From the beginning of His life all the way to the end, people kept asking the same question about Jesus: “Who is this?” Who is this baby that makes Simeon sing? Who is this boy who teaches the teachers? Who is this rabbi that casts out demons and heals the sick? Who is this man…
Living out our faith in the way that we speak is one of the main threads that runs through James. He has talked about it in some form or another in each of the three and half chapters that have come before this point. Now in 4:11-17, James returns to this theme by setting our…
In James 3:13-18, James warns us to live according to God’s heavenly wisdom instead of embracing the wisdom of the world. Now in this next passage, James 4:1-10, he equips us so that we can follow through. In this passage, followers of Jesus discover a three-step strategy for winning the war on worldly wisdom in…
What does wisdom look like? There are a surprising number of ways to answer that question. Some people think of wisdom as a philosopher sitting on a mountain top, pondering the mysteries of life. Others see wisdom as equivalent to intelligence; if someone knows a lot about a particular subject, that person is wise about…
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). That’s why James says that it is so important for followers of Jesus to control what we say. In James 3:1-12, we consider five facts that we need to know in order to put our faith in action by taming our tongues. Text…
“What is the relationship between faith and works?” That is the central question of the letter of James, and in this passage we come to the heart of the answer. Faith and works, James tells us, are not in some sort of theological competition with each other. The truth is just the opposite – faith…
Everyone has favorites – from a favorite sports teams, to a favorite movie, to a favorite flavor of ice cream. And those types of favorites are fun. You could even say they make life more interesting. But in James 2:1-13, we learn that having favorites is not always harmless. Indeed, when having favorites leads to…
James 1:22 records some of the most challenging words in the Bible – “Be doers of the word,” James writes, “and not hearers only!” According to James, there is no such thing as a Christian whose life is not being changed because of his or her faith in Jesus. In this sermon, we examine three…
What does it look like to put our faith in action when we are tempted to sin? That’s the question James takes on in James 1:12-18. The answer, he tells us, is that we need to stand strong against temptation by relying on the spiritual resources we have in the Lord. In this sermon, we…
Some puzzles are harder than others (we’re looking at you, Rubik’s Cube!). But the hardest puzzles are the personal ones that affect our lives directly. In James 1:2-11, we read about God’s solution to three of life’s most common and puzzling problems — what to do about troubles, decisions, and money. Text = James 1:2-11.…