Verses Used:

• James 4:11-12
• Genesis 3:5
• Psalm 1:1
• Mathew 7
• Galatians 6:1
• 2 Samuel 24:14

Takeaways:

How We Talk About People

• James tells us to ‘not speak evil against each other.’ His concern is how we speak about other people.
• Gossip is talking about someone when we should be talking to them. Before we talk about people, ask yourself: Is it true? Is it mine to tell? Have I talked to them before I’ve talked about them?
• Slander is saying something false or distorted that damages someone’s reputation. We’re declaring who they are and why they did it.
• Malice is wanting our words to hurt someone. Malice isn’t primarily about what we say, but about why we are saying it.
• Gossip asks, “Is it mine to tell?”; Slander asks, “is what I’m saying actually true and fair?; Malice asks, "What am I hoping my words will do to this person?”
• James' concern is what happens when we use words to put ourselves above another person. When we are no longer describing someone, but passing judgment.

God’s Seat

• Discernment says, “What you’re doing is wrong.” Judge-mentalism says, “Because of what you’ve done, I know what kind of person you are.”
• Scripture forbids a judgmental posture, not moral discernment.
• Jesus says to deal with your own sin first, the “log in your eye” before you can “take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Jesus isn’t eliminating discernment, he’s confronting hypocritical, self righteous judgment.
• Discernment says, “What you’re doing is wrong.” Judgement says, “There’s something wrong with you, and I’m better than you.”
• We can call out actions, identify sin, and we can confront someone but we cannot perfectly judge motives, we don’t get to judge the heart, nor should we condemn someone.
• Biblical discernment wants restoration, while judgmentalism wants a verdict. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. God is in the seat.
• David is facing judgment, and he chooses the Judge because he knows His mercy is great.
• God doesn’t ask us to be the judge, but he does ask us to be the neighbor.

Take Your Place as a Neighbor

• God’s “royal law” is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
• The problem with making yourself “above” someone, it gets harder to love the person you’re looking down on. Following Jesus means getting off the ladder.
• Coming alongside someone means you’re asking: how can I love you?, how can I help you?, or how can I point you toward Jesus?
• Loving your neighbor means having a difficult conversation. God wants the conversation to be “I love you enough to walk with you toward what is true.” and not “I need to straighten you out. You are broken.”
• We need our neighbors to know we are beside them as someone who needs the same grace they do. Our seat is beside them, on the same team. They need to know we are here for them, wanting them to succeed, and we are in this together.
• The One who had every right to condemn us chose to make a way to save us.

Discussion Questions:

• How can you tell when you’ve crossed the line from discernment into judgment?
• What changes when you remember that God is the Judge and you don’t have to be?
• What might change if you spent less time talking about someone and more time talking to them?
• What does being a good neighbor look like when someone has messed up?

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Verses Used:

• James 4:1-10
• Romans 7:18-19
• Hosea 4:12
• Luke 15:11-32

Takeaways:

Look Within

• James asks, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?”
• James says, “You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them.”
• He is referring to hedonism, which is essentially the idea that pleasure is the highest good. Some examples include over eating, over drinking to relax, sexual gratification, or being entertained to the point you neglect things that actually matter.
• We feed into our passions or desires to the point that we do what we know will hurt ourselves or someone around us. Not just being a desire problem, but an allegiance problem.

Choose Your Allegiance

• James isn’t ultimately just talking about what you want, but what has your heart.
• We tend to have a problem of thinking of “my kingdom” instead of God’s kingdom. We live in a way organized around values that are opposed to God’s.
• God is jealous for the hearts of His people. Not a jealousy that comes from selfishness and insecurity, but one that comes from covenant love.

Come Home

• God gives grace generously while our desires pull us away.
• The message of James is to recognize what has captured your heart, humble yourself, and come back to the God who gives grace.
• God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
• The way we win the war within is by surrendering to Jesus. Surrendering is saying, “God, what You want matters more than what I want.”

Discussion Questions:

• What is something good God gives us that can easily become too important to us?
• How can you tell something you desire has started to capture your heart?
• Why do you think our instinct is sometimes to hide from God when we’ve sinned rather than draw near to Him?
• Why does it matter that we address false beliefs when we repent?

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Verses Used:

• James 3:13-18
• Proverbs 4:7
• Proverbs 9:10
• Philippians 2:5-8

Takeaways:

True wisdom is revealed by how you live.

• Wisdom is defined as the practical ability to live life from God’s perspective.
• Once we can learn to see God from the right perspective, we can see everything from God’s perspective.

Worldly wisdom is revealed by your motivation

• When we trust that God knows and loves us; we are free from self promotion. We don’t have to make ourselves great.

Godly wisdom is revealed by what it produces.

• Godly wisdom produces people who make peace rather than create chaos.

