James 1:16–21

Now we come to the other side. "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." We have traced the evil to its source. That source is the fallen nature of man, no doubt worked on by Satan. But he does not bring the enemy before us here... here he simply looks at man's nature, and then he raises his eyes to God... The first point in the mind of the Holy Spirit here is to vindicate God at all cost, and this entirely apart from us.

Men's thoughts are so far from the truth, and this subject lies altogether beyond man's mind. So we are all the more bound to see that we are not misled, but stay subject to Scripture. Here there is no obscurity, but all is light; for God is light, and His love has communicated all that we need to know.

God Himself is above all evil. It is absolutely foreign to His nature. It is as impossible for Him to be tempted with evil as it is impossible for Him to lie. It is just as impossible for Him to tempt anyone with evil. He may allow His people to be tempted with evil, but He knows well how to overrule even that for their ultimate good. The real root of all temptation lies within ourselves, in our own lusts. We may blame the tempting thing that came to us from outside. But the trouble really lies in the desires of the flesh within.

"Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers," he says. Let nothing deceive you about this. Don't look around or within for good. The world and the devil and temptation are around you, and lust is within you. But LOOK UP. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above."

We must not question the goodness of God, though we may know the weakness and deceit of our own hearts. And there is this tendency in us. We are prone to suspect the sources of light or joy or strength that may be in us at times. Our reasoning will tell us that it is simple nature and not the Spirit of God in these things. We do what we can to take the praise for our blessings away from God. We reason that good gifts come down from sources short of the Father of lights. But this should not be. The heart is deceitful indeed, but God is good.

He owns grace as the one divine source of the good that is in us. It is ours as born of God, and that through faith, since it comes by the word of truth. By it we are born again; it is a new life, and that by the will of God. We belong to the new creation; we are its first-fruits. Immense blessing! ... James does not speak of righteousness through grace, but of an entirely new nature, which comes from God.

We have had the evil traced to its source, which is the fallen nature of man... but here he simply looks at man's nature, and then he raises his eyes to God... The first thing in the mind of the Holy Spirit here is to defend God's character at all costs, and to do it without any reference to us. As evil comes from us, so all that is good comes from God.

Let nothing deceive you about this. Don't look around you or inside you for good. The world, the devil and temptation are around you, and desire is inside you. LOOK UP.

The Greek word for "good gift" refers to the giving, the word for "perfect gift" to the thing given. All that is good both in the manner of giving as well as the thing given comes from God.

He is the Source not only of every good and perfect gift, but of everything we can call light. The light of creation came from Him. Every ray of true light for the heart or conscience or intellect comes from Him... Human lights are very uncertain. The light of so-called "science" keeps changing. It burns bright, it dies down, it comes back, it flares up. In the end it goes out, put out by a rising generation that is sure it knows more than the one before it.

The heavenly bodies that give us light have what is called parallax. They seem to change position when you look at them from different points. They pull on one another, and as they turn they cast shadows on one another. That is what causes eclipses. But with God there is nothing of this kind... From whatever point we observe Him He is the same, and nothing that He has created can move Him from His purpose or cast a shadow over Him.

The greater the blessing, the greater the sorrow if it can be lost or changed. Now in our relationship with God we can be sure that the goodness He has shown never lessens and never suffers an eclipse... it is not so with the Father of lights. He never changes, and He is as perfect in this as He is in His goodness. And that goodness is toward us, who deserve it least — still weak, and still in a world of evil.

It is not only that God is good, but that He is a giver. He gives nothing that is not good, and everything that is good... God is active in His love, and out of this active, sovereign love He does not stop at blessing... We are ourselves born of Him: He communicates His nature to the believer. He does it without being asked, and without any deserving on our part.

Doesn't verse 5 of our chapter answer the question? "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." God is who He is, and His word is the word of truth. So there is no room for doubt about this... Why should he waver, since God is the unwavering God, and His word is the word of truth?

He gives freely and fully to those who were evil and enemies. So we are here told that "every good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." … So God, by His own will and purpose, gave us new birth. Nothing was further from man, or more opposed to his own will.

Take our first birth. We were passive in that matter. God ordains the process by which we come into the world. That is sovereignty. Yet we do not object to the sovereignty of our first birth into this world. Why object to God's sovereignty in the second birth? The new birth is like a gardener preparing the soil and then dropping in the seed. God prepares the soil of our hearts, and the good seed of the word sprouts. "Of His own will", not ours.

