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pray that your Holy Spirit would settle our minds and clear them and help us to read your word
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to Revere it to wrestle with it to seek to seek the wisdom that James reminds us that we
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have such need of and that you are so willing to give and we do pray that you would bless our time together that it might be pleasing in your sight
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that it might be for the building up of the church the body of Christ for it is in his name that we ask this
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so this evening we're moving to the the next the next kind of category um if if you remember the little chart uh the little chiastic outline that
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I put together in one of the early weeks but also again each week I remind you that there's there's nothing dogmatic about this outline I do not believe for
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a moment that James wrote it out before he wrote his letter it's really as I said it's it's more to help me organize my thoughts as as I view James
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as a much more rabbinic writing than than the other books of the Bible and um having opportunity over the years not not cover to cover by any means but just
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reading the mishnah and and you know yeah just the the rapid fire seeming change of sometimes I wonder because the mishnah is broken up
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into actual books and those books are are they're supposed to deal with a topic the Sabbath for example then you read within that chapter it's like what does
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this have to do you know I guess they had to put it somewhere and there are people who think that that's the way James is with what he has to say well you got to put it somewhere uh almost a
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stream of Consciousness type of writing but I don't think that's the case and I do think that what we're dealing with here is much more of a tapestry than it is a letter that the themes that are there are woven
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interwoven in each other so that you'll be reading about Temptation and trial and endurance and in comes the tongue you know because that's obviously another major theme or thread in in this
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book so the the point of the chiastic structure is is simply to provide a some structure some structure acknowledging that this is as as all
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commentators do this is a very difficult book to outline and in fact when I've looked at the commentators and I've looked at their outline none of them agree and all of them leave me wondering well
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how'd you how'd you get that it it it's like you're forcing it into a a linear type of outline is what they're trying to do okay progressing to a conclusion
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when in fact the conclusion is probably at the very beginning that the Perfection of your faith might be manifested through your endurance okay so
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okay so um anyhow um anyhow looking at then worldliness and True Religion which is kind of the Counterpoint to Temptations and trials and endurance
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because what we're dealing with is the Christian Living in the world the diaspora Jewish Believers that he's writing to are definitely
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undergoing a great deal of Trials and temptations having been scattered from their homes their homes what we're going to find out as we continue to read that many of these trials indentations are actually within
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the community itself that the problems are not necessarily anymore necessarily anymore from external persecution that there's favoritism there's
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oppression within the body and that shouldn't surprise us because we see it in Corinth it's alluded to in Romans 14 okay that that disharmony within the body is is
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not uncommon Paul writes to the Galatians um you know a very
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but you know things were no more harmonious in the first century than they are many times today but in Galatians 5 15 he says but if you bite
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and devour one another take care lest you be consumed by one another so um that's not unlike what we're going to read in James the struggles that were going on inside
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the church the church but James as we've noted before James focuses more on
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living the life or as they say walking the walk rather than talking The Talk it's not to say that his theology is in any way wrong it's just not as obtrusive as Paul's
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what's called orthopraxy you're probably familiar with the word Orthodoxy right belief orthopraxy is Right practice of course you're all familiar with orthodontists you know
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straight teeth so straight belief is Orthodoxy straight practice orthopraxy and I think it's fairly obvious that James's emphasis is
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on how we live out our faith not so much the content of it that is I think largely presumed
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but then alluded to in some very key passages especially chapter two so
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without abandoning Orthodoxy and that has been a struggle with the church for 2000 years the church has has swung pendulum-like between an emphasis on Doctrine
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to the point where Doctrine is what matters and the church clearly loses sight of its purpose and its its living and then
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there is a reaction and you see the pendulum swing back towards orthopraxy problem is both extremes are are wrong they're they're an unhealthy imbalance
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between the two and I think James like all the writers of scripture are trying to uh is trying to bring a proper balance someone like the prophet Malachi
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uh in in Malachi we re we read the the prophetic really condemnation
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of the people of Israel after the exile but within the midst of that he he says um you know basically remember Moses
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again let me let me read it and not misquote it misquote it the point being that at no time does any really any really any prophetic word from the Bible abandon
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sound Doctrine verse 4 of chapter four in Malachi almost the you know the end the closing of the old Canon remember the law of Moses my servant even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Orab
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for all of Israel okay I mean yeah that's not that's not really been the thrust of Malachi's message but orthopraxy without Orthodoxy or
