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Sunday 2/22/26
Title: The Type of Hope, Faith will support
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The Type of Hope, Faith will support
Well here we are talking about faith again and again. I find the topic irresistibly drawn towards hope and that for which faith has purpose.
Hebrews 11:1,2 & 6,
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.”
“By it the elders (those who have gone before us, having run the race to the satisfaction and delight of God our Father) obtained a good report or living testimony.”
“Without faith it is impossible to please God FOR WHOEVER COMES TO GOD”which is part of what pleases Him. “must first believe He even exists, but also that He will reward the one who comes.”
So God is pleased by being sought after and believed in.
God rewards all such seeking in trust!
As I told you over the course of the last two weeks, there are 3 basic sources of Hope in relation to God.
- God’s inspired, written word.
- The inward witness, leading, counsel and teaching of the Holy Spirit.
- What we have come to experience of God ourselves.
The 2nd and 3rd in this list NEVER go beyond what the written word has already revealed!
But the most powerful of all three is our experience!
This week however, we are going to play the other side of the field so to speak. Because even though experience is the most powerful of the three, it can also be the most destructive.
Proverbs 13:12,
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”
Now you know that I clarified for you last week that all such experiences HAVE to be subject to the word of God. If your “experience” leads you to expect from God what God has not promised, you are on thin ice. Or rather no ice at all, you’re just drowning.
Turn to James 1 where we will learn today to allow only what is truly good and perfect to set the bar for hope.
James 1:1-27,
“(1) James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
(2) Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, (3) for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (4) And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
(5) If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, Who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (6) But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
(7) For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; (8) he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
(9) Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, (10) and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.
(11) For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
(12) Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.”
I have often taught you regarding this verse that the notion of being “crowned” is symbolic of honor and that life is what we are crowned with – namely, knowing God more. I will take the time to explain this more responsibly here from the text, context and the grammar of the Greek.
In terms of simple context it seems obvious. Temptation comes, as we will see in the coming verses, to draw you away from God, or to try to get you to question and doubt what you have come to know of God, but which is not yet fully solidified in you. It is a trial to pry you away from your steadfastness in what God has revealed to you of Himself. So even temptation IS relational in that your growth in relationship to God is its target and goal.
So James starts off with the advice that we should approach temptation as relational joy. The reason for this is because IF you pass the test and are not tempted away from your assurance of Who God has revealed Himself to be, your “knowing” of God will increase. He will honor you with more revelation into His person and character! Since you have been faithful to what He has so far committed to you in your coming to know Him, more will be given.
So temptation comes, as Jesus told us in His parable of the heart soils (or more commonly known as the parable of the seed and the sower) that when the word is sown in the heart, satan comes IMMEDIATELY to snatch it away. THAT is what James is addressing here.
These believers, as you can see if you read on to chapter 4, are carnal. They have drifted in their devotion to Christ and have allowed their freedom in Him, to encourage wantonness. So James is here attempting to reason them back to safety by explaining what is going on.
The devil is tempting them away from intimacy with Christ by deceiving them into believing that what he is offering is more beneficial and complete. This is almost NEVER a frontal attack. The devil does not explain his agenda or intentions, he deceives – that’s what James is addressing. James is shedding light in the dark areas where satan works best, to reveal the “what and why” as well as the lie behind temptation.
So when we get to verse 12, we are told that if we stand firm – fixed and immoveable from our trust and reliance upon what we know of God – that what He offers and Who He is – is what is “good” and “perfect”, we will be honored with knowing Him to a greater degree.
This much seems pretty obvious from the logic and flow of the text.
Textually and grammatically this is made even more certain!
It is widely accepted among scholars to understand “crown” (stephanos) in James 1:12 as a symbolic reference to honor, victory, and the reward of eternal life.
The word used is stephanos, which denotes a wreath or garland, was the classic prize awarded to victors in ancient athletic games.
This is distinct from diademawhich is the word for a royal crown.
Therefore, its use here is a cultural reference and functions as a symbol of achievement, public recognition, and honor for one who has successfully completed a race or contest. In this case, for the one who endures the temptation without failing.
The phrase “crown of life” employs the uses of the genitive case (specifically a genitive of apposition or content). How this helps us understand the meaning of Jame’s words is this construction makes the “crown” – “life” itself. It is not a crown given to life, but a crown that consists of, or is defined by, eternal life.
This only makes more sense of the way James continues to develop his thought in the next verses…
“(13) Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. (14) But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (15) Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
(16) DONOTBEDECEIVED, MY BELOVED BROTHERS.
(17) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Good – ἀγαθός agathósGood, in respect to operation or influence on others, i.e., useful, beneficial, profitable.
