Chapter 1

Verse 1 begins this passage by saying “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.” It is amazing how many epistles in the New Testament are addressed to the Jews as they are scattered — James, 1 & 2 Peter. Strangely enough, Hebrews is actually written to the Jews in Jerusalem.

The date of this epistle is approximately 45 AD. It was one of the earliest of the epistles and one of the most practical. The place of writing is Jerusalem, and already in Jerusalem there are the storm clouds of legalism gathering over that great city to hinder the ministry of such great men a Peter and Paul, both of whom will eventually move out of Jerusalem and leave the leadership to James. The style of this epistle is almost beyond description. We can simply say that it is a Jewish epistle in every sense of the word; it stresses Jewish sins — legalism, hypocrisy, pride, love of money, and the sins of the tongue. These were the special sins of the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. Interestingly enough, it also stresses a strong appreciation for nature. We will see many analogies from nature. It is a book of commands: there are fifty-four imperative moods in the book of James. James’ epistle was written from the viewpoint of Christian application and production. Application and production are two words that could summarise it.

The great centre and focal point of the earlier chapters has to do with faith and the principle of justification by works. We will learn later on that justification means vindication. The book of Romans teaches justification by faith because that book in such passages is discussing salvation. However, James is not discussing salvation. He is discussing phase two of the plan of God: the Christian way of life. James talks about vindication by works or production, or even by application. You are vindicated by your application of doctrine. Doctrine is on the inside and cannot be seen but its application can be seen. Your faith in Jesus Christ is on the inside and can’t be seen, but your exhale of faith can be seen. Faith is used in the transfer of doctrine from your left lobe to your human spirit where it starts to work for you. Faith is used in the exhale of doctrine in your life. Faith is used in the concept of the faith-rest technique. There are many overt manifestations of what goes on inside of you. Inside of you is faith in Jesus Christ. Inside of you is justification by faith. There is no way that you can see on the outside justification by faith. The fact that you are justified by faith is a reality, a principle of truth, but it is something in the soul that is unobservable just as the soul is unobservable. In a sense it is a part of your own privacy.

People have a very sad habit of trying to set up a series of norms of what a Christian should be. And if you don’t happen to fit into those norms your not a Christian, they say. People believe that certain others they know are not a Christian because they do so and so, usually something that shocks them and because people certain do certain things they couldn’t be a Christian. But on the authority of the Word of God the fact is that a Christian can do anything an unbeliever can do by way of sin, by way of failure. A Christian still has an old sin nature and while he may move through more barriers to get to the point of sin you cannot say that a person is unsaved because of some sin he commits. So we should not ever set up a series of norms and standards in the life which will make us a first class legalist whereby you say, Why you can’t do that and be a Christian. Christians to all kinds of things that unbelievers do. And there are all kinds of Christians: baby Christians, adolescent Christians, mature Christians. Obviously there is a variation in the modus operandi of Christians depending on their stage of spiritual growth, or their being a spiritual moron.

James is really dealing with the overt side of things and is saying in effect that there are some norms and standards, that if you are growing spiritually will come out. What is behind an overt action in the case of a mature believer is doctrine. An edification complex in the soul manifests itself in this way, and when an edification complex works, then you have justification by works. When you come to the cross and believe in Christ, that is justification by faith; but when you as a believer have an edification complex or you have a lot of doctrine in your right lobes and you use it, that is justification by works. Whatever you are doing shows what you have.

The outline of the first chapter is very simple. In the first fifteen verses we have the edification complex. In verses sixteen through twenty-seven we have the grace apparatus for perception.

Verse 1 — the salutation. The first word is James. James has to be identified.

1. He is the Lord’s half brother — Matthew 13:55.

2. James was not a believer during the public ministry of Jesus Christ — John 7:5.

3. However, he did become a believer after the resurrection — Acts 1:14; 1 Corinthians 15:7; James 1:1.

4. He eventually became the leader of the Jerusalem church — Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; Galatians 1:19; 2:2,9,12.

Notice that James calls himself “a servant of God.” The noun is douloj which means a slave — “of God” is the genitive of possession. He belongs to God. Then he puts in the word kai, an equality word and it translated “and.” But he puts God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ on equal footing and he calls himself a slave of both of them. James recognises through doctrine his true relationship. Relationship with God is based on doctrine; production for God is based on doctrine.

Principles

1. Physical birth gave James no physical advantage or spiritual advantage. Application: Physical birth does not give any person on the face of the earth an advantage.

2. There are no assets of physical birth whereby mankind can gain the approbation of God. God uses doctrine, not talent, and a person with doctrine and has talent can serve God just as easy as a person who doesn’t have talent but has doctrine can serve God.

3. God’s grace provides for everything and excludes human ability, human assets. Whatever a person’s talent or ability is can be used, but that isn’t the power of God. The power of God is in the provision of God; the provision of God is declared in doctrine — starting with the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

4. Neither James not his mother, or even Joseph his father, are saved on the basis of their family relationship with Jesus Christ, they were saved like everyone else by faith in Christ.

The next interesting point in this verse is that this is addressed “to the twelve tribes scattered.” This tells us that he did not address it to the Jews in Jerusalem over whom he had charge, because they were through. Already he recognised their negative volition. As far as he is concerned they are in a hopeless state. Principle: Believers who go negative toward doctrine and stay that way are hopeless; casualties in the angelic conflict. The Jews in Jerusalem were through. The Church stared in Jerusalem, the Church had its first impact from Jerusalem, but the Jerusalem church was the first to go down to apostasy. Where there is negative volition toward doctrine, in comes legalism and emotional revolt of the soul.

“to the twelve tribes” is not only a dative of indirect object but it is also a dative of advantage — “which are scattered” — he is indicating that it is to their advantage to be scattered because the indirect object is the dative to the twelve tribes. “Which are scattered” sounds like a verb but it is not a verb, it is actually a noun in the dative case, diaspora which means dispersed or scattered. But it is in the dative case, and James is saying that those Jews who have left Jerusalem are lucky. It is to their advantage to be scattered, they are better off where they are. Better to be away from legalism.

These people had been dispersed originally by persecution — Acts 8:1. Some of them had been dispersed centuries before in the days of Alexander the Great when he took Jews all over the world and used them as administrators.

“greeting” — a present active infinitive if kairw, which means to have inner happiness. Ordinarily this could be a greeting. However, the greeting was not in this form, the greeting was kairh. But that is not used here. The word used here means that the purpose is to provide inner happiness. The infinitive denotes purpose. The active voice: these Jews scattered abroad should be filled with inner happiness. it is linear aktionsart: “keep on rejoicing.” This present active infinitive is also used sometimes as an idiom for salutation. But this is more than a salutation. Biblical salutations do not generally contain the word “greeting” and if there is any use of the present active infinitive it comes at the end of an epistle, not at the beginning.

Translation: “James, a slave of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed, keep on rejoicing.”

“Keep on rejoicing” means that this is really a passage for believers who have an edification complex in the soul, and who are getting and edification complex.

Verse 2 — this verse has been taken by idiotic legalists in times of difficulty or adversity as an excuse to say, “Count it all joy brother!” If there is any sign of superficiality it is some person going up and quoting this phrase. They generally do not know what the word “count” means and they do not know what the word “joy” is. If they did they would keep their mouths shut because joy comes from a lot of doctrine, not from some idiot trying to utter a phrase from legalism.

“My brethren” — addressed to the new race, the race of people from all races who are born again, who have personally believed in Jesus Christ and have personally received Him as saviour; “count” does not means to count. It is an aorist middle imperative of h(geomai, which means to add up the facts and come to a conclusion. The facts that have to be added up are principles of doctrine which you possess in your own soul. Therefore for someone to come along and tell you to count is all joy is totally out of line. This is something people have to do for themselves and the only exhortation that is bona fide is from the Word of God. Add up the facts and then make your conclusion. No doctrine, no facts; no facts, no conclusion; no conclusion, no h(geomai. This imperative mood can only be obeyed when you have a knowledge of Bible doctrine. And this is a sane person adding up the facts. This is an aorist tense, which means only at specific times will you use some doctrine that you learn. There are some doctrines that you will be using all the time, there are some doctrines that you will be using occasionally. There are some doctrines designed for pressure and suffering, there are other doctrines which are designed for prosperity.

The middle voice here says that you do this yourself, no one can do it for you.

Next we have the word “all,” the accusative singular of paj, which in this particular case means “whole.” Add up the facts and conclude the whole or the entire. Then it is +H for “joy”— xara, inner happiness. The word “facts” means you have facts in your experience, you have facts in your soul, doctrine in the right lobe. So put the facts in your soul [doctrine] with the facts of your pressure experience, and when you do you conclude +H. Who can conclude +H? Only those who have it. This anticipates that you already possess +H. This is saying that the only possible way for you to have happiness in a pressure situation is for doctrine to meet the facts of pressure, personal disaster. When they do, +H is the conclusion. This is a command to conclude +H but you have to have it to conclude it. You cannot conclude what you do not have. Happiness here is a mental attitude which is concluded; “when” — this is a special occasion. This is the conjunction o(tan, and this means on the occasion of — “having fallen into many kinds of pressure.” The word to “fall” is an aorist active subjunctive of peripiptw, which means to fall into a hole. The active voice: you do your own falling into your own hole. You dig your hole and then fall into it. In other words, this says that there is going to be a certain amount of time in your Christian life when you are going to be a sucker. The subjunctive mood says you don’t have to, it is optional. There are also certain kinds of trouble which we do not make for ourselves, but peripiptw very definitely suggests that we do make our own trouble.

The word “divers” is an adjective, poikiloj, which simply means variegated, many types, many categories. There are many types of holes which we dig and fall into. Then the word “temptations,” the dative plural of peirasmoj, which means testing to determine the quality of something. It is a noun for pressure — “many categories of pressure.”

Translation: “My brethren, conclude [after weighing the facts] to be entire joy [+H] whenever you become involved in many categories of pressure.”

The doctrine of happiness

1. Happiness is related to the character of God. God always possessed perfect happiness in eternity past. His happiness is a part of His character. God is perfect, He possesses perfect character, He possesses perfect and eternal happiness. He is happy, by the way, with His perfect plan. He always has inner happiness, there never will be a time when He does not have inner happiness. His plan for the human race — grace — not only comes from His character but it also comes from happiness which is the structure of His character.

2. Happiness is related to the divine plan. In eternity past God decided to share His happiness with man in time. This is only possible through salvation plus the daily function of GAP — Nehemiah 8:10.

3. Happiness, therefore, is accomplished or shared through grace. Grace found a way to share His happiness and therefore any benefit to man from God is through grace.

4. Such happiness is confined to the plan of God. Man enters the plan of God by faith in Jesus Christ — John 20:31. But being saved means that such happiness is potential, it is not a reality. Salvation never implies instant or automatic happiness. The potentiality of happiness only becomes a reality when the believer functions consistently under GAP and erects that edification complex of the soul — 1 John 1:4.

5. The ultimate of happiness in time occurs under two conditions. For new believers, they get a taste of it through the filling of the Spirit — Galatians 5:22. The top floor of the edification complex is permanent happiness — John 17:17. We are also going to have this same happiness in eternity in a resurrection body. It is called there exceeding +H — Jude 24.

6. The recognition of human happiness in time. This is in contrast to +H. We might call it -H. Minus H is human happiness; +H is divine happiness, that which belongs to God. In the devil’s world there exists a pseudo-happiness called -H. It is temporary and superficial, it depends on the details of life — pleasant environment, stimulating circumstances, having one’s own way and never being crossed. Under those conditions a person with the worst kind of a disposition can look like a “saint.” However, boredom and frustration and restlessness plus a little instability thrown in neutralises this happiness very quickly. This happiness does not sustain in adversity, one of the times when it vanishes. The best human happiness comes from observing the divine laws of establishment, and is the best the unbeliever can do.

7. God has designed phase two happiness to be permanent and stabilised through the edification complex of the soul — John 17:13, 17. +H through the edification complex provides both capacity to enjoy the details of life while at the same time enjoying a relationship with God.

8. There is the concept of the daily buildup of happiness. We live one day at a time and there is something that we can build up every day. Under the priesthood of the believer under the daily function of GAP there are some very permanent and wonderful things that come out of our daily portion. One of them is +H — Matthew 4:4 cf. Jeremiah 15:16 and James 1:25.

9. Recognises the problem of the plural in both languages, translated “Blessed” — makarioi which should be translated “happinesses.” There is a buildup concept which means the happiness you have today you will have tomorrow, and that you build happiness on happiness; you do not build happiness on things, on experiences, on people. So +H builds on +H.

10. +H protects from disillusion: disillusion regarding the circumstances of life — Philippians 4:11,12; disillusion regarding the details of life — Hebrews 13:5,6; disillusion regarding other believers in life — Hebrews 12:2.

11. Inner happiness enhances capacity for love. Which comes first, +H or capacity for love. Really it is +H because maximum capacity for love is based on +H. You never reach +H in the edification complex unless you have capacity for love, which is the next floor down.

12. Inner happiness (+H) is commanded for phase two — Philippians 4:4. The command is obeyed through learning doctrine — Jeremiah 15:16; 13:17; result — 1 John 1:4.

13. +H is also going to exist beyond death — Jude 24.

14. You cannot build happiness on people, you can only build happiness on happiness. By that is meant happiness is built on Bible doctrine. You build happiness upon doctrine and the happiness you build upon doctrine is building material for more happiness.

Verse 3 — “Knowing” is the present active participle of ginwskw which means to learn from experience. In this case to learn from the experience of GAP, the experience of sitting down and listening to Bible teaching. The present active participle is linear aktionsart relating GAP to +H. A lot of experiences in the field of listening to doctrine build up this fantastic inner happiness; “that the trying” — dokimion, which means testing for the purpose of approval. In other words, every pressure in life is a test but it is designed for approval, for graduation; “of your faith” — the genitive of pistij. Pistij is a technical word and in its technical use it refers to the whole body of doctrines stored in your right lobe. It also refers to the system of transferring doctrine from the left lobe down to the human spirit, so it is a part of GAP. It is also used for the exhale of faith toward God, which is faith-rest. So it is technical and non-technical. The inhale-exhale faith is non-technical; the realm of faith in the storage of doctrine in the right lobe is a technical use. So “of your faith” is literally, ‘of your doctrine,’ ‘your inhale-exhale,’ This works something: present middle indicative of katergazomai which means something on the inside working out, with the result that something is accomplished, something is achieved. This is doctrine on the inside working out with the result that something is accomplished.

That something is “patience,” the accusative singular of u(pomonh. This refers to a stabilised faith on the inside, the stabilised us of the inhale-exhale, the stabilised use of doctrine in the life. Therefore it comes to mean the ability to trust without wavering under the most adverse of circumstances, and even for prolonged periods of time. Patience is faith as a distance runner — Isaiah 30:18; 40:31; Psalm 37:7, 34; 65:2; Acts 1:4. The principle is found in Romans 5:3, and illustrated in the life of Abraham — Romans 4:17,21. Patience is what happens to faith when the believer develops the edification complex of the soul. Patience is a believer with an ECS in adversity and using it. Patience is simply anything and edification complex will do while you are under pressure. U(pomonh means to stay under: u(po = to stay under; menw = to abide. To stay under means to stay under your edification complex. it is like staying under your umbrella when it is raining. The edification complex abides under pressure without any additional problems. The ECS functions under adversity, constantly producing everything from the first floor, grace orientation, to the top floor, +H.

Verse 4 — the development of the edification complex of the soul. “But let have” is a present active imperative of e)xw which means to possess, cling to, to have and to hold. The subject is patience. The present active imperative should be translated “Keep on having patience [the ECS under pressure].”

“perfect work” — the adjective ‘perfect,’ teleioj refers to that which is completed, fully grown, fully developed. The adjective describes the rapid construction of the ECS under pressure. The word for ‘work’ means production. It doesn’t mean witnessing or praying, or anything of that sort, it means having grace orientation and happiness under pressure. That is production too. “That” introduces a purpose clause, “that ye may be.” And then we have teleioj, “that ye may be” — present active subjunctive: maybe you will and maybe you won’t; “perfect,” which means mature, complete, and has the concept of being fulfilled. The present tense of the verb to be, e)imi, is linear aktionsart. The active voice: you do it under doctrine, the ECS. The subjunctive mood is potential, depending on whether you have an ECS or not. In order to understand teleioj, perfect, we have another word, “and entire.” It is a compound noun o(loklhroj. O(lo means ‘whole”; klhroj means ‘part.’ When you put them together you have ‘whole part,’ which doesn’t make sense in the English. So obviously we have a derived meaning. The idea of the derived meaning is that of the whole having all of its parts found, completed in every part, intact and undamaged. It means to go through the worst pressures in the world and be sane. It means, therefore, that you can go through any storm in the world and no storm in life can damage the ECS. The past phrase: “wanting”— present passive participle of leipw. It doesn’t mean wanting, it means to be deficient. So it should be translated “Being deficient in nothing” — e)n plus mhdeij.

