Profiting from God’s Word

   James 1:19-25    

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

There is no doubt that there is a way in which you could be profited by the Word of God and there is a way in which, even though you listen, you are not profited. Not because of the preacher but because of the way you listen. It is possible to attend church and remain unchanged by the power of God’s Word. James is particularly concerned that we listen, accept and do the Word of God in view of the momentary afflictions that are upon us. Therefore, if you will be able to respond well to the tests, trials and temptations that come your way, then you have to absolutely depend on the Lord in His Word.

James has already told us that God birthed us by His Word – He brought us forth by the Word of truth… what this means is that we began our spiritual life as a result of the Lord sending His life-giving Word our way. Ipso facto, we must ask ourselves, ‘How do I milk more from the Word of God that I hear preached and taught?’ There is always more for you, depending on the way you receive it. Is there something wrong with the way I listen? Do I need to change the attitudes, the skills or the content of sermon I hear? Some of you have come to be part of this church because you felt that there was something very wrong with the content of the sermons you were hearing. Having come here then, did you change your attitude to the Word of God? Perhaps this is the reason why you would spend the whole of the Lord’s Day with us – showing your changed attitude. This is the reason that you have learnt to read the Bible more; you have learnt meditation and close, candid and personal application of the Word of God; and you have learnt to do the Word and you are not content to simply amass knowledge, for we so well know that knowledge puffs up.

But the question I ask everyone is, do you realize that your skills of listening are as important as the content and the attitude? For if you will be profited by the content of the Word you hear, then you have to not only have the right disposition but also the right skill of receiving it. James is concerned that your handle these situations in a manner that is distinctively Christian.

1.      Be quick to hear

This is the first instruction to us – in hearing, the adjective to describe our hearing is quick. That is, fast and ready and eager to hear, without objections. One of the greatest calamities of our day is the lack of readiness in hearing. Have you been to those churches where the preacher is cheered by people who are constantly shouting, “tell them!”? People listening stand up and raise their hands. Or there is so much clapping and shouting the preacher is simply drowned by the hearers? They need the instructions here.

But here we are blessed in this church – the readiness to hear is seen not simply in church attendance, but also in the listening during the service as well as the voluntary listening of sermons from the internet within the week. Why shouldn’t we? After all, we have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God … this is the good news that was preached to us.

This exhortation given to us – be quick to hear. Open up your physical ears and may the Lord open up your heart to receive what you hear. Hearing is absolutely important, and each one of us need, as a matter of priority, to avail himself all opportunities of hearing the Word of God. But this passage concerns itself in how you hear. Imagine that from this pulpit, you listen to the two sermons and a Sunday school lesson on Sunday – that is 156 teachings in a year. Let us say that you listen to one more sermon within a week, that is 52 more and shall we agree that each sermon is an hour? Suppose you also attend one conference in which you listen to 10 sessions of one hour each. By the way, it is a good Christian practice to attend at least one conference a year. In a year you have listened to over 200hours of preaching. Let us cut this to 150 hours in a year. But the question is how do you hear? Does this translate to a changed life? Do you love the Lord more and kill sin more as a result? This gives you a solemn responsibility of living accordingly. This is our concern.

But I also want to address those who listen to the minimum – you come to church late half past eleven, that is, one time to hear the morning service sermon, and leave immediately after the service. You barely have anyone to challenge your Christian living within the week. You do not attend any prayer meeting or a Bible Study. Do you see the problem? The Word of God is the bread of life that you ought to feed on. Be available to hear it. And if you don’t stop claiming that you are a Christian.

This instruction is followed with another – be slow to speak. First listen before you speak. Make sure that you think first of what you add, make sense of it before speaking. This moratorium on speaking is very common in this book and in Proverbs. For we more often than not, speak too much. But, why is it that the Lord gave us one mouth and two ears – to speak less and ear more! Yet, for many of us, we have learnt a natural instinct of irrational objecting to everything and anything you hear. You place yourself in a pedestal of ‘I know more and better!’ I pray that by the grace of God all objections, all thoughts that exalt themselves above the knowledge of God will be brought down.

