 Good morning everyone. Thank you for connecting on today's class. Let's pray and begin. I would like to request somebody on the call to please go ahead and lead us in a word of prayer. I'll pray. Yes, please. I have a minute further. Thank you for this great moment that you've given and us as a family to come and learn about your heart, about your truth, what are you going to commit. Everybody who is online, Jehovah will bless us, give us the spirit of knowledge and understanding. As we learn this great truth will change our life for the better. I'll commit even those sorts of things, whether they're over, that we'll hasten them, whether they are further than they can be. You know, I pray for everybody, even our fellow students who are not with us. I commit them further into the enhancements of Jehovah. I pray believing and trusting in the mighty name of your silent Jesus Christ, that all is going to be well. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Kennedy. So, now let's get into the study of the next book, which would be the book of James. And we will begin from chapter one. So, I was thinking maybe we can read the entire chapter first and then get into the understanding of the verses. So, we won't do it like Hebrews. What we did is, we did it section by section. But over here, we'll read the entire chapter. And then because the sections here have a theme running through it. So, then what I'll do as I'm sharing is I will just touch upon each of the themes and then keep moving forward. So, that way things get faster. So, the first chapter has about 27 verses. What I would recommend is maybe five of us can read it. The first four can read five verses at once. And the last person can please read seven verses. That way we'll read the full chapter. Please read slowly so that everyone can hear and sort of soak it in. And then I'll go ahead and the key themes that are coming through the chapter. I'll touch upon that and then we move on to the next chapter. We'll read the whole chapter and then see the meaning. And similarly, the other chapter. So, a total of five chapters are there in the book of James. Let's see how far we can get today. So, let's begin with James chapter one. Anybody just jump right in, do five verses and the next person will continue. Yes, Christopher. James one. James a born servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. Greetings. My brother encountered all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work. That you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let a mask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. But let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation because as a flower of the field, he will pass away a man. Verse 11. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flowers falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted and being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it's fully grown brings forth death. Verse 16. Do not be deceived, might be loved. Brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of light, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth. Now we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Verse 21. Read in 21. Man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in its end. Sorry, end is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the ways. This one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you think he is righteous, he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceive his own heart. This one's religious is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this. To visit our fans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself on stop from the work. Amen. Thank you to all those who read the scripture so far. So we'll begin to look at the book of James and we'll see what it has to offer us. So as we look at the writer himself, so it's pretty clear that this was written by Apostle James. James, we see three James's in the disciples of Jesus. So here, the James that we are talking about is the half brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the other brother of the Lord Jesus is Jude. So we will also be going through the book of Jude very soon. So James and Jude, they were half brothers of the Lord Jesus. And we see that in the life of James, like the other brothers of Jesus, he did not believe in Jesus as the Saviour, as God initially. So the four brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus, they all grew up with him. But even though they were a close knit family, scriptures tell us that they were actually unbelievers. In John chapter 7 verse 5, we see that even the brothers of Jesus did not believe in him. So that was how James was. But something changed for him after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. So he came to put his trust in Jesus and he came to become a very fervent believer. Once he was baptized in the Holy Spirit, we know that he later took up a leadership role in the early church as well. So that's how there was a turning point in his life and he is now a notable personality as far as the New Testament is concerned. So once his turning point came, 1 Corinthians 15-7, it says that even James, after he was seen by James then by all the apostles. So talking about the resurrected Christ, even James saw his own brother. And that's what we see in the Book of Acts when we read about the disciples waiting for the promise of the Father. We notice that Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers, Acts 114, so brothers. James was also part of this believing church. So as I shared, he became one of the leaders of the church. So initially we see another James, another James. He is called James the lesser for whatever reason, James the lesser. When I mentioned three James, sorry, so it's not actually another James, but then the mention of James is the father of Judas. So Judas's father is James and that's how another James comes into the picture when we discuss about the disciples of Jesus. So this James being the half brother of the Lord Jesus is also called as James the just. So some terminology which was used to recognize them. So James the lesser or another disciple or apostle, he was martyred. We know in Acts chapter 12, we read about it how Herod put a sword to his neck and then he was killed. So one James was killed and then the other James, which is James that just received a prominence in the early church. So when we read about the leadership in the church making decisions, we read about the James. So that would be this James, Jesus's brother. And so he's very