Receiving from God (James 1:17-18)

James is engaged in a difficult project, which is to compose a letter of encouragement for suffering believers. How can he advise them to remain faithful in difficult times, in circumstances that may get worse before they get better? In such situations, many misconceptions can arise and wrong solutions can be suggested, as was the case with his readers who made wrong deductions about the trials they were enduring.

What those believers needed to hear was truth, but they needed to hear it in a way that was bearable. It is possible to prevent truth in crushing ways, and one example of such a disgraceful method would be the three friends of Job who analysed him in a very clinical fashion that they based on several obvious ‘truths’, which turned out to be absurd as far as Job’s circumstances were concerned.

His gifts

When we look at the statement, ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,’ we need to work out if James is describing two different kinds of gifts – good or perfect – or is he using those two adjectives to describe all of his gifts. In addition, we need to ask if he is using the word ‘gift’ in the sense that Paul uses it when speaking about spiritual gifts. If he is not, then we need to find out if he means gifts that come to everyone or is he meaning gifts that are only given to believers.

It is important to keep the context in mind. James has taught his readers that God does not send any temptations whatsoever to his people. We are then meant to think about what he does send, and the answer is good and perfect gifts. James has already said that the Lord will give the good gift of wisdom to those who ask him for it (v. 5). So it seems that what James has in mind by gifts are those that are the opposite of evil temptations.

Although our English translations use ‘gift’ twice in the clause, it is not used twice in the original text. So it is possible that James does not have two kinds of divine gifts in mind. One way of translating the clause is to see ‘good’ as describing the manner of the giving, with ‘perfect’ describing the content of the gifts. Having said that, it is also the case that it can be translated as saying that God only gives good and perfect gifts to believers.

I think James in our verses is referring to special gifts that God gives to his people. Yet it is appropriate for us to recognise that he is the provider of many temporal gifts as well as spiritual ones. The range of temporal gifts is large and we can think of plenty at any time. It is good for us to remember that all the good things that have had, now have, and will have come from God.

The Giver

James draws the minds of his readers to focus on the Giver himself. He refers to God the Father as the Father of lights, which is a description of him as the Creator. So we are asked to think about what Genesis 1 says about God when he made the lights, which is a reference to the heavenly bodies. Think of the great power that brought them all into existence, the vast number of them, billions of them located in parts of the universe that we, with all our modern technology, do not even know are in existence somewhere. God knows where they are. Yet Genesis 1 describes them as gifts, that the eternal God gave them as lights to brighten the day and the night. Obviously these are wonderful gifts to have received.

The writer then points out that God has not changed his mind regarding having given those gifts to his creatures. They still do what they did at the beginning. Every day and every night God has ensured that his gifts function and give light. The fact is, those great gifts are dependent on God’s power, because if he withdrew his power even for a second they would cease to work. But we can be sure that they will do what they have always done

James is reminding his readers of the great truth of the unchangeableness of God, which is a good topic to think about at any time, but is obviously suitable at the close of one year and the beginning of another. Inevitably the year that we have passed through has brought changes in our lives, but God has not changed.

A focus on this divine attribute is stressed in the New Testament when thinking about opposition and persecution for the faith. Perhaps the best known occasion is found in the book of Hebrews where its suffering readers were reminded that ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Heb. 13:8).

What does it mean for God to be unchangeable? It means that he cannot improve in any way, because he is perfect in every way; it means that he cannot decay, because he is always perfect. It means that he is consistent, that he is loyal to his eternal commitments, that his all-wise counsels cannot be bettered by reacting to any development that humans might stumble across and cause him to adopt their discoveries as new-found insights. We should spend time each day thinking about the unchanging God and his attributes, about his activities, and about his aims.

Some might ask, has God not undergone change when he pardons sinners who once were children of wrath but are now his adopted children? There is a change of relationship, but there is no change in God’s being (he is still the eternal God), there is no change in his character (he is still opposed to sin and he is still willing to forgive the penitent), there is no change in his purpose (he planned to save that person when he believed and to adopt him into the heavenly family), and there is no change in his promises (he kept them when he pardoned that person).

