Season two of Love in Context podcast welcomes you. Get ready for engaging unscripted conversations
with your hosts, Ben and Spencer. Our mission remains unchanged to explore the Bible through
the powerful lens of love. In this new season, we'll embark on a journey together, unearthing
fresh insights and gaining deeper understanding of how we can love God and live out our faith
in practical ways. So let's dive into this season of Love in Context, where love in the
context of the Bible intersect to transform our lives. Welcome to the Love in Context
podcast with Ben and Spencer. I'm Ben. I'm Spencer. No, you're not. I'm Brian. Brian
Qualls is with me today. So if you remember in the last episode, Spencer and I said that
summer in Alaska is stupid because it's like kind of trying to schedule people. So this
week Spencer and I were talking and we're like, Hey, we gotta we gotta get some stuff
recorded. But our schedules are not meshing. So Brian, thankfully, stepped in and he said,
Hey, I'll record a couple of episodes with you. Yeah. And so he's going to be with us
here for this week and next week. Yeah, sounds good. And a little reminder of people who
you are. You are the one of the pastors at the Salvation Army and you are also bailing
on us and you're moving somewhere else. Right. So we've been here for three years now and
we're being appointed back to the lower 48 at the end of June. So just about five weeks
left until we're having to move. Yeah. So we are a big fan of both Brian and Shelby.
And so it is a huge loss to our community, but it is a huge gain to the community he's
going to. So if any of the listeners are in his new community, you are getting some great
people. Thank you. I appreciate it. So this is actually our first episode in our new series,
our new series on the Book of James. I thought before we kind of get into it, we might talk
just briefly about the Book of James in general. There is conversation with scholars about
who was the writer of the Book of James because James is a fairly common name in Israel, especially
during this time. It's actually the English variation of Jacob. I don't know if you knew
that. I did. I saw something about that. Yeah. So it's actually, it's actually Jacob. So
even when you see James in the Bible, typically their name was probably Jacob. But when we
translate it to English, it ends up being James. Why in the Old Testament is Jacob and
the New Testament is James? Don't ask me. I'm not a Greek scholar. Blame the King James
version. Blame the King James version. That sounds like a fair thing. So there's conversation
about who is this James? Is it one of the disciples of Jesus? Was it the one who was
in charge in Jerusalem? Or is it the half brother of Jesus? And most scholarly opinion
falls on the side of the half brother of Jesus, that he was originally skeptical of Jesus,
but then post resurrection, he's like, oh, well, maybe I was wrong about that. Oh, yeah.
Maybe he is Christ. Maybe maybe he is Messiah. And turns out coming back from the dead, like
changes a lot of things. I guess. Now, if you if you are of the opinion that this was
James, who was the leader in Jerusalem, totally fine. But we're going to proceed with the
idea that this is James, the half brother of Jesus and the most widely accepted. Correct.
If you have a different opinion, totally fine. We love it. Share with us. Share with us.
Yeah, we have a Q&A coming up. And so you're more than welcome to throw something out there
for us. But specifically, the the Book of James, we're going to get into this because
we're going to read the passage that we're going over today, which is chapter one verses
one through eighteen, I believe. Yep. This book specifically, James, the brother of Jesus,
is writing to Jews, Jewish Christians specifically. And the reason I'm specifying this is because
I think people sometimes equate what he's saying and they put it in conflict with teachings
of Paul. And it's not because Paul is writing to both Jews and Gentiles. And James is writing
specifically just to Jews. Right. Well, and Paul has written some letters to the diaspora,
right? To the scattered tribes. Yeah, he has. He has. And his bent is always more moving
in towards the Gentiles. Right. More my opinion or my perspective on that. And so the reason
I'm bringing that up is we're going to reference a lot of things. And if you read this book
through American Westernized eyes, you're going to miss a lot of what James is actually
getting at, because a lot of what he's talking about is actually rooted rooted in Jewish
tradition. It's going to reference back to Torah. It's going to reference back to some
things in the Midrash. It's going to reference like traditions of the Pharisees and and various
sects of Judaism that he's going to have a sumpit of knowledge that you know what he's
talking about. And we just want to kind of set that precedent right up front so that
when we mention it, you're not like, what are they talking about? You might say that
anyways, but well, well, and James, James takes the viewpoint of you believe what you
already believe what I believe. Yeah. So it's not a very theologically based book. It's
a very boots on the ground. This is how faith is lived out. But yeah, it's actually written
very much in like, like the wisdom of Ben Sirach or in like a like the Proverbs are
written. It's written as this instruction. He's like, you already know what to do. Here
are some things that you should be doing if you want to live for Adonai recognizing Messiah
as Christ. Right. Right. So I'm actually just going to get started here. We'll just go.