Why are we to be quick to hear and slow to speak? The reason for this is that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. In other words, we cannot please God by emotional outburst. We must not justify anger even when we think it is accomplishing God’s own ends of retribution. Not that all anger is sinful, but the fact is the anger of man cannot and does not please God. No unwise, rash or angry speech is going to get approval from God.

2.     Receive the Word with meekness

The following exhortation urges us not only to hear but also to receive the Word of God we hear in a certain manner. It is both negative and positive. We have to negatively remove all impediments in order to provide a place for the Word of God to find a place in our lives.

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

First, deal with remaining sin. The word translated filthiness means moral impurity or uncleanness. This is describing how heinous and odious sin is. This describes the quality of sin – it is pungently sinful, monstrously wicked, and outrageously ugly. The next phrase, translated ‘rampant wickedness, describes the quantity of this sin – it is rampant, abundant and so overwhelming. It is shockingly evil and exceedingly evil. This moral impurity is accompanied by abundance of wickedness, that is, it takes many forms, like a virus – constantly replicating into different strains. Yes, sin is a genius of mutation and multiplication. Sin is constantly attacking in different camouflage combat attire. This is why you must be very vigilant.

Sin is the greatest impediment to receiving the Word of God. Sin makes the hears dull, the heart impermeable, the will impervious and the whole person rebellious to the Word of God. However, we are called to be pure having been sanctified by Holy Spirit using His Word of God. No one will do this for us – it is for us to put it away. The point is that we have a responsibility in our sanctification. We are to get rid of all remaining sin, aided by the Spirit and His Word. Unless we put away all sin, the Word of God will not be profitable us, even if it has power to save our souls.

Secondly, receive with meekness the implanted Word. The Word used here of receiving means to welcome or accept in such a manner that appropriates its blessings. This is same word and manner is used to show how the Bereans received the Word of God. This was the response of the Thessalonians, when they heard God’s Word. This phrase has overtones of the new covenant promise, where God promised to put His law within the hearts of His people (thus equal to implanting the word of God). God Himself was to write the law in their hearts (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:24-32). For how can people who are not only infested with sin, but completely devastated by sin live a pure life? Except if God works in them. God Himself has to replace the old hearts with new spiritually active organs so that they would respond truly, and properly in obedience to the Word of God.

God’s Word is to be welcomed with meekness, that is with a gentle, teachable attitude that acknowledges it as the authoritative Word of God, submitting to it. Since this Word has already been implanted in us, then it shouldn’t be hard to submit to it, with God’s help.

We are to go on receiving the Word until it will be firmly established in us. Each day we are to grow, and keep on growing as we feed on the Word of God. We must never grow tired of hearing the Word, just as no rational person grows to a point where they say, ‘I am now fully grown, I will need no more food!” If anyone bears this attitude, he will starve to death. The Lord promises to look on the one who is humble and contrite in Spirit and trembles at His Word (Is. 66:2). In humility we are to continue to feeding on the Word of God.

Likewise, the Word of God is able to save our souls in the sense that having been saved by Christ, He sustains us by feeding us on His Word. If you give up on the Word of God, then you would die spiritually. When God implants the Word, He inseparably makes it part of the believer, permanently guiding and influencing every part of their lives.

3.      Put the Word into Action

It is possible to prepare to come to church, to sit from morning to evening, and yet deceive yourself. If all you do is listen, then James writes something for you to consider, ‘But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves’.

There are many who constantly listen to sound doctrine, good and balanced preaching of the Word, and are only hearers and so experts in self-deception. If you attend to the Word of God with ears only, and no action, know for sure that you are on the danger zone. You must be blinded to think that your spiritual health is only measured by what you hear – it is measured by what you put into practice, how you live.

This is because the experience of regeneration has to be followed by a life of a new creation. You are professor of religion and nothing more if you do not practice what you hear. He compares such a person with a person who looks at his face in a mirror, leaves the mirror and then immediately forgets what he looks like (vv.23-24). In his illustration, the mirror is the Word of God, that is, the perfect law of God, also called the law of liberty. The Word of God is liberating sinners not only from ignorance, but also it is the primary tool for our sanctification.

