MONDAY
Our campaign that we started a week ago is called The Things We Say. In this campaign we will be exploring some of the vocabulary that should season the speech of God’s people. But before we get into the specific phrases, these first two weeks we are exploring what the Scripture says of the importance of our words.
Remember from last week, this counters significant cultural trends in our world today that tend to devalue the words we say and what they communicate to others as well as what they reveal about ourselves. In all we simply don’t take the words we say as seriously as Jesus and the apostles and the prophets would have us. We have been formed by this culture, as Christians then we must be transformed in the way we think of the things we say.
Last week, we looked at Jesus teaching that the things we say don’t just communicate a message to our hearers, they reveal what is actually in our hearts. This week we are going to look at what Jesus’ brother, James has to say about this. James will, for the most part, reinforcing Jesus’ teaching on this topic.
The book of James reads like a New Testament version of the Proverbs. It is, in large part, practical instructions on how to live the way of Jesus in life—faith in action. He is writing with the intention of encouraging Christians to live the ethical imperatives of Jesus. This, of course, is not a unique phenomenon to the first century. Today, many Christians and preachers rightly emphasize the grace of God in salvation but fail to follow the lordship of Jesus in their every-day-living. We today need to hear the words of James, “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17) Our good works then necessarily follow genuine saving faith in Jesus. They do not bring about salvation in Jesus but they will certainly follow saving faith.
Tomorrow we will dive into one of the two passages in James on the importance of controlling the tongue, but for today allow me to make one more comment on the general overview of the book and the themes of James. James opens his introduction with these words:
James 1:2–4 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
There is much that can be said about these verses, but for today I want to focus on the words perfect and complete. Essentially James is telling us to change our perspective when our faith is tested. They produce steadfastness or perseverance as the NIV translates it, with the goal of making us perfect and complete. This mimics the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:
Matthew 5:48 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The Greek word translated as perfect is a derivative of the word telos. The term is used in a number of different senses but it implies bringing something to it’s purposed end. It is translated mature in the NIV which works as well, as it implies a Christian growing up into God’s intended end—maturity and ultimately perfection. The following term complete implies a similar idea: meeting all expectations, with integrity, whole, undamaged, intact, blameless.
James’ concept of spiritual growth here is meant to challenge us. So often I hear Christians say things like, “Well, I’m not perfect,” or, “Nobody’s perfect.” As I’m writing this a song I’m listening to just said, “You never wanted perfect, you just wanted my heart.” This lyric is misleading at best. According to Jesus and James, God has purposed believers to become perfect. This process starts at conversion and will be completed in full in the new creation. Of course, these sentiments are true, we will never be perfect this side of heaven. James will say as much in chapter 3. However, they are often expressions of our heart’s lack of desire to pursue perfection and maturity in the faith. Again, we rightly emphasize salvation by grace through faith in Jesus alone, not by works so no one can boast (Eph. 2:8). Yet, we can easily neglect that God purposes us to maturity and ultimately perfection in holiness. So we cannot just throw up our hands 🤷🏼♂️ to our sin and lack of formation, shrugging it off like it’s nothing. This indifference in our spiritual growth is alarming. This is precisely the issue James is writing about.
Do we not want to grow in holiness? Do we not want to experience more of the abundant life God has purposed us towards? Do we not want to experience God more fully? Holiness, maturity, perfection allow us to experience the presence of God more fully. This experience of God is the core of living an abundant life.
We must properly characterize faith and works, law and gospel to have a healthy faith. Throughout the history of the church various Christian traditions have swung the pendulum too far on both sides of this. We are made right with God solely by His grace received through faith. We are adopted into his family. This we do not and cannot earn. “It is by grace we are saved through faith.” (Eph. 2:8) But as Dallas Willard has said, “Grace is not opposed to doing. It is opposed to earning.” Good works necessarily result from our genuine faith—not to earn our salvation but as a result of it.
So we must balance the beautiful, comforting truth that we are accepted by God not because of the works that we do—that is law, and directly opposed to gospel. Yet, when God saves us he purposes to perfect us. We cannot even do this in and of ourselves but we should long and strive for this perfection, surrendering more and more to the Spirit’s work in our hearts. James implores us to ask God for wisdom in and he will provide it. (James 1:5) This Godly wisdom will lead us towards spiritual growth. We should always be pursuing spiritual growth and maturity, not to earn our acceptance by God but because of his acceptance of us.
Additional Content
Reflection
Examine your heart. Do you desire maturity, completeness, perfection in life with God or are you content to accept your gift of grace and remain as you are?