James wastes no time. His first chapter tells scattered, suffering believers to count their trials as joy, to ask God for wisdom without doubting, to understand where temptation really comes from, and to receive God’s word with meekness. Then comes the line that sums up his whole letter: “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.” Real religion, James says, is visible: it bridles the tongue, cares for orphans and widows, and keeps itself unspotted from the world.
A study in James 1 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 17 min read
Count It All Joy
“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
James 1:1-4
James could have introduced himself as the brother of Jesus. Instead he calls himself “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The One he had grown up with, and once doubted (John 7:5), he now calls Lord.
He writes “to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,” Jewish believers dispersed among the nations, many of them poor and oppressed. And his first word to them is startling: “count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.” “Temptations” here means trials of every kind. James does not say trials are pleasant. He says they are purposeful: “the trying of your faith worketh patience.” Faith tested is faith strengthened, the way metal is proved in the fire. And patience, allowed to finish its work, makes us “perfect and entire, wanting nothing” — mature and complete.
If Any Of You Lack Wisdom
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
James 1:5-8
In the middle of trials, what we need most is wisdom: to understand what God is doing, and how to respond. So ask. God “giveth to all men liberally,” generously, “and upbraideth not.” He does not scold us for asking, or remind us of how often we have asked before.
“The God whom we serve is no respecter of persons. He who gave to Solomon the spirit of wise discernment is willing to impart the same blessing to His children today. ‘If any of you lack wisdom,’ His word declares, ‘let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’ James 1:5. When a burden bearer desires wisdom more than he desires wealth, power, or fame, he will not be disappointed.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 31
But ask “in faith, nothing wavering.” The waverer is like a wave, pushed this way and that by every wind. He is “double minded” — literally “two-souled” — wanting God’s way and his own at the same time.
“But His promise is only to those who are willing to follow the Lord wholly. God does not force the will of any; hence He cannot lead those who are too proud to be taught, who are bent upon having their own way.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 384
“Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”
James 1:9-12
God turns the world’s values upside down. The poor believer should rejoice in his high standing as a child of God. The rich believer should rejoice in being brought low, learning that his wealth is as temporary as a wildflower in the desert sun. And whoever “endureth temptation” — whoever holds on through the trial — “shall receive the crown of life.”
Drawn Away Of His Own Lust
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
James 1:13-18
Trials come from God’s permission and serve His purposes. But the pull toward sin does not come from Him. “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.” Ever since Adam blamed “the woman whom thou gavest to be with me” (Genesis 3:12), people have tried to shift the blame for sin onto God.
“Temptation is enticement to sin, and this does not proceed from God, but from Satan and from the evil of our own hearts. ‘God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth no man.’ James 1:13, R.V. Satan seeks to bring us into temptation, that the evil of our characters may be revealed before men and angels, that he may claim us as his own.”
Ellen G. White · Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 116
James describes how sin grows, in the language of birth. Desire entices like bait on a hook. When desire “hath conceived,” it gives birth to sin. And sin, “when it is finished,” fully grown, “bringeth forth death.” Death is not an arbitrary penalty tacked onto sin; it is where sin naturally leads.
God gives the opposite: “Every good gift and every perfect gift.” He is “the Father of lights,” the Creator of the sun and stars. But unlike the heavenly lights, which move and change and cast shifting shadows, God has “no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” And the best gift of all is the new birth: “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.”
Doers Of The Word
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
James 1:19-25
“Swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” Most of us have those backwards. And “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” — human anger, even in a good cause, never produces the kind of life God wants.
Then the heart of the chapter: “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” It is possible to hear sermons, read the Bible and agree with every word, and still be deceived, because none of it has changed the way we live.
James’s picture is a mirror. A man glances at his reflection, sees that his face is dirty, walks away and forgets. The mirror has done its job; he has not. And the mirror, James says, is “the perfect law of liberty.” God’s law shows us what we really look like. It cannot wash our faces — only Christ can cleanse us — but it shows us that we need washing.
Why “the law of liberty”? Because it is not a burden. It is the law that describes a free life, free from the slavery of sin. And James is not speaking of some new, vague law of love that replaced the Ten Commandments. In the next chapter he quotes two of them by name.
“The apostle James, who wrote after the death of Christ, refers to the Decalogue as ‘the royal law’ and ‘the perfect law of liberty.’ James 2:8; 1:25.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 466
Pure Religion And Undefiled
“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
James 1:26-27
“Religion” here means religious practice, the outward expression of faith. Some people “seem to be religious,” but their tongues are out of control. Their religion is “vain,” empty. James will come back to the tongue in chapter 3.
What does true religion look like? Two things. Outwardly, practical compassion: to “visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,” the most vulnerable people in that society. Inwardly, personal purity: to keep oneself “unspotted from the world.” Love for others and holiness before God, together.
“In placing among them the helpless and the poor, to be dependent upon their care, Christ tests His professed followers. By our love and service for His needy children we prove the genuineness of our love for Him. To neglect them is to declare ourselves false disciples, strangers to Christ and His love.”
Ellen G. White · The Ministry of Healing, p. 205
So James’s first chapter leaves us with a searching question. We have heard the word. Are we doing it?