We're going to read from the NIV today because Spencer is not here. So we're not going to
read from the NLT. That is his favorite translation. And if that's yours, I love you for it. But
I I don't actually prefer the NIV over something else. I've just read it so long that is the
one I default to. I like the NLT in some cases. Yeah. You know, he's great. I actually like
multiple translations. I think that that's really helpful because it helps you kind of
grapple with Greek. All right. So James, chapter one, verse one, James, a servant of God and
of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. So like we said,
to the people of Israel. Right. Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,
whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces
perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously
to all without finding fault. It will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe
and not doubt because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by
the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person
is double minded and unstable in all they do. Believers in humble circumstances ought
to take pride in their high position, but the rich should take pride in their humiliation
since they will pass away like a wildflower for the sun rises with scorching heat and
withers the plant. Its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed in the same way the rich
will fade away even while they go about their business. Blessed is the one who perseveres
under trials because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life
that the Lord has promised to those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, God
is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each
person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then,
after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives
birth to death. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect
gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. Who does not change
is like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that he
might be a kind of first fruit of all he created. So that is chapter 1 verses 1 through 18.
So that is a lot to unpack today. So just FYI, this is not going to be exhaustive. This
is going to be kind of like some springing off talking points that we're going to go
through because James, like I said, has a lot of assumptive knowledge when he's coming
in here. So the first thing I want to do is I want to focus on these first four verses.
Now, he's talking to the Jewish people, and he says to consider it pure joy. Now, a few
weeks ago, Spencer was talking about this word joy that's being used, and the word joy
is actually this idea of giving away joy. It's actually something that exudes from you.
Consider it a pure joy. In other words, consider it a gift or a gift that you give in the middle
of circumstances when you receive hardship, right? When you're going through trials. Now,
the interesting thing about this is if you actually understand Jewish perspective, they
believe that the trials are meant to refine you so that you're a better version of yourself
on the other side. Like you walk through trials because in a good example that shows up frequently
in scripture is this refining process for metal. You have to heat metal up so that impurity
rises to the top so that you can actually scoop impurity out and take it out. If you
don't have fire, you're never going to be refined. So fire is not actually in this sense
a destructive thing. It's a constructive thing. It's actually meant to bring things out of
your life, which I feel like sometimes in the Christian life, we assume everything should
be, I'm going to say it's going to say quiet and peaceful or stress free. And I just don't
necessarily know that that's actually what's going to refine you into the best version
of Christ that you can be.
Yeah, I think there's a delineation we have to make between trials God brings our way
and trials we make for ourselves. For sure, we're trying to avoid trials we make for ourselves,
but sometimes that's also kind of this American Christian, Western Christianized, it's about
comfort. It's about things that the gospel never promises. It does promise trials when
you face trials of many kind, not if.
I think you're hitting the nail on the head, though, too. So let's talk first about these
trials we create for ourselves, because this is not what James is talking about. He's not
talking about when you spend excessively and you end up with a lot of debt and now you're
in debt and you're having to pay your debt load down.
The Lord's punishing me.
The Lord is not punishing you. That is the natural consequences of your actions. If you
spend money you don't have, then you owe it to people that you borrowed it from. I'm looking
at you, America. Sorry. Or literally every state or government agency ever. And we also
do this like, okay, so in our relationships, you've been married for how many years?
Going on six.
Going on six. So you know that if you neglect spending time with your wife, the consequence
of that is that you guys are going to have distance between you. God isn't bringing trials
in your relationship. You're not actually maintaining what he's given you. The trial
in your relationship might be something, oh man, I'm going to talk about some hard stuff
here. You might have a sickness that comes on your kid. That's a trial that God may not
necessarily have brought on you, but it's something that you're in the middle of and
God can refine in you. I was actually, you might have a little personal here. So my youngest
son was diagnosed with autism. And I have very little concern that God is going to completely
take care of him and there's nothing wrong with him. I've been specifying people with
autism. There's nothing wrong with them. They're just, their brain works different. In fact,
after reading all the stuff, I think I might be a little autistic because he seemed like
the lot of things they're saying for him. I'm like, well, I did that. But I was thinking
about this the other day is that God didn't cause autism in my son. That's just how he
was born. Right? And of course somebody could probably get in the thing and be like, well,
you know, God controls everything and God didn't cause this for my son, nor do I blame
God for this in my life. But what he can do in the process of it is he's making me more
empathetic to families that struggle with more severe cases of autism and developmental
delays to the point where I realized the other day when we were dealing with some things
in our local school district where some special education things are getting cut and some
of the funding and things that were taking care of kids with special needs is going to
be challenged that I suddenly was in a position where I never would have been before to step
in and advocate for justice for the people around me because I didn't understand the
plight before. You know what I mean? Yeah. And like that is a circumstance where God
is taking a hardship in my life and he's used it to refine me to be the kind of person who
is a more empathetic, trusting version of Jesus in the world. Right? That it actually
molds me into the kind of person where I step into the chaos to bring peace and ultimately
to bring the gospel, yes, but to bring relief in the midst of chaos. Right? Right?
