Main Idea
When hardships come, we are graciously given the choice between being formed into Jesus’ image, or choosing sin and rebellion. So Choose Life!
Sermon Notes
Passage
James 1:12-18 (NASB)
12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
13 No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. 17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. 18 In the exercise of His will He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
Verse 12 - The Path of Life
Verse 12 serves as an excellent transition piece.
Sums up verses 2 - 11 and sets up 13 - 27
And in this verse we see the Path of Life
Hardship -> Trials -> Persevere -> Approved -> Life
Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
James is once again picking up the formulas of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5, and the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms and Proverbs.
Blessed means happy or fulfilled
It’s a matter of perspective - of choosing joy regardless of circumstances.
It's not happiness like an emotional high, but rather viewing yourself as fortunate and gifted because of the eternal reality of Christ, and the fact that whatever you are going through in life can help form you into Christ-likeness.
Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
Trials are the external pressures, the challenges and difficulties that afflict us.
We learned that to persevere under trials, we need wisdom, that wisdom is whole-hearted allegiance to God.
That such wisdom is a gift from God and gives us the ability to change our perspective about life.
It allows us to see our earthly status and circumstance as temporary, but our identity in Christ as eternal
To center our confidence in God rather than in changing circumstances.
And that perspective allows us in the midst of trials to
Choose Joy
Remain Faithful
Be Formed
Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
And that formation has a goal - perfection, maturity, completeness.
If we are faithful to God in the midst of the pain, we are being changed and formed into the likeness of King Jesus - the Crucified King and the Suffering Servant.
Just as Jesus was tested and approved by His trials, so we are tested and approved by ours.
Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
And we can trust this process, because God is the Giving God, the Good God who delights in giving us what we need to accomplish His good and pleasing will.
God’s will has not changed since the beginning of Creation
He wants men and women to live with and like Him forever and ever in His good creation.
Our sin and rebellion keeps us from that, but God has rescued and redeemed us through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the reward for those who follow Him is here called the crown of life
Revelation 2:10: Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
The word crown is most likely a reference to the laurel crown or wreath given to winners in the olympic games.
Paul uses this metaphor in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. 25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. So they do it to obtain a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 Therefore I run in such a way as not to run aimlessly; I box in such a way, as to avoid hitting air; 27 but I strictly discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
And there are four other crowns in the NT
An incorruptible crown (1 Cor 9:25),
A crown of rejoicing (1 Thess. 2:19),
A crown of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8),
A crown of glory (1 Pet. 5:4).
Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
The substantive participle “those loving” functions as a synonym for all true believers, showing that God does not promise this crown of life to some elite few who strive harder or succeed better than the rest.
But this also raises a serious question, whether those whose love for God does not permeate their lives ought casually to consider themselves Christians. Loving God should characterize a believer’s entire life.
Verses 13-15 - The Path of Death
In these verses we are going to see the other path: the path of death
Hardship -> Temptation -> Desire -> Sin -> Death
13 No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.
Between verses 12 and 13 James performs another of his lightning changes of direction. In verse 12 he pronounces a blessing on the one who endures (bears up under, perseveres through) trial (peirasmos).
But when we come to the related verb (peirazō), in verse 13, it refers no longer to the outward, circumstantial trial, but to inner enticement to sin: what we speak of as ‘temptation’.
Every trial brings temptation.
Financial difficulty can tempt us to question God’s providence in our lives.
The death of a loved one can tempt us to question God’s love for us.
The suffering of the righteous poor and the ease of the wicked rich can tempt us to question God’s justice, or even his existence.
13 No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.
Genitive reference could be:
Subjective genitive: God is unable to be tempted by evil
Objective genitive: God cannot be tempted to do evil
Other option: God ought not be tested by evil people
Second makes most sense because God cannot be tempted to do evil to us by tempting us
Tempts reflect a gnomic present, by which James asserts that God never tempts his people at any time.
James does not claim that God never allows temptation into our lives, nor does he imply that God never tests his people.
God never tests men with an evil intent, to lead them into sin.
Our God can be turned to in times of temptation, for he does not cause it, James assures us.
C.f. 1 Cor 10:13
13 No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.
Thus we are lured and enticed. The latter word is well translated: it expresses the magnetism of desire, the hypnotic attraction of bait for a hungry beast (deleazō; Cf. 2 Pet. 2:14, 18).
