God: The Source of All Good

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: James 1:17
Psalters: 283, 94, 39, 81
Sacrament of Baptism
  1. The meaning.
    1. “Every good gift and every perfect gift” refers to the act of giving and to the gift given.
      1. The adjectives “good” and “perfect” teach that God is good in His giving, and what He gives is perfect, completely good.
      2. The good “is from above,” i.e., heaven in distinction from the evil comes from below (cf. John 3:27,31; 8:23).
    2. It belongs to God’s very nature to give as He is in Himself the fullness of all life and of infinite perfections.
      1. At the same time He is the overflowing fountain of every good. He only gives, constantly gives.
      2. God is the every giving God Who reveals the fullness of His blessedness in all the works of His hands.
    3. God’s gifts are always good – morally and spiritually.
      1. God, not we, determine whether what God gives is good: rain and sunshine, floods and famine, health and sickness, etc.
      2. God is good, the overflowing fountain of all in all His dealings, working salvation in sore trials and afflictions too.
  2. The frequency of God giving good.
    1. James adds the thought that God, in giving and in what He gives, does so continuously!
    2. Good comes down “from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
      1. James, after saying that all good is from above, looks up at the light-giving bodies, of which God is the Father/Creator.
      2. While the heavenly lights change location (seemingly) and radiation, their Creator and Sustainer is above them.
  3. The significance.
    1. We live in a world where the sun sets every night and often the clouds hide the sun from us.
    2. How beautiful to see God, this Father of lights, never varies or changes His mind or adjusts His thinking.
    3. God is good! God is the only good. And all He gives me, even the evils I must endure, are good and perfect.