James 1 Discussion

Counting suffering as joy sounds like the kind of line you put on a poster, not the kind of thing you can say with a straight face in real life. But James 1 doesn’t give us a shallow pep talk. We work through the chapter step by step, showing how trials can produce steadfastness, maturity, and a kind of spiritual durability you can’t get any other way, even while the pain is still real.

From there we dig into one of the most freeing promises in the passage: if we lack wisdom, we can ask God and he gives generously. We talk about what “ask in faith” actually means, why doubt in James looks like instability and double-mindedness, and how God’s answers can be wise even when they’re not what we hoped to hear. We also unpack James’s perspective on poverty and wealth, not as a political rant, but as a reminder that every person is mortal and every believer has eternal hope in Jesus Christ.

We also draw a sharp line James draws: God tests faith, but he does not tempt anyone to evil. Temptation comes when we’re lured by our own desires, and that truth changes how we fight greed, coveting, and comparison. Then we bring it down to daily life with “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger,” and what pure religion looks like in practice: caring for widows and orphans while keeping ourselves unstained by the world, not just hearing the Word but doing it.

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Transcript

Pastor Plek 0:10

And

Welcome And James 1 Roadmap

Pastor Plek 0:11

welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pluck. That's Pastor Allen. We're talking James chapter one. We're gonna outline it, observe it, interpret it, apply it so that you can be fully equipped to take on the darkness, push it back with the mighty power of Jesus today. So James 1, 1 through 4, we have the greeting and the purpose of trials that we are to count all joy, which seems counterintuitive. Then you have verses 5 through 8, which is the prayer of faith, of what it means to uh believe and not doubt. Then you've got verses 9 through 11 of riches, poverty, and then a temporary earthly life, and how we can get caught up in this life, not looking toward the one to come. Then you have the verse uh verses 12 through 18, temptation and the goodness of God, those who persevere under trial receive the crown of life. And just remember, God does not tempt people with evil. Then you got verses 19 through 25, uh hearing and doing the word. Believers should be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Then uh the land of the plain, verses 26-27, we have what true religion is it's taking care of widows and orphans and keeping oneself unstained from the world. Okay.

Pure Religion Is Actually Good

Pastor Plek 1:25

What observations do you see here?

Pastor Holland 1:29

I like that religion is presented as a good thing here when it is pure and undefiled.

Pastor Plek 1:37

Right. I always hear the statement of like, I don't do religion, I have a relationship. And can I be fair? I've probably said that many times. And I think what this is saying is like, oh, there is good religion. Religion that is good is like personal piety and purity, along with taking care of marginalized people.

Pastor Holland 1:53

Yeah. Amen. All right. So don't be an anti-religion person. There, the crit Christianity is a religion. And it's, you know, that's good. It means that there's a whole way of life and there's a belief system, there are doctrines, there are practices, there's, you know, values, all of this that are attached to being a person who has a relationship with Jesus.

Pastor Plek 2:13

Yeah. All right. How

Counting Trials As Joy

Pastor Plek 2:14

about just the one that sticks out? Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. I love this so much. So I mean, what it's saying is like, I don't know if anyone listens to Jocko Willink, but it's just a sense of like good. When everything bad happens, you go, that's good. And then you have to think of how this is gonna be good or how it's gonna grow you. Uh, you're gonna be able to be more relational, uh, you're gonna be more endurance, it's you're gonna have steadfastness, you're gonna have be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing if you suffer well.

Pastor Holland 2:48

Yeah. I love it. And you know what? I there's been times, you know, when I've encouraged people in their trials to count it all joy. And, you know, some people have been like, that's not what I need to hear right now. Fair enough. But, you know, I've had when I've gone through trials and people tell me count it all joy. I I like am legitimately encouraged by that. I'm like, you know, have you tried not being sad and being happy instead? It's like it's good advice. It is good advice. No, but for me personally, I really am like, I'm grateful. Yes, I do need to count it all joy. It doesn't mean that uh, you know, what I'm going through isn't hard or painful or anything, but it is a reminder of the perspective that we ought to have.

