Life 101: Lessons for a Practical Christian Life  
A study in the book of James
lesson #2: God is the source of all good things—and only good things.
James 1:5-18

Scripture:

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position; and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away. For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in his pursuits.

Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

James 1:5-18       (World English Bible)

[.]

Life 101: Lessons for a Practical Christian Life  
A study in the book of James
lesson #2: God is the source of all good things—and only good things.
James 1:5-18

Bible Study:

Unlike the previous lesson, which covered only a few verses at the beginning of the book of James, this time we have a rather long section of scripture. And when it comes to long sections of scripture, there is a tendency to focus on each verse as if it was separate from the ones around it.

We tend to imagine that these are a bunch of little snippets of information jumbled together. But remember, this is a letter, and people tend to follow themes and topics when we write letters.

So let’s try to see this section under the umbrella of a larger theme, and to find that theme, we’ll simply look down to the end of the section.

Don’t be deceived, he says, because every good gift comes from God.

That sounds like a theme to me, and when you glance through the section, I think you’ll be able to hear those words echo in every verse.

Let’s begin at verse five. We’ve been reading about maturity in the verse before, and now James moves quickly into the process of finding wisdom. If you lack wisdom, you only have to ask God to give it to you, and he will do exactly that.

There is a reassuring picture here. God is the one who gives generously without bothering to chastise us for not having wisdom in the first place. But the process of receiving wisdom is not simple. There is a problem of consistency. We have to ask and believe and not waver back and forth—will I get it, won’t I get it—and so on.

Apparently faith is a big deal. And I think we can find two reasons why it should become so important in this process of finding wisdom.

First, it’s a process. If we can think back to the first few verses, there is a process of growing up to maturity in Christ, and the process involves trials, testings, difficulties, and such. Maturity doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a long and difficult road.

The same could probably be said for wisdom. What happens when you ask God to make you wise? If you can only get maturity from experience, maybe you also develop wisdom through challenges. In some ways, it’s the same thing—maturity and wisdom. So I think James is still talking about the whole process of growing through troubles.

In that case, wisdom is the ability to see the process for what it is. Wisdom looks at trouble and sees the working of God in the whole thing. In a way, wisdom is the missing ingredient that turns a trial into a victory.

So if you ask for wisdom, God will give you a better understanding of the trials that surround your life. Wisdom will grow as you experience more trials, so if you stop listening in the middle of the difficult times, you will find yourself right back where you started, lost in a raging sea of trouble without a clue about what God might or might not be doing.

Faith isn’t what we do to impress God. Faith is what keeps us connected to God during the process of receiving his blessing. Faith isn’t a test. It’s a life preserver, a survival flare, a link to the source of our supply.

And speaking of that supply, there was talk of a second reason. And I suppose maybe it’s the first reason looked at in a different way.

It may be true that we get wisdom from God, but my first inclination is to do everything myself. I like to be the source of my own wisdom. It may not be smart, but it’s natural. Imagine asking God to provide, and then in the next breath, that’s okay, God, I’ll do it myself.

You do it. No, I’ll do it. No, you. No, me.

That is the definition of the double-minded person, unable to decide how to live their life. One day we depend on God. The next we act like he isn’t even there.

What will that person get from God?

The answer—and James is quite clear here—the answer is: not much.

So, if you want wisdom, ask God, because every good gift comes from God. But then hold on for the entire ride, because the only way to learn wisdom is in the midst of trials.

The rewards come when we persevere through those trials. In the last lesson, we found that perseverance leads to maturity. In this lesson, which is connected to the last lesson—it’s here in the same letter, still talking about the same things—in this section, we are reminded that God has a crown of life for those who persevere.

That’s in verse twelve. The crown sounds like a reward, or an honor. In this case, life is the reward for those who endure the trials that come to them.

James is talking about an eternal life, and in comparison, this world seems far more fleeting and far less important. It makes the trials of this world seem more like shadows. The reality will come when God gives the reward that he has promised to everyone who loves him. Everlasting life.

Sandwiched in between the mention of life and the paragraph about asking for wisdom, there is a short mention of rich and poor. It seems like a bit of a detour, but when you remember that we have a title or a theme for this section, it just sort of falls into place.

If someone is poor, they should take pride in their high position. If someone is rich, take pride in their low position.

It makes perfect sense.

The one who has riches will find that their life will fade away, in spite of their riches. So what do they have?

They have life, if they find it in Jesus. They have wisdom, if they ask God for it and depend upon God for it. They have eternity, but not because they are rich.

Good gifts come from God, and they don’t come from anywhere else.

Don’t think that you can get wisdom on your own, and don’t think that you can trust your wealth to get you through. These are bad choices, if they take you away from a dependence upon God.

A poor person who trusts God is rich. A rich person who trusts their own riches is destitute.

Don’t be deceived. Every good gift comes from God.

