Bible Study on James 3, verses 13 to 18, the wisdom that is from above is first pure

 

James 3:13 ¶  Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14  But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15  This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16  For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

 

True wisdom, James says, is evidenced by good behavior as communications here is linked with works and meekness, not putting on airs that you know more than you do. Bitterness, envying, and strife contradict such wisdom. The sensual, devilish, as James puts it, wisdom from below fulfills itself in envying and strife in the assembly, which is confusion and just plain malicious and wicked and leads to other very bad things.

 

God’s wisdom, on the other hand, is peaceable and gentle and the person who possesses it is reachable and can be talked to about disagreements, is filled with mercy and beneficial actions, no preference of one opinion or person over another and without hypocrisy. The peacemaker in the assembly plants peace and God’s righteousness is on that person who makes peace.

 

These are powerful statements from James about what we say and our behavior within the church. What is your church like? What are you like within the church?

 

Bible Study on Genesis 20, verses 3 to 7, God came to Abimelech in a dream by night

 

Genesis 20:3 ¶  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. 4  But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? 5  Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. 6  And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. 7  Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

There are other times that God speaks to men in dreams as to Jacob, Laban the Syrian, to Joseph, etc.

Abimelech is not the sort of man that the previous Pharaoh that Abram and Sarai encountered was. God dealt with that Pharaoh by visiting sickness on his house to cause him to bring no shame on Sarai/Sarah while God kept Abimelech’s household from conceiving as revealed later in verse 18. But, Abraham has misjudged Abimelech. God reveals to us that this king has integrity and wants to do right. He had not touched Sarah and truly thought she was Abraham’s sister. So, God moved in him to prevent him from having any relations with her. It was God who prevented this sin of ignorance that was possible but not completed.

God made provision for dealing with sins of ignorance, just not realizing what you were doing, in the Law given to Moses. You can read examples of this in the context of Leviticus, chapter 4, for example. But God does restrain us from following our “natural” impulses at times, our desires, as He did when he kept David and his men from killing, as Abigail believed, even though David considered it and felt justified by Nabal’s treatment of him and his men.

1Samuel 25:26  Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

God has restrained you from doing things that you thought were the right thing to do because you didn’t have all of the facts. How often have you thanked Him for that mercy? You have held your tongue when you really wanted to blast someone with your words only to find out that you were operating off incomplete understanding. We should always be careful and not to repeat the errors of Job’s friends in assuming we have knowledge we do not. A friend may get a serious illness, lose their job, have marital difficulties, or have a rebellious child and you assume there must be some secret sin in their life that they are being judged for but, if God is merciful to you, you managed to refrain from the evil of misrepresenting God and telling your friend what you think before you have all the facts. Of course, you may never have all of the facts so it is a good idea just to shut up and minister to your friend in their grief.

But, remember, as here, you may have some difficulty related to your intention to shoot your mouth off and hurt your friend. Think about what God is telling you. Abimelech’s household were having some problems with Sarah around. Something wasn’t right. Before God’s dream came to the king came the problem with conceiving. As you were intending to speak out of turn someone was saying things about you they had no knowledge of and this should have been a warning as God eventually prevented you from damaging your relationship with your friend. To see how God works in our lives we have to be sensitive to His guidance. This is very hard for you if you have adopted the modern sense of God not participating in your life on a moment by moment basis.

My problem has always been about assuming I knew someone’s intentions and motives when I did not. If that is your problem have you found yourself on the receiving end of someone accusing you of motives that you did not have as you contemplated the same error on someone else, even the same person? Did God prevent you from speaking your mind or, perhaps, did you not speak your mind in this instance and not realize that God had prevented you?

Think about when you don’t say something, did you really prevent yourself?

In God’s warning to Abimelech He refers to Abraham as a prophet. As Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 heads of the tribes of Israel, and Israel itself went about doing God’s will, even if they had to be steered by God because of their stubbornness in not completely trusting and doing things their own way they received God’s protection.

Psalm 105:8 ¶  He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. 9  Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; 10  And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: 11  Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: 12  When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. 13  When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; 14  He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; 15  Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Bible Study on James 3, verses 1 to 12, the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity

 

James 3:1 ¶  My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. 2  For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 3  Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. 4  Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. 5  Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 6  And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 7  For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: 8  But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9  Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 10  Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11  Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? 12  Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

 

Masters in this context are teachers.

 

Malachi 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.

 

Matthew 23:8  But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. (A Rabbi is a teacher.)

 

Teachers must be careful of what they say and how they handle God’s word. In fact, this whole passage warns us of how powerful our speech is to uplift or to condemn. Our speech shows others what we are just as the fruit we display tells others what kind of a metaphorical tree we are. See Galatians 5 and the fruit of the Spirit. Does your speech reflect this?

