Probably the most famous progression
in James is in the first few verses—from rejoicing in trials to patience to lacking
nothing spiritually, and from lacking wisdom to asking God for wisdom.
For a long time, verses 5-8 troubled
me. What are they saying? Really
believe that God will give you wisdom, and He will. A warning that if your Belief-o-Meter
hasn’t reached critical mass, your experiment will fail.
Now I think this little section hinges
on the God statement: “the God who gives generously to all, without reproach.” Without reproach could mean either
without cruel jeering, or without pointing out a real fault. Generously is amazing: “of guileless
response to someth(ing) that arrests one’s attention.” If our God were finite it would mean dropping
all His other tasks to meet a need that captured His attention, not thinking of
how much it will cost or how silly it will make Him look.
The problem is not that someone fails
to muster up the required amount of belief, but that someone fails to believe
God is the kind of God He says He is.
And since our spiritual growth absolutely depends on God being that for
us, the one who does not believe Him is truly at a loss.
The definitions above, both directly quoted and
summarized by me, are from BDAG: Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W.
(2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian
literature (3rd ed.). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