The word of God is living, for it produces life, and life can only come from life. … Under the hand of God, and by the working of His Holy Spirit, the Scriptures of truth have given new birth to millions of men and women all down the ages of the world's history. The word of God is living.

The word of truth is the good seed of life. Self-will is the cradle of our lusts. Its energy can never produce the fruits of the divine nature, and the wrath of man can never produce the righteousness of God. So we are called to be teachable: ready to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. We are to lay aside all filthiness of the flesh and all energy of wrongdoing, and to receive the word with meekness. That word is the word of God, and it makes itself one with the new nature that is in us. It is planted in us, and it forms and develops that nature according to its own perfection.

His will working by His word is the source of the everlasting gift, as our will issues in lust, sin, and death.

James points to grace as the only divine source of the good that is in us. That good is there because we are born of God, and it comes through faith, since it is by the word of truth. By it we are born again; it is a new life, and that by the will of God. We belong to the new creation; we are its firstfruits. Immense blessing! It is not only a new position, though it is that. It is also a new nature that makes us able to enjoy God. James does not speak of righteousness through grace. He speaks of a completely new nature that comes from God.

God will reconcile all things to Himself: His creation and His chosen ones. We, born of the Father, are the firstfruits of that reconciled creation. In a sense, Adam after his sin was the firstfruits of fallen creation.

Of this we are a certain firstfruits already, for the word of truth gave us birth, and this nature is holy. But there is another nature we should never ignore. If we do not judge it, it breaks out into sins. So until Christ comes and changes us, we can only be called "a certain firstfruits."

Obedience to the Creator's voice marks every intelligent creature that has not fallen. Fallen man shuts his ear to God's voice and insists on talking. He would like to make the rules for himself and for everybody else. From this come the anger and strife that fill the earth. We were always creatures, but now, born of God, we are a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. What should mark all creatures should be especially characteristic of us. Hearing God's word should attract us. We should run eagerly to it as those who delight to listen to God.

Hearing is exactly the attitude of dependence. Now one who is the servant of God looks up to God, trusts God, and expects from God. This is the place that suits the one who is born of God.

Christ Himself is the model of this, as of all else that is good. Though He was the Holy One of God, no one was ever so quick to hear God's word. So the prophet marked Him out: "The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward." It was no different when He faced the tempter. The word of God was His constant resource. That was even more true when Satan twisted it. "Again it is written" was His humble, God-honouring answer.

We only speak rightly when God controls our thoughts. If we think God's thoughts we shall be able to say things that are right. We may be quick to hear God's thoughts. But we shall only speak them after we have taken them in and made them our own. We take them in slowly, and so we should be slow to speak. A healthy sense of how little we have yet grasped of God's mind sets us free. It frees us from the self-confidence and shallow self-assertion that makes people ready to speak at once on any matter.

The "ear" and the "tongue" are connected in more ways than one. But in moral and spiritual terms, if my ear is closed and my tongue is loose, I am certain to talk a great deal of folly... This warning comes at the right time. It rests on two facts. Everything good comes from above, and the heart is full to the brim with wickedness, ready to overflow.

How often our anger is powerless, hasty self-will! We are now set apart to do His will, to obey as Christ obeyed. There is of course a right occasion for anger. So the Lord looked around at those who used the sabbath day to oppose God's grace in an evil world. But we are urged to be slow to anger, and to let it be over quickly. "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil" (Ephesians 4:26-27).

People sometimes feel their anger is for God's glory. Verse 20 makes that very doubtful: the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Instead, verse 21 links man's anger with filthiness and overflowing wickedness, something to put away. Losing your temper is plainly the overflow of wickedness.

We are to deal with the evil that lies behind the malicious words and the outbursts of anger. We will not do this by trying to keep an outward law, which only stirs up our sinful nature. It is done by laying aside every form of it, and receiving with meekness the implanted word of God. This is the word taken into the soul. We receive it not with arguments and questions, but in the meekness that submits to what God has to say.

We are warned of another danger when James adds "slow to anger." How often it is powerless, hasty self-will! ... There is of course a right occasion for anger. So the Lord looked around at those who misused the Sabbath to oppose God's grace in an evil world. But we are told to be slow to anger, and to let it soon be over.

