The Good Life - Week 4 - Study Notes

English

The Good Life

James 3:13-18

In chapel at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, a PhD student from West Africa told about how he came to faith in Jesus. Here's a part of his story: "We often talked about finding 'the good life' in my village in West Africa. I grew up thinking I would find it if I could someday become the leader of my extended family, my clan. I would dream of furthering the amount of land we had, of having more cattle than my family had ever had, of becoming one of the village elders and then of passing it all down to my children with my family name in a more prestigious place than it had ever been. Then one day, I realized that my brothers were dreaming of the same thing and that this put us in deep competition with one another. And I saw how fully I was in conflict with others in my village for the same land and the same positions. I became very disillusioned. I recognized that what I called my pursuit to bring honor to my family was really the pursuit of bringing honor to myself. I knew there had to be more to live for than this."
He went on: "Now I have lived in the western world for seven years. I think people's quest for 'the good life' is more honest here than in my village. People here do not try to hide their personal pursuits behind a veil of furthering the name of their extended family. They talk directly of doing things for themselves here in the US. As an undergraduate, I heard Christians being afraid that their faith would keep them from experiencing many of the things their friends were doing. I meet people who believe that they will find the good life if they achieve something, if they possess something, or if they experience something. It seems all to be about finding something for self. But, I believe people here also will eventually find out that there must be more to live for than self -- and that this pursuit is as disillusioning as I found it to be in my village."
This testimony came to mind as I was reading James 3:13-18 this past week. James was writing to a group of church people who lived centuries ago and in a culture very different from our own. However, I think they would have understood well what the West African student was saying. James wrote to people who claimed to be the ones in the power positions in the church and who claimed to be "wise and understanding". By this, he meant that they claimed to be the ones who had discovered what life is all about. And, it soon becomes clear that they thought they had found it by living life centered on themselves and their positions of honor. Sadly, their self-centered leadership had been devastating for the church:
All kinds of unpleasantness had seeped into their churches and had destroyed the peace. Just look through the next two chapters in James and you'll see James wrote about disorder and evil practice, about fights and quarrels, about worldliness and slander. Quite clearly, the churches he was writing to were divided intensely. Some Christians were at one another's throats. No matter how eloquently the preachers were proclaiming the Gospel, there's no way the gospel could reach the hearts of people when its credibility was being undermined by selfishness and division. A saying has been passed down for generations in the church: In vain does a despicable church seek to commend a beautiful Christ. It can't go on, says James. Things have got to change.
In his usual way, James took this problem on firmly and directly. He wrote in v.13: Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. Notice James said that any person who longs to live a life of wisdom, i.e., life as the Creator created it to be lived, must have his actions flow not out of self-centered motives but out of humility!
Then, James moved brilliantly into talking about the two ways that people in every time in history and in every culture seek to find the good life. He says there really are only two paths on which we will seek to find our lives. I think you'll find his words to be as relevant to you as they were to those first hearers:

