James is not making a mountain out of a molehill here, he is pointing out that we all too often make this mountain into a molehill so that we could walk on over it without any special training or equipment. But this is not an obscure detail of the story, it is the paper the entire story is written on and it goes all the way back to the Garden. We see it first in Genesis 3:15, when God says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Satan had contradicted God and preached a false Gospel of worldly wisdom to the woman. His wisdom consisted of the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. He pointed out that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good for food, a delight to the eyes, and would make one wise. Eve believed his sermon and took his counsel. She was not just a hearer of his words, she was a doer. As a result, God cursed the serpent and put enmity between the wisdom from above and the wisdom from below. The contrast was clear: Heaven hates the logic of Hell and Hell loves the logic of hate. This reality, often referred to as the doctrine of the antithesis, is the soundtrack of our existence. It is always playing in the background and it sets the stage of every scene.
We see it with Moses in Deuteronomy 30:19 when he says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” We see it with Joshua in Joshua 24:15 when he says, “Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” We see it with Elijah in 1 Kings 18:21 when he says, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” Jumping ahead, we see it with Jesus in Matthew 6:24 when He says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” And the last one I will mention this morning is Paul in Colossians 2:8 when he says, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” I could go on.
The examples are everywhere because the reality is everywhere. It is inescapable. So, it should come as no surprise to us then, that James takes a few precious verses out of this relatively short epistle to reiterate this reality. It bears repeating. Precisely because it is everywhere, it is easy to miss, like the frame of a famous painting. I’m sure they are there, but I’m not sure I remember what any of them look like. This is why Hebrews 2:1 warns us by saying, “Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Drift is our default and it is always away from the things of God, never toward them. No one has ever become a Christian by accident because they couldn’t help it. You cannot slip into salvation the way you can into sin. It is easy to forget the story you are in and it is hard to be a good character.
No comments:
Post a Comment