Corrected translation: “But let patience keep on having her fully mature production [the ECS], that you may be mature and undamaged in all parts [of the soul], being deficient in nothing.”

Verse 5 — “If” is a first class condition: if and it is true; any of you” — tij u(mwn, is literally, ‘anyone of you.’

“are [keep on being] deficient” — leipw, present passive indicative; “of wisdom” — sofia, Bible doctrine in the right lobe; Bible doctrine which has come from e)pignwsij which is Bible doctrine in the human spirit. To build sofia you must have e)pignwsij, so while you have sofia in the right lobe you are building the edification complex. “If anyone of you is destitute [or deficient] of wisdom”; “keep on asking” — present active imperative, a)itew. This is rather interesting because asking is prayer, but here prayer has a new aspect. Prayer is simply the verbal expression of positive volition. Here is a person who is positive toward doctrine and there is none around. What does he do? Present active imperative: “Keep on asking.” This is asking for provision of doctrine. This is not asking to get it in your right lobe, your positive volition will do that when you are exposed to doctrine. Then we have, not “of God,” the word ‘of’ is para, the preposition of immediate source: “ask from the immediate source of God.” He has provided you with all of this equipment to take in doctrine and no doctrine is available, therefore you keep on asking till you get it. God is responsible for providing doctrine. He provides the communicator; “that giveth to all men liberally” — the present active participle of didomi. What has He given? He has given salvation by grace, the canon of scripture by grace, He has provided the communicator of doctrine by grace, He has provided the grace apparatus for perception by grace, He has provided the whole system whereby doctrine is usable. This is all grace, and notice: “to all” — all believers, no exception. Then we have an adverb translated “liberally” — a(plwj which means generously without reserve; “and upbraideth not” — present active participle of o)neidizw which means to reproach, to censor, to insult with opprobrious language; plus the negative mh. God does not reproach positive volition ever.

There is a type of prayer that expresses positive volition toward doctrine and there is no doctrine around; to ask for a communicator. This is an expression of positive volition. The perfect character of God operating in grace toward the believer with positive volition in prayer; “it shall be given” — future passive indicative of didomi. The future tense: future from the time of the prayer. The believer will be provided with Bible teaching under conditions of privacy, under conditions of grace, so that an ECS can be constructed. The passive voice: the believer receives an answer on the basis of grace. The indicative mood is the reality of the provision of Bible teaching.

This brings up an application. There is not more Bible teaching today because there is a lack of positive volition toward doctrine among believers. The next verse indicates that the believer must have faith in this prayer, just as he must have faith to transfer doctrine. So here is the operation of faith even in his prayer — “it shall be given to him,” dative of advantage.

Translation: “If any of you is destitute of wisdom [doctrine in the human spirit], keep on asking from the immediate source of God, who keeps on giving to all generously, and not reproaching; and it shall be given to him [for his advantage].”

Verse 6 — “But let him keep on asking in faith” is e)n plus the instrumental of pistij. It should be translated ‘by means of faith.’ The next phrase says, “nothing wavering,” a present middle participle, diakrinw , which means to split out in your mind, and that means to have doubts; plus the negative, a strong compound negative, mhdeij , “doubting nothing,” which is previous malfunction of GAP. Once they understand doctrine they go negative; “for he that wavereth [or doubts] is like” — perfect active indicative of e)oika, has been like and continues to be like “a wave” — a wave is unstable; “of the sea” — has great potential but always dissipates itself through instability. The wave of the sea is an illustration of both instability and disorientation. With all of its power the wave is “driven and tossed.” The word ‘driven’ is a)nemizw which means to be pushed around by the wind. All of the power of the sea cannot resist the power of the wind. Here is instability — mental attitude sins, emotional revolt of the soul, false doctrine.

Translation: “Keep on asking by means of faith, doubting nothing. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea constantly being agitated by the wind, constantly being hurled about.”

The doctrine of the edification complex of the soul

1. The ECS is based upon a verb from the Hebrew and a verb from the Greek. The Hebrew verb which covers the Old Testament aspect is banah which means to build. This is where we get the ECS. Banah in Jeremiah is used for the ECS; banah in Genesis is sued for the woman. Then we have o)ikodomew in the Greek, a verb which means to construct or to build. Both of these words are used for the ECS. In addition to that there are three nouns which are used and are translated edification, which means construction or building in construction. The first of these is o)ikodomh which means the erection of a structure or the building of a building. It is the act of construction. This really takes in the concept of GAP by which the ECS is constructed in the soul. The second word is o)ikodomia which means the result of construction: the great blessings, the happiness, and so on. The third is o)ikodomoj which means the constructor, the contractor, the builder. This is the function of GAP, the daily intake of the Word of God.

2. GAP is the source of the ECS — Ephesians 4:12,13.

3. The believer’s ECS provides both stability for the individual and preservation of the national entity. All freedom gained by the military on the battlefield is exploited by the ECS in the believer’s soul — Jeremiah 42:10.

4. The rapid construction of the ECS comes from faith-patience under maximum pressure — James 1:2-4.

5. The structure of the ECS: five floors. They are constructed upon doctrine in the human spirit, sometimes called residual doctrine. The first floor is grace orientation; second floor: mastery of the details of life; third floor: A)gaph love, the relaxed mental attitude; The fourth floor: capacity for love, categories 1,2,3; The fifth floor is +H, also called joy, perfect happiness.

6. Biblical uses of edification: a. The objective in communication of doctrine on the part of the pastor-teacher — Ephesians 4:11-12; b. It is used for the local church. When a local church has a maximum number of ECSs it is prosperous — Acts 9:31; c. It is the objective of phase two to have an ECS — 1 Corinthians 14:3,4,12,26, it is never speaking in tongues; d. Human knowledge puffs up (human knowledge, never doctrine) but the function of GAP in the spirit of love edifies, it builds up.

7. There are two spirits in edification, the Holy Spirit and the human spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit makes GAP function — John 14:26; 16:12-14; 1 John 2:27; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16. GAP is the source of the ECS — Eph. 4:12,13; and the constant function is also and ECS but you can’t function under GAP unless you are filled with the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is not and end, it is a means to an end. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is a teaching ministry and you have to be where you are taught for the filling of the Spirit to teach. The second spirit in the function of GAP is the human spirit, the target for GAP — Romans 8:16; 1 Corinthians 2:12,13; Job 32:8. The human spirit is acquired at the point of salvation, along with the Holy Spirit. These two together make it possible for an ECS to be constructed in your lifetime as a believer. The Holy Spirit eliminates the human IQ factor and the human spirit is the storage spot in which construction material is found to erect the ECS — Ephesians 4:23,24; Colossians 1:9,10; 1 John 2:3.

8. The humanity of Christ possessed an ECS during the incarnation — Luke 2:40, 52; John 1:14.

9. There at least eight biblical synonyms for the ECS: Light, Psalm 43:3; 119;130; Ephesians 5:8,9, 13; The glory of God, Jeremiah 13:16; 1 Corinthians 11:7; The fullness of God, Ephesians 3:19; Imitators of God, Ephesians 5:1 (in the Greek; Christ at home in your hearts, Ephesians 3:17; Christ formed in you, Galatians 4:19; The new man, Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10; The perfect work, James 1:4.

Verses 7-8, the enemy of the edification complex of the soul.

Verse 7 — “Let not think,” a present active imperative plus the negative, and the verb is o)iomai which is pride thinking, inflated thinking. It means thinking divorced from the reality of a situation; human viewpoint thinking. It also means presumption. How do you get pride thinking as a believer? The answer is found in the word gnwsij: trying to apply gnwsij doctrine. Gnwsisj is Bible doctrine understood academically by means of the Holy Spirit and residing in the nouj or the mind. Over in the right lobe of the soul is the heart or kardia. You cannot apply doctrine from the left lobe to experience or to life in phase two. Doctrine to be applied must be in the right lobe. In other words, the only doctrine that can be applied is e)pignwsij, and that is applied from the human spirit. A “doer” is not someone who can run around knocking on doors, a “doer” is someone who can apply doctrine.

We have a negative in front of o)iomai — “stop all o)iomai.” As long as a person has o)iomai he will never have an ECS. When a believer tries to use gnwsij he always distorts the truth. Doctrine can only be applied when it is e)pignwsij. Remember that the mind, the left lobe, is a staging area and that doctrine must be transferred from the staging area as gnwsij to the human spirit, the pneuma. What you only have in the mind cannot be applied, it has to be transferred by faith — Ephesians 3:17; Hebrews 4:2. Only Bible doctrine in the human spirit (e)pignwsij) is useable, and it is useable in two ways: for construction material, and for frame of reference for application. Only doctrine in the human spirit forms the basis, then, for the erection of the ECS. This is where we get the words “rooted and grounded” — Ephesians 3:17; Colossians 2:7; Isaiah 37:31.

The present active imperative here plus the negative mh simply means to stop doing something. In other words, James caught the Jerusalem church with their hand in the cookie jar. They were already doing it; they were already divorced from reality; they were already thinking legalism; they were already thinking pride. Here is where the Greek comes in and helps us. James is not telling Jews to stop it, he is telling Jews who have gone from Jerusalem throughout the rest of the world that they are already to doing it and to quit it, stop it. So this should be translated: “Stop thinking divorced from reality,” or literally, “For that man must stop presuming.”

So we have the word “man,” and this is a reference to the believer who has intellectual comprehension of doctrine but has not transferred it through the grace apparatus. In other words, no GAP. If you have exposed yourself to the teaching of doctrine (gnwsij) and by the ministry of the Spirit you have gnwsij, that is as far as you have gone. You have exposed yourself to ICE teaching and comprehended what is taught), and that is where it stops. If it stops there then this person can never receive all the grace that God has for him.

“that he shall receive any thing from the Lord” — these people assume that because they are “working for God” that they are going to get something from God. They are assuming something, and to assume is to presume and to presume is to divorce the thinking from reality. They are not going to get anything from God.

“that he shall receive” — future passive indicative of lambanw. The future tense means that he anticipates that somewhere in the future God is going to bless him because he felt sorry for his sins, because he was witnessing, because he did this, that and the other because of something that he is doing. God’s whole system of blessing is grace. God’s whole system of blessing is what God is doing for you, not what you are doing for God. The word for “any thing” is tij, and it is used here for more grace. Then we have “of God” — para, the preposition of immediate source, “from the immediate source of God.”

“For that man must stop presuming that he shall receive anything from the immediate source of God.”

Verse 8 — we get to the big enemy of the ECS. We have for double-minded a compound adjective, diyuxoj. Yuxoj is soul, di is two or double. The Greek says “double-souled,” not double-minded. This is a technical adjective for the emotional revolt of the soul. Your soul is designed for your right man to run it; right man is the heart. The heart has frame of reference, norms and standards and viewpoint. The emotion is the right woman, the responder. The emotion is an empty vessel, it responds to the right lobe. When the empty vessel starts to respond to the old sin nature, then you have a double soul. The ruler is set aside, doctrine and everything is cut off and you have an emotional revolt of the soul and this means a double soul — the woman is running the show! And what does the woman have? The woman of the soul is the emotion. Emotion is an empty vessel, it has no character, no doctrine, no common sense, no norms and standards, and therefore it can only receive, and it receives mental attitude sins. Then it revolts against the hear and when that happens the soul is ruled by mental attitude sins, by lust, and by human good. That is a double soul.

The Greek noun here is a)nhr, not a)nqrwpoj. What is the difference? Anqrwpoj is actually used in verse 7 — “that man.” It is a word for man in terms of generic concepts; it means mankind and it has the concept of human viewpoint, intellectual comprehension. Therefore it is a perfect word as the subject of o)iomai. But here we have a different word — a)nhr. This means a noble man, it describes the potentiality of the believer with doctrine in his soul as e)pignwsij. This is the potential, but it is only potential and yet it is there and that is grace in itself. Here is a person who is under emotional revolt, he is a believer, he is still a)nhr. So we have a believer, a noble man, and yet he is double-souled — emotional revolt. And when a believer is under emotional revolt of the soul, no matter how stabilised his character has been up to that point, he suddenly becomes unstable in his soul. This is, again, a compound adjective, a)katastatoj. Notice that first of all we have a, which is negative, kata, which is norm or standard, and then we have statoj from the verb i(stemi which means to stand, or to be stable. Stability here is standing according to a norm or standard; it is e)pignwsij in the human spirit and in the right lobe. Here there is no e)pignwsij and therefore you have no katastatoj, no stability. So we have a perfect translation here: “unstable” .It also means inconsistent, turbulent, fickle, restless, vacillating. All apply here.

“in all his ways” — e)n plus the locative of o(doj, in the sphere of his entire life he is characterised by these things.

Verse 9 — the reflected glory of the ECS. There are two passages which deal with reflected glory. One is 1 Corinthians chapter 11 in which we have the analogy between right man/right woman, and the reflected gory of the ECS. The right woman is the glory of the right man and the ECS becomes the responder, the glory, of God.

In this verse 9 we have the concept of reflected glory. The Lord is picture in the analogy as the right man and he has provided for us His Word, the voice of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God the Father, the mind of Jesus Christ. The believer through GAP is the responder. The construction of the ECS is the result of daily response. This becomes the reflected glory of God. Many people associate glorifying God with some overt action which is highly commendable, but God’s grace and the life which He has provided for us is in the soul, and witnessing, prayer, giving, overt activities of one sort or another are merely the results of the ECS. So the reflected glory of the ECS is now presented.

“Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted.” The word “brother” is used simply to indicate the family of God. It refers to a believer, male or female. A)delfoj is the Greek word and this recognises the fact that we have been born into God’s family. We are in God’s family forever, we will never get out of God’s family. There are all kinds of people who are in God’s family. There are carnal believers and spiritual believers. There are believers who are babies, there are believers who are adolescent, there are believers who are mature. James takes the most superficial of all of the distinctions between believers in order to make his point. He took a very superficial approach in his illustration so that people in the 20th century would understand exactly what he was teaching in the first chapter.

The phrase “of low degree,” an adjective tapeinoj. The word means humble, and also grace oriented. It has both a technical and a non-technical meaning in the New Testament. It is used here by James for a person who is poor financially but has an ECS as represented by grace orientation.

The next word is “rejoice.” This is a bad translation. It is present active imperative of kauxaiomai which means to boast. It also means to glory and it has another meaning: to celebrate. It actually begins the sentence in the Greek: “Keep on celebrating,” present tense, linear aktionsart. Now how do you celebrate? James indicates these people have begun by taking in the Word of God. It is the intake of the Word of God that makes this party good. In other words, there has to be input before there can be output! There must be the intake of the Word of God before you get into the party stage in Christianity. Christianity is something very wonderful and very marvellous, but not apart from Bible doctrine. So it is the Bible doctrine that makes the difference. There must be the daily intake of doctrine and then the celebration begins.

Once you start celebrating you are told to keep on celebrating — present active imperative: “Keep on celebrating poor but grace oriented believer [brother].” Here is a believer in Jesus Christ who is poor as far as finances go but he possesses an edification complex and is moving constantly in the direction of the daily intake of doctrine. Now he is told to keep going.

Then we have the phrase “in that he is exalted.” Literally, this is “in the sphere of exaltation.” We have the preposition e)n plus the locative. The locative case in the Greek generally indicates a sphere in which the action takes place. The action of the noun is u(esoj, which mean exaltation. So literally, “Keep on celebrating poor but edified brother in the sphere of exaltation.” Exaltation refers to the ECS, “in the sphere of your ECS.” The grandest celebration in life is the use of the ECS. You start with grace and end up with perfect happiness. Life becomes a great celebration whether the circumstances are prosperity of adversity. In other words, there are going to be varying circumstances of life but the celebration goes right on. The poor believer, then, with an ECS celebrates just as much as the rich believer with an ECS. However, it is a little more difficult for the rich believer to get to that point. It is easier to be poor and to arrive at the point of +H than to be rich and to arrive at the point of +H. The rich person is tempted to get off the track at various points because he has the means to do so.

James is looking at the believer from the standpoint of one of his distinctions, and yet he is going to make a very strong contrast followed by what does a rich believer and a poor believer have in common as a potential. The answer is the ECS. With the ECS completed the rich believer is no happier than the poor believer, and the poor believer is no more grace oriented than the rich believer. They have exactly the same opportunities under grace and their financial status makes absolutely no difference.

