James begins his letter with instructions on tests and trials encouraging the ‘scattered’ of the Diaspora to ‘hang in there’ and respect the journey understanding that blessings in development and heavenly rewards await the victorious. Verses five through eight address the wisdom component necessary to be able to count it all joy when enduring tests and trials.

Epistle of James: Chapter One

James 1:5-8 (KJV)
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man unstable in all his ways.

DEFINITIONS:

• wisdom/σοφία/sophia
  • The capacity to understand and function accordingly. ¹.
• lack/λείπω/leipō
  • Fall short, to not have, or to lack.
• liberally/ἁπλῶς/haplōs
  • Simply and generously without reserve or distinction.
• upbraideth/ὀνειδίζω/oneidizō
  • To reprimand, scold, insult or mock.
• wavering/διακρίνω/diakrinō
  • To doubt; to stand between two opinions unable to decide which opinion to hold. A wavering man alludes to a man full of uncertainty and indecision.
• wave/κλύδων/klydōn
  • Surging waves; rough water. Same word as Luke 8:24 where Jesus was asleep when a storm arose so severe that the disciples awoke the Lord and said to Him ‘Master, Master we are perishing. Jesus arising from sleep rebuked the raging waves – ‘klydon’. The picture portrayed here does not involve gentle waves lapping up on a beach but rather water so sever as to cause peril to life. See Isaiah 57:20.
• driven/ῥιπίζω/rhipizō
  • Blow up; blow here and there; be tossed about.
• tossed/ἀνεμίζομαι/anemizomai
  • Moved by the wind.
• double minded/δίψυχος/dipsychos
  • Literally ‘two souls’ or of two minds; double-minded; fickle doubting, or hesitating. A word used only by James in the New Testament. See also the same word in James 4:8. Psalms 12:2 contains a reference to the double-hearted.
• unstable/ἀκατάστατος/akatastatos
  • Unstable; restless.

QUESTIONS:

• Does lacking wisdom leave a person exposed?
  • The Lord has created safeguards to protect you. You will not experience ‘more than you can handle hardships’. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says there exists a God-ordained limit for the negative junk of life. God’s electric fence barricades your life. The buzzards can circle all they want. It’s all feathers.So, why the woe is me then? Doesn’t God’s shadow spread over you? Yet, there you sit like someone crunched your cornflakes. “Why me, oh me, and too much for me” and it goes on. The truth is because of your Jesus credentials you over-qualify for the problem. It’s not even fair what Jesus will do to the problem through you if you allow Him.Feeling forsaken? You have company. At times it may feel like you’re a gourmet piece of straggler meat for hungry lions. Take comfort. There are other T-Bones on the menu. Just look around. Everyone goes through the same stuff. You will never see or face anything unprecedented. Every man’s son wears the same T-shirt. You know the ‘been there, done that’ one. So, sorry, you are not a trailblazing pioneer of trials after all. Why? You’re too late. Expeditions have already staked the flag. Enjoy your status as part of the in-crowd on the mountaintop of mess.Fill up then on God’s Word. Feed on it like an infant desperate for the breast. Follow the Word and flow with His Spirit to realize your victory. Where do you start?  Heed the plain instruction in this verse. When you fall into a crisis ignorant of how to continue, God says, “Just ask me for wisdom. Go ahead. I dare you to ask me. If you do, I will direct you and show you what to do.”

COMMENTS:

• ‘If any of you lack wisdom’
  • Lack is Not in God
    • Lack does not exist in God. Heaven has never seen it. The angelic inhabitants don’t even have a clue what it looks like. How could they when their feathered feet stroll on clear as glass gold? In Him, there is always a surplus. Always enough. Hear the descriptive adverb on this. God gives us richly all things to enjoy (1Tim. 6:17). That means what God does, he does big. He runs over people with His blessings. His stacks plenty skyscraper high for you. Lack is a human invention. It came by the Fall. So, James says, “If you lack wisdom, I know where there is a surplus. I know where there is a torrential pile of it.”
  • Avenues of Wisdom
    • God’s wisdom is essential for everyday life. Consider what you don’t have in your head compared with what God has in his. God has galaxy creating knowledge in His head. Wouldn’t you like to tap into it?

Two areas need wisdom.

