The Economy of Faith, James 1:9-12
Discussion & Practice
- Read James 1:9-12. What kind of boasting is actually commanded in this passage? What should this look like in your life?
- Both poverty and riches test our faith in different ways. What are some of the obvious and subtle trials that come from each?
- What are some things we try to bring into our relationship with Christ rather than admitting our lowly position as a person in need of his grace?
- Consider verses 10-11. What are some ways you might be pursuing the transient things of the world over the things of God?
- How does the Lord's Supper provide a picture and also invite us into the new economy of the kingdom of God where socioeconomic positions are leveled around the table?
Practice: Read 2 Corinthians 8:9. Take some time this week to prayerfully consider how Christ gave up his rich position and become poor for our sake in order to make us rich in him. What is something God might be calling you to detach from in this world? What would it cost you to give it up? Then consider who around you is needy and poor. How can you extend God's grace to someone else right now and invite them into this kingdom economy? What are some practical ways you can put that faith into action?
Notes
We’re looking at James who is teaching us about genuine faith. He teaches us that it’s going to be tested and has to be tested. Trials and hardships of all kinds.
I want to say something to those who have been around and I know the pains you’ve gone through. So many of you have passed that test with flying colors and endured in ways that encourages me and others around here. That needs to be said. There are plenty of people passing these tests we’d prefer not to have.
We’re looking at the first paragraph in James.
It’s good to see the whole paragraph and that this forms an inclusio. Everything is going to be about testing and steadfastness and trials. That’s our theme here.
This part gives us the mechanics of how testing works in a person’s life and what it produces. But it’s sort of a cold, objective reality. It takes you away from the reality.
By the time you get to verses 9-11, James is going to insert what the trial is for the people he’s writing to. So you get the practical side.
This particular trial has to do with economics, the haves and have-nots. The poor and the wealthy.
The Jews have been exiled. They’re geographically and socially displaced and lack resources. They’re trying to be godly in a world of economics where being mistreated by the rich is common. Other chapters will deal with the rich because of their mistreatment of the poor. It’s a universal problem. There are multiple layers. James is talking about personal care and how you see people.
I finished the book called The Psychology of Money. He says two topics impact everyone whether you want it to or not, health and money. Everyone thinks about money differently.
This is essentially what James says. Money is one of the key tests to see if your faith is genuine or not. It’s a great illustration as well.
Faith is about living towards another, non-material reality. Nothing demonstrates your attachment to this life or the next life like money. It takes the temperature of your heart, which is what Jesus tells us.
The highs here on earth, having it all doesn’t really mean you have it all.
The lows here, you can have nothing and still have it all.
That’s the journey you’re on when you come to faith. I think of it as the economy of faith. He gives us a new economy to operate by.
Lowly and humiliation are the same word here in Greek. This is the person who has very little in terms of resources. There’s shame and insecurity. But there’s a high part to the lowly’s life if he’s a believer. And there’s a humiliation to the rich.
One commentator I read changed his view in the second edition of his commentary.
We don’t know if the rich are saved in James. What would he be boasting about, because the words are missing in this sentence.
This is an elipses in Greek, meaning the words are missing. A lot of times these words carry down. James could be talking about the rich brother. You have to ask, is he a believer and what would he boast about? The rest of James castigates the rich.
Is he a brother or not? Sometimes the riches can get in the way. Poor people are willing to say they’re needy. That’s why the illustration of money translates well into the material world. You can’t come to Christ with anything in your hands. The spiritual needs of the rich are masked by what they have.
You have a reversal in this passage.
Your socioeconomic condition is not the whole story of your life and faith.
The poor are depicted as people with faith in this picture. It doesn’t mean you can’t have faith and money. We’re talking about the economy of faith.
What you have and what you’re after are more important than anything else. It’s futile to try to figure out who is rich. I read a book called Scarcity Brain that talks about how we feel like we don’t have enough and so we work hard to get more.
Both poverty and riches are tests. Maybe you have enough and think you’re not being tested. You’re being tested extensively in how you handle it. Your whole view of reality is depicted in your view of money and how you use it. James is saying you’re not defined by what you have or do not have.
Years ago, Gail and I were student pastors on a shoe-string budget. One time somebody gave us a van, a Dodge Ram, to help transport kids. Someone donated it to us. It was a copper-colored, square vehicle. One day we were given a gift certificate to the Mansion in Dallas, which cost more than we could pay. We dressed normal and got in that van and pulled into the circle drive. It looked like a mansion. You could see all these valets taking the cars. All the other cars were fancy black and gray cars. We thought, you’ve got to be kidding me. The unique thing in our van is that the door on the drivers side doesn’t open. You have to come through the side doors and crawl through to get to the driver’s side. Gail is freaking out that we’re going to pull up. Gail decides 5 cars before we get to the valet that she doesn’t want to be here when it happens. I had to tell the valet that whoever picks the car back up afterwards needs to know the door doesn’t work or they’re going to break the key off. I was left poor and alone. She’s walking like she doesn’t even know me.
Your condition when you mix the poor and the rich, funny things come over you.
James is saying our relationship and faith in God actually removes the power of money to define you.
It changes the economy of your life. You progress towards becoming a person who is not identified by what you do or don’t have.