James never takes up the question of how a sinner is justified. So he in no way contradicts Paul; he is not treating the same question that Paul has before him. ... Here, for instance, we have the righteousness of God clearly in a different sense from the one so familiar to us in Paul's letters. He is speaking of what is not pleasing to God, because it is inconsistent with His nature; and clearly the wrath of man is offensive to Him. It works nothing suitable to His moral nature. The passage speaks of practice, not of doctrine.

So, with self-will broken and self-confidence destroyed, he urges us — as those who receive everything from grace — to be willing to hear rather than to speak. We are to be slow to anger, which is only the impatience of the old man. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. The one who is taught of God is subject to Him.

Men may sometimes feel their anger is for God's glory. But verse 20 makes that very questionable: the righteousness of God is not worked out by the anger of man. Instead, verse 21 links man's anger with filthiness and overflow of wickedness, as something to lay aside. Losing your temper is clearly the overflow of wickedness.

The spirit in which the people go on with the work proves the movement is of God. In the same way, the spirit of the opposition proves it is a work of the enemy. Behind this joint attack there is "wrath" and "conspiracy." "The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (James 1:20). The Spirit of God will be no party to underhand human schemes. So the true character of opposition can often be detected by its worldly methods.

A Christian too — a new-born creature of God — is to be slow to anger. Remember that even righteous anger easily sinks into a mere outburst of human passion. Such an outburst does not express, does not advance, and never in itself produces the righteousness of God. God can make it praise Him. He does this continually, turning it to carry out His will and harnessing it to work out His purposes. But in itself — in its own aim, intent, direction and purpose — anger does not seek the righteousness of God, and is not likely to advance it.

We are to deal with the evil that lies behind the malicious words and the outbursts of anger. This will not happen by trying to obey an outward law, which only stirs up the flesh. It happens by laying aside every form of that evil, and by receiving with meekness the implanted word of God. It is the word received into the soul, not with reasonings and questions, but in the meekness that submits to what God has to say.

It is worth noting the aorist tense in verse 21, compared with the present tense in verse 22. The present is a constant, continuous call. The aorist points to acts done once for all. Pollution can be of spirit as well as of flesh, as the apostle tells us in 2 Corinthians 7:1. It traps us more easily because it is more subtle. But the call is to put every kind of filthiness away once for all, along with that rank growth of wickedness which belongs to fallen nature.

We are told to lay aside the filthiness of the flesh and the abounding wickedness of the heart. That wickedness shows itself in hasty words and unrighteous anger. We are to deal with the evil that lies behind the malicious words and the outbursts of anger. But this will not happen by trying to obey an outward law, which only stirs up the flesh. It happens by laying aside every phase of it, and receiving with meekness the implanted word of God.

The word is called engrafted here because a graft produces different fruit than the old stock did. So the word brings forth fruit of a new kind, and it has in itself power to save souls.

If the Word merely flows through our minds it accomplishes for us little or nothing. If implanted in us it saves our souls.

It will be observed how far it is from being an imposed law. Particular pains are taken to guard against this common idea. A Jew would have been likely to think of it that way, since he naturally turned to the law as the one and only standard... Still he is careful here to show that the word deals inwardly with the man. It is this implanted word, as he calls it, and not an external law, that is able to save the soul. The word enters by faith.

It works inside the life the believer already has. It is perfectly akin to that life and at home with it, since both are of God. So there is nothing strange in the call. The call is to receive it "with meekness," as fits those who have already tasted that the Lord is good and want to profit more and more.

It is in meekness that the engrafted word is received, James 1:21 — a contrast to the pride and wrath of man, James 1:20.

Self-will is broken and self-confidence destroyed... The will of the flesh does not act in him, nor does self-will; he listens to what God says, he receives His word with meekness, and is subject to it. Then God engrafts the word in his heart. It is not merely knowledge, but the truth of God, His word which is able to save the soul. It is both the seed of the divine life, and that which forms it.

The primary thought here is the saving of our souls from the snares of the world, the flesh and the devil, a salvation which we all need moment by moment.

By it the divine nature grows, and the blessing it brings frees the soul from the power of the things around it. We can resist evil only by abiding in the good.