Book of James Part VI (Obedience)
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Book of James Part VI (Obedience)
Obedience – Part 6
Several weeks ago, we started this series on the book of James. The church is in its 2nd decade of existence, the Jews were scattered, so James writes a letter to the churches to give counsel and as a guide to help Jewish Christians navigate cultures with completely different norms and beliefs than those that existed in Jerusalem. James shared about suffering! We discovered how that suffering exists and is the natural course of life since the fall of man but that suffering doesn’t change the fact that God is good. Suffering exists, but as God’s children, He can use the trials of life to develop us into complete and mature Christians. That is why James starts his letter off with “consider it pure joy.” Remember, James was writing this letter to help navigate the Christian Jews on practical ways of living as Christians in a world of different cultures and beliefs. James shared about faith and how that faith is demonstrated in your deeds, conduct, and speech. Zac shared from James on the subject of wisdom, and how that to navigate through this life we need to ask God for wisdom that only comes from him. Bro. Wayne shared about foolishness and that foolishness is something that we need to avoid and how it’s foolish to be materialistic, to doubt, blame God with temptation, to be a friend of the world, to be involved in strife and division, and to be self-centered. Then last week, Derrick shared about community taken from James.
Remember, James is writing to the Jews that were scattered among the nations trying to give them wise counsel for navigating in a world of different cultures and norms from which they were accustomed. This morning, I want us to look at one last point that James writes to these Jews. It is a subject that is not a highly valued trait in our modern culture that emphasizes self-centeredness. It is the subject of obedience! Now I know what one may think when we talk about obedience! Oh no, here we go! But I want us to look at this subject from God’s nature. God is love! His very nature is one of love. That means God does everything out of love for us, the crown of his creation. First, when God created man, He created man with free will to choose, out of love. When real love is demonstrated, it always gives a person free will to choose. God could have made man with no free will, but God wanted a relationship of love with his creation. He wanted his creation to love him because of who he was and his goodness to them. So, in the garden, he gave them the opportunity to make a choice. He forbade them to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil to protect them, not to withhold from them, but the choice was up to them. As parents, we do the same with our children because we love them.
When God chose and made a covenant with Abraham, he did so out of love for man. It was through Abraham’s seed that God would send the Savior. When God delivered Abraham’s seed (Israel) from bondage and slavery, he did so out of love. When he brought them to Mount Sinai and gave them the commands, he did so for their benefit, not his. He wanted a love relationship with them because of who he was and what he had done for them. He was never trying to withhold something good from them but wanted to protect and bless them. He makes it clear that if they would obey his commands, they would be a blessed people and nation (Dt. 28:1-14). Commands were never given to control but to protect and bless.
In a love relationship, we do things because we love. When Jesus came to earth, he came in obedience to the will of His Heavenly Father out of love for Him and for us. When Jesus was on the earth during his 33 years, he always walked in love and obedience. We see this even in the home he was brought up in. Joseph and Mary both walked in obedience to God; Mary by submitting herself to God’s will is being used by God to bring Jesus into the world and Joseph by not putting away his wife Mary when he found she was pregnant with God’s Son. When Jesus was growing up, even though he was about the Father’s business, he honored and submitted to his earthly parents. We also find Jesus being obedient to prophesy by being baptized by John though He was sinless. Jesus even summed up his work on earth by saying to his Father, “I have finished the work you gave me to do.” Even scripture tells us that Jesus learned obedience through suffering. Jesus walked in total obedience to His Father. He only did the work that His Father told him to do.
Obedience is a bedrock for living a life of faith! Scripture also tells us that obedience is better than sacrifice. The sacrifice that one makes when living in disobedience is the broken relationship with one’s Heavenly Father. That is why David would say when he sinned that he had sinned against God alone. It always broke the fellowship that David had with God. So, James grows up in a home where he understood obedience because of the example he had seen from his parents, and his brother Jesus. So, in giving wise counsel to his readers to help them navigate in the different culture and belief system that they are now living in, he says this in James 1:22 – 25: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”
James was dealing with the practicality of living by writing about suffering, faith, wisdom, foolishness, community and obedience. As we apply these principles of living out our faith, as we navigate through the cultures we live in and the different beliefs that we come up against, God will empower us to live victorious lives in a very different and problematic world. May we learn from the letter of James how to live in our world today. His letter applies today!