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    Godliness from Head to Toe: An Introduction to the Book of James
    Godliness from Head to Toe: An Introduction to the Book of James
    Godliness from Head to Toe: An Introduction to the Book of James
    Ebook187 pages2 hours

    Godliness from Head to Toe: An Introduction to the Book of James

    By Jonathan Lamb

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    About this ebook

    One of the biggest questions facing Christians today is, ‘How can I live wisely?’. Given all that we say about the Christian faith, is it possible to live an authentic, credible Christian life that demonstrates faith that works? Covering a wide range of practical challenges - whether trial and temptation, or poverty and riches, or our use of words, or our patience in suffering, or our struggle with the world, the flesh and the devil - James helps us become wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

    This book is ideal for individual or group use and includes questions, discussion points, ideas for action and further study.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLangham Preaching Resources
    Release dateJun 30, 2018
    ISBN9781783683932
    Godliness from Head to Toe: An Introduction to the Book of James

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      Book preview

      Godliness from Head to Toe - Jonathan Lamb

      Section 1 – Feet: Walking the Way of Wisdom – James 1

      Feet: Walking the Way of Wisdom

      Introduction to Section 1

      I recently read of a pilot who was practising high-speed manoeuvres in a jet fighter. He turned the controls for what he thought was a steep ascent and flew straight into the ground. He was unaware of the fact that he had been flying upside down. The writer of the account suggested that it is something of a parable for our times: living at high speed, but often with no clue whether we are upside down or the right-side up. That’s the problem of living life without external reference points.

      This is the basic question being asked more and more frequently in our world: how am I to live? Where are the guide-posts? Is there any kind of moral compass that I can use to decide what is right or wrong? What is my framework for living?

      During the global financial crisis there were frequent appeals for people who don’t just obey the rules, but for leaders who are driven by core moral values. A statement by a Government minister, appointed to clean up the financial activities in the City of London, referred to the troubling absence of clear moral purpose in banking. And this seems to be what is missing – we have no over-arching moral framework to guide our value judgments.

      Not long ago there was considerable discussion about a UK Government advice-leaflet on sex education. The advice urged parents to avoid telling their children the difference between right and wrong. It suggested that the advice should be values-free. One clinical psychologist who defended the view was quoted in a newspaper: We do not know what is right and wrong; right and wrong is relative.[1] That attitude is rather like playing a game of football without goal posts. You can dribble the ball and execute some fine passes, but what’s the point of it all? Most people are concerned about right and wrong but lack the guidelines by which to determine the moral categories for decision-making. The suspicion of many young people is that our society is simply making it up as it goes along.

      Can you think of examples from your own context where it is clear that your society or community is morally bewildered and spiritually confused?

      Do you think these issues have impacted Christians too? In what ways?

      If our society is morally bewildered and spiritually confused, uncertain of how to live, then how do we Christians shape up? The big question with which we are confronted as we turn to the book of James is this: how do we live wisely? Given all that we say about the Christian faith, how are we living? Is there an authentic, credible demonstration of Christian faith that works? Here the letter of James couldn’t be more helpful. His big concern is how to live in an integrated way, how to bring all of life together. He wants to see every part of life and community demonstrating the reality of Christian faith. He wants faith that works.

      The idea of completeness or integrity runs through the letter, and it is introduced in chapter 1, verse 4: so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. This is a favourite word group for James. The two Greek words for complete and whole occur seven times in James (coincidentally a number that was associated with completeness).

      This is why we have given this series of expositions the title: Godliness from Head to Toe, for this is what James is interested in. Although it is difficult to encapsulate a theme for each chapter of James, the five themes of this study guide express it in this way:

      Feet: Walking the Way of Wisdom

      Hands: Doing the Works of Faith

      Lips: Speaking the Words of Truth

      Hearts: Living in Submission to God

      Knees: Depending on the Grace of God.

      This call for integrated Christian living is the opposite of what James refers to as being double-minded (1:8). We will return to that idea several times in the pages that follow. He doesn’t want us to compromise with worldly values, but to give our lives completely to the Lord. It is a call to integrity, a call for wholeness or completeness.

      In an earthquake zone it is usual for buildings and bridges regularly to be checked for structural integrity to ensure that all the pieces still fit together exactly as they are supposed to. Integrity suggests a life that is well integrated: there is a coherence between the different parts of a person’s life. The value system that we profess shapes every area of our lives, public and private. There is a togetherness about our personality and way of life. Some think that an equivalent word for integrity is shalom, a Hebrew word for the whole of life having this quality of consistency and harmony. Christians who live like this can be trusted because there is a consistency of word, character, and action. There is a coherence about every area of their lives.

      Perhaps you have watched a news report on TV where the sound and vision are out of synch. It’s hard to take it seriously, as we try to match what is being said with the animated face on the screen. In the same way, when someone’s life fails to match up with his or her words, we give up listening. This is what destroys credibility. But when Christians live their words, keep their promises, and embody the truth, then Christian community is built and Christian mission is enhanced. This one quality can transform the life of our churches and make our Christian witness credible.

      As we begin our study, it would be wise to spend a moment of quiet reflection and confession, as we acknowledge the ways in which our lives are out of synch. Bring to God the things that you know are inconsistent in your life. Pray for his forgiveness and grace, and ask him to help you to change as you read the letter of James.

      James has much to teach about living life in this way, about walking wisely. Chapter 1 introduces this theme with an overview of many of the issues that James addresses throughout the letter. It serves as an executive summary. The first three chapters of this study guide will look at what it means to walk the way of wisdom, and we will examine that under the three headings of trial, temptation, and truth.

      1

      Walking Wisely under Trial

      Aim: to understand how to live with integrity when we are under pressure

      Focus on the Theme

      Every Christian faces trials of all kinds, and the key to living wisely is to understand that there are significant productive results from facing pressures with God’s help. This perspective can radically alter the way we handle difficulties.

      Read: James 1:1–12
      Key Verse: James 1:2
      Outline:

      1. Perseverance (1:3)

      2. Maturity (1:4)

      3. Wisdom (1:5)

      4. Perspective (1:9–12)

      James comes across as a preacher who looks you in the eye, rather than someone writing a letter from a distance. He’s direct – uncomfortably direct. So each time he comes to a new and demanding subject, you can spot the pastoral signal in the text, as he addresses the matter in personal terms: my brothers and sisters, he says. In verse 2 we immediately encounter James’s practical realism. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Realism? That sounds more like fanaticism. It’s delusional, isn’t it? Consider it pure joy when you face trials? This passage should not be used in a trivial or insensitive manner. James is seeking to help Christians develop a different way of viewing life. Before we examine what he teaches us, it is important to note that James has several reasons for commenting on trials of all kinds: he understood the issue clearly.

      First, most people think that the James who wrote the letter was Jesus’s own brother. (There has been some debate surrounding the question of authorship, and you can read more in some of the commentaries listed in the footnotes.) In verse 1 he sees no need to tell his readers which James he is, which suggests that he is very well known to his readers. As the theologian David Field once wrote, it’s like receiving a letter from Buckingham Palace in the UK signed Elizabeth – all British citizens know who lives there, and so there’s no need to ask which Elizabeth? James the brother of Jesus had become the leader of the church in Jerusalem. In verse 1 the letter is formally addressed to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations, which is a way of describing the Jewish-Christian communities dispersed throughout the Roman world. Only one James had that kind of authority amongst Jewish believers, and that was James the brother of Jesus, the leader of the mother

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