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Verses Used:

• James 3:1-12
• Proverbs 12:18
• Proverbs 15:1
• Luke 6:45
• Ephesians 4:29

Takeaways:

Words Direct

• James made a point that compares our words with things that are disproportionately small compared with their influence.
• James’ point is “Don’t confuse small with insignificant.”
• Words direct a relationship. Words can escalate a conflict or bring peace. They can wound the heart or they can bring healing. They can create fear or they can build courage.
• Your words are taking you somewhere. They are steering your very life.

Words Destroy

• The tongue can burn other people down like a fire.
• It takes a long time to grow a forest. It doesn’t take long to burn one down.
• Your words can damage or even kill relationships through gossip, sarcasm, contempt, angry words, or constant criticism.
• Our words are symptoms but the heart is the source.
• Your mouth may be telling you something about your heart that you need to hear.
• James says, “No human being can tame the tongue.” We need God to change us. We need transformed hearts; we need Jesus.

Words Give Life

• Every person, every human life has value because we are made in the likeness of God. So if your words are being destructive to someone, you’re speaking about someone who bears the image of God.
• A heart increasingly transformed by Jesus should increasingly produce words that sound like Jesus; not perfectly, but progressively.
• Our words reveal our hearts and our words shape other hearts.
• Words have power to bring life. Someone can speak words of encouragement, affirmation, truth, or hope that can be carried for years.
• Give grace to those who hear because our words have tremendous power.

Discussion Questions:

• Why do you think our words can be so difficult to control, especially when we’re angry, hurt, or insecure?
• What kind of speech are you most likely to struggle with criticism, gossip, sarcasm, anger, complaining, or something else? What might be underneath it?
• Who is someone whose words have brought life or encouragement to you? What did they say that made such an impact?
• Who in your life could use some life giving words from you right now? What might they need to hear?

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Verses Used:

• James 2:14-26
• Ephesians 2:8-9
• Genesis 22:15-18
• Genesis 15:4-6
• Joshua 2

Takeaways:

Real Faith Trusts

• Compassion is one piece of evidence that the gospel has begun changing a heart.
• Compassion isn’t the cause of saving faith. It’s one of its fruits.
• James says, “Show me your faith apart from your works…” Noticing the word “show” we can see that faith is invisible but its fruit is seen.
• Demons know Jesus is God’s son, God exists, judgment is coming, and Jesus has authority.
• Having an intellectual understanding of Jesus is not the same as trusting Jesus with your heart; real faith trusts.
• Saving faith doesn’t merely agree with Jesus, it rests in Him.

Real Faith Matures

• James points out that Abraham’s faith was active along with his works. Faith and obedience were working together.
• Obedience didn’t replace faith. It strengthened it, it matured. It brought it to its full expression.
• The actions don’t create the relationship, they deepen it, they reveal it. The same is true with faith.
• Abraham’s obedience didn’t earn God’s acceptance. It was the fruit of years of walking with Him.
• Obedience doesn’t compete with faith, it is one of the primary ways faith grows.

Real Faith Shows Up

• Real faith endures trials, receives God’s word (specifically do-ers, not just those who hear the word), and shows mercy to all people. Real faith becomes visible.

Discussion Questions:

• Which ditch are you more tempted to drift toward: Trying to earn God’s approval through your works or using grace as an excuse to stay the same? Why?
• James says even the demons believe and shudder. What does that reveal about the difference between correct theology and saving faith?
• Think of someone in your life who has a vibrant faith. What evidence of their faith do you see in the way they live?
• How is obedience different when it’s motivated by love and gratitude instead of guilt or fear?

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Verses Used:

• James 2:1-13
• Luke 14:7-14
• 1 Samuel 16:7
• Matthew 7:1-2

Takeaways:

We Naturally Reserve Seats

• Favoritism doesn’t begin with where someone sits. It begins with what my heart believes someone is worth.
• We may not overtly give someone special seats in our church, but the attitude behind what was happening with these early church members can show up for us too.
• Jesus actually gives two lessons: Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted, and invite the people who cannot repay you.

A Reordered Seating Chart

• The world honors the successful, Jesus notices the forgotten; that’s the upside down kingdom. The world celebrates the influential, Jesus notices the forgotten.
• Consider the people Jesus stopped for: blind Bartimaeus, Zacchaeus, the woman caught in adultery, the Samaritan woman, lepers, children, and widows.
• The world judges by appearance, but God looks at the heart. The world measures people by appearance, but God measures the heart.
• The world rewards status, while Jesus honors humility. The world builds ladders, while Jesus gathers people around a table.
• Jesus reorders the seating chart. Everyone has value in the Kingdom. Everyone is loved and is welcome.