Yeah. That's beautiful. Yeah. And I think awareness is huge, right? I mean, that's sometimes
that's what the trials are for, to make us aware of things we weren't aware of before,
whether that's things in our own lives, whether that's situations other people are going through,
for sure that's part of the testing of our faith, right? Produces perseverance, yes,
for ourselves, but also for others too, to help them persevere in the midst of their
trials too. And having that mature faith. When I look at people that I think, man, they
look like they've really matured in their faith over time. I also recognize they've
probably gone through a lot of trials. So yes, I want that, but we can't resist those trials
in our own lives if that's what we want. Well, and my trial is not going to be the same as
yours because we're different people and God is refining us to do different things. I was
actually, and I think the tendency is to be like, I want to really stress this because
I think it's really easy in Christendom to hear us saying, God's going to bring chaos
in your life to refine you. No, God's going to use the chaos in your life to refine you.
Right, the chaos comes because we live in a fallen world.
Because we live in a broken world, yeah. And he's actually refining you because he's in
the process of putting the world back together through us, right? Through the work of Jesus
Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we're bringing heaven to earth wherever we
go. And part of that is being better receptacles of heaven, right?
And I think there's beauty in that. Science talks about the universe is trending towards
chaos, right? Trending towards disorder, but God's trending towards order. He's reordering
things the way that he intended them to be. And I think that's where we can place our
faith in a God who's a God of order and reorder too when things break.
Yeah. Well, and so James is encouraging us to take an opposite perspective. He says,
now normally when you have trials, people are like, well, this sucks. He's like, when
you have trials, you go, oh, this is an opportunity for God to do something great. There's a book
and I can't remember the name of the author, but it's called What Do You Do With a Problem?
And it's a children's book. And I've read it to James a bunch of times, my son, James.
And I love it because it says when the crux of the book is like, it's talking about a
problem and it was overwhelming and the kid is like trying to figure out what to do with
it in the end. Says, I finally figured out what a problem is for is to find the opportunity
to make the world a better place. Right? Every problem is an opportunity in disguise. And
so I think often we look at problems as something to be solved rather as like as an opportunity
for the kingdom to be displayed. I was and once again, I want to stress, I'm not belittling
any of the pain you go through with your trial. Right? Like pain is real because we live in
a fallen world. Like there will be a day where we don't deal with this. Right. It's not today
though. And so what we do is this refines us into the be the kind of people that participate
in the kingdom to come and specifically the kingdom to come now for sure. Cause it's already
here. I was having a conversation and you work with a lot of people who come from humble
backgrounds right in the salvation army because you can have people who have been living on
the streets or been unemployed, homeless, addicted. But I had a conversation with a,
with a friend of mine who went to jail for doing something bad. That's usually why you
go to jail. Yeah. That's usually why you go to jail. But we were having this conversation
and, and we were talking, I was actually talking about the book of James and I was talking
about this refining process. And I said, you know, people assume that it's only when you
do the right thing in the wrong situation that you are refined. I said, that's not actually
true because God will take your failure to refine you as well. Because I was talking
to him and I said, I was like, do you believe that now after you've been arrested and been
restored by God, you're a better person than you better Christian than you were before.
And he's absolutely. And I said, even though you failed, absolutely. Because our failure
isn't bigger than God's grace. And so I think, I think one of my encouragements or one of
my pieces that I would give, give listeners is it's better to succeed in the trials because
you're going to save yourself a lot of heartache. But even if you fail, God is bigger than your
failure, significantly bigger than your failure. And he's always going to use it to refine
you to be an ever better image of his son, Jesus Christ. I'm not saying that your consequences
are going to go away because my friend who went to jail still went to jail, still has
it on the record, right? They're going to live with that for the rest of their life.
There's nothing they can do about it. But they do get to choose, am I going to be a
different kind of person moving forward? Right. Yeah. And it's kind of like that book you're
talking about. It's about perspective, right? And that's what James is saying. It's we,
we are going to live in a world where bad things come our way and bad things come to
the people that we love. You know, I'll get a little personal. Last year, my brother suffered
a really tragic kind of medical event. And thankfully he survived it, but he may not
have the doctors were telling us he's probably not going to. And, you know, is it older or
younger brother? He's older. Yeah, he's almost two years older. And, you know, it's just
one of those things that things are hard things are going to come to you. They're going to
come to your family. And it's out of our control. And that's probably the hardest part about
it, right? Right. We can't control those things. What we can control is what do we do with
it? Right. You know, where do we place our, our faith? Where do we place our emotions?
What do we do with our emotions? Who do we go to with those emotions, those kinds of
things? And I think that's what James is getting to here is when you face those things, go
to God. Right. Well, and, and to your point, like actually, as you were speaking that it
prompted me to think about back in Genesis, when Cain is upset that God doesn't accept
his offering. Yeah. Right. He says, why are you angry? Why are you their face downcast?
