Hutson Smelley

Enduring Storms: A Mission 119 Guide to James Hutson Smelley

Probably the biggest lie Christians believe is that "I know the truth, therefore I experience it." The book of James refutes that misconception and provides a primer on Christian living with a focus on adversity and trials. James implores his readers to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. He relates a lived-out faith both to our current sanctification and the eschatological judgment. In a short epistle entirely given to the issue of sanctification, James exhorts his audience to moral purity and to humbly embracing God's implanted Word because that kind of Christian living will bring them to maturity and save their souls-their temporal experience of life as a Christian-at the coming judgment.

Christian living is carefully examined through the lens of the perfect law of liberty or royal law that we love God and others. When we stand before Christ to give an account, it will not be enough that we have understood and believed the royal law (faith alone). It is living out that professed belief as evidenced in how we relate to God and speak to and treat other people that will result in Christ's commendation and rewards for a life well-lived. But how do we live out God's Word in difficult circumstances? James meets his audience, and us, in the storm with practical answers about endurance, wisdom, speech, humility, grace, and love, so that we might become mature believers who experience God's Word and reflect His righteousness to others.