Posts from May 2020

“For we all stumble in many ways,” James wrote (3:2). Amen to that. Most Christians I know are quite aware of the myriad ways they fall short. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in James 4 the writer’s on a bit of a negative kick. He accuses his Christian readers of lust and fighting and covetousness. He insinuates that they’re selfish, then—if that wasn’t enough—he calls them adulterers. He doesn’t seem very happy, does he? I’m glad there’s this…

You should probably stop reading now if you’re uncomfortable with a little PG-13 language. James wasn’t afraid to “call it like he saw it,” as the saying goes, and he didn’t shy away from ruffling feathers when they needed ruffling. I suspect this statement hurt some feelings, but I doubt he minded that (assuming it helped some of them): You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be…

I’d like to think that God answers all my prayers, but he doesn’t (at least not by saying yes). Can you relate? It happens for dozens of reasons, and James gives us one of them here: You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions (James 4:3). I can think of specific times when at the time it seemed like God was just ignoring me, but now I know why he refused to…

Been in a fuss lately? Maybe it was with your spouse or kids. Could’ve been a co-worker or neighbor. Maybe even someone at church. It doesn’t really matter what it was about, or who the person was, but I can predict a couple of things: One, it was unpleasant, and two, somebody was being selfish. Those two facts are amazingly consistent. Something pretty bad was going on in the church James was writing to, and he gives us several hints.…