First, you need wisdom on ‘how to count a trial as joy.’ Have you ever just gone bungee jumping off the handle? You know just left your religion behind for a moment? You’re faced with a mess and so you act like one. Is that what God does? A two-and-a half twisting somersault off the Throne into the River of Life? What does God do, when his creation acts the meatball on planet earth? You know, when they rage and plan a puny little plot against Him? The Bible says, He laughs. (Psalms 2:1-4). Now, there is innovation for you. God’s thought is to laugh in the hard places (Job 5:22). It’s better to laugh than to launch into despair. It’s a cut above to act with joy instead of jumping into gloom.

Second, God’s wisdom leads to right choices during a test. Since, tests come in all flavors of ice cream, one size does not fit all. Extreme tests need extreme wisdom. Why bring a jelly doughnut to a gun fight? No way out tests need know way out knowledge. Even the small stuff demands creativity.

Wisdom and Development

Lack of wisdom is a talking picture of the human condition. Knowledge, a distant cousin, pools up. It’s gathering as common as the Library of Congress. The wisdom of God has no earthbound structure to house its treasures. Wisdom is a God thing. A heaven thing. A Jesus thing (Col. 2:2-3). Its shortage in the affairs of men bears the familiarity of twin sisters. Everyone comes on things they have no clue how to handle. Our mental hard drive hasn’t stored enough data. Denseness has infected what we do have. God has seen everything. He was omnisciently present for every event. God has experience, over 6000 years’ worth with the current crop of mortals. The art of the bailout is His domain. Didn’t He bail out the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage? Enough, said. God’s got the stuff. If you walk with Him for any length of time, you will find that He almost never duplicates deliverance. Instead of receiving a check in the mail for a threatening expense, He sends a belly loaded fish with the answer (Matthew 17:27). How varied is His knowledge. How assorted His means. If you ever feel trapped by your trial, or cornered by your circumstance know your deliverance is in Jesus middle Name. He said, ‘I am the Way’ (John 14:6). Jesus ‘I am the Way’ Christ. My, doesn’t His Name get it done?

• ‘let him ask of God’
  • The Father God

The go to God for wisdom is the Father God. He is the addressee on the envelope. All requests should go to Him not to Jesus, not the Holy Spirit. Jesus has a severe role in prayer as does the Holy Spirit. If you want to go first class, stamp your envelope with His Name (John 16:23). If you wish to know how to pray, this is Holy Spirit turf. Prayer’s workings are complex but then not so much. At the heart of New Testament prayer (Matthew 7:7), lies the art of childlike asking. Wisdom does not hide from you. It doesn’t dodge you like that ‘count to ten, ready or not here I come’ variety game. Since an inspired James encourages us to ask God for wisdom, then it’s a two-handed backward dunk for you to find it. It’s all about the asking.

• ‘that, giveth to all men liberally’
  • Two of God’s Top Level Traits
    God gives. Does He ever. He never stops. Never rests. God gives with torrential boldness. Who can deter Him? Who would want to? James sheds a sports stadium spotlight on the depths of His giving lifestyle. In right field, you see neutrality. He gives to ‘all men.’ Emphasis on ‘all’ or, God gives without prejudice. Everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds. The one who knocks gets the prize (Matthew 7:7-8). In center field, the light reveals the attitude with which He gives. God not only gives to all men but He does so with a liberal, plentiful, overflowing style. This God, whom the Old Testament calls El Shaddai, the God who is more than enough, gives without hold back, hesitancy, or hidden motive. What does liberal giving mean? God does not give you enough to just get by. His gifts come one-way, ‘good measure, pressed down shaken together and running over’ (Luke 6:38). God supplies enough food to feed the 5000 (Matthew 14:20-21) plus enough to fill twelve baskets to the brim. When you ask for wisdom, know you will receive it prolific, piled and profuse. It will handle all the stuff you face.

