Providence Church

Money is persuasive. It can be used for tremendous good, but it can also misused. This warning about hoarding, withholding, and indulging points us to the joy of giving.

James confronts a sin that is so common that we don’t even notice it in our lives. It’s the sin of presumptuousness: Living life and making plans without any reference to God.

When we say something that negatively shades how people see someone, that is in the realm of slander. The problem is more common and more egregious than we think, but the gospel can change us. Mercy triumphs over judgement. 

We tend to focus on the surface reality of conflicts. But the answer to why we fight (and the solution to our fights) can’t be found on the surface. We have to look deeper.

Would you call yourself wise? According to James, wisdom is less about what you know, and more about your life and what you love. Ultimately, true wisdom is a gift from God: It comes down from above, producing peace and good fruit. 

On the surface, James seems to contradict Paul regarding the role of faith in salvation. But he’s really answering the question, “What is true, saving faith?"

To favor people because of appearances is so common that it feels normal. But James tells us that partiality is incompatible with faith in Jesus. God gives us the capacity to see people as he sees them, and to love them as he loves them.

Just as we were given new life by the word of God (James 1:18), so we grow in that new life by living according to the word of God. And that involves two things: Hearing the word and doing the word. James holds those two things together, not to be separated.

In the first 12 verses of James, he's been talking about trials. Now, in verse 13, he switches the topic to temptation. Perhaps better than any other passage in the NT, James lays out a process for how temptation and sin work in our lives.