It is expected that when after eating, you walk up the sink, as you wash your hands you also will see your face and deal with any food that is stuck on your face or big piece of Sukuma wiki or a piece of bean is stuck between your teeth and correct or pick it before leaving the sink. What if you walk away from the mirror and say, “I will deal with it as I go.” The next thing you meet with a person and, yes… greetings begin and before you know it, you forget your Sukuma wiki piece stuck on your teeth and then you become a laughing stock.Mirrors are there to reveal our outward appearance conditions so that we may deal with them immediately. Like mirrors, the Word of God correctly accurately and truly reveals to us our inward spiritual condition.

The idea of the Word being compared to a mirror is in 1 Corinthians 13:12 and it sheds more light on the fact that the mirror that Paul had was dim, or dark, imperfect or incomplete but the mirror we now have is perfect. Again the word translated perfect is used on both passages and it means, mature, complete or fully developed. Paul promised Christians who walk in love that even if at the time the revelation was not fully developed, for it was dim, or partial (v.10),  a time was coming when they will see clearly from the perfect law of God. Thankfully this is what we have – we have the two Testaments fully revealed, and developed.

When you hear, and even as you hear the Word of God, you ought to be examining yourself and finding out what areas you ought to change. For a person who only hears the Word and then forgets remains unchanged and influenced by the Word of God, and he does not grow in the Christian life.

Even worse, James very categorically in verse 25 says that God will only bless the person who does the Word of God. God will bless the man who perseveres; a man who continues or practices and exercises what he hears. Undoubtedly, God will be pleased by his actions that are informed by His Word. God will not bless you automatically – He will bless you when you approach His Word in the right way, and do it. Do not simply tell people, “God bless you!” God blesses those who obey His Word.

See the following passages to prove this:

ü  Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. Psa 19:11.

ü  Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, Psa 119:2.

ü  But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" Luke 11:28.

ü  If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. John 13:17.

ü  "And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." Rev 22:7.

Do you want to see if James was speaking the truth? Then try what he has said – be a doer of the Word.

Applications

v  The responsibility upon the preacher and the hearer. You therefore notice both me who preach, and you who hear bear a heavy responsibility for the success of the Word we proclaim. You cannot expect me to work hard to prepare what to bring to you and not expect me to expect you to listen well. But this is not just a matter of what we expect from each other – rather it is what God requires of us. This is why it is not encouraging for pastors when after the Lord’s Supper, many members leave for one reason or another.

v  There are those of you who are living with all manner of filthiness and rampant wickedness. You are told to put it away if you want God’s blessings. Listen – it does not make sense for Christians to sin. Even worse it is incredible that Christians should find any pleasure in sin. The Lord has said that everyone who thus hopes in Him (Christ) purifies himself as He is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. (1Jn 3:3-6).

v  If you will receive the Word of God properly and be profited by it, then you will need to prepare in advance… sleep early on the eve of the Lord’s Day. Take notes. Re-read the notes afterwards. Pray as you think of these things you ought to change. Call God for help. Persevere in it – yes keep on and keep up with these disciplines.

v  I finish with a poem I wrote this week thinking about how we are to relate with Christ:

Let us cleave to Christ more closely,

love Him more heartily,

listen to Him more keenly

receive the Word of God more meekly

live to Him more thoroughly,

copy Him more exactly,

confess Him more boldly,

follow Him more fully

serve Him more faithfully,

Glorify Him forever.

We have Good God as our Father

James 1:13-18   

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

What temptations are you going through in the moment? Let us take it that you have no job and so you are struggling to support yourself financially. Are you tempted to think that if you are dishonest or steal, that the Lord will understand you? Or perhaps your husband has turned to heavy drinking, and so has become irresponsible and careless (I can’t even imagine how trying this is), are you tempted to stop submitting to him? Perhaps you have serious financial struggles and debts, are you tempted to be dishonest in dealing with your creditors? It could be that your parents are unreasonable, and overbearing, are you tempted to be disobedient? It could be that your employer is unfaithful in paying your salary or other dues on time, are you tempted to grumble like the world? This are some of the real life circumstances that we contend with day by day. But we need to be very vigilant. Do not use your circumstances as an occasion for sin.