Mercy Wins

• Mercy isn’t pretending sin doesn’t matter; mercy cost Jesus everything. At the cross, judgment fell. Justice was satisfied so mercy could triumph.
• The measure you use toward others reveals the measure you’ve understood from God.
• Jesus and James are not teaching salvation by works. They’re teaching that our treatment of others reveals the true condition of our hearts.

Discussion Questions:

• What kinds of people are we most tempted to admire? What does that reveal about what we value?
• If everyone comes to Jesus by grace alone, why is favoritism so out of step with the gospel?
• Why is remembering God’s mercy toward us essential if we’re going to show mercy to others?
• What attitudes or assumptions make it difficult for us to see people the way Jesus sees them?

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Verses Used:

• James 1:19-27
• Luke 6:45

Takeaways:

An Unteachable Heart

• Healthy anger is a voice to be heard about something that is not right. A passionate response to an injustice.
• Man’s anger is not a pure emotion; it is usually heavily impregnated with sin, self-importance, self assertion, intolerance, and/or stubbornness.
• In verse 21, James gives us a clue of how to close the gap. “...receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
• The Christian life isn’t behavior modification. It’s God’s word growing inside us.

A Deceived Heart

• Information without obedience creates the illusion of maturity.
• Spiritual maturity isn’t measured by how much truth I’ve consumed. It’s measured by how much truth has changed me.
• We convince ourselves that exposure equals transformation. We assume because we felt convicted, we’ve changed.
• When the word reveals something to you like a mirror, do something about it.

A Transformed Heart

• If you want to be a religious person, a spiritual person, a follower of Jesus tame your tongue. Don’t harm others with it.
• Christian love always moves toward people who have nothing to offer in return.
• The life of transformation does not come from sheer willpower or white knuckling obedience. It comes from a heart that has been transformed by grace.
• The gospel doesn’t eliminate obedience, but it changed the reason for it.

Discussion Questions:

• Why is the gap between listening and living so dangerous?
• James says to “receive with meekness the implanted word.” What do you think it means for God’s Word to be implanted rather than simply heard?
• James calls us to be doers of the Word. How can we pursue obedience without slipping into a works-based mindset?
• If you were to act on just one thing God has already shown you, what would it be?

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Verses Used:

• James 1:1-18

Takeaways:

Mature Faith Sees Trials Differently

• Joy is not pretending pain doesn’t hurt. Joy is confidence that God is accomplishing something good, even when we can’t yet see it.
• We want God to calm the storm. Most of the time he doesn’t. He uses it to reveal His presence with us, His power to guide and provide what we need in the midst of the storm.
• The goal is maturity. James says, “...that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”. In Greek, perfect would be described as something that has reached its intended purpose. Something fully developed, whole, complete, or mature.
• James wants us to consider that maybe God’s greatest work isn’t getting us out of the storm, but it’s us growing through the storm.

Mature Faith Seeks God’s Wisdom

• James challenges us to pray, “God, what do You want to teach me?” and consider the hard questions like: How do I respond to this person? Do I speak up or stay quiet? How do I forgive someone who hurt me? How do I parent this child? How do I care for aging parents?
• Mature faith comes with open hands. It’s saying “Father, I trust You. Show me the way.” It isn’t being double minded or two souled where one foot is with the Father and one foot is somewhere else. That would be saying, “God, I want Your wisdom as long as it matches what I already want.”
• Mature faith doesn’t simply ask God to change our circumstances; it asks God to help us know what to do in the midst of them (wisdom).
• Trials have a way of exposing what we’re really trusting.

Mature Faith Trusts the Father’s Character

• God may allow a trial. God never leads us into sin.
• At the root of every sin is a failure to trust God.
• The Progression of Sin looks like: Trial - Temptation - Desire - Sin - Death
• When life hurts, don’t conclude that God has stopped being good. When temptation is strong, don’t conclude that God has abandoned you.
• Verse 17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
• That Father gives generously. He gives wisdom. He gives every good and perfect gift.
• Don’t interpret God’s character through your circumstances. Interpret your circumstances through God’s character.

Discussion Questions:

• James says, “Count it all joy.” How is joy different from pretending suffering doesn’t hurt?
• Think about a trial you’ve experienced. Looking back, how did God use it to grow your faith or reveal something about your heart?
• Why do you think our first instinct is usually to pray for the storm to end rather than asking what God wants to produce in us?
• When circumstances are difficult, what truths about God’s character are hardest for you to remember?

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Verses Used:

• Mark 8:14-21
• John 10:27

Takeaways:

• What was the last question God asked you?
• Arguing pushes us away, but confessing our lack of understanding draws us near to Jesus
• A simple practice for hearing God: 4 hours in a peaceful place with only a journal and a pen, write down what bubbles up, explore what questions God might be asking you, confess your need for him.

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