So as my last blog post stated – I’m reading through James this month – one chapter a week. It’s nice to spend some time digging deeper, and allowing the challenges of James to have time to be worked out.
Since James is a book of action, it seems right to give each call to action some time so I can actually DO it.

Read James 1 here, before reading my commentary below.

James.
A little history for you:
James is commonly held to have been penned by James the brother of Jesus.  James is named one of the pillars of the early church by Paul (in Galatians 2:9), which is an honor only given to James, Peter and John.
Basically – James is kind of a big deal.

Unlike Paul, James isn’t writing to a specific church community, but instead to the “twelve tribes” (as he says in 1:1).  This could literally mean the people of Israel, or a more general “the church” meaning all Jewish and Gentile believers around in the time James was writing.

The first chapter of James is kind of ridiculous.
Not ha-ha ridiculous, but oh-my-gosh-how-can-he-pack-so-many-things-into-such-a-short-space ridiculous.
I mean seriously James.

So while there is a lot I could go with in this first chapter, I’m going to stick with three parts:
1. Joy and Endurance
2. Quick to listen, slow to speak
3. Do-ers

So first – Joy and Endurance. Verse 2 and 3 of chapter one start us off by saying that we should consider it “pure joy” when we face painful things.  Because those things help us develop endurance, which is necessary for maturity of faith.
Um, what?
Does this mean I should be glad when my life is painful?
Why would you ever say such a thing James?

Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t look for joy in all circumstances, but going through pain does not mean we have to enjoy it.
But, James does make a good point about our faith being tested.  How will we know what we’re made of if we never get challenged?
I see this as training for a marathon or other athletic event but then never actually doing it.  How will we know if our training holds up?  How will we know how strong we really are?
I think James is just trying to say that when we go through difficult circumstances it changes our faith.
Does that mean we can’t have faith unless we have gone through pain or trials?  No.  Faith isn’t contingent on being tested.
This simply means that faith that has been put through fire is different than faith that hasn’t.
The churchy term for this is “refiners fire.”  It’s when gold and silver are placed into a fire and heated up.  They were gold and silver beforehand, but when they are removed from the fire, they are different – more precious even.
James is asking us, right off the bat, to look at the things in our lives that challenge us as ways to grow and mature in our faith.

Quick to listen – slow to speak.  (chapter 1, verse 19)
Oh man.
James, you are KILLING ME here.
This is, for me, the most challenging verse in the entire first chapter.
I like to speak.
I like to be right.
I like to fix things.
I like to put those all together.
And that doesn’t always make for the best combination.
What might be different about our society if we all took the time to be quick to listen and slow to speak?
This is where the first big challenge of James comes this week. I’m going to try to put this one into action and I encourage you to do it with me.
Next time you disagree with someone (which is likely going to happen in about three point two seconds on facebook or twitter), think about how you can be quick to listen.  What if your outrage and anger over someone else’s point of view came slowly?  What might that look like?

Do-er.
Verse 22 says to not just listen to the word, but “Do what it says.”  James is making a big statement here, and asking people to not just SAY they believe in God, to not just SAY they follow Jesus, but to go out and act as if that were true.
My colleague Chad preached a GREAT sermon on this very thing last week (which I’ll continue this Sunday, if you’re in town) and you can check it out here.
We are called to be do-ers of the word.
Challenge #2 this week is to ask yourself what you think that might look like for you?

Lastly – if you are looking for memory verses from Chapter 1, I’d go with these:
1:19 and 1:27

Work on your challenges – and let me know what you think…

Chapter 2 next week!