In James 1:17-18, there are two very important words which might be missed if we do not look carefully at the passage. The first is the word for "gift" in verse 17. The correct reading says God not only gives us perfect gifts, but also that His is the perfect act of giving. Our gifts are often accompanied by the expectation of receiving gifts in return, or at least the grateful acknowledgement of the gift by the recipient. Also, our gift giving is limited to those we like, or are closely associated with. God gives without these strings attached. He gives to all freely, without expectation of any gift in return, and not because we act as friends of His. He continues to give, even when we fail to express any gratitude for His blessings. In other words, we do not merit or deserve God's gifts. They are purely by His grace.
The second word is in verse 18. He calls us the "firstfruits" of God's creation. The
implication is that those who accept Christ, and turn to God in complete faith, are the entire purpose of His creation. The verse begins with the words "He chose", which could be translated "By His own will". In other words His purpose for creating man, and for offering him salvation through Jesus Christ, was to gather unto Himself those who would accept His gift, and would place their complete faith and trust in Him...those who would accept a loving relationship with the Father.
At this point we come to the next step in James' discussion of the temptation problem. He has emphasized that temptation is the voice of the earth-man
demanding to be satisfied. James refers to it as man's "evil desire...enticing". The spokesman for this self-centered earth-man is the tongue. With the tongue we demand our rights, and with the tongue we lash out at all who would get in the way of our human desires. When things do not go our way, we even use the tongue to lash out at God, and rebel against His will. If we are to control the earth-man, we must control the tongue. We note in verse 26 that James does not say, "Tame the tongue". He says, "Keep a tight rein on it". The tongue is the spokesman for the animal man. He is never tamed, but must always be watched and controlled.
In this lesson on the tongue, James is not really talking about gossip and lying and other bad habits of the tongue. He is stressing the importance of
listening carefully to the Word of God, and not going off to make proclamations about it when you haven't really understood it, nor followed it yourself. He uses an interesting illustration to do this. He says hearing and not doing is like a man who sees his image in a mirror and then forgets what he looks like. He doesn't mean a man forgets what his face looks like, but as he looks at himself in the mirror, and reflects on the flaws and imperfections in himself, he goes away and forgets to make the changes he saw needed to be made when he looked at himself closely. When one looks into God's perfect will it should change him, and, suppressing the old self-centered nature, he should humbly follow a different path in his life. If you look and don't change James says your religion is worthless.
One very insidious characteristic of temptation, and one often ignored by religious people, is the temptation to hear only that which is comfortable for
our self-centered nature, and ignore the rest. Thus we create organizations which satisfy our felt needs for piety and call them churches. We plan programs which appeal to us and call it worship. We make lists of rules and regulations which make us feel righteous, judge others by them, and call it the truth. The temptation is to hear only what makes us feel good, and proclaim ourselves Christians for acting on that part of the story. James warns that we should be more anxious to listen, and very slow to proclaim our view of the truth. Those who ignore this should listen more carefully to Jesus' words in Matthew 23, where He speaks to the Pharisees and says, "You tithe mint and anise and cumin and ignore the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness". Many a pious person is judgmental, harsh, self-righteous and unloving. The weightier matters are often ignored by those who feel justified by their legal correctness. This is a common temptation for religious people.