Pastor Plek 3:28

How

Asking God For Wisdom In Faith

Pastor Plek 3:29

about this? It I love this part. It says, right after he says, Hey, count it all joy, says, if any of you last wisdom, let him ask God. And I always have thought of this as in continuation with the count all joy. You the the first question that you ask, because you don't have wisdom, you don't know why this is happening, you go, why God? You're let him ask God. You are allowed to ask God why. You are completely, but but because he gives generous to all without reproach, it will be given. The answer is going to be given to you. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. In other words, when you ask and you get the answer you don't like, do you have faith to accept that answer? And that's the part the person that's a double-minded man does not have faith to withstand the answer, which is like this hard thing is good for you. And the reason why you're good going for this is I'm developing your character. Yeah. Amen. All right. What

Rich And Poor Share One Reality

Pastor Plek 4:24

about um it's kind it kind of feels like a little bit anti-wealth going on here? Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation. What do we what are we talking about here? Is this a tax the rich moment?

Pastor Holland 4:39

No, I don't think so. Um it's talking about the paradoxical like um kind of realities of that we have uh when he says the lowly brother boasts in ex his exaltation. What what is the exaltation of the lowly person?

Pastor Plek 4:56

That ultimately he's gonna be in heaven, he's a seated at the crown of life, he's already seated in heaven in many ways. Right.

Pastor Holland 5:01

And then for the for the rich person, um it what's his humiliation? That he will eventually die. Yeah, and that you are just a man.

Pastor Plek 5:10

Yeah. Eventually you are gonna succumb to mortal mortality just like everybody else.

Pastor Holland 5:15

Yeah. And so, in other words, it's like it really what he's saying, the same message to both people is like this paradoxical thing of remember that you are just a man and yet you have great hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ. And so that will that same message will hit a poor person in one way that you're not despairing about your poverty, and it hits a rich person in another way that you're not being arrogant or boastful in your riches. Yeah. But it's the same message. You're a man and yet in Christ you have eternal life.

Pastor Plek 5:41

So I think

Temptation Comes From Our Desires

Pastor Plek 5:42

on that, then you got the temptation that follows. Yeah. And I like rich and poor both have this same temptation. Let no one, when he is tempted, say, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. Yeah. So what happens when the lure of a greedy thing is there? How do you say no? How do you have wisdom in it? How what what's the proper perspective? How as a poor person do you go, I don't need that when clearly all these other people have what I don't have?

Pastor Holland 6:16

Yeah, I think that's that's where that wisdom is so helpful. The Lily Brother boast in his exaltation means I don't need to be greedy, I don't need to covet, I don't need to blah, blah, blah, because I have this great hope of heaven and I can be content with that. Um, I also think it's interesting that um, you know, he says uh God cannot be tempted with evil. And a lot of people go, well, what about Jesus in the wilderness? Wasn't he tempted in the wilderness? And isn't so is this saying Jesus is not God? And he explains, though, the kind of temptation he's talking about. He says in verse 14, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Right. So the kind of temptation he's dealing with here in James 1 is temptation related to our sinful nature, that we actually have sinful desires wanting things that we shouldn't want. Um, and that's what being tempted is. And so in that way, Jesus was not tempted like that. Right. He he was tempted. Um, I think we've talked about this in was it Hebrews? We yeah, Hebrews. Um and uh Jesus high priest who could sympathize with us because he was tempted in every way. Yeah, and so he was tempted from without, though, meaning like an outside um Satan. Yeah, Satan who's outside of him offered something, but this is saying this is something inside of you that's evil, that's right.

Pastor Plek 7:49

And because he is a God man, that means he's a second Adam, he is without sin, born without sin. Yes.

Pastor Holland 7:56

Whereas we have the sinful nature from Adam that has that we're lured and enticed by our own desires. And so he's saying God doesn't do God doesn't have any evil desires, so he's not tempted, and he's not gonna try to tempt you to do something evil. What he does do is test your faith um through suffering and trials and things like that, but it's always for the purpose of growing your faith, never that you would be tempted into evil.

