James 5

Living On Purpose

 

 

1.  Into Our History

 

a. Icebreaker:  Take a puzzle that’s either assembled or unassembled.  Place it in the middle of the room (if it is unassembled, pour out the pieces in the middle of the room).  Ask the following questions for discussion:

 

1.  Will this puzzle come together on accident or on purpose (What will most likely assemble the puzzle:  a gust of wind or Grandpa Gus)?

 

            2.  If the completed puzzle represents your entire life, what would the individual  pieces represent?

 

                        Answer:  A piece may represent a job, driving to your job, dinners, family, Sunday afternoons, etc.

 

            3.   Are most people’s lives lived on purpose or on accident?

 

            4.  If lives are lived on purpose, what’s the purpose (or purposes)?  Is it a good  purpose?

 

            5.  If lives are lived mainly on accident, do they then resemble a puzzle scattered here are there?

 

6.  Do you live you’re life on purpose or on accident (Is your life like an assembled puzzle or an unassembled puzzle?

 

b. Transition:  God desires for our lives to be lived not by default or on accident, but on purpose according to his design.  In this lesson, we are going to look at two purposeful practices that James communicates as being necessary for living a God-driven life:  (1) We are to live purposefully as pilgrims or sojourners in this world. (2) We are to live purposefully by developing a lifestyle of prayer. 

 

2.  Into The Bible

 

a. Living on Purpose as Foreigners (Vss.1-12)

 

     1.  Read verses 1 - 12.

 

     2.  Summary:  We notice in verses 1-12 that a contrast is made between (1) those  

completely enamored by this sin-ruined world and (2) those who ought to be enamored  by the world to come, which will be realized at the coming of Christ.[i]

 

            a. Question:  What description does James give of those in love with the world?[ii],[iii]

 

·         Present comforts will give way to overwhelming misery (vs.1)

·         Present comforts are temporary (vss.2-3)

·         Those who treasure earth have a treasury of wrath awaiting them (vs.3)

·         The Lord of Saboath[iv] readies his army to strike down injustices (vss.4-6).

     

            b. Question:  In verses 7-12, what response should believers have both to the draw of this world, as well as the pain of living righteously in the world?

 

·         Focus on coming of Jesus (vss.7-9)

·         Cultivate patience of heart (vs.7-8, 10-11)

·         Cultivate peace with brothers and sisters (vs.9)

·         Caution in how we speak (vs.12)

 

"If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you” (Jesus, John 15:19).

 

c. Question:  Why is it necessary for us to live as sojourners in order to experience the fulfillment of God’s purpose for our lives?

 

Answer:  The world does not operate according to God’s design, but in opposition to God’s design.  Therefore, to operate according to the principles and precepts of the world is to stifle God’s design for our lives, much like replacing gasoline with Kool-Aid for our vehicles.

      Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.

                                                                                   

                                                                                    —Will Rogers

 

     3.  Transition:  So living on purpose requires that we live “separated” from this world.  

     But James also contends that it requires that we live in touch/communication with

     another world.

 

b. Living on purpose by prayer (Vss.13-18)

 

      1.  Read James 5:13-20

 

      2.  Question:  In this section, what are the five areas mentioned as being worthy of  prayer?

 

                  a. Suffering[v]
“Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray” (James 5:13). 
                 b. Satisfaction 
 “Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises” (James 5:13). [vi]
                 c. Sickness
James 5:14-15   Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;  and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (James 5:14-15).
                 d.   Sin
“…and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed” (James 5:15-16)

e. Sinners [viii] , [ix]

“My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20).

 

3.  Question:  Prayer is one of the most important disciplines for believers, and it’s one of the least practiced.  We are called to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17), and “to devote” ourselves to prayer (Colossians 4:2).  Whether we are suffering, sick, in sin, or life is great, prayer should adorn every state of affairs.  Why do you suppose the New Testament places such an emphasis on prayer?  How does this tie into living on purpose?  Consider this story.

 

One day a boy was watching a holy man praying on the banks of a river in India.  When the holy man completed his prayer the boy went over and asked him, “Will you teach me to pray?”  The holy man studied the boy’s face carefully.  Then he gripped the boy’s head in his hands and plunged it forcefully into the water!  The boy struggled frantically, trying to free himself in order to breathe.  Finally, the holy man released his hold.  When the boy was able to get his breath, he gasped, “What did you do that for?”  The holy man said:  “I just gave you your first lesson.”  “What do you mean?” asked the astonished boy.  “Well,” said the holy man, “when you long to pray as much as you long to breath when you head was under water - only then will I be able to teach you to pray.”

