13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
James 3:13
Dear God, I was thinking about this while I was in church yesterday. The New Testament reading was from James, and I was thinking about how James gets a bad rap because some accuse him of being “works-based.” But I tend to see it more like the Sermon on the Mount. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is raising the bar and setting a high standard, but he isn’t saying that we have to do those things for our redemption and justification before you. He is saying that we should be doing those things out of our relationship with you and growing into being more and more like you. And they are for our good.
I was reading more of The Year of Living Biblically last night (I know, I’m a slow reader and I haven’t been making much progress lately), and A.J. Jacobs finally got to the New Testament. What surprised me was how nervous he was about it. He is culturally Jewish, so I think there is a natural thought he grew up with that Jesus is dangerous. He is a false prophet and not the Messiah. And he has spend the first eight or nine months being so dogmatic about the commands of the Old Testament, he is now trying to figure out how he will unravel some of it and replace it with Jesus. I have a feeling this might be my favorite part of the book. Watching someone come to you with fresh eyes. Feeling you out. Truly and thoughtfully exploring the difference between what he has spent the better part of a year experiencing and now the unexpected twist you added to the equation 2,000 years ago.
Father, I don’t love others because I have to. It’s because I get to. I don’t avoid temptation because I have to. It’s because I get to. And the closer I get to you the more…well, the words of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” fit pretty well.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth Will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace Help me, Father, to remember to turn my eyes upon you today.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
Emails to God 