In verses 10-11 we have the basic floor of the ECS — grace orientation. You can’t build the rest of the floors unless you have the first floor.

Verse 10 — “But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.” This is not communist propaganda, this is the Word of God, and Bible doctrine makes it very clear that there is nothing wrong with being wealthy as a believer. Not only is there nothing wrong with it but a believer with wealth should not be fleeced by every fly-by-night Christian organisation that comes along.

“But the rich.” We begin with a particle used as a conjunction — de. It is set up as a conjunction of contrast to show that there is a contrast of financial status between the poor with his ECS and the rich with his ECS. Both the rich and the poor possess the ECS; “the rich” — plousioj, an adjective, in the sphere of his grace orientation, not “that he is made low.” It actually says here in the Greek: “But the wealthy, in the sphere of his grace orientation.” We actually have no verb here at all, we have a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative case, and then an interesting adjective, tapeinwsij, an Attic Greek word for humiliation as a state of being, but in the Koine Greek it is grace orientation as a state of being. A wealthy person cannot enjoy his wealth unless he has capacity for life, and his capacity for life comes from doctrine. Grace orientation gives him the capacity to enjoy what he has and to help him to pass the prosperity test. There are some people who cannot pass the poverty test, the adversity test, and there are some who cannot pass the prosperity test. But the ECS, says James, makes it possible for you to pass both tests.

“But the wealthy [believer] in the sphere of his grace orientation.” Why? Because the wealthy believer is in danger of becoming a slave to the details of life. He has enough details to be very easily be tempted to become their slave. He can fall into that trap of trying to make his happiness depend on things and persons. But happiness does not depend on things or persons, happiness depends on doctrine.

We have an illustration of the mastery of the details of life as it relates to the grace orientation principle. We start with flowers: “the flower of the grass.” This is really one word in the Greek — a)nqoj. A)nqoj has to do with beauty. Grass in itself is not considered beautiful to most people, so most people don’t see the grass but they see whatever flowers pop up on top of the grass. The grass itself represents your life and the flower represents the details of life. So at certain times you blossom forth with details, e.g. money, social life, friends, a loved one, health, sex, materialistic things. These are called a)nqoj, the flower. A flower is something that is very beautiful at a certain point. The details of life come and go. There will be times when you will have them; there will be times when you won’t ."He shall pass away” should be “it shall pass away” — parerxomai, which means here to fade away. Ordinarily it means to disappear; here it means to fade away. “Because as the flower of the grass it shall fade away.” This is a future middle indicative and the future tense means future from the peak of its beauty. In other words, if you have details of life they are going to fade away. They won’t last; they never do.

It is very important to understand that the basis for your happiness is doctrine. The basis for happiness goes with you to heaven. Everything in the soul goes with you to heaven. If you have an ECS it goes with you. If you have a lot of doctrine in the right lobe it goes with you. So your capacity for life goes to heaven with you. Your capacity for loving the Lord goes with you.

Verse 11— what causes it to fade? The Greek word for sun is h(lioj. “The sun also riseth” — aorist active indicative. This is a constative aorist (It will happen today, it will happen tomorrow, the next day, and it is going to keep right on going). The verb here is a)natelw which means to rise again — “with a burning heat,” or literally, “with a scorching heat.” The word is sun kauswn, it is a prepositional phrase — “accompanied by a scorching heat.”

“and the flower falls off” — e)kpiptw, which means it falls off, it is gone, it ceases to exist. This word is not the same as “withereth” — chrainw. When chrainw is used it means loss of the details of life; when e)kpiptw is used it means temporary removal of these things.

“and the grace” — the word “grace” is not grace here. The word is e)uprepeia which literally means good primping. In other words, you see something in the mirror worth looking at and so you primp. It means beauty. The “grace of the fashion” is literally the beauty of its fashion, the beauty of the flower; “perisheth,” a)pollumi which means to be destroyed.

“so also” — now the analogy is completed; “the rich man [wealthy believer] shall fade away in his ways [journey].” The word for “fade away” is marainw, a future passive indicative here which means whatever it is her receives it. The word actually means to decay, not to fade away. He receives decadence in his way of life. In other words, if he becomes the slave to the details it is not the details that fall off, it is the beauty of the believer who had an ECS. What happens is that he begins to become a slave to the details of life, and as he does the beauty begins to fade because slavery to the details of life is accompanied by negative volition toward doctrine and he gets into emotional revolt of the soul. This is the loss of the reflected glory of the ECS.

Verse 12 — “Blessed,” makarioj, which means happiness. Whether a believer is rich or poor, in adversity or prosperity, he can still have happiness.

The doctrine of happiness.

1. Happiness is related to the essence of God. God always possessed perfect happiness, there never was a time when he was not happy. This happiness is a part of His character. God is not only perfect but He possesses perfect happiness which means also eternal happiness. He is also happy with His plan of grace and therefore grace is the expression of His perfect happiness. Therefore grace is the source of our perfect happiness.

2. Happiness is related to the divine decrees. In eternity past God desired to share His happiness with man in time. This is only possible through entering God’s plan. We enter at the point of salvation — Psalm 51:12. Then there is the daily function of GAP — Nehemiah 8:10.

3. Therefore happiness is accomplished through grace. In grace God found a way to share His happiness with us.

4. Such happiness is confined to the plan of God. Man enters the plan of God by believing in Jesus Christ. However being saved does not mean that happiness will exist; it is only potential, not a reality. Salvation does not imply instant or automatic happiness. Happiness is something that is developed through Bible doctrine — 1 John 1:4.

5. The ultimate in happiness in time begins with the filling of the Spirit — Galatians 5:22 — and it continues through the intake of doctrine, and when the ECS is constructed it continues in the optimum — John 17:17. This is maximum happiness in phase two.

6. The recognition of human happiness in time is necessary. There is such a thing as minus H, or human happiness, and it is in contrast to God’s happiness or plus H. In the devil’s world there exists a human happiness which is temporary and superficial. Such happiness often depends on either the details of life or having one’s own way, or pleasant environment, or stimulating circumstances, or never being crossed. However, boredom, frustration, restlessness, instability, neutralise this happiness. Furthermore this happiness does not sustain in adversity, in fact it disappears. Genuine human happiness does exist under the concept of neutral H — e.g. the genuine happiness of the unbeliever right man/right woman.

7. God has designed +H to be permanent and stabilised through GAP and the ECS — John 17:13, 17. The inner happiness of +H possesses capacity for love, relationship with God, and life itself. This is sustained by the daily intake of doctrine — 1 John 1:4.

8. There is a daily buildup of happiness. This is the function of the universal priesthood of the believer when he is positive toward doctrine — Matthew 4:4; Jeremiah 15:16; James 1:25.

9. The problem of the plural words for happiness: Ashere in the Hebrew and makarioi in the Greek. Both of them are translated “blessed” and both of them should be translated “happinesses.” The plural indicates the buildup of happiness through doctrine. Doctrine builds happiness and that in turn stimulates a desire for more doctrine.

10. Happiness protects from disillusion in three areas: a. Disillusion regarding the circumstances of life — Philippians 4:11,12; b; disillusion regarding the details of life — Hebrews 13:5,6; c. disillusion regarding other believers in life — Hebrews 12:2.

11. Inner happiness enhances capacity for love. This results in maximum blessing or the double blessing of happinesses. This also accumulates fragrance of memory in love categories. This acts as a defense against temptation and against unfaithfulness of loved ones or unfaithfulness to the Lord — Song of Solomon 3:1; 4:6; 8:6.

12. Inner happiness is commanded for phase two — Philippians 4:4. This command is obeyed through learning Bible doctrine — Jeremiah 15:16; 1 John 1:4. Therefore any command to be happy is always a command to take in doctrine on a daily basis.

13. Inner happiness is provided for phase three — Jude 24.

14. You cannot build happiness on happiness, happiness must be built on Bible doctrine — 2 Corinthians 8:2. Doctrine provides the capacity for happiness as well as for love and the person that makes you happy today will make you miserable tomorrow apart from doctrine. Therefore happiness must be based on doctrine rather than on the things that make you happy.

15. You cannot build happiness on someone else’s happiness.

Verse 12 — Blessing is a relative thing in human thinking, but it is not a relative thing as we begin this verse. The word makarioj here in the singular actually means happy. In this context both the rich and the poor can be happy. James makes a dogmatic statement here that is almost impossible for a believer to, understand, accept, enter into, until he has enough doctrine to make it stick. God has provided happiness for all circumstances of life. Happiness is something you can have in prosperity, adversity, and in a tremendous number of varying circumstances in life. Happiness is a status of the soul, and for the believer who has makarioj this status means no circumstance of life can remove it.

The verb “is” is not found here, it is in italics in the translation. So it is “Happy the man.” The word for “man” is a)nhr which means nobleman, aristocrat. Every believer positionally is a)nhr. It is a term used for believers experientially who have taken in Bible doctrine consistently and have grown up.

Happiness here is associated with something generally unpleasant because here is “endurance,” and anything that you endure is no fun while you do it; “that endureth,” a present active indicative of u(pomenw. U(po means under; menw means to abide or to stay. It means really to stay under the pressure, to endure the pressure, no matter how it hurts. So enduring here as a present active indicative means unpleasant circumstances at the time of the experience. The unpleasant circumstances are categorised by an accusative singular noun, peirasmoj which means testing to see what you have in you. Testing is pressure put on you to see what is in you, and it is used in two ways in the Bible. You can never tell what people are like under ordinary circumstances but you can always tell what people are really like when they are under enough pressure.

This passage is saying that you can have happiness under the greatest pressures of life. Happiness is a condition of the soul, and makarioj has a number of expressions. There is a whole spectrum of happiness and runs the gamut from tranquillity to ecstatics, and between tranquillity and ecstatics you have varying degrees of manifestation. But in this particular spectrum where you have these varying degrees of manifestation you will always have this happiness when you reach a certain point. All of these things together add up to a principle. You can be very happy, but not ecstatic, under great pressure. God has so designed your life. “Happy is the nobleman [believer] that keeps on enduring pressure [pressure designed to bring out what you really are].”

There are two ways in which peirasmoj is used in the New Testament. 1. Pressure or adversity which brings out the best or the worst in a person. It is pressure or adversity or suffering which is not discipline, it is non-punitive. This is simply pressure that you didn’t earn, deserve or work for and yet you find yourself in these circumstances. It is designed to bring out what is in you — 1 Corinthians 10:13. 2. Temptation: solicitation to evil. It is used here in James 1:12 and also used in Matthew 4:1. Temptation is designed to see which way you are going to jump, positive or negative.

How do we know it is temptation here? We know it from the general context. We know it from the fact that in the next few verses we are going to have several principles connected with temptation, and one of them is the fact that God does not tempt anyone. So obviously we are talking about the second meaning of the word.

There are three sources of temptation, and because you are under temptation it does not mean that you have sinned. Temptation is never sin until volition has done something about it. If you go negative then you go under the power of the old sin nature. That means that you produced the sin, whatever it was.

The first source of temptation is called “the world” — Romans 12:2; 1 John 2:15,16. That brings up the issue: What is worldliness? Worldliness is not being out on the town; it is not having a good time; it is not playing golf on Sunday; it is not sitting around with a bunch of people laughing; it is not ladies having make-up on their faces. Worldliness is dealt with as a principle in the Word. It is never something you do, it is always something you think. You do on the basis of what you think. Whenever you think anything is more important than Bible doctrine, then that is worldliness. Worldliness is a mental attitude.

The second source of temptation is the flesh, mentioned in Romans 7:15 and in Galatians 5:16-21. The flesh is generally the lust pattern of the old sin nature. They key here is desire.

The third area of temptation is the devil — Matthew 4:1; James 4:7,8. The devil does not generally solicit people to evil. The cosmic system of the devil is evil but you have to remember that the devil is trying to produce perfect environment on the earth while he is the ruler of the earth. Therefore the devil tempts you to become religious, to become legalistic. Religion is the devil’s ace trump and the devil tries to et you to be self-righteous and legalistic and anti-grace. The devil does not personally tempt many people. Demon activity is under the category of the devil. Their solicitation to evil is involved in things such as, intellectually, Gnosticism; ritualistically, the phallic cult.

Generally speaking most of our temptations come from category one or two, and sometimes a combination. To be tempted is not sin. There are three sources of temptation and one source of sin. The source of sin is the old sin nature’s area of weakness. There is nothing wrong with being tempted but there is something wrong when you say yes to the temptation. When you succumb to the temptation that immediately puts you under the power of the old sin nature, and then you express the sin through the area of weakness. It will fall into one of three categories: mental attitude sins, sins of the tongue, or overt sins. During the time of sinning and afterward you remain under the old sin nature. The only way you ever break out of the power of the old sin nature is by means of rebound 1 John 1:9. The Bible makes it very clear that we are going to continue to sin as long as we live on this earth, and there never will be a time when we stop sinning. It is important to understand that we do not have a license to sin, but let’s face it: there are a certain number of people who are so self-righteous and so tied up with cosmic legalism that they make a statement such as “I haven’t sinned for a year, or a long time,” etc. But as long as you have an old sin nature, and as long as you live in the devil’s world, there are going to be times when you are going to do exactly what you want to do. And what you want to do it sin. The greatest issue in sinning is not overt sin but what goes on in the soul. You are always going to have an old sin nature until the day you die or the Rapture, whichever occurs first. That means that as long as you live you are going to be tempted.

U(pomenw means a lot more than just hurting under pressure. It means an attitude toward others around you under pressure. The word is even stronger than it appears on the surface because temptation can be a direct world, flesh or the devil approach or it can be an direct or indirect eyes-on-people.

“When he is tried” is what we have in the King James translation, but that is not what the Greek says. “Happy the nobleman [the believer] who endures temptation, for having become approved.” Next we have “he is” but we do not have e)imi here, we have ginomai which means to become. The aorist participle of ginomai should be translated “having become.” Generally it means having become something that you were not before. That is exactly what ginomai means here because the word for “tried” is a second word. We have just had peirasmoj which was translated “temptation.” It means testing for the purpose of determining good or evil, weakness or strength. But the word we have for “tried” is dokimoj and it means to bet tested for the purpose of approval only. So following the aorist active participle ginomai we have the noun dokimoj, and it should be translated “having become approved.” Here is someone who has passed the test. The test is u(pomenw, and having accomplished that we have “having become approved.”

“he shall receive” — future middle indicative of lambanw which means to receive. The future tense refers to something which happens at the end of the Church Age, at the judgement seat of Christ. The middle voice: the believer is benefited by the action of the verb because in the case of the believer here there is a reward for having become approved after temptation. The indicative mood is the reality of rewards at the judgement seat of Christ. The rewards are stated by the word “crown,” stefanoj. Sometimes it is used for a king’s crown but here it is used for a crown given to an athlete who wins an event at the games. The crown is said to be “the crown of life” — genitive of zwh. Life here connotes the function of life and the production of divine good. Divine good comes from the filling of the Spirit and Bible doctrine in the right lobe, the ECS.

The doctrine of crowns: there are four definite categories of rewards given at the judgement seat of Christ.

1. The crown of life — James 1:12; Revelation 2:10. The crown of life is production that comes from the ECS.

2. The crown of joy — Philippians 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:19. The crown of joy is a happiness which means that you must have a completed ECS because joy is the completion of the ECS. From happiness is great production. If you witness because you love Jesus Christ, that is rewardable. So this crown is associated with witnessing, helping other believers. This is often related to other believers. It is a reward from producing from a completed ECS. The crown of life is production from any one of the floors of the ECS — incomplete, but the crown of joy is production from a completed ECS.

3. The crown of righteousness — 2 Timothy 4:7,8. Righteousness here is grace orientation. The word for righteousness is dikaiosunh — grace orientation or grace operation. Grace orientation: first floor of the ECS; grace operation: Bible doctrine in the right lobe causing you to live by grace, walk by grace, to stand by grace.

4. The crown of glory — 1 Peter 5:4. This is production which originates from the reflected glory of the ECS. In 1 Peter 5:4 it is specifically related to the function of the pastor, assuming that pastors will rapidly develop and ECS.

“which the Lord hath promised” — aorist middle indicative of e)paggellw. This means to announce a promise, to undertake on behalf of someone. The aorist tense indicates that these promises were made in eternity past. The middle voice is reflexive. God Himself promises the rewards. The rewards are actually the expression of the character of God. The indicative mood is the reality of the promise of rewards through grace.

“to them that love him” — dative plural, present active participle of a)gapaow, one of the two verbs for category one love. A)gapaw is the mental attitude side of it. This is the RMA (relaxed mental attitude), the third floor of the ECS. This is love occupation, love concentration on God. If you love God everything else is follow-through. Whatever you do, think say; whatever you function, whatever your patterns may be, anything outside of loving God is simply the follow-through. But basically all reward is based upon your attitude toward God. The present active participle is linear aktionsart. The dative plural means that it is to the advantage of anyone so involved.

