SHARED GLORYING

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on April 3, 2024 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: April 3, 2024 from James 1:9-11

Theme: In times of trial, all believers can rejoice if they glory in their unfading riches in Christ.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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There’s a story that’s told of the wealthy publisher William Randolph Hearst. He was a very renowned collector of pieces of rare art. And one day, he was looking through a book and found a photo of a piece of art that he desired to have. He sent his agents around the world to search for and find this rare piece of art to add to his collection. And after an extensive search, they finally located it … in his own collection.

This illustrates to us a great problem that we often have as believers. We fail to recognize the riches that we already have. If we truly knew the eternal, unfading riches that are already ours in Christ, we would never overestimate the loss of the fading riches of this world. And this would be particularly so in a time of trial. The Lord Jesus illustrated this to us in an amazing way when He dictated a letter in Revelation 2 to the Christians who were suffering persecution in the city of Smyrna. He told them, “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty …”; and then added—almost as an aside—“but you are rich” (Revelation 2:9).

Because of our ignorance of our true riches in Christ, we easily fall into the very bad habit of measuring our own worth—or the worth of other people—on the basis of the material things they possess or the social standing they hold. Sadly, such temporal, fading ‘riches’ very easily become the standard by which people divide themselves against one another. But as Jesus’ followers, we’re taught to look to the infinitely greater riches that are the true heritage of all believers through Jesus Christ.

Pastor James makes this point clear to the members of his church family who had been scattered from their homelands because of persecution. He told them;

Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits (James 1:9-11).

Though riches and position are usually the standards that divide and distinguish the people of this world, trials have the power to break believers free from those things, and to bring them all onto the same level in terms of their ultimate hope. Pastor James wanted to remind his fellow believers of this fact. And so, he wrote the words of our passage to show that, in times of trial, all believers can rejoice if they glory in their unfading riches in Christ.

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Now; in order to understand this passage as we should, it would be very important to get a few things settled. First, it’s important to establish the context in which James wrote these words. He had been writing to Jewish Christians who were scattered from their homeland, from their church in Jerusalem, and from their beloved pastor … all because of persecution. And much of what he wrote to them in this first chapter had to do with how to go through the trials they were experiencing in a way that honored their Lord. In verses 2-4, he wrote to teach them to ‘count it all joy’ when they fell into various trials—knowing the good things God was producing in them through those trials. In verses 5-8, he urged his fellow believers to seek the wisdom from God for how to go through those trials in a way that pleases Him—with a wholehearted commitment to do as God’s wisdom directs. And as we come to this passage, we find that the subject of ‘trials’ is still the theme.

In the original language, as was true in the last passage, James begins verse 9 with the word “and” or “but”. Some translations have James beginning verse 9 with the word “Now” … as if he’s carrying his theme of ‘trials’ a bit further and expanding on it. And this is also made clear to us by the fact that verse 12 very clearly picks up the theme of enduring through the trial of temptation. So; what James wanted to teach his readers in verses 9-11—while certainly applicable in all situations of the believer’s life—had special application to those times of trial when they suffered the loss of financial security, or possessions, or their standing in society. He’s teaching us that we’re not to look at those earthly things—and thus feel a dreadful sense of loss; but are rather to keep our focus on the riches we have in Christ that can never be loss to us.

And second, it’s also important to establish who he had in mind when he wrote these words. When it comes to “the lowly brother”, that’s easy to know. He’s obviously writing to brothers and sisters in Christ who are poor in this world’s goods or who are low in this world’s social standing. They would be like the Christians that Paul wrote to in 1 Corinthians 1;

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).

But James also went on to write to “the rich”. And we can’t help but notice that he doesn’t say “the rich brother”. The ‘rich’ ones of whom he then goes on to speak of are said to be put in ‘humiliation’, and to ‘pass away’ as the flowers of the field, and even to ‘fade away’ in their pursuits. So; is he speaking of rich Christians?

Some don’t believe so. They look to James 5:1-6, and to the terrible judgment of God that is said to come upon the unrighteous rich people who oppress others. And they also look to 2:6, where we’re told that the unrighteous rich oppress believers, and drag them to court, and blaspheme the holy name of Christ. They assume that the ‘rich’ James is speaking to couldn’t possibly be believers. But it should also be pointed out that, as James 2:1-3 tells us, some rich people were already members of the church. It should also be remembered that many of the saints that God used throughout the Bible’s history were wealthy. The syntactical structure of this passage suggests that when James says “Let the lowly brother glory …”, he also means for “the rich” to also glory. And he wouldn’t tell a wicked unbeliever to “glory” in anything. So, we’re meant to understand both the “lowly” and the “rich” in this passage as “brothers” in Christ.

And a third important thing that it would be important to establish is what James meant by the concepts of ‘humiliation’ and ‘passing away’. If the rich person is a believer, then it doesn’t seem likely that ‘humiliation’ and ‘passing away’ spoke of eternal judgment and destruction. James spoke that way of the wicked rich in 5:1-6; but if the rich in our passage this morning are godly brothers and sisters who were experiencing persecution for their faith, then what does ‘humiliation’ and ‘passing away’ speak of?

When James speaks of these things with regard to them, he speaks of them with the analogy of a flower of the field whose beauty fades away in the heat of the sun. That kind of beauty is very temporary and is easily lost or destroyed. We can think of the temporal, outward beauty that Jesus spoke of in His parable:

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28-30).

