“16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
You struggle with an enormous impairment that makes your life far more problematic than it needs to be. You don’t see things the way they really are. I suffer from the same impairment.
You regularly make assumptions that are not true. You regularly make deductions that are not true. You regularly think untrue things about yourself. You regularly think untrue things about others. You regularly think untrue things about God. That is an enormous impairment.
Theologians call this the noetic effects of sin, the word ‘noetic’ coming from the Greek word for the mind. Even since the Garden of Eden, we humans have understood wrongly. We understand ourselves wrongly. We understand each other wrongly. We understand God wrongly. If you think that you are exempt from this, you are blinder than most.
The mere existence of Scripture proves that you don’t see things the way they really are. You need God to tell you about yourself because you don’t see yourself rightly. You need God to tell you about Himself because you don’t see Him rightly.
You don’t need to be set straight by God just once or twice. You need to be set straight regularly. You are prone to forget even simple truths. No matter how much theology you know, you easily forget that God is God and you are not. So do I. You regularly try to do what only He can do, and you regularly forget that He will do what He promised. So do I. No matter how many times You have read through the Bible, you still forget to cast all your cares upon Him even though He cares for you. You are prone to forget even fundamental truths.
You are therefore easily deceived. You are particularly easily deceived in trials. When you suffer, you forget truths that can help. You forget to pray. You forget to invite others to mourn with you. You forget to remind yourself of God’s power and love by reading Scripture.
You and I aren’t much different from James’ original readers. James knew about the noetic effects of sin. He knew that the suffering Jewish Christians to whom he wrote were misunderstanding themselves and misunderstanding God.
They had forgotten God’s goodness. They had forgotten God’s generosity. They knew these truths in theory, but they had forgotten them in practice. That might be you this evening. You know that the Bible says that God is good, but you can’t remember the last time that made a bit of difference in your day. You might know that the Bible says that God is generous, but that seems to have no interface with reality, or at least with your experience.
You might know much of what the Bible says about the goodness of God, and you might live as if none of it were true. This evening, we are going to ask, ‘do you live as if the Father were good? Do you live as if the Father were generous? If so, how?’
God is remarkably generous and unwaveringly good and yet even we Christians can live as if He were otherwise. We live as if He were disinterested in us. We live as if He were tightfisted.
We regularly misunderstand God. That is a huge impairment. We regularly forget that God really is as good and generous as He says He is and we need to remember. That’s the claim of this sermon. We regularly forget that God really is as good as He says He is and we need to remember.
We will see this in two points. First: don’t be deceived. Second: the good and generous Father. Both verses get a point. Verse 16 warns us that we are easily deceived about God’s goodness and generosity. Verse 17 tells us about God’s goodness and generosity.
First: don’t be deceived. James trained this first century congregation on how to respond to trials. He has told them that God uses trials to mature His people. He has told them that God uses trials to make His adopted children more like his only begotten Son Jesus. He has told them that God uses trials to push His people to lean not on their own understanding.
James has also told them that trials bring temptations. The man with cancer is tempted to be rude to his best friend. The couple in financial difficulty is tempted to envy others in the congregation.
James has also told them that in their sufferings, they will be quick blame God. They will say with Job, “Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the plans of the wicked?”
In your suffering, you are quick to misunderstand God. I imagine that you’ve said some very confused things about God in your pain. I know I have. James knows this tendency, which is why he wrote verses 16-17, “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
Trials have a way of deceiving us about God’s goodness. Our failing health has a way of deceiving us about God’s generosity. Crying over our wayward children has a way of deceiving us about God’s kindness.
James has already laid the groundwork to help us understand trials so they won’t deceive us. That’s what the last fourteen verses and six sermons have been about. James has been clearing away the weeds of misunderstandings so you can see the glory of God’s goodness and generosity even in trials.
Do you think the Father is good and generous? Here’s a litmus test. How do respond to these words of Jesus? “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”
Do you hold those word at arms’ length? Are you quick to say, ‘yeah, but…’ ‘Yeah, but back in 2015…’ We’ve talked about trials for six weeks now to address objections. Now we are focusing on the Father. Do you see the Father as unwaveringly good? Do you see the Father as incomparably generous? Jesus did.
Do you perhaps think that Jesus’ words are too good to be true? If you think Jesus’ words are too good to be true, my guess is that you question them because of your experience. If that is the case, please consider Jesus’ experience. He grew up in a disadvantaged family. It seems likely that his dad died while he was relatively young. Even though he was obeying God, he ran into roadblock after roadblock with his family, his hometown, and the religious leaders. His closest friends regularly misunderstood him, and yet he said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” Your experience alone is not enough to deny these words. Jesus had it hard too and he spoke those words. You need to deal with the words themselves.
