James 1:9-12

thank you for joining us today for our second study in the book of James if you found this video and you didn't watch the first study you might pause here and go back and find the video which were studied the first eight verses of James chapter one but today in our second study we're going to look at verses 9 through 12 of James chapter 1 the first thing we notice in verse 9 and 10 is that James is addressing two classes of people he refers to the lowly and the rich now our first task is figuring out just exactly who is being talked to the first class of people is fairly easy because he says let the lowly brother his use of the word brother here and his use of that word or a similar word elsewhere in the book of James leads us to the inevitable conclusion and he's talking to Christians and he's talking here specifically took lowly Christians the term lowly set in opposition to the word rich also leads us to the conclusion that lowly here means poor so he's talking to the poor Christians among them now we might try to figure out are these Christians poor simply because as we read elsewhere in the gospels and the epistles that the gospel well many times have a greater appeal to those who are poor are downtrodden or is their poverty a result of their Christianity we noticed in yesterday's video that James had told them to count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience was one of the trials that they were undergoing the fact that they had been persecuted financially because of their Christian faith we know historically that this is often the case that Christians weren't only beaten or imprisoned but they may have lost their jobs or if they were a vendor in the marketplace they may have been blackballed because of their faith and so their poverty may have come as a result of Christian persecution but either case he's addressing the lowly are the poor brethren in their midst now the second class of people he simply identifies as the rich now let's see if we can figure out who these rich people are are the rich rich Christians is he talking to two classes of our groups of Christians poor Christians and rich Christians or is he as he does elsewhere in the book refer to Christians who are poor and the rich who are ungodly are not Christians for example when we get over to chapter five and James addresses the rich there the use of his language and his condemnation of the rich in Chapter five leaders the conclusion that those rich people weren't Christians in fact they were ones who were oppressing and persecuting these poor Christians but in our context this this this day in chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 is that who is talking about who is he talking about the rich non-christians are the rich Christians well let's look how that and determining that will kind of make a difference in how we interpret this verse and so he says in verse 9 let the lowly brother glory in his exultation so here the poor Christian who is being humble because of his poverty who does not experience and enjoy the trappings of this life and the power in the position that wealth brings along with it now they have something to boast about or to glory in and that is their exultation not their physical or financial exultation but obviously it would be their exultation in Christ that in Christ Jesus in their faith and in their Christianity they have found true wealth they found that wealth that Jesus talked about that does not corrupt will not be diminished by the the savages of time or of thievery but will last for an eternity and so though you may be poor though you may not have the things of this life if you're a Christian you have something to glory in in the fact that you have been elevated in the true riches that will last for an eternity and so it might do as well now to just pause and to count our blessings and and today at least for this exercise don't count your physical blessings although there are many but just think about the exultation that you have in Christ think about the spiritual blessings the the blessings of greater value and of greater longevity that you can glory in and so the poor or the lowly brother is to glory or to boast in their exalted status in Christ as opposed to in verse 10 but the rich in his humiliation now if he's talking about rich Christians then he may be saying that these rich Christians have come to understand that their physical or financial wealth is not where true value is found and so by becoming a Christian they've learned the true value of spiritual thing and though they may have in the past trusted in their riches and in their position in life they come to the realization in coming into Christ that they have been brought low and to understand that they shouldn't put trust in themselves are in the things of this life but if by rich he means the rich that we're going to read about in chapter 5 the non-christians and actually the oppressors then he is saying that the rich are being humiliated or at least will be humiliated in the day of judgment they will learn that the things of this life that they trusted in that they put power in the the position and the wealth that they had that they lord it over others and abused others in their position in their wealth means nothing and they will be humiliated in that judgment and the poor who are hearing this can take comfort in the fact that though they may be humiliated now in their poverty and in their low position that their exultation is coming but either way he's elevating the poor Christian and lowering the rich who may have trusted in his wealth in his position now the reason the rich are to glory in their humiliation is because as the flower of the field he will pass away what a beautiful and easy-to-understand illustration the flower of the field that this flower that's growing up and is beautiful to look at and is to be esteemed isn't going to last the prettiest of flowers only lasts for a short season I think about giving or receiving roses as a gift as pretty as that bouquet of dozen roses looks we all know that at best it's going to last a few days and then it'll wither away and died and it will be though it had been exalted it will be humiliated and he says that's the rich person now notice that he doesn't say that the riches will pass away but that the rich person will pass away now certainly the riches will pass away as well Jesus said that in a statement on the Sermon on the Mount where he said the treasures of this earth rust and corrupt but he emphasis here is not upon the wealth itself but upon the wealthy person that he will pass away so whether his riches continue or not doesn't matter because the rich man now can't enjoy that well no longer holds that