 

Galatians 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

 

Pastors and teachers are set to a higher standard in that they have the ear of many rather than just musing on their own but we all are teachers to our children and to the new Christian and the unsaved. What proceeds out of our mouths must count for something which is why I have much trouble when people ask me off the cuff questions about the Bible and I haven’t had time to think and pray about them and study. “What do you think about this, Fred?” seems like an invitation for me to step into a minefield that has already blown off the legs of many others so if I look at you strangely when you ask me a question don’t be offended. It is terror welling up inside me.

 

Ephesians 4:29  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

 

Colossians 4:6  Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

Bible Study on Genesis 20, verses 1 and 2, Abraham surrenders Sarah to save himself

 

Genesis 20:1 ¶  And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. 2  And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

As proof that Sarah was still desirable to look at in an age where people lived longer and were more youthful looking longer and as further evidence of the customs of the time, the king of Gerar places Sarah in his harem. Abraham repeats his same, what we would call today cowardice, practice as in chapter 12 in Egypt in protecting himself from possible murder but not his wife from this humiliation.

This shows us the dangers of travel in those days particularly if you had a wife other men might desire. Abimelech king of Gerar is used here as Pharaoh king of Egypt is used in 41:46 and in other verses. The question then arises as to whether or not Abimelech is a Philistine title for a king or whether it is a name. Isaac will repeat this behavior in a few chapters and dwell in this same city for a time. In 26:8 this king of Gerar is called the king of the Philistines.

We see two characteristics of life in the ancient world. One, the molestation of visitors to a city as revealed in the story of Sodom and later in Judges 19 and, two, how ancient kings might forcibly take a man’s wife and kill him if they felt like it.

This also shows us the political powerlessness of women, used without their consent as commodities, sexual resources, or just instruments to produce progeny. The woman had no right to say no to any of this. Her value was in her usefulness to men, much like a farm animal, modified only by affection and a sense of moral custom. But, when God’s directive will was involved, by these cultural practices, women in the Bible were blessed by being part of God’s plan of producing the line that He came to earth through in His work of reconciliation of man to Himself. A woman’s lot in life, based on the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin and man’s prevailing cultural custom, was ameliorated only by the affection her husband might have toward her and the love of and for her children, sons of which might care for her in her old age if  She was widowed.

Keep in mind again that man invents culture and civilization and God permits him to do so by God’s permissive will. God alters and modifies to lead man’s effort to an end He has ordained. Imagine that while slave ships and ships for conquest went out a couple of hundred years ago missionaries went out as well. And while many missionaries were simply instruments of the conquering country or institutional church a minority simply went out as God’s instruments to save souls. We need to reorder history in our minds to see how God intervenes and directs. When you include God’s actions in the course of history and cease thinking of Him as simply a first cause or standing on the sidelines waiting for a prayer you get a different picture of history. Of course, you get a different picture of everything from biology to literature if you haven’t accepted the mental condition of modernity that removes God from every equation.

Bible Study on James 2, verses 14 to 26, faith without works is dead

 

James 2:14 ¶  What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15  If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16  And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18  Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21  Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22  Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23  And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24  Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25  Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

This peculiar phrasing for verse 14 seems to ask a question about salvation by faith alone that requires a no answer. However, James is focused on the practical putting flesh on one’s faith, so to speak. It is so, as James points out, that if you talk the talk you need to walk the walk. A statement of faith without any expression of it in obedience to Christ in following His example is an empty thing.

Yes, Christ did say this.

John 6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Lest we be confused or think that our faith needs no action behind it we are told.

Ephesians 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

So that the following proofs or fruits of one having the Spirit of God and Christ indwelling them are not just what you think inwardly but how you express them outwardly.

Galatians 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

And so our love is expressed to our fellow Christians, defined in the Bible as charity, or love expressed between Christians.

1Corinthians 13:1 ¶  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 

4 ¶  Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5  Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6  Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 

8 ¶  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

In a country that prides itself on providing welfare for individuals suffering from want by government and private charity we find it hard to understand how the early church cared for its poorer members. But even with government welfare and places to get a hot meal provided by private charities there is no excuse today for a church to have senior citizens who cannot pay their heating bills or eat a proper diet due to their poverty. Do we even know if someone is suffering? Do we care?

 

James points out that words without works are useless, dead things. To express a desire that someone in the congregation get what they need without an intent to provide it is a vain and shallow expression of faith. It is, in fact, dead.

 

He says dramatically that he will show you his faith by his works and that faith without works is dead. This does not promote a works to salvation religion but a works after salvation as evidence of your faith. Again to repeat this verse that Paul said shows that there is no contradiction here between James and Paul.