Pastor Plek 8:22

Yeah, okay.

Quick To Hear Slow To Anger

Pastor Plek 8:24

What about um uh this whole idea of being quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to become angry. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Isn't there such a thing as righteous anger? And what is he meaning here then? What's the difference then?

Pastor Holland 8:41

Yeah. Um yeah, right, righteous anger is being angry the right amount about the right thing. Right. And anger of man is, you know, angry the wrong amount or about the wrong thing. And so um anger is is really attached to love. It's it's like a protective thing. Um, it's what the emotion that comes when you know something that you love is threatened or um a boundary that you value is transgressed. And so um unrighteous anger, the anger of man, is when we love something we shouldn't love. And um, we want to protect that. So, like your ego, for instance, someone insults you um and that hurts your ego, and you love your ego because you're a proud person, and so you get angry. Oh, that's yeah, yeah.

Pastor Plek 9:29

Okay. So then we already talked about the religion that's that's pure and undefiled. Let's get into some uh nature of man. We kind of touched on a lot of it here, but uh specifically I think that human beings are tempted not by God, but by our own selfish desires. Yeah.

Pastor Holland 9:45

Yeah, we have that inside of us. Um and uh also we we doubt. Um, whereas uh verse six, let him ask in faith with no doubting. The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea. Um so we have a tendency to doubt, be double-minded, be unstable. That's part of our sinful nature.

Hearing Versus Doing The Word

Pastor Plek 10:06

Yeah, how about part of our sinful nature is to be able to hear something but not do it. Yeah. Uh we are great hearers of the word, but not very good doers of the word.

Pastor Holland 10:17

Yeah, and it's it's kind of funny um because in Hebrew, there is not a word for like obey. It's just the word hear. So, like to hear the word means to obey the word. Um and uh James in the New Testament, written in Greek, you know, is kind of parsing out that same Hebrew idea that um don't separate this idea of hearing and doing. It's it's never intended that way.

Pastor Plek 10:49

Do you remember um in 1 Samuel 15, it's when Saul sets up the monument to himself and he's thinking he's pretty great, and then he sacrifices um without waiting for Samuel? And then uh Samuel comes up, he sees the sacrifice. What is this? Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. And he equates listening and obeying as the same thing. Yeah, and it's not like Saul didn't know what he said, he just was like, you know, I anticipated a need and I met it. I did obey. I just was sacrificing when you didn't show up because you were late. And that is the essence of like you're no longer hearing the word of the Lord, it's your word has intersected and you're obeying your own voice. And that was the problem there, which I think is a problem with a lot of Christians today. Yeah, that's great. Um, okay,

God’s Character And Care For Vulnerable

Pastor Plek 11:53

well, what about let's go into the character of God? How about just God's generous?

Pastor Holland 11:57

By the way, that word for obey, yeah, it's it's the same as uh it's sh um shamar, like to hear. Okay, so from first Samuel? Yeah, or Shema, I mean, um not shamar, shema. Yeah. Um, if you like look at the Hebrew word for obeying the voice of the Lord or obey is better than sacrifice, it's Shema. Listening is better than sacrifice. Exactly.

Pastor Plek 12:17

Oh, that's wild. Okay, yeah. So I love that. I think we have to uh chant transform it in our English, and I think it maybe it loses a little bit of impact on the translation.

Pastor Holland 12:26

So James brings that out in the Greek language, you do have different words for hear and obey. And so he's saying, yeah, you got to keep those together. You gotta hear and obey the word. I love that. Um, okay.

Pastor Plek 12:38

Uh character of God. God is generous, he freely gives wisdom and gives every good gift to his people. Uh, I love the fact that God welcome like there's a couple of times when he says, not in a sense test me, but you're allowed to ask God anything. If any of you ask wisdom, if you don't know something, ask God. Come with a clear heart and ask him, he'll answer you. Which I think that I think that we sometimes we might be feeling that like God's not answering. It just might be that he's not answering with the answer that you want.

