James is encouraging us from the beginning, to count it a joy when trials of various kinds come our way. To chose our joy out of the confidence that is it for our good, for the testing of our faith; to produce a steadfastness within us!In Psalm 119:4-5 the Psalmist writes, "...Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your precepts!" May that be our prayer! As we come into trials of various kinds that we are not the waves tossed to and fro but that we cry out to the Lord, may our ways be steadfast!
James 17 and 18 concludes with the teaching that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father. That with him there is NO variation or shadow of change. This should give us great comfort and peace. We serve a God who is unwavering, unchanging, from eternity past to eternity present. Circumstances, trials, tribulations, sorrows- do not impact the Lord. He is Lord over all things and in Him and Him alone can we and should we seek refuge and strength. God is our refuge and God is our Strength! Psalm 118 echoes this, His steadfast love endures forever. The LORD is my strength and my song: He has become my salvation.
Verse 18 says, "Of His own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." God brought us to Him according to His own will. There is nothing we could do to earn His Salvation, Or His blessings, or His good and perfect gifts. It is by grace we have been saved through faith, it is not of ourselves, it is a gift of God. That is the most glorious blessing of all. James was writing primarily to the very earliest so Christians who would have most likely been majority of Jewish persons. The term firstfruits was given to the portion given to the Lord from the harvest. "In Israel's sacrificial system, the first produce of the land was considered devoted to the Lord, since he claimed them. (Reformation Study Bible)." This is a very beautiful and deep thought. Consider what James is saying- we are His; Christ claimed us, and now may we be devoted to Him, a kind of firstfruits.
The beauty of the entire passage, starting in verse one, the half-brother of Christ; who had come to be a fully devoted servant of the Lord, charging the new believers to consider trials of any kind a joy. To trust the Lord in hardship knowing that He is shaping us into what he desires. To serve Him well, not tossed to a fro- but to anchor down into the hope of our Salvation which is Jesus Christ the Lord. To not be easily swayed or confused or deterred- but to walk in the unending truth of the steadfast nature of our King.
May we delight in our Savior today.
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