 

Ephesians 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

We aren’t even talking about poverty created by alcoholism or drug addiction. We’re talking about working-class people who have worked hard all their healthy lives only to be reduced to poverty and sickness at the end who need help. Not everyone has a pension to support them from their employer and Social Security benefits are only designed to provide 40% of what you need. Look around you. Stop saying, “I hope you’re doing well,” and find out how you can help them do better.

 

Just saying you believe in God puts you in some bad company because the devils also believe. There is more to faith than mere words. True faith always has some skin on it if the person having the faith is not helplessly ill. Abraham and Rahab believed God but they did something as a consequence of their belief. It wouldn’t have been the same if they said they believed God and then refused to obey Him, now would it?

A Psalm for Sunday, Psalm 58, He is a God that judgeth in the earth

 

Psalm 58:1 ¶  «To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David.» Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? 2  Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. 3  The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 4  Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; 5  Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

 

David is asking a question sarcastically it would seem. Do the people indeed judge in a righteous manner? Are not their hearts filled with sin?

 

We’ve expressed this sentiment in our hearts about people who act like they were born bad. In fact, our modern culture almost uplifts and praises those who act that way.

 

Isaiah 48:8  Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

 

I have read that the ancients, particularly the Romans, regarded a child’s personality as indicative of how they would turn out as an adult. If they were a bad child they most likely would be a rotten adult.

 

Ecclesiastes 10:11  Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.

 

The wicked are like a serpent who will not listen to the snake-charmer. We can look at India today to see those men who seem to mesmerize a snake. But the people that David is referring to will not listen to the charmer.

 

The words of the wicked are likened to the bite of a venomous snake in several places.

 

Psalm 5:9  For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

 

Psalm 140:3  They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.

 

Which the Holy Spirit through Paul quotes;

 

Romans 3:13  Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

 

In fact, the tongue itself is a dangerous thing for all of us.

 

James 3:8  But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

 

Could this perhaps be one of the attributes of the Beast of Revelation, popularly called the Antichrist?

 

Psalm 58:6 ¶  Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD. 7  Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. 8  As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. 9  Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. 10  The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11  So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

 

Consider some cross-references from Job as a similar sentiment here in verse 6. Saul is the old lion and his followers are the young lions, probably.

 

Job 4:10  The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken. 11  The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad.

 

Job 29:17  And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

 

David calls on God to take away the ability of his enemies to hurt him. He wants them discouraged and destroyed, taken like a miscarriage or as a snail that has had salt applied to it making it die looking like it is melting.

 

For verse 9 see this verse in Ecclesiates.

 

Ecclesiastes 7:6  For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.

 

Dry thorns would burn quickly but he wishes the wicked would be taken away faster than the pot can feel the heat of burning thorns. In their health and full-strength David wishes them taken away.

 

David yearns to see the destruction of the wicked, those who oppress him, but wants God to make it happen.

 

We can imagine this prayer made by some of the followers of Christ in the Tribulation. We can imagine this prayer to have their persecutors destroyed by God. When we think of the Holocaust most people picture the Germans and their camps like Auschwitz. However, it was not just them. Ordinary people in every country in Europe murdered their Jewish neighbors or turned them over to be murdered. In shock, many of the Jews walked submissively to their deaths. It would not be hard to imagine praying for God to destroy these beasts Himself before they could do their will. There are people today who persecute and murder Christians around the world. We should pray for their repentance and conversion to Christ but our hearts want to pray for their destruction before they can do their evil deeds. Still, though, the evil that men are is revealed by the evil that men do. We must take an eternal perspective and know that we will be vindicated in eternity with our Creator. Let us remember the words of Christ Himself.

 

Matthew 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

 

Bible Study on James 2, verses 8 to 13, the power of mercy

 

James 2:8 ¶  If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: 9  But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. 10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 11  For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. 12  So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. 13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

James calls the second of the most important laws that Jesus Himself underscored the royal law, the law of Christ, as John Gill noted.

Matthew 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38  This is the first and great commandment. 39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

James warns them and us not to elevate the rich above the poor in regard to their standing in Christ.

Leviticus 19:15  Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.

To break only one commandment is to break all of them, James insists. This is further evidence of the need for Christ as we will all break one of God’s commands from the Law given to Moses regularly, I suspect. Without Christ we are helpless and hopeless before a Holy God. We should act as we should, under Grace, in keeping with our position before God.

He gives a warning that if you expect mercy you better show mercy and God’s mercy is greater than judgment and our mercy is more important than our judgment. I can see the truth of this as we are all worthy of God’s condemnation and those who are His are blessed by His grace and mercy.

Clearly in the churches James was referring to there was this duplication of the social statuses of the world at large, which the Holy Spirit, through James, is telling us not to permit within the church. I would put forth things as objected to by God such as the old habit of having a prominent pew with a plaque denoting the names of rich donors who had provided it. I’ve seen that in old churches. It is suspect, to say the least. Such distinctions have no place in the church.