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Tara Leigh Cobble
Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Leigh Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. If you're doing our New Testament plan, you finished your fifth book today. And if you're doing the whole Bible, you finished your 44th book. This book has a lot going on, so we'll only have time to hit the major points. Let's get into it this book was written by the half brother of Jesus, which is incredible given that his brothers used to mock him. But this book shows what an incredible change of heart James went through because it opens with the author calling himself a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, from mocking him to serving him. But spoiler alert, this book isn't actually by James. Huh. It seems the real name of this James and every other James in the Bible is Jacobus or Jacobus or Jacob in English, so that's what we'll call him. It turns out that there was a problem a few hundred years ago when they translated this book to English, so only English speakers encounter this issue. We'll link to more info on this in the show Notes in case you're interested. This letter is written to the church outside of Israel, and that's important. It's written to believers. If we take it out of that context, it sounds like this book is listing things we have to do in order to earn God's approval, instead of them being things that serve as markers of knowing Him. Over the centuries, this book has caused quite a stir because it seems to be advocating salvation by works which is contrary to everything else in Scripture. But if we remember the rules of Bible interpretation, the first of which is that Scripture is the lens we use for interpreting Scripture. And if we remember the author's original audience and context, then all those things help us understand this book rightly. In chapter one, Jacob addresses trials, the early church encounters. But he tells them steadfastness is developed in those trials, and steadfastness is part of being whole. Wholeness, or completion, is the idea behind the word perfect that we see so much in this book. Only God can bring that kind of wholeness to our lives. This talk about trials and steadfastness hits his readers where they live, because outside Israel they're enduring not only religious persecution, but also a famine. And Jacob in Jerusalem has firsthand experience of this. He's leading the church in Jerusalem as they endure the same things, but probably even more severely. Not long after this, he will die as a martyr. So he not only knows what he's talking about, but he also Lives what he's talking about. He opens his letter with a call to ask God for wisdom. He says, this is a prayer we can always get. A yes to what? A promise? God gives wisdom to anyone who asks. I literally ask God for this every day, and I'm never stopping. True wisdom is the knowledge of God, and it's one of the tools he uses to shape and restore our fractured lives into wholeness. It's how we persevere through trials, and it's how we resist temptation, and it's how we handle riches and blessings, and it's how we walk in humility and faith through it all. In this book, Jacob repeatedly talks about taming the tongue and how challenging that can be. He knows a bit about this himself, since he once used his tongue to mock Jesus. He gets it. But he's had a change of heart, and he knows that heart change shows up in the way we talk. We start to live out what we believe. That's what true wholeness is about. He knows it's easy to lighter ourself about our motives. He says that in 122 and 126. But our actions reveal what's in our hearts. And if our hearts really trust and believe Jesus, then we'll walk in obedience to his teachings. Listen, if you're feeling like a total failure right about now, take heart. This kind of thing is often a painfully slow process. None of us are where we want to be, but God adopted us in the midst of our sin. He knew what he was getting into, and he's not letting anyone or any sin snatch you out of his hand. Okay, moving on. One of the more perplexing verses in the book is in 2:24, when Jacob says, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Say what? Okay, here's what's happening. The word justified here means to prove or demonstrate. So this verse is essentially saying a person's works demonstrate or prove what's happening in their heart. This is about what other people see, not what God sees. Because, as we've seen repeatedly, God sees the heart. Humans are the ones who have to have it demonstrated to them. This is especially important to the church at a time when they're living under oppression and experiencing lots of new conversions. And a problem that they're experiencing at this time is that lots of people are just claiming to believe, but aren't showing any evidence of having a new heart. So Jacob sets out to address this directly. Remember how people were skeptical of Saul's conversion initially because they thought he was trying to sneak his way into the church so he could persecute them all the more. They have good reason to need evidence of true conversion. I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. The first century historian Josephus says that at some point, the early church even waited three years to affirm the faith of new converts. They needed to see that there was an actual heart transformation. When the Holy Spirit isn't falling in major and obvious ways, their only evidence that someone is a true believer is if they prove it by their actions. If their actions justify them to others, they demonstrate a wholeness that doesn't exist apart from knowing God. Jacob keeps talking about wisdom in chapter three, and he even gives us a picture of what it looks like in verse 17. It is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, full of good fruits, impartial and sincere. Chapters three and four are connected with the idea of being a peacemaker, someone who enters into the chaos and brings the peace of Christ. The world and the Church are full of fights and division, and it takes a lot of wisdom to know how to end it. Chapter four tells us that we can bring peace to those situations by being content, humble, and by prioritizing the things of God in our lives. And along Those lines, verse 17 roasts us all. When it says whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin. We are accountable for what we know. Chapter five gives us more examples of how to live out this wholeness in the wisdom of God. And it connects us again to prioritizing the things of God in our lives. If we do, we'll handle our wealth in a way that honors God, we'll handle our suffering in a way that honors God, and we'll even handle our sins in a way that honors God. And that's where my God shot comes in. Today, no one leaves this book feeling like they're nailing it. It points out our blind spots and our weak spots and maybe even makes us think about other people's weak spots. And then we realize we're being arrogant and suddenly we're back at square one. But remember, it's good for us to be at square one. Not so we can feel like a failure, but so we can take our eyes off ourselves and put them back on him. Because that's where grace and mercy abound. And that's how Jacob ends this book. The final paragraph says, hey, you're a sinner. Don't try to hide it, throw some light on it and ask for help. Tell other people where you struggle. They are strugglers and sinners too. Together, you can ask God to help you, because he will. You're not alone in this. He even points to Elijah, a human just like us, as an example of what's possible when sinners seek God. I love that this rich, dense, challenging book ends by reminding us that God loves to draw near to people who know they're sinners. So come on, let's draw near. He's where the joy is hey Bible Readers. I get asked a lot about my favorite Bible resources, and because I'm an auditory learner, I love tools that help me with listening. One of the very best tools I found is the Dwell Bible app. You don't have to sit down and read with your eyes to really learn God's Word. In fact, for thousands of years, people have learned Scripture by hearing it. That's how most people throughout history have engaged with the Bible. So whether I'm in the car, out for a walk, getting ready for the day, or cleaning house, I can listen to God's Word with the Dwell Bible app. Plus, the app lets you choose different voices and background music. So if you want to make it easier to engage with the Bible, especially when you're on the go, I highly recommend the Dwell Bible app. Visit dwellbible.comtbr or click the link in the Show Notes. If you're like me, you have lots of questions when you're reading the Word, and maybe you just have a lot of questions about the Bible recap in general. If that's you, we'd like to direct you to the FAQ page on our website. In a lot of cases, you'll get a faster answer than if you email us or DM us on social media. And yes, even specifics about what happens when your podcast doesn't load what version of the Bible we quote in the recaps, how to fix some technical issues with your reading plan, or why I think raccoons are superior to most other animals. We might not answer all those questions. I mean, some answers are just obvious, right? They're so cute. Check out the questions we do answer on the FAQ page of thebiblerecap.com or click the link in the Show Notes.