James 1                                                                                                                  

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

• James the half brother of Jesus
• Who is this written to? The tribes of Israel = 12 tribes = Joseph got a double blessing making 13 tribes
• God warned Israel that if they persisted in continually breaking His Laws, not only would curses come upon them. He would punish them for seven times, (a time being 360 years, seven times would be 2520 years) and would banish them from the land of Palestine and scatter them among the heathens (like lost sheep) (Leviticus. 26: 28-46).
• Why did God love Jacob and hate Esau?
Roman 9:13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
• Why did God hate Esau?
• Esau despised his birthright, He didn't care about his birthright, He sold it
• God knew the soul He placed in the flesh body of this man, who was called Esau.
• Before he was born of woman
• His judgment took place in the world that was.
• Each soul earned its place during the spiritual battle when Lucifer first fell away in the world that was.
• God needs to know, do you love Him?
• You can find more information on USA The National number being thirteen, in the book Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt. (Download - type in page 17 USA, The Christians Nation Under God)
• Twelve = No suggestion of the separate houses of Judah and Israel. Note the complete number.
• Scattered abroad = John 7:35 Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?
  36 What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?
  37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
  38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
• Greeting = Rejoice
• Acts 15:23 And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
  24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
  25 It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
  26 Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

• Temptations = trials
• Luke 22:28 Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
  29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
  30 That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
  31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
  32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

• Trying = testing
• 1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
  8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
  9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
• Faith = Your tested faith
• Patience = tribulation worketh patience
• Romans 5:3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
  4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
  5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit  which is given unto us.
  6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

• Wanting = lacking
• James 2:15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
  16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
  17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
  18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
  19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

• All Wisdom Comes From God

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

• Double minded = but "double minded" and "unstable" qualify "that man".
• You can't trust double minded person. He doesn't know what to do, he's Unstable.
• James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
  9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
• Unstable = James 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
  9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
• Luke 21:9 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
  10 Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
  11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
  12 But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.

9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

• A rich man is going to die just like a poor man.
• That he is made low = his humbling
• Acts 8:33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
• Flower = James 1:11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
• 1 Peter 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
  25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

• Tried = tested = Elsewhere translated "approved"
• Romans 14:18 For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
  19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

• Cannot be = is incapable of being tempted.
• Neither tempteth he any man = and He Himself tempteth no one

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

• Every man = each one
• When = being drawn away
• Lust = John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
  45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
  46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
  47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

• When lust = lust, having conceived
• Finished = completely finished
• Bringeth forth = James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
• Death = Romans 6:21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
  22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.

• Do not err = Be not deceived.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

• Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, from our Father

18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

• Superfluity = abundance
• Engrafted = implanted

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

• Being doers for the Lord. You are judged according to your works
• Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
• Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
  13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
• Notice there are two books
• They were judged every man according to their works
• They may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them
• The only thing you can take with you, (after the flesh body dies), is your works, your "righteous acts"
• No works, you will be naked in heaven

23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

• Glass = mirror of what you do
• 1 Corinthians 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
  13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
• 1 Corinthians 15:1  Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
• You need to stand up for God, the word of God, The truth.
• Teach Jesus rose on the third day
• When God does something for you, Give God all the credit.
• Man can not do anything without God

24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

• Unspotted = 1 Tim 6:14 That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:
  15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.
• Fatherless = John 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
  19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
  20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
  21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

• Exactly 2520 years from the exile of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.

 

•  The first tribe to be conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh, in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.

 

• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt - page 25