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Orthodoxy without orthopraxy they're both wrong both wrong and I wouldn't want to make a judgment as to which one's more wrong okay so James is focusing then
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on orthopraxy but what I want to point out just briefly in kind of summary
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even though he's talking about trials and tribulations he really does seem to be limiting the scope or the venue of these struggles
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to two particular locations the the location or the uh the the venue
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trial now we look at the ancient Church and you know we've kind of been raised on Fox's book of Martyrs and you know we think that the Christians were were persecuted almost unendingly by the
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Romans when of course the Romans didn't really start persecuting the Christians until well Nero did and um domitian did but generally speaking they
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were just viewed as Jews and they persecuted them too Claudius kicked all the Jews out of Rome so it wasn't really Romans that were persecuting the early Christians as much
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as it was Jews but we saw from acts that there were times and periods where the church was flourishing it had peace on all sides in favor with God and man okay so it wasn't constant
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James doesn't seem to be dealing at all with troubles coming from the surrounding world surrounding world the two places that that James is locating the problem that we've dealt with so far is first of all
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Within the believer's heart and I say heart James doesn't use that but within but within we looked at that in in chapter one
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where he where he and we're going to look at it Lord willing next week in chapter four but in chapter one you know when he says don't don't blame
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um let no one 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 but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by
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his own lust and then what lust has conceived it gives birth to sin and When sin is accomplished it brings forth
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death so Flip Wilson was wrong the devil doesn't didn't make me do it those of you who are old enough remember who Flip Wilson was um it's it's already in us and then the
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second venue is not the world although we're in the world it's within
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he says my brethren do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism for if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes and there also comes in a poor man in dirty
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clothes he goes on to say if you show favoritism you've made a distinction among yourselves you have become judges with evil motives these are things that are going on and we're going to see that throughout he intermingles
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those that He castigates and even condemns in the same passages with his beloved brethren so the the struggles
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that James is dealing with or helping to prepare his readers to deal with and that includes us do not require either of these two things
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so these are not required for us to have trials and tribulations for us to have need of endurance and
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steadfast faith we do not require that is not a necessary component of our struggle in this life does that make
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sense and we talked about this before that this is not limited to being persecuted for our faith he doesn't even mention that in the entire letter that that they're being persecuted because of their profession of Faith at
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least not that I can interpret and then the other one that's not required is Satan now he has mentioned resist the devil
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and he will flee from you but again that's after he has said you know the biggest problems inside you your lusts your lusts the devil's not inside you
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know I think sometimes the church gives the devil too much credit and and grants him almost an omnipotence and an omnipresence that he most
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certainly does not have he's a created being and his operations are are strictly limited by God we see that in in the
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Book of Job but there there is a a tendency in Reading James and you see this in some of the commentaries especially the older ones there's a tendency to to read it through
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the filter of external persecution okay which renders the book somewhat uh impotent in terms of of lives lived
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apart from persecution if we're not being persecuted then does James have anything to say to us well I'd say what he most certainly does because he's not limiting what he's
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saying to persecution and also there is another tendency kind of on a different um Spectrum Within professing Christianity to to blame all of a believer's misfortunes on the devil
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you know the devil's you'll hear people say it you know the devil's really after me today me today well who are you okay I mean how does he manage to to do that if he's
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if he's okay okay when maybe one of his many is demons yeah but I don't think that's what James is getting at here um now don't get me wrong we talk about
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resisting the devil that he's not dismissing the Devil by any means it's simply to say that well let me put it in another person's words I think he he
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says it very well um Alec mucher um he says were there no Satan there would still be wickedness where every Prospect pleasing human
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nature would still be vile the enemy is not only within the camp
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well the heart is desperately wicked who can know it now you might respond and kind of when I read that the first time it's one of those provocative statements that I think is encouraging of thought critical thought
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can this be true of the believer can it be true of a believer
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well John says if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves right and James when he says that that gestation of sin he sure seems to be referring to
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believers doesn't stand there's nothing in the context to indicate that he's talking to unregenerate people unregenerate people Paul this is a controversial passage in Romans 7.
