Emmanuel Okoro (aka MrLift)

Mercy over judgement "For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time. (Jas.2.13 MSB) The age-long sayings, "One good turn deserves another" and "Do unto others as you would have them do to you" hold sway in this regard. Treat others kindly, and expect to be treated kindly. That means it is only after we have rendered mercy, that can we truly expect mercy.  This truth is consistent with what Jesus taught in the prayer lesson in Matthew 6.  "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:" (Matt.6.12-14)  Notice it did not say if you do not forgive men but if you forgive men... your heavenly father will also forgive you. I say that to say that God expects it from us because as a father, he has standing forgiveness awaiting you.  This ties into what James teaches in chapter 2. It...

The royal law of love  "Yes indeed, it is good when you truly obey our Lord's royal command found in the Scriptures: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Jas.2.8 NLT) All of scripture is royal but first among equals is the royal law of love. Love we are told is the greatest. (see 1 Cor:13:15) Here is our text it says that it is good when you obey our Lord's royal command. So to love is not a suggestion, it is even beyond an instruction. It is a command. And commands are meant to be obeyed.  Jesus calls it the commandment of the New Testament.  "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." (John 13.34) To love is to treat others royally. It is to treat others as kings and queens. This is irrespective of how they act or behave.  Our assignment is to love others. Love as Jesus loves.  Love not in words alone but most especially in deeds. This is how we show the world our God - b...

The down-and-outers  "Listen, dear friends. Isn't it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world's down-and-out as the kingdom's first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God." (Jas.2.5 MSB) It should be very clear by now that God operates quite differently than men. Isaiah the prophet tells us that the ways of God are higher than ours because the thoughts of God are higher. God operates differently from us.  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."(Isa.55.8 - 9) And that is what our text opens with but then goes on to tell us that God chooses the down-and-outs of this world. And this is to continue the thoughts he expressed in the previous verses that we should not show favouritism, especially in the h...

Faith and public opinion  "My dear friends, don't let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith." (Jas.2.1 MSB) The voice of the people is the voice of God, right? Wrong! Popular opinion does not necessarily mean God's opinion. God does not take sides, He takes over and His opinions are made very clear to us in scripture. So if it does not line up with what the Bible says, it is not the opinion of God.  We see in Acts of the Apostles when the people shouted their opinion as though it was the voice of the king was the voice of God, an angel smote the king immediately.  "And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." (Acts.12.21-23) The word o...

Pure religion "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (Jas.1.27) Our text says pure religion is undefiled before God and that this pure religion visits with fatherless and widows in their affliction. A religion that does not care and cater to the needs of the fatherless and the widows is not pure before God.  For something to be pure means, it is undiluted, not watered-down. That is the religion that pleases God. When was the last time you went out of your way to meet the needs of the fatherless and the widows around you? Do you care for only your needs? In today's world where prices are skyrocketed, and income has taken a beaten and nosedive, we tend to see only to our needs and odd what's so ever we can and where possible even collect from the ones we are supposed to help. Remember that we make a life by giving. Jesus said it is ...

Control your tongue "If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless." (Jas.1.26 NLT). If you have an opinion on every matter, sooner than later, your opinion will appear worthless. No one truly is the master of all. Guard your tongue, especially in times like these when the world's dynamism is rapid. Our text has a word of caution for those who claim to be religious, it says control your tongue. And this is very instructive, knowing that Jesus said in Mark.11.23 that you shall have whatsoever you say.  "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith." (Mark.11.23) Is it possible that your life currently is a result of your unguarded utterance? Be mindful of what yo...

Look intently "But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does. (Jas1.25NIV) There are a few keywords in our text today. The first being 'intently'. Which is to say, to look with intent, and expectation. It brings to mind, the story of the man born lame from his mother's womb who looked at Peter and John with the intent to receive alms but instead received his healing.  "And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us."(Acts.3.4) The Bible says we should look with such intent when we look at the perfect law of freedom.  That brings us to another keyword: "perfect law of freedom". The more intently I look into this law, the more freedom I see, the more I continue, the more freedom I manifest. So it is not just to look but also to continue to look. Freedom from fear, from hate, and freedom ...

Act on the word  "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (Jas.1.22) I have found that when I learned a lesson from God's word, situations arise that come to test that lesson. You know Jesus told us in Mark 4:17 that affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake.  "And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended."(Mark.4.17) Affliction and persecution arise for the work's sake. That is, that word that you claim to believe will be tested.  The word of the Lord will test you. "Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him."(Ps.105.19) All of these happen to allow you to act on the word of God. That is, you do not only want to hear the word but do the word. Catch yourself each time, and do God's word. The reward as we saw in Joseph's case was pro...

