SERMON: “James: A Call to True Faith” (James 1–5)

“James: A Call to True Faith” (James 1–5)

Series:               “James: True Faith Works” #27      Text:                 James 1–5

By:                    Shaun Marksbury                         Date:                June 1, 2025

Venue:             Living Water Baptist Church            Occasion:          PM Service

 

I.              Introduction

We have finally come to an end of our study in the Book of James.  It’s a challenging and sober book in many ways, immensely practical, but it is also a profound in its theology.  There are parts that are debated, as we’ve seen, but it’s overall messages shine through clearly.

Remember that it is written by James, the transformed half-brother of our Lord Jesus.  As we noted in our first sermon, James went from a skeptic who mocked Jesus to a bond-servant of God and the Lord (1:1).  His transformation is a testimony to the power of the risen Christ, and his letter challenges us to live transformed lives, as well.  So, he calls all believers, starting with those early believers facing persecution, to hold on to our faith and engage in good works.

Today, to wrap up our study in James, we’ll walk through all five chapters of this letter.  Our goal this evening is to summarize their main themes and review key verses to see how true faith indeed works.  Our goal is to see how each chapter equips us to live as doers of the Word, not merely hearers (James 1:22).  Let’s dive in, chapter by chapter, and let the Holy Spirit guide us to apply these truths.

II.           James 1: True Faith Transforms to Joy

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (vv. 2–3).

We’ve already briefly noted how faith transformed James from an unbeliever into a follower of his older brother, the Lord.  Now, James opens with a startling command which demonstrates how deeply faith can transform: it is possible to consider it all joy in the midst of trials.  Again, the believers were experiencing persecution from the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, and they were scattering into Gentile areas.  They would be facing new trials as they sought new places to settle, so how could they experience joy?

We might incorrectly think of this as a call to fake happiness.  However, through the Holy Spirit, God does grant a deep, abiding joy that sees trials as opportunities for growth.  This is true whether the trials are external hardships or internal temptations, as James addresses both here.  Trials test faith, strengthening it by producing endurance (v. 3), like how physical training produces stronger muscles and bones through the process of damage and healing.  The result will be a mature believer, one who is “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (v. 4).  Knowing this produces joy and peace which may seem contradictory to others who know our hardships.

Knowing is one thing, but applying that knowledge when the time comes involves wisdom.  Someone who struggles with a particular sin or who faces an unexpected hardship may need help navigating the trials.  So, in vv. 5–8, James urges us to ask God for wisdom in faith, without doubting.  A double-minded person is one who may either doubt or who may resist the wisdom of God, experiencing undue chaos as a result.  He asks of the Lord only as a quick fix to circumstances, a theme James revisits in places like James 4:3.

This thought sets the tone for James’s emphasis on single-hearted devotion to the Lord.  In vv. 9–11, he contrasts the rich and the poor, reminding us that worldly status fades like grass under the sun.  Some of the poor were seeking the admiration or help of the rich (James 2:1–7; 4:4), but true worth lies in our identity in Christ, and our help comes in His sovereign provision (James 5:7–8).

This means overcoming the trials of our own hearts (vv. 12–15).  When trials come from external circumstances, we must choose to persevere, knowing the reward (v. 12).  When temptations arise, we must see them not as coming from God (v. 13), but from within, from our own desires (v. 14).  If unchecked, temptation leads to sin and death (v. 15).  This is a sobering reminder to guard our hearts.

Don’t yield to trials.  Consider God’s goodness: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (v. 17).  God is unchanging, the source of all good, including our salvation (v. 18).  He can provide and should be the source of our hopes.

We can react poorly to trials.  This leads to James calling us to be “quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger” (v. 19), and to receive the Word with humility (v. 21).  He says that hearing isn’t enough; we must also be “doers of the word” (v. 22).  James illustrates this with the mirror analogy (vv. 23–24): hearing the Word without acting on it is like forgetting your reflection after looking in a mirror.  True faith looks into the “perfect law, the law of liberty” (v. 25) and acts on it.  This reminds us that, while trials may turn some people bitter, we must allow the Word to shape and mold us.

When we understand this, we can experience true religion.  There are those who claim Christ but don’t control their tongues (v. 24).  When we allow God to transform us, we will control our speech and caring for the vulnerable (v. 27).  When we build our lives on the rock of Jesus’s teaching (Matt. 7:24–27), we will be transformed so much that we can even experience joy in the midst of difficult circumstances.

