James - Week 6 w/Jacob VanDam

Greg said I wasn't allowed to rant all morning,

so I'm going to set a timer. So when I was a

kid, I was frequently confused by figures of

speech. So one time, Mom, I'm going to call you

out. She stopped my mom and said, I spent like

an hour wondering, like, wait, people could live

in a barn? Oh, that would be cool to live in

a barn. Are we going to move? Are we going to

move and go live in a barn? But what does all

this have to do with me trying to go to school

without combing my hair? Because I tried to go

to school without combing my hair, and mom said,

people are going to think you were raised in

a barn. So then I asked her about it, and she

explained, no, no. I think I do literally again,

Jake. Obviously, if you've heard that figure

of speech before, what she was getting at was

my behavior was going to reflect on me, my upbringing

by extension, her, so she wanted me to go comb

my hair. Way simpler than I was making it. Thank

you. We have lots of ideas. It's something we

kind of naturally intuit, that the way you act

reflects on deeper values. It's a little judgmental,

but I'm sure we've all been there. Every so often

somebody makes the news for a particularly heinous

crime, and they're saying, but I'm a good person.

Like, maybe a little judgmental, but sometimes

we kind of, like, really? Or the opposite happens.

You know, somebody is known for all the great

things they did to help society. And then, you

know, somebody will put out a video about like,

but really deep down inside. You know, and that

kind of tickles the side of our brain that wants

to hear all the drama. But like, they need a

strong case to convince us of that. Now, a person's

value isn't determined by what they do. But we

just have this natural intuition that the things

we do come out of things deeper. What we feel,

what we believe. Common saying that we say all

the time about this, actions speak louder than

words. And we normally mean this in terms of

relationships. If you really love someone, you'll

act like it. You won't just... say it uh similar

with moral values if you really believe in some

big moral value you'll do something about it

you won't just preach about it but i think this

applies to other internal qualities as well so

please open with me to the book of james chapter

three um in your bible on your app Or there should

also be Bibles on every table. So now, we've

been in James for a few weeks. But in case you

weren't here, it's in the New Testament, pretty

near the back. So it comes right after Hebrews.

But then if you start hitting other names like

Peter, John, Jude, you've gone too far. I'll

be reading out of the NIV. It's our tradition

here at the house to give the reading of scripture

our full attention. So if you desire and are

able, one way we can do that is to stand as we

read. James 3, 13 through 18. Who is wise and

understanding among you? Let them show it by

their good life, by deeds done in the humility

that comes with it. from wisdom. But if you harbor

bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts,

do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such

wisdom does not come down from heaven, but is

earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you

have envy and selfish ambition, there you find

disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom

that comes from heaven is first of all pure,

then peace -loving, considerate, submissive,

full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of

righteousness. Oh, yes, please be seated. So

I promise I'm not going to rant about Greek the

whole time. But there's an interesting word here.

Probably translated good behavior, might be translated

good deeds in some versions that you're reading.

In the Greek, that's anastrophes. Literally means

to turn up. It refers to the way people act in

society, the way they treat other people. what

they do in public, that sort of thing. But it

has connotations of coming from inside. We talk

about our values being inside and our actions

being outside. In Greek, it's more our values

come up into our actions. So that's kind of a

clue that... is confirmed as he goes on to talk

about what wisdom is and isn't, that James here

isn't talking about wisdom as this big abstract

concept. He's not getting as philosophical as,

like a couple months ago we had a series on wisdom

literature. He's getting even more down to brass

tacks than that did. He's not... talking about

the kind of wisdom we mean that somebody needs

in order to write a philosophical treatise that

you need multiple advanced degrees to understand.

That's not what James is messing with. Much like

a couple weeks ago when Greg was talking about

James talking about salvation. He wasn't into

the whole theological what causes salvation to

happen, how is it conferred, all of these complicated

things. He was like, no. You have your salvation,

now go live it out. That is James' focus consistently.

