James Verse by Verse (Osborne New Testament Commentaries)

Grant R. Osborne

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781683592945
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

TESTING AND TEMPTATION

(1:1–18)

James is in many ways the most practical book in the Bible. This first section (1:1–18) introduces the three key issues of this letter—the need to endure trials as a test intended by God to strengthen us (vv. 2–4, 12–15), the need for wisdom and dependence on God to be victorious in the test (vv. 5–8), the problem of poverty-stricken Christians (vv. 9–11), and God’s perfect gift—life (vv. 16–18). The rest of the letter will build on these themes.

The traditional practice in ancient letters was to open with a greeting, followed by a section detailing thanksgiving and prayer. James, because of the seriousness of the issues and his concern for these churches, skips these elements and gets right to addressing problems. The basic trial is poverty, and the only way to triumph over this test of faith is a deep trust in God and the wisdom to overcome temptations. James begins here because all the other situations he will address—prejudice, putting faith to work, the danger of the tongue, and oppression by the wealthy—flow out of this central trial.

JAMES GREETS HIS AUDIENCE (1:1)

Ancient letters, and most of those in the New Testament, normally opened with the author identifying himself and then greeting the recipient by name. James begins by calling himself “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Immediately two issues arise. First, the Greek doulos should be translated “slave” rather than “servant.” James, like most of the authors of New Testament letters (Paul in numerous places, Peter in 2 Pet 1:1), is proud of the privilege of serving God and Christ with absolute allegiance. As in the Old Testament, he is “God’s special possession” (1 Pet 2:9). It is meaningful that he does not label himself Jesus’ brother or even an apostle (as Paul does in Gal 1:19). He centers on the deeper reality, in keeping with biblical precedent, as Old Testament leaders called themselves slaves of Yahweh (Deut 34:5; Jer 33:21; Ezek 37:25). In the ancient world, slaves often wielded the authority of their masters and were considered part of their family.

Second, many have thought “God” here is not God the Father but Jesus himself. If so, this would be translated, “slave of Jesus Christ, who is God and Lord.” This is possible and would resemble John 1:1, 18, where theos refers to the deity of Christ. In 2 Peter 1:1, where this is the case, it reads “the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ,” because the Greek indicates this.1 That is not the case here, and it is best to read them as two separate members of the Godhead with the NIV, “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” They are equally the masters over James, but it is Father and Son, not Jesus alone.

The recipients are “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.” This is highly unusual and seems to describe the diasporic Jews living outside Palestine. It could be literal, describing Jewish Christians outside the borders of the Holy Land, or it could be metaphorical for the church as the “new Israel,” rejected by both Jew and Gentile and thus the “scattered ones” living in Gentile lands. It probably is both: the Jewish-Christian churches of Asia Minor as the righteous remnant gathered by God from the twelve tribes, reestablished as his people with the twelve apostles over them and (together with Gentile Christians) constituting the new and true Israel of the new covenant age. In them the promised restoration of Israel spoken of in Isaiah 11:1–2 and Ezekiel 37:21–22 has taken place, and God’s people are together in Christ.

HAVE JOY IN THE MIDST OF TRIALS (1:2–4)

James addresses this to his “brothers and sisters” because they are all part of the family of God. The church is an assembly of people meeting together, but is much more a family sharing and caring for each other. I have often called James 1:2 the “impossible command”: “consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” Am I supposed to pray, “Thank you, Lord, that these things have gone so wrong for me; by the way, could I have some further trials so I can have even more joy”? The verb “consider” means to “think, regard” and speaks of mental effort to regard an event from a certain vantage point, in this case from God’s perspective. Hebrews 12:11 gives us the other side of this: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.” Considered from the human perspective, there is little but hurt and pain to be gained from our earthly travails. Looking at it from God’s side, James is emphatic. These very same difficulties are in reality “pure joy” (pasan charan) not because of what we are going through but because of who is in charge of our lives.

The key to understanding this is to separate joy from happiness. We are happy when everything is going smoothly and for our benefit. True joy only comes when we realize God is behind a trial and working it out for our good (Rom 8:28). When we surrender to his providential care, we have peace and find joy. “Fall into” (peripesēte; NIV: “face”) pictures a person walking on a smooth path suddenly tumbling into a black hole. Moreover, these trials do not conveniently come one at a time but “many kinds” of them hit us at odd times from odd angles when we are not ready for them.