While we’re on the subject, don’t blame God for the bad choices you make. It’s a blanket rule. I can’t stomp around and blame God for making me do something really stupid. I have to shoulder that blame myself.

Here’s a picture of sin (you can find it in verses 13-15):

We want something, and it calls to us and begs us and tempts us until we just forget to say no, and then we do something stupid. If we walked away and stopped listening to the voice, we wouldn’t sin. We wouldn’t act on the desire. It’s all me. I can’t blame God for anything. He’s the one who is calling me to walk away, and if I listen to him, I won’t sin.

We could ask if there is a difference between the temptations mentioned here and the trials mentioned in verse 2, in the last lesson. We are surrounded by trials, and we are beset by temptations.

They may have some things in common. The same event may be both a trial and a temptation. But we have to recognize a difference between them.

Think about a sickness. There is nothing about a sickness that would be considered a temptation. It happens. It isn’t good or bad, it’s just illness—germs or broken bones or something.

But in that illness, a person may feel a temptation to give up, to blame God, to lash out against people, or something out of character. You can’t shorten the duration of the illness, in most cases. But you can deal with the temptation by changing your attitude or changing your actions.

You are stuck with illness for a while, but you can tell the temptation to go away.

Every good gift comes from God. The bad stuff comes from somewhere else. Think about what God has given us. He gave us a new birth through the word of the gospel of Christ, so that we could be an offering of praise to him.

That’s the meaning of first-fruits. It was an offering of the first grain from the fields or the first produce from the farms.

For James, he can see that his Christian friends the first of many yet to come. They were the signal of a wonderful harvest.

For those of us who come many years later, who live our lives at the other end of the timeline, then we aren’t in that sense first-fruits. But who knows? I am still an offering to God. My life is presented to him so that I may serve him in all that I do or say or think. 

Either way, to be one of the first Christians ever, or to come to Christ centuries later, the image of an offering to God is not so much about me as about God.

My life is a gift from God, and my life can be a gift back to God, which is only right, because it all started with him in the first place.

I told you everything would fit into a very simple theme.

All good gifts come from God.

[.]

Life 101: Lessons for a Practical Christian Life  
A study in the book of James
lesson #2: God is the source of all good things—and only good things.
James 1:5-18

Paraphrase:

If you lack wisdom, ask God. He gives generously, even if you haven’t cleaned up all your faults. He will just give you what you need. But when you ask, show some backbone. Don’t blow around like a wave tossed by the wind. Have one purpose. Trust God.

If your bank account isn’t very fat, don’t worry. Trust God. You have riches in Christ. But if you have money, be careful. Your riches will fade like dry flowers on a hot day. So remind yourself you are poor, and trust God to give you the kind of wealth that actually means something.

When trials come, stand firm. Trust God, because when you have stood the test, you will receive the crown of life that God has prepared for you and for all those who love him.

While we’re on the subject, don’t think that God brings temptations into your life. No way. He isn’t tempted, and he doesn’t tempt anybody, either. You do that yourself. You get a thought, and that thought becomes a desire, and that desire drags you away to sin. And sin leads to death. So don’t give in to temptation, and don’t blame God.

Get this straight, my brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift comes down from your heavenly Father. This is always going to be true, because he doesn’t change. Speaking of good gifts, he gave us a new birth through the word of truth, so that we might be a kind of harvest offering of all he created.

James 1:5-18       (paraphrased)

[.]

Life 101: Lessons for a Practical Christian Life  
A study in the book of James
lesson #2: God is the source of all good things—and only good things.
James 1:5-18

Story:

Unstable

by Bob Freye

Delia Bunty smiled.

It was an honest smile. She was happy for the young man who was about to trade up to a very serious set of wheels. And she was happy for herself. The commission on a brand new D-series convertible would make for a delirious paycheck at the end of the week.

Plenty of reasons to smile.

“So,” she said, leaning across the desk for the good news, “which one did you decide on?”

Ron thumbed through the brochures that were scattered across the desktop. His face slowly twisted itself into deeper and deeper anguish.

“They’re all so—“ he said, absent-minded.

“So plush, so powerful, so exciting!” Delia repeated the words from her sales pitch. “And they’re all designed to give you a great driving experience.”

Ron’s head nodded, but he gave no other sign that he heard. He pushed a brochure away, then dragged it back, then slid two around as if the cars had changed places.

“And the good thing,” Delia said, “is that each of these is practically the same car.”

Ron groaned.

“So you can choose any of these,” she prodded. “Any at all.”

A brochure slid across the table toward her, and she reached out to grab it, but Ron quickly snatched it back.

“Take your time,” she told him. But time was not a cheap commodity at Brubaker Motors.

Ron looked like he was about to say something, but the only sound that came from his side of the desk was a plaintive moan, like a small forest animal in pain.

“What about the red one?” she suggested, seizing the initiative.

“Yeah.” Ron nodded, resting his finger on a picture of a red sports car parked along a coastal California roadway with the top down. 