James pokes at it because it pictures everything. When you come to Christ he overhauls your values. Everything about this life has to do with money, you can’t escape it. Even that is overhauled. The principles for living an eternal kind of life is not the same as living in a temporal reality.
So the poor brother can boast about his exalted position. It’s an imperative. You’ve got to boast. He’s not just saying to let him boast, he’s got to boast. To boast and to be joyful in trials overlap. James says that faith lifts you up beyond your economic valuation. You can boast about that reality. You may not have anything to boast about here.
It’s very difficult to describe this, because we hear boast and hear arrogant and proud. James is talking about an unwavering confidence.
One writer talks about the monks and this great warrior who was taking land and destroying people. The greatest wrath was taken out on the “holy people.” She talks about an incident where the invaders arrived in a village and all the monks supposedly fled to the mountains. The commander smiled because he was proud for having the reputation as a fearsome person. Turns out all the monks fled but one. When the commander found out, he was enraged, went to him, and glowered at the figure. He said, do you know who I am? I am he who can run you through with a sword without batting an eyelash. The monk responded, and do you know who I am? I am the one who can let you run me through with a sword without batting an eyelash.
That’s the kind of boasting we’re talking about. It’s a spiritual high that lifts us up above difficult circumstances.
I was listening last week to this former Navy Seal who is a motivational speaker. He travels to business to motivate people with principles from the battlefield. It was the first time I’ve ever listened, but I turned it on because it was subtitled the high ground principle.
He says the high ground principle is that you want the highest position in battle. It’s strategic but he said it’s the definition of detachment. You’re not connected to the battle on the ground and you have a better perspective. He said in business and life you need to detach from things. He said don’t give up the high ground. You do that to your peril.
James is saying, don’t give up the high ground. If you’re the poor guy, you need to know you can act righteously. You might think if you’re the poor that you deserve it or that the rich people wouldn’t miss it. You don’t let the economy dictate your values. You could make the deal shady enough, but you fight it. You need to be compassionate and caring. It’s a true fact to this day that the poor are generally more generous than the rich. It’s hard to let go of what you have, and the more you have the harder it is. There are generous rich people. James is telling the poor, don’t lose the high ground because of your lack.
The rich can very easily need more and want more and want to hold onto what they have. It’s a burden and a misery. It can make you look down on the poor and say they don’t deserve it and they won’t miss it. That’s not the high ground for anybody. James is saying you have resources from above that dictate your life.
Does your economy dictate your life rather than Christ?
Riches create a false sense of security. Sometimes because you have resources, you can feel safe and more valuable and overconfident.
I’ve told you about my trip to Aspen with a friend of mine who has a place up there. I’ve met Carrot Top and all sorts of people coming through there. I was sitting in a Starbucks and a lightning storm started. Everyone is looking out the windows because it was a show. While everybody’s attention is out the window in the sky, one rich guy screams in the crowd, “Lightning doesn’t strike rich people!”
You can really think you’re safe because of what you have.
This is why James says what he says next.
This Scripture is what lends me to believe the rich person here is not a believer. This passage is a seasonal reminder of how fast things fade.
For some people, all life is about is acquiring and hoarding money. All that matters for them is their pursuits. But it fades away.
But it’s not just the riches who pass away, but also the people who depend on it.
Life is transitory. Faith has given you an ultimate reality to live by. Don’t operate in this world like it’s all that matters. This is the story of riches and all who rely on them.
This is why James says what he says here about his theme of blessedness.
James is not just picturing a moment of coming to faith, but a whole life of faith. You will enter into heaven by faith, the same way you entered into the whole journey. It gets tested along the way.
Anytime you start to look at the crowns and talk about what it means to get the crowns, we struggle with why we call it a crown. James is helping us understand what genuine faith is. We learn some things by calling it a crown. Isn’t everyone getting life when they come to Christ? Faith gets us to the end, and in the end we receive something. It’s the idea that my faith needs to be active and there is blessing and life that comes with it at the end.
At the end, life is pictured as something you’ve won. That’s the idea of a crown. Why present it that way? Because it’s a victory. This is worth pondering. The crown was just a leafy wreath that the athletes received when they won a race. All the writers talking about the crown are saying you’re a victor when you get there. You win when you show up at the end of the journey of faith.
We struggle with the idea of reward, and our motives are hard to decipher. Salvation is viewed as a victory. Not one that you won. You’re living in somebody else’s victory. Your genuine faith attaches you to that victory. There is conquering involved. When you get to the end, it’s not an award like the Oscars where you recognize how great you were. No one is going to stand before God in heaven and talk about how great they were on earth.
The crown of life is promised to those who love him. Any of the benefits of life that come to you because you love, you didn’t earn those. When you love genuinely, you don’t even think about what you get in return.
Jesus loved us first and we love him because we can’t help ourselves. Christianity is not a philosophy or moral code, but a relationship. What is genuine faith? A love relationship with Jesus Christ that helps me love differently because of the way he’s loved me.
I can’t think of a better way to end this while coming to the table, but with this verse:
This is the whole economy of the spiritual life. Whether you have things or don’t, you have nothing you can bring to him, regardless of what you think you have. And you’re saved by his humility. He was the lowly brother who lifted us high. And he is the victor who conquered sin and death through his humility.
This whole other economy that I live by is because of this.
Has this happened to you or not?
James uses a couple of great words here to ponder as we go to the table. James uses three words: blessed, life, and love.