James 3

 

 

Chapter 1    All Is Well When God Is Good

                        Good comes from suffering.

                        All good comes from God.

                        Humbly do good for the Giver.

 

Chapter 2   The Real Thing Has Real Effect

                        Faith is inconsistent with favoritism

                        Authentic faith is never alone

 

LET WISDOM SHINE

 

Four teenagers, all brothers and sisters, come home to Mom with their report cards.  While the family stands together in the kitchen, the smartest child, Rachel, digs through her backpack, pulls out her grades, and says, “Look, Mom, all As!”  What good might come from this announcement?  What trouble might follow this announcement?

 

WISDOM UNDERSTANDS HUMAN WEAKNESS

 

James 3:1-12

The tongue can be trouble

 

Read James 3:1-5a

            What sinful attitudes about wisdom might make becoming a teacher attractive?

 

            Agree or Disagree and Explain  James’ words may discourage Christians from working to become teachers of the Word. (see 1 Timothy 3:1-2)

 

 

 

            In what way is the tongue’s ability to boast similar to the ability of a rudder?

 

 

 

Read James 3:5b-8

            The tongue not only has the capacity to control.  The tongue has the power to start fires.  Give an example of how the tongue can ruin a life.

 

 

            What makes it so hard to put out the fires started by the tongue?

 

 

           

            What solutions does the world come up with for trying to tame the tongue?

 

 

 

Read James 3:9-12

            A church-goer may say, “Maybe I do some bad things with my tongue, but I also do some good things.”  How does God respond?

 

 

 

 

WISDOM WORKS FOR OTHERS

 

James 3:13-18

Wisdom from above vs. Wisdom from below

 

Read James 3:13-16

            In what way is a godly attitude toward wisdom different from the sinful attitude hinted at earlier in this chapter?

 

 

 

            Explain how envy is really the opposite of humility.

 

 

 

            Give examples of how the world encourages envy and selfish ambition.

 

 

 

            Respond to someone who says, “I know that the devil is still working today, but it seems he did a lot of worse things in Jesus’ day, like possessing someone and apparently taking away his ability to talk (Matthew 9:32-33).”

 

 

 

            As we are tempted to go along with the world’s encouragement toward envy and selfish ambition, an encouragement which is supported by our own sinful flesh, what other evil deeds naturally follow?

 

 

Read James 3:17-18

            From where does the good wisdom that God describes come?  How do we get it?  (James 1:5; 2 Timothy 3:15-17)

 

 

 

            For each of the following descriptions of godly wisdom, give an example of how we can do the opposite.  Then give an example of how we could display that trait.

 

                        peace-loving

 

                        yielding (considerate)

 

                        full of mercy

 

                        not hypocritical (sincere)

 

            Thinking of all of James 3, how would you summarize the differences between worldly wisdom and the wisdom from above? 

 

 

 

Let Wisdom Shine

Wisdom understands human weakness

Wisdom works for others

 

Passport to the Scattered Tribes