James 2:1-4

We have a special faith of Jesus.  Something wonderful and powerful that He is the center of.  With something so precious, we should share it with all equally.  This means not playing favorites.  If a banker and a farmer walk into church, you should not give the best seat to the banker while making the farmer stand in the back.  That is showing favoritism with favoritism.  What is more, you have made yourself an evil judge.

Evil and God can't exist together... so... you finish that thought on who is saved and who isn't.  The very person you treated less than another will be in heaven instead of you.

James 1:27

"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." ~ James 1:27

This means to me that this is the definition of true worship.  Taking care of others in their loneliness and time of need.  While helping others, you do not pick up any bad habits that you will come into contact with.  Keep yourself centered on God instead of yourself, and you will be practicing true worship.

James 1:26

"If anyone among you think he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless." ~James 1:26

This means to me that if you feel like you are right with God and know how to live your life correctly, but do not keep yourself from speaking a lot in check, that you have lied to yourself and are not right with God.  Something that is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible is that people need to learn to listen more and speak (gossip, boast, etc) less.  I know the one thing I craved when I was a teenager was someone to listen, understand and care.  So this is almost like a suggestion for how to help those in and out of the church to feel loved too.

James 1:22-25

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

You are to show by your actions that you are Christians.  That you love and trust God.  If you only read the Bible or believe that faith without works will save you, then you missed the whole point and have deceived yourself.

Jesus did not come to earth, hold out his wrists and say, "Slit them so I can die for you."  He lived His Life a certain way and that way was full of hard work, kindness, love, worship, prayer, caring, etc... How can we do less?  

You read these words.  Will you forget them?  Stop reading and start acting!

"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was."

Are you understanding?  If you do, then reading these words alone isn't enough.  Your whole life should tell others that you love God.  How?  By loving others!

In today's world, many churches are upset at the pulpit about Obama winning because he represents evil to them for supporting gay marriage, immigration, and marijuana.  Church members say hateful things, pass on emails and words about how horrible something is, gossiping about politics that aren't even true, and denouncing people who are sinful.  

Jesus ate with the sinners.  Why don't you?  Jesus sweated through hard work to ensure that others who are poor could feel hope.  Why don't you?  Yet words are said against those who have food stamps and are poor because it is assumed they are lazy.  Yes, there are a few... but only a few... like that.  Most are not.

We are pushing people away by showing ourselves, that we call Christian, to be hypocrites.  No wonder Christianity is in trouble.  Believing isn't enough.  Acting and acting with love, caring, and kindness is needed desperately in even the smallest things.

"But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."

Here is the key to success.  By acting as a Christian and helping those around you, you will be blessed.  By caring and being a friend to those who are different, you will be blessed.  In case I am not understood, by helping "the least of these" you will be blessed.  The first shall be last and the last first... I see that to mean those with self-righteous attitudes towards self and disgust towards others will be the last to understand God's gift of LOVE.

James 1:21

"Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."

This means to me that the things in life that have cuss words, violence, sexual content, gossip, and even jealousy with friends/family should not be allowed to be a part of your life.  It is, no matter for what purpose such as entertainment or jokes, not worth your soul.

Instead, be extremely meek and humble in accepting a priceless gift that you could never have afforded.  It isn't your right to have it.  It isn't a privilege you should just be given because you are human.  It is a gift of Truth placed inside of you that will guide you if you will but say yes.  Remember what a gift is?  It is a gift.  It can save you.

James 1:19,20

To give context to these next two verses, the previous versus were dealing with the characteristics that we should have in hard times, our attitudes if we are poor or wealthy, and the role of both God and man in temptation.

Characteristics we should display were joyfulness, wisdom, and faith.

Attitudes we should have were enjoyment despite lack of wealth and humility even if having wealth.

Temptation does not come from God and when we face it, we should pray for God's help since He truly wants to assist us because we are His.

"So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God." ~James 1:19,20

When life isn't fair or things go wrong, it is common to see people stomp about, venting angrily in another's face, shoving a pan onto the counter, or even hitting something.  I've watched arguments where those involved didn't even listen to how the other was seeing the same situation because they were too focused on getting their own side across (I'm guilty of this.)

This isn't what God wanted.

In hard times, Christians (a close-knit, loving group) should place 'listening to the other' very high.  Don't speak quickly, take your time to form solid communicative sentences, and avoid becoming angry or frustrated.  Your emotions will never come close to making things right as God can.

Tempting at this point to be in an argument and to become angry at the other side for not listening, but then you are already breaking part of what I'm telling you. 

Tempting at this point to be having something go wrong and become angry that others are not acting as they should, but then you are already breaking part of what I am telling you.

James 1:18

"Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." ~James 1:18

Definitions:
will - intense desire or wish for something to happen
brought - cause someone or something to come to a place
forth - out from a starting point and forward or into view; onward in time
word - a distinct meaningful element of speech or writing
truth - that which is true in accordance with fact or reality
kind - a group of people or things with similar characteristics
firstfruits - a religious offering of the first agricultural produce of a harvest

Cultural Note:
The writer is talking to the early Christians of that time, but addressed the letter to all the Jewish people.  In those times, Christians and Jews were still somewhat mixed and not always entirely separate of each other.  An example of this was that Christians would meet in synagogues, a traditional Jewish place of worship.

God had an intense desire that He acted on where He took some Jews and taught them about Him more fully.  They became the first in a religious sense to form a group of Christians.

The harvest is the world and those early Christians were but a few of the many that were to come.

James 1:16,17

Verse 16 - "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren."

