(2) We must remember how the asker must ask. We must ask without doubts. We must be sure of both the power and the desire of God to give. If we ask in doubt, our minds are like the broken water of the sea, driven hither and thither by any chance wind. J. B. Mayor describes the one who doubts as being like a cork carried by the waves, now near the shore, now far away. Such a person is unstable. Hort suggests that the picture is of someone who is drunk, staggering from side to side on the road and getting nowhere. James says vividly that such a person is dipsuchos, which literally means someone with two souls, or two minds. One believes, the other disbelieves, and the individual is a walking civil war in which trust and distrust of God wage a continual battle against each other.
If we are to use aright the experiences of life to develop a sterling character, we must ask for wisdom from God. And when we ask, we must remember the absolute generosity of God and see to it that we ask believing that we shall receive what God knows it is good and right for us to have.
AS EACH INDIVIDUAL NEEDS
James 1:9–11
Let the lowly brother be proud of his exaltation; and let the rich brother be proud of his humiliation; for he will pass away like a flower of the field. The sun rises with the scorching wind and withers the grass, and the flower wilts, and the beauty of its form is destroyed. So the rich will wither away in all his ways.
AS James saw it, Christianity brings to every individual what he or she needs. As J. B. Mayor put it, ‘As the despised poor learns self-respect, so the proud rich learns self-abasement.’
(1) Christianity brings to the poor a new sense of their own value, (a) They learn that they matter in the Church. In the early Church, there were no class distinctions. It could happen that the slave was the minister of the congregation, preaching and dispensing the sacrament, while the master was no more than a humble member. In the Church, the social distinctions of the world are obliterated, and no individual matters more than any other, (b) They learn that they matter in the world. It is the teaching of Christianity that everyone in this world has a task to do. Everyone is of use to God – and, even if someone is confined to a bed of pain, the power of that person’s prayers can still act on the world. (c) They learn that they matter to God. As Muretus the wandering scholar said long ago, ‘Call no man worthless for whom Christ died.’
(2) Christianity brings to the rich a new sense of self-abasement. The great peril of riches is that they tend to give people a false sense of security. They feel that they are safe; they feel that they have the resources to cope with anything and to buy themselves out of any situation they may wish to avoid.
James draws a vivid picture, very familiar to the people of Palestine. In the desert places, if there is a shower of rain, the thin green shoots of grass will sprout, but one day’s burning sunshine will make them vanish as if they had never been. The scorching heat is the kausōn. The kausōn was the south-east wind, the Simoon. It came straight from the deserts and burst on Palestine like a blast of hot air when an oven door is opened. In an hour, it could wipe out all vegetation.
This is a picture of what a life dependent on riches can be like. Those who put their trust in riches are trusting in things which the chances and changes of life can take from them at any moment. Life itself is uncertain. At the back of James’ mind, there is Isaiah’s picture: ‘All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass’ (Isaiah 40:6–7; cf. Psalm 103:15).
James’ point is this. If life is so uncertain and human beings so vulnerable, calamity and disaster may come at any moment. Since that is so, people are fools to put all their trust in things – like wealth – which they may lose at any moment. They are only wise if they put their trust in things which they cannot lose.
So, James urges the rich to cease to put their trust in the things that their own power can amass. He urges them to admit their essential human helplessness and humbly to put their trust in God, who alone can give the things which abide forever.
THE CROWN OF LIFE
James 1:12
Happy is the man who meets trial with steadfast constancy because, when he has shown himself of sterling worth, he will receive the crown of life which he has promised to those who love him.
TO those who meet trials in the right way, there is joy here and hereafter.
(1) In this life, they become men and women of sterling worth. The word used is dokimos. They are like metal which is cleansed of all alloy. The weaknesses of character are eradicated; and they emerge strong and pure.
(2) In the life to come, they receive the crown of life. There is far more than one idea here. In the ancient world, the crown (stephanos) had at least four great associations.
(a) The crown of flowers was worn at times of joy, at weddings and at feasts (cf. Isaiah 28:1–2; Song of Solomon 3:11). The crown was the sign of festive joy.
(b) The crown was the mark of royalty. It was worn by kings and by those in authority. Sometimes this was the crown of gold; sometimes it was the linen strip, or head-band, worn around the brow (cf. Psalm 21:3; Jeremiah 13:18).
(c) The crown of laurel leaves was the victor’s crown in the games, the prize which athletes coveted above all (cf. 2 Timothy 4:8).
(d) The crown was the mark of honour and of dignity. The instructions of parents can bring a crown of grace to those who listen to them (Proverbs 1:9); wisdom provides a crown of glory (Proverbs 4:9); in a time of disaster and dishonour, it can be said: ‘The crown has fallen from our head’ (Lamentations 5:16).
We do not need to choose between these meanings. They are all included. Christians have a joy that others can never have. Life for them is like always being at a feast. They have a royalty that others have never achieved, for, however humble their earthly circumstances, they are the children of God. They have a victory which others cannot win, for they meet life and all its demands in the conquering power of the presence of Jesus Christ. They have a new dignity, for they are always conscious that God considered them worth the life and death of Jesus Christ.
What is the crown? It is the crown of life, and that phrase means that it is the crown which consists of life. The Christian crown is a new kind of living which is life indeed; through Jesus Christ, Christians have entered into a life that is more abundant.
James says that if Christians meet the testings of life in the steadfast constancy which Christ can give, life becomes infinitely more splendid than ever it was before. The struggle is the way to glory, and the very struggle itself is a glory.
PUTTING THE BLAME ON GOD
James 1:13–15
Let no man say when he is tempted: ‘My temptation comes from God.’ For God himself is untemptable by evil and tempts no man. But temptation comes to every man, because he is lured on and seduced by his own desire; then desire conceives and begets sin; and, when sin has reached its full development, it spawns death.
BEHIND this passage lies a Jewish way of belief to which all of us are to some extent prone. James is here rebuking those who put the blame for temptation on God.
Jewish thought was haunted by the internal conflict that is in every individual. It was the problem