But the former word (exelkomai) means ‘to drag off’ and points to a dominating and directive power within our desires.
13 No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.
James implies that temptation, in and of itself, is not sinful. Only when desire “conceives”—is allowed to produce offspring—does sin come into being. The point is an important one, for some extremely sensitive Christians may feel that the fact of their continuing to experience temptation demonstrates that they are out of fellowship with the Lord.
Verses 16 - 18 - The Giver of Life
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. 17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. 18 In the exercise of His will He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
The Greek words translated “variation” and “turning” often refer to astronomical phenomena in the ancient world, and the earlier reference to God as “the Father of lights” makes it almost certain that this is James’s intention here. “Variation” connotes the orderly and periodic movements of sun, moon, planets, and stars.
“Shadow of turning” should probably be taken to mean, as NRSV renders, “shadow due to change” (taking tropēs as a genitive of source).
James is not writing a scientific treatise but is using general language about the constant motion of the heavenly bodies to make a point about God: he does not change like the heavens do
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. 17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. 18 In the exercise of His will He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
And since those to whom God gives birth are called the “firstfruits,” what they have experienced must be a foretaste of what all of creation has experienced.
But James could also be referring to God’s redemptive work rather than his creative work.
Donald Verseput has pointed out that v. 17, with its language of God as “the Father of lights,” may echo the Jewish morning prayer, a prayer that moves directly from acknowledging God as creator of the heavenly lights to God as redeemer of his people.55
“Firstfruits” is a customary way of denoting Christians in the NT (see especially 2 Thess. 2:13; Rev. 14:4; and also Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:15).
James, therefore, appeals to the “new birth” of Christians as a striking example of God’s good and faithful giving.
God’s grace has been extended through the gospel to people so as to bring into existence a foretaste, or down payment (“firstfruits”), of a redemptive plan that will eventually encompass all of creation
James is here drawing on an Old Testament regulation which required the presentation to the Lord of the first of the crop.
Three ideas found their focus in this offering:
(i) out of all that belonged to the Lord, this was specially his; the rest remained to be used in the ordinary purposes of life;
(ii) the first-fruits had to be the best, and were set apart as holy to the Lord;
(iii) the offering of the first-fruits was an annual reminder that the Lord keeps his promises to his people, bringing them from slavery, giving them a homeland, providing for them in it.
We can now easily see why James can speak of the church as the Lord’s first-fruits.
The Lord brings people to the new birth to be a demonstration to all that he keeps his promises (in this case, the covenant promise to take and keep a world-wide people for himself); the people who are the first-fruits are specially for him, and notably holy.6
Application
Choose Life!
The two paths are clear parallels:Hardship -> Trials -> Perseverance -> Approval -> LifeHardship -> Temptation -> Desire -> Sin -> Death
At each stage, even if we failed before, God gives us the ability to choose!
When faced with hardship we can choose our perception
When faced with temptation we can choose to flee
When faced with desire we can choose discipline
When faced with sin we can choose repentance
The idea of two paths is not new
Moses to Israel - Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Jesus in Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 7:13-14
Paul contrasts the life in the Spirit and the life in the flesh - Romans 8
By the grace of God, through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, we are given the choice - so every moment of every day, choose life!
Love God
To love God is to obey Him - John 14:21; 2 John 1:6
Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 5:43-48: 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
First time/Millionth time
It is only when our love for God outweighs our love for our pleasures that we truly overcome our temptations.
Be The Firstfruits of Eternity
For those of us who claim the name of Jesus, we are given a HIGH calling.
Demonstrate the life of Christ to a world that needs it - 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Fruit of the Spirit - Galatians 5:22-23
Fruit of the Flesh - Galatians 5:19-21
If all someone had to know what Jesus and His Kingdom was like was your life, would they want it?
Pray with me.
Resources Used
Barclay, William. The Letters of James and Peter. The Daily Study Bible. Rev. ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003.
Blomberg, Craig L., and Mariam J. Kamell. James. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008.
Bray, Gerald L., ed. James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, Jude. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament XI. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
Moo, Douglas J. The Letter of James. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000. (Digital edition)
Motyer, J. Alec. The Message of James. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1985. (Digital edition)
Wright, N. T. The Early Christian Letters for Everyone: James, Peter, John, and Jude. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2011.
Wright, N. T., and Michael F. Bird. The New Testament in Its World. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2019.