prominent in Acts chapter 15 when the decree is spelt out to the Gentiles about circumcision. So that is when he was completely in leadership and providing guidance to God's people. So that's a little bit about the ministry of James that just he's part of the eldership of the Church of Jerusalem. So what is do we know about him? We do know that from reliable church history that he was martyred. He was thrown from the top of the pinnacle of a temple. He was stoned and beaten to death by the Pharisees. So he was martyred. Other things that we know about him is that he is seen to have been a very devout believer and a prayer warrior. So something like a tradition has it that he was someone who used to pray on his knees to such an extent that his knees turned. You know that the skin was completely black because of kneeling down like it became sore and all that. So he used to pray to that extent is what it is said about him. Now when was the book of James written? Since he was in leadership between Acts 12 to Acts 15. So the timeline there is somewhere around 45 AD of Jerusalem Council. So that's when he actually wrote this book and primarily some of his terminology will refer to Jewish believers because at that time yes Gentiles were getting saved but not so many. Primarily the church was very Jewish and so you know terms like synagogue and all. So he used that because that has to do with the Jewish people. So he wrote it to the Jewish people not intending to write to them but the composition of the church had mainly Jewish people so that is the reason. And this was written not just to the believers in Jerusalem but even outside Europe, Asia, Africa and you know so the message that it contains is applicable to believers all across. Yeah and sometimes the book of James goes unnoticed or maybe you could say like you know in terms of preference. People don't prefer James because they feel oh it's not so much doctrine it's more about you know do this do that practical instructions to the body of Christ. And so for some believers they don't they don't find it very profound but you know all of scripture is God breathed inspired by God and it is useful for us for correction approach and you know just to grow in the Lord. So we don't we don't try to put one book above the other it's about what God is trying to speak to us and the wisdom that he's imparting to us. So that is why the book of James is also very very important. Now as we study the book of James we will see it's it's if you consider the book of Proverbs there verse by verse the topics change you know some time it's talking about listening and then it moves on to talking about the rich and then it is about the rich. It moves on to talking about integrity. So you would find here that very quickly James switches from a certain topic to the other. So it's not a disconnect he's just trying to place emphasis on things that are important and that's how we would take that up. So there is continuity in some sections but then in some other sections he just jumps to a new topic. So we receive it in that manner and he talks a lot about faith. We will look at it in all the chapters. Faith is like a common subject that he touches on. So he makes points like you know faith sustains us when we go through trials. Faith is the key in prayer when we ask God we must believe only then we receive then he talks about how faith is expressed in how we face temptation and resist the devil. Faith receives the word of God and follows it through to action. He will talk about the balance of works and faith. He will talk about the demonstration of faith through the way we treat people that we should treat people equally. There mustn't be partiality and you know faith depends on mercy of God and not on the law. So it goes on. So many of these themes are there. We have very comprehensive notes in our APC resources. We have done this book James in the sermon series. So I'm just sharing what is enlisted for us in those notes. So you are free to use those notes that are available on our website. You can also study different versions of the Bible as we generally encourage us to do for the third year classes and also enduring word of David Gozik. So these are a few key references that you can go to to gain an understanding of the book of James. Now we'll come to the actual chapter itself. So here as we look at what James has introduced himself as it's interesting because he says James a born servant of God and of the Lord Jesus to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. So notice being the brother of Jesus if any of us were family to Jesus then we might have a tendency to boast about our closeness and talk about experiences that we've had with the Lord Jesus. But that's not how he describes himself. So we understand that he knew Jesus more as savior and Lord than his earthly brother and that's why he says a born servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he is calling himself a born servant. A born servant is a terminology used to describe a slave. Somebody who is in a permanent relation of service or servitude to another and in the Greek sense in those days when James was using this term. A born servant was considered very it's a degrading term because people like their freedom and they wouldn't want to be recognized as a slave or a born servant. And yet he uses this term born servant and we know that in the Greek it's doulos. So he's saying you know I must slave to my Lord and there he says Lord Jesus Christ. So his brother he is calling him Lord and that's the you know Greek word kurios over there which assigns greatness and mastery to Jesus Christ. So that is his understanding of his relationship with the Lord Jesus. So that's really amazing and you know notice how he says the 12 tribes to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greetings. So why 12 tribes I told us that this was one of the early letters which was written and at that time Gentiles were part of the body but they were not so many. And so that is why it seems like he's addressing the Jewish audience more and obviously you know he brings them greetings as he starts off the book and then he comes to facing trials he's addressing that matter. So what can we understand from this we can understand that the audience was of course in some sort of trouble situation. We know the season of the early church that in fact the seasons of the early church that there was a lot of persecution which was going on and thereby people were facing difficulty. They were also scattered the communities were scattered across