. James connects the promise of the kingdom to loving God.
That kingdom is appreciated only by those who know Who God is in His love. The love for God is present with all who know that God first loved them (1 John 4:19). If you have seen and also experienced that God has loved you, of which the highest proof is the gift of His Son, then there is nothing else left for you than to love Him, isn’t it?
Therefore you as an heir can also look forward to that kingdom. Up to that moment you are able, just like the poor about whom James is talking, to enjoy your spiritual riches. Do you already know something about your riches? They are all included and hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:2-3). It is up to you to dig them up.
In the light of His riches all riches of the world will lose its grip on you. Each investment of time and effort to make the riches of Christ to be your own, will show its efficiency when the Lord Jesus comes back. When you are that rich you will also be able to make other people rich. Then you can be a person of whom Paul says: “As poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
James 2:6. James points out to the readers that they have dishonored the poor by treating them with such disdain. They are blind for what these poor ones mean to God. But also for their conduct toward the rich with whom they love to gain favor, they seem to be blind. What God has done to the poor is in sharp contrast to what the rich had done to the poor.
Just take a good look at what the rich are doing, James says. They oppress you and personally drag you into court. You think it will benefit you if you treat them with honors, but in the meantime you are fleeced by them. These folks are about corpses.
James 2:7. And the worse thing is: through the conduct of the rich the “fair name” of the Lord Jesus by which you have been called, is blasphemed. Therefore there is absolutely no reason to look up to them and to approach them obsequiously.
Now read James 2:1-7 again.
Reflection: Do you approach your fellow believers without personal favoritism?
2 Peter 3:18
Chosen to Be Rich in Faith
James 2:1. You have seen in the final verses of the previous chapter that God is a caring Father and that He is light and love. By helping widows and orphans you can show that God is a Father Who looks after those who are deprived of all help. Because God also is light, the command goes together with keeping yourself unstained from the world.
Now to keep you from becoming excessive in your separation from the world and falling into Pharisaism, James presents to you in the first verse of this chapter “the glorious Lord”. He does that in connection to the admonition that there should be no “personal favoritism” with those who believe in our “Lord Jesus Christ”.
James calls the Lord by His full name because he must rail against the great evil in the Christian church regarding giving preferential treatment to certain people, due to their social position. Such a conduct is absolutely in contrast with the Person of Christ and the confession of faith in Him. Partiality is totally strange to Him (Acts 10:34). That is also not the way He dealt with you and me, right?
If you are impressed by socially successful people, people with a high position, and admire them for the nice looking car by which they come to the meeting and the nice clothes they wear for that occasion, then you have not really looked well to ‘the glorious Lord’. What does that entire earthly splendor mean in the light of His glory?
The Lord had glory with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). Also on earth He had glory, not for men (Isaiah 53:2), but for those with faith (John 1:14). This glory radiated through His humble stature. He will have glory when He returns to earth (2 Peter 1:16-17). There is also a glory that is typical of Him and which we will see without taking part of it (John 17:24). He is the center and the radiation of all God’s thoughts and glory (Hebrews 1:3). All glory is in Him.
That glory is in sharp contrast with earthly glory. In the light of the Lord of all glory there is no room for rank or position. Then everything that is attractive to the man of the world shrinks and also the matters that still exert a strong attraction on us as believers, such as wealth, reputation, position and power. Those are all matters that make man blind for true glory and through which he is on his way to hell. We too are inclined to look at the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). Let us bear in mind that what is highly estimated by men is an abomination to God.
By the way, James is not calling for “leveling”, that is, eliminating ranks and classes from the world and making everyone equal. He only wants the differences that exist in social life to play no role among believers in their dealings with one another as believers. In case that happens, he wants this evil to be judged. There are indeed differences among believers that are to be considered in their dealings with one another, such as a difference in age, in gender, in gifts. Those differences were made by the Lord. The differences are not to be played off against one another, but are supposed to be complementary to one another.