The term “trial” (peirasmos) is used two different ways in this chapter. It is both a “test” that God sends to strengthen us (see 1 Pet 1:6; 4:12) and a “temptation” that can trip us up spiritually (1 Pet 1:13–15). This also defines Jesus’ “temptation narrative” recorded in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. From Satan’s perspective he was tempting Jesus, but in reality he was a tool God was using to test his Son. Tests are essential to the spiritual growth of every one of us, and God tested all of his chosen leaders—Abraham at the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22), Moses on the mountain (Exod 34:28), Israel in the wilderness (Num 14:33–34), and Elijah in the wilderness (1 Kgs 19:8). In this letter, the primary trials are poverty and persecution, but by saying “many kinds,” James wants to include all the vicissitudes of life that so discourage us. Still, the external test of persecution and the resultant poverty of those who have lost everything are uppermost.

Verse 2 tells how we should react to trials; verse 3 tells why we should react that way. When we think carefully about our situation and where the Lord is in all this, we “know that the testing of [our] faith produces endurance.” This is introduced by a causal participle (ginōskontes, “because you know”) that often introduces catechetical material: important theological truths the early church recognized and wanted to preserve for future generations. This explains the purpose of trials: they are tests sent by God to teach us to persevere by trusting entirely in him. “Testing” is dokimion, a term that has two aspects: first, the refining process that makes a metal (or person) pure; and second, the results of the test—namely, the genuineness or approval of the person or thing when the process is finished. Here the emphasis is on the means by which we are tested, while in the parallel 1 Peter 1:7 the stress is on the results: “the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold.”

God allows (and even sends) trials because they test our faith and refine our spiritual walk. The refiner’s fire then strengthens our faith by teaching us to persevere. Like gold, our faith must be tested in the crucible of life so that it can be purified and become genuine, resulting in our approval by God. The fires of trials bring out the impurities so that God, the cosmic goldsmith, can remove them and make us “pure gold” spiritually.

“Perseverance” (or “endurance”) is not a weak or passive waiting for God to act but refers to an active patience that gets to work in our lives for God. This patient, active faith is produced (katergazomai) in us, an agricultural metaphor describing the process of growth producing a harvest in our lives. The verbs here are present tense, picturing continual growth. In other words, we are enabled by our trials to wait on the Lord more and more effectively over time.

The idea that suffering producing endurance was common in Jewish thought and literature.2 Two other New Testament passages develop this idea (Rom 5:3–5 and 1 Pet 1:6–7). They all get at the same basic truth—God sends trials to strengthen our level of surrender and trust in him. He does so because earthly difficulties force us to trust him rather than ourselves or the world we inhabit, with the result that we learn how to patiently wait on him and so become spiritually pure, gaining his approval.

James 1:4 tells us what we must do to put this to work in our lives: “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” The idea of letting it “finish its work” refers to producing its “full or complete end.” In other words, God sends the refining process, the trials that become a divine test intended to purify us and enable us to grow and mature. We are then responsible to permit trials to complete their task by allowing them to work in our lives. We are the farmers who must let it grow and produce its God-intended crop. “Finish its work” is literally “continue to have its full or perfect effect.” It often will take a long time to finish this process, to both yield to God and to allow the effects to take place.

“Mature” (teleioi) can also be translated “perfect,” indicating the situation when the process is completed and believers experience God’s perfect purpose in their lives. It is a dynamic, active process that takes great effort. The persevering Christian then becomes “complete” or “whole.” The two Greek terms are near synonyms, both connoting God’s complete, perfect work in us. Believers become all God intends them to be, whole people and fully mature. The second is a medical metaphor, referring to a “sound” or “whole” body, completely healthy in every area. In other words, as believers learn to persevere in difficult situations, they begin to become mature followers and attain spiritual wholeness.

The goal here is the same as Matthew 5:48: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Of course, perfection will not fully arrive until we have entered our heavenly existence, but we are to strive for it and seek to grow at all times. This becomes a major theme, stressed also in James 1:17, 25; 3:2, and means we surrender to God’s divine work in us and seek to allow his work to produce a new character in us, a foretaste of heaven.

As they grow in Christ, well-rounded Christians discover they are “not lacking anything.” They have no needs, for God has supplied everything, and Christ has fulfilled all their wants. This truth is stated perfectly in Philippians 4:19: “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” The trials of our faith are a spiritual necessity in that they test our Christian character and teach us spiritual endurance, thereby making us complete in Christ and perfectly whole or healthy spiritually. We have all our needs met by God and thus find perfect contentment (see also Phil 4:11–13).

SHOW WISDOM AND FAITH IN TRIALS (1:5–8)

In 1:2–4 James developed the problem of trials and the need to overcome them (the what and the why), and now in verses 5–8 he discusses the “how”—that is, the solution for overcoming them: namely, through wisdom and faith.3 This flows naturally from verse 4, where those who allow endurance to do its perfect work in them lack nothing. Here James turns to the one thing all too many of us do lack: wisdom to encounter our trials successfully.

