I did not write this, but I feel like it does apply to each of us. Temptation is very real, the question is, how will you handle it? James 1:17 So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn’t do it. 4:17 James summed up by a reference to a fundamental principle of faith. At first the verse may seem detached from what came immediately prior to it, but James has connected it (with “then” or “therefore”). The good that believers know they must do involves confessing dependence upon God’s will in everything they do. Is there not a close relation here with Paul’s principle “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23)? That which is of faith is virtually synonymous with that which is the good because of the gift of God (cf. 1:17–18). The problem of disconnecting what one does from what one knows is another expression of the double-mindedness and inactive faith so rife within James’s audience (cf. 1:22–27; 2:14–26). Because they were believers and had heard the Word of God, they knew the good; but because they had not received it with meekness and humility, they contradicted what they knew and committed sin. This principle was, in all likelihood, well known to James’s hearers. But they probably had not expected it to be cited in this connection. The principle of doing only what one knows to be good begins with placing all of the intentions of the heart before God. Only this doing what is good can be whole-hearted trust in God Richardson, K. A. (1997). Vol. 36: James. The New American Commentary (202–203). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 04:43:58 +0000
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