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Romans 7. when he talks about how the law of working his members and the law at work in his mind but he says almost the same thing in Galatians 5 Galatians 5 where he says the flesh lusteth against
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the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh so there does seem to be a conflict that we are to put to death the Deeds of the flesh that we're to walk in the
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spirit and not in the flesh but there does seem to be an ongoing conflict within the believer's heart that is the the primary Battleground
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in which faith is tried purified and so I think that mocher has a point here in saying that you know we we don't
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really need to blame the devil and we don't need if we are uh struggling financially we're not we're not getting a promotion that we need or
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we think we need and we say well it's because I'm a Christian it's because of my faith maybe it is maybe you're just not a good enough employee to get that
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promotion or or maybe you know you're just not you're just don't happen to be the the owner's nephew I mean that okay what does that have to do with my faith when there's nepotism in the corporation you
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but they even if the well let's let's say okay say okay the answer to that would be monasticism right and we now know that monastic quarters
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and monasteries have been nothing but Elysian peace Elysian peace without conflict right and Cloisters for example we all know that the Amish have
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always gotten together swimmingly right no no they you just take your problems with you right so um if if it were the world and Paul I
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think what James is saying is the world simply guarantees that there's going to be struggle every day the Fallen World which includes us because we're still part of that
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even though we are also part of the new creation okay we still have this body of death this flesh that we have not yet exchanged it for our Incorruptible body
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and so and so um we are in a sense part of that world that is passing away our bodies are passing away right inwardly we're being
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renewed but outwardly we are passing away that's part of the Fall so we're not we're not by God's wisdom we are not separated
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from the world physically or environmentally or environmentally okay so and that your point is is excellent it really was where I was going these are James's venue he doesn't
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actually deal actually deal he doesn't even say so much as as Peter who says pray for the king or or Paul when he says you know submit to those who are in authority he he
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makes as far as I can tell he makes No Illusion to the outside world okay in the context of what he's saying is within the community or within the
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person okay but the reality is the community
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okay and so and so it's not James is not looking from the world in world in but he is looking from in out to the world and he's going to say in chapter 4
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friendship with the world is enmity with God okay so yeah the world's out there and in fact it does present
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a way out of our trials and tribulations and that way out is to compromise or
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Surrender so the world is definitely I you know I'm just saying these things are not required for us to still have trials Temptations and need of endurance
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okay not to diminish the the the power and influence of Satan although I don't want to exaggerate it either but also not to diminish the
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reality of a fallen world and its impact on on us every day and on the church and also the churches
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visual aspect to the world are we looking to the world for our sucker for our Escape for our way out of Trials
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and and I think James is addressing that that's not the right place to look in fact if you look there you are actually he says adulteresses these very
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harsh words in chapter four that we'll look at so um the way he is writing this letter
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is is very similar to the rabbinic practice of haka
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and this type of writing is is like the mishnah the talmud um it it's not like modern Western
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commentaries and if you read modern commentaries you know they it it's what they call the historical grammatical method of of hermeneutics they take the verse they dissect the verse
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they dissect the language Hebrew or Greek they give you the tense and the mood and and you know all of the conjugations and whatever and they say this is what the writer is saying okay
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does not do that life and sometimes as I mentioned last week
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you don't necessarily know what verse of the Bible the rabbi is speaking on now once you see the verse if somebody else says no this is this you know this
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he's talking about this you read the verse and you read what you say oh yeah I can see where they're connected but they're not they're not like we are we're very particular about reciting chapter and verse right
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and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that that's the way we think we're not we're not Jews we're not ancient uh near Eastern people um I'm just saying that James was a Jew
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and he was writing to Jews and so just like the Psalms and the Proverbs you know he's writing in a particular style particular style but it's a style that's not so foreign
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to us to us that we can't comprehend it I think that's sometimes there's um a mistaken attitude that we think oh well that's Eastern logic and I'm a Westerner and I
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can't understand why is that why can't an easterner understand how a Westerner thinks or vice versa are we all not descended from Adam
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I mean granted it takes practice to think in a certain way just like it takes practice to learn a different language right
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language right but it's not impossible maybe more difficult for some than others granted I know it's much more difficult for me to learn a foreign language than most but we can do it we're capable of for
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example reading the Proverbs and understanding that they're not to be interpreted as absolute statements so for example we love to quote you know raise up a child in the way he should go
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and when he is old he will not depart from it from it and we want to view that as a promise don't we don't we that God says it's an infallible watertight promise
