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James 1:8-23

At least my mind is saying no, but my spirit wants to learn and to grow. Who wants to be double minded? Who wants to contend with their conscience? The person I am thinking of today is myself. I speak one way in church, I pray, I counsel, I love to share the lord and His word with you, yet in certain relationships I speak another way. This is not the way I want to be.

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low.

Church and ministry leadership resources to better equip, train and provide ideas for today’s church and ministry leaders, like you. Note that the following texts reflect the key theme of James, being the uncovering and recovering of the double-minded man, and that this is in no way an exhaustive summary of relevant texts but is merely a quick walkthrough of several key passages that relate to the suggested theme.

Part 2 will be posted on Monday. In this section James introduces the concept of the double-minded man. On one hand, he has some measure of faith in God and thus wishes to ask Him for things. On the other, he struggles with severe doubt of God and likely trusts himself more than a god who seems not to answer him. Not surprisingly, the double-minded man is the very antithesis of such desired behavior.

The man of two interests is likened here to one who cannot focus long enough to even remember what he looks like. The first and third aorists are both gnomic and thus convey not a one-time event but a timeless truth. Here he examines personal spiritual division through the standpoint of the tongue.

The problem with such a person here is that he professes to be a godly person but takes no practical action toward that end. The end result is that he tricks himself. We should thus understand the divided man to be unconscious of his dangerous state.