Truly Loved + Wholly Surrendered

overview study and things I learned

The Lord prompted me to read the book of James again earlier this year and a few years ago, I had noticed there are parallels of topics and themes within the book of James that correlated with each other, but I never wrote them down. Here are some of the parallels I noticed:

Inner Joy

James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

We are to be joyful at all times and having trials is not a fun time, but the Bible commands us to find joy in that, knowing that He has a greater plan for us and He sees us in our trials and that actually can give us joy, knowing that the Lord is with us. When we endure and follow through with the trial and let the trial happen in our life and surrender it to the Lord in the middle of it, He gives us a promise as seen in verse 12: crown of life.

There’s a promise of a crown at the end of the trial.

When we persevere and endure, the Lord is honored in that and He gets glory in that. It makes it that much cooler to know that I’m not alone in any kind of trial, tribulation, any thing that’s a hard time, a hard thing. If you’re someone who’s in this season right now, I just want to encourage you that the Lord is with you and has good promises for you at the end. He is still with you, even in the middle of it.

Wisdom

Reading further on, starting in verse 5, it reads: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without hesitation and without reproach; and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting—for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord—he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” In order to endure, you need wisdom to do that and to do it in a Biblical way and to do it in a way that honors the Lord and brings Him glory at the end of it. Asking the Lord for wisdom regardless of your circumstances needs to be done in faith.

I have noticed in my own life that if I know that the Lord will deliver what He promised in His Word. So, if He says He will give us wisdom when we ask for it, He’s going to give us wisdom … if we ask for it. It’s interesting that it’s tied to the same passage of enduring your trials and tribulations.

It also correlates to James 3:13, which says, “Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct let him show his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.” Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit and wisdom is given by the Lord. This also connects to the fact that wisdom is “first pure and peaceable,” which is found in verse 17 and following: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, not hypocritical. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in shalom by those who make shalom.”

Wisdom and bearing good fruit and living a life that reflects and resembles Yeshua and honors the Lord is done by wisdom. When we ask for wisdom and know that the Lord is with us, me—personally—a more effective believer because I’m reliant on His strength, His wisdom, His discernment, and His leading in order to live the life that He has called me to live. We need to pray for wisdom and know that we will receive wisdom and wisdom helps us to live out our faith and we show that by good deeds.

In chapter two, it talks about faith without works is dead and “the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (v. 26). We need to be able to live out our faith and we need to be able to stand firm in who we are in the Lord regardless of the circumstances around us.

Purpose and Identity

Another thing that encouraged me is back in James 1:18: “By His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created.” What stood out to me: “By His will, He brought us forth.” We are literally here because the Lord wants us here. He created us and He has deemed us with a purpose and He has called us to a higher calling and we are responsible for pressing towards that mark, towards that higher calling.

Our existence is literally because He wants us to exist.

This reveals His love in a deeper way, and just how much He cares for us. He literally wants you here. He wants to have a relationship with you.

Do Not Judge

James 1:19-25, “Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger—for human anger doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. So put away all moral filth and excess of evil and receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror—for once he looks at himself and goes away, he immediately forgets what sort of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect Torah, the Torah that gives freedom, and continues in it, not become a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts—he shall be blessed in what he does.”

This correlates with James 4:11-12, which says, “Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the Torah and judges the Torah. But if you judge the Torah, you are not a doer of the Torah, but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge—the One who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you who judges your neighbor?” We are to live by Torah because we’re free and in our freedom we are able to follow what the Lord has commanded in His Torah—but that removes any possibility of judgment. Because we are righteous in Messiah, our judgment has been taken away because Yeshua died and rose again. If our judgment is taken away—the Lord does not judge us according to the world. He judges us according to the righteousness of Messiah. So then, why are we judging others?

If our judgment has been removed, therefore the judgment of others in our hearts should also be removed.

I realize I am sometimes too quick to assume that I know what’s going on in someone’s life and I really don’t have any idea. This is also related to James 5:7-12: “So be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it until it receives the early and late rain. You also be patient. Strengthen your hearts because the coming of the Lord is near. Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the doors. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the outcome of Adonai—that Adonai is full of compassion and mercy. But above all, my dear brothers and sisters, do not swear—either by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath. But let your “yes” be “yes,” and your “no,” be “no”—so that you may not fall under judgment.” Say what you mean and mean what you say. Love others and don’t judge.

That’s really the gist of what James is talking about in terms of judgment because if we are patient, we don’t really have room for judgement. If we’re patient even in our trials, we’re not really in a position to be judging others anyway. If we’re not in a trial, we still aren’t in a position to be judging people because the Lord has taken away our judgment and we are righteous in Him. We should be viewing others through this lens, as well.

Living in God’s Will

James 4:13-17, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore whoever knows the right thing to do and does not do it—for him it is sin.”

This really stood out to me because, ultimately, at the end of the day, what we should be doing is the will of God. If you’re outside the will of God and know that you are outside of the will of God, that is what the Bible calls “sin.” That’s really striking because it’s very clear and you know when you’re in the will of God. When you’re in the will of God, you’re going to be praying about it, you’re going to be seeking His wisdom and His guidance and confirmation and applying the Word. You really don’t have time to focus on yourself if you’re focused on the Lord in that way. Wherever He leads you, He will provide—I know that’s a cliche saying, but it’s true.

He won’t lead you where He doesn’t want you.

Yes, we have plans, but ultimately it’s His will and His plans that should be a priority in our lives.

Prayer

James 5:16 says, “So confess your offenses to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.” It’s saying “the effective prayer” which makes me think that there could be prayers that are ineffective. This relates to chapter 4, “You as and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives so you may spend it on your passions” (v. 3). Prayers with the wrong motives don’t work. If I pray for something and it’s out of selfish ambition or I want to achieve some sort of goal and it’s not really the will of God and it’s not really from the Word of God and it’s not really something that is beneficial to me, then those prayers don’t really work. Prayers with a heart to be in the will of God and to know His heart is what makes a prayer effective—coupling that with confessing your sins to one another and being in a community. In that light, these are the prayers that become powerful and effective in our lives.

These are just some of the things I’ve picked up from reading the book of James again. I would love to hear your comments, thoughts, or questions—or if you have other insights, please share them with me! We are called to learn and grow and what better way than with one another?

Thanks for sticking around with me. May the Lord bless you and keep you.

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“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” || James 1:17

“So put away all moral filth and excess of evil and receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” || James 1:21