James had just talked about receiving blessings for being steadfast in the faith. This daily devotion looks at the gifts we receive as reward for enduring.
Nuggets
- Refraining from sin takes discernment that can only come from God.
- When we choose to submit to God, He rewards us with good and perfect gifts.
- God chose to restore our relationships with Him by providing the word and truth — Jesus.
Devotions in Living Out Our Faith series
In the last couple of verses, James talked about how our desires grow into sin. We can have two issues with that.
One would be that some people think there is no sin. However, sin is a reality. Schwartz wrote, “It is not a weakness, but a power; a power which gnaws at the very core of life; a power encompassing and swaying the entire range of our being. It is an inward strife, a pain reaching even to the heart. Let us, then, seek first of all to discern the full significance of sin, that in sincere penitence we may turn away from it. It gives sin’s history.” Sin is powerful.
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The other issue is that we don’t think our desires should be considered sin. However, only God gets to choose what is or isn’t a sin.
James gave us some advice to follow.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Be Steadfast
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers” Jas. 1: 16 ESV)
Refraining from sin takes discernment that can only come from God.
To err, is to make a mistake. It signifies a choice.
Unfortunately, we make choices based on our flawed understandings. You know, we are human. That limits our comprehension.
It has to be our choice rather to sin or not. If it wasn’t under our control, there would be nothing to safeguard against.
What has James told us is sin?
- Letting trials steal our joy.
- Not enduring trials.
- Refusing to ask God for wisdom.
- Doubting God and ourselves.
- Waffling between following God and sinning.
Now, James told us, “Don’t do these.”
Yes, we are still in physical bodies. We are going to keep sinning.
How does God respond?
We think God will give us a pass because we are human and can’t possibly not sin. No. God will forgive us when we ask, but we still have to deal with the results of our sin.
That means we need to pray for discernment. Discernment means we can evaluate the situation and recognize right from wrong.
We have to recognize the situation as temptation. Then we have to determine what God would have us do. Only then can we make the right choice.
- Respond to the trial with confidence that God will see us through it for our good, even if it hurts.
- Do all that God asks us to do.
- Pray unceasingly.
- Put our trust in God that He will carry us through and in us that we will be victorious in the trial.
- Not waffle between good and evil.
We have to focus on navigating the Sanctification Road, not this world. We have to conquer sinful desires to do this.
We also can’t err in thinking that we can go on sinning and have a deathbed confession. Not all of us are given the opportunity to confess right before we die. We may be killed instantly.
Remember, we said that we don’t think our desires should be considered sin. We think they are too small to be considered wrong.
We can’t err in the moral law. We are not looking to do things from the worldview point of view.
Edwards gave us a good reminder. God is spiritual. The moral law is based on the spiritual attributes of God.
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We can’t err thinking our character is good enough. It is not God’s character. We must be imitating Him.
We have to see God as He is.
One more word of warning. I said we make bad choices. This isn’t where we have a choice between two okay things and we are trying to figure out which is the better choice to make.
We are choosing between good and evil.
Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people through His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
Evil is equated with sin because it is that which goes against God and His purposes.
We need to choose submitting to God.
Receiving Gifts from God
“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” (Jas. 1: 17 ESV)
When we choose to submit to God, He rewards us with good and perfect gifts.
How many times do we think that things of this world will bring us happiness and fulfillment? They won’t.
A gift cannot be good when it has evil inherent in it. If it is of this world, it is inherently evil.
Aspinall explained why this is so important. He wrote, “By the ‘good and perfect gift which is from above,’ he means more especially the Divine grace [by] which all other spiritual blessings are rendered attainable.”
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So, what is the perfect gift? Salvation. Remember, perfection is maturing in our becoming as God is.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
God gives us a variety of gifts. The Homilist gave us a list. They wrote, “Strength, consolation, hope, holiness, are the results of the soul’s fellowship with God.”
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One of the best gifts God does give us is the Holy Spirit. He influences us to confess our sins, submit to God, and follow His laws and commandments. He gives us fruit of the Spirit, which are also virtues and spiritual graces.
We have to realize we all get different gifts and at different levels. I may be a good organizer, but Pastor Steve’s gift is teaching. I may be a good singer. Someone else may be a fantastic singer.
But we each are given gifts.
The Word of Truth
“Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (Jas. 1: 18 ESV)
God chose to restore our relationships with Him by providing the word and truth — Jesus.
God devised the Plan of Salvation. He did this a long, long time ago.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him …” (Eph. 1: 3-4 ESV).
Yes, before God made us, He knew He was going to have to deal with our disobedience. Before He even created the universe, He knew Jesus would have to save us.
Glossary
The plan is wholly based on Jesus. If Jesus refused to do it, there would have been no conversion. Conversion is the product of repentance, when we turn away from our sins and return to God, that secures salvation.
Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
Remember what James said. “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth …” (Jas. 1: 18 ESV).
- “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1: 1 ESV).
- “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 ESV).
What are we to do? “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119: 11 ESV).
Making the Connections
God did not create evil. God created good, as He is.
Evil entered the word during the original sin. It will not exit the world until there is no this world left.
Until that time, we will have to endure the trials and remain steadfast. We must be obedient to the Father and not sin.
How Do We Apply This?
- Choose between good and evil.
- Grow in faith so that our discernment will grow.
Father God. We choose to obey You. Put Your word of truth in our hearts, so that we may not sin against You (Ps. 119: 11). Amen.
What do you think?
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