The Epistle of James is helping us address some of the causes of disunity and dissension. As Christians, we are to be caught up into the Oneness of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existing in a perfect harmony, oneness, and love, for all eternity. They have invited us into that unity. And we are to manifest that and reflect that in our relationships on earth, particularly within the Body of Christ. We understand very early on, that even though that is our calling, we live so far short of that so much of the time. This is because we have enemies, the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, and they fight against us on a number of fronts.
James deals with three different battle-fronts upon which we must guard the unity of Christians. The first, which we looked at in the last message and will continue with in this one, is the tongue. The second is the battlefield of our attitudes or thinking, and the third is our hearts. James starts at the fruit, which is speech. He works down the trunk of the tree to our attitudes, and then to the root, which is our heart. |