In the few years I have been a pastor of this church, I have seen a few people who are poor, or widows, or sick or under other unfortunate circumstances, and I really sympathize with them for these circumstances are no fun. But a good number of them, under the weight and pressure of these situations, have been untruthful, dishonest and sometimes even deceitful in order to obtain more financial help! Consider your difficult circumstance in life, may I convince you that God is very good? You need to be assured that our Lord is good so that you may be sure that He will uphold you through all the challenges of life. There is no way you can walk with God in life’s trials and temptations if you live in doubt of His goodness.

The people that James was writing to were tempted to use the persecution that they were going through as a justification for falling into sin. Once you start thinking that your life is so difficult that the Lord will understand if you fail in other areas then know that you are in the danger zone. On the other hand, there are others who reasoned that since the Lord sovereignly sent or allowed some trials that have caused you to be tempted, therefore God has tempted me to sin. This type of reasoning, which is very common with people and it is one of the evidences that we are true children of Adam! Adam did not only blame Eve but he also blamed God for giving Eve to him! But James in these verses clears God name and absolves Him of any blame, (not that God needs anyone to clear His name!) and shows that God is infinitely holy, too holy to be marred with any human temptation or sin. Not only that but also that God is infinitely good, that He only does good to His people. We must depend on Him, love Him and then His promises will be ours.

1.      God is Good is Because He Tempts No One

a)     Don’t blame God

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

We are pot-training our two year old son, Gaius. The other day I found his trousers wet and I asked him what happened and he said that the dog did it. I reminded him that we don’t own a dog. Then he responded that it was Asaph’s bunny that wet his pants. Then I asked him how did the bunny come into the house, since it can neither open it’s kennel nor our house. Then he said, Ruth, opened the door for the bunny and then it wet his trousers. Patiently I reminded him that Ruth had gone to school in the morning so there was no way she could have done it while in school. Then he innocently asked me if it was God! This serves to prove the little Gaius is as much a son of Adam as we all are. Blame it on others, even God! No wonder when Martin Luther and his wife Catherine got their first daughter, Elizabeth on December 10 1527, he wrote to his mother, ‘Dear lady, God has produced from me and my wife Katie a little heathen. We hope you will be willing to become her spiritual mother and help make her a Christian.[1]” Children are not little angels after all!

Stop saying that God is tempting you, because He is not. God is neither tempted with evil, nor does He tempt anyone. It is not in His nature, to be tempted with evil for He is the Holy God, separated from sinners. James appeals to the otherness of God to show that He is good, too good to be unkind. Gordon Keddie so well puts it here:

… all attempts to blame our sins on God, or His sovereignty (the biblical doctrine of predestination), or the way he made us (our temperament), or our circumstances in life (‘the breaks,’ people call them), or other people, must be rejected. These are no more than attempts at self-justification. And when God is blamed, they are blasphemies against His perfect righteousness.[2]

b)     You are the man to bear the blame

“Wait…” you say, “what about the temptations that have weeded all around and about me? From where do they come from?” Pastor James very wisely responds, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (v.14-15). In fewer words, James is saying, blame it on yourself! In view of this, we are worse than Adam and Eve who were tempted by the voice of the serpent, for the tempting voice is the voice of our own sinful nature. James is responds here as Nathan responded to David, “You are the man!”

In these two verses James nails the problem right on its head. The one who is blameworthy is you, not God! You are tempted when you sing the tune of your own evil desires. You are constantly hatching babies called sin and that is why there are so many grandchildren called sin in your backyard and in your cabinet.

Sin is difficult to deal with for a lustful man, who is swollen with earthly ambitions. Temptations come in the direction of your desires. The language here is of fishing. So I will freely give you some fishing lessons. When you go fishing, you must carry at least three things, you must have your fishing line, a container to carry back the fish and the most important of all, you carry the baits that would attract the fish in  your direction. You put a hoot at the end the fishing line with the bait. When the fish smells the food it will come quickly lured and enticed by it and swallow it and soon the fisherman will shout, “Eureka! I caught the fish!”

