I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on James 1-5.

    James’ letter to believers starts with a theme from Hebrews which I wrote about yesterday: taking joy in facing trials and suffering. He writes that we should joyfully embrace the trials we face because those trials build perseverance and persevering in our faith in the face of trials will make us mature and complete, so that we will lack nothing of importance. James then writes that if we do not know how to endure those trials we should ask God for wisdom. We can be confident that God will grant us wisdom if we ask for it. If we do not receive wisdom from God when we ask for it, it is because we doubt the answers we receive. Later in the letter James returns to the theme of asking God for things. There he writes that the conflicts among believers are a result of wanting things we do not have, and we do not have those things because we do not ask. The main take away from where James writes about asking God for things is that God will give us that for which we ask, with a major caveat. If we selfishly ask for things we will not get them. Or to put that another way, if we ask God for things we intend to use in the worship of something other than Him (such as ourselves), He will not give us what we ask for. When we ask God for anything which will genuinely serve His purposes, He will grant our request.

    I want to write about the two themes which I think in many ways are the core of why James wrote this letter. I see them as connected to each other. James addresses a problem which comes up repeatedly; those who think that since we are saved by grace through faith and not by our actions that what we do does not matter. Writing here, James makes it clear that if our faith does not change our actions we do not really have faith. His point is really quite simple, you can tell what I truly believe by what I do. If I see someone who is hungry while I have food and I do not share with them, I don’t really believe that I should help them. We do not always do as we know, as we believe, that we ought. James acknowledges this and gives us advice on how to work on fixing it. He writes that we should start by controlling what we say. If we succeed in controlling what we say, in keeping ourselves from saying things we should not, the discipline we learn in this process will apply to everything else we do as well. Let us strive to align the words we speak with what we claim to believe. The lesson here is that we need to always choose our words to bring honor to God.