So these emotions are fine, but why are you angry? Don't you know, if you do what is good,
you'll be accepted. But if you don't do what is good, sin is waiting at your door waiting
to devour you. But you got to conquer it. That's one of my favorite verses, Genesis,
I think it's four, seven. Yeah, it's, it's, it's really early in Genesis. And, and like,
I see this as the same thing. He's like, James is like, Hey, things are going to happen to
you. What are you going to do about it? Right. Are you going to sit there or are you going
to recognize that this is an opportunity for God to work in your life? And also in the
case of like, cause he's talking to these Jewish Christians in a persecuted area of
Rome, right? Cause they're out in the Dyspora and Rome at this time is not super happy with
Jews, right? Or anybody, or anybody really. Rome is not known to be super happy with anybody.
And so, so they're, they're dealing with a fair amount of persecution. And he says, you're
going to face it because of your faith, because of the color of your skin in this point, because
the Jews are different color than a lot of the Romans, right? Because of your religious
beliefs, because of the way you treat people, because of your, because you won't bend a
knee to Caesar, right? You're going to face trials. Yeah. But God's going to do some really
cool stuff in the middle of it. So you should be happy about this, right? Or rather be filled
with joy that you can give out to everybody around you because the work he's going to
do in you is going to be incredible. Right? Yeah. And the, and the, probably the extra
layer on this for the, for the 12 scattered tribes is not only are they being persecuted
by the Romans, they're also being persecuted by fellow Jews. Right? So they have kind of
from both sides that there is no relief from their, you know, from people wanting them
dead really for their beliefs. Yeah. Yeah. No, it is, it is, um, I don't have anything
to add to that because I was good. I told you, man, I got some nuggets of wisdom. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. You were preaching on this on Sunday. You're, you're all set for it. Yeah.
Yeah. No, because, you know, and, and you see a lot of that, um, showing up, especially
in like the book of Galatians, when Paul's speaking to Gentiles and then the Jews are
trying, uh, some Jews are coming behind him to be like, uh, no, do this. And he's like,
yeah, don't listen to them. Like, yeah. Yeah. In this case, you know, you're going to have
Romans that don't like you. And then you're going to have your, your, even the people
you love, right? Like the people who are part of your family, who maybe don't recognize
Jesus as a Messiah, you're going to struggle with them too. Right. So as a, as a logical
pulling point for this period, cause he's like, Hey, you're going to face trials and
it has to do its work in you. It's gotta be complete. So if that's going to be the case,
you should probably ask God for some wisdom. Yeah. That's the only place where real wisdom
comes from. Right. I mean, wisdom that that's enduring and, uh, you know, helps us through
those trials. Yeah. And, uh, and we were talking about how this is very similar to the book
of Proverbs or the wisdom of Ben Sirach, but he, uh, James emphasizes that the importance
of Godly wisdom is, um, you got it. Like he takes Godly wisdom and he contrast it with
the, with the, um, wisdom of the world, which is marked by, by pride and selfish ambition,
because right after this, he's going to talk about rich people. Right. And, um, I think
the tendency whenever we see rich people is to assume that all rich people are bad. Sure.
I was like, if you've read Tor, you know, that's not the case because when people obey
God, they follow his word. He tends to bless them, uh, financially, family, and like some
other ways, right? Because look at the book of Job, right? Yeah. Incredibly rich and
then gets blessed again because of his faithfulness. Correct. Uh, wealth is not the issue. Your
wealth being your God is the issue. Yeah. Like your heart is the issue. Your heart is
the issue. Yeah. That we actually talked about that last week when we were talking about
hypocrites, right? Is that, uh, the Bible is forever saying that like the reason you're
doing something matters more than what you're doing. Okay. Now I don't want to say that
the thing you're doing doesn't matter because I think you could take it too far, but, um,
in, in the old Testament, the prophets come and they say, I, God doesn't want your sacrifices
because your hearts are really far from him. Right. So you come and you bring these offerings
and you're doing the things you're quote unquote supposed to do, but it is literally disgusting
because your hearts are so far away from me. Yeah. You know, and, uh, you have, you have
a daughter. Yep. I was like, uh, I understand that as a father, if my son is like, we're
not connected and he's like, he's like, comes and he's like, father, can I please, you know,
he does like, he does the entire process of what he wants, but he's not trying to actually
connect with me. I'm like, dude, we got to talk. Yeah. Like this isn't, this is not working
for me. No, you know, as like, you don't stop manipulating me. I was like, this is about
our relationship with each other. This is not just something that you do. I'm not a
vending machine that you pop some codes into to get what you want. Yeah. But if you got
cash, you can give it to me. That's okay. Yeah. Exactly. I was like, I am your father
and I'm going to invest in your life because I love you and I care for you and all these
different things. I was like, but what you're making me feel is you're making me feel like
that relationship doesn't matter. And so like right now what you're doing, it is not appealing
to me. Yeah. But man, when my son and I are in right relationship, he could basically
ask for whatever he wants and we're good to go. Right. Yeah. When I know he's like synced
into who I am. Yeah. It's like that a Futurama meme, you know, shut up and take my money.
Shut up and take my money. Oh, that's so good. Yeah. It's the worst one. Your kids are cute
and then they know they're cute at one point, you know, and yeah, it makes it even harder.