Pastor James shows us that the life-cycle of sin begins with the conception of evil desires in our hearts. These evil desires then give birth to sinful action in our lives. Finally, these sinful deeds bring death and destruction. This is the nature of the dreadful life-cycle of sin.[3] God is very clear on this matter – the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). If you plant evil desires and sprout sin, then be sure that you will reap death.

Therefore, will you stop blaming God and blame yourself? Will you look at your own worldliness and fleshly passions, youthful ambitions, covetousness and lust and tame them? I can assure you that you can’t tame them by blaming others or God. Remember Cain? He was told by God, “… sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Gen. 4:7) Cain didn’t and the end is that he found the grandson of this dreadful evil desire - death. Amnon, David’s son lusted after his sister Tamar and went on to rape her, but not so long afterwards, he also kissed the grandson of evil desire, that is, death, by the hands of his own brothers! From these two cases, there is no mention of the devil as the temptor, even if I am sure he had a role to play in their downfall. The devil is the most blamed creature, everyone blames it on the devil. But be advised that the devil is not omnipresent. He is not all-knowing either. The pages of scriptures do not reveal so much culpability of the devil in temptations as much as the flesh! Therefore, James very strongly warns you against blaming God in your temptations.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. (v.16). This is a warning given by a loving brother to His brethren, for he would not want his own brothers in Christ to live in the deception. In this phrase, James communicates his love for the readers and his concern for them. he encouraged them that they ought not to be deceived. They have no reason to be deceived when the Lord  has revealed so much by the Scriptures. We would be wise to drink from the fountain of the Word of God instead of drink the poison of deception.

2.      God is Good because He Gives Perfect Gifts

God is good because it is His nature. This stands in sharp contrast with us, whose nature is to sin. God can only do good and not evil. This is true because, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

From this verse, we can say two things:

a)       God is the source of every good and every perfect gift.

God is extremely generous in what He gives. For we see that He gives every good and every perfect gift. This statement speaks of both the quality of the gift – it is good and perfect. Besides, reveals that the manner of giving is good and perfect. It also underlines the fact that good and perfect gift can only come from God and nowhere else. In other words, the only source of every good and perfect gift is God, or God is the only producer and giver of every good and perfect gift. Motyer puts it this way, every need is fully underwritten by the endless and exactly appropriate gifts of God[4].

James is reminding his persecuted readers of God’s goodness so that in their trials they may not only realize that it is not God who is tempting them, but also that they have God on their side to endow them with all His goodness and perfect gifts. The negative statement, God does not tempt anyone is put in the right perspective by this positive statement. For God’s plan is to outwork what is good for them.

We must realize that the world is not the source of every good and every perfect gift. It cannot afford any good and therefore it has no good to give us. That which is truly good comes from above, that is from God. Only the Father of lights, who is the Creator, Sustainer of all creation and the Saviour of sinners, is the source and a constant dispenser of all good.

Why is God is called the Father of lights? Because from him we have both natural and spiritual light. Did He not say in the beginning, “Let there be light?” Did He not create elements and gave them specific instructions about emitting light? The physical light is from God. Who has conveyed us from the domain of (spiritual) darkness into the marvelous light? It is God who is light, in whom there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5) and He has made us the children of light (Eph. 5:8).

b)     God is unchangeable and dependable

God only gives the perfect gifts and He is immutably dependable. James tells us that, God is the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. We know that even if the sun gives light so consistently, yet there are times when it is obscured by clouds, eclipsed by the moon or too hot and uncomfortable. There is no comparison between the Creator and His creation because God does not change (Mal. 3:6). A.W. Pink puts this truth about God’s immutability so succinctly, God cannot change for the better, for he is already perfect; and being perfect, He cannot change for the worse.

This glorious truth about the unchangeable nature of God presents the LORD as the most dependable and faithful. This is what we sing in this famous hymn by T.O. Chisholm;

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not,

As thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be!

