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.

 Click on this link for a flow diagram of this passage.

Epistle of James: Chapter One

SUMMARY

Chapter Summary: James 1

The chapter includes practical ‘how to live life’ instructions on dealing with tests and trials capped off by an admonition basic to all believers, doing the Word.

Section/Post Summary: James 1:5-8

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.

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:

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.

BACKGROUND:

• No background for this passage.

COMMENTS:

COMMENTS:

• ‘If any of you lack wisdom’
  • Lack is Not a God Thing
    • Lack does not exist in God. The gates of heaven have never seen it. The angelic inhabitants have no 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 (1 Timothy 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 teeming pile of it.”
  • Areas Where Wisdom Is Needed
    • 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 how God acts? 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’s innovation for you. God’s thought is to laugh in the hard places (Job 5:22). Isn’t it better to laugh than to launch into despair? Isn’t it better to have a party instead of launch into pity?
      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. It speaks to the fallen nature of men. Why do you suppose the wisdom of God stays endlessly on the endangered list? Fallen men’s idea is to substitute earth’s brass for heaven’s gold. It’s the Tower of Babel all over again. “Let’s see how much knowledge we can pile up so we can dwindle the need for God”, is the thinking. Internet knowledge, theoretical knowledge, experiential knowledge, Library of Congress knowledge, are steps in this Tower. Compare this human skyscraper to the wisdom of God. His wisdom has no earthbound structure to house its treasures. Wisdom is a God thing. A heaven thing. A Jesus thing (Colossians 2:2-3). It’s responsible for the creation of the world (Proverbs 8:23-31). Yet, its shortage in the affairs of men is like the odds of quadruplets. How exceptional is God’s wisdom to man’s knowledge? Everyone comes up against things they have no clue how to handle. Our mental hard drive hasn’t stored enough data. Pride has infected the info it has squirreled away. 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 in abundance. If you walk with Him for any amount of time, you will find 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 wisdom? How assorted His means? If you ever feel trapped by your trial or cornered by your circumstance, simply remember 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’
    • Prayer and the Father God
      • The go to God for wisdom is the Father God. He is the addressee on the envelope. All requests go to Him, not to Jesus, and not to the Holy Spirit. For sure, Jesus has a severe role in prayer as does the Holy Spirit. A first-class prayer request has a Jesus Name stamp on the envelope (John 16:23). For mechanics of prayer, this is Holy Spirit turf. The two working together makes the prayer proposition with the Father a success. 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. “Let him ask God for wisdom” is James innocent command. Wisdom isn’t hiding from you. It doesn’t dodge you like that ‘count to ten, ready or not here I come’ variety game. It is waiting to infuse your life. Since an inspired James encourages us to ask God for wisdom, then acquiring it in the midst of trial is as sure as a two-handed backward dunk. It’s all about the asking.
  • ‘that, giveth to all men liberally’
    • God: The Greatest Philanthropist
      • James sheds a sports stadium spotlight on the depths of God’s giving lifestyle. In left field you see His giving tendency. God gives. Does He ever. He never stops. Never rests. God gives with torrential consistency. Who can deter Him? Who would want to? 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). Even the wicked are recipients of God’s gifts (Matthew 5:45). In center field, the spotlight 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 imply? God doesn’t give just enough to get by. His gifts come ‘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 are facing with plenty to spare.
  • ‘and upbraideth not’
    • The Attitude of God the Giver
      • The words ‘upbraids not’ points to the attitude in which God gives. God won’t ever say to one of His angels, “Oh no here comes chaos again. What confusion did he get into this time?” God is love and love is never offensively impolite. Have you ever heard these words in your spirit when you laid an appeal before God? “You know if you hadn’t messed up in the first place, you wouldn’t be bothering me with all these wisdom requests. While we are at it, what did you do with the last pile I gave you, anyway?” Aren’t you happy God doesn’t respond this way? Mess-up maybe your middle name. Your path to God’s Throne well-worn. Yet, God remains 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 begin with (Hebrews 8:12, Isaiah 43:25). Earthbound 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 smiling. And He will do it over and over again.
  • ‘and it shall be given him.’
    • ‘Shall be’: The Strongest Assertion
