Continuing in the vein of scattered people, James pushes them to see the good in their circumstances. They were a people persecuted. Many had to leave the homes they knew to develop new lives in different locations. They may have felt like the world just had it in for them. Instead of focussing on the bad around them, James is admonishing his readers to recognize, like George Bailey, it’s a wonderful life.
It is as if he were saying, ‘Look around you. What do you call “good”? Make no mistake about it. If you call anything “good”, it comes from God.’
The same truth applies to us. What do we call ‘good’? Good health? Family? Firm and unfailing friendship? Freedom? The smile of a child? The singing of the birds? The thunderous crash of the waves? The majesty of the mountains? The warmth of a fire in the winter and the cool of the breeze in the summer? These all come from God—and thousands of other things, too!1
Our ability to do good things is completely dependent on who God is. I’ve long believed that as long as we can do good, we cannot be lost. Those who will be swimming in the lake of fire will be there because they were no longer able to discern right from wrong. They would be among those who’s imagination was on evil continually. (Gen. 6:5) We are to recognize that we are among the good things that God has done in this world. We make mistakes. We are not always kind, yet He has not stopped loving us, and giving us purpose in this life and preparing us for the next.
Prayer points
- Do you believe that every good gift is actually from above?
- What do you think James means by “he gave us birth by the word of truth”?
- Pray that we keep our focus to doing good, and being generous.
1 Ellsworth, R. (2009). Opening up James (pp. 48–49). Leominster: Day One Publications.