“Great,” she said, sliding the brochure out from under his finger. “Why don’t I get some paperwork on this, and I’ll write it up.”

The sales team at Brubaker didn’t work with paper much anymore. Delia wanted to snag the keys to the red convertible, and she wanted to make a quick detour to flash the new sale in the direction of a few of the other sales associates, who were standing near the back of the showroom drinking coffee.

They gave her the customary nod of approval as they calculated her commission in their heads. 

“I see you’re with Ron,” one of the guys commented. It was Harold Starr, the most ambitious salesman ever to take home a commission check at Brubaker.

“You know him?”

“I worked with him one afternoon,” Harold said. “Are you sure you have a sale?”

“Positive! What am I holding in my hands?” Delia held out the keys for everyone to admire. “Oh, it’s the red convertible!”

“Just wake me when it’s over,” Harold said with a smile.

Nothing could shake Delia’s confidence, and she returned to the desk to present the keys to the new owner.

“You’re going to need these,” she told Ron, “when you start up that engine and take your fantastic new sports car out on the road.”

But he didn’t reach out for the keys.

“I was looking at the yellow one,” Ron whined. “I think I like that better.”

“The yellow one,” Delia repeated. “Well, that’s nice, too. Are you sure? You want the yellow one?”

Ron pushed the brochure around the desk for a moment.

“Yeah, the yellow one.”

“Okay.”

No big deal. Just skip back and get the keys. She detoured away from the coffee drinkers this time and returned in just a few short moments with another set of keys dangling from her fingers.

She found Ron at the rack of brochures staring at an SUV with an expensive off-road package.

“All set here,” she called out to him. “I have the yellow convertible, and we can write this deal up.”

But Ron didn’t move, except to turn the pages of the brochure. Wide tires, towing package, high ground clearance.

She clunked the keys on the desk.

“Ron?”

“I was just thinking—“ he began, and for the next fifteen minutes they talked off-road adventure.

“With your credit, Ron, I can write this deal for you right now.” Delia was trying to pull him toward a commitment, like a tourist fighting to land a stubborn marlin on the back of a fishing boat.

“You can be driving this SUV in fifteen minutes,” she assured him. “I will make that deal happen for you, and if I do, you won’t ever look back and regret your decision.”

He kind of nodded, and she could feel something bad in the pit of her stomach.

“Really?” she asked, and he nodded again. “You’re sure? This is what you want?”

He was certain. So back she went for the keys to the SUV that matched the brochure. They had one in stock, of course, because Brubaker Motors believed in selling from inventory. Don’t wait for a special order. Get the car right now, whatever the package, whatever the paint job.

Delia returned to her desk with the keys to a custom off-road vehicle. This time she didn’t flash them, either to her fellow staffers or to Ron. She just plopped herself in her seat and held the keys in her tight fist.

“So, as I told you, I can write this up for you, if this is what you want.”

He started to nod his head, which for Ron had been the closest indication of agreement so far. But he turned abruptly and looked out through the thick glass at the front of the building.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“That’s a hybrid-fuel experimental car,” she said without looking.

He spun back around and settled back in his seat.

“I think I want one of those,” he said.

“You know something, Ron,” she said with an unimaginable measure of control, “I don’t think you know what you want. I can’t waste my day dragging every vehicle out for you to see, just so you can change your mind. I just can’t do that. But there is something that I can do for you. I can write you a deal this very minute. Do you believe that?”

He nodded, looking like a scolded puppy.

“Do you really, because I think you don’t. I’m telling you that I can make this deal. Right now. But do you know what I need? Do you know, Ron, what I need to make this deal happen?”

Ron shook his head on cue.

“I need you to decide, Ron. That’s all. I just need you to make up your mind, to pick a car, to choose, to narrow it down to one vehicle. That’s what I need. Can you do that? Can you do that for me, Ron?”

She had stretched herself completely across the desk and was hovering just inches away from him, waiting for something, some small indication that an actual deal was imminent.

Ron reached out a trembling finger and tapped a brochure with a D-class sedan painted in a conservative sea-foam green. Delia glanced at the vehicle and then looked back at Ron. No one flinched. 

“Fine,” she said, pulling back to her own side of the desk. “Let’s write that up, shall we?”

She started tapping at the keyboard, searching through the Brubaker inventory. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw his finger waver. It floated half an inch above the surface of the desk and landed tentatively on the yellow convertible.

She hit the escape key and the screen returned to the colorful Brubaker logo. 

“Tell you what.” She swept all the brochures on the desk into one pile and handed them to Ron. “You look at these for a while.” She pulled him out of the chair and led him to the rack. “I’ll throw in a few more,” she said, piling at least one copy of every pamphlet into a stack that she added to his load, “and when you’re ready, you come back and tell the receptionist that you need to talk to a sales associate.”

“Should I ask for you?”

“No, I have a better idea.” She flashed a very sincere smile. “Do you remember Harold?”

[.]