• ‘and upbraideth not’
  • How God Gives
    • The KJV ‘upbraid’ points to the manner in which God gives. He will not reprimand you for getting yourself into a mess. Are you happy about this? Mess maybe your middle name. Your path to God’s Throne well worn. God won’t say, “Oh no here comes chaos again. What confusion did he get himself into this time? What is it now ‘C’? More wisdom? What did you do with the last pile I gave you?” No, He is a perfect gentleman. He won’t smear you with your failures. It’s the reason the scribes of heaven write with dry pens. They can’t record mistakes. There aren’t any to log. If they had a sin to scrawl down, they wouldn’t be able to register it anyway. They would first have to figure out how to write on bloodstained stationary.You know, it’s just one tough job to bring up your past when you don’t even have one to start (Hebrews 8:12, Isaiah 43:25). Earth bound friends have no such problems cataloging your faults. They can make you feel guilty for asking with all the ease of a genius in their calling. Parents, co-workers, even preachers do the same. God will not. Come to Him over and over. You will never try His patience. You ask for wisdom in tests, God will give it to you without any puppet strings.
• ‘and it shall be given him.’
  • ‘Shall be’: A Strong Assertion
    • The two words ‘shall be’ conveys the strongest assertion in heavens economy. If God said anything ‘will be’, then heaven, hell, angels, and demons can’t keep those words from happening. When God makes such a claim, His whole being, character, integrity and faithfulness comes to bear upon the promise. Ask for wisdom and it must make its way into your life. Count on it. Expect it. Look inside your spirit for it. Walk in it.
• ‘But let him ask in faith,’
  • Lessons in Prayer
    • Praying in faith is the only way to ask God for anything. Faith means first, believing God hears you when you pray, and second knowing the answer to your petition has God’s yes. God’s yes produces. With faith and patience, I wait for the arrival like an expectant father.  Believers, successful in the art of prayer, always start with the answer. They go to the Word of God first and find God’s will before they ever pray. Praying this way insures a 100 percent success rate. Prayer is not a shotgun blast hoping to hit the target. If you ask God in faith for something that He has already told you can have, you have God’s assurance of a bullseye. God never fails to hold up His end of His Word (1John 5:14-15).
  • God Hears Us When We Pray
    • Prayer is digital in nature, one or zero. It’s answered or not, black or white. No shades of gray. Either God heard you when you prayed, or He didn’t. Faith is the fulcrum that tips the answer to your side. How do I find out if He heard me? Hear the Word of God on this. Matthew 7:7 states, ‘Ask and its a done deal.’ John says (John 16:23), ‘Whatever you ask the Father in my Name, He will give it to you.’ That’s how you know.Many other prayer promises dot the landscape of scripture. Straightforward in manner, no loopholes exist in these courts of grace. Some have tried to reason about why a particular prayer offered to God remained unsettled. Why did they experience a prayer failure. Such miscarriages never occur on God’s end. They always occur on man’s end. If we come into line with God’s laws of believing and receiving (Mark 11:23-25), you will have the answer. If you adjust, as God’s Word directs, wisdom is yours.
• ‘nothing wavering.’
  • Wavering Doubt
    • Wavering means doing the work of asking God for wisdom to help you navigate a test, but doubting whether you will receive it. Wavering is like cholesterol in an artery. It slows the flow of heavens common sense to a man. This waffled dance steps out first in speech, then in actions. With one breath, a wavering saint vomits confidence and spews faith. With the next gust, he acts as if there is no God. How can world-overcoming confessions of confidence exist at one moment and skeptical spouting the next? The wavering soul must ask himself a question. “Am I a believer or am I a doubter?” Do I sneer at the atheists while living like the Christian version of one? Instability dogs the way of the one trying to build his house on both sides of a canyon. Compare this divided person with one who has allowed patience to make him ‘entire.’ This man is a guided man (Proverbs 11:3), a preserved man (Psalm 25:21). And somehow, puzzling to the world, a delivered man. Why? Because wisdom’s IV drips into the man’s veins taking the answer to his difficulty right into his heart.
• ‘For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.’
  • The Overall Picture Three Water Words Give
    • The three words, wave, driven and tossed, gives us a picture of person so in-motion he cannot give you a fixed heading for his position. He cannot tell you where he is because, in a second, the wind and sea has changed his location. In these three words, the sea sick life of a waverer shines. He climbs the mountaintop of faith one day and slides into the valley of fear and doubt the next. Are you like this man? Do you say you believe God but then have difficulty holding on? Learn from this double-minded man. He is a man of two souls. He breeds instability. Not just in his present circumstance but in every other engaged situation. Doubt is a contagion like the chicken pox. It affects the current problem and spreads to other areas. If you compromise the Word of God in one area, you compromise in other areas too. Compromise introduces contamination. You cannot be carnal Carl one moment and Spiritual Sam the next. The reverse holds true. If you cling to the Word of God in one area, that victorious stance will affect, in a positive way, every other area of your life. Steadfastness, like compromise is infectious. Never underestimate the importance of preserving your faith in God amid distress. It leads to great rewards.
• ‘For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.’
  • How to Work with Heavens Economy
    • There exists in heavens economy one rate of exchange. One-way to do business. One-way to make a withdrawal on its resources. Faith is that currency. Handling transactions with the counterfeit currency of doubt, invites disappointment. It doesn’t get it done. You have to trust your Father. You have cling to Him and what He told you in His Word. This is James message. “Don’t think you can receive anything from the Lord.” If you waver around, you flop around.
• ‘a double minded man’
  • The Two-Souled Man
    
