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Bible Study Week 4
October 4 @ 9:45 am - 10:45 am
FREE“Good Trouble” and the Epistle of James
September 13-October 4 | Every Sunday at 9:45AM ET
Week Four: Let Your Yes be Yes and Your No be No
As we close our time with the letter from James, we hear his final words of wisdom to the first Christian church. As we learned in our first session, Biblical scholar Tim Mackie calls this letter of James “a beautifully crafted punch in the gut” and Martin Luther called it “an epistle of straw.”
Is it? Or is this letter a strong case for a Christian community to get into some good trouble? Come this Sunday for our final takeaways from this passionate letter and how it can influence us today.
Prepare for class:
- Read: James 4:13- 5:20 (Pasted below)
For Reflection:
Re-visit our definition of Good Trouble, here below, and think of the ways that MABC lives it out as a community. Is there more Good Trouble for us to get into? Bring your hopes and ideas to share.
James 4:13- 5:20
Boasting about Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.
Warning to Rich Oppressors
5 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. 2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure[a] for the last days. 4 Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.
Patience in Suffering
7 Be patient, therefore, beloved,[b] until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.[c] 9 Beloved,[d] do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! 10 As an example of suffering and patience, beloved,[e] take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
12 Above all, my beloved,[f] do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
The Prayer of Faith
13 Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.
19 My brothers and sisters,[g] if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, 20 you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s[h] soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
We’ve got trouble, right here in New York City. With a capital T and that rhymes with E which stands for the Epistle of James.
This fall our congregation is stewing in good trouble. Where is there good trouble around us? How has the good trouble that came before us shaped who we are today?
Is there “good trouble” in the Bible? Yes, indeed. Let’s look to James to see what he says about how we can stay engaged in our faith in good ways that might lead us into some trouble.
This letter from James is often overlooked, one that Martin Luther himself called “an epistle of straw” because of its shift of focus from faith by grace to faith in works. James’ letter is not one of evangelism but one of advice, counsel and instruction on how to use our faith and the grace we’ve been given as a guide to work through any trial and time.
“..the letter of James is the most consistently ethical document in the New Testament. It is one of the New Testament’s most persistent reminders that genuine Christian faith has implications for how we live our lives.” – Dr. Frances Taylor Gench, Luther Seminary
What are the implications of our faith for how we live our lives?