the nations at that point. So that is why you know he is describing regarding trials and what one must do in trials. So he says count it all joy when you fall into various trials. So he is not encouraging the believers to fall into trials or he is not you could say yeah coming back to that what trials there in some translations when we read it it is mentioned as temptations. Count it all joy brethren when you fall into all kinds of temptations but when we look up the Greek word the appropriate word there would be trials. So trials is adversity it is you know going through difficulty. So that is what trials is and he says when you go through count it all joy when you go through. So he is not encouraging us to go through trials but trials happen is what his perspective is. Then another thing he states is he doesn't say if you go through count it all joy brethren if you go to go through and if he had stated it that way. Then we know that maybe trials come only to some people and others are exempt but that's not his terminology. He says count it all joy when do you go through trials. So the implication is that all of us as believers will go through trials and at that time he is calling us to look at it with joy count it with count it all joy. So it's an attitude that he is calling us to maintain you know maintain joy in the Lord you know maintain that stability in the Lord. And Jesus said you know nothing different even Jesus said that that you will go through so many challenges. It's in John 16 33 even Jesus said that we are going to face many hardships in our life. But as a believer what is the stand that we must take when we go through various trials. So again you know we could just preach on that for a long time because there's a lot that is being said over here that we must keep our joy. And he says count it all joy count it all joy meaning it's like you deem it right you you you estimate or you consider it you think of it in a positive way when you go through trials. Now what is one advantage of going through a trials. It is going to produce patience. So it is going to produce patience when when we count it all joy. So we are thinking of it and deeming it in a positive way. And he says the word joy there is cheerfulness rejoicing and calm delight. So how is it that we can have an attitude like this is only when we put our trust in God that even when we go through trials. And you know he in fact he says when you fall into fall into fall into means that from time to time in life for various reasons you know we also have a very active adversary the devil who is pushing us into you know different trials. So and the Bible also talks about the fact that you know we as believers go through tests that God leads us through for our growth and our maturity. So no matter what it is trials test in those times to have an attitude of cheerfulness rejoicing when we fall into these things and what is it going to produce in us. What is that is going to produce patience. So what is patience. Patience is cheerful endurance or it is the ability to continue with that calmness or you might want to call it patient continuance. So that is what facing our trials with joy will produce in us. So what patience is not is that it's not a passive state where we do nothing but patience is when we are trusting God and if required right. We are able to put in any form of action that is necessary. So that's the way he calls us to be and what else does he say about going through trials. He says that it's going to the testing of your faith produces patience. So the testing of our faith you see the things that get tested are precious things. Nobody goes and trusts you know some form of lower form of metal or you know we don't really care too much about things that are not precious. But when we talk about something that's precious let's say a metal like gold we would want to try it and test it. So it's the precious thing that actually get tested. So here he wants us to know that when we are going through trials difficulties which we are trusting to we're not wanting to get into it but we are trusting to be counted joy. Then he says you know that the testing of your faith so God is very concerned about the quality of the faith that we all carry. It's so precious and you know that gets tested and when it gets tested it's going to produce that patience. So like a continued endurance that capacity will be produced in us and he also says but you know let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing. So what is God interested in? He's interested in our maturity. He's interested in us becoming more price like and that's what he wants us to note there. And he goes on to talking about a very very key thing which is required in trials and that is wisdom you know in difficult situations we may pray for many things. We cry out to God and we say God release me, deliver me which are all very apt you know prayers to pray. But one key thing to pray when we are going through trials of various kinds is to ask for wisdom. So he's saying now if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask of God. So he's encouraging the believers to seek wisdom during trials. So what is wisdom? Wisdom is the capacity to use knowledge. Knowledge is raw information. We can all have a lot of information but wisdom is about knowing how to apply it. You know someone once said that knowledge is the ability to take things apart but wisdom is the ability to put things back together. So you see applying the knowledge which we have is actually wisdom. So what he tells us is he says that you know we may have this tendency to run to man or run to earthly resources which is not wrong. But he wants us to know that God is our primary source of wisdom and that's why the was that follow he says you know you ask God. And what is the nature of God? God is the one who gives liberally or he gives with abundance. So we serve a God of abundance and God will grant us abundant wisdom in the moments of our trial and what else can we notice about God here. It also says that he gives without reproach which means that God does not resent it when we ask him for something. And in this case wisdom he's not going to you know show us a clenched fist but he's the God of the open arms and the open hands. And so he gives us with abundance and we can receive the wisdom that God gives us. We can apply it and we can see deliverance from our trials and he also states the importance of asking in faith. So he says that when we ask God we must ask by faith that is when we are going to receive the answers of God. So