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that if I do everything right that my child will be in the Kingdom
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um because in the Psalms which is also wisdom literature wisdom literature and also in the well basically Psalm 49 I think is what I'm thinking of
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um you you're not you cannot save another you know it's it's not within your power to do that so is Proverbs a promise or is it rather
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predisposition that if you raise your child up in the way he should go it is far more likely that he will not depart from it if you raise your child the way he
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should go according to your philosophy that that and you want that to lock in then you have to accept that the other person will lock him as well yes but I I grant that raising a child in the way
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you should go according to your philosophy well that's put that I think we accept that that's not what the passage means that the way he should go the key here is is the way the idea here
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it's a form of wisdom teaching in the in the ancient world where you are setting opposites and you see it in the Proverbs all the way through way through you see for example wisdom set against
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folly or the the wise woman and against the adulterous foolish woman but so one of the two ways is wisdom
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and folly and folly and another one is is going to be rich and poor the extreme rich and the extreme poor
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and another one is light and darkness but maybe the one that summarizes all of them is life
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and death so for instance in Deuteronomy Moses coming to the end of
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of his life he says I call Heaven and Earth as Witnesses today against you that I have set before you life and death
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blessing and cursing therefore choose life that both you and your descendants may live Joshua and nearing the end of his life
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in Joshua 24 he says there therefore now therefore fear of the Lord serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the
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other side of the river and in Egypt serve the Lord and if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord choose for yourself this day whom you will serve whether the gods which
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your father served that were on the other side of the river were the gods of the amorites in whose land you dwelt but for me in my house we will serve the Lord the two ways wisdom
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result okay so they're presented as extremes
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which does not mean that the extreme will be encountered on the day of the but rather that the choice constitutes a way that leads to that end
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so the way of the rich the material rich is a way of Destruction but the psalmist in Psalm 73 is lamenting
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the fact that he doesn't see it he sees the wealthy prospering in all their ways no pain in their lives in fact he sees the he sees the
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righteous suffering righteous suffering and he doesn't understand and then he says I went into the house of the Lord and I perceived their end okay so oftentimes what we're reading
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in Proverbs in the Psalms in James in The Parables The Parables we're reading we're reading this kind of wisdom
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and we're reading it presented in opposites extremes opposites extremes and it almost seems like it's just two uh black and white
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you know that the fact is that we know that many many wealthy people do not suffer in this world that their wealth their riches do not
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um cause them any distress whatsoever that they are happy in their wealth that's what the psalmist in Psalm 73 is basically saying basically saying you know that that what he he had come
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to believe to believe was it those who and it's not riches for Rich's sake Rich's sake I want to make sure we're because we're going to get into that here it's riches as opposed to God
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the two ways that Jesus presents are you cannot serve God and Mammon these are two paths two paths that do not converge and they do not run
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parallel they run 180 degrees from each other and that's the idea of the two ways and maybe we could say that the extreme
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language that's used is intended to impress the importance of the path on which you trod not intended to show you the immediate
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result of your choice but the ultimate result and it's wisdom that sees that ultimate result even when the immediate steps
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they look fine doesn't seem like anything's going wrong here okay everything's fine I've got I've got all the all that I need in fact
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I'll just go ahead and and I'll build bigger barns because of the bumper crop that I had this year and what happens you fool tonight
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what you didn't see when you started walking down this path was that there would be a night on which your life would be required of you and then it's settled so
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um just again somewhat background somewhat hermeneutics how do we look at James I think that James is is very much
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employing this two-way tradition of wisdom literature and again I don't think he's doing itself consciously
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itself consciously this was the kind of wisdom that he grew up in this is the wisdom of Proverbs this is also the wisdom of Ben sirach this is the wisdom of the apocryphal
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literature that we that we do have extant but there was also probably many other books other books that the Jews read in their homes in
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their synagogues their synagogues that we don't have this was a way of presenting the way he should go so when you raise up your child in the
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way he should go that it that is you need to encourage him to walk on the path that leads to light and life and to avoid the path that leads to
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well let me um quote another commentary or com author um see if I can find it
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James builds his letter around the Polar Opposites of two lifestyles One LED in friendship with God the other in friendship with the world and this antagonism can be taken as thematic for the composition of James's
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letter as a whole and I agree with that statement I I don't I don't think that we can boil down James's letter into any one principle
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I'm not saying that but he does seem to go back and forth between two lifestyles even at the very beginning when he says that the man who doubts is the two-sold
