James I, Wisdom In Asking

One of the difficult ideas to get across to many people is the

5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom,

James gives two types of people. Those who have wisdom, and those who don’t. Anyone with any ounce of self-reflection knows where he is. All of us fall into the camp of lacking wisdom. The question is, why mention this here? What in the preceeding verses causes James to pen this down?

James is after Chirstians growing. This is how to starts his letter. Consider it all joy when your life gets difficult and your virtue is tested. Only a person so focused on growing would consider the troubles of life as a joyous thing. Most of us wish all our troubles would just go away. Most of us spend a lot of time thinking about how to get rid or avoid the troubles of our own lives. James, though, thanks the Lord when the car doesn’t start. When the road is full of those who cannot drive and he’ll be 20 minutes late because I-25 is backed up. James rejoices when God allows his earthy comforts to be removed.

Why? Because James is after something so sweet; something so special he views hard tasks as good things. James knows, when properly done, on the other side of any trial is perfection or maturity. It is hard to translate this word telos. The word can be tranlated as mature, or perfect. A way to understand is: telos is when a thing is doing what is was made for. A bouncing rubber ball is at its telos when? When it is being bounced by a young child. A kitchen knife is at its telos when? When it is cutting vetables, meats, fruits, or bread. When does a human reach his telos?

I believe this is the question of the book. That question stated differently is: What is a pure, unleaded, Christian like? But more importantly, how does one become a pure, unleaded, Christian?

So far, he’s said, we come whole or mature or perfect by letting perseverance have its perfect work. Next we come to his second aspect of wholeness. A complete, and total reliance of God. What does that look like? Like this: if anyone lack wisdom, he should ask God.

he should ask God,

This is reliance on God. This is praying to your Father before all else.

If one lacks wisdom, go to God first. I believe this practice commened by James needs to be in the back of our minds through out the rest of the book. There are hard parts of James. After you read Chapter 3 all at once, you may feel like you should never say a word again. Chapter 3 is all about the problems and sins of the tongue. There are many. After reading it, it is hard to think it is even worthing using it in the first place. Maybe it is better to live in silence. But we cannot go through life like that. What I believe the answer to Chapter 3 is, is praying to God for wisdom to use the tongue.

When we encounter trials in our lives, our first response is to go to God our Father first. This is the act of a mature Christian. This is one who relies on God.

who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

We are about to get a wonderful teaching of the New Testament about the nature of God. Jesus often commented about it, it is the earnestness of God’s care. God does not give under compulsion.

Matthew 7:7-11 Ephesians 1:9 Romans 8:32 Psalm 84:11

God is a gift-giver. It is part of his nature. He loves to give gifts to his children. In fact in the Greek the word for Grace and Gift are the same thing: charis. So when you and I speak of the grace of God, we are speaking of the gift of God.

Your version my say “liberally” instead of “generously”. Now this word, hapl’os is somewhat difficult to translate. Don’t worry, I am going to make a point getting into the greek here. The word is difficult because it only occurs here in the Greek New Testament. It’s adverbial form is mention 2 places, paralell passages in Matthew and Luke: Matthew 6:22 and Luke 11:34. Hopefully as I show you thing you’ll begin to connect the dots before I say it. In Matthew 6:22 and Luke 11:34, Jesus is talking about the eye being the lamp of the body. He says if your eye is clear, then your whole body is full of light. That word clear has the same root word for our word in James 1:5. Does that help? Not really. Unless you read it in the KJV. There it reads, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” A very wooden way to phrase that, but it does give us a clue to James’ rhetoric. Look at verse 5 again: who gives generously, or liberally, or singlely. Probably need a better word. How about who gives single-mindedly?

Going back through the passages we were just looking at in Matthew 7, Ephesians 1, Romans 8, and Psalm 84, reaffirm God’s single-minded giving to those in Christ.

Now it’s wonderful to know God gives generously or liberally, but James is saying here is God gives single-mindedly. His upmost attention. His great desire is to give to his children good gifts.

There is an intensity there that most of our English translations don’t capture.

All of this to make this point: God loves to give you gifts. He in so focused on this. Is it easier to pray when you know God gives generously? It is easier to pray when you know God gives liberally? It is easier to pray when you know God gives single-mindedly?

Ask for Wisdom. God will give it to you

6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

Because God gives, single-mindedly, we must not ask in disbelief. In verse 8 he will use the word double-minded. See the connection? God gives single-mindedly, so do not dishonor him by asking with doubt in your heart. This is an unstable person. When things are good, he praises God. When things bad, he questions God.

This is the opposite of what James wants from believers. Like the very nature of God, James desires believers to resolute in their prayers.

7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

In verse 7, James warns us against anything less than full belief. Why is that so important? Why should we not expect to recieve anything is we have doubt in our hearts? Well, first, because withouth a pure, single-minded fear of the Lord, how can you hope to gain wisdom? There are some whose belief is not full or singular.

If Christianity were antibiotics, some people stop taking it before the full course. They have enough Christianity to make themselves miserable.

Soren Kierkegaard spoke on the importance of the taking the full does, being a beliver fully. He wrote:

Imagine a kind of medicine that possesses in full dosage a laxative effect but in a half dose a constipating effect.

Suppose someone is suffering from constipation. But – for some reason or other, perhaps because there is not enough for a full dose or because it is feared that such a large amount might be too much – in order to do something, he is given, with the best of intentions, a half dose: “After all, it is at least something.”

What a tragedy!

So it is with today’s Christianity. The half has the very opposite effect from the whole. But we Christians go right on practicing this well-intentioned half-hearted act from generation to generation. We produce Christians by the millions, are proud of it – yet have no inkling that we are doing just exactly the opposite of what we intend to do.

HE THEN GOES ON TO SAY:

The greatest danger to Christianity is, I contend, not heresies, heterodoxies, not atheists, not profane secularism – no, but the kind of orthodoxy which is cordial drivel, mediocrity served up sweet. There is nothing that so insidiously displaces the majestic as cordiality.

Cordiality means “warm and friendly.” Kiekegaard wants us to see that there is great danger is holding something back without walk with God.

A similar metaphor is a person who doesn’t take the full dose of antibiotics.

Doctors are adament about taking the full dose of antibiotics, taking it for 7-10 days. If you just take a half-dose, even if you feel better, but what could happen?

MRSA - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

A bactirial infection that is resistant to antibiotics. This is worse than the prior disease.

8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

At the end of day, to be double-minded man is man who tries to walk two paths, one foot in both.

It is time to take the full dose of Christianity.

It is time to be earnest in seeking the father for wisdom.

It is time to accept that God gives us trials to test and grow us into mature Christians.