The doctrine of category #1 love.

1. Category #1 love is a response to the love of God — He loved you first. We love Him because He first loved us. But remember that you are responding as a believer, you did not initiate the love. The initiator is God — Deuteronomy 6:5. This category #1 love built upon doctrine is tantamount to occupation with Christ — Hebrews 12:2.

2. Capacity for category #1 love stems from the function of GAP — Colossians 3:1,2. In other words, Bible doctrine develops your capacity to love God.

3. Maximum category #1 love results in the ECS — Philippians 1:20,21; Ephesians 3:17-19; 1 John 4:17.18.

4. For the believer in the Church Age the first category #1 love response occurs through the filling of the Spirit — concluded from a comparison of Ephesians 5:2 with 5:18.

5. Like the right man in category #2 love Jesus Christ is the aggressor. He initiates through grace — Ephesians 5:25-27; 1 John 4:8-10, 19.

6. Capacity for love is based upon the daily intake of doctrine, the daily function of GAP — Philippians 3:7,8; 2 Timothy 1:13.

Verse 13 — Every now and then a writer of scripture under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit takes a false position in order to show the true position. God uses a writer like, James, and He takes a completely false position and puts this false position in the mouth of someone called mhdeij, translated “No man.” “Let say” is a present active imperative of legw. Legw comes from logoj which means “word.” Words are formed in the mind before you ever say them. Now mhdeij has something to say. Mhdeij means “not one person.” “Let not even one person say.” Obviously “one person” here is a believer. The present active imperative plus mhdeij means “Stop saying,” so James is addressing certain people who have already spoken something which is false. One of the responsibilities of the communicator of doctrine is to teach the truth and to refute the false. In refuting the false the false is often stated.

“When he is tempted”

1. “he is tempted” — present passive participle of the verb peirazw. There is another word translated “tempt” — dokimazw. Peirazw means to solicit to evil, it also means to test for evil; dokimazw means to test for the purpose of approving something or someone. Peirazw is used in this verse. The present tense indicates the continuation of being tempted in this life. The passive voice: you receive temptation. The participle indicates that this is a principle which always exists.

2. We do not have here dokimazw, for dokimazw means to test for the purpose of approval and is used in such passages as Luke 14:19; 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Corinthians 3:13. There is one place where it is used, Luke 12:56, to say where the hypocrites could test weather conditions. The word is dokimazw. A hypocrite could look at the weather and approve but he could not test the things that Christ the Messiah had done and put his approval on Christ as the only saviour.

3. Peirazw means to test for the purpose of discovering good or evil, to solicit to evil. It is used in James 1:2; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Matthew 4:1; John 6:6, and our context.

4. “I am tempted.” In other words, “Let mhdeij not say when he is tempted” means here to solicit to evil, and therefore correctly translated.

Here is a person who is under the pressure of temptation, whether it is from the world or the flesh or the devil. This is not wrong, it is not sinful. Sin is when you go negative and submit to the temptation. Then you come under the control of the old sin nature. But it is not wrong to be tempted. This time it is “I am tempted.” This is what you are not to say — present passive indicative of peirazw. And then the word “of” is not of at all, it is a)po which is the preposition of ultimate source — I am tempted from the ultimate source of the God. Don’t ever say that. That is a false statement. Notice that this false statement stands in the Word of God, and this is called teaching by contrast.

Then we have the true doctrine: “for the God cannot be tempted with evil.” “The God” emphasises the essence of God. “Cannot be tempted” is not a verb, it is an adjective — a)peirastoj. We have an adjective instead of a verb to give great emphasis. The adjective modifies o( qeoj — “the God.” So a)peirastoj goes with “the God” — “the never-tempted God,” literally. Then we have “with evil.” “Evil” is kakoj which is evil as a principle. This means that God cannot do human good. Human good and sin both comes from the old sin nature. “The God is not the source of solicitation with evil.” If you want to smooth out the English this is the best you can do — “For the God is incapable of being tempted from the source of evil.” God has perfect essence and He cannot be tempted. Absolute righteousness is not subject to temptation; the sovereignty of God is not subject to temptation; immutability guarantees that God could not even succumb to temptation; immutability plus absolute righteousness means that God can only resent temptation.

The word “neither” is the particle de and this shows the other side of God’s character — “neither does God solicit any man to evil.” We go from mhdeij — “Don’t ever say that when you are tempted that you are tempted from the ultimate source of God” because God does not tempt anyone. But mhdiej is the one who said this, but now o)udiej comes in. O)udeij and mhdeij are the same concept, except that o)odiej is negative — “and he himself does not temp (o)udeij — anyone).”

Now we go to a present active participle after the particle de — peirazw again, but instead of present passive it is present active because God is now the subject. Man declared in the passive voice that he was receiving temptation while the active voice of peirazw says not God. God never solicits to evil, ever. God is incapable of being tempted; God is incapable of tempting anyone. Mhdeij says I am being tempted from God; o)udeij says you can’t be tempted from God. God is never the source of evil under any circumstances. Evil stems from both angelic and human negative volition but never from divine sovereignty.

Verse 14 — the mechanics. We have first, e)kastoj, “Each one,” male or female. Temptation is personal and individual. No two people are alike and therefore no two are tempted in the same way. “Each one” tells us that we are individuals in the family of God. It tells the believer that his temptations are going to be different from others. But it should also tell him that his provision is personal with his name on it. He has provision for whatever the believer is going through, and with his name on it — you are an individual in the family.

“Each one is tempted” — present passive indicative of peirazw. The present tense: we are always going to be tempted; passive voice: we receive it; indicative mood: the reality of being solicited to evil by the old sin nature, by the world, or by the devil, “when he is drawn away” — present passive participle of e)celkw. This does not mean really to be drawn away, it means to be taken in tow. This is used for a boat dragging another boat. It also means to allure, but it means here to be taken in tow “by his own desires.” The word “of” is u(po which means under the authority of his own lust pattern. The word for “his own is” i)dioj, it is something that is personal, it goes with e(kastoj — each one has his own lust pattern, with all of its variations. “Lust pattern” is e)piqumia, the interactivity of the old sin nature. “But each one is tempted, being dragged away by his own lust pattern,” “and enticed,” another present passive participle of deleazw which means to catch with bait. Therefore “entice” is a good translation.

Up to this point we have the mechanics of temptation. Now we must go on and see how temptation is converted into sin.

Verse 15 — “Then when lust hath conceived.” This is a phenomenal principle. When does temptation stop and sin begin? “Lust” is e)piqumia — this is the lust pattern. Lust does not become sin until it “conceives.” Lust is still in the field of temptation but you can have lust many times and still not get pregnant! The word “conceive” here does not mean to conceive, it means to get pregnant — sullambanw [lambanw means to receive; su means seed]. So it means to receive seed, and it should be translated “and having become pregnant.” Lust is never sin until it becomes pregnant. “Then lust having become pregnant” — aorist active participle. The aorist tense is the point of time when the seed takes. The concept is a very simple one: Many cohabitations; few pregnancies. That is the concept. You will be under lust many times. Temptation lust becomes sin when the seed takes.

“it beareth forth” — this means to give birth, present active indicative of tiktw. The inevitable result of pregnancy is birth. There can be sexual relationship without pregnancy, and the whole concept is that you can be tempted without sinning. When lust gets pregnant is bears a child called sin. So, again, the aorist tense is important here. What causes the pregnancy in lust? Volition! So, “it bringeth forth sin” — a(martia, sin in the sense of missing the mark. A(martia also means all categories of sin come out of lust.

Once you have the sin, what does the sin do?

“and sin, when it is finished” — an aorist passive participle from a compound verb, a)potelew. A)po is the preposition of ultimate source; telew means to finish, complete, or conclude. It means to conclude or finish something from the ultimate source. The ultimate source is the old sin nature. Lust in the old sin nature eventuates in the expression of sin from the old sin nature. In other words, the child begins to talk, to move. A.T. Robertson: “Sin is the union of will and lust.”

“bringeth forth” — a)pokuew. A)po is ultimate source; kuew means to be pregnant. So this verb is a medical term rather than a literary term. Tiktw is the literary word; a)pokuew is the medical word. Why does the Holy Spirit tell James to switch from tiktw to a)potokuew? Because tiktw means a child born alive; a)pokuew means a child born dead. Sin is born dead. That is why the wages of sin is death. Life belongs to God; sin is born dead. That explains the wages of sin, it is spiritual death. Lust gets pregnant and bears sin, and sin is born dead. That means totally dead to God in every way. Whenever you sin it is always something that is dead to God.

The first time man sinned it was dead to God. The woman sinned first and then the man sinned. They both did exactly the same thing, they took of the forbidden fruit. There was a difference, of course. One deliberately sinned; one was deceived. But there was lust. The woman longed for the fruit, therefore she laid hold of the fruit. The longing was lust. Lust became pregnant and gave birth, and when she ate the fruit sin was born, but it was born dead. It was a dead action to God.

Involuntary lust is temptation; voluntary lust is sin.

The doctrine of death

1. Physical death is the soul departing from the body.

2. Spiritual death — Ephesians 2:1; Romans 5:12; 6:23; Proverbs 14:12; Genesis 2:17; 1 Corinthians 15:22. Spiritual death is no relationship with God.

3. The second death — Revelation 20:12-15; Hebrews 9:27. This is the lake of fire, the status of the unbeliever in eternity.

4. Positional death — Colossians 2; 3:4; Romans 6. This is identification with Christ in His death which means rejection of human good.

5. Sexual death — Romans 4:17-21; Hebrews 11:11,12. This is inability to copulate.

6. Operational death — James 2:26, where we have “faith without works is dead [non-operational].”

7. Temporal death — Luke 15:24, 32, where it is related to the prodigal son out of fellowship; Romans 8:6, 13; Ephesians 5:14; 1 Timothy 5:6; James 1:15; Revelation 3:1. This has to do with a believer sinning. It is called temporal death because it does not affect the believer’s eternal relationship with God.

Verse 16 — “Do not err” is not what the Greek says at all. It is a present passive imperative of the verb planaw. To err here means to be led astray, to be deceived; it does not mean to err. The reason is that “err” can be involuntary or it can be voluntary. The difference is that you know what you are doing if it is voluntary, but if it is involuntary you are stupid, ignorant, or a sucker. A lot of people err and they don’t have a clue as to what is going on, they don’t know that they have erred. There is another area where people have erred and they know they have erred, and when you say they have erred they immediately lie about it. Here in this verse the word “err” is when you know that you have done something that is out of line, but if it is voluntary we have a nice word for it: “deceive,” the word planaw. It is in the passive voice which means the subject receives the action of the verb, and that means to be deceived. It is a present imperative and the present imperative plus the negative means to stop doing something that is happening.

Who is being deceived here? Born-again believers, children of God, Christians, those who have eternal life and can’t lose it. God tells us to learn the Word, to study the Word, and the whole principle that is found in this section, verses 16-27, is the importance of GAP. Failure to use GAP always leads to being deceived. The devil is a con-man and he is smarter than any human being. One way or another he can con toy unless you know Bible doctrine. Your defense against him is doctrine. So the command to stop being deceived in a command to learn doctrine. Being deceived comes from the failure of the function of GAP. It means no doctrine in the human spirit, no doctrine in the right lobe or not the right kind of doctrine at the right time. Our protection in the unseen angelic conflict comes from the daily function of GAP. So, “stop being deceived” is the same as saying keep taking in Bible doctrine. There are two sides to the coin. “Study to show thyself approved unto God” is one side of the coin. Flip it over and it says, “Stop being deceived.” One is positive and one is negative and it just so happens at the moment that we are on the negative side of the fence. So verse 16 has to be classified as a special warning to the believer priest, a warning not to become deceived. it is linear aktionsart to indicate that this is a course of action.

Categories of believers who are going to be deceived

1. The believer who is negative toward Bible doctrine. That causes scar-tissue on the left bank of the soul. That opens up mataiothj that cosmic doctrine or Satanic concepts go into the right lobe. 2. The second is the believer who gets scar-tissue on the right bank of the soul. This adds up to a principle called the frantic search for happiness.

3. The believer who is in a state of emotional revolt of the soul. The old sin nature influences the emotion; the emotion takes over the soul and shuts down the right lobe.

4. The Christian who is subjective.

The word “beloved” is to get us back on the track with regard to objectivity — a)gaphtoj is in the plural, it refers to all these people who are making a mistake. A)gaphtoj actually means to be in union with Christ. Every believer is in union with Christ and therefore God the Father loves every believer with the same amount of love that He has for His Son. That is the beginning of objectivity again. “Brethren” means that every believer is in the family of God and will never get out of the family of God. This will be taught in verse 18.

This verse tells us to stop being deceived. There is only one way to not be deceived and that is to get right back to Bible doctrine. But you must have a starting place, and that is objectivity and the intake of doctrine.

“Beloved” means that God the Father loves you with a perfect love. God the Father loves you with the same amount of love that He has for the apostle Paul. That is objectivity. God the Father has the same amount of love for you as He has for Jesus Christ and therefore you are called “beloved.” And that isn’t all, you are also “brethren.” The word is used to designate family. It is a very important word because it means you are in the family of God.

Verse 17 — there must be something to amplify the objectivity from which you can start on the road back from reversionism. “Every” — nominative singular from paj. It can be translated “every” and it can be translated “all.” If this had been in the plural we would use “all.” “Every” means every individual thing.

Here we have a word that has to be defined and spelled out. It says “every good gift and every perfect gift.” We need to define some things here, there are two different classifications, but we need to get this much straight: it is a gift from God that any of us are alive right now. The fact that we have anything is a gift from God. “Stop being deceived” goes with verse 17, “every good gift and every perfect gift is from God.”

The word “good” is ag)aqoj which here is a category that connotes good of intrinsic value. This is the word that is most frequently used for divine good, but here it means good of intrinsic value. Good of intrinsic value means the variety of things that come from God. As a member of the family of God whether you grow or fail to grow God is going to give you a certain amount of prosperity. The only way to be prepared for it is to have capacity, and capacity for life comes from Bible doctrine. Capacity for life, capacity to appreciate and enjoy things in life comes from Bible doctrine in your right lobe. So the more you take in doctrine the sooner you will be prepared for prosperity when it comes. You are going to flunk the prosperity test without doctrine. The same thing is true of adversity. Many great gifts are given in adversity. God doesn’t stop giving to you whether it is carnality or spirituality, whether it is adversity or prosperity.

Now we are ready for the word “gift” because that gives us the understanding — dosij, which is the act of giving. “Ij” is a suffix which means the act of. Now we have active and passive suffixes. This is an active suffix and the act of giving emphasises the giver. God is the giver. God gives on the basis of His essence or His character. “Good” is the word a)gaqoj — good of intrinsic value. What is intrinsic value? Gold has intrinsic value. It always has intrinsic value. No matter where you find it, it still has intrinsic value. Gold does not change its value because of its locale. That is what we call intrinsic value. Note: God does not stop giving things because you have failed Him. Good, here, is good of intrinsic value; dosij, here, is not a gift, it is the act of giving. God gives on the basis of His character; God does not give on the basis of your character. If you are going to stop deceiving yourself you have to go back to the fact that God never gave you anything on the basis of your character, on the basis of who and what you are. Self-deceit is failure to understand God’s grace. “Stop deceiving yourself, my beloved brethren. Every good gift (act of giving)...” Good gifts are everything that God gives you whether it is spiritual or material, social, or whatever it is. Why? Because God is perfect, and therefore if God gives you something what he gives you is perfect and it always has intrinsic value. God gives on the basis of who and what He is. God is going to provide for you even if you are the world’s worst stinker. You are in His family. “Good gift” is the air you breath, the food you eat, the way you live, everything that you have in life — the moments of prosperity, the moments of adversity, your whole life since the day that you were born again. It doesn’t mean that you were always happy or that you have been happy any of that time, but God keeps on giving to carnal believers, to spiritual believers, to immature believers, to mature believers.

Now we get to “every [paj] perfect gift.” Again we have a nominative singular, but notice something: a)gaqoj was nominative singular feminine — that’s “good,” but every “perfect.” Here we have “every” again, but it is nominative singular neuter and neuter never refers to the person of Jesus Christ. So the word “perfect” here does not apply to Jesus Christ. We have the nominative singular of the adjective teleioj. Teleioj does not really mean perfect here, it means completed. This is a gift that God is waiting to give every believer but it is not necessarily completed at this moment; this is a gift that is built upon other gifts. God gives us Bible doctrine; God gives us the canon of scripture; God preserves the canon of scripture, God’s gives us a GAP, a human spirit at the point of salvation, the opportunity to take in doctrine. He provides a series of gifts that lead to a completed gift. He gives us a number of gifts so that we can have a completed gift — teleioj means completed.

