The church life carries a very weighty, solid being. It is not hyper or momentary, like worldly or religious trends. It is real; it is visible. It is proved and perfected. The church life requires something lived out, involving real “doing” and “being.” To do and live the real thing, we need a body — and more specifically, the body of Christ. Something among us needs to be embodied and tabernacling. Without the Lord incarnated, our churching is just a theory. Too often, we like to talk about spiritual things and believe we are spiritual beings, and yet we need this local, physical body life with the reality of the Word in the flesh — the embodiment in and through us — to live out a truly spiritual life on the earth today. As we enter a new year and feel the urgency of the Lord’s return, this weighty, solid reality must have its incarnation in us, working in specific ways to each one — yielding and upholding the testimony of our church life.
In the book of James, written by Jesus’ physical brother, we are given a very practical way to have the reality of a believer’s life in the church today. Some people may not favor the book of James, compared to Paul’s epistles, for example, but the fact is that his epistle is in the Bible, ordained by God. His writing may not seem high, but it is very practical. In our churching, we see there is something very precious unlocked by the experience of churching in the book of James: that is, each one of us needs this stable, consistent constitution in our beings, lived out day by day. In this first chapter of his epistle, James reminds the church — who was coming out of the twelve tribes of Israel from the Old Testament — of very fundamental but essential things in the faith, especially as persecution abounded: things such as the matters of joy, the perfecting work of endurance, not doubting but asking in faith, and hearing and doing. These things separate believers who undergo perfection from doubters, and distinguish the “doers” from “forgetful hearers” (James 1:22). These cannot just be spiritually understood or theorized, but need to be realized in our experience.
“Doing” is a practical need related to the joy and endurance of our salvation. Just as our salvation is practical, real and experiential, so is our believer’s life — it is a life that is proven, perfected with a practical doing: “Knowing that the proving of your faith works out endurance. / And let endurance have its perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing” (James 1:3-4). Our churching should be full of transformation — full of fruit. And yet, oftentimes in our experience, we struggle to change, grow, and gain constitution. What is in the way?
Our “doing” requires us to go through a process to be constituted according to faith. That is, we must not doubt. James’ epistle began with this very specific burden: prove your faith, do not doubt. This doubting of the Lord, of His Word, was planted in Eve from the very beginning of the human race, when the serpent asked her, “Did God really say…?” (Gen. 3:1). James’ writing tells us that “he who doubts is like the surge of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed about,” and that he “is a double-souled man, unstable in all his ways” (1:6b; 8), just as when the disciples were in the boat with Jesus and feared for their lives, even while the Lord slept peacefully (Mark 4:38). But James gives us a secret: “But if any one of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and does not reproach, and it will be given to him” (1:5).
We see throughout the New Testament that James himself went through such a process, turning from doubt to prayer. He was one of the relatives who doubted the Lord Jesus even though he grew up with Him physically (Mark 3:21; John 7:5). But later in Acts 1:14, we find James was in Jerusalem in the upper room with the Lord’s disciples continuing steadfastly with one accord in prayer. Something must have happened in James that he no longer doubted but trusted in prayer. Later, Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 15:7 that after the Lord’s resurrection, “He appeared to James, then to all the apostles.” James had the Lord’s appearing in an intimate way. This led to a strong transformation in him and strengthened him on the matter of doubt and faith. The Bible may not tell us all the details, but we know from James’ epistle that he had a strong word to say about doubt, and that he was one who insisted on walking a real walk of faith — of doing. James admonishes and encourages us as believers to not have any doubt but to believe in prayer, believe in our salvation, and believe in the Lord’s Word!
In today’s churching, the Lord’s speaking is not rare among us, and we have abounding riches on our bookshelves. Yet how much of that Word is really “implanted” into us so that we receive the reality, strength, and power of our salvation in our “souls” (1:21)? We are called to be “doers of the word and not hearers only, who delude themselves” (1:22). Our doing is aligned to something; it’s not just action for performance’s sake. There is a direct, Biblical connection between the word and the work; that those who hear and remember the word of God, do “the work” and are “blessed in [their] doing” (1:25). The hearing leads to doing, and there is a work and a blessing in doing according to the word of God. In Deuteronomy, the Lord commands that we hear the words of God and bind them on our hands as a sign and as frontlets between our eyes; to repeat them wherever we are, whatever we are doing (6:6-8). God’s words therefore guide and are carried by our hearing, seeing, walking, doing, and working. Actually, God’s Word is His work; God’s creation came into being through the Word. We are in fact the “firstfruits” of creation brought forth by the “word of truth” of God the Father (1:18).
Today, with faith rather than doubt, this word has action, has purpose, has movement, has a doing. So being perfected in our actions or doing as believers is not religious or old at all, but intrinsically tied to how much the Word of God is incarnated into our being, daily living, and our testimony as His body. Our perfecting process is nothing about trying to be or look spiritual, and everything about the Word becoming flesh in us. Christ is the reality, the one who became flesh, tabernacling among us (John 1:14). The perfect work is Christ in us, revealed in this “Word became flesh” process. When this work is complete in us, there is a true satisfaction. When we live a life of “doing” — living out the real faith — we can enjoy this secret joy and rest specifically given to the church. Even though the church was scattered and under persecution, James opened his letter to them encouraging them to “Rejoice!” and “count it all joy” whenever they fell into various trials (v. 1-2). The real joy is a sense of completion, of peace and satisfaction — a sabbath — that comes when something is done. Just as in Genesis God saw that what He had created was good and could rest, when faith’s proving process does a perfect work in us (1:3-4) — the Word becoming flesh and tabernacling among us — we find the ultimate joy and rest because something has been brought into being.
In the new year, we should see James, a transformed Jacob, in a new way. James urges us to be truly exercised in faith — to be doers in reality, not just talking or doing a fruitless work. We should hear from our brother and receive from his epistle this personal testimony. His burden is for us to believe with power and reality, and to live a life full of fruit and joy. That speaking is not old, but ever more present to us as we drop our own lives and concepts to seek after the one corporate life in Christ’s body. There is a moment in our walk — a turning point — when we find ourselves in the reality of the believer’s life, and we realize that everything is ours and perfected in us through this faith. Everything He has liberally given to us; we are short of nothing, lacking nothing (v. 4). So we produce, and we enjoy. We have rest. Today, we say, “Lord, I put myself in Your hands. This is my journey to be fulfilled, to be complete. Yes, we are sinful and fallen, hopeless in ourselves. And yet today we can ask for Your wisdom, which You give to us liberally. We don’t doubt! We believe in Your perfecting work in us, and that the perfect work You desire will be realized in us unto Your own satisfaction.”
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 1/9/2022, not reviewed by the speaker.)