Well, and so like with it, with that idea too, with, uh, with wisdom, because we were
talking about like godly wisdom, right? I think one of the tendencies that we have is,
um, cause like talking about right relationship, um, I had a pastor who said, he's like, you
gotta be really careful when you read the proverbs and because you're, you're like,
oh, well you just apply them literally. Well, some, one proverb says, don't answer a fool
according to their folly. And then says, uh, then another verse says answer a fool according
to their folly. Sure. Right. Okay. So those are contrasting verses. So how do you deal with that?
The answer is relationship. Godly wisdom is meant to be used in relationship with God
because he's going to direct you how to use it appropriately in each situation. And, uh, and so
like sometimes I think we have these, these nuggets of wisdom that God gives us, but rather than
actually walking in relationship with him, which is the first point, right? Consider it pure joy
whenever you face these trials, because he's going to be working within you. So therefore ask
wisdom, ask direction as you're doing these things, what does God actually want me to do?
Right. Like without that relationship, wisdom can, can, uh, this, this wisdom nuggets can be
used really improperly. Yeah. Look at, you know, probably the biggest example of that is Solomon,
right? This guy who is considered one of the wisest to have lived because he asked God for
that wisdom. And then the end of his life is folly because his heart wasn't bent towards God.
Yeah. You know, it's, it's one of those things that it's interesting. Um, we were reading and,
you know, I was pointing this out in, in, uh, Torah when we got to Deuteronomy, it specifically
says, uh, so Solomon's always talked about as being like the wise king. And I think that's
appropriate because he does a lot of intelligent things, but he also ends up being incredibly
corrupt. And if you read in Deuteronomy, it'll actually make the statement where it says, uh,
when the king is sitting on a stone, he's supposed to write out the law, um, you know, daily
meditate on a day and night. And then it says he's not supposed to, um, import horses from Egypt,
and he's not supposed to accumulate a lot of gold and silver. And then you read Solomon's,
um, description, it says he brought horses from Egypt and he made gold and silver, like as common
as, and I was like, the author didn't make a mistake there. He wasn't talking about a blessing
of Solomon. He's actually saying that Solomon stepped out of the law of Deuteronomy, which the
Jews would have understood. They would have understood because they're a lot more familiar
with their texts than we are. Um, because they only had the option of memorizing it, not pulling it
up on a device. Yeah. And you, and you have this issue is that you have, um, once, once again,
this is this issue of wisdom. Solomon had wisdom, but outside of relationship, his wisdom did a lot
to create for himself and not a lot to actually bring about God's design so much to the point
that his kids divided the kingdom. Right. Right. Yeah. It was basically the downfall. It was the
downfall of one kingdom. It actually ended up splitting the kingdom, right.
Which is kind of an interesting idea. This, um, um, I was thinking about this idea of succession
plans, right? Because you're going to be heading down to a new location. We're going to have a new
pastor coming into salvation army. Um, we're in the process of, uh, and they're doing it completely
correctly at our church. Um, our pastor is stepping away from being lead pastor and being going into
doing like a lot of missions. I love it. Right. But this idea of succession is that if you
don't build this idea, if you don't live beyond yourself, right, you're accumulating for yourself.
Like what are people around? Like when they see you, what do they see for like longevity? Are they
only seeing what you accumulate for yourself? Or do they seeing you plan for the future? Yeah.
I was, I was the other day I was, I came home and I was really busy with like work and, uh,
volunteer stuff and all these different things. And I was, my son asked me, he's like, daddy,
will you play with me? And I was, I was like, I was like, Oh buddy, I'm really, and I stopped
and I was like, my son is never going to be five again. Yeah. Right. Yes. I have time to play with
you. And I stopped now. I won't say that every time I have, right. Right. But, um, I felt God
knocking on my heart and he's like, Hey, there are more important things because you have to
live beyond yourself. Like your first priority is to make sure that your sons grow to be people
that take this legacy forward. I got to give them shoulders to stand on. For sure. Um, and I, I think
that's a danger in, in the church when we're talking about, when we, when we're coming back
to this idea of trials again, right? Cause this is the big crux that he starts his book with.
I don't want my children to never have trials because then they're never going to know how
to persevere. I want to walk with them through their trials. So eventually they can do it by
themselves. Um, I was having that conversation with, uh, with a friend of mine and we were talking
about Matthew 10 when Jesus sends out the 12 and this idea that, um, he was giving them the
opportunity to go and step into the chaos because right then all the light was on him, right? All
the heat was coming Jesus's way. The disciples, they may have caught some reflections, but it
wasn't on them. He was giving them an opportunity to know it, go and be the message when most of the
heat was on him because he knew when he left, the heat wasn't going to be on him anymore. It was
going to be on them because you know, Peter and, uh, Peter and John are arrested and sent into
prison and all of them die. Pretty much all of them die except for John prematurely. Yeah. Yeah.