Saving your soul "Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." (Jas.1.21) There are so many carnal Christians today - that is, people who are born again but ruled by the desires of their souls and body. That is, they are not ruled by the dictates of the word of God.  Hence we see very little change in our world today. Many profess to be Christians but have refused to live their lives by the standard of the word of God. And that is because, though their spirit is saved, they are doing nothing to save their soul.  Man is a spirit, he has a soul and lives in a body. (See 1 Thess:5:23) So the Apostle James says we should lay aside the filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness but did not stop there. Most people are trying to do this in their strength, hence you see people repeatedly entangled in the same struggle again and again.  The solution is to receive with ...

The wrath of man "For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." (Jas.1.20) Human anger and the righteousness of God hardly coexist. Indeed, anger is sometimes a valid emotion, however, we must learn to keep it under wraps. The Apostle Paul told the Ephesians to be angry and sin not because anger is sometimes a valid emotion.  "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath" (Eph.4.26) But there is a thin line between being angry and not sinning and being angry and sliding into sin. As a result, the Apostle James says that "Your anger can never make things right in God's sight." (Jas.1.20 NLT). That "God's righteousness does not grow from human anger (MSG) So can we avoid being angry? The answer is "we may try", also, we should learn to be in control of our anger instead of letting it control us. The real answer though,  is in growing in the fruit of the spirit called "Self-control...

August 18, 2023 S. S. S. "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:" (Jas.1.19) S.S.S. usually speaks of the state secret service but today SSS as it relates to our text is Swift to hear, Slow to speak, and Slow to wrath. We will do to remember that.  We are required to be swift to hear. The one thing most people are not good at doing is listening. Listen with the intent to hear what the Spirit is saying. What your neighbour is saying. Hear what the word of God is saying.  Slow to speak. While it will be easier for some of us to speak than hear, the text admonished us to rather hear and be slow to speak. We should hear twice as much as we speak, little wonder we have two ears and one mouth. Listen twice, speak once.  Slow to wrath. Do not be quick to be angry. Mostly, our rational side is suspended when we get angry. But we can train ourselves to remain calm and bring our emotions under control and be slow to...

Prized possession "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." (Jas.1.18) That God begat us, that is, He brought us forth of His own will says a lot about us. It says God knew all about us - good, bad, and ugly - and still He chose us.  Jesus demonstrated this truth when he told his disciples, "You have not chosen me, I have chosen you..."  "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." (John.15.16) He begat us through his word of truth. The word of God is our source. If anything is taken from its source, it dies. So also if we are taken away from the truth of God's word, we begin to die.  He chose and ordained us so that we should go and bring forth fruit and that our fruit should remain. Are you bearing fr...

Evil desires "These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death." (Jas.1.15 NLT) We saw from the previous verse that temptation comes from our own desires. (See Jas. 1.14) And taking it a first further, our text says that these evil desires lead us to evil actions and evil actions lead to death. That is why it is important to guard our hearts with all diligence because out of it proceeds the issues of life. (see Prov:4:23) Our mind is the battlefield. The battle is won or lost in our mind before it is won or lost in life. Before we proceed to take any action, our mind would have to decide what that action will be. If the mind decides right, the actions will be right, if otherwise, the actions will be wrong.  Little wonder, the Apostle Paul admonished us to renew our minds (see Rom:12:2) And the renewing of our mind is a constant, consistent process. The more we fill our minds with the engrafted word of God, the more our mind is renewed. Pay a...

Where do temptations come from? "Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires." (Jas.1.14 NLT) Won't you want to know where temptation comes from? An easy answer would be the tempter, the one called the devil or Satan if you like. But that is not what the apostle James says in this passage.  He says that temptation comes from our own evil desire. Another translation says: "The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. (Jas.1.14 MSB) So our evil desire is where temptation comes from. Not from the devil, not from satan but our own evil desire.  To deal with this, we need to keep away from evil. Little wonder Jesus taught us to pray "deliver us from evil". As long as we are in this world, evil will come but we have to guard against it. Proverbs 4:24 comes to mind.  "Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do." (Prov...

Blessed or Prosperous life "You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that's a picture of the "prosperous life." At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing. (Jas.1.11 MSB) I have often wondered what the Bible meant when it speaks of good success in the  book of Joshua:1:8 "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." (Josh.1.8) Here it speaks of being prosperous and having good success.  Our text paints a picture of a life that is prosperous. It says it is now and it's not in a short while. It describes it as a flower that withers and a petal that wilts at the instance ...