We will talk about God’s goodness and generosity in a moment, but first I want to ask, have trials deceived you about the Father? Do you see the Father the way Jesus spoke of Him? James wrote, “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers,” for a reason. Even brothers and sisters, even Christians, can be deceived about the Father’s goodness and it can easily happen in trials.
If you find yourself unwilling or unable to see the Father as good and generous because of some suffering, you need to see that you’ve been deceived about God. You need to confess that you see Him differently than Jesus sees him.
This is delicate spiritual surgery. If you have been deceived in your trials, if you have come to doubt God’s goodness and generosity, you need to go to Him. You need to speak with Him about it. You need to pray. Prayer is the first step towards dealing with this. Tell the Father that you don’t see Him as He is. He already knows so tell Him. Ask Him to help you trust Him insofar as He is trustworthy. Then know that He is perfectly trustworthy and therefore totally worthy of your total trust. You might be helped by praying with a friend or praying with me. Sometimes you need someone else to help you get the words out.
If you have been deceived about God’s goodness, pray. Then continue in His word. To trust God, you need to know what He is like and He tells you what He is like in His word. You are so confused by the noetic effects of sin that you cannot see God as He is without His help. You aren’t going to see God as He is without His word.
When was the last time you learned something about God in His word? When is the last time you saw God differently as a result of reading your Bible? People who listen to God regularly are far less likely to be deceived about Him.
God tells us who He is a good and a generous Father. That’s our second point: the good and generous Father. Our first point was about being deceived about God because He seems too good to be true. What seems too good to be true? Verse 17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
James was saying at least two things. He was saying that God is unfalteringly good and that God is inconceivably generous. This is the other side of the coin of our last study. ‘When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.’ You might be tempted to see the Father as tightfisted. That’s your misunderstanding because the Father is generous. You might be tempted to see the Father as untrustworthy. That’s your misunderstanding because the Father is good.
First, let’s think about His goodness. We see His goodness at the end of this verse where James calls Him, “the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
Why did James call God the Father of heavenly lights? There are two lines of interpretation on this. The first deals with creation. God is the creator of the sun, moon, and stars, the heavenly lights. He set them into place on the fourth day of creation. He guides their movement through the sky with mathematical precision, and even though these heavenly lights change—the moon waxes and wanes, the sun rises and sets—God doesn’t change. He is unchangeably good. That’s one interpretation.
The other examines the background of light in the Bible. Light is a symbol of truth. Light is a symbol of holiness. Darkness is bad. Light is good. John Calvin follows this line of reasoning. The following quotation comes from John Owen’s marginal notes in his translation of John Calvin’s commentary on James. Having these two comment side by side on a text is like watching the NBA finals with Michael Jordan sitting on your left and LeBron James on your right. If you care about basketball, that would be commentary paradise. That’s what you’ve got here. Owen writes, “Light in the language of Scripture means especially two things, the light of truth… and holiness. God is the Father… the origin, the source of these lights. Hence from Him descends every good, useful, necessary gift, to deliver men from evil, from ignorance and delusion, and every free-gift to free men from their evil lusts, and to render them happy and holy.”
Everything needful to make you happy comes from the Father. Everything needful to make you holy comes from the Father. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father.
There is no darkness in God. “God is light,” writes John, “in Him there is no darkness at all.” That’s what James means when He writes, “the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
God isn’t for you one minute and against you the next. If you are His child, He is unfailingly good to you. He is uninterruptedly for you.
I want to be uninterruptedly for my children, but I’m not. I’m sometimes selfish. The Father is never selfish. I’m sometimes ignorant of what my children need. The Father is never ignorant about what His children need. God the Father is perfectly consistent parent. He is the ideal of what the best parenting books urge. That shouldn’t surprise us.
What would it like to live as if the Father were unswervingly good? What if there were a reliable account of a man who lived every moment as if the Father were unswervingly good? If you want to trust the Father, you could learn from such a man. That reliable account, of course, is the story of the gospel. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each wrote an account of Jesus’ perfect trust in the unswerving goodness of his Father.
My gut response in most situations, whether good or bad, is, ‘how will this affect me?’ I imagine that your response is the same. Jesus’ gut response was, ‘well, the Father is good, so…’ The religious authorities opposed his God-given mission; ‘well, the Father is good, so…’ The Father sent Him into the wilderness with no food for forty days; ‘well, the Father is good, so…’ He was arrested, tried, and condemned; ‘well, the Father is good, so…’ He was crucified; ‘well, the Father is good, so…’
Try that. Start prefacing your thoughts with, ‘well, the Father is good, so…’ ‘What if my new coworkers don’t like me?’ ‘Well, the Father is good, so…’ ‘What if my child won’t listen to reason?’ ‘Well, the Father is good, so…’ That certainly seems like a better starting point than worry. That certainly seems like a better starting point than pride. It is also more obedient. It is also true; “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
You might not always see that, but you regularly misunderstand the Father. That’s part of living after the fall into sin. The question you must ask is, do you trust what the Father tells you about Himself?