Definition of deceived is someone causing someone to believe something that isn't true, usually for personal gain.  Definition of beloved is is a much loved person.  Definition is a group of close people.

The writer is saying to those who he loves and is close to 'to please no believe a lie.'

Verse 17 - "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."

Anything that is good and positive (emotions, events, people, things, etc) is from God.  That must mean that everything that is bad and negative (emotions, events, people, things, etc) is from the absence of God.  Since God promised to always be there for us, He can only be gone if we push Him away.  In some cases, it isn't us.  It is others, having pushed Him away (because He is a God of choice), who do or say things that are bad.  That then affects us.  Everyone suffers the consequences of their actions, even if they ask forgiveness (which is always granted.)  God is a God of choice, and He wouldn't be fair if He bubble-wrapped us or didn't let us experience our choices.

God is pure Love.  Pure goodness and positiveness.  There is no evil where He is from.  What comes from Him reflects that.  If you worry about temptations, then pray for Him to come chase them away because where He is, there is no temptation.  If you are looking at all the areas of gray, pray for His guidance, for where He leads, there is no variations of what is right.  You have choices and He will always let you know which ones are His will.  You can choose one of those He says is good, or you can go down yet another route.

James 1:13-15

Topic - Temptation

We are not supposed to say that "I am tempted by God."  Temptation is being drawn to something or action by our own selfish wishes.  Selfishness is not of God, for God is love.  God can NOT be tempted by evil, and He would NOT be the cause of evil tempting you.  Evil is the absence of God and evil's abdicate is the Devil.

When you are tempted, it is your own selfishness for something or to do something that is there.  That desire, once born, can lead you to sin.  Sin, once full-grown, leads to death.  Either nip that sin in the butt by going back to God or let it lead you to your grave.  Your choice.  Eternal Life (continuing to learn and grow happily when Jesus returns) or Eternal Death (which is nonexistence).

James 1:12

"Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him."

Definition: Blessed - made holy (adjective)

Definition: endures - suffer patiently or tolerate

Definition: temptation - desire to do something, particularly if wrong or unwise, or a thing/course of action that attracts someone

Definition: approved - officially agree or accept or believe something is good or acceptable

Definition: receive - be given, presented or paid

This is an interesting verse.  At first glance, it seems that the condition needed for eternal life is to resist temptation.  However the second half says that if you love Him, then He made a promise to you to give you eternal life.  A promise doesn't develop conditions.  It is safe to say though, that when you love Him, you will want to take care of yourself and only do that which glorifies the Lord.  After all, you love Him, so He is your Love.

From what I get out of this, the person who gets through (positively, not negatively) bad times will be made holy.  It is when we are accepted that we get the crown of life.

If we get through the bad times with our focus on our loving Lord, then we can't go wrong.  He has already accepted us, we just have to accept Him and His gift.  God wants everyone to live with Him.  That is part of His Loving nature.

James 1:10, 11

The proceeding verse said, "Let the lowly brother glory in his humiliation,"

This opening verse, ten, says, "but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away."

Definition of rich is having a great deal of assets or money.

Definition of glory is to take great pleasure or pride in something or someone.

Definition of humiliation is the state of disgrace or a loss of respect.

Putting these together, we can rephrase this to mean that those who seem to have everything you could want materially should be willing to enjoy losing it all.

It explains that a flower that is so beautiful in the spring and summer will eventually turn brown as it dries up and dies.  So evidently no matter how wealthy you are, someday you will lose that wealth.

When you die, that wealth will not be going with you anywhere.  No matter your beliefs on death, the bank account with several billion dollars will still be here and not in the grave, in heaven, in hell, or floating around you in some state of cloud 9.  You will lose it.

Verse eleven explains in detail how the flower dies, and then points out that humans also die.  Thankfully there were no graphic details on what happens to the human anatomy over the years and when a human dies.  The flower gets the stage for that.  However a point is made.

"So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits."

Definition of rich is having a great deal of assets or money.

Definition of fade is (verb) is grow faint and disappear.

Definition of pursuits is either following someone or doing a specific activity.

Putting these together, we can rephrase this to mean that someone with a lot of wealth will disappear while doing his activities.

What I get out of all of this is that you should enjoy life even if it means that you lose everything you hold of value because when you die, you lose it anyways.

Putting this on the back of the previous post and verse about poor people, I would add that what we should enjoy while we can is not wealth but what is left when the material things are put aside - relationships.

God is always there for us.  A relationship with Him should be the one relationship we put those most into.

James 1:9

When I read these versus, my original goal was to look for glimpses of God's character and love.  Obviously in many of my posts, I have given my own outlooks and interpretations of what I have read as well as insights into the culture.

This particular verse says, "Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation,".  That is literally all verse 9 is.

I want to talk about it though.  It would not have been written if it wasn't important.

Question: Who is the lowly brother?

In the culture of the times when this was written, it could have been someone with a less than desirable job or with less wealth.  This is true very much today as then.

Question: What is the definition of glory?

In this context, it is a verb.  The verb definition is "to take pride, or pleasure, in."

Question: What is the definition of exaltation?

"The feeling or state of extreme happiness."

Analysis - Putting this together, those with a lower social economic status should enjoy being happy.

Money can't buy happiness.  Evaluation - Perhaps it is those with less who are able to see more clearly what is important and enjoyable in life.  Those with more might not be able to see clearly past all the distractions.  Those are my thoughts at least.

Where is Jesus in all of this?  When he came to Earth as a human, he didn't pick a middle class or a "blessed" family to grow up in.  He chose Joseph and Mary, who were truly on the poor side, because of the character of their home.  A good character can bring happiness I think.