Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on James 1:17-20.
Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning (James 1:17).
I noted Sunday that in James 1:17-20 three key themes are
explored by the apostle: Who is God (vv. 17-18a)? Who is the redeemed sinner
(v. 18b)? How should we live (vv. 19-20)?
James begins with theology (Who is God?). He uniquely
identifies God here as “the Father of Lights”.
Christ taught us to pray, “Our Father, which art in heaven….”
Of course, this is the language of analogy. God is not a male. Christ said to
the woman at the well: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). We are not the physical offspring of
God.
And yet the language here is not accidental. Although there
are a handful of scattered “maternal” images for God in the Scriptures (cf. Psalm
91:4), the predominant Biblical image for God is as a Father.
Our liberal Protestant friends are thus wrong when they try
to be gender inclusive and begin their prayers, “Our mother, which art in
heaven….”
Nearly 30 years ago, back in the August 16, 1993 issue of Christianity
Today magazine, there was an article, still well worth reading, titled, “Why
God is not Mother,” by a woman OT scholar named Elizabeth Achtemeier, which ably
makes this point.
The Bible calls God Father, because it suggests that he is like
an ideal Father. Even if you did not have a good and loving human Father,
you can still imagine what an ideal Father should be.
How is God like an ideal Father?
He is the initiator. He is the one who conceives the plan to
be carried out. He is the one who issues decrees to accomplish his plan. He is
the one who provides from the fullness of who he is. He does not let his
children go hungry. He meets their physical needs. He is generous and kind and
liberal in his affections with his children. He is a loving Father. He satisfies
the emotional and spiritual needs of those who are his own. The ideal Father
will also exercise discipline, not because he enjoys punishment, but because he
desires to train, correct, and improve his children. A Father is a protector
and defender. He will step in the gap to shield his dear ones from any threat.
A Father is also a rescuer and a savior. If he sees his child in danger, he
will intervene to pluck him out of trouble.
Every human father will confess that he falls short of this
ideal, but every Christian will affirm that our heavenly Father perfectly
fulfills this ideal in his paternal care for us.
James adds that God is “the Father of lights.” What is meant
by this?
The first thing that came to my mind was an acknowledgement
of God as the creator of light and the creator of the heavenly bodies that
provide light to this world (cf. day one and day four of creation, Genesis 1:3,
14).
One might also think of the triune God and how God the Father
sent forth his Son who declared, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).
Or one might especially think, given the plural here (lights),
of the spiritual illuminations and graces, which he bestows on so many.
Matthew Poole observed here: “God is the author of all
perfection, and so of corporeal light; but here we understand spiritual light,
the light of knowledge, faith, holiness, as opposed to the darkness of
ignorance, unbelief, sin; of which he cannot be the author.”
There is a theological point being made here: God is the
Father of lights, not the Father of darkness. As the theologians say, God is
not the author of evil.
By starting with God, James reminds us that we will not
understand ourselves, or how we are to live, until we know who our God is. He is
the Father of lights.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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