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description= 5 posts published by jazzmancf during August 2020;
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2020, sermon, 08, week, james, 2nd, peter, jazzmancf, blog, archive, for, august, pages, archives, categories, 30, part, 23, 16, 09, 07, 26,
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e than just to love the theologian douglas moo states that we should take this passage to mean the entire sum of the law or as a characterization of the entire will of god for christians moo goes on to explain if james says that the royal law is to be fulfilled according to the commandment of love he probably describes not the manner in which the law is to be kept meaning fulfilling it by loving others but rather is describing the very nature of the law itself it is a law that has at its heart the demand that christians love their neighbor james saw clearly not only the fact that this judging according to appearance was sinful but also that it was a sin that was rooted in a lack of love if we are being loving as we are called we recognize each person s worth based on the knowledge that this person is a beloved child of god their status their appearance and the abundance or lack of abundance of their possessions will not factor into what we think of them because without regard to all of the external appearances they are still a beloved child of god and guess what james says this isn t just about the rich and the poor if you show favoritism james says you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers is wealth a criteria for judgment is status is what a person does for a living a criteria for judgment or the size of their house or the make of their car how about intellect is someone valued more greatly because they seem to be more intelligent are other cultures valued as less than our own or other races is it appropriate to judge someone based on who they worship or who they love are people valued differently because of those things at what point do we get to determine that another individual is not a beloved child of god and if the answer to this question is we don t then we need to be loving these people all of them jesus came into the world not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him if we are to emulate jesus then we need to realize that we are not here to condemn the world either god did not put us here for the purpose of telling people how to live their lives god put us here in the hope that each of us individually would choose to ask god to allow us to become a part of his grand plan to seek and to save the lost that each of us would choose to allow god s love to so deeply permeate our lives that we reflect his love to a world that is in desperate need of discovering that love james closes this section by saying speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful mercy triumphs over judgment in the greek james stresses the words speak and act by preceding each word with the greek word οὗτος which we would translate so but in the greek this word is used to add emphasis to the word that follows it not unlike our following a word with an exclamation point or printing it in bold or italic or both in addition as moo says the verbs are in the present tense emphasizing the fact that this emphatic manner of speaking and doing is not to be considered an individual action but rather to be considered a way of life so we are called to live continually speaking and acting as those who will be judged by the law that gives freedom the phrase the law that gives freedom is actually a difficult phrase in the greek with a lot of disparity among commentators as to its exact meaning but given the fact that the phrase is linked to the judgment without mercy phrase that follows i really like r c sproul s explanation when james speaks of the law that gives freedom he is speaking of the whole law of god as interpreted by jesus because the ceremonial law has been fulfilled by christ we are no longer bound to keep its ceremonies and rituals however the law s sum and essence loving god with all our hearts and loving our neighbors as ourselves still binds us today the bible is clear about the fact that true believers will not face judgment for their sins our sins are covered by the atoning death of jesus but the bible is also clear about the fact that believers will be judged according to their actions paul spoke of this judgment in 1 corinthians 3 where he said by the grace god has given me i laid a foundation as a wise builder and someone else is building on it but each one should build with care for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid which is jesus christ if anyone builds on this foundation using gold silver costly stones wood hay or straw their work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light it will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each person s work if what has been built survives the builder will receive a reward if it is burned up the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved even though only as one escaping through the flames of course the believer would never act out of a mercenary desire for reward the renewed heart that god creates in each of his faithful children acts out of love not out of selfish desire but god does allow us to consider the reward that awaits his faithful servants and what a glorious reward it will be the bible tells us in revelation that god s dwelling place will now be among the people and he will dwell with them they will be his people and god himself will be with them and be their god he will wipe every tear from their eyes there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away heaven s very foundation will be love and we can t even begin to comprehend the joy that awaits us right here and right now we have an opportunity to build up treasure in heaven and the best part of all of this is that we get to build that treasure simply by loving god and by loving people love god love your neighbor all of the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments those are jesus words when we really take the time to think about this we discover the fact that the heart that loves deeply will follow god s law without ever trying to follow god s law having agape love in our hearts will preclude any action that would hurt or disadvantage another this is why jesus taught us that all of the law and the prophets hang on the commandment to love gracious father fill our hearts to overflowing with your love teach us to look past appearances and to see each person through your eyes recognizing the fullness of your spirit within them help us to love the difficult and the unlovable not because they are worthy of our love but because we recognize that we are unworthy of your love and that we choose to reflect your grace to them help us to be your voice that we may in our actions show the world the depth of your grace and the magnitude of your love amen posted in uncategorized leave a comment sermon 2020 08 23 james week 2 august 24 2020 in the second section of james letter james begins to speak about how to live your faith this is one of the primary themes of his letter so we ll be hearing a lot about this over the next several weeks james says that we must be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to become angered the comedian robert wuhl had a short running show on hbo and in one episode he made the insightful statement that we should judge slowly like the old saying that you should walk a mile in another person