And we see it here as well. He starts out talking

about what wisdom isn't. It's not bitter jealousy.

Obviously, how wise can you be if you're just

sitting around? It's not self -interest. This

phrase translated as self -interest, it's another

interesting one. It shows up in other places

throughout the Bible talking about similar...

Sorry, blanked out for a second. In similar context,

talking about social behavior, either your behavior

like out in society or sometimes social interactions

within the church. But before the Bible in Greek,

it was mostly used to talk about politics. You

know, if you look it up in a fancy Greek lexicon,

you'll probably see this word factiousness, which

isn't very helpful, but it's fun to say. Kind

of means like party spirit. We want our team

to win. Has very negative connotations. It's

like, okay, we're going to do this really sneaky

underhanded thing. But then our team will win.

We'll get our way. Our guy will be voted in.

Whatever. It reminds me of the thing that I saw.

I used to be part of an organization that had

a serious ongoing issue. People would leave,

either they moved away, or they would just be

going to a different group for the same function,

and they wouldn't be participating anymore. They

wouldn't be part of our community. They wouldn't

be doing anything with our events. But they would

show up every six months on the dot, so that

they were technically still active members. So

that when it was time for us to vote on something,

they could show up and still have a vote to make

sure their friends and family who were still

here could get their way. Not exactly above board.

Technically allowed by the bylaws, though. In

a kind of less severe way, it reminds me of...

So I'm sure we've all seen... Everybody likes

posting videos of their kids doing something

cute, right? The kids doing something clever.

And I like watching those videos, because kids

are pretty cool. But every so often, it'll be

a video of mom or dad saying, look how smart

my child is, and it's their kid just parroting

something that they hear mom and dad say a lot.

Now, nothing wrong with the kid. The kid wants

to be on mom and dad's team. That's good. That's

right. That's appropriate. Nothing wrong with

mom and dad. Mom and dad are trying to confer

their values on their children. That's good.

That's right. That's appropriate. But a child

parenting something that they hear frequently

in the home but that they don't really understand

isn't what James would call wisdom. That's not...

harmful. But it's not wisdom. Give them a few

years to grow up and really understand it. Start

expressing their own opinions. Then we can talk

about that. But we see this all over the place

in modern life. Very often we want to make sure

that our team wins. We want to do what it takes

to make sure that our side, what we think would

be best, what would be best for us, is what happens.

We see this in the workplace, in the community,

in the home, out in society in bigger ways. Very

often, what we're trying to do is this self -interest,

this team spirit, this, okay, we gotta win attitude.

And what James is saying here is that that is

not wisdom. Doesn't mean that you can't ever

want things that will benefit you, but just that

investment in your team winning isn't the wisdom

that James is talking about here. So, if all

of that is what wisdom is not, what is wisdom?

Notice, he gives special attention to it being

pure, or some translations might say holy. First

of all, it is pure, then these other things.

That suggests a place of importance, a place

of primacy. wisdom is going to also be all of

these other things, but it must, it has to be

pure. You could also say unadulterated, clean,

not mixed up with anything else. We could see

from the context that this likely includes that

earthly, unspiritual, false wisdom above. bitter

jealousy and self -interest. If our supposed

wisdom is mixed up with those things, then it

is not pure. It is not the wisdom James is talking

about here. I would argue that it would also

include other distortions, other deviations from

the wisdom that James is telling us about. One

example that we see a lot today is kind of the

ends justify the means thinking. If we compromise

our values just a little bit, just this once,

just for a little while, then we can fix everything.

If we compromise our values just this one time,

then we'll make everything better. If we compromise

our values then, maybe, our team will win and

then everything will be great. We see that in

lots of ways. We see that economically. Like,

well, you know, I just need this one thing to

happen so then that way I can get ahead. We see

that with politics. Well, we need to do this

so that this party or that party will win this

position and then they'll fix all the things.