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okay um he's he's uh Mr facing both ways as Bunyan would put it so um if we if we think about that dichotomy that is inherent in this
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type of literature uh hopefully we'll be able to sort out and interpret the particular things particular things that James writes and not get not get
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hung up necessarily when he uses language like Wars and fighting and murder as he does in chapter four
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on inside the community of the diaspora are they actually killing each other well if they are it seems rather incongreguous that he would say some of the other things that he does
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you know like if any among you are sick call for the elders what about the dead um you know I think if we understand the type of literature we realize that it is often it's kind of like
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analogously it's like the apocalyptic literature the language is very Vivid and graphic it's it's stunningly so and sometimes
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troublingly so but that's that type of literature and we understand that the use of of extreme positions the use of um seemingly immediate results that then
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don't actually happen it's the unbeliever that says as Peter the scoffer says everything goes on as it has from the beginning
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okay it's the fool who says that in in Psalms the fool says in his heart there's no God he doesn't see me do what I'm doing
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but it's the wise man who says well yeah you're getting away with it now but when I went into the house of the Lord I perceived your end you know that's that's the two ways
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it sets it out it's almost like it telescopes the result of a choice right up to the moment of that choice when in reality the day after the person
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makes that choice there's no immediate right you just keep on going and there's no immediate consequence in
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fact after a while there doesn't seem to be any consequence at all And The Fool becomes hardened in his folly because he thinks God doesn't notice okay and that's really why this language
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has to be so extreme is you have to understand that as Paul says in Galatians if you bite and devour one another take care lest you consume one another
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there'd be nothing left that's where it leads that's where much of what James is saying and and I think sometimes the difficulty in understanding James is that he does
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speak in such um Vivid and harsh language that we you know we don't like hearing it
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in the passage that we're looking at this evening this evening and actually it's a somewhat lengthy passage I don't think we'll be able to get through all of it but I want to talk about several passages in James chapter
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starting with now now I believe there's some overlap and and actually in the notes we start with verse five of chapter one if any man lack wisdom let him ask of God but we've already dealt with that in a previous lesson although I deal with a
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little bit more in this one I want to start with um verse 9. through 11. because James introduces In this passage
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another theme that is going to be woven through the rest of the book but let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position and let the rich man glory in his
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humility or his humiliation because like flowering grass he will pass away for the sun rises with a scorching wind and Withers the grass and its flower
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falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed so too the rich man in the midst of his Pursuits will fade away
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see this is a man who is pursuing riches pursuing wealth pursuing wealth this is the man who later on says
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tomorrow we'll go here and we'll go there and we'll trade and we'll make money this is the same man only that passage is portraying his
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Pursuit and that he's still in and shows that um you do not he says you fool you do not know that you have tomorrow
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rather you should say if the Lord wills and he's not obviously I think we understand he's not suggesting that we should use that phrase
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as some type of talisman you know it doesn't make our heart right with God to say Lord willing
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there's a sense in which there's a leveling going on here actually the passage is a little bit difficult
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it's actually very hard to tell whether the rich and the poor here are both treated as Believers by James
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when he speaks to the poor and he says and we're gonna we're gonna look at that what does he mean when he say let the poor exalt in his high position well that's that seems fairly
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straightforward in terms of what Jesus for example says about storing up storing up treasure in heaven
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um it's hard to go into the depth of it in a lecture but I think you know from the Old Testament Old Testament that socio-economic position was a major factor in what the prophets had to say
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it's also a major factor of the Holiness code in Leviticus it's a major factor for example in the life of life of the only man that I read of in the Old
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Testament about which nothing negative is said Boaz is a man who seems to live in practice the Holiness code
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he does not allow his workers to glean over his Harvest twice but it's to be left for the poor he's he's our he's a righteous man and
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so rich and poor set themselves up in the Paradigm of Israel riches and poverty they set themselves up as if not two
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the not the intersection but the starting point of two Divergent paths so when he says let the man of humble circumstances exalt in his
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glory in his high position well where is that high position
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it's it's not now the poor is oppressed the poor is despised even in Chapter 2 the poor is made to sit on the floor rather than in a seat a chair
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this is an example of what is that high position where the high position is as Paul would put it I guess
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you're seated in Christ at the right hand of God almighty as he says in Ephesians that you have received all spiritual blessings in the
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heavenlies it's not it's not my circumstances James is not saying that that there's some sanctity and glory in poverty that's how it's been