 

3.  Into Our Lives

 

Take time and pray for one another.  We suggest that for whoever desires prayer, that they stand or sit in the middle of the room, and that the group prays for those people in turn.

 

 

 

 

 


[i] Verses 1-6 is clearly a diatribe by James against a corrupt upper class who had used their power to oppress the poor in general, and the church in particular (cf.2:1-6).  In verses 7-12 James turns his attention to believers in order to encourage them to persevere in the midst of injustices committed against them. 

 

[ii] It is noteworthy that James addresses a corrupt upper class in this passage.    It may be fruitful to discuss the difference between being wealthy and worldly.  To be “worldly” means roughly that one is in love with, and therefore dedicated to this world which is opposed to God.  As such, we can see that a person can be wealthy, but not worldly, just as a person can be worldly and not wealthy.  The question is not whether you have wealth, but whether wealth has you. 

 

[iii]  Wealth does bring with it responsibility, when may indicate if wealth has you.  Note the words of Ray O Jones:

Money talks, we have been told since childhood. Listen to this dollar speak: “You hold me in your hand and call me yours. Yet may I not as well call you mine. See how easily I rule you? To gain me, you would all but die. I am invaluable as rain, essential as water. Without me, men and institutions would die. Yet I do not hold the power of life for them; I am futile without the stamp of your desire. I go nowhere unless you send me. I keep strange company. For me, men mock, love, and scorn character. Yet, I am appointed to the service of saints, to give education to the growing mind and food to the starving bodies of the poor. My power is terrific. Handle me carefully and wisely, lest you become my servant, rather than I yours.”

 

[iv]  Meaning, “Lord of armies“.

 

[v] “Suffering” refers to circumstantial hardship or difficulties in life (e.g. losing a job, relational strains, etc)

 

 

[vi] “Praise,”  a form of prayer, just as thanksgiving or supplication.

 

 

[vii]  James indicates that sickness may be a result of sin.  Some may also read James as saying something as simple as the following:  “If someone is sick, they should call for the elders of the church to pray over them.  Their sickness may be healed.  And, by the way, if there is some particular besetting sin in their lives, then that sin will be forgiven.”  In this interpretation, the sin is coincidental with the sickness, not the cause.  In either case, the context isn’t definitive.  However, there are other passages which indicate that sickness may sometimes be associated with a particular sin (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 with 1 Corinthians 11:27-32).  In such cases, sickness is a tool in which God disciplines us.  Unfortunately, there are a number of misguided (and perhaps false) teachers who assert that all sickness in our lives is due to some sin that we must root out.  They fail to see that often sickness is due to sin in general, not to sin in particular.  That is, sickness which is due to the fall of humanity in Adam.  The apostle Paul tells us that “through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).  We are also told that even as believers, though our souls are redeemed, our bodies have not yet been redeemed from the fall (cf. Romans 8:23, 11, 7:24; Philippians 3:20).  Consequently, it is susceptible to effects of the fall (viz. sickness).     

 

[viii]   While James did not specifically name prayer in these verses, the implication is there. If we pray for the afflicted and the sick, surely we must pray for the brother who wanders from the truth (Wiersbe, W.W. 1996, c1989. The Bible exposition commentary. “An exposition of the New Testament comprising the entire ‘BE’ series”--Jkt. Victor Books: Wheaton, Ill).

 

[ix]   “The statement, Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and the two references to bringing him back seem clearly to indicate that the man under discussion is a Christian. Convert is misleading. If a fellow Christian sees that his brother has left the great doctrines of the Christian faith and the moral responsibilities that spring from these, and is able to bring him back into fellowship with Christ and His Church, the consequences will be twofold: (1) he shall save a soul (the sinner’s) from death, and (2) shall hide a multitude of sins. Since the NT teaches the security of the believer in Christ, it is best to take the reference to death as physical death. The early church believed and taught that persistence in sin could cause premature physical death (cf. I Cor 11:30). The sins that are hidden are not those of the reclaiming brother (this suggests the Jewish doctrine that good works offset bad ones) but of the erring man. They are hidden from the sight of God, which is simply another way of saying they are forgiven” (Pfeiffer, C.F., & Harrison, E.F. 1962. The Wycliffe Bible commentary: New Testament).  .