Test-suited  "Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his elevation [as a Christian, called to the true riches and to be an heir of God], And the rich [person ought to glory] in being humbled [by being shown his human frailty], because like the flower of the grass he will pass away." (Jas.1.9 - 10 AMP) We are all tempted, but we are not tempted the same way or by the same trials. Each one has a test-suited trial targeted at them. For what one may fall for, the other may not. This is one reason we must not be too quick to point fingers. That your temptation is not mine, does not make me a better person or Christian than you and vice versa.  Here in our text, we see two sets of people. The first one was told to glory in elevation because he is of humble circumstances but on the other hand, the rich person was told to glory in being humble because of his riches.  Your temptation is tailored to you. Yes, we all indeed have general trials but the devil did...

Make up your mind "[For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides]. (Jas.1.8 AMP) In the face of varying options, one of the most difficult things to do is to make a decision and the next most difficult thing to do is to stand by that decision.  But we must learn to be resolute. All your decisions may not be right but they may lead to the next right one. Make up your mind and after it is made up, see it through.  Our text says a man who does not make up his mind cannot receive anything from God. Because God Himself is not sure what to give him. This or that? And that is scary. If you make a decision and found out it was wrong, then you just found out one way that thing is not going to work. But if you keep dilly-dallying you will not get anything done. Make up your mind and stand by it. If it is wrong, apologies, recalibrate, and move on.  Do n...

Do not worry your prayers "Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves." (Jas.1.6 MSB) The story of the child playing with a snake at the back of the yard, when the mother saw it, She shouted, run, baby run. Because she wanted her baby to run to safety from the eminent threat the snake poses. The problem was, the baby picked up the snake and ran with it.  That is what this verse emphasizes. We go to God in prayer with our problems and issue but when leave, we grab the problems and run with them. God does not want you to take the problems with you, he wants you to leave them with Him.  The verse says do not "worry your prayers". Do not pray about it and worry about it at the same time. When you pray, you hand the issues over to God, so let God deal with them. When you worry about stuff you've prayed about, you are worrying your prayers.  "Only it must be in faith that h...

Knowing what to do "If you need wisdom--if you want to know what God wants you to do--ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking." (Jas.1.5 NLT) Wisdom is not just the ability to use knowledge but also knowing what to do at a time. From our text, we could say wisdom is knowing what God wants you to do. No one has it all covered. If you have lived long enough you will agree that plans do change along the way.  God is the only one Who is all-knowing. Little wonder our text says we should ask God to know what we ought to do. And He will not resent us for it.  Most people ask but then they ignore the nudging of the Lord. The good doctor says it this way "It seemed good to me..." "It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus," (Luke.1.3) What seems good to him? Writing an account of the things Jesus began to do and teach...

Let patience... "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." (Jas.1.4) One way you know you no longer need patience is when you are perfect but if you are not yet perfect you need patience. And not for you alone, but also patient with others. Learn to be patient with others. We are all in this patient walk together.  There are two perfect used in this verse. One is patience in having a perfect work and not until this first one happens, the second perfect will not happen. When you allow patience have her perfect work in you, only then will you be perfect.  One translation says, "Let patience grow you", another one says "Don't try to get out of anything prematurely", and yet another say, "Let patience have a full play and do a thorough work". Any way you look at it, the volution is involved. "Let it". Don't fight it. Heed to it and let it have a perfect work with and thr...

Under pressure I have heard it said that people are only good when it is convenient. Though this is arguable, one certain thing is that pressure reveals the true nature of any person. And that is what the Apostle James says in this verse.  "You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors." (Jas.1.3 MSB) When life is rosy, some of our true colours do not have the chance to manifest. But under pressure, everything you've got is tested, and the true you is revealed. Little wonder, God says He calls his people out of the furnace of affliction "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." (Isa.48.10) When Israel left the slavery of Egypt, God says He took them not through the easy path but through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea to reveal what they were made us "But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea:...

Count it all joy "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;" (Jas.1.2) As a young man I learnt the old hymnal, "Count your blessings, name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done". It was a lesson in gratitude towards God for all his many blessings. We cannot count enough all that He has done, is doing, and will yet do. And for this, we are forever grateful. But no one has ever mentioned that we were meant to also count the trials that are sent out ways as an opportunity to also give God praise.  As I read through this, and put the situations and circumstances of the country in perspective, I was reminded that it was an opportunity to count it as joy.  When we are faced with trials and temptation, we have just been granted an opportunity to count it as joy. And when we learn this perspective of looking at trials and temptation, it is a lot easier to see passed the trials to the solution.  Seize this momen...

Equip you "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Heb.13.20-21 NIV) As we come to the end of our study of the book of Hebrew my prayers for you are the same as the Apostle Paul's prayer in our text that you will be equipped with everything good for doing God's will. Note that equipping is to enable you to do the will of the Father. Not my will but thine will be done.  Secondly that God may work in you what is pleasing to Him. We are reminded that it is God who is at work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.  "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Phil.2.13) One way God does this is that he puts His desires in your heart. In other w...