Preparation for Oppression

Goodness Comes from God

¹⁶ Don’t delude yourselves, my dear brothers. ¹⁷ Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father who made the heavenly lights; with Him there is neither variation nor darkness caused by turning. ¹⁸ Having made His decision, He gave birth to us through a Word that can be relied upon, in order that we should be a kind of firstfruits of all that he created.

Heavenly lights … variation … darkness caused by turning—astronomical language: eclipse or moon phases. Ya‛akov’s cosmology was more Copernican than Ptolemaic; the Roman Catholic Church’s condemnation of Galileo (since corrected) was inconsistent with verse 17. The meaning, of course, is that God does not change (Malachi 3:6, 1 Yochanan 1:5). Having made His decision of His own free will, by grace and not because He owed it to us, God gave birth to us through a Word that can be relied upon (compare Romans 10:17). The Word of Truth is Yeshua HaMashiach; this is taught most clearly by the Gospel of Yochanan (see Yochanan 1:1, 14; 3:5–8; 15:26; 16:7–15; also 1 Yochanann 5:4–8). We are a kind of firstfruits of all that God created, as can be inferred from Romans 8:19-23, 29; 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23.

Goodness Comes from God

Word Produces Righteousness

¹⁹ Therefore, my dear brothers, let every person be quick to listen but slow to speak, slow to get angry; ²⁰ for a person’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness! ²¹ So rid yourselves of all vulgarity and obvious evil and receive meekly the Word implanted in you that can save your lives.

Let every person be quick to listen but slow to speak (compare Ya’akov 3:3–12), slow to get angry (compare Ecclesiastes 7:9). Can modern psychology match this advice for improving interpersonal relations? When someone does or says something that would normally provoke quick angry speech, invite him to explain more clearly what he has done or said; listen carefully to him, trying to understand him and his situation; and respond in love, aware that, like you, he was “made in the image of God” (Ya’akov 3:9, Genesis 1:27). The history of Jewish-Christian relations is riddled with the sad consequences of Believers’ failure to heed this verse. If Jews have tenaciously refused to trust in Yeshua, it is partly because frustrated Christians have attempted to accomplish God’s righteousness through their anger. It cannot be done. Jews receive God’s righteousness through Gentile Believers’ mercy, not their anger (Romans 11:31), through their humility, not their arrogance (Romans 11:16–22).

Understand that being slow to speak and quick to listen, as advised in James 1:19-20, is crucial to maintaining harmony at home. If household conflicts arise frequently, set aside one evening for a family meeting. Please commit to speaking openly about feelings without interruptions, where everyone can voice their thoughts. This will foster respect and understanding and help you abide by James’ encouragement to love one another genuinely, creating a nurturing environment.

Knowledge Is Not Enough

²² Don’t deceive yourselves by only hearing what the Word says, but do it! ²³ For whoever hears the Word but doesn’t do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror, ²⁴ who looks at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But if a person looks closely into the perfect Torah, which gives freedom, and continues, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work it requires, then he will be blessed in what he does.

True worship leads to putting Gospel exhortations into action. In the contrast between the hearer of the word who looks at his own face in a mirror and yet forgets, and the doer of the word who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, the distinction is found in whether the one who looks allows “the perfect law of freedom” (the gospel) to shape his life’s course. The person who hears and does “the word” puts faith into action and is blessed; his worship influences his life.

True Religion

²⁶ Anyone who thinks he is religiously observant but does not control his tongue is deceiving himself, and his observance counts for nothing. ²⁷ The religious observance that God the Father considers pure and faultless is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being contaminated by the world. ^[1]

In our next post, we continue to dig into the Letter of Ya’akov.

Click here for the PDF version.

[1] James 1:16-27.