s shoes before judging the idea is that we shouldn t be making judgments until we have all of the facts of course as christians we are specifically called not to judge but it s entirely appropriate and even necessary for us to evaluate but even that should be done slowly listen take the time to learn and to understand a few weeks back we sang a piece of gathering music that i really didn t care for i felt that the song was well musically unintelligent i m sorry to have to describe it that way but my music education causes me to be rather critical of music in general and the things that i value most in a piece of music are creativity and at least a hint of musical sophistication to me this song had neither then i watched a video of the songwriter telling his story and holding back tears as he spoke of the tragic death of his wife and the song took on a whole new and powerful dimension for me no longer did i view the song as musically unintelligent instead i viewed it as the intensely personal statement that it is a song filled with raw emotion and a story of attempting to recover from unimaginable grief taking the time to evaluate the song with a deeper understanding allowed me to appreciate the enormous value of the song and its message how often in life do we make judgments without having all of the facts the bible tells us that god is the only one worthy to judge because he alone knows the content of each person s heart it s been said that when we judge we judge others by their actions but that we judge ourselves by our intentions god judges rightly because he knows both our actions and our intentions as for us when we have a need to evaluate we need to judge slowly in order to know as much about that which we are evaluating as we possibly can so james tells us to listen carefully and to speak less meaning that we should be listening not in order to respond but listening in order to understand and that we also need to be slow to anger because human anger does not produce the righteousness that god desires proverbs 14 29 says people with understanding control their anger but a hot temper shows great foolishness failing to understand is failing to love being patient with others taking the time to understand them showing empathy and compassion and grace are ways in which the believer exhibits god s love to others james then tells us to rid ourselves of this lack of love in our lives and to humbly accept the word that has been implanted in us reflecting jesus parable of the sower james chooses to use the word ἔμφυτος which carries the sense of something grafted or imparted something that is naturally a part of us and of course for believers the word becomes an integral part of us through the ministry of the holy spirit in our lives i m sure that james had no idea of the firestorm that he was about to create with his next statement in chapter 1 verse 22 james says but don t just listen to god s word you must do what it says otherwise you are only fooling yourselves tradition tells us that the apostle paul was converted around the year 37 and that his first missionary journey was in full swing by the year 45 according to the church fathers paul s letters received wide circulation in the church and were known to a large segment of first century christians almost certainly including james one of paul s best known teachings is summarized in ephesians 2 8 9 god saved you by his grace when you believed and you can t take credit for this it is a gift from god salvation is not a reward for the good things that we have done so none of us can boast about it the presbyterian pastor and educator r c sproul explained this by saying the man made religions of this world prove that without the work of the holy spirit people think that they are basically good and can contribute something to their salvation this strips glory from god and gives it to us for if we can do even one thing to merit salvation then we deserve some credit paul s teaching of the sufficiency of grace seems to be contrary to the teaching of james that it s not enough to be hearers of the word that you also must be doers of the word indeed our church history tells us that there appeared to be a rift between james and paul to some in the first century church and even to commentators for the last few centuries paul s teaching appears to represent that of a law free mission to the gentiles while james teaching represents a law affirming mission to jewish christians the differences between james and paul were resolved when they met at the jerusalem council where they had an opportunity to speak and to understand each other maybe there is something to that judge slowly thing as i said while there appears to be a discrepancy there actually isn t rather than trying to explain this myself i d like to quote 2 paragraphs from the christian theologian douglas moo who explained it far better than i ever could the first thing to be noticed is that paul and james are combating opposite problems in paul s statements about justification in galatians and romans he is countering a jewish tendency to rely on obedience to the law for salvation against an over emphasis on works paul highlights faith as the sole instrument of justification james on the other hand is combating an under emphasis on works a quietistic attitude that turned faith into mere doctrinal orthodoxy against this perversion of faith james is forced to assert the importance of works the second point to be mentioned is the different context in which james and paul are speaking of works when paul claims that a person cannot be justified on the basis of works of the law he is clearly referring to works that precede conversion the works in james however are the works that stem from and are produced by faith works that follow conversion so james and paul were actually talking about two different things and as it turned out they were in complete agreement paul himself verifies this thought multiple times in 2 corinthians 5 10 he wrote for we must all stand before christ to be judged we will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body also in galatians 5 6 where paul said what is important is faith expressing itself in love and again in romans 2 13 where paul said for merely listening to the law doesn t make us right with god it is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight paul schreiner says james teaches that there is an organic relationship between genuine faith and works if we truly trust christ that trust shows up in how we live works evidence our faith even calvin weighed in on this thought when he said obedience is the mother of the true knowledge of god returning to the passage james tells his readers that if we only listen to the word and do not do what it says that we are fooling ourselves he likens this to a person looking in the mirror and then immediately forgetting what they look like merely to glance at our lives like glancing quickly in a mirror and not taking the time to examine what we see may fool us into believing that everything is fine but of course it isn t every one of us fails to love as we are called to love and looking deeply into our lives and actions is necessary for believers in order to reveal our deepest needs we find many people in the bible who look deeply into their lives and the result is illuminating does anyone remember moses response when he met god at the burning bush he covered his face because he was afraid to look at god upon being called by god isaiah said it s all o...
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