Emmanuel Lutheran Church

1 Peter 3:1–7 (NKJV)

¹ Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, ² when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. ³ Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—⁴ rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. ⁵ For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, ⁶ as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. ⁷ Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

The focus of this week has been God’s commandment to love our neighbor, to put that second great commandment into practice, and that we do it genuinely and sincerely, not with hypocrisy. Today’s lesson focuses on the home, in the context of husband and wife as neighbor to one another.

In the context of marriage, the Lord would have Christian wives submitting to their husbands in love, as the Church submits to Christ. Even if their husband is not a believer, God would have wives loving their husbands through “chaste conduct” and “fear,” that is, respect, which, in turn, may influence their husband toward the faith. God would have women pursue the “incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.” This, in God’s estimation, is what love looks like on the part of a wife, and it is “very precious in the sight of God.” That’s not the message that women hear from the world or that rises up from our sinful flesh. But then, the world and our flesh have never been friendly to Christians. As we heard earlier this week from James, “Whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

For their part, believing husbands are not to be gruff or uncaring toward their wives, but considerate. They are to cherish and honor them as their equals when it comes to our status before God, as coheirs of eternal life. Part of that honor includes recognizing with thanksgiving that God intentionally designed women as the “weaker vessel,” that is, softer in demeanor, less forceful, less physically strong, so that they might complement their husbands. This “weakness” is not a flaw but part of God’s good design. If we succeed at ignoring the world’s wisdom and if we live together in love, according to God’s design, then husbands and wives will be great sources of comfort, strength, and support for one another.

Let us pray: Lord, in this world that has grown to despise marriage, help us all to lead a pure and chaste life in word and deed, and strengthen husbands and wives to love and honor each other. Amen.

James 5:12–20 (NKJV)

¹² But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment. ¹³ Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. ¹⁸ And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. ¹⁹ Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, ²⁰ let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

James closes his epistle by encouraging the scattered Jewish Christians to pray, an encouragement which is just as fitting for us today.

If you are suffering, pray! “Lord, have mercy!” That mercy may come in many forms. It may come in the form of relief, but it also may come in the form of peace, or perseverance, or the learning of a needed lesson. It may even come in the form of death as the Lord finally delivers us from all evil of body and soul and brings us safely into His heavenly kingdom.

If you are cheerful, sing psalms, that is, songs of praise! And to whom are songs of praise sung but to the Lord? Another form of prayer.

If you are sick, James says, call for the elders (that is, pastors) of the church that they may pray for you. The healing James promises is the miraculous healing that was common in the apostolic era as the Holy Spirit manifested His gifts to confirm the apostles’ testimony. While physical healing is no longer promised, the healing of the forgiveness of sins is. Indeed, James assures us that the prayers of the righteous are always powerful and effective. God takes them very seriously and will surely hear and help, either in a miraculous way, as He did for the prophet Elijah, or in an “ordinary way.” That is, He may “simply” order the events of this universe so that all things must work together for good to those who love Him. In either case, you can be sure that God will take your prayers into account.

Finally, James gives us a powerful encouragement to love our brother who has “wandered from the truth.” If we succeed in turning him back to the truth, we will have been God’s instruments in saving his soul from death. What stronger incentive could there be to approach an erring brother in love and to do all we can to bring him back into the way of life?

Let us pray: Our Father in heaven, hear our prayers in times of suffering and in times of joy. In all things, may Your will be done; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

James 4:1–5:6 (NKJV)

¹ Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? ² You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. ⁴ Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? ⁶ But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. ¹¹ Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹² There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? ¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; ¹⁴ whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. ¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! ² Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. ⁴ Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. ⁵ You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

Like one of the Old Testament prophets, James issues stern warnings and urgent calls to repentance in today’s lesson. He moves from one topic to another, urging the Jewish Christians to whom he is writing to live more humbly before God and before man.

Is there strife among you? It is likely because some of you are wrapped up in the “cares, riches, and pleasures of life” (Luke 8:14). It’s so easy, so tempting to fall in with the world, to value what the world values, to engage in the activities the world promotes. But the Church is, by definition, the assembly of those who have been called out of the world into Christ’s kingdom, even though we still live in the world. The world is opposed to Christ and, therefore, opposed to Christians. If our goal is to get ahead in this world or pursue the pleasures of this world, then we are bound to be at odds with our fellow Christians, even as we are at odds with Christ. But if we repent of our worldliness and humble ourselves before God, then He will lift us up. If we resist the devil, he will not be able to overcome us.

James then calls out two groups among the Christians: those who arrogantly make plans for themselves with no regard for God or His will, and those who have bowed to the god Mammon, who have trusted in their wealth and heaped up treasures for themselves with no regard for their fellow man. Both of these sins are all too common today and flow from the same worldliness that James upbraided above. This life is not all there is, so it’s foolish to live as if it were. Indeed, those who fail to repent of their idolatry of self and of wealth will soon learn just how foolish it was for them to ignore God’s warning issued through the Epistle of James. Instead, turn to God in humility before it’s too late, and you will find mercy with Him for Christ’s sake.

Let us pray: O God, come to our aid against the devil, the world, and our flesh, that we may be victorious over these our enemies and walk before You in humility and sincere faith. Amen.

James 3:1–18 (NKJV)

¹ My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. ² For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. ³ Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. ⁴ Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. ⁵ Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. ⁷ For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. ⁸ But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. ¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Like John’s first epistle, the Epistle of James is largely focused on exposing and rooting out hypocrisy from among Christians. We have been rescued from the devil’s kingdom. We have been washed of our sins in Holy Baptism. We now call upon the God of love as our Father, our Savior, and our Lord, who is pure and holy and good. It only makes sense that our lives as His children should also be pure and holy and good.

That purity flows from the new hearts created in us when we were born again, but the next stop is the tongue. James points out what a big part our tongues play in steering our lives—and how hard they are to control. God’s Word is all-powerful, but our words have power, too. They can do great good for our neighbor, and they can do great damage to him.

The Christian uses his tongue to praise God. He strives to speak only things that are true and that are helpful to his neighbor. The hypocrite, on the other hand, blesses God with his mouth but then uses the same mouth to curse and to put down his fellow man, or to speak falsehood in order to save his own skin. James exposes the hypocrisy of this behavior and warns his fellow Christians to watch out for such hypocrisy, and to repent of it immediately if we have fallen into it.

He then encourages us to examine our hearts, to see if there is “bitter envy and self-seeking” there and to be honest with ourselves if we find it. Am I jealous of my neighbor? Am I seeking his good or my own? How is this reflected in my words? How is it reflected in my actions? If we believe in God and wish to be wise, then let us pursue heavenly wisdom, which is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

Let us pray: Lord, forgive us for misusing our tongues to harm our neighbor. Help us to control them, to speak only words that edify, and to show mercy in all that we say and do. Amen.