{"id":9748,"date":"2026-04-07T12:39:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9748"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:39:06","slug":"james-116-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9748","title":{"rendered":"James 1:16-18"},"content":{"rendered":"

16\u00a0<\/sup>Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

17\u00a0<\/sup>Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

18\u00a0<\/sup>Of His own will He brought us forth by the\u00a0word of truth,\u00a0that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

do not be deceived (v.16) =\u00a0 lit. “stop being deceived” (about why you sin) \u2014 referring back to v.13<\/span><\/a>. Temptations don’t come from God, but everything good does.<\/h3>\n

firstfruits (v.18) \u2014the first harvested crops, which were offered to God \u2014 therefore, used for persons consecrated to God, leading the rest in time.<\/h3>\n

Not only are God’s gifts good (useful, practical) and perfect (lacking nothing), but His liberality is wholly consistent.<\/h3>\n

God is sovereign! Everything that is good comes from His hand. … All mankind in general benefits from the “good gifts” that God has bestowed upon His creation. In His providence, He has provided warm sunlight and the rains that produce the harvest which sustains life upon the earth. … The “perfect gifts of God pertain to spiritual things with which He has blessed His people, such as the gift of His Word, regeneration, eternal life, etc. (James 1:12<\/span><\/a>, 18). … The reference to God being the “Father of lights” has to do with the fact that He is the Creator of every source of light, whether it is physical or spiritual. … He is unchangeable! The nature of God never changes, He is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0 \u2014 Sadler, pages 50-51.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

During the turbulent times through which these saints were passing, James sought to encourage them with the fact that they had the unique honor of being a type of firstfruits of God’s creation. It was according to God’s will that they had responded to the gospel of the kingdom and were “began” or born agai<\/em>n by the Word of Truth. … The apostle makes a direct connection with the earthly ministry of Christ [as seen in His conversation with Nicodemus]. … There were two things necessary for Nicodemus to be born again. First, he had to be “born of water.” Since under the kingdom gospel water baptism was an expression of faith<\/em>, it is clear the Lord isn’t speaking of a water ceremony. In this context the “water” is a reference to the Word of God (see John 15:3<\/span><\/a>; Ephesians 5:26<\/span><\/a>). No sinner is imparted spiritual life apart from the Scriptures. Every time regeneration is spoken of in the prophetic Scriptures it is in relation to the Word of truth (1 Peter 1:23<\/span><\/a>). Of course, Nicodemus was ministered to by the Word Himself. Second, it is the Spirit who convicts the sinner of his sins and regenerates him (John 16:8-9<\/span><\/a> cf. Titus 3:5<\/span><\/a>). When the Word of the Lord, in conjunction with the conviction of the Spirit, pierced through the darkness of Nicodemus’ heart he responded in faith and was wonderfully saved!\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

This was also true of those to whom James was writing, which in their case gave them the privilege of being called the “firstfruits of God’s creation.” We believe that these saints are called so by the Spirit simply because Israel was being cut off nationally. Therefore, these were the firstfruits of the great harvest of the future Tribulation period. They had the honor of being the forerunners of the great multitude known as the children of the kingdom (Matthew 13:36-42<\/span><\/a> cf. Revelation 7:4-17). In the coming Day of the Lord<\/em>, God will pick up where He left off at Pentecost. \u2014 Sadler, pages 53-54.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Verse 18 … is replete with truths about salvation. First, salvation is based upon God’s own sovereign will (John 1:13<\/span><\/a>; Ephesians 2:8-9<\/span><\/a>). Second, salvation is based upon our hearing and believing (Acts 28:28<\/span><\/a>; Romans 10:14<\/span><\/a>) the “Word of truth” (John 17:17<\/span><\/a>; 2 Corinthians 6:7<\/span><\/a>; Ephesians 1:13<\/span><\/a>). For us today, this “Word of truth” is the Gospel of the Grace of God (Acts 20:24<\/span><\/a>; Romans 16:25<\/span><\/a>; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4<\/span><\/a>). Third, the phrase “firstfruits of His creatures” has the idea that once saved, we are to be, as firstfruits of the harvest, set apart or consecrated unto God (Ephesians 2:10<\/span><\/a>; 2 Timothy 3:17<\/span><\/a>; Titus 2:14<\/span><\/a>; 3:8<\/span><\/a>). The Kingdom saints to whom James addressed his letter (James 1:1<\/span><\/a>) were particularly a “firstfruits” in that they were the first ones saved (early in the first century) and were a foretaste of a greater harvest of Jewish believers at the end of the age when the Tribulation and Christ’s Second Coming is fulfilled. \u2014 Grace, page 2196.<\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16\u00a0Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17\u00a0Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18\u00a0Of His own will He … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9749,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9748\/revisions\/9749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}