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misunderstood that somehow being poor itself is it's it's self-sanctifying it's self-sanctifying no it's just as great a Temptation on One Direction as rich as are in another
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which is why the writer of proverbs 30 says Lord give me neither great riches nor poverty Josiah
43:31
exactly a poor person can be just as Covetous and perhaps even more so well that's exactly what the proverb the writer of that proverb I think it's Igor I'm not positive but that's basically what he's saying there is lest I be so
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rich that I forget about you or lest I be so poor that I steal and profane your name you know he doesn't exalt and that's the key here you're not you're not exalting poverty as if you should take vows of
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poverty and that somehow is your path to Glory that's what happened to verses like this that's not what James is saying remember James is the chief Rabbi of the
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Church of Jerusalem in which there are very wealthy people Joseph of Arimathea Barnabas was part of
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that church that church right and these people were very generous with their wealth they were not relying on their wealth he is not condemning wealth for wealth's sake nor is he exalting poverty for
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poverty's sake he's saying if your circumstances in this world are of poverty exalt in your high position
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okay not not in your current position but again the two ways tradition of you know look to where you're headed and where you are in Christ
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and realize you are you are already highly exalted highly exalted even though you're not
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10. let the rich and this is absolutely true let the rich man Glory rather in his humiliation glory in the fact that he is but dust and that as the writer of Ecclesiastes
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says you know who will have all that you've labored for once you're gone okay I can't remember who wrote it but it was an excellent essay or maybe just
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an article about the incredible permanence of the world when contrasted with the incredible
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transience of a human life I mean and and I think about that sometimes we have the opportunity through our company and what not to to
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hopefully long after long after I'm gone right and I've lived in homes that had been lived in by other people we're just passing
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through we're just passing through everything we have will be someone else and someday or it'll just be in the dirt it's it's a perspective that that the
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rich should have and that is you are but dust that's what he says like the like the flower of the field when the shirako wind blows in just wilts and dries up and that's what
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will you will be so verse 10 is is in itself very profound proverbial profound proverbial any believer with money with wealth
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should read it and say don't put your hope or your trust or your security in your wealth rather understand that well God by God's
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Providence you have wealth but you too will die okay and this is something that that the ancient philosophers understood uh I'm not sure I can find the quote in the
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notes as to um yeah I'm not gonna I'm not gonna find it very readily very readily but it's it's from uh
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Greek philosopher it basically says the same thing and it you know how we say you know how we say well he puts his pants on one leg at a time you know he's nothing special about him
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until he can jump into his pants both legs and I don't want to try that but what what this particular philosopher says is let him be let him be reminded that he puts his mortal legs into his
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pants one at a time but the emphasis is on the mortal that we're all Mortal so yeah it can be taken that way the problem is
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it would be the only place in the entire book where James speaks of the rich as if they are believers that doesn't mean he's not
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and it may be in this early chapter he's treating the rich more ambivalently than he will later on but even one not even one chapter later
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in chapter two um well first of all when he says in verse 11 the sun rises with a scorching wind and Withers the grass and its flower falls off and the
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beauty of its appearance is destroyed he does a very jesus-like switch in his metaphor
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flower correspond to the wealth of the rich man right but what is it that Withers and Fades
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away the rich man look at the last clause not his wealth in fact his wealth May survive him most likely will it'll be
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his heirs that'll waste it and squander it that's that's so common in history but it's it's he's he talks about okay it's like the flowers of the field but no I'm not talking about the Splendor of
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his wealth I'm talking about him and he will fade away that's not a that's not a good thing to say about someone that you're going to just fade
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away but later on in Chapter 2 speaking of the wealthy he says in verse 7 do they not blaspheme the fair Name by which you have been
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called later on later on in verse in verse um chapter five he says come now you rich weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you your riches
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have rotted and your garments have become moth eaten your gold and your silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire
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it is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure he goes on
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so again it's possible this is some of the difficulty in James and in sorting out exactly what was your what was your opinion of the wealthy person in in chapter one
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you don't have to ask James what his opinion of uh is of the wealthy person in chapter five he's making it quite clear and even in chapter two when he says are these not the men in the Bliss blaspheme
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the fair Name by which you were called that's not a believer Believer and yet they're in the assembly and they're being they're being accorded
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honor because of their wealth so again the problem is not the wealth itself the problem is or the poverty the problem is how one or the other
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impacts our relationship with God how it impacts the path we choose to walk on walk on because as Josiah mentioned and as the
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writer of Proverbs mentions being poor being poor does not automatically and inherently puts you on the path of righteousness not at all
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nor does being rich puts you inherently and inevitably on the path of destruction that's not true either