What is this completed gift? We have a different word here for “gift.” We had dosij , the act of giving, before; this time we have dwrhma, which has a passive suffix, and it means something that it received passively. It is a resultant gift. So we have the completed gift, the edification complex of the soul.

So let’s sort out the gifts. At the point of salvation we receive the unspeakable gift, Jesus Christ. In phase two, in our general life, we receive the a)gaqoj, the good gifts, and they are divided into spiritual and material. Then, if we function under GAP in a consistent manner there is a completed gift which cause God our Father to suddenly be the “Father of lights,” for that gift is grace orientation [First floor], mastery of the details of life [Second floor], relaxed mental attitude [Third floor], capacity for love [Fourth floor], and +H, God’s great objective which God wants to give us; but there are some prerequisites to it and God gives, gives, gives, and as we receive, receive, receive, volitional-wise we get to the point where the ECS is constructed. So we have the ECS, then, as the completed gift.

“Every good gift and every completed gift is from above.” “Above” is a)nwqen, an adverb, and it means from a higher place. With it is a present active indicative, an absolute status quo verb e)imi. The present tense means “keeps on being” from a higher place. God has many things He wants to give you, and they are all stored up there. He is trying to give them to you right now. Some He will give you because they don’t depend upon your volition, and some He can’t give you because they do depend upon your volition, but He has all these gifts which are stored above. But they do come down. So we have that present active participle of katabainw, which means to descend — “and cometh down from the Father.” The food you eat, the air you breathe, the clothes you wear, the friends you have, the shelter you have, your safety, your health, your life, everything you have since you were born from above comes from above. You and I as believers in Jesus Christ cannot say, I have this because of who and what I am. Forget it! If you don’t forget it, count on it, you are deceived. “Stop being deceived.”

“from the Father” — a)po, the preposition of ultimate source. Many things come to you indirectly from the Father. Someone else may give you something; that’s from the Father. Someone provides something for you; that’s from the Father.

The grace orientation principle that keeps you from being deceived is the principle that everything you have and are, ever will have or will be from now until billions of years from now, is going to be from the ultimate source of God. He is your Father and He gives on the basis of His character.

We start with “and cometh down.” We are talking about all that we are, all that we ever will be, the reason why we are alive, the air that we breathe, the life that we live, the things that we possess, the relationships in which we find ourselves. All of these things are from above. “And cometh down” — katabainw. This verb means to descend and it means there is a time when it becomes necessary to possess these things which God has provided for us in His plan in eternity past. One thing about a gift: there is a right time to give and a wrong time to give. There is a time not to give because it is out of place, it looks like bribery, coercion or payment. So giving has to be timed so that it does not give the wrong impression or so that it does not suggest strings or put the beneficiary in a place of pressure.

In eternity past while God was working out His plan He found a way to time His gifts perfectly. The timing has to do with the intake of Bible doctrine, which is going to be the subject beginning in verse 19. Verse 19 starts out with the word “Wherefore” which is literally, “Know this,” and then says what is necessary for perception of doctrine. Right now we are dealing with a principle that leads up to the principle of GAP. By learning doctrine every day eventually these things are useable and are going to be applied in some special way for our blessing. The doctrine you learn today may not be applied for a year or two; it may be applied today, tomorrow or the next day. But the point is that there must be a storehouse of doctrine ready to use at the right time.

Joseph, under God’s grace and through a prophecy of divine revelation, learned that Egypt was going to have seven years of economic depression. Prior to that there were going to be seven years of great prosperity. So he used the prosperity to prepare for depression so that when the depression came there would be no depression. That is what Bible doctrine does. Use the season of so-called prosperity to take in Bible doctrine. The time may come when you cannot take in Bible doctrine where it is not around. So you can use your prosperity now and take in Bible doctrine and you will have it for the periods of depression or periods of disaster. This business of grabbing a promise and shooting up a quick prayer when disaster hits is not the answer. The concept is to draw upon the depth

of inner resources of doctrine within a frame of reference so that the doctrine in your soul is so stabilised that the application becomes routine and you don’t even miss a step as far as your Christian experience is concerned.

“from the Father” — God the Father is the author of the divine plan. The plan is called the divine decrees. “The Father of lights” — genitive plural of the noun fwj, from which we get phosphorous, and other words. The genitive case here is called a genitive of source. The Father is the source of lights. It is ambiguous at first reading as to exactly what is meant by the word “lights.” The word fwj is one of many Greek words for light and it is used in the plural to indicate categories of doctrine. Doctrine is stored categorically in your soul, it is not listed categorically in the Bible. That is why when we take up a doctrine we often go to many areas of the scripture and a certain emphasis or something on that doctrine is found in many different books. So the word “lights” is to show the diversification of Bible doctrine. Doctrine is diversified to meet many, many conditions of life and the conditions of life need light shed upon them. There is an idiom we use in the English: I wish you would shed a little light on this, or I wish you would enlighten me. It means the same thing and that is the concept here — to be enlightened from the inside by means of Bible doctrine. So fwj not only refers to Bible doctrine in the right lobe but it implies, along with teleioj, the existence of the ECS. Light with the ECS is brought together in Psalm 119:130 — “The entrance of thy word giveth light.” The entrance of the Word is at a point of time, and when you get light from hearing the Word or when the Word enters your soul at one point of time, that is light no. 1. It goes in, of course, to the left lobe which is merely a staging area. Then it goes down to the human spirit, and the word is e)pignwsij. Then it is cycled up into the right lobe and goes into the frame of reference, and again you have the Word there. Next are the norms and standards with the Word, then you have viewpoint with the Word. Then the Word begins to construct the ECS. So this is the entrance of the Word, and the light is the ECS.

The concept is the same in our verse. What is the source of the light? The Father. The entrance of the word giveth light means don’t stop after one shot. Between you and your heavenly Father is a bridge. That bridge is Bible doctrine. He has not left you in the dark. He is the “Father of lights,” plural. It is genitive of source, He is the source of lights, He is the source of lights in your soul so that your soul is enlightened and not in darkness. An enlightened soul is able to cope with all circumstances in life — prosperity and adversity. It is important, it is imperative, through Bible doctrine to have lights in your soul. You can’t stop with one or life is going to be rough.

“with whom” — we have a preposition here. Para, the preposition of immediate source — “from the immediate source of whom.” The relative pronoun refers to God the Father, the author of the divine plan, the provider of the bridge of doctrine to you; “is no variableness,” the present active indicative of e)neimi which means to be within, but it has a negative and so there is not within; “from the immediate source of whom [God the Father] there is not within variableness.” In other words, this has to do with the character of God the Father — sovereignty, righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and veracity. God never changes — immutability — and God keeps His word. This is why grace is so important for us to understand. Everything depends on who and what God is, and God never changes.

“variablenes” — parallagh, which means change or variation or shifting. The concept is mutation. There is no mutation, there is no change, there is no variation, there is no shifting. Therefore we conclude from this word: God is dogmatic and that which emanates from God is dogmatic. For those who like “it may be this” or “it maybe that,” that isn’t Bible doctrine. So there is no change, variation or shifting, no mutation in God’s grace. God’s graciousness is also related to immutability or God’s faithfulness. In fact there are at least seven areas of scripture where God’s faithfulness is directly declared. For example, in rebound — 1 John 1:9, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins; in testing, 1 Corinthians 10:13, God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tested above that you are able. He will never put more on you than you can bear, that’s God’s faithfulness; in provision, 1 Thessalonians 5:24; in protection, 2 Thessalonians 3:3; when we are faithless, 2 Timothy 2:13; He is faithful in keeping His promises, Hebrews 10:23; in following His plan 1 Corinthians 1:9.

“neither shadow.” The word for “shadow” is not really shadow, it is a)poskiasma which does not mean a shadow, it means to cast a shadow. With the word “turning” it means an eclipse. There is not a shadow cast by turning or by changing. In other words, God’s grace in never eclipsed.

Translation: “Every good act of giving and every completed gift [ECS] keeps on being from above, coming down from the ultimate source of the Father of lights, from the immediate source of whom there is not within him movement, nor an eclipse of grace [a shadow cast by movement].”

Verse 18 — the beginning of GAP. If we are going to walk on the bridge between us and the Father in time, if we are ever going to be enlightened about who and what God is and what His plan is, how He has provided for us in every circumstance of life, how we can share His perfect happiness and blessing, and face every situation in life, then we must function under GAP.

“Of his own will” is an aorist passive participle of boulomai, the strongest word for volition. This word is so strong that it means to decree. This is the will of God in eternity past — God’s plan for your life. It should be translated “Having decreed,” or “Having been decreed” to bring out the passive voice. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. Boulomai is an aorist passive participle here. The aorist tense is an occurrence in eternity past before time began. The passive voice indicates that the plan was completed: “having been decreed.” The action of the aorist participle always precedes the main verb, and the main verb always has an indicative mood so you can recognise it. “Begat he,” however, is an aorist active indicative from a compound verb, a)pokuew. A)po is preposition of ultimate source and the verb kuew means to be pregnant. Once there is pregnancy there is birth, so this means to become pregnant and to give birth from the ultimate source. It is translated here “begat” but since it is dealing with birth it is to give birth from the ultimate source and it deals with a spiritual birth. So it is translated, “Having been decreed he regenerated us by a spiritual birth.” “Us” refers to all who believe in Jesus Christ in time. Regeneration is a part of salvation.

Notice that regeneration takes place in time. The plan came first. God made plans in eternity past for us and He puts them into action in time. One of the things that makes the plan of God so great for your life and it can’t be improved upon is that it was designed in eternity past when God knew all the whys and wherefores, all the situations. God says to us, “Look you have been born again. You have been regenerated and it is a brand new ball game — if you want the brand new.” You can be regenerated and it is the same old sixes and sevens. All you have to do is to ignore doctrine. But you have been born again and it is a spiritual birth, and God does have a plan for your life. You say, well if God has a plan for my life why am I so miserable? The answer is because you are operating on your plan. You had the audacity to choose your plan over His, that’s all.

God’s plan is learned step by step, doctrine by doctrine, line upon line and precept upon precept. God has a plan for you but you also have free will and God is a gentleman. He will not overstep your volition. You have to choose for His plan daily by the function of GAP, and you build up a storehouse, a warehouse full of things for the time of depression and disaster, for the time of prosperity. God actually has a plan for your life! If you choose your plan over God’s it is just simply saying that you are smarter than God. If you go for God and if you go for God’s plan it must come from you. God does not try to coerce. God wants you on the basis of your own soul. it is imperative that you understand that your free will must be involved in anything that is worthwhile. You must be willing.

The doctrine of divine decrees.

(The plan for you in time did not start until regeneration.)

1. The divine decrees are the sum total of God’s plan designed for believers in eternity past.

2. Obviously the plan centres around the person of Jesus Christ — 1 John 3:23; Ephesians 1:4-6.

3. Entrance into the plan is based on the principle of grace (Ephesians 2:8,9) whereby the sovereignty of God and the free will of man meet at the cross. The sovereignty of God meets with a completed salvation package; man brings his faith which is non-meritorious; faith in Jesus Christ; “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

4. God’s plan was so designed in eternity past so as to include all events and actions related to their causes and conditions as a part of an indivisible system, every link being a part of the integrity of the whole system.

5. The same thing theologically: The decree of God is His eternal, holy, wise and sovereign purpose, comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be, their causes conditions, successions and relations and determining their certain futurition.

6. Under His plan God has decreed to do some things directly and some through agencies — Israel, the Church, pastor-teachers, and so on. Without interfering with human volition in any way God has designed a plan so perfect that it includes cause and effect, directive, provision, preservation and function for all believers.

7. There are primary, secondary and tertiary functions within the plan of God but they all constitute one great all-comprehensive plan which is perfect, eternal, unchangeable, without loss of integrity.

8. The plan of God is consistent with human freedom and does not limit or coerce human freedom. However, distinction should be made between what God causes — He caused the cross — and what God permits; He permits sin, but doesn’t cause sin. God created man with a free will and He permits human freedom to function in a bona fide way. This is how Adam sinned. But God is not the author of sin; God is not the sponsor of sin. Man’s volition is the source of sin in the human race, not God. However, the fact remains that the plan of God is consistent with freedom.

9. This demonstrates that man has free will God never condoned or caused sin in the human race. Man started in perfect environment — in innocence, as it is called. God warned man against sin and its consequences. So it was up to man. It rested with man and his free will. God gave him clear and adequate warning and man eventually made a choice.

10. Distinction should be made between the divine decrees, which are related to the plan of God in design and action, and divine laws which regulate human conduct and function in the universe. There is a difference between the divine decrees and divine laws. This is a distinction of time and eternity. Divine decrees occurred in eternity, the divine laws regulate human conduct and function on the earth and in the universe, and also preserve mankind.

11. Principle of logic: God’s decrees do not arise from His foreknowledge. The foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain, it merely perceives in eternity past the things that are certain.

12. So we distinguish, then, logically between foreknowledge and foreordination. The fact that God knew that you would have problems and difficulties and trials is not a part of the decrees; what He provided for them in His plan is. He knew you would have problems but He provided; he decreed provision so that you could be taken care of and have happiness and blessing and stability in the midst of every disaster of life. He knew that you would have prosperity and He provided for that. The decree provides. His foreknowledge ensured that He would make exact provision for the trouble. What makes His plan certain is the decree, not the foreknowledge. The foreknowledge is merely a way of preparing, to anticipate the problems, the needs, the situations, the circumstances of your life. Foreordination establishes certainty but doesn’t provide for the certainty which is established; it is the decree that provides. This is taught in Romans 8:29; Acts 2:23; 1 Peter 1:2.

13. Therefore the elect are foreknown and the foreknown are elect. God knew ahead of time which way every free will would decide at any given point in history. For example, God knew all of the problems that you would have today. He knew ultimately which decisions you would make even though it was made by a hair and He made provision for them. It all adds up to grace. The provision is all there; he provided all things. The decision was yours. You could have missed many things just by saying no. God does not coerce human volition but He does know which way human volition will operate at any given point.

This does not imply divine coercion. God’s plan anticipates every decision in history. As free will decides so God provides. However, God did the providing before the free will actually decided. This is the concept of 1 John 3:23.

14. Since God cannot contradict His own essence He plans the best for the believer. God is perfect; His plan and His provision are therefore perfect.

15. The cross was decreed in eternity past but the human volition of Christ decided for the cross at Gethsemane — Matthew 26:39, 42. That is a decision made in time. The cross was decreed in eternity past but the human volition of Christ decided in Gethsemane. It was decided many times before but Gethsemane was where the great test was faced and where the ultimate final decision was made. God has provided salvation through the cross but it has to be your free will choice, and your free will can only be expressed in a non-meritorious way. Free will can be expressed but God has laid down the lines for the expression of a Yes. Yes can only be expressed by believing, because believing is non-meritorious. So it is whosoever believeth in Christ. The merit is in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. The cross is efficacious, there is no merit in believing — salvation but no merit. So free will can only operate one way when it comes to salvation and that has to be compatible with grace, something totally apart from merit. That is why we have “believe,” and we do not have feeling sorry for sins, walking an aisle, raising your hand, jumping through some kind of a psychological hoop, inviting Christ into your heart (which is inviting Christ into a sewer). All of these are works systems and adding something to faith — like, baptism, church membership, contributions, penance, all of which will get a person to hell in one second. There is no merit (works) that can gain salvation.

16. No decree in itself opposes human freedom but once a choice is made from your free will then the function of the decrees limits your human freedom while at the same time giving you freedom to love God and serve God and to have a relationship with God. In other words, God calls the tune for the modus vivendi of Christianity, the reason being that He knows a lot more about the situation than we do.

“Having been decreed [the divine plan in eternity past] he regenerated us by a spiritual birth by the word of truth.” Not “with” here but “by.” This is the instrumental case of logoj. The word of truth here refers to that specific part to which we respond — the gospel. Incidentally, it is the Word of truth that regenerates, not someone’s gimmick system. The best thing that can be done is to present as clearly as possible the gospel. The unbeliever is minus the human spirit, therefore the gospel is spiritual phenomena that he cannot understand. Since it is spiritual phenomena and since the “soulish man” cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God the only way he can understand the gospel is through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. This is called the convicting ministry of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit sheds light on what is true.

