The Practical Book of James (James 1:11-20)
Gary McManus, 02/04/2018Part of the God's Word is Life series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
James 1:11-20
The Letter of James is practical.
Too practical?
James—for daily living.
Can believers feel tried and tempted?
Yes.
Does God provide them or is it life itself?
Tempting, to tempt, temptation means
to test, to try, to put to the proof.
Will we yield to a pull in another direction?
There is more detail in verse 14:
“dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.”
“drawn away” own lust
“lured” own desire
“each person is tempted when he is lured and
enticed by his own desire.”
It begins with desire. There nothing wrong with desire.
It is what you do with it. Nurse it? Resolve it?
Do be WARY of your desires.
See Exodus 20:17
To covet means to desire an unjust gain. .
Other examples of desire gone wrong?
Temptation comes from our desires. . .
Are they evil? It depends, doesn’t it?
Maybe they are not YET evil, but could be.
Why are you going to eat now?
Note: resistance is fatiguing/tiring.
Do not do it frequently or put yourself
In a place where you must exercise it
frequently.
A.A. says “if you want to keep from
slipping, stay out of slippery places.”
And we pray, “lead us not (and let us
not lead ourselves) into temptation.
Healthy doses of self-weakness / frailty
would help us all.
[See Matthew 4:3, Luke 4:13, Genesis 3:6]
These verses in Chapter 1 are key verses.
God is giving us good gifts (James 1:17).
More instruction:
We are to be “slow to speak and slow to anger. . .”
(James 1:19)
Anger does not work God’s righteousness.
(James 1:20)
It isn’t sinful to be angry—Ephesians 4:26.
Putting anger on your tongue is rarely a good
idea. . .anger can be channeled to some very
good work.
The Book of James mentions our tongues five times:
James 1:26, James 3:1, James 3:5, James 3:6, James 3:8.
See Colossians 3:15-17
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing. . .
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed,. . .
--wisdom. . .from above: James 3:17-18
Two good uses of the tongue: prayer and praise.
James 5:13. Amen
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