Sunday message · James, Unlearning Religion series
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Message Summary
In the final message of the Unlearning Religion series on the book of James, Pastor Phillip Santillan covers James 4:13–5:11. He recalls how the 1998 hit Closing Time got him thinking that anything new comes at the tail end of something ending, and the saying he used to open his first sermon: we are born crying while the world rejoices, and should live so that at our death the world cries and we rejoice. James, too, challenges readers to live with the end in mind, since life is like the morning fog.
James wrote to believers driven out of Jerusalem by persecution, struggling as strangers in new lands, who had also begun bickering. After urging them to love one another in how they act, speak and even think, he does what Minnesota’s Herb Brooks did with rival players on the 1980 Olympic hockey team in the movie Miracle: he gives them a common enemy. Most scholars believe verse 13 addresses not believers but the wealthy people behind their hardships. Drawing on Scot McKnight, Phil describes their sin as presumption, assuming that time, location, duration and profits are all under their control.
Listeners might have cheered, since it feels good to judge people far from Christ. But verse 17 breaks in: it is a sin to know what you ought to do and not do it. Some would have realized James meant them. Then the tone shifts to “dear brothers and sisters” and a call to wait patiently for the Lord’s return, like a farmer waiting for rain. Rather than rising up against injustice, they are to endure, because the battle is the Lord’s. “Take courage” can also mean “stand firm,” like a planted tree, and what matters is who we are planted in. Paul told the Colossians to let their roots grow down into Christ.
Being planted in Christ shows in how we treat one another, so James says not to grumble about each other, even inwardly, since the judge is at the door. Phil admits churches are good at grumbling. James points to the prophets, who kept speaking God’s word whatever kings said, and to Job, whose story shows that the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy. Knowing how to live is often not enough to make us live that way, Phil says, so we must preach the gospel to ourselves, remembering who God is. James echoes Exodus 34, where after Israel’s idol worship the Lord declares himself compassionate, gracious and slow to anger, words Jonah later resented when God spared Nineveh.
Jesus said the same in John 3:16–17: God sent his Son not to condemn the world but to save it. Nothing we do can make God love us more or less, and Phil wonders whether preaching that gospel to ourselves more would help us unlearn religion. Since we will each give account for our lives, he closes with the hope that, like Paul in Philippians 1:20–21, we would honor Christ whether by life or by death, because to live is Christ and to die is gain.