Class Outline:

Wednesday April 14,2021

ACT 8:1-3

And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.

 

And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered [Greek: diaspeiro - literally “to sow seed throughout”] throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 And some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. 3 But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.

 

James may have been writing to this dispersion. He uses the same word (the noun of the verb diaspeiro) in his greeting.

 

JAM 1:1

James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed [diaspora] abroad, greetings.

 

If James is writing this letter to the dispersed of ACT 8:1, then the persecution they faced (vs. 2) was the one headed by Saul, which would put the writing of the epistle as early as 34 A.D. or a year or two later. That would explain the recipients being only “the twelve tribes,” and that there is no mention of Gentiles, who were a tiny percentage of converts at that early date.

 

JAM 1:2-4

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 

If the epistle is that early (which some evidence points to but cannot be verified), it is striking that sin had so taken hold of the recipients; recovery of spiritual life from sinful life being the main theme of the letter. Then again, if the letter was written at the early date, then the readers had not been believers for very long. Their spiritual youth may explain their ignorance and blindness to the life of Christ.

 

The sins James describes are not the sensual type (drunkenness, sexual sins, bodily stimulation). It would be odd for a Jew, so accustomed to living under the Law of Moses to suddenly do the things he thought forbidden his whole life because he became a believer in Christ. The sins James indicates are favoring the upper class over the lower, loving money, loving power, covetousness, boasting, selfish ambition, greed, friendship with the world, judging, maligning, hypocrisy, jealousy, bitterness. It is quite a list, and it is the life of worldly in search of influence, power, and wealth and the sins he will commit to achieve them. James is showing them that that life has nothing to do with the life they possess from Christ, and is in fact antithetical to the spiritual life and is therefore of death. James is convinced they have eternal life through faith in Christ, but they are experiencing nothing of that life due to their love of the world and its impotent offering of power and wealth.

 

The subject of the epistle is testing and the theme is the believer’s proper behavior under testing - joyously doing God’s will knowing that the reward is a stronger faith.

 

JAM 1:19-20

This you know (or “So then” in some mss.), my beloved brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

 

When we look at this section of the Epistle of James we first see that he is warning them of the effects of sin and that he is writing to believers.

 

JAM 1:12-18

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 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. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren [believers]. 17 Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above [not from human lust or works], coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. 18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures.

 

All Satan’s efforts to lead people into evil, and all the world’s seductions, would have no effect on a person unless he is drawn away and enticed by his own lust. The Lord Jesus had no inner tendency towards sin. He was tempted by it all, but being perfect, He did not possess the inner desire for sin. Whether He could sin at all is a matter for theological argument. No matter; we know that He didn’t sin. However, we face the temptations to evil with an inner affinity that is our old nature. There is no temptation for us except when we respond to some seduction in an inward way and find evil in some way desirable.

 

James goes on to trace the potentially deadly consequences into which a man’s evil desires can lead him.

 

He uses the image of childbearing. Conception occurs when desire, or lust, is united with human will, so that the birth of sin becomes a determination of the heart. After the sin is brought to birth, it bears its own child which is death. James will write in chapter 5 that a believer can turn from this way and save his life. So then, James is using death as a result of sin repeated so as to be a lifestyle. Still we must see all sin as associated with death, none of which is to be tolerated by those who are born of God. Sin is to be put aside.

 

JAM 1:21

Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls (lives).

 

Returning to vv. 17-18, James’ use of “brought us forth” in 1:18 is the same verb (apokueo) that he uses for “brings forth” death in 1:15.

 

JAM 1:17-18

Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above [not from human lust or works], coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. 18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures.

 

Sin gives birth to death (1:15), but God gives birth to us (1:18)!

 

Following the statements of v. 17 about God’s flawless giving, James is using new birth as the example par excellence of a good and perfect gift. So, this gift of salvation is not by the will of man, the imperfect creature of the earth, but of the will of God, the immutable Father of lights who only gives good and perfect gifts. Only by the Father’s will can such a perfect gift be given to man and it is affected by the word of truth, the gospel. And in that we find the sovereignty of God (His will) and the free will of man (the word of truth), for the gospel has to be believed.

 

Faith is therefore not an act of human will alone, for without the will of God revealing Himself, we would never find Him. The mystery still exists between sovereign election and free will believing.

 

Faith is a firm conviction about the truth of God when we are illuminated by it.

 

God revealed Christ and His work and, by faith, you were convinced that He was your only Savior. God reveals the truth through the common grace ministry of the Holy Spirit and we by faith perceive its truth and are convinced of its efficacy. All in all, a fancy way of saying that God reveals Himself through the gospel by divine illumination and we believe it unto salvation of our souls.

 

“first fruits among His creatures,” born again believers are a foretaste of the world to come.

 

ROM 8:18-21

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

 

Christ describes His kingdom as “the regeneration” in MAT 19:28. The same word is used for all believers in TIT 3:5 who are saved “not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

 

The kingdom of God is one of regeneration. The church age believer is the first to be recipients of the New Covenant, the first to be truly born again on the earth through the Holy Spirit. So then, as Jesus is the first fruits of us (1CO 15:20), so we are the first fruits of the kingdom of God.

 

ROM 8:22-23

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

 

These believers must lay aside wickedness and receive the word of God that will save their lives.

 

JAM 1:19-20

This you know, my beloved brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

 

These three admonitions are the theme of the epistle: 1) swift to hear, 2) slow to speak, and 3) slow to anger. This is how to behave in trials.

 

The body of the letter (1:21-5:6) deals with each one in turn.

 

JAM 1:21

Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

 

We showed the Greek that James used here and how he uses the same phrase again in 5:20, revealing that James is not talking about salvation from the Lake of Fire, but salvation or deliverance from an existence characterized by sin.

 

But they must understand that they will only be able to live “abundantly” (JOH 10:10) if they are doers of the word rather than hearers only.

 

JAM 1:22-25

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does.

 

Then follows what a doer of the word actually does: he controls his speech to wholesomeness (EPH 4:29), he gives to the poor, and he sanctifies himself from the world’s sins.

 

JAM 1:26-27

If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. 27 This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.