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so you you can't boil these things down um uh trite uh trite and infallible statements
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that say poverty is Next to Godliness or wealth is destructive
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um so they're careful in how they couch the words but the struggle we have in Reading James as I mentioned last week the struggle is trying to determine um who who are you talking about
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are you talking about Believers here or are you talking about two different types of people within the professing
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community so one commentator says and this is accurate he says in this case the wealthy Christian is instructed to take no pride in possessions but rather to think on
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his self-abasement in identifying with Christ and Christ's poor people this is how most Scholars have interpreted the phrase and it is a truism
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there's nothing wrong with saying that the wealthy person the wealthy believer should meditate on the transient nature of life and of wealth
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should meditate on how he has joined himself to one who became poor that we might become rich who impoverished himself of the glory of
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divinity as it were Philippians or um yeah Philippians chapter 2. he laid down his glory and took up the humility of a human being and even that
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he did not come as an exalted king or Aristocrat but rather a humble Carpenter's son Carpenter's son so yeah the the wealthiest the person the wealthy person is the one who should
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be he's very odd to think of a poor person meditating on his self-abasement that's
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that's not what James is saying the poor person is already abased in the sense of of of the life around him he he rather needs to remind himself
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of the treasures that are stored up for him in heaven he needs to for example read the the story of of Lazarus and the rich man rich man and be encouraged to faithfulness in his
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poverty knowing that it will be rewarded infinitely beyond anything he could ask or hope or hope the wealthy person on the other hand needs to consider his mortality
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needs to consider that it is appointed unto man once to die and then comes judgment needs to understand that his wealth is fleeting and to whom much is given much is
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required you know this there's a whole does that make sense I mean we tend to think that everything applies to everybody but in fact especially with wisdom literature you you have to seek
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wisdom to understand okay is this this speaking to me well let me check my checkbook yeah it's speaking to me and I mean one way or the other you know I I have much I'm in this
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category I have very little in fact it's negative you know I am in that category and and it becomes a path that both the
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rich and the poor can be on either of the two ways he's not and I want to make that Crystal Clear he's not saying that the two ways
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are riches in poverty yeah but that the rich and the poor both have to choose the right way and it will not necessarily the poor
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will not as the Prosperity Gospel teaches the poor will not become rich by making the right choice okay and that and the rich are not required
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to give away all their wealth and take a vow of poverty when they make the right choice that's not the point okay the point is where is your faith we
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have to remind ourselves that this entire letter entire letter is really about the perfecting of our faith through trials poverty and riches then
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trials they are examples of trials that every believer Encounters in this life it just so happens that the power of
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this world is vested in the wealthy does that make sense okay so if you look at the rich and the poor and what Paul or James has to say
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about them that's not an inherent problem if you look at what God promised for his people he promised and intended
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prosperity okay that they would not lack for anything but the the issue that that we face and we face it in every age including our
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own is that is that the power belongs to the wealthy you've all heard the Golden Rule you know he who has the gold makes the rules
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oh our government needs to take away the money from the rich and give it to the poor so that we can all be corrupt I mean it's like there's no way of changing that it's just it's the world in which we live it's the symptom of the age that
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is passing away so that there is an inherent disadvantage that the poor man has that the rich man doesn't and I think it's because of that inherent disadvantage
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inherent disadvantage that God always shows himself intently active on behalf of the poor of the oppressed of the alien
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of the Widow of the orphan okay and James is the same way what do the rich need
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it's like you know what do the healthy need a physician no do the wealthy need care and comfort and sucker
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no they have enough for themselves and deny any for the poor that's the way of the world that was the way of Israel that was the message of the prophets
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that the that the uh they would the the the pastors the priests were fleecing the flock instead of shepherding it okay so we're not leveling anything here
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we're recognizing that that the world is divided between the wealthy few and the poor many poor many and that power does and hope has always resided in the hands of those who have
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money that or at least they are allied with those who are in power they are funding and bankrolling those who are in power and the reality is the poor have no recourse
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but God but God and and so when when James talks about when a brother and sister comes in need of food or clothing he's simply just speaking again almost
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like a Old Testament prophet these you know what is true or pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God sight of our God and Father
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to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world okay that's you know jumping ahead to
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the end of our of our section but that's where he's headed what does this thing what does orthopraxy look like well it is compassionate
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it is it is um helpful um helpful and it it helps primarily those who are helpless so he's going to flow right into chapter
