Lesson 14 James 5:6-11 NIV

6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

My impression of this act is pure evil. I would like for these people to be judged instantly by God and removed as a threat. But I know this is only figurative and my mental sins would cost my life many times along the way. How would you rephrase this to actually apply to the ways you sin today?

• Different approach in this lesson. Trying to simplify, I would suggest ‘You have put yourself ahead of others.’

 

 7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

Grumble: A one word summary for all kinds of strife within the church body that James was trying to address within a real live set of people. Without God, and without constantly submitting self to God, there is the sin nature pushing us to take and hoard. How does the image of a peaceful, loving commune play out in today’s culture?

• Someone selfish moves in and takes everything. Think ‘wolf’ in sheep’s clothing.

 

 10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

‘Use the stories in the Bible to learn how to live.’ Where have I heard that before? How often do we look to the characters in the Bible for guidance and how often do we use them to direct others to a potential solution to what bothers them?

• In a summary level, the children’s stories we teach are based on these characters. If children never mature, then these stories are all they learn from the Bible. It leads to a very shallow faith and a relatively unserving existence. But as we matured, if we can look at the weakness of the characters and understand how they faithfully submitted, we can mimic those actions and improve our serving.

 

 I have not written my blog in many months as I have struggled to meet the needs of my in-laws and a larger workload than I have had in years. I am almost done with my verse-by-verse study of Job 29. That leaves me with 13 chapters and incalculable time to complete this first phase of my study of Job. I passed three years this summer, so maybe I can finish before 2025. But my writing about each verse has stalled in chapter 12. At this rate, I won’t finish that until 2030. That’s after the little kid gets out of high school, and after I want to get rid of most of my baseball cards and I want my main concern to be where to store the 911 while I go adventuring: in the RV or on a trailer behind it?

As I have been doing these questions for James, I am convinced that the Bible is a living breathing representation of God Almighty and no amount of time can teach us so much that we cannot learn more from James or any other section of it. My goal for today is to get each of you to think about how you would rewrite these verses to point to the exact action or thoughts that you struggle with on a day-to-day basis, or some other cyclical basis. For me it would be around consuming flour and sugar, not exercising, not reaching out to others, leaving the possible undone,etc. You?