The Good Life according to the World (3:14-16) -- ...where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
The Main Trait: Everybody putting self at the center.
It's noteworthy that two words come up twice in v. 14 and v. 16, "bitter envy" and "selfish ambition." And, inn between those verses, you have the word "arrogance". All have to do with self-centeredness.
By bitter envy, James probably meant that sort of rigid possessiveness, that intense jealousy that so often feels threatened by other people's gifts and abilities. This person can never rejoice when someone else does well. He envies. He must win every battle.
And that's where the term selfish ambition comes in. The Greek word conveys the idea of campaigning for political office. Can you imagine a gathering when everyone who shows up is there for one reason – to get everyone else to vote for him! Each one having to be noticed. Each one having to be the center of attention. No one interested in welcoming or serving the others who are there. No, each one wants to control things and get his own way.
James was declaring that these self-focused ways are the main characteristic of how the world approaches living the good life. In many different ways, the world tells us that the way to find our lives is to do something for ourselves. With great insight, James used three terms in v.15 that show us where this leads:
1. Earthly – By this, James meant that this is the way that a world not alive to God approaches things. That people who don't know God will be self-focused should not surprise us? How else could the world teach us to live?
2. Natural – James is saying here that focusing on self will be our natural inclination – our normal way of decision-making. Of course, if this is the way that people in your world tell you to find life, you'll find yourself believing it too. That means that, when you're trying to figure out how to find the peace and meaning you want, you'll think it will come by achieving or possessing or experiencing something related to your own desire. Paul would call this, "The pattern of the world" and warn us that we will tend to be conformed to it. So, be aware that self-fulfillment is where your own natural tendency will take you too.
3. Demonic – James concludes his warning with a graphic term: demonic. He meant that living for yourself will take you away from God and from real life. It will devastate your soul. It will rob you of joy. It will make deep and meaningful relationships impossible. It's the way of the devil.
James then went on to make the profound observation in v.16 that the result of everyone pursuing self-centered ends will result in a community filled with disorder and evil. There will be nothing that unites the people who are there and the back-biting, gossip and self-promotion will be unbearable for anyone. All will experience this, but each one will blame everybody else – but, after all, "It's all about me."
I called my friend Jamie Rankin in Princeton, NJ last week and asked, "Can you give me a good example of a community in our world made up of people who are all there for what they get out of it, wanting to be the ones who are noticed for who they are and what they've done...?" There was silence on the phone for about 10 seconds. Then Jamie said, "You've got to be kidding! You don't need an example of that. Just say it and everyone in your church will have dozens of examples fly into their minds. Every faculty that has ever met – every business leader who has ever had a lunch with other leaders – every person who goes to a family reunion... will know what you're talking about. And they'll know how awful that is.
Think of it: Everybody in the gathering just waiting for other people to notice him. Each one wanting to have a chance to tell about what he knows or what he's done. Everybody complaining about how badly those who planned this thing have done it. It's terrible. It's what hell will be like, James says. This is what CS Lewis wrote about in the Great Divorce. People in hell just want everything to focus on them! And they keep moving away from people because the other people want the same thing! It's what the book The Wolf of Wall Street was seeking to describe. It's what Kanye West's song gets at:
Like we always do at this time
I go for mine, I gots to shine
Now throw your hands up in the sky
I go for mine, I gots to shine
Welcome to the good life...
Whether you broke or rich you gotta get biz
Havin' money's the everythin' that havin' it is.
This is the "wisdom" of a world in which each one thinks he will find the good life through focusing on self. It is a world of selfish ambition and vain conceit. It is a world of chaos and evil with no shalom.
But now notice this: James was writing this to church people. Here is what is frightening, even in the church there is a "wisdom" that may seem to be logical and acceptable but which is inspired not by the Holy Spirit but by the evil one. And it's clear to me that James writes this to churches because this "demonic wisdom" can find a foothold in the church and even be viewed by some as "Christian." When that starts happening in a church, then you have a classic recipe for disorder and every other kind of evil in the church too. This self-focused attitude destroys things.
Can you envision a church in which all those who show up are waiting for everyone else to welcome them – to reach out to them – to notice them? As the service begins, some say, "Hey, that song isn't in my heart's language. That's not worship." "They don't let the choir sing enough anymore..." Or, "the choir sings too much. I'm the one who should be doing the singing." "That speaker just talks the language of old white me. It doesn't communicate the way I like it. And it's too long – or too short – or too funny – or not engaging enough!" "They're focusing on everybody but my generation! Why are my needs not being met?" Can you feel it? As moments go on, if you think like that, you will find yourself becoming more frustrated with all things you don't like. Your joy will robbed. Your worship of God will be depleted.
Listen to me carefully – There is a place for constructive suggestions and even correction to be brought forth and considered prayerfully. Those in leadership must be humble and caring enough to receive it and learn. But, this sort of thing moves so quickly into the self-centered thinking that kills unity never fosters shalom. And, because we are human, we can find ways to say self-centered things in intelligent and even spiritual sounding ways. But, they still may be all about self. James says this will not glorify the God of shalom and order.
God has designed us so that "the good life" is not experienced when we have everything flowing in toward us – but when we let the refreshing water of God's grace and life flow into us and through us into others. In Jeremiah 2:13, God said, "My people have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." When we just come in and let things flow into us and sit there, either God's water will flow out of us through those cracks of sin – or it will just sit in us and become stagnant. In other words, we find life with out of our love for the God who has shown us mercy, we give up our own self-centered preferences and allow God's blessing to flow through us into them. And that brings us to James second path toward the good life.

