Sabbatical Day 1

This week, I am taking a week to rest, spend time with family, and focus on being a son. I pray that this week brings me closer to God as I slow down and enjoy Him and the community He has placed me in.

I invite you to also join me this week in reflecting on God's good qualities. Each day, I'm sending out a different quality and inviting you to reflect and pray. Here is today's...

Quality of God: The God who sees (Genesis 16:13)

Questions: What feelings does this quality of God evoke inside of me? Is that feeling one that I like? Why? or why not? Why do I feel this way toward this quality of God? 

Prayer: Take time to discuss these reflective questions with God. Ask Him to affirm and heal anything that needs His touch in relation to this quality of God.

Life is a long journey. Today, stop walking for long enough to sit with Him.

one step: James 3.4

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

James 3:13

The things of God don’t always make sense to man. To ancient Greeks, the phrase “meekness of wisdom” would have been nonsensical.* Meekness was not a well-respected trait in Greek thought.* Wisdom however, was sought after and could have referred to being skilled or experienced.*

New Testament writers, however, followed the teachings of Jesus and viewed meekness as a healthy understanding of unworthiness before God with a corresponding humility and absence of pride in relationship to others.* Some scholars view meekness as a yielding of self to teachability and responsiveness to the Word of God.* New Testament writers understood wisdom to involve an understanding that produces right attitudes and living before God.*

Who among us is wise? Are you wise? Do you reflect God’s Word in your attitude and living? Do you walk in an understanding of your lowliness before God and lack of superiority to others?

I can tell you that often I have been a fool.

If we are wise, we must show it by what we do, and what we do must align to God’s word. What we do must come from the right attitude. Our attitude must remember that only God is worthy of worship, and those around us have great value as sons and daughters made in the image of God.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to repent for pride. Perhaps today God wants to give you the wisdom that you have desperately needed. Maybe today God wants you to live a life that does not make sense to this world. Perhaps God wants you adjust your attitude and living. Maybe today God wants you to follow the teachings of Jesus in this area.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Blomberg, C. L., & Kamell, M. J. (2008). James (Vol. 16, pp. 171–172). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. H. (2006). James. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, p. 249). Zondervan.
Stulac, G. M. (1993). James (Jas 3:13–18). IVP Academic.
Moo, D. J. (2021). The Letter of James (D. A. Carson, Ed.; Second Edition, pp. 211–214). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Nystrom, D. P. (1997). James (p. 203). Zondervan Publishing House.

one step: James 3.3

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

James 3:9-12

What is it to curse people? What ideas of “cursing” come to mind when you read this passage? Perhaps you think of saying mean things, conjuring negative spiritual assaults, or using choice “adult” language.

While each of those ideas are worth discussing, in the ancient world (the time in history that God impressed upon James to pen these words), cursing meant something else significant that we must not ignore as the sentiment which James intended is the one that God chose to speak through.

In the ancient world, cursing someone meant calling on God to permanently remove a person from any possibility of blessing.* Effectively, cursing someone was asking God to send a person to hell.*

While cursing someone to hell is definitely something to abstain from, James highlights the incompatibility of cursing someone to hell and blessing God.* James argues that people are made in God’s image and likeness.* To desire to consign someone to hell is desiring to permanently separate God from a reflection of who He is.* While humans do not always reflect God’s heart, character, and actions, all humans were created in His image nonetheless.*

According to James, when one person’s mouth both blesses God and then request that His likeness be sent to hell, that person is living in an unnatural state that cannot be.* Naturally speaking, fresh and bitter water cannot come from the same spring.* In ancient Palestine, most towns existed near fresh water as they were necessary for life.* People gathered around fresh, life-giving water.

What is coming out of your mouth? Are you gathering people around you for life? Are you attempting to sustain an impossible duality of blessing God and cursing those made in His image?

What comes out of our mouths says something about what is in our hearts.*

As David Nystrom asks,

How can worshipers consciously mistreat their fellows and then expect to worship God in purity?

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to return to purity in worship. Perhaps today God would have you repent for hating your brother or sister. Maybe today God wants you to speak life over others. Perhaps God wants you to allow Him to show you what is in your heart and heal it.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Blomberg, C. L., & Kamell, M. J. (2008). James (Vol. 16, pp. 160–162). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. H. (2006). James. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 247–248). Zondervan.
Stulac, G. M. (1993). James (Jas 3:9–12). IVP Academic.
Moo, D. J. (2021). The Letter of James (D. A. Carson, Ed.; Second Edition, pp. 202–208). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Nystrom, D. P. (1997). James (pp. 180–182). Zondervan Publishing House.

one step: James 3.2

For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

James 3:2

This verse broadens the scope of the dangers of speech from teachers to all people.* James extends the difficult task of taming the tongue to all humanity.* How has taming your tongue gone for you?

Have you ever said anything that you regret? Have you ever spoken out of turn, looked foolish because what you said, or destroyed someone else with verbal daggers? We’ve all failed in some way through our speech.

For teachers, James offers this frightening insight: the damage from incorrect instruction can have grave results, and sooner or later, because teachers are human, every teacher will do damage.* This is terrifying to me.

Pause.

“Every teacher will do damage.”

Consider.

Knowing this, who would ever want to be a teacher?! The guarantee of damage done ought to be enough to make anyone run from teaching. Yet, God calls many to teach.

What about you? Has God called you to be a teacher to your children? Has God called you to teach others at work or even in an educational or church setting? Do your words teach something to those around you who look up to you?

The words of James are directed toward those who specifically desire to be teachers in the church, but he extends the warning of the difficulty of not stumbling in what we say to everyone. Surely, the principle is the same for all of us: we all stumble in what we say, and we all run the risk of leading someone else astray in a damaging way.

I’ll be honest. The risk of hurting others almost made me run away from God’s call on my life. Instead, I’m fearfully moving forward, praying that God continues to bring me toward the perfection that James refers: not complete sinlessness, but wholeness and complete maturity.*

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to take note of what you say. Perhaps today God wants you to repent and ask forgiveness from someone you have hurt with words. Maybe today God wants you to consider who leans on your teaching. Perhaps today God wants you to examine your teaching against His Word.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Blomberg, C. L., & Kamell, M. J. (2008). James (Vol. 16, pp. 152–154). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. H. (2006). James. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, p. 245). Zondervan.
Stulac, G. M. (1993). James (Jas 3:2–5). IVP Academic.
Moo, D. J. (2021). The Letter of James (D. A. Carson, Ed.; Second Edition, pp. 186–189). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Nystrom, D. P. (1997). James (pp. 175–176). Zondervan Publishing House.

one step: James 3.1

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

James 3:1

The human desire for status plagued the ancient Roman world.* In the historical context of James, some sought to find that status in becoming teachers within the church.* The early church lacked clear standards for selecting teachers (even Paul was questioned as to his authority).* The lack of standards combined with the apparent prestige of a teacher of the time (the closest equivalent would be the Jewish rabbis - a role that carried great honor and respect) created a dangerous environment for truth.*

Religious leaders in the time of James primarily held the responsibility of passing along sacred traditions.* The importance of this role translated to the early church and left James in a position to address an issue: many wanted to become teachers for the wrong reasons.* While being a teacher at the time of James was an important role, the ill effects of a false or immoral teachers were devastating, and James saw plenty.*

The reasons for James’ caution ring true today as he sets the stage for the dangers of an unbridled tongue: teachers are held accountable to a stricter level.* Why is this?

First, teachers use their tongues…. a lot. This increase in speech creates an increase in chances for sinning (as James clarifies in subsequent verses about the tongue). To be a teacher, the teacher puts themself at a higher risk of saying something incorrect, false, or foolish.*

Second, and related to the first, the possibility of leading another astray with a misunderstanding, misspoken word, or a falsehood is very real and compounded by the number of listeners/students.* The risk of leading others astray should not be taken lightly.

God calls us all to something, and all of us have responsibilities and consequences attached to that calling that are very real. James invites each of us, teachers or not, to approach those things that God set before us with humility. God asks us to consider the people that we are influencing around us. Our words matter.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to as God, “why do I want to do the things that I want to do?” Perhaps today God would have you walk cautiously and humbly in the calling He has for you. Maybe today God wants you to consider hard before asking to be a teacher. Perhaps today God wants you to consider those that you teach without realizing it.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Blomberg, C. L., & Kamell, M. J. (2008). James (Vol. 16, pp. 151–152). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. H. (2006). James. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 244–245). Zondervan.
Stulac, G. M. (1993). James (Jas 3:1–2). IVP Academic.
Moo, D. J. (2021). The Letter of James (D. A. Carson, Ed.; Second Edition, pp. 184–186). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Nystrom, D. P. (1997). James (pp. 174–175). Zondervan Publishing House.