So the “good” gift is one that is genuinely beneficial and profitable for you. That already eliminates much that we, in our selfishness, would identify as good. Like our passage we quoted from Proverbs 13:12, these are things which give way to life. Such is also the context which has already been established from verse 12.
The “Crown of Life“ is the reward!
Next is the word “perfect”.
Perfect – τέλειος téleiosFinished, that which has reached its end, term, limit; hence, complete, full, wanting in nothing.
God’s nature & character are set forth here as the source & standard for both “good” & “perfect”. As you keep reading it is what produces the righteousness of God.
So taken together these words can reasonably only point to one thing – Christ in me! The “good” and “perfect” gift God offers is character refinement – otherwise known as our Great HOPE – Christ in me. Or, as James puts it later in this chapter – the salvation of the soul.
“(18) Of His Own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
(19) Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; (20) FOR the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
So right standing in our character IS the goal!
What does this have to do with our greater topic of Faith and Hope?
The fact that ‘Christ in us’ is our GREAT HOPE, shows us immediately that we are still on topic!
What we are addressing today is the need to be wise and learn the lessons James was teaching these wayward Christians so that we do not substitute REAL hope (what we can rightly expect from God) for what is false hope – what we wrongly expect from God.
So many of the things people attempt to use religion and prayer to God for are selfish! They are things we are seeking to spend on our own pleasures and James tells us that this is why God does not give it.
James 4:1-4 (Holman), “(1) What is the source of the wars and the fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you? (2) You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask. (3) You ask and don’t receive because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your desires for pleasure. (4) Adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.”
Additionally, these words suggest that many times, IF we get our request, it did not come from God!
The devil is more than happy to manipulate circumstances to accommodate your prayer of selfishness. It causes him a double win! First it affirms your selfishness by making it appear as if God backs it. Secondly, it silences whatever remains of the ear you have to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit trying to draw you away from such fleshly pursuits.
You see – for the devil it is a win, win!
Now to be sure, most of our requests are going to possess at least some component which addresses a personal desire or need and that is not wrong!
When I buy food at the supermarket, I do not do it for someone else. I do it so I can have something to eat.
The things I buy are things I like to eat and that is WHY I buy them.
This is not the type of selfishness we are talking about. We are talking about things which feed and develop our carnal nature!
Our Great Hope is to set the pace for all our smaller hopes. Meaning, all of our “little bricks” of hope, must be in compliance with the final structure of our Great Hope -> Christ in us!
When I approach God for:
- Healing – why? Is it JUST all about you, or do you want Christ revealed in the healing of your body? Are you wanting to use your healthy body to serve God with freedom and without restraint?
- Finances – Why? Just so you wont be ashamed, or wont be threatened with eviction? Don’t get me wrong, no one wants to be evicted, but if that is my only reason then selfishness is at the core of my request rather than love. One of my PRIMARY reasons for wanting my needs met is to be a good testimony before unbelievers. Any additional wealth beyond my needs should at least largely include the desire to invest in the kingdom and the needs of the poor.
So again the question is why do I ask?
Our hope cannot be selfish if faith is to support it. Faith does in fact work by love. I know that the passage in Galatians is regarding initial salvation, but the principle is sound.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 says that after all the gifts have accomplished their work of maturing us into Christ’s image, there will still remain three things – Faith, Hope & Love and the greatest of the three – is Love!
Now James points us to God’s word and the need to absorb it as that by which righteous transformation takes place.
“(21) Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is ABLE to SAVE YOUR SOULS.”
“(22) But be DOERS of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. (24) For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”
“(25) BUT the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
“(26) If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”
“(27) Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
So you BECOME like Jesus in character, then you ACT like Jesus by going into a world who needs to have Him lived out before them!
THIS is what Faith and Hope are intended to do in the life of a believer! Peter says as much by stating what is the end goal of our faith –
“Receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.”– 1 Peter 1:9
So to summarize the why and what of our teaching today. For WEEKS I have pressed the need for Hope in order for Faith to have something to support.
Furthermore I have pressed the fact that our Hope MUST be based upon what we can RIGHTLY expect of God.
Then I pointed you to the three primary sources of Hope:
- God’s inspired, written word.
- The inward witness, leading, counsel and teaching of the Holy Spirit.
- What we have come to experience of God ourselves.
The 2nd and 3rd in this list NEVER go beyond what the written Word has already revealed!
But the most powerful of all three is our experience because it is relational and we see this and the basis for faith among many of those set forth as our examples in scripture!
TODAY however, I wanted to play the other side of the field a bit regarding hope from experience. Our experiences HAS to be grounded and NEVER go beyond what we see revealed of God and His character in the written Word of God!
Blessings!
Tri