Pastor Holland 13:08

Yeah. Because it doesn't say God will tell you everything you want to know. It says he'll give you wisdom. And sometimes the wiz, you know, giving you wisdom means, you know, um, just giving an answer that you weren't looking for, but it's the answer that you need. Right. Um, okay.

Pastor Plek 13:24

How about God is holy?

Pastor Holland 13:25

He doesn't tempt anyone for evil, and is not tempted with evil himself. Right. Yeah, he's um he's a father, the father of lights, verse 17, and he's a giver of good and perfect gifts.

Pastor Plek 13:41

Um he how about this? God wants to take care of the orphan and the widow. Yeah. Um, which is sort of like and this is the part that I sometimes even struggle with. It's like if God, if like the cultural context was like God clearly was not looking out for the orphan or the widow, or like they're, you know, like in Proverbs, you generally do good things, good, you'll have a long life, you'll live a long life in the land. Um, and so it could be that these orphans and widows made bad choices, uh, or it could be that you know uh a storm happened and they were Job. Um, either way, God wants his people to care for those who uh have lost out in a man in their life, um, which is kind of kind of a wild thought. Like it's this is incumbent upon men to step into orphan and widows' lives. Isn't that kind of crazy to think about that?

Pastor Holland 14:32

Yeah. Um, it also says, even just the way this book's introduced, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Uh, and remember that James is the brother of the Lord. Right. And um, he is now calling his brother the Lord Jesus Christ. Um, and so kind of powerful to think about that, but he's all he's also not only calling him Lord, also calling himself a servant. God has servants. Jesus has servants. Yeah. That's how Paul and James and Peter introduced themselves, and like that idea of his authority. God is authoritative, he's ruling, he's uh he has a king. Um, yeah.

Pastor Plek 15:15

I like

Application And Persevering For The Crown

Pastor Plek 15:16

that. All right, let's get into application, which is uh sin to avoid or confess, a promise to claim, an example to follow, or command to obey or knowledge to believe. What you got?

Pastor Holland 15:24

Command to obey, count it all joy, and meet trials of various kinds.

Pastor Plek 15:28

Nice. How about promise to claim? God will give wisdom generously to those who ask in faith.

Pastor Holland 15:34

Mm-hmm. Um visit orphans and widows in their afflictions. Wow, yeah. That's good. What does that look like today?

Pastor Plek 15:43

What would you I yeah, that's a great question. How many orphans are there? And is an orphan one that their father died, or is that one who or father a father left? I mean, there's a lot of orphaned guys and it or no parent people. Uh that's hard. Meaning like their parents checked out.

Pastor Holland 16:02

Yeah. I think like the way it's defined today is just um missing one or both parents and um widows, yeah, someone bereaved. Bereft? Bereft. Bereft of a husband. Um, and so yeah, as a church going, those who have lost a husband, lost a mother, lost a father, you know, we're we're actually we're caring for them, we're loving them, we're making sure their needs are met. Yeah, that's good.

Pastor Plek 16:30

Um about just uh promise acclaim, perseverance will lead to the crown of life. Amen. And I I think what's tough for us is we don't know what a crown of life is. And so you don't like when you are training for um Olympics, when you're training for a sport to make the team, you've seen people make the team before, you've seen the Olympic presentation, you have a vision of the podium, you're getting a gold medal. No one has seen the crown of life. And I think that's what makes it hard to persevere for something that you've never seen, you've never seen anyone get it, you just know it's a promise, and you know how great it is. And it's greater than something that you can possibly conceive of on earth because there is no um adequate explanation of really what it is. Wow. Yeah. Anything else from that?

Pastor Holland 17:24

Be a doer of the word.

unknown 17:28

Yeah.

Pastor Holland 17:29

Um yeah, it says not hearers deceiving yourselves. If you if all you do is listen to this podcast. And don't do anything. You are deceiving yourselves. That is not the Christian life.

Pastor Plek 17:41

Yeah. And hey, pain is a promise of joy, and it just letting you know there's something greater coming.

Pastor Holland 17:49

Amen.

Pastor Plek 17:49

Hey,

Don’t Just Listen Do Something

Pastor Plek 17:50

uh, thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.