    • James gives a second description for a man who trades in doubt. You remember the first description from above, the unstable storm tossed man? James in this second set of adjectives, shows the doubter as a possessor of two souls. What’s a two-souled person? He is a man of two minds or opinions on the same issue. This ‘can’t make up your mind’ piece prevails among men. Elijah, challenging the false prophets of Baal (1Kings 18:21), asked the people, ‘How long will you limp between two opinions?’ You can stand solid like the pyramids of Egypt. Firm and set on God like the twelve gates of heaven. Israel couldn’t come to this. They wanted to worship both God and Baal at the same time. Faith and unbelief are like bipolar twins. They will not get along. You cannot waffle between two areas and call it good. Having a stubborn opinionated mind-set for God makes the difference. One day, our determined daughter told us she we had her all wrong. She said, “I am not stubborn. I am just devoted to my opinion.” Ah, now that’s the right set of words to describe resoluteness. Devote yourself to a God opinion. Do it to such a degree that jackhammer circumstances will not break you off your stand. Isaiah 7:9 adds the candle to the cake …’If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’
• ‘is unstable in all his ways.’
  • A Doubters Unstable Behavior
    • James gives a third adjective for a doubter. He calls them unstable. In Greek it means restless. A doubter is an unstable restless soul. Not mental ward unstable but spiritual ward unstable. Think of the word as you look back on what James has said on the subject so far. Does storm tossed wind driven believer fit the word restless? What about a person with two minds? In both cases, restless portrays an accurate description. Hebrews 4 cooperates with this. Israel failed to enter rest. What rest? The rest of faith. They flopped like a pig in slop’s disbelief. They wandered forty years in the desert, fidgety and uneasy. An unsettled life is a miserable life. James uses the same Greek word in chapter three for the tongue. “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly (restless) evil, full of deadly poison (James 3:8).” A restless tongue and restless faith are best friends. They share much in common. When you see one, you see the other.
• ‘in all his ways’
  • The Contagiousness of Instability
    • Everything James says about the doubter now pours down on the word ‘all’. Like Niagara’s torrents plummeting and smashing the rocks beneath. It piles and flattens the word. What’s the legacy of a storm tossed man, a man of two souls, an unstable man? What long lasting effect does all this have on the whole of a person? Instability does not have a singular effect. So, here you are. You fall into a crisis. You ask God for wisdom to help you navigate the storm. Then instead of waiting on it, you waffle around. You try to solve it on your own with your private knowledge database. You know the vast wisdom you have accumulated in your thirty or forty years of observing the four corners of your apartment. Laying aside God’s knowledge database and the universal wisdom He has from having been around forever. You think. “It’s no big deal. God understands.” But it is big. You are setting a pattern for how you will respond when the next problem gets emailed to your inbox. What will you do the next time you pray about the mess of life? Maybe it’s not you this time but, a family member or your best friend. How will you respond? Superman in the phone booth? You will react the way you have trained yourself to react. You know the old saying. If you walk like a waffler, talk like a waffler, smell like a waffler. It’s easy to see why James says unstable restless behavior spreads to all other areas of your life. So, it’s never about the single test. It’s always about fixing patterns, habits, and tendencies for the whole of your life.

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References