We see that just out in the community. Well,

I just need to get my way on this one thing and

then everything will be okay. So it's okay that

I'm a little underhanded just this once. But

though that would be not purity in our wisdom.

That would be mixing it up with other things.

That would make it not the wisdom James is talking

about here. But then he goes on to explain what

other things this wisdom from heaven is. This

wisdom is peace -loving. This wisdom is considerate.

This wisdom is submissive, or that word in the

Greek could also be translated reasonable, not

being pushy about having your own way all the

time. This wisdom is full of mercy, full of good

fruit, impartial. sincere. This list is very

reminiscent of other lists we see in the New

Testament. It's not a one -to -one copy, but

there's overlap and similarity. It reminds me

of the fruits of the Spirit we see in Galatians

5 .22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,

peace, patience, kindness. goodness, faithfulness,

and self -control. It also reminds me of the

definition of love given in 1 Corinthians 13,

4 -8. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does

not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud.

It does not dishonor others. It is not self -seeking.

It is not easily angered. It keeps no record

of wrong. Love does not delight in evil, but

rejoices with the truth. It always protects,

always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Now, these lists, notice they're not complicated,

difficult to understand rules. There are some

rules. that are lists. A notoriously complicated

example is the tax code. The tax code is essentially

long lists of what is and isn't taxed, when and

why, and you have to cross -reference it. There's

a particularly notorious case, Nix versus Hedden,

often called the tomato case. Has anyone heard

of it? It's fun. So it's way back in 1893. So

it was referencing a tax law that, you know,

they've changed it so often it's not really relevant

anymore, but it's still funny. A few years before,

they had passed a law on taxing imports that

was meant to put a certain tax on fruits and

vegetables. But the way it was phrased, because

of a straight comma, a bunch of people were arguing,

Well, technically, according to the way it's

written, it's only taxing vegetables, not fruit.

Like, technically. Like, yes, they intended to

tax them both, but technically. And so this guy,

who made a lot of money importing tomatoes, guess

we weren't growing a lot of tomatoes in the U

.S. in the 1890s, so he had to import them, argued

that, well, since technically there isn't a tax

on fruit, Technically, you know, tomatoes are

a fruit. We eat them like a vegetable, but botanically

speaking, tomatoes are a fruit. So you shouldn't

be taxing my tomatoes, because technically there's

no tax on fruit, and technically tomatoes are

a fruit, but technically you shouldn't be charging

me a tax. They had to argue in the court's days

about this. He wound up winning. So legally,

tomatoes are a fruit. Technically. That's not

the sort of thing we're dealing with here. We're

not dealing with, well, technically you should

do this in this situation, but not in that situation.

And technically, no. James is way more grounded

and practical than all of that. These are broad

values that are easy to understand, that I believe

are best understood if we don't try to overthink

it too much. I think most of us here know what

it means to love peace, what it means to be sincere,

what it means to be considerate. These aren't

complicated technicalities. What's hard isn't

understanding what these traits of wisdom are.

What's hard is Actually living it out. Actually

going out into our community and consistently

doing all of these things. Acting in a way that

reflects all of these inward virtues every day.

James concludes, peacemakers who sow in peace.

a harvest of righteousness. Now, this is largely

a transition to what we'll be reading about next

week, but it also serves as a conclusion to the

wisdom here. It suggests the end result of this

wisdom. If we were to all go out and behave in

a way that reflects this wisdom, we would be

peacemakers. we would sow peace and we would

reap righteousness in our whole community. We

would see righteousness. So that brings us to

the hard part. How can you love peace in your

community today? How can you be considerate in

your community? How can you be reasonable in

your community today? How can you be full of

mercy? How can you be full of good fruit? How

can you be impartial? And how can you be sincere?

Please join me in prayer. Dear Lord, we thank

you for bringing us here together this morning.

We thank you for our neighbors, for our communities,

for our friends and loved ones. We ask that you

would guide us. Live out.