position we can't help but think here at the story that Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus and how the rich man fared sumptuously and enjoyed all the trappings of this life in its wealth in his position and that beggar Lazarus who sit on the floor underneath that table to just catch the crumbs that would fall off but when they both passed away how their position in life had been exchanged Lazarus the poor beggar was now exalted and the rich man was now humiliated as he stood there in torture and so the rich need to consider that they will pass away he furthers that illustration in verse 11 by saying for no sooner has the Sun risen with the burning heat that it withers the grass it's flower falls and it's beautiful appearance perishes so the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits now while I won't be dogmatic about it this verse really leads me to the conclusion that the rich man here is not the Christian it's not a Christian who's obeyed the gospel and understood that his wealth no longer carries with it the importance and it used to but rather than he's talking about the ungodly Ridge because first of all he doesn't he refers to the lowly brother but doesn't reference the rich person as brother he speaks of a humiliation he speaks of the fact that this rich man will pass away he also refuses the term perishes and fade away all of these negative terms leads me to the conclusion that probably the rich person here is not a rich Christian but the rich of the world who are oppressing the lowly brothers in other words the same rich that we read about in Chapter five in fact I encourage you maybe to pause this video or after the video to take your time and go over to James chapter five and read the first six verses and notice how he discusses the rich and their faith there it sounds somewhat similar here to the fact that this rich person like the grass of the field and the flower will wither away will fall will perish and will fade away again all of that is negative and reminding maybe not even reminding the rich person maybe all of this is being said in the ears of the lowly person and maybe this is a part of this exultation is that the poor Christian can remember though he may not have all of this beauty of this life like the rich do that it doesn't matter because all of this is going to wither it's going to fall it's going to perish and it's going to fade away that's the exultation of the lowly brother when he finally sees things through the eyes of eternity that the things of this life that he doesn't have don't really matter that he has the true wealth in his faith and his hope in Jesus Christ now in verse 12 famously he says blessed is the and who endures temptation for when he has been proved he'll receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those that love him well let's first talk about this temptation this temptation may be the one of the various trials that he had talked about in verse 2 or it may be the result of those various trials trials whether they be persecution or whether they be just looking at the inequity of life can lead us to temptation can challenge our faith and maybe even tempt us to give up our faith in our trust in God because after all life's not fair it's not fair that I'm living a good godly life and I'm poor and downtrodden and here's this ungodly man who's enjoying all the wealth of this world and that might tempt me to lose my faith and so he says blessed is the man who endures temptation the idea of counting it all joy in our various trials the idea of being exalted in our lowly status will cause us to endure the temptations of this life blessed is the man who endures temptation for when he has been in been proved now he's proved when he endures the temptation he passes the test of the temptation and so temptation like trials that he'd stated earlier in verse 2 maybe have their positive points we don't like to think of temptation as having a positive but temptation though it is a tool of Satan the tool of this world to induce us to sin and pull us away from our Heavenly Father it can be viewed in some way as a positive because when I have endured that temptation when I have proved my faith in God that I'll receive the crown of life now maybe this crown of life is attached to the idea of the exultation that he talked about in verse 9 here is our exultation when we receive that crown of life you may have heard before in Bible studies that there are two types of crown the one that we think of most may be the crown of royalty a crown that a queen or a king would wear that would speak to their status as royalty but then there was also the crown that was a trophy a reward given usually in like an athletic pursuit if you won the race you received a crown as your trophy well that's the crown that's being talked about here is that crown of that reward or that trophy for having won the race and so if you've endured temptation you've been proved then you won the race and you receive your trophy you receive the reward or your crown which in this case is life that is immortality and that certainly is an exaltation though you didn't receive the crown in this life you receive the crown of life which will exalt you to eternal glory and so the man who endures temptation will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him have you ever noticed that here in James chapter 1 verse 12 that he speaks of the crown of life being promised to two different groups of people it's first promised to those who endure temptation but then he goes on to say that that crown has already been promised to those who love God I don't think that's two different glass classes of people I think he is by discussing the crown of life he is attaching these two concepts and these two groups of people in other words the one who endures temptation is the same one who loves God and they will receive the crown of life is this a clue is this a hint from James into how it and your temptation that if we love God more than we love sin if we love God more than we love this world and the things of this world that that will help us and cause us to endure temptation I think that's what he say that temptation is always a choice do I choose the passing pleasures of sin or do I choose God and the way of God if I love God I'll endure temptation I'll be proved and I'll receive that crown of immortal life and though I may be a lowly brother in this life I'll be exalted with eternal glory I can't wait thank you for joining us in our study today we'll pick up tomorrow James chapter 1 in verse 13 hey god bless you

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Length: 19min 19sec (1159 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 18 2020