Category: James 2
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Glorious Friendship
James 2:23 “Abraham believed God . . . and he was called a friend of God.” Abraham was called a friend of God. It’s hard to determine which is the more magnificent aspect of this statement: the condescension of God or the elevation of Abraham. Think for a moment about your best friend. Why is that…
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Do You Believe What God Has Said?
James 2:23 “Abraham believed God” The Bible tells us that Abraham believed God. Of course, like many people, Abraham believed there WAS a God. He also, again like many people, believed certain things ABOUT God. But what set Abraham apart from the crowd, even the so-called “believing” crowd, was that he actually believed what God…
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The Law of Liberty
James 2:12 “the law of liberty” Do you know what a paradox is? One dictionary defines a paradox as “a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.” The Bible is full of such things. For example, in Matthew 5:6 Jesus tells us…
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A Living Faith
James 2:14-16 “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for…
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Freedom of Choice
James 2:12-13 “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” I’ve heard some form of the following question many times over the course of my life: “Why would a loving God send anyone…
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The Royal Law
James 2:8-9 “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” Do you love your neighbors? ALL of them? And so, we might ask, as…
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The “Prosperity Gospel”
James 2:5 “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” One of the verses that should sound a death knell to the “prosperity gospel” is the one above from…
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A Spiritual Sensitivity
James 2:15-17 “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Have you ever…
To Encourage You 