After all, someone who responds consistently poorly to trials may be evidencing a lack of true faith.  James argues that there are two kinds of professed Christian faith in this letter — a saving one and a false one.  That brings us to the next chapter.

III.        James 2: True Faith Works

“My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism”
(v. 1)

“True Faith Works” is the subtitle we’ve given our study in James, and in this chapter, we see that those with genuine faith should show impartiality and good works.  So, in vv. 1–13, James starts by confronting the problem of favoritism in the church.  He paints a vivid picture: a rich man in fine clothes and a poor man in dirty rags enter the assembly.  Those who honor the rich and despise the poor sin against God’s law (vv. 2–4).  It is sad that there are churches still today that cater to specific demographics, whether it be for wealth or skin color, but such favoritism is against the will of God.  James explains that God often chooses the poor to be rich in faith (v. 5).  Yet, Christian favoritism and partiality sides with the world, the rich who often oppress believers and blaspheme God (vv. 6–7).  A true Christian should not seek to so violate the ways of God.

If that were not clear enough, James challenges the reader with Scripture.  He cites the “royal law” from Leviticus 19:18 — “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 8) — and partiality violates this law (v. 9).  He warns that breaking one part of the law makes us guilty of all (v. 10), and hints that they may even be guilty of murder (v. 11)!   On the other hand, Christians should strive to live by the “law of liberty” (v. 12), showing mercy to others as God has shown mercy to us (v. 13).  True believers are unworthy recipients of God’s grace, so we should strive to be merciful and impartial in all our dealings.

If it were not clear that James is seeking to contrast true and false faith, it becomes clear in the highly debated second half of this chapter.  He asks, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works?  Can that faith save him?” (v. 14).  Understand, James isn’t contradicting Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith alone (Rom. 3:28); rather, James addresses a dead, profession-only faith.  True faith wrought by the Holy Spirit produces works, like Abraham’s obedience in offering Isaac (vv. 21–23) or Rahab’s protection of the spies (v. 25).  The one who is unjustified in v. 24 is the one without works that vindicate a person’s conversion; this person is without the Holy Spirit and like a dead body (v. 26).  Thus, James and Paul present two sides of the same coin — a person comes to Christ by faith alone, but the Spirit who produces that faith ensures that a life of good works will follow.

This challenges us to examine ourselves for favoritism.  Those who have true faith care enough to eliminate sin in their lives and live righteously.  Often times, it’s the tongue that reveals the deceitfulness of the heart, and that is where James turns next. 

IV.        James 3: True Faith Renews the Heart

“Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom”
(v. 13)

Jesus said in Matthew 12:34 that “the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.”  James gives us a glimpse of that in this chapter, starting on the dangers of the tongue in in vv. 1–12.  He begins, though, with an expected warning about teachers facing stricter judgment (v. 1), for their words can cause so much more damage.  He then explains that the tongue is small but mighty, like a bit guiding a horse or a rudder steering a ship (vv. 3–5).  He then calls it a “fire” and a “restless evil” (vv. 6, 8).  People might be able to tame beasts, but they can’t control this source of evil (vv. 7–8).  

Christians, however, should live differently.  Yet, James says that they are blessing God one moment and cursing people the next, contrary to true faith (v. 9–10).  So, he reminds us of the spring, which gives either fresh or bitter water, and the fig tree which does not bear olives (vv. 11–12).  He says that our speech, then, must reflect our faith consistently.  There’s a problem when professed Christians are constantly misusing their tongues, hinting at an issue of unbelief.

Of course, true Christians do fail at times, so they will want to renew their hearts with the wisdom.  So, in vv. 13–18, James contrasts two sources of possible wisdom.  He says that believers will demonstrate their understanding (v. 13).  However, he warns that earthly wisdom is marked by jealousy and selfish ambition, leading to disorder (vv. 14–16), desires which lead to temptations to sin and loose tongues.  In contrast, “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy” (v. 17).  This wisdom produces righteousness and peace (v. 18), echoing Jesus’s beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9).  True wisdom transforms the hearts of Christians of true faith to have blessed relationships.

How do your words reflect your faith?  Those words who aim at tearing down instead of building up evidence a heart which isn’t fully submitted to God and operating in God’s wisdom.  That will lead to all manner of hostility, as seen in the next chapter of James.

V.           James 4: True Faith Submits to God

“Submit therefore to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you”
(v. 7).