James 2:2-3. James calls the evil by its name. He describes how men behave toward a rich man and toward a poor man when they enter the synagogue. Both the way they approach the rich and the way they approach the poor are wrong. It is far below the level of the glory of the Lord in Whom they say they believe. They look up to the rich man, due to his golden rings and his nice clothes and they look down to the shabby clothed poor man. They guide the rich man with a bow to a nice place, and they give the poor man a standing place or a place by their footstool.
James 2:4. With such a behavior they show an arrogance that comes down to playing the role of judge. They have neither authority nor ability for such a way of acting. The distinction they made, they made among themselves, for their own benefit. There is nothing of the Lord in this matter. On the contrary, they act “with evil motives”. Such an evil motive is for example that they try to gain favor with rich people, because that can deliver them profit. They cannot gain any profit with poor people and therefore they do not care about them.
Do you remember what James said about ‘pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father’? Was it not that precisely the poor people were to be visited in their affliction? How far away is making this distinction with evil motives from the true religion!
James 2:5. “Listen, my beloved brethren”, James says. In other words: ‘You must listen carefully. You are really my beloved brethren and therefore I tell you how God thinks about the socially deprived people. The poor in the world have priority with Him, they have a special place with Him.’
Paul also says that to the Corinthians, who were also that sensitive to the honor and reputation of the world (1 Corinthians 1:16-28). The fact that God has chosen the poor does not mean that He has chosen them because they have no money, but because they have no rights and because they are dependent on others. With God it is about people who are of no account.
By their being chosen they became rich in faith. To be rich in faith means to be rich in God (Luke 12:21). These riches cannot be expressed in money. Even the world is theirs (1 Corinthians 3:21-23) because they belong to Him Who owns all silver and gold (Haggai 2:8). They still have to wait for taking possession of that until the Lord Jesus comes back.
The Lord Jesus was the poor One par excellence. He was rich, but became poor for our sake, so that we might become rich through His poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9). That poverty was not the feeding trough in which he was laid after His birth and the cloths in which He was wrapped, for that could not possibly make us rich. It was also not His poverty on earth, where He had nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). We have become rich through nothing else than through the poverty of the three hours of darkness on the cross, where He suffered the judgment of God on our sins.
That is also the only ground on which God could have made us “heirs of the kingdom”. When the Lord Jesus comes back to claim His kingdom, then all heirs will share with Him in His kingdom. God has promised that kingdom “to those who love Him”. James connects the promise of the kingdom to loving God.
That kingdom is appreciated only by those who know Who God is in His love. The love for God is present with all who know that God first loved them (1 John 4:19). If you have seen and also experienced that God has loved you, of which the highest proof is the gift of His Son, then there is nothing else left for you than to love Him, isn’t it?
Therefore you as an heir can also look forward to that kingdom. Up to that moment you are able, just like the poor about whom James is talking, to enjoy your spiritual riches. Do you already know something about your riches? They are all included and hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:2-3). It is up to you to dig them up.
In the light of His riches all riches of the world will lose its grip on you. Each investment of time and effort to make the riches of Christ to be your own, will show its efficiency when the Lord Jesus comes back. When you are that rich you will also be able to make other people rich. Then you can be a person of whom Paul says: “As poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
James 2:6. James points out to the readers that they have dishonored the poor by treating them with such disdain. They are blind for what these poor ones mean to God. But also for their conduct toward the rich with whom they love to gain favor, they seem to be blind. What God has done to the poor is in sharp contrast to what the rich had done to the poor.
Just take a good look at what the rich are doing, James says. They oppress you and personally drag you into court. You think it will benefit you if you treat them with honors, but in the meantime you are fleeced by them. These folks are about corpses.
James 2:7. And the worse thing is: through the conduct of the rich the “fair name” of the Lord Jesus by which you have been called, is blasphemed. Therefore there is absolutely no reason to look up to them and to approach them obsequiously.
Now read James 2:1-7 again.
Reflection: Do you approach your fellow believers without personal favoritism?