The fact that the Father is uninterruptedly good towards you His child might seem too good to believe, but your willingness or unwillingness to believe that doesn’t change its certainty. We aren’t here discussing what the Father might be like. We hear studying what He has told us He is like. Do you have ears to hear what God says even if that involves believing something that might seem too good to be true?
God isn’t just uninterruptedly good, He is also exceedingly generous. That’s the first part of verse 17, “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…”
What good things that you have come from God? Short answer: all of them. Long answer: number them. That might be the best way for you to see the truth of James words, “Every good and perfect gift is from above.” Number every gift you have.
All these gifts are designed to make you happy. It’s a new year. Maybe you want to mark 2019 by writing down one gift from the Father each day. ‘Sunday, January 13. This warm home on a cold day is a gift from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…’ ‘Monday, January 14. The money I earn at this job for my family is a gift from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…’ ‘Tuesday, January 15. This friend who so kindly listens to my problems and gently guides me towards God’s wisdom is a gift from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…’
When you recognize the Father’s generosity long enough, you will realize that the gifts for which you are thankful are not a given. “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude,” said Chesterton. It could have been otherwise.
Do you recognize the generosity of the Father? “When we were children,” said Chesterton, “we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?” Do you see that what you take for granted is really a gift?
Atheists like to talk about the problem of evil. ‘If God is so good,’ they say, ‘where did evil come from?’ We’ve been dealing with that in a small way as James has taught us about understanding trials.
Atheists have their own problem. They need to contend with the problem of abundant goodness. ‘If there is no God, why is so much in this life that is so very good?’ Take the Father out of the equation and you are left with a world of unaccountable delights. Why should the birth of a child be so meaningful? Why should a job well done be so satisfying? Why should sunsets be so colorful? Why should a warm blanket feel so good on a cold day? Why should chocolate, caramel, and salt taste so good together? This is generosity. “Every good and perfect gift is from above.”
They are gifts, meaning that we could never deserve them. When CS Lewis thought about one of the best gifts of this life, friendship, he wrote, “when the whole group is together, each [brings] out all that is best, wisest, or funniest in all the others. Those are the golden sessions; when four or five of us after a hard day’s walk have… our feet spread out toward the [fire] and our drinks… at our elbows; when the whole world, and something beyond the world, opens itself to our minds as we talk; and no one has any claim on or any responsibility for another, but all are freemen and equals… while at the same time an affection mellowed by the years enfolds us. Life — natural life — has no better gift to give. Who could have deserved it?”
That’s gift language. “Who could have deserved it?” Think of what you enjoy in this life. Maybe it is your children. Maybe it is hunting. Maybe it is farming. Maybe it is playing cards with friends. Does it even make sense to talk about deserving such things? No, these are gifts. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father.”
The Father’s gifts are also designed to make you holy. Next week we will look at some such gifts in verse 18, but now we will end with the gift that springs so readily to mind this time of year when we read verse 17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father.” We will think about Christmas. We will think about Jesus.
At Christmastime we spend a lot of time thinking about gifts. We usually think about what sort of gifts would this or that person like. When we think about the Father at Christmastime, we should think, ‘what sort of gifts does this Person give?’
The Father loves to give gifts like this: He sent His one and only Son into the world that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. If you ponder the Father’s gift of Jesus, you will see what kind of a giver He is. He is exceedingly generous. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” He is unwaveringly good. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Are you as exceedingly generous as the Father? Are you as uninterruptedly good as the Father? There is no shame in saying, ‘no.’ In fact, recognizing that you aren’t is part of salvation.
James’ letter is humility for a proud age. A proud woman believes she is the apex of goodness. The virtues she has are the ones she considers most necessary and the virtues she lacks, she finds unimportant. A proud woman really believes she would be as generous as anyone else in that same situation. She hears the story of the Good Samaritan and immediately identifies herself with the Samaritan, never with the priest or Levite who pass on by. She sees herself as an ocean of giving in a world of taking. She is fine with the idea of a good and giving God provided that this God is like her. She can’t see that compared with God she isn’t generous; she is selfish. She can’t see that compared with God she isn’t good; she is sinful. She can’t worship a God who is unlike her because she is busy worshipping herself.
This woman can’t comprehend the generosity the Father has shown by sending His Son because she doesn’t see the need for it. Do you see the need for the Father’s generosity? Do you recognize that the gift of His Son wasn’t a stretch for Him but was rather an indicator? The cross isn’t God at His most generous. That was just God being God. Amen.