“that” introduces a purpose clause — “that we should be.” We have the verb e)imi, present active infinitive in a prepositional phrase — e)ij plus e)imi. E)mi as a preposition is used as a noun — “for the purpose of being.” God has a purpose, God has a plan for your life. From that He has a purpose. He wants you to be different, to possess something different from other people in time. That difference is +H, His perfect happiness. That is His purpose and His purpose can only be fulfilled within the framework of a plan, and the plan is grace.

“a kind of” — there is no “a kind of” in the Greek. However, the next word is firstfruits and the word a)parxh means first portion. What does it mean to be a first portion? Several things. It means in this body of corruption we can possess God’s perfect happiness. It means that eventually we will have a body of incorruption which will be exceeding joy or superabounding happiness. It also means we will possess this forever.

“creatures” — ktisma refers to our present state. The suffix ma is resultant. We are result of creation — “the firstfruits of his creatures.” We are the result of grace.

“Having been decreed he regenerated us by a spiritual birth by means of the word of truth, that for the purpose of being with reference to [us] the first portion of his creatures.”

Verses 19-21 deal with the function of GAP. What confuses this entire passage is the word “Wherefore.” Cross it out of your Bible! The word that is actually there is the perfect active imperative of the verb o)ida. The imperative mood is an order. This is the basic command of the Christian way of life. Once a person has received Christ as saviour the next step is not to join a church, not to run out and witness to ten people, not to spend a lot of time in prayer, not to read a portion of the Bible every day and not understand it. The objective is to function daily under GAP. The perfect tense means something you do every day with results that go on and on and on. The active voice: every believer is a priest; every believer must decide to do this for himself and keep on deciding it. it means that you produce the action. We translate this in the simplest possible way. Instead of “wherefore,” literally it is “Know this, my beloved brethren.” That is the daily function of GAP, and you can only function under GAP in an assembly. So everything in this paragraph has to do with an assembly situation where there is a pastor-teacher communicating.

James is so practical that hidden away in this first chapter he tells us how to function in church. He tells us the most important and really the only reason, and he tells us what worship really is — learning doctrine. And it is learning it from a pastor-teacher. This passage deals with how to return God’s love; how to develop capacity to love God.

The next phrase tells us that all believers are involved — “let every man.” The Greek is paj which is “everyone,” i.e. the believer. Every believer is a priest, every believer possesses a grace apparatus for perception. This grace apparatus for perception totally sets aside human IQ, human perspicacity and human ability to learn. Any believer can understand the Bible when it is taught properly. Orientation and function under the plan of God, then, depend upon GAP. Without Bible doctrine in the human spirit as e)pignwsij there is no chance of a bona fide Christian experience.

The word “be” is a present active imperative. The verb is e)imi. The present tense is linear aktionsart — “keep on being.” So we have, “Know this my beloved brethren, keep on being...” — persist, do it consistently, do it daily. What comes after “being” is actually how to live the Christian life. The Christian life isn’t running out and doing a lot of nice things, the Christian life is learning doctrine. The Christian life is lived in your soul and when you have doctrine in your soul everything else is a result. “Keep on being” is an order, a command. There are two orders: perfect active imperative: “Know this”; present active imperative — “Keep on being.” So here, then, is the whole structure of the Christian life. Before you can “know this” — the realm of doctrine — you have to “keep on” and persist in a course of action which will now be outlined in this passage.

There are three factors of self-discipline necessary for the believer to learn doctrine. In these factors we have the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The first one is concentration — “swift to hear” ."Swift” is an adjective, taxuj, and it means ready, prompt, quick, speedy, etc. “To hear” is a prepositional phrase that has an infinite as its object — unusual in the Greek. E)ij is the preposition and it denotes here purpose — “swift for the purpose of hearing” .In addition to that we have the verb, the aorist active infinitive a)kouw. No one ever learned one line of doctrine, one principle of doctrine, exegesis or isagogics or categories without listening. This is stage one of GAP.

Summary of the exegesis

1. We have a perfect active imperative followed by a present active imperative. One command is the Christian life, the other is the means of execution. “Know this” is the first command; “keep on being” is mechanics. In between we have it established that the both commands involve every believer. Every believer is a priest; every believer is an ambassador. Mechanic number one is concentration. Concentration is an adjective plus a preposition plus and infinitive — “swift for the purpose of hearing,” aorist active infinitive. The aorist tense is that point of time when you are in an assembly and listening.

2. This is actually the combination of the first and second stages of GAP. The first stage is communication — ICE (Isagogics, categories, exegesis), the pastor-teacher communicating. To get from stage one to stage two requires concentration. Communication must be heard.

3. Here is the principle of concentration on the message regardless of the personality, the grooming, the language or any other disconcerting factor about the pastor-teacher.

4. To concentrate on a message for an hour or so requires more than human ability, it demands supernatural grace provision from God. This grace provision from God is the filling of the Holy Spirit.

5. There are no hang-ups when positive volition toward doctrine plus the filling of the Spirit cause the believer to focus his attention on the message rather than on the messenger.

6. Only God the Holy Spirit can provide the self-discipline and good manners necessary to concentrate on the message.

7. You do not concentrate when talking or thinking about other things, or dreaming about someone, or vibrating, or looking at other people in the congregation.

8. “Swift to hear” demands inevitably recognition of the authority of the one teaching. It reduces itself to one principle: recognition of the authority of the pastor.

The first mechanic is concentration, the second mechanic is control of the tongue. You can’t talk and learn. There are two kinds of talking, silent or “soul talking” or overt talking, the kind you hear. “Slow to speak” — we have an adjective plus e)ij plus an infinitive. The adjective is braduj, it means slow but in this context it refers to silence both in the soul and in the mouth while doctrinal teaching is being conducted. This is the principle of monologue in teaching. God doesn’t go for dialogues. The only way to teach is monologue — 1 Corinthians 14:34; 1 Timothy 2:11,12. The reason women are mentioned is because on both Ephesus and Corinth it is the ladies doing the chatting. But the principle applies to men as well as women. It just so happens that in the original context the ladies were out of line. Interestingly enough the ladies in both Ephesus and Corinth generally were sitting next to men who have the authority over them. So they broke through two systems of authority: the authority of the pastor-teacher and the authority of their man in order to chit chat. Remember that the principle applies to both men and women. You can’t talk and learn at the same time. Public assembly calls for order and authority — 1 Corinthians 14:40. It is impossible to teach in public when others are talking and therefore those in the audience who talk are not only thoughtless and rude but they lack in concentration. They are disruptive to the objective of the assembly, for themselves, and often for others. So the importance of teaching with authority is emphasised in several passages, like 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7,17. Rudeness is tantamount to rejection of authority. Lack of concentration is also lack of poise. So we have three words: braduj plus e)ij plus lalew which is here in the aorist active infinitive form. It should be translated “slow for the purpose of speaking.”

The third area is to be able to control the mind, control of mental attitude sins: “slow to wrath.” However, there is a slight change. We have an adjective plus the preposition e)ij plus a noun. We have braduj again plus the preposition e)ij, and the noun here is o)rgh, the word for wrath. O)rgh is in the accusative singular form here. It refers to two kinds of anger, mental and emotional. Both of these are a soul-type anger. So actually this noun perfectly represents a noun in the English language: “reaction” instead of response — “slow to react.” The believer cannot function under GAP, cannot learn doctrine, when he is guilty of any mental attitude sin. O)rgh simply means allowing your emotions to get ahead of yourself and entering into subjectivity rather than objectivity in learning. Mental or emotional reaction to the speaker always hinder GAP.

Summary

There are three hindrances to the function of GAP in this passage. a. Concentration, which is the volitional aspect of GAP; b. Control of the tongue, which is the self-discipline and the poise necessary to learn. c. The control of the mental attitude, which has to do with the emotional involvement with GAP.

Corrected translation: “Know this, my beloved brethren, everyone keep on being swift for the purpose of hearing, slow for the purpose of talking, slow with reference to anger.”

The third area of self-discipline is now amplified in verse 20. This amplification looks at the end result of possessing an ECS. The result is the production of triple-compound divine good. The word “wrath” is used again in verse 20. Remember that this deals only with the assembly, as does the next verse. Verses 19-21 are confined to the church, inside of the church listening to Bible teaching.

Verse 20 — “For the wrath of man.” The word o)rgh again refers to mental or emotional anger and in principle this represents any mental attitude sin. The Greek word for man here is a)nhr. It means a noble person, a nobleman, and it refers to every or any believer, man in the noble sense, the believer priest. By the new birth every believer is a nobleman. Whether carnal or spiritual you are born again into nobility. The wrath of the nobleman (believer) “worketh not” — present active indicative or e)rgazomai which means producing. The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. The word for righteousness is dikaiosunh. Dikaiosunh indicates vindication, justice, fair dealing. It is used here for the production of divine good — “from the source of God.” “Of God” is a genitive of source, and it is o( qeoj, “the God.”

Translation: “For the anger of the nobleman-believer does not produce righteousness from the source of the God.”

The doctrine of divine good

1. There are three sources of divine good: the filling of the Spirit, which is from God; the exhale of doctrine from the human spirit; the production of the ECS from the soul.

2. Divine good resolves the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21.

3. GAP is provided for the production of divine good — Colossians 1:9,10; 2 Timothy 2:21; 3:17.

4. Phase two was designed for every believer to produce divine good — Ephesians 2:10.

5. Production of divine good is a sign of stability in phase two — 2 Thessalonians 2:17.

6. Divine good will be rewarded — 2 Corinthians 5:10.

7. Grace is the principle of divine good — 2 Corinthians 9:8.

In contrast to that we have human good. The Holy Spirit produces divine good when He controls the life. The ECS produces divine good. Doctrine in the spirit produces divine good. The old sin nature produces human good from the area of strength.

The doctrine of human good.

1. Human good is identified as dead works — Hebrews 6:1.

2. Human good is not acceptable to God — Isaiah 64:6.

3. Human good has not place in the plan of God — 2 Timothy 1:9.

4. Human good will not save mankind — Titus 3:5.

5. When the believer’s production of phase two is evaluated at the judgement seat of Christ after the Rapture all human good will be destroyed — 1 Corinthians 3:11-16.

6. Distinction should be made between human good and morality — Romans 13:4,5. Morality is necessary for the perpetuation and the function of the human race. Human good and morality are not the same.

7. Human good is the basis for the unbeliever’s indictment at the last judgement — Revelation 20:12-15.

Verse 21 — records the mechanics of the function of GAP. For the first time the word “wherefore” is where fore in the King James translation. It should be translated “Because of this.” Then we have “lay apart,” the aorist middle participle of a)potiqemi. A)potiqemi originally meant to lay aside soiled or filthy garments. It is technical here for the rebound technique. When we accept Jesus Christ as saviour we enter into union with Christ and we can never get out of that relationship. That is the doctrine of eternal security. At the same time we enter into fellowship with God and are under the status of being a “spiritual” Christian or being in fellowship. The first time we sin we move out of fellowship with God and are under the status of being a “carnal Christian” .Staying out of fellowship long enough results in divine discipline. But there is a no necessity to stay out of fellowship, it is possible to come back in. The way you rebound or recover fellowship mechanically is 1 John 1:9, naming our sins to God. When we confess our sins to Him “He is faithful and justified in forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.” He is justified because those sins were judged on the cross — law of double jeopardy, they can’t be judged twice. So since they have already been judged God is justified in forgiving us. That is what it means to “lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness,” and it has to do with the assembly. Rebound is for all occasions and everywhere but here it refers specifically to assembling in a church.

The word “filthiness,” the first noun, is r(uparia and it refers to pollution. Specifically it refers to mental attitude sins which you bring inside of the church, or sins which occur after you sit down in a pew. R(uparia is that pollution of the soul which causes the malfunction of GAP. The word “superfluity” is “overflow” -0 perisseuw. The word for wickedness is kakia which is wickedness as a principle. The principle can be mental or it can be overt sins of the tongue.

So the first part of this verse, the rebound part, says “Wherefore” or “Because of this [the orders or instructions in the previous two verses] having removed all pollution [mental attitude sins] and the overflow of wickedness [mental attitude sins overflow into sins of the tongue]...”

Now we get down to the function of GAP — “receive,” aorist middle imperative, our third imperative. First we had a perfect active imperative, “Know this.” Then we had a present active imperative, “Keep on being.” Now we have an aorist middle imperative — “receive.” The word for receive is a lover’s word — dexomai, which means to embrace. It means intimacy of embrace. It is used here for the function of GAP. The aorist tense means in the point of time when you are listening; the middle voice: you are benefited. It means something that you can enter with some degree of enthusiasm. The imperative mood, again, is an order.

“with meekness” — we have the preposition e)n plus the locative of sphere, “in the sphere of,” and now we get back to authority — “meekness,” the locative of prauthj. This connotes the recognition of the authority of the pastor-teacher, this is not self-effacement. it means recognition of the pastor-teacher’s authority, concentration on his message, and perception under the filling of the Spirit.

Now for the word “engrafted” — e)mfutoj, a compound adjective: e)n means in [n is changed to an m because of the f], and we have a verb from which this is taken, fuw which means to germinate, to impregnate, to make pregnant. So it is “the impregnated word.” The only word that counts is the word that gets pregnant. There can be many exposures but few pregnancies. You can sit and listen to the Word time after time after time and it doesn’t take, it doesn’t get to the point of being impregnated. That’s the heart or the right lobe which has the frame of reference with memory centre, norms and standards, viewpoint, and vocabulary. Bible doctrine comes into the left lobe, called the nouj. Here it becomes gnwsij. If it stops there you will never use it. That is doctrine that is not pregnant. To be pregnant it has to go down to the human spirit [positive volition] and there it becomes e)pignwsij. Only e)pignwsij is impregnated doctrine. Then it is cycled up into the right lobe and then it becomes part of your norms and standards and your viewpoint, and it becomes building material for the ECS. So the best way to translate this is “the impregnated word.” This adjective emphasises the importance of the complete function of GAP in your life.

So we have so far: “Wherefore having removed all pollution and the overflow of wickedness, receive and retain in the sphere of meekness the ingerminated word [Bible doctrine].”

“which is able” — present active participle of dunamai, “which keeps on being able” — “to save,” an aorist active infinitive of swzw and should be translated “to deliver your soul,” deliver in time of pressure, in time of disaster. Only doctrine in the right lobe is delivering doctrine. Doctrine in the left lobe is a hearer; doctrine in the right lobe is a doer.

Corrected translation: “Wherefore having removed all pollution and the overflow of wickedness, receive and retain in the sphere of meekness the impregnated word, which is able to deliver your souls” — from scar-tissue, from emotional revolt, from reversionism.

Verse 22 begins with the result of GAP. We need to look at the doctrine of GAP.

The doctrine of GAP

1. We must learn to distinguish between human and spiritual IQ. Human IQ is a way of determining human perspicacity. It is the number assigned to a person on the basis of dividing their mental by their chronological age. Spiritual IQ is the amount of Bible doctrine stored in both the human spirit, as e)pignwsij — and in the right lobe, the heart. The distinction between spiritual and human IQ is presented in 1 Corinthians 2:1-16.

2. Human IQ is excluded from GAP — 1 Corinthians 1:19-2:16. Human IQ has often been considered to be a factor in learning doctrine. That would imply, of course, that low IQ believers are handicapped in learning doctrine and that is not the case. In eternity past, through grace, God found a way whereby any believer can learn doctrine regardless of his human IQ. His human IQ is not a factor. That is grace.

3. The perceptive lobe (left lobe) in the mentality of the soul — nouj, the staging area — cannot apply doctrine — James 1:18-25.

4. The grace provision for learning Bible doctrine is enumerated under nine sub-points:

a. The formation and preservation of the canon. Revelation, inspiration, and preservation are all involved.

b. The classroom for learning doctrine — the local church. God has authorised doctrinal teaching as the true basis for worship, perception, application.

c. Also necessary in the grace provision for learning doctrine is the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher. This is the divinely authorised communicator in the Church Age. Therefore the principle of communication is monologue, not dialogue. Therefore grace provision for the pastor includes both authority as well as the ability to communicate.

d. The priesthood of the believer is designed for both privacy and freedom of reception.

e. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit for the function of GAP — 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27. However, the believer must be filled with the Spirit for this function to occur — Ephesians 5:18.

f. Grace provision for the filling of the Spirit is the rebound technique — 1 John 1:9.

g. The human spirit as the first target for GAP — Job 32:8; 1 Corinthians 2:12.

h. The provision of the divine laws of establishment whereby the nation protects the freedom and the privacy of every individual, and whereby the nation protects the freedom and the privacy of its local churches in the entity.

i. The anatomy of grace whereby within the framework of a body are certain non-meritorious functions which provide the ability to both think and to concentrate — oxygen in the blood, sugar going to the neurons of the brain. All of this is a grace operation.