So; the ‘humiliation’ and ‘passing away’ that will occur to the rich believer doesn’t speak of their actual person, but only of their outward splendor. And in the same way, the ‘lowliness’ of the ‘lowly’ brother is also only of an outward nature. Both the poor brother and the rich brother suffer the loss of these things in times of trial. But no matter whether the loss of outward splendor is great or small, both categories of believers are made equal in that they are to look to the unfading riches of Christ—the eternal ‘exaltation’—that can never be lost to them. They share in glorying in it.

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First, consider that, in a time of trial—or really in all conditions of life …

1. THE LOWLY BELIEVER SHOULD ‘GLORY’ IN HIS ‘EXALTATION’ (v. 9).

James writes, “ Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation …” He acknowledges that certain believers live in a ‘lowly’ or externally humble situation of life. That lowly state may have existed before any trials ever came, and the trials only make that lowly state more difficult.

But in that respect, they share the same situation as our Lord. He knew what that was like. He Himself was born into a poor family (Luke 2:24, see also Leviticus 5:11). He said that He Himself had no place to lay His head (Luke 9:58). And as the apostle Paul put it, our Lord’s grace to us was shown in that “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

So then; what is the ‘exaltation’ that poor believers are encouraged to ‘glory’ or ‘exalt’ in? For one thing, they can glory in the fact that they are children of God. They are truly adopted sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus—with all the rights and privileges that come with being his full-fledged children. As it says in John 1:11-13 about the Lord Jesus;

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:11-13).

They can also glory in the fact that, as full-fledged children, they are now heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. As it says in Romans 8:17;

… and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together (Romans 8:17).

They are also citizens of heaven. Where one holds his or her citizenship is often a cause for glorying and boasting. And the believer who is lowly in this world’s eyes can glory in the greatest citizenship of all. As Paul wrote in Philippians 3:20-21;

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself (Philippians 3:20-21).

A lowly believer can rejoice in the fact that he or she is destined to be ‘eternal showcase displays’ of God’s grace. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:4-7;

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-7).

The Lord Jesus Himself gave every lowly believer reason to glory, when He spoke of how they are destined to be joined together with Christ in eternal fellowship with the Godhead. This is true of all who believe on Him. He prayed about this in John 17:21-23 and said;

that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:21-23).

As believers, even the most lowly among us are destined to be the recipients of an immeasurably great and eternal inheritance. As the apostle Peter put it in 1 Peter 1:3-5;

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3-5).

And what’s more, even the most lowly of believers will be administrators of great authority as co-regents with Christ. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 6:2-3;

… Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? … Do you not know that we shall judge angels? (1 Corinthians 6:2-3).

There is no amount of earthly riches, or any position of earthly honor, that could ever compare with the exaltation that even the most outwardly-humble believer is destined to enjoy. And so; in times of trial and loss—or always—James encourages us to make sure that we “glory” in our “exaltation”.

And then, in the same respect, consider how James says that …

2. THE RICH BELIEVER SHOULD ‘GLORY’ IN HIS ‘HUMILIATION’ (vv. 10-11).

James writes in verse 10, “but the rich in his humiliation …” And taken in the larger context of this passage, we shouldn’t understand the ‘humiliation’ to be a kind of punishment. Rather it’s James’ way of acknowledging the reality of the fading nature of outward human splendor. It’s inevitable that the outward glory of the rich will eventually fade away and be lost. As James went on in verses 10-11 to describe the fading glory of the rich believer, he said: “because as a flower of the field he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes.”

James—who was very learned in the Old Testament scriptures—was probably quoting from Isaiah 40:6-8;

The voice said, “Cry out!”
And he said, “What shall I cry?”

“All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8).

God spoke those words through His prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel when they were under a time of great persecution and despondency. He was letting them know that—in times of great trial—material riches and human splendor don’t count for much. In eastern lands, the hot Sirocco wind blows from the eastern desert regions in the middle of the day; and a green field filled with flowers in the morning can be turned into a brown field in a matter of hours. That’s a picture of the temporal nature of human wealth and glory—especially under the hot wind of trials.

What matters most of all in a time of testing is that which is eternal—as declared to us in the promises of God’s word. This Old Testament passage in Isaiah was so important that the apostle Peter also quoted it to suffering believers in 1 Peter 1:24-25. And James is also quoting it to outwardly rich believers who may have become humbled and lowered from their high position in this world because of persecution and trials. As James says in verse 11, “So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits”—that is, right in the middle of his activities in gaining and securing that splendor.

The fading, outward glory of human splendor is not something that a rich believer should ever glory in or boast about. Instead—if wealth and prestige have been given to them—he or she should use it in God’s service. As Paul instructed Pastor Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:17-19;

Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

And if they should suffer the loss of these things through persecution or trial, they should glory in their humiliation with respect to these things; because their humbling sets them free to set their eyes on the eternal riches that they share with even the most outwardly humble believer.

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It’s foolish to glory in that which is destined to fade away very quickly. It’s far wiser instead to glory in an inheritance that will never fade away—and to exalt in the things that are our true riches in Christ.

May God help us to remember this—whatever our position may be, whether rich or poor. Let’s make sure we truly glory in our exaltation in eternal riches in heaven; and then, we’ll always be able to glory in our humiliation with respect to the fading glory of man in times of trial.

AE