some other key highlights here you know we are told that when one asks without faith there is a comparison made. And we are told that he's like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. So what is the understanding? See the understanding is that when we look at a wave of the sea it is without rest. It is unstable. It is driven by the winds. There's no anchor to that wave of the sea. Whenever a wind blows the wave you know happens and when a wave carries such uncontrollable energy it can also be very destructive. Huge waves can destroy human settlements and you know maybe boats and ships. So we know the effects of a wave, a mighty wave. So we know that the wave of the sea is referring to instability and also a destructive outcome. He's saying the person without faith or when we are in unbelief we are like the wind. We are like this wave of the sea because there is instability in us in the way we think. And then he goes on to introduce the term called as double-mindedness. So what is double-mindedness? Double-mindedness is to want two contrary things at the same time. Two contrary things that we cannot possess at the same time. But a double-minded man cannot make up his mind or when I say man it applies to women as well. So double-minded people they have one foot in one decision and the other foot in the exact opposite decision. And they want both to happen and they're just not able to make up their minds which one to pick. So that is a state of being double-minded or you know it falls in the category of lacking faith or unbelief. And God warns us about double-mindedness. He says look when you ask God you're asking, wanting to receive but in your heart of hearts if you think that God is not going to give you anyway. Then don't even expect anything because your prayer is one but your belief is different. So you see there's no integrity there in the words that we are speaking and what is in the depths of our hearts. So he's warning us about double-mindedness and he makes a general statement saying a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Now is this referring to we said yes of course it is referring to unbelief but what about the times when people have had little faith or weak faith. The man who said help my unbelief I want to believe help my unbelief. So at least there is a desire to have faith and Jesus commended that. So you know that's a different context and double-mindedness is another context. So that's how we are going to look at it. So these are some key things that we notice here. So let me just pause for a moment. Are you all okay? I know this is not like you know I'm not going line by line but just some important things for us to grasp. Are you comfortable with the way things are moving? Any response? Okay sure. Please stop me if you're looking at a verse and you need more clarity on that we can get into the depths of it. But this is the way I thought I will go through because these are not necessarily doctrinal subjects. Okay so we have come to the portion of verses 9 through 11 and you know he starts talking about the rich and the poor here. So let's have a look at that. Okay so he says let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation but the rich in his humiliation because as a flower of the field he will pass away for no sooner. Has the sun risen with the burning heat than it with us the grass its flower falls and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. So the point is that he is trying to help us see how temporary this earthly life is. And in the earthly life we may have classes among people where some are poor some are rich. Now why is he addressing this matter? Because there were rich people in the church and there were poorer people in the church. There were also rich employers and poor labourers in the church community. And so he wanted to address the way they related with one another. And you know he shares here how we must be content with what God is doing in our lives. Okay so he says let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation so as the Lord lifts one up in their economic status we are thankful to God. And if a rich person learns to walk in humility it's not necessarily God putting somebody down because he doesn't do that to anyone. So when we read about humiliation here it's just talking about humility. You know when they grow in humility then they recognise that God is ultimately the source. And he says how everything is so temporary that even somebody who is rich they too will fade away in their pursuits. So it's just saying that here in this earthly life whatever we possess is temporary. But when we fix our minds as Jesus said you fix your minds on things above and you know where your treasure is there your heart will be. So save up for yourself treasures in heaven. So have a more heavenly mindset so that would be the key of what is being said here. Yeah but everything is temporary and everything is fleeting. Okay coming to the section from verses 12 through 17 here he talks about temptation. So he says that blessed is the man who endures temptation for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. So an encouragement to overcome temptation. We have studied so much about temptation. We know that it is one of the methods of workings of Satan. He uses temptation to entices into sin and that's what happens when one gives themselves into temptation. But here we are talking about enduring temptation. Enduring is to stand strong in the midst of temptation. And few more things about temptation which he talks here. Now we can relate this to the earlier section where we said count it all joy when we fall into various trials. So that trials is different. But here we are talking about temptations and notice he is very clearly telling us that God is not the one who brings temptation on us. So he is not the source of temptation and similarly earlier also he said when you fall into trials so he is not saying God pushes us into trials. So he says when we are going through temptation we must not say that I am tempted by God because God cannot be tempted by evil nor does he himself tempt anyone. So God is not the source of our temptation. Now how does temptation happen? So there is some explanation here about it in verse 14. He says that each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. So Satan can use the weaknesses of our flesh to lead us into temptation. So that is the reason we must be free from the pull of the flesh. And as Paul spoke to the Ephesian church he said that walk in the spirit that you may not gratify the desires