This month we are going to read the letters of James and Titus.

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1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes of the Dispersion:

Greetings.

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

I love the letter of James – it gives such a rich portrait of the kind of wise perspective on life that flows from faith in Jesus as Lord. It’s like the book of Proverbs, but written in the light of Jesus.

Today’s opening section centres on one of my favourite themes in James: the rich and unchanging generosity of God. The key to life as a servant of the Lord Jesus is to gain true wisdom, and the way to gain it couldn’t be simpler: “ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault” (v5). Wisdom isn’t knowing all the answers, it’s learning what it means to be like Christ and live in a way that reflects him.

The only condition here is: Don’t be a double-minded and unstable doubter. In James, as we’ll see later, the “double-minded man” is the person who can’t decide whether they really want to live for Jesus or not.

God is even generous in the way he allows his children to pass through trials and hardships, because he has an amazing purpose for us through our trials: “that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (v4).

That got me thinking about growing in godliness. I often think about it as changing something flawed in my character. But James describes godliness as being “complete, not lacking anything.” It’s not that I already have the right things, and I just need to improve them. It’s that Jesus has things that I’m still lacking. Jesus has total dependence on God, a mind constantly focused on loving and pleasing his Father. Spiritually, I lack what Jesus has. Maybe that’s why Paul says his goal is to count all his own achievements as rubbish, “that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

Anyway, back to God’s generosity. If God gives godly wisdom SO generously to those who ask him humbly and sincerely, why am I often so unwise? I can think of a few possible reasons. But whatever the answer is, I know the remedy: I need to come to God with sincere faith in Jesus, reflect deeply on the riches of godliness that Christ has and that I lack, and then ask God to give me those things. Why don’t you do the same now?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our senior minister.