      • The two words ‘shall be’ conveys the strongest assertion in heavens economy. If God said anything ‘shall 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 those words. One day by the Temple, Jesus waxed eloquent. You can eavesdrop on the conversation by going to Matthews gospel. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Consider the explosive potential of those thirteen words. “What is Jesus saying? Planet earth will implode before a ‘shall be’ ‘won’t be’. Planet implosion makes the fuss over global warming a fireside joke. Who cares about a few degrees if there is no planet to warm in the first place? ‘Shall be’ simply ‘must be. Ask for wisdom, then. It must make its way into your life. Count on it. Expect it. Look inside your spirit for it. The cosmos quivers in anticipation of your receiving 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. And, it does so every time. Coupled with faith and patience, you wait for the answer 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 one-hundred percent ‘answer’ success rate. It’s a very precise affair. Many don’t treat it as such offering ‘shot-gun’ prayers as a substitute. You don’t just zip by the Throne, unload and hope you ‘hit’ somebody. Maybe Jesus, maybe the Father, why even the Holy Spirit may do. Why in times of desperation we might even settle for someone flying around with a harp. But, prayer is never a drive-by shooting. True prayer is way more accurate. The Word of God is prayers laser guided system. It keeps your petitions honed in on the mark. All of which means, if you ask God in faith for something that He has already told you can have, you have God’s assurance of a bull’s-eye. Not sometimes, every time. Bring God His Word in prayer. He never fails to hold up His end. (1 John 5:14-15).
  • God Hears Us When We Pray
    • Prayer is digital in nature. That’s good news in this computer age. One or zero, on or off, answered or not, it’s really simple. Prayer is all black or white. No gray shades. Either God heard you when you prayed, or He didn’t. But, can I daresay you have no business praying something God won’t hear? Why waste time with such a prayer? I thought your packed Day-Timer wouldn’t stand for such squander? Praying in faith is the best time saving tool. Unbelief is what turns a three-day trip into a forty-year drag in the desert (Joshua 5:6). Now to the question of the day. In the realm of the invisible God, how do you find out if He heard you? Hear the Word of God on this. Matthew 7:7 states, ‘Ask and it’s a done deal.’ John chimes in with, ‘Whatever you ask the Father in my Name, He will give it to you (John 16:23).’ That’s how you know. Many other prayer promises dot the landscape. Straightforward in manner, no loopholes exist in these courts of grace. Some have tried to reason out why a particular prayer offered to God remained in the ozone. Such eloquence is unnecessary. Such miscarriages never occur on God’s end. They are always a human affair. If we come into line with God’s laws of believing and receiving (Mark 11:23-25), you will have the answer. So in asking for wisdom, getting in faith gets it done.
  • ‘nothing wavering.’
    • What is 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 ejects confidence and spews faith. With the next gust, he acts as if there is no God. How can world-overcoming confessions of faith 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 man trying to build his house over 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.’
  • Meet the T-Clan
    • James gives three words to describe a born again soul lost in a sea of skepticism. The nautical descriptors wave, driven and tossed depict the inner mental workings of a waverer. You already know this man. We’ll call him Mr. T since doubting Thomas is the most well-known of his kindred. Mr. T has a vast ancestral tree spread through every generation since Adam. You may know or be married to one of his offspring. What are the family traits of the T clan? Look at the patriarchs of this group. First there’s Mr. Bungee Jumping Waverer. He tries to ride high on faith’s pinnacle. But with the least sign of resistance, he vaults down into the valley of fear and doubt. In simple terms, he’s unable to focus on his faith. The patience process causes him to bounce up and down. Then, there’s Mr. Churner Waverer. He asks for wisdom from the Lord and instead of latching to God’s ‘yes and amen’ (2 Corinthians 1:20), he gets lost in his own mental foam. His uncontrolled powers of reasoning causes his mind to re-roll every situation as he tries to uncover the way out of his dilemma. Those marine terms James uses may describe his mental agitation. Sadly, no solutions ever arise out of the churn. All that rises is the man’s blood pressure. The next quartet of Waverers are quadruplets. The first brother, Mr. Presumption Waverer has no clue how divinely spiritual things work. He surmises, “After I ask God for wisdom, my Solomon smarts should afford me a ‘get out of jail free card.’ I will never experience a trial again.” His second brother, by three seconds, Mr. Nagging God Waverer is known as a bombastic bombardier of heavens gates. He thinks he gains God’s favor by the sheer volume of his requests. In fact, he keeps a Day-Timer record of how many times he’s prayed. On one request, he hit a hundred because 99 will never do. Brother number three, Mr. Flunked English Waverer, is well known for his great difficulties with English grammar. Faith is present tense. Hope is future tense. Mixing the two up is bad for the business of prayer. Finally but not least, there’s Mr. Lend A Hand Waverer. Eons ago, he has concluded that God needs help running things. I mean God is so busy running the universe that He can’t possibly attend to all requests for wisdom, can He? So, Mr. Lend a Hand steps up to help unburden God. Do you know any of these brothers? Maybe they are all members of your Sunday school class.