of the flesh. So when we walk in the spirit we can overcome these desires that he is talking about his own desires and enticed. So that enticed is allurement or drawing somebody, attracting somebody towards something. So that enticement is the work of the devil. So he uses our own fleshly weaknesses to entice us into sin. Now the process of how sin actually happens is also given verse 15. He says when desire has conceived so the desire is from within us. There is external influence of Satan through his temptation. It happens when we kind of agree with the temptation which is coming in. So he says when desire has conceived so the desire is there and it begins to grow in us. So that is what he is saying. So it is growing in us. It gives birth to we know that desire leading to a certain pattern of thoughts and thoughts leading to actions, actions leading to behavior, behavior leading to lifestyle. All that. So then he refers to it as when it is full grown brings full death. So when we yield to it first we agree. When we yield to temptation then what happens? It produces death. So what does sin lead to? Sin finally leads to death. So he is explaining how temptation really happens and that we must never credit temptation upon God. So again verse 15 he says don't be deceived my beloved brother in this context. In this context he is saying that God doesn't tempt us so don't be deceived. That it is God who is causing temptation and that is a way of thinking that people had. And now he is talking about God. He says look who is God? He is a good God. He gives good gifts to us. Every good gift, every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. He is encouraging us with the attributes of God and he says that God gives, he gives good things to us. He gives good gifts to us meaning things that we don't even deserve. We receive from God and he says comes down from the father of lights. Now father of lights when you look that up, what is father of lights? So commentators say that it simply has to do with the heavenly lights. We know that the Lord created the heavens and the earth and in the universe there are all these sources of light, stars. So it's probably referring to that and it also says that with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. So that simply means that he is stable and our God is a constant and we can put our faith in him. So moving ahead from verses 18 through 25 here we are told. So then my brethren let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to write. So he continues to give us wisdom and particularly in trial. So what should we do? We should be other centered. When we are other centered that's when we are keen on listening. When we are self centered what happens? We put greater value on our opinion, our view of the whole situation. So what we end up doing is we speak more and we even quickly jump to conclusions and judge matters and people. So that's what he's saying. No, be other centered so be swift to hear. That's what we tend to do when we listen more and we want to gain other people's opinion as well. So maintain this kind of an attitude and don't jump into judging matters too quickly or people too quickly. Because when we show our wrath he says the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. So we must really wait for that wise analysis of matters and not be too quick to judge. Again he just encourages the believer not to give in to temptation, not to give in to sinfulness. And so he says lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness instead receive with meekness the implanted world which is able to save your soul. So he just talked about temptation, the internal desires that can lead us to be enticed. Now he's saying stay away from sinfulness. He uses the term filthiness here. Instead he shows us that we must have a teachable heart because it's the teachable heart which will receive the word of God with faith. And when we receive the word of God with faith what happens? He says that the implanted word, so what is an implanted word? The implanted word is when we receive it we mix it with faith in our hearts, it gets planted in our system, it gets planted in our spirit. And this implanted word is able to save our souls. So yeah let me just pause here. We are going to take a break now. Any questions or I think it's pretty straightforward James is sharing with us still like if you have something to discuss we can take it up now. Yes Shri Kumar please go ahead. I just want to know that can we differentiate doubt and double mind and little faith, weak faith. So how can we come to a conclusion that this is double mind and you know or this is little faith or this is how we come to that. Thank you. Okay sure. So the distinction between double mindedness and you know little faith, little faith, great faith, no faith. We've seen Jesus talk about it. You have no faith or great is your faith. So having double mindedness is clear cut unbelief but the degrees of faith or the levels of faith are faith. Okay so that is the first distinction for us. So double mindedness is a form of unbelief whereas little faith and different categories of faith are all levels of faith and Jesus doesn't rebuke us. He encourages us to grow. He said that even like a little bit of faith can like a mustard seed can move a mountain. So there is that encouragement when we have a little bit of faith we must get more faith. Double mindedness is when there is absolutely no faith and there's just confusion that exists in a person's mind and I think it's a problem area in our soul. In the will part of us where we are not firm in making decisions that's why it says right a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. He doesn't pick. Okay pick this or that. He just doesn't pick. So it's like I would say like a sickness of the soul where it can happen one or two times but it can also be like a sickness of the soul where somebody is not making decisions. So it's unbelief and it comes from a place of unbelief. So does that make sense? Yeah it means that doubt also the same thing. No no no so doubt is not the same thing because see when you say doubt that's what I said the man who came to Jesus he said that I believe but held my unbelief. So to some degree doubt God understands that. Okay God understands that and we can overcome our doubt and move ahead in faith. But when we look at double mindedness it's more than doubt. It's a state of mind. I understood. Thank you. Thank you for that question. Okay let's go for a break. It's 9.53. Let's come back at 10.03 and we'll continue. Thank you.