5. The mechanics of GAP.

a. Operation ICE in which the pastor communicates doctrine to the local assembly. In this function we have the verb didaskw. “I” is isagogics. This means to interpret the Bible in the framework of its historical setting. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. Anachronism, then, is the enemy of biblical interpretation, though not necessarily application. “C” stands for categorical teaching based upon the hermeneutical principle of comparing scripture with scripture to determine the classification of doctrine. “E” is for exegesis which is the analysis of each verse in its context, emphasising the grammar, the syntax and the etymology of the original languages of scripture.

b. Operation Gnosis. [Gnwsij] This is getting the doctrine into the left lobe. This is objective perception of doctrine in the left lobe by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That is, when the believer is filled with the Spirit and concentrating. This is receptive comprehension. This is a believer positive toward doctrine, concentrating in an assembly, filled with the Spirit as he listens, and he understands what is being taught. He doesn’t agree or disagree but he does understand it. Comprehension at this stage does not mean agreement. Receptive comprehension means perception only. But perception must remain objective, it cannot become subjective because if it does the truth will be rejected. So receptive comprehension means perception of doctrine, principles, names, dates, places, categories, etc. It is objective learning of spiritual phenomena.

c. Operation epignosis [e)pignwsij]. This is doctrine in the left lobe being transferred to the human spirit by means of faith. Once you understand something objectively you can’t leave it there. You get doctrine objectively in the left lobe but you can’t apply it from there, you can’t use it. The only thing you can do with doctrine there is to transfer it. It has to be transferred before it can be used. Positive volition transfers it, and this is faith that does the transferring. This is all non-meritorious. Faith is compatible with grace, faith transfers doctrine from the left lobe to the human spirit where it can then be transferred into the right lobe. The “hearer of the Word” is related to the left lobe, the “doer of the Word” is related to the right lobe. A doer of the Word isn’t someone hustling around doing things, a doer of the Word is a person who has doctrine in his right lobe and applies it.

So positive volition towards the information expresses itself in faith. Faith then transfers it to the human spirit where the information is converted into e)pignosij. At this point it is cycled. That leads to the fourth function …

d. Operation Kardia — heart, in which the doctrine from the human spirit is cycled to the right lobe. From here doctrine is stored, applied, used. This is the concept of sofia and sunesij of Colossians 1:9.

6. The function of the frame of reference. Frame of reference is located in the right lobe. This is the ultimate objective of doctrine.

a. The basis for comprehension of more advanced Bible doctrine when such doctrine is taught.

b. The second function establishes the new conscience which is compatible with God’s norms and standards. Norms and standards exist from the time that you can understand, have a vocabulary, comprehension, and so on, but these norms and standards of the conscience must comply with divine norms and standards, and the frame of reference feeds to develop a conscience compliable with the divine norms.

c. The third function of the frame of reference forms divine viewpoint in the right lobe.

d. Frame of reference deals with the problems of the subconscious and the guilt complex.

e. Frame of reference provides content — correct, proper, effective, useful content for prayer.

f. Frame of reference provides accurate information for witnessing.

g. Frame of reference provides discernment to detect false doctrine.

h. Frame of reference provides capacity for life.

i. Frame of reference provides capacity for love and the ability to determine right man or right woman.

j. Frame of reference makes possible for God in grace to share His own happiness — +H.

k. Frame of reference causes the proper function of the priesthood in the devil’s world, in the angelic conflict.

Verse 22 — “Be ye,” present middle imperative of ginwmai. Present tense, linear aktionsart, “Keep on.” Middle voice: you must do it yourself from your own volition. Imperative mood: it is a command — “Keep on becoming.” It is a command for the daily function of GAP, not the occasional function of GAP. “Keep on becoming doers” — this is where all program people rub their hands with glee! Poihthj is the noun here. It refers to Bible doctrine in the right lobe. That is where you use it. You “do” with your mind. It is e)pignwsij in the right lobe. You are not a doer by overt action. The right lobe is where divine viewpoint is doing it, frame of reference is doing it, Christian vocabulary is doing it. The word for “word” is logoj, referring to doctrine as related to the Word. It is genitive of source. The word itself tells us something. You cannot learn doctrine until you know the meaning of words. Your technical vocabulary must increase. Words must become meaningful and must be accurate with the original languages of scripture. They cannot be inaccurate — such as “inviting Christ into you heart” for salvation. “not hearers only” — nominative plural from a)koathj which refers to stage two of GAP, Bible doctrine in the left lobe. Bible doctrine in the left lobe is objective understanding without accepting or rejecting the information. Negative volition causes malfunction; positive volition transfers it to the human spirit. In other words, it is doctrine comprehended intellectually but non-appliable. It is in the staging area, but if it goes not further it cannot be used. Bible doctrine cannot be used directly from the Word; Bible doctrine cannot be used at the staging area. The use of Bible doctrine is from the right lobe. Anything short of that and “you are deceiving yourselves” — if you are a hearer and not an applier.

“deceiving your own selves” — present middle participle of paralogizomai. It means to defraud or to deceive. The believer who takes doctrine into his mind and lets it stop there, does not transfer it under GAP, is deceiving and defrauding himself. he is depriving himself of great blessing. The middle voice is where we get the word “self.” A doer of the Word is a progressing believer, a hearer is not. A hearer of the Word takes it as far as objective comprehension — doctrine in the left lobe — but does not transfer it: malfunction of GAP.

Verses23-24,themalfunction of GAP.

Verse 23 — we start out with a first class condition, “For if” [if and it is true]. This situation existed in the day in which James lived, and it is still true. “For if any” — tij is anyone, referring to any believer. Any believer priest can take in Bible doctrine. This doesn’t mean that all doctrine he hears he will understand because doctrine is built upon doctrine and you have to start with basic doctrine — “be,” present active indicative of e)imi. This recognises the reality that any believer in the Lord Jesus Christ can keep on being a hearer — a)koathj. A)koathj refers to a person who is filled with the Spirit when Bible teaching is given, and the doctrine does into the left lobe. This is the hearer area. The malfunction occurs beginning with the phrase “not a doer” — poihthj. The same concept is given in poihma, a related word, in Ephesians chapter two, verse ten. “We are his workmanship” has to do with “we are His doers.” Same idea. The doing comes from learning Bible doctrine. “Not a doer” brings up a new stage of reversionism. A person can know a lot of doctrine, so that they can shoot it at you, and still be in reversionism. They have never transferred it, so they are minus the ECS. They also at any time get bored with doctrine because their favourite topics are not being discussed. At this point, if they go negative, they have the same condition as reversionism except that they didn’t revert from an ECS through emotional revolt and apostasy. Instead, they had apparent ECS because they had so much doctrine in the left lobe. So this is what we call pseudo-reversionism. True reversionism is going from the ECS to apostasy and emotional revolt of the soul. In other words, you revert when you go from maturity down to apostasy. Pseudo-reversionism looks the same. There is, however, no ECS because there has been a malfunction of GAP. Lots of doctrine often appears on the surface and they may appear to be mature because they can shoot it to you, but they have never been able to apply it themselves because they are minus doctrine in the right lobe.

“He is like” is literally, “This one is like.” We have a demonstrative pronoun. The word “he” is a very bad translation for the demonstrative pronoun when a principle is being given, a principle which is true. This is o(utoj, a demonstrative pronoun. This is a real situation but the reality of pseudo reversion sets up the principle of pseudo reversion, and James is more interested in the principle because he is writing not just to the people of his day, he is writing to people who are going to live in every generation thereafter who are going to be involved. This is, of course, a message to those people. The demonstrative pronoun tells us that James is aware of the fact that he is writing the Word of God and that this principle as well as the reality on which it is based will always be true. “Is like” is a perfect of the verb e)oika. E)oika in the perfect tense is used as a present tense to indicate the analogy will always stand. The people who are guilty, to whom James writes in his day, are going to die and other believers will take their place. Even though one generation will follow another the principle will always be true, that believers who take in doctrine and understand it objectively through the Holy Spirit but do not believe it — part or all of the doctrine involved — and therefore do not transfer it, are hearers. These kind of people generally are characterised by two things. They are interested in the dissertation of doctrine and in learning the points, they will pick and choose as they go through, and they will inevitably reject the authority of the one who communicates, and they will start to bounce around, going here and there from one spot to another.

“he is like a man” — anhr refers to a nobleman and should be translated thus. Interestingly enough this is a nobleman who is born into nobility, and at the point of salvation we are born into nobility, we are entered into union with Christ. So every believer at the point of salvation is not only saved but is a nobleman. However, a believer can be carnal, reversionistic, have an emotional revolt of the soul, or be mature, but he is still a nobleman. This is positional truth. The analogy belongs to believers only.

“Beholding” is a present active participle of katanoew. Noew means to think; kata means to think in terms of norms or standards. Kata can be “up” and “down” but it also means norms and standards. So in putting this word together it means to think in terms of norms and standards. It also means up or down, so it can mean to think up and down.

We are looking in a mirror here. The word “glass” is a mirror. Here is a nobleman and it means to look in the mirror and to think about himself. All of us have some idea as to how we look in the mirror. But no matter what you look like when you walk away from the mirror, very shortly you are doing something else and you forget how you look. The word “beholding” means to give some very serious thought so that you know yourself. Your norms and standards are yourself. But the word does not mean just a glance, it means to look at yourself thoughtfully, to be able to, as it were, memorise your own features. Now here is the point. Memorising your own features and looking in the glass is like doctrine in the left lobe. The point is you do know what you look like, you did know what you look like, but no matter how you turned out, good or bad, you finally walked away from the mirror and sooner or later you forgot it. That is the way it is when you are a hearer of the Word and not a doer or applier of the Word.

“In a glass” — e)n plus the instrumental of e)soptron, a mirror. This is a prepositional phrase. Glancing in the mirror and knowing what you look like is gnwsij. That is bona fide just as it is bona fide to get doctrine in the staging area. You must, it is a part of GAP. It is the beginning.

Translation: “For if anyone be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, this person is like a nobleman contemplating his natural face in the mirror.”

Verse 24 — the illustration is amplified. “For he beholdeth himself” .This time we have the present active participle, which means he lingers over it, and once he lingers over it — we have katanoew again, this time in the aorist tense. If you look and look and look long enough in a mirror so that you finally know how you look, then you have to go from the present to the aorist, and this is a culminative aorist. The aorist tense then means you walk away from the mirror with a definite and correct impression on how you look, and that is a culminative aorist. So this time it means he has looked long enough to memorise or to know or to have a definite impression on how he himself looks. That means Bible doctrine going into the left lobe and it becomes gnwsij under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit — objective learning of doctrine.

Now what? Once you have done all you can and have looked to the maximum you go away, “and goeth his way” — a)perxomai, which means to go away or to depart. Once he has looked in the mirror and left he may know what he looks like in his mind but he has left the mirror. James is saying, you stop after you get doctrine in the left lobe. That is a hearer only. It means you know it so you could give it back to someone; you could parrot the word. You can parrot many, many doctrines. You can’t use them but you can parrot them. Why? Because they are in your left lobe. But you have walked off from the mirror, as it were — “and go away” is perfect active indicative of a)perxomai, and this is important. The perfect tense means, like the nod-to-God crowd, he goes away and he comes back the next day, goes away and comes back in a month, etc. You can’t learn doctrine that way. It must be every day. The perfect tense means to walk away with results that you have doctrine but you never grow up, you can never apply doctrine, and at some point you will become bored or disinterested or attracted by something else. You will go negative toward doctrine and when you do you will go through the same steps as a person who has an ECS and goes to reversionism, only you didn’t fall from maturity, you just never grew up. So he goes his way. This is a person who can find greater interest in almost anything in life. He is attracted by other things in life beside Bible doctrine. Notice that when he departs from the mirror the mirror represents the Word of God. The mirror is used for the Word or doctrine. Here is a person who goes to church once a week, once a month, once every now and then, etc. and then they depart. So they do over a period of time accumulate doctrine in the left lobe and then they leave.

“Straightway” is an adverb, e)uqeoj, which means immediately. Immediately you forget — “forgetteth” is e)pilanqanomai which means to disregard. It does not mean to forget. “Forget” is a bad translation here. This is the aorist middle indicative of disregard. When you go away from the mirror you disregard, and that is the end result so that is a culminative aorist. You finally arrive at a point of reversionism where you have disregarded what little you have learned. This is the middle voice which means you did it by yourself. The indicative mood is the reality of pseudo-reversionism.

“What manner of man” is o(poioj which means of what sort — “he really was,” the imperfect active indicative of e)imi. In the past you have spent some time in front of the mirror; now you have disregarded.

Translation: “He observes himself, and departs, and immediately disregards of what sort he was.”

Verse 25 — “But,” conjunction of contrast — “whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty.” The word “looketh” this time is an aorist active participle of parakuptw, a compound word. Para is the preposition of immediate source and kuptw means to stoop down to examine something from its immediate source, and it means to concentrate, to gaze intently, to look into something with great intensity — positive volition, enjoyment, realising its value. So this is the positive volition concentrator. This verb is used in Luke 24:12 for Peter stooping down and looking intently into the empty tomb. Peter uses the same verb himself in 1 Peter 1:12 for angels bending down and concentrating on mankind in the angelic conflict. This verb describes the complete function of GAP, the successful function of GAP.

The Bible is described not by the word mirror but this time “the perfect law of liberty” .The word “perfect” is the adjective teleioj and is used for the ECS. So this person is building something. He concentrates and builds. The word “law,” of course, is used to describe the canon of scripture. The Greek word is nomoj, used the Hebrew Torah which originally came from the Old Testament. The adjective “perfect” gives its function. The purpose of scripture in phase two is to build the ECS. But you cannot build an ECS from your left lobe.

The Word is called “liberty” — e)leuqeria, because it provides freedom to serve and honour God. The word connotes freedom, and this is freedom to love Jesus Christ, to love God, to orient to the plan of God, to function under happiness — +H. So it is called the perfect law of liberty; “and continueth,” the aorist active participle of paramenw. This verb indicates that there must always be consistency. You can’t ever let a day go by in all of your life; “he being” — an aorist middle participle of ginomai, and this means he became something he wasn’t before. The word “continueth” is an aorist [constative] active participle — “having continued [in GAP, the daily function], having become not a hearer of forgetfulness.” The word “hearer” is a)koathj again; the word “forgetfulness” is a genitive of description, e)pilhsmonh which means forgetfulness or oblivion. it is a wonderful word because it describes both true reversionism and pseudo-reversionism. In true reversionism you forget doctrine, the emotional revolt cuts it off, doctrine is obliterated and in a state of oblivion. So he becomes not a hearer of oblivion, “not a hearer of forgetfulness.”

Then we have that demonstrative pronoun again, not “this man” but “this one [person]” — o(utoj. Why? because while we are talking about an actual condition among believers it is a principle; “this one shall be” — future active indicative of e)imi; “blessed” — makarioj, and it means happy — +H; “in his deed,” e)n plus the locative of poihsij. The ij is an active suffix and it means happy in the action of doing. Doing what? Applying doctrine. The action of doing is the application of Bible doctrine producing +H. How do we know? because e)imi is a future tense, future from the learning of the Bible doctrine.

Translation: “But the one having looked intently [having concentrated] into the mature law of freedom, and having persisted [in GAP], the one having become not a hearer of oblivion, but a doer of divine good, this one shall be happy in the action of doing.”

Verse 26 — very bad translation in the King James version. Three times in this verse and the next we have the word “religion.” There is no doubt about the fact that religion is found as the subject of this passage but not in the complimentary sense since religion is the devil’s ace trump. The greatest attack upon God’s grace, God’s plan, is inevitably the principle, the concept, and all that is involved in religion. When the devil wanted to find a way to try to thwart the plan of God he came up with the concept of religion. He didn’t try to deny the existence of God, since he could not. His objective was to try to overcome God. And what greater way to try to overcome God than to use to the principle of religion. So from the time of man’s fall, right down to the present moment, religion has always been a factor in the human race, a factor of great evil with a facade of human good. Take, for example the Church Age, the dispensation in which we find ourselves. The Word of God makes it very clear that the local church is designed for worship. The Greek word proskunew really means the concept of taking in the Word of God, capacity to love Jesus Christ. The Word of God says that once the canon of scripture is completed and apostles no longer exist that each one of these churches is to be independent of the other. The word is “autonomous.” This means that no one has the right to rule all of these churches as a bishop or a pope, etc. Instead there is at the head of each local church a pastor-teacher. There is an administration in each local church — the board of deacons. These churches are to be founded upon the principle of Bible doctrine, the Word of God, and each church is to be composed of believer priests. That means that every person who is under the authority of the pastor-teacher is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the way the Church Age began. However, once it got a start in this direction it became obvious that churches began to fall into spheres of influence. They were basically two spheres. One had its headquarters in Constantinople and more or less gravitated to the eastern Roman empire. The other had its headquarters in Rome and gravitated to the western Roman empire. This was the beginning of religion which eventually infiltrated the church and took over. Religion is the worst thing that ever happened to man. The devil is always trying to persuade people that you need the strength of each other and therefore you must unite and from one organisation. This is the story of the National Council of Churches, this is the story of the World Council of Churches, this is the story of many organisations, even the tongues groups are beginning their own ecumenicalism for greater noise, greater attention in the world today. This is a trend that has always existed and will exist until the second advent of Jesus Christ, at which time the prostitute mounted on the beast will be removed. It is very interesting that these world organisations are always compared to prostitutes when it comes to biblical analogy.