And he knew that the heat was going to be on them. And he says, so like early, he's like, Hey,
you're going to walk with me, but I'm going to have you do as much of this as possible
so that when I'm not here, you know what it was like, you know, and, and, uh, in our churches,
it's so important that we, as, uh, ministers, as teachers, as leaders, we actually learn to equip
people for service. You can't protect your church from chaos. What you can do is shepherd them
in the middle of it and equip them to serve. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And it all comes back to
relationship. You know, um, that's one of the things we've focused on in our churches. How do
we increase our fellowship? How do we increase the quality of that fellowship? How do we increase
our relationship with each other? And then, you know, out of that springs forth commitment to
service commitment to, you know, treating each other like family, right? Somebody calls you,
you show up those kinds of things, but it's born out of, you know, this relationship that you have
with each other. This back half of this chapter is, is kind of to your point is that, uh, James
is going to contrast and he, once again, he's not talking about wealth as a, like a general thought.
He's, he's comparing temporary things to eternal things. And he's like the rich, like, okay, they
got their stuff, but they're like a flower. They're going to die tomorrow. Right. Your stuff
isn't going to go with you. Like your relationships, your children, your legacy, generations,
the good deeds, the life that you put into other people's life, this living in the kingdom of God,
coming back to this Jewish idea, I was talking to somebody about eternal life
and Western ideology. Would you agree that most people look at eternal life as something that
happens after death? Of course. But in Jewish thought, eternal life starts the day you start
walking with God. It's a qualitative, not a quantitative. Yeah. Like eternal life, the day
you say yes to Jesus, eternal life starts, right. Which by the way, would do a lot to shape our
theology in general. Well, it's that kingdom, you know, ideology, right? The kingdom's here today,
not here today, not the pearly gates that you're looking for. And, you know, after you pass away,
but yeah, the kingdom of God is here and it is accessible through the death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Sorry. Life death, burial, and resurrection, all of those things.
All of those things matter. I, I've started specifying life because I feel like people
don't realize that the life is what made the death, burial, resurrection so powerful, right?
Right. That he proclaimed this message and then he went and made access to this message. Right. And
his life is what it's probably even more important because he fulfills prophecy, you know, all of
those things to show this is actually God in the flesh. Yeah. As he was promised. Well, and, and
can you imagine, so now knowing that Jesus is the Torah made flesh, when people say, oh man, I really
struggled with the first five books of the Bible. I was like, well, you don't struggle with Jesus.
Right. And he's the Torah made flesh. So maybe you're misunderstanding those books. Maybe you
should read them differently. Read them with the eyes of how does this point back to Jesus? Yeah.
How does, how does this manifest in a, in a person in the way that Jesus did? Yeah. Right. It's meant
to actually be a different kind of life that brings life to all those around it. Yeah. It's not just
rules. It's not just, you know, maybe to our minds, archaic things that the Jews had to follow to be
God's holy people, but what's the purpose? Yeah. Yeah. To be set apart. Right. So I want to, I want
to specify, I'm not going to, I'm not talking about the things that make you inherently Jewish. I'm
not talking about like a circumcision wearing tassels on your robe, but I'm talking about the
Torah as far as like the, I'm going to call it the moral law, even though that's not necessarily
the correct way to say it. It's interesting. I have, I've had this conversation with Christians
and they said, well, we're not bound by the law because Jesus fulfilled. I was like, well, first
of all, that's not what fulfillment is. I was like, but often like Paul will make a statement. He says,
you imitate me as I imitate Christ. So Paul is imitating the Torah made flesh.
Our lives should imitate Torah because Jesus was the Torah made flesh. And he says it himself.
I didn't come to abolish the law. I didn't come so that any mark in the law is gone. Right. It
still exists. And I specify the reason I put a caveat there is because Paul does talk about in
the book of Galatians, he says the works of the law, the things that make you inherently Jewish,
the circumcision and then like circumcision is a big one because they talk about it a lot,
but tassels on the robe, the way they observe Sabbath, right? Some of these things that you
do when you are, you are genetically Jewish, right? They don't apply to the Gentiles because
God has done something different through them. But the other portions, the weightier portions
of the law is what I'm going to call them. Absolutely. You live Torah, of course. Right.
And, and like James, James, knowing that, by the way, talking to Jews, once again, he says,
he says these trials are going to produce something in your life. Ask God to make you
something in your life. Um, ask God for the middle of wisdom, but actually seek after the
things that are going to change your life. Right. Um, I don't know how many times I've had this
conversation with people and they say, if I just had X, Y, Z, I'd be good.
Has that ever been the case? Maybe momentarily, maybe momentarily. I mean, everything that I
find in my life that actually brings life is, is stuff that I have available now. Yeah. Right.
It would be nice to have my house paid off. It would be nice to have cars that work all the time.
Right. Those are, those are nice things. It's nice having food inside of my kitchen. Right.
Those aren't things that if I didn't have them, I couldn't be content in the midst of the world.