The Good Life according to God (3:17-18) ...the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving...
The Main Trait: Putting God at the Center (which leads to good works flowing out of humble hearts) –
The world too often discovers that that the "good life" cannot be found when everyone is doggedly living for himself or herself. Anarchy has never built a peace-filled and joy-filled life. Look at a "motivational saying" found often in our largerculture tries to shows people longing for a different kind of life:

I really enjoy this picture and this saying. But, let me tell you, the forces of the world's cultures and our own natural inclinations will leave us wondering where we might find the power to be liberated from self-centered and self-directed living to a way of living that reaches out in love to others. And, the Bible declares, this is discovered in one place: through faith in Jesus that leads us to surrender humbly to God.
In 3:17-18, James makes the point that he and the Apostle Paul often make, i.e., when we meet Jesus and surrender to him as our Lord, then self can no longer reign in our lives. In these wonderful verses, James wrote a list of qualities that characterize the life surrendered to God. It starts with "pure" – meaning one that is committed to God being the God in our lives with nothing else diluting that or polluting that reality. We who follow Jesus obey the 1st Commandment: we put no gods before God. When James wrote in v. 17 that our lives must be "first pure", he meant we have a simple, single love of truth, of God, and of God's people.
Then, the list of qualities in v.17 that are a part of this "pure life" is not just a random list of good things. James, who is rarely poetic, gives us a powerful and beautiful poetic speech to show us that a God-centered community different from anything in this world. A church in which everyone says, "This is what I want – what I like – what I deserve" -- will be chaos. But, when we all surrender to God and want to honor him out of gratitude and obedience, things will come together and there will be "shalom" (v. 18).
Look at what James says. The first three words all start with the same letter as do the last two – in a rhythmic and artistic collage of words. At its heart are two words in which James declared that it is a community that is "full of mercy" and "never shows partiality". Doesn't that sound like James 1:26- 3:12?
*Peace loving Not angling for a fight. It doesn't feel it has to be aggressive. To the contrary, it's
*Considerate – Meaning gentle. The Greek word conveys the idea of being willing to meet people half way. It's the sort of attitude that won't get itself entrenched in a position from which it is unwilling to budge. This person is more concerned about being just and even handed than to be proved right. He doesn't demand that the other person surrender. He listens and tries to understand.
*Submissive – The Greek word is interesting. It conveys an openness to reason. This is a person who can be approached and urged to think about something in a different way. Heavenly wisdom is open to the points others bring never rigid, never brittle, never inflexible.
*Full of mercy – This is what James longed for the church to be. And, I do too. Mercy is especially important for those times that we do win or are in positions of influence or power. It's at least as important to have a right attitude when we win or when we're right as when we lose or when we're wrong. Heavenly wisdom doesn't exploit a victory to the humiliation of the other person. It's always concerned to lift other people up. It's full of mercy.
*Impartial and sincere – As James has said so often, we have a single-minded focus on following Christ. We don't have to be in two minds. We will view all people as people made in God's image. We will not say say one thing to one person and the opposite to someone else. The one seeking God's way doesn't say one thing and do another. This leads to a consistent life -- because it's sincere in honoring God. Literally, James said this life not hypocritical: no acting, no sham, no deception.
I've tried to put it into my own poetic language for us.
It's pure – not of self – loving God with all its might
Loving peace – making peace -- never angling for a fight.
And it's gentle – never stubborn. Meeting people halfway;
And it listens – it reasons –doesn't have to rule the day.
Loving mercy, it forgives – lifting up those in distress
Never partial – nor fixated on its personal success.
No hypocrisy. No acting. No deception. No sham.
For it's single motivation is to glorify the Lamb.
Worthy is the lamb who was slain.
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!
Worthy are You, O Lamb, for you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
And when you are the Lord of our lives and the head of our church, there can be no selfish ambition, no vain conceit, and no arrogant self-centeredness. Only gratitude and praise.

This is the kind of Christ-centered, God-glorifying life that is characteristic of the truly wise person. And the church that has such people will be a church at peace – a church filled with shalom.
So, nothing will render the church more despicable in the eyes of the world and of God and more life-draining to you personally than this hellish self centered, envious focus toward finding the good life. Nothing will contribute more to the beauty of the church than humbly letting the love and mercy of God flow through us.

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor