The Word At Work - Faith In Action Series

This week’s devotional was written by the scholarship team at The Bible Project and is entitled, “The Book of James - Guide.” We hope you will be encouraged.

James 1: The Wisdom Jesus Offers

The introductory chapter is designed to sum up the main ideas to the entire book. Chapter 1 is a flowing stream of wise teachings and one-liners that introduce us to all of the keywords and themes that we’ll see in chapters 2-5.

Jacob knows from personal experience that life is hard. After all, he was martyred not long after writing this letter. But he believes that life’s trials and hardships are paradoxical gifts that can produce endurance and shape our character. God can work on us in the midst of suffering to help us become “perfect and complete” (Jas. 1:4). Now, this word “perfect” is important for Jacob, and he repeats it seven times throughout the book (Jas. 1:4; Jas. 1:17; Jas. 1:25; 2:8, 23; 3:2). In biblical Hebrew, the word is tamim, while the Greek is teleios. This word refers to wholeness. In this context, it means living a completely integrated life in which your actions are consistent with the values and beliefs you learned from Jesus. Jacob knows that most of us live as fractured people with large inconsistencies in our character. All of us are more compromised than we’d like to admit, but God is on a mission to restore fractured people and make them whole.

This journey begins with gaining wisdom, and the ability to see hardships through a new perspective (Jas. 1:5-8). God will generously give wisdom to people who ask for it in faith without doubting God’s character. It’s when we realize our humble and frail place before God that we’re forced to choose between anxiety or trust. True wisdom is choosing to believe that God is good despite any circumstances.

In James 1:9-11, Jacob assumes that hard times are often caused by poverty. He urges his audience to try and view this circumstance as a gift that forces us to trust in God alone. Besides, wealth is fleeting and will pass away like wildflowers in the summer heat. When we do fall on hard times (Jas. 1:12-18), we must not accuse God. Rather, we should let our circumstances teach us what Jesus himself taught about God’s character, that the Father is generous, there to meet us in our pain, and trustworthy. This God has given us new birth through Jesus to become new kinds of humans who can face their suffering with total trust in the Father just as Jesus did.

This new humanity is something that we discover when we not only listen to God’s word but actually do what it says (Jas. 1:19-27). Jacob calls God’s word “the perfect Torah of freedom.” He’s referring here to the greatest command of the Torah as interpreted by Jesus (Matt. 22:34-40), in which he freed us to love God and our neighbor. Jacob then shows us practically what that looks like. It means speaking to others in a kind and loving way, serving the poor, and living with wholehearted devotion to God alone.

You can see how this one opening chapter contains all the keywords and ideas that are explored more deeply in the twelve teachings of chapters 2-5. Jacob immersed himself in the teachings of Jesus and the Proverbs, and he’s given us a great gift in this book of his own wisdom. It’s a beautifully crafted punch in the gut for those who want to follow Jesus.