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy Faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed Thy hand has provided;

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

3.      God is Good Because He Made us His own Children 

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures (v.18)

This is the climax of what James says in this portion of Scripture. That is, this sovereign divine birth through the Word of truth has made us the firstfruits of His creatures. And this is the supreme example of our faithful God’s gifts that we receive from Him. This is speaking of God’s redemptive work and it follows the same pattern of Paul’s question,

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32.

Because God has given us the Gift of gifts, all other gifts in One, then surely He will give us graciously give us all things. … if being a true Christian inescapably proves to us that God is good, then there need be no doubting his goodness in respect of everything else that He does for His people.[5]

Two points are clearly made from this verse:

a)      God has sovereignly birthed us by the Word of truth

A number of things in this verse leave no doubt that James is talking about the spiritual blessing of salvation. In the previous verse we have learnt that God is our Father. Now we learn that this act of God is God’s own initiative, for it is of His own will. This is sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, and it is what Jesus told Nicodemus –

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." John 3:8.

Who can control the movement of the wind? None! In the same way, there is none who can control the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting men of sin. So we say, “I know not, how the Spirit moves convicting men of sin, Revealing Jesus through the word, Creating faith in Him[6]”

In this passage we are told that we have been born again through the word of truth. This phrase, is the most important piece of evidence in favour of redemptive birth, as the instrument through which God brings people to (spiritual) life… it refers to the gospel as the agent of salvation (2 Cor. 6:7; Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:15)[7]. Which is not a strange idea, for the Holy Spirit gave the Word. And so James tells that this divinely implanted word… is able to save your souls (v.21). After all Peter himself says that we have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God (1 Peter 1:23). This spiritual birth by God is the greatest blessing, is the best gift, and is the eternal gift by which we tap into all other blessings of God.

b)     God has made us the apex of His creation in redemption

The purpose for which God birthed us or regenerated or recreated us is stated in the last part of the phrase. For James says that it was so that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures (v. 18b). The ultimate purpose of all that God does is His own glory. But in reaching this grand and glorious end, God has appointed the redeemed of the Lord as the first of the beings to worship Him, just as the Israelites offered their firstfruits as the mark of having realized the promises of God (see Deut. 26:2-10) so Christians are the ones who have been made the firstfruits.

What does it mean that we are God’s first fruit? We belong to God in a special way as believers, that is, set apart or consecrated for God’s use. He has not only owned us from the first time when He created us, but He has also bought us to be His own possession. As the firstfruit of all creation, we are the cream and apex of His creation. Notice how Daniel Dorian puts it so well;

James says God’s people are his firstfruits. We are the first and the best of His produce’. He will prove faithful. He will care for us year by year, even as He cared for Israel in the wilderness. This is what the tests should teach us. If we fail, our failure teaches us to turn to God for mercy, as he offers it in the gospel. Then as we persevere with him in love, come what may, we will receive the crown of life that He has promised.[8]

Therefore, we must acknowledge that we should be God's portion and treasure, and a more peculiar property to him, as the first-fruits were. We should become holy to the Lord, as the first-fruits were consecrated to him. Christ is the first-fruits of Christians, Christians are the first-fruits of His creatures[9].

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[1] Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand, A life of Martin Luther, (Peabody, MA, Hendrickson, 1894), P. 299

[2] Gordon Keddie, The Practical Christian, James simply explained, (Darlington, Evangelical Press, 1989), p. 50

[3] Anthony. Selvaggio, The 24/7 Christian,  (Darlington, Eng: EP, 2008), p.91

[4] Alec. Motyer, BST The Message of James, (Leicester, England, IVP, 1985), pp.56

[5] Gordon Keddie, The Practical Christian, James simply explained, (Darlington, Evangelical Press, 1989), p. 56

[6] Daniel Whittle

[7] D. Moo, The Letter of James, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), P. 79

[8] Daniel Dorian, James, ……p. 42

[9] Matthew Henry, Commentary On The Whole Bible, (Peabody, MA. Hendrickson Publishers, 1991), p. 1934