THE NEED TO PRAY FOR WISDOM (1:5)

Here James employs what is called “a condition of fact” (Greek: ei, “if”), assuming the truthful reality of the problem. The beginning could be translated, “Since you of course lack the wisdom you need.…” Wisdom (Greek: sophia) is an essential trait we must possess if we are to overcome our difficulties and grow to spiritual maturity and wholeness. In the Old Testament it was seen as an attribute of God (Dan 2:20–23) given to chosen leaders like Solomon (1 Kgs 10:23–24) and made available to those who fear God (Prov 1:7; 9:10; 15:33).

Wisdom is one of the core motifs in James. It is a practical use of knowledge in our lives, but it is also much more. As in the Old Testament Wisdom literature, it is more about our reliance on the presence of God in our lives. It refers to living life in God’s world according to God’s rules, embracing both a practical orientation (including every area of life and conduct) and a dependence on God (reverence and submission to his commands). It is divine, not human, wisdom that we need, and that is exactly what is promised in Proverbs 2:6: “The LORD gives wisdom.” This is possible only when the people of God keep his commands in their hearts (Prov 3:1). Only a spiritual ability to recall and follow God’s truths will suffice.

Wisdom is inherently practical, which means God guides us in the needs of practical everyday life. It is not the obverse of the spiritual realm but rather details the arena in which the spiritual life works itself out. Jesus was a teacher of wisdom (Matt 11:2–19, 25–30; 23:34–39), and Paul speaks of “the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God” (Rom 11:33) as well as “the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph 3:10).

Since none of us have in ourselves the sophia we need, there is only one solution: “ask God.” Wisdom is not a natural human ability and can only be attained when we realize it is a gift from God that we acquire only when we ask him for it. There is no seminary course in practical wisdom or set of seminars where we can be taught its principles. We can only receive it from a loving, giving Father as the result of sincere prayer. Yet he is a God who gives; the present tense means that it is an ongoing gift to us.

Two added points show how extensive this giving is. Wisdom is given “generously,” and it is given “to all” who ask. The term haplōs can mean “singly” or “generously.” The first would mean “singleness of heart” and refer to God’s undivided intention to meet our needs. God gives to us without reservation, fully centered on caring for our every need. The second centers on his liberal nature, meaning that he gives way beyond all our expectations, more than we could ever imagine. I refuse to see an either-or here but believe the emphasis is on the richness of meaning. There is a definite contrast with the “double-minded person” of 1:6—God is single-minded and gives without hesitation or limit in his generosity. The ultimate foolishness is refusing to go to God and ask for the wisdom to handle all our trials and suffering.

The Greeks and Romans had only capricious gods who had little interest in the human plight and whose aid or involvement in people’s lives had to be bought, usually by sacrifices and offerings. There is quite a different portrait of God in the Bible. There he is pictured as the covenant God who loves his people and makes them part of his family. He is constantly involved in meeting their needs, and when they wander off like sheep, he acts redemptively to bring them back. (Even his punishment is redemptive in the long run.) Matthew 7:7 says it well: “Ask and it will be given to you.” We are responsible to bring our needs to the Lord, and he promises to respond. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7).

God not only answers our prayers generously without any hesitation. He also does so “without finding fault” (oneidizontos), without mocking or reproaching us for our lack of wisdom. His purpose is to encourage the saints not to hesitate but to boldly go to him in prayer. He understands entirely our human weakness and will never make fun of us or belittle us for our failures. He does not give grudgingly or respond to our inadequacies with recrimination. Rather, he will give (“it will be given” is a divine passive, which indicates God as the giver) the needed wisdom to us. Note that this is not a “name it and claim it” prosperity theology. God is not promising us whatever we ask but rather will give us the wisdom to overcome when things go wrong. He is not promising health and wealth but instead the spiritual maturity to trust him to turn our disadvantages into spiritual growth.

THE NEED TO PRAY IN FAITH (1:6–8)

James next qualifies the promise and def...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series Preface
• Introduction to James
• Testing and Temptation (1:1–18)
• Hearing and Doing the Word (1:19–27)
• The Sin of Favoritism in the Assembly (2:1–13)
• Faith Accompanied by Works (2:14–26)
• The Danger of the Tongue (3:1–12)
• Wisdom from God in the Midst of Conflict (3:13–4:12)
• Warnings to the Worldly and the Wise (4:13–5:11)
• Concluding Exhortations (5:12–20)
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Subject and Author Index
• Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Literature
• New Testament