James 2:8-11 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also sai...

James 2:5-7 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? 7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?            James surmises in v. 5 that since the ea...

James 2:1-4 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. 2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, 3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the po...

James 2:1 My brothers, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.            Firstly, we notice in James 2:1 that James is addressing “my brothers.” James being one of the half-brothers of Jesus (cf. Matt. 13:55), and Jesus being from the tribes of Israel, specifically Judah (Matt. 1:1-16), James was Jewish. His “brothers” therefore were the t...

Matthew 13:5-7, 20-21 “Other [seeds] fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out… 20 The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this ...

James 1:26-27 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.            Elsewhere in the Greek NT, the root for “religious” in vv. 26 and 27 i...

James 1:22-25 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and ...

James 1:20-21 For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.            James’ Jewish Christian audience was angry with God about their trials. But having instructed them concerning joy in the midst of these trials (v. 2), he expl...

James 1:19-20 This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.            James’s audience was scattered beyond Palestine due to a severe persecution of Jewish Christians in and around Jerusalem in the first century (1:1; cf. Acts 8:1ff.; 12:1ff.). Both the rich and poor had t...

John 3:3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God… unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”The work of the Holy Spirit with regard to regeneration is a key issue in John 3, and it answers many of the questions posed about the Holy Spirit’s work. Regeneration, or being “born anew,” might be defined as the sole wor...

James 1:18 In the exercise of His will [God] brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.            Though some might blame God for tempting them with evil, James says that this is impossible. God certainly tests His people to mold us after His will, but He never tempts us to evil. Temptations come from our own lusts, and when we are carri...

James 1:16-17 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.Since “Do not be deceived” is a present imperative, the gist of it is more like “Stop being deceived.” James is thus attempting to put to rest the idea that had crept into the minds of some C...

James 1:14-15 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.Sadly, man’s nature is to sin, a disease that always leads to death (Rom. 6:23). As Paul said, “Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all, for all si...

James 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.            Since the Greek term behind “trial” (peirazō) can also translated “temptation,” context must determine the English translation. Trials are clearly the topic of vv. 2-4 & 12, but in v. 13 the context shifts to temptation, James distinguishing...

James 1:9-12 But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; 10 and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. 12 Blessed...