James 1: 9-15

  ⁹ Let the brother or sister of humble means boast in having a high position ¹⁰ and the rich in having been humbled, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. ¹¹ For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.
  ¹² Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. ¹³ No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴ But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; ¹⁵ then, when desire has conceived, it engenders sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.

The message of Jesus in the gospels is full of reversals where the lowly are brought high and the mighty are brought low. The song of Mary, the Magnificat, in Luke 1:46-55 is a prime example of this theme:

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. Luke 1: 52-53

Scot McKnight makes an interesting note on the childhood experience of Jesus and James, assuming James the brother of Jesus as the author of the letter:

If there is any truth to the tradition that Joseph died and left Mary a widow, James would have been part of a family in stress, and that might help explain why James sees pure religion as caring for the poor and widows (James 1:26-27). (McKnight, 2011, p. 16)

Jesus would continually use the language of reversal where the first are last and the last are first,[1] and the exalted are humbled and the humbled exalted.[2] This section also resonates strongly with Jesus’s teaching not to worry about food and drink and clothing in the Sermon on the Mount.[3] The rich disappear like the flowers of the field, just as Solomon in all his glory is not clothed like the flowers of the field. For James’s wisdom does not trust in the position and grandeur that comes from wealth, these are only transitory things which are untrustworthy and wither away. Just as Jesus could tell his disciples that one cannot serve God and wealth (Mammon), James tells the recipients of this letter that the rich will be humbled but the humble will be lifted up to a high position. The God who provides for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field provides for the brother and sister of humble means while the rich are tempted to serve wealth as their master and order their lives according to the kingdom of Mammon.

The word ‘blessed’ in verse twelve continues to indicate that James is following the pattern of Hebrew wisdom literature. The Greek Makarios is the same term used in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount and is the Greek term which translates the Hebrew ‘asre (or ‘ashrei) often rendered ‘happy’ in most translations. The word means blessed, happy, or contented and is frequently used in wisdom literature. Here those who endure temptation or testing (Greek periasmos)[4] are happy/blessed. In a similar pattern to the Beatitudes, James lifts up something that normally is not considered blessed (enduring temptation/testing) and then indicates the reward (receiving the crown of life). Yet, James is also concerned that people understand that, in his view, God is not the cause of the temptation but instead the temptation comes from a misdirected desire. On the one hand there are points in the Old Testament where God clearly does test God’s people, and throughout many portions of the Old Testament God is responsible for both the good things that happen and the bad things that happen. As I mention in my reflection on A Split in the Identity of God this perspective evolves and by the time of the New Testament there are forces, like the devil and demons, actively opposed to God’s will for the world. Yet for James the temptation is due to one’s own desire. The word translated by the NRSVue as ‘desire’ (epithumias) in moral discourse has a negative sense of ‘evil desire’ or ‘craving.’ (Green, 2025, p. 40) This is a misplaced desire. Desire can be rightly placed on God, like in Psalm 42, “As the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you.” Here desire has been corrupted and longs for things that are not God. Like the adulterous, loose, dangerous woman in Proverbs 5,6, and 7 who is opposed to lady wisdom and lures the growing child into a dangerous liaison, now a personified desire seduces the unwise and gives birth to a child names sin who births a child named death. In contrast to the temptations/testing of faith which leads to endurance and endurance completes its work so that the person may be complete, the temptation/testing of one’s desire leads to sin which leads to death. One path leads to wisdom, completion, and life while the other leads to foolishness, sin, and death. James, like Paul, personifies sin, death, and desire. Despite the sexual metaphor of desire conceiving sin which conceives death it is telling that in James’s letter sexual activity is not an area where he counsels his audience.

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[1] Matthew 20:16.

[2] Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14.

[3] Matthew 6: 25-34.

[4] The NRSVue is consistent in translating periasmos as temptation, while many translations alternate between testing and temptation for the word.