His Goal

Since that is the case, we would expect James to give an example of the unchangeableness (immutability) of God, which he does in verse 18. He tells his readers to look back to what happened to them when they were converted and then he urges them to look forward in the light of who they now are. This is obviously good pastoral advice to give in the time of trouble, whether it is caused by persecution or otherwise. Tell people facing problems about what God did for them in the past when they were converted and tell them what he will do for them in the future, especially when glory comes.

As far as their past was concerned, the initiative for their conversions came from him alone, whatever may have been their individual situations. It was according to his own choice, which is a reminder to us of the doctrine of election, of a sovereign God who has loved his people from everlasting, long before anything else existed. Although it is impossible for us to understand election, we know that it involved a gift in the sense that the Father gave his people to his Son as his bride forever, and that the Son gladly received them.

James then reminds his readers that the Father brought them forth – this is language of birth, that they were reborn, made alive, regenerated by the work of the Spirit. And we can see a gift here as well, because the Holy Spirit, who indwells all the people of God, came to them as the Promise of the Father. This is an amazing gift to possess, and to possess for ever. And James’ readers are being reminded that they have life, even although they are suffering.

How did God bring them to the point of new birth? He did so by ‘the word of truth’, or the gospel of grace. The message came to their souls with power and the Spirit enabled them to believe its good news about what Jesus did for sinners. And the gospel is a gift to us, and it describes various gifts the Father has provided for us, such as the gift of his Son, the gift of eternal life, the gift of forgiveness, having been justified by God and brought into a relationship of peace with him, and the gift of adoption into his family.

So we can see why James encouraged his readers to look back in the midst of their troubles and recall the amazing good and perfect gifts that had been sent to them from above by the heavenly Father. They have received an understanding of election, regeneration and the presence of the Spirit, and the gospel and its various gifts of grace.

But we can see from the second half of verse 18 that James also wanted his readers to look forward. We see this future emphasis in his use of the word ‘firstfruits’, which was taken from the sacrificial practices in Israel in which a sample crop was offered to God in anticipation of the coming harvest. So as we apply this illustration, we can see several truths.

First, those early Christians, who are the sample in this illustration, have been dedicated to God. This is what they would have done at their conversions and James is encouraging them to continue in a state of dedication despite the difficulties they were facing. Since they were dedicated to God, they were his possession and now belonged to him. James is saying that they were no longer their own.

Second, what does James mean by creatures? There are two options. One is that they are the sample that depicts the coming harvest of believers. This might have seemed very unlikely to them in their sufferings. Their circumstances might have said to them that they would be the last of the Christians rather than the first. In this explanation of creatures, they are the guarantee that there will be many believers in Christ throughout the future centuries.

The other option is that the sample refers to all believers (with the readers being part of it), and they will be followed by the recovery of other creatures to God’s kingdom in the future, in the new heavens and new earth. If this is the meaning, then James is telling his readers, who are living difficult lives in a very troubled world, that they are part of the guarantee of a better world in which the whole of creation will be restored.

Personally, I would say that both ideas are included here. We saw last Sunday that Paul described the beloved Epaenetus as the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ (Rom. 16:5), that is, the first convert there but who was followed by many others. In 1 Corinthians 15:20 and 23, Jesus is also called the firstfruits in of his people who will be his at his coming. And here, his people in a corporate sense are regarded as the firstfruits of the coming great harvest.

Application

As we conclude, there are three applications that we can make to ourselves from this verse. The first is, ‘Who gets all the glory?’ The answer to that question is God, our God, the active God, working for his own glory and on our behalf in the chain of providence that makes up the entirety of time. He has given to us the great gift of salvation, a gift that can be subdivided into other gifts that are good and perfect.

The second application is that there is a great future ahead, promised by God, of which believers are the guarantee, even when they are undergoing persecution for the faith. This future includes the certainty of believers in the future as well as the world of glory after the resurrection. What are believers undergoing persecution to think about? The glory ahead and which is nearer than ever before. What are believers not undergoing persecution to think about? The glory ahead and which is nearer than ever before.

The third application is that we should regard our fellow believers as a divine promise, as a gift from God, reminding us of his great salvation. We can do this by reminding ourselves of what they are going to be in the future world after Jesus returns. They may have their faults, and their outward man may be fading away, yet they are going to be glorified. And even now we should see one another as the firstfruits of his creatures.