James demonstrates the method of biblical counseling, getting to the heart of the matter and then moving back out to the presenting problems.  He identifies in the first verse of this chapter the source of their quarrels and conflicts — competing desires.  These “pleasures” wage war within, leading to prayerlessness or wrong motives in prayer (vv. 2–3).  Changing these desires with the wisdom of God is essential.

However, they have chosen friendship with the world, which is at enmity with God (v. 4).  This is a stark warning that echoes Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 6:24 about serving two masters.  The human spirit lusts to envy (v. 5), but we must rather be devoted to God.

James then offers a remedy: humility and repentance.  He notes that God gives grace to the humble (v. 6, citing Prov. 3:34); and humility is needed if a person is to turn from his own ways back to God.  James’s ten imperatives to follow — submit, resist, draw near, cleanse, purify, be miserable, mourn, weep, humble yourselves — form a call to fundamental repentance (vv. 7–10).  Those who refuse to repent must know that judgment is coming, as James warns against judging others, as only God is the Lawgiver and Judge (vv. 11–12).  We must humble ourselves and submit to God if we find such error within ourselves.

One of the ways in which humility is seen by turning from presumptuous planning.  There were professed believers making plans in v. 13, which is fine in itself, but they were giving no thought to the brevity of their lives (v. 14).  Those who have humbled themselves say, “If the Lord wills” (v. 15), and avoid arrogance (v. 16), seeking to know what is right and to do it (v. 17).  One of the greatest problems in the church is the refusal to submit to God, and it’s seen in the daily activities of professed believers.

We must seek to live for God, not for the world or for our own selfish desires.  The devil would rather us go astray, but we can resist him, and he will flee.  This is true no matter the hardship, as we see in the final chapter of James.

VI.        James 5: True Faith Endures

“Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord”
(v. 7)

James begins to conclude with practical instructions for enduring suffering and living faithfully.  He begins by condemning the rich who oppress the poor, hoarding wealth and defrauding workers.  He calls them to repentance (v. 1), warning that their riches will rot, and their judgment is coming (vv. 2–3).  This echoes Jesus’s call in Matthew 6:19–20, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”  They have been placing their desires and trust in the wrong things.

So, James continues calling them to repentance.  He says that the Lord of Hosts has heard the cry of those who they defrauded (v. 4).  He warns that their luxury has fattened their hearts for the slaughter (v. 5), especially since they have killed their workers by withholding their wages (v. 6).  If they don’t repent, the defrauded believers can know that God’s justice will be served, one way or another.

As such, James then transitions to a call for patience in suffering.  He begins by using the farmer waiting for rain as an example (v. 7).  He says that the Lord’s coming is near (v. 8), an expectation God calls Christians to hold in every generation.  He says we must endure like the prophets, specifically seeing Job as an example, knowing that the Lord “is full of compassion and is merciful (vv. 9–11).  Appending to that though, James also prohibits oaths, urging simple honesty in the face of trials and persecution (v. 12, cf. Matt. 5:33–37).  We must all rest in the provision of the Lord to endure, knowing He will set this world right one day.

James doesn’t end his letter like some of the others in the New Testament, with greetings.  Rather, he closes with a call to prayer and community.  Those who are suffering, cheerful, or sick, we should pray (v. 13). Those who may be ill due to sin can call for the elders to pray over them and anoint them (v. 14), knowing that they can have restoration in the Lord (v. 15).  All believers are to confess sins and pray for one another with fervent prayer akin to Elijah’s example (vv. 16–18).  Finally, James urges believers to restore those who stray, saving souls from death (vv. 19–20).  The persecuted church needs one another, and it can experience the joy of the Lord as it lives according to His Word.

VII.      Conclusion

The Book of James is a mirror for our faith, reflecting an honest image for us.  When we look, do we see our faith as real, or is it fake?  Do we profess to know the Lord while being impatient in trials, partial in our love, uncontrolled in our speech, arrogant in our application of Scripture, and rarely in prayer?  Beloved, true faith works, meaning that faith in Christ should be transforming us.

If you find that you have not come to true faith in Christ, humble yourself and repent, turning from your sinful desires to the holy and righteous Savior. 

If you find that you’re a true believer, but living inconsistently, then my advice is the same.  Again, James 1:22 says, “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”  Let’s not just look in the mirror and walk away forgetfully; let’s correct ourselves by the power of God.  May we all, like James, be transformed by the risen Christ, living as bondservants who reflect His glory in every area of life.