Here is a passage where we come face to face with religion. Ephesians 1:6,7 — “To the praise of the glory of his grace, through which he hath made us accepted in the beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” In that passage we have the glory of His grace and we have the riches of His grace. In 1 Corinthians 1:4,5 — “I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge.” John 1:14 — “ And the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and doctrine.” In verses 16 and 17 — “And in his fullness we have all received, grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and doctrine came by Jesus Christ.”

The glory of His grace, the riches of His grace, on behalf of the grace of God ye are enriched, full of grace, grace for grace — these are phrases that eliminate religion from Christianity. Christianity is definitely not a religion. Christianity begins at the cross by a personal decision to believe in Jesus Christ. In principle, behind this decision is grace — — Titus 2:11; Psalm 103:8-12 as quoted in Romans 4:4; Romans 3:23,24 tells us that all have come short of the glory of God, but Romans 5:20 — “Where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” 2 Corinthians 8:9; 6:1; Hebrews 2:9; Titus 3:7; Ephesians 3:2; Galatians 2:21; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Corinthians 15:10 are all verses which emphasise the grace of God. Everywhere you turn in the Word of God, and especially in our dispensation, there is one word that stands out and that is grace. Grace is the antithesis of religion. Religion is legalism, it is man seeking to gain the approbation of God by his own works. Religion in our passage is even defined in another way. We have two Greek words found in James 1:26,27 both of which have the connotation of being afraid of God, and being afraid of God doing something to placate God, doing something to try to make sure that God doesn’t lower the boom on you. This is religion. You are hindered even as a Christian in living the Christian life to the extent that religion controls your soul. A fully mature believer with an ECS has absolutely no religion in his soul, none whatever. Religion is the greatest enemy to the plan of God.

In verse 26 the word “if” is first class condition recognising a situation. “Any man” is the Greek word tij which means anyone, referring to a believer priest — “seem,” present active indicative of dokew which does not means to seem, it means to think subjectively, it means subjective opinions, subjective thinking. The verb means to assume something on the basis of subjective information. The verb “to be” is a present active infinitive of e)imi. “If anyone has a subjective opinion that he is ...”

Now we come to the word “religious” which occurs only once in the New Testament. The word “religion” occurs twice. The adjective is qrhskoj. It is actually made up of two Greek words. The basic word trew which means to tremble, and qra means to adhere to something. So when you put this together in the adjective it means to be a an adherent to fear, trembling. Practically all groups of Greeks at some time or another believed in a pantheon of gods whom they feared. In fact, they devised their own gods on the basis of their fears. They were afraid of storms; they had a god of thunder. They were afraid of certain animals; they had a god who was a hunter of animals and controlled them, like Apollos. All heathen religions have an element of fear. Because they are afraid of someone they butter up this unknown fear and they call it a god. Therefore, they are called qrhstoj — they are religious. They are afraid of a god; they are trying therefore to impress a god or to keep a god off their back. This is the origin of the word. it means to be hustling so hard that a god stays off of your back. The basic concept of religion is fear, fear in its worst sense — “a votary [adherent] to fear.”

A subjective opinion based on externals of conforming to a program to alleviate fear is a form of apostasy, a form of reversionism. Believers with scar tissue of the soul deceive themselves into assuming that some form of penance or some form of ritual or program observance is going to take care of everything. The emphasis on the externals of human good to the exclusion of the internals of grace is the problem here. So here is a believer who doesn’t know doctrine or who fails to apply doctrine. The first class condition recognises that many believers do exercise the externals of legalism and human good, or try to do something to neutralise or assuage their fear that God is going to hit them hard.

Next we have the illustration: “and not bridling his own tongue.” Here is a person who has a subjective opinion. He thinks that he is going to gain God’s recognition by something he does. That is in the principle of what we have by religion. Religion, then, is a do-good system. “If anyone assumes [through his subjective opinion] that he is a do-gooder [to assuage God]” .We are dealing here with people who are out of line, who assume that they are doing the right thing when they are doing the wrong thing. They assume that God is impressed by some form of do-goodism. But this person is inconsistent. To illustrate, there is nothing like a reformed rake. That is the worst kind, someone who was “on the town” and now they are “off the town,” because they always get a case of when they have been “reformed” for a period of time they get a bad case of self-righteousness. Anyone who gets a bad case of self-righteousness always starts to run down the peons who haven’t made it. It is a kind of patting yourself on the back. “Poor old Charlie, he can’t get off the bottle,” etc. In other words, he no longer does it so he pats himself on the back by talking about the people who do. Now he has developed a terrible sin: maligning, judging, gossiping, running down others. So James is saying in effect, “If any of you have the opinion that you are a votary to fear, that you are pious [and you do], then why don’t you shut your mouth?”

What is this “bridleth not”? It is the present active participle of xalinagwgew, a term used for horses, an equestrian term. The word means to put some kind of a bridle on a horse so that you get the soft part of his mouth and control him. This means some kind of a bit and bridle and to control a horse. The word has with it the negative mh which recognises the reality of the situation. So the present active participle plus the negative mh says this person is not only a do-gooder where once he was a do-badder, he is a reformed do-gooder. But like so many reformed do-gooders they have to call attention to how good they are by running down someone else — “not bridling his own tongue.” We have i)dioj here which means your own tongue, not someone else’s.

The doctrine of the sins of the tongue

1. The sins of the tongue, like all sins, emanate from the old sin nature — Psalm 34:13.

2. Sins of the tongue are sponsored by mental attitude sins — Psalm 5:9.

3. Out of the seven worst sins — Proverbs 6:16-19 — three are sins of the tongue.

4. Sins of the tongue produce triple compound discipline — Matthew 7:1,2; Psalm 64:8. Mechanics: a. A sin of the tongue is always backed by a mental attitude sin, and there is divine discipline for the mental attitude sin; b. The sin of the tongue always maligns or judges or gossips about someone else, so there is divine discipline for that. Therefore the sin of the tongue always mentions someone else’s sins, and whatever sins are mentioned those people, if they have really committed those sins, are not punished for them. Instead the punishment is put on the maligner — Matthew 7:2.

5. The continuation of the sins of the tongue can produce enough scar tissue to result in the sin unto death — Psalm 12:3.

6. God both protects and blesses the believer who is victimised by the sins of the tongue — Job 5:19-21.

7. The believer can actually lengthen his life and find great inner happiness by avoiding the sins of the tongue — Psalm 34:12,13.

8. Trouble- makers are always characterised by sins of the tongue — Psalm 52:2. Believers are specifically commanded to avoid fellowship with trouble-makers — Romans 16:17,18.

9. Control of the tongue is a sign of maturity or the possession of an ECS — James 2:2-13.

10. Since the sins of the tongue can destroy a congregation of believers it is the duty of the pastor to constantly warn against them — 2 Timothy 2:14-17.

Next we have “but deceiveth his own heart.” “But” is a conjunction of contrast. Deception of your own heart is a believer in reversionism. A believer is in reversionism because he is negative toward doctrine. This leads to the malfunction of GAP, the production of scar tissue, the emotional revolt of the soul, loss of the ECS, and therefore reversionism. So to understand deception of the heart it is necessary to have some understanding of the doctrine of reversion.

The doctrine of reversion

1. There are two kinds of reversionists. The unbeliever goes from the laws of establishment in the soul to emotional revolt of the soul — 2 Peter 2:17-22. he started out with common sense but he winds up in reversionism — no common sense. For the believer it is going from an ECS to emotional revolt and loss of the ECS. So the unbeliever loses the laws of establishment in his frame of reference of the heart; the believer loses his ECS.

2. Mechanics: Step one — A person with common sense says no to false teaching; Step two — he turns around and says no to e)pignwsij gospel; Step three — as a result he turns around and says yes to the same false teaching. So reversionism is developed in the unbeliever. He says no to that which is false because his right lobe is full of the laws of divine establishment. he has it in norms and standards, in frame of reference, vocabulary and viewpoint. But then he says no to the gospel in e)pignwsij form. That starts scar tissue, opens up mataiothj, emotional revolt, the whole process. So the next time he hears that same false teaching he says yes to the teaching, and he is in it. For the believer the pattern is found in Romans 6:16-23; the principle is found in 1 Corinthians 10:12. When a believer gets careless about doctrine he begins to accumulate scar tissue on the soul. This opens up the vacuum and causes the entrance of Satanic doctrine. This causes emotional revolt and eventuates in reversionism.

3. Illustrations: a. The Exodus generation’s attitude toward Moses — Exodus 17:3; Numbers 11:5; b. The Mizpah remnant in Jeremiah’s generation — Jeremiah chapters 42, 43, 44; c. The attitude of the Corinthian church toward the apostle Paul — 2 Corinthians 10:1,2.

The principle of reversionism is found in Galatians 5:4 — “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” This is not what the passage says. First of all it doesn’t start out by saying “Christ is become of no effect.” The Greek starts out with a plural pronoun — “you all.” It is in the emphatic position and it refers to Galatians in reversionism. The reason they are in reversionism is because they have the same subjective thinking that we find in James 1:26, they have become religious. “You all [reversionists] have become null and void.” “Have become” is actually ginomai, “null and void” — katargew, aorist passive indicative: “you have become null and void” is the same as James saying “religious” — useless, powerless, unproductive — “from the ultimate source of Christ” — we have the preposition of ultimate source here, a)po.

Translation: “You all have become null and void from the ultimate source of Christ, whosoever are being vindicated [dikaow, a present passive indicative which means to be vindicated] by means of the law” — e)n plus the instrumental of nomoj. In other words, here is that religious crowd. They are seeking to be vindicated by means of the law — “ye are fallen from grace.” “Ye are fallen” is an aorist active indicative of e)kpiptw. This means to drift off course. it is a nautical term — “you have drifted off course from grace.” Grace is the function of the Christian way of life. That is the principle of reversionism. It means to drift away from the grace of God.

4. Reversionism rejects authority of great Bible teachers — Moses in Exodus 16:20; 17:3; Numbers 11:5; Jeremiah in Jeremiah 44:16; Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:1,2

5. Mental attitude sins are a major contributor to reversionism — Hebrews 12:15.

6. Descriptions of rerversionism: a. The uncircumcised heart — Jeremiah 9:25,26; b. The reprobate or worthless mind — Romans 1:28; c. The unstable soul — 2 Peter 2:14; d. The tortured soul — 2 Peter 2:7,8; e. The religious man deceiving his own heart — James 1:26.

7. The recipients of Hebrews were involved in reversion — Hebrews 5:11-14.

8. Reversion recovery demands rebound but it includes the daily function of GAP in the field of basic doctrine — Hebrews 6:1-3.

9. Reversion recovery is impossible under circumstances of apostasy — Hebrews 6:4-6.

10. Reversion leads to perversion — Romans 1:26-27.

11. Reversion produces national disintegration — Romans 1:28-32.

We have a case of reversion in James 1:26 — “but deceiveth his own heart.” The word deceiveth is the present active participle of a)pataw. The word means to seduce. In its reflexive form here it is even stronger than that. It means here to deceive, to seduce into error or false doctrine. “His own heart” is a reference to the right lobe. In other words, the heart of this believer once contained doctrine in the frame of reference, in the vocabulary, in norms and standards, and in the viewpoint. Now it is all gone under reversionism. Instead he seduces his own heart.

So the comment now from James: “This one’s religion” — the word for religion here is a different one, qrhskeia, almost like the adjective but not quite — “this person’s system of self-righteousness of piety, human good] is vain” — mataioj, which means empty. This word means the same as mataiothj, the vacuum.

Summary

1. This verse describes the believer who fails to function under GAP.

2. By failure to take in doctrine he develops scar tissue of the soul.

3. A vacuum is opened into the soul and Satanic doctrine and concepts infiltrate.

4. This passage emphasises that such a believer develops self-righteousness and at the same time ignores both mental attitude sins and sins of the tongue.

5. Therefore he places emphasis on overt human righteousness and human good.

6. He adopts some form of spirituality by works, some form of spirituality by legalism.

7. Therefore he is a retrogressing believers and at first doesn’t even know it. Why? because he considers himself to be devout, to be a spiritual giant, to be right.

8. Only rebound and the constant function of GAP can replace the ECS and pull him out of reversionism.

Verse 27 — pure religion. What emphasises the person in verse 26 who is doing it wrong? Sins of the tongue. The person who does it right? What emphasises him? Helping the helpless. So if you’re wrong you are going to have the sins of the tongue. That is verse 26. But if you do have true production, pure production, you are going to help the helpless.

“Pure” is the adjective kaqaroj. This means to be clean or unsoiled, guiltless. It connotes a lot of use of rebound and a lot of use of doctrine. Then we have “religion” again, qrkskeia, but now it means a system of activity with God in mind; “and undefiled” — a)miantoj. Miantoj means to have excrement on your clothing; “a” means not to have it. There is a system of works that “stinketh not” .All human good is like miantoj. Here we have a)miantoj which means bona fide good, production of divine good based on doctrine, based on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And notice that this is accomplished “before God” which is from the immediate source of God — para is the preposition of immediate source; “is” — present active indicative of e)imi — “this.” Here is the overt manifestation, the production of divine good, not human good. The illustration is directed toward others though it might be in many fields, “To visit” — present middle infinitive of e)piskeptomai which means to visit someone for the purpose of providing comfort or help. It means to intervene for the purpose of helping, to visit with gracious interposition. The word “fatherless” is o)rfanoj, it means to be without parents, to be bereaved and therefore to be helpless children without parents. The next word is xhra which means a helpless woman, a widow who is helpless. Notice “in their affliction” — e)n plus the locative of qliyij which means pressure, suffering, extreme adversity.

That is an illustration toward the helpless, toward other people. A second illustration is given in the last phrase, “to keep himself unspotted from the world.” “To keep” is terew which means to guard some thing which is important, which in this case is your own soul; “himself,” the believer priest — a)spilaj, for unspotted. A)spilaj refers to scar tissue — free from scar issue of the soul. The scar tissue of the soul produces a pseudo ECS which is described in principle in 1 John 2:15-17. And this is a reference to that because we have the phrase “unspotted from the world” — a)po, preposition of ultimate source. From the ultimate source of the world is Satanic doctrine — a)po kosmoj. Satan is the ruler of the kosmoj, therefore kosmoj today is identified with Satan. So to keep one’s self unspotted from the world refers to avoiding the pseudo ECS.

The doctrine of the pseudo ECS

1. The pseudo edification complex has a foundation made up of two factors: a. the lust of the flesh, 1 John 2:16; the lust of the eyes, slavery to the details of life, also 1 John 2:16. So the foundation of the pseudo ECS is lust — e)piqumia. The foundation of the bona fide ECS is e)pignwsij doctrine.

2. The concept of the pseudo ECS is also found in 1 John 2:16, the pride of life. Pride is the basic mental attitude sin on which all other mental attitude sins are formed.

3. The building of the pseudo ECS is from mataiothj, the vacuum. This is how Satanic doctrine or false concepts enter the soul. So that they go to the right lobe and down to the human spirit and the construction begins. The building materials for the pseudo ECS is the Satanic concepts which come through the mataiothj — Ephesians 4:17-19.

4. The believer is commanded to avoid the pseudo ECS in Romans 12:2 — “Stop being conformed to this world.” This includes the rebound technique which provides the filling of the Spirit, positive volition toward doctrine, the inhale of doctrine under the function of GAP, the residual doctrine in the human spirit, and the erection of the true ECS.

5. The structure of the pseudo ECS — 1st floor: legalism, trying to assuage God with human good; 2nd floor: slavery to the details of life under the whitewash of a works program; 3rd floor: mental attitude sins hidden by self-righteousness; 4th floor: a pseudo and emotional emphasis on love, the brotherly love pitch of the modern times; 5th floor: minus H or pseudo human happiness.