• ‘For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.’
  • The Core of Heavens Economy
    • Heaven is a busy place. Have you ever considered how much takes place on planet heaven on any given day? Grand Central Station has no bragging rights. In God’s city, the air is thick with peace and joy despite the activity (Romans 14:17). No stress, no tension pervades. Having finished their race, saints arrive by the millisecond. The new residents receive a divine escort to their new accommodations. The construction of dwellings for arriving saints is growing. In Fathers house there are many mansions (John 14:2). The angelic host work with zeal at this holy business. All of this industry comes because the gospel of Jesus continues to swell the ranks. God’s redemption plan is working like pistons purring in a Porsche. Waves of shouting is the norm in heaven (Luke 15:7). It’s all delightful. Just a few moments ago, a miracle service in Africa ended. Over eight thousand people pledged their lives to Jesus. More work for the happy hosts. And what about all the business produced by all the planning that goes on in heaven? Heaven doesn’t work on a five year plan. Try a seven thousand year plan. Wisdom is stored up. Provision is made ahead of time. Every move of the enemy is anticipated well in advance. God sees the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Before the saints call, God already has the answer (Isaiah 65:24). As you can see heaven is vibrant, alive and hopping. But, there’s a common thread which pulls everything in glory together, faith. Heaven is a faith filled place (Heb. 11:6). It’s part of what makes heaven heaven. Faith is at the core of heavens economy. The residents of heaven know there’s only one way to do business with God. One way to make a withdrawal on His resources. The saints on earth are finding this out, line on line (Isaiah 28:13). Faith is heaven’s currency and love is the gold that backs it (Galatians 5:6). Doubt is counterfeit currency. It’s what James is trying to get over to the saints. “Don’t think you can receive anything from the Lord.” If you wish to cash your ‘request for wisdom check’, you have to trust your Father. If your heart is to build your wisdom portfolio, you have to lean on God in the hard places. You have cling to what He told you in His Word without wavering. Everything else leads to a downturn. And, in some cases bankruptcy.
• ‘a double minded man’
  • The Two-Souled Man
    
    • James gives a second description for a doubter. You remember the first description, the unstable storm tossed man? In a second set of adjectives James calls the waverer, double-minded. The proud owner of two souls. Two souls is double trouble? It’s hard enough to keep one of anything straight, let alone two. Two cars, two houses, twice the maintenance, twice the expense. Two women? Take God’s advice, one is the right number. Solomon found it out the hard way. Here in James, we have a person with two minds. How does it work with a two-souler? Think of a cuttlefish, a chameleon, or a flounder. These creatures change color based on their environment. The waverer is similar. He changes his mind based on his circumstance. The Greek word double-minded means he has two opinions on the same issue. Here’s one of the differences between a mature Christian and his wavering counterpart. The mature Christian keeps his mind on what God said. A waverer keeps his mind on what the circumstance says. It’s all about where you fix your gaze. This ‘can’t make up your mind’ piece prevails among men. Challenging the false prophets of Baal , Elijah asked ‘How long will you limp between two opinions’ (1Kings 18:21)? You can stand solid like the pyramids of Egypt. Firm and set on God like the twelve gates of heaven. Israel didn’t rise to this. They wanted two Gods. They wanted to worship both God and Baal at the same time. The same is true in the Jesus walk. Faith and doubt 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 says it with flair …’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. 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.

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.”

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