My relationship with Jesus, the relationships with the people he's put around me,
yourself, my, my spouse, my family, my, my friends, Spencer shout out. Yeah. Spencer shout out. You
know, Spencer has been a, been a huge pillar in my life. He's, he's, he's spoken a lot of prophetic
words into my life. Right. Those are things that, um, bring contentment and are, and allow me to
engage the kingdom of God fully. The problem is sometimes I get caught up on the things of the
world, the earthly wisdom, and I'm like, Oh, I got to hustle. I got to build my business. I got to
put my brand out there as I, as I do love and context, right. What did you say before we got
started? I'll make you Insta famous. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, and like if that stuff happens, okay.
Then we're going to use that platform to bring the glory of God. But also if it doesn't happen,
if we touch one person's life, that's great. That's why we're doing this. Right. Content.
And, uh, and it is, it is to wrap up the, the first part of this, this part of James,
it is the good gift of God that comes from heaven, right. That we're seeking these good
gifts. We're seeking these things that last that actually make a difference. The things that at
the end of your life, you look back and you're like, man, I am glad I did that. Um, there is a,
there is a book that I read and I don't necessarily recommend it, um, because it has, it's a,
definitely a secular book, but, uh, essentially in the, in the book, this guy makes a decision
whether or not to pursue his career or to pursue a relationship with this person that matters to him.
And ultimately he makes the wrong one and, uh, it's a sci-fi book. So he finds the ability to go
back and change that decision. And, uh, the problem is what ends up happening is because
he took the decision to go the other way, he wasn't the kind of person that can actually build this
relationship now. And I think sometimes we're like, Oh, if I just made this different decision,
but that decision was a, was a lot of decisions that got made. It's not big decisions. It's
actually a bunch of little ones that get made where we were trusting in God's good gift.
When, uh, when we get up in the morning in the middle of chaos, in the middle of being tired,
in the middle of poopy diapers, you remember this? Yeah. Right. And we say, God, I'm going to spend
five minutes with you. I'm going to sing this song and worship. I'm going to, uh, spend some
time with people who are going to feed into my soul. Those small decisions long-term mold us
into the kind of people that when something big comes up, God's capable of taking this character
and planting them in the middle to bring peace into chaos. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Cause the reality
is you don't prepare for the storm in the storm. Yeah. That's a bad time to prepare.
It's a bad time to prepare. You're already too late. Yeah. Right. You prepare in the peace.
Yeah. You prepare in the calm. And so that way, when the storm comes, you're, you're ready. Right.
And of course, there's going to be storms that come into our life that we can possibly be prepared
for. I could not have been prepared for my brother's stuff last year. Sometimes things just happen,
you know, but I was prepared in my character, in my, you know, ability to show up and be there for
my family. I was prepared, you know, in my ability to minister to my family. Right. And so in some
ways you can still prepare even for those things, even if you're not prepared for those things.
Even if, you know, they're totally out of your control and you have no ability to determine one
way or another, what's going to happen. Yeah. So James is writing to Jewish believers that are
in the middle of Rome. And, uh, aside from the fact that we're not Jewish, we can identify a
lot with this because we live in a nation where people say it's a Christian nation and it's not
like most, most people, uh, even if they proclaim Christianity, don't actually put on the self
sacrificing label of Christ. Right. Right. And that's, that's not a, uh, that is not a scolding,
by the way, that's just a reality of where we're at. Um, so when you choose to live for God in the
middle of the, of America, the way that it is today, you are putting, uh, you are allowing
people to criticize you, right? You're going to step into criticism because you're going to stand
firm on some issues. But I always come back to this idea of, I've said it a couple of times,
when people don't like you because of Jesus, that's okay. Yeah. But when people don't like
Jesus because of you, that's sin. That's huge. You know? And so when we're putting Jesus on display,
like we're going, there's going to be chaos. There's going to be people who don't like what
you have to say, and you're going to love them in spite of it. Um, the inside of our churches,
this is the biggest, a big thing. Um, denominationalism, right? How many, how many denominations are
there now because we split over something that doesn't matter. Right. Right. There's, there's
there's, you know, what 40,000 or something in the world or 50,000 Christian denominations in the
world. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, and so how many of those have been over non-sin issues?
They've been over issues of like disagreement on worship styles on, oh my gosh, how about, um,
interpretation of end times, right? Are we really dividing ourselves over something that hasn't
happened yet? Right. Right. Sure. Like, or I guess in some cases people might say that we are in the
end times now and that's, that's totally fine too. Sure. Right. But we're arguing over something we
have no control over and our interpretation of something we're not going to have any control
over. Um, I, I love that, uh, uh, Spencer, uh, Spencer's dad ed has a, has a great saying. He
says, uh, he's a pan millennialist. He thinks everything will probably pan out in the end,
you know, classic dad, classic dad. And, uh, and I, you know, the, uh, and I, that's not to say,
I think that having your, your perspective and opinions is great. Like studying the Bible,
having your opinions a hundred percent, but we can't fellowship because of that. Right.
