James 1:16-18

New American Standard Version

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. 18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures.

Pastor’s Paraphrase

          Don’t be confused and believe false doctrine, my dear brothers. Everything that is good and perfect is a gift from Heaven, coming to you from the Heavenly Father, who is the source of all light from above and who never changes or appears like a shadow. He has given us spiritual birth through the eternal truth of the gospel so that we might be the first generation of His forever family.

 “How does this help me become more like Him?”

          In raising five children and now being a part of the lives of seventeen grandchildren, it is a joy to watch them grow and develop.  There are developmental milestones that every parent and grandparent delight to be a part of.  We applaud and take delight when they say their first intelligible words.  It is an exciting moment to see them begin to walk on their own.  Among the many others that follow, it is exciting when we are able to teach them to ride a bicycle (without training wheels) on their own.  There are usually a few falls encountered along the way until they finally are able to master the balance needed to make that first extended ride by themselves.

          Not only is it true in learning to ride a bicycle, balance is needed in virtually every area of our lives.  In the Christian life, we need a good balance between emotion and intellect – between our heart and our mind.  The Lord said that the greatest commandment was to love Him with all of our hearts.  It is from this love for Him that everything else grows in our Christian lives.  But in today’s verses and in many other places in the Scripture, we are instructed to watch carefully our doctrine.  Our hearts may have good intentions but if our minds are captured by false doctrine, it can virtually destroy our effectiveness and usefulness in God’s Kingdom.

          It is no accident that the Holy Spirit instructed James to follow his teaching on temptation with a warning against false doctrine.  If the enemy cannot capture our hearts with emotionally based temptation, he will seek to confuse our minds with erroneous and destructive spiritual teaching.  He will try to plant seeds of doubt and confusion concerning Who God is, how He works in our lives, and even the nature of His redemptive plan through Christ.  He will seek to get us fixated on some secondary and insignificant spiritual issue and distracted from the central focus of God’s love for all sinners through Christ.  If He can’t corrupt our hearts, he will seek to confuse our minds.

          There is so much teaching out there today all in the name of Christ.  There are good and sound Bible teachers and expositors, there are charlatans and frauds, and there are many in between the two.  How do we sort out what is worthy of our trust and what should be avoided at all costs?  A simple guideline would be to focus on the major and central doctrines of our faith and not to become fascinated by any secondary issue.  We must not become distracted or detoured from our journey to make Him known by the latest theological teaching or fad.  The old, old story is still the one we need to tell.  Stick to the clear teaching of Scripture and keep living and telling everyone that Christ died for our sins and that they can know Him by faith.

          Keeping the right balance of love for Him and sound doctrine will keep us from running off the road into the ditch.  Don’t let some new and different doctrinal teaching throw your whole Christian life off balance.

“How should I pray for Him to change my life?”

Thank the Lord for the truth He has made available to us through His Word and for trustworthy teachers of Scripture that give an accurate and balanced interpretation of that truth for our lives.  Ask Him to give you daily wisdom and insight to always be able to recognize teaching that is not clearly based on the truth of His Word.

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