Conversing the Kingdom: The Problem...

James 1:9-10

The original sin was a turning away from the worship of God to the worship of Self. The outworking of this is pride, continous, unceasing focus on self. Pride has two facets. The better understood of the two is the superiority of pride. The less understod aspect of pride is the inferiority of pride. Both are pride because they cause continuation of self focus where that is a thinking to highly of one self (superioity) or thinking too lowley on one self (inferiority). All of us suffer from one or the other at different times. Pride is the root of sin.
The interesting outworking of these two forms of pride james eludes to in these two verses. The first is adversity best described in terms of a poverty. The second is prosperity best described in terms of riches.Poverty does not only mean monetary poverty but also poverty of family, friends, academics, looks, skills etc. Likewise riches does not only relate to monatry riches but riches of family, friends, academics, skill, beauty etc.
When James talks of trials it can be found that all trials fall into one of these two catagories. Either adversary linked with a poverty, or prosperity linked with riches.
We all face these trial, christian and non-chritians alike the difference is what the trials produce. For the christain these trials are discipline, a test of faith that should produce steadfastness. For the non-christian or the christian that does not handle these trials well they become temporary judgement that works to drive the person back to God.
"The wages of the righteous brings life, the income of the wicked leads to death"
These trials that we face can either for the righteous bring life, as James says a steadfastness that brings perfection and a completion where we reach a state of lacking nothing.Or trials for the wicked will bring judgement... death. A useful way to look at the righteous is as those who sacrifice their weath for the benefit of the community and a way to look at the wicked is to see those who sacrifice the community to hord wealth. In other words the righteous understand that all good gifts come from the Father and we are stewards of that gift and the wicked think they deserve the good gift and hord selfishly.
And so the two trials. For the righteous when adversity comes, when poverty hits, the test of faith is to avoid the inferiority of pride. To say to oneself "Oh woe is me cursed of God, worthless and unlovely". For the righteous when prosperity comes, when riches arrive the test of faith is to aviod the superiority of pride. To say to onself "Blessed am I of God, I have recieved my just reward".
What is the solution?
To be continued...

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Conversing the Kingdom: Anger... Love in Motion

James 1:19-20

Anger in it's purest form is love in motion. Anger is a force for the destruction of injustice performed against an object of love. The diference between worldly anger and righteous anger all turns on the object of the love.
Thinking about that the other way round if we notice what it is we get angry about most often then this is the thing we most Love.
Anger is a tool that can be used destructivly if slashed about or can be used strategically like a surgons knife. James calls us here to be slow to anger, that our anger be slowly considered and calculated for the right implication. Wordly anger is quick tempered and sudden in nature because it is so often a selfish defensiveness. If someone wounds our character this is a sin and needs to be delt with. A worldly anger would look to achieve justice by paying the person back through embassesment or belittling, using fear to prevent a repeat of the offense. The focus of love here is self. Righteous anger absorbs the injustice of the sin on behalf of the sinner and goes after the root of the sin for the salvation of the sinner. The focus of love here is the sinner. In our righteous anger we must learn from the greatest example ever made, Jesus on the cross. Jesus absorbed our sin so much that it took him to the cross where he bore the wrath of God on our behalf in the ultimate surgical strike on sin. This was true Love in motion.

Conversing the Kingdom: Joy from life's trials

James 1:1-18

The kingdom of God is an upsidown kingdom and it is nessesary for us as Christians to re-orrientate our thinking for a worldy view to a kingdom view. In the worlds eyes the way to obtain joy is by avoiding trials of anykind by planning for the future, by having a secure job, by having plenty of money in the bank etc. But right in the first line of the letter of James we read "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,..." What a complete reversal of the worldly view of things. To illustrate this new way of thinking James presents an interesting illustration in vs 9-11. The example of a trial James presents is that of poverty and riches both of which have a tendancy to cause us to act in a worldy manner instead of in a kingdomly manner. Through poverty we can be tempted to consider ourselves unworthy and have low self esteem that is a form of pride producing a self focused attitude. Alterativly through riches we can be tempted to consider oursleves more highly than we ought having high self esteem that again is pride producing a self focused attitude. This self focused attitude is a worldy attitude and not a kingdom attitude of humility, of other focusness. James has the solution to these trials through which we obtain joy and it is not the worldy solution of the poor ignoring their poverty and thinking more highly of themselves than they ought as this is the trap of the rich. Likewise for the rich they are not to ignore their riches and think of themselves more lowely than they ought as this is the trap of the poor. Instead James points us to Jesus and to the poor he says boast in the riches you have in Christ and to the rich he says boast in the humility that you have in Christ. Both the poor and the rich need to understand the fleeting nature of riches and to both cease in their pursuit of it. Instead we are to realise that the status of both rich and poor is a trial through which our faith is tested and perfected to completion.

What we need is the wisdom of God and a steadfast focus on Jesus in whom we ground our worth and there for come to a realisation of how highly or how lowly we find ourselves. Every good and perfect gift is from heaven and each brings with it trials. Those who are rich (and for the majority in the west that means us!) have the gift of resources that we need God's wisdom to use for his kingdom. Those who are poor can more easily understand their need of God and this too is a gift to be used with wisdom.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5