There's a difference between we disagree and that's okay. It's okay to disagree on scripture
because scripture and I, and I hate what people say scripture is clear on XYZ. Yeah. If that was
true, we wouldn't have so many denominations or so many translations or so many translations. Yeah.
And it's not that it's, it's not that it's wrong. If it's not clear, it's that it, it has room for
different ways to interpret it. Well, Jesus Christ had 12 disciples, 12 male disciples. He actually
had seven over 72 disciples. We know because they sent out 72. Right. Uh, so he had women,
tax collectors, uh, beggars, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essien's zealots, zealots, uh, Herodians,
Hellenistic Jews. Right. And, uh, betrayers. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, and even proselytes,
if you want to throw Luke in there, who wasn't a follower of Jesus, but became a follower,
he was almost, um, uh, immediately after. Right. And, uh, they all had different opinions on how
it should go. Uh, in fact, you see that in the book of Acts, when Paul comes back and he comes,
comes to the, um, to the, uh, the gathering to have this conversation, right. This, uh, council
where he says, he says, Hey, this is what's happening with the Gentiles. What should we do?
And they get together and they have conversations. Now they have a certain opinion of what they
think should be happening, but they're like, but what is God doing? And so they say, okay,
for the Gentiles, we want them to do these three things, but otherwise we're not going to hold
them to the things that make you Jewish. We're not going to have them do circumcision and like,
you know, a few of the other things. And, uh, and like that, they're like, this is what we're going
to do so that we can have some sort of unity and not saying that those things are unimportant,
not saying that those things stopped for the Jewish people, but he's like, God's doing something here
and we need to recognize that. And we're going to be able to have a reasonable conversation because
James, John, and Peter all had different opinions on how that should go. And I guarantee you,
Paul had a different opinion for sure. And, uh, and they're like, you know what, but we're just
going to figure it out. And, uh, growing up as a, uh, Southern Baptist now in a Pentecostal church,
that's a change. Yeah. Uh, actually went to non-denominational when I was in, in college,
right? So I'm a non-Baptist. Is the checks out. Yeah. I have been in a number of Southern Baptist
churches where I'm like, man, you could use some Pentecostals. And I've been in some Pentecostal
churches where I said, Hey, you know, you could use some Baptists because we, we all bring things
to the table and we strengthen each other and being able to have these reasonable conversations
and also to have unity in the midst of chaos does a lot. Like investing in each other and,
and loving each other. Well, in the midst of the chaos, it has, it is a lot. Yeah. Um,
I reminded of what Jesus says, he says, um, I knew a command I'm going to give to you,
these 12 disciples that are very different from each other, love one another. Yeah.
People are going to know you're my disciples. If you have love for one another. Right. Yeah.
How you treat each other. They're going to know they're going to, they're because they know who
you are. They know you're, they know your temper, Peter, they know your temper, Peter. And if you
love these guys, well, who you vehemently disagree with on some very clear, clear topics, it's going
to be clear that God's working in your midst. Yeah. Like the evidence that God's love is moving
through you is not the people that think just like you. Sure. It's how you treat people who
don't think just like you. Yeah. And, uh, yeah. And I mean, this whole, this whole first chapter
of James is just like, Hey, there's going to be chaos. Are you going to see God? Are you going to
pursue selfish stuff? Or are you going to trust him in the middle of it and look for the good gifts
of God? Right. Right. Uh, looking for the gold in the midst of the mud. Right. Yeah. I think it comes
down to, if we say who we say we are, if we believe what we say we believe, and this is what we're
going to get to probably in the next session a little bit, it's about right living. Right.
It's about, this is, this is who God's called us to be. He's called us to live a certain way.
And so if you, if you really genuine believe it and you really genuinely say you believe it,
there's a calling you live up to in that. There's a responsibility of ours in that so that people
know that you're my disciples, you know, because you can say all day, I believe in Jesus, but if
you don't act like Jesus, what's the point? Yeah. Right. Well, and to your point, which we're going
to get into in the next episode is this godly wisdom and trusting in the, in the gifts that
God brings is going to manifest itself in your life in specific ways. And that's what he's going
to get into in the next episode. So I love that you teed that up for us. So with that, we're going
to end the episode right there. Once again, I love that Brian said, write a comment or something,
if you have some thoughts about what we were talking about, um, something that we didn't talk
about today that you're like, Hey, what about this? Or even if you disagree with something we said,
let's talk about it. Also, if you want to troll us, it's totally fine with me. Cause you just
raise over your account. So engagement, baby. Like if you want to be angry with us, you be very angry.
So, um, anyways, in love, well, they can be angry. Jesus loves me. I'm going to love them
and I'll figure it out. Like they can be as angry as they want. I know that the love of Jesus is
going to overcome them. There you go. All right. Well, thanks for being with us here and we'll
check in with you next week. And that's a wrap for today's episode of love and context. We hope you
enjoyed this engaging conversation and gain valuable